Chapter 1

The buzzing noise of the intercom bedside my bed roused me from my siesta. I reached over and hit the button.

"There's a lady here who wishes to see you, sir." My secretary's dismembered voice came from the machine.

"I'm a little busy at the moment, Colette. Ask Val if she can see her for me, will you please?"

Valerie is my PA and usually handles most of my visitors nowadays. To be honest, I wasn't busy at all; I'd turned into a bit of a recluse and I was having my afternoon nap. Colette was aware of that, so it was unusual for her to have disturbed me.

"The lady says it's personal and very important, sir. What she has to discuss, she says she can only discuss with you, sir."

"Damn it! Tell her she'll have to make an appointment for... Oh, I don't know, next week sometime."

"The lady says it's urgent, and she is adamant, sir."

"Oh, bugger, all right. I suppose I'd better see her then, show her up to my office in about five minutes."

I got off my bed, gave my face a quick rinse in the bathroom, to wake myself up, then made my way through the penthouse to my private office. I looked out of the window at the view over the city below. Damn, I hate this bloody place; I hate every-bleeding-thing about it. Christ, I think I hate everyone on the seventeen floors below me as well, even though they all work for me.

Colette entered the office without knocking. She never did knock nowadays because I was rarely in there. I'm just the figurehead of this organisation now; the only reason I was here in my penthouse suite was because I had nowhere else I wanted to go; and nothing that I really wanted to do.

The very nice looking young lady, who Colette was supposed to be showing in, strode past her into the office in an officious looking manner. But I think the sudden grandeur that she found herself in took her by surprise and knocked the wind out of her sails. I could see she was unused to, and uncomfortable with, the environment she suddenly found herself in.

"Mr John Crawford?" she asked before Colette had time to make her official introductions.

"That's me."

"My name's June Parsons and I'm with Slough Social Services." I'm not sure, but I think I was supposed to be cowered by her statement.

"And what can I do for you, Miss or is it Mrs June Parsons from Slough Social Services?"

"Please call me June. We try not to be too formal."

I could see confusion in her face now. I think I was not what she had been expecting, nor were the surroundings she found herself in. This woman was used to dealing with folks on the other end of the financial spectrum and she appeared to be totally out of her depth here with me.

"Very well, June, you may call me John. Now what can I do for you? Oh, excuse me. Okay, Colette, you can leave Ms Parsons with me, thank you."

Colette, with a curious look on her face and a wink of her eye, turned and left the office, closing the door behind her. Well, my visitor was quite beautiful and the gold diggers had used some very interesting ways to get too me in the past.

"Mr Crawford..."

"John."

"I'm sorry, John. I'm with Social Services in Slough."

"You have said that more than once already; now please tell me how can I help you?"

"There is, um, where do I start?" she said looking around the room. The splendour of the place was obviously not what she had expected at all. "Look, I've got a case on my hands. There are two children involved and a mother who attempted suicide. Maybe it would be better if you read this note, it was found beside the mother."

She handed me an envelope containing the note, only in was more of a letter than a note. I sat back into my big swivel chair and opened it.

My dearest John. The first line said, and damn, I immediately knew whom it was from. My memory jumped back eleven years to when my once happy life came to a sudden end.

Shit, as I remember it I was having one hell of a bloody morning. A water main had burst in Chiswick High Road and the whole damned area had gridlocked as folks tried to find their way around the closed road.

I was almost an hour and a half late when I tried to sneak into my office unnoticed. It was the second time that week that my journey to work had been a bloody nightmare.

As I entered my office, June, my secretary - well she wasn't really mine, she looked after three or four of us - waylaid me.

"John, where the hell have you been, and why haven't you got your mobile switched on?"

"Oh, shit, I must have forgotten to charge the bloody thing last night," I thought that was becoming a habit of mine lately; too damned tired to think straight when I got home in the evenings.

"Tony Jordon's been looking for you since nine o'clock. He's got a real bee in his bonnet over something. You'd better get your arse up there pretty smartly."

Shit, buggering arseholes. That's all I needed; that pompous little arse on his fucking high horse. Since his father retired, that little shit and his brother thought they were God's gift to the bloody industry. The truth is he had no idea how to negotiate a contract or keep the customers happy. I was wondering whom the little bugger had upset now.

"Oh, John, thank goodness you've turned up. I've been trying to track you down all morning. You've really got to do something about your time keeping, you know," Tony Jordon said as I entered his office.

"Well, if you hadn't moved the bleeding office from Slough into fucking Chiswick I wouldn't have to sit in bleeding traffic jams every bloody morning and evening, you fucking little trumped up arsehole," my mind was thinking. I wondered why the hell didn't I have the nerve to say that to the little shit. But we all think these things, don't we?

"Sorry, Tony, there was a burst water main in the High Road."

"Well, I got here on time!"

Of course you did, you little shit. You've got an expensive town flat, paid for by the company and just a couple of blocks away that you stay in during the bleeding week. With that little tart that your Mrs doesn't know about to keep you warm at night.

