Conscious Revenge Read online

  I was getting quite used to checking chickens. The science behind the different projects was brilliant, Andy certainly knew his business. As the research continued and the necessary changes made, so the financial benefits grew, he would soon be as rich as me!! I will miss working for Andy when the time comes for me to change my life again, that’s if I have a life. It’s difficult at the moment to imagine how I will ever achieve stability again. Looking over my shoulder has become second nature to me now.

  In the back of my mind was the text message to Paul from Lorna, in some ways I wish he would find it in the received box and take me to task. I could then explain and he could fill me in on the reason Lorna had his number when we agreed earlier to no communication on his work phone. I was still puzzled and a bit uneasy.

  I awoke from my daydream by the phone ringing on my desk, this was something new as no one ever rings me here, I went cold, what could Paul want ringing me at work, we had made a pact I was out of bounds at work. A frantic Paul was on the line, “Bill, please come quickly, something awful has happened.” I tried to get out of Paul what had happened but he was unable to speak.

  Terrified by the panic in his voice, I picked up my bag and made for the door, telling Andy I would have to go as something had happened. He didn’t ask what, as he could see from my demeanour that I was freaked.

  I ran at top speed. Good job the new condo was closer, otherwise I would have had to take the bus! My mind was reeling, had they got to Paul, was his life in danger, were they waiting for me and using Paul as bait, would I have to approach carefully or at top speed breaking down the door, I wish I had a gun.

  I had no need to break down the door Paul was running towards me with a look I had never seen before. “It’s your boy,” he said, almost collapsing onto the ground.

  My heart stopped. “What?” I heard myself saying over and over again.

  He was having difficulty putting the words together. “He’s gone.”

  “What do you mean gone!” I shouted trying to get some sense out of him.

  “He didn’t arrive at the after-school activities. The last the headmistress saw of him he was holding hands with another teacher that was taking him to the stadium. Lorna is frantic as there had been no sign of him since.”

  I must contact Lorna was my first thought. “Where’s your phone?” I said to Paul.

  “No,” he said, “you must let me deal with this, Lorna has enough to deal with without you just ringing out of the blue.”

  Tears ran down my face, what have I done, it was one thing them taking it out on me, but my boy, oh God what can I do. Paul gave me a slap bringing me back to reality. “I will go home straight away and help with the search.”

  “If it’s a straight swop, him for me,” I pleaded, “take me now.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Paul said. “You must stay here, I will keep you up to date on the internet minute by minute, don’t move, don’t go out, all hell is let lose at home and any intervention by you will only add to the chaos.”

  As Paul left for the airport I was distraught. It was bad enough having my boy gone, but knowing and being unable to help him was worse than any hurt the bastards could inflict on me, I felt anger like I had never felt before, it consumed me, I wanted for the first time in my life to commit murder.

  The red mist would not clear as I had no one to inflict the passion to kill on. I was on the floor banging my hands until they bled. Suddenly, the tears stopped and sobbing took their place. I was a wreck, but my pain was nothing more than I deserved, my innocent boy, what had he done, nothing, even drink would not work I didn’t want to feel relief, why should I? I had caused all of this anguish its only right that I should suffer, and suffering, I was.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Paul was true to his word and was posting the latest position to me on the internet. The local, district and now the FBI police were on the scene I wrote back, “How is Lorna keeping up, is Katie OK?” Bryn Katie and Lorna were my life before all of the madness.

  “Katie’s fine,” he said, “kids seem not to understand fully when things like this happen, she sits on Lorna’s lap all the time so we know she’s aware that Bryn’s gone somewhere.” “Have the kidnappers been in touch yet. Do they want me? I will be back in a trace if they do and damn the consequences.” I really should have seen this coming but I never imagined any of this sorry mess. I would never have started it in the first place. That sounded weak coming from a man that had put everything he cared about in such danger.

  The next e-mail from Paul was short and to the point, “FBI think it’s about the publicity that surrounds the family due to your disappearance and nothing else.” No reference to the money I had taken was mentioned, as far as Paul could tell, no one other than the person or persons who had tried to kill me knew the money was missing.

  “Staying where you are is still the best idea,” he said, “as any revelation of your whereabouts would detract the police in their negotiations with the kidnappers.”

  I read the e-mail in disbelief, they were in negotiations, had Paul not told me what he was thinking. I e-mailed back, “What’s happening, you didn’t tell me they had heard from the kidnapper. I’m going frantic here, please let me know what’s going on.”

  I waited for a reply, I had not slept in days and was totally distraught but until a reply came from Paul with some hope I would be in turmoil. I stared at the screen for what seemed like forever, Paul had nothing to tell me, otherwise I felt sure he would be replying post haste. I realise I must let the Police do their job but I feel completely helpless.

