Chapter Eleven

Shu and Barry only had to wait a short time for the result of Barry’s test and for this, they went to see the doctor. As they sat in the waiting room, Barry was beginning to feel uneasy.

‘What’ll you do if I am impotent?’ he asked Shu.

‘Oh, I don’t know, err...’

‘I hope you won’t take drastic steps like walking right out of the door!’

‘Oh no, not that, I won’t leave you, but I don’t want to adopt children.’

‘Why not? Wouldn’t you want to give a home to an orphaned child?’

‘Hmm, no. They would never be your own and if they did have parents alive, they would find them and go away when they grew up.’

Barry was puzzling over this attitude when they were called in to see the doctor. It was a lady doctor of about Barry’s age.

‘The results have come back from your test, Mr Connors and you are fertile so you can father a baby. This means that the fault must be in your reproductive organs, Mrs Connors. I shall start you on a course of tablets and make an appointment for you to go to the hospital.

‘Why’s that?’ asked Barry.

‘They will interview your wife and test her to see where the problem is. It will take quite a long time so you must be patient, and, anyway, you might conceive whilst you are waiting.’

‘Is that okay, Shu? Anything you want to ask?’ said Barry.

Well, just how long will it be before I go to the hospital?’

‘I don’t know how busy they are, at the moment. I’ll send you an appointment card as soon as I can,’ said the doctor, trying to be as helpful as possible.

As Shu and Barry were walking towards the car, Shu said, ‘I hope they won’t take too long. In Japan, they would be very efficient.’

‘Yeah, and you’d have to pay a fortune as well! This treatment is free, so just hang on awhile and it’ll happen, sooner or later.’

At least, Barry was relieved. More than that, he was quite happy to know that he could father a child. He could even have questioned his relationship with Shu and thought of going elsewhere, to another lady, if he drastically wanted to become a father, but Barry was going to keep on trying with Shu - of that he was sure!

He arrived at work, after dropping Shu at the railway station, and looked at the work on his desk.

‘How did you get on today?’ asked Charles, eager to know the outcome of the test.

Barry looked very pleased.

‘Yes, I’m okay - a true man,’ he revealed, with some satisfaction.

Charles, who had looked tense, seemed to breathe a great sigh of relief.

‘Oh good, I am pleased. I suppose it must be Shu then,’ he said trying to bring a little doubt into Barry’s mind.

‘Yes, it is, but she’s going to have tests at the hospital soon, so they will find out what it is and, hopefully, put it right!’

‘Oh, I see,’ said Charles. ‘I have just heard something that’ll please you.’ Barry looked up, attentively. ‘Mr Brady is giving a special lunch for old Elsie who retires at Christmas and I want you to go and represent us.’

‘That’s great, thanks a lot.’

‘But don’t drink too much. It’s on Friday, so remember to wear your best bib and tucker!’

‘Yes, okay. I’ll be smart.’

Barry had never been on such an assignment as this before and he was looking forward to it but, of course, he didn’t realise the ulterior motive - for him to meet Helen again.

Friday came and he duly left at 11.45 am to go to the lunch. Helen was looking particularly nice and sat next to Barry in the plush restaurant. The whole of her department was there and everyone participated in idle chit-chat. Mr Brady had his ‘be nice’ hat on and was laughing with everyone except Barry and it was as though he resented him - or something that he was doing.

On the whole, Barry enjoyed the meal, although he couldn’t help noticing Helen looking at him and the way she accidentally kept touching him. If he’d really been on the lookout for another woman, he knew that he could go for Helen, but he wasn’t interested. Besides, Shu was beautiful and Helen was only pleasant looking. He placed great store in being able to look at what attracted him - all the time, because, he thought, handsome men preferred beautiful women, and he was handsome.

When he returned to the office, Charles went over to him.

‘How was the meal -- pleasant company?’

‘Oh yes, it was fine,’ said Barry unemotionally. ‘Just fine.’

‘And was Helen there?’

‘Yes. She looked quite good - I suppose she wanted to impress her boss!’

‘Yes, maybe.’

Charles was pleased that Barry had noticed Helen, but he realised that he would have to continue with his plan - a little while longer.

