by Val Collins
‘Yes, Joe, take a seat. It’s time you moved on.’
‘What?’
‘I needed the invoice for the new computer service while you were at lunch, so I searched your computer. I found the e-mail from A1 Software. I should have known something was wrong when a start-up organisation won the tender for our computer services. You’ve been taking bribes, haven’t you?’
‘You know I haven’t. We opened the tenders together. We both agreed A1 had the best quote.’
‘Because you gave them inside information.’
‘What inside information? The tenders were locked in your desk. I didn’t even see them until we opened them together. A1 said they would need a lot of help when they take on our clients. The weekend in Italy was just a way of keeping me on side.’
‘Even if that’s true, company policy clearly states employees are not permitted to accept gifts from suppliers.’
‘A1 said they checked with you and you said it was okay. They said they paid for your two-week holiday in Florida.’
Delia’s voice was pure ice. ‘I have no idea what you are talking about. Are you trying to justify your actions by accusing me of dishonesty?’
‘I didn’t accuse you of anything. A1 said—’
‘Clearly they lied, or you misunderstood. In any case that’s irrelevant. The point is you accepted an expensive holiday from a supplier in violation of company policy. Now we could go through an investigation, which would undoubtedly result in your dismissal, but that’s not in either of our best interests. I don’t need the hassle, and nobody would ever hire you if your dishonesty was a matter of record. It’s best for everybody if you just resign.’
‘I won’t do that. I did nothing you haven’t done.’
‘Think about it over the weekend. You’ll see I’m right. I can’t give you a good reference, of course, but I’ll be happy to confirm you worked here. I’ll expect your resignation on Monday.’
‘You won’t get it.’
‘Then things around here are about to get very unpleasant.’
‘You’re not the only one who knows how to be unpleasant.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘You don’t want to find out.’
‘I don’t have time for this nonsense. We’ll meet again at three p.m. on Monday. Hopefully you’ll have come to your senses by then.’
‘I don’t know what your game is, Delia but I’m warning you, don’t try anything with me.’
‘Shut the door on your way out.’
The tape clicked off and Aoife sat staring at it. Good God! Before she had time to process what she had heard, the tape clicked on again and the same gravelly female voice, which she now knew belonged to Delia, said, ‘Meeting with Rachel on 18 January at four forty-five.’ Aoife was almost afraid to listen. The tape clicked off. There was a short silence and the tape clicked on again. A door opened and closed. Aoife heard footsteps, then Delia spoke.
‘I received a complaint from the CEO of Act Now. She says you completely messed up their recent recruitment drive. You hired staff without telling them, you put incorrect salaries on their contracts, and now they’re stuck with a salary bill they can’t pay. You sent the incorrect information to payroll so four of their employees were overpaid for three months and are now refusing to refund the overpayment. Their entire organisation is in chaos.’
‘I don’t understand, Delia. There must be some mistake. I always confirm everything by e-mail. There are several e-mails confirming salaries and the dates and times new employees start. Act Now always complete their own payroll forms. All I do is forward them to the payroll department. I know four of the staff were overpaid, but that was a mistake made by payroll. They told both me and Act Now that they entered the wrong figures on their system.’
‘Are you calling the CEO of Act Now a liar? She’s a very good friend of mine and I have full confidence in her judgment. She says there have been complaints about you since you took over the account and she will withdraw their business if you continue in our employment. She believes you don’t have the ability to do this type of work and, having discussed your performance with her, I have to agree.’
‘But I’ve been doing the job for three years now and there were never any complaints. Just give me a minute to go through my e-mails and you’ll see I confirmed everything. I don’t have e-mails about the overpayment, but everything else is in writing.’
‘Nevertheless, I have grave concerns about your abilities. True, I should have raised them earlier, but I hoped you’d improve if you were given some encouragement. That clearly hasn’t happened, so we need to discuss where we go from here.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, you can’t continue in your present role. You obviously aren’t able for it and we can’t risk losing all our clients. Perhaps you would be better suited to other work?’
