Cream, Crime & Cupcakes

Chapter 2 Marc

Chapter 2 Marc

Cleverly done, that it is. With a deep sigh, Marc Lutz turns around in his executive chair. Whichever way he looks at the numbers, they don’t add up. For days he has been busy figuring out where the discrepancies can be attributed to. During the stock-taking, vast amounts of stock appear to be missing. Both at several branches here as well as at partners elsewhere in Europe. The accountants are having problems figuring it out too, because apparently everything looks fine. They did, however, come up with a joint strategy on how to dive in deeper into the books to find out where the discrepancies are. He asked his good friend Josh Dudok, a renowned business lawyer, for advice about the legal aspects of the inquiry. Marc wants to prevent the collecting of unlawful evidence.

At first he’s trying to find out where the problem is himself, after all he has access everywhere and he knows each and everyone in the organisation.

A detective agency specialised in fraud can always be brought in if necessary. What bugs him the most, is that he doesn’t know too well whom inside the organisation he can trust at the moment. The thought of a rotten egg within the organisation is what worries him the most. A fraud so ingenious can only be done by someone at the top level or, at least, be done with the cooperation of someone at the top level. And that means that one of his colleagues, one of the people he trusted unconditionally until recently, must be involved. Most of them are not only colleagues but most of all good friends.

He notices that he is not only worried, but also angry. Outraged, not because of the missing stock, but because someone broke his trust. He has been ill-tempered these last days. The tiniest little thing may ignite his anger. That reminds him that he has to arrange a bouquet or something like that for his secretary, who is on the receiving end of those moods most of the time lately. But his thoughts are so absorbed by the unrest that one of his friends might be involved, that he forgets this idea instantaneously.

It does worry him, however, that his anger keeps him from looking at the numbers objectively and distantly. Therefore he calls himself into line. It doesn’t do him any good to keep it going through his head and wallow in his anger. That is not functional, certainly not in these busy times.

He gets a grip on himself and forces himself to think about the steps he wants to take and must take to handle the investigations as structured as possible.

He will have to check if the fraud is being done at the small partners or at the umbrella corporations instead. He hopes that if it is done at the smaller distributing firms, possible fraud will be easier to track because of their small scale operations. To demarcate the investigations area it is also important to know if the embezzlement takes place abroad or in the Netherlands. Tomorrow, he will fly to Las Palmas to do a book check at one of the smaller business partners abroad.

However, before being stuck abroad he wants to set the gears in motion here in the Netherlands as well. Since his full schedule doesn’t allow for anything more, he wants to start this process at the local wholesaler in his own town.

A knock on the door brings him back from his ponderings. Monica, his secretary, enters the room to discuss his travelling arrangements. His annoyance acts up when he hears that she couldn’t succeed to book a business class ticket on a direct flight because of the holiday rush. He is now faced with the choice of flying via Madrid with a total flight time of nine hours or directly in a holiday flight in five hours’ time. He can book two seats in the front row with extra leg space. Well, these five hours can be overcome. At least he’ll have enough space to do some work. With good headphones and his favourite music he will probably be able to shield himself off well enough.

It’s a good thing his secretary knows how labour-intensive his days will be. She made sure that the five star hotel has an extensive fitness department and a spa complex with an indoor swimming pool. To blow off some steam, he can do some physical exercise as well. She promises him to put all the papers on his desk later.

In deep thought, he walks to his car and while he drives away, the different scenarios keep on haunting his mind. Darned, they are also doing road work. While the traffic crawls on slowly, he forgets he wanted to turn his temper down and in the meantime he is as vexed as hell about this extra delay.

Upon finally arriving at the wholesalers’, he spots a parking space at the overcrowded parking lot from the corner of his eye. Only by turning sharply and swiftly he can park his car there. Hurried, he grabs his briefcase and without further ado, he rushes out of his car, on his way to his appointment with the local management.

The shortest route is through the warehouse and he hurries between the racks in the direction of the offices. He can barely jump aside when a fork-lift truck rushes towards him at full speed honking like mad. The following actions go so fast that it looks like he’s watching a movie instead of it happening for real. He watches the driver jump into a side lane, just before the fork-lift crashes into a rack filled with bottles specialised beers. While the c******g of broken bottles resounds in his ears, he watches the pallets on top of the rack wobble and fall to the ground in an ear-shattering noise.

Unbelieving he stares at the enormous havoc. It was a close shave for he could have been underneath that mess. If he hadn’t been right next to a side lane, he would have been unable to go anywhere and would have ended up lying there amidst the shards. It seems that no one got hurt despite the mess. He does hear how the pale-faced fork-lift driver keeps on repeating, like a broken record, ‘the brakes, the brakes, the brakes jammed. The brakes, the brakes, the brakes jammed, the brakes....’

It’s getting crowded with oncoming co-workers and customers. The alarmed and severely shocked management team comes to look at the havoc. More and more co-workers come to watch what happened with their own eyes. After the involved employees have been taken care of, the labour inspectorate has been warned and the area of the accident has been taped off, business continues as usual. In no less than ten minutes it seems as though nothing happened at all.

Because of this delay the meeting takes longer than expected. Afterwards Marc discusses the events of the day with David Marshall, manager of the wholesaler and one of his best friends. ‘I’m glad that nobody was injured’, David sighs relieved. ‘Was I able to help you any further today?’

‘Fortunately you did, even though I still haven’t got the foggiest of what’s going on’, Marc admits. ‘Well, rather you than me’, David states, before they talk over about how Dian is doing. Dian has started her own company dealing in fair-trade made designer bags out of trash a few years ago. After some Celebs were willing to use her bags in public, her company is doing great. She recently went to several developing countries to see if she can expand her collection with matching umbrellas and jewellery. ‘When you’re back from the Canaries, you should really come for dinner, so you can take a look at her newest collection’, David invites him. ‘My pleasure’, Marc replies. ‘I look forward to Dian’s wonderful food.’ With those words they say goodbye for that day.

It’s past ten o’clock when Marc finally heads home that night. Just in time he remembers that he has to collect his tickets at the office. Exhausted when he comes home that night, he still has to pack his suitcase before hitting the shower. With only three hours of sleep left, he falls asleep completely done.