Jessie Slaymaker's Rules of Engagement (The Jessie Slaymaker Series Book 2) (24 page)

‘My God!’ Jessie whispered, at length. ‘How could they do this?’

‘You’ve been set up,’ Jack said glumly.

‘How the hell can this be the top story on the evening news?’ Jessie asked the room incredulously. She shot up off the sofa and began pacing around the minuscule room, her shock now turning to anger. She realised Jack was absolutely right. She had been set up. And she knew exactly by whom. ‘You know who did this, don’t you?’ Jessie fumed.

‘Who?’ Jack asked. ‘Rachel?’

‘Guess again. Sonia-fucking-Shum did this,’ Jessie spat.

‘Are you sure?’ Jack asked.

‘Guess who’s on the board of the television company?’ Jessie ranted rhetorically. ‘Guess whose health is failing and has transferred responsibilities to his precious daughter? Mr Shum himself.’

‘Mr Shum is unwell?’ Jack asked, a sad look clouding his face.

‘Yes,’ Jessie snapped. She knew she was taking out her frustrations on Jack. It wasn’t his fault he was seriously behind with the programme. ‘I’m sorry,’ Jessie sighed more gently. ‘It’s just that woman has caused yet more problems for us. Why can’t she just leave us alone? I don’t know what I’ve done to warrant such a vendetta against me,’ she finished sadly and slumped deeply into the sofa.

‘Maybe it’s not what
you’ve
done,’ Jack pointed out, with a raised eyebrow and a perplexed look on his face.

‘Jessie, wake up,’ Jack said softly as he shook her gently.

‘What’s the matter?’ Jessie sprang up, suddenly on alert.

‘Nothing for you to worry about. I wanted to tell you, I’m going to Shanghai.’

‘What? Now?’ Jessie exclaimed, struggling to comprehend what was going on.

‘Yes. I’m catching the first flight out this morning,’ Jack said soothingly as he pushed her back down onto the bed.

‘But, why?’ Jessie asked, clearly alarmed. She wanted to add that he couldn’t leave her at a time like this, but stopped herself just in time.

‘
I need to check on something. I won’t be long. A day or two maximum,’ he replied.

‘Okay,’ Jessie said quietly. ‘Maybe I could come with you?’ she offered, a hopeful look on her face.

‘I just need to check on something with my company. I’ll come back as soon as I can. Trust me,’ he said simply, enveloping her into his arms and inhaling her scent deeply. ‘Now go back to sleep.’

Jessie felt like a wanted woman as she scurried into work the next morning to face the music. She knew she was being over-sensitive, but she felt every person she passed in the street was scowling at her for crimes against Hong Kong. She had to continually remind herself that she hadn’t actually done anything wrong, and that Sonia had been out to get her. Feeling vulnerable, she skulked behind her desk, waiting for the inevitable summons from the perfect Rachel Horton. Jessie had no doubt that the Queen of Research would not be amused.

‘Jessie, a word please,’ Rachel called from her doorway before the rest of the team were yet to appear. Jessie slowly raised herself off her chair and walked to Rachel’s office. She clutched her incriminating report at her side, not sure whether or not to actually give it to its intended recipient. She knew it sounded like the ravings of a madwoman with a vendetta against a tycoon’s daughter, and she would have a hard job convincing someone to believe some of the leaps she’d made.

‘I saw your attempt at career suicide last night,’ Rachel said coldly as she sat down in her big office chair. Jessie sank into the chair opposite feeling like she’d been called before the headmistress.

‘I’m sorry about that. They edited it all wrong,’ Jessie explained, rather feebly, conscious that it sounded like a poor excuse.

‘What’s done is done, but you can’t say I didn’t warn you. I remember expressly telling you to avoid anything incendiary and to keep it general,’ Rachel reprimanded, fixing her with a stare.

‘I swear, Rachel, I did exactly what you asked me.’

‘I didn’t ask you to make a complete fool of yourself and the bank—or me for that matter,’ Rachel said scathingly. ‘You don’t need me to tell you that the bank is not impressed. I’m not sure how we’re going to clean this up. I have meetings with the board of directors over lunch and I’ll inform you of the outcome,’ she said gravely.

‘Whatever you may think of me, it was not my intention to embarrass or make a fool of anybody. They chose to air what they told me was a warm-up practice interview to get me used to the camera. I had no idea they would use any of that footage. I think someone’s deliberately tried to make a fool of me,’ Jessie said sadly, and she dropped her report on Rachel’s desk.

