Strictly Business

Strictly Business: Chapter 27

Dedicated to daDoDo, who wanted to see Nicholas get his just deserts more than anyone else :)

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Elizabeth gasped as she slapped the newspaper she was reading onto the table. "Look at this!"

Shane craned his head over to look at the headlines she was pointing at and gave Mason a high-five. "You knew about this?" she stared at them.

Joanne took over the paper and read aloud. "Scandal rocked the country as prominent banker Nicholas Beaste is found to have been involved in insider trading and suspected to be part of a Ponzi scheme. Reliable sources also revealed that he had affairs with numerous socialite wives and may be linked to their divorces. Beaste has so far refused to comment on these allegations. Look out Madoff and Tiger Woods, you've just been upstaged," she chuckled. "I like this reporter. Good work guys."

"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" Elizabeth stared at all of them in exasperation.

"We just ratted out the louse," Shane chewed on his croissant. "Beaste is too careful and he never does his own dirty work.Chris Nolt was his lackey and a spineless coward. We figured he'll be a good avenue to get to Beaste. Joanne put a private detective on Nolt to see what we could dig up as leverage and boy did we find a lot."

"Yup," Joanne chimed in. "He fraternises with every form of low life you can imagine. The dirt my PI came up with! Connections to gangsters, drugs, scams, you name it, he's got it. That's why Beaste goes to him."

"We believe he was the one who provided Beaste with the date rape drug which knocked you out and also the thugs who beat up Shane," Mason added. "Nolt is already on the brink of losing his inheritance from his grandmother, so all he needs is a little 'incentive' to cooperate with us and dish the dirt on Beaste. We set up a little trap and got a hold over him. With the information he provided, we will be bringing charges against Beaste for assaulting Shane."

"He's willing to help us?" Elizabeth turned to Shane.

He nodded. "Of course the coward only agreed to cooperate fully if he is not implicated, so we arranged for him to turn witness for the prosecutor. He not only give the police information on the attacks on the both of us, he also revealed the shady financial dealings Beaste was involved in. He needs to make sure Beaste gets put away for a long time too or he'll have to face his wrath. But without Nolt, Beaste is a tiger without claws. Nolt should be fine." Shane finished.

Elizabeth looked incredulously at the three of them, her mind whirling to digest all the new information she just heard. Shane had previously confessed to her his suspicions that Beaste was behind the attack in the warehouse. She was horrified to know that there had been compromising photos of her and was secretly worried they would turn up to haunt her. Fortunately it has been weeks since the attack and there had been no sign of them. She prayed they were really destroyed. 

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"Hey what's wrong? You have been really quiet since lunch," Shane commented as they worked together in the office.

"I want to bring attempted rape charges against Nicholas," Elizabeth declared.

"What? Are you sure? You don't have to put yourself through this. We uncovered enough dirt on him to put him away for many years. It's what he deserves," Shane came to her side immediately.