"Anyway something's gone wrong with the Johnson job. They're late on delivery again. I need you to fly out there and talk some sense into Johnson's board. You know, pour some oil on the water. They're threatening to take their contract elsewhere again. You know if that happens, heads will roll. Not only here but at the plant as well. You've sweet talked Johnson around before; I'm sure you can do it again."

"And just why arenÕt you going yourself," I thought. "While you're at it, take the other pile of shit, your brother Robert with you. Between the pair of you, you're killing this bloody company. If your old man knew how you two were fucking things up here, he'd be turning in his bloody grave." Once again we think these things, don't we; I really wished I could think of a good reason why I wasn't saying them. But then if I did, I'd be out on my ear, wouldn't I?

"I'll give Simon Johnson a call. I'm sure he'll come round. We've been doing business with him for years."

"No! You're flying out there on the twelve o'clock flight. Old man Johnson has retired and his nephew Paul Johnson has taken over as chairman of the company. Neither Robert nor I can go. We've both got a very full calendar this week."

"A twelve o'clock flight? Shit, there's no way I can make it. I've got to get home and pack first. And besides, I'm supposed to be taking Sally to the theatre this evening; she's been on at me to take her for months. "

"Well, you'll have to take her some other time. Don't worry; the company will reimburse you for the tickets."

"The play finishes its run on Saturday night, Sally's been driving me nuts to take her for weeks. But I've been so tied up getting the Carter contract sorted out; I haven't been getting home until far too late in the evenings to go. I figured that now that Carter contract's signed and out the way, my evenings would be free for a few weeks at least. I know that the last night is sold out. Tonight was the only day we could get seats for. If I go to New York, I won't get back before Friday at the earliest. Sally's going to go ballistic."

"Then she'll have to go with a friend or something then, won't she? Sally knows as well as anyone, that the company needs the Johnson work, it's nearly half our turnover. You'd better call her at the factory and get her to go home and pack your bag for you. You'll never get home and then back to the airport in time from here. Run along now; we can't afford to have you miss that flight."

"Cheeky little shit." I thought as I left his office. I'd started working for Henry Jordon straight from college. It'd been a pretty small concern when I joined the staff. Jordon & Sons Machine Tools. Henry Jordon had got in on the ground floor some years back. Maggie Thatcher declared that industry had to stand on its own feet. And the banks started calling in company overdrafts. Starved of working capital, British engineering firms went to the wall in droves.

Henry Jordon was one of the vultures who bought up all the redundant plant and machinery. He reconditioned it in his own little factory, sold it on at ridiculous profits to companies all over the developing world. Henry Jordon was a typical died-in-the-wool Conservative. Mind, I think there was a lot of the profits that somehow disappeared into offshore accounts. It wouldn't do for a good Tory to pay too many taxes, now would it?

Once the bankruptcies started to become a little thin on the ground, Henry Jordon changed the modus operandi of the company. He became agent for companies who wanted to sell machine tools into Europe. Simple, really. The machinery was imported into the country in pieces then assembled and delivered to anywhere in the EEC.

Things went well for the company until the two brothers were old enough to join the firm. Unfortunately Henry's two sons, who had both been to university, were trying to run things on the Just In Time principle. Great on a production line, but it left no time for sorting out the problems that often showed up in our business.

Parts coming in from all over the world could be delayed for a thousand and one reasons. Luckily most of our clients were quite aware of those problems. But if the brothers would just leave a few days grace when they quoted delivery dates we wouldn't have half the problem with them that we were having.

It always seemed obvious to me. Tell the customer they can have it in three weeks, then later tell them you can deliver five days earlier; they are happy. Tell them they can have it in two weeks and deliver a week late. Shit flies! And never promise what you can't deliver.

I couldn't really understand why Tony was insisting I fly out to New York. The brothers had negotiated the latest contract with Johnson's; they should be the ones to put things right. Yeah, but I knew how it was going to look to the board if it all went pear shaped. I was the mug who was going to take the can on this one.

When I got back to my office, I called Sally's office at the Slough Factory. Yeah, Sally worked for Jordon & Son's as well. ThatÕs what Tony had been alluding to. It wouldn't only be my head that was going to roll; I could see Sally's going as well.

Sally and I met when she joined the typing pool years ago. Typing pool, there that will give you some idea of how long ago I'm talking about. We seemed to hit it off quite well from the beginning. But it wasn't until we went to the company Christmas party that year that we got together. You know what its like; everybody was kissing under the mistletoe and when I kissed Sally... Well, I'm not sure what happened, but in the end someone asked us if we would move, as they wanted their turn.

Sally and I didnÕt discus it or anything. From that kiss we were an item. I think we both ran around like lunatics buying each other Christmas presents and I joined her and her family for Christmas dinner. I think that caused some confusion, as I'm pretty sure they were expecting some other guy. But no one actually said anything.

