He arranged an appointment to see the Marketing Director and began preparing schedules. Whilst he was doing this, he had got a call from St Matthew’s. The tests had been completed and he had to go to London to learn the results.
The next day, he rushed to the hospital in the morning and again, he had to see the psychiatrist first.
‘How have you been keeping?’ the psychiatrist asked.
‘Very well, thank you.’
‘Any luck yet?’
‘Well, you know I told you about the pains I felt whilst working in the office and how I stopped eating and drinking there?’
‘Yes.’
‘It paid off. The pains disappeared and now my wife is pregnant.’
The psychiatrist looked serious and said, ‘Is that what actually happened?’
‘Yes - exactly.’
‘Hold on a minute.’ He got up and went out of the door and into the doctor’s office.
‘I’ve just heard something very interesting,’ said the psychiatrist to the doctor. ‘Mr Connors has told me how he was being poisoned; how he realised it; how he avoided the poison and now his wife is pregnant. He doesn’t seem to have any mental disorder so I believe him.’
The doctor, looked up at him, wearily.
‘Trouble is, we couldn’t find any poison. We didn’t do a blood test and, besides, if his wife’s now pregnant, we wouldn’t have found poison in his blood anyway. Pregnancy is a difficult business. We can find out if people are fertile but - poisoned - that would take an extremely large amount of work to determine anything. I think we’ll just have to tell him to go home and stop worrying.’
‘It’s a pity we can’t do anything to help him. I’ll send him in here right away.’
The psychiatrist left and went back to his office.
‘The doctor will see you now. Good luck for the future.’
‘Thanks, I’ll need it.’ Barry left, walked into the doctor’s office and sat down, full of expectancy.
‘We tested your liquid most thoroughly for common poisons but we couldn’t find any substance that shouldn’t have been there. The container that you put the coffee in was not sterile, which would have affected results and we only have your word for the origin of the coffee.’
Barry’s hopes were shattered. ‘What about unusual poisons?’
‘No. I’m afraid we haven’t the time to do a large search and we didn’t take a blood sample, but I hear your wife is now pregnant.’
Barry thought for a moment. He had felt a slight pain for a few days after the party at the office, but that had gone now, so he considered it not worth asking for a special blood test.
‘Yes that’s right. I’ve started my own business now so there’ll be no more poisoning!’
‘I can’t help you any further then, so good luck’
‘Thank you,’ and, with that, Barry left the hospital.
On the way home in the train, Barry was again wondering if Charmaine could have got into his house when she had been absent from work before he had taken the coffee to the hospital. He had thought that his keys could have been copied because he had left them in his jacket all day when at work, but he had hoped a neighbour would have told him if anyone strange had gone into his house whilst he was away. Maybe he was hoping for too much.
He arrived home and continued with the preparation for his visit to the prospective new client on the next Monday. He had been careful to amass some leaflets and designs which he had worked on while at Triton’s, to put in a portfolio, so with all the necessary papers - also taken from Tritons - and his portfolio, he felt ready.
When Shu arrived home that evening, Barry told her about the results from the hospital and she seemed to sneer at him.
‘I thought so. He was your boss and he is your Uncle,’ she said.
‘Yes, a boss who wouldn’t let me go to a mate’s funeral.’
Shu wasn’t listening and Barry thought about exploding and shouting at her, but then realised that as he was the only one affected, he would have to wait for something more visible to happen. Maybe something else would come to light in the near future.
The next Monday, Barry set off to see the prospective client. He was, shown into an office but, as he walked in he felt many eyes looking at the way he walked. He proudly presented his portfolio to the Marketing Director, Mr Dixon, and then handed over the proposed schedule.
‘There are a lot of pet food designs here - not many electronic topics covered,’ said Mr Dixon.
‘No, I haven’t dealt with any electrical companies yet but it is a full service that is provided.’
Barry’s lack of expertise with words was going to prove to be a big drawback in his attempts to get new clients. He just didn’t have the flow or the convincing style that was essential in winning new clients.
‘And I saw you limping when you came in. Have you got any problems?’
‘Oh, I had an accident on my motorbike a long time ago but the side effects have almost disappeared now,’ he lied.
‘Hmm, yes, okay. Err . . . well I’ll look at these designs plans and discuss it with my colleagues. I’ll be in touch soon.’
Almost immediately, Barry could sense the fact that it was because of his accident that he would not win the business. He didn’t realise how his work could contribute significantly to a company and that if his designs didn’t work, it would reflect badly on Mr Dixon. He returned home feeling pretty low but trying to make himself more optimistic by telling himself that when Mr Dixon met with his colleagues, they might try out his firm.
Barry spent the next few days working on his present clients and trying to find an accountant who didn’t charge the earth. Working from home certainly had its advantages; he could get up late, make a nice cup of coffee whenever necessary, eat when he felt hungry and watch the television when he wanted.
