Sometimes life takes an unexpected twist. In my business, I am paid an awful lot of money to forecast the unexpected, take the ‘un’ out of uncertainty and at the same time make a shed load of money as a result. Even so there are times when even my crystal ball gazing misses something. The prospect of that is what makes me get out of bed each day and come into work.
My name is Gordon McLeish. I live and work in New York, New York, USA. See I’m getting my own back on my American hosts who insist of suffixing London with England when showing a picture of the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and the River Thames. Is there some London out in the boonies of the USA what has a duplicate building, river and everything? Pah. Just one of the annoyances that I have to live with to earn a daily crust. There are many others mostly based on what seems to be uniquely North American thing called Fraternities and what college went to. As I didn’t go to any University other than the ‘University of Life’ I’m not and never can be part of their club. Still, I’m only here for a while longer but more about that later.
I’m from Scotland, not England as even my colleagues forget despite my broad South Glasgow accent. I currently work for a multi-national bank in NYC as a trader. That means I make deals relating to the rise and fall of stocks that are traded markets around the world. I did work in London but the bank decided that NYC would be a better place to do my job despite it being in totally the wrong time-zone to work with the Tokyo, Hong Kong and all the other Asian exchanges.
Despite not having a University Education, I can speed read and digest a company annual report and all their other official documents with ease and what is more importantly, make pretty good guesses on what was left out of their documents. I consider the writing of annual and other formal company report a form of modern art. Most of the time, the contents on the page are strictly for the amateurs and hacks. It is what isn’t there is the real report. Many Fortune 500 companies are real masters of hiding the real problems in a company while shouting the positives from the rafters.
Based upon my understanding of those reports, a few guesses and a lot of intuition, my present employers seem to think that I’m pretty good at my job insofar that I made them a heck of a lot of money last year and I’m doing much the same this one.
I do however ask myself almost on a daily basis why I don’t quit and get another job back home. The answer to that is I am virtually my own boss. Because I make so much money for the bank on my desk, I have my own profit and loss line. The downside is that I have to share an office with a team of other traders. I’m a quiet sort of person but this lot are whooping and a hollering almost all the day. I regard it as a bit of one-upmanship.
The story of how my life in the Big Apple changed forever really begins on Labor Day weekend. By 5pm on the Friday, Wall St was shutdown for the long weekend and the office was deserted apart from me, the last man standing. I was finishing up some programmed trades on a few of the major foreign stock exchanges for the following Monday. If that went well, I’d have made a between $13M and $18M for the bank before the traders here lit their BBQ’s on Monday afternoon or watched their sports on TV.
The lift bell pinged and I stepped forward not expecting someone to want to get off.
“Oh, sorry,” I said as we bumped into each other.
I stepped back and recognised the person I’d bumped into.
“Ms Jenkins. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t expecting anyone to want to get off at this floor.”
She smiled back at me.
“Mr McLeish? Why aren’t you already somewhere nice for the weekend like everyone else.”
“Just leaving now. I had a few trades to setup for Monday.”
“Monday? It’s the holidays remember?”
“It might be here but London and Tokyo and pretty well the rest of the civilised world is open for business on Monday. Why are you coming back to the floor? Shouldn’t you be at home with your son by now?”
She did a bit of a double take.
“I… I forgot Luke’s present. I was distracted by Wendy-Sue. It was her last day before her baby is due.”
“Ah yes. Did you give her a good send off?”
“We did. But I needed come back for Luke’s present. It is his Birthday on Sunday.”
“Well go on then. I’ll wait here and walk you out.”
“There is no need.”
“It will be my pleasure.”
I waited in the Lobby while Ms Jenkins went off to retrieve her son’s birthday present.
When she returned, I pressed the button to call a lift.
“Your son is a bonnie looking bairn. No mistake.”
“Eh? Bairn?” she replied in surprise.
“Oh sorry. Bairn means child in Scotland. That photo on your desk shows a very happy boy.”
“Thank you, Mr McLeish. It was taken at Steamtown last year. He’s mad about trains. His Uncle in London sends him a Thomas the Tank Engine Book every so often.”
“I used to have the complete set when I was his age. I was obsessed with being the ‘Fat Controller’ one day but having the name ‘Gordon’...”
Then I smiled at her.
“I obviously failed, didn’t I?”
We both laughed as the bell sounded to announce the arrival of the lift.
My hunch proved correct and while there was a good crowd of people at my destination it was nowhere near as crowed as it would have been at the coast. Very soon I was in my element, surrounded by sleeping beasts. I’m referring to the exhibits on show in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. They were all crying out to me, ‘make me live again’. The machines were built to steam and travel the iron roads of the Country as living fire breathing beasts not lying dead in Museums.
I shook myself out of my depression and began to admire the workmanship and sheer craft that had gone into their construction. It did make me wonder about the people who’d worked their asses off to build them. Some of those fire and water breathing beasts only had a very short service life as they were replaced by smelly Diesels after just a few years.
After a while it got a bit depressing. There was no doubt that I was missing ‘Lucy’. ‘Next year’, I said to myself, ‘next year’. I left the Museum and went across the road to where there was one of these beasts in steam on the Strasburg RR. Seeing, smelling and hearing a loco at work would make me happy again until I could return home that is.
I was watching the Loco ‘run-round’ between trips when I felt a tug on my trousers. I looked down and saw a small boy looking up at me.
“Mister, my Mommy wants to know if she can buy you a soda?”
I looked around and to my surprise, I saw Ms Jenkins standing a few feet away. She was smiling at me.
“Ms Jenkins? What on Earth are you doing here?”
She smiled.
“I could say the same for you? Please call me Maureen. We aren’t at work now.”
I laughed.
“Please call me Gordon and I’m just visiting the Railroad Museum and taking a ride on the Strasburg Railway. Much like you I suppose.”
I looked at her and said,
“Your turn.”
“I’m taking this little one for his first ride on a steam train. My parents live only an hour away so we came down from the city yesterday and… well, here we are.”
“Well, it is really nice to see a friendly face. Let my buy you both a drink?”
I knelt down to get to the child’s eye level.
“You must be Luke. Happy Birthday and I hope you get to see Thomas one of these days.”
“Thank you but Mommy says that Thomas is a long, long way away.”
“Thomas travels on rails. He may come to you one day.”
“I hope so.”
We boarded the train a little later for the journey to the picnic area. Luke waved at the train as it left the little station. Lots of passengers waved back which seemed to make his day. It certainly made Maureen’s day. She was beaming from ear to ear.
We returned to the depot on the last train of the day. I was happy to see that Maureen and her son had enjoyed my company.
“Thank you for a lovely afternoon,” I said once we had alighted from the train at the Depot. “It was most unexpected meeting you here but very enjoyable. Luke seemed to enjoy himself as well.”
“Are you going back to the City now?” asked Maureen.
“Not tonight. I’ve a room in a motel just of I-95 near Newark.”
“Newark? Why not go home? You are almost there.”
I grinned back at her.
“Sorry, Newark Delaware. I want to do some shopping at the Mall tomorrow and not pay the New York sales tax.”
She laughed back at me.
“You really are on the ball aren’t you.”
“Us canny Scots have a bit of a reputation when it comes to money. I’d be a fool not take the opportunity when it presents itself so close by.”
“Why not come home with us. My Mom will have plenty of food if I know her. They only live fifteen minutes from I-95. Her food will be an awful lot better than some fast food joint.”
I thought for a second or so. Then I heard,
“Please come Gordon. Grandpa would love to hear about when you saw Thomas and the Fat Controller.”
For half a second, I hesitated. Then I looked at Luke’s face.
“If you are sure it won’t be any trouble then I will. Thank you for the offer.”
“Yay!” came the cry of obvious pleasure from Luke.
The evening was very enjoyable once I’d persuaded Maureen’s father that I did not have any romantic intents towards his daughter. I explained that I was only in the Country for a limited time and furthermore, we had to work together in a place where workplace romances were very much frowned upon.
Thankfully, Maureen backed me up by recounting the time when a couple were both ‘let go’ just two days after they’d announced their engagement. It was that sort of place.
I headed into Neiman Marcus less than fifteen minutes after the store opened. I knew what I wanted and thanks to the Internet, I knew that this store had it in stock. Twenty minutes later I was back at my car and thinking about the drive up I-95 back to New York when a voice said,
“Well, I wasn’t expecting that.”
I turned towards the voice and saw Maureen watching me with a huge grin on her face.
For an instant, my heart stopped. I knew better than to try to fib my way out of the situation so I fessed up.
“You got me bang to rights. My alter ego likes to dress and live as a woman.”
“I wondered if it was something like that. Very few men shave other than body builders their armpits.”
“So, what now? You tweet the office or something like that?”
Maureen smiled.
“Don’t be silly. You are a nice man and now I know why you are. The fact that you never came on to me despite me giving you the hint that I’d be receptive said to me that you were either gay or… Well, the ‘or’ won out didn’t it.”
I was taken aback by her statement. She was right on the nail. She had given me a few hints but being here for such a short time, I ignored them.
“You don’t mind?”
“Why should I?”
“Because I’ve lost a good few girlfriends after they find out about me.”
“You don’t fancy men then?”
“God no. Ugh!”
Maureen laughed.
“You Brits are certainly different from us.”
“Why?”
“You are so buttoned up. You don’t let your true feeling show even for an instant.”
I knew that she was right. The team in the office had tried to get me to loosen up but I wasn’t really into their silly antics. They all seemed so immature to me. I just kept my head down and waited until it was time for me to return to London. That day was not that far away now.
“You got me again. But if I did show the real me, how long do you think that I’d last at work? You know how very conservative the company we work for is in their outlook especially towards romantic relationships. Eyebrows would be raised at the mere thought of us having a relationship. I’m already an outsider and there are several people who would like to see the back of me so I keep my head down, make some money for the bank and count down the days until I can go home.” I replied.
“So, what now?” she asked.
I didn’t answer so she answered for me.
“I’m going to the BBQ. You can come along if you want but otherwise, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Eh? Is that it?”
“That is what?”
“Don’t you want to see me dressed up and with nowhere to go? Them make fun of me and other stuff?”
Maureen smiled and came up close to me.
“You really don’t get it do you eh?”
“Get what?”
“Jesus Gordon! Do I have to spell it out?”
My mind was running around in circles and getting nowhere.
“I fancy you Gordon. Actually, even more now that I know about the real you.”