December arrived and again Barry began to experience that dull, tired feeling. He just couldn’t understand it so he tried to push it out of his mind.

Christmas was coming up and he decided to stay at home this year, mainly because of feeling worn out after driving the 140 miles before. He had no grumbles from Shu about this because she preferred to stay at home with him and she was jealous because she couldn’t experience the joy of seeing her relatives at any time like he could.

Barry continued with his work and was sent up to the client, where Helen worked, at least twice a week. In the week before Christmas, the last time that he would see Helen that year because both companies stopped work until January 2nd, he travelled to the City, as usual, went into the client’s building and got into the lift. As he alighted on the second floor, the offices seemed quite silent and dark.

He took the proof of the advertisement along to Mr Brady’s office and saw Helen, on her own, in her office

‘Hello, Barry. How are you?’

‘Oh, pretty good - yeah.’

‘Um, Barry,’ she said, as she got up from her chair, walked around her desk and stood facing him.

‘I don’t think we will see each other again before Christmas so, err. I would like to wish you a very merry Christmas.’

Barry was caught unawares. Clutching the proof, he realised that she was about to plant a big kiss on his lips. It just so happened that Barry was faithful to Shu and the AIDS story had only just broken so he wasn’t sure whether the virus could be passed through saliva when kissing.

Helen moved her open mouth towards his and, at the last moment, Barry puckered his lips, turned his mouth away and kissed her on the cheek. Helen was embarrassed at planting a wet kiss on Barry’s cheek, but she tried to look happy and unperturbed.

‘And an extremely happy Christmas to you, too, Helen!’

Barry dodged out of her way and went into Mr Brady’s office to show him the proof, his presence being another reason for Barry’s reticence in kissing Helen.

Mr Brady was his usual sullen self.

‘It’s nice and quiet here today Mr Brady,’ remarked Barry. ‘Are there many people away?’ Mr Brady didn’t comment but looked at the proof. He certainly wasn’t going to tell Barry that it was the Company’s party and he had arranged with Charles to get Barry up to a quiet office for a Christmas kiss with Helen - and whatever followed.

He looked at the advertisement, made some alterations and sent Barry on his way. Barry said goodbye to Helen, who looked a little downcast, and rushed away to get the artwork corrected. Helen got up and walked to the ladies’ cloakroom to have a small cry and to look closely at herself. Am I that ugly or is he gay? she thought. What more can I do - rape him? She went back to her office and Mr Brady came out.

‘Don’t worry, he’ll come around. Now, let’s go to that party.’

The reason Mr Brady was trying so hard to get Helen and Barry together was that it had been obvious since she had first seen him that she had fancied him and as she was related to the family who owned the company. Mr Brady thought it would he a feather in his cap if he could help the relationship along.

Christmas came and went and still there was no luck in the mating game. Shu was getting really frustrated and she began pleading with Barry for a baby. All he could do was to try and soothe her worries and tell her that the hospital would solve the problem, sooner or later.

Barry was still feeling tired so he began to take vitamin pills to try and wake himself up. These did seem to work, partially, and so he continued to take them. He offered them to Shu, thinking it might help her to ovulate, but she refused to take them, saying that she got enough vitamins from her food and only older people needed them.

It was at about this time that things started to change at Barry’s work, Charles had employed Ian, a smoothie new director, who was full of himself and said he could bring lots of new business into the company. He had also employed a new telephonist/typist, Miranda, who lived in the locality and had become pregnant soon after starting. This didn’t worry Charles because she was good at her job and he didn’t want the expense of finding another person so soon.

Len had not quite retired then and Barry was still helping to run his accounts. One day, Barry was going to see a client in the City when Ian came over.

‘Say, Barry, can I come with you today to see the feline people?’

‘Well that’s okay but I’m just going for a short meeting to show them a design.’

The ‘feline people’ as Ian referred to them, were a company producing cat food and Ian had already discussed this with Charles as Barry dealt with conflicting cat food accounts and didn’t want them to know about each other.

‘I think you had better take Ian up there,’ said Charles. ‘He is part of the agency now.’

‘Yes, that’s right Charles,’ said Ian. ‘When are you going, Barry?’

