Author's Notes: I haven't written something like this in years; so
this is a new learning or relearning curve for me. I hope people will read
this, give constructive feedback and maybe...just maybe they may like it to.
Fraud – The
Games People Play
Chapter 1
Rachel Smith grabs a copy of the free daily newspaper as she
ascends the stairs that take her to the train platform. She glances at the news
feeds on the front page; it’s not news to her she knew these things were going
to hit the newsstands today. She riffles through the other pages quickly
looking for something other than sports that she wasn’t aware of; and then she
finds it.
There on page 23 was the story and it only takes up a quarter of
the page. It is a story about a man who had swindled not one or two women but 5
different women out of money, he swindled them out of thousands of thousands of
money according to the article. Apparently this man created a fake persona that
made him seem loaded and they fell for it. What Rachel does not get is, if he
was that rich why did he need to borrow money from these women and why didn’t
the alarm bells sound off to these women?
As she reads on she finds out that he had offered to invest the
money for each woman and they believed him because he was supposedly loaded.
But once they gave him the money to invest he stopped contacting them and
disappeared.
Unfortunately there are no pictures of this lothario and the silly
women who fell for his shtick.
She folds the paper in her lap, puts it in her bag, gets up and
walks towards the train door. She hangs unto the rail near the train door to
steady herself due to the train’s unsteady motion under her feet. The train
would be arriving at her stop next.
Exiting the train, she makes her way out of the station and unto
the main road that leads to her office. Stopping at her favourite café along
the way to buy an espresso with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. She downs the espresso in one gulp
scalding her throat and tongue slightly in the process and then shakes her head
slightly due to the strength of espresso. With a slightly shaky pep in her step
she makes her way to the office.
The office is bustling with activity, the phones are ringing of
the hook, people are chatting to each other or are on the phone; the clacking
sounds of fingers striking or hitting the keyboard echoes across the room
creating a staccato type of rhythm.
When she arrives at her desk, she sits down with aplomb and
switches on her computer. Her eyes unexpectedly blinks a few times as the rest
of the espresso courses through her and takes effect. She silently prays that
she is not bouncing of the walls today due to the espresso she just consumed.
Martin Pataki waltzes over to her desk in that smarmy way of his,
she knows what is coming but, is not prepared and gulps in trepidation as he
approaches her desk.
He pushes her desk tidy and knick-knacks aside and sits on her
desk without asking permission. He is his usual self and wants her to have a
story ready for this morning’s pow-wow meeting, as she has been lagging behind
and needs to cough up the goods.
Rachel assures him that she will deliver something today and just
needs to log in and sort out some stuff first.
“Ok kiddo; see you in 15” and with that he
waltzes off.
Rachel inserts the key hanging on the lanyard across her neck into
the keyhole in the pedestal underneath her desk and turns the key. It makes a
sharp clicking sound to indicate that the pedestal is unlocked. Removing the
key, she opens the top drawer and begins to look at the many pieces of written
notes she has stored there; they all contain story ideas. She lays each piece
of paper on her desk and casts a cursory glance on each one hoping to be hit by
inspiration or an eureka moment but, she finds none.
Life was much easier working at the press club at university; she
never had this much problem coming up with features to write. Now she found
herself struggling to continuously come up with article after article that she
was beginning to doubt her foray into journalism.
As she wallows in self doubt a thought flashes through her
momentarily and she finds herself digging into her handbag to extract the paper
she had been reading on the train. It was still on page 23 and the fraud
article she had been reading earlier is staring right back at her. Maybe she could delve into this story
further by interviewing the victims and/or the fraudster?
The article says the court case has been adjourned for the next
two weeks; she could attend the court case as press and try to establish some
contact with the victims and hopefully they would be open to an interview. She
wonders if she could make serial/series out of this by looking into other fraud
stories?
Quickly scribbling down her thoughts into her notebook, she makes
a note of the name of the reporter that covered the story for the free daily
and plans on contacting her.
The computer finally finishes booting up and she logs into her
computer and launches the internet browser then opens a search engine and
searches for Mandy Miller; luckily for the Mandy Miller she is after is on
Facebook and LinkedIn.
