52 Waratah Avenue

by Lynne Wilding

  ‘You’re crazy.’ Jo’s tone was disdainful. ‘You’ve got the ostrich-with-its-head-in-the-sand mentality. You don’t want to or can’t acknowledge that times have changed. Ashworths, if it is to survive at all, has to move with the times. Everyone else in this room knows that.’

  ‘Tell me, Jo, what uni did you get your business degree from?’ There was sarcasm in Neil’s tone. ‘I won’t tolerate hostile executives in the company. Everyone must pull together as a team. Consider yourself fired, as of now. I want your desk cleaned out within the hour.’ He smiled at her then, almost benignly. He’d dreamed of giving Jo Levy the sack. She had rejected him for the stodgy Daniel. Well, now together they could face the consequences and the unemployment queue.

  ‘You can’t do that, Neil. Jo has a contract.’ Warren stated the words quietly, the expression on his face betraying his bafflement at Neil’s move, but also that he wasn’t going to be overly argumentative until he was sure of his ground.

  Neil dismissed that with a flick of his hand. ‘Contracts can be broken. Ashworths will pay her contract out if we have to. However, Jo will have to take us to court to get the money.’

  ‘Neil, have you really thought this strategy through?’ Kate Murray, one of the company directors, asked. ‘You haven’t the experience of … It’s a big job running the whole show, instead of just balancing the company’s books.’

  ‘Definitely, Kate.’ He gave her a solemn look, and there was a veiled threat in his voice as he added, ‘I’ll also look at replacing directors who disagree with my plans.’

  Garry Howard stood up. ‘You can replace me right now, Mr CEO. I resign my directorship as of this minute. I don’t want to have anything to do with you running Ashworths.’ His features tight with suppressed anger, Garry gathered up his appointments diary and, with a general nod to everyone, strode out of the room.

  ‘What Neil’s doing, is it legal?’ Jo Levy asked. She aimed the question at Daniel and Warren.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Daniel admitted, his expression grim. ‘We’ll have to ask Jeffrey Markham.’

  ‘You’ll find that I am within my legal rights,’ Neil told them. ‘And with regard to the 18 to 28 department, all work and money are herewith suspended on this project until further notice.’

  ‘You can’t! The shopfitters are halfway through tearing Silks Restaurant apart,’ Caroline objected.

  Neil was beginning to enjoy himself. The years of waiting, of being jeered at behind his back, of being in the Beaumont family’s shadow were over. He’d done what he’d intended. Shocked them. Bluffed them and they’d bought it. He had the control now, and he wasn’t going to let it go. He turned towards his next victim, Michaela, suddenly aware that she had been strangely silent since he’d swept himself into power. His eyes widened first with surprise and then, more slowly, alarm. Her chair was empty …

  He stared at Boris and issued another decree. ‘Boris, tell security staff that all members of the Beaumont family, apart from Caroline, are banned from the store. I want to tell Michaela to her face that she’s sacked.’ His grin was almost maniacal. ‘Put a security guard on her office and go find her. Now!’

  Michaela found a phone with an outside line in the women’s lingerie department. She reckoned, hoped, that would be the last place security would look for her. As soon as Neil had made his pronouncement about taking over, her premonitory fears had been fulfilled and she’d quietly slipped out of the room while he was engaged in discourse with Daniel and the others. He was insane, no doubt about it. How did Neil think he was going to get away with doing what he was trying to do? Did he really think her mother would let him?

  She rang 52 Waratah Avenue. Daphne answered.

  ‘No, love, Laura’s out. She and Fern have taken Rufus for a walk. Are you all right, dear?’ Daphne asked.

  Michaela bit her lip. She had to keep calm. ‘I’m fine, Daphne. Tell Mum I called. I’ll ring back later. Bye.’

  Leith. She must talk to Leith. He would know what to do. And it wouldn’t be what she wanted to do. She was so mad she wanted to walk back into the boardroom and punch Neil’s lights out. She shook her head. Not a smart strategy. Yet.

  She dialled Leith’s office number.

  ‘No, Miss Beaumont. Mr Danvers is in court. He won’t be free till about five pm,’ the receptionist told her.

  ‘What about Jeffrey?’

