Ghost Writer

by Margaret Gregory

  I moved quickly, neatly dodging a couple of workers on my way. I found the prototype altimeter in his desk drawer – just as Steve had said. I shamelessly stole it. Once in my pocket, he wouldn’t see it – even if he returned.

  I looked around further – rifled through his other drawers, flicked through a couple of magazines and looked through his phone index. I wished I were able to influence computers – but pressing one key at a time – was too slow.

  A photo in a frame on his desk caught my eye.

  “That bastard,” I swore because I recognised my cousin in the photo with John. She was wearing one of my favourite dresses…she who had probably become Papa’s heir now I wasn’t around. I left his office with a feeling of loathing. I found Susannah and caught the rest of the tour.

  Late in the afternoon, Steve Lehman bounced in with copies of some technical magazines. He showed Susannah some new devices that he believed we could make – cheaper and better. Susannah thanked him and put the magazines in her case – promising to look at them later.

  Moments later, John came in with some more magazines and a list of what advertising the company had in place. Two of the magazines were the same kind that Steve had bought in. After showing Susannah the advertisements in each, he put them on the desk, too far away for Susannah to reach. John didn’t know about me. I saw that the copies were over a year old.

  He sat down again in the same smugly superior manner as before and watched Susannah reading the list of advertising.

  “Who do you deal with for the advertising in these magazines?” Susannah asked. She did not seem to be watching John, but I was and she knew it. I saw the slight tensing of his eye muscles.

  He didn’t seem to hesitate in giving us the name and phone number of his contacts with two magazines. I don’t think he expected Susannah to ring and check because his posture hadn’t changed.

  Susannah reached for the phone and began to dial. I saw those telltale eye muscles twitching. His eyes hardened as he listened to Susannah asking questions, and he had to force himself to seem relaxed as he heard Susannah tell the man to cancel the company’s current advertisements as she intended to change them. She insisted that the credit remaining would cover the new advertisements for the remaining period.

  John seemed to relax again. I wondered what we didn’t find out.

  After John left, with his smile a trifle forced – Susannah rang the magazine again and asked to be put through to the accounts section. That was my suggestion.

  She was thoughtful when she hung up and I guessed what she was about to say.

  “Our company has not had any advertising in that publication for twelve months. The ledger supports John’s figures but the money hasn’t gone there. Or if it has – we don’t have our ads. What do you think, Edwina?”

  “He’s a bastard,” I told her. “That proves it. And I will tell you something else. He’s going out with my cousin now…”

  “You can’t help it if she has bad taste,” Susannah broke in. “Did you get that prototype?”

  I nodded but didn’t produce it. “It was in his desk – and it had a serial number on it. Had as in holes where one was removed. I found the plate – it was bent a bit – but it had the same serial number as the one that should have gone to my father. I think he must have made up a new plate for the prototype and sent it instead.”

  “That’s a serious allegation,” Susannah reminded me. “We have to be sure.”

  “I am. And I am quite sure you had better not challenge him on it. He thinks you are stupid, or at least totally naïve. Let him…”

  Susannah stared at me – not sure what I was implying. “I think I will call the investigators,” she said thoughtfully. “They will be coming here anyway. I think I will suggest some things that they should look at. Let me have that unit and I will wrap it in something and give me those records from Prosser.”

  “Sounds good,” I agreed, handing over the items.

  We stayed late, long after the workers had left, long after even John had cared to hang around. Susannah put the piles of invoices and orders back in the filing cabinet with relief.

  “I think that John is convinced that you have no clue,” I decided.

  The investigators came the following day. They were initially hostile, thinking that Susannah was trying to mislead them. But she was being so openly helpful that they eased their manner towards her.

  She made it clear to them that she wanted to find the truth of the matter as much as they did and told them everything that she had found out the day before. When she produced the altimeter and the bent serial number plate bearing the number of the unit in the report - their eyes hardened.

  “You don’t have to take my word for it,” she advised. “The R&D manager told me about the prototype, confirmed that the data in the report matched it and that the unit was not one of our standard units. As far as he knew – the unit was never passed.”

