Alex Gray - The Riverman

Her husband was having an affair, she read. Had been having an affair for several years, if the letter was to be believed. With someone in the office.

Liz looked at the letter and the envelope. It wasn’t office stationery, that was for sure, but it must have come from somebody in the firm. Her mind buzzed with several possibilities. One of the partners? But even as she tried to picture Duncan’s closest colleagues, Liz could only call to mind the various women who peopled her husband’s working life.

But this was absurd! Duncan wasn’t the type to have a fling! They were happy together. He loved her. Wasn’t he always telling her so? Then why did she feel as if someone had punched her in the stomach? Why was she having any doubts at all? Why was her mind frantically running through the faces of Forbes Macgregor’s female members of staff? Was this what the writer had intended? Was this some insidious ploy to throw Liz Forbes into confusion? To make mischief between Duncan and herself?

Liz let out a huge shuddering sigh that ended in a sob. Whatever the intention behind this letter, it was making her feel as though she had been hurled into the bottom of a deep dark well. There was nowhere to go, no discernable way out. She couldn’t tell anybody about it in case it was true. Especially Duncan. But she couldn’t ignore it either. It was there in front of her, its words and sentences starkly telling her of her husband’s infidelity. Or telling her a pack of filthy lies, more like, Liz’s more robust, sensible voice asserted. What to do? Bin it and forget it ever arrived? That was the wiser course of action, wasn’t it?

But even as Liz Forbes’ trembling fingers folded the letter back into its blue envelope she was thinking of a place where she would keep it hidden.

‘Thank you for seeing me at such short notice,’ Duncan began. ‘Sorry you had to put off your client, Alec,’ he added, noticing the frown above the managing partner’s rimless spectacles. Duncan sat down, straightening his back from the tweed of the chair as its coarseness rubbed against his shirt. He was uncomfortable enough as it was, the managing partner’s large bulk looming across at him. The man’s unsmiling expression suggested a barely concealed impatience, his jaw firm under layers of flesh, his hazel eyes assessing Duncan coldly. Alec Barr had become head of the Glasgow office by dint of his personality as much as by his expertise in tax matters. There had never been any bitterness on Duncan’s part when their paymasters in London had seen fit to bypass him for the senior post; Alec was undoubtedly the right man to run the Glasgow office in this twenty-first century. Yet he had had some misgivings since then, more due to the man’s style than anything else. These regrets, he’d persuaded himself, were simply nostalgia for a family firm that no longer existed.

‘Now what’s all this about, Duncan? Your email came over pretty strong.’ Barr was already flicking papers on his desk as if whatever lay there took precedence over his partner’s request for an immediate meeting. Suddenly Duncan felt an angry warmth suffusing his cheeks and he stared at the man opposite until Barr was forced to look up and meet his eyes.

‘It’s bad, Alec,’ Duncan began, his tone deliberately sombre.

‘Someone been putting their fingers in the till, eh?’ Alec gave a mirthless smile but his lips tightened when Duncan nodded slowly, his expression inscrutable.

‘Who the hell …?’ Barr whipped off his glasses, glaring at Duncan in disbelief. For a moment the managing partner’s discomfiture gave Duncan a fleeting spark of pleasure. Under any other circumstances he would be glad to have unsettled the man who now held such major control of his family’s firm. But not now, he realized as the moment burned down into a sudden cinder. Not now.

He took a deep breath. ‘Michael Turner came to me last week. With this.’ Duncan fished out a sheet of A4 paper that had been secreted in a pink file. He watched as Alec Barr read its contents, noting the man’s frown deepening. At last Alec looked up. His face seemed to have fallen in on itself, the fleshy jowls slack, the mouth part open in disbelief. For the first time since Duncan had known him, the man appeared exposed and vulnerable. Then the lips closed again and he replaced the half-moon glasses on his nose. Silently he read the contents of the paper once more then looked straight at Duncan, waving the paper between them.

‘And what have you done since then? Nothing stupid, I hope.’

Duncan raised his eyebrows. Whatever Alec expected him to do, surely he could rely on his integrity?

‘I told Michael I’d deal with it, not to worry and to keep it to himself for the moment.’

‘For the moment ! For God’s sake, man! Something like this could blow us all sky high!’ Barr’s voice barely rose nor did he thump the desktop, but his eyes had darkened and twin crescents of red were flushing his cheeks.

Duncan said nothing. Seven sleepless nights had given him enough time to work out the implications of young Michael’s discovery. It was interesting to have seen these same implications flitting like shadows across Alec Barr’s florid face.

‘Have you spoken to anyone else about this? Liz?’

Duncan shook his head. ‘Not even Liz.’

‘But why didn’t you come to me straight away, man?’ Alec seemed genuinely perplexed. ‘Why wait a whole week?’

Duncan resisted a smile. Alec Barr might be the managing partner of Forbes Macgregor and have the biggest stake in the firm north of the border, but it was Duncan who had invested most of his life in this accountancy practice.

‘To think it all through,’ he replied at last.

‘And what conclusions have you come to?’ Barr growled.

‘There’s only one option as I see it,’ Duncan sighed. ‘We have to find out who’s behind this … discrepancy … and then be as open as we can about it. That way we’ll at least salvage some of our reputation.’

Alec Barr narrowed his eyes but said nothing, nodding at the man opposite. Duncan sighed again, more in relief than anything else. It was going to be okay. At least Alec appeared to agree with him on this.

‘Any idea who …?’ Barr asked at last.

Duncan shook his head. ‘Hadn’t got as far as that, I’m afraid. It’s obviously one of us. Nobody else but one of the partners has the kind of clout to sanction something like this.’

‘Well, it isn’t me!’ Barr growled again.

‘D’you think I’d be here now if I thought that, Alec?’ Duncan asked quietly. For a moment both men stared at one another and Duncan Forbes felt a flicker of misgiving. The managing partner had been very quick to leap to his own defence. Too quick, perhaps?

‘No. Of course not. Look, Duncan, you’ve obviously been through a hell of a week, keeping this to yourself, but this is what I want you to do. Just go about your affairs as normal. Don’t try to track down this person by yourself.’

‘What are you going to do about it?’

‘I’ll put things in motion. It might not be a lost cause. Yet,’ he added grimly, seeing the doubt on Duncan’s face. ‘Give me a few weeks to have an internal investigation set up, maybe under the pretext of a routine review. I’ll think of something. Then I’ll get back to you. All right?’

‘I can’t see how we can salvage anything. Once word gets out it’ll be a rerun of the Enron disaster. There are almost three hundred partners in the UK alone. We’re all collectively liable, you know, Alec,’ he added gently.

‘I know,’ Barr replied testily. ‘And that’s why I’m not going down without a fight. Just keep your mouth shut, Duncan. This conversation never took place. Right? And maybe you’ll be able to thank me in a couple of months’ time if I succeed.’