Piper Williams strode out of the building, her cheeks flaming at her own audacity. He had deserved it, she told herself, her eyes glowing almost gold as the sunlight hit them. Her father's firm had been sending letters to the ignorant pig for four months and he hadn't once replied. Now he said he didn't even receive the letters, of all the nerve! She chewed on her full lower lip as she walked along, heading aimlessly back to her own job. Her boss had been kind enough to let her have an hour off, and she had used it to come here and confront that monster of a man. She still couldn't believe she had done that, and she had never imagined he would be so enormous. God, the look on his face when she had thrown that gunk all over him....she was only glad she had thought to walk straight out, because he would probably have pitched her out of the window if she had stuck around for any length of time. She had deliberately tried not to notice too much about him, but still she was left with a vivid impression of luminous green eyes underneath frowning eyebrows. Shaking her head to try and disperse the image, she turned the corner and hurried down the street so she could catch a bus to the outskirts of town. The last thing she needed was to be late back to work, although her boss was a lovely man and probably wouldn't say anything. Still, she liked to be punctual. She didn't work for her father, but she took a keen interest in his business and was always on hand whenever he asked her for anything, which was rarely. No, her job was at a small office equipment firm, where she was listed as secretary to the assistant manager, but in reality she did far more. The firm wasn't running profitably and they had very few employees, so she usually spent her days helping out the sales team and calling around for new business. Her lips pursed. If she hadn't just made an enemy out of the head of Calloway Corporation, they may have been able to rope in some new business there too. Now, of course, that was impossible.
Piper looked up in time to see her bus pulling up ahead of her and she ran to catch it, just making it before the driver closed the doors. As she sat down on the bus she didn't take any notice of the two men who had run and jumped onto the vehicle just behind her, her thoughts going to what her father would do now his business was ruined.
Mark buttoned up his clean shirt and washed his hands again, hoping that maybe this time the faint smell of that horrific stuff would dissipate. He dried his hands and walked slowly back into his office, finding two of his workers back with some papers. "What have you got?"
"This is the information you asked for on the Pecan Printing Press Company, situated by the river. Also, there's a little information on the trout farm the young lady..er..mentioned, it's the only one out there, so it has to be the right one. Apparently it's owned by a Mr Brian Williams, but I couldn't find any trace of correspondence from that individual."
Mark took the papers and flicked through them. "Okay, and this..." he looked back at the first page for the name again, "...Pecan Printing Press Company, has it been flushing out any sort of by-products into the river?"
"We haven't found that out yet Sir, but we're working on it."
"Hmm, very well. And where is Wells?" he asked, looking up at the two men and raising his eyebrows.
"He's on his way now, Sir."
"Good. Okay, get out of here, I'll call you if I need you again today," Mark told them, watching with hidden amusement as they thankfully left the room. He sat and read the information they had gathered and then looked up as a knock came on his office door, seconds before John Wells walked back in with a file.
"Mr Calloway, this is the file of letters from the trout farm," the man said, handing over the file and then stepping back.
Mark frowned and looked at the documents, reading through each carefully written letter, his frown getting worse. "Why the hell didn't I receive these?"
"Sir, we don't ever give you all mail addressed to you, there's just too much. As you know, we have to sort it and prioritise it," the other man explained.
"And you didn't think these were a priority?" he asked, his eyes narrowing as he looked at Wells.
"Not compared to some of the things we've had to settle over the last year, no."
"Well, I don't agree. If you knew all along that something was poisoning the water down there, why the hell wasn't I informed? Have you actually been out to this printing company and investigated the claims?"
Wells started to look vaguely uncomfortable. "No Sir, there didn't seem to be much point..."
"Much point!" Mark bellowed, losing his temper. "You knew this and you didn't do anything about it, that makes you as guilty as the printing firm for any pollution. Hell, come to that it makes me just as guilty because you work for me!"
"Now, Sir, there's really no need..."
"There's every need, and don't you dare interrupt me again or you'll be out of a job. I want you to get a clean up crew down to that river today, do you understand? I want the printing company closed down and I want whoever is responsible there to be prosecuted." He looked furiously at the little man and placed his hands on his desk, taking a deep breath to try and calm down. "Is any of that unclear?"
"Not at all Sir, I'll get right on it," Wells said, swallowing audibly as he backed towards the door.
"One more thing, Wells," Mark said, stopping the man in his tracks. "I want that trout farm back on it's feet by the end of the week. All the fish are to be replaced after the holding areas have been cleaned, and I want the firm compensated for any monetary loss. No arguments. And be generous with the compensation, because I will be checking. Now get out of my sight."
He ignored the other man and sat back down, vaguely hearing his door close as he looked down at the letters in front of him. They ranged from politely informing him of what was happening, to begging, and then to threats. Goddamn it, he thought. Had he known about this it would never have gone so far, and now he found out that his employees had been keeping this sort of thing from him. He wondered what else he didn't know about his own company, and of how many lawsuits he could be landed with if they continued to ignore such things. He would have to find out. So it seemed that girl had just cause to act in the way she had, but he still didn't think he deserved to have that stuff thrown at him. He would get her father's business back on it's feet, and he would pay the little shrew back for the way she had acted. No-one got away with treating him like that.
******
Later that day the head of security came into his office and handed over the details they had found out about the girl. Mark smiled grimly and thanked the man, dismissing him as he read through the file. Piper Williams, 23 years old, works as a secretary in an office equipment company. Single, never been married, sister to one Paige Williams, 25 and also single, who lived overseas. Mother deceased. Mark scanned through the pages and then smiled. The business she worked for was in trouble, perfect. He called through to Wells again, and asked the man to come into his office.
Five minutes later the little man appeared again, and Mark had to stop himself from snapping at him for taking so long to get there. He handed him the information on the office equipment firm. "I want you to get in touch with the owner of this company and make him an offer. I don't care how much you have to give him, I want this firm to be mine by the close of business today."
"But...Sir, that's only two hours away!" Wells protested, looking shocked,
"Then I suggest you get a move on. Tell him I'll take on all his employees and he can keep his own job if he wishes, plus I'll make sure he gets plenty of business pushed his way."
"Sir, I don't understand, this company is tiny, it won't show any profit for months, maybe years..."
"Nevertheless, I want it. Make sure he knows he'll be much better off accepting my offer, but he only gets the deal on once condition."
"And that is?" Wells prompted, getting over his shock and going back to being businesslike.
"He fires Piper Williams, and he makes damn sure she knows that order came from me."