  The investigators came to the same conclusion as we had with out us prompting them.

  “Are you accusing Mr Jefferson, Miss Marriot?”

  “I have no wish to do so,” Susannah admitted. “But the points I have mentioned need to be investigated by an impartial authority. I also discovered, by chance, that Jefferson is dating the new Kittering heir. I don’t know if that is significant or not. And I don’t know if he had anything against Bryan and the company. I just know that we are in a very bad position as a company and Edwina Kittering is dead.”

  They would keep us advised. That was all they said. Susannah sat in Bryan’s office and waited as they went to talk to all the relevant workers – including John. The investigators were told the same things we had been told – even by John. They didn’t question John as if he were a suspect – for which I was grateful. He would think he had fooled them too – but I hoped he would be investigated further before being challenged. That way – John would not think Susannah had suspected him.

  We tried to forget the trouble and think of the future.

  “I will have to talk to the workers,” Susannah said quietly. “They know bits of what’s going on – they have to be worried. What should I tell them?”

  “Let’s assume justice will prevail,” I suggested.

  “Can’t you find out?” she asked me.

  “It doesn’t work that way,” I answered frustrated.

  “Well – the company is going downhill. We can’t sell – we can’t produce. A month from now – I won’t be able to pay the men. Then because of John embezzling and no advertising, and all the suspicion about your plane crash - no bank will lend us money for new product development – or a new advertising campaign. Can you find anything positive in that?”

  “You have a month. We need to make the most of the time,” I said.

  “Assuming that we don’t have mass resignations when I tell them the basics.”

  “Don’t sell the men short,” I chided her. “It’s a small company and I think there is a sense of being a family. Tell them the problems – assure them of their pay for the next month – and your belief that the investigators with find the truth and exonerate us. Then, even though we can’t produce – there are things that need doing and now will be the time to do it.”

  “What do you have in mind, Edwina?”

  “So – you can’t produce anything – but your procedure manuals should be gone through and updated – I suspect that your brother won’t have changed anything since he took over.”

  Susannah snorted faintly in wry amusement.

  “And Steve Lehman is itching to try his ideas - so switch some people to the manuals and the rest to work under Steve and then when we are cleared – you will be ready to go ahead.”

  “When? Don’t you mean if?” Susannah grumbled.

  “When,” I insisted.

  “What about John?”

  “Him. Well since he is still acting as if he owns this place – I would challenge him to produce a new ad campaign and a range of other ways to p
romote our products. In our best … ‘we need you to pull us out of our slump’…business like manner.”

  “Humph! And what will you be doing, Edwina?”

  “Well – I have all these ideas for an advertising campaign myself,” I said with a sly grin. “For instance – those flow meters could be used in cars and boats – not just in planes.”

  Susannah looked at me with a gleam of mischief in her eyes and the start of a grin on her face. “Go for it, Edwina,” she challenged me.

  We had an inkling of the future when John Jefferson did not turn up to work one day about a week later. He did not ring or leave a message with a reason for his absence. He was absent all the following week.

  The next day, Susannah showed me the newspaper. On the front page was the revelation that John Jefferson had admitted to substituting a faulty instrument into the Kittering plane. He was charged with premeditated murder.

  “Justice prevailed, Edwina,” Susannah said softly. “Thanks to you.”

  “He killed me…” I said shocked. “Why? Was it because I told him I wouldn’t marry him? Or what?”

  Susannah shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he saw it as a chance to get at Bryan too…”

  “What about your company? Do they still blame you?”

  “Bless your caring heart, Edwina,” Susannah said reaching out to touch me and finding she couldn’t. “We are fine – the company is in the clear. They rang me to say that the audit of our methods came back with very complimentary comments. All the units they checked exceeded the compulsory standard. We are still on shaky ground financially - but now we have a chance.”

  “If your brother doesn’t ruin it.”

  “He will have to listen to me…”

  The revelation of the facts had an unexpected side effect. One I had never envisioned.

