Guilty Pleasures

‘I was in a prison cell and I can’t believe you would do this.’

‘This is ridiculous! We went out for dinner. Yes, I dropped her off at her apartment and I gave her a kiss on the cheek as I said goodnight.’

Emma desperately wanted to believe him but she’d already had a lifetime of being let down by men. And Cassandra was a

man-eater, a wounded one at that, who would no doubt milk her near-death experience for all it was worth. Why would Rob resist her charms especially when Emma knew she’d been behaving like a frigid old woman?

‘She gave me these,’ said Rob, his voice still wounded, and pulled some documents out of his glove compartment.

He gave her Milford’s Articles and Memorandum, which he had marked up in yellow highlighter pen.

Emma felt a pang of guilt. ‘I’m sorry.’ She longed to kiss him but she could sense that a barrier had risen up between them.

‘Have you read these things lately?’ he smiled a little more warmly. ‘It took me about two hours to wade through it all. Dull as ditchwater. Why do lawyers use five words when one will do?’

‘So they can charge more!’ she laughed.

‘Read page five. No director of the company can serve on Milford’s board if he or she has a criminal record.’

‘So obviously if I was in jail I couldn’t be CEO any more,’ Emma said slowly, feeling angry that she hadn’t made the connection herself.

‘Would Roger finally get the job he wanted with you out of the way?’

‘Not necessarily,’ said Emma as Rob started the car.

They drove into Chilcot and to the Milford offices. It was 6.30 p.m. and most people had left for the day.

They took the lift to the third floor and walked silently into her office where Emma switched on a single lamp.

‘Here. Have a look at this,’ she said opening the filing cabinet and pulling a letter out of a drawer labelled Contracts of Employment.

‘Ruan’s?’ said Rob quietly.

He could see Emma’s eyes scanning the document.

‘As COO, contractually he gets to deputize in my absence. It doesn’t specify for how long. So if I went down for arson for five or six years, Ruan would install himself as CEO.’

‘But the board could get rid of him.’

‘They could,’ said Emma thoughtfully, ‘but Ruan would already know that he has my backing as majority shareholder, which still counts even though I’m in jail.’

Rob sank back into the black Barcelona office chair.

‘Has Ruan ever struck you as sufficiently power-crazed to frame you for murder?’

Emma shook her head vigorously. ‘No. No, not at all.’ ‘So if we rule Ruan out, then who are we looking for?’ asked Rob.

Emma pushed the filing cabinet closed with a clang. ‘I say it brings us back to Roger.’

64

Sitting in Milford’s boardroom, in her chair at the head of the long walnut table, Emma felt the same fear she had experienced on her very first day in the office. Back then it was nerves and a fear of the unknown. Today it was the more unsettling fear that, increasingly, she was losing control of the whole situation. And there was still the nagging feeling that perhaps someone in this room actually wanted her dead. Emma cleared her throat and looked at the shareholders around the table. Not one of them met her gaze.

‘You know why we’re all here,’ she said. ‘I believe Roger called this meeting in order to have me removed as CEO due to my supposed criminal activities.’

There was a deathly silence.

‘So what are you going to do, Emma?’ asked Virginia finally.