Jigsaw Lovers (25 page)

It took Hamilton almost a week to view the initial selection of video’s that James's surveillance people had taken, during the three months that Smith and Diana had been having their affair. The quality was superb. The sound recordings were also very clear. He couldn't have wished for better material to work with. He was now in no doubt that he would be able to carry his long thought out plan to fruition.

He and James sat and watched the recordings, all day long and late into the night, continuously day after day. Hamilton hadn't seen Smith for over five years, but the passage of time had done nothing to decrease the contempt he felt for the man. If anything he despised and loathed him even more than he had previously.

All the main events in the developing relationship between John Smith and the woman he knew as Diana Johnston had been captured perfectly. Virtually every minute they had spent together had been recorded in one way or another, be it on video, still photograph or audio. Each scene was well documented with details such as date, time and place.

Hamilton observed that Smith originally was trying to maintain and convince himself that his interest in this woman was purely professional; she was just another client of the Bank. However, he was unable to preserve this approach for very long, and at the first opportunity he allowed himself to be seduced, without putting up the slightest resistance.

From that first evening with her Smith never seemed to show any remorse or have any doubt as to what he was doing. It was clear from very early on that Diana would be able to achieve the primary objective of making Smith fall in love with her. It had virtually happened within the first few days. All she had to do was maintain Smith's interest in her, which took very little effort on her part.

They spent three very passionate months both in and out of bed. Smith was actually a very good guide. He took her to many of the Cape Peninsula's beauty spots and places of interest. They spent weekend afternoons on the beach, or went on excursions to the wine estates. They ascended Table Mountain for lunch in the restaurant at the top, and on several evenings went up it, with an iced bottle of champagne, to watch the sun set over Camp's Bay.

When Hamilton had judged the time was right he had told James to instruct Diana to ask Smith for the loan. He had seen enough of this woman to know that he could leave the manner of the request to her. When he viewed the recording of her asking him in bed, he was ecstatic. Her timing was perfect. She had incorporated all the phrases and comments that he and James had devised, in such a way that it seemed perfectly natural. And what was more, Smith had been completely taken in by it, even coming up with a scheme himself as to how he could help her. This was the final piece of material that they needed in order to make their plan work.

He made copious notes concerning how he wanted the various scenes that he had viewed to be edited and put together. He sketched out sequences for three different versions of the events that had taken place between the lovers.

James arranged for a video
editor to come out from their London office to edit the files according to Hamilton's specifications. All the necessary equipment had either been hired or bought, and set up in a flat that had been rented specifically for the purpose. At the end of two weeks they had three very professionally finished productions.

The motorcycle messenger arrived at the enquiries desk of the Bank just before closing time. He had ten packages to deliver, each addressed to different members of the Bank’s staff. The chosen staff were all relatively junior in the hierarchy of the Bank and that is why they had been selected. Each of the packages contained a DVD and a short type-written note which stated ‘
PLEASE VIEW THE ENCLOSED DVD AND PASS ON TO A WORK COLLEAGUE WHO YOU THINK MAY APPRECIATE IT
’.

As it was near closing time and there was only one DVD player in the Bank, which was not for general staff use, all the recipients took their disks home, with varying degrees of curiosity as to what they might contain.

The next morning the banking hall was abuzz with the amused chuckles and screeches of laughter as those who had received the disks passed them on to a colleague and described in lurid detail what they had seen portrayed on it.

‘You’ll never guess what was on that
DVD,’ said one foreign exchange clerk. ‘It was a porno movie starring old Smith and that blonde bimbo customer of his that he drools over. Well he was certainly drooling over her, I can tell you.’

‘Did you see that bit with the handkerchief?’ asked another. ‘That certainly put a smile on his face.’

‘And when I showed that to my old man, do know what? He wanted us to try it out. Said it looked quite fun,’ commented another not quite so shy secretary.

‘And did you?’ asked her friend sitting on the edge of her desk, with a wicked grin.

‘No of course not,’ she blushed. ‘It’s perverse. Quite disgusting. Can you imagine? All that mess.’

‘It’s not natural,’ said a teller.

‘You wouldn’t think Smithy would do things like that,’ said a pretty little twenty year old. ‘I mean he’s so old and boring. It’s like watching my parents doing it.’

‘Well he certainly put on quite a show. Let’s see if Carol knows any more about it,’ suggested another.

‘Maybe they’ve been doing it on his desk,’ chirped the twenty year old.

The male members were somewhat more graphic in their descriptions of the scenes they had witnessed.

‘I can understand the dressing-up in her silk underwear. Silk’s quite a turn on,’ said one.

‘I agree, but that bit with the handkerchief. I’m not sure I’d enjoy that.’

‘You mean you don’t like it up the bum. What a shame,’ joked Tiaan, an overtly camp member of staff. ‘I always thought I had a chance with you, but now you’ve ruined my day.’

‘He really seemed to enjoy it as she pulled it out of his bottom. Is that sort of thing truly fun, Tiaan?’

‘How would I know?’ he minced with hand on hip. ‘Are you implying I’m some sort of faggot, darling?’

John Smith could not understand why so many of the people he came into contact with that morning averted their eyes and smirked. At first he thought his trousers were unzipped but having surreptitiously checked that this was not the case, was at a loss to know what was the cause of such general amusement.

He called Carol into his office and asked her if she knew what was going on.

‘I’m not sure, sir. Someone said something about a video that they’d seen, and I think that’s what they’re discussing,’ she answered in all innocence, since at that moment in time she had yet to be apprised of the real situation and how it affected her boss.

