by S G Read
After two hours he locked up the house and rode home on his bicycle. He was in time for film he wanted to watch, it was a spy film and he liked the intrigue.
‘Hello Lorna.’ Lorna’s sister greeted.
‘Hello Lana, how are things going?’
‘Fine. Have you slept with your boss yet?’
‘No I haven’t. I do not sleep with my bosses, it leads to bad work in the office.’ Lorna answered.
‘Oh I would, I think he is dishy.’
‘There is nothing to stop you sleeping with him, you don’t work for him!’ Lorna retorted. ‘We did go out for a meal the other day and he paid though!’ Lorna added.
‘That’s something then. I went out with Brad but it was a bit of a flop, well he was actually. And soft means that it just would not go in!’
Lorna laughed.
‘I bet you don’t let him forget that in a hurry!’ She declared. ‘You car or mine?’
‘Oh yours of course as you get mileage.’ Lana answered.
They drove to the chosen restaurant and parked the car. Halfway to the restaurant Lorna dropped her voice when she spoke.
‘Into some heavy stuff at the moment, I won’t go into details but I have posted files to that post office box I set up in auntie’s name and it can stay there. If anything happens to me make sure John gets it and no one else.’ She stressed, then added in a louder voice as they neared the restaurant. ‘So what do you fancy?’
‘As I am on a diet…’
‘Again?’ Lorna asked.
‘No the same one, I just took a few weeks of so I could eat well at that wedding.’ Lana explained.
‘You and your diets. I am fatter than I should be and I know it.’ Lorna declared.
‘You’re like a twig compared to me!’
‘Some twig!’ Lorna exclaimed.
‘I’ll have the tagliatelli, I hear it is good here.’ Lana decided.
‘That was a quick diet.’
‘Tagliatelli isn’t fattening!’ Lana exclaimed.
‘Look at me, I’ll have the tagliatelli as well!’
They walked in and had to wait for a table, while they waited a waiter wrote on a board in chalk. Tagliatelli is off.
‘Different restaurant or different food?’ Lana asked.
‘I’ll choose from what is still on when we are seated.’ Lorna answered. ‘I can at least say I ate here, even though I didn’t have what I wanted!’
John walked into work to find Lorna missing. He was nearly in shock when he found that she had not been in. He looked where she usually put her bag and it was missing which led him to believe she had not arrived yet. He waited an hour then phoned her house.
‘What!’ Came the short reply.
‘Just making sure you were still alive old girl, feeling rough are we?’ John asked.
‘I queued at that Italian restaurant, The Spaghetti House. When I got in, what I wanted was off and all they really gave me in the end was food poisoning…’
John heard her footsteps as she ran from the phone and then heard her throwing up in the ensuite bathroom. He held the earpiece away from his ear until she returned.
‘My sister is just as bad!’ She added when she returned. ‘You’ll see me when you see me.’
‘Have you called the doctor?’
‘Oh yes but fat lot of good he was! Just sent round some electrolytes in sachets. I am supposed to take one every time I throw up, which is quite often!’
‘Hang in there old girl.’ John replied and put the phone down.
He picked it up again to phone the florist with the idea of sending flowers round but thought about it, she would have to come down stairs to take them in! He put the phone down again. He was on his own for as long as Lorna was ill!
He opened the post and answered the letters that needed an answer himself, dispatching the rubbish to the shredder. If it needed filing he filed in, then he read Lorna’s emails to see if they had had any luck in tracing the name of the imposter downstairs.
He read each one and either deleted it or saved it for her in her saved email pool. There was no luck about the imposter from those who had answered but there was a lot of spam! He moved on to his computer and read his emails.
He ended up having a busy day which included a three way conference call and answering emails as they came in. He had to get his own tea and biscuits from the canteen. He could have called a temp from the temp pool but decided that he could manage himself just in case Winfield had a girl planted in the pool to try to get information for him.
That night he ordered in a take away rather than cook. He thought of not bothering to go to Lorna’s aunt’s house but knew Lorna would complain if nothing was done while she was absent, so he went. He sorted through more receipts and logged them on to Lorna’s computer until he had had enough and went home. His one prayer that night was for Lorna to be better very soon!
Lorna remained at home for a week with her gastro enteritis and was very miserable. John worked on each evening and was also very miserable, he missed Lorna and not only because she put information on the computer quicker than he did. He resolved to take her to a more reputable restaurant when she felt up to it, although she might never want to eat out again!
All the agencies Lorna had contacted sent a negative answer back and there was no luck on the identical twin front so he needed to bounce ideas off of someone and that was Lorna. He sat with all the receipts in their correct files and all the files finished with some claimants in deep trouble while others were squeaky clean. He smiled at the thought of giving Winfield’s file to the PM personally but then reflected on the outcome.
The PM either had to sack Winfield, which is what John was hoping for, or he would admonish him and that would be a whitewash! The idea that Winfield would still be in charge after his illegal goings on had been unmasked was a problem but if it did happen, there were ways and means. First he would buy bug detectors and sweep the office every day to make sure there were no bugs there, just to wind Winfield up.
