AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I tried. For the record, I tried. But now you’re on your own, to fix your mistake.”
His mistake?
Michelle looked back at me, her face softening. “As your mentor and manager, just hear out this idiot before you make your mind up.” She took a seat at Andrew’s desk, muttering under her breath. “It’s always the Scottish clients that cause the most drama, I swear.”
I whirled on Stuart.
“You have officially two minutes to explain what the hell is going on before I stab you with every stem in this room!”
He nodded rapidly, taking a step towards me. “Hen, please, about our spreadsheet - ”
I let out another cry and retreated to the window. Shame flushed through me. I should never have created that file. Why did I leave a trail of evidence of what we did?
Because I liked recording what we did. I loved everything about that file.
Ironically, I’d left a breadcrumb trail of evidence, just like the distillery’s thief.
Stuart took another step towards me.
“I’m so sorry. I made a huge mistake. I had our spreadsheet open when I looked at the audit report ye had sent. In my haste, when I emailed Andrew Reedman, I attached the wrong file. I made a huge mistake.”
I couldn’t speak. I growled and clenched my fists.
“I would have been here yesterday but I had to make a statement to police -”
I turned to face him, unable to help myself. “What, police?”
“Aye, Stephen.” He nodded. “Caroline realised he’d been in town when swipe cards went missing. Police found him with my swipe card and keys on him. Yesterday, they found his illegal still. I had to give a statement that I hadn’t been at the distillery at the times my swipe card was used. Hen, I’d been with ye. Ironically, our spreadsheet proves it.”
I took a deep breath, my fists slowly relaxing.
“They’ll press charges against Stephen as a result of your reports.” Stuart gave me a quick, hopeful smile. “Because of your excellent work, we found he was counterfeiting whisky, most likely for the four years you identified we’d had lower than expected production.”
“Wait, the missing labels.” My eyes flicked over the grey London skyline, realisation jolting me. “So he was bottling his spirit as yours?”
“Aye, he was selling counterfeit whisky on the black market. Your idea to cross reference delivery orders with swipe card reports and staff rosters solved it. Our paperwork showed he was always the one who received deliveries and, after he was fired, when he made spare parts’ deliveries, swipe cards would go missing. He later confessed to taking our barley when we would store the deliveries in our warehouse.”
Stuart paused to take a deep breath.
“I figured out the fucker stole my swipe card the night of the pub fight. Even caught him a few times on CCTV and one time looks like he deliberately wet the pallet that a cask had been stored on. Same one as the one we had to destroy due to taint. He sabotaged my whisky. And yes, he was sabotaging the brand he was counterfeiting. Stephen’s not the sharpest tool in the garden shed.”
I was elated to hear I’d been right, but the feeling faded quickly, and I stepped away.
“And as soon as you had the evidence, you dumped me. You promised to support me with my promotion and to keep us a secret, but you lied.”
“No, hen. It was a big mistake.” Stuart shook his head, taking another step towards me, palms up. “After I read your working document, I emailed Andrew the wrong bloody file. I hit send without checking. And then snow hit the Highlands. I was stuck for two days at the Balnain lodge with their internet knocked out, so I didn’t even know about the fallout of what had happened. Please, hen. Ye’ve got to believe me I had no idea what I’d inadvertently done.”
“You demanded to speak to my managing partner about my performance!”
“Yes! About your promotion! Your work was impeccable. Ye had done what our accounts department had failed to do. What I’d failed to notice on our reports. I wanted to make sure ye were rewarded for that!”
I shook my head, mouth opening and closing like a goldfish.
“I came back from the lodge to find Robert wanting to take a swing at me for being a complete fuckhead, with no idea why. Then to find out what I’d done, as well as phone messages from Andrew Reedman, wanting to get a formal statement about the nature of our relationship. I made him promise ye’d not face any disciplinary action. I also threatened to take our business to another firm if he said one word out of line to ye.”
My heart hammered. Hope soared.
Too dangerous a thing to feel.