“You are having me on?”
“Really? How about this eh?”
Before I could even think of a reply, she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a long passionate kiss.
“Well? That good enough to start with?” she said slightly breathlessly when we broke apart.
I didn’t answer right away.
“What cat got your tongue?”
“Thank you.”
“Thank me? Why you are a good kisser.”
I looked at her and saw a determined woman. That scared me a little.
“It doesn’t matter. We could never be a couple here.”
“Why ever not?”
“Luke is why. Children are really bad at keeping secrets.”
“Luke can keep a secret believe me.”
I shook my head.
“I know from bitter experience they can’t.”
“You got outed?”
I nodded my head.
“Right in front of the whole school. The beating I took afterwards put me in Hospital for three weeks. That’s what I should have expected growing up in a former Steel Making town where men are men and women are women. Nothing else is acceptable.”
“Oh, you poor thing.”
“Then there is the small matter of me going back to London in what? Less than four weeks. My term here will be up.”
“And you don’t want to stay here?”
I shook my head.
“I’m retiring from trading as soon as my bonus is paid and I can cash in some stock options.”
“Then what are you going to do? Play with that steam engine?”
“Eh?”
“I’ve seen your screen saver. If I recall correctly, it shows a small steam engine.”
“That’s Lucy. She’s all mine and yes I’m going to finish restoring her and then drive her.”
“As a he or a she?” asked Maureen being as direct as ever.
“She. Steam Locos are like ships in that they are referred to in the feminine gender. It isn’t surprising given that men made them and drive and look after them.”
She smiled back at me.
“You have it all worked out, don’t you?”
I didn’t answer.
“But I know that you will get lonely. So, what about it eh? I’ll accept you whoever you appear to be.”
“Now you are being silly. You don’t know me from Adam.”
“Oh yes Adam. Adam is a, what you Brits call it? A wanker, a plonker and a numpty but I don’t know what those mean but it sure sounds good.”
Adam Strong was one of the so-called rising stars of the department. Several times he had tried to steal my trades and take credit for the profits they generated. Once I had to publicly rebuke him by asking him about how he came to the decision to buy that particular stock. He couldn’t reply with anything coherent. He couldn’t because the stock was traded on the Shanghai Composite Index which was outside his normal trading region. No one liked him. Maureen’s description of him was very accurate.
“I can’t Maureen, I’m sorry.”
I didn’t wait for a reply as I got into my rental car and took off back to the big city where I could lose myself in the hordes of people.
The drive up I-95 was a blur. It was a wonder that I didn’t crash but somehow, I managed it and got back to the relative safety of my apartment in the late afternoon. The shopping bag with my dress in it sat on the floor right by the front door where I’d dropped it. There really was no point in even hanging it up now.
By late evening, I’d recovered just enough composure to be able to take my Rental back to the airport. It had been quite a weekend.
[to be continued]
[Authors Note]
The idea for this story came to me when I visited the Museum and travelled on the RR in September 2015 after attending a week long Technical Seminar in Sandusky, Ohio. I did go shopping at the Mall the following day and bought the MacBook that I've used for writing my stories ever since.
The next morning and thanks to a delay on the subway, I arrived in the office only 5 minutes after the Wall St Market had opened.
As I walked across the floor and people started to stand up and applaud me. I stopped by the desk of one of the other traders and said,
“What is this for?”
“Don’t you know?”
“Know what? If I knew I’d hardly be asking you, now would I?”
“Your book is already up sixteen and a half.”
I was flabbergasted. It meant that my trading book was already up sixteen point five million. It must have been the trades I executed on Tokyo the previous day.
“Shit!” I said under my breath and hurried to my desk.
Sure enough, the trades I’d executed on the Nikkei the previous day had netted the bank Sixteen point five million dollars in profit. I let myself have a little smile as I looked at the figure.
“Gordon, you need to come with us. There have been some questions raised about the trades you have been making recently.”
I knew better than to argue with these guys. After the Financial chaos of 2007/2008 everything we did was scrutinised far more closely than ever before.
“Sure. I have nothing to hide.”
As I followed them off the floor, I noticed that one person was grinning from ear to ear. That person was Adam Strong. He then had the temerity to wipe his hand over his throat mimicking a throat cut. Then he started laughing out loud.
For three hours without even a comfort break, I was grilled on some holdings I had in a mutual fund. I knew that I was in the clear but it would take a long time to prove that.
When they’d run out of questions, I tried to clear things up.
“In effect, you are saying that I did those trades for personal gain?”
“That is what is alleged, yes,” answered the Chief Compliance Officer, Richard Evanson IV.
“When I joined the bank, I made a declaration of all my financial holdings. Is that correct?” I countered.
“Yes, we have that here.”
“Good. In that declaration was a sum of close on Fifteen Hundred Pounds in a Fund that primarily invested in Japanese Small and Medium sized companies. Correct?”
“Yes. We know all that.”
“I just want to make sure that we both have the same understanding.”
He didn’t answer so I carried on.
“That fund has since I made the initial investment passed through eight different fund managers and that I have as is Bank Policy made no deposits or withdrawals on that fund since I joined the bank. Correct?”
“Yes.”
“And am I right in saying that also according to Bank rules, as long as I don’t make any transactions on that fund for a year after I leave the bank I am also in compliance?”
“Yes.”
“Next, are we agreed that although that fund is not administered by the bank in London and that I have had no communication with the team managing that fund that could be construed as either giving or receiving of data relating to that fund?”
“Yes. We looked at all your phone calls and emails going back a year.”
I let myself have a little smile.
“Finally, do we agree that my recent trades on the Nikkei were legally performed. In that, I issued standard orders to our Japanese office.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Good. So, what you want to know is basically how I concluded that making those specific trades would make a me lot of money outside any bonus that would be contractually due to me from the bank?”
“We think you had inside information or at least the person making these allegations thinks you had which is illegal. The profit from those trades is… shall we say abnormal to say the least.”
“I think I know who that person is but let me show you the data I used.”
I proceeded to reveal all the data I’d used to reach the conclusion that taking a position on three Japanese Companies would prove very profitable in the short term for the bank.
I finished by showing them the results that were posted by those companies the previous day after the Nikkei Exchange had closed for the day. This was the first time that I’d seen them. I was surprised at how good they were. That was why the end result was so good.
Finally, at close to 5pm, I was let out of the compliance office. I was basically told to go home and not come into the office until the investigation had concluded. I was given an escort just to make sure that I did nothing to affect the investigation like deleting data or phone calls or even removing documents from the office.
On my way back to my Desk, I found a cardboard box and collected my personal belongings from my desk and made my way ‘doing the walk of shame’ over the floor to the door. Many people mouthed kind words to me as I passed their desk. Only Adam Strong was laughing and then he did thumbs down at me and let out a ‘Yes’ so that everyone else could hear.
They already knew that he’d stop at nothing to get to be Chief Trader and I was in his way. Well, not any more I wasn’t not, that I wanted that job anyway. I was fed up telling him and everyone else that I didn’t that but had it made no difference. He assumed that it was my way of bluffing and that I wanted it all the time.
As soon as I arrived home, I called my local lawyer and arranged to see him the following day. With that done and out of the way, I called the managing agent for my apartment and told him that I’d be moving out a few months early. Once I got through to him that I would pay the lease up to the agreed end date he agreed to come and inspect the place a week the following Wednesday. That would give me time to pack up all I wanted and get it shipped home.
All the time I was making these calls a number of people were trying to reach me. I just ignored them all. I was not really interested in what they had to say at the moment.
I spent most of the night collating the data I had on my trades and all the publicly available references that I used when making my investment decisions. It was fortunate that I made copious records of all my trades and the background behind them, just for this very occasion. I’d done this since well before the problems of 2006/7. It was my insurance policy. Now it was time to cash it in and a lot more.
I spent two very long and exhausting days with my lawyers getting everything down in a form that made it clear that I had not done any insider trading nor had I made any trades that benefitted me directly through my existing holdings. It was all done on a timeline basis. In the insistence of my Lawyer I even included everything I’d done that weekend but I didn’t mention meeting Maureen. It wasn’t essential as I had the receipts from my Hotel, the Strasburg Railway and Nieman Marcus as well as the receipt for my rental car but it painted a picture of someone enjoying the holiday weekend and not acting in the least suspiciously.
When we were done, the Lawyers filed suit for wrongful dismissal on my behalf. This was just a covering salvo in case they did fire me. I wasn’t going back to work there in any event. It was time for me to not only leave the bank, but also to leave New York and head back to the South Lakes and retire but I was darned sure that they were not going to ruin my reputation in shoving me out the door.
Then I went home.
I managed to resist just abandoning ship and getting the next flight to London even though seeing the planes taking off from La Guardia were very tempting indeed.
I’d only got as far as the end of the block when I saw Maureen coming towards me. For an instant, I thought that I should not be seen with her but then I said to myself, I’ve done nothing wrong so to hell with it.
“Hi Maureen, I guess you were coming to see me?”
She didn’t look happy.
“Yes. I’ve been let go. Someone made it known that we were having a relationship. The word is that you are ‘toxic’. Anyone who had even the most remote of dealings with you is under investigation.”
That was bad news for her.
“Who instigated this?”
“Three guesses.”
“Adam? He or someone close to him must have seen you escorting me from the building just before the Holiday Weekend.”
She nodded her head.
“We have done nothing wrong. I don’t even know your phone number so it sucks all round. What are you going to do now?”
Maureen looked rather sad.
“I think I’ll have to move back home. Once word gets out I’ll find it impossible to get a job in the city that pays anywhere near as good as this one.”
I nodded my head in agreement.
“Adam is probably contacting all his prep school and frat buddies as we speak to make sure of that. As it is a Sunday, my guess is that he will be at his Country Club on Martha’s Vineyard doing that very thing.”
Then I added,
“I’m going to a small café for lunch. Do you want to join me? If some people think we have a relationship then why don’t we have one? You have been let go and to all intents and purposes I have as well.”
Maureen took a step backwards.
“Eh?”
“Maureen, you are a lovely person and … you didn’t run a mile when I told you about the other side to my life. So, what about it eh?”
She stopped to her drowning fish impersonation after a few seconds.
“Wow! I didn’t expect that. I was very down after getting told late on Friday about my job. All I could think about was telling you. Now you are asking me out.”
