Chapter 3

“You may have warned them to watch, Steven, but please also check that it actually happens on the final page of the bid that lists all the costs.”

I put in my own warning. “A friend of mine was once presented with a batch of bids to show to his boss, and he noted that while all of the costs were indeed on the bid page, the way the bid was laid out in some cases had the extras sidelined in innocuous small print so that the bid total appeareed to be that much lower. He had to rewrite some of the bid pages to add these extras back into the main total and make the real totals easier to compare. You shouldn’t have to go through such maneuvers, so warn your minions about such tricks.”

“You don’t trust computer firms, do you, Jimmy?”

“I don’t trust ANY firm that is trying to sell me their product unless I know exactly what I am getting and what it is going to cost me. Do you recall hearing the old story about unscrupulous salesmen who persuaded company buyers to stock up on carbon paper for their typewriters, on the basis that the price would go up next year? What they didn’t reveal to the buyers, perhaps didn’t know it themselves, was that with the advent of computers, carbon paper was going to be redundant; no longer required for making copies, so absolutely useless.

The computer held the original in its memory, and a printer would produce as many copies as you wanted without ever needing a sheet of carbon copy paper. The supply departments of many companies ended up with box upon box of this expensive carbon paper that had no function; money entirely wasted, with no comeback for their own buyers bought the stuff knowingly.”

“You sound bitter, Jimmy, but you are too young for that to have happened to you.”

“True. It happened to my grandfather and he got a right earful for being taken in and costing the company money. He successfully got off the hook by pointing out that no-one in the company, not one single person, had advised him of the possible computerisation in the near future, and what it would mean for supplies requirements. His bosses had failed him just as much as he had failed the company. He remained peeved about such short-sighted thinking for the rest of his life.”

“I can understand how he felt, but it is the job of a salesman to sell, no matter what the product is.”

“That is true in principle, but there is a big difference between selling a product that has some value and selling a pile of shit. Carbon paper had become that pile of shit, so trying to sell it was almost a criminal act. I am all for capitalism, but capitalism is supposed to be about adding extra value in some way. Materials get turned into objects to sell; artworks add value by being unique and in some cases with a profitable option of selling prints or photographic copies. Carbon paper has no other reason for existence, so is pure wastage from that point in time; profitable only to the sellers at the time.”

“Isn’t Copies in the business of selling redundant parts?”

“Of course, but there is a real market for original parts that still have a use, such as for what has become ëclassic’ cars and aircraft. That is the big difference: a genuine market for the items. The rarity value is an important part of that market. A Stradivarius violin is highly valued for its immaculate sound quality, but also for its rarity. That is why it gets faked so often.”

“Well, Jimmy, I think I will stick to manipulating finance, and leave the market complications to you managers. I’ll ensure that the computer bids are fully compatible with each other. Happy with that?”

“Completely happy, thanks.”

Thinking in the same way, I went off to find who was responsible for purchasing industrial shelving for the new warehousing at the air base. I was becoming aware that you don’t shift to a new site stock that is already on existing shelving, without having replacement shelving ready at the new site. Whoever is responsible for purchasing new or second-hand shelving would have to stick to a timetable that allowed the purchases to be re-erected at the air base in advance of the first vanload of stock arriving there.

Not only that, but the shelving would have to be pre-labelled by section to state which type of stock was to be placed on these shelves. That meant it would make sense to move a complete load of a single type of stock at a time; for example for autos: car engine parts; body parts and lights; and automobile tools and equipment. If space allowed, each of these three would be best shelved as seperate groups. It was not my problem, I thought.

Enquiries with the purchasing department elicited the name I needed: the man who was negotiating the purchase of redundant shelving from a company that had recently gone out of business.

After consulting Copies’ stock buyer, Fred Corelli, the equipment buyer, Neil Gow, had extended his negotiations to allow the liquidators to consider including the out-of-date parts still on the shelves, as part of the deal,

“I put it to them that the parts had little value as they were, sitting on the shelves, and it would cost to get someone to move them off the shelving so we could dismantle the shelving. If we took that stock, we would guarantee to remove them as well as decanting them from the shelves saving them money. I pointed out that it might take forever for us to sell them as parts, but we had space to spare in a new warehouse, so we were willing to take that risk on board. They were quite responsive to my argument, so I think we have a good deal in the offing.”

“Sounds fine, Neil. Unfortunately, the Group is under pressure to start moving stock to the new warehousing in the air base. That means we need shelving erected in advance. Could you call the liquidators and tell them you are being pressured to provide the shelving for a major move by your Group? Tell them if they can’t agree a deal to start moving it in the next day or so, your boss will insist on buying new shelving for the move and forget about what the liquidators have for sale. Time is the problem, tell them.”