Chapter 4
‘You are looking well.’ John declared when Lorna walked into the office.
He had taken to going in a bit earlier to make sure he had his morning cup of tea on time, as twice he missed it altogether.
‘It is not easy to look well after a week in bed.’ Lorna answered.
She looked round her office, not satisfied she walked into his office.
‘Where did you put it then?’ She asked.
‘What old girl?’
‘The pile of paper work from last week!’ Lorna answered.
‘All done and dusted old girl, just to show I can still cut the mustard!’
Lorna returned to her desk.
‘Now you have surprised me!’ She exclaimed and slid her handbag under the desk as she usually did. ‘Anything happen last week that I should know about?’
He filled her in on the events of the previous week, the ones Winfield was privy too and his answers if any.
‘I hope there weren’t too many spelling mistakes, I do have a reputation to keep up!’ Lorna declared and then picked up the phone as it started ringing. ‘Better now thank you sir, did you want Mr. Fairchild? I will see if he is in yet.’
John gave her -the who is it- look and pointed to the phone and Lorna mouthed the letters PM, John hurried into his office.
‘Yes he is in sir I will put you through.’ Lorna announced as John hurried away.
John had just sat down when the phone rang and he let it bleep twice before he picked it up.
‘Yes Prime Minister?’
‘Do you have those petty cash files ready for me yet John?’ The PM asked.
‘I will ask Lorna, she has been away for a week ill but I expect she is on top of her typing.’ He held the phone away from his lips and pushed the button which silenced it, waited a few seconds and then let go of it. ‘She is running a bit late sir but you will have them by the weekend.’
‘The weekend; that is this weeken
d John?’
‘Definitely this weekend, if not sooner Prime Minister.’
‘Good for you, I thought not having Lorna to hold your coat might have slowed you down.’ The PM answered.
‘The only thing which might slow me down is this Clementine business.’ John answered as that was going to be his excuse when he did not take them up, if he did not take them up.
‘Yes an odd affair that and one which will need clearing up sooner than later, the petty cash files can wait if you get anywhere with the other thing John.’
‘Yes Prime Minister.’
The second the phone went dead Lorna was on her feet and standing in the open doorway.
‘Too good an excuse not to use old girl!’ John exclaimed.
‘I’ll have you know it was touch and go if I came in today!’ Lorna declared and walked back to her desk.
‘You might well have a relapse old girl.’ John called after her.
‘The old dog is playing for time.’ Winfield crowed. ‘Do we have anything more in the Clementine case Spearforth?’
‘Not unless we give them a list of her assignments up to the present day but you told me to keep them under wraps.’ Spearforth answered.
‘Bring me the list.’ Winfield ordered and walked into his office.
Spearforth printed the list and took it into Winfield.
‘Well that one, and that one, and this one should not be on it, as we were just helping out a friend but we can let him have the rest. Amend the list and I will take it down to him that should help him out and stop him having to look into those receipts.’ Winfield ordered.
‘Yes Mr. Winfield.’ Spearforth walked out to reprint the list.
John was still in his office and Lorna was getting his morning tea when Winfield arrived. Uncharacteristically he knocked the door to John’s office and waited to be called in by John.
‘Good morning Winfield, it is a lovely day is it not?’ John greeted.
‘You sound happier now that Lorna is back.’ Winfield said graciously but it was a slip. How did he know that Lorna was back, someone had possibly told him but knowing how John sounded when she was not there was unanswerable.
‘Much happier now Winfield. I must admit I was like a bear with sore head when she was ill.’ John answered, ignoring the slip.
‘Well I thought the list of assignments Clementine has carried out over the last ten years might help things along. It may not but I thought you should have the information from the horse’s mouth as it were.’
‘Thank you Winfield, we will look into it, we have little else to do.’ John answered, taking Winfield unaware.
There was no way Winfield could mention the petty cash files without either letting him know an interest or that he knew of the PM’s phone call.
‘Just as well I brought it then.’ He answered, laid it on the desk and walked to the door. ‘Need to know only.’ He added before he went out and Lorna had to avoid him when she came in or the pot of tea on the tray would have gone up in the air.
‘He ought to look where he is going!’ Lorna exclaimed when he had gone and she had safely negotiated the space between the door and John’s office.
‘He has other people to do that for him.’ John answered.
‘Did he bring anything to help us?’ Lorna asked as she moved papers from in front of John to set the tray down.
‘He bought us a list of assignments that Clementine has carried out since before two thousand, which might prove useful but it is need to know only.’ John answered.
‘And I don’t need to know?’ Lorna answered, reading the list.
‘Fraid not old girl. I will go through it and then destroy it so no one else gets their hands on it.’
‘You’re the boss, boss.’ Lorna replied and gave him the list back. ‘Best burn it though, someone can always reassemble the shredded paper, if they have the patience.’
