Everyone started shuffling their papers to compare the sets of data.
‘There does appear to be some significant discrepancies,’ someone agreed in a puzzled voice.
‘It’s so easy to make slips when transferring figures, especially when you’re working under pressure.’ She knew Adam Duxbury’s comment had been kindly meant but that didn’t stop her wanting to snap back at him.
‘Just a minute!’ Sir Richard quelled the flow of chatter that had broken out. ‘Every one of the figures on my copy corresponds exactly.’ He had not looked at the heavily annotated sheets in front of him. It was obvious that he must have compared them when he had received the emailed report the day before. However much that thought rankled, his habit of checking up on her might well prove to her benefit on this occasion.
Sarah picked up a spare copy from the pile in front of her and compared the figures with the original that she had in her file. There were only one or two differences per page but they were enough to make nonsense of the whole document. ‘I’m sorry gentlemen. I don’t know how this has happened but this isn’t what I prepared.’
‘Perhaps you pressed a few wrong keys before you printed off the final copy. Easily done,’ someone suggested.
‘This is more than the result of a few misplaced keys,’ she said sharply and turned to Sir Richard. ‘We obviously can’t do anything with these. I suggest I ring through to Lucy and ask her to photocopy my original for everyone. It will take a little time but we could cover some of the other items on the agenda and come back to this.’
He nodded and called the table to order as she hurried to the phone in the corner.
When Lucy she arrived, Sarah slipped out of her place and took her into the corridor to explain what had happened. Back in her seat, she found it impossible to concentrate on the general discussion as the meeting continued. Try as she might, she could not account for the errors. She had checked all the figures several times; if she had made a mistake, it would be there on her original printout. There was a gentle tap on the door, she went to get up quietly without interrupting the proceedings, but Sir Richard forestalled her by calling Lucy to come in.
‘Would you all like to pass up the inaccurate sheets before we hand these out,’ he said briskly.
During this slight hiatus, Lucy, who found Sir Richard intimidating at the best of times, began apologizing to him.
‘No one is blaming you for the mistake, my dear,’ he said.
‘This was no mistake, Sir Richard.’
The whole room fell silent and all eyes turned on the small figure standing at the head of the table. Two small spots of colour glowed on Lucy’s cheeks. She spoke directly to Sir Richard but her clear voice was heard by everyone. ‘Mrs Harcourt gave me a disk when she came in on Monday morning. She asked me to run off sufficient copies for today’s meeting and to email one to you. I sent the email immediately but I didn’t get round to the printing until this morning. If your copy was correct then someone must have deliberately altered the file on the disk.’ She stuck out her chin defiantly.
Sarah could see the look of scepticism on several faces. One or two people actually smiled; the idea was so preposterous.
‘Why should anyone want to do that?’ asked John Clarke reasonably.
‘I have no idea,’ she responded. ‘But there is no other explanation. It could not have happened accidentally.’
‘Thank you, Lucy.’ Sir Richard looked at the retreating figure thoughtfully. ‘Shall we get back to the matter in hand everyone?’
Over the last few months, there had been times when Sarah had doubted her ability to cope. It had worried her that she couldn’t account for various slip-ups, some of which, if left uncorrected, might have had serious consequences. Even when she was certain that someone was deliberately trying to manipulate situations to make her look incompetent, there had been no way she could prove it. Now she had the evidence. After the initial wave of relief, knowing with certainty that she was not losing her grip, came a surge of anger.
Nevertheless, convincing other people that she was fully on top of the job was not going to be easy. She forced herself to concentrate on the discussion and to make pertinent comment. It was vital to appear capable and decisive in front of these people however much her inner feelings were in turmoil.
At the end of the meeting, as everyone was leaving, Sir Richard said quietly, ‘When you come to write up the minutes of the meeting…’
‘Don’t worry, Sir Richard, I won’t make reference to Lucy’s accusation.’ She was annoyed that he should think she would be so unprofessional.
‘Perhaps you should.’ The pale grey eyes looked steadily into hers.
‘Pardon?’
‘I think you should record the fact that the analysis had been tampered with.’
‘Surely,’ she struggled to find the words, ‘minutes should record only the decisions made by the members.’
‘Plus any significant conclusions. It is evident that someone tampered with the documents. We may not be able to explain how, but I’m sure we both have our suspicions about what they may have being trying to achieve.’
They both knew that no such wording would ever appear in the records but Sir Richard’s remarks were a clear indication of his personal support. It was his way of letting her know that he was not influenced by the rumours being spread to undermine her position. He stood up, gave her one of his rare smiles and left her sitting alone at the table, confused, apprehensive but feeling less isolated than she had in a long time.
Chapter 31
‘I don’t understand how they thought they’d get away with it!’
Sarah did not need to ask Lucy what she was talking about. She could see Lucy had thought of nothing else while she had been waiting for Sarah to come back to her office. Her eyes shone with a fierce indignation. ‘We can easily prove it wasn’t your mistake because the original copy is on your computer.’
