Читать книгу The Fund - Jeff Edwards - Страница 17

Brian and Toby collected Fred Scott from outside his apartment block, and as he was placing his bags in the boot he noted the laptops.

‘What’s the hardware for? I thought I was going to be the only one doing the book work.’

Brian smiled at his friend of many years. ‘Toby and I have a few tasks to perform and we’ll be able to keep in contact with the office via the Internet.’

Fred worked for Brian’s family in their accountancy firm, a position that was supposed to have been occupied by Brian; however, he had chosen to study law, much to his family’s distress.

‘How has my grumpy old father been treating you?’ asked Brian as they drove down the motorway to meet the ferry.

‘Wonderful! You can congratulate me. I’ve been made a full partner thanks to Toby and The Fund. Introducing Toby and his millions as a new client was a real feather in my cap, but when you selected me to take over the accounts for The Fund your father nearly passed out in delight. We’ve had to start a completely new section just to look after the two businesses.’

‘Have you reached a final figure for Mrs Green’s estate?’ asked Toby.

‘I’ve just about sorted out all the money she held in this country.

There were a few problems because she used a number of shelf companies, but I think we’ve managed to track it all down. I’ll be able to give you a full accounting of all that in a few weeks. However, I can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel for the assets and money she had overseas. That’s why I need to get down to Jersey and Jamaica. Hopefully the two banks will be able to give me a clue where to look. So far, I’ve found substantial amounts of stocks in a variety of US corporations, property in New York, Boston, and San Francisco as well as more holding companies in offshore countries like Bermuda, Jersey and the Bahamas.’

‘So, who did all her bookkeeping for her?’ asked Toby. ‘I know I never saw her doing anything that remotely looked like big business in the entire time I knew her.’

‘That’s what I’d like to find out. It’ll go a long way to help me get a grip on the whole thing.’

Brian nodded. ‘So, they’re the sort of questions we need to have answered.’

‘Yes. That’s where we start.’

* * *

The trip to the ferry wharf passed quickly as the three of them engaged in quiet idle banter and listened to the music.

Brian finally pulled to a stop in a line of cars and trucks awaiting the order to embark. He turned off the motor and the three of them climbed out to stretch the kinks from their joints.

Fred, the bachelor of the group, emitted a hum of delight. ‘Oh!

That is tasty!’

Toby and Brian followed his gaze. Behind them had parked a new Mercedes sports car with registration plates identifying it as a rental.

Just as they had, the occupants climbed out to stretch.

The driver was a Chinese male of medium height. His jet black hair was pulled directly back from his forehead revealing an intelligent face and hard, black eyes. He was dressed in a lightweight silk suit of impeccable cut with a white silk shirt but no tie. However, it was his passenger who had attracted Fred’s admiring attention.

Her shoes were so high that they made her appear to be almost a head taller than her companion. Her own silk outfit was the colour of butter with her blouse a shade or two darker and her skin tone

somewhat lighter than the suit. The young woman’s dark hair fell straight to the middle of her back.

Fred almost drooled as he watched her arch her back and stretch.

The action caused her breasts to thrust forward against the thin material of her blouse. Diamonds sparkled on her fingers and a string of pearls circled her throat.

‘Yum!’ enthused Fred.

‘Down, boy!’ warned Toby. ‘She’s spoken for. Look at her fingers.’

‘I’m just admiring the scenery, Toby. We unmarried men are allowed to do that you know,’ he said with a wink.

Brian and Toby shrugged and enjoyed the view as well. Married to two beautiful women had certainly not dulled their appreciation of the opposite sex.

The woman became aware that she had become the centre of attention and gave the three men a cheeky grin, but her companion was not pleased and muttered something sharply to her. She snapped her attention in his direction and her head lowered at the rebuke. Chastised, she climbed back into the car and stared down at her hands which were folded in her lap.

The man climbed in beside his companion and appeared to continue to berate her.

‘Looks like someone’s nose is out of joint,’ commented Fred.

‘I can’t say as how I blame him with the way you were undressing her with your eyes,’ said Toby.

‘It costs nothing to look,’ said Fred. With the girl no longer on view he realised that the sea breeze was cold and returned to the warmth of the Jaguar’s rear seat.

Brian and Toby soon joined him.

The sound of starting motors in the line ahead of them meant that loading had begun and slowly the traffic began to edge towards the waiting ferry where crewmen stood ready to direct the vehicles to their positions.

Brian steered his Jaguar to the spot assigned to him and cut the engine before applying the brake. He had just done so when the Jaguar was nudged from behind, snapping the three men’s heads forward. Brian looked in the rear-vision mirror and saw that they had been hit by the Mercedes driven by the Chinese couple.

None of them were hurt and they quickly climbed out to assess the damage.

The girl in the Mercedes remained seated, but her companion opened his door and came forward.

‘Is there much damage?’ he asked. ‘The fools at the rental agency gave me a manual car after my people gave explicit instructions that I required an automatic. Unfortunately it was the only Mercedes they had. I’m swapping it in Jersey.’

Brian examined his car. The bumper had taken the full impact and although there did not appear to be much damage aside from a slight scratch and some missing paint he was sure that a repairer would insist on replacing the entire unit.

Toby was examining both vehicles. ‘Luckily there’s no damage to the lights or body. It was just a hard bump. How is your companion?’

‘My wife is fine,’ said the man with a steely glint in his eye.

Brian regarded the man, his ability to read people telling him that the man before him couldn’t care less about the accident or even if someone had been hurt. He cared more about the fact that he, himself, had been made to look somehow inferior in the eyes of these three men.

‘I will instruct my staff that all repair bills will be paid promptly.’

He reached inside his coat and extracted a business card which he passed to Brian.

Brian took out one of his own cards and presented it to the man before reading the card he had been given.

H Leong Soh advised the world that he was Chairman of Celestial Clothing in Hong Kong.

Soh was also reading Brian’s card. ‘The Fund? What is The Fund?’

Toby explained. ‘We’re a charity. The Fund undertakes international welfare programs.’

The words charity and welfare caused a curtain of indifference to descend behind Soh’s eyes and a slight sneer twisted his lips.

Brian could see that to Soh’s way of thinking the people before

him were less than nothing. They had nothing to offer that would be of use to offer him and so he was no longer interested in them. Too much of his valuable time was already wasted with interfering fools who thought his workers should be better off than they were and he had no time for people such as those he now faced.

‘I will tell my staff to expect your invoice,’ he said sharply before turning away to forestall any further conversation.

‘Let’s get out of here,’ said Toby. ‘We’ll be shoving off soon.’

‘Okay,’ agreed Brian, giving the damage to his brand new car one more close look. ‘There’s nothing else I can do for the moment.’

Club Class on the ferry consisted of a private lounge with padded seats and the three friends made themselves comfortable for the three hour trip just as the ferry pulled away from the wharf and headed for the gap in the breakwater.

‘I notice our friend did not offer an apology,’ said Fred.

‘No he didn’t, did he,’ replied Brian. ‘I think admitting he did the wrong thing is something totally alien to someone like Mr H Leong Soh,’ he said, reading from the business card.

‘Definitely not the type of person that would know the meaning of the word “humble”,’ agreed Toby.

‘Still, I admire his taste in women,’ offered Fred as he continued to watch the Asian couple who had now taken seats on the opposite side of the room.

They had entered the salon soon after the three friends and when Soh had seen where they sat he had then taken his wife’s arm roughly and steered her to seats as far from them as possible.

Fred felt a wave of anger when he noticed the grimace of pain on the woman’s face as Soh forced her to precede him.