The Master Of The Strategy

Inspector Jackson ‘Jacky’ examined the accident spot. The concrete safety barricades atop the road on the high cliff were broken, meaning the vehicle was driven at a very high speed & probably missed the turn ahead. There was a river flowing deep below the valley. It was almost 1:00 AM in the morning. The search team was desperately searching for any identity of the car & the victim.

With a crane, the broken vehicle was lifted up. Jacky examined the car. It was a latest sports car model, the left side of the front bonnet crashed & airbags deployed. The crane placed the car on the sloping ground. Jacky went near it & observed that it was burnt; the interiors were finished in a rare wood color.

No dead body was found till now, even though the team was searching up & down the cliff.

Jacky assumed the body of the driver must’ve flown down in the river below.

“Over here…!” a person called out from behind. Jacky saw that he was holding a purse. As he approached towards the man, he saw that the handle was golden, and the purse was made of genuine leather, one of the rarest in its material. As Jacky opened it and checked for identification, he found a personal card holder. As he checked the name on it, he was shocked, so were the men around when they looked at the card.

At around 1:30 AM in the night, the phone rang in the Smith’s Mansion; the people living inside were the richest in the entire city.

“Hello?” the butler received the call. As he heard the news from other side, he almost screamed dropping the receiver.

The next day all the major newspaper’s headlines were same: “Jennifer Smith, Wife of renowned businessman Eveson Smith, died in a road accident.”

Smith’s Mansion had a big entrance porch with a long entrance road. The front area had beautiful garden, with one of the rarest flowering plants. Today, the whole of front porch was filled with reporters, to report the latest news of the tragedy that had happened.

“She probably died in a car accident, Ma’am. But the sad news is, we haven’t discovered the body as yet.” Jacky showed the bruised car photos to Doris Smith, Eveson’s grandmother & the owner of Smith Industries, a multi million dollar company with businesses in Real estate, retail, hospitality & many other fields. Doris couldn’t believe what had happened & how her daughter-in-law had died.

“But she was a very good driver, Inspector..!” Eveson said, clearly knowing how nicely his wife drove all the cars they had. “It’s next to impossible that she died in a road accident…!”

Eveson was quite disturbed at the loss of his wife. He was a marketing graduate from the World’s top university, & was holding a premier position in his company. They both shared a very loving relationship. Both were Directors in Smith Industries and always shared a very good bond with everyone in the company.

Doris was equally disturbed & was more concerned about her son.

Almost 45 years ago, she & her husband, Daniel Smith had founded Smith Steels. Initially they only focused on steel, but later, ventured into other businesses & gradually became Smith Industries. Eveson was her only son. After the sudden & unexpected death of her husband, she became the CEO of her company.

Eveson wanted to be a Musician. After taking a qualified degree in marketing, he found his passion in playing violin. He tried hard & earned mastery in it. Unwillingly, Doris supported her son. After years of hard work, he finally decided to participate in a Competition where many people from the world came to show their talents. There, the judges severely criticised his music & disqualified him in the first round itself. As Eveson was going through an emotional breakdown, Doris advised him to join the office. Slowly, Eveson learned every part of the organisation. He finally gave up on his passion & started focusing on the office work.

Very few people knew that it was Doris who had bribed the judges in the competition to deliberately fail her son, as she wanted someone from her family to take care of her company.

As Eveson grew older, he fell in love with Carolyn, a girl amongst his friend circle, who belonged to a middle class family. Again unwillingly, Doris supported her son’s love affair. They started dating, & were about to get married but one day, abruptly, Carolyn left, leaving a letter stating she was no longer interested in Eveson. Again in depression, Eveson gave up everything. Doris decided to arrange his marriage with another girl, Jennifer Moore, daughter of renowned industrialist, D.G.Moore. Jennifer, a business strategist who had done her graduation from a renowned university, slowly helped Eveson come out of depression & gradually became the most loved in the family.

Very few people knew that Doris had actually threatened to kill Carolyn’s parents if she did not leave her son. She had also included her name in a list of scams which were done very specifically to tangle Carolyn. Later she had no option but to leave Eveson.

