Chapter 2

Unfortunately for her she must have hit the window a little too hard. Just as the police arrived, the windowpane shattered and Sally cut her arm quite badly on the shards.

It seemed that only a couple of moments passed before the paramedics and ambulance arrived. I assume the police called them; I didn't!

Then I had a policeman knocking on the door. I'd watched him talk to both Sally and Robert before he did so.

"Good morning, sir. Would you like to give me your side of this little debacle?" he asked.

"I caught my wife with an arsehole. Do I need to say anymore?"

"Not really, sir, but the man says you hit him."

"I did. Wouldn't you? He was in my house!"

"Hmm, you didn't strike your wife?"

"No, I bloody didn't. I just helped her through the door, so she could be with her boyfriend. I thought I was being quite magnanimous."

Another officer who had remained talking to Sally and Robert came over, shaking his head at the first officer.

"He doesn't want to take it anywhere. And the lady says there was no violence shown towards her."

Then he said to me, "That is a nasty gash your wife's got on her arm, sir. The medic says she's going to need some stitches in it, so they will be taking her to casualty. But she is going to need some clothes though. Will you take them down there for her?"

"Not on your bloody life, I won't. ThatÕs her bleeding problem, not mine anymore. Let her little shit bag boyfriend buy her some new ones; he's got plenty of money,"

"I see. Look, you realise she must have some clothes. She can't walk around dressed like that. She's almost naked!"

"Then she'll have to find some other mug to come in and get them for her then, won't she? You can go up and get some if you like, or perhaps her boyfriend would like to come back in for another round."

My attention was taken by the burble of the Lamborghini driving away, following the ambulance.

"Oh, it looks like she decided to do without. Now if you will excuse me, officers, I've got to call the window people and my solicitor."

The policemen left after mumbling something about they hoped they weren't going to be called back later in the day. I called the window people and a guy was around within a few minutes to replace the broken glass. He tried to make small talk while he worked but soon gathered I wasn't in a talking mood.

My solicitor transferred me to his colleague who handled divorces at their practice. She told me she'd put the wheels in motion, but couldn't do too much until we found out who Sally was going to have acting for her. It all really depended on how Sally wanted to play things.

I noticed the police drive past several times during the morning, whilst I was stacking all Sally's clothes that I'd placed in bin-liners, in the garage.

I have to assume there was some kind of collusion between the police and Sally going on. They must have informed Sally that I had put her stuff in the garage. Because, at around four in the afternoon, a different police car pulled up outside the house, with just a single officer in it this time. He didn't get out.

A little later a Ford Transit van driven by one of the boys from the factory, came down the road and backed into my drive. Using the remote control I opened the garage shutter; it was obvious to me what they'd come for. Sally, her arm now in a sling, got out of the passenger door with one of the girls from her office.

Whilst the guy and the girl loaded Sally's things into the van, I heard Sally trying the service door between the garage and the kitchen. Finding that locked she came around and rang the front doorbell.

"John? John, I need to talk to you; you've got it all wrong. Nothing happened between Robert and me. John, can you hear me? I know you're in there. Speak to me, John, please. Let's talk this over, please. You're making a terrible mistake," Sally called through the post box.

I opened the door, but before she could say anything further I stuffed her handbag in her hand and then slammed it closed again. I'd already removed her credit cards and house keys from it.

I watched as Sally went and talked to the police officer, who got out of his car. He kept shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head. After a while and with a resigned look on his face he pointed to a spot on the ground, where I assume he was telling Sally and her friends to wait; then he came up and knocked on the door.

"Your wife wishes to speak to you, sir. And you know you can't keep her out of the marital home," he said when I opened it.

"You can tell her we have nothing to discus. The house is already in the market as she decided it's no longer our marital home. If it was, she would have been in it last night when I got home, instead of screwing her boyfriend somewhere else, wouldn't she? Tell her to get her lawyer to get in touch with mine, will you? She knows who mine are."

The officer went back down the drive, where he had a short but very animated discussion with Sally and her friends. Sally then apparently collapsed into her two friend's arms, who then helped her back into the van. Then they drove away. The police officer stood there shaking his head, as he watched the garage shutter slowly close. With a shrug to one of the neighbours who'd been watching the pantomime, he got back in his car and drove away.

An hour or so later Petra called me. I related to her the events of the day and she said she was sorry. She asked what I intended to do and I told her divorce Sally, and of course I wouldn't be able to work for Jordon's anymore. Petra told me that I must keep in touch with her and made me promise to do so.

She also mentioned that Simon Johnson was going to call on me and said I had to stay In touch so that he would be able to find me. Paul had told me that once already. I wondered what was so important about this visit from Simon Johnson.

It was midnight before I got back to the Novatel. There was no way I could sleep in that house again. It contained too many memories.

After breakfast the following morning I called my secretary June and asked her if Tony was around. She told he wasn't going to be in the office that day and asked me what the hell was going on. Well, I told her straight out. June was very upset by the news. I'll swear she was crying as I told her.

She informed me that Tony had told her I would probably be resigning when I reappeared. She got the impression that he'd stayed out of the office that day just to avoid being there when I turned up.