“That is true. I normally do things after a lot of thought and consideration but what I just said felt right. I enjoyed our time together last weekend. Your son seemed to like me as well.”
Maureen smiled back at me.
“Why not eh? It is not as if there are men queueing up around the block wanting to take me out so… Yes, why not, I don’t have anything else to do at the moment.”
She put her arm in mine and we headed for the Café to have lunch.
I took her in my arms and kissed her.
“You are a strange one Gordon McLeish. Very quiet and reserved in the office but quite different when you let your guard down.”
I must have gone red in the face.
“I have to admit, that I like this version of Gordon a lot more than the work one.”
The act of my lawyers filing a wrongful dismissal suit seemed to spur the bank into action. They really didn’t want the bad publicity that such a case would attract especially as by their own admission, I had done nothing wrong.
By the following Wednesday, they offered a settlement that was accepted by my lawyers. The downside was that I had to sign a gag order on the amount of the settlement. I’d managed to get the scope reduced considerably because as I rightly said that if I was to be called to testify in a court of law, I could not refuse to speak because of the gag order.
When I returned home from my Lawyers I was feeling a lot better than I had been for over a week.
That feeling lasted until I opened the door to my apartment and I found a brown envelope waiting for me. It had obviously been pushed under my door while I was at my Lawyers. Which was strange as it had a stamp and my address and everything. Then I realised that it would not have fitted in my mailbox. The postal workers preferred small items as they all fitted into the mailbox that was in the entrance hall. Larger items such as this meant that they had to climb the stairs. Then I realised that my mind was rambling. The stress of the past week was obviously catching up with me.
I closed the door with my leg and walked over to my small kitchen table. I put the envelope down and stood looking at it as if it was an unexploded bomb. In the end, I took a deep breath and picked it up.
I only needed a few seconds to realise that the contents were pure dynamite. I put everything back into the envelope and left my apartment.
Then he called the SEC and the FBI. We both knew that we could not sit on this a minute longer.
I’d only just returned from opening a safe deposit box at a bank not far from my old place of employment when the FBI arrived. I was now well prepared for the grilling that they were probably going to give me. At least I’d have my fully clued up lawyer present.
There were three of them. The one woman was obviously in charge. She had the look of … well, someone who did not know what fun was. Her hair was done up in a very tight bun, had no makeup and wore a three-piece trouser suit just like a man complete with tie and a waistcoat with the bottom button undone and male brogue shoes. My first impression was that she was trying too hard to be man. The idea of her being a lesbian flashed through my mind.
“Mr McLeish, are you seriously trying to say that these documents were delivered in the mail today?” asked Special Agent Carter without any ‘hello, thanks for seeing us today or any other words that might have put me at ease.
The moment I looked at her, I knew that I’d seen her before but could remember where and when it was, I received a nudge from my Lawyer which brought me back to reality.
“Yes, I am saying just that. I had business this morning with my Attorney here and at the Bank. That concluded at a little before midday. It takes me around thirty minutes to get home from here. I’m sure that if you check with the USPS, they will be able to supply the time that my mail was delivered today. As you can see, the postmark is from yesterday. It is highly unlikely that I had these documents before today.”
“Let us be the judge of that.”
“Now, why were you here in the morning?”
“Agent Carter, I am bound by an agreement not to divulge the reason for my visit. All I can say is that it has something to do with my former employers.”
“Which also happen to be the subject of the documents that so conveniently came into your possession, today of all days?”
“If that were the case, Agent Carter, then why did I go home only to return here just over an hour after leaving? Surely, I would have brought them with me this morning? You have the resources to verify that I did indeed take the subway home and back at the times I stated. I might add that the trades that are detailed in the documents relate to a part of the business that I have had no connection with. I am sure that you are aware that we are required by Federal Law to keep these departments totally separate. Next, the dates that these trades took place was when I was representing the bank at a conference in Cancun. Finally, the sheer amount of money involved is such that I could not have made those trades without getting approval from at least two of my superiors. You will no doubt be verifying this with the bank directly. However, here are copies of the relevant pages from my passport. My entry into and out of Cancun is clear for all to see.”
My lawyer handed over the copies and showed her the passport as confirmation.
“It is Special Agent Carter if you don’t mind.”
“Agent Carter, you have done nothing but point the finger at me ever since you got here. Should you not be investigating the allegations contained in those documents rather than point the finger at the messenger? Unless, you have been told that I’m the villain, the perp and that I need to be dealt with without delay that is?”
I looked at her in the hope of getting some reaction. I got a little flicker of emotion and then she buttoned up just like her male shirt.
I carried on.
“As we have a witness to my whereabouts for most of the day and that this meeting is being recorded I am sure that a full and proper explanation and a formal apology should be forthcoming don’t you think?”
Then I added,
“Then there is the CCTV of me entering and leaving this building and the records from my use of my Metro card to go home and then return a few minutes later. Please don’t start to make accusations without knowing all the facts. Jumping to conclusions is not the way to win cases or make money.”
Agent Carter went rather red in the face. I had finally broken through her façade.
“I don’t need to explain myself to you. It is you who needs to explain yourself to me.”
“I think I have done that already. So, I think we are done here?” I said looking at my Attorney. He nodded.
“I agree with my client. We are done. We have provided more than a sufficient level of detail that will enable you to verify my client’s explanations. Now it is up to you to investigate the claims made in these documents or do I have to release them to the press?”
Special Agent Carter glared at the two of us.
“If I find that either one of you…. Never mind.”
She gathered up her papers and left us alone.
“What’s next?” I asked when Dan had returned from showing Agent Carter off the premises.
“Lie low, very low. Don’t use your phone or email unless you really have to. Calling out for Pizza or a Chinese is ok though.”
“As you know, I was planning on heading back to London in the very near future. I nearly bailed a few days ago but I decided to stay and get things sorted out.”
“’Bailing Out’ as you call it will be a mistake believe me. My formal advice is ‘don’t go’. The Feds will see that as a sign of guilt and then try to get you back. The travesty of law that is the Extradition Treaty between the UK and the US is so one sided that the Feds won’t even have to show any evidence just, the prospect of some being available in the future in order to get you put on a plane back here and straight into an orange jumpsuit and a full set of chains and a one-way ticket to a supermax.”
I knew exactly what he meant even if there was a modicum of exaggeration in his words.
“Having to stay here does present me with a bit of a problem as most of my belongings are packed and just waiting to be shipped home. I’ve given notice to my landlord and will be vacating my apartment at the end of next week.”
“Do you have somewhere you can stay for say… the next two to three months at the very minimum?”
“I’ll find somewhere, even it is a Hotel,” I replied.
“You will let me know where that is won’t you?”
“I will. I will also tell you how you can contact me.”
I stood up and was about to leave when I asked,
“Can the Feds really make trouble for me over this?”
“Given the evidence, I don’t it but you know how parochial they are. They’d rather kick a Limey’s butt than a the one of a good ole frat boys any day of the week. Just make sure that you are squeaky clean at all times.”
“Thanks. I’ll let you know where I end up even if it is a bit of couch surfing.
He smiled back at me.
“Good idea.”
There were only two other people in the shop so it didn’t take a genius to recognise a ‘Fed’ when he walked into the shop. The ‘buzzcut’ haircut and raincoat gave him away and the ‘ear wig’ confirmed my suspicion. I mentally shook my head as I thought ‘It looks like I have a tail’ plus, who wears a raincoat in NYC when the weather is set to be hot and sunny all week. All the movie stereotypes of Federal Agents flashed through my mind. He was so young looking. I wondered if he was fresh out of Quantico.
I let him buy a drink and sit down where he could see me and the front door. Talk about obvious.
I finished mine and walked out of the shop just as he took a drink from his cup. Once outside, I hurried away and went into the first shop I saw. By some freak of chance, it happened to be a Lingerie Shop.
I gulped and smiled at the assistant.
“Can I help you?” she said a little indignantly.
“Yes, I need to buy something but there is someone following me.”
“How much?”
“How much will you give me to hide you?”
“Fifty bucks?”
“Duck in the back room,” she said pointing towards the rear of the shop.
I didn’t argue but quickly went into the room. I kept the door slightly ajar so that I could see out.
Sure enough, the ‘Fed’ came into the shop.
“I’m looking for a man? Did he come in here?”
The assistant laughed.
“This is a Lingerie Shop. Since when do men wear Lingerie? Mind you, I think I have a very nice black Basque with red tassels that would make the woman in your life very interested.”
The agent went bright red in the face and left in a hurry. I gave it almost a minute before I emerged from my hiding place.
“That put down was worth a ‘C’ note,” I said smiling.
I opened my wallet and gave her a $100 bill.
“That poor boy’s face,” said the assistant.
“Priceless,” as the note disappeared like a magician.
“While I’m here, I’d like to buy a few things,” I said.
“This lady must be very special then?”
“Yes, me and it is to impress another lady.”
She did a double take and then laughed.
“I know just the things that will make her love you even more…”
Nearly thirty minutes and close to six hundred dollars poorer, I emerged from the shop carrying a parcel wrapped in plain brown paper. I had a smile on my face at the thought of wearing the contents.
The smile disappeared in a flash as standing next to the subway entrance was my tail. I decided to confront him.
“As you are tailing me, you might as well know that I’m going home. Then I’ll go out for some Pizza or maybe a Chinese or possibly a TexMex meal. Then I’ll go home and go to bed.”
I didn’t wait for him to respond. I headed into the station and jumped on the first train to arrive. It wasn’t until the train stopped at the next station, that I saw that it was going in the wrong direction. After a moment of panic but after a little thought, I realised that I just didn’t care. I’d just about had it with the Big Apple. I changed trains at the next stop and went home with a smile on my face.
[to be continued]
Due to me taking the wrong subway train and then stopping off for something to eat, I arrived home much later than I’d anticipated. As I suspected, there was a Black Ford Sedan that screamed to the world ‘Feds Inside’ parked just up the street. I sighed and instead of going into my home, I went to the car and knocked on the window.
After some hesitation, the window was wound down. It was the same agent that had followed me into the Lingerie Store. His partner was gripping the steering wheel tightly.
“Hello Again!”
He didn’t reply.
“I see that you are waiting for me. Good. Here is where I have been since I lost this numpty earlier. You can check my transit card and Lugi’s Pasta Shop on 23rd St. I’ve been there for the past two hours. Several NYPD Officers from what I assume is the local precinct also visited the place while I was there. Oh, and here is the bill for my meal. As you can see, I ate alone.”
