I Said, You Said

 With rain-drops slowly dripping from their hung umbrellas, both secretaries were waiting eagerly for someone's arrival. The Finance Secretary, being more restless of the two kept on glancing on the entry gate of the park, her bench mate and then her wrist-watch, this was going on in tandem since they both took their seats.

“Will you please stop doing that? He will come when he will come, your fidgeting will not make him apparate out of this falling rain.”

“How can you be so calm in all this? Is it me alone who is feeling this vine of fear slowly crawling up the spine? I mean so much depends on this. After this meeting there will be no turning back.”

“You are making this meeting sound like a murder. We are here to meet the police inspector and share whatever we know about this embezzlement thing. In the CEO's absence from the company thanks to that fateful attack, we can’t trust anyone else, especially when our fingers are pointed towards the second in command.”

“But still…it's the police we are reaching out to. This will have legal repercussions. And what if this police inspector after listening to our story changes sides and strikes a deal with my boss? What if the fingers we are pointing somehow change their direction and start pointing towards us?”

“Have they changed the script of your cartoon show? What they called it Plom and Terry…or have you started watching something new? You are questioning like we are in a shady cop thriller drama, where the innocent go behind the bars.”

“First, it’s Tom & Jerry and my grandkids watch it. I just give them company. Second, yes I watch a lot of crime drama serials, but that has nothing to do with this. And regarding innocent going behind the bars, I have two words for you - Look Around.”

“It's not as bad as you are picturing. Anyways, I don’t think this police officer is anything like what you are talking about. He is good.”, she can herself feel the hollowness in her words but still want to portray a confident face in front of her friend. This inspector is her only hope in protecting the company and more importantly the company's CEO. 

“So you think he will be extra nice with us. Like, he will ask us to have some coffee and some biscuits along. You fool, police always start a conversation with doubt. And who they doubt the most, the person who shows them initiative.”

“Hmmm….so you mean if this meeting goes south, at my funeral people will say, “She would have lived a little longer if not for her initiative-taking nature.””

“You can laugh now as much as you like but when you are behind bars on charges of embezzlement and illegal trespassing on private property, then we'll talk.”

“Obviously we will, my dear accomplice.”

“No, I am not your accomplice.”

“But you are, my dear Finance Secretary. When they will ask me in court for a statement, I will simply admit my incompetence in financial matters and will point my finger to you and will say, I did what my Finance Secretary friend asked me to do.”

“You will not do that.”, a mixture of worry and agitation shadowed her tone.

“Yes, I will.”, the CEO's secretary replied back in her nonchalant coy tone.

 “But why? Ok, What will it take for you to not take my name in the courtroom?”

“No more fidgeting. That's it. Nothing more.”

FInance secretary opened her mouth to rebel against but then thought better of not to and kept her words to herself. With their chat abruptly ended, the sound of raindrops pattering suddenly took the centre stage.

They must have waited for five more minutes before a police jeep entered through the front gate of the park and came to a halt at some distance from them. Police inspector rolled down the driver's side window and waved them to join him in his car..

Both ladies stood in their place  and started towards the car. FInance secretary with a little hesitation in her step though. 

“Sorry for being late. It's been awhile for me to visit this part of the town.”, the inspector didn’t wait for both of them to settle in seats fully and finished with his apology on the very first instance he got.

“It's alright officer, we didn't wait that long.”, the CEO's secretary didn’t want to tell him that they were in the park for over an hour. If this officer stands up to the reputation which she has heard all this wait will be worthwhile.

Finance secretary kept her wits to herself on her friend's last statement. But she passed a knowing glance to her to give her a piece of her mind.

“Coffee?” Inspector handed the CEO's secretary two steam ozzying cups with chocolatey coffee aroma dissolving in the car air. “Last part of my apology, I promise.” He smiled and went behind her own coffee cup, blowing on his coffee for a colder landing for his lips.

“Oh, how thoughtful. Isn’t it thoughtful dear.” And with that, the CEO's secretary passed over the coffee cup to her friend and also passed her a return glance.

“Thank you”, the Finance Secretary whispered.

“So, whenever you are ready we can start.” Inspector kept on drinking his coffee. He was late for the meeting because he was doing some real digging on the case. And when he got a call from the victim's secretary about some financial irregularity in the company, he was not sure if this would have any link to his investigation. But taking a couple of hours break for an otherwise hectic investigation might help in adding to his perspective. 

Amidst constant pattering of rain on the car roof, with steam breathing coffee cups, the three started on the very reason for this meeting.

The CEO's secretary started narrating the events chronologically how they found it weird that the company's bumper profits till the first eleven months melted away and paved the path for donations and charities cut to keep company afloat. And then the link between the Finance Director, the ghost company and the bungalow.

Both women have already decided that they will not delv much into the history of the ghost entity so nothing can be backtracked to the company itself.

By the time the CEO's secretary was done with her narration all three cups were emptied and disposed of in a small poly bag on the floorboard.

“Interesting. I can’t believe you both have uncovered so much without any help”, Inspector wrote down some points in his diary.

“But have you given any thought on how you will prove all this? I mean without any proof about these missing funds it's just a case of ‘I said, you said’, Inspector was still looking in his diary when he made this point.

When he didn’t get a response he closed his diary and started, “Listen, don’t take this the wrong way, but I agreed to meet you because I was intrigued over the phone when you said you know something is going behind the CEO's back. But now after listening to this story, for which you don’t have any proof, I am bound to think that all this is just pure fiction. And a very interesting and layered one, I must say. But without proof it will sadly be limited to fiction only, nothing more, sadly.”

“Anyways, I will be lying if I say that listening to your story is my only purpose here. I have a couple of my own enquiries to make which unfortunately I can’t ask in office premises.”, Inspector concluded.

“Who said we don’t have proof?” Finance secretary muttered in between being busy eating biscuits. Where the hell did she get the biscuits?

Inspector froze in his tracks and looked towards both secretaries turn by turn.”You have proof?”

The CEO's secretary took a fluffy brown envelope and handed it to the inspector. He didn’t spend much time opening and sifting through the documents and photographs. After going through all, his spellbound spell only allowed him enough breath so he can say, “You should have started your story with this.”

Before coming on this supposedly two hour break, the Inspector was doubting if this would be a fruitful meeting. But now he is glad that he said yes for the meeting and also showed up. 

The inspector was lost in his reveries when the CEO's secretary shook him out of it, “You were saying that you want to ask us something which you can’t ask in the office premise?”

“This brown envelope of yours has blown away those questions and at the same time raised some new questions which I know whom to ask exactly.” 

With that Inspector put the envelope in the glove box and turned on the car's ignition. “Let me drop you to your place, it's getting dark. Also, I was just wondering what you think about the newly hired guy for the Govt Policy post?”

Both secretaries looked at each other, by now both  have become so good at probing that they know when they are getting probed themself.