I found Tony's absence strange. I would have thought that, after I'd knocked his brother about, he would have taken great pleasure in firing me. After all Robert is one of the company's directors and there wasn't any love lost between us.

Nothing was really making any sense. None of this made any sense!

First my trip to New York. Tony had insisted that I go, but when I got there, all Johnson's people seemed, if anything, surprised that I'd come. Yeah, there were some late deliveries but they didn't appear to be climbing the walls over them. Remember "yea" is a cheer! "Yeah" is slang for yes)

Then there was Robert going after Sally. Yes, she's a good-looking woman. But Robert was a bit of a lad where women were concerned and always appeared to have some little dolly bird on his arm. Sally was at least five years older than he was. And nearly ten years older than his usual tarts.

I don't know. I suppose they could have fallen in love. They did spend a lot of their working life together. But somehow I doubted Robert would have done that.

I went into the office to collect my personal property. I took the opportunity to wipe the hard drive on my both company computer and the laptop that I carried. But not before copying the contents of the hard drives onto zip-drives.

I took my letter of resignation, that June had produced for me, to the personnel officer myself. While I stood there and waited, he arranged for my final salary and bonuses to be paid into my bank immediately. The accounts department were a little reluctant at first; that is until they realised who it was that was resigning.

I think nearly the whole of the staff either helped me carry my gear down to the hire car or came out to wave me goodbye. I'd left my company car safely locked in the garage back at the house. I wanted to make sure I got everything I was owed, before I'd let them have that back.

That was that really. I lived in the Novatel for a week or so, before I found a flat I liked. The house sold very quickly; it was in a good area and I priced it for a quick sale.

Work? Well I thought I'd take a few months off and contemplate my next move. To be honest I was still expecting Johnson's to make me an offer and didn't wish to commit myself elsewhere too quickly.

Sally? I saw her a couple of times. On both occasions we had blazing rows. Correction: on both occasions I called her a cheating little slut and she retaliated. Civil discussions between us appeared to be impossible.

I was surprised she didn't shack up with Robert straight away; she didn't move in with him until some months after I kicked her out of the house. Whose flat she'd been staying at in the meantime, I don't know. But the guy I hired to watch her said she moved in with Robert right after our first big argument at the solicitors. They nearly had to call the police to that one. Probably she realised that there was no way we were getting back together at that meeting.

Our second battle of words was when we signed the divorce papers. Sally, looking very strange, was sitting at the table before I entered the room. She was wearing a big winter coat and was sitting rather strangely. My solicitor and I sat opposite whilst the details of the settlement were read out, then Sally signed the papers. They were placed in front of me and as I went to sign Sally asked. "John, are you really sure you want to do this? There's some things you really need to..."

"Did you hear some cheating lying little slut say something, Sandra?" I asked my solicitor.

Sally went ape shit at me, calling me all kinds of names, so I signed the forms quickly and left the room without adding another word. As I have said before, I didn't need or wish to get into a slanging match with her.

It was a few weeks; maybe a month or so after the divorce became final, that Petra called me to let me know that Simon Johnson was arriving in Southampton that weekend. I arranged to go down to meet him at a hotel in the town.

After the awkward formalities were over, Simon and his wife chatted to me about their cruise for a while. Once again I got the feeling that he was up to something. Look, the guy was just a client that I'd known for years, but now he was behaving like a long lost friend.

Oh, we went through the condolences bit on Henry's death and he said he was very sorry to hear about what had happened between Sally and I. And then he said that he was really sorry he couldn't have acted sooner, but he had to respect Henry's wishes.

That statement told me he had been beating around the bush. Well, that all ended when Bea entered the room. She said hi to me and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek as usual. Then she gave Simon the briefcase she was carrying. Bea and Simon's wife then left the room before he opened it.

"Right, John, let's get down to business. Tell me, what did you think when Henry floated the company and didn't give you any of the shares?" he suddenly asked.

I really didn't know what to reply. "Well, it was his company and he could do what he wanted with his money," I said.

"But you'd helped him to build it. From what I know of Henry, I'll bet you'd gone out on a limb for him more than a few times."

I didn't answer that. I figured he'd get to the point of all this before too long.

"Did you know that Henry owned a large proportion of Johnson's as well, through off-shore holding companies? And those same companies also hold a good proportion of Jordon's shares.

This was news to me, but I still thought I'd be better to keep my mouth shut and listen to what Simon had to say.

"Tell me, what did Henry say to you when he retired? He knew he didn't have long to live."

"He asked me to try to keep his boys under control. But with me not being on the board meant there was fat chance of me doing that."

"Yeah, I'm sorry to have to tell you, he did that on purpose. He figured the boys would bankrupt the company within a year or so and he didn't want your name on the paper work. He thought they would try to lay the blame off on you. You know that if a company goes bankrupt through mismanagement of its funds, the directors can be banned from holding other directorships, don't you?

"Anyway he figured the boys would bleed the company dry before too long. Now, these papers here make you the main shareholder of those holding companies. In essence, they belong to you."

Simon placed a sheath of papers on the table.

