Chapter 7

When the warning bell sounded to let them know that visiting time was over, they all said farewell to Jessica and the unheeding sleeping Rex. Frances phoned the car hire firm to order their ride, then they made their way slowly back to the front vestibule of the hospital.

Frances looked around at the seating at the sides of the large open space.

“Reg? Is this where Jessica stopped you from being attacked again?”

“Yes, but in the other hospital. I was in a wheelchair, and I was stupid enough to call out to the drunk with the knife, but I had to do it to stop him killing the man he was stabbing in his drunken rage. Jessica stepped in to protect me, and kneed him in the goolies quite effectively. He was still moaning on the floor when the bobbies arrived.

Other bystanders told them he was the assailant of the injured man and that Jessica had floored him when he went to attack me. It was all rather exciting at the time; much more exciting than when I got stabbed. I was able to watch it all unfold this time; the previous time was all a blur in my memory. Jessica acted exactly as we were taught by the university self-protection instructor. I was very proud of her. I suspect she was imagining the attacker as being her former husband: she would love to do that to him now.”

“Yes, Jessica has changed a lot, hasn’t she? You have that kind of effect on people, Reg.”

“What do you mean? Most of the changes were the unstinting efforts of you and the other girls, Frances. You taught her to be a proud woman, standing for herself and her family.”

“Oh? Sidra had nothing to do with it? Don’t tell me that, Reg. You were astonished at what Sidra had managed to achieve, all by herself. It was Sidra who begged you to rescue her mother and all you had to do was arrange it.”

“I admit that Sidra was a great influence on us. She pushed us to help Jessica escape, but we all participated in that rescue.”

“There you go again: us, us, us. It was mostly you, Reg, with us as your support team. You have to stand up for your own actions, my darling boy. Accept your personal deeds.”

“If you say, dear; if you say.”

Frances sighed, and looked round at the two teenagers who were listening to the conversation with interest, Elizabeth particularly. She said nothing to them, but Elizabeth was quick to demand of her sister, “Good grief! Were you really like that, Sidra?”

“I suppose, but it is all in the past, thank goodness. Mum has blossomed over the past year, which is far more important. If I had any part in freeing her, great, but I was only thinking of myself; wanting my Mum to be free and able to look after me properly, without the fear of my father hanging over us.”

“She certainly seems happy to be part of Reg’s family, just as I am.”

“I know what you mean. You changed dramatically, once you were with this family. Look at you, girl; svelte and good-looking, and clever with it; even a little taller, to my mind. You so much hid your intellect under that pile of fat that you would not believe; you were making yourself someone to be ignored at that time. That harmful self-image has all gone now, and I am proud to call you my sister, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth gave Sidra a quick hug of thanks.

“I couldn’t have done it without you, Sidra. You were my rock; I knew I could do it once you insisted I had it in me.”

“Well, we now have another baby brother to care about. Do you still think he looks ugly?”

“Not really; it was just the shock of seeing what a new-born looks like. I never saw any of the other babies until they were a few days old: the other girls were all over the new baby each time. To his mum, I suppose the new baby always looks wonderful, for it is the fruit of her womb. She is his mother and so wants to protect him from the world.”

“That’s it, Elizabeth. When you get married and want to start a family, that will be your reaction as a new mother.”

Elizabeth’s face suddenly saddened. “If I survive the birth.”

“What? Look at the statistics, girl. You have a greater chance of being knocked down and killed on the road than dying in childbirth these days. Oops! Sorry, I had forgotten you tried to get killed on the road!”

Elizabeth shrugged that off. “That was my old life, Sidra. I could never do that now; there are too many nice people who would be hurt by my passing; I couldn’t do that to them, even if I felt that way. Life is so much better now.”

“Yeah. That is one of the effects of collecting a large family around you: you are touched by their love and so can’t think of leaving them. And now with all these baby brothers and sisters, we have a steady job as a baby-sitters whenever the hired help is away.”

The minivan drew up at the door and the driver hurried in.

