Vengeance!!!

Vengeance !!!

Set in the pulsating heartbeat of New York City. When an unassuming accountant slips sustaining serious injury in a 24/7 outlet restroom; it sets in motion an unforeseen chain of events for a number of people and for whom, the only answer is vengeance.

Two wrongs can never make a right because no two wrongs can ever equal each other.

For the truly wronged, satisfaction can only be found in two places; Absolute forgiveness or mortal vindication.

This is not a story about forgiveness.

However; before you embark on a plot of revenge, dig two graves - [Confucius - 504BC]

Author: Charles Armstrong

January 2024

Other Boooks by this Author:-

Judge Not – Soft Cover ISBN  978-1-5434-8683-4 

eBook First Edition  ISBN  978-1-5434-8682-7

eBook Second Edition  ISBN  9798224739189.

UBL: Second Edition.

https://books2read.com/u/bpMMIX

Hooked on Flyfishing – Soft Cover – ISBN  978-1-5434-8656-8

eBook – ISBN  978-1-5434-8657-5

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About the Author:

The Author, now retired to Melbourne Australia, has mostly lived his life in Africa south of the equator. His lifes path has engaged him in many varied activities there. These include; musician, singer and songwriter, outdoors adventure, military active service, commerce and industry. As such, he has been privileged to experience at first hand, several unusual facets of life, along with several world cultures and people. From an early age he has always been an avid reader over a wide specturum of literature and poetry. Having retired from the ‘rat-race’ in 2012, he now indulges himself in a little fly fishing but mainly in his twin passions of writing and music. With several published novels already on the shelves, he also has a half dozen in the works on a variety of intersting subjects. Musically, he now sings with a Melbourne based Jazz Big Band and composes and records his own songs for social media platforms.

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Vengeance !!!

Chapter 1 – Consequence

Noun: a result or effect, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant.

Staring morosely at the worn and battered over full trash cans, the stench from which, reached him even across the dingy alleyway. The vagrant reflected disconsolately upon the recent unhappy turn of events in his life. But mostly, he reflected on their consequences.

His happy marriage, had ended in an emotionally painful, messy and extremely costly divorce. During that awful time he remembered, he was barely able to concentrate on his work. Ultimately it had cost him every cent in the savings account. That fund, so carefully nurtured for emergencies. How often over the years, had he gone without something he dearly wanted, in order to keep that rainy day account intact and growing. Well that rainy day had indeed arrived and gone. Perhaps not so much a rainy day but rather a force ten hurricane called Helen. It made him grind his teeth in frustration and anger just to think of it.

While the nit picky elements of the divorce were being sorted out, it became necessary for him to visit his uptown lawyer at least once a week. These costly sessions should have caused him to rethink his choice of legal representation. However, he was so preoccupied with stress that he failed to notice omissions in the terms of demand, of which his lawyer should have been well aware.

Then there was the matter of the accident and his extensive hospital bills. To a large extent, these two financial encumberances were at the centre of his present dire circumstance.

What had happened to that pro bono law suit he wondered? Just another promise, from another dodgyy lawyer he supposed. Intermingled with everything else in that whirlwind period of miserable events, he had not even bothered to follow up with the lawyer. What was the firms name, he couldn’t remember. Besides, he`d sold the mobile phone upon which their number was listed for some much needed cash. The matter seldom ever crossed his mind anymore. Like everything else in his life it was now a complete write off.

Eventually, worry over his divorce caused a lack of concentration at work. This, combined with a downturn in the economy, had culminated in his being laid off at Lawley, Jones and Guthrie. At the time it had the sad effect of totally submerging his already floundering raft of confidence and fast dwindling bank account.

In the end, the divorce ruling went against him, something his useless but expensive lawyer should not have allowed to happen. The divorce settlement had gone devastatingly wrong for him. About everything they had ever owned in the community of property marriage, somehow went to her. The Brooklyn apartment, car and all his savings were liquidated to settle the insatiable money grabbing, now ex, Helen. Also in this pile of debt he had to settle; his own inept, but nonetheless money grabbing lawyer and Helen`s very expensive, victorious, lawyer.

