The Closet Librarian's Bookshelf.

Coveted

1. Hector

"Sir we have a problem"
I raise my eyes to the very nervous project manager stood hovering in my office door.
"Come in" I growl, wondering what had gone wrong this time.
"Umm, well we may have overlooked... umm" he trails off.

"For gods sake Crest what the hell is it!"
"The land we need to complete the resort is not part of the land we have already acquired as we previously thought" he rushes out and I stare at him completely unable to believe what he is saying.
"Come again?"
"We made a mistake... sir" he mumbles, looking anywhere but at me.

Reaching for my phone, I call my PA, "Find my brother and ask him to come to my office will you" not waiting for his agreement I return my gaze back to the man now shaking in front of me. "Explain to me what has gone wrong" I tell him again.

"Sir, the land we purchased from Stewart Duncan all went through okay, the secondary parcel of land he offered, however on registering did not, Mr Duncan does not own the deeds to that land, his cousin does and we can no longer reach either Mr Duncan or our property agent Ms Strait. We are trying to track them down and legal is chasing the additional funds we transferred..."

"We paid him for something that wasn't his to sell!" my voice raised slightly and Crest swallowed hard.

"Yes... Sir. We were pushing to get the land secured, Ms Strait assured us everything was okay but to seal the deal we needed to move swiftly but... I am sorry sir"

"Whats going on?" Angus asked appearing in my doorway. I waved him in before looking back at Crest.

"I want everything on this deal, I want to know what has been done so far and everything we have on the land and ownership... Crest, I want everything in the conference room in two hours"

"Yes... Yes Sir" he mumbles rushing out, closing the door behind him.

"Whats happened?" he asks and I explained the bombshell Crest had just dropped.
"So how much are we out of pocket?"
"Two Million" I sit back and run my hands through my hair. It wasn't the money, though two million was nothing to sneeze at, it was the fact that this had happened on our watch and at the end of the day the buck stopped with us.

"Call Jamison and get him tracking down the money and Strait, sounds like if we find her we will find him. I'll talk to legal and get then to go through the first deal to make sure that's all above board"

I nod reaching for the phone as Angus hesitates in my office door "After Crest gives us the update we will need to call Dad" I nod again with a grimace.

Our parents were currently staying with our older brother and his complicated family, he was in a committed relationship with Per and so were his best friends. Per who had just had her third child, Ivo's twins arriving a year ago to be joined just last week by another son Rueben who was our brother Rupert's baby.
Our parents along with all the other parents had descended on the family to meet the new grandchild and I hated that I was going to have to pull dad away to brief him.

"We can put that off till we hear back from Jamison, let's get as much information together as we can" I suggest and he grins at me.
"Good idea"
As I dial Jamison's number I start searching the computer for the information he will need, knowing there was no point in delaying

"Hector?" Jamison answered already knowing it was me calling and I quickly told him what we knew already.
"You are in luck, I am in the area and can be with you in an hour, one of my team is already in the building and I will send her up to start digging through the files, she can start tracking down the money" he tells me before ringing off.

I can hear my brother talking to my PA and his, giving instructions to clear our diaries for the next few days of anything not urgent. He sends me a brief smile as I join him and we head together towards the conference room, where Crest and his team of four are setting up.

"Mr Breitmeyer" we hear just as we reach the door and turn to find a tall pink haired woman striding towards us, a laptop tucked under her arm and glasses sliding down her nose in her rush. "I'm Emily, Jamison sent me", I nodded and bit my lip to hide my smile, I knew who she was, I remembered Rupert mentioning her after Jamison had done some work for him, Jamison had found her hidden away in the bowels of Per's parents company and had claimed her for his team though Rupert felt Jamison was biding his time to tie her down in a more personal way.

"Thank you, please join us, we are about to go over the project and where we are so far" I indicate she would go in ahead of us and watch as she sets up on a table in the corner, her fingers flying over the laptop keyboard even as she looks around the room.

Angus clears his throat, his eyes on the team into front of him "Right what do we know... Crest?"

I knew Emily was listening in as Crest and his team updated us of what had happened so far, It seem that Caroline Strait had been leading the land acquisition, she apparently had some local knowledge and had engaged with Stewart Duncan very quickly and easily. No red flags had been raised and all had been well, until the mapping had shown a part of what we needed had not yet been purchased. Duncan had come forward with the land and offered it with a higher price but we needed it to make the plans work so the deal had gone ahead, once again Strait leading. The money had been paid and contracts exchanged before both Duncan and Strait had disappeared and legal had been unable to file the land as he didn't own it.
The money had also gone.

Angus looked over towards Emily "Can you find the money?" he asked her and she nodded.
"Yes that's easy to find, getting it back may be a bit more difficult but its achievable, did you want to see what else she has done in your name?"

I exchanged a glance with my brother, what now?
"Show us" he replied moving closer as I followed, both of us looking over her shoulder at the emails she had open on the screen.

"Damn, who has she been sending these to?" I growl, as she flips to another one, this one even more threatening.
"Lady Mairead Greystone, the real landowner" she told us and our gazes swung to Crest and his team who all looked as shocked as we were.

"Good work Emily, can you get all of those printed off and see what you can find out about her, we are obviously going to have to go and see her"
"Yes Sir" she replied and went to work.