Chapter 5

Nick was pleased when he drove away from Heatherbrow. Sally might be prickly but he reckoned that he had brought her on side. It was miraculous what a smile could do for her. Her whole demeanour changed and she actually looked like the pretty young woman she really was rather than a scowling virago. She had also been delighted that Bob Ainscough from the council would be visiting the site.

It was half past five before he arrived back at his office. Megan was waiting for him.

"Mr Kirkwood's been trying to contact you since three o'clock," she said.

"OK," replied Nick nonchalantly. "He knows where I've been. Would you put me through to him?"

"Yes, boss, of course. Do you mind if I disappear after that? I've got a husband this evening."

"Oh, Megan, I'm sorry I'm so late back. Just put me through and then vanish."

"Thanks, boss." She smiled warmly.

"Hallo, Nick," said Mr Kirkwood. "I'm glad you're getting about so quickly. How are things going?"

"All right. Two branch managers are in my sights and Melanie and I are working together to oust them."

"Who are they?"

"George Roberts, E & M, who's a deadbeat and Arthur Honey who is another and, I have a nasty feeling, has been quietly lining his pockets."

"I thought you might latch onto those two. So what else?"

"There has been no single manager for projects which has meant internal squabbles leading to loss of momentum and poor quality. I have rectified that today which has produced some smiles, particularly at project manager level."

"Good! Go on."

"The poor work we have been doing for the last three years means that we are not considered highly in high places in the area. I have a programme to visit all the people that matter to re-establish ourselves. I hope you don't mind but I am calling us Marshall of Liverpool, a subsidiary of Marshall Bros UK. This is a gimmick to try and make us synonymous with Liverpool."

"Good thinking. I'll back that if the Board make rude noises."

"Thank you, sir. I met the council chief executive this afternoon and his development manager will visit the Heatherbrow housing project. We're due to submit a tender for expansion and modernisation of one of the council buildings. My hope is that when he sees a high quality project running to time and cost he will be better disposed towards our tender which is due in three weeks' time."

"Well done. What else?"

"From what I can see, we haven't been promoting ourselves. Now that could be through shame but I don't think so. Branch heads were not encouraged to seek work. Through my courtesy calls I intend to reawaken people's interest in us and then encourage branch managers to actively interact with their opposite numbers. I gather Mervyn kept it all to himself and didn't do much."

"That sounds about par for the course."

"I have one concern. We've got a lot of people not earning their pay so we're going to have to make some fifty per cent redundant. That will save us a lot on salaries and wages but we are going to have to make redundancy payments and, I suspect, have an incentive scheme to retain the really good ones. That will mean a largish initial outlay which we will only slowly recover. I don't want to incur expensive bank loans so I may have to come to you to ask for a loan from central funds. We haven't done the sums yet so it may not be necessary but I thought I ought to warn you."

"Thank you, Nick. Do your sums and let me know. I can't see the board being all that happy to give you a free loan but it would certainly be cheaper than a bank loan."

"Hmm. I'd like to attend that board meeting if I may, sir."

There was a chuckle from the other end. "Don't start putting your warpaint on yet, Nick, but if I think they are going to be difficult I'll let you loose on them."

"Thank you, sir. One more thing. If I find there has been fraud in Contracts I intend to call in the police. Would you rather I kept the investigation in house?"

"No. If word got out we'd be accused of a cover-up and that would do us no good at all whereas if the public knew that we had invited the police in it would be an indication of our probity."

"Thank you, sir. I had a feeling that is what your reaction would be."

"OK, Nick. It sounds to me as though the new broom is sweeping nicely. Don't hesitate to ring me if you've got a problem. I'll probably call you in a week or two's time out of curiosity."

Nick chuckled. "I wouldn't mind a visit at some stage. It would do morale good."

"I'd like to do that once you've got things fully under control. Good luck, Nick."

He rang off.

Nick sat back in his chair. "So far so good," he thought. "He appears confident in me and is supportive. I'm glad I've got his backing if I have to call in the police."

He looked at his diary for the next day's appointments. Nine o'clock George Roberts. Eleven-thirty Graham Dibbens, Managing Director Port of Liverpool. Two thirty Arthur Honey.

"Tomorrow sees the start of the blood-letting." He smiled grimly. "I also need to see what's going on at the port this evening."

He did that after dinner and was intrigued to see plans for expansion of the container facilities and development of more space for cruise liners.

The meeting with George went much as he thought it would. He was offered coffee and declined. Megan had already taken care of that.

"So why do you think we're in the doldrums, George," he asked.

George shrugged his shoulders. "The recession chiefly," he said. "People aren't prepared to start major projects at the moment."

"Don't you think it might also be because we haven't been delivering the goods?"

"Oh, I don't know."

"What about Northcliffe."

"No, that didn't go very well."

"Not very well? It was a disgrace which every self-respecting engineer should be ashamed of."

"It's all very well for you to say that in hindsight. It was a very tricky project."

"Really? Running in a mains supply, fitting distribution boxes and then wiring a whole lot of houses and street lights doesn't sound very tricky to me."

"It wasn't as easy as that. Everything had to be coordinated with the other work that was going on."

"That's standard for any but the simplest of projects."

"Yes but there was no central coordination."

"So what did you do about it?"

"There wasn't much I could do about it."

Nick raised an eyebrow.

"I did speak to Mervyn and suggest that he ran it but he said he did not want to become involved in individual projects. He said that I had been a branch manager the longest and it was up to me to sort it out with the others."

"Buck passing," thought Nick disgustedly. "So did you?"

"I tried but they wouldn't accept my suggestion."

"Which was?"

"That I should be lead manager."

"I'm not entirely surprised. Jerry Markham had the main chunk of the work with the houses. He should have been the lead."

"But I am the senior branch manager."

"With a much smaller part of the project. Have you read the directive I issued yesterday?"

"Yes. I can't say I agree with it."

"Why not?"

"It's very unlikely that I shall get to run a multi-disciplinary project."

"Yes but that's the way it's going to be."

George shrugged.

"So, apart from Heatherbrow what else have you got on at the moment?"

"There's a new office block at the port and an extension of one of the council offices plus some refurbishment of the current building. We're preparing our part of the tender."

"How many people have you got on them?"

"Two teams of three."

"And how many are there in your branch?"

"Twenty-one all told."

"So only about a third of your engineers are involved in anything at the moment."

"There's also the Heatherbrow team."

"Sorry. Half then."

George nodded reluctantly.

"We're going to have to make some of them redundant."

"You can't do that."

"Why not?"

"It's not fair on them."

"I think it is. If they're any good they'll be bored stiff sitting around here doing next to nothing and, with the cushion of a redundancy payment, they'll be off like a shot to find something more interesting. I'd like you to keep this under your hat for the time being but have a think about it and let me know by Friday how many you could let go."

George shook his head. "I still don't like it," he muttered, "but you're the boss."