Later, Doris even pulled down Moore Industries, those belonging to her daughter-in-law’s father, as she wanted to invest in those industries, but Jennifer’s father was not ready to do so. Finally, Doris used her contacts & brought the Moore Industries to ground & then to show sympathy purchased the company from Mr. Moore at a very low price.

The next day, Jacky went to meet the Smith family again.

“Your wife’s medical reports suggest that Jennifer had taken high dosage of Paracetamol tablets. These may have caused her to doze off while driving. We think she missed a turn after a long straight & her car banged on the concrete rails.” Speaking to Eveson, he asked him , “May I ask, where was she going in such a hurry?”

“She wanted to attend a party in the neighbouring city,” Eveson said, “She was already late for it. The day this accident happened, she was with me the whole morning. The meeting went on late. She complained of headaches. Inspite of myself suggesting her to skip the party, she still went.”

Eveson then showed some medical bills. “The online website call centre have confirmed that you had asked for a some stripes of Paracetamol medicine. May I know why was it?”

“Jenny started complaining she had headaches…” Eveson answered, “even the day she left, she had taken an extended dose of these tablets. Probably that caused her to doze off.”

Jacky glanced at his assistant. The assistant opened a clip on his mobile. It was a recorded CCTV footage from a Hotel Lobby. It showed Eveson & Jenny arguing over something. Eveson then banged a glass on the floor & left the lobby.

“What was the argument about, Son?” Doris questioned her, looking at the footage.

Eveson tried to not answer. Finally he said, “I heard Jenny had started speaking to her earlier boyfriend…..”

“SO that’s why you killed her?” Jacky questioned back.

“Why will I kill her for that? I only asked her why was she speaking to him…that’s all…!” Eveson felt frustrated as he answered.

Doris was still taken aback by her daughter-in-law’s death. She was not in too much friendly terms with Jennifer. Both of them spoke to each other less frequently. However, Jennifer had a good business mind. She had helped their company grow by using her marketing tactics. She had brought in many clients, investors, businesses into their company which had helped their industry grow to a much larger extent. That was the only thing Doris liked about her.

Jacky was investigating the case in very much detail. He had no prime suspect, however, he still felt Eveson may have murdered his wife. In his enquires, he had found out that even though Eveson loved his wife, somewhere he was jealous about her, as she knew many more marketing strategies then himself & had more contacts in the corporate industry.

“I think something can be wrong sir,” Jacky’s assistant told him, “My sources have told Eveson has joined back in the company, & he has taken all the industries & departments previously owned by Jennifer under his name.”

“Of course I did that, officer..!” Eveson screamed in disgust when questioned by Jacky, “In her absence, all of her industries were suffering..! And I couldn’t help it unless I became their principle owner…! Therefore, I had to transfer it in my name…! And it was to save not just the name of my company, but also to save all the market prices & shares that Jennifer’s company was holding..!”

“This…This Eveson….he doesn’t look good to me…!” Jacky told his assistant, “Something’s not right with him. Keep an eye on his activities...”

Eveson knew that Jacky was more interested in him.

“He’s keeping a track of all my records. Plus he has many sources put behind me.” Eveson told his mother Doris as they spoke at the breakfast.

“Don’t worry...” Doris said, “Nothing will go wrong. I’ve already spoken to my attorneys. They’ll be always ready to help you anytime.”

“I think we should take all the stocks in the market held by Jennifer on our name.” Eveson said as he finished his breakfast.

“But I’ve already changed my will.” Doris said, “All that was owned by Jennifer would be equally divided between both of us…”

Eveson banged his hand hard on the table. “I spoke to every damn client…! I got more than 30% of the client base in the market…! I slogged my ass down in different offices…! And what you did..? Just seated on the chair, you gave orders to us…! And now, you want 50% of what was owned by my wife…? Hell…I won’t even give you 10%...” saying this, Eveson got up & left.

“What are you saying….?” Jacky was stunned by the information received from his assistant.

“That’s right…I got a call from the lawyer who handles the legal of Smith Industries,” the assistant said “They are taking away everything that belonged to Jennifer. Every property, every stock, every funds, they are taking under their name.”

Something then ringed inside Jacky’s mind.

“Get me detail info about this family. Right from where Smith Industries started...”