I handed two pieces of paper to the men inside.
“I’m going to bed now. Tomorrow morning, I will probably go for a run and then go out to a local Bistro for Brunch. I’ll bid you two gentlemen a goodnight.”
Neither of them said anything but before I reached my home, their car took off with a squeal of tyres. For the first time that day, I afforded myself a smile.
I smiled for the second time that evening when I saw Maureen sitting on the stairs inside my building.
“I didn’t expect to see you here. You are a sight for sore eyes.”
She smiled back at me.
As I unlocked my front door, I turned to her and said,
“I don’t think you should come inside. There is no telling if the place has been bugged. There were two FBI men outside until just now. A lot of things have happened today that I can’t talk about.”
Maureen’s face dropped.
“I have to find a new place to stay until this is all over. Then perhaps we… perhaps we can try again.”
A tear formed in Maureen’s eye.
“Just when I get to like someone they give me the elbow,” she said sorrowfully.
I took hold of her hand and looked into her eyes.
“It is not like that Maureen. I can’t risk involving you with my troubles. I did a lot of thinking last night and it seems to be the only way forward. Keep you out of it and then… you and Luke come to England with me and we try to be a family. I don’t want to lose you Maureen and I can’t risk dragging you down with me.”
She didn’t say anything.
“Can you understand this?” I asked softly.
“I… I think so.”
We hugged and then I kissed her.
As she turned to leave, I said,
“I bought a little something for you. I hope I got the sizes right.”
I handed the bag from the Lingerie Shop to her.
“The Bill of Sale is inside. If they are the wrong size then they will change them. I made sure of that.”
Maureen looked inside the bag. Slowly a smile formed on her face.
She kissed me briefly and said,
“Thank you. I’m sorry for going off like that just now.”
“Don’t worry about it. I enjoyed buying them for you as I was hiding from my tail. It wasn’t hard. The poor man must be fresh out of training. Talk about a sore thumb.”
Then I stopped.
“Sorry, I was rambling.”
We kissed once more and then she left me alone.
With a good degree of sadness in my heart, I entered my soon to be vacated apartment.
I was greeted by a total mess. My home such as it was, had been ransacked. Instantly, I knew that it was the FBI’s doing. It had to be otherwise, why else did they take off in such a hurry when I arrived home.
There was no point in trying to clear it up at this time of night. I just took a load of photographs with the camera on my phone. Then, I sent them to my lawyer and also asked if the FBI had a search warrant for what they had done to my home. I also included a very good picture of a set of fingerprints that had been left on a mirror. Then I went to bed but before I could, I had to put the mattress back onto the base and re-made it.
Even one of my pillows had been slit open. They were obviously looking for something but I really had no idea what it was that they wanted from me. All the documents I had that related to my work were safely locked away in either my lawyers office or my safe-deposit box. It had to be something else but I could not fathom what it was.
It had been quite a day and I was confident that there might well be more like this one ahead.
I didn’t get out of bed very early the next morning. I didn’t have any place to go and the prospect of clearing up the mess from the ransacking and then repacking the boxes that were lying empty all over the place.
It was the sound of the school bus stopping outside my block combined with the call of nature eventually forced me to get out of bed.
I forced a smile when I found that the searchers hadn’t emptied all my coffee onto the floor and there was also some milk in the fridge. At least I could get myself some breakfast.
Suitably refreshed, I began the task of repacking the boxes. I started with those in my bedroom. This was going to be a long job.
It was late morning when I took a break. I put my shoes on and grabbed my wallet and went to head out to the bodega on the next block to get something to eat for lunch and for the evening.
As I approached my front door, I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. Someone had pushed another envelope under my front door while I was doing the re-packing. After a moments thought, I was certain that it had not been there when I got up that morning.
“Not again,” I thought to myself.
I bent down but stopped myself just before I touched it. Putting my fingerprints on it might not be very wise after the events of the previous day. I reached for my Camera and took some pictures. Once I’d done that, I used my feet to push the envelope under some of the detritus from the previous evening searches. Then I went out just as if nothing had happened.
I stood on the steps to my apartment block and looked up and down the street. I breathed a sigh of relief when there was no sign of the black car that had broadcast ‘here be the FBI’ to all and sundry but that was not to say that they were not around.
I pushed the FBI out of my mind and went about getting my messages. It was another hot and steamy late summer day in the Big Apple. I was glad to get inside the Bodega and its Air-Conditioned interior.
It didn’t take me long to buy all the bits and pieces I needed and was about to leave when I spotted a payphone in the back of the store.
A few minutes later, I was out of the store and heading back home. I’d called my lawyer from the payphone and told him about the envelope.
He was going to send someone to collect the envelope and that they should be with me within the hour.
With that done, I sauntered back to my apartment block carrying my purchases. I hoped that anyone watching me would just see that I had bought some groceries.
I was busy making myself something to eat when my door-bell rang. I recognised one of the Paralegals from my Lawyers Office so, I let them in.
“I understand that you have something for me?”
“Yes, it was pushed under my front door earlier. I have not handled it and don’t want to.”
The woman smiled.
“That is probably a good thing,” she said.
I pulled a clean handkerchief out of my pocket and extracted the envelope from its hiding place. I put it into her briefcase and let her close it.
“Thank you,” she said.
From our previous interactions, I knew that she was a woman of few words.
“Can you send me a text when you get to the office. Say something like ‘your deposition is for Monday’ if you get there unhindered.”
She smiled.
“I’m sure that Mr Cooke will understand the need for a little subterfuge.”
Then she added.
“We had a visit from two people from the SEC this morning. They had seen the papers that were delivered to you yesterday. They were not happy when Mr Cooke showed them your timeline from yesterday. Apparently, the FBI had omitted to tell them about the delivery of the envelope. Mr Cooke said that there seems to be a bit of a turf war going on between the SEC and the FBI. He may well call you about actually being deposed by the SEC tomorrow so your hint about a deposition may well be very timely.”
“Thanks for that. I’ll get myself prepared for it.”
When she’d gone, I sat down and ate my lunch. I wondered if things were starting to turn around but, I still had the problem of finding myself somewhere to live to deal with.
Almost an hour later, I received a text from my lawyer confirming that they’d received the envelope. He was going to make several copies of the content and pass the originals to the SEC. When I phoned him earlier, we’d discussed about him letting me know of the content but I told him that I didn’t want to know. He approved of that decision. What I didn’t know, I could not be interrogated about.
I spent the rest of the day repacking the last of the cases that were to be shipped home. Several times, I nearly gave up. It might be pointless if they were searched again still, it had to be done.
“Who is it?” I said into the intercom.
“It’s Maureen,” came the reply.
I sighed as I buzzed her into the building.
“This is a nice surprise,” I said as I opened the door to let her in.
What I wasn’t expecting was her to have her son Luke with her.
“Please come on in. I was just having something to eat.”
“Oh,” exclaimed Maureen.
“We can come back later.”
“No, it is only Macaroni Cheese with a little added ham.”
“Ah, Mac and Cheese, that staple of TV Dinners across the nation,” replied Maureen smiling.
“Please take a seat. I’m sorry I don’t have anything to offer you. My larder is pretty bare.”
“That’s why we are here. I thought, why don’t you come and stay with us? We have the room. I had a roommate but she left a couple of months ago to go home to Nebraska to get married.”
I did not know what to say.
“As you said not to use the phone, I thought it would be best to come here in person.”
“Thanks Maureen but I’m not sure.”
“Why? You don’t have anywhere else to go now do you?”
She was right, I didn’t.
I tried to think straight for a while but I could not find any reasons why this was a bad idea.
“Ok, I’ll do it. Thank you, Maureen. This means a lot to me.”
Maureen smiled back at me.
Then she bent down and told her son.
“Luke darling, Gordon is coming to stay with us for a while.”
Luke looked very happy.
“Can we go for another choo-choo ride soon? Can we see Thomas?”
I smiled.
“If things work out well, you can help drive the train if you want?”
“Mommy? Can I? Please?”
“Gordon said that might be possible if things work out. They might and they might not. But…”
Maureen smiled while looking at me.
“Gordon is right if things work out then you can. We can all go and see Thomas.”
Luke came and hugged me.
I hugged him back hoping that everything did work out as I hoped.
As I did so, I wondered why a situation like this had thrown us together. Why couldn’t we have met and gotten to know each other under more normal circumstances?
Then I thought…
“What is normal these days?”
[to be continued]
After Maureen and Luke had left, I sat at my desk and went through everything that I might well be asked about if I was deposed by the SEC.
Early the next morning a text confirming that I was to be deposed arrived from my Lawyer.
“SEC Deposition at 11. Meet at my Office 9.”
I replied.
“Ok.”
I put down my phone and thought… ‘That’s my day gone up in smoke’.
I dug out a semi presentable suit from one of my packing cases and gave it a pressing. I even cleaned my best dress shoes. I didn’t want to look like a slob. I even had a good wet shave rather than just using my electric razor. As I wiped my face and inspected two small nicks I wondered if it would all be in vain. I sincerely hoped that it would not be.
Dan and I spent more than an hour going over the questions that I’d likely be asked and importantly how they would be asked and finally how I should answer them.
I didn’t have time to catch my breath from a quick trip across town to an SEC Office before I was sitting down for the deposition. Thankfully, I had my Lawyer, Dan sitting at my side. His briefing had prepared me for the process.
Two long hours later, it was over. Dan had come to my rescue several times as the SEC investigators probed me over the contents of the second envelope that had been delivered to my home. It was actually easier than the grilling by FBI Agent Carter.
In the end, I said forcibly,
“I don’t know what was in the envelope and I don’t want to know. That’s all can say and is all I’m going to say on the subject.”
That seemed to satisfy the questioners. It had too as it totally corroborated what my Lawyer had told them. This was naturally backed up by a large number of photographs which included my Lawyer Opening the envelope in his Office.
I did have to answer many questions on the contents of the first envelope. I was able to give an opinion on the allegations that were made in the documents but always with a caveat. The allegations concerned an area of the Bank’s business that I was not involved with namely, shorting[4] NASDAQ Tech Stocks. As I dealt only with Asian markets all I could offer was an opinion. The team from the SEC accepted that reluctantly.
I had a lot more suspicions on what was really going on but I had no proof and under Dan’s expert guidance we steered the questioning away from speculation and back to facts.
