Story of a Sociopath

  I was getting impatient, but decided I had no other choice but to let him be the one to set the pace of our conversation.

  Some time passed before he asked me about the price to rent Green. When I told him his face remained unreadable but he took a few moments to respond.

  “That is more than it would cost me to rent it shop by shop,” he said, smiling.

  “It is, but trust me that if you rent Green it would be like having your own shopping center. You can do or not do whatever you want without having to answer to anyone. The only thing Mr. Bennet and Mr. Hamilton require is that you meet the date we agree to for payments.”

  “Even so, the price is higher than expected,” insisted Li.

  “You know that it’s barely a ten percent increase on prices that were already very low.”

  “The reason they were low is because you couldn’t find a way to rent them out.”

  “You’re not wrong—it’s a commercial strategy to put Green on the map.”

  “You said that the car park does not enter into the agreement—may I know why?”

  “Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Bennet want to keep it for themselves and run a public garage. It won’t make a difference to you. Your customers will still be able to park there.”

  “Paying.”

  “Yes, of course, paying.”

  “I would prefer to rent all of Green.”

  “You never said anything to me about your interest in the garage. I’d have to talk to Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Bennet. And this would raise the price, which may not suit you.”

  “Perhaps I should meet with your bosses and deal with them directly. That is always better than negotiating through intermediaries, don’t you agree, Mr. Spencer?”

  “No, that won’t happen. Mr. Bennet and Mr. Hamilton are waiting for the two of us to close this deal first, and then you will meet with them and their lawyers. In the meantime you will have to make do with dealing with me.”

  “And are you capable of deciding whether the rental of Green includes the car park?”

  “I’d have to check.”

  “Then it would be better for me to deal directly with your bosses. It would save us all time.”

  “Mr. Li, if the deal does not include the garage, would you still be interested in renting Green? That is all I need to know.”

  “I would have to think about it.”

  “Great. Then think about it, and when you’ve made a decision give me a call.”

  I stood up, facing a stunned Mr. Li. I wasn’t prepared to waste my time or lose him for the sake of subtlety.

  Tany accompanied me to the door without even looking at me, and said goodbye with a murmur and a slight nod of her head.

  I was frustrated. I’d have to call Bennet and Hamilton to convince them that my brilliant idea for them to be in charge of the parking garage could be a stumbling block in closing the deal with Li.

  When I reached the office I told Mary what had happened and she seemed to relish my failure—as if she weren’t aware that if they fired me then she’d also be out on the street.

  “The Chinese are very ceremonial. You have to keep them entertained,” she said, as if she were an expert on Asia.

  “Right, and how do we keep them entertained?” I asked in annoyance.

  “Don’t seem impatient, or make it obvious that it’s important for you to close the deal. Wait four or five days before you call him again, or even longer,” Mary advised me.

  “Right, and Bennet and Hamilton? I’ll have to tell them we haven’t closed the deal.”

  “If they’ve waited this long they can wait a few days more.”

  “And if they don’t want to rent him the garage?”

  “Then it’ll all depend on Mr. Li. Don’t worry, neither of us will be worse off than we were before we worked here.”

  —

  To my surprise Mr. Bennet and Mr. Hamilton told me they weren’t intending to rent out the parking garage. They had already calculated the profits they could get if Li turned Green into a major Chinese shopping center. They imagined huge lines of cars with avid shoppers looking for bargains.

  I was unable to convince them to give in to Mr. Li’s request.

  “What is this Chinese bloke thinking? We can’t let ourselves be pushed around by him. No, no way are we renting him the car park. You tell him loud and clear, our answer is no,” said Mr. Hamilton angrily.

  I followed Mary’s advice and waited a few days before calling Li. His daughter told me to come over that same morning, because her father was about to leave on a trip and would be out of London for several weeks.

  I went, intending to show that I wasn’t anxious to reach an agreement. This time I accepted the tea that Mr. Li offered, which Tany brought to us minus the Harrods pastries. I thought that tea without pastries must be the prelude to failure.

  “Mr. Li, I’m sorry to say that my bosses do not wish to rent out the garage. I understand your interest but at the moment they have no intention of doing so.”

  I fell silent, watching him. I tried to seek out some reaction in his face, but Li didn’t move a muscle. He waited a few moments before replying, doing so only after finishing his tea.

  “It is a pity we cannot reach a deal that suits both sides. Well, they must have their reasons.”

  Silence descended. I didn’t know whether to stand up and leave, since Mr. Li no longer seemed interested in Green, or make one last attempt. I thought that Mary would have advised me to leave, and I hesitated.

  “With or without the garage, it would be a good deal for you to rent Green. You won’t find anywhere else with these features at this price. But your business is your business.”

  Mr. Li seemed to look at me with curiosity. I remained sitting there, not moving a muscle, just as unreadable as him. We returned to silence.

  “The price would have to be lowered,” he said suddenly.

  “No, we’re not going to lower it by a penny. We won’t just give Green away.”

  “Do you work on commission?” he asked bluntly.