  ‘He’s in court, too.’

  ‘Shit. Oh, sorry, thinking out loud,’ Michaela apologised. She had to talk to someone. So many thoughts were running through her head. What would her mother do when she found out? Had Uncle Frank countenanced Neil’s harebrained plan? She didn’t want to believe that he had. Where was Joel? She didn’t have a clue. He and Elissa had taken off in his Corvette, gone somewhere down the coast for a few days’ break before he began his internship at St Vincent’s. Caroline …? Yes!

  Trying to appear invisible, she made her way to the basement, drove her car out and put it in The Hilton car park so it would look as if she’d left the store. Then, avoiding two security guards on the way, she went to Caroline’s office and waited. It was galling to have to hide under her sister’s solid front desk when a security guard knocked, then opened the door to peer inside. Where was Caroline? Helping Jo clean out her desk, or trying to talk sense into Neil? That would be impossible — the man seemed to have developed a ‘Nero’ complex. At the moment he considered himself the divine ruler … of Ashworths.

  She wondered how long he’d been planning this coup. And where had he got the money — it had to be a considerable amount — to buy up so many Ashworths shares. She had lots of questions and few answers! Her gaze narrowed in concentration as she thought about the financial thing. Neil would have had to have access to millions of dollars to buy up the amount of shares he said his dummy companies now owned. How in God’s name had he managed that?

  Another knock on the door. It opened. Colin Coberg stood there and behind him were two of his staff.

  Michaela scrabbled to her feet, looking suitably embarrassed. ‘Dropped an earring.’ She improvised a reason for being under the desk. ‘May I help you, Colin?’

  ‘I’m not sure to whom I should talk,’ he began hesitantly. ‘Staff are saying there’s been an upset in the boardroom. Jo Levy came out crying, Caroline with her. I thought Caroline might be here. Tania Wildman, Daniel’s secretary, says that Neil McRae has taken control of Ashworths. Is that correct?’

  Michaela took a deep breath. ‘Neil seems to think so but, as far as I’m concerned, he won’t be there for long.’

  Colin, a quiet man with thick bifocals, smiled sympathetically. ‘I hear that security’s looking for you. Neil wants to see you, too.’

  ‘Thanks for telling me.’

  Colin took a step into the office. ‘Michaela, I may be talking out of turn and I have to be careful about being impartial but, two of my staffers who’ve been doing the Ashworths audit have uncovered certain rather nefarious accounting procedures …’

  Michaela stared at him, at first bewildered by his formal jargon. ‘Can you give that to me in plain English?’

  ‘It’s early days yet, but it looks as if someone has been siphoning Ashworths’ funds into private accounts, for their own benefit. Whoever did it has constructed quite a paper trail, so it will take a while to track the details down. I’m not sure whom I should inform. The chain of command seems to have changed.’

  Fraud! In his roundabout way, Colin was talking about fraud. Michaela digested this in quiet amazement. Someone had been stealing from the company, her mother’s company! One name came to mind. Who had access to money, to accounts? Who had the company’s executives’ complete faith? Neil!

  Caroline bustled into the room. She stopped short when she saw everyone. ‘Neil’s looking for you,’ she told Michaela.

  ‘Mmmm, I know, suddenly I’m so popular.’

  ‘Not for long.’ Caroline’s tone was dry, her expression serious. ‘He’s going to fire you,’ and added in
a wondering tone, ‘I wonder why he didn’t fire me.’

  ‘The bastard knows you’re resigning to become a conductor, that’s probably why,’ Michaela answered. And she knew that Neil didn’t dislike Caroline the way he disliked her.

  Colin Coberg glanced from one sister to the other, a frown furrowed across his forehead.

  Michaela remembered what Colin had said about the fraud. ‘It might be wise to say nothing yet, Colin. Just continue to dig. If you find anything concrete regarding fraud, you should inform our legal firm, Markham and Associates, before you mention it to anyone at Ashworths.’ She looked at Caroline. ‘You agree, don’t you?’

  ‘Of course.’ Frowning because she wasn’t sure what she was agreeing to, she nonetheless backed Michaela up.

