OK Ch. 06-09

Chapter Six

It was approaching eleven that night when John returned to the house from Tom's, only to find a police car outside. He mentally kicked himself for not having his mobile phone switched on. He parked on the drive and entered the house.

The officer who had been waiting for him, stood up and approached him and asked for identification. He gave it and the man took him round the house.

The house was trashed. Entry was gained by smashing a large window. The place was a wreck. His laptop had been stamped on, all the hi-fi equipment useless. The bedding had been ripped to shreds with a knife. Oil poured all over the kitchen surfaces and floor, a number of wine bottles had been smashed and the contents and broken glass added to the oil. In the living room, the sideboard which contained his whiskies was tipped over, but miraculously all the bottles but one were intact and the broken one was a blend. Not one of the precious single malt whiskies was spilt. John, not especially religious, offered a fervent prayer of thanks.

He added another prayer of thanks that he had not furnished the whole house, and that the furniture he had bought was not expensive, but designed to tide him over until he could buy good stuff piece by piece.

"Can you see if anything's been taken?" the officer asked.

"Not easy, but if they didn't take the laptop, or the video recorder, there's nothing else in the house worth taking. I've only just moved in, and most of the house is not yet furnished. Furthermore, judging by what they did to the laptop, the motive was destruction," John said. "Let me see if the filing cabinet's intact."

It was upside down but otherwise untouched since it was locked. He suspected the contents would need a day's re-filing.

"No. They just wanted to trash the place." John said.

"That's what we thought." said the officer. "We got the man who did it. He was walking down the street trying to look innocent, but as it's a cul-de-sac and he had oil down the front of his jeans it was a dead give-away." The man laughed dryly.

"D'you know who he is?"

"He's not talking, but he will," said the officer. "Anyone got it in for you?"

"Oh yes," John said with feeling, "but I didn't think he'd be daft enough to try something like this."

Then he outlined what had passed between Liam and himself earlier that day, and the sacking of the man.

"If you come to the office tomorrow, I'll let you hear the tape of the interview."

The house was uninhabitable, so John went to a hotel for the rest of the week, and spent Wednesday morning at the office employing a company to clean and repair the house, and informing the insurance company of an impending claim. He asked his cleaner to supervise, but not to attempt to clean up any of the mess herself.

Then he set about ordering a new laptop and other electric and electronic items that had been trashed. He was thankful that he had backed up his work and that the back-up hard drive was in the briefcase in his car.

In the afternoon he was met by two plain clothes men, who listened to the tape, nodded and left.

"Lee Irwin," said one on the way out. "Know him?"

"My ex-wife's brother," John said.

"Idiot had his balaclava in his pocket when we arrested him: the one he wore to evade detection by the CCTV cameras," he laughed humourlessly, "As well as having cooking oil all down his jeans!"

John thought that Lee being arrested would not endear John to Carol, but he was past caring. There was no further call from Carol.

After work he went to the supermarket and bought beer, wine and groceries to replace the stuff which had been scattered over the kitchen floor, and some bedding to be going on with. He checked the house and stowed what he had bought, keeping the receipts for the insurance. The house was well on the way to being as good as new. He went back to his hotel and had dinner.

It was nine o'clock when Tom rang his mobile, asking for an update on the vandalism. He told John he was going to see Susan on the next evening, Thursday. He thought she usually stayed at home that night, washing her hair or indulging in some such female activity.

On Thursday night, Tom rang him again.

"All sorted, I hope," he said. "You want the story?"

"Please."

"Well, I arrived at the house. Sue opened the door, very surprised. I said this was extremely important, and got inside. Then I mentioned your name. You should have seen her face! She didn't want to know. So I asked her to read the stuff you gave me. She was reluctant but I asked her what had she got to lose?

"Well, she read it, all of it. Then she looked up at me and she was upset.

" 'Shit! This true?' she asked. I pointed out that you'd hardly be able to get the CEO of a large international company to blatantly lie, and anyway what had the participants to gain? It puts a few of them in rather a bad light. She agreed. I think she called Carol a silly bitch. It was said with some feeling I can tell you.