“Ah, there you are! All set to board, ladies ... and Mr Robertson too.”

“Please, Mr Beckwith; Reginald will do; you are almost a friend of the family by now.”

“In the same way, it is Tom, Reginald.”

“Oh, yes. Tom it is.”

Once they were all aboard, it was a short trip back to the hotel, where Tom enquired, “Will you need any more trips today, Frances?”

“There will probably be another four visitors to Jessica for the next visiting times, but we will phone nearer the time, Tom.”

“Right, Frances. See you then.”

As soon as they were in, the teens rushed around to the other family members to tell them about their new baby brother. The ladies were more interested in how Jessica was feeling after the birth, for they knew what giving birth was like for the woman. They were happier once Sidra said how well her mother was.

Then a puzzled Sidra did a quick count of wives, and came up one short.

“Where is Freda?”

Erika told her, “She has gone to the second store; the one from the other chain. They approved our investigation and approved our contract details by email. They asked for a repeat that no savings for them meant no charge by us, as if they couldn’t believe it. They will soon learn that we know what we are doing!”

Sidra commented, “You are enjoying yourself, aren’t you, Erika?”

“Certainly. It is fun to see a company willingly forking out to pay us, when they have just saved themselves even more. If they had set up their own department to check for fraud, It would have cost them a hellova lot more than paying us. In addition, one they are told what the fraud was, they can do checks on their other stores, looking for the same type of fraud. If they find more, they will be able to sort that out as well.

It is at that point that their lawyers will tell them that we have to be paid extra, for a paragraph in our contract says that once we have identified how the fraud activity operates, we get paid on all the savings that the company makes as a result, not just the savings at one branch. If they were lax enough to allow more fraud, they pay to have it pointed out to the whole group.”

Sidra stared at Erika. “That’s sneaky, Erika. Who thought that up?”

“Freda’s dad suggested it when we asked him to look our proposed contract over. He said that our work will help the whole organisation in future, so whatever savings the organisation makes should lead to a reward for our company’s efforts. It is only fair, he said.”

“So it is not in the small print?”

“There is NO small print in our contract, Sidra. That is why there is no get-out for the client to claim they didn’t see this detail. It is there, though it is carefully worded, referring to ‘savings made by the organisation/company/body as a result of the efforts of R.E.G.’ It is up to them to read the actual words and not simply assume it applies only to the branch.

That is what they pay lawyers for, but of course the lawyers are looking at contract law and not at financial implications that happen to arise from the contract. The lawyers expect the financial staff to watch out for these matters, and at the same time the financial people see it as a matter of the legal contract, so don’t pay attention to weasel words.”

“It IS sneaky!” Sidra alleged.

“So? It is business, and business deals are often made more profitable or less profitable by misreading of the details in the deal. When the US government was making a deal with rail companies to build track across the continent, it was the extent of the attached land grants that actually interested the rail companies, for that is where they would later make lots of cash, selling off plots in prime locations next to the track when there was a regular train service in operation, for new communities usually grow up next to the rail track.”

“This is business?”

“Sidra, business is companies making money; that is their reason for existence. Governments set up laws to restrict how business can make its money; stopping them from cheating their customers. In the middle ages, bakers often adulterated their wares: added stuff like gypsum or even sawdust to their bread to make it cheaper to make and more profitable to sell. That is why the bread laws became so strict.

But governments themselves have been known to adulterate bread. In 1918 the UK government during a shortage of imported wheat, told bakers to include potato for up to 20% of a bread loaf.”

“Erika, you are starting to sound like Reg, coming out with odd facts, which I am sure are true.”

“Oh, they are accurate. Businesses in the USA have been known to flout the laws on the quality of the water they used in their products, and even local authorities have ignored the water rules when it suited them. What we are doing is completely legal and acceptable in the UK. The old caveat emptor principle of Buyer Beware still applies between businesses, and it is expected that a business will carry out due diligence before entering into a contract. Our contract is fully open to that due diligence, if the other company wants to apply it. They seem to be more interested in asking about the ‘no fee’ clause than the one about the extent of payment if successful.”