‘But the Boardroom isn’t a Court of Law. If Sir Richard hadn’t had a correct copy, nothing I said would have helped. The more I protested, the more paranoid I would seem, and the more my reputation would have suffered. You’ll never know just how grateful I am for your explanation.’
Sarah shut the outer door. Though it usually stood open when Lucy was in the room, she didn’t want anyone to overhear their conversation. Sarah led the way into her office and gestured Lucy to sit down.
‘But who could have done such a thing?’
She had no more idea than Lucy. ‘Let’s think this through. I gave you the disk when I came in just before lunch on Monday morning.’
‘And George Fitzgibbon, Frank Wagner and Dev Sharma were here when you asked me to run off the copies. You didn’t mention the email to Sir Richard till much later.’
‘So they’re the only ones who knew about it?’
She thought for a moment. ‘No, I don’t think so. As it wasn’t urgent, I stuck the disk in an envelope and wrote “Faculty Analysis – 25 copies for Governors” on the outside and threw it on top of my in-tray. It was in huge felt tip letters, anyone coming to the office could have seen it.’
‘Can you remember who did?’
‘Tom Appleby was hanging around for ages that morning waiting for the others to come out of your room.’
Sarah pulled over the diary and checked to see who else had made appointments. Four more names were added to their list.
‘I left for a four o’clock appointment. Can you remember if anyone else came in after that?’
Lucy screwed up her face in concentration. Eventually, looking at Sarah somewhat sheepishly, she said, ‘Barry Waterhouse popped in not long after you’d gone. He was here for about five minutes. Then David dropped some stuff off for you, but I don’t think he stopped long enough to notice anything.’
‘So, every one of the senior staff could have known about it.’
They both sat in silence.
Lucy wriggled uncomfortably in her chair. ‘I’ve been wracking my
brain but I can’t understand how anyone could’ve got hold of that disk. No one touched it while I was here. I took the post down at about half four but I wasn’t gone long enough for anyone to have altered it in that time. And I promise you, I locked the door when I left.’
‘It wouldn’t have been difficult to get hold of a master key. Monday was the one evening when I wasn’t here till late. Whoever it was must have spotted the disk, come back for it later then slipped it in your tray again before we got here in the morning.’
Lucy’s jaw tightened. ‘From now on, nothing is going to be left out overnight. All important documents will be kept locked in the filing cabinet. There are no spare keys for that,’ she said with fierce determination.
If ever Sarah regretted the break-up of her friendship with Matt, it was that evening. It would have been good to be able to discuss the whole affair with him and ask his advice. Though Sarah had left a message on his answerphone thanking him for the concert, he still had not returned her call. There had been no word from him for over a week.
Elizabeth was always ready to play the listening ear, but she would have no more idea about how to flush out whoever was trying to ruin her professional reputation than Sarah.
It was much too farfetched to believe that her persistent tormentor had been responsible for stealing her car and running down an innocent colleague just to set her up as a murderer, but she couldn’t throw off the instinct that it was all connected in some way. Especially at two o’clock in the morning when sleep stubbornly refused to come. If someone was prepared to engineer an accident to do her serious harm then he obviously had no scruples but, she had to admit, it would have been far more logical to target her directly rather than Eunice. Whatever could she have done to drive him to this?
Lucy was still bristling when she came in the next morning and determined to broadcast what had happened to the whole college. She saw it as her mission to rectify the injustice and was intent on a major hunt for the individual who had dared to attempt to discredit her. Sarah eventually persuaded her that they should tell no one, at least for the time being.
‘Our best response is to act as if the whole thing was so trivial that it created no problems at all. The more everything ticks over efficiently the better.’
‘But it’s not just what happened yesterday,’ Lucy argued. ‘If the attempt to falsify the report was made public, people would know that all the rumours are untrue.’
‘What rumours are they?’ Sarah asked lightly, although after the governors’ comments, she could make a fair guess at what they might be.
‘Well,’ Lucy looked sheepish. ‘Lots of people have commented that you’ve been under a lot of pressure just lately.’
‘You mean they think I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown?’
‘Something like that,’ she confessed reluctantly. ‘I didn’t think so for a moment. I’ve done my best to tell everyone it’s all rubbish but you know how gossip spreads in this place,’ she added hurriedly.
‘I believe you,’ Sarah said.
‘I didn’t want to tell you before because I thought it would only make things worse.’
Poor Lucy. Sarah had not appreciated until then just how difficult the last few weeks must have been for her. Torn between loyalty to her boss and her own suspicions, which, despite her strenuous denials, must at least have crossed her mind, she, more than anyone, would have known about all the trivial slip-ups that had occurred.
‘It’s odds-on that whoever planted that particular snippet of poisonous misinformation was tied up with the disk fiasco,’ Sarah said.
‘That’s what I thought. I lay awake for ages last night trying to remember who mentioned it to me first. Several people have asked if you were all right but that doesn’t mean anything,’ she said regretfully. ‘Still, from now on I’m going to keep an ear out.’
‘I don’t think it would be very sensible for you to ask around. It will seem very suspicious if you start questioning everyone.’
