Twisted Love and Money (19 page)

It was a sixth
sense but Dorothy felt that Maureen saw her as a way towards a new
influence over her son. Dorothy sensed they were natural allies. To
get on her side Dorothy was agreeable and diffident, carefully
biting back on her own strong personality. Dorothy decided to watch
and learn from the mother until Jeremy was hers.

Jeremy had left
on a high note, amused and flattered by the mother’s references to
a grandchild with the O’Neill name. A last wish for her dying
years, to see Jeremy settled with a family.

Thus it was
with confidence that Dorothy had parted company with Jeremy at the
end of the evening. He had pleaded to go to his Hotel. He had to
straighten things out with David. He would ring her later.

He had not kept
his promise. No phone call. Then she had waited a day and rung his
hotel. He was not available. She had ascertained that he was in a
suite. A jealous rage built up in her. He was sharing a suite.
Dorothy asked to speak to his partner David. Not in, but the
receptionist had inadvertently confirmed that David was in the same
suite.

Dorothy tried
to stay calm. She knew she must not ring him. Must not chase. He
would only run. Like he had run from his mother. She decided to
wait, to wait and to hope.

With a sigh
Dorothy turned her attention back to the figures.

Chapter
twenty-two

Michael sat in
his office fuming. One minute he he’d been in Paris expecting a
pleasant trip, now he was back in deep shit. As he sat his fury
grew. Then he stabbed at the buzzer for his secretary. John was
required immediately.

“Am I ruined?”
he asked as John nervously sat opposite him.

“Not yet,” John
reassured. “This dispute with a major client is naturally a major
setback. But it is not the end. If we survive it will however be a
setback to our expansion plans.”

“How bad?”

“We are in a
position where we have been growing as fast as possible. On that
basis our bankers and backers have been providing funds. If we
hiccup they will be doubtful. They are not into putting funds at
risk. It can affect their jobs if they have too many losers.”

“I have to
agree,” Michael said. “If we look like losers they could rush to
get out. We have to keep growing to their expectations or they will
look elsewhere.”

John nodded. He
was about to add that it was early days and not to concentrate on
the dark side, but he could sense that Michael was about to say
more.

“John. I
brought you in to have the skill to avoid a situation like this.”
Michael began in cold tones.

“You are
talking to the wrong Director Michael. Quality is in Dermot’s
area.”

“But we should
not have extended our commitments John. That’s your business.”

“The board
discussed the extra AF orders. I warned of the dangers. It was a
board decision to take the risk. All minuted.”

“I needed a
firmer voice John. You are too keen to be agreeable. A firmer more
cautious voice.”

“I am sorry you
see it that way Michael. I stated a reasonable case. We had Peter’s
reassurances that the client was sound and relationships were good.
We got Dermot to reassure that the supply...”

“John,” Michael
cut across him, “I don’t want you to feel secure on this one. If we
cannot find a way out I will need a scapegoat for the bank. I will
have to let you go. Don’t think you will be alone. I will be saying
the same to Dermot.”

John felt his
insides tighten. He began to protest.

Michael stood
up, “We understand each other John. It is hard to say it but it had
to be said. That’s all. Get back to it.”

Michael’s voice
was cold and dismissive.

John stared at
him and then shrugged and left, deciding there was no point in
arguing with Michael in his present mood. Let him get over his
funk, he decided.

As John went
out Dermot was sitting outside waiting to go in. He stood up from
and went in to Michael’s office.

“Good luck,”
John said grimly.

John went back
to his office and revisited his copy of the figures he had prepared
for Dorothy. No change. Depressed he threw his pen down on the
paper. Nothing he could do until Dorothy got back from the Bank
Manager. He could feel his anxiety come in waves. He tensed his
body against the desk, relaxed, tensed again, relaxed. Slowly he
began to overcome his sense of panic.

He startled as
Dermot O’Rourke came through the door. Dermot was red in the face.
Knowing where he had been, John said nothing.

“Bastard,”
Dermot eventually spat out.

“Who?”