‘Again? It was my understanding that lightning never struck in the same place twice,’ she said, reaching across the desk for the file. ‘Go back to your desk. I’ll let you know what the directors say.’

An hour or so later, Rachel’s voice called out across the open-plan floor. ‘Jessie, a word please.’ The office was now full, and everyone’s attention was suddenly focused on Jessie’s walk to Rachel’s office. None of her colleagues had so much as uttered a hello to her, as though she was now contaminated. No doubt they all thought she was being given her marching orders, Jessie thought bitterly. She caught Penny’s smirk as she walked past, and she forced herself to stand up a little bit straighter and square her shoulders.

‘What do you plan to do with this?’ Rachel asked urgently once Jessie had closed the door on them. She was waving Jessie’s file on Sonia Shum and Shum Tat Holdings in the air.

‘I hadn’t thought that far ahead,’ Jessie replied truthfully, taking a seat.

‘I would strongly urge you not to go public just yet,’ Rachel said, her tone different now. She no longer sounded as though she was telling off a subordinate—merely offering advice as a peer, or even as a friend.

‘Why not?’ Jessie asked, her interest piqued.

‘I think it’s time for me to come clean,’ Rachel said quietly.

‘About what?’ Jessie asked, surprised.

‘I’m not an economist. I’m actually a forensic accountant, and I have been planted into Finance First by a combined authority of the World Bank and the Hong Kong government.’

‘You’re an accountant?’ Jessie asked dumbly, her mouth falling open slightly. All Jessie could think was that accountants didn’t normally have dress sense like Rachel.

‘Yes. A forensic one,’ she repeated patiently. ‘And since my arrival here, I’ve been investigating several large corporations who are clients of this bank. Shum Tat Holdings is one of them.’

‘What have you been investigating them for?’ Jessie asked.

‘Essentially everything you’ve managed to compile in your report here, but namely money laundering, tax evasion, and fraud, to name but a few lines of enquiry.’

‘Oh,’ Jessie said weakly. She wasn’t sure how to respond exactly. ‘I guess you don’t want me stepping on your toes with this then,’ she concluded for herself, pointing at the document.

‘Not really. I don’t know how long you’ve been working on this, but we’ve been looking into them for months and not come up with as much as you.’

‘Just under a week that’s taken me,’ Jessie said honestly. ‘I’ve gone through all the financials that are publicly accessible without a court order and everything looks to be in order. It’s almost too good to be true, except for the numbers going into and coming out of the Shum media company. There are frequent anomalies that just don’t add up. Is that why you wanted CHKTV doing interviews at the bank?’ Jessie asked, connecting the dots.

‘It was a starting relationship. I knew it wouldn’t exactly give us access to their books, but I thought it would be a way of starting communications between them and the bank. Sometimes you never know where this kind of thing can go in the long run.’

‘If that’s the case, then why did you ask me to do the interview? You haven’t wanted me on the team from the beginning,’ Jessie said, recalling Mr Chan’s fight to get her a desk. She tried her best to make her statement sound like an observation, and not just a bitter remark.

‘I didn't want to make myself too visible, and no, I didn’t want you in the team. I know about you, Jessie Slaymaker. I did my research, and I know you’re excellent at what you do. I didn’t want you poking your nose into my investigation from the start, which is why I gave you work far away from it, hoping it would keep you occupied. That obviously didn’t work,’ she said, tapping the report with her beautifully manicured nail. ‘I put you in front of the camera to see if it would cause a reaction, and clearly it did
something
. The question I have for you is, why on earth does Sonia Shum hate you so much that she would ruin your career on national television? Is it really all just about Jack?’ She was talking aloud to the room, not just at Jessie.

‘Why does Sonia Shum hate me? Well, that’s just the sixty-four-million-dollar question. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but it’s probably something to do with Jack,’ Jessie replied decidedly. ‘She’s always made out in the past that she’s deeply in love with Jack and that he’s the only one for her. But that’s kind of weird—Jack says she was a cold fish when they were together. Plus, I saw her kissing Charlie Davenport once, and she was anything but cold on that occasion. There has to be something more.’

‘What?’ Rachel asked, following Jessie’s train of thought.