Neil beamed his delight. “There is nothing like passing on such pressure and making people think clearly. If they want to sell the shelving to me, they have to dispose of the parts as well, and shifting them to the floor makes them less easy to sell to anyone else. Simpler to sell them cheap as a job lot with the shelving, and we not only take the parts off the shelf; we put them straight into our vans and take them away completely.

I bet we’ll have a deal almost immediately!”

“Good, “ I said. “Please let me know as soon as you get that sorted. We need to get our moving firm started on shifting the shelving to the air base warehouse, and then transport the parts from the same company to where the shelving is going. Come to think of it, if we move the parts straight to the hangar first, then the shelving is easier to move. Once that is done, we have to get a squad there to erect the shelving where we want it, and a squad of knowledgeable guys from Copies to sort through the parts that came with the deal, and put them into batches for each category of stock.”

“Right, sir, “ Neil nodded. “I know who we can use for the sorting process, as I was thinking about what to do with them if we got them. I am not so sure about the shelving erectors. Do you think the movers might have that expertise? I am sure they have encountered shelving problems before now.”

“Great thinking!” I said to him. “I’ll prompt the guy that has to work with the movers, if he can ask them about rebuilding the shelves and what the extra cost would be. If they have to dismantle it to parts for transporting to our site, they will see how it fits together, so working in reverse should not be too difficult for them. They are also on the spot, so no cost of travelling to and from there over and above what they would do with the move.”

I quickly found the man I wanted, and passed on this request. The man’s eyes lit up.

“That should be worth asking about. Dammit, I should have thought of that myself. I will have that answer for you later today, Mr Hargreaves. Apologies for not thinking about it earlier.”

“Thanks. It is much appreciated; as long as it gets done.”

I walked back to my office and sank down in the chair with a sigh. Today had taken a fair bit of my available energy. I wondered if I dared take a nap before seeing what else I should expedite. I had hardly closed my eyes when the phone rang.

I heaved another sigh, picked it up and answered, “Hargreaves. Can I help?”

“Emerson here. Can you come to my office, Jimmy? I want to talk over that Board meeting.”

“Yes, sir. Be there in five.”

I pulled myself erect and went through to my restroom to tidy up and take a piss before facing my father-in-law. I knew this would be a tough one. Once I thought I was presentable, I walked to Emerson’s office and tapped on the door.

“Come in, Jimmy.”

I entered and Emerson indicated the chair in front of his desk. “Have a seat. How are you feeling?”

“At the moment, a little light-headed. I’ve had a productive morning, but it took quite a bit out of me. Thanks for asking, sir.”

Emerson looked me over and commented, “Probably too much sex at home, my boy.”

I blinked at his words, and admitted, “That may be so, sir, but they all insisted I was fit enough to work today. They were over-optimistic.”

“Husbands always get pushed out to work the minute the women can get them out from under their feet. Talking of husbands and wives, was that truly our Madge ñ sorry, Marjory ñ from Reception acting for you? She was a stunner; wowed all the men there.”

“That was indeed her, sir. You don’t really know much about Marjory, do you?”

“Apparently so, if that performance was anything to go by. Care to enlighten me?”

“As you are my father-in-law, I suppose I should be a little more forthcoming, but I don’t know how much Marjory wants me to reveal.”

“You sound most mysterious, Jimmy. A receptionist who can turn up like a socialite and control the situation like she did? I have never encountered such a female example before. She is certainly unusual, if not unique.”

“She is rather special, sir. The receptionist job is her choice of work; she likes meeting people, but wants to be seen as herself, not as a construct of society. She could have taken on a more exposed position, but chose not to.”

“She chose you sound as if she is better educated that her post requires, and her appearance at the Board implied that too. That pantsuit she was wearing was new and expensive, tailored to fit her exactly; and if I am right, she had a Cartier watch on her wrist. I don’t think anyone else noticed that touch.”

“Your guess is correct, sir. It was a Cartier. Perhaps I can mention another point, about her education, if you keep it secret between us alone?”

“I promise, Jimmy. What about her education?”

“She is a graduate of Wellesley College.”

“Wellesley? Didn’t Hilary Clinton go to Wellesley?”

“Yes. Marjory got her degree there. You see what I meant about her choosing to be a receptionist?”

“Good God! She could have walked into a management post if she wanted it.”

I shrugged. “She is not that kind of girl. She is not a go-getter, nor a hunter of rich husbands, nor a social butterfly. She is ñ or rather was ñ happy to be Marjory the head receptionist for our Group. She fits in with everybody, has a wonderful reputation as an achiever, and doesn’t get hit on by the business wolves on the prowl, as she looks so normal and reliable, so down-to-earth.”

“So how come she ended up with you of all people? You are not normal, Jimmy.”