"And, these papers here contain the details of all Henry's numbered bank accounts. I was supposed to hold on to all of this, until after Jordon and Son's went down the tubes. But with what the brother's did to you, I think you'd better have them now.

"Did you know that in the terms of their fatherÕs will, the brothers couldn't fire you, don't you? Ah, I see you didn't. I think the bastards set you and Sally up so that you would resign.

He sat back and looked at me. "You know, John, youÕre a very rich man now, although all your money is in off-shore accounts, so you've got to figure out how to get it back into the country legally. I can show you a few tricks there. I've got some very inventive accountants."

My mind was going in circles. He'd just told me that Robert Jordon had seduced Sally and ruined my life for no other reason than to get me out of the firm. But why?

"You look angry, John, and I don't blame you. Look, Henry was never convinced the boys were really his. Martha had a habit of having affairs whilst Henry was away working. He had DNA tests done some years back and... well, for a while he figured he was their father, even if they weren't actually his sons. But he came to believe they knew that he wasn't their real father. And he found out they said some very nasty things about him, behind his back.

"Henry always said you were more like a son to him, so he decided that you would have all his money. He figured the boys would wreck the firm. I think he wants them bankrupt and penniless, as I assume you do now, as well."

"But what about the staff at Jordon's? They will all lose their jobs."

"No, not if some big American company picks up the pieces. Do you understand Henry's little game now, John? Johnson's will cancel its contracts with Jordon's within the next week or so. Then the next day one or two of the offshore stockholders will dump a load of Jordon's shares on the London stock market. That should kill the share price. A hint will be made to the right bank directors, and they will call in the company's loans.

"Then a consortium will step in and buy what's left of the company from the banks. I'll let you guess who's going to be at the head of that consortium and will be the main shareholder, but no one will know that part.

"You, of course, will renegotiate the contracts with Johnson's. Hey, in time perhaps you will invite me to join you on your board. Then a merger between Johnson's and Jordon's will put you on Johnson's board as well.

"How does that all sound to you, John?"

"I don't understand. Why didn't Henry just leave the company to me in the first place?"

"And you'd be fighting their challenges to the will for the next twenty years. You were with Henry almost every day of his working life for the last few years. You know Henry always was a little on the eccentric side. He was sure that the family would claim you had undue influence over him. You know they were sure he had some money squirreled away abroad somewhere.

"They've spent a lot of money over the last few years, looking for it. That's why Henry placed it all in my care. Anyone checking on where your money comes from will discover that it comes from me. Oh, and as I'm not connected with Johnson and Partners any more, they can't throw insider trading at us. And of course I've been on that bloody ship for the last six months."

So there we are. I'm now the Joint Chairman, Simon Johnson Associates. I leave Paul to run the American branch and keep my eyes on what goes on in Europe.

Both the Jordon brothers were made bankrupt and are banned from being directors of any company for ten years. Oh, they've tried to set things up a couple of times, but I had guys keeping a close eye on them.

Surprisingly, to my mind, Robert married Sally. I'm not sure but I think he thought Sally was going to get her hands on some of the money that I'm sure he suspected was coming my way. But as that had officially come into my possession after Sally and I were divorced, he had no bloody chance. And once they were married, I applied to the court to terminate her alimony arrangements. After that, they got nothing from me.

The marriage didn't last more than a year or so. I've got to be honest; I was sorry for the twins Sally had by him. I suppose they must have been getting together in the office for sex after I threw her out, as the guy I had watching Sally said they rarely met in the evenings. I doubted the bastard ever paid her maintenance after he left her.

You know these things go through your mind, I wondered exactly how many years Robert had been screwing Sally over his desk. But, she must have fallen pregnant pretty quickly after we separated. I saw her pushing a pram in Slough High Road, just a year after I kicked her out.

The last I heard of Robert, he was living in southern Spain somewhere, with the drug squad on his case. Southern Spain, Morocco, not far for a fast boat. I should imagine that's how Robert's mind was working. Well, that's why I tipped the drug squad off, anyway.

As for Tony, apparently he's driving buses around London. Not the nicest place to drive a bus. His wife divorced him after she received information about his little flat mate. No prize for guessing who supplied that information. And of course Tony has his mother Martha living with him.

Do I feel any guilt about Martha losing her income from Jordon and Son's? Well, the question should really be did Martha feel any guilt about running around on Henry. You do tend to reap what you sow!

Sally, the last I'd heard, was living in a council flat in Slough. Living off the social, I should imagine. I don't know, perhaps she's hooking on the side. Sorry, that was uncalled for, but it's how I feel.

Things took off quite quickly once we got the ball rolling. Paul and I worked very well together. Well, we'd both been trained by experts; Henry Jordon trained me and Simon Johnson trained Paul. In the next few years, we swallowed other companies wholesale. Combining the two companies had made us a big multi-national. Paul and I have both stepped back a bit now and let the minions do most of the worrying.

Simon Johnson and his wife settled in England. He's got a nice estate next to mine. His daughter, Bea, and I kind of hang around together. No, we're not into getting hitched, and have no plans to. We've both been down that road once. Bea's on the board with Paul and I, and of course, Petra. We're all getting along just fine.