‘You saved yourselves a lot, compared to the amount of compensation you paid to Toby Brown?’
‘Yes. That’s right.’
Bree and Sam exchanged glances. The first lie.
Bree decided to let the matter rest for the moment and moved on to a different topic. ‘Why did Walter Groom give up the running of Briscoe Corporation?’
‘What’s he got to do with anything? He was a criminal. We’re better off without him.’
‘Was he a criminal before he resigned as managing director, or after?’ asked Sam.
Realising he was being pushed into making admissions he wanted to avoid, Potter decided to tell the truth. Partly. ‘We voted Groom off the board. He wasn’t well liked. We thought he wasn’t an asset to the corporation any more.’
‘Who decided?’
‘The board as a whole.’
‘So who got the board together? Who started the drive to oust Groom?’
Potter reddened: ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’
‘Was it you Mr Potter? Is that why you became managing director?’
‘What are you saying?’
Sam looked at Potter closely: ‘Did you organise the overthrow of Walter Groom, and were you rewarded by being given his job?’
‘The board voted me this position. The board voted to remove Groom as managing director.’
Bree leaned in closer to Potter and looked him in the eye: ‘So the board, with no prior planning, decided unanimously to replace their current managing director. A man who had led the corporation for many, many successful years. A most unusual occurrence wouldn’t you say Mr Potter?’
Potter was trying to think; what could he say, how could he get out of this?
‘Perhaps we had an indication of Groom’s criminal behaviour.’
Bree smiled: ‘Ah! So you were aware of his activities and decided to get rid of him. He would be a liability, wouldn’t he?’
Potter saw a way out: ‘Yes. Of course.’
Sam said: ‘So. Let’s recap. The board, as a whole, knew about Groom’s criminal activities and decided to get rid of him as managing director?’
‘Um. Yes,’ agreed Potter.
‘So why wasn’t he dismissed from the board completely? Why was he allowed to remain as a director?’ asked Sam.
Not giving Potter time to think, Bree quickly added: ‘Groom was officially a director of Briscoe Corporation right up till the day he was killed by Jade Green.’
Sam watched as Potter paled at the mention of Jade Green’s name.
‘Were you a client’s of Jade Green’s?’ asked Bree.
‘No! Never!’ exclaimed Potter.
Sam and Bree rose as one. Bree said: ‘That will be all for now. If we have any further questions we’ll be back.’
They walked towards the door. As they were about to leave, Sam turned to Potter, who sat unhappily behind his desk. ‘By the way, if the entire board knew about Groom’s criminal activities and did not report them they are all guilty of serious criminal offences. And if the charges were proved to be correct the entire board would cease to be eligible to act as directors. You’d all be out of jobs. Remember that the next time we request information.’
The agents smiled with satisfaction.
As they left, Bree stopped to talk to Potter’s secretary. She smiled benignly as she approached the secretary’s desk.
‘Your Mr Potter is such a lovely gentleman, isn’t he?’
‘Oh, he’s a wonderful person to work with,’ said the secretary. She knew full well Bree was from Inland Security and was going to make sure her boss was shown in the best possible light. ‘He’s such a hard working person and does so much for his church and their charities.’
‘How does he manage to do all that and still have time for his family?’
‘He makes sure his family comes first in everything. I help remind him, of course. He can’t be expected to remember every little detail.’
‘That makes you a very important person around here. How do you cope, does your family life suffer for it?’
‘Oh no. My husband understands completely. It’s not as though I’ll be doing it for the rest of my life. I’ll give it up to have a family in a couple of years and I haven’t been doing it all that long anyway.’
‘So you’ve just become Mr Potter’s secretary?’
‘About six months ago. Just after his other secretary left. While he was still just a director,’
‘She left to have a family too?’
‘I don’t really know. Mr Potter doesn’t talk about it. She was here one day and gone the next. There wasn’t even a farewell party for her, and she had been his secretary for years.’
Bree turned to Sam, who was standing in the background, taking in the information. A raised eyebrow was all he needed.
Bree continued making small-talk, seeing what other information she could elicit, while Sam quietly left the room and wandered down the hallway to the office next door.
It was an office similar to the one he had just come from. A secretary finished her phone call and smiled professionally at Sam’s approach.
‘Can I help you sir?’
Sam produced his identification and said: ‘I’ve just been interviewing your managing director, Mr Potter, and he was trying to recall some information for us. He still is, but he thinks the best person to contact would be his former secretary. Do you know what became of her?’
‘Yes. I remember her. We didn’t have much in common. In fact none of the other secretaries did. She was a very religious person. Very upright and formal. Not an easy person to get to know, or like, unless of course you had the same high moral and religious convictions that she did.’
‘So what happened to her?’
‘That’s the funny thing. No one knows. She was working here as usual, nothing out of the ordinary, and the next thing she’s packed her things and walked out the door. Mr Potter didn’t even know she was gone. I can remember him coming around looking for her after he’d had a meeting with some of the other directors. But she had just packed up and gone.’
‘And no one knows where she went?’
‘No.’
‘Could she have gotten a better offer from some other company?’
‘I suppose she could have, except one of the other girls saw her go and tried to talk to her but she was very distraught and crying.’
‘So she was probably dismissed then.’
‘I thought so at first, but Mr Potter didn’t know she was gone. Like I said, he came looking for her.’
‘What’s her name?’
‘Post. Hannah Post. Mrs Hannah Post.’
‘I suppose your human resources department will have her details?’
‘Yes. You’ll find them down on the third floor.’
Human Resources was in a large general office with no sign of the luxurious