‘What kind of work?’
‘That’s for you to decide. You have no future with DCA. I’d like your resignation by Tuesday.’
‘You can’t be serious!’
‘I can assure you I’m extremely serious. If I don’t have your resignation by next Tuesday, I will immediately begin disciplinary proceedings. It would be in your own interest to avoid that. Take Monday off to think about it and we’ll meet again at nine a.m. on Tuesday. I’ll let you go now. Enjoy your weekend.’
Oh my God! Both Joe and Rachel had reason to murder Delia! Wait, was she overreacting? People argued with their bosses all the time. They were bullied and treated unfairly, but they didn’t murder anyone. Joe’s conversation was a little menacing, but given his background, that was probably how everyone he knew reacted to threats. He hadn’t said he’d kill Delia. Joe wouldn’t murder anyone. But what if he’d mentioned his problems to his criminal connections and they’d killed Delia as a favour to him? Was that likely? She’d ask Laura. Aoife ejected the tape and hurried back to the office.
The peals of laughter could be heard halfway down the corridor.
‘Aoife, look at the e-mail Rachel got,’ Laura said.
Aoife glanced at the computer but couldn’t focus on the screen.
‘Wasn’t that brilliant?’
Laura had one hand on Rachel’s shoulder and the other on Joe’s. All three heads were bent over the computer. Why had she never realised how close they were? She thought of Laura as her friend, but she’d forgotten Laura had known Rachel and Joe for years. How would she react to the suggestion that her friends might be murderers?
‘Are you all right?’ Laura said. ‘You’re miles away.’
‘Just daydreaming. The tape’s blank,’ she said, holding up the Dictaphone tape Laura had given her. ‘Do you have another?’
Alone in her big, draughty bed, Aoife decided tomorrow she would play the tape for Laura and let her come to her own conclusions. She never got the chance.
NINETEEN
‘I know you didn’t have much notice you were being transferred to Stephen’s Green, Aoife, so on this occasion I won’t make an issue of you being late, but punctuality is important in this office.’
‘I haven’t been transferred, Tom. I’m only helping out while Robert and Dan are away.’
‘Yes, well, we’ll see. Now I think I’ve shown you everything. It’s quite complicated, but if you’ve any questions, just let me know. I’ve taken some of my stationery. I like to have my own things around me, but if you need anything, Eilis will get it for you.’
Eilis nodded. ‘Ignore him,’ she said when Tom had left. ‘He likes to make his job sound difficult, but we spend the entire third week of each month on data entry. You could do it in your sleep.’
‘I hope so. I didn’t want to come here. I’ve never worked in Accounts, but Laura begged me. She promised it would only be for a week.’
‘Don’t bet on it. I used to be the receptionist, and I was told I’d only be in Accounts for four days. That was three years ago.’
‘If they try to keep me here, I’ll ask the agency t
o find me another job. I only agreed to one week because Tom said he wouldn’t fill in for Robert unless somebody covered his own role, and with Robert and Dan having to take time off at such short notice, there was nobody to authorise the hiring of a temp. I’m no good at figures.’
‘There’s not a single person here who chose to work in Accounts, except Robert, of course. Even Tom’s background is in health and safety. This section’s like the Bermuda Triangle. Once you enter, you never escape.’
‘You make it sound like prison.’
‘It’s not too bad. I didn’t want to work here, but I’d hate to leave now. I don’t have a head for figures either, but Robert’s great. He sat beside me for a full week making sure I knew exactly what to do, and he doesn’t mind how many questions we ask.’
‘He sounds like a good manager.’
‘He really is. I know some people don’t like him, but you could work for much worse. Him, for one.’ She jerked her head in Tom’s direction. ‘Leaving the door open so he can keep an eye on us. Robert would never do that. So long as we do our job, he leaves us alone.’