LinkedIn seems like a more professional option than contacting her
on Facebook; contacting Mandy Miller on Facebook could be seen as intrusive as
it is her personal space. She sends Mandy an introductory message on LinkedIn
and then asks if it is convenient to meet with her to discuss her story in
today’s paper and whether she could write a feature on it for her paper. Always
ask permission was Rachel’s motto, she didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes or
encroach on their territory.
Mandy responds almost immediately and sends her a connecting
request on LinkedIn, she accepts the request and responds to Mandy’s message
promptly. After sending a few messages between them they agree to meet for
lunch that afternoon.
Rachel locks her computer with a smile etched on her face; gets up
from her desk and makes her way towards the round table at the corner of the
office where Martin and the rest of the team were congregating.
She is pleased that she has a potential lead on a story and might
be spared (saved) being assigned one of the duds that Martin has in his
bag of tricks. He often gave any team member that hasn’t come up with a
newsworthy article one of those pieces to cover and the entire teamed hated it
however, if you want to keep yourself employable you have to write something
even if it is one of the boring stories. However, career wise it was basically
shooting oneself in the foot. The more boring your articles are the less likely
people will remember you or that you will be headhunted by other newspapers or
magazines.
As she approaches the team she overhears Martin telling one of his
stories; It amazes her that Martin always has some story to tell every time the
team met and they met on a daily basis. As Rachel sits down on the only
available chair she gets the gist of the story and it is an archetypical Martin
story; how he partied hard over the weekend and got all these girls back to his
place.
After two years of hearing the same shtick she is not convinced
about its authenticity; I mean come on; Martin hardly had model looks not that
one must have model looks to pull but, he was so smarmy and borderline
disingenuous that she doubted the authenticity of his stories. He is the
proverbial newsman; full of it.
The guys were lapping it up and hooting and hollering as usual;
calling him the man. She
can’t believe they buy this stuff.
Nanette the other girl in the team was busy punching stuff into
her tablet and phones respectively. Rachel wishes she had thought of that while
coming here but, she didn’t and now she was stuck listening to Martin’s
stories.
Martin finally finishes and asks everyone what they got up to
during the weekend; he did this every Monday and as soon as he asks each team
member regales him and the other team members about their weekend
enthusiastically.
The stories were never as outlandish as Martin’s but, she now knew
a lot about their non work time that she is sure she could write out their
timetable or predict whom they spent their time with over the weekend.
Nanette had a cat called “Bon Bon” whom she doted on, bought
gourmet good for and pampered. If she was not doting on Bon Bon, she spent time on her
father’s farm, which was about 30 miles away.
There were always many pictures of the cat after Nanette talked
about her and today was no different. Nanette shows them some new pictures that
she took over weekend on her tablet.
Poor Bon Bon was decked in a pink bowtie and looked
angry in Rachel’s opinion. I mean wouldn’t you, if you were a guy and made to
wear a pink bowtie against your wishes?
Apparently Bon
Bon is so intelligent that he
is now on twitter and Nanette encourages everyone to follow it on twitter. What
the…? This beggars belief, what is it with people treating animals like humans.
Maybe that can be her alternative piece if Martin bins her fraud idea.
Gerard spent his weekend with his girlfriend like he does every
weekend however, this week they don’t go out but, stay at home chillaxing.
Darren had a boys’ weekend (he spent most weekends with the boys
i.e. Jerry, Sean and Peter). They decided to take a James Bond speedboat trip,
which involves dressing up like James Bond, and re-enacting the various
speedboat chases from different James Bond films. Martin and Gerard are
engrossed in the story.
Martin wanting to out do Darren’s story begins to talk about a spy
ball he attended some years ago and how he dressed up as Dr Evil and was all groovy baby. Rachel is trying
hard not to roll her eyes right now and tunes him out.
Talking of outlandish stories; she wonders if the fraudster who
duped five women was anything like Martin i.e. full of stories of his expensive
cars, homes, weekends, girls, etc.