‘I will have to do that in the prole’s toilet down stairs, the smoke alarms have been disabled down there so they can have a smoke in there.’ John answered and put the list on his desk.
Lorna returned to her desk and continued her work while John looked through the list again. This was an actual top secret document, which, if it fell into enemy hands, could do immeasurable harm, so it had to be destroyed. John read through the names and the dates twice, even though only a glance was all he needed and then walked down to the lower toilets with it.
Winfield walked in as John was preparing to burn it. He looked in the metal waste bin at the paper to make sure it was that very paper.
‘Did it help?’ He asked.
‘It will but I need to cogitate on it for a while and try to work out her pattern, you know, how she goes about an assignment.’ John answered.
‘Even I don’t know that. She had her training but after that they are on their own and do it any way that works. She is quite a well paid young lady.’
‘Yes and still as pretty as a picture, even though she is not a young girl anymore!’ John exclaimed, keeping up the illusion that he had actually spoken to Clementine herself.
‘It is a pity she will never have children, in fact it is a crime but she chose to do what she is doing and it is a job for life, which can be quite short if you are no good at it!’
‘A pity indeed.’ John added and lit the list.
No smoke alarms went off and no one came to investigate the smoke. The list burned brightly and then turned to ash which still had bright embers which seemed to run along the larger pieces of ash when they found something extra to cling on to. The embers died and John mixed the ash with water and flushed in down the waste outlet.
‘So what comes next?’ Winfield asked as John opened a window to help dispel the smoke.
‘I have to try to figure where this imposter came into the picture and I still have to find out who he is.’
‘I am glad you haven’t given up on him, not that it matters now that we have changed the protocols and Clementine is the only person who can pick the assignments up.’ Winfield replied as he stood by the door ready to go. ‘I just wonder how he did it, if Clementine did not know about him.’
‘I wouldn’t put it past Clementine to have recruited him so that she can do more assignments and paid him less than she would earn and make more money.’ John replied. ‘I will probably go out and see her again during my investigation.’
‘You can find her?’
‘That I don’t know. The trouble is with your men following me and the men following them to make sure they don’t lose me, it doesn’t give me any credence at all. That is why I slipped out when I did so that I wasn’t followed.’ John answered. ‘When dealing with Clementine it is kid gloves or she either goes underground or you or the men following me end up dead.’
‘Don’t you mean you?’ Winfield asked.
‘On no. She knows I mean her no harm about the imposter so it will fall on you, so stop being an arsehole for a while!’
‘Just doing my job.’ Winfield declared.
‘Am I a traitor then?’
‘No, not at all but the system was infiltrated and I have to know why.’
‘Which you entrusted to me, so let me do my job without having to lose everyone you decide to put on my tail.’ John replied.
‘As long as I know that you are going out to see Clementine I will make sure you are not shadowed.’ Winfield offered.
‘When I am going out to see her again, I will tell you and expect not to be followed then.’ John answered.
Winfield nodded and slipped out through the door, making sure it closed quickly so that the smoke alarms outside the door did not go off. John followed him a short time later, leaving the window open to air the toilet.
‘I didn’t hear any alarms go off.’ Lorna noted as he walked into the office.
‘I had help, Winfield just happened to be there to make sure it was burnt.’
‘I can understand that, his butt was on the line if that list was released.’ Lorna declared.
‘I suppose it was really, then it was a sensitive document.’ John pointed out. ‘And certainly a change from a fruit report downloaded from the internet.’
‘As you say. Are you going out to see Clementine again?’
‘I will be and I have Winfield’s assurance that there will be no one following me.’ John answered.
Lorna made a noise to show the confidence she had in Winfield’s word.
‘So that’s alright then.’ She exclaimed.
‘He does want to know what happened Lorna and I think he actually mean it this time.’
Lorna looked at him in disbelief.
‘I did point out that Clementine knew that I was not the one to worry about, and that either the person following me or his boss would be made to suffer.’ John explained.
Lorna smiled at the irony of that.
‘I could just see her doing that, just to show she could and get a new shepherd to boot!’ She declared. ‘Would you go after his job?’
‘What to be in charge of Clementine? Only if I could get her to come in out of the cold on occasion!’
‘And I know why!’ Lorna exclaimed and carried on with her work.
That night John relayed the list of dates and names to Lorna and she listed them on her computer. She set it against the list she had painstakingly drafted by trawling through back issues of papers in all countries.
‘Not bad if I must say so myself.’ Lorna declared. ‘I have most of the correct but he has deliberately missed out four assignments and they were ones I did not find, so they must have been covert and no one admitted to anyone being killed. Unless she failed to carry out the assignment.’
‘I don’t think that is a possibility.’ John declared. ‘The only way I will find out about those missions is to listen to the chatter around that time and see if anything rings a bell.’
‘Or ask Clementine about them.’ Lorna added.
‘Well we didn’t have any hits from any agency you sent details to.’