"I begged her not to let on about any of this, that you deserved to tell Carol yourself. Oh, yes, she agreed to that. She's totally on your side now and mortified at what has happened to you. She's going to get Carol to meet you. Neutral ground, probably the pub. By the way, she said Lee Irwin's been arrested."

"Yes, I know," John said. "He's the one who trashed my house while I was with you."

"Bloody hell!"

"Yeah."

Next day was Friday. At lunchtime John got a phone call at work.

"John, it's Susan Price."

"Hello Susan," he answered in a neutral tone of voice.

"John, I'm terribly sorry."

"So am I," he replied bitterly. "I lost a wife, the love of my life. And none of you would give me the time of day. Do you know that it's only been since I got back here that I've found out what I was even accused of? It's clear none of you had any loyalty to me, it was all to her. You know her brothers beat me up and put me in hospital?"

There was silence at the other end of the phone.

"Well?" he said abruptly.

"John I'm truly sorry. I couldn't believe you would cheat but she showed me the photo's. I couldn't see any other explanation."

"If she'd shown me, I could have told her. I didn't even know it was at the conference, that's what threw me. I thought so little of helping out a stupid secretary who got smashed out of her head, that I never made the connection. Anyway, water under the bridge as Carol would say. What can I do for you?"

"Can you meet Carol tonight at the Griffin? About seven?"

"Yes."

"Would you mind if Liam came along? And me?"

"If Liam can keep his nose out of what we need to say to each other, fine. Otherwise no I won't have him there. You're welcome of course."

"Fine, I'll tell them."

"Make sure Liam understands. One word from him and I'm out of there. I've had enough abuse from him and from Carol to last a lifetime."

"OK."

John twitched, but said nothing. Susan was doing her best for him now she knew the truth.

The Griffin was relatively quiet at seven o'clock in the evening. It usually filled up and got noisy about nine. John had invited Tom to go with him, and the two sat nursing their pints.

At ten past seven the outer door opened and in trooped Carol, Liam, Sue and Gary Irwin.

Tom and John immediately stood up and made for the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Carol fearfully.

"I'm not staying in the same room as either of your brothers. Beaten up once. Had the house trashed. He goes or I go."

"Look here!" Gary took a pace toward John. Tom bristled.

"Don't be a silly boy, Gary," Tom told him. "Your brother Is already in trouble for trashing John's house."

At this there was a sharp intake of breath from Carol.

"Gary!" she accused. "What have you been doing?"

He scowled at us. "He sacked Liam. He needed a lesson."

"And you decided to do that all by yourselves?" she scoffed. She turned on Liam, "Your doing?"

"He had it coming."

"That's it!" she said with some authority. "The pair of you - out!" They made as if to object, but thought better of it and left the pub.

"Now!" Carol said. There was no friendliness on her face or in her voice. "Can we get this pathetic little farce over with?"

Susan looked panic stricken but John smiled and she relaxed.

Everyone sat down at the rectangular table John had selected.

"OK, John," she said, with a sneer and a smirk at her use of 'OK'. "What lies have you got lined up?"

"Good start, that!" said John grimly. "You know it annoys me; don't be so bloody petty. Haven't you done enough damage? So let's see these photo's."

She reached into her handbag and threw a handful of photo's onto the table.

John reached forward and arranged them so all four of those present could see them all.

The photo's were of John and a blonde woman in her twenties. It was Danuta.

The first showed them in the dance area, her dress half off and her arms round his neck. She was pressed against him, it seemed, dancing close. There was no one else close by in the photo.

The next was a back view of them walking to the lifts in a hotel, she was leaning on him and her head was on his shoulder. One of her hands was resting on his bottom, and one of his was firmly round her under her armpit, perhaps holding her breast.

The third showed them entering a hotel room.

The fourth was certainly incriminating. It was taken through the open door of the room. Her top was off and she was in her bra. John was kneeling and pulling off her skirt, and he was naked to the waist.

On the fifth John was on top of her on the bed dressed only in his underpants, her arms were round his waist.

On the sixth they seemed to have come out of the bathroom, and they were both completely naked.

On the seventh, John's bare bottom was in full view as he stooped over her on the bed. While it was true he was at her side, it looked as if he was about to climb between her legs which were widely spread.

