It was at the 11am coffee break time that Jeremy slipped out of the office to have another clandestine meeting with his colleague, Darrin. He had meant to find out the contact details of the Landgraab's cleaner but he could only find out her name: Beulah Boutee. When he went to visit George and Edna Sneedley to find out where he could find her he found George acting strangely defensive and evasive. It had been playing on his mind since that day: What was George worried about him asking him for a cleaner's phone number? What was he covering up? Does he know the Landgraabs well and is acting to protect them? So many questions...
Darrin looked more positive when they met. "So, Jeremy, any luck?" he asked.
"I got the cleaner's name; Beulah Boutee, but that's about it. No phone number, no address, no way to contact her."
"Beulah Boutee? Is that even a real name?" Darrin said, shaking his head in disbelief. "So your contacts came up short handed then?"
"Yeah, and the weird thing about that is how defensive they were...he was. The husband. He really did his best to avoid giving me any information and was scared by me even asking about this cleaner."
"Hmmm, maybe he's having an affair with her?" mused Darrin.
"George Sneedley? Co-chair of the League of Decency having an affair? Sounds a little out there if you ask me" said Jeremy.
"All is not lost, Jeremy..." continued Darrin "We have a name, and an unusual one at that. She's bound to be on the system. Maybe even in the personnel files. That's your department; can you handle that?"
"Attaboy..." replied Darrin, tapping Jeremy on the arm with a folder he was carrying.
Attaboy was what his first boss, J.J. Gotcha, used to say to him a lot when Jeremy was working at Dewey, Cheathem & Howe and it was usually said just after he had been given a particularly onerous task.
Jeremy returned to the office building and started looking around in the personnel files for any mention of Beulah Boutee. The name was to be found in a file marked "supernumeraries", which contained a list of one-off contractors, seasonal workers, occasional employees hired on an ad hoc basis and those who were hired to perform tasks for the Landgraab family themselves without being Landgraab Corporation employees.
The file itself had been difficult to find, tucked away in a murky and almost unnoticeable corner of the records section. It was such an obscure section that not even Alice, the member of the usually hyper-efficient secretarial pool that spied on Jeremy's and Darrin's every move, knew about it...but Jeremy did. Months of digging around for dirt about the Landgraabs had led him to some of the hidden areas of the company.
He took all the files that referenced Beulah Boutee and took them back to his office so he could inspect them in detail. It meant pushing aside his regular workload for the moment but he figured he could make up that up at some point; he was driven by Darrin's cajoling to find some juicy information.
After nearly an hour of scanning the files he found a name...but it wasn't Beulah Boutee; it was another name, familiar and sinister.
Leanne McGregor...for services rendered. Paid in kind.
Leanne McGregor! The mysterious assassin who Action was intent on finding. She was linked to assassination attempts on Alan Cuffe, Lily Feng and Suzy. So the Landgraabs had paid her to do various jobs, and more than one, by the looks of it, thought Jeremy. There was a recent payment as well for "client removal", whatever that meant. Jeremy had a sinking feeling that it wasn't going to be good.
Oh my! This is it! The smoking gun! These files implicate the family in illegal money transfers, hiring wanted criminals and other financial misdeeds...The significance of what he held in his hands now truly sank in.
What to do? What to do? He thought. He shut the file he was reading and put it in his briefcase. Then he went to meet Darrin to tell him what he found...
"So we can turn this information over to the police now! We've done it!" said Jeremy, enthusiastically.
"Or we can push for more now we know their weaknesses! If you go to the cops now, Jeremy, sure there'll be an investigation but with their lawyers they'll just shift the blame on to some middle management flunky. If we build in what you've discovered, lay low and bide our time we can bring the entire company down!" Darrin said with intensity in his eyes.
"Every day we do that, Darrin, we risk getting caught! I say what we've got is good enough. It'll cost them millions in legal fees, there'll be bad publicity and maybe Geoffrey, Nancy or Malcolm will be arrested and put on trial. The Landgraab Corporation will take a huge hit that will take years to recover. If we go to the police now it'll certainly shut down many of their activities...including plans to redevelop Foundry Cove because that project is being funded by their illicit activities. Come on, Darrin...we've done more than enough, let's quit whilst we're ahead."
