Chapter 9
Breaking News

When I arrived back home Jenny was desperate for updates, but first I needed to make several calls.

My first call was to James to let him know that the official line from The Post was that the story had been leaked by a police source to my editor and that there was no link to me or to him. I had a long discussion with him about how Liz and been drawn into Ridgeley’s web of corruption, and was distraught at the likelihood of losing her job, which she desperately depended on.I finally got him to agree to keep Liz on, at least until the air cleared a bit.

My second call was to Liz to tell her to go into the office as normal on Monday, but that she needed to make sure that she kept quiet about it all for two reasons. If the other staff found out what she had done, she would not be very popular, but my main concern was that after finding out about her and Sally and their involvement in undermining the company, everyone else was still under suspicion to some degree.

My third call, which was the pleasantest of them all, was to Caroline, who, to be honest, was the only person in this affair I really trusted, except for my family and long-term friends.

“Hi Caroline, it’s Jane. I thought that I’d let you know that following on from what you told me, Hargreaves and Ridgeley are now down at police headquarters’ helping with enquiries’, and that the the story has somehow been leaked to the press. Make sure you get a copy of tomorrow’s late edition of The Post, which will tell you a lot more about what is going on. A lot of it is down to you and that recording you made.Thank you for helping me to point the police in the right direction, but I am certain that there is an awful lot more to come out yet.. I’ll keep in touch and we must get together again soon.”

“I’d like that, it’s a while since I had a bit of excitement in my life, it’s given me a bit of a buzz, I’d love to meet up again.”

Monday started quietly and normally. I had a serious discussion with Liz and got her to agree that she and Judy would talk openly to the police about how she had been groomed, blackmailed and corrupted by Alistair, leaving nothing out of her statement, the more she described how she had been forced into passing on the information, the more likely it would be that James would let her keep her job.and and I then left her to it.

I had another long chat with James about Liz and Sally, and he confirmed that he would initiate no action against Liz unless more came out in the wash and she was not as innocent as she appeared to be. Sally was a totally different matter, he had placed a lot of trust in her and felt really let down.

Everything changed when the late edition of The Post hit the streets causing a sensation. The police were on to Mike to try to get him to reveal his sources for the story, they were deeply concerned that it would compromise their investigations. The local TV news editors were after more information, TV crews and journalist packs were camped outside the Police headquarters, it was the most exciting story to hit the city for as long as most people could remember.

James took an angry call from ACC Joe Riley demanding to know if he or I were the source of the leak, but James reminded him that the story suggested that the information came from sources at Police Headquarters and that he should look to his own staff rather than blame us, Mike and I had decided to keep my involvement under wraps for the immediate future.

The police were badgered into making a statement confirming that a senior council official and a local property developer were being questioned in detail over allegations of corruption, that their background and finances were being scrutinised, and that they were being held on other minor charges that were not being disclosed.

Still trying to conceal my anonymity and build up a façade of innocence, as James’ PA I called the council offices and asked to speak to Andrew Hargreaves and it was confirmed that he had not turned up for work that morning and did not know where he was and when he would return. Similarly Acumen had not seen or heard from Alistair Ridgeley. If anyone asked them they could confirm that I had called, not knowing that the pair were already in custody.

I needed to develop my story for The Post and arranged for Angie to cover my office duties while I locked myself away in Darren’s office, which was hardly ever used as he was out at meetings most of the time.

I settled down and wrote a much more extensive piece suggesting that it was believed that the people being questioned were Hargreaves, the council’s Chief Planning Officer and Ridgeley, a director of Acumen Developments, a major property investment company, but that this was still to be confirmed by the police, I researched their backgrounds from childhood and schooldays, the jobs they had been involved with over the years and their current positions and lifestyle. Both of them had risen from humble working-class backgrounds and following successful university lives they had risen up the social ladder to the positions they now held.

Ridgeley in particular had benefited from a scholarship to an independent private school, leading to entry to one of the major uk universities and a a Masters degree in construction practice and law. There he had formed friendships with many people who were now ‘captains of industry’, and with whom he socialised and schemed to forge his career. Everything I read about him showed him to be arrogant, deceitful and totally untrustworthy.