"There you are!" said Carol; this time she seemed upset, almost in tears. "That's you betraying me and our marriage. Now can I go?"

"I have something to show you," said John, "and you can read it as you look at these pictures."

Carol was surprised. He seemed uninterested in the conclusive nature of the photo's, but he was pushing a booklet towards her. It was an A4 sized booklet with a ring binding.

"Read that," he said, and sat back, taking a drink from his pot.

Tom got up, asked what the women were drinking, and went to the bar.

Carol opened the book and began to read.

--

Chapter Seven

The Booklet

The booklet opened with a Frontispiece listing the various people interviewed about their presence at the Conference party.

It began with the transcript of Tom's account already described. Next came a brief contribution by Maurice Callaghan, the CEO. It went as follows.

***

Sir Maurice Callaghan's Statement, Chief Executive Officer.

'I wanted a chat with you John so when you arrived I asked you to join our table. We talked for a while, got our business over, and my wife and her coven then monopolised you for the most of the evening. What it is to be young and handsome!

'We were interrupted by one of the men. He said one of our secretaries was stripping and would I ask her to stop before she embarrassed herself and everyone else. I asked you John to do it, and you handled the situation and the girl very well. I noticed Georgina helped you. Good idea of hers.

'You took the girl to her room, I assume, and Georgina left in the other direction. Soon after she returned, a couple went past the open doors of the room in a hurry. Gina told me in passing that the girl was the roommate of the stripper.'

***

Georgina Valilee's statement. Managing Director, Northern Division.

'Oh, that one. That was the one that decided us to exclude the bottom two layers of the workforce. Too much aggro.'

John: I'm interested in a certain girl, blonde, central European.

'Danuta Symanska you mean. She left the company shortly after that conference. Too embarrassed to continue, I assume. That girl could dance all right. It was when she started stripping the CEO sent you over to her to put a stop to it. You remember I joined you.'

John: We dressed her?

'As far as we could. I think her dress zip got caught. Anyway, you did a good job getting her to her room. She could hardly walk, you had to hold her up.

'You never came back. I wondered what you were up to. I know you wouldn't have taken advantage of her, anyway you were still married to that glamorous girl, Carol was it?'

John: You went off to find her friend?

'Oh, yes. Took a while, she was out on the porch with her head in Sinclaire's lap. Can't understand what the attraction of oral is. For the girl I mean.'

(Laughter).

'I'm afraid I interrupted her in mid blow, or was it suck? Anyway, they were both aggrieved. I told her the situation and that Danuta shouldn't be left alone. She said they would go up straight away. I assume he was going to carry on with her in the room. Yes, I remember them going past the bar.'

John: You remember the girl's name?

'Didn't know her, but her boyfriend with the large... appendage, he's Ian Sinclair. I think he does sales down West Country way now, based in the Birmingham Division, freelance, I think. That's something I don't understand, making him self-employed. Perhaps he wants it that way. Still.

'Is there a reason for this?'

John: Yes. You remember I was divorced?

'Very angry woman, if I remember. She's dating that Malley now? Why dredge it up so late?'

John: She never gave me the chance to explain. I feel cheated. Even criminals get a chance to defend themselves.

'You always had a thing about justice. Good luck.'

--

Ian Sinclair's Statement.

'At the party I pulled Lucy Simpson, not the cartoon, a real one. We danced quite a bit. Dannie was wild as usual, there was this lad from the North office pushing drinks down her, lots of suggestive remarks. She can dance though, that girl.'

John: Lucy?

'No Dannie. Anyway Lucy and me, we got hot and went outside to cool down. We were out there when Gina Vallilee came out and told Lucy that Dannie had flipped and started undressing on the dance floor. She said you had taken her to her room. She asked Lucy to join her because she should have someone with her. So we went up. We thought if Dannie was spark out we could use the other bed.

'We got to the room. Oh, yes, we passed that lad from the North office, the one who was pushing the drinks. He gave us a big grin, said Dannie looked even better without her clothes.'

John: You got to the room?

'Yes, we stopped at the door because you were in the entrance on your hands and knees cleaning up a pile of sick off the carpet. You were wearing a hotel bathrobe. You said she had thrown up over both of you, and you'd put her to bed.

