Just Business (21 page)

Niamh was trying to keep busy. Three days, with all their hours, minutes and seconds, had trickled by. She was working as if her life depended on it. So far she had been successful in avoiding Lucinda but now there was a five-minute reminder box flashing up on her screen, telling her that she had an upcoming meeting with the lawyer. Sharon, not knowing any better, must have accepted the electronic meeting invitation, and with everything that had been going on, Niamh hadn't seen it in her calendar.

She felt panic rising like a tidal wave inside her. She had to face Lucinda in five minutes. How was she meant to talk about work when all she wanted to ask was why she'd kissed Chris at the party? She could see them in her mind, Lucinda in the stunning red dress and Chris tall and handsome. A striking couple – what did it matter that they were married to other people? A horrible thought came into her mind. Was Lucinda the joker? Would she get a kick out of playing games with the cryptic clues?

Somehow, she managed an outward calm when she arrived at the lawyer's office. Lucinda, as glamorous as ever, wore yet another knee-length skirt that showed off her remarkable legs. It seemed she had a wardrobe full of such skirts and must have realised a long time ago that skirts went further than trousers in business.

‘I want to talk about the lawsuits.' The lawyer started the meeting with purpose. As usual, no time was wasted on small talk.

‘So do I,' Niamh responded curtly.

‘Now, on Denis, you mentioned something about missing parts –'

‘Yes, we've had a progress report from the private investigator.'

Lucinda sucked in her breath. ‘What – private – investigator?'

‘Keith Longmore.'

‘
Why
am I only finding out
now
that you hired someone?'

‘Because I'm telling people on a need-to-know basis,' Niamh replied with feigned airiness. ‘Here, you should read the report …'

Lucinda snatched the report from her hand. As she read, Niamh took in the mess around them. No secretary had been willing to take on the lawyer's arrogance and the office told a tale of neglect. Sooner or later the chaos would bring Lucinda her just dues. Sooner or later she would trip over her own ego.

When it was apparent that Lucinda was finished with the report, Niamh gave her the photographs. There were some nice shots of Denis, particularly the one of him going into AIZ Bank.

‘This is totally stretching the imagination,' Lucinda said, throwing the snaps away as if they were burning hot. They
landed face down and were immediately lost in the layers of paper.

‘I don't think so.'

‘You may think this is damning evidence, but I can tell you right now that it's far from adequate.'

‘Why don't we ask the police to investigate?'

She saw Lucinda struggle to keep hold of her temper.

‘Unlike you, I'm trying to save the company legal costs … Yeah, you can get the police involved. Then we can add defamation to the wrongful dismissal claims and suddenly we have an army of lawyers in the picture. It may make you feel justice has been done, but it will cost us tens of thousands and we have less than a fifty per cent chance of winning.'

‘I disagree with all of the above.'

They stared at each other, locked in a battle of wills.

Niamh was bursting to tell her that she knew Denis's case had no legal merit. But it was too early to show her full hand.

‘We need a mediator,' Lucinda stated with an irritated sigh. ‘That will have to be Malcolm.'

Niamh wasn't surprised that she suggested Malcolm. The CEO was no match for his legal counsel and she would be guaranteed the outcome she wanted. Niamh was a step ahead with her counterstrategy. She was going to brief Yoshi. Lucinda was a fool for not understanding where the power in the company really lay.

‘Whatever you want, Lucinda. But let me warn you, I will do everything in my power to ensure that Denis Greene is prosecuted for this.'

Niamh left Lucinda's office on that note. She couldn't slap her in the face. She couldn't say she knew about the Christmas party. She couldn't even ask her if she was the joker. Her only
revenge was to find out why the bitch was lying through her teeth about Denis Greene.

It had been many years since Bruce had felt this tense about a deal. Usually he was a dignified winner and philosophical loser. But with AIZ he felt his reputation was on the line. Despite the fact that Greene was now terminated, he had been an employee for almost four years. The fact that he had got into the bank using a false ID was a personal blow to Bruce.