Hargreaves, although I didn’t like him and his attitudes personally which coloured my judgement of him, seemed to have attained his position through hard work and being successful in the various steps up the ladder. However it soon became apparent that his lifestyle was well above his pay-grade, which strengthened the case that on the way he had fallen into corrupt schemes not just with Ridgeley but with others too. It made me wonder that if he was on the take, that others in his department may very well have fallen into the same situations.

Rather than the brief piece that I originally wrote this was a much more detailed piece and was certain to be splashed over the front page of The Post, spilling over onto the inner pages.It was also briefly suggested that it was all in relation to a major development at Bolton Manor, but as it was not too relevant at this stage, little was said about that.

Having checked it throughly and made sure that I hadn’t said anything libellous and which could result in being sued for defamation I emailed it off to Mike and received a call from him within a few minutes.

“Great piece Jane. Two minor problems though. The police are screaming at me wanting to know the sources of our information, and the staff here are all desperate to know who is breaking the story for us. At the moment I’m fobbing off the police referring them to our lawyers and claiming press confidentiality of sources, and telling the staff that I have an undercover investigative reporter closely involved with the people under arrest, which is keeping them happy. Following up on the story, and keeping you under wraps, I would like to speak to James Cartwright to get his comments on the story about Bolton Manor, please ask him if he will take my call.

I rang through to James and convinced him that his company had done nothing wrong and that it would do no harm for him to give his side of the story, besides Mike knew that James had taken me on to get to the bottom of things and it was unfair for him to creep back into his shell now. He finally agreed to take the call and I left them to it, and went out into the office to talk with Liz.

“Just to let you know Jane, Judy and I have arranged to make a formal statement to the police about Alistair and his activities and how he recruited and used us. They say that they need formal statements so that they can continue to hold him on blackmail and coercion charges while they are gathering more evidence on the corruption charges, Is it ok to go off for probably the rest of the day to go to see the investigation team?”

“Get yourself down there Liz, and don’t hold back, the more you tell them, the better it will go down with Mr Cartwright, and the more likely you are to keep your job.”

There was a lot of gossip in the office, it was obvious to the others that something was up and that Cartwright’s was deeply involved somehow, and I became the centre of attention as if they knew that it was something to do with me. I felt that I had to just get out of there.

I was glad to get out of the office and all the discussions about the news story, but instead of going straight home. I called in to see Mike at The Post.

The building was still fully staffed so I had to go through the procedures of acting as a visitor to see Mr Bradley. As I walked through the newsroom to get to his office there were a lot of questioning looks and murmurs, wondering who the attractive smartly dressed and well groomed young woman was, as he usually refused to see visitors and I could hear the gossip already starting. He greeted me warmly with a quick hug, which could be seen through the picture window of his office and probably reinforced the gossip, and ordered coffee to be brought in for us.

“Your second piece is already out in the late edition, it is the talk not just of the town but the whole area. We have received several calls from other developers about the activities of both Hargreaves and Ridgeley, as well as others in the planning team and even local politicians. I have passed details on to the police which seems to have calmed them down a little and they are no longer demanding to know my sources. It seems that your investigation is only the tip of the iceberg and that there is a much wider web of corruption and bribery. so the sooner you get back to working here, the sooner we can keep pushing this story. I want you to be my lead on it, after all it is you that has done all the hard work up until now”

“I’m glad that the police seem to think they have something on those two. I didn’t like either of them when we met, it seems my instincts were right. When I went to Hargreaves’s office with James, I immediately saw him as a smarmy patronising boss that I could never in a million years work for. As regards Ridgeley, I had only met him a few minutes previously when he started insulting me and would have struck me if others had not intervened. They are both the type of characters that give men a bad name and cause women to constantly moan about them and class you all as lying scheming heartless wastes of space.”

“Whoa there, come down from that feminist platform, you’ve been spending too much time listening to the moans of your girl friends. let’s get back to where we go from here. I think that it is time that you came out from behind your cloak of anonymity and took the plaudits for your work. I would like you to come back to the office and work full time on this story, it has a long way to go and it’s getting more and more difficult to keep you at arms length.”

“I understand, however, as I said before, I have gained the trust of a lot of people as Jane, and while this story is running, I would like that to continue. I am quite happy to be revealed as a reporter but If I come back it would have to be as Jane Harrison.”