'We passed you, and she was lying on top of the covers. She was stark naked, lying in the recovery position. You said you needed help to get her under the covers, you'd tried on your own and failed. She was a dead weight. We had a real job getting her sorted between us.

'You gathered up all the clothing, boy what a stink! and took it away, saying you'd bring it back in the morning. We used the other bed. That enough, or do you want details of what we did?'

John: No, that's fine.

***

Lucy Simpson's Statement.

'I was giving Ian a blow job outside, he loved it when I-'

John: It's all right Lucy, I don't need those details.

'OK. Oh soz! You don't like OK do you? Well Mz Valilee came out and asked me to go and look after Dannie 'cos she was blitzed. Well Ian was nearly there so I blew him and then we went upstairs. We thought we could use the other bed and have a proper session. I love it when a nice-'

John: Please Lucy!

'Oh, soz, I get carried away. Well we got to our floor and met that guy that was taking photo's of Dannie's knickers when she danced. He said he'd seen Dannie in the buff. He had a cheeky grin, I could have gone for him if it hadn't been for Ian. Ian's got a good-'

John: Lucy!

'Oh, there I go again. You'll think I've got a one-track mind. Well, there you were cleaning up the puke. God! There was a hell of a lot of it. And the pong! Ugh! I don't know how you did it. Well, you know what happened after that.'

John: It would help if you told me as if I wasn't the person there, you get me?

'Oh, OK. Damn! Done OK again!'

John: Don't worry, Lucy, carry on.

'Well we stepped over you. I hoped you'd look up when I did, but you didn't. I thought you might be gay. You finished. We were looking at Dannie showing her fanny to the world. You said you couldn't lift her to get the duvet over her. So we did it while you got all the clothes together.'

'Hey, you were nude under the bathrobe, and you had to put on those smelly trousers and shirt. Ugh! I saw your cock, nice one.'

John: for goodness' sake Lucy, don't you think of anything else?

'Not when it's on offer, no! Anyway, you said you'd get it all cleaned and back by morning. I didn't know how you'd do it, but you did. You knocked on the door at seven thirty. I answered the door, saw it was you and let you in. I was starkers. Like what you saw?'

John: You are a very beautiful woman, Lucy.

'Yeah, good tits haven't I?'

John: very beautiful tits. Thanks Lucy.

***

Danuta Symanska's Statement.

'I still embarrassed at that night. I did wrong. You want to know about it though so I tell you. You were good to me that night.

'I get pissed. Yes, very. My friends they get me drunk, I dance better then. That night there's new boy. I think he Liam someone. He gets me lots of strong drinks, I get rat-arsed. I dance then I take off clothes. Strip-tease. Can't help it.

'You come and stop me. I think this very funny, then boss lady from North arrive and you put my dress on, nearly. I fall over but hold you. You good to hold. I then like you, and hang on you. Lady she say go to bed, and tells you to take me. I want you to take me, think you good lover, and we go.

'I very wobbly, you hold me up. We get up to the room. Open door and I pull you in and go for kiss, but suddenly feel very bad, and sick up all over you and me. Horrid.

'You good, you take me to bed and take off dirty smelly dress, your shirt and pants. I think this big joke and pull you over on top of me. Then feel sick again.

'You see, and run me to bathroom loo. I spew over you and me and floor of shower again. You strip me and hold me in shower until we both clean. You dry me and take me to bed. I giggle, then feel tired, then it was morning.

'My head it come off. I hear voices. Lucy is bare in front of you. You have clothes, nice and fresh and clean and ironed. Room smells really bad even with window wide all night. You leave and I sleep again.

'Is what you want? How did you get things clean? I always wonder.'

John: My brother was living nearby. I used his washing machine and iron. Took nearly all night.

'You make good husband. You free?'

(laughter)

***

Philip Colshaw's Statement.

'Right, bro. I can swear that you arrived after midnight at the flat, stinking to high heaven and carrying a bunch of clothing. You stripped off and put all the stuff in the washing machine and set it going before going for a shower.

'I went to bed and slept for a few hours. Something woke me and I went downstairs to find you ironing the clothes you had brought.

'I told you you were a fool and went back to bed. I was up at seven and you were finishing breakfast and setting off for the conference.