Conscious Revenge Page 13

  “I’m sure you do,” I said. “Just imagine this then, the sea comes in here with great gusto and pushes saltwater up this shaft out onto the top,” I said, “especially during the hurricane season.” At this point, I was hoping Paul would start to think about what I was hinting at. “Shaft, heavy sea’s pushing the water through the top with great force,” I began to think I would have to spell it out to him after all.

  Suddenly, he looked at me and not a word passing between us he then said “No, it can’t be, is this what this is all about?” I didn’t answer for a moment just to let the thoughts sink in.

  He was having as much difficulty as I did when the idea had first struck me, “Is this the place?”

  I nodded. “It has been in my mind for some time,” I said, trying not to sound too dramatic. “Maybe when I take you to the next place in the morning, you will have a greater understanding of where I’m coming from with all this.”

  For a moment, Paul didn’t utter a word and I began to think he was having second thoughts on how my brain was recovering from its ordeal. I wanted to add something to the silence that would assure him I was quite serious but the words wouldn’t form, I waited for him to speak as we looked up the entrance to the hole above our head. I could see him trying to rationalise my thinking so I didn’t say a word, he continued to look all around him and then again up the hole.

  “How,” he said, “could that possibly happen it would take a great force to reach the top?” I felt I would have to try to give him some idea how the Caribbean can turn from how it was tonight into a raging torrent when a hurricane hits the islands. I could see that I may have to call on Walter’s extensive knowledge if I am to convince Paul that it is possible. I suggested we had had enough for one night trying to second guess what may or not be possible, so we began to walk back to the B&B in complete silence. Paul didn’t speak to me again until we moved onto the veranda and Walter came forward with tonight’s ‘special drink’, white rum with coconut milk laced with cream, shook with crushed ice and poured into freezing cold glasses.

  “Just the job,” Paul laughed and the ice was broken once more ‘excuse the pun’.

  Paul and I had this unspoken understanding of each other, so starting over again after the tension shouldn’t be too difficult, long term friendship and a special camaraderie was the recipe.

  The following day, we set about climbing the hill leading to the holiday cottage I had promised to show to Paul. I had decided no more surprises for him so I spoke openly about the shaft at the top of the hill. He said, “Let’s skip the holiday cottage and get straight into the real reason you brought me up here.”

  As we climbed, I came clean. “The thing is,” I said, “the first time I came here I had no idea what was up here. I came to picnic just as we are today. I had reached the top of the hill when I stumbled onto what I thought was a cave on the hill side only to discover it was some sort of cavern.”

  We were approaching the area where I had found it and guided Paul the best way I could onto the flat grassy area around the top of the shaft. The metal grid covering the top of the hole was now in place but you could just see down into the mouth, the sound of the sea was unmistakable. Paul followed me around with the flash lamp I had bought and began to peer down, there was a ledge just visible which I explained to Paul could possibly be where I landed instead of falling down all the way to the rocks and sea below.

  He looked at me as if he was beginning to believe there may be something in my story after all. I could see he was as puzzled by the notion that the sea could somehow rise up and push me out with such ferocity onto the area surrounding the shaft. I confessed that I also had a great deal of difficulty with this one. I had tried to picture the night when the weather was at its worst and the sea coming in at a rate of knots, as described by Walter.

  After yesterday’s obvious show of disbelief, I began to wonder if Paul was beginning to put two and two together. I then described the other part of the scenario which involved Walter’s taxi service which he ran from the hotel in the town prior to him owning the B&B with Rose.

  “Without prompting,” I began, “Walter told me of the contract he had with one of the local business men, which involved him picking up fares from the moorings and taking them back to the hotel where they rent the rooms by the hour, if you catch my drift.”

  “He told me of gambling and other seedy goings-on, the upshot of all of this is that he was paid far more for these services in one night than he could earn in a week of normal tourist services but he was left under no illusion that should he mention any of the dealings he had with the ‘gentlemen’ what would happen to him and Rose, so naturally he promised not a word would be spoken.

  The only reason he told me was it was well into the past and I promised to keep stum, when I talked of how he managed to buy the B&B on a taxi driver’s pay, he laughed. “Just one special job helped with that one,” he said. “I’m not sure why but the guy must have been one of Mr West’s very special guests aboard his launch, so after picking him up,” I was paid a great deal of money, not only for the journey to the holiday cottage which is at the side of the B&B, but for keeping my mouth well and truly shut.” I carried on describing the conversation I had with Walter, by telling Paul that was how Walter first set eyes on the B&B which he later bought.

  I wasn’t sure if I would have to spell it out to Paul how my thinking developed but I decided to complete the picture I had conjured up. “You see don’t you where I’m going with this, the man on the launch on the night of the ‘special job’ as described by Walter, was me, only I was drugged not drunk and I wasn’t left at the holiday cottage as Walter thought, but taken to the top of the hill and unceremoniously dumped in the shaft.”