‘It’ll put the culprit on his guard you mean?’
‘Possibly,’ Sarah said warily although she was more worried of what might happen to Lucy. ‘Let’s wait and see what happens. Our friend is probably keen to know the governors’ response to what happened yesterday so let them find out through that source. With any luck, when he realises he’s failed, he’ll give up.’
‘I still think they ought to be caught and punished,’ said Lucy adamantly.
After promising not to ask any questions, Lucy went back to her room but Sarah doubted her secretary would be working at her usual efficient strength for some time.
Sir Richard made no reference to what had happened in the boardroom when he came in for their regular monthly meeting a few days later. For once, he paid little attention to detail and let her do most of the talking. As a consequence, they got through all their business in half the usual time.
Once he’d returned his papers to his briefcase, Sir Richard sat at the table looking at her intently.
‘Is there something the matter, Sir Richard?’
‘I think you ought to know, when the Press revealed that your car was involved in the death of Ms Robinson, there were immediate calls for your suspension while the case was being conducted.’
The idea was not the shock that he might have anticipated it would be. It had been one of the many thoughts that had raced through her brain in the immediate aftermath of those terrible events.
‘Mine was not the only voice that pointed out how damaging such a move would be to the reputation of the college,’ he continued slowly.
She was about to thank him when he leant forward and cut her short. ‘You’ve created quite a stir in your short time as Principal.’
‘If you mean I’ve ruffled a few feathers, I’m afraid that goes with the job. Though obviously, I would never deliberately upset anyone, I can’t let that stop me taking the decisions that are needed to keep the college moving forward.’ Had that come across as sanctimoniously smug as it had sounded in her own ears?
‘True, but I wonder if you realise just how many enemies you have.’
‘Isn’t that putting it a little strongly?’
‘I am sure you realise that at the time of your appointment, several governors, myself included, were not convinced that you had the experience or the backbone to take the necessary hard action that the position demands. However, the way you tackled the unenviable task of rationalizing staff and streamlining procedures was impressive, but we all know that, though necessary, that process doesn’t make you many friends. Earlier in the year, complaints about how you’d antagonised people began to filter up to the governors. It didn’t take a great deal of digging to demonstrate that the stories were, for want of a better word, one-sided and that, despite the redundancies and redefined job descriptions and conditions of service, staff morale had never been higher.’
‘That’s good to know.’
He met her forced smile with a dark frown and shook his head. ‘At the end of last week there was a request for an extraordinary general meeting of the governors to consider moves towards your dismissal.’
‘On what grounds?’ she demanded sharply. The place suddenly felt icy.
‘That you are no longer capable of doing the job. At the beginning of term, rumours started circulating about your inability to cope and general inefficiency, and someone made sure that all the governors got to hear about it.’
Sarah sat for a moment trying to take it all in. ‘So when is this meeting? Presumably I will be given an opportunity to answer any accusations?’ She kept all trace of emotion from her voice.
He smiled, eyes as well as lips, and gently shook his head. ‘There had to be a preliminary hearing but it was decided that there was insufficient evidence to take the matter further.’
She resisted the temptation to rub the circulation back into her arms which, like the rest of her body, had suddenly gone numb and continued to look back into the pale grey eyes, keeping her expr
ession as blank as possible.
‘Nonetheless, it would seem, from the attempts at the last Board Meeting, that someone is still trying to force the issue. Spreading malicious tittle-tattle is one thing but deliberate sabotage is quite another.’
She licked dry lips before she was able to speak. ‘I do appreciate you telling me all this, Sir Richard.’
He got to his feet. At the door, he turned and gave her his parting shot. ‘You have never been one to retreat from difficult situations, but you should know what you’re up against. And remember, you do have supporters in the college. Some,’ he paused giving her another of his rare smiles, ‘in unexpected quarters.’
Chapter 32
Sarah did not need Elizabeth’s strictures to put all thoughts of work and her various problems far from her mind at the weekend. Though it was far easier said than done, and many times Sarah found her mind wandering, especially during the matinee. Despite her reservations, their shopping jaunt in Bath had been far more fun than Sarah had anticipated. It was late when they eventually got back to the flat. After a long session sitting in front of the fire consuming a whole bottle of wine between them, it was not until the early hours that they got to bed. When she eventually woke the next morning, Sarah had a pounding head and a throat lined with sandpaper. The sunny radiance with which Elizabeth flitted around her flat did not help her hangover.
Sarah was sitting at the kitchen table, still in her dressing gown, when Elizabeth breezed in washed, dressed and looking ready for action.
‘You still drinking tea? You do realise you’ve only got ten minutes before you leave for church, don’t you?’
Sarah groaned and, instead of leaping up, as she should have done, she poured herself another cup. ‘What are you going to do with yourself while I’m at Mass? I should only be gone an hour or so.’
Elizabeth was not religious but had tolerated Sarah’s slavish adherence to an indoctrinated upbringing as Elizabeth called it, since their student days.
All in the Mind Page 21