Sidra started to laugh. “Companies really act that way?”

“Almost all organisations do. They look at the immediate bottom line, and ignore the later costs that they might incur. Many contracts say that the client is responsible for the extra costs of additional works or alterations they ask for. That covers the building firm for any lapses in their own design, for in most cases it will be the client who asks for changes to be made to correct the faulty design, thus making them responsible for the extra. What should have been written into the contract is that the builder is responsible for the costs of making sure that the building performs to specification, i.e. if they missed something, they have to fix it themselves. In such a contract, the builder will probably write into their architect’s contract that they share the costs of any design lapses. That makes both architect and builder concentrate on doing their jobs properly.”

“Wow.” Sidra was fascinated by such information. “Why don’t they simply allow a percentage to cover unexpected problems?”

“Oh, they do. It is usually about ten per cent, but the relevant word is ‘unexpected’. Faults in a design or careless work in a building process – such as omitting to insert metal ties while building a cavity wall – do not come under that heading, just things like an unknown void under the site that has to be filled, or a sudden rise in the price of copper, which can shoot up the cost of copper plumbing in a new building.

Now what about Jessica and your new baby brother? Tell me more.”

Sidra raved on about the little monkey that had scared Elizabeth, and Erika laughed. “Yes, they all start like that. You wouldn’t know that to look at my baby now. Has Elizabeth got over her shock?”

“Oh, yes. Mum and Frances both told her about it. I already knew about the baby’s head having to squeeze through the pelvic floor to be born, so it is rough on both parties. Frances talked about screaming when her baby was being born, but she gripped Reginald’s hand to help her. Is it always so painful, Erika?”

“I am afraid so, Sidra. The mother is going through a traumatic experience, and so is the baby, so it is rough at the time, as I found; but afterwards, you are so proud of what you have achieved: bringing a new life into the world; your own child! That puts the pain into perspective, and you no longer concern yourself about it. You might get depressed after the birth, but that is not to do with the pain, but the whole overwhelming experience.”

Eventually Freda put in an appearance, smiling grandly as she entered the hotel. The manager was at the reception desk and welcomed her back.

“Hello again, Mrs Robertson. Did you have a good day?”

“Indeed I did. It was a business appointment, but it went well.”

“In that case I will not ask about it. Do you wish anyone to come down to meet you?”

“No, thanks. I am going up there as soon as I can relax a bit. Could I have a small whisky? A Glenmorangie if you have it, with a dash of water and an ice cube.”

She found a comfy armchair and sat down in it, waiting for her drink. The manager brought it himself, solicitous in the extreme after her earlier help.

“Thank you.” she accepted the drink, and sat back to sip it. “Ah ... that’s nice.”

“Glenmorangie distillery is in Tain, in Ross-shire, in the Highlands of Scotland, Mrs Robertson,” te Manager informed her.

“Yes, I know. I visited it with my parents some years back. A lovely and ancient town, not much more than a large village, perched by the North Sea. It was a historical burgh for many centuries, and supposedly visited regularly on a pilgrimage by King James IV around 1500, going to St Duthac’s church where he was buried.”

“Ah, you know all about the whisky, then.”

“We went to the distillery to their visitor centre; even got a small dram to taste it. That’s where I developed my liking for that brand.”

“I should have you at the bar, telling the customers which brands are worth trying!”

“Nice thought, but I don’t have the time, being a wife and mother, plus a businesswoman as well.”

She slowly finished her whisky, then got to her feet with a satisfied intake of breath.

“Back to work.”

She made her way to the stairs and walked up to the Robertson floor, where she sought out Frances and Reginald. Fortunately they were together, talking about when Jessica would be fit enough to travel back home with them.

“Hi, Reg and Frances. Time for me to report.”

“Welcome back, Freda,” declared Frances. “How did the visit to the store go? Any problems?”

