The Reckless Engineer (12 page)

Alan had finished his burrito and his beer. Jeremy’s glass was empty too.

‘Let’s talk over another round of drinks, Alan.’

The pub was sparsely populated by a handful people in small groups or couples, most of them sitting outside in the sun. A young couple sat inside by one of the wall-high and wood-framed glass panels that separated the pub’s interior from the deck, deeply engrossed in each other. The interior was a large space, with a dark, high, and heavy wood-beam roof, dark wooden pillars holding it up at strategic points, and a dozen intimate dining areas of different heights joined to each other by wooden steps. Despite a bright afternoon sun peering in through one whole wall of glass panels the interior still had a dark atmosphere, the tables lit with low-hanging shaded lights, giving you the feeling of been hidden from the people seated nearest to you even when the pub was full. But at 4 p.m. on a Monday afternoon they did not have to worry about privacy from the crowds for at least another hour or so, if at all. The regular crowds did not feel inclined to come for a drink after work until later in the week.

The bartender walked up to the bar to serve them from a table at which he had been relaxing with a mate.

‘I have to follow my own regulations not to come into the office with too much alcohol in one’s blood, Jeremy,’ Alan reminded him. He ordered coffee and half a pint of coke. ‘Besides, I need all my wits about me in that office right now.’

‘Jack’s eldest son is driving me,’ Jeremy explained, but he nevertheless followed his boss, or rather his client-to-be, and also ordered coffee and a coke.

‘I’m here partly to recruit you. So this lunch is on Marine.’ Alan smiled and paid for the drinks.

Sweet words in my ears.
Jeremy had to muster all his powers of self-control to keep a lid on his excitement.

The afternoon sun was already beginning to tire and yawn by its hours of effort at heating the mid-autumn air. They took a seat inside this time.

‘My company, Radio Silicon, has picked up a fair amount of work since I started it a little over a year ago, Alan. I have two PhD’s trained up and I’m about to hire two more,’ Jeremy started the negotiations, exaggerating his success more than a little and making a mental note to set Sean to the task of advertising for two more electronic engineers. ‘What I propose is that I place my top man, Sean, as an on-site consultant under you; that Radio Silicon sub-contract whatever projects you need me to take on, and that we take the core work off site to my offices. I shall be driving Sean and the work myself. I can meet you once a week and also talk to Jack to pick up the technical details. We can agree an hourly rate for Sean, and a fixed fee for each one of the project components. I can set up Sean to start work with you from next Monday. How does that sound?’

Alan was pleased and relieved by Jeremy’s stepping in to take some of the weight off his shoulders so effectively. The negotiations continued for another forty minutes over another round of drinks before Alan called Marine to send his car to pick them up.

‘So, you have met Jack’s father-in-law?’ Jeremy enquired casually.

‘Ah, yes, Douglas McAllen, a remarkable man. About two months ago he bought two boats from our subsidiary, mounted with the best Marine equipment, he said, for transporting equipment and for sales trips to and from offshore oil rigs. His preoccupation during the conversations, however, was Jack’s affair with Michelle. He put me in a damned awkward position by asking me to fire either Michelle or Jack. Outright, to my face just like that! He said he wanted to take Jack on full time for BlackGold.’

This
was interesting news!

‘I said that Marine’s new American masters at AirWater had ordered me that the company must not interfere with the private lives of individual employees. I told him that my hands were tied and that the best I could do was to issue written warnings to keep all interactions on business matters only while on the office premises. I promised Mr. McAllen that they would be monitored and any breach would trigger disciplinary action resulting in either or both of them being fired. Actually both Douglas McAllen and I thought it was only a matter of time before one or the other breached the warning, though no one expected it to happen quite in this manner.’

Alan paused, shaking his head in despair.

‘I should have taken the man’s advice and made Michelle redundant at once, but I thought that having Jack unhappy with me in that post would be counterproductive to my team at this crucial point in time with AirWater.’

The driver had appeared through the entrance, ready to take them home.

‘There was no way for you to have known how things would pan out and you did your best under the circumstances, Alan.’ Jeremy sucked up to his new boss and client as they put their jackets on.

