Radical Solution

Harriet was a good girl. She was intelligent, willing to learn and with a strong sense of justice. But that was the problem and that was the reason for a very discreet meeting in the Director’s Suite after hours one dark night.

Present were the Managing Director, The Chief Accountant and the Company Doctor. The MD said that surely an eighteen-year-old clerk could not have found out anything too serious in the company books. All they had to do was accuse her of theft and sack her.

But the accountant said that this solution simply would not work.

“We few know that the sole purpose of this company is to be a front for the Cambodian operation and that all the sensitive work goes through just one account amongst the thousands on our books but this girl is clever. She picked up that the Special Account was exempt from all the usual checks and she spent three lunchtimes going through the transactions. This girl knows everything purely because she is clever enough to have worked it out. We can sack her but she will then be out in the world and free to talk to anyone she chooses.”

The Doctor looked decidedly worried.

“You are not suggesting that we..” He drew his hand across his throat.

The accountant was probably the most intelligent man in the room as well as the most unprincipled.

“For the stakes in play, we could do that, unless you would prefer thirty years in jail. But the problem is that we would then have a killing to cover up and that could end up having the same effect. With most people we could buy her off but our Harriet is honest and I know she wouldn’t take a bribe, not even a big one. So, we have to get her off our hands in such a way that it won’t matter if she talks because nobody will believe her.”

Two pairs of eyes swung around to look at the Doctor.

“Well yes. I see. I have full access to her medical records and I could be creative. We have the Company Private Clinic and their Medical Director would be no problem especially if he saw her amended medical file. I believe she lives alone and her parents are way up in Glasgow so they would have no reason to disbelieve our records.”

And that was pretty much the end of the meeting. Harriet’s life was about to take a major turn for the worst.

The following day was a normal working day until the fire alarm sounded and the building was evacuated. Word soon spread that it was not a drill as the smell of smoke filled the ground floor. While the staff milled around in the car park, it was discovered that the small, locked room where confidential waste was stored awaiting collection was ablaze. All those bags of paper were burning furiously but the room had no windows so Security Officers were able to stand in the doorway with fire hoses and spray the whole room. The outcome was a bare room with blackened walls and an ash covered floor ensuring that there would be no need for a waste collection this week.

The staff were allowed back to work with almost no-one having any idea of how the fire had started. Harriet was at her desk in the Finance Office when a Security Officer came in to escort her upstairs. The frightened girl had no idea what was going on when she was taken into the office of the Managing Director and accused of setting the fire. Her mouth fell open in disbelief but her pleas of innocence were brushed aside. It was explained to her that, for arson against the company she could be sacked and reported to the police but the company cared for its staff and she was to be taken to the company clinic for her own good.

Harriet protested loudly and the two large men in white coats stood up from where they had been seated at the other end of the room. It seemed that her choices were either to go quietly or be restrained and led out struggling for the whole office to see. It was still very humiliating to be led out of the office by two Security staff and not even allowed to clear her desk or her locker or even collect her coat. The two guards sat silently in the back of the van with her for the drive to the clinic which was a mansion in its own grounds behind very high walls.

She was escorted to what could only be described as a padded cell and the door made a very final sounding clang as her escorts slammed it shut behind her. Now that she was alone and locked in, she could only sit on the bed, which was on a ledge protruding from the wall, while panic, helplessness and fear began to overwhelm her.