Aoife looked at Tom, who was now jamming a piece of paper under the office door to keep it from shutting. ‘I don’t think he’s spying on us. I think he wants everyone to see him in Robert’s office.’
‘That’s just sad. If it means that much to him, I hope Robert will be out for weeks.’
‘Laura said a week at the longest.’
‘You never know. His grandmother lived in France for years. There must be loads of paperwork, and the will has to be read, and maybe they’ll put the house on the market. Then the whole family’s gone out for the funeral, so they’ll have a big get-together. It could take two weeks, maybe even three.’
‘Don’t wish that on me, Eilis.’
*
Aoife had worked with unfriendly people before, but she had never come across anything like Barbara and Mark. She had been in the accounts office almost an hour and neither had spoken to her. They’d muttered “hi” when she entered but hadn’t even looked up from their work.
They didn’t speak to anyone else either. Heads bent over their keyboards, they clicked furiously. Occasionally they glanced at each other. Whatever they saw appeared to alarm them and they returned to their work with renewed frenzy. Tom was busy looking important. He spent much of his time on the phone, saying, “I’m the manager of the accounts department and…” She’d be completely lost without Eilis.
Eilis approached carrying a small machine. ‘Have you used one of these before?’
‘A Dictaphone? Why would I need one?’
Eilis held up a small tape. ‘This lists all the account numbers to be paid and the amounts owed.’ She tapped a few keys on the computer and opened a screen showing two fields, “Account Number” and “Amount Owed”. ‘You fill in these two fields, see? When you key in the account number, the account name appears on the screen, but you can ignore that. It will slow you down, and we only have a week to enter the payments for all fifteen hundred clients.’
‘How do I know the tape is correct?’
‘Don’t worry about that. Robert checks the statements against the delivery notes and the invoices. While he’s doing it, he records the information on the tape. It’s a massive time saver. Before Robert took over, the Accounts staff had to check everything.’
It took Aoife a while to get to grips with the Dictaphone, but eventually she got a rhythm going and the morning passed quickly.
‘Have you all those done already? You’ll soon be as fast as me,’ Eilis said.
‘I bet I’m not half as accurate. The account numbers are so long. Sixteen numbers and four letters! How do you enter them without making mistakes?’
‘You get used to it.’
‘Don’t you find it boring?’
‘It’s only one week a month, and it’s quite exciting really. At the end of the month, Robert counts up the number of invoices and the person who entered the most gets a two-hundred-euro gift voucher.’
‘Two hundred euros!’
‘Yeah. You can make a lot of money here. There were salary cuts in every other department, but we get a ten percent increase every year.’ She hesitated. ‘I’m only telling you that because you’re one of us now, Aoife. If anyone else found out, there’d be absolute war, so keep it to yourself.’
‘Have you ever won the two hundred euros?’
‘Sure. I won the last four months in a row. It’s how I plan to pay for my holiday. A group of us are taking a month off and we’re going to Nepal, Tibet, Peru and Bolivia. It’s my version of the year in Australia most people my age get. Three more wins and I’ll have enough saved. Tom’s my only competition, and I bet he’ll be so depressed when Robert comes back it will take him months to recover. Barbara and Mark are no threat. You’ve probably noticed they barely speak to me.’
‘I thought they were just really unfriendly.’ She had run into Barbara in the ladies’ earlier. Barbara had looked her up and down, sniffed and walked past without a word. Aoife had checked herself in the mirror. She wasn’t dressed all that differently from Barbara. No buttons were undone. Barbara had shorter hair and was about ten years older, but other than that they both looked what they were—not-very-well-paid office workers.
‘They’re jealous. I came here straight from school, spent two months in reception and now I’m earning more than them. Both of them were in DCA for years before they were transferred to Accounts. When I was hired, they tried to turn me into the office lackey, but I wouldn’t have it and now they think I’m showing them up by winning the voucher most months. This is their big chance. I’m tied up with you and Tom isn’t doing any data entry, so one of them will have to win this month. It’s okay,’ she added when Aoife looked alarmed, ‘this is the perfect time to let them win. If they don’t win soon they’ll start sabotaging me. I’ve caught Barbara fiddling with my computer more than once.’
