The 'Cousins'

Chapter 102(F) -Part Two

Chapter 102(Foxtrot) Part Two:

Walt Spills the Beans.(Continued)

This chapter is dedicated to OwainGlyn - poet and Wattpad Ambassador who is currently undergoing surgery with our best wishes for success in the procedures and a speedy recovery!

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Walt spoke freely about Bamptonville, the local area and Mitt Fawley. Wayne, listening intently, refrained from interrupting until Walt slapped his thighs to mark the end of his story an hour later.

"Wee'el – That's about it."

Wayne shook his head. "That's incredible. Thank you for that Walt, some of your story sounded like you were reading from the script of a horror movie. ...So there's a power struggle going on in Bamptonville. The town's run by an autocratic oligarchy, with Mitt Fawley trying to take it over by fair means or foul. You've got good cause to bad mouth the man after what he's done to you through the years and especially today, but you've not said a bad word about him in the last hour. There's a contradiction here and I'm getting confused. It's as if you pity him, but the picture you've painted of Mitt Fawley is of a megalomaniacal idiot with homicidal tendencies. Do you seriously mean to say he used you to engineer a succession of dirty tricks just to get his own way in business deals?"

Walt sighed. "That's exactly right and I'm ashamed of my part in it all. He went right off the tracks once he got the promise of the Lido deal. He let the core business go down the tubes to concentrate on his chicken plant dream. I think it was the grain buyers who put him up to the option scam with Abie Gollancz. He don't have the vision or knowledge to think of that for himself."

"Why do you say that, didn't he talk it through with you before it kicked off?"

"Not one little bit. I only heard about it when the scam was running and there were mundane administrative things needed doing. By then it was too late for Abie to get out even if he wanted to. He was well and truly on Fawley's hook. Mitt thought he dreamed it up, but it was the grain buyers ploy because they worked something similar back onto Mitt the next year, when he expected favors from them in return for the profits they made through the Abie scam."

"He got no favors?"

"Not a one, they pulled their options on him the minute he was locked into buying a heap of grain off the fields, just like they did with Abie and they forced Mitt to sell it to 'em at a loss. They pulled a carbon copy repeat on Mitt of what they did together against Abie. I wasn't involved again until it all went wrong, at which point it became my fault. I can hear him ranting even now. 'You should've tied 'em down tighter in the contract, call yourself a general manager?'" Walt's lips spread in a thin, sad smile.

"But you said you had nothing to do with the deal or its negotiations, how come it was your fault it went belly up for him?"

"That's the plain truth of it. I did nothing. Mitt did all the dealing and I guess he went ahead and just signed the contracts they prepared for him. He wouldn't have read them through before he signed, so would not have seen the little exit clause they inserted into the contract, allowing them to rescind for breach if Mitt did not supply grains when they called for them. They called them in before they were even harvested and trashed the contract when he couldn't meet the deadline; leaving him marooned with a heap of grain still ripening off on the prairie. That's Mitt Fawley's way of doing business for you."

"Unbelievable, but I have no sympathy for him. Did I hear you say he deliberately set out to destroy Abie Gollancz the year before?" Walt nodded an affirmative. "But shouldn't the man be looking out for himself to guard against crooked dealing, like Mitt should've done with the grain buyers last summer? When you do trades you have to evaluate the risks involved."