He was looking through the papers one afternoon and saw a television programme about the human mind and what makes it work. As he had always been interested in this subject, he started watching the programme and he was fascinated! Week after week, it gave a clear picture and examples about the mind and how differences in mental activity make humans do different things.
It was the final programme that made Barry really sit up. It was a double length programme that dealt with psychopaths and as Barry watched, he learned that a psychopath was a person who used others, totally for his or her own gain. They had no morality and would do anything for their own cause. They would lie as much as they could to make people believe them and that they were extremely intelligent people.
It hit Barry at once! Was this Charles? He always used people, from the time when he had left his family to live with another lady and start a business with her to the present time where he could have tried to poison Barry. This poisoning could show a lack of morality as, really, it was murder on a grand scale, and the lying - Charles had once told Barry to ‘really believe any lie that he said to make others believe it’ and Barry had seen him in action doing just that. The genius part was puzzling Barry but if he could do all this and not be discovered, he must be bright. Barry had so many puzzling questions to ask but, who would give him the sort of discussion he really needed?
That evening, Barry confronted Shu. He spoke of all the latest evidence he had seen to confirm his story and he spoke of how he thought he knew what the reasons were behind Charles’ behaviour. He told her of his one hundred per cent belief in what he had found out.
‘All right, Barry, I’m sure that you believe it yourself.’
‘And what does that mean? You still don’t believe me?’
‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen any facts to back-up your story - but if you believe it, that’s okay.’
Barry wasn’t sure what to make of this. Was she slowly coming around to believing him or was s
he still rejecting him but in a subtler way? Whatever it was, he had beaten Charles - he wasn’t seeing him again and Shu was pregnant. This would have been enough for some, but Barry had to get at least someone to believe him. He telephoned his mother; he telephoned his brother; he went to see his other brother and none of them would believe him. Anthony even said that there wasn’t a drug that could do this for his friend, who was a chemical analyst, had told him so.
Barry felt despondent, but he knew he was right. He would have to push on until he could prove it himself and he continued working hard at his business but found it very difficult to attract new clients. He had decided to try and get government offices as clients and, he hoped, they would pay their bills and not worry, too much, about his disability.
Barry had seen a television programme the previous year and had learned of a charity that dealt specifically with people who suffered with head injuries and he thought that it would be a perfect new client. Apparently this charity - the Head Injury Trust - had been formed and he had never heard about it before. He wanted to know more about the effects of head injury and to meet more similarly affected people so he had contacted the head office and found that local groups were being set up all over the country.
Initially he had attended one of the first groups to be set up nearby but found that it was a small group and seemed to be shrinking. Next, he found a contact through the letters page of the charity’s magazine and there was a group who held meetings in a hospital until the end of the year. Barry attended some meetings but soon started to become disenchanted. There were some nice people there but Barry found one of the co-ordinators giving him nasty stares and at the Christmas party, the room was packed with junior doctors so Barry could hardly find anyone to talk to.
It was at the February meeting that things started to happen. Two young women had attended and were asking some interesting questions after hearing a talk about the side effects of brain damage. One, Cathy, had a son who had fallen from a ladder and was unconscious in hospital. He had been that way for six months and she was asking the speaker, a doctor from the neurology unit, if her son had any chance of waking up without any side effects. Her companion, Alison, also added several useful points and afterwards Barry went over to them.
‘Hello. You’re new here. I’m terribly sorry to hear of your son’s accident.’
‘Thank you. Yes, I only heard of this group recently so I had to come along to see if I could find out anything. Oh, I’m Cathy and this is Alison.’
‘My name is Barry. Did you learn anything?’
‘No they didn’t tell us much at all.’ Alison spoke with an air of disgust in her voice.
‘Yes, I have a lot to find out to try to help my son. If only we could contact the right people, we could find out so much more.’
‘I’m sure they will have other doctors to speak to at the meetings,’ said Barry.
He looked at Cathy who was staring into his eyes. She was certainly very beautiful with shining, shoulder-length, fair hair, blue lagoon eyes and a happy smile, which attracted Barry quite a lot, but then, he already had a beautiful wife, so he wasn’t thinking about having a crush on Cathy.
‘What do you do for a living, Cathy?’ asked Barry.
‘Oh, I just work part-time in a bakery. The rest of my time is taken up with going to see my son. What do you do?’
‘I run a graphics agency. I’ve just started so I need all the clients and new business I can get.’
A sparkle came into Cathy’s eyes when Barry told her about running his own graphics agency.
‘Your own business? Maybe you could help us sometime.’
‘Here, take my business card. Please call if you would like some help at any time,’ said Barry, confidently.
Things seemed to be going quite well at that time. Barry’s business was running quite well and, with Shu working, money was not a problem. However, Barry couldn’t see himself paying for everything after the baby was born and he needed to see results for the whole year before he could be confident in supporting a growing family.