The other sticking point with my inquisitors was how I was able to get wind of the moves in Toyko that would make the bank a load of money.
We took a break while they searched for a Korean and a Japanese translator. Thankfully we’d brought along to the session copies of the news releases that I’d used on the days preceding the holiday weekend.
When we resumed, I went through my previous research and trading record in those companies. Then we moved onto the releases and explained what they said and how they’d said it. The Korean and Japanese speakers confirmed that I had been faithful in my translation. Then I explained what I’d inferred from the releases and how I decided to put those the trades in place on the Friday Evening for execution the following Monday morning. In the end, they understood what I’d done and how I’d done it.
That more or less ended the session.
When it was all over I felt exhausted but relieved that people who knew the business had accepted that I’d done nothing wrong at all.
“You did well Gordon. I’ve never seen anyone handle that intense a set of questions as well as you just did. They were visibly stunned at your prowess in Korean and Japanese.”
“Thanks Dan. It is all down to a Japanese family who moved into the house next door to us in East Kilbride. I learned Japanese from the son, Marko. When I started working in finance in London, the company offered foreign language classes. That’s where I picked up Korean. That’s why I was able to run my own dealing desk here. I was the only one that wasn’t from the area who could understand Japanese and Korean financial reports. It was all down to your preparation but still after all that, I’m knackered.”
He laughed.
“Go home and get some rest. The SEC clearly have other fish to fry. From what you said one or two of your former colleagues will be in the firing line for some questioning very soon.”
I laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“You used ‘colleague’ rather than ‘coworker’…”
It was Dan’s turn to laugh.
“You can blame my four years at the LSE[1] for that. They beat what little PC I had in me into submission. To be honest, I can’t see what is so wrong with colleague but it is rather a losing battle here.”
I declined to have a very late Lunch with him and headed home. My FBI tail was back in place. He’d followed me from my Lawyers to the Subway and as I went into the store near my home for some Milk, there he was again like a bad penny.
I bought some milk and a few other supplies and went home ignoring him. There were no new envelopes and it seemed I’d had no intruders in the few hours I’d been away. For a moment, I thought that there might just be some light at the end of the tunnel. All I hoped for that it wasn’t an express train that was headed in my direction.
After some a bite to eat, I took a nap. The weather outside was still hot and steamy. I fell asleep with the Aircon on high which was unusual for me even in NYC. I longed for a thuderstorm to clear the air but it looked like there was none around for the forsseable future.
It was almost dark when I was woken by my phone ringing. I looked at the caller-id. It said number withheld. I just switched it off and went back to sleep. The stress of the past few days plus the deposition had really taken it out of me.
Before I knew it, it was the following morning.
The local stores provided fresh Bagels, cream cheese and some smoked Salmon. I was going to enjoy what time I had left in the ‘Big Apple’. I was also cheered up by the apparent absence of my ‘friend’ from the FBI. Perhaps he only works Monday to Friday? I thought to myself as I walked home. The weather was still hot and sticky. For once, I put the air-con on during the day.
I’d just sat down to eat when the door-bell rang. For a moment I debated not answering it but I did.
“Hello?”
“Gordon? It is Maureen.”
“Come on up.”
I pressed the door entry button.
“Come on in, I was just about to have brunch. Do you want some?”
“I’m good thanks.”
“Coffee?”
“Please.”
I poured her some Coffee and added a little Milk.
“Sorry, no cream but there is Milk. I never got to like adding cream to coffee.”
Maureen chuckled.
“That’s fine.”
I sat down and picked up my bagel but suddenly, I was not hungry any longer.
I put it down.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you today and where’s Luke?”
“Luke is fine. I left him with a sitter. I tried to call you yesterday but the call never went through. I wondered if you were ok?”
“I’m fine. I got back from the deposition and fell asleep. As you might guess, I slept in these clothes.”
“Then you need a proper meal. Not those bagels,” said Maureen.
“Well… I was sort of thinking of going out for a meal tonight? Why don’t both of you join me?”
Maureen smiled back at Gordon.
“That would be great but… why don’t I cook us something? I have plenty of food at home?”
“Are you sure?”
“Would I say it if I didn’t mean it?”
“Sorry. I… I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Gordon McLeish, you are a funny man. You say what you mean and I like that in a man.”
I think I went a bit red in the face.
Maureen came close and kissed me.
“I know one thing and that is life with you won’t be boring.”
We kissed again. I was beginning to like the way she kissed.
The evening at Maureen’s was very enjoyable. I found out that she is a really good cook. Far better than me.
Luke came back from his minders just as I was leaving. I really didn’t want to go but I thought it prudent not to stay the night while I still had a home to go to.
As I waited for the Subway, I realised that my ‘friend’ was back again. Perhaps it was the three glasses of wine that got my bravado up but, in any case, I went up to him and said.
“As you are obviously following me, why don’t I come down to your Headquarters tomorrow with my lawyer and you can tell me exactly why I am a person of interest to you.”
This obviously took my ‘friend’ by surprise.
“I don’t know what you mean?”
“Cut the crap sonny. You were on my tail earlier and here you are again… I’m going home to bed and I’m not going to flee the country. Before you ask, my lawyer has my passport so I’d hardly give it to him if I was planning to skip the country. If you want to carry on following me you are obviously quite at liberty to do so.”
He didn’t move.
I could see my train approaching out of the corner of my eye.
“With that, I’ll bid you good night.”
I didn’t wait for an answer. I just moved away down the platform and ignored him.
As the train left the station, I saw my ‘friend’ still on the platform. He was talking into a mobile phone. I afforded myself a small smile but I knew that it was probably par for the course given the sums of money that were involved.
I was busy doing nothing at home early the following afternoon, when the door-bell rang. I checked to see who it was. It was Maureen. I buzzed her in.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you today? Or did I forget something?”
She smiled back at me.
“I think that there is something you need to look at on the Internet.”
She opened her phone and showed me a page.
There was a photo that had been taken at the July 4th Staff BBQ. I didn’t go because being a ‘limey’, I was sure to get ribbed and jibed about 1776 and what happened after that for most of the day. I had been to the one the previous year and had ended up regretting it. For this one, I’d used the excuse of going home to visit my family. I was indeed out of the country for that weekend but not in Scotland but on a beach in Jamaica.
I looked in detail at the caption. It said that Adam Strong was there with his Sister. That sister was none other than the very same FBI Agent who’d grilled me. She didn’t look happy to be there or for the photo to be taken. Even for that holiday, she looked at buttoned up as ever. She was wearing very expensive jeans and what was clearly a Man’s shirt. I could tell that because of the way the buttons did up.
“Shit!” I exclaimed.
“Yeah. That’s sort of what I said. You mentioned this FBI agent who dressed like a man and I was lying in the bath last night and it came to me. I checked this morning and found this photo. I also rang Wendy-Sue… The one who is off to have a baby. She confirmed what I thought.”
“That’s where they got all the accusations against me from. Well, I’m pretty sure that is the case given the connection.”
Maureen smiled.
“I did a simple check and she shares the same mid-town brownstone with her brother. They even live together.”
I chuckled as the image of Adam and her in bed together flashed through my mind.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh… Sorry. I just had this vision of them in bed together that’s all.”
Maureen laughed.
“That is a good one. Very good indeed.”
“I wonder if by some chance they are not related by blood? They don’t look like brother and sister?”
Maureen looked at the two faces.
“They might be. It just depends on how much work they have had done.”
I knew that ‘work’, meant plastic surgery.
“Have you ever seen Adam with another woman? I can’t think I have. At all the events where there was a ‘plus 1’, both of us stood out like a sore thumb because we were alone. You know why that was for me but I never thought about him.”
Maureen thought for a bit.
“There was some gossip a year or so back about him getting involved with a woman at their summer home in on Martha’s Vineyard, but if he did he kept it very quiet.”
“I never knew that but as you say, it is just gossip.”
“Smoke and Fire… Smoke and Fire,” said Maureen bluntly.
“I need to get this information to my Lawyer. He was wondering about the FBI. His contacts in the FBI seem to know nothing official about the investigation into me.”
Maureen smiled
“Well? What are you waiting for?”
“What about you?”
“I’m a big girl. I’m sure that I can get home on my own!” she replied grinning.
“Let me look outside. I had a tail when I left your place last night.”
Maureen gripped my hand.
“Why don’t you just go. I’ll leave in ten minutes. Then it does not matter who is outside, does it? If there is a tail waiting then they’ll be following you, won’t they?”
I gave her a quick kiss.
“Enough of that. Later ok!”
“Yes boss!” I said as I grabbed my wallet, phone and stuff.
I’d almost gotten out of the door when I stopped.
“Forgotten something?” said Maureen with an obvious smirk on her face.
“The URL of that picture perhaps?” she added.
“Sorry. I wasn’t thinking,” I stuttered.
“Here,” she said handing me a slip of paper.
“I wrote it down for you. I remembered what you said about using your phone.”
This time I kissed her properly.
“It is later isn’t it?”
My lawyer, Dan Cooke was very interested in what Maureen had discovered. I’d called him from the payphone at local bodega. He gave me his home address on Long Island and directions from the LIRR Station.
“That explains a good deal,” he replied being as non-committal as ever.
“What you said about the Adam guy could well be true.”
Then he looked at me right in the eye before saying.
“I know that you didn’t want to know what was in the second envelope but the contents do implicate Adam in the fake trades and extensive shorting of stocks that your former employer was underwriting. Is he in a position to influence the price of a stock at its IPO[3]?”
“I don’t know… Possibly yes he is. He sits on the committee that deals with IPO’s and major Stock raising operations. I refused to get involved with that when I first joined the bank. Far too risky for me. I saw a good few people get burned into the ground at my previous job in London.”
I knew exactly what Dan was on about. In the past year, three IPO’s that had been handled by the Bank had dropped in price on their first day. This was not unheard of but not very common for so called ‘tech stocks’.
If someone had been in a position to influence the IPO price then there was a chance that if the price was at the upper end of the range expected by analysts someone shorting the stock could make money if it fell after trading began. The Wall Street is a haven for stock shorters. It is well known that there are teams of people who do nothing but short stocks. Every major financial organisation probably has a team somewhere doing just that but they’d deny it until the cows come home for obvious reasons.
Adam could easily ‘tip the wink’ to some friends who could take a short position when the stock started trading and make a load of money. Those friends would make sure that Adam was well paid for his services.
