Tracks in a Blizzard E-Book

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 45

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Imagine it's Christmas Eve. It's snowing. It's getting dark quickly. You're in a hurry. Your car veers off the road. It's Christmas Eve and nobody answers your calls. Except...

Leseprobe

Tracks in a Blizzard

FrontispieceDedicationTracks in a BlizzardAcknowledgementsCopyright

Frontispiece

Dedication

For Sabrina and Laura

Thank you for all the wonderful Christmas seasons

Tracks in a Blizzard

 Life couldn’t be better for Peter Seybold. The conference at Manstein castle had taken two full days and half of this one. Half a dozen corporate attorneys, two inheritance- and tax lawyers, a handful of accountants and he, representing well-established tax consultancy Schröder, Schroeter & Heimburg of Frankfurt, had phrased Mr. Manstein's testament under the old man's watch, and made sure that the treasury's mite remained exactly that - a mite. Manstein's corporate attorneys would finalize the document over Christmas and mail it to him. Two of his colleagues would proof-read it and forward it to the solicitors who would notarize it before the year's end - resulting in an eight-figure amount being transferred into the consultancy's bank account. His bonus was safe, and the company could no longer look the other way when it came to his name becoming the third 'S' in the company name.

He felt that he very much deserved the vacation that was lying ahead. This time tomorrow he would be comfortable on a plane taking him and his girlfriend to New Zealand, away from the ugly German winter weather. As long as the weather didn't derail his plans, he hoped.

Snowfall had set in at lunchtime, and by the time he bade farewell to old Manstein and the other people, a solid blanket of snow lay on the road while the snowflakes grew bigger and the wind, blowing them to ripples and heaps, grew stronger. Outside it was getting dark. He checked his watch – just gone four. His mind took him to his apartment where Natascha would be waiting for him. They had a reservation at Giorgio's and she would be wearing one of those gorgeous dresses showing off her long legs, particularly when she was wearing long shafted boots. He liked the looks of admiration (and sometimes blatant envy) cast by other men when she went out with him, and even more so the promises given to him by her green, cat-like eyes.

However, he had to get home, first.

He pushed the dial symbol on the steering wheel, said "Office", and when the number of Schröder, Schröter & Heimburg appeared on the display, pressed the dial symbol again. He waited for the head secretary to answer and gave his name, before he demanded his personal assistant.

"And by the way - Merry Christmas, Peter!" she said before she put him through.

"Merry Christmas, Carolin!" he replied automatically, but his assistant had picked up immediately.

"Neumaier?"

"Ah, Sabine. Still hard at work?" He tried to come across jovially, but he knew she was a single mom desperately needing each cent she could get. Thus she hadn’t complained when he had asked her to stay around that late on Christmas Eve, until he was done with Mr. Manstein (but he could feel she'd rather have been at home with her family right now, which her voice gave away to him.)

"Hello Mr. Seybold", she replied coolly.

I’ve just secured your job for the whole of next year, he thought. How about showing a little gratitude?

"Can you please send the Manstein will and the contract as paper documents to Becker and Krüger after Christmas? And please send it by e-mail to me and Heimburg."

"So you were successful?" She sounded interested.

"Yes. The old man was pleased with what we delivered. Ah - by the way, can you please give a note to Schroeter that he has to recalculate our fine - the volume has increased by some 300 million Euros."

"Three hundred ...?" Her voice now sounded genuinely nonplussed.

"Yes. It looks like the old man wants to get things straight before he retires." He smiled as he remembered the appalled looks of Manstein's corporate attorneys when he pulled out the documents about the company's Bahrein and Cayman assets. "Gentlemen", the old man had said, "I know your intentions were good. But I shall not be remembered as a knave."

"But that means ..." Apparently she had just realized what that meant.

"It means you can afford something extraordinary next year, just like everyone else in the firm."

"Thank you, Mr. Seybold. You know what? Now they have to promote you!" Was it just his imagination or had her voice grown warmer? Of course she'd benefit, too, from becoming a Partner's Personal Assistant. "Will you be coming in this evening?"

"No Sabine, thank you. You can go home now. We'll meet after New Year." He hung up and didn't hear Ms. Neumaier wishing him Merry Christmas.

With a grin, he let his mind slip. An office on the tenth floor. His own key for the elevator running straight to the top. A bar in his office and his own, magnificent bathroom. "Partner with 'Schröder, Schroeter, Heimburg & ... DAMMIT!"

He’d taken his eyes off the road for a second too long, or he'd have seen the child on a sleigh moving along the road right in front of him a little earlier. He hit the brakes but the vibrating action of the anti-skid system threw his foot off the pedal. He kicked it again, harder this time, and tried to go round the sleigh. The car broke out to the left, then to the right, where it touched the road's soft shoulder. The shoulder sagged under the car's weight and tilted it to the roadside ditch. The steering wheel airbag came out with a bang and blocked his view. After a few seconds the car came to a halt.