“Why am I brought here, Officer?” Doris, the main owner of Smith Industries questioned Jacky. She was detained in the police station for further questioning.

“We have heard Eveson was pretty interested in music. His teacher said some incident forced him to quit music.” He then showed some cutouts of the World Competition that her son had participated long time back. “We did spoke to the judges of the Competition. They have a totally different story to tell.”

Hearing this, Doris turned pale.

“There’s more,” he then showed a photo of Carolyn, Eveson’s earlier girlfriend, “I hope you still remember her.”

Doris started shivering. All of her past games were open in front of her.

“Speak Up…!” Jack shouted at the top of his voice.

“I…I…did this...just …just because I wanted someone from my family to take care of my family business. I never wanted my industry to be headed by some other outsider...” stammering, Doris replied back.

“So you destroyed your son’s passion?” Jacky said. He then placed a medical strip in front of her. Doris immediately recognized those tablets. “Your family doctors said you had told them to give these to Jennifer, even though they were proving fatal to her health. Can you tell us why were you doing this?”

Doris couldn’t believe how her every single tactics was working against her.

“I only requested them that I need a son from her,” she added, “And that’s the reason I forced my doctors to prescribe these medicines..!”

“Even though they were damaging her health?” Jacky questioned. He then showed her the Attorney papers that she had done through recent transactions, “You had fooled Jennifer & taken her signatures on these papers. You told her to transfer these in your name & then you used it for your own benefits…” He then signalled to his assistant . The assistant then got a handcuffed man inside.

Doris was shocked as she looked at the man.

“From your call records & recent messages, we have tracked down this guy whom you appointed to Kill Jennifer…!” Jacky screamed the last two words. “This guy has already confirmed what you had told to do to him…”

Doris swallowed twice before she spoke.

“I…I only wanted to warn her. She was trying to be over smart to me. I founded a small company & grew it into a big empire. This girl, who only owned a smaller company, started over smarting me everytime. Who was she to do this? I never liked her behaviour, but being my daughter-in-law, I kept quiet. I never intended to be this way on her, but she forced me to do it. I appointed him just too mentally torture her…not to kill her. And that in no way means that I have killed her…!”

The police detained Doris for further questioning. However, it was evident that she did not kill Jennifer. Using her attorneys, she released herself from all the charges put up on her. But the High court still charged her of false behaviour, forgery , attempt to murder &* many other smaller cases. She was then taken to police custody.

Eveson couldn’t believe how his own mother had betrayed him. He came to know every single thing that she had done to him. Since she had done multiple forgeries, he issued legal prosecution on her.

After the arrest of Doris Smith, all the shares & stocks of Smith Industries started crashing down. Within a few days, all the investors had left, & no one was ready to purchase or invest any more in Smith’s. Fearing the major loss, Eveson asked the court’s permission to sell the stakes owned by Doris, as they were the major ones suffering. Unwillingly, Doris had to accept it.

Finally, keeping a small share to himself, Eveson sold major of the other industries to other shareholders.

Doris was now left with hardly anything. She had started these industries, but now, due to her false attitudes, she lost what she had earned. Only a small part of industries was left for herself.

Almost 3,000 kms away, in a different Time Zone, a café was playing international news on TV, broadcasting about the downfall of Smith Industries. They were well known amongst half the world, & everyone was stunned as they heard the news of the real faces of Doris & Eveson Smith.

A lady seated on the table was hearing the news. She heard the news about Smith Industries from start to end. After that she got up & went to the counter to order café latte.

“Your name please, Ma’am?” the boy on the counter asked.

“Jennifer. Jennifer Moore.” The lady answered back.

As she sat down to sip her coffee, she praised herself for her smartness. When she was working with Smith’s, she came to know their hunger for money. Doris kept over smarting her everytime, forcing Jennifer to behave on her terms. She had then decided to teach her a lesson, as she knew Doris & Eveson both will get caught in their own crimes. She therefore planned her accident accordingly, & at the turn jumped out of the seat, leaving her purse & identifications inside. She was a very skilled driver,& she knew how to drive perfectly.

She knew her death would dissolve the entire empire. My purpose was to teach all of them a lesson & to bring the entire Smith Industries down, she thought to herself, just the way Doris brought my father on roads by deliberately causing loss to his company.