  After Colin and his associates left, Caroline flopped into her chair and stared at Michaela. ‘Tell me this is a bad dream. Jo’s in tears, Daniel is as mad as a bull. Warren’s sitting on the fence, not sure which way to jump — he wants to keep his job, I suppose. Garry Howard’s resigned and I think Kate will too.’

  ‘What about Murray Winterson?’

  ‘He’s an ex-politician. He won’t willingly give directorship fees away if he can avoid it,’ Caroline said sarcastically.

  ‘I haven’t been able to contact anyone.’ Michaela bemoaned the fact. ‘Leith and Jeffrey are incommunicado, they’re in court. Mum’s out walking with Fern. Joel’s away …’

  ‘We’ve got to talk to someone,’ Caroline said, her tone betraying a level of desperation.

  Michaela sighed. Right now all she wanted to do was to get out of Ashworths without confronting Neil and go to some place where she could think clearly. She grabbed Caroline by the hand and pulled her out of the chair. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here.’

  It had been a perfect day — well, almost! Neil’s one disappointment was that he hadn’t been able to personally give Michaela her marching orders. He had, as an alternative, ordered her desk cleared and informed security that she was not to enter the store without his express approval … which he would not give. His other major task was to stop the auditors from continuing their work. Surprisingly, Colin Coberg was in the office, and he closed down his operation with a minimum of fuss, especially when he told Coberg that auditing could continue after he appointed replacement Ashworths staff. Coberg had accepted his reasoning and his staff had gone off without demur. It had been quite easy.

  The power surge he’d got in the boardroom when he had made his announcement had surpassed anything he had ever experienced. What a buzz! He was in command now as Ashworths’ CEO. His next task would be to concoct a believable story about his ascendancy for his family to swallow, something along the lines that he had been forced to make the move to protect the value of their shares. Some members might grumble that it wasn’t an honourable thing to do but, for the main part, he believed they wouldn’t. There wasn’t a lot of love lost between the McRaes and the Beaumonts, his father in particular.

  Frank had always been envious of Laura’s success and Neil was sure he could convince his father, who’d slowed down mentally over the last few years, that it was right for one of his progeny to take control. Even his brother, Peter, might be impressed by his business prowess. And Mark. Yes, he must find a position for him here, doing something …

  Neil studied the furniture in Daniel’s office, looking at the paintings on the wall and the bookcase to the right of the mahogany desk, as he strode possessively around the room. He had had Daniel’s personal effects removed after the meeting, and had watched an uncomfortable Boris escort the former CEO from the building. He had never liked the decor of the office. He would change it. Smiling, he continued to check out his new domain, but came to a stop in front of the carpet square which covered half the floor area. It was a huge rug which bore the Ashworths emblem: a stylised capital A in white on a blood-red circle, with an outer circle of white and then navy blue. When things settled down and the company was trading up again, he would change the company’s name to Ashworth-McRae’s. He smiled as he contemplated that. The change would seal his success forever.

  Aahh, yes. Success — and rubbing the Beaumonts’ noses in their fall from power — would be sweet … Exceedingly sweet.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The round-table meeting in the chambers of Markham and Associates, which included Laura, Michaela and Caroline, Daniel, Jo, Jeffrey and Leith, was not a happy occasion.

  The Beaumonts were shocked to learn that what Neil had done was a perfectly legal business manoeuvre. The additional proxies gave him the controlling interest and allowed him to grab the power, even if the move was considered unorthodox.

  ‘We do have some room to move.’ Leith held out a branch of hope. ‘Colin Coberg contacted me this morning. Before Neil ordered his auditors out of Ashworths, one of his staffers managed to sneak out certain bookwork. They have enough information to continue their investigation into the fraudulent financial activities they’ve uncovered.’

  ‘Neil’s become despotic. Assuming control, banning people from Ashworths left, right and centre.’ Laura’s tone was tight with suppressed anger. ‘Jo, Daniel, Michaela, myself and the auditors.’ She stared at Jeffrey. ‘Smells decidedly fishy, don’t you think?’

