The 'Cousins'

Part Seventy-One: The Lawyer Speaks.

This chapter is dedicated to @ricktaylor18 and his story "Primogeniture- The First Born". It is a mind numbing story of science, romance, manipulation, avarice, human frailty and big business. It is a futuristic tale, where the future could be no farther away than tomorrow and is  set in the shadows of London, Cambridge, Paris and Quebec. A fascinating read that is highly recommended!

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A/N: This story has many layers and threads, involving more people and their agendas than the main character's Greg Mitchell and Jess White. A brief summary of what has gone before follows:-

Greg Mitchell's world as a predatory and aggressive English businessman comes to an abrupt end with his second divorce and loss of the business he built up. He finds himself alone, with no friends or family, no business, no future and a little money. He plans an extensive trip to the USA to find himself where he literally runs into Jess White, an impecunious, 17-year old High school student who is down on his luck that Greg has just worsened by causing him to lose the chance of a job in a store; one the boy needed badly.       Jess's selflessness in adversity intrigued Greg who was moved to learn more about the boy and his difficulties, triggering a metamorphosis in the man.  He grew closer to Jess and with the battering his beliefs and confidence Greg had received in England awakened doubts about his own motivations.      Nevertheless he set about setting up a Ma and Pa business to process waste oil that would fund Jess's ongoing schooling.  But this was in Bamptonville; a small, mid-western town governed by five prominent citizens who liked things they way they had always been and were against change. There was a sixth person, an outsider businessman seeking to become one of the prominent persons group and another, a low-life on the periphery, who preyed on people's weaknesses. He ran a vice ring and unknown to Greg had designs on Jess for use in his black enterprises. Together they make things difficult for Greg and Jess.  Greg meets with a group of out of work tradespeople who he brings into the circle he's helping. This calls for more enterprises to be set up to support them.  Some small investments made by Greg in the US have been inflated astronomically in the false economic boom at the turn of the century that was engineered by Western bankers, financiers and politicians. Greg is well in funds now for anything he might wish to do. But forces are against him and it is a struggle. In this chapter Greg's lawyer puts him wise  on a  few things.

This story is not only a tale of the adventures of its characters. It is also about current business practices and ethics, a vignette of what went wrong to cause the longest  recession in living memory. Wrongs and mal-practices that were prevalent before the crash have not been righted since, and  it could happen all over again- and soon!  Now read on:-

Part Seventy-One

Timeline:12:00, Friday, April 20th:: Sheriff Donovan’s Office

Flik Donovan sat at his desk clasping and unclasping his hands impatiently, while willing the hands of the clock on his wall to move more quickly to noon.

‘Yes’ he muttered once they coincided and the clock began chiming the hour. Grim excitement mixed with his resolve to get this Mecklen business over and done with prompted him to rush immediately into the outer office and put his plan into operation. However, caution ingrained by training and experience restrained his impulse, and he sat behind his desk for a few minutes longer. Donovan thought the lie he had to tell his staff would be better accepted by them a little after the noon hour. 

He roused himself when he heard sounds of Tod and Maisie stirring in the outer office as one or the other of them prepared to go out for lunch.

“Action stations,” he said, speaking to himself, placing the palms of his hands flat on the desk to push himself up out of the chair with increased vigour.