During this farcical tragedy, the term taken for a ride was played out in spades. Unfortunately it dawned on him too late, that the expensive lawyer he had retained was really not the sharpest tool in the shed. The shrewd uptown shark his wife Helen had retained, simply ate him up for breakfast and spat out the bones. 

Financially his back was against the wall causing him to physically cringe each time he had reviewed his rapidly dwindling bank balance. Yet one more thing had added raw salt & vinegar to his badly wounded heart. He had later learned from a mutual friend, that Helen had been carrying on an extramarital affair with her lawyer, even while he was still living with her.

Into this really shitty bargain, he had also lost custody of his daughter Jasmine. The best his inept legal council was able to achieve was visitation rights at the discretion of the mother. The very thought of her, his beloved little girl, brought a hot sting of tears to his eyes.

Contemplating appeal afterward, he ralised there was little chance of reversing this unwanted state of affairs. He was virtually broke, without employment or even the prospect of such in the near future. He would simply be construed as an unfit parent by the courts. For some time thereafter he had seriously contemplated suicide but his innate common sense had saved him that ignoble fate.

Initially the long lines at the employment bureau were endured with fortitude and then later with loathing, as visit after visit turned up nothing. Apparently there were simply thousands of accountants in the city and due to the economic downturn, not nearly so many jobs. Not even simple bookkeeping jobs were available. The nature of his injuries from the accident now precluded him from almost any form of manual labour, so even that avenue for work was closed. The economy was spiralling downward, money was tight, loans were few and interest rates were high. No one was sticking their head up to get shot off by an unfeeling economic state which threatened individuals and businesses alike. 

Moving from cheap boarding houses to rented rooms and then, still cheaper rented rooms, he existed frugally on the dwindling employment insurance payments. The adjustment from three meals a day to two and then just one, was at first distressfully painful. Eventually his stomach had shrunk to a point where three meals a day would have made him physically ill. Too proud to take a job as a dishwasher, or one of the other menial light duty or unskilled jobs, he remained unemployed and almost homeless.

Grimacing to himself there in the alleyway, he now recalled the severe shock when he realised that the unemployment insurance cheque he had then held in his hand was the last. Soon even those few precious dollars too had run completely dry. He had been forced to the realisation that he was officially a homeless vagrant.

The shock of this lowly, lonesome state had hit him like a kick in the groin. Sickening in its stark reality, the awful truth of it had taken some time to assess.

At first he had dragged around a suitcase stuffed to bulging with clothing and smaller personal effects. Over the weeks these were traded off at the best price or barter he could get from other vagrants. Even the suitcase was ultimately traded for a single skinny, much used, futon type mattress and a thin worn out blanket. These few precious possesions he kept stashed beneath a dumpster, hidden from even the nost persistent of other scavenging vagrants. 

At night, he curled up to sleep in one of the many dingy city alleyways, hungry and fully clothed. Sleeping fitfully, laying sheltered from the wind on his skimpy bed, between a walled recess and a dumpster. Small wonder he was unable to sleep through the night he thought. His bed, if one could call it that, comprised the skinny single futon, covered by a thin blanket. To this he added his good quality overcoat, salvaged from the wreckage of his former life and a large square of paint splattered heavy plastic sheeting, salvaged from a nearby dumpster.

Awaking intermittently through the night, he often experienced those twin demons; cold and hunger before once more descending into that twighlight zone of near sleep.

During his first day of vagrancy, he had experienced the undignified necessity of begging from passers by for food money. This had not gone well, a combination of; his utter ignorance of this age old art and personal shame. In order to beg succesfully, he would soon learn, one should have absolutely no shame, while also displaying an insistent but irresistably humble demeanour. Both these behaviours had been perfected by homeless beggars since time immemorial. He had quickly learned, one needed to elicit either pity, or annoyance from the target. Either one would work. He had quickly learned, people would reward out of pity for your sad circumstances, or to ease their guilty conscience. Primarily because they were unwilling to do anything more about the homeless problem. They would also pay you to rid themselves of your annoying presence in their personal space. He learned by painful experience, not to get too close to the target. On rare occasions these individuals could turn violent and sling a frustrated punch or aim a kick at you. On such occasions the begger would have no recourse as begging and vagrancy was illegal. So it was best to duck or dodge these violent attempts upon your person and make yourself scarce. 