In addition to that, there was the pressure from Japan. The share price had dropped a few more yen. The vice-president was calling Yoshi from Tokyo every other day to see if there was any new business that would redeem the company in the eyes of the analysts. Yoshi, in turn, kept asking Bruce if there was any word from Martin Fitzgerald. Everybody knew the AIZ contract renewal was the only significant deal in the South Pacific. It was a five-year contract with an order value that was big enough to catch the attention of the analysts.

After a week of serious nicotine abuse, Bruce got the call from Fitzgerald. The news was good. Not only had they retained the client, they had also won the lucrative T&M business.

It was an old HDD tradition to announce a new deal by ringing a hand-bell. It was rare that Bruce followed this tradition; he was not a showy man. But this time he rang the bell loudly as he walked through the workstations. He stopped outside his chief engineer's office to congratulate Willem on his pivotal role in winning the deal. Willem's door was shut and Bruce didn't think to knock before he entered. It took him a while to absorb what he saw. Huddled in the far corner, Willem had his head bowed as he muttered into his hands. Bruce was quick to shut the door behind him.

‘Where do you keep your medication?' he asked.

It was no surprise that Willem didn't respond; there wasn't even a pause in the ranting from the corner. Bruce started the search, rifling through the desk drawers first. He found the tablets in Willem's jacket and knelt down beside him.

‘How many?'

Again, there was no answer, just muttering about someone spying on him, reading his mail, reading his thoughts. Bruce read the script that was labelled to the packet.

‘
Two pills, once a day
… Here, take these … Now, who can I call to come and help you?'

Willem was calmer by the time Regina arrived. She was pale, her bare arm protective around her brother's waist.

‘He only forgets his medication because he works so hard,' she said defensively.

‘I know.'

‘Please don't fire him, he lives for this job.'

Bruce's smile was reassuring. ‘Don't worry. He's the best damn chief engineer I've ever had.'

‘Thank you.' Regina's eyes were bright with unshed tears of gratitude.

Willem looked dazed, the whole conversation passing over him.

‘Tell Willem I don't want to see him here for a few days,' Bruce said, opening the door so they could leave. ‘He needs a break. And when he's recovered, tell him that we won the AIZ Bank deal. That should make him feel better.'

Yoshi had a spring in his step and the confidence of a man who was making life decisions with remarkable ease. Those decisions were a direct consequence of his fateful trip to Tokyo.
The first one was to ask for Helen's hand in marriage. After only six weeks of dating her, many would say he was crazy for jumping into a formal commitment so soon. Yet it was the urgency of his feelings that made him so sure of what he was doing. Not in his wildest dreams had he ever expected to marry a westerner but he was realising that life was full of surprises.

The next decision was regarding where he was going to live. He no longer felt a pull from his home city. There were many factors that influenced his decision but he pinpointed the main issue as being one of space. He had a house in Sydney. He had a garden and a pool to enjoy. It was unthinkable to go back to a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Tokyo. He was realising that he liked having space; he liked it very much.

His last decision related to HDD. He had decided to accept Nishikawa Shacho's offer and take on the role of CEO. He was fired up with plans to bring the Australian subsidiary back to profitability and do his bit to hike up the waning share price. Yes, Nishikawa Shacho was giving him a poisoned chalice, but overall it was an opportunity that couldn't be turned down. Yoshi's first action would be to get rid of Malcolm Young. Then he would address the shortcomings of the remainder of the executive team. Some would have to leave with Malcolm.

Niamh could see the difference in Yoshi from the minute she walked into his office. He seemed brighter and more animated than she'd ever seen him before. He gave her a welcoming smile and gestured to a seat.

‘Hello, Niamh. How can I help you today?'

She found herself responding positively to his formal politeness after her meeting with Lucinda. The lawyer had a disregard
for basic good manners in addition to her penchant for other women's husbands.

‘I want to discuss the lawsuits with you. I've run into some problems and I'm looking for ideas on how to get past them.'