  “That’s a personal matter that concerns no one but myself,” I replied stiffly.

  “The parking has three stories, does it not? Very well, let me have the first. I need it for my employees and for storage. If I get it I will give you a good commission—how does twenty thousand pounds sound to you?”

  If I had been a decent person I would have felt offended by the offer. I should have said something like, “You must be confused, Mr. Li. For me, loyalty is the guiding principle of my life. My duty is to represent the interests of my bosses, and not go behind their backs for your benefit.”

  But I didn’t say that. I was neither honest nor decent—I wasn’t then and am still not now—so I accepted. I was about to add another twenty thousand pounds to what I’d already asked for in commission from Bennet and Hamilton.

  I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to get my bosses to agree to Li’s request. The truth is, I threatened them. I told them they had no choice, that Li had ordered credit checks on them. He knew they were broke and could ask for an even lower price. I also warned them that I was sick of tilting at windmills and even hinted that, since Li had made inquiries about them and knew their precarious financial situation, he could spread the word that their assets were about to be seized. So anyone who rented a unit could find themselves facing the unpleasant surprise of being thrown out on the street right after having invested money refurbishing their store.

  They looked at me in horror and Bennet hurled a couple of insults at me, but eventually they concluded that I was right, so they gave their consent for me to close the deal with Li. They rented him the first story but at a higher price than Li had offered. The Chinese businessman accepted and three weeks later, accompanied by their respective lawyers, they signed the deal.

  I demanded that Li as well as Hamilton and Bennet pay me with certified checks. I had earned seventy thousand pounds and felt satisfied.

  I didn’t give Bennet
and Hamilton the chance to fire me. I told them they no longer needed me. I know that I should have been concerned about what might happen to Mary, but I wasn’t. I had no intention of seeing her ever again, so I didn’t care what happened to her.

  “The Chinese will be moving into the building tomorrow,” I told her by way of goodbye.

  “And me?”

  “You’ll have to fend for yourself.”

  “Well, whatever you do, you’ll need a secretary.”

  “Yes, but not one like you.”

  I don’t think Mary was surprised by my reply. She saw through me and knew that she could expect nothing from me. Even so, I could have shown more kindness toward her. Perhaps I could have said something like, “Don’t worry, I’ll recommend you to Mr. Li. Even though his daughter Tany is his personal secretary he’ll need someone who really knows Green.”

  Yes, I should not only have said this but also have gone through with it. Mary was no marvel, but she could be useful once just a little pressure was applied. And after all, she knew the mall well and could have solved a number of Li’s problems.

  I could even have said to her: “If I find another job I’ll see if I can request you to be my secretary—trust me, I’ll do all I can. In any case, if you have to find another job and need a reference don’t hesitate to ask. In fact, I’ll leave a letter of recommendation saying that you’re an excellent and efficient secretary.”

  Mary was smart and would have understood that I wasn’t planning to hire her in the future, but at least we could have had a decent goodbye. But as I said, I’m a scorpion—only an idiot would trust me.

  Hamilton and Bennet insisted on taking me out to dinner. I accepted. I had no friends in London.

  The Big Easy was in Chelsea and served some pretty decent barbecue ribs.

  “You’ve saved us from bankruptcy,” admitted Bennet.

  “That’s why tonight we ought to celebrate,” said Hamilton, “and so…well, we have an appointment at a rather special place. A friend recommended it to us. Not everyone can go there, only the right sort, you know, with money.”

  I would never have guessed that they would take me to a whorehouse. But that was what the elegant South Kensington residence of Madame Agnès was.

  Hamilton and Bennet looked at the girls with hunger in their eyes, but Madame Agnès made it clear that any inappropriate behavior would lead to expulsion from her house.

  I had never been in a place like that. I’d always thought that sleeping with a whore was for old men, or guys who had no other options. That was never the case for me. But I had fun, and I got into it. And yes, from that night on there were many other nights on which I knocked discreetly at the door of Madame Agnès.

  —

  With seventy thousand pounds in my checking account I decided that I could easily rent an apartment and take my time looking for another job. That figure wasn’t bad for the first time I’d ever worked in my life. But I didn’t get drunk on my good fortune and decided to be cautious when it came to spending my money.

  I found a small studio in an elegant and modest building near Kensington. I did not long for an apartment on the scale of my parents’ in New York; what’s more, I had become used to living in the few square feet of Mrs. Payne’s house. My landlady said goodbye with tears in her eyes, telling me it would be hard to find another tenant like me.

  Finding work turned out to be easier than I’d thought. There is nothing more attractive than success. Without me knowing it, the unusual advertising campaign to rent out a shopping center in a run-down neighborhood—and my having managed to rent it out in a matter of weeks—had not gone unnoticed in the City. Many thought that Li had been tricked, without realizing that renting Green had actually been a great deal for Li.

  Mark Scott telephoned me a few months later at my new “quarters,” as I dubbed the studio I was renting.

  He took it for granted that I knew who he was and would be delighted to meet him, and he summoned me to his office the next morning at eight o’clock sharp.