Squatting there in the cold half light of the alleyway he introspected. Pondering a conundrum which he had visited hundreds of times since he became homeless. How was it possible, that such a well organised happy life, could turn to such wretchedness, in such a short space of time. What unseen force was possessed of such a power? Why would it be unkind to some, while seemingly favouring others who proceeded unscathed, even prospered, in this life?

His tired mind wrestled endlessly with these conundrums as he shuffled about the streets begging for his meagre existence. Sometimes he would rail against the unseen power, other times he would pray. This went on and on until, like all the others of his unfortunate ilk, he eventually learned to accept this miserable lowly fate.

As the weeks and then months wore on, the body weight dropped off him until he more closely resembled a poorly draped unshaven scarecrow. His once neatly trimmed hair was now matted and unkempt while his weather tanned face carried a full untamed and no less matted beard. Clothes, which at one time were of good quality and neat, had became faded, wrinkled and greasy. At first the shame of his lowly circumstance was almost too much to bear. Eventually though, his nose stopped flinching at the rank smell of his own unwashed body and equally stinky unkempt clothes. Gradually his sense of self worth drained away, ending in acceptance of this state of humiliation and ignominy.

Each desperate hungry day rolled into each despairing cold, lonely and often hungry night. The skill of sheltering himself with whatever discarded materials he could find was learned by watching others. Eventually, he became adept enough to feed and accommodate himself on the unfeeling streets of this immense, rich and bustling city.

He also became adept at spotting and avoiding the local constabulary before they saw him. This was very necessary as they could force you to vacate a good begging or sleeping place if they saw you first. Such an inconvenience could spell the difference between a cold hungry night and one of relative comfort. So the police, whether on foot patrol or in squad cars, were carefully avoided by himself and all his kind.

Arnie found that life, even at such a low ebb, could not simply be abandoned in suicide. It amazed him, how he and his fellow vagrants tenuously clung to this precious commodity, even when they were existing in a sub strata, hardly better than rats.

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Vengeance !!!

Chapter 2 – The Midas Touch

Midas; a mythical Phyrgian King who is given power to turn everything he touches into gold.

Situated at 1601Broadway, the AMA International conference centre with its plethora of tasteful venue rooms and variety of ancilliary services hosted some very upmarket conferences. Situated as it was, right on Times Square, it was not only conveniently central, but offered a wide range of complimentary services to make any conference or meeting go off just so. AMA was therefore ‘the’ place to hold your conference or meeting if you could afford to do so.

The A4Away Corporation certainly could afford. This Corporation was now celebrating its second year as a highly successful stock exchange listed company. The AMA venue had been chosen, as much for its tasteful venue rooms and location in upper Manhattan, as for its wide range of facilities. Among the less mundane, these included; live closed circuit broadcast of the event, fed to specific chosen venue`s or offices, allowing specific others to view the meeting. For example, it could be hooked up to the in-house networks of pre chosen Brokerages and Stock Trading Houses. This of course, was like having if not free , then very inexpensive, target market advertising. Also, your function attendee`s could indulge in a range of pre arranged breakfasts, tea`s, lunches and cocktails; before, during or after the conference and so on. Just the kind of added value which appealed to A4Away CFO, John Gillmore. It was largely due to his careful and frugal financial planning that they had risen from a small independent franchisor into the relative giant they were today. 

Currently they were franchising State wide in about 300 individual outlets. From a small three man partnership in a single outlet, A4Away was now represented in every major town and city, from Long Island, to Pittsburgh in the North and Buffalo in the West. Corporate HQ was located in a very tastefull six story building on a side street in Upper Manhattan. Nothing ostentatious, just very tasteful, clad in synthetic polished charcoal marble. The Block was marked by a tastefully understated Corporate name in chrome metal, set behind a water feature at its chrome and glass portalled entrance. A4Away occupied the lower three stories and rented out the upper three at a lucrative, annually adjusted rental. Furthermore the tax break this afforded them was nice to have.

As advertised, this would be the second AGM of the A4Away Corporation. Up on the raised dias, CEO Stan Holloway sat between his CFO John Gillmore and COO James Mortimer. Arranged to either side of them were; Auditers, Lawyers and Marketing Executives. They were along just in case some nitty gritty elucidation regarding the Corporations results or operating modus was required.

