Chapter 10

Despite the stress-relieving gym workout and the hotel bed being as comfy as it looked, I took a long time to get to sleep as I couldn't manage to clear my head. What would be the after-effects of Denise's invitation - would we be comfortable working together or would things be awkward? What about Gary's claim that Evelyn was interested in me? I didn't think she was really my type but something about her intrigued me - surely it wasn't just my ego, miffed that she had turned me down?

And then there was the situation in my apartment. Could I trust Harriet while I was away? After all, I'd only known her for a few days. Anyway there was a strong chance she'd be gone by the time I got back because they had estimated about a week for repairs. I decided that the Harriet situation was something I should try to forget about, since there was nothing I could do until I was back home.

The next morning, when I emerged from my room, Denise was already up and waiting for me. The overnight laundry had been returned and my clothes were waiting for me, neatly folded, at the edge of the large table.

"Thanks," I said, indicating the pile.

"No problem. You'd be surprised at the things a PA has to do. Shall we order breakfast from room service?"

"I'd prefer not," I admitted after a quick consideration. "I guess we're going to be stuck in here most of the day, so I'd like a change of scenery. Besides, I'd like a better choice of coffee."

"Okay, I take your point. Let's go down to one of the restaurants then."

We went down to the closest restaurant. There was the option of ordering from the menu, which might entail a significant wait, or helping ourselves from an all-you-can eat breakfast bar. Denise and I both chose the latter, but whereas I went for full heart-attack breakfast, she opted for the healthy options.

While eating, Denise reached for a glass of water but her aim was off and she sent it skittling across the table.

"Oops," she said, as an attentive waiter dashed over to mop up the spill. "I'm afraid I'm rather clumsy."

I couldn't believe it, having seen her gazelle-like gracefulness in the gym the previous evening. There were no further accidents at breakfast, although the coffee was very disappointing, barely better than the instant coffee available in the room.

Back in the room, we got down to business. I sat down at the large table and started leafing through the files to get a feel for the job while Denise started on the phone. First she called some unnamed underling to ask that all the previous contracts with the big customer be sent over, then she phoned Dean Critchley to give him a quick update and ask for a meeting with the large customer. Dean apparently asked to speak to me, because Denise handed over the phone.

"Why do you want a meeting with them?" he asked.

"I have a couple of half-formed ideas," I replied.

"Would you care to share?"

"Not really. It involves a lot of humble pie. As I see it, the current situation is that we've lost the customer. If I screw up, we've still lost that customer so it won't have cost anything. I'd consider it a win if we leave the meeting on good enough terms that they're prepared to consider doing business again with us in the future."

"Okay, their guy is a personal friend of mine so I'll pull some strings. Would you like me there?"

"That's up to you, but I suspect their legal department will also be represented, and they might perceive the personal friendship is a barrier to objectivity."

"I guess you're right, but please keep me in the loop. I'll set something up and let you know where and when."

"Thank you."

I handed the phone back to Denise, and she chatted with Dean for a couple of minutes before ending the call.

I returned to the pile of folders, and Denise came and looked over my shoulder.

"Okay, what are we looking for?" she asked.

I returned to the previous folder I had skimmed through.

"Look at this contract and compare it with our standard template. You can see that here, here and here are non-standard. Any of those is enough to raise suspicion that the contract needs to be thoroughly checked, but the excessive commission rate on its own indicates that something fraudulent has occurred. Do you think you can check the folders and identify the suspicious contracts, then I'll scrutinise them thoroughly and see if I can identify a pattern. Start with the most recent contracts first, because it's likely Hobermann escalated over time after he wasn't found out."

"Okay," affirmed Denise.

She moved to sit opposite me and grabbed a pen and paper to make notes. At least, that's what she tried to do, but she misjudged the pen and sent it flying across the desk in my direction.

"Oops, sorry, clumsy me."

I guess that Denise's cute little Japanese girl genes couldn't come to terms with her actual physiology because over the week I saw many such instances where her brain seemed to misjudge the size of her body.