“Not so much problems, but surprises. Everything proceeded as planned; introduction, explanation of what I was there to do, checked that our suspect was not on duty, and asked to see their staff records. That was the first surprise. The store manager was offended by the request.

“Why? Why do you need to see our staff records? I was told you were coming to check our finances!”

“I am, sir. Tell me, what is the single most expensive part of your operation? Stock, or staff costs?”

“Umm ... I suppose it is staff. The cost of stock gets covered by sales income.”

“Then that is why I need to look at your staff records, to see where costs can be reduced. Simple, eh?”

“Yes, but I can’t cut my staff numbers. I need all the staff I employ.”

“I agree, but do you need the staff on your books that you don’t employ?”

“That doesn’t make sense, young lady. Are you sure you know what you are doing?”

“I do. Do you have a member of staff named Jane Edwards or Georgina Smith?”

“Yes. They are both relief staff.”

“They are?” Freda was flummoxed.

“Yes, we have been employing them for years. Why do you ask?”

“It doesn’t really matter, sir. It is just names that cropped up recently. Do you know the names of staff in your competitor’s store in Northway?”

“No, of course not. Are you just trying to confuse me? If so, you are succeeding.”

“Never mind. It will be simpler if I can see your list of relief staff, and you can tell me what you know about each: anything at all will do.”

“That is simpler.” He did some key strokes on his computer, and came up with a spreadsheet of names of relief staff. “There they are. What do you want to know?”

“Cast your eyes over the list and tell me which ones you do NOT know.”

“Another trick question?”

“Of a sort. Please bear with me. Strange or unfamiliar names?”

“All right. Let me see ... hmm. Jennifer Burns? Don’t recall her ... Dora McKechnie, now who the hell is she?” He went on, perusing the list. Yvonne Broxham? Don’t recall her being around. Why are you asking these peculiar questions, Mrs Robertson?”

Freda was smiling. “These three will do, I think. Please call in whoever knows all the staff best, and ask her or him about these three names. It should be interesting.”

He called in his HR person, John Gresham. “He knows everyone, for he arranges the work shifts and calls in reliefs to cover illnesses and health problems.”

Shortly, John Gresham came to the store office, asking, “Yes, boss? What do you need?”

“Something simple for you, John. Tell this lady about three of our reliefs: Jennifer Burns, Dora MacKechnie, and Yvonne Broxham.”

“Nope. I can’t.”

“Why not. I thought you knew everyone on the staff!”

“I do, but these three that you named are not on our staff.”

“But ... But ... they are on our books, on the computer!”

“Maybe all staff records that have not been deleted, sir?”

Freda was ready for this, and silently pointed to the first name, showing the person being paid the previous month. The manager stared at the screen, and asked, “Let me check the other two.” Freda sat back in her chair to allow him access to the keyboard. In moments he found payments being made in recent months.

Freda said quietly, “Are their payments all being made to one account?”

It took him longer to access the bank account numbers for each person, and his face became whiter as he went on.

“They are all the same! They all have the same bank number for salary payments, but how can that be?”

Freda looked at the listening HR man and pointedly told the manager, “I am afraid your computer operator has been adding spurious names to the staff database, and I think you will find that the bank account number is in her name, sir. It might be advisable to get the bank to freeze that account until you can retrieve some of the fraudulent payments made to it.”

“Oh, God! Miss Jenkins? She does all the computer inputting here!”

“She does the same thing at your competitor’s store. I found that she was defrauding them as well. Get on to your bank manager, and stop her from removing cash from the account. You next call should be to the police station, to have her arrested, I would think.”

The manager was still in a tizzy as the fraud details percolated through his brain.

“She has been here for years! Has she been syphoning cash out of the store for all that time?”

“I have no idea, sir. That is for you to discover by going back through your records while she has been here. When did these unknowns start appearing in your staff list, and how many hours were you paying for each of them for non-existing duties in the store?

