Rebecca - Punishment and recovery Part 2

[s999sloan]

REBECCA Part 2.

A careless mistake

It was some weeks later, well after 6 on a Monday afternoon. Rebecca was just shutting down and getting ready to go home when an instant fear stabbed through her mind. Oh fuck, the Bartholomew transaction. The moment the thought hit she knew it was bad, real bad. She restarted her computer. In less than 5 minutes she had the whole debacle in front of her. Last Thursday she should have moved his funds. The week before he had told her to go ahead when the moment was right. She'd missed it. Other big stuff had distracted her, no excuses, it was a very serious mistake. Bartholomew had lost out on something like 700k. It was a windfall that she had predicted and then missed. If she hadn't told him he would never have known about it. Bugger. Bugger. Bugger.

“Oh gawd, what a shit.” And Bartholomew of all people. He was a good client but she had always thought him a nasty piece of work. The crap was going to fly.

The light was still on in Bill's office. Rebecca walked in and told him.“Alright” he said, “Give me a list of all the files. Sarah will have a look through tonight and do a double check. We meet first thing tomorrow.”

There was no need to remind her to be there. His face showed how tense he was. Could it be worse than she already knew.

Rebecca did not sleep well. Even unspoken Bill’s reaction had frightened her. Next morning she got to work before 8. Bill must have heard her come in because she had hardly sat down when called her.

“Sit down Rebecca, Sarah will go over the mess and see if you agree.” Sarah went straight into it. The damage was closer to 850k.

Bill explained. "Rebecca, let me spell it out. You could possibly get deregistratered and then we could not keep you on in this job. Money that Bartholemew could claim for compensation is just the start. We have a bigger problem. That issue is nothing directly to do with you, except that your mistake has brought on the crisis. If Bartholomew gets nasty our company would be in deep trouble."

Rebecca immediately saw herself being dished up as the official sacrifice, for the greater good.

Bill saw the look on her face. “Rebecca. Sarah and I have agreed that the main objective is to negotiate with Bartholomew to save both your carrier and our business. We are not throwing you away. I am afraid the fact that you having made several million for him in the last 2 years will count for little. Anyway, be clear that we want to secure you and your position. That of course also goes for the other staff that would have to go if it got really nasty. However as you now realise we do not have a strong hand.”
Rebecca nodded. “Thank you both for seeing it that way. I don’t want to be responsible for ruining other people’s jobs. What if I just resigned?” Bill shook his head. That would not actually help. He will arrange a meeting with Bartholomew.

The reckoning

Rebecca did nothing all day except sit and stare at her screen and go for a long walk just to be out of the place.

Bartholomew came in at 6 and went straight to Bill’s office, accompanied by that ratty faced PA of his, Lyn Jackson. Rebecca had met Lyn twice and the dislike was mutual. Ten minutes later Bill called Rebecca in. She took a deep breath, wiped a tissue over her face and went.

There was no introduction. Bill said they all knew what had happened and asked Bartholomew to speak.

“Well young lady” he said, “You have stuffed up and this whole firm did nothing about it. No real duty of care or quality control. Lyn has taken the time to go over the figures and the damage could be as high as 1.1 million. The circumstances are clearly such that I could sue, there is no doubt about a successful outcome. Lyn’s professional advice was not to come here at all but to put the case in the hands of the company lawyers. However," looking at Bill and Sarah, "we have worked together for some years so I thought I should let you have your say.” Lyn was good, she kept a straight face.

Bill thought he saw an opening because Bartholomew’s words suggested that so far no one other than those in the room knew about the problem.

“We all know exactly how this stands" Bill said. "We do not want a court case for obvious reasons. We want to use your coming here to explore any possibility of compensation to you that would stop you from pursuing legal action. Incidentally our figure for the damage is 850,000 but that detail would be worked out jointly if we came to a potential arrangement. Let me explain.”

Bill was completely open about the failure. Rebecca’s fault was clearly admitted but also the company's breakdown of checks and controls. Bill described what they had already decided to do about this so it could never happen again. With regards to compensation he did not name a figure but made it clear that he would not let that stand in the way of any agreement and confidential settlement. There was silence, it dragged out for 2 minutes.

Bartholomew nodded his head. “I like it when people bite the bullet. I appreciate what you've said and believe me, I know enough about all your circumstances to understand fully the importance of your suggestion. I am inclined to give this favourable consideration and we can talk about some financial adjustment.”

Lyn looked pained at this development and Rebecca was just thinking that she might get out of it all with barely a mention.

