The Last Hangman

Recent events should be something to forget, if only they could. Pretty soon, the whole of the Advanced Strategic Energy Inc. senior organization wouldn’t sleep if things continued in the vein they were going. It was well past one-thirty in the morning and Eamon Darcy was still wide-awake, wondering what the repercussions would be from the previous fracas a couple of days ago, he knew there would be. Hammond still played on his mind. His dismissal had not been thought through. It was not clean enough, but how would they know how events would turn out? Hammond, as usual, hadn’t quite played into their hands in the way he was supposed to. Darcy had contacted the CEO, John Arnold, and informed him of what had occurred at the first opportunity, including the smallest of details. JA was not a happy chap. The bad news would spread through the company like a virus. Senior managers fighting with Vice Presidents and Senior Vice Presidents on the fourteenth floor was bad public relations, although he found the fact that his son-in-law was in hospital with a fractured cheek bone quite amusing! But he agreed with Eamon that Hammond was unstable; anything could happen where he was concerned. So that night, he also struggled to sleep for reasons relating to the mountains of trash Hammond could potentially unleash on the company. He’d have to do something about that, he’d done it in the past and wouldn’t hesitate to do it again; he had the contacts and would make the call in the morning. But in the meantime, something else was also bothering him. He’d found a pair of panties in the back of the limousine earlier that morning. It was obvious to him Charlie was using the car for his own personal pleasure, which had John Arnold seething. How dare he compromise his position and use the car in that way? Arnold thought about sacking him, but Charlie knew too much about what went on between him and Gaynor. He then realized that he’d been careless when it came to being discrete with his secretary, especially with Barbara out of sight. So that he could deal with Hammond and stop him throwing all kinds of shit around the place, he decided to let Charlie off the hook. So what if he’d had a little fun in the car? No big deal, it was a nice car with comfortable leather upholstery, probably comfier than Charlie’s bed at home. John needed to chill-out. Perhaps he needed to be a little more adventurous in the back seat too. He made a mental note to work something out with Gaynor. It would be nice to buff up the leather with her gyrating under him! Yes, John needed to chill-out. Finding a pair of panties was the last of his problems he eventually reasoned. If he’d known they were Barbara’s underwear, he might have looked at the situation rather differently! Jeremy Isaacs, slightly less traumatized now but still heavily bruised, lay still in his hunting lodge bed, awake but numb from the cocktail of pain killers he was still being administered nearly every other four hours. All he could think about was revenge, his face would be heavily scarred and now Hammond would pay he decided, in and out of severe bouts of pain. Gerald Sinclair just stared at the red, illuminated digital clock most of the night. He was worried sick but eventually returned to lie next to his wife who was sound asleep. She’d probably dropped off dreaming of next year’s holiday, unaware of what was to come! He loved his wife as much as she loved him. He couched up to her bare flesh and squeezed her, but she would not know that, ever! His former colleague, Richard Hammond, was wide-awake one minute but totally out of it the next. He was too busy trawling the seedy bars of New York for his next fix, a woman, and somewhere to stay the night. His only solace was that by now the hardened figure of Laxrois was becoming more distant in his thoughts. Spasmodic memories of the Frenchman kept him only momentarily on the same planet as most of the others he now acquainted with and for that, he was grateful. For these men, the next few days would prove to be the most crucial of their entire lives!