  I investigated, and was surprised to discover that he was the creative director of one of the City’s largest marketing and advertising firms. It was said that he was an advertising genius capable of selling anything, and that his partner, Denis Roth, was the firm’s financial genius.

  I also read that the Scott & Roth Agency was considered one of the greatest in the world, with offices on five continents. There was nothing they wouldn’t take on—the only requirement was that their clients could pay their steep fees.

  The agency was located in a modern building of steel and glass, where the tall windows of Scott’s office gave him the finest view of London.

  His assistant was waiting for me impatiently because I had arrived three minutes late.

  Scott welcomed me. I was surprised to see him dressed in jeans, a blue shirt, and no tie. He was around forty but looked younger, perhaps thanks to his outfit and personality. He seemed like the kind of guy that women liked: tall, blond, muscular, and with dark blue eyes, his face slightly tan, no doubt from some kind of outdoor exercise. His handshake was firm.

  “Thomas, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’ll let Denis know you’re here. He’ll be keen to meet you too.”

  Denis Roth turned out to be about the same age as Mark Scott, though he looked very different. He was dressed in a bespoke Savile Row suit, an Italian silk tie, and he was pale, as the English tend to be. The blue of his eyes was less brilliant than Scott’s and he was going bald; he also kept his jacket buttoned up to hide a growing paunch. I imagined that women would still find him attractive because he radiated a sense of power.

  They offered me tea but I asked for coffee instead. I was sick of drinking tea and coffee was better for the good shot of caffeine I’ve always needed to start the day.

  Scott submitted me to a light grilling while Denis Roth watched me closely, as if he could see beyond my words. They wanted to know who I was and where I had worked in New York because, they told me, they hadn’t been able to find any information about my professional activities. They were too smart for me to try to con them, so I laid all my cards on the table.

  They asked about the Green operation and my relationship with Cathy Major. I told them that Cathy was good at advertising but that the Green business had been too big for her, as it dealt with something beyond just an ad campaign.

  They pressed me for details about the operation, about Bennet and Hamilton’s financial situation and how I had convinced Li to rent all of Green, but I frowned and told them that I wasn’t going to discuss internal matters, or the persons involved or operations in which I might have participated. I knew they’d like this. Discretion is valuable in the City, where everybody has skeletons in their closet.

  “Well then, Thomas, perhaps you’d like to work with us. You don’t have experience, but your aptitude for business is evident,” said Scott.

  “Your ads for Green weren’t great—pretty old-fashioned I’d say—but clearly they were effective when it came to getting results. Yes, you’re still a bit of an amateur when it comes to creative work, but there’s definitely something you could do,” added Denis.

  I looked at them without saying a word. If they had called me it was because I interested them, but they also did not want me to think that I held too much value for them.

  “It’s about expanding the business. We need growth, new clients. Once you’ve landed a client, we’ll take over. You’d have to work in coordination with the sales and creative departments. You’d report directly to me.” As Scott said this he looked into my eyes, trying to gauge what effect his proposal had on me.

  “And this position wouldn’t end up being a go-between for the two departments?” I asked.

  “Yes, a little. Clients prefer to work with me or with Denis. The creative team doesn’t take a step without consulting me and they’ll continue to do so. I decide if a campaign works or not and I always put the finishing touches on their proposals. As for the sale
s department, sometimes they do their own thing a bit too much. We want to do what you did with Green: something beyond just offering an advertising campaign,” Scott replied.

  “Do you think you’re capable of pulling off a repeat performance?” Denis wanted to know.

  “What’s the pay?” That question reassured them. In the City they don’t trust anyone who doesn’t have a price.

  “A contract of three thousand pounds a month; if you work well, then after six months we’ll increase it to five thousand,” replied Denis.

  “We should start at five thousand and then go up to twelve,” I bluffed.

  “Not so fast. We pay our people well, but only once we know they’re worth what they believe and that they’re what we need.” Scott’s voice had lost its friendly tone.

  “All right. Let’s give it a shot.”

  We shook hands and Denis left the office, saying that he’d have the contract drawn up in fifteen minutes, ready to sign. It was clear how certain they’d been that I wouldn’t reject their offer.

  Scott spent an hour with me explaining the ins and outs of my job. Then he walked me to what would be my office and called over a young guy named Richard, whom he introduced as my assistant.

  “Richard will be your guide. He knows the company well; he’s been here several years already. Oh yes, and he’ll take you to HR to sign the contract.”

  “When do I start?” I said, for the sake of saying something.

  “Right now.” And he left the office, leaving me with Richard.

  My assistant looked at me suspiciously. The truth was I had no idea where to begin, and decided that the best thing would be to dissect the guts of the company. I sat behind what was to be my desk and invited him to sit down opposite.

  Richard was not overly talkative—or rather, he wasn’t ready to reveal everything to a stranger. He told me nothing that was worth my time, just general details about the work routine at the company. He didn’t seem particularly eager to help me beyond what was strictly required, so I decided to play hardball with him.