  ‘It does,’ Jeffrey agreed, giving an encouraging smile to his longtime friend. ‘We will apply for a court order to make Neil release the relevant bookwork. The audit was legally commissioned by the board of directors and, though I’ll have to check up on precedents, I don’t believe he can peremptorily dismiss the auditors because it suits his purpose to. However, I should advise that, with two directors resigning, he can appoint other directors who may be sympathetic to his cause, and therefore pick up sufficient votes to rescind the order to audit. We’ll move quickly, legally, to circumvent that.’

  ‘What do we do in the meantime?’ Michaela’s fingers drummed impatiently on the table top. ‘Shouldn’t someone talk to Uncle Frank? I’m sure Neil hasn’t told him the truth about what he’s done or why he’s done it.’

  ‘If we can regain the McRaes’ share proxy, we could get control of Ashworths again, couldn’t we?’ Daniel asked Leith.

  ‘Yes, however I’d suggest caution in this regard.’ Leith looked at each of them before he continued. ‘Firstly, we know the McRaes, they’re a loyal lot. Therefore, they’ll be inclined, initially, to put their loyalty behind Neil rather than against him, until we can prove he’s done something wrong … and very illegal.’

  ‘Look, everyone, maybe I’m speaking out of turn, but it seems obvious that Neil’s the one who’s been stealing from the company. How else could he have got cashed up enough to buy those shares? And who else, over the years, had unlimited and unsupervised access to paperwork, company books, accounts, etc., to do so?’ Caroline’s tone was frank. She had been looking at her mother. Laura’s face was drawn, the pain of betrayal dulling her eyes. How could Neil do this to her when she’d given him her unconditional support for years? Why? The man had to be eaten up with envy or mentally unhinged.

  ‘Again, we have to be cautious as to whom we throw accusations at,’ Jeffrey, the consummate by-the-book lawyer, advised. ‘I suggest we keep our suspicions to ourselves — they shouldn’t leave this room — until we have enough evidence to act against the guilty party, be it Neil or someone else.’

  ‘I agree. The fewer who know the better. So, we twiddle our thumbs until Coberg’s comes up with the evidence. Is that what you and Leith are advocating?’ Laura asked straight out.

  ‘I know it’s hard,’ Leith glanced towards Michaela first, smiled, then moved on to everyone else, ‘but yes. I’m suggesting you don’t rock the boat, as the saying goes. Let us allow Neil to be lulled into a false sense of security, thinking he’s won, until we have the proof to unseat him.’

  ‘And we don’t approach Uncle Frank until we have that proof?’ Michaela wanted that strategy confirmed.

  Leith’s smile widened as he looked at the woman he loved.
He knew her well, knew that she longed to rush in, boots and all, and displace Neil physically, if that’s what it took for the family to be rid of him. ‘When we can prove that Neil’s committed fraud on a grand scale, then I believe even Frank will turn against his son and take the share proxy out of his control.’

  ‘All right. Do what you have to do,’ Laura petitioned Leith and Jeffrey. ‘Offer Coberg’s a bonus, say twenty per cent above their usual fee, to expedite their investigations. Neil, with his expanding ego, is sure to leak something to a newspaper about the coup. He’s desperate to have his ego stroked, to have people think he’s clever. That will make present shareholders uneasy, and I don’t like that. The sooner we put him out of our business, the better. For the company, for all of us.’

  Caroline’s smile was grim as she took in Laura’s expression. Her mother was mad, fighting mad. At first she had been worried that Neil’s betrayal would spark a relapse in her health, but the opposite was occurring. Laura Ashworth-Beaumont was all fired up and she wanted, not revenge as Michaela might, but justice. In the days ahead, Caroline didn’t think she would like to be in Neil McRae’s shoes.

  ‘The little shit.’ Nick Beaumont rattled the newspaper he was holding as he read the small article in the business section of The Sun. Neil McRae had done himself proud, he reckoned, taking over Ashworths. Who’d have thought it! He chuckled as he read the article again. Oh, to be a fly on the wall and see and hear his stepmother’s reaction, as well as Michaela’s, when Neil had made his move. Christ, that McRae had had the balls to even initiate, let alone complete, such an action was incredible. And though Laura was no longer a young woman, he knew he personally would think twice about going up against her. He remembered how feisty and determined she could be. Still, McRae was proving to be full of surprises.

  He heard Lou’s telltale knock on the door seconds before it opened and his partner joined him in his office.