This is what we as a company do: Ferret out these anomalies and bring them to the attention of the company. My revelations should enable you to save quite a packet on payments to non-existent staff. I will be reporting back to your Head Office on what I have found and pointed out to you, but I will leave you to dig out exactly how many fake staff are apparently employed here. The net effect should be a drastic saving in staff costs for the future, and perhaps that might save the store from closure. I hope it has that effect.”

Freda took a breath from her hurried account, then told Reg and Frances, “I am told that Moiss Jenkins is now in police custody and all her bank accounts are frozen until her depredations are clarified. I have no idea how much, in any, of her theft will be recovered, but the savings in future will be considerable in both stores. I wonder if she devised this scam by herself, or copied someone else; and has she passed on the idea to people in other stores and businesses that have rapidly changing staff members?”

Reg mused, “It does make you wonder how far this might have spread. Freda, if Jenkins was using names of genuine staff at one store to input data on them at the other store, except for bank number details, was she doing it in both directions? It would make it so simple: the genuine information of name, address, and National Insurance number, from the other store and simply insert her own bank account number for payment of the hours she put in for them.”

Frances commented, “I am amazed at how easy it was for one person to set all this up to their benefit. Still, it is the fault of the company in not setting up their system for oversight of data input. There is an unthinking assumption that what goes into a computer database is correct. It often isn’t, yet companies fail to allow for such lapses in diligence, and it ends up costing them money. In the case of banks, they even hush it up, as they hate to reveal that banks are staffed by fallible human beings, just like other companies and organisations.

Well, it simply leads to work for our company, thank goodness.”

Reg asked Freda, “Does this mean that we are unlikely to be asked by a bank to investigate probable fraud in their company?”

She laughed, “You most probably are right about that, unless they can get us to write in a confidentiality clause, saying that we keep all record of our work for them secret. I should think that Daddy could amend our contract for such bodies that want to keep our discoveries from becoming public. Should I ask him?”

Reg instructed, “Please do, Freda. We can call them the ‘open’ and ‘closed’ contracts, and offer whichever is appropriate for the client. We can maybe get your mother to pass the word round the financial fraternity that we can offer ‘closed’ contracts to special clients that need their dealings keep confidential in the extreme.”

“Will do. I’ll phone them at home this evening, before I get to make long with you, Reg. I do get you tonight, for my reward?”

“You do, my love. I have no idea of Frances’ plans now that my concussion is over, but I am sure she will adjust them to fit you in. Right, Frances?”

“Right, Reg. Successfully concluding two contracts merits some loving attention from you and me. It will be the three of us tonight, and we shall see how well you do with that. If you are still okay, we can move back toward normal with the others. It has been long enough for everyone to resume fucking. Has anyone apart from Fiona indicated they want to try for a second child? Do you know, Freda? Is there any talk among the girls that I haven’t heard?”

“So far, just occasional sniping and one-up-manship remarks, nothing fully positive in that direction, but I wouldn’t put it past them. They are all enjoying the fun and cares that a new baby brings into your life. Having others around – the babysitter, the two teens, and the rest of the girls all willing to help out with the children; that makes for a happy home. That may very well put them in a frame of mind to have a second one. Us three were very pleased to find that our babies are quite pretty, less like our own faces – not that it bothers you, my love.”

“Not at all, my darling,” said Reg. “You know how wonderful you are. It is other people who fail to see the great internal beauty that shines out from you girls. That makes them underestimate you and make them vulnerable to your wiles and your intellectual terrorism!”

“‘Intellectual terrorism’? What makes you accuse us of that, Reg?”

“You girls use your sharp intellectual skills to get round people who otherwise would not reveal things to you; they get bowled over. Freda is able to blithely walk into a store with an email introduction, and take over control for her purposes. It is too often assumed that pretty girls do that, but pretty girls don’t normally get easy access to computer data, for the man tries to flirt with her instead. I am the one who gets to flirt with you three darlings, and I am pleased with that honour.”

“My God, it took you long enough to learn to flirt, Reg; do you remember?”