As the Bank opened for business a motorcycle messenger entered the building and dropped off thirty A4 envelopes, marked ‘
PHOTOGRAPHS – DO NOT BEND
’. Each was addressed personally to various members of staff, including Carol, John Smith’s secretary. As the messenger left, the first person to open her letter was a junior teller and what she found inside nearly caused her to choke on the piece of chewing-gum she had in her mouth at the time.

Within half an hour virtually everyone in the Bank had seen a series of photographs of their assistant manager indulging in the most intimate of activities in bed, on the sofa, on the floor and even on the kitchen sink, with the branch’s most glamorous client.

Reactions ranged from amusement to disgust, but whatever the person’s feelings, there was non-stop speculation as to how he had managed some of the things depicted in the photographs. People gathered around at their coffee-breaks to compare pictures. It turned out that there were over a hundred different poses.

Someone noticed that in most of the photographs there was a newspaper and from this they were able to deduce that these scenes had ta
ken place over a three-month period.

By lunch time there were only two people who were unaware of what the messenger had delivered that morning. These were the branch manager, who was out of the office for the day, and John Smith himself, who could not understand why all the staff seemed so jovial.

The manager, Johannes Stephanus, was not happy with what he had just seen. This was not the kind of thing he wanted to have to deal with when he was nearing retirement. Such a thing, if true, could reflect badly on his record, which over the years had remained unblemished.

He had worked hard all his life for the Bank, starting at the age of fourteen as a messenger. His home background and upbringing were strictly Calvinist. This imbued in him, from an early age, the Christian work ethic, and a set of moral values, which had governed every aspect of his entire life. He believed there was no substitute for hard work and no place for taking risks of any sort. It was these values that he had tried to inculcate into his staff, and until today he had considered himself quite successful at so doing.

He had very little time for the new breed of manager that was becoming more and more prevalent these days in the banking world. He had thought, until just now, that he was fortunate in having John Smith on his staff. He had viewed him as his protégé. In many ways, he had considered that Smith and himself were very similar. He had seen resemblances in the way Smith behaved towards his clients and the careful approach he had towards lending money. One day he had hoped Smith would have taken over from him when he retired.

He wondered how he could have been so mistaken, so wrong, for such a long time. It was with these thoughts in mind that he called his assistant manager into his office, just after ten.

As he hadn’t been at the Bank the previous day, he had only just viewed the DVD that had been delivered to him the day before. The contents of it went some way to explain why the staff were frequently seen huddled together gossiping and generally behaving in a frivolous manner. He had approached one of these groups and asked what it was they were looking at.

‘Just a few photographs, sir,’ the chief teller said, hurriedly concealing the half dozen snap-shots he had in his hand.

‘May I see?’

‘I don’t think so, sir. It’s just that they’re private, sir.’

‘In that case look at them in your private time. Not the Bank’s.’

Going through his mail he had found the DVD. There was no message with it or any description as to what it might contain. He assumed it was another staff training disk from the Bank’s communications department.

Having seen to his immediate business, and not feeling the urge to pursue anything in particular, such was the privilege of his position, Stephanus went into the training room. He pulled the DVD player out of the cupboard, plugged it in and inserted the disk.

The Bank’s logo appeared on the screen, accompanied by some classical trumpet music that he didn’t recognise. There followed a shot of the street in which the Bank was situated. The camera panned along the street and came to rest on the facade of the Bank, and the bronze lettering which stated its name.

As the music faded, a male voice narrated:

‘This proud institution has been offering outstanding service to its clients for the last one hundred and fifty years. Today we are going to take you behind the scenes and show you an aspect of modern banking service that is rarely seen.’

The camera cut to a man walking down the other side of the street. He was wearing a dark suit and carried a briefcase and umbrella. As he turned to cross the road Stephanus recognised him as his assistant manager.

‘This man, John Robert Smith, is the assistant manager at this branch.’

The camera tracked him as he walked through the doors into the marble-floored main banking hall area.

‘By day he is the very epitome of what the public would expect of a bank manager: cautious, reasoning and conservative; loyal and dedicated to his employers, faithfully observing the ethos of an institution that has served the community for so long. He even conducts business after hours, but by night it is with a different set of ethics.’

The screen filled with the image of a couple in bed. Their conversation was unusual considering the circumstances under which it was conducted.

‘How much is it?’

‘One million rand.’

Stephanus watched fascinated, and a little excited, as the woman got closer to Smith.

‘Maybe I might be able to arrange something through the Bank.’

Now they were making love, the beautiful woman on top, her face in view for the first time. Stephanus realised it wasn’t Smith’s wife.

‘I think I could let you have the money for a month, just as an unsecured overdraft.’

‘That’s wonderful, but won’t you get into trouble giving me all that money?’

‘Nobody else need know. I can delay filing the authorisation, pretend that I’ve mislaid the valuation report … and I can cancel the whole transaction.’

‘Besides, I think I know you well enough – much better than any of my other clients, to make a fair assessment of the risk.’

‘I wouldn’t want you to do anything unethical, …
just because we’re sleeping together.’

‘No, I want to do this for you. You’re not forcing me … Let’s view it as one of the perks of the job.’

Stephanus couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed. He would never have expected such behaviour from Smith. He had always thought of him as a happily married faithful husband. It was most disappointing. Rarely had his judgement of someone been so far in error. And as for the business about an overdraft for such an enormous sum of money. Whatever was Smith thinking?