None Existent Life

4. THE RISE

It had been four years since Darren had committed murder, the police never showed and it had appeared nobody was looking for him, not a single news bulletin or newspaper article, no missing persons add nothing.

Darren had gotten away with, and James still had no idea who his friends' victim was other than she was female of course.

The friends still live together and after three months of hibernation Darren soon returned to his womanizing self, but for James, it was a different story, he had not even kissed a girl since Charlene.

Truth is he wasnt interested in a relationship, things were moving fast for James, his career was finally taking off.

Mr Owen eventually sold his shares in the business twelve months after James became a partner, and it was James who offered to buy him out, this gave James a majority steak in the business.

He had become ruthless in business, he hired private investigators to look into the remaing partners, and it was not long before one investigator came up with something interesting on Miss Johnson, something very interesting indeed.

Miss Johnson had been in a relationship for five years with her best friend and lover, it was kept very secretive and most people assumed she was asexual, although it was now 2002, and the LGBT community were more open about their sexuality than ever before, there is still some bigotry thrown their way, far more than there is in today's world.

But that was not the reason for Miss Johnson's secrecy, she would consider herself gay, not openly so, but she was gay and to people in her social cirlce she was proud to be so.

Vey often you would find her at a gay rights rally, campaigning for quality, but in the world of business, she was a far cry from that same person.

As i mentioned, most people in the business world would class her as asexual, apart froma few, who would class her as a woman who would do what it takes to close a deal.

James had very comprimising photos of her with various men, she used her feminity to good effect, but James was also aware of her personal life and role withing the LGBT community and her relationship with another woman.

Slamming photos on her desk her threatened to tear her world apart if she didnt accept his genrous offer to buy her shares, and of course she accpeted.

Then there was one, Mr Jarrod was the only person standing between James and complete control of the business, this one was a little more tricky. Mr Jarrod was completely clean, no affairs, no criminal activity, no seedy background nothing, he was a family man, happy and contented.

James needed to be a little more cunning, the pair were more than collegues, Mr Jarrod had taken him under his wing when he first started, he made him feel welcome and supported his decision making with the other directors, James was a friend of the family.

It wasnt going to be easy, but James was patient, he waited for the right oppotunity to make his move, a pleasent summers eveing it was too, the pair had just completed a new deal, one of the largest Kitchen Retailers had offered them prime position in all of their showrooms nationwide, so both Mr Jarrod and James celebrated over some very expensive whisky in a very expensive bar.

It was then that James formulated his plan, while indulging in a drink or ten, Mr Jarrod spoke to James about his wide and children, his wife being sevearly disabled took a lot of caring for, his son had a severe learning disabilty leaving his daughter to be the only real person he could leave his business assetts too if anything should ever happen to him,

Although it was nice he had someone, he told James it would not be the ideal solution, if anything did happen to him, she would be the sole carer for both her brother and her mother.