Dan smiled at me.
“Good for you.”
“My refusal to join the IPO Committee is on record by the way. A copy of my email should be in the records that I turned over to you at the start of all this.”
Dan smiled again. He also shook his head.
“Gordon, you are a remarkable person. Some would call you ‘anal’ but your record keeping is the key to not only keeping you out of jail but to point the finger at the real culprits.”
I chuckled.
“I learned my lesson in ’07 and ‘08. When the stock market went TITSUP[2] everyone was pointing the finger at everyone else. I had evidence in the form of emails that told the bank that I was working for at the time that certain acquisitions were not only financially risky but suicidal. Six months after I left them, that bank almost went TITSUP. It was bailed out by the Government to the tune of a cool hundred billion dollars.”
“Those were mad days. It was almost a repeat of ’29.”
“Yeah. I vowed then and there to never get involved with IPO’s again. When I joined the London Office of the Bank I made sure that it was on record that I would refuse to do any work relating to IPO’s. That’s why I’d never make ‘Chief Trader’. I never told him why. I just said I don’t want the job. But, Adam could not accept my words. I guess that my windfall over the holiday was just the opportunity he needed to get me disgraced enough for the bank to fire me. That would leave the way open for him to become Chief Trader or at least that is my opinion.”
Dan had been taking notes while I was speaking. I let him finish.
When he was done, he looked up at me.
“I think I have enough to go to my contact at the FBI and also to update the SEC. What you have given me today will fill in the holes that I know that they have in their case.”
He then sighed.
“I think you should get off home to Maureen.”
I shook my head.
“She may well have gone to pickup her son from the sitter.”
“Well, just go and leave me to sort all this out.”
I didn’t hang around. For some reason, I’d started to dislike the city with all the noise and dirt and people… Just too many people. I began to think about my real home across the Atlantic and wishing that I was there already.
I’d just finished eating that evening when I heard several cars screech to a halt outside. I took a look and saw a bunch of people with the letters “ICE” emblazoned on their jackets getting out of several black SUV’s.
I knew right away what that meant.
I called my lawyer Dan Cooke. It went to voicemail.
“Dan, this is Gordon. MacLeish. A bunch of ICE goons have just arrived. I guess they are going to detain me. Whatever you did has stirred up a hornets nest. I need your help and urgently.”
I hung up and buzzed open the front door. There was no sense in letting them break it down.
Heavy boots came up the stairs. I was waiting for them with the door open.
“Gordon McLeish, you are under arrest for violating the conditions of your green card. You will have to come with us to be held pending your deportation.”
“Ok. I’ve just called my lawyer. He has the evidence you will need to let me go. I am still employed by the bank so I am not in violation of the green card. He is also in possession of my passport.”
The man in charge didn’t look happy. I guess my statement had thrown him from what he was expecting.
“Oh, and the SEC and FBI will not be happy at what you are doing. They are actively investigating some very serious crimes and may view this as witness tampering. Now that I have said that, I am going to say nothing more until my lawyer is present and we have had time to confer in private naturally.”
He looked even unhappier.
“If I may get my phone and wallet. They are on the table behind you. I’d also like to put on some shoes.”
He grunted and picked up my phone and wallet.
After putting on my shoes he handcuffed me and I did my version of the ‘perp walk’ out to their cars.
The ICE agents took me to an anonymous building in Manhattan. I was marched into a lift and taken to the tenth floor. They sat me down in an interview room but didn’t remove the handcuffs. My belt, shoe laces and everything from my pockets was removed. I noted that they didn’t inventory the items. I made a mental note to check what was returned to me especially the cash, all $61 of it.
Then they left me to stew.
There wasn’t a clock in the room and my watch had been taken away earlier so I was left to guess about how much time had passed before the door opened.
A head appeared around the door. It was the FBI Agent. Agent Carter she called herself. She took one look at me and hurriedly shut the door. As the door closed, I swear that I heard a ‘Yesssss’ cry from her.
I wondered what the hell was she doing here? All I could think of was that the plot was thickening.
I returned to making mental lists of what needed to be done to ‘Lucy’ when I got home. If ‘Homeland’ was indeed going to deport me then I might get home sooner than I’d anticipated.
A long time later the door opened again. This time it was a friendly face.
“Ah, there you are Gordon. No one here seems to know where you’d were put,” said Dan Goode, my lawyer.
“Am I glad to see you. I need to pee something rotten but I’ve been left to stew.”
“I guessed that. They have been giving me the run around for the past three hours. Firstly, the denied that you were here. Once I asked to see the duty logs, they admitted that you had been arrested for being in violation of the terms of your green card.”
“Yeah… That’s what they told me when they snatched me from home. Someone at the bank must have told them.”
“They are saying that it was an anonymous tip off.”
“Yeah, and my name is Ronald Regan. That female FBI Agent is… or was here a couple of hours ago.”
That news took Dan by surprise.
“That FBI Investigation wasn’t one. My guess is that she was on a fishing trip to find out how much you knew about you know who’s little side-line. I know that she may well be up before a disciplinary board for unapproved operations.”
Then he added.
“When you called, I was in a meeting with her immediate superiors. They were stunned when I started playing them the recording I’d made of the interview. She didn’t know that I recorded everything that was said.”
I smiled.
“Well done Dan but they may well know now. Walls have ears you know!”
“If someone tells her then we have them bang to rights. I’m your lawyer and they are not allowed to listen in.”
“That won’t stop them you know.”
“You are probably right on that.”
“How about getting me out of here. I would imagine that the SEC would not want to see me taken onto a flight to London in an Orange Jumpsuit. They’d have a hard job getting me back.”
“That’s what I told them. I left them under no doubt that if you were deported then their case would collapse. To my surprise, they agreed. I expect that some heated discussions behind the scenes are going on.”
“But what about the agreement we did with the Bank? That said that I was still an employee until such time as the SEC Case concluded. Well, that’s what I thought it said?”
“It does just that but I can’t show it to this lot until I get agreement from the Bank. It may be several hours before they talk to their lawyers who may or may not agree to let it be seen.”
“Fuck that bloody NDA. Show it to this bunch of bozos’ and get me out of here. What is the bank going to do eh? Sue me? That will make the whole agreement public. Showing it to the people here would not do that.”
“It isn’t as simple as that.”
“It is pretty simple if you are sitting here with your hands cuffed behind your back and in dire need of a pee… Or do I need to wet myself in order to get their attention?”
Dan smiled.
“Let me see what can be done.”
“Make it quick. Time is of the essence you know.
Dan knocked on the door and after a few seconds it was opened. Dan left the room.
Fine minutes turned into ten and no one had returned. I decided that I could not wait any longer.
I said in a loud voice.
“If someone does not come and let me use the bathroom, there will be a nice puddle on the floor that will need cleaning up!”
Still no one came and I could not hold it in any longer.
The pool of urine was spreading nicely when the door opened and three officers rushed in. One knocked me backwards. I had just enough time to lean my head forward so that when the back of the chair crashed onto the floor I didn’t hit my head.
“You fucking illegals are all the same. You will try anything to get out of here!” another one shouted.
“I warned you. Where is my lawyer.”
“Gone! He left you to stew and so you should. You will be on a plane tonight. We don’t need fuckers like you in this Country!” shouted another one of the men.
Then the left the room with me lying on the floor in my own urine.
I rolled over a couple of times until I was on a dry part of the floor and then tried to make myself comfortable. The size of the lawsuit that I’d be filing against “ICE” went up by a few orders of magnitude.
I estimated that I’d been lying there for almost an hour before the door opened and two different people walked in. They were followed by Dan. The men lifted me up of off the floor and one undid my handcuffs.
“Am I glad to see you. They told me that you had left.”
“I did leave but only to meet with the SEC. They have been given the run around by ICE. As a result, we woke up a Federal Judge and got a writ of ‘Habeous Corpus’ signed in your name. ICE have to release you right away or they are in contempt. The evidence of the SEC was key in getting the judge to agree. He also signed an order prohibiting ICE from interfering with a key witness in a pending SEC Case.”
“So, I can get out of here then?”
“Yes. ICE had to let you go or these two US Marshalls would have arrested everyone in the building.”
“Let’s get going then?”
“Can you do one thing for me?” asked Dan.
“We need you to identify the people who knocked you over after you had been denied the use of the bathroom.”
I smiled.
“With pleasure.”
The three men were soon identified. The US Marshals cuffed them and read them their rights. They protested their innocence and called me pretty boy and then far, far worse. It didn’t make any difference. They were frog marched out of the building. I never saw them again. I did hear the words ‘witness tampering’ used more than once.
Dan took me outside and handed me a plastic bag. It contained all my belongings. The city air felt good. I looked at my watch. I could hardly believe that it said 03:16. I’d been in there for almost eight hours.
“I’ll take you home. Get some rest and come and see me late afternoon. Unless you hear otherwise, make it half an hour after the market closes. I get have a feeling that things will happen after that.”
I knew why he suggested waiting until the market had closed. That was the time when company results were released. Arresting a number of people important from the Bank would cause a stock price movement. It was far better to do it after the close so that people had over twelve hours to digest the impact before the opening bell in the morning.
“Thanks Dan. I’m going to sue.”
He shook his head.
“That’s a sure-fire way to get put on a ‘no-fly’ list.”
“Aren’t I on it already?”
“The order signed by the Judge included a clause to remove you if you were. Taking action after the event isn’t covered by the order. But… it is your call.”
“And my footing the bill as well?”
He smiled.
“Naturally… but my cut from the settlement with the Bank would cover everything to date and supporting you should you be called to give evidence. Beyond that is on your dime.”
“Gotcha Dan. Message understood.”
[to be continued]
[1] LSE = London School of Economics.
[2] TITSUP = Total Inability To Support Usual Practice (or variants on that). A Techy term that is used when a Service such as a Banks ATM network stops working (or goes Belly Up).
[3] IPO = Initial Placement Offering. When a company makes its stocks/shares available for trading on an Exchange such as the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) or the LSE (London Stock Exchange)
[4] Shorting = Betting with stock that you don’t own but have options on that the price will fall during trading. Two of the most heavily shorted stocks on the NYSE are Apple(APPL) and Tesla(TSLA).
Dan dropped me off at home. His parting words were.