‘By the way, Alan, might I ask you for a favour? I need to take a backup image of my laptop. I think it is about to fail. I need the equipment to make the backup image and to borrow an external drive to take it home with me. It will only take about fifteen minutes,’ Jeremy requested, picking up his case, Caitlin’s laptop still safely cradled in it.

‘Of course. Come into the labs and pick up any equipment you need from the stores. Here, use my spare security card to get around.’ Alan put a hand on his shoulder and led them out of The Mermaid.

Jeremy was going to hack into Caitlin’s private life through her computer. He had great qualms and a sense of guilt about it, but for Jack’s sake he was going to do it anyway.

CHAPTER 15

Monday, October 18 – Three Days Later

Following the main course of Monday dinner, dessert and coffee was to be served in the Sitting Room at McAllen’s invitation. Everybody had dressed for dinner, smartly if not formally, even Peter, who had only pecked at his food lightly. It seemed to be the rule for dinner when the Master of the house was in residence.

This, the largest living room in the mansion, had French patio doors half-a-wall long that opened out into a glass conservatory overlooking the half-length pool in the backyard steaming into the cold autumn air. Peter had turned on the heating in the pool and was swimming lengths back and forth—a powerful front crawl away from them, an elegant back stroke towards them—his muscles glistening from the steam and the effort. The rhythmic splash of the water breaking from his strokes and from the power of his kick made a pleasant rhythm that distracted one briefly from the tensions inside the room.

Caitlin was seated at her laptop at an antique cylinder bureau set against the wall to the left of the French patio doors, with its top rolled open, unaware that an identical image of its disk lay safely hidden in Jeremy’s case upstairs.

Magnus appeared from the Library on Jeremy’s left, opening the heavy mahogany door that led into the Sitting Room from it. He was carrying a few files, which he set down on a side table next to the plush arm chair he took close to Jeremy. Magnus brushed crumbs off his beard with his forefinger and combed it down, then set his hands on his protruding stomach, his elbows on the arm rests, and drummed his fingers on it. The head of a buck with a magnificent set of antlers that Ronnie had shot himself looked over his shoulders from the wall behind him and grinned, as amused by the mannerisms as Jeremy was. The room was lit and heated by a cracking coal fire in the grand fireplace to Jeremy’s right.

Magnus pulled over and turned on one of a set of swivelling brass reading lamps set by the suite they were seated on and picked up one of his files, unfortunately sliding the rest of them onto the carpet. Jeremy sprang up and picked up the files for him. He had become very good at picking up things that Magnus dropped.

‘Good lad. Thanks, Jeremy.’ Magnus patted him on his arm and settled into browsing through the file that he had not dropped.

Félipe brought in dessert and coffee on two silver trays and served everyone, leaving master Peter’s serving on the tray on a side table.

Conversation around the dinner table had been on the topic of Jeremy’s work arrangements with Marine. There had been probing questions shot at him about how Marianne was managing and a few enquiries from McAllen about Alan Walters whom McAllen had described as “a fine young fella with a good head on his shoulders.” Jeremy had trod carefully, not giving away any personal information that either Jack or Marianne might not have liked him to, and had also managed to tease out the confirmation that the Connor financial arrangements with Marianne were still safely in place, for now.

McAllen, standing with his hands clasped behind his back and looking out the conservatory door at the swimming young man, seemed to have continued serious discussions in mind for dessert also.

‘How is BlackGold holding up Caitlin?’ He turned around.

‘There was panic first thing in the morning, Papa, but I managed to calm down the engineers.’ Caitlin turned her seat around from the bureau. ‘I couldn’t tell them the truth, so I said that it seemed like an attempt at burglary with nothing important taken. I set them to the task of putting the office and the lab back in order. They’ll be back to normal work by midday tomorrow.’

‘All this is too much for you on your own, Caitlin. Ronnie says that BlackGold’s engineering production has been lagging the projected plans for the past six months. I have asked Ronnie to step in and help you with BlackGold for some time, if at least to give you a break while this chaos gets resolved so that you can have a few days off when you need to. Ronnie is expected here within the next couple of days.’