Shu was equally dubious
‘I think I’ll stay at work, after the baby is born,’ she said, one evening.
‘Hmm, yeah. I think you should, but how long will they give you for maternity leave?’
‘I am not entitled to any leave. I’ll be lucky if they give me time off to have the child and then take me back! You are only given special leave after you’ve been working there for two years and I’ve only been there for three months!’
‘Have you told them yet?’
‘No, I still can’t feel anything but after I’ve had the scan, I’ll let them know.’
‘I suppose we could get an au pair,’ said Barry with a smile, knowing that Shu wouldn’t approve.
‘No I don’t trust them. You’ll have to look after the child to start with.’
‘I must have time to do my work,’ said Barry, starting to worry.
‘We’ll have to find a childminder. They usually start, at the earliest, when the baby is six months, so you’ll have to look after the baby until then.’
‘Me - a nanny?’
‘Afraid so, but it won’t last forever and we may get a place at the nursery around the corner.’
‘Oh well, young babies just eat, burp and sleep, don’t they? I suppose I can cope.’
Barry wasn’t looking forward to this ‘baby-minding’ duty but realised it had to be done. He was very practical and if something needed to be done and there was some way of Barry doing it, it would be tackled. It was just fortunate that Barry didn’t hold any grudges for if he had not been poisoned, he would have had a good job, the baby would have been born two years ago and everything would have been so much easier. He could have harboured a bitter hatred for Charles but, somehow, he didn’t - all he wanted was a quiet life and a healthy baby.
The phone rang.
‘I’ll get it,’ said Barry and it was Cathy.
‘Hi, Barry. You know I said I wanted to do more for my son, well, I’ve got together with a few friends and we want to form an action group. We want to push for more services for the “head injured” and wondered if you’d like to join us. There may be some way we could use your design services.’
‘Okay, sure. When will your first meeting be?’
Cathy gave him an address, a date and a time and Barry began to look forward to this new opening.
The time was passing very quickly, now, as Barry was working flat out to find new clients. Very soon, it seemed, he found himself driving along, going to attend the first meeting.
The house was quite a posh, new house with a kitchen, bathroom and dining room and a large living room downstairs and bedrooms on the first floor. Barry had turned up on time and spent half an hour waiting for the others to arrive. Apparently, Cathy was often late.
The meeting started and people just seemed to be throwing ideas and experiences into the air. Typically, Barry was very quiet but he listened, intently, to the conversations. The next hour and a half flew by and all they managed to arrange was the name for the group and the venue for the next meeting, which was going to be at the same place with dinner supplied.
Barry went away, pondering on the value of the evening, but settled himself into thinking that this was a start and there could be some business at the end of it.
The next day he had a surprising visitor. It was Charles. Barry had never told him about Shu being pregnant and wasn’t aware of anyone else telling him, although he should have known that Charles was very skilful when talking to people to get them to let him know all he wanted without actually asking them. They went into the lounge.
‘Well, how’s it going? Finding things a bit tough?’ asked Charles, trying to put the idea into Barry’s head.
‘No, things are going very well at the moment
. I’m putting together designs for clients and busy searching for more.’
‘Humph! I never got any new clients through looking for them. They only came after we had been recommended by someone but, as you know, we have a good client base now. I think it would be best for you, and for Shu, if you came back to Triton’s.’
‘Oh, well, I don’t know, I quite like working from home getting up later, no hassle, not driving to work.’
‘But what if you lose a client? What then?’
‘As I say, I’m looking for new clients. I only need a couple more and then I’ll need employees and new, bigger premises.’
Charles looked quite deflated.
‘Remember my offer. I wish you luck, but I don’t think it’ll be easy.’
Charles got up and left the house. Barry watched him go and wondered why he had not mentioned the baby. He pictured himself screaming and shouting at Charles and trying to beat the truth out of him but this probably wouldn’t have got him anywhere because Charles actually believed he had done nothing wrong. He would then have told the whole family about it and Barry would have been in the doghouse with everyone.
Barry decided to get back to work - and to work hard. He did start to worry about Charles still buying the artwork for him and that he might suddenly stop this facility. He therefore contacted a few artists to try to get a credit account with them, in the hope that he might strike a good deal. One wanted a deposit whilst another wanted insurance which was impossible, as companies didn’t insure Barry’s business for the rate that he wanted.
He was wondering what to do when he decided to contact a man he had met fifteen years before and who still worked in graphics.
‘Hi, Kevin. It’s Barry, Barry Connors here. How are you?’
‘Hello, Barry. I’m fine thanks. This is a surprise. How can I help you?’
‘Err, I am trying to find someone to give me a decent credit account for my artwork needs. My clients have always paid their bills on time, so there would be no problem.’
Would You Believe Him? Page 17