“Yes. I couldn’t see why it was needed. If I already thought you were great, why should I have to pretend that you were a girl I was trying to get to know? I didn’t see that it was another social convention that girls liked to experience, to show they were getting your attention. We didn’t get any other men flirting with us; we were too bland for them to be bothered with us. You were interested in us, especially after we had seduced you, so it enhanced that connection once we got you to see that flirting with us was expected of you. You have developed that talent since them, my love.”

“Oh. Well, thanks for steering me right, girls.” Reg was contrite.

“Don’t be so serious, Reg. Flirting is supposed to be fun, not a chore!”

He looked at both of them, then used both hands to chuck them both under the chin, adding an engaging smile. “Like that?”

Frances and Freda looked at each other. “He is teasing us!” exclaimed Frances. “The bastard!”

Reg beamed at his achievement. “Perfectly legitimately born, I assure you ladies.”

Freda exclaimed, “This is getting ridiculous, Frances. Why don’t we just kiss him and surrender?”

Frances grabbed Reg by the face and planted a kiss on his mouth. She stepped back and Freda leaned in to do the same.

Reg thought about this, then stated with an evil smile, “You two are going to get royally fucked this evening!”

The two of them gave each other a ‘thumbs-up’ sign, and giggled.

Reg put a hand to a breast of each of them and giving them a feel, said, “Time to feed our children would you think?”

“Damn, yes,” said Freda. “My nipples are starting to leak again.”

“So are mine. Bye, Reg!”

Both of them charged off to breast-feed their babies. Reg decided he would come along and observe the process, for it always got him interested in sex again. He wondered about the others were going to visit Jessica this evening: Prudence, Erika, Freda and Fiona. If any of them had to cry off if a baby had a crying fit, bad nappy rash, or similar, he could go along in their place. Come to think of that, he could go along with all four; and just sneak in for a couple of minutes to kiss and fondle Jessica for a little, to show his continuing love. He could take along a book for the rest of the time.

Meantime, he might have another look through the menu that was in the folder in their room, and let his mind drool over the choices presented. If he could persuade the chef to part with a few recipes, he could pass them on to the LeBrun twins at home, to use in their cooking schedule. It might cost him some cash, but it would be worth it to have such great meals from time to time.

He decided to have a shower before their meal, to freshen up a little. During his concussion, he had omitted showering for fear of falling over in the shower, but in the last day or so, he had been taking several showers. Was he anticipating so much sex that he would need more showers? He laughed at himself for thinking that.

The menu fascinated him. The ‘Coq au vin’ as he recalled was quite delicious. He must remember to ask about it, for it was an excellent chicken dish. He wondered if a particular red wine was need, or just a generic red.

By the time of the evening meal, the four scheduled for the hospital visit were at the table ordering first.

As Prudence explained, “By the time we get through the meal in the normal pattern, visiting time will be halfway through, so we are trying to short-circuit the system, asking to get served early and why. The chef seemed to understand, and is putting our orders through first.”

Reg immediately shelved his intention to join them. It could wait until tomorrow, for there was no way he could have his meal and still be ready for the road by the time they left. If he departed without his meal, he would be miserable all the time, and would have trouble getting any decent food when he got back.

“Tell Jessica I will be in to see her tomorrow, and give my apologies for tonight.”

“That’s all right, Reg. We will have fun talking about all our babies in the ward.”

He resigned himself to a good meal, then a chat with the chef later.

That plan went off well, except that the chef told him he had used a Raymond Blanc recipe which Reg could find online. He did recommend a Cabernet Sauvignon for the red wine, “then when the wine sauce is made, reduce it further to thicken it and make it richer flavoured. That is how I do it, sir.”

Reg thanked him for his candour, adding, “You don’t mind accepting twenty pounds cash as a small tip for this advice, do you?”

“No sir. Cash in the pocket is helpful in this instance.”

Reg took the hint and transferred the note to the chef’s pocket. “Looks like money got there by sheer accident, Chef.”