We worked steadily till lunch time, Denise scanning the folders and passing the suspicious ones to me. By that time I thought I saw patterns emerging but I didn't want to announce my findings until I was certain.

Still replete from a large breakfast, we decided to have sandwiches and coffee sent up by room service, and go out for something more substantial in the evening. As at breakfast, the coffee was pretty awful.

"Can we do something about this coffee?" I asked Denise.

"Sure. The extra files you wanted are being brought over this afternoon. I'll get them to send over a company cafetiere and the type of beans we use for board meetings."

Denise made the call, then we got back to work. Midway through the afternoon there was a call from reception saying there was a courier in reception and would we like them to send him up. The extra files and the coffee supplies had arrived. Denise gave the courier a hefty tip - it was Sunday and the company was paying - and we celebrated by having the first decent coffee since we'd started.

At six o'clock, by mutual consent, we packed in what we were doing and headed to the gym. Again it was empty. I thought I caught Denise glancing at me rather more than necessary and I hoped she didn't still harbour thoughts of sleeping with me. After a swim, we returned to the suite and changed for going out. Denise used her connections to get us a table at a swanky local restaurant. We elected to go by taxi so we could drink.

The food was okay but hugely overpriced. Denise had a bottle of white wine with her meal, but I caused some consternation by asking for beer. Naturally they didn't have anything popular and American, so I settled for a Belgian beer I'd never heard of before. It was quite nice, with a strong fruity flavour.

When the bill arrived, Denise disconcerted the waiter by claiming it. Since she was putting it on a company credit card, I didn't object.

When we got back to our suite Denise was rather tipsy, but some more of our own superior coffee sobered her up and prevented anything regrettable from happening.

Monday morning started pretty much the same as Sunday, down to the restaurant for a hearty breakfast then back to the suite for work. Ben Franklin showed up just after nine, apologising for his lateness. I took the opportunity to explain my findings so far.

"It looks as though Hobermann started cooking the books about nine months ago," I said. "Initially he targeted small companies without legal departments sophisticated enough to spot what he was doing. After getting away with it for several months he escalated to larger companies. If he hadn't tried to swindle the big one, he might still be doing it. That doesn't mean we don't have to check all these files," I indicated the substantial pile still to be looked at, "but at least we have some indication of where our priorities lie."

I walked Franklin through a couple of fraudulent contracts until I was sure he knew what to look for, then I settled down to read through the contract history with the big customer.

Mid afternoon Dean Critchley rang to say the meeting had been set up for four o'clock the following afternoon at the customer's headquarters. In return, I explained my findings so far. When we'd had enough for the day, Denise invited Ben to eat out with us but he refused, explaining that his wife and family were expecting him.

After another gym and swim, we headed out to somewhere a bit less pretentious this time. The food was good and filling, the beer was good, there was nothing not to like.

Tuesday morning followed much the same format as Monday and the list of fraudulent contracts was quickly taking shape. There was an air of expectancy while we worked, although I used my supervisory status to firm up my plans of how I hoped to guide proceedings that afternoon.

The afternoon seemed to drag after a light lunch, but eventually Denise announced it was time for us to head out to the big customer. Naturally she did the driving, and I was happy to note that her skills were more in line with her gym prowess than the clumsiness that caused pens to skitter across desks.

We were shown into an opulent boardroom. I introduced Denise and Ben, then Sammy Goldstein, Dean's friend, introduced a couple of his subordinates. He didn't bother to introduce another couple of men seated at the table, but I assumed from their attire they were corporate lawyers.

"As you know, Dean Critchley is a personal friend," said Sammy, "and that's why we're having this meeting. In fact, I'm a little surprised he's not here today. Anyway, it doesn't change the fact that we're very unhappy with the conduct of your company and we're in the process of signing with one of your competitors. So, bearing that in mind, I'm intrigued to hear what you have to say."

"As you know," I started, "I'm Brant Hobermann's counterpart from the East coast, and I've been tasked with the clean-up operation. Because of your friendship we thought it better that Dean not attend, although we will keep him apprised of events here. I asked Dean to press for this meeting for three reasons. Firstly, as a company, we owe you a huge debt of gratitude."