Ghigau 4

“Aidan Hulme?” Lenny looked aghast. “He’s an effing corporate pirate. I’m greener than Aidan Hulme! Did you know about this Jake?”

    “Of course not!” Jake was indignant.

    “Jesus wept.” Lenny collapsed back in his chair. “We can’t do business with Aidan Hulme. We’ll never live it down Jake.”

    “Look I know you have history—“

    Lenny stood quickly, “What the hell has that got to do with it? I wouldn’t work with Aidan Hulme whatever the circumstances.”

    “Calm down mate,” Jake placed a hand on Lenny’s shoulder, “sit down let’s think this through.”

    Aidan Hulme was not a name Lenny had expected to hear, not today, not ever again, unless it was in the news. You couldn’t avoid that name if you’d read a newspaper or watched television in the last 20 years or so. His meteoric rise to billionaire status via the murky worlds of payday loans, property development, hedge fund management and more recently crypto-currency was unavoidably public. He was charming,  handsome in a slightly podgy James Bond sort of way, still suspiciously dark haired, and, as far as Lenny was concerned, as crooked as they come. And he was also Nikki’s one time boyfriend.

    “Look we’re not working directly with him, he’s just a backer, he’s a name.” Jake reasoned.

    “Yeah he’s a name. A name linked with every unethical business sector you can think of”. Lenny was pissed off.  He pointed to their mission statement, “You see what it says on that wall? ‘Ethical advertising for Ethical companies’.”

    Jake sat silently for a moment. “ We need this job though Lenny,” he said in a pleading tone, a bead of sweat glistened on his temple.

    Lenny frowned. “What do you mean ‘need’. Why do we need this job any more than any other one? Is there something you’re not telling me Jake?” He demanded. He let the question hang for a moment. “Has this anything to do with these emails from this solicitor… what are they called? Timpson and something?—“    

    At that moment, Lenny’s mobile rang. On the illuminated screen, an image appeared of Nikki’s smiling, tanned face set against an impossibly blue mediterranean sea and captured on their last holiday as a family of four, her hair whipping across her eyes and mouth, fingers reaching to pull it to one side. It still never failed to thrill him that this beautiful woman was calling him. He gathered himself, his pulse was still raised after the tense conversation with Jake.

    “Hi… everything ok?” It was quite unusual for her to call him during the day. They both had busy jobs.

    “Yes, absolutely fine, are you in the middle of something? Can you talk?” Nikki sounded relaxed and he felt some of his tension leave him.

    “Of course, what’s up?”

    “Umm, well it’s just that I have an opportunity to meet Exa at her home and see her new work later but only after 3pm and I know it’s my day…” 

    He could almost see her screwing up her eyes and biting her bottom lip. “Hey, no problem, I’ll pick Lydia up. You go to the meet. I can’t wait to hear what she’s actually like.” He reassured her. 

    “Really? Don’t you have a new client coming today.” Nikki sounded doubtful.

    “That’s already happened, and…” He tailed off.

    “What? Did it not go well?” Nikki asked.

    “No, no it was fine, just a bit of an odd meeting.” He paused, then decided not to elaborate. “Listen you go and meet the monster painter and I’ll tell you all about my thrilling pitch later ok? In fact I’ll knock up a spag-bol, for say 6ish?”

    “Have I ever told you how fantastic you are”? Nikki said with mock sexiness.

    “Only in bed,” he said. They both laughed.

    “Love you.” Said Nikki.

    “Love you too.” Lenny replied. He pressed to end the call. 

Jake had left the room to give him privacy and didn't return for a minute or two. This gave Lenny time to marshal his thoughts. 

    “Look Jake,” Lenny was calm but insistent, “you need to tell me what’s going on. I’m not moving on with anything until I get an explanation from you about these emails.” 

    The emails had started arriving in Lenny’s inbox about two weeks ago, from a firm of solicitors, ‘Timpson Bailey and Lake’ in Sheffield, and urged him to get in touch regarding a ‘serious matter'. Lenny had ignored them as he did all the other unsolicited contacts offering website development, recruitment services and a million other things they had no need of,  but the persistence of the sender and the vague term ‘serious matter’ had made him wonder. The latest one had the added phrase, ‘failure to respond will be taken as your unwillingness to fulfil your contract’. As far as he was aware they had no contract with anyone being handled by this firm. He had a strong feeling that Jake however, knew more than he was letting on.

    “So?” He was still waiting for Jake to respond.

    “Ok, ok, look it’s really a private matter. I’ll sort it.” Jake looked embarrassed.

    Lenny raised an eyebrow. “What the hell does that mean? They’re writing to the company. That involves me.” He walked across to his desk and picked up the phone. “I’ll ring them and find out what this is about then shall I?” He stood waiting,  phone in hand.

    Jake looked panicky. “No, don’t do that, it’s, it’s…” He didn’t seem to know how to continue. He was sweating openly now. He walked across to the coffee machine, grabbed a serviette and wiped his brow.

     “You need to sit down and talk to me,” Lenny said firmly. He pulled Jake’s chair across, so it faced his, and waited.

    Jake’s shoulders dropped and he shuffled over to sit down, like a schoolboy summoned to the headmaster’s office. He didn’t say anything for a while, then he wouldn’t stop talking. “I can sort this honestly. These guys are just trying to bully me. I mean I did make some promises I.. I owe them some money basically and they want it back, but I’m working on it and they won’t do anything, they’re just, like I say bullies.” He was wringing his hands and looked very uncomfortable.

    Lenny had a sinking feeling he knew where this was going. “Money for what?”

    Jake flushed. “Just some business I got in to before Christmas.”

    “For fuck’s sake Jake, money…for…what? It’s a simple question.”

    “Ok, ok, I had a few bets,” he blurted out, looking at the floor.

    Lenny sat back. He stared at the top of Jake’s head while he thought. How bad was it? He was afraid to ask. “How much money? And why are they writing to the company?” He knew Jake hadn’t embezzled. They both had access to all the accounts, he was positive there was no money missing.

    “Fifty.” Jake rubbed his face with both hands and exhaled sharply.

    “Thousand?” Lenny was incredulous.

    “Yup.”

    “Jesus Christ,” Lenny stood up and paced, “you said this would never happen again Jake. You got help. You haven’t been near a game in three years. Or have you?”

    “No way, I promise. It was just this one time, it was so cast iron. I just couldn’t pass it up. Then things got out of hand, one thing led to another and I was in for so much I panicked and…”

    “And?” Said Lenny.

    “I stopped. I really did. I cut my losses and walked.” He looked ashamed. “But they wanted to be paid and I had no way of getting hold of the money so they wanted an alternative.”

    “I still don’t understand why they’re writing to the company? What has it to do with the business, we don’t owe them any money?”

    Jake looked at him pleadingly, “You have to understand Lenny, these people wouldn’t stop hounding me. I had to come up with something and I couldn’t tell Catherine, that would have been it, The—End.”

    “So what did you give them?”

    Jake took a deep breath. “I put up my shares in the business. And now they want what they were promised.”

    Lenny was stunned. “You did what?”

    “It won’t come to that, I’ve talked to Dad, he’s going to help out. I’ll sort it out I promise.”

    Lenny was lost for words, he sat for a while, thinking. 

    Jake said nothing more. He just fiddled with his coffee cup and brooded. 

    Eventually Lenny stirred then checked his watch. “I have to pick up Lydia. I really don’t know where to start. I need to process this and I think we should talk tomorrow, ok?”

    “Ok, Lenny.” said Jake, clearly relieved. “Listen, I’m really sorry about all this but it won’t come to anything, you’ll see.”