Eagles by Lewis Orde

Author:Lewis Orde [Orde, Lewis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2018-02-17T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Three

Albert could do little over the weekend but think about his son. A traitor, allying himself with someone who was determined to destroy his father. It was small consolation to Albert that even a businessman as successful as Roland would be able to save Adler’s and the money he had invested in the shares would be lost; only the sale of the Edinburgh and Manchester stores would enable the London flagship to survive. No, Albert didn’t care whether Roland lost money on the deal or how much he lost. All he understood was that Roland had suborned his son. Eleven years earlier he’d turned old Monty against him, now he’d done it again by turning Michael against him as well.

All through the weekend Albert moped around the house, barely speaking to his wife, Helen. She was of little comfort anyway, he decided. Didn’t understand a damned thing about the business. Never had. All she knew was that the share prices had risen dramatically, and surely that must be good.

‘They’ve risen because Eagles is trying to buy us out,’ he said, trying to explain to Helen.

‘Then why don’t you sell, Albert? Retire. You’re sixty-three. Are you going to keep working until you drop dead, just like Mr Monty did?’

‘Retire? And let Eagles win? Let my own son stab me in the back?’ No, Albert would never do that. He’d see Eagles burn in hell first. And Michael with him. Yes, damn it, even his own son. All his life Albert’s own family had turned against him. His father . . . his brother . . . and now his son. But this one time, Albert would win. He would make sure of that.

The first thing Monday morning Albert hired a private investigator named Derek Hawkins, a retired police detective who had worked for the law firm Adler’s used.

Hawkins, middle-aged with a puffy red face and thin gray moustache, sat across the desk from Albert, pen in one hand, notebook in the other as he listened to the Adler’s chairman explain exactly what he wanted.

‘I don’t care how you do it, Mr Hawkins, but I want you to dig up filth about Roland Eagles. Some evidence of wrongdoing, either in business or his personal life – and there should be plenty of that the way he’s carried on – that I can use to fight this takeover.’

‘Where’s he from originally? London?’

‘No.’ Albert recalled that first meeting between himself, Roland and Monty, when Roland had demonstrated the electric kettles and irons. ‘Margate. But he’s been away from there for some time.’

‘Have you got anything particular in mind?’

Albert flashed the investigator a scathing look. ‘If I did, I wouldn’t need your services, would I?’

Hawkins snapped the notebook shut, slipped the pen into his pocket. ‘Leave it with me, Mr Adler. If it’s there, I’ll sniff it out.’

‘And if you don’t sniff it out, invent it. And make it good enough to stick.’ He waited for Hawkins to leave, then told his secretary to place a call to the headquarters of Kassler Industries in Stuttgart.

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