“I treated her the same way I treat all my women ñ with respect. She was known as Madge, which fitted her work persona, but I was curious and asked her what it was short for. She said Marjory, but her mother always called her Madge, and that was how she was known at work. I was not pleased and insisted she was Marjory to me.

She became a lot more interesting as I got to know her better. She flirted with me, with few words, mostly wiggling her butt as she went away from me or using a few double entendres in her speech so cleverly that you had to be fully aware of what she was doing. Much of the time she was unaware of the extent of her flirting until I asked her about it. She admitted that she had a hard time finding a man who she could spend her life with, and asked me to assist her in finding a man. I did what I could, but the best candidate I could find in the Group turned out to be a gay guy! That hit her hard when I told her that in the privacy of my office, and she burst into tears, and later asked if she could ask my wives for advice in getting a good man.

To help, I took her home for our evening meal and she spent ages closeted with Sharlene and the others.”

“Oh, dear, “ Emerson blurted out. “Sharl is not exactly my first choice as a romance advisor!”

“It would surprise you, sir. Your daughters are new women since they decided to marry me. Anyway, she got their advice, and it was not what I expected. They carefully examined her needs and told her that the best man for her was me!”

“Was that because of her education?”

“She hadn’t told them that. To them, she was the head receptionist looking for a good man she could rely on implicitly, and they felt that I was a good man like she wanted and therefore perfect for her.”

“When you already had five wives?”

“Not exactly. Because I was able to keep five wives happy, not just sexually, they decided I was already trained to be a good husband. They saw her as a needy woman and me as a suitable person to meet her needs. I was told about it afterwards, once they had settled the matter.”

“All five of them?”

“All five of them. They scored me highly, for some odd reason. It developed from there, and Marjory gained new confidence sitting with me at lunchtimes in the canteen. It took a while before it was noticed that she left with me at night and arrived with me in the morning, and she just told anyone that asked, that she was with Jimmy, and left it at that.”

“So when did she reveal that she was a Wellesley girl?”

“She didn’t actually reveal that until a lot later; until after we were married by the cleric. She wanted to marry me for being herself, not for being a graduate or anything like that.”

“My goodness. It is no wonder she was able to put on a show like that for the Board, especially as she had access to financial backgrounds through the Investor and could put down boors like Ferranti. Do you know that Chairman Yeats has asked him to resign as a director? Letter of resignation on his secretary’s desk by tomorrow, sort of suggestion?”

“I didn’t, but I am not surprised. Marjory told me all about the meeting when she got home.”

“Did she have to take a taxi, as you were off ill?”

“No, Sharl did the chauffeuring for her.”

“Good God!”

“I told you she had changed, sir. All three girls are off alcohol, because of their pregnancies. That was their own choice, not me insisting ñ though I would if I had to. I want my children to be healthy.”

“Glad to hear it. None of these three drinking alcohol? None at all?”

“None. I started with that while we were incarcerated together. The first week or two was a trial; they kept needing to be comforted, and they drank a lot of coffee and tea, even hot chocolate. Anything to distract them was worth it. Now, I tell them that this was the best thing they could ever do for their children: give them a good start in life.

That probably helped best of all. You can be proud of Sharl, Cherry and Charlotte. They are being good women: happy wives and admirable daughters.”

“Thank you. To get back to Marjory, is she going to continue playing the receptionist?”

“Mr Emerson, she IS a receptionist. She doesn’t play at it. The fact that she has other talents is by the by. She is happy to be a receptionist; indeed, she remained clear of the desk until long after the Board meeting, so that none of the Directors would notice her presence there. I also doubt they would recognise her as the woman at the meeting, as she was so different in manner and dress. It was like Cinderella going back to her home tasks.”

“Hmm you may be right at that. So she will stay with us for now?”

“Certainly until her pregnancy starts to show, but she may want to stay on for longer, and possibly after the birth.”

“She is expecting as well?”

“So she says. If so, that is six children on the way. Life is set to become more difficult for me next year.”

“Jimmy, you have no-one to blame but yourself. As I think back all these years, you should prepare yourself to many sleepless nights as you feed, change, and cuddle your offspring to let their mothers get a decent sleep. The mothers make the effort by day, the father by night. Be warned!”

“I know. They have already told me what to expect for knocking them up.”

“Right, my boy. Convey my congratulations to Marjory for her appearance at the Board meeting. She will be welcome any time. Chairman Yeats will be disappointed if she doesn’t appear.”

“I’ll do that, sir. Have we finished?”

“Hmm? Yes, I suppose. Were you needing to rush off?”

“My tummy is starting to feel tender again, so I would be prefer to be back at my office with the necessary facilities handy if my digestive system acts up again.”