Cheating the system, p.5
Cheating the System, page 5
‘Captain Walker, ma’am,’ Giles’ voice rang out as he swung the door open, disrupting the silence that had fallen over the room. Roman watched as Hattie’s indecision disappeared and that steely resolve came back into her dark eyes. She swallowed down whatever nerves she’d had just a moment ago and pasted that false serene, smile she wore every time she stepped onto the palace balcony on public holidays.
‘Marcus,’ she greeted, slightly warmer than Roman would have given, but still bitterly cold. Roman jumped slightly when she reached down and grabbed his free hand, before stepping up to his side, her body a line of warmth against his.
So, this was the game she wanted to play. Well fine, he’d play along. He popped his glass on the bar, before turning his full attention to her, untangling his fingers from hers—not an easy feat as she clung to them—before slipping his arm around her waist and pulling her to him.
‘Good afternoon, Marcus.’ Pippa said, as she strode into the room from a second door, diverting Marcus’ attention for a moment from the apparently suddenly loved up couple. Her greeting wasn’t as cold as Hattie’s, but it sounded short and sharp; like a headteacher’s welcome when you were sent to their office.
‘Would you like a drink? Tea? …Coffee?’ Pippa wrinkled her nose on her offer of the latter and Roman remembered Hattie’s own dislike for the caffeine filled brew. She’d always looked at him disapprovingly when he’d brought a cup to their all-night study sessions.
‘I’m fine.’ Marcus’ response was as short and cold as Pippa’s and Hattie’s, but he quickly caught himself, recalling he was the subordinate in the room, and tacked on a thank you, ma’am.
‘That’ll be all, Giles.’
The dour-looking man nodded at his mistress and quickly disappeared, going off to do whatever it was butlers did.
‘Thank you for joining us, Marcus,’ Pippa began, and Hattie tried to pull away from Roman, but he held her fast, walking with her to join Pippa and Marcus as they settled in their seats around the large coffee table that held nothing but a single sheet of paper.
‘We have some new developments for you regarding O’Malley and his connection to Seymour Medical,’ Pippa informed the Captain, taking the lead in the conversation. She’d asked earlier to take point on the matter, when Roman explained to her and Hattie exactly why he needed an impromptu meeting with Marcus. Roman figured it was her attempt to try and stop Hattie’s blood pressure climbing, but he knew that no matter what, his Henrietta would get to have her say in the matter… And more forcefully than would probably be necessary.
Pippa reached for the paper with one hand, while pushing her glasses back up her thin nose with the other. She lifted the crisp white sheet, glancing at it briefly before putting it back down, turning it towards Marcus, and sliding it across to him. It was a little dramatic for Roman’s tastes, but he figured, being a woman and running a boardroom probably called for this tactic every so often. He’d seen a few female executives pull similar things and each one of them got labelled as a bitch move by the boys. He’d had to put a few of those dicks in their place over the years.
‘This is a list that Roman acquired today,’ she told him. She kept her finger on it as she spoke, looking the Captain of the Guard directly in the eye. ‘It details all the IT failures that have occurred this year, pertaining to the security systems. Specifically, when the security cameras and the electronic booking-in systems are off-line.’
Marcus kept his eyes on Pippa as she slowly lifted her finger away and sat back. He kept his gaze on her as he took the paper from the table. Roman wanted to knock both their heads together at the dramatics.
Marcus glanced at the sheet briefly before asking, ‘And why exactly would this be interesting to me?’
Roman didn’t have time for their games and decided to step in and hurry the whole thing up. ‘Look at the last two dates,’ he told Marcus.
The Guardsman sighed, but his dark eyes skimmed the sheet before finding the dates. ‘And these are interesting to me because…?’ Marcus looked at Roman; it was supposed to be a look that conveyed boredom, to tell Roman he had bigger and better things to be getting on with, but Roman could see the curiosity hidden in Marcus’ eyes. Roman wasn’t a deal maker for nothing. The Captain had a great poker-face, but it wasn’t perfect.