‘I could really use a break, Papa, but I don’t know what Jack will say. BlackGold is his baby, you know that. He built it up to what it is today. Besides, the work keeps me sane through all this.’

‘Well, it is through Jack’s own recklessness that he is not here now, and the delivery of the electro-magnetic MWD tool is running three months behind schedule,’ McAllen snapped with angry frustration, cracking the furrows on his forehead into three fierce lines.

‘He made one mistake in ten years, Papa, and he was trying his best to extricate himself from it.’ Caitlin spoke earnestly in Jack’s defence.

Wait a second
, Jeremy thought. Caitlin’s description of Jack’s behaviour after the news of the pregnancy had not supported this remark. It had never occurred to him until that moment that the two of them—Jack and Caitlin—could have got rid of Michelle and the child together.

On the other hand, the possibility of the McAllens working together had been much easier to imagine. The McAllen’s had certainly acted together like clockwork to get Marianne out of the way. Gavin, Caitlin’s first boyfriend—another person that McAllen had not wanted in his way—had vanished without a trace. They had both taken the McAllen bribe and survived, or had Caitlin’s boyfriend survived, no one knew. Having quite the opposite of Marianne’s personality Michelle would have foolishly laughed at any proposal from them. She would have enjoyed flaunting her power and control over Jack in their faces. Had she paid with her life for it?

‘We don’t know how these extreme events will pan out, Caitlin,’ McAllen continued in a more conciliatory tone. ‘I have to prepare McAllen Industries for every eventuality. That is how I built up this company, and your grandpa built it before me. I know Ronnie’s no engineer, but he is a qualified geologist and he has a good head for technical management. Your brother wants to look after you, Caitlin, it seems much more than Jack does these days.’

‘Very well, Papa, for the time being. We shall review everything with Jack when he returns home.’

‘Ronnie has a little girl, righ’, a wee little girl?’ Magnus looked up from his paperwork.

‘Aye, little Kristie is two years old now. She will be staying with her mother, Leana, and Gillian in Aberdeen. Only Ronnie will be flying out here. Inspector Edwards insisted on interviewing Ronnie at the police station this morning, if you remember, Magnus. I don’t want his men showing up in Aberdeen and upsetting my family there. I had to promise Edwards that Ronnie would come here.’

‘I was also going to say, Caitlin’—McAllen turned back to her—‘since it is an engineer BlackGold needs to handle the work backlog while Jack’s dealing with these bloody affairs of his, why don’t you take Jeremy down to the labs and let him have a look at some of Jack’s incomplete designs? I am sure Jack would appreciate your help, Jeremy. I have been thinking of having you do some work for us for quite some time son, and we could put a subcontract in place for you to take on the MWD Tool, for a start.’

Another engineering contract, and with McAllen Industries no less! Jeremy could not believe his luck, though it was sad that it was rising out of the ashes of Jack’s misfortune.

Jeremy’s mobile rang with an inopportune urgency, interrupting the proposition that McAllen had clearly been leading up to from the beginning of the evening in the Sitting Room. It was Harry.

‘Jeremy, Edwards has made some progress this afternoon. He’s now ready to let Jack come home on police bail. It is not all good news, however, I’m afraid, Jeremy. He’s being bailed back to the Portsmouth Magistrates Court for tomorrow afternoon. He’s being charged with the murder of Michelle Williams and with child destruction of her unborn child. He gets less than a day to clean up and get some rest. Edwards doesn’t think he is in a good way right now.’

‘Oh, God, no!’ Jeremy’s heart fell. This could
not
be happening!

‘I am on my way there. Jack has asked me to stay the night, to prepare him for tomorrow’s hearing and to help him handle his father-in-law and relatives. Nothing much happens tomorrow. Jack will simply plead “not guilty” to the charges and he will be bailed out immediately to return home. I have spoken to the Crown Prosecution Service. No one believes he will re-offend in any way, or that he’s a flight risk with all his family and financial ties here. I shall handle everything from then on until the trial which won’t be at least for another four months yet.”