Barry had been caught out. He couldn’t disobey the Managing Director but he knew very well that if Ian went with him, he would charm the sweet old ladies who ran the London office and could take the account away from Barry.

‘I’m going out now,’ said Barry, in an attempt to catch Ian out if he was doing something.

‘Oh, fine come on then.’ Ian seemed difficult to get rid of.

They travelled to the client’s with Barry driving all around the back roads to try to fool Ian into thinking that it was a long way to go, but Ian could read the map. The meeting went by and Ian was charming all the time and making Barry feel quite sick.

On the way home, Ian was pleased with himself and started outlining ideas of new ways to suggest new designs for the client. Barry could see that these wouldn’t work or be accepted by the client and tried to show his superior knowledge by stating how Ian’s ideas would falter. He didn’t realise that Ian was just getting the background of the client to make it easier to take, if he wanted to.

Then they returned to the office. Ian left Barry alone to do all the work for he had achieved his aim. At least Barry was pleased about that and it wasn’t long before he got his own back on Ian when he borrowed his sports car to visit a client. He ran low on petrol but just couldn’t remove the filler cap so he left it very low on juice for Ian to pick up that night. Barry learnt the next day, that Ian hadn’t bothered to fill the car before going out to play badminton that evening and ran out of petrol in the middle of the countryside and it took an hour to get some more. Barry did chortle!

It was in April when Barry first began to get a serious idea that someone was putting something in his coffee at work. Miranda made the morning coffee at eleven. Barry drank it rapidly and went out to see the artist soon after. As he approached the end of the road in the car, he suddenly had flashes of light behind his eyes and a pain in his head. He stopped the car, blinked repeatedly, then drove around the corner and stopped by the kerb wondering what on earth it could be. It had never happened like that before then he suddenly remembered the coffee - it must have been that.

The pain died away and the flashes went, so he continued his journey to the artist’s and back. He didn’t really want to shout and scream at Miranda - who was six and a half months pregnant - in case something happened to her, so he went and had a word with Charles.

‘Say, Charles, I don’t think you should let Miranda make the coffee! Do you know that I’ve just had a blinding pain which could have caused an accident, right after drinking her coffee. She must have put something in it!’

‘Oh no, I’m sure she didn’t,’ gasped Charles ‘Maybe it was just something in the jar from the manufacturers’.

‘It’s never happened before,’ said Barry.

‘All right, I’ll have a word with her - it won’t happen again.’

Barry didn’t like the way Charles was handling this.

He continued, ‘Can’t you just chuck her out?’

‘Well, we’ve got a problem there. Now I haven’t told you this before but the company lent Miranda £500 and she hasn’t paid it back yet.’

‘What for? She’s a new employee!’

‘Well, never you mind.’ Charles was getting angry ‘Just leave it to me.’

This left Barry feeling very insecure but if it was Miranda, what could he do? He decided to make his own coffee in the mornings for at least then she couldn’t spike it!

Barry told Shu about the incident that evening but she just dismissed it with a shake of her head.

‘Don’t you believe me, then?’ stormed Barry.

‘Oh, it’s probably just an impurity in the coffee,’ she said.

Barry would have liked to have discussed it in depth but he felt shunned. It almost seemed as though Shu thought everyone was good and nice and anything that disturbed that idea was to be ignored - even her husband. However, Barry, wasn’t the type to get too worried about things like that - he would sort the problem out for himself and didn’t worry about what other people thought of his actions. It might have benefited him if he had gained more trust from Shu at this stage, because of events that unfolded later.

Summer was coming up and Barry was busy practising on the local nine-hole golf course at weekends because his firm held a competition every year for all clients who wanted to compete.

Barry had seen a classified advertisement for a set of golf clubs for £50 and, as he wasn’t keen enough on the game to spend that kind of money, Charles had bought new clubs and given Barry his old ones. Barry had three of the woods lengthened, because of his height, and had to try to get a reasonable swing to his game. The nine-hole course was a public one and every weekend, when Barry went to practise it was crowded but he didn’t mind and continued to go, week after week and did improve his game quite a lot.