  The rest of the story of how long I was down there, how the sea had forced me up the shaft, my rescue and the ongoing saga just seemed to fall into place, I told Paul, he said there was no need to go any further as he got the picture, putting an arm around my shoulder in a manly way. I felt sure he now realised that it wasn’t an impossible scenario. The fact that I must have been caught out stealing his money was more than enough motivation to have me removed from the world, now I knew what the whole West family was capable of and have no doubt that I’m not the first victim to fall foul of their mafia methods.

  I felt relieved to get it off my chest. It felt as if a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders by just saying the words out loud, but most of all by being believed by Paul. We didn’t speak much for some time as the implications of what had happened were sinking in.

  Paul was first to speak, “Shall we have a drink, old boy, I’ve just got this almighty thirst.”

  “Good job you bought plenty then,” I replied and life began again from that moment.

  “Well,” Paul said, “that was certainly a journey of discovery. Other than the obvious, I have had a great time. Can we do it again?” he asked.

  “Love to,” I replied, as I put the Audi to the test. Having first alighted from the ferry, I began driving around the bends with the skill of a racing driver.

  “It’s still warm out,” he said. “Can we pull over and take a swim?”

  “Great idea,” I replied. “I know a place we can pull down onto the beach just around the corner complete with a bar. A great big smile came across his face. “Good job we have our shorts with us then, isn’t it, as I am sure we will not be the only ones swimming,” he laughed. I pulled onto a grass verge and we began to change our clothes.

  We spent some time in the water which was just as warm by night as it was by day, the reflection of the lights from the bar were the only way we could see which way round we were. “Good job we both swim well,” I said, “I would hate to have to find you in the dark if you were drowning.”

  “That’s something I would rather not think about, if you don’t mind,” he said, laughing. “I think it’s time to go to the other watering hole.”

  The journey to the condo was spent listen
ing to Caribbean music on the radio. We both tried to sing along it must have sounded terrible, but the few locals we saw waved just the same. “A weekend to remember for lots of reasons, not all of them what I had expected,” Paul said, with a more serious sound to his voice.

  “Cheer up,” I said, “it could be worse, we still have millions in the bank.”

  “Yippee,” Paul shouted and we both began to laugh.

  An e-mail had arrived when we got back. It was from Lorna –

  “Hi Paul, just to let you know all went well at the company get-together, I was treated well and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Hope your Aunt is feeling better, look after yourself.

  Love Lorna- Kiss from the children.”

  Paul didn’t let me in on what was said as I had made him promise not to tell me when Lorna got in touch, it was too painful to know how she was getting on, or should I say, moving on.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Lorna

  I don’t know why I didn’t tell Paul about Brandon, I must still be feeling guilty that I had such a great time with him, not only at the party but also the horse riding day, the children loved every moment, horses had been hired in just their size. Brandon had thought of everything.

  I hadn’t been riding for a long time, not since I was young as I recall. I was riding almost every day back in England with Mom, Dad and my sister but in no time at all I was back in the swing of things, Brandon as always was there to assist, the fact that we got lost seemed a little too obvious as we ended up spending most of the ride on our own. He left me in no doubt of his affection for me and, although I was extremely flattered, I suggested we take it a day at a time as I was still trying to get over William.

  He said he understood but I could tell he was hoping we could move forward a little quicker, he said life was short for us all and we should make the very best of it. Whilst I agreed with him, I realised it would not be so easy for me, as William was still the focal point in my life and probably would be for a long time yet, not knowing what had happened to him didn’t help me to move on just now.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  I would have to prepare for the next day as Andy had another project for me. “This time it is regarding the area of freedom for the chickens to roam compliance, with some new regulation regarding the labelling of boxes for free range egg status,” he said. “Some of the bureaucrats have nothing better to do but harass us poor chicken farmers.” I doubted the word ‘poor’ would apply to Andy but harassed, definitely did.

  “Nevermind, I would do my best to appease the do-gooders and fill in all the forms with the correct analysis,” I assured him.

  “This would help stop our licence to label being held up,” he said.

  “Oh the joys of chickens,” I laughed and Andy laughed along with me.

  I was shattered at the end of the day. The run back to the condo didn’t help. All I wanted to do was chill out with a well-earned beer. I called out to Paul, only to find him deep in concentration on the internet. “What’s up?” I said opening a beer and slumping down in the chair.”

  “Nothing,” he replied. “I’ve been doing some research on Alberto West & Sons. I’m trying to get a grip of exactly what their business is all about.

  “What have you discovered?” I asked. “I’ve often wondered, but with everything going on I never found time.”

  “Well,” he said, “it would appear that there are many strings to their bows, some of which leave a lot to be desired,”

  “I’m not surprised,” I said, “as Walter pointed out gambling and prostitution to name just two.

  “These usually come hand in glove with smuggling and people trafficking,” Paul laughed.

  “Could there possibly be money laundering as well?”

  “Helps to pay the rent,” he joked.