We went out together on New Year's Eve and woke up together in my bed on New Year's Day. That was our first time together. I'm sorry to have to admit I don't remember much about it. I do remember the night of January the first though. Sally never actually went home to live again and we were married four months later.

The next ten years had been the happiest of my life, when I was at home. My life at work was fine until Henry's twin boys finished university and came to work at the firm. Until they joined the company, I had been Henry's number two, his assistant in all things both above and below board.

The boy's arrival spelt a change. Henry was not a bad old stick; he didn't put his boys over me in the company hierarchy at first, but they both seemed to resent that. Oh, they were pleasant enough to me, but I knew they didn't like the sway I held with their farther.

Henry Jordon floated the company on the stock market and made a bloody killing out of it. That was the only time he actually upset me. I thought he would have sent at least a few shares in my direction, but he didn't. The other thing that didn't happen was I was not made a director. Both the brothers went on the board, but I didn't.

Then Henry had his bloody heart attack. At the hospital he asked me to keep an eye on the boys. "Some hopes, Henry," I thought. "If you'd given me some shares and put me on the board as well, I might have had some influence over them." Of course I never said that to him. It was plain to my eyes that he was on his way out.

Henry retired immediately and passed away three months later. The moment the lid of his coffin was closed; the boys started making changes. None of which, I thought were good ideas, but there was little I could do about it. They rented flash new offices in Chiswick and most of the admin and sales staff moved down there. Tony ran that department, whilst Robert took over the running of the factory completely. In doing so he inherited Sally as his secretary. She'd been the factory manager's PA for some time, but the factory manager didn't stay for long, because Robert was on his case all the time.

I can't say I was very happy about Sally working for Robert Jordon. It wasn't something I could put my finger on, but I never did like the way either of the brothers looked at her. Come on, I suppose it could have been jealousy, or maybe it was just that I didn't like either of the brothers really. But I sensed something. Sally was five years older than the two boys were, but she was one fine looking woman, even if I do say so myself.

Sally appeared to get on very well with Robert. Too well, if you ask me. No, I didn't think anything untoward was going on. But as I really didn't like the boys, I would sometimes make comments about them. Sally would spring to their defence and there we had the recipe for trouble.

The truth is, as the company got busier and I was rushing about all over the bloody place keeping customers happy and sorting out new contracts, I think Robert saw more of Sally that I did. So she saw his side of any problem well before they got dumped on me.

Okay, back to the Johnson contract and my short notice flight to the US. I called Sally to give her the good(?) news. I think they probably heard her reaction at Chelsea football ground. I know it deafened me.

"But youÕre taking me to the play tonight! You promised! What the hell did you volunteer to go the New York for?"

Now this was another problem of mine. Whenever I was asked to go away somewhere, Sally somehow got it into her head, that it was something that I chose to do. I never could understand why she thought I would volunteer to go on these bloody trips. But from our discussions on the subject, it was obvious that she was convinced that I did.

"I didn't volunteer, Sally. Tony has just ordered me to go. Surely you know what the problem is with the deliveries on the Johnson contract. Hasn't Robert told you?"

"There's always problems nowadays. But why do you always have to keep volunteering to sort them out? Especially when we are supposed to be going to see the play tonight. I'm getting fed up with the way you treat me lately. What about my play?"

See what I mean? I'd just told her that I was being sent to New York and she was still insisting that I'd volunteered to go. I'm afraid I got angry that she wasn't really listening to what I said.

"To be honest, Sally, I don't give a bleeding damn about that goddamn play! Our - that's yours as well as mine - job's are on the line here and if I can't calm Johnson's bloody board down, the companies going to be up the bloody creek without a bleeding paddle, with no orders. Now don't blame me because your lot in the factory can't turn the stuff out on time!"

See, now that's the problem with separating the two parts of the company. It had become a them-vs-us culture. Unfortunately, I was with the us and Sally was with the them. An even bigger recipe for disaster.

"Now please go home, pack that fucking bag for me and then meet me at the check-in desk at Heathrow at eleven. Please."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for several moments and then in a very controlled voice Sally said, "You'll get your fucking bag and maybe a few other things you didn't bargain for as well. I'm not your bloody skivvy you know!" The line went dead.

Why did I do that? Why did I shout at Sally and why did she shout at me? Damn, I knew I needed to apologise to her when she met me at the airport.

But that didn't happen. I was waiting at check in at eleven o'clock but there was no sign of Sally. Ten-past came and went with still no sign of her. The girl was just about to close the desk when Sally arrived. She strolled through the departure lounge as if I had all the time in the world.

"Damn, Sally, what took you so long?" obviously with a sharp tone to my voice as I was very worried about missing the flight by then. But then I realised that it wasn't Sally's or my fault that we were having this argument. It wasn't either of our faults that she was disappointed about the play that evening and it wasn't good for us to part feeling angry with each other.

"I'm sorry, Sally. I'm just so worked up about this damned trip." I went to kiss her, but she stepped back from me.