Shu and Barry had booked a holiday in Portugal, just before the golf competition, and Barry thought that it would be a good rest beforehand. They had a ‘late booking’ holiday and didn’t know where they were going to stay until they got there, but they were lucky and found themselves in a brand new block of flats, close to some marvellous beaches.

They had a good holiday, watching a bullfight - where the animal wasn’t killed - sunbathing and taking cheap bus rides in Faro. One thing that slightly spoiled their holiday was the large timeshare block of flats next to one beach, for they were pestered continually by young salespeople offering them incentives like vouchers for drinks or meals if they went to a sales presentation.

Barry, who was strong-willed and never going to waste money on a timeshare flat, took advantage of several of these offers and went to the presentations. He adamantly refused to buy one every time he went but ended up with free meals and drinks. After a few days, the salespeople got wise and just didn’t bother them again.

They returned to England nicely suntanned and Barry was looking forward to the golf. They were back on the Tuesday and the competition was on Thursday. Barry had been feeling very fit after the holiday but, as he left his house on Thursday, he felt quite tired.

The golf course was out in the country and every hole was surrounded by trees. Barry was playing with two people. One was a client, Harold, who was close to retiring and Len, who had retired but was still in touch with Charles.

Barry thought that he might do well against Harold but Harold’s swing was very good - very good indeed whereas Barry’s was utter rubbish. He lost so many balls in the woods that he had to borrow some to finish the game. He was lucky to win one hole and he felt very tired, for some reason.

Barry just couldn’t understand it. All that practice and look what had happened - no concentration. One day’s work couldn’t have made him this tired! Why on earth did all his shots go astray? At the dinner afterwards, he tried to work it out, but he couldn’t and he knew that he should try to forget about it and not get too despondent, but he couldn’t.

As he drove home, he was still thinking about it. Was it Miranda again? Why had Charles scotched any ideas about her poisoning the coffee so quickly? Suddenly, the mist started to clear. Charles - is it him who is putting something in my drink? As Barry drove, it became clear what he had to do - catch him!

He spent the next few weeks creeping about the office trying to see what was happening - especially in the kitchen - but he could find nothing. He was at his desk, one day, with Charles sitting opposite, when he decided to go downstairs and as he went down, he heard the floor creaking as Charles walked over to his desk.

Barry always took a packed lunch to work and it dawned on him that Charles could be tampering with that. He dashed upstairs and rushed into the office, but with it being open-plan, Charles heard him and was on his way back to his own desk. Barry’s eyes focused on Charles’ hands and he saw that he was carrying a small, brown envelope.

Barry didn’t know what to do for he had wanted to catch him looking through or tampering with his packed lunch. He just couldn’t go accusing him for carrying an envelope because he didn’t know what was in it. He didn’t want to jeopardise his job when Shu was trying to get pregnant, so he let the situation pass and said nothing.

Barry didn’t mention anything to Shu this time because he had no real proof. She might dismiss it again as ‘stupid’ and Barry didn’t want to get into any heated arguments because one of the side effects of his brain damage was being very short-tempered - if he let it go. He wasn’t as bad as some sufferers but when he lost his rag, he could not stop himself shouting and swearing as though there was an erupting volcano inside him. Immediately after an argument, he cooled down and felt sorry for Shu and tried to apologise but she wouldn’t speak to him for hours. He didn’t want that.

Barry continued with his work but was very careful to lock his suitcase, never leave his keys in the office and to watch people, carefully. Even though he did all this, he suddenly started to feel pains in his testes. These pains lasted for about two weeks and reduced the pleasure when he was making love. Where were they coming from? How could he stop them?

He knew that nobody would believe him so he began to hatch another plan. If he could put the coffee into a jam jar and take it to the doctors for analysis, that would tell him if there was any foreign substance in it, wouldn’t they? The only trouble was not knowing which coffee was poisoned so Barry decided to take pot luck.

One day, Charles made his rare offer of making the morning coffee. Barry accepted and waited for the drink to arrive. He did not drink the coffee, waited until Charles was out of the room and he poured his coffee into a jam jar and locked it in his case. He made an appointment with his doctor and went to see her two days later. Barry was feeling like one of those TV detectives when he was called in to see the doctor, and to his horror, found that a young locum had taken his doctor’s place. He tried to explain his reasons for suspicion but here was another one who just didn’t believe him. She was sure that everything would he okay and she wouldn’t take steps to help him so Barry left the doctor’s feeling like Inspector Clouseau.