Bartholomew then turned and shattered Rebecca’s world without raising his voice.
“That leaves Miss Kerry, the immediate cause of this problem. She needs to be dealt with. This is a quite separate issue from that of settling compensation between our companies. She has to suffer the consequences, some form of punishment has to be applied. Sack her and in a couple of days I will lodge malpractice papers against her personally. Your company would not officially enter into the case. That will see her registration cancelled and I will ask for a personal compensation of perhaps 2-300k. Given the evidence we have our lawyers would make this happen without difficulty.”

That was it. Rebecca saw her future smashed. She was going to be sacked, humiliated and never get another job in this unforgiving profession. She felt totally flattened by this simple, unbending destruction of her life. He could even get her savings for compensation.

Bartholomew continued. “In terms of my satisfaction the legal pathway is the best option. However I am prepared to listen to other ideas. On the way over here, Lyn suggested a second idea. Miss Kerry would take a binding contract to work for 12 months as a cleaner at our Morningtown factory. We have trouble getting people to stay in that job, particularly women. The offer is ten hour night shifts with physically demanding work all on the minimum wage.”

Turning to Bill he said “If you want to give her leave for a year instead of sacking her I have no objection. What you do afterwards is your business.”

Lyn now looked particularly smug. There must be some terrible trick to that job. It must be even worse than it sounded. But then, anything had to be better than going to court.

“If anyone can think of something that would add to the choices available to Miss Kerry, please say so. I have presented two for you all to consider. I want the decision by 5pm tomorrow or I will proceed with the legal option. If you select the cleaning job Miss Kerry, see Lyn to sign the contract before 5pm.” He sat back.

A minute passed, and another. Bartholomew picked up his pen and looked like he was getting ready to leave.

Then Sarah spoke for the first time, “I have a third suggestion to put to you. What if Rebecca accepted corporal punishment?”

The silence was overpowering. Everyone seemed to have stopped breathing. Rebecca’s hands flew over her mouth, some gasps later she managed a vague protest. “You can’t be serious”.

Bartholomew though looked up. Quite seriously he said, “You mean something like that nurse in the Middle East who is half way through getting five lots of 80 lashes.”

Rebecca was shaking but Sarah kept a level head, thinking on her feet.
“Certainly nothing so inhuman. The manner and intensity of a punishment could be discussed later. Let’s see if we can agree on the principle. Let me be clear. You would drop all claims against Miss Kerry and in no way hold the events of the past week against her. We would not sack her. There would be complete secrecy so that the financial and personal events would never be known by anyone else."

Again a long silence. Rebecca could think of nothing to say. Her mind and tongue were locked up. Bartholomew no longer looked like he was going to walk out. In fact his eyes were on Rebecca as though thinking of what she would look like getting flogged.

Then he spoke, “I am willing to consider this. If Miss Kerry selects this option you should confirm by 10am tomorrow and if yes, then meet Lyn to work out the details, without us men being around. Everything will have to be settled by 5pm. You can negotiate and I will listen but you will have to accept my final say. However, most important, Miss Kerry must agree to take the punishment of her own free will, she must be allowed to back out at any time. She is not to be forced into this choice in any way. I await your call tomorrow”.

He got up, shook hands with Bill and Sarah and walked out. Lyn tagged behind with a smirking sideways look at Rebecca's wet eyes.

Sarah turned to Rebecca. “Well, I promised to try and save your job. The corporal punishment thought just came to me in that terrible silence when it looked as though it was all over. I can see you're shocked but think about it. It would be very awful while it lasted but a few days later you would be as good as new, just like Jeremy got over it. The other options are both a disaster for all of us. You don’t know the details yet but as he said, you can back out at any time. I hope you take this option Rebecca, because when it’s all over I want you back here.”

Rebecca felt drained. When she got home she sat down at the kitchen table, put her head on her arms and cried her eyes out. After a long while she suddenly giggled and then she burst into hysterical laughter. She could see herself bent over a table or something, her pants down and her bum getting caned. How much would it hurt?
She calmed down a bit. She felt totally exhausted, lay down on the couch and surprisingly fell into a deep sleep. Some time during the night she woke and cried some more.

Next morning the mirror showed a red eyed wreck. A very long shower improved things.

An hour later she told Sarah that she would do it. There was no real choice for her.

“You have made the right decision Rebecca. It is the best for you. Bill and I want to thank you for being so brave. I'll ring Lyn.”

To be continued.