  When the e-mail came the sound shocked me, I must have been in a daze. The kidnappers had said they were from the People against the Financial Exploitation of the Poor and wanted to draw attention to their plight. They had not intended to harm Bryn, or even frighten him, he was safe and sound and back with Lorna and Katie. It was the business I was in and not the missing money, the relief was immense, the money mattered little in the scale of things. I made a pact with the devil that if I ever met up with the pigs that had caused Lorna and me so much anguish there would be no boundaries in my quest for revenge. Bryn was safe and at that moment that was all that mattered.

  A further e-mail confirmed they had arrested the people responsible twelve in all and they would no doubt be going to jail for a very long time. I was still guilty of putting my family in harm’s way, with what started as a way to give us all a better life was now a complete and utter mess that I may never be able to put right. I was now certain that Lorna would never forgive me, the bridges I had hoped to build with her seemed further away than ever.

  Paul’s final e-mail helped me to sleep a little, although I woke with sweat running down my back. It wasn’t the heat but the total nightmare of the last week or so - this was far worse than anything that had been done to me physically.

  A further e-mail from Paul said that he would not be able to get back to Cayman as quickly as he had hoped as Lorna needed him until her sister arrived from Australia to help her get over the trauma. The office was also quizzing him as to when he was actually getting back to work, “I am stalling them as much as I can, but I am not sure how much longer it will be before you and I are through with the checking and life can begin to return to some sort of normality.” I questioned if my life would ever me normal again, I doubted it would.

  The routine of work and checking the numbers soon had me wondering what on earth I was doing, the list of clients didn’t seem to be getting smaller, the only consolation I had was that no more money had gone missing and my bank accounts were swelling every day. I must find a way to get my life back somehow; even revenge took a back seat as I was now more focused on getting my life back together.

  I made a decision to consolidate the many bank accounts I had originally opened to hold the stolen money, and just leave three or four that would hold the current $16.5 million, that way when the job was done it would be easier to move it all to offshore accounts wh
ere I felt sure they would be virtually impossible to find.

  The task of closing and opening further accounts using the internet was simple enough. That was until I discovered that one of the accounts had been changed already and the money was sitting in an account I didn’t recognise. The password had been changed and the account that had held the original $1.5 million was attached to Westline Investments before the account was compromised by a third-party. I once again thought of James Hollingsworth, but somehow this latest move seemed unlikely as he would have to have knowledge of the bank account Paul and I had set up before we crashed the site.

  I spent most of the night trying to find the password to access the new bank account using my hacker skills. When I finally found it I made sure that the transfer to one my other accounts was swift and secure. I emptied the bogus account and closed it leaving no trace. Up to this point, I had little time to think about how this could have happened, as Hollingsworth certainly could not have found this account in advance of the spectacular crash Paul and I had inflicted upon it, but someone had and I didn’t like what was going through my mind.

  It couldn’t be, could it? In the cold light of day, I began to wonder if 40% was not enough. I sat in a daze thinking of all that Paul knew I had been through, surely he must have known I would somehow discover what had happened if it was him, unless this sudden turn of events had come at a time when he was unable to hide this account before going to the aid of Lorna. Perhaps I had been naive in thinking he was helping me when all along he was helping himself. How easy would it be to get rid of me? I was already missing, the next step would have been easy. 100% is much better than 40% especially when the bulk of the work was already done, only securing the millions for myself was left to do.

  Was he behind what happened to me in the first place, did he suspect what I was up to at G&F? We were close at that time, maybe something I did made him suspicious. It wouldn’t be difficult for him to find, not with the skills he possessed.

  I must stop thinking like this, without Paul where would I be now. Maybe he had no idea I had survived until my e-mail about our School Mistress at Yale, maybe it’s not only the money he was interested in, my next thought scared the pants off me, Lorna, of course, not only did he want the money I had stolen, but my wife and kids as well?

  I was drinking and shaking with anger at the idea that the one person I had trusted could do these things. Could I be mistaken, was I on the wrong track? I must be, I began to wonder how I could find out for sure. My mind was no longer clear and I fell to sleep completely exhausted.

  I woke at mid-day the next day my mind no clearer, I must find a way to discover and prove one way or another that my thinking was on the right track. The friendship Paul and I had shared over the years made me doubt I had it right, but all of the other options drew a blank.

  Somewhere along the line, there was something that stopped me in my tracks, the likelihood of it being someone else without the inside knowledge of what had taken place with the money and me was remote.

  I began to scheme. Without letting Paul know I was suspecting him, I would move all of the money we had so far, including the $1.5 million from Westline into an offshore account that he would not be able to locate. I would set it up so that the links and transfers would be pass worded in such a way that should he discover the money missing, I could easily explain that I was spooked by the kidnap of Bryn, thinking that the People against Financial Exploitation would have the ability to hack into bank accounts and didn’t want ours to be targeted. It sounded a bit lame as we had many protections set up, but nevertheless it would give me a chance to see his reaction.