“Take some time to get your life sorted out and then get the hell out of town. Adam Strong might be in Ryker’s but I’m sure that he’ll be trying to discredit you. His frat buddies are not to be messed with. I should know. My brother is one of them but he’s a good guy. He saw the light and is now a Priest down in Southern Jersey, but he still has his ear to the ‘frat network’.”
He stopped me from replying.
“I know that you didn’t supply the critical bit of evidence that persuaded the DA to file charges but he clearly hates your guts. He has plenty of people that will step up to the plate in his absence. With you out of the picture he and his ilk will have to find someone else to target.”
“Thanks Dan. What do you have left to do on the case?”
“Not a lot. My first task is to make sure everything is filed properly for the inevitable appeal and questioning of the validity of the evidence and chain of custody. Then I’m going Fishing, for a week. I own part of a day boat with my brother down near Cape May provided we don’t get any hurricanes in the area. But to be honest, I just want to get away from this stinking city for a while. This past week or so has seemed like it would never end at time. Keep your head down ok? There might be more danger lurking in the shadows.”
Before I could ask Dan a question he drove off.
Once back in my apartment, I took a shower and went to bed but sleep didn’t come easily. My mind was replaying the events of the past eight and a bit hours over and over again. I must have fallen asleep at some point because the next thing I remember was my phone ringing.
Through bleary eyes, I looked at the caller ID. I was expecting to see ‘Dan’ on the display but the number was withheld. I declined the call and closed my eyes again.
A minute or so later the phone bleeped. Someone had left a message.
Reluctantly, I listened to the message. I recognised the voice as belonging to Brad Montgomery. He’d occupied the next desk to mine for the past two years.
“Gordon, the shit has hit the fan here. You might not believe it but Adam Strong was marched out in handcuffs an hour ago. Rumour has it that the COO has gone walkabout and two other execs are downtown with their lawyers. I know that he revelled when you did your walk of shame and he’s been a right pain ever since. Has this something to do with you? What have you gone and done? Whatever it is, I don’t want to know but man… Watch your back. Those people have really, really powerful friends.”
He didn’t leave his name but his Canadian accent was readily identifiable. He was like me, an outsider so we’d naturally gravitated together and had shared a more than a few beers in the past two years.
I looked at the clock. I’d slept well past the time I was supposed to be with my Lawyer. It seemed that his guess was right.
I texted Dan saying that I’d overslept and that I knew about Adam.
His reply arrived as I was washing my face.
“Sending a car for you. Thirty Minutes. Dan.”
I seemed that I was needed.
By the time I’d shaved, dressed and downed a cup of coffee, there was a ‘limo’ waiting for me outside.
Dan was waiting for me in his office. He was with someone from the SEC. This person had been listening to my initial grilling by them but had said nothing during the interview.
“Gordon, you know Art Jefferies don’t you?”
“We have met,” I replied trying to be non-committal.
“Art went to college with Adam Strong.”
I groaned inside. It showed in how my body reacted.
“That might have been the case but back then, I wasn’t deemed rich enough or to have been to the right prep schools to be invited to join his frat,” said Art.
“Plus, he’s no friend of mine. I know he cheated at his exams but never had the evidence to back it up. But how else do you get to be ‘summa cum laude’ when your GPA was barely a pass unless you had the inside track eh?”
I started to realise that Art was indeed no friend of Adam.
“I heard that he’s been arrested?”
“Yes. He was arrested just after the closing bell as we planned. Several other people from the Bank and two other Financial Institutions were also arrested at the same time and most of them are singing like Canaries. Adam is keeping to his story that it was all you and that he went along for a joke. We know differently. There is more than enough evidence to show that he was one of the ringleaders.”
Art continued.
“To start with, we are charging him with interstate wire fraud. That’s just a holding charge. From the evidence we obtained from you, we know that a large amount of money has shall we say ‘gone missing’ from the bank. What brought it to a head was the trades you did over the holiday weekend. For some totally unfathomable reason, they shorted your portfolio. When your book went up like that they were neck deep in the quicksand and could not cover their losses. With settlement due the following Friday, they needed a really big diversion to give them time to find the money they need to cover their losses.”
I held up my hand.
“Hold on, why are you telling me this? Aren’t I supposed to be a witness?”
Art grinned.
“Sorry Gordon. I forgot to say. Adam’s boss, Franklin Jansen is singing like a canary. He’s much like you in that he also took copious records of everything. He gave us those yesterday about the same time that ICE, were in the act of detaining you. They were total dynamite. It will be very doubtful if you will be needed at trial. It may well have been him that provided you with the envelopes of information. From what he’s said so far, Adam was blackmailing him over something that happened in Cancun a few years before you transferred over from the London Office. When Adam conspired to get you sacked he saw his chance to get even.”
I looked at Adam.
“Does this mean that I can go home and that the FBI won’t be after me if I do?”
“The FBI Agent responsible will be arrested today so that tells me that the answer is no they won’t but I’ll make sure that I get it in writing as soon as I can. It was her that dug up the evidence to blackmail Mr Jansen.”
My shoulders slumped. I felt as if a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
Dan put his arm around my shoulder.
“It is all over Gordon. You are in the clear.”
Art added.
“Mr McLeish, on behalf of the SEC and the US Government, we want to thank you for your help. You can rest assured that Homeland is going to be told in no uncertain terms that you are always welcome to return to this country. We will also make sure that you get that in writing.”
“I’m sorry for giving you the 3rd degree the other day but we had to be sure that what you were saying was on the ball. It…”
“It was you just doing your job?”
“I’m sorry,” said Art.
“There is no need to do that. I’m doing what I’d planned all along. I’m going home and quitting this sordid banking and finance business once and for all.”
I stood up and began to walk out of the office. Then a thought crossed my mind.
“Why the fuck did they short my portfolio? I can’t for the life of me think why anyone would want to do that. My book was up over a hundred and twenty percent of the year before that weekend?”
After a moments hesitation, Art said,
“Perhaps you had better sit down again Gordon? You may not like what I’m about to tell you.”
I returned to my seat while Art leafed through some papers. He pulled one out and handed it to me.
“Do you know that that is?”
I looked at the sheet. It was a copy of a Korean language document with an English translation below.
“I do. It is a report about the CEO of a major Korean Company resigning in disgrace after literally being caught with his trousers down.”
Then I added.
“You know that I can read and speak both Korean and Japanese. That’s why I’ve been so successful over the years. You learn to read between the lines. Business in both countries is all about saving face when things go wrong. A simple translation would lose those nuances and context.”
I looked at the translation and the original text several times. Then I smiled.
“This translation was probably straight from Google. It is all wrong. Well, the literally it is correct but the interpretation is the important thing. There is none in the translation. Anyone relying on this would soon find out their mistake.”
Art smiled.
“Adam or someone he employed put some spyware on your work computer. It was buried very, very deep. We have no idea how long it was there before the holiday weekend. The spyware was so good that it evaded the regular scans made by the bank of all the computers. We now know from evidence found at Adam’s home that they had all your research information run through Google translate. That gave them a pretty good picture of what you were going to do with your trades over the holiday weekend. The problem was that you didn’t do what they expected you to do. Instead you traded in stocks that were not in your recent research. The Korean company’s CEO did resign and the stock dropped as you would expect. That was what Adam was betting on only you played a blinder and did something totally different.”
I laughed. They both looked at me.
“Sorry, I just had a vision of an early sketch from Monty Python. John Cleese is sitting behind a desk with waves lapping all around him and he says, ‘and now for something completely different’. What you said just triggered that memory.”
Art thought for a moment then a broad smile appeared on his face.
“Actually, it is very apt. Add in a bit of ‘The Spanish Inquisition’ and you have pretty well summed up your actions that weekend. Adam and his team could in no way read your mind. You were able to make several inferences that only someone with a deep understanding of the region would know. You went totally off track and returned an exceptionally healthy profit. It is safe to say that no one I’ve spoken to expected the merger of those companies to be announced when it was other than you. Not even the SEC people in Tokyo and Seoul. No other trader in the world saw them coming.”
“So, Adam’s bet on my portfolio was placed well before I made the trade orders on that Friday Evening?”
“It was actually done late on Thursday,” said Art.
I laughed.
“That all starts to make sense now. I only decided to change my dealings late on Friday afternoon when I saw a trading note on the London Bloomberg wire. You saw that copy in the documents I presented to you. If I hadn’t done that, they would have made a killing. The Bloomberg note was based upon a report that came out of Frankfurt that talked about the Korean Company teaming up with the Japanese one to build an Electric Car Battery Plant in Poland. I made a call to a former colleague of mine who went back to Warsaw. He confirmed that both CEO’s had been seen at the proposed site at the same time. Then the companies themselves were reporting that extraordinary board meetings were being held on Sunday and Monday. That was enough to make me change my mind on the trades.”
Then I thought for a moment.
“And the rest as they say is history.”
I stood up and shook both of their hands. Then I walked out of the office and headed for the nearest bar and downed a couple of drinks. I even toasted Adam for his ingenuity but laughed at his eventual foolishness. Feeling an awful lot better with myself, I went home.
As we packed and cleaned, I told her what had happened. To my surprise, she burst into tears.
I hugged her to comfort her.
“Don’t worry Maureen, it is all over. Adam and his fellow conspirators will get the justice they deserve.”
“How can you be so calm at times like this?”
“Oh, believe me, I was really angry when the Immigration people arrived. But I had to trust my lawyer. He came very highly recommended to me and he did a lot more than I would have expected a normal lawyer to do.”
“But it must have cost you a load of money?”
“Not me. The Bank. Part of my severance deal included them covering my legal fees until I went home. They clearly did not envisage the shit storm that came later. That storm was entirely Adam Strong’s doing. He’s now in the smelly stuff up to his neck.”
Maureen looked at me through tearful eyes.
“You are a strange person Gordon MacLeish. Perhaps that is why I like you so much?”
I chuckled.
“Maureen Jenkins, no one has ever said anything as nice as that to me in a long time.”
I held her tight for quite a while. I was determined not to let her go.
The TV news that evening had some details of the arrests in the case. We saw Adam Strong and some others that I didn’t know all doing their ‘perp walk’ after being arraigned and denied bail. The reporter said that as he owned a private Jet, there was a clear flight risk. That I could believe. I knew that his family had properties in Mexico, Belize and Iceland and probably a few others that Adam had not visited since I moved over from London..
“Then go to college and finish your training to be a teacher? I’ll look after Luke and I can easily pay for the tuition.”