‘ I’ve no problems with that if it is what you want and are comfortable continuing as a woman. However the staff out there are quite sharp and I’m sure they will want to know more about you, so you need to get your background story sorted out so they cannot trace you back to Jack. Leave it with me, It’s illegal, but as journalists we often bend the rules to get a good story. I know people who can furnish you all the official documents you need listing you as Jane Harrison, complete with a believable life history that will stand up to any casual investigation, but nothing is perfect. So don’t give anyone any reason to want to dig dirt about you.”

“Ok Mike, give me a couple of days to sort things at at Cartwright’s and then I will come in here full time and you can introduce Jane Harrison as your new lead reporter on this story.”

Back home, I called Mum and arranged for her to come over to the flat as there was something I wanted to talk to her and Jenny about.

“Right Mum, Jenny already knows most of what I am about to say, it’s a long story so don’t interrupt with too many questions. You will have read the paper today about the corruption at the council office, the reporter that broke that story is me, which is why I have been living as Jane for a while. It was felt that I would more easily be able to relate to some of the people involved as a woman. What I am about to tell you is not yet confirmed and a lot of things are not yet public, so I want your promise that you will keep this to yourself, even from Dad.”

I then went through the story of my investigation for her and she just sat there astounded and excited.

“Gosh J…ane, this is like something out of a crime novel, you have done a brilliant job, and the articles are so well written, I hope that your bosses appreciate what you have done.”

“They do, and I am going back to work at The Post full time from Thursday, But for the moment I am continuing to be Jane, there would be too many problems if I suddenly turned back to being Jack.”

“ I hope that it won’t be for too long, but you know what you are doing, besides, although I miss Jack, I quite like you as Jane.”

First thing the next morning I had another long meeting with James and stressed that I needed to get back to The Post, and apologised for leaving him in the lurch without a PA again, for the second time in a month.

“Leaving aside what you have done to Hargreaves and Ridgeley, I am sorry to see you go. Even though you have been distracted by your investigation you have done an excellent job. Before you go can you get on to the agencies to see if you can get a replacement at short notice.”

“I can do, if that’s what you want, but I have a better idea. Angie is still young but is quite well-qualified, efficient, gets on with everybody, and already knows how you operate and where things are. Give her a try for a while to see how you get on with her, I think she will surprise you. It’s a lot easier to replace an office junior and receptionist than it is to get a good PA that you can trust. It only took a couple of days for Sally to tell me everything I needed to know, I should be able to do the same with Angie. Then I would like to tell the others why I came here and why I am leaving so soon.”

“ That’s fine, you have made things turn out well in the end, although I am still not happy with what has been going on under my nose, but I’m willing to live with it for the moment. By the way, I’ve had a call from Sir Charles Bolton, he would like to speak to you.”

“ I wonder what he wants with me. I’ll sort out a few things first then I’ll give him a call.”

Ten minutes later a beaming Angie left James’ office and came straight over to see me. “Thank you so much, Jane. Mr Cartwright, oh I suppose I am now allowed to call him James, told me that it was your idea to make me his PA, I am ever so grateful, can I take you to lunch later to celebrate and talk through things with you?”

“I’m sure that you can cope with things and don’t need further instructions, but lunch sounds fine, I look forward to it. Leave that for the moment and please gather everyone together, including John and his team, there is something you all need to hear.”

While she was doing that I made a quick visit to the loo, and tidied up my hair, freshened my makeup and smoothed down my skirt, I wanted to look my best as I stood before them all.

“I apologise to you all in advance in case anyone thinks that I have been deceiving you. You will all have read the paper yesterday about the corruption allegations with Acumen Developments and the Planning Department, and I have to tell you that I am the reporter that broke the story, and there is more in today’s late edition. I was brought in here to find out if any of you were leaking information to Acumen, and I am delighted to say that the problems were elsewhere.”

I noticed a deep sigh of relief from Liz, as I had said that for her benefit, although no doubt her involvement would come out when the case went to court. Before continuing I was surprised to see the ashen expression on John Chisholm’s face, he had obviously realised something that he would rather I didn’t discover. I decided that I needed to look a little further into him and his background.