‘Sabotaging? Like changing the account numbers so it looks like you entered them incorrectly?’
‘No, Robert doesn’t care how many mistakes we make so long as we work fast. He rechecks everything. I think Barbara was trying to fix the computer so it wouldn’t work. She was on the IT help desk before they moved her to Accounts.’
‘Would she really do something that bitchy?’
‘People get very nasty where money’s involved.’
*
‘There you go,’ Eilis said, placing a beer in front of Aoife. She took three big gulps. ‘I needed that.’
‘Thanks. I’ll get the next one, but then I have to leave.’
Eilis had insisted on dragging Aoife to the pub and buying her a drink. ‘Oh, please,’ she’d begged when Aoife had said she had to get home. ‘Just one drink. I’ll crack up if I don’t get alcohol in the next ten minutes.’ Now she examined what remained of her beer. ‘Probably just as well. I should be packing.’
‘You’re going away for the weekend?’
‘Yes. My parents live in Spain. I visit them every month.’
‘You’re so lucky. A cheap sun holiday every month.’
‘It’s not much of a holiday. Dad had a stroke last year. He’s not able to do much for himself any more, so Mum’s his full-time carer. I go over to give her a break.’
‘Have they lived in Spain long?’
‘They were there four months when Dad got sick. They sold their house in Dublin so they can’t come back. It’s hard for Mum. Her sisters go over when they can but they have families of their own. I’m the only one who can give her regular help.’
‘You don’t have any brothers or sisters?’
‘I had a brother but he had leukaemia. He died before I was born.’
‘That must have been dreadful for your parents.’
‘It put them off having other kids. I was what Mum describes as “the best mistake she ever made”.’ She grinned. ‘Mothers!’
‘We could have gone for a drink some other time.’
‘We will
go for drinks lots of other times, and you might as well get used to that right now. I’ve been dying for someone to drink with after work.’
‘What’s wrong with the other people you work with?’
‘Would you want to drink with Mark and Barbara?’
‘Tom’s okay.’
‘He’s better than the other two, but he’s about twenty years older than me and he’s a real snob.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Ever since Joe started, he keeps making snide comments about DCA standards slipping and how cost-cutting is no excuse for some of the people we’ve been hiring lately.’
‘Why do you think he means Joe?’
‘Haven’t you noticed the way he gets when Joe’s mentioned? “I always knew there was something odd about him”.’ She was a pretty good impersonator. ‘Tom won’t be happy until Joe’s arrested.’
‘That’s horrible.’
‘Yeah, and it’s all my fault. I should never have told him I saw Joe on TV, but I was so shocked I mentioned it without thinking. It was all around the building an hour later.’
‘What’s Joe ever done to him?’
‘Absolutely nothing. Tom has it in for him because he thinks he’s too rough. That’s why he keeps asking everyone who they spoke to in the pub the night Delia died. He’s pretty sure Joe wasn’t there, but he can’t get anyone to confirm it.’
‘You said you saw him there.’
‘That was just to shut Tom up. Joe wasn’t there. I’d have noticed.’
*
‘Are you sure?’ Aoife’s phone rang. She rooted in her bag and looked at the caller id. ‘Maura? Is Amy all right?’
‘She’s fine. I’m really sorry, Aoife. I know I said I didn’t mind keeping Amy, but I forgot I promised to meet a friend this evening. Will you be very late?’
Aoife glanced at her watch. ‘If I get a taxi I might still make the normal train.’
‘I’m so sorry, Aoife.’
‘Don’t be silly. I’m leaving now.’ Grabbing her bag, she mouthed an apology to Eilis. ‘I’ll be there within the hour.’