"But we can do so much more! Give it more time, Jeremy, so we can finish this job!"
Jeremy drew a deep breath and sighed. "Darrin, I'm tired. I'm tired of living a double life, tired of being a corporate spy. I have a girlfriend who I want to marry and a life completely outside of the business world that I want to keep. If I turn this file over to the police, then that's it for me at the Landgraab Corporation. That's probably going to be the end of my career in business but do you know what? I'm fine with that. I'm going to include a personal witness statement from me plus some extra evidence that I have about their brainwashing machine and turn it all over to my friend in the force. Darrin, I wish you all the best of luck in your investigations but my part in this is done."
Darrin said nothing but just looked off into the distance whilst throwing his hands up in the air in a mixture of resignation and frustration.
"Good luck and have a nice life" he said before walking off back to the office. Jeremy let out a sigh and took a few moments to gather his composure. He put the files he'd shown Darrin back in the briefcase, shut it and locked it and then instead of heading back to the office, he left the area completely to head downtown. This was noticed by none other than Geoffrey Landgraab, who was taken aback by seeing one of his main employees leaving in the middle of the work day. Maybe it was nothing, some personal errand that needed his attention, Geoffrey thought, but there was also a sinking feeling in his stomach; a harbinger of some unforeseen doom...
WILLOW CREEK
"...So I headed straight downtown to the police and handed all the files I had to Action. So that's it. It's done. I've blown the whistle." said Jeremy to Barbara when he got back home.
"Does this mean it's over? Your investigations?" Barbara replied, wide eyed in amazement at this sudden development. She had hated Jeremy risking his life and safety to try to bring the Landgraabs down.
"It's over...well, my part is at least" he replied. "It's the police, FBI and Justice Department's responsibility now. I've given an official statement to the police as well so, yeah...I'm free"
Barbara looked upwards at the ceiling, threw her arms up and smiled. "Oh that goodness! You made it!" she looked back down at Jeremy and there was pure joy in her expression.
"I have!" he replied. He stood up and grabbed her hand to get her to stand with him. "We have, darling" and with that they embraced each other tightly, both of them letting all that tension flow out of them.
"I want to celebrate!" said Barbara, excitedly. "Let's go out...doesn't have to be elaborate, nowhere where we have to book ahead...let's just go out, get some drinks, maybe dance a little and somewhere far, far away from those Landgraabs."
"How about the Salty Paws Saloon? That's somewhere they never go." suggested Jeremy.
"Perfect" Barbara replied.
"OK...and to draw a line under my former job and the rest of my life, I need to change out of this suit!" he said, smiling.
BRINDLETON BAY
Jeremy was a changed man by the time they'd got to the saloon. He was smiling now, light hearted and ready for a fun night out with his girlfriend. Barbara hadn't seen him this happy for months and she felt a wave of relief that the burden he had been under had been finally lifted.
They drank and danced and for a moment the cares of Jeremy evaporated but he suddenly became serious looking again and Barbara wondered what had happened.
"I just thought of something" he said to her. "I haven't got a job! Tomorrow morning I'm going to wake up and....not have a job to go to!"
She smiled. "There are other jobs. Why not take a break before getting a new one?" she said.
"I think I've burned my bridges in the business world. No other company is going to want to hire a stoolpigeon."
"A what?" sometimes American slang wasn't all that obvious to her French-Canadian ear.
"Stoolpigeon. A snitch. A tittle-tattle."
"Oh that. I didn't realise..."
"So I'm afraid all our plans to move house and get married are going to have to go on hold while we live on the profits of the boutique."
"You're good at business and accounting. Why don't you work at the shop with me? With Toni that'll be three of us to handle the increased business, we won't have to hire an accountant and your business savvy will come in handy....PLUS I get to see you all day!" she said with a big smile on her face.
"I know nothing about fashion" he said.
"Oh you'll learn, my dear, you'll learn"