‘Conner O’Malley was at Seymour Medical today.’ That got an eyebrow to twitch, almost as if Marcus wanted to raise it in surprise. Roman felt a little smug at wiping the deadpan look from the other man’s face. ‘And the date before that was the early hours of last Thursday, the day Henrietta thought she saw him there too.’
Marcus said nothing, but focused his attention back on the paper, his lips pursed as he skimmed it again. Silence hung in the air as the three of them waited for him to say something, to acknowledge their detective skills or at least tell them he’d investigate the matter.
Hattie shifted in her seat next to him, her thigh pressing against his. He could feel the anxiety and annoyance boiling away inside her with each twitch of her body. She was probably worried that Marcus was going to dismiss their findings, keeping her trapped in the King’s power. Or would the Captain simply say he’d look into it and leave as quickly as he came? Roman didn’t want the latter any more than she did. He wanted out of the King’s scrutiny and out of Renfrew Hall; it had only been a few days, but it had already been enough.
He wanted somewhere Hattie could feel like herself, where he could get to know her, where they could learn to be friends again.
‘So, why pray tell,’ Hattie suddenly burst out, shattering the silence. ‘Couldn’t you find a damn link between Roman and O’Malley, but he’s able to just stumble upon it?’
Pippa and Marcus jumped slightly at Hattie’s unexpected outburst, but Roman didn’t flinch. He’d been anticipating it, waiting for it, knowing that his Henrietta didn’t do well without all the information before her, unable to see the puzzle that she needed to put together. She hated missing pieces and right now they were missing so many; perhaps, the answer would help them solve it?
‘Well?’ she all but shrieked when he failed to answer as quickly as she wanted him too. Marcus glanced down at the list again. Surely, the question wasn’t that hard to explain? He could confess the Royal Guard were incompetent, or one of his minions had screwed up…
Hattie shifted in her seat again, alerting Roman that she was getting more frustrated. Glancing at her from the corner of his eye showed her face straining against its desire to twitch, her eyelid flickering ever so slightly under the strain.
Roman’s fingers squeezed hers as he gently pulled her hand into his lap and covered it with his other. His thumb softly caressed her skin, trying to get her to remain calm, silently telling her he was here for her, she wasn’t alone, they were in this together.
‘I do recall you mentioning the system being down the night before your… big announcement,’ Marcus said carefully as he glanced back at Roman. He guessed the Captain had picked up a few methods for diplomacy over his years at the King’s side.
Before Hattie could respond to Marcus’ dig, Roman spoke again.
‘Here’s my question; why did you say you had found no connection between myself and O’Malley? If you’ve been monitoring him as much as we believe you have, with what happened to Lord Blake’—Hattie snorted at that—‘then you should have definitely found a link between that man and myself. After all, my mother plays tennis with him and seems to be friends with his wife, and my father has been meeting with him at Seymour Medical. O’Malley confirmed that to me when I literally bumped into him this morning.’
Hattie glared at the Captain of the Guard and demanded, ‘So why haven’t you turned up anything? You have access to anything and everything, like a real-life James Bond or something, so why haven’t you, one, already made this connection and, two, caught the bastard yet?’
Marcus looked completely unperturbed by their questions or Hattie’s fiery eruptions. Instead, he let out a deep, weary sigh, before folding the paper in his hands and sliding it into the inside pocket of his jacket.
‘One, I am not a “real-life James Bond”, I’m more like M if you have to use that stupid analogy. But regardless of that point, I don’t have access to anything and everything like you think, ma’am. I still have to work within the confines of the law. I’ve visited the Hill plenty, I do not want to live there.’
Roman held back a shudder at the thought of the maximum-security prison buried within the mountain that stood over the capital. He’d never visited, but just the mere idea of it filled him with a dread. He prayed the King, Marcus, anyone and everyone would believe the truth that he’d had nothing to do with this father’s dealings with O’Malley if it came down to it.
