Writing for Fun
April 2017
Pennies From Heaven? - Sue Barker
1983 Barking and Dagenham Local Authority
The atmosphere in the room was highly charged, Jean’s eyes darted from side to side and the sickness churned in her stomach. She’d been sitting here for 25 minutes and still he hadn’t arrived. She looked at her watch again, oh God, she thought, how much longer, this is agony, I just want it over, now. Why the hell had she got involved in the first place? Greed really.
The sweat slowly trickled down her back and her shirt started to cling to her trembling frame. She lifted her large black handbag and placed in front of her on the desk, she took out her mirror and wiped the sheen of sweat from her top lip and clicked her handbag shut.
Finally she heard someone the other side of the door, there were muted voices but she couldn’t hear what they were saying. Every nerve ending jangled; keep calm was the mantra in her head, keep calm, nobody knows anything, as long as you keep your cool, you can come out of this ok.
In came a middle aged man, nothing remarkable about him at all, bland and uninteresting, but the power he held over her was immeasurable, but only if he knew, maybe he did and maybe he didn’t. Theirs was a dance with the Devil, but Jean knew she was the Devil, not him.
She had been employed by Barking and Dagenham Local Authority for 14 years in the pay office and this was the first time she had been interviewed by Internal Audit. First the questions came gently, just clarifying her position he said, merely background information, they were talking to everyone in her section, all three of them.
Jean wished now that Molly had never talked her into it, Molly said everyone did it, no-one would ever know, they all skimmed a little off the top. She’d been doing it for years, had anyone informed on her? No of course not, it was so inconsequential, a trifling matter, no-one was interested and actually it was virtually impossible to prove. The amounts were paltry, you only paid 10 pence to go to the toilets and no-one knew how many people used the loos, and the parking meters were 20p for 20 minutes and they weren’t monitored either.
Jean had used the money to subsidise her holidays, instead of Skegness they went to Spain, she was living the high life, but she had to be sure not to flaunt her new wealth too much, no-one must be alerted to her altered finances.
Now all she had to do was answer his questions and he may think something was suspicious but it would be fine, just keep calm, again the mantra was going through her brain.
Mr Sinclair the Auditor kept making notes, his beady eyes locked with hers, could he see inside her mind? His bald pate bobbed up and down like a bird pecking at seeds, note after note he made. Then he made a deep sigh, it was so annoying, she was not giving anything away. He was barely keeping his frustration locked tightly inside; he was sure something illegal was taking place but these three women were tough nuts to break. Every question had a reasonable answer. They didn’t know why the loose change was higher every time one of them was sick or on holiday, maybe the toilets weren’t working or there was a fault with the parking meter, it wasn’t their jobs to check it out, their job was simply to count it.
After 50 minutes, Mr Sinclair rose from his seat and advised Jean that the interview was over, she was free to leave, just as she was leaving he suddenly helped her with her handbag, As he lifted the bag up to assist her out of the room, they had a tussle, Jean had one handle and he had the other, and in that second she knew it was all over. The bag hit the floor with an almighty bang and fell over, and opened. Mr Sinclair had his evidence, the bag was completely full with loose change, and he later discovered it contained more than £50. God knows how she carried it around as if it was as light as any other handbag, he thought. The Local Authority would never know how much money had been stolen but they did prosecute Jean, Molly and Gemma the third woman on the section.
Was it worth it? Possibly not, but it sent a message to other staff dealing with pennies, if you’re going to steal, DO IT BIG.