The large table at the centre of the tastefully decorated stage was set as it always was for these occasions; to impose just the right degree of understated superiority over the attendee`s/ participants.

Stan sat quietly imbibing the ambiant murmer, while he surveyed the many shareholders already seated before him. Hundreds of gathered shareholders, including franchisee`s, noses all buried in the financial statements. Besides the Franchisees themselves, those attending would be the major shareholders or their duly appointed proxies. Few if any of the many smaller individual shareholders would bother to attend such a meeting. Dwelling on the crowd before him, he mentally noted that some would have pertinent, even difficult, questions for him. From experience he kew that some would also be quite asinine, even laughable. Nonetheless, he would have to satisfactorily answer them all today.

A4Away had been financially good to them all he thought idly and he would use this as a constant rallying cry throughout his opening speech. Return on capital employed was healthy. Shareprice increments year on year were robust. Growth in Net Profit had slightly exceeded projections once more. For this he knew, they had CFO John Gillmore to thank. This very shrewd accountant carefully manipulated his results so that they were neither too good, nor too bad.

Stan knew that John Gilmore had more ways to hide large profits, while still retaining availability, than most men had breakfasts. Stan and the remainder of the Board; COO, James Mortiner, seldom questioned John in any great depth on his method of arriving at these figures and results. Mostly for fear of exposing their own comparable financial engineering ignorance. In any event, the results were ratified by independent auditors, so they must be OK. Stan Holloway happily therefore, did not anticipate any curved ball from the floor, which either he, John or James could not bat for a home run.

Stan was grateful for the smart work which John did and if truth be told, was secretly envious of his CFO`s dexterity in financial matters. Regarding his other co director he also knew he could never fill the role that James Mortimer performed so well. Their COO was a shrewd and hard dealing businessman with the reins of ongoing operations held tightly in his ever controlling, micro managing hands. Unlike his partners, James Mortimer had grown up in the real income world of New Brighton, Staten Island. James had pulled himself above the herd by dint of hard earned street smarts and an iron will to succeed. He saw to it that their Franchisees operated on the keenest possible watertight franchise agreemnents. Moreover, he managed this with the barest minimum of Corporate financial input. Mortimer made certain that there was just enough, after paying their running costs and fee`s, to keep the Franchisees profitably liquid. Profitable enough, but only just, to ensure they did not bail out or default. In this way the Corporation extracted every last cent of profitability from the franchised retailers.

Unbeknown to James, because of his stingy, micro management, the franchisees were desperately cutting corners themselves. Using cheaper suppliers outside the stipulated vendor base where possible and also cutting corners on Health and Safety training were just a few. Generally, Mortimer was hated by the franchisees at large, but this did not even begin to itch on his thick insensitive skin.

Stan himself contributed by way of Public Relations, as a front man with many carefully built up connections. He, like John, came from the wealthy North Sutton area and was accustomed to being looked up to. All his life he had found it easy to make friends and influence people. Resultantly even from a young age his ego was falsely inflated. Little did he suspect that much of the deference and good will he received from others was mostly insincere. Nonetheless, it paid off in his business dealings. So it was in this role that he greatly benefitted their Corporation. To say he was well connected would be an understatement. Stan counted as regular house guests; The Mayor of New York City, Executive Bankers from Chase Manhattan and HSBC to several Supreme Court Judges, and a miscellanea of highly successful businessmen.

From this large deep pool of human resources there was little he could not attain. Sometimes with a little assistance from his very beautiful wife. Maureen, herself a well connected socialite from an old money family, who were still very much active in New York business and society.

Stan remembered those years ago, as relatively young men, how he, John and their partner, James Mortimer, had built up the first A4Away outlet. How they had formulated and perfected its core concept of; One stop convenience shopping and fuel supply with rest room toilets, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. It was certainly not the first of its kind and the concept was not unique, but they had perfected it. Starting with the catchy name, skillful marketing and clever financial management had seen them grow that first outlet into a shining example of what a convenience outlet should be. Carefully conserving their cash flow John Gillmore had raised low interest loans with which they opened a second and then a third outlet.