‘And, as for your second point, it links back to the first; I need evidence. Solid evidence. I need such indisputable proof that O’Malley has his fingers in all these pies, or he’ll not only get away, he’ll also know what we have on him. I’m not about to give the bastard, as you so eloquently call him, the upper hand.’
Marcus paused, narrowing his eyes at Hattie, and rolling his lips between his teeth as he assessed her, and Roman knew immediately he was trying to fathom a way of dropping a bombshell on her without her exploding again. It was interesting to see someone else who could read her so well, and he lamented that he hadn’t had a chance to get to see her interact with so many others. Their time at Guildford had left them isolated and secluded, and he’d never been invited to her home over the summer breaks…
Finally, the Captain sighed again, licking his lips before turning his focus to Roman again and admitting, ‘We already know about the connection between your parents and O’Malley—’
‘What!’
‘Then why did you—’
‘Why you little—’
Marcus held his hand up to the three of them. ‘Let me explain; they’re part of the same country club. O’Malley has a summer home in Berkshire County, near your parent’s home.’ He nodded at Roman. ‘They’re only there part of the year, but your mother and Carol O’Malley are not friends. They’re more like… Well, from what we understand, they’re actually rivals at the club. Your mother rules the rest of the year, but Carol O’Malley knocks her off her perch whenever they visit. And your mother does not like that.’
Roman groaned and rolled his eyes. So that was who she was always complaining about outshining her every summer.
Carol had to have had professional make that cake for the bake sale. That woman has never set foot in a kitchen to do anything more than check the cook’s actually there!
Or, there’s no way Carol made that sampler herself; have you seen the talons she sports? You can’t stitch with claws like that!
And how many times had he heard, Carol beat me three straight sets in tennis today. I swear she’s using Andre—I had him first!
And how her husband was a horrible little odious beast, she clearly only married him for his money. And she’s using it well if her new breasts are anything to go by!
‘I’ve actually heard her mention Carol, complaining how she had got one up on her in some way’ he confessed. ‘But otherwise, I had no idea who she was.’
‘Our investigation showed that,’ Marcus conceded. ‘You have no membership yourself and have only ever set foot there for charity events where you bought a ticket at your mother’s behest, and the O’Malley’s are usually absent from any such things—’
‘That’s bullshit, Marcus,’ Pippa interrupted, surprising Roman and apparently Marcus and Hattie too if their raised brows and gaping mouths were anything to go by. Well, Hattie looked stunned at least…
‘We all know that counts as a link,’ she spat. ‘There’s a direct connection there.’
‘I think Captain Walker was being literal when he meant he couldn’t find a link between myself and O’Malley,’ Roman interjected before Marcus could say anything. ‘As in we’d never had contact ourselves.’
‘Exactly. And for the sake of clarity,’ Marcus added, but his voice now had a hard edge to it. Clearly, he didn’t like his work being criticised. ‘The only evidence of a connection we have between O’Malley and your parents is the country club. Nothing more. There are no business links, no financial links, and while there are obviously some social links regarding friends of friends, going down that route, I could link all four of Lady Snapes to O’Malley. The only link your parents have with him is via the country club and your own link is vaguely through them. And a few social contacts but…’ Marcus trailed off.
‘There aren’t many of them,’ Roman said, his voice flat. There was nothing wrong with not having very many friends… or any, he told himself. Jensen had been the easy going one, the one everyone had flocked to, the social butterfly of the two. And while his brother had tried to include him when they were younger, it had always been a bit much for Roman. And it seemed it was proving handy right now.
‘Indeed,’ Marcus confirmed. ‘And the majority of them were via Miss Martin. But again, it is a case of he knows a guy, who’s friends with a woman, who… You get the picture.’
Roman hummed softly as he considered Marcus’ point, trying to connect the pieces of the puzzle he’d accumulated so far. There weren’t many, but what he did have were starting to fit together. The picture wasn’t a good one. At least not for Dad.
‘And I suppose,’ he said slowly. ‘That with our system failures, there would never be any evidence of my father and O’Malley having any sort of off the books business connection.