“From Thursday I will be going back to my main Job at The Post, and anything you read from now will be bylined ‘Jane Harrison’ rather than ’Staff Reporter’. Angie will be taking over here as PA to the partners, please support her. I have enjoyed working with you all the last few weeks and wish you and the company well, thank you.”

To give them time to take all that in I left the office for a while, wandering around the shops. Although I knew that my time as Jane could soon be over, I couldn’t resist buying another light casual skirt and light lacy top with a plain camisole to go under it. I thought that I may as well enjoy the rest of my time as a woman.

The rest of the morning I noticed lots of glances in my direction and muttering between the other women, but I supposed that was all really to be expected.

“Lunch with Angie was a really pleasant hour. As I had expected there were very few problems that she needed guidance on, so it turned out to be just a couple of girls chatting away about life in general. She told me that she was the first in her family to go to university, making her working-class parents extremely proud. “Before today, I seemed to be drifting a bit since leaving college, and letting them down after all their support. As the office junior I felt that my career was going nowhere and was considering moving on, but after talking to James about what he expected me to do for him, I realised how much value a good PA can be to a senior executive, and I am looking forward to working closely with him. I’ll always be grateful to you for putting me forward to take over from you.”

“I’m glad to hear that, but you deserve it. In return can I ask you a favour. It’s not directly relevant to the corruption at the council, but I am concerned that all is not as it should be in the office and that there is something else going on. Keep your eyes and eyes open for anything strange, I don’t know exactly what to tell you to look for,, but let me know if anything strikes you as unusual. Now that you all know that I am a reporter, I don’t think the others will be as open with me as they have been up until now.”

Back in the office, wondering what it could what it could be about, I rang Bolton Manor, and Marshall immediately put me through to Sir Charles.

“Good afternoon Sir Charles, James asked me to give you a call, what can I do for you?”

“I told you before, it’s just ‘Charles’ there is no need for formality between us. There is something I would like to talk to you about, can you come over to the Manor?”

“ I need to clear something up first, can we leave it until this evening after work, there is something that I need to talk to you about too?”

“That’s excellent and of course you must join me for dinner, I’ll get Marshall to arrange things. Have you any particular likes or dislikes?”

“Just whatever you have already planned, I’m not too fussy, thank you.”I’ll be there about 7:00.” I ended the call, intrigued as to what Sir Charles wanted with me.

I left Angie in charge and went to see Sally again. As she was nursing her sleeping newborn who she didn’t want to disturb,I made myself useful sorting out coffee and biscuits, before settling down next to them. At first she was very wary as to why I was there but she soon relaxed when I told her that although James was extremely disappointed in what she had done, she would have no problems from him provided that she told her story to the police and that there was no more that she was holding back. In her post-natal emotional state I didn’t want to tell her that, as she had helped recruit Liz into Ridgeley’s clutches that the police may consider her to be part of the conspiracy.

“ There’s nothing more to tell, honestly, I have been interviewed by the police and given a statement of everything I know about what was going on. I don’t know what more I can say to them.”

“What do you know about dealings between Ridgeley and Hargreaves, is there anything to tell there?”

“Alistair only told me what I needed to know about getting information, I had no idea what he was doing with it. Other than the fact that he and Hargreaves constantly seemed to be phoning each other, and Alistair always went to another room to take the calls to make sure that he was not overheard, I don’t know anything more.”

I realised that I was not going to get anything to add to the story and was on the point of leaving, when the baby woke up and there was a lot of wailing and crying.

“Sorry about this, but I better deal with her first, do you mind hanging on for a while, there is something I want to talk to you about.?”

Sally took her baby next door where all the cleaning and care stuff was, and after she had sorted things out, she brought her over for me to hold.

“She’s gorgeous Sally, you must be so pleased. If you don’t mind me asking is everything ok between you and Harry now?”

“Yes, we had a long talk, and he has forgiven me, realising that I had been trapped by Alistair. We’re putting all that behind us now, as far as anyone else is concerned our baby is Harry’s and that is what it says on the birth certificate, and he is happy to raise her as his own. Ridgeley will have nothing to do with her.”

I hope that is the case but don’t be surprised if it ever comes back to bite you. Have you decided on a name yet?”

“My grandmother was called Jayne, and that is what it shall be, but we will be spelling it your way as we have a lot to thank you for. You must come to the christening, it’s two weeks on Sunday, we will be delighted for you to be there.”