‘Bitch!’ he murmured to himself. Okay, he thought, what’s next? If he couldn’t get them to test the coffee, he’d get it done privately, so he went home and looked in the Yellow Pages. There he found the phone number of a laboratory in the City and when he spoke with them, they told him that they would test anything for anyone. He made an appointment to pop in at lunch-time the next day.

Suddenly, things started to go according to plan, again. He found the laboratory in the back streets of the City, south of the river, and went in. A junior lab technician came to see him.

‘What can I do for you, Sir?’

‘I believe that this coffee has been poisoned and I would like you to find out what’s in it.’

‘Do you know what type of poison? You see, I could be looking for a vast range of things which would take a lot of time - and be very expensive.’

‘Err, well, no. It’s just something that isn’t coffee - can you see if anything’s there?’

‘We can have a look but you’ll have to pay £400 first.’ Barry had that amount in the bank so he quickly wrote out a cheque. ‘I can start next week, so please call me on Thursday and I’ll tell you the progress I am making.’

At last, something is happening; thought Barry - but had he chosen the right coffee? Was it poisoned? Four hundred of his pounds hoped so!

Barry continued with his detective theories and he decided to go to the police to try to get them to look into the matter. He first went to see a policeman he knew through Neighbourhood Watch - a scheme that involved the local community in keeping an eye out for burglars - at his local police station but the officer told him that as the suspect worked six miles away, Barry would have to go to a police station in that area. Barry had no choice so he went to see them in his lunch hour.

He told a bored detective his story and his suspicions but instead of doing some investigation work, he immediately proposed interviewing Charles to solve the case without trying too much. Barry hoped that the shock would be enough to make Charles really worried and he hoped that he would find it too difficult to lie. That was on the Thursday and the interrogation was planned for the following Monday.

The next day, in the afternoon, Charles was out but Victor was at work. Barry was sitting quietly in his office when the phone rang. Miranda answered it and Barry’s extension rang.

‘It’s the police wanting to speak to you, Barry.’ Victor would hear every word but Barry answered the call and was forced to say a few things that made him suspicious. When Barry put the phone down he knew that Victor would tell Charles all that had happened because he was the same age as Charles and eternally grateful to him for employing him. His wife was away a lot and he lived in a small, country village miles from anywhere and he would have been very bored without a job. Charles had seen that he would bring in a profit so allowed him to work four days a week. All weekend Barry was hoping that he wouldn’t tell Charles but he realised that this could be a false hope.

Monday came and the phone rang at ten o’clock

‘It’s for you Charles,’ said Miranda, who answered the phone in the morning. ‘It’s the police.’

Charles took the call, not looking at Barry, who was sitting opposite him.

‘I see, yes, all right,’ he answered gruffly. ‘Come on, Barry, we’re wanted at the police station.’

They went the half mile to the station in two cars, and were immediately shown into a small, bare room.

‘Mr Triton?’ said the detective. ‘Barry says that he has been feeling pains after drinking coffee at the office. What do you know about this?’

Charles feigned his look of surprise and shock - the way Barry had seen him do a hundred times before.

‘What - feeling ill in our office. Barry you never told me this!’ Barry was about to say something but the detective stopped him.

‘No - he didn’t tell you because you are the main suspect.’ Charles sat forwards in his chair - the look of shock being developed nicely to one of horror.

‘Me? Well, I just don’t know what to say.’

At first Barry was pleased with the detective’s sharp tone of voice.

Barry could read Charles’ face like a book. It was obvious that Charles had been told of the telephone call on Friday and that he had been preparing all weekend for this. It was clear that he knew what was coming and how to react.

Barry knew what he looked like when he was really shocked and this wasn’t one of those times.

‘Have you seen anyone tampering with the food at the office?’ The detective’s tone was becoming softer.

‘No - I never have! I honestly can’t believe that I’m down here,’ said Charles, hoping that he would soon be allowed to go, in case the truth was unearthed.