Rachel notices that Martin’s uses his fingers to adjust the knot
on his tie from time to time especially when making emphasis. She uses this
opportunity to take a good look at the self proclaimed Casanova; he has greying
hair on his temples, a gradually receding hairline and sandy blond hair which
at the moment was creating a wisp of hair fanning his forehead. He often
boasted to the team how fit he was for a 37 year old due to the amount of time
he spent at the gym. Rachel gives him another once over and mutters internally,
hmm…indeed. She then tries to
suppress a chuckle and painstakingly tries to listens to his story.
Midway into story, Aisha one of the secretaries politely
interrupts and drops a pile of papers in front of Martin to which, Martin
acknowledges by winking at her. Aisha’s scowls at him, her dark eyebrows making
a weird shape on her furrowed forehead; giving Martin an irritated look Aisha
storms back to her desk in a huff.
It is Rachel’s turn to talk about her weekend and as usual she
answers in a monotone voice that nothing special happened. This was her usual
answer she wonders why they even bother asking her anyway.
She can see Nanette and Gerald rolling eyes at her response; while
Martin and Darren spot their usual bored looks when she opens her mouth. This
doesn’t faze her in the least. Her father warned her years ago to only share
pertinent information and that less is more; an advise that hit home very hard
after her childhood best friend spilled her secrets to the whole school after
they got into a fight.
Plus she didn’t want to be the topic of discussion; she had heard
them and others in the office discussing the information that had been shared
at this table. News folk were sure gossipy folks. There was no way she was
telling them that she went to the Opera with her boyfriend on Friday, then on
Saturday they went sailing and yesterday they entertained a bunch of their
friends at her place. Hence why she needed an espresso this morning. Everyone
didn’t leave until the early hours of this morning and as a result she hardly
got any sleep.
After weekend stories ended Martin started to ask them about their
articles; Nanette has some stuff about “Life After Gaddafi” and “Life After
Nelson Mandela” respectively; Gerald is writing about the “Egyptians and how
they affected today’s society” and Darren is writing about “WW2 and if there
was a possibility of WW3 and how we as a society would cope with that
eventuality.”
It was her turn to pitch and she puts forward the idea about
interviewing the fraudster and victims to flesh out the psychologies behind
their behaviours. She mentions that she will be meeting the journalist who
initially covered the story in today’s paper this afternoon and shows them the
newspaper article.
Nanette seems intrigued while Gerard, Darren and Martin seem
unsure. Martin asks her to follow up with her lead and then catch up with him
afterwards to discuss the viability of the story. The meeting ends soon after
that and the team go back to their desks together except Rachel who sits
separately from the rest of the team.
She had been assigned to one of the hot desks for the past two
years. This was due to the fact that there were no spare desks near the team.
Martin had said it would be temporary when she started but, temporary has
turned to two years and unfortunately there still are no spare desks amongst or
near the team nor had the team been moved to a desk space that would
accommodate all of them.
Rachel doesn’t mind sitting on her own, in fact she gets more work
done because she isn’t amidst the constant team chatter. Whenever she goes over
there to hang with the team or talk to any of the other team members about work
she noticed the constant chatter that went on and often wondered how they got
any work done.
The good thing about sitting at the hot desk is that she gets to
speak to a diverse range of people who occupy the adjoining hot desk for the
day, week or month and as a result she made some good contacts.
On getting back to her desk she logs into her computer and checks
her emails; she responds to the pertinent ones, bins the junk mail and begins
her research for her article. This should tide her over till lunchtime when she
has a meeting with Mandy Miller.
Lunchtime comes quickly. Locking her computer, she picks up her
handbag and newspaper respectively, gets up from her desk and walks towards the
elevator
As she approaches the elevator, she bumps into Nanette who is also
on her way out. They chat as they wait for the elevator; Nanette mentions that
she is going shopping for a hen party she is attending this coming weekend.
The elevator dings and arrives at their floor; they make their way
in and continue chatting about what Nanette should buy as the elevator door
closes and it descends towards the ground floor. There are no stops so their journey
is quick.
They exit the elevator at the same time and make their way towards
the main entrance; at the main entrance they say their goodbyes and go their
separate ways.
Rachel arrives at the restaurant seven minutes early and gets them
a table before the rush. The restaurant is sparse, as the lunch crowd hasn’t
arrived yet. This gives her a choice of tables to choose from, she chooses the
sofas at the end of the restaurant; it is in an alcove and should give them an
ambience of privacy.