‘Jack said something yesterday when I was upset, unable to understand why Sonia had it in for me,’ Jessie said as she remembered his words. ‘It’s not about me,’ she said aloud at the realisation. ‘It’s never been about me.’

‘So, then it’s about Jack,’ Rachel inferred.

‘Exactly.’

‘What does he do?’ Rachel asked, taking a notebook from a drawer and opening it to a clean page.

‘He has the bar, but before that he lived in Shanghai for seven years, running a publishing company.’

‘I see,’ Rachel said, jotting this down.

‘I think Sonia’s after something to do with his company,’ Jessie mused. ‘Jack left early this morning for Shanghai, saying he had to check something. I think he’s got a hunch he knows what she wants.’ Rachel suddenly looked alarmed and dialled a number on her mobile.

‘We need eyes and ears on a man called Jack Davenport, headed to Shanghai this morning. British passport, early to mid thirties, six foot, Caucasian, wearing…’ she rattled off into her phone and then looked at me. ‘Wearing…?’ she repeated.

‘Jeans and a black shirt,’ Jessie said hurriedly as she tried to recall. Rachel relayed the information and finished the call. It was like she was some kind of spy rather than an accountant.

‘Jack is innocent of any wrongdoing here,’ Jessie said quickly as Rachel continued to write frantically.

‘Are you sure about that?’ Rachel asked with a raised eyebrow. ‘How well do you think you really know him? You were wrong about Charlie Davenport. You could be wrong about his brother, too.’

‘I’m sure,’ Jessie replied, giving the other woman a death stare.

‘Then why has he gone running off to Shanghai at the drop of a hat without giving you a decent explanation? Seems rather suspicious to me,’ Rachel said, leaning back in her chair and studying Jessie.

‘Jack is a good man and he’s nothing like his brother. I trust him completely,’ Jessie said, her voice and eye contact never wavering for an instant.

‘If you say so,’ Rachel said dismissively. ‘Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to prepare for my meeting with the directors,’ she added with a tight and insincere smile. Jessie got up, not entirely sure what had just happened, and with a million questions buzzing through her head.

‘Is Jack a suspect?’ Jessie asked, turning as she reached the door.

‘Not yet,’ Rachel replied, not even looking up. She was typing something frantically into her phone. ‘Oh, and Jessie, it goes without saying that what you heard and what has been discussed in this room is confidential. You can’t tell anyone, so don’t think about running off to tell Jack. Understand?’

‘Understood,’ Jessie snapped as she bored her best evil look into Rachel Horton’s bent head and slammed the office door behind her. It was childish, she knew, but the woman was completely infuriating. One minute Jessie had thought they were working things out together, an investigative tag team, and the next she’d called for surveillance on Jack.

Shortly after lunch, Jessie was summoned into Rachel’s office for the third time that day.

‘How’d the meeting go?’ Jessie said brightly, faking breeziness as she stood behind and leaned on the chair back rather than taking a seat. She didn’t get the impression she would be in there that long.

‘Jessie, it is as we thought. The board of directors are not happy and feel that the bank has been embarrassed. They have asked me to strongly advise you to take some annual leave until things blow over.’

‘Fine,’ Jessie responded, her tone short, but she still smiled at her boss. She hadn’t expected anything less, in all honesty, and she took Rachel’s words to mean that she needed to get out of sight whilst they figured out what they wanted to do with her. ‘I’ll be off then.’ Jessie turned and marched back to her desk, picked up her bag, and strode confidently towards the lifts, head held high.

‘Jessie, you haven’t logged off,’ nosy Penny shouted at her from across the office. No doubt she’d be ecstatic to see the back of her.

‘You do it,’ Jessie called back over her shoulder, not even looking back.

Jessie didn’t care anymore. She’d worked hard for this bank every day since the day she’d started back in England, working under Charlie Davenport. And for what? They’d accused her of stealing delicate information the last time she was in Hong Kong, only to throw her an empty job offer as a consolation. They hadn’t once valued her for her knowledge, conscientiousness, or the quality of her work. She’d been ridiculed on national television, made to look a fool, and the bank to whom she’d loyally given every professional ounce of her commitment over the years hadn’t stood by her. Instead, the powerful bigwigs at the top of the chain had chosen the path of least collateral damage and sought to distance themselves from her.

‘Screw them all,’ Jessie fumed to herself as she called Jack. ‘And Rachel can go and fuck her confidentiality.’