  I worked at home the rest of the day and needed to ring Andy to explain how I would need a couple of days off, if it was alright with him. I figured that during my time working for him I had had no time off at all and that he would hopefully be reasonable if I promised to make good the time on my return. Just as I thought he was willing to let me off and made a joke, “You must give me double time when you get back,” he laughed. What a great bloke! Realising the words ‘great bloke’ were the same words I had used to describe Paul made me want to cry.

  I consolidated and moved as many of my accounts as I could using techniques known only by a few, I must not lose sight of the fact that Paul was one of the few, so I twisted and turned and finally ended up with all of the $16.6 plus million in just three accounts that were so obscure in Countries that were not so used to large deposits but were very discrete. When I mentioned to bank managers, the size of the transfers I wanted to make into their banks my powers of persuasion were accepted readily and their normal precautions ceased to exist. I now had just three accounts, each holding $5.5 plus million and began to close down all of the other accounts I had used for the scam.

  Following that, I removed the programs and filters to make sure that the client accounts would now have the correct amount of interest filtering into their banks and everything would get back to normal. At this moment, I no longer cared about finding or inflicting physical revenge on the person who had harmed me, as I was pretty sure who that was but I needed to be sure. I had loved Paul more like a brother than a friend and trusted him with my life, however misguided that seemed now.

  The following days passed without consequence. I tried hard not to e-mail Paul to find out when he would be back, the longer he stayed away the more confident I would be that my deception would work. After the initial hurt had subsided I made a pact that, in the event Paul proved to be the culprit, I would have to find a way to deal with the situation any way I could.

  Andy had been great and didn’t ask why I needed the time off. I assured him I would work all hours to get back on top of the job. I was really glad I had this job at the moment, the thought of being unable to use my mind for something other than the constant trauma that consumed me during my time in the condo would have been too much to bear.

  I began wondering how Lorna was and if her sister was with her now, hoping Paul would have less time to plan how to seduce her with his natural charisma. I’d give him charisma when I find out for sure if it is him. I must stop speculating and I tried to remind myself that revenge was definitely off the agenda, for the time being anyway.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Andy had asked me to go for a drink with him one evening after work. We went to a local bar that he knew well and all of the people knew him, he was certainly a well-liked and respected member of the island community. I felt part of them for the first time and was grateful for the chance to mix with other people after all of this time. Everyone seemed to enjoy a drink, as with Joseph, rum was the order of the day. I could get used to this. The more we drank the more I relaxed.

  I met some people from local businesses and some of the people that worked for Andy, as I was drinking a was forced to remember the last time I got drunk on rum, not a pleasant thought, so I began to temper the amount with punch but without the rum, hoping no one would notice, these people must be well-seasoned drinkers, maybe I just needed more practice.

  The bar was full of local characters all happy and pleased to give their time to a stranger and exchange stories, I was careful not to exchange too many of my stories as I am sure they will not believe me. As the sun set on the sea turning it bright red the bar filled up and spread out onto the beach, a steel band began to play and people danced and laughed, how happy everyone was. This would be me I felt sure as soon as I could get my life back in order. A young dusky skinned local girl danced close to me and I began to move with the rhythm, first time in a long time I began to enjoy the moment. Andy gave me a ‘just look at you’ look and I laughed. It felt good to be part of people just enjoying life.

  I rolled back to the Condo just after two in the morning more relaxed than I could remember in a long time. The people here have certainly got the right idea of how to live life, at that moment I promised myself this was how I would live my life no matter how things panned out in the next few months or years dependi
ng.

  The weekend came around again and my mind was focusing on a no physical revenge for Paul. I would use once again the many skills I had been taught at G&F plc., mainly the ones enabling me to check out potential customers for viability and financial wealth, which our company would inevitably be able to tap into during the Investments they would make on their clients’ behalf. The main methods we used were local and overseas checking agencies that would supply financial institutions with information that would normally only be available to the clients themselves. This information was given under strict rules and the password issued to only the most trusted of employee’s. Guess what, I was ‘one of these’ it seems hard to believe now how much I had changed.

  I started by finding out if the passwords that I had been given prior to all of the madness were still in place. I could see no reason why they would change them as only a few of us had been granted access. As my demise would seem permanent to the bosses at G&F, there would be no reason for them to remove me from the list of trusted employees’. There was also no way that the other trusted members of the team would have any idea that I had tried to use one of the passwords following my disappearance, as each employee was able to access the system without the knowledge of the others.

  Bingo, I was in the site, I could now find out his credit card details, his bank account details, his mother’s maiden name and hacking gave me his passwords. I already knew his address and it didn’t take long to find out his Social Security number and birthdate. I should have remembered his birthday but, with everything that had happened, it had slipped my mind.