Chapter 27

Paul was asleep with his head on the table when Pete entered his office. Pete had tapped the door a little but that didn’t get Paul out of his sleep. He entered, walked towards Paul and tapped the table a few times.

“Wake up sleepy head,” he said to Paul.

Paul woke up, looked up to see who it was and stretched himself a little.

“How are you so tired?” Pete asked. “What did you do?”

“You don’t want to know,” Paul said.

“I believe you,” Pete said as he sat down. “Where’s the other person?”

“She’ll be here after some time,” Paul said. “I wanted us to talk first.”

Pete wondered who it was.

“Okay,” Pete said as he wondered what Paul was going to talk to him about.

“Would you like something to drink?” Paul asked.

“Just go straight to the point bro,” Pete said impatiently.

“Okay then,” Paul said. “How did you feel about the fact that dad didn’t let you run the company while I was away?”

Pete gave a cynical laughter, one that told Paul that he did not like the question he was asked.

“Is that why I’m here?” Pete asked. “To rub my failure in my face?” He said as he put up four fingers, two in both hands to imitate the quotation mark when he said “failure”.

“No!” Paul said with a stern look. “I guess I know the answer to my question, so I’ll ask another one. What if I said I knew the exact reason why Dad didn’t put you, or anyone else for that matter in my position after I left.”

Pete looked at Paul curiously.

“Why?” he asked.

“Remember Tublex?” Paul asked.

Pete rolled his eyes trying to remember what Paul was asking him about.

“The company that we paid a large sum of money to, for the purchase of some office equipment,” Paul continued.

“Yeah, yeah, you went to ask Dad about it, and he said those equipment were purchased for some other branches.”

“Yeah, well, I lied,” Paul said.

“What are you talking about?” Pete asked.

“The company doesn’t exist,” Paul said. “It’s a shell company for money laundering operations.”

Pete looked at Paul inquisitively and laughed.

“Now you’re just playing with me,” Pete said.

“I’m not,” Paul said seriously. “I found out about it, dad asked me to keep it from you and so, I came up with something.”

“So, what you’re telling me is that the company launders money for people,” Pete said.

“You heard me right,” Paul said. “Also, I decided to help dad with it before I left the company. It was only supposed to be for a short time but when I saw that dad had lied to me and it was never going to end, I decided to quit.”

“And why did you come back?” Pete asked.

“To kick your dad out of his company,” a voice said as the door opened. It was Diane.

“You guys really need to keep your voices down,” Diane said. “You don’t want to let the whole company in on your conspiracy, do you?”

Pete looked from Diane to Paul.

“She knows about this?” Pete asked Paul.

“Yes. I told her about it yesterday,” Paul said.

“Say a lot of what you think of me as a brother if the first person you tell about this is a stranger,” Pete said.

“Wasn’t intentional bro, it just happened,” Paul said.

“Whatever,” Pete said with a wave of hand. “So, what’s the plan?”

“We both have ten percent shares of the company each,” Paul began to say. “When we began to work here and saw the way things were, we always thought it would come in handy whenever dad needed help voting against other shareholders, I bet he thought the same. But unfortunately for him, we are going to be on the other side when the vote to kick him out of the company is taken. We only need the help of other shareholders.”

For almost a minute, Pete didn’t say anything. He let all that Paul had just said sink in and thought about what decision would serve his best interest.

“What makes you think I will help you?” Pete asked.

“I saw the way dad treated you at the last dinner we had,” Paul said. “That was not the first time and it sure as hell won’t be the last time. You’ve always wanted to be in charge, this is your ticket in.”

“How do I know all you’ve said to me are not lies?” Pete asked.

“I’ll show you,” Paul said.

Paul worked on the computer in front of him for some time and stretched his hand to Pete.

“Come check this out,” Paul said.

Pete stood up and went across to where Paul was sitting.

“Check those numbers out,” Paul said. “Tell me if they make sense.”

Pete bent his back a little, stared at the computer for a few minutes, stood upright afterwards and said nothing as he thought.

“If you want, I can send you monthly files for you to investigate yourself,” Paul said.

“I’ll pass on that opportunity,” Pete said with a smirk. “Nothing bad in kicking Dad’s ass anyway. He’s always been an asshole.”

At the same time, Paul and Diane smiled, but for two different reasons.

“And what’s her role in all of this?” Pete asked.

“She’ll be checking for more discrepancies in the company's numbers so that we can have lots of evidence and make a good case when we talk to the shareholders,” Paul said.

“What would I be doing?” Pete asked.

“Like I said, we will be making a case to the shareholders,” Paul said. “Would you like to do something else?”

“Nah bro, I’m good,” Pete said.

“I didn’t think so,” Paul replied.

“What makes you think the shareholders won’t fuck us over?” Pete asked.

“You guys have twenty percent shares combined. They’ll need a majority to kick your dad out and they can’t have it without you,” Diane said before Paul could say anything.

“That makes sense,” Pete said. “And exactly who runs the company when this is all done?”

There was silence in the room for some seconds and they all looked at each other.

“It’s something we can talk about when this is done,” Paul said.

“I don’t agree. Let us talk about it now,” Pete said adamantly.

“I could run the company,” Diane said.

Paul and Pete both looked at her at the same time but said nothing.

“You’re both shareholders and you don’t need to be at the company all the time. After all, it could be argued that I’m doing the bulk of the work here. That shows competency in my opinion,” Diane continued.

Paul looked at Pete to gauge what his opinion was. He only shrugged.

“Also, a woman being the face of the company would look good,” Diane added.

“Can’t argue against that,” Pete said with a smile. He would rather have someone else in charge than his brother.

It is something we would have to review when the time is right, Paul thought to himself, “Fine by me,” Paul said. “Now, what else do we need or what have we missed out?”

“What makes you think the shareholders aren’t in on what Dad is doing?” Pete asked.

“We thought of that as a possibility and we’re working on it,” Diane said.

“I did a bit of research on my own and I don’t think they are,” Paul said. “But like Diane said, it’s something we have to look into properly.”

“Good,” Pete said.

It seemed to Paul that Pete seemed satisfied by how the meeting had evolved so far. It would have to remain that way for things to go well, Paul thought.

“I think my work here is done,” Diane said as she stood up. “I should get back to work.”

Paul and Pete both nodded and watched as she left the office. Pete spoke as soon as she was out of sight.

“I know you don’t like Dad, but for fucks sake, you’re about to really fuck him.”

“He fucked with me first,” Paul said. “I wasn’t speculating when I said he kicked me out of my last job. He really did,” Paul said.

“Still!” Pete said. “It’s Dad.”

“He doesn’t give a shit about us bro. If the authorities find out what’s going on here, we will all go to prison. Think about that before making a mistake of telling Dad about what we’re doing,” Paul said.

“Just trying to be a voice of reason,” Pete said. “We’re cool. I never imagined we would be able to work together not to talk of us working against him. Sounds interesting.”

Paul shrugged.

“Let me know when something else comes up,” Pete said as he stood up.

“No problem,” Paul said as he watched Pete walk out of his office.