Noonday and Night

‘ “No, honestly,” he said, “I’ve been sent here for that very purpose, to try you out. We just wanted to know what sort of fellow you were, and whether you were prepared to back up your office staff and go bail for your drivers and all that.”

‘ “What the hell do you mean by ‘we’?” I said; but I don’t mind telling you, Dame Beatrice, that I was worried. You see, quite by accident I had been given access to certain papers which were supposed at the time to be strictly confidential

‘About the projected merger between your own County Motors and a very much larger organisation?’

‘Yes, that’s it. How Vittorio had found out anything about it I have no idea. Somebody blabbed while under the influence, I imagine, and Vittorio, who was never anybody’s fool, picked it up as it came off the bat, I suppose.’

‘But such information (if, at that time, as you indicate, it had not been released) could only have been known at top level. Vittorio did not strike me as a man who would be on drinking terms with tycoons,’ said Dame Beatrice.

‘I don’t suppose I was the only person who collected antiques, and that, as you know, was his line.’

‘I understand. Neither were you the only one of his clients who liked to pay a low price for stolen goods, I think.’

‘Strawberries and cream,’ said Laura. Dame Beatrice cackled. Honfleur looked puzzled and anxious. His flash of belligerence had gone.

‘So you believed at the time that, as Vittorio was in possession of this so-far exclusive information about the merger, he must be what he claimed to be – the accredited representative of the firm into which County Motors was to be absorbed. I suppose,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘That was his story, was it not?’

‘That’s the size of it,’ said Honfleur, relieved. ‘Well, of course, as soon as I found out about the merger I realised that my own job might be at stake, so when Vittorio invited me out for a drink, I thought that, as he was evidently top brass in the other coach company, it might be politic to play ball with him, so I went along.

‘We chatted over our drinks (which he paid for) and, of course, it came out that I had already known about the merger.’

‘And at that point he came out in his true colours, no doubt.’

‘You’re dead right he did. He told me that the merger was supposed to be top secret and that unless I played along with him he would blow the gaff to my board of directors. “And if I do that,” he said, “you won’t have to worry whether your job is going to be safe or not, will you? – because there won’t be any job for you to worry about. Leakage of confidential information is a serious matter, isn’t it?”

‘Well, I was still believing that he really was a key man in the other company, so I said I’d only come upon my information by accident and never intended to make use of it. I said I didn’t see how I could make use of it, even if I wanted to, which I most certainly did not. He laughed at me.

‘ “Yours isn’t the only coach company in this take-over business,” he said. “What’s to stop me leaking the information to some of the others, using your name, eh? That would put the cat among the pigeons, wouldn’t it?”

‘ “I should deny it and denounce you to your own company,” I said. He laughed again. “What company?” he asked. “I’m not employed by any coach firm. I have other interests and if you and I can get together there won’t be any need for you to bother whether you’ve got a job or not.” ’

‘And you took him at his word?’

‘Dame Beatrice, I had no option.’

‘But if you obtained the information about the merger merely by accident, could you not have told your board of directors and promised secrecy?’

‘Well, only in a way was it by accident. I overheard part of a telephone conversation. That was accidental enough. I’d been invited to attend a board meeting because the drivers were asking for more pay and, not wishing to be late, I had got there well before time. Well, knowing the place, I had slipped into a sort of little kitchen where the typists brewed up and which opened out of the boardroom. Nobody saw me, because the meeting, as usual, was held out of office hours, so I guessed nobody would be about until the meeting began and I thought I would sit in the kitchen and have a quiet smoke. I had no idea anybody was in the boardroom until the telephone rang and was answered. Well, that’s where I should have made myself known and not listened in, I suppose, but as soon as I realised what was being arranged I admit I listened and when the meeting was over I found myself thinking about what I’d heard.

‘Of course, my own job was my first consideration. Nobody can blame me for that. I’d heard one or two names mentioned and I knew they were younger men than myself, but my own name had not come up. It isn’t easy to get another berth when you’ve been in management and are approaching fifty-five, so I thought I would try to find out exactly where I stood.’

‘And that meant rifling the board’s private files, I suppose.’

‘You can’t blame me. I only wanted to know.’

‘And what you found out by your burglarious exploit was not conducive to your peace of mind, I take it.’

‘No. There was nothing absolutely definite, you understand, but there was a pile of correspondence which, when boiled down to essentials, indicated to me that I could prepare myself for redundancy and that the most I could hope for was a very moderate golden handshake.’

‘So when Vittorio put his proposition to you, you were ready to fall in with it.’

‘Dame Beatrice, I was obliged to fall in with it. You see, I’d slipped into the little kitchen place again when the meeting was over, and then I’d gone back to the board room. When I’d found out what I could I ran straight into one of the stenographers. I recognised her at once as the girl who had been present taking down what was said at the board meeting. “So we had a good old rummage among the files, did we?” she said. “The cleaner saw you, you know. She thought you were entitled to be there, but, of course, I know better. So what are you going to do about it, Mr Honfleur?”

‘Well, I did my best to keep my end up. “I have a perfect right to inspect the files,” I said. “I am a member of