‘I'll help in any way I can.'

‘Let me start with the easy one,' Niamh suggested. ‘Scott Morgan's case. You know the background: he was with us only two months when we retrenched him. I think we did the wrong thing by him and I'm recommending we offer a settlement of six months' pay.'

Yoshi's eyes contracted to black slits. ‘Six months? That's a very significant sum of money!'

He was known to be careful with the purse-strings. For that reason, Niamh had her argument well rehearsed. ‘Scott left a solid, well-paying job to come to us. Obviously he would never have left his old job had he known we were planning a restructure. Even though numbers or departments weren't known at that point, certain people in this company knew there would be cutbacks. And those people should have ensured that the rest of us were taking appropriate care with our recruitment activities …'

Yoshi could only agree. ‘Yes. We should have frozen all new hires until the extent of the cutbacks were identified.'

With an admission of guilt under her belt, Niamh pressed home her advantage. ‘Scott has a small child. Her name is Jenny – she's only fifteen months old. Her mother isn't around to support her and her father has been out of work for more than two months now. Morally, if nothing else, we owe this family.'

There was a pause. Yoshi was on the verge of agreement.

‘I presume you have discussed this with Lucinda?'

She was prepared for the question. It was the perfect lead-up to the matter that had propelled her to Yoshi's office in the first place. ‘No, I haven't. Lucinda and I are at loggerheads over the Denis Greene case. I also found her handling of Helen's complaint less than satisfactory. I'm not sure I can work effectively with her any longer.'

Yoshi was pokerfaced as he asked, ‘Why were you not happy with how Lucinda dealt with Helen?'

‘She was less than sympathetic to the victim and overly compassionate to the perpetrator. She was of the opinion that all women should be able brush off unwelcome advances. I was not impressed.'

Yoshi wasn't impressed either. His sallow face tinged with angry red. ‘That is utterly unacceptable, and to have come from our legal counsel – Lucinda, of all people, should be above reproach on such issues.'

‘It's doesn't stop there, Yoshi. Her treatment of the Denis Greene matter is also very questionable … I found out that his barrister resigned because the case had no legal merit. I rang the Department of Immigration, who confirmed that Denis would have been given a bridging visa allowing him to stay in the country until his application for permanent residency was processed.'

‘Why has Lucinda let this go so far if there are no legal grounds for damages?' Yoshi asked bluntly.

Niamh took a steadying breath. ‘Lucinda said that there was no precedent to rely on and that we would only have a fifty-fifty chance in court. She point-blank refused to engage an external lawyer to give us a second opinion. She's lying, Yoshi, I
know
she's lying.'

‘Why would she lie? Why would she risk her own job to get Denis Greene back his?'

‘I don't know – yet.'

There was a pause as they both took time out to think. Niamh's eyes fixed on a Ken Duncan photograph that hung from the inside of Yoshi's door. It could only be seen when the door was shut. It was a strange place to hang such a beautiful photo of Sydney Harbour at sunset.

‘That's new, isn't it?'

‘Yes.'

His colour deepened and she felt he was embarrassed. It was clear he wasn't going to offer any further details so she reverted to the issue at hand.

‘Did you know that Denis gained unauthorised access to the computer room at AIZ Bank last week?'

Yoshi shook his head and his thin eyebrows descended in a frown. The AIZ contract renewal was going to be announced to the analysts next week. The bank was now their most critical client in the region – the deal with them would change the trend of the share price. What the hell was Denis Greene doing in their computer room?

‘He had a new identification badge,' Niamh continued. ‘Lucinda wanted to have him reinstated – an ID badge could have been the next best thing.'

Yoshi took a few moments to think. Then he said, ‘Do we have enough evidence to involve the police?'

‘We have nothing firm on Lucinda other than professional incompetence. And if we turn Denis in at this point, we may never find out what her role was in all this.'

‘Then what do you suggest we do?'

‘I have a private investigator following Denis. I could extend his assignment to Lucinda …'