An expression of pure surprise came over her face.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes I am. I’m totally sure. Come home with me, get married and …”
I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence.
“Married?”
“Why not? It would make getting you a settlement Visa a heck of a lot easier. Being married and finishing your teacher training sounds like a good idea to me…”
“I didn’t think… Oh crap… With everything that has happened, I didn’t give it a thought.”
Then she said,
“The fact is, I didn’t think you were totally serious about me for a while.”
“Maureen… I am deadly serious. As I said before, you didn’t run a mile when I told you about my other side. Plus, I happen to think that we are good together.”
“I… It is hardly the sort of proposal I’d dreamed about as a girl.”
“If you want me to go down on one knee I will but we are both intelligent adults. So how about it eh? Come across the pond with me and try a different life?”
Maureen remained stone faced for several seconds. Then she smiled.
“If you are sure about this?”
I sighed.
“I am deadly serious.
We’d already decided to get married as soon as possible. That ‘soon’ turned out to be a week later at a nice place Delaware. Maureen had been to the place for another wedding and liked it. Then we found out that they’d had a late cancellation so we took advantage of it. Together, Maureen and her Mother handled all the arrangements. I had to do was pay for it all. Dan Cooke was my Best Man. It wasn’t that far from Cape May and his fishing boat so it wasn’t hard to get him to be at my side for the day.
Everything was done in such a hurry that I had to rent a tux for the event. Dan and I found what we needed only two hours before the ceremony.
Thanks to Maureen’s Cousin Donna, she had a beautiful wedding dress to wear. The only problem was Luke. No matter what anyone did, he looked like someone had dragged him through a hedge backwards. He didn’t care. All he was interested in was seeing ‘Thomas’. Still he promised to behave himself during the ceremony and at the reception afterwards.
She’d bought me some underwear and stockings to wear for the wedding. The note that she’d written also said that she would be wearing what I’d bought her at the wedding so she thought it fitting that I should wear some as well.
The more I got to know her, the more I realised that I’d found a gem of a woman.
When we arrived back in New York from a brief trip to Denver and the Rockies which included a couple of steam train rides for Luke, the place felt fresher and a whole lot nicer. The ‘Hot and Steamy’ part of the year was over as was my time in the Big Apple. It was still as noisy as ever though.
Five days after returning from Denver, I said goodbye to a tearful Maureen and Luke at JFK whereupon, I flew back to London. I had a few loose ends with respect to my pension contributions and the like, to tie up with the bank in London before I was free to head north and my home.
We’d already submitted the residency visa applications in for Maureen and Luke. It was hard leaving them so soon after we’d gotten married but I had to go home to get my place ready for them.
My phone rang. It was my lawyer, Dan Cooke. I was just finishing Lunch with Maureen.
“Yes Dan?”
“They are? After just two hours?”
“No. We are two blocks away. We’ll be there.”
I hung up the call and said to Maureen.
“The Jury is back.”
She smiled.
“We’d better get a move on then,” she said gripping my hand.
Twenty-six minutes later the Judge entered the courtroom. Adam and his cohorts were waiting to hear the verdict. The place was crammed with the media. Expectations were clearly high. Adam was smirking as usual. Several ‘high-fives’ were exchanged with his friends as they were brought in from the holding cells. It seemed that he thought that he was going to get away with it. I thought otherwise. I’d sat at the back of the court for most of the case and it was clear to me that he was going down for a long stretch.
When asked by the Judge, the foreman of the jury rose and read the verdicts one by one. All sixty counts were of guilty.
Everyone was Guilty. The smirk that had been on Adam Strong’s face disappeared in an instant the first verdict had been read out.
He spoke to his lawyer.
The lawyer shook his head. Adam slumped back in his chair.
The Judge called the court to order.
“I want to thank the Jury for their services. You are dismissed and thank you once again. Sentencing will be in one week. The defendants who have been found guilty will be taken into custody. Court is dismissed.”
He banged his gavel and it was all over.
As Adam was led away he saw me. I got the mother of all glares of hatred. Sadly, I tried but couldn’t stifle a yawn. This set him off and he tried to get to me. The officers guarding him soon had him under control.
I was just glad to see the back of him after all the trouble he had given me but I had to thank him for one thing and that thing was standing right at my side.
I walked out of the court with Maureen on my arm. One huge chapter of my life had just closed.
I looked up at the Arrivals board for what must have been the hundredth time. To my relief the status of the flight from JFK had changed from ‘Arrived’ to ‘Baggage in Hall’. My pulse raced. Not long now I thought to myself.
Despite my optimism, it was nearly half an hour before Maureen appeared pushing a trolley that was loaded with three large suitcases. Luke was sitting on top having a whale of a time directing his Mother where she should push the trolley which like most of their ilk, has a mind of its own.
I resisted running forward and walked towards them. Maureen spotted me and struggled with the trolley which for a moment claimed victory. It spun around and Luke went ‘Wheeeeee’.
I hugged Maureen. Then we briefly kissed. I’d not seen them other than on a laptop screen for more than a month.
“Hello Mrs MacLeish.”
“Hello Mr MacLeish,” he replied.
“Good flight?” I asked as I took over trying to control the trolley.
“Not bad at all. Luke slept most of the way which made a difference.”
Maureen looked tired out but Luke seemed as fresh as a daisy.
“You look shattered?”
She just shrugged her shoulders.
“Let’s get you to my car and then home. You can have a sleep while I keep Luke entertained.”
Maureen tucked her arm in mine and leant her head on my shoulder.
I nudged Maureen. She’d had her eyes closed for the past half hour. She looked knackered and needed a rest.
“Darling, we are here.”
Luke had also fallen asleep when we got stuck in a traffic jam on the M61. The silence as I switched off the engine woke him up.
Maureen was looking around at the yard where I’d parked. All around here were stone buildings.
“Where are we?” she asked sleepily.
“Home my darling. Home.”
I got out and helped her out of my car. I’d already made a note to get a bigger car. A Ford Fiesta might be ok for one person but a family of three plus luggage was stretching it a bit.
“All the old houses are built from stone in this part of the world.”
“Oh!” remarked Maureen.
Then she shivered. There was a chill breeze blowing in off the sea. Morecambe Bay was not that far away. We’d had quite a bit of snow two weeks before but that was all gone now but, there was still some on the top of the peaks in the Lake District to the north and the Pennines to the East.
“Let me unlock the house. It will be much warmer inside.”
By the time I’d unloaded the car and brought their bags inside, Maureen was trying to work out how to use my ancient range. It was one where you lit it in October and kept it going until April. It warmed the whole house.
“There is no off or on switch. It is always on,” I said as I opened the lid to expose a hot plate.
“This is very hot. You just move the pot or kettle around to regulate the temperature.”
“Sorry,” replied Maureen.
I hugged her.
“No need to say sorry. Things will be a little strange at first.”
Then I added,
“I know how you feel. Remember that I was once a stranger in New York?”
“But…”
“But you are feeling out of your comfort zone aren’t you?”
She nodded.
“Sit yourself down and I’ll make us some tea. Then I’ll show you both around.”
By mid-afternoon, both Maureen and Luke were showing signs of jet-lag. I let them rest while I prepared us something to eat. The wind had veered around to the North-East and it was getting colder so I made us some Lamb Stew and put some more wood into the range.
Just after five, Maureen appeared looking quite refreshed.
“That smells good. What is it?”
“Lamb Stew.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever eaten Lamb before.”
I chuckled.
“That is one thing that you will have to get used to. There are more sheep than people in these parts.”
“So, I heard. I heard a load of them bleating a little while ago.”
“Ah, that would be Mick Young. He runs about two hundred head. He’s just bought them down from the fells for the winter.”
“It is so quiet here. I can just hear the trains but otherwise…”
“Very different to New York isn’t it?”
“You told me that it would be but I had no idea.”
“New York never sleeps. This place never wakes up. That’s why I chose it. Not far off halfway between London and Glasgow but very quiet.”
Then I asked,
“Is Luke still asleep?”
“Yes. I looked in on him and he hasn’t moved since I tucked him up.”
“This will be ready in about an hour. I think you should wake him up otherwise he’ll want to play in the middle of the night.”
Maureen approved of my cooking but found it hard to believe that the nearest Fast Food outlet was not just around the corner.
“It looks like I’m going to have to do a lot more work in the kitchen than I’m used to.”
I took hold of her hand and smiled.
“I have a good selection of cook books you know.”
Maureen responded by hitting me on the arm.
The following day, I showed them ‘Lucy’.
Luke fell in love with my small industrial Steam Engine that just happened to look like “Thomas” except that it had one less pair of driving wheels.
“Where’s the bit in the middle?” asked Maureen as she pointed at the hole where the boiler should be.
“You mean the Boiler?”
I smiled.
“It is away having some work done on it. Then it can be tested and certified.”
“Sounds expensive?”
“It is but it is all within budget. It will be back after Christmas.”
“Speaking of Christmas…” said Maureen.
“You were thinking that it might be good for your parents to visit?”
“How did you guess?”
“I saw you eyeing up the room next to ours earlier.”
“It is a bedroom isn’t it?”
“It is but as you found out it is a bit of a junk room.”
“Would you mind if I turned it into a 3rd bedroom?”
I smiled and put my arm around her.
“Of course not. This is your home now but there is a lot to do before Christmas isn’t there?”
“Can we go and look for materials tomorrow?”
“Of course, we can go, but remember that we have an appointment at the school at two. We don’t want Luke to miss starting school in January.”
“Sorry. I’d forgotten.”
“Don’t worry. You have had a lot to deal with this past week. Things will soon settle down. As I have said before this place moves at a snails pace. Once you get used to it, you won’t want to go back to the big city in a hurry.”
Maureen looked at Luke who was trying to move the reversing gear on Lucy’s footplate.
“Luke seems happy,” she commented.
“Did you ever have any doubts?”
“Not once you’d told him about Lucy.”
Then I kissed her.
“What was that for?” asked Maureen when we broke up.
“Do I need a reason to kiss my wife?”
“Well no you don’t.”
“So, you won’t mind if I do it again?”
“No, I won’t.”
So, I did it again.
“Right my girl, I can see that you will also be going back to school. Call that makeup? It is pathetic! Must do better! Nil Points!”
The smile on her face told me that she was enjoying herself and I didn’t mind one little bit.
[The End]