‘Public places would be too risky,’ he mused, formulating how he could do it if he were challenged with setting up a clandestine meeting. ‘But a building with an ageing security set-up, that could be easily overridden by someone with hardly any understanding of the ins and outs of it, would be perfect.’ Roman rubbed his free hand over his chin, picturing the scenario. Dad, somehow breaking the system a few hours before O’Malley turned up; did he sneak into the server room? Did he have an override code hidden away that he could initiate from his own computer? Or would he have to use someone else’s just in case they figured out someone was sabotaging the system?
‘No security means no electronic sign-ins—easy enough to give a fake name—and thus, no pictures taken for the visitors’ pass,’ Roman continued.
‘That’s true,’ Hattie piped up, her voice eager to be part of solving the puzzle. ‘When I went on Thursday, they told me the same thing. In fact, at first, they actually said they couldn’t let me in as I had no appointment, and they couldn’t do the usual sign-in process. However, I did manage to get through by having a member of security with me…’
‘As should be the case,’ Roman said, glancing to her with a hint of a smile touching his lips and amusement dancing in his eyes as he recalled the ruckus she’d caused in his office. Her cheeks turned flame red in mortification as she met his eyes, probably at the memory of the almost brawl she’d started. She bit her lip and lowered her gaze from his, her face filling with shame.
‘Hey,’ he said quietly as he reached up and gently lifted her chin with his fingers. ‘It’ll be something to tell the grandkids one day.’
Hattie’s eyes almost popped out of her head at her words, and her mouth did an excellent impression of a dying fish as she stared at him in horror, but Roman’s mind had whirled once more, picking through what she’d just said…
The smile fell from his face as he no longer saw the room they were seated in; instead, he was replaying earlier when he’d ran into the man in question. As he’d told Marcus, he’d literally ran into O’Malley as he and Mum had left the lifts. There hadn’t been anyone with him; a string hung around his neck, but Roman didn’t recall the pass being a regular visitors’ pass—even the off-line ones were bright red. This had been the ocean-green-blue of Seymour Medical’s staff badge—no one would think to question someone wearing one of them as they would with a person with a visitors pass and lack of security escort.
‘There’s someone else involved,’ Hattie whispered as if she’d read his thoughts. Roman nodded, his mind racing through the list of possibilities.
‘There would have to be,’ he agreed. ‘Someone on the security team.’ It had to be one of security staff; they knew every nook and cranny of the building, they’d be able to time it right to knock the system out, and probably without leaving a trace. Unless… you didn’t have to worry about that.
‘Well, this just got a lot more complicated,’ Marcus said. Hattie and Pippa nodded silently, but Roman wasn’t done.
‘It would have to be Frank; he’s head of security and involved with everything to do with the building. Just as O’Malley came in, Frank was nowhere to be seen. He could have easily been off elsewhere, making sure the system stayed off-line while O’Malley was present. And while O’Malley looked to have an official pass, it was probably just a blank card, just something for appearances sake. There’s no way Dad would just give him free access to the building, not with the amount of money we’ve got invested into our R&D and IP. Which would explain the increased security on those departments over the last year when the systems started glitching. O’Malley might have a pass, but Dad wants him somewhere particular, not swanning about the place, but also not catching people’s attention by having security with him…
‘With the systems off, everything switches to emergency mode,’ Roman continued. ‘The doors all unlock, the lifts work without card access… health and safety I was told. And of course, no CCTV to record any of this. So, no pictures of him ever being on site. Not coming in, not going out. And no-one caught helping him either.’
‘Surely, your father’s assistant would have evidence of his meetings? Would she be willing to talk?’ Pippa asked.
‘Dannielle is very pro-monarchy,’ Roman said as he considered the woman in question. ‘If she thought there was a threat to the Royal Family, she’d probably tell you everything and anything you wanted and sod the multiple NDAs in her contract. But anything other than that and she’d never talk; she takes her job and the responsibilities that come with it extremely seriously.