‘Well, Barry, I don’t think Mr Triton poisoned you,’ said the detective. ‘Maybe it was just an impurity in the water.’

Barry realised that Charles had won again for his forty years of telling white lies to people in his business life - and outside - had made him a master of deception. The detective asked Barry if he wanted the investigations to continue but Barry felt defeated and thought that the police would not have many more lines of enquiry. He would have been thrown out of his job, he assumed, and had no plans of what to do if this happened. The detective held out a pen for Barry to sign a form to stop the allegation, so, with a heavy heart, he signed.

The detective asked Barry to wait outside whilst he had a few more words with Charles and, as Barry waited, he could just imagine what was being said. Motorcycle accident... Brain damage... Rehabilitation not complete... Given a job because Charles was his uncle... Couldn’t be believed. Barry felt sick as he wondered if Charles would sue him for the accusation.

Charles came out and he went back to the office where Barry tried to gloss over the event.

‘I’m sorry, Charles, but I know someone’s trying to poison me.’

‘Let’s pretend it didn’t happen. Let’s forget if completely,’ said Charles, with a smug look of satisfaction on his face.

Barry knew exactly the reason for this look but there was absolutely nothing that he could do about it - nothing. He would have expected Charles to blow up under normal circumstances and give Barry his notice or kick him out of the door. He had seen Charles very angry before and there wasn’t much that could hold him down, but not now -just that smug look.

Barry now only had to wait until Friday to know if there was evidence from the lab. Friday came, and Barry spoke to the laboratory from a phone box outside his office

‘Barry Connors here. Did you find anything in the coffee I gave you?’

‘Well, we completed all the preliminary tests and we did find one unusual substance.’

‘What was it?’

‘Oh, for that, we would have to make extensive tests and it would cost a lot more. If you could just give us an area to test in, it would be easier and cheaper.’

‘No, I’m sorry, I just don’t know what it could he. I’ll come and collect the coffee next week.’

Barry hung up. Now what? He decided to go back to the doctor’s the next day to tell them of his findings and try and get them to test for a poison on the NHS. Meanwhile, he had told everyone at the office that he wouldn’t be drinking or eating anything there.

He was not going to let them give him more poison - no way! He would eat and drink in the pub nearby and this would prove if he was right - or wrong.

Barry went to the doctor’s the next day and saw a senior doctor at the practice and at last this man seemed to give Barry’s ideas some credence.

The doctor sat and thought, for what seemed ages to Barry and then said, ‘I’ll send you up to St Matthew’s Hospital in the city for they have a very advanced laboratory up there and if there is anything in the coffee, they’ll find it. Wait outside whilst the appointment is made and you’ll be given a card by my assistant.’

Barry was overjoyed. He did as the doctor had said, collected the card and sauntered back to his car. He had to go up to St Matthews the following week, on the Friday, and so he decided that, as he would be in town on the Monday, he would go to the laboratory on the way back and pick up the coffee.

Things were humming! He told Shu the laboratory’s findings but she was still reticent about believing him. She had just had a test at the hospital to find out whether or not she could give birth.

‘My test results are due in a couple of weeks so maybe we’ll find out then,’ she said, dismissing Barry’s ideas.

‘You’ll see. You’ll see that I’m right.’ Barry felt sure that he was onto a winner.

Barry picked up the coffee on Monday and carefully hid it in the loft of his house. Somehow, he couldn’t be certain that his house was totally secure and sure enough, three days before the Friday, Charmaine was out of the office. At times Barry drove home during the day to see if anyone was in the house but they never were.

Friday came and he went by train to the City. The hospital was right next door to the railway station so Barry had a quick journey. He waited for a short while and then was called in - not to see a doctor, but to see a psychiatrist.

‘And so what do you think is wrong with this coffee? Looks all right to me.’ He was a young psychiatrist with a bright personality and Barry could see that he would have to try to prove himself again, but he wasn’t disheartened.

‘It’s impossible to see the poison but a laboratory has told me that there is something apart from coffee in there!’

‘Something else?’

‘Yes, and that something is preventing me from fathering a child. I have tried to find out from doctors what it could be, but they don’t know.’