Not long after their first few years of success, James Mortimer had suggested they begin franchising the business. With the assistance of various Investment Banks, Key Estate Agencies, top notch Law Firms and successful Advertising Houses, the initial goal of franchising ten outlets within New York City was quickly achieved. From these, the three partners more than filled their financial expectations, as always enhanced by John Gillmore`s clever fiscal engineering.

Stan in his reverie on the podium recalled one evening in late June, as the three partners had sat reviewing the past year, how John Gillmore had suggested floating the Group on the New York Stock Exchange. John had proposed they perhaps expand the business State wide in time. Initially, to himself and James, this came as quite shock, the thought had never occured to them.

Gilmore elucidated that as a group, they already had favourable trade agreements in place with all their suppliers. Apart from best volume related discounts they also received listing kick backs. Of these kick backs only a small portion of was relayed to the franchisees to maintainb competitive retil pricing. The bulk of these was retained, well hidden from franchisee eyes as other income.

From their array of bankers they were already enjoying negotiated preferential interest rates, both on borrowings and credit balances. All these positive aspects would assist them in listing on poissibly the biggest Stock Exchange in the World.

As Gilmore laid out the strategy and projected estimated returns, their initial doubts were quickly erased. Soon the other two partners were on board.

Over the next hour, it had been agreed that the advantages for listing were massive and the risks minimal. Why not? They had everything to gain by listing. Using investor finances, and low interest borrowed capital, essentially all they had to do was manage the expanded growth of an already highly successful business model. All the risk was born by the investors and franchisees, while the benefits of success accrued to the holding Corporation.

From here the three partners had busied themselves actualising their listing. No easy task at all he now recalled. Past favours had to be called in, sometimes even veiled threats had been made and various secret promises of future favour were formulated. Every stop was pulled from their considerable individual and combined barrels of wealth and influence. 

Sitting there on the podium, speeding over the past like a video on fast forward, he remembered. All the necessary financial planning, credit guarantee`s, loan facilities and statutory activities were quietly accomplished without ruffling any feathers among their current franchisees, creditors or bankers. This of course, took some diligent hard work over months but little by little, difficulties were overcome. Each hurdle was jumped and each strip of red tape negotiated. When all was in place, the partners had approached the current ten franchisees individually, notifying them of the intended listing and showing the new Corporation prospectus.

The method behind these individual visits was to ensure that the franchisees, never opposed any aspect of the planned NYSE listing as a group. Any adverse complaint from that quarter to the Chairman of the Stock Exchange could possibly put a spoke in their wheel of fortune and had to be avoided at any cost.

In these interviews with the franchisees it was explained they would simply be incorporated into the new listed Corporation by a transfer of shares at par value. In this way, they would retain their outlets and also become shareholders in the new Corporation without having to shell out a cent. The return on their shares would greatly assist in subsidising their annual franchise fee, thus maximising profits. At the time, Stan recalled, franchisees had not addressed the question of long term competion and the A4Away executives certainly had never brought it up.

The franchise holders after all, were just small time businessmen, single outlet retailers. Overall, no major problems were encountered as Stan now recalled and all the individual outlets had come on board.

The downside, had they only seen it, was that the expanded number of new outlets would limit feet through the door of each outlet, due to the carefully worked demographics.

The upside effect was all in favour of the Corporation, it would greatly increase Franchise fee`s income due to the number of outlets. Incremental supplier volume kick backs would result. Due to market saturation, opposition also would be minimised.

In his carefully thought out pre planning, John Gillmore COO had it all worked out. The planned new outlets would ultimately drive out competition through aggressive marketing and geographic saturation. This in turn would have the side effect of a demographically limited return for each franchise outlet. Franchise owners would be generating just enough profitable income to keep them reasonably happy without chucking in the towel.

The plan at its centre, had a guaranteed maximised market share and gross profit.

An addendum to the enlarged franchise set up, was the matter of a Corporate supply chain. All suppliers were selected by the Corporation. Supposedly these were vetted as being best economic fit for the franchised outlets. All supplies; from the fuel and consumer brands they retailed, to the detergent and mops which scrubbed the pump port aprons, came via the Corporate HQ. Orders were placed on behalf of franchisees and invoices were paid on behalf of franchisees. Re-order limits based on sales,were automatically updated by the cash register computer, transmitted to HQ and turned into supplier orders. In effect the Corporation virtually ran each franchise, administratively anyway. The arrangement worked well because most franchisees were not really thinking enrepreneurs. All they really wanted was a reasonably good return on their annual franchise fee.