“Michael,”
Dermot spat again. “I have worked for his family man and boy. Now
he has threatened me with the sack. Me. I keep this fucking place
together. Without my organizing we would have been gone long ago.
Me. I can’t believe it.” Dermot sat down heavily. John smiled at
him.

“Me too,” he
said.

“I know,”
Dermot grinned. “We are the disposable hired hands.”

“Don’t get too
upset Dermot. Michael is currently in a panic. He thought he was
going to be worth a hundred plus million when we went to the stock
market. Now he looks like he is going broke. It’s understandable
how he is reacting. Give him time.”

Dermot shook
his head. “I don’t agree. I believe in Loyalty. Loyalty to the end.
Michael is losing his head, lashing out. I won’t find it easy to
forgive.”

“Have you
investigated what went wrong with our organic supplies?” John asked
to take the emphasis off Michael.

Dermot smiled,
“Keeping a cool head John?”

John
laughed.

“Now John,”
Dermot continued, “I have been over it all. Personally I have not
stopped working since I heard. I can tell you now. There is no
fault I can find from our end. Not unless everyone is lying and the
paperwork is rubbish.”

“So Dermot you
reckon the cock up is at the AF end?”

“If there is a
cock up,” Dermot said grimly.

“What do you
mean?”

“To me this is
enemy action. We must not be naive. We must think of a counter
plan.”

“I’m with you
Dermot.” John agreed. “Will we go over the possibilities?”

“Good,” Dermot
said grimly, but with a friendly smile he added, “let’s talk it out
together.”

Chapter
Twenty-three

“Come in, come
in,” Crawford was effusive in his friendliness.

Peter came
hesitantly across the threshold into Crawford’s large office.
Crawford’s eyes glinted as he saw the wide-eyed look on Peter’s
face. The office was designed to impress the uneasy.

“Peter O’Byrne,
I am pleased to meet you.”

Crawford shook
his hand and led him towards the conference area. Crawford sat
Peter in the low conference sofa. Crawford remained standing,
forcing Peter to look up at him.

“Coffee Peter?”
Crawford offered warmly, moving towards the bar.

“Please.” Peter
was nervous and it took great effort for him to say the word in a
relaxed manner.

Crawford
rummaged and came out with a tray. A sliver salver loaded with fine
china. Not to mention some biscuits. He placed the load on the
coffee table in front of Peter and carefully dispensed the coffee
into the fine artistically designed cups.

“Now Peter, let
us address this unfortunate problem,” Crawford opened up the
discussion.

As he spoke he
sat himself opposite Peter. Crawford’s sofa, although exactly the
same in appearance as the others in the conference area, was hard
based and he did not sink into the cushions. The result was that he
remained above Peter’s line of vision and Peter continued to look
up towards him.

“Agreed, an
unfortunate problem,” Peter began, “I came as soon as possible. My
senior Director, James O’Driscoll, who has dealt with the AF
companies for many years will be back from the middle East later on
today. When he is fully briefed he will be directly in touch with
you.”

Crawford
smiled. “Maybe we will get to the bottom of the problem ourselves
Peter,” he said, confident, friendly in tone.

“Hopefully,”
Peter said agreeably.

“Now,” Crawford
continued, picking up his cup and saucer and walking around to the
back of the sofa he had been sitting on, “Peter tell, have you got
to the bottom of the problem with the O’Byrne Quality Control
Procedures? How could so many consignments have slipped through?”
Crawford’s voice was sympathetic.

“We believe
there was a mistake,” Peter explained.

Crawford
laughed. “Obviously, and an expensive mistake at your end
Peter.”

“No, no,” Peter
protested.” the mistake was at your end, in AF.”

“Really,”
Crawford raised an eyebrow and his voice coldly rose as he said the
word.

“No, sorry, I
am not attacking AF. Genuinely we have been through all our quality
checks at O’Byrne’s and our sign offs. We cannot see where we could
have made a mistake. We conclude that AF made a mistake at their
end.”

“This is very
serious Peter.”
“I appreciate that.”

“For a supplier
to make an error is perhaps understandable,” Crawford said.