Mandy arrives five minutes later. She looks exactly like her
picture, auburn hair tied into a chignon and her wireframe glasses gently
perched on her nose giving her an air of seriousness.
Rachel waves at her from the alcove and Mandy walks towards the
table to join her. Rachel get ups to acknowledge her arrival, they shake hands
briefly and then sit at their table. They make idle chit chat about work, the
weather and their weekends; and then peruse the menu while discussing what to
order. They decide on no starters/entrees and move straight to the main menu.
Mandy decides to have the fried scallops which is served on a nest of lettuce,
radishes and tomato while Rachel decides on the pan fried salmon and mashed
sweet potatoes. They place their orders and while they wait for their meal they
discuss Mandy’s article.
“I was thinking of doing a follow up by interviewing the victims
and maybe the offender if it is possible, is this ok or will this be
encroaching on your article?”
“Not really however, it depends on what you intend to write
about.” Mandy replies.
“I was thinking of trying to delve into the victim’s minds to
understand how they could fall for the scam, what made them susceptible to…”
Rachel picks up the newspaper from the table and reads out “Andy Smith.”
“That’s cool Rachel. I’m was only going to write a follow up to
the court case and it’s verdict”
“You are sure that it is ok?”
“Yeah! Girl Guide honour!” Mandy says with
a smile
“You were a guide?”
Mandy nods
“Me too” Rachel replies enthusiastically.
“Be prepared!” they both yell in unison
while cackling with laughter.
As the mirth gradually fades Rachel asks “Would it be ok if I
tagged along when you are going to court please, I would like to try and establish
some contact with the victims?”
“Sure, that wouldn’t be a problem. Actually I have the name of the
lawyers representing the plaintive(s) and defendants respectively. I could give
you their numbers if you like and you could contact them beforehand to establish
contact.”
“That is really kind of you, thank you.”
Rachel was now aware that she now owes Mandy; that is how favours
were repaid in the news business.
Their food arrives and they continue chatting in between
bites. They talk about
mainly non work stuff, their experiences as guides, etc and find that they have
a few other things in common like reading fiction, travelling and amateur photography.
They both also harbour the desire to learn how to ski and talk about booking a
newbie ski course together.
In general Rachel found Mandy easy to get along with and wonders
if this would turn into true friendship or media friendship (friendship of
convenience i.e. scratch my back and I scratch yours) or it would go nowhere.
Rachel was unsure, she is learning in her two years in the business to take
things at face value plus Mandy was at least five or more years older than her;
she looked like someone in her early thirties, which meant there was a
generation gap.
After the main meal, they order some dessert “crème brulee” which
they share. They then ordered coffee and
continue chatting. Their meal came to an end about an hour and a half later and
Rachel makes sure she settles the bill; after all she called in this favour
after all.
The say their goodbyes at the front of the restaurant, promising
to do lunch again or grab some coffee sometime before bidding each other
goodbye.
Rachel walks back to the office invigorated praying that Mandy
comes through with those numbers so that she can begin her research immediately
instead of waiting two weeks for the court case. This would save her being
occupied with some of the boring stuff Martin has in his trousseau.
Making her way to the elevator and she waits patiently for the
elevator to arrive on the ground floor. It’s peak time i.e. lunch time now and
the elevators are crazy busy with the lunch crowd. The elevator dings and the
doors open to reveal Martin, Gerard and Darren and a lot of other people from
the building.
Their building housed different businesses; her paper only
commandeered one floor.
She waves at them; they all nod at her in acknowledgement before
making their way to the exit. She wonders how Gerard and Darren could take
another dose of Martin, she found her encounters in the office with him enough
to tide her over, she couldn’t imagine what spending ones free time with him
would be like. She shivers at the thought and quickly gets into the now full
elevator and asks politely for someone in the throng of people to select her
floor.
It takes ages to get to the twenty-second floor, the lift stops
practically on every floor before it slowly ascends to her floor. She gets out
in relief and gives a rueful/wry smiles at those who still have to go to up to
other floors.