“Thank you, I’ll be honoured to be there. On the other matter, you should go to the station in the morning and tell the police about all the phone calls, it may not help much but could be important. I will look after Jane for you, you need to get that all cleared so you can put it behind you.”

“I’ll give them a call to arrange it, is first thing ok?”

“There’s something else that you need to know. I am a reporter and it is me who broke the story about Ridgeley and Hargreaves.I was brought to find who was leaking information to Acumen but it opened a much bigger can of worms. I’ve already told them all at Cartwright’s and thought that you should know too.”

“Somehow I thought that was the case, you did a super job. Will my involvement be part of your story?”

”It will probably come out when the case goes to court, but I’ll not mention it for the moment.” She breathed a deep sigh of relief although she new that it only a matter of time, before her role became public.

“I’m leaving Cartwright’s tomorrow, to go back to The Post and Angie will be taking over your old job initially on a trial basis.”

“Good for her, I did suggest that to James before, but he thought that she was too young.”

“She’ll be ok, you left everything well organised, and it was easy for me to catch up on things, she is bright and has a sensible head on her shoulders. She will soon settle comfortably into the new role. Anyway I better be going, I have things I have to to do, see you in the morning.” I said, carefully passing young Jane back to her.

Back in the office, the huddle of the staff broke up and the room went silent when I entered.

“I suppose you are responsible for this too?” Maggie snapped at me, and I just looked back in astonishment.

“What on earth are you on about, I’ve no idea what I’m supposed to have done.”

“You’d better go and see Mr Cartwright then. You said this morning that nobody here was involved in all this scandal.”

“ What am I supposed to have done James, I’ve had a less frosty welcome at the snow-dome.”

“While you were out the police were here and they have taken John Chisholm away for questioning, it seems that he may have been involved in the scandal too. They searched Ridgeley’s phone and found records of numerous calls to John, which caused them to check his bank accounts and they found a lot of credits to him from Acumen. What do I do now, he knows too much about my business?”

“If you have been doing nothing wrong, why worry?”

“You know how it is is business, tax loopholes and creative accounting - nothing illegal but actions that would raise eyebrows, sharp contract practice - lots of borderline or even false claims for extras but the construction industry is full of that and the barrack-room lawyers would have a field day. A lot of it could be embarrassing.”

“James for the moment, this is between you and me, not for the paper, but if he starts telling tales, I won’t be able to bury it. Now that the story is out and other newspapers are interested, if I held back it would just be someone else who breaks the story. Another thing, as I said earlier, future stories in The Post will carry my byline, you better be prepared for irate telephone calls from Joe Riley.”

“ I can deal with him, I know too much about some of the things he has manipulated to get where he is. He might huff and puff a bit, but he can’t really do anything to either me or you.”

“When we get the corruption affair sorted I would be interested to hear more about Joe Riley and any shady matters he has been involved with, but that is for another day, I have enough on my hands at the moment. I suggest that for now, just assume that Chisholm has done nothing wrong, if and when the police release him, let him get on with his job but keep a close eye on him. It may be worth preparing in case he is charged with anything though. As I said before, I don’t think Maggie is a safe long -term bet, unless you disagree it may be worth getting Carl to keep a closer eye on the accounts. He may be a bit of a dull plodder, but that’s what you want in your accountant.”

“ Sounds sensible, I’ll play it by ear, but if Chisholm puts one foot wrong, he’ll be out the door sharpish.”

“Before I Forget, I know I said that I would pop in daily to check that Angie has no problems, but I will be in late tomorrow, I am babysitting for Sally while she goes to add to her statement to the police.”

“ A woman’s work is never done, as you are learning Jane.”

“ By the way, I gave Charles Bolton a call and he has invited me over to discuss something and have dinner with him tonight.”

“You’re one up on me then, all our meetings have been formal business, no invites to dinner at the manor for me.”

On my way out I surreptitiously gave the universal thumb and little-finger ‘give me a call’ sign to Carl without anyone else noticing, and 10 minutes later he came back to me.’

“Thanks Carl, there is something I need to talk to you about, can you meet me before work in the morning, there is something I need to ask you to do. This is between you and me, please don’t mention it to anyone.”