“Although
Peter, you do know we do operate on a right first time policy?”

“Yes, yes,”
Peter interjected, but before he could say more Crawford
continued.

“However,” he
thundered. “When a supplier will not admit they could have got it
wrong and in fact allege that we got it wrong at AF. That ...that’s
a relationship at an end.”

Peter gulped.
The meeting was not going the way he had envisaged.

“Mr.
Crawford...? Sir,” he began hesitantly, “O’Byrne’s and the AF group
have a long-standing relationship. We must not fall out.”

Crawford smiled
and said nothing.

“We must find a
way out of this situation,” Peter continued.

“We have,”
Crawford barked, “we have stopped your business with us. We are
investigating previous deliveries to see if there is a pattern. We
only do test checks on our suppliers normally. However we carry a
substantial stock of O’Byrne’s produce. We are going through the
lot. In the meantime we have suspended payment on all your
accounts, pending. We will re-examine if we get a clear
result.”
“But Mr. Crawford, AF owe us about twenty million. Only a small
part of the balance is for organic supplies. Most is low margin
processed vegetables and fresh supplies including mushrooms. Our
cash flow is badly affected by this.”

“You should
have thought of that before you sent us duff produce. Quality is
the hallmark of our business.”

“I must
repeat,” Peter protested, “We are not aware of sending any ‘duff’
produce. O’Byrne’s also have a first class quality image. We merely
wish for AF to suspend judgment until the relevant facts are
ascertained.”

“We have, your
account is suspended.”

“Very well,”
Peter said miserably, “but we must ascertain the facts. Mr.
O’Rourke, our procurement and Supply Director is naturally most
concerned.”

“I would expect
so. Has he been fired?”

“No, of course
not, the investigations are not complete, Mr. O’Rourke would like
to come personally and talk to your quality people, to see the
evidence with his own eyes. He believes that it is quite simple,
that the bar has been raised for O’Byrne’s produce, and without
consultation quality levels that were acceptable up to now have
suddenly changed.”
“Does he now?” Crawford barked.

“He wants to
talk with your people but they are avoiding and direct discussion
on the problem. Can you clear the way for him to have a number of
key meetings?”

“Out of the
question.”

“Pardon?”

“You heard. Out
of the question, we may be taking legal action. You don’t expect us
to give away our book of evidence. Who knows what might be
concocted by your people.”

“We are
straight dealers Mr. Crawford.”

“I don’t care
what sort of dealers you think you are in O’Byrne’s. No one outside
AF gets to our sampling and control methods. Company policy.”
“This is very difficult Mr. Crawford,” Peter pleaded. “Can you see
that we want… we need the AF business. We have served well in the
past. We need your help to get things sorted out.”

“First admit
that your firm is a fault.”

“I am not
permitted by my Board to make any admissions,” Peter defended
desperately. “But I will say, on my own recognizance, that I accept
that we may have had an error. Obviously there is fault somewhere.
Our idea was to put our people in touch with your people and work
through the evidence, as you would call it and to agree the
facts.”

“We don’t do
business that way. Sorry Peter. O’Byrne’s are out, they go on our
black list. At best, at some stage when we are satisfied, we will
settle our outstanding account to date. End of story.”

“But... But, we
have orders, we have back commitments for future orders from
AF.”

“Those orders
are subject to AF terms and conditions. These are written on the
back of our official order paper. The standard conditions are
plain. We can abort an order prior to delivery, especially if we
have quality worries.”

Peter put his
face in his hands. “Look, you could ruin us,” he said.

Crawford
laughed, “Nonsense. O’Byrne’s ruined? Ha... Your company is growing
very fast.”

“Yes, but
understand Mr. Crawford, our cash is extended. We have to cover the
money AF owes, the factory in Cork, and our forward commitments.
This cancellation is catastrophic.”

“I can’t help
that,” Crawford said flatly.

“But, just for
argument, what if you are wrong. If there is a genuine mistake at
your end and O’Byrne’s have no quality problems, we could end up
suing AF for damaging our reputation, unfair trading and so on.
It....”