The Ascendant

Chapter Twenty-Six

I was lost. Hobbs had given me a pile of paper containing spurious information which meant nothing to me. I needed help but Angela was nowhere to be seen and Mike was in Hobbs’s office, probably being debriefed on the bid to expose me as one of the losers Mike despises with such vigour.

Only Rob was available, and whenever I tried to ask him anything I got the impression he wanted to punch me hard in the mouth for impinging on his time.

I looked through the bundle, one sheet at a time, and started reading over every field amid the mass of data in order to identify the information I required. Some came easier than others, some threatened never to arrive at all. The figures were all over the place, and pulling them together was like trying to conduct an orchestra blindfolded. I had no idea what went where or why. Some of the print-outs seemed to be completely irrelevant and I began to wonder if certain pages had been thrown in as red herrings. Perhaps only a limited number contained the answers and patterns that I required anyway?

I had never dealt with anything like this before, yet now I was being asked to analyse and interpret data that even Hobbs admitted was raw. Unprepared. The more I looked at the figures, which were in sterling, percentages, and date form; the more Hobbs’ requirements became increasingly ambiguous.

I took a trip to the kettle in an attempt to clear my muddled brain. Think clearly, I implored myself, but I was sitting an examination for which I had received no prior education. I stirred the hot water onto the coffee granules, my head spinning at the same rate as the liquid.

I took a deep breath, as I walked back to my desk to run through it