‘That’s serious. Do you know why anyone should want to do that to you?’

‘No - I don’t know why but I know who!’

‘And who’s that?’

‘My boss.’

A disbelieving look came across the psychiatrist’s face.

‘You don’t believe me,’ said Barry, reading the psychiatrist’s face accurately.

‘Well, it’s very unusual. Most bosses don’t interfere with employees like this.’

‘I’ve said, I don’t know why, but I used to eat and drink at the office and I got pains in my testicles - the very place responsible for making children.’

‘How long has this been going on?’

‘About two and a half years. My wife had tests, but they’ve found nothing wrong yet. I only started getting the pains in April so he must have changed the poison or something.’

The psychiatrist still looked as if he didn’t believe Barry but he stopped quizzing him and sent him in to see the doctor. There, Barry told the doctor what he thought the coffee was doing and the doctor promised to find out if there was anything foreign in the coffee and then Barry left.

He knew that he would be waiting and worrying about whether they would find anything but he was glad he had got that far. The good thing about Barry was that he was a ‘doer’ and if things puzzled him, he would find out why, if at all possible. He couldn’t sit and do nothing and put things to the back of his mind - that would only irritate him. No, he had to sort things out.

Barry was now active on another front. After the event at the police station he knew that he had to leave the firm. He wasn’t being made to feel embarrassed, but he knew that he could no longer work with those evil people.

He had applied for a few posts he saw advertised in the Industries Press, but without luck. Time was passing so he decided to start up his own firm.

He bought a book which told him all the details and now all he needed was the business. He was rather fortunate in this respect because he had been handling three accounts almost single-handed for a year and knew the contacts quite well. In fact, he and Shu had visited one client, at home, stayed the night and left the next day and they had got on well and formed a good relationship.

Barry wrote to his clients offering them a reasonable discount if they transferred their business to his new firm and he was quite sure of two, but not the other. Luckily, Shu had just started work again after staying at home for a year, trying to become pregnant. They thought that she may be too stressed at work and that could be the reason for their inability to have a child. She had kept herself busy by knitting beautiful jumpers but had found them extremely difficult to sell. Now, she was back in the City with a bank and earning as much as Barry which meant that if his business failed, they wouldn’t be left without any money coming in.

Shu started her job on the first of November and the time came for her to ovulate at the end of the month.

‘Barry,’ she said, lying in bed. ‘I don’t want to try for a baby, at the moment. I’ve just started work and I could be sacked because I am on a trial period for six months, learning the job, so I think we’d better stop trying.’

‘We’ll be all right. Look, we’ve been trying for two and a half years and we’ve had no luck yet - we’ve got to keep trying. Besides, you’re thirty-four and at thirty-five, things may get more difficult for a first-birth and we do not want a deformed baby. I feel good now I haven’t been eating or drinking at Triton’s. I’ve got no pain in my balls, so let’s go for it.’

They made love, but Shu had a worried look on her face. Was it a woman’s intuition or just nerves?

Barry handed his resignation and Charles seemed almost to expect it. He didn’t even worry when Barry told him that he was taking his business accounts with him.

‘That’s okay, but you’ll need our help to buy the artwork. We’ll take three per cent commission, which is the standard fee and we’ll charge you or the client, whichever you wish,’ said Charles.

Barry was perplexed. He didn’t understand how Charles could lose the clients so willingly or, maybe Charles actually felt some guilt and was trying to be Mr Nice Guy to make amends. The clients had never spent a vast amount so their loss, plus Barry’s leaving, more or less equalled each other out.

The last month passed fairly quickly with Charles making the odd sarcastic comment - but Barry’s mind was made up. He was ready to go out on his own and he had even used some Triton stationery to make his own design - that was useful!

Before he left, Barry found that one of his clients wanted a special, new design to start the marketing campaigns in the New Year. Charles offered to handle the business for two months so that Barry could take advantage of a government scheme that paid £60 a week for the first year of any new business, providing the proprietor had been unemployed for two months. It was a good offer but Barry no longer trusted Charles as he felt sure that he would do or say something to the client to keep the business and make Barry fall flat on his face, so he refused the offer and began the initial work whilst he was at Triton’s.