  Clarrie, our new General Manager, brought a visitor into the office. Susannah didn’t recognise him until he introduced himself. I did, and if she had looked my way just then – I would have looked like a ghost.

  My father had aged. I wanted to run and hug him, but he would not see, hear or feel me.

  “Miss Marriot, I’m Edward Kittering,” he said. “I came to apologise to you and your brother. I accused him of murdering my daughter. I was angry…”

  Susannah did glance at me then. Tears were leaking from my eyes.

  “Mr Kittering, I accept your apology,” Susannah interrupted him. “I can’t speak for Bryan but … I wish Edwina could be here now too. I know I couldn’t have managed these past weeks without the help of what she taught me.”

  “You and my daughter were friends?” he asked, incredulous.

  “I still think of her as a friend,” Susannah told him, meeting his gaze. “It’s like she is standing at my shoulder, advising me. You taught her well.”

  “She never seemed interested in my business.”

  “He never let me do anything…” I cried

  “Did you ever give her any real responsibility?” Susannah asked.

  My father looked thoughtful.

  “Perhaps that’s why she kept doing things that people told her she shouldn’t or couldn’t do. Like I am going to keep this business afloat – somehow – in spite of my brother.”

  “Miss Marriot – I have to admit you are right,” my father sighed. “I underestimated my daughter – to my sorrow. I even thought her a fool for breaking off with Jefferson. Now the truth is out, I see that he has hurt you as much as me. How can I recompense you for the extra grief I caused you?”

  I began to smile – I knew how my father’s mind worked. This was a test and an offer.

  “Tell him about your plans,” I said softly.

  Susannah sat for a while, thinking, and then acted on my suggestion.

  “It was horrible – thinking I would lose the company – not even having Bryan around. But I don’t wish it never happened. My life has purpose now and I won’t let Bryan push me back to what I was,” Susannah told him. “Anyway – in my brother’s absence I am responsible for the company. And as I see things, we need to upgrade our existing products, develop new ones – our R&D manager has some brilliant ideas – but the bank is still reluctant to lend us money…”

  I saw the muscles in my father’s eyes twitch. He scented a deal and the chance to make money.

  “I would be willing to invest in your company,” my father told Susannah.

  Susannah sat up straighter. “That’s very good of you, Mr Kittering. How do you see that the matter would work?”

  Susannah didn’t understand the explanation but I did. This sort of talk was a game to me. One that I was good at.

  With me whispering in Susannah’s ear, she negotiated a good deal - one that would benefit both of them. I saw the smile of approval to Papa’s face.

  “Now I am convinced that my daughter was whispering in your ear,” he said. “And I will not underestimate you, Miss Marriot. “I will tell my solicitors to talk to yours and get everything rolling as soon as possible.”

  I think they were friends even before he left the office.

  “I wonder what Bryan will say,” Susannah thought aloud.

  “Nothing – if he’s smart. Anyway – he’s not here!” I said tartly. “Besides – you are an equal partner with him – right now the superior partner – and the authority is yours.”

  She shook her head, squared her shoulders and grinned. “So I am.”

  I am so proud of Susannah. She kept the company together through the worst crisis in its history – when her brother had simply walked out. Now she was on her way and needing me less and less. Steve Lehman was an excellent advisor and I could see something developing between them.

  I felt I should have been recalled, but I knew why I hadn’t.

  Bryan!

  I didn’t like him, but he was hovering around me, unable to go up. He wanted me to speak to Susannah for him, but I wasn’t going to do that. I was around to help her – not lay guilt on her when Bryan deserved it all.

  He had been on his way home – as soon as John Jefferson had been arrested. They haven’t found his body yet – his car had run off the road. All I could do was give Susannah a reason to send someone looking for him and a direction.

  Once his body is found, I will be finished here. I really don’t think I am needed any more since Steve has asked Susannah to marry him.

  I think if I’m asked now, that I might take up the offer of going around again. And I suspect there will be a vacancy coming up in the Marriot family soon…

  ####

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