Unbeknown to anyone, least of all the IRS, was the bogus supplier invoicing scheme which John had perfected. Indeed the three A4Away directors all knew of this arrangement. Satisfied to share in the additional dodgy wealth. Happy to leave the intracacy of disbursement through the books to John Gillmore. Between them the matter was never ever discussed, except by means of the of an odd wink or nudge and sly smile.

These invoices were backed up by bogus delivery notes in the same amount so there was a double entry trail for the auditors to follow. Supply was effected directly from the supplier to the franchises so there was no direct link to the falsified Invoices and Delivery Notes.

Incoming computer generated Franchise orders were captured then duplicated in the system set up by John Gillmore. One system was correct, generating the correct franchise orders.The other was crooked, programmed to reflect inflated amounts from which the inflated supplier invoices were generated. Copying supplier letterheads was a simple enough matter. Gillmore had taken care of this through a variety of small time, one off, graphic artists. All of these were paid in cash and thus unconnected to A4Away. 

In short this crooked system increased the debit side of the books and reduced the companies net profit, simultaneously reducing its taxable income. The reduced taxable income evolved into falsely increased percetage profit. 

So, the listing in its many parts had proceeded as planned with great fanfare. A massive press and TV advertising campaine, backed with massive additional news advertorials about the groups strengths and prospects. Opportunities to see, were cleverly created by A4Away`s Ad Agency, to the extent that almost anyone who could read or view a TV screen knew the name A4Away and could tell you what their core consumer promises were. Ultimately all the statutory guarantees of funds were emplaced, opening share value had been determined and set, while the necessay statutory notices were placed and published in Newspapers Statewide. 

Now, in the present moment, seated at the dias watching the investors arrive, Stan remembered the huge excitement of that first day on the NY Stock Exchange. It could not have gone better. Listing ten million ordinary shares at an opening price of $112.13 each they were oversubscribed before lunch and the shares ended up trading at somewhere just over $200 each by the close of trading. Overnight their company was worth over $1 billion.

Smiling to himself, Stan remembered the massive celebration they had enjoyed with their wives. Dinner at a Michelin Five Star Restaurant, followed by the latest Broadway blockbuster play, then onward to late, late, nightcaps and caberet in reserved seats at Billy-Joe`s, a sophisticated exclusive nightclub just off Broadway.

This pleasant reverie of the past was interupted by a soft persistent buzzing over the cleverly recessed interior speakers. Holloway realised, consulting the gold Rolex watch gracing his wrist, that this was the signal for all to be seated and quiet for the meeting to commence.

When the room had quieted down, he stood erect, simultaneously a back projected image lit up behind him. Streching across the entire stage it featured A4Away`s Logo and core customer promises of convenience. The image was accompanied for dramatic effect by their catchy, standard ten second corporate jingle.

Followed by a spotlight, as the jingle played, Stan Holloway walked confidently over to the lecturn nearby and once there, let the silence hang for effect.

During this silence he was aware that his image was being telecast on CCTV to selective prominent investors and smaller shareholders in their business rooms across the City and Statewide. No notes were necessary as he was aided by a teleprompter built into the lecturn like an I pad. When he did speak, it was in a deep rich voice with carefully enunciated, well rehearsed words.

Looking straight at the gathering of shareholders Stan dramatically pointed backward with his left arm extended to the screen. These values, ladies and gentlemen, are the raft upon which we float our continued profitable results. Moreover, your management team; with its diligent hands on operating style, across all the core business area`s, is the lubrication which keeps the wheels rolling smoothly and may I say.... Paused for effect and with an engraciating smile. Profitably.

I take it you`ve all familiarised yourselves with this years audited results and taken note of the increased dividend we are able to deliver from our profitable trading yield. Murmured grunts and Mmm`s issued from the floor. Continuing smoothly, Stan proceded to highlight key performances such as; various Asset ratio`s, Investment yields, Trading results from new business, Net Asset worth and Tax savings. This last, he highlighted as being a contributing