  “Do you realise we just completed a character assassination,” I said, “better that than the type of assassination they tried on you.”

  Paul did not laugh, suddenly the mood changed. “Shall we have another beer” I suggested. We drank in silence for some time before Paul said, “Let’s do this.”

  “Yes, let’s,” I said!

  “They have several so called legitimate parts to the business empire,” Paul said.

  “Such as?” I came back. “Well, the oil tanker business and the cruise liners may be run in a legitimate fashion, but who knows.” I suggested the range of hotels “other than the ones that take payment by the hour,” I said.

  “I’m sorry! You forgot to tell me they had a range of hotels,” Paul retorted, “I thought the only one was on this island where Walter operated his taxis from?”

  “They are so devious, they make us look like saints,” I said. We both laughed.

  “If I can just find out everything I need to know, we could talk about throwing a few spanners in their works.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” I said. “If we could add gun and drug running into the mix, we could be Al Capone to their Godfather.”

  “Only a modern version,” Paul quipped, “using the internet as our weapon of choice.”

  For the first time in quite a while, I was getting really excited. “If you can pull the money transfer stunt off without anyone finding out, I’m sure that between us we can come up with something that will disturb their sleep a little,” Paul added.

  “Not a little,” I said, “I wouldn’t settle for anything but a lot.” We did a hand held high clap and started to formulate a plan. I must admit this one inspired me much more than any of the get rich quick plans I had hatched before.

  It was dark before we left the internet to tumble into bed. We had made one monumental decision. The direction we would take would be financial disruption, with a little side order of personal discreditation, as we were both well-versed not only in computer hacking but in financial investment and more recently, checking for flaws in the process and implementation of computer systems used by the investors.

  “The natural progression of the plot would develop as we go,” I said.

  “I’ll begin in the morning to lay out ideas,” Paul said, “while you’re at work.”

  It was the first time I really didn’t want to go to work. Chickens seemed furthest from my mind at the moment, but as Paul pointed out, needs must. “Fair enough,” I reluctantly agreed, “we need to go through your ideas and I can add mine before we take any direct action, we can’t afford to make a wrong move on this one, we are both aware of what the outcome could be if we did,” I added.

  On the way to work, I decided to ring John Lattimar to find out how the house project was going. Mustn’t lose sight of the other things going on in my life, this one was just as important as any revenge I could bring down on the West’s.

  “John Lattimar speaking,” he said.

  “Hi John, it’s Bill, just catching up. How’re things going up there?”

  “Hi Bill. Everything is going well, I’ve ordered the materials for the inside and they should be with us next week. The shipment is due in on the 20th, so hopefully we can make a start on the inside on the 21st. I have all the labour in place just waiting to start. With a bit of luck, I will have some good news for you within the next few months.”

  “That’s great, John.” I knew it would take some time, the intricate work that needed to be done not only to the woodwork but a sympathetic restoration of the kitchen was paramount.

  “We don’t want to spoil the ship,” John had said. I’m sure Lorna will want state of the art fixture and fittings but we mustn’t interfere with the conservation aspect of it all.

  “Let me know when you need a signature to cover the wages and materials and I will come up,” I told him. “It may need to be sooner rather than later” he said,” the men will have to be the priority as the wages are paid weekly for these types of projects.”

  “That’s no problem,” I answered, “I had intended to give you a month’s wages for them in advance anyway so that, should I not be able to come up at a m
inutes notice, the men would not lose out. I will set up a transfer into your bank for the monthly amount you require, John.” I said ‘thanks’ for the figures you sent me, very concise and understandable, I see no reason that our working relationship should not remain on an even keel throughout the project.”

  He laughed, “I’m sure there will be times when things get a little fraught they always do, but I feel sure we can overcome any obstacles if we work closely together.” I thanked him and agreed to keep in touch.

  Now to work, more effort would be needed today, not just because of the analysis, but I didn’t really want to be there. My mind was elsewhere. I couldn’t wait to get back to the condo. I had for just one moment wished I had kept the Audi but that would raise more questions than I needed right now so I decided a jog back along the beach would be quicker than the bus.

  Having arrived back at the condo, a quick meal of sea food and wine and I was raring to go. “Firstly,” I said, “let’s go through the ideas you have come up with, then I will spend time inwardly digesting them and then go over any ideas I may have with you.”

  Paul’s first item on the list was, “We should concentrate on hacking into their computer system maybe the one that runs the accounting package, closing down the virtual servers which back up the financial transactions overnight. This leaves the possibility that the computer Department Heads will not realise there is a problem until the following morning. Once they have begun sorting out the problem, we can then turn our attention to the server that catches each day’s transactions before the updates are captured by the virtual one. You see, if the virtual server is down, the system relies solely on the updates that take place which are saved by the operatives.”

  “We could try closing down the virtual server on day one leaving two, maybe three days, before we crash the daily updating one, that will leave them very little time to sort the one out before we crash the other,” I said.

  “Sounds like a plan,” Paul agreed.