As soon as she arrives at her desk she unlocks her computer
screen; there are two new emails from Mandy, one contains the contact details
for all lawyers as promised and the other is an e-invite to accompany her to
the court case in two weeks. Rachel can’t believe her luck and replies to both
emails thanking her.
She makes a note in her diary to buy Mandy a gift if the leads
from the lawyers’ and court case prove newsworthy.
She calls the lawyers offices one by one in trepidation; lawyers
don’t like journalists unless it was in their interests. She is able to speak
with Andy Smith’s lawyer who promises to contact his client and get back to
her. Luckily there are only two lawyers representing the five victims, one
representing two and the other the other three. Rachel is glad she doesn’t have
to contact too many lawyers. One of the lawyers was not in the office today and
her secretary promises to get her to call Rachel back while the other lawyer
was out for a long lunch however, the secretary also promises to get him to
call her back once he returns to the office.
She puts down the phone and enters notes into her notes book. The
phone interjects by ringing shrilly; she picks up after the second ring.
“The Post, Rachel speaking”
“Hi Rachel this is Richard Lorde, Andy Smith’s lawyer, we spoke a
few minutes ago?”
“Why yes we did, thank you for getting back to me so quickly. What
is the verdict please?
“I spoke to Andy and he is very keen on telling his side of the
story. He believes the news so far has only painted him in a negative light
while making the plaintiffs out to be saints; he is keen to set the story
straight.” Richard says in a matter of fact tone
“Of course that would be splendid, when would be a suitable time
to do the interview?”
“How about today?”
“Today?” Rachel responds taken aback. “Isn’t that a bit too soon
and what about the prison visiting hours”
“The prison visiting hours is till 5 o’ clock. If today is not
suitable I could contact Andy and sort out a different time?”
She must cease the bull by the horns; wasn’t carpe diem her New
Year resolution anyway?
“Its ok Richard today is fine.”
“Cool, I’ll call the prison and Andy to confirm that you are
visiting today and then call you back in a few minutes.”
“Sounds good Richard, thank you.”
They say their goodbyes and Rachel puts down the phone letting out
a shaky breath. She was going to visit the non-hallowed walls of gaol. She
wasn’t sure what to expect. Should she take some stuff to use for bargaining or
batter; should she wear a burka to mitigate leering prisoner’s? She knew she
was not stuff models were made of however, she heard that time in the joint
made men piranhas that massacred anything that strays into their path.
She calms her nervous tic by reciting Nas’s “I Know I Can” chorus as
sn internal mantra and once she is calm dials Martin’s number to tell him of
new developments.
A few minutes later the team encircle her
desk wanting to know more.
Martin, Darren and Gerard use the opportunity to tease her about
being prison bait. She rolls her eyes at them and to think that being much
older than her they were meant to be more mature than this. Nanette gives her
some encouraging words while Martin spews many anecdotes and examples from his
vast career experience, she is not sure that it was helping however, it was
nice to know that some of his experiences could prove useful.
Her phone rings as the team chatter away, she picks up the phone
and looks at her colleagues. They lower their voices but don’t stop the excited
chatter.
It is Richard, he tells her it’s all set and asks her to call him
after the interview is over and leaves her with his mobile number.
Before he puts down the phone she asks shouldn’t a lawyer be
present when she interviews the defendant, as this is a live case and new
things may be unveiled.
Richard is confident that it is ok to leave her alone with Andy
Smith and they say their goodbyes. She
puts down the phone silently and then busies herself by packing her stuff
before locking her PC. Turning
to looks at her colleagues nervously, she mouths it is time.
Martin pats her on the back; Nanette reassures her that she will
be fine while Darren and Gerard echo the others.
She picks up her things, bids them farewell and begins to make her
way to the elevators. As she gets to the middle of the office, Martin yells
with laughter “If we don’t see you tomorrow Rachel we know that you’ve become
prison bait.”
Rachel stops in her tracks, rolls her eyes and continues towards
the elevator while the rest of the office being to hoot and holler after her.
“Very mature people.” She mutters to herself as the lift door
dings and opens for her to enter. They continue to hoot and holler as she
enters the lift and she can still hear their voices as the lift descends from
their floor.
TBC