The time for Shu’s period had come, a week before Barry left work.

‘Has your period come yet?’ he asked, in the evening.

‘No, not yet.’

The ‘not yet’ part of the sentence made Barry remember that she didn’t want the pregnancy or expect it.

Barry’s last day came and he was getting excited, Shu still hadn’t had her period.

‘Sometimes it’s late,’ she kept protesting, but Barry was feeling good.

There was nothing to do at the office so the staff were going to have a small party and leave at about 2 p.m. Charles saw this as his last chance to poison Barry for he feared that if Barry left and Shu immediately became pregnant, suspicion would fall on him.

‘Surely, you’re not going to continue this farce of not eating anything, Barry,’ said Charles, trying to make Barry feel stupid. Of course, Barry thought Shu was pregnant so he saw no point in refusing to eat all that party food.

‘It’s all right Charles. I shall join in the party today.’

‘Oh, good, I’m sure you will like it,’ said Charles, with a gleam in his eye.

The food had been prepared the previous night, with small amounts of the poison scattered over it. The drug had only slight side effects for women and men who were not trying for babies, so no-one else would notice.

Everyone enjoyed the party and Barry laughed and joked with the rest of the staff. He left at 2.30 p.m. feeling very happy and he rushed home to set up an office in the third bedroom of his house - the box room. He had already added an extension to his telephone, put up two shelves on the wall and found an old desk and chairs in the loft. He had a compact office, but he could operate from there.

Shu had to work until 1 p.m. on the twenty-fourth of December and as they were going to spend Christmas with Barry’s mother, he tidied the house up so that they could leave as soon as Shu arrived home. Barry had been allowed to keep the two litre company car after he had left Triton’s and so they had a fast journey up there.

On Christmas Day, Barry’s brother and his wife, who lived nearby, had lunch with Shu, Barry and his mother. It was after the meal when Barry started to get worried.

‘Come on Shu, have another drink,’ said Ivan, swaying distinctly as he stood in the room. He started to pour out a Southern Comfort.

‘Hang on Ivan, just a small one,’ said Barry, putting his hand over the bottle to prevent the flow.

‘Why? What’s the matter? You’re not driving anywhere.’

‘Err... no - shall we tell them Shu?’

Shu’s eyes shone but her shyness didn’t allow her to say anything.

‘I believe Shu is pregnant’

‘That’s wonderful - oh marvellous,’ said Patricia.

‘Well, it’s not confirmed yet,’ said Shu.

‘How late are you?’ asked Heather.

‘Two and a half weeks - I could just have missed one.’

‘Anyway, no booze - or very little until we know,’ said Barry. ‘Well make an appointment for you to see the doctor when we get back and I’d like to tell you something, as well. I haven’t been eating or drinking a single thing at the office for these past two months and I feel better and I’m not as tired and look, Shu is pregnant. I’m sure that Charles was putting something in my food!’

There was a stunned silence.

‘Maybe you’re allergic to the water,’ said Ivan. ‘Anyway, if she’s pregnant, it’s now you should start worrying!’

The drink was taking over. Barry looked at his mother, Heather, and Shu, and they were all looking at the floor, thinking.

‘Have you got any proof?’ asked Heather.

‘Well, no - the only proof I could get would be to photograph him putting the poison in my food - and that’s impossible!’

No-one said anything else. Barry didn’t realise that it was extremely difficult for people to think that a relation could be guilty of committing such a heinous crime, especially when that person was as plausible as Charles.

‘What do you think Shu?’ asked Heather. Shu, shook her head in disbelief.

‘I almost caught him trying to put something into my food at the office, once,’ said Barry.

‘Almost?’ said Ivan.

‘Yes - I just couldn’t snatch the packet away from him, and now I’m worried that the poison may have affected me and may produce a deformed baby.’

‘Oh, I’m sure everything will be all right,’ said Patricia soothingly.

It was obvious that no-one believed Barry. Was it that they thought that he was still affected by his brain damage or did they think that because he was about to start his own company, he was under too much pressure? The subject was changed, leaving Barry to dwell on his own thoughts. He would show them! He would confront them with the coffee that was being tested in town. Oh please, let them find something, he thought.