‘It is great you’re on your way here, Harry.’

‘Listen. Could you pick up Jack from the police station? I have arranged for everything and Jack is in the process of signing the bail notice as we speak. All you have to do is pick him up. He will be waiting for you. I gather Douglas McAllen is there with you?’

‘Yes, we’re all here.’

‘Give them the brief news just the way I explained to you. I shall handle the details myself when I get there.’

‘Okay, will do.’

Jeremy got off the phone and relayed the news quickly.

‘Oh, my God!’ Caitlin got up from her seat with fear and sorrow for Jack in her eyes. ‘Let’s go get Jack, Jeremy. I shall drive. Papa can stay here and wait for Harry. Please, Papa, do
not
say anything to put Jack under any more pressure than he has on him right now. Let him just eat and go to bed tonight.’

‘Hannah,’ Caitlin called out as she headed out the main door out of the Sitting Room into the hallway. ‘Please make dinner for two. Mushroom soup, roasted rump of lamb, Dauphinoise potatoes, and beans in red wine sauce, the way Jack likes; and run a warm bath for him. Please also prepare the guest room adjacent to Jeremy’s for Harry, his attorney, and serve him dinner in his room when he gets here.’

They left Peter still swimming his laps outside, unaware that his dad’s life had just improved greatly from the caged hell he had been in for the past few days, but things were set to get worse soon.

Jack was waiting for them. As they turned into the police station premises they could see him seated on the steps outside the locked and bolted front door clutching the bail notice in one hand. He was huddling his knees in the foetal position, rocking back and forth, and drawing in a little heat from the light above the steps against the biting chill of the night air. He had not wanted to stay inside the station for a second longer than he was forced to.

Caitlin braked the car to a stop still in the middle of the driveway; she got out, ran to him, and gathered him into a hug. Jeremy walked up slowly and put the warm thick coat he had around Jack as Caitlin eased him from her embrace and helped him up. Jeremy could feel the chill getting to his skin through his cotton shirt, but this building, and what it meant for Jack, chilled him to the bones for a whole other reason.

‘Thank you. Thank you. I’m sorry, Caitlin,’ Jack muttered weakly, coughing, as he walked to the warmth and comfort of the back seat of the Jag, his eyes dry even though Caitlin had tears running down her cheeks.

Once in the car Caitlin adjusted the rear view mirror so that she could see Jack in it, and started talking to him nonstop throughout the drive home. She had sent Gillian away to Aberdeen, she said, but Peter had been a rock. No one other than the family, Magnus, Harry, Marianne, and Jeremy knew about Jack’s involvement with the police. She had kept the servants away except Hannah and Félipé. Jeremy had taken care of his work at Marine. She had BlackGold under control and running smoothly. Harry had been brilliant . . .

Jack seemed to visibly draw in strength and comfort from her voice and the positive message in it.

It is not going to be like that. Sadly it’s going to take a turn for the worse tomorrow
.

‘Are you okay man?’ Jeremy enquired, turning back during a brief pause in Caitlin’s narrative.

Jack nodded giving them a hint of a smile.

‘I need a warm bath, a hot meal, and a day of sleep. Then I should be fine,’ he said in a feeble, hoarse voice.

Caitlin had got through to Hannah on the phone and was giving instructions again.

‘Hannah, please call Dr. Alexander and have him come in for a house visit as soon as possible. Jack needs to see a doctor. Make some chicken soup as well. I think he’s running a temperature.’

Jack was resilient though he had not sounded very convincing, Jeremy tried to tell himself. He was thinner and weaker than when he had seen him on Friday eve. Dark circles had appeared around his eyes like the dark clouds gathering around the moon in the cold autumn sky. He seemed to have neither eaten nor slept and was coughing painfully from having caught a chill. Three days in a cold police cell and the mental strain of his troubles had already shrunk Jack into a mere shadow of himself. And yet this was only the beginning. Tomorrow Jack was going to be charged with the deaths of Michelle and her unborn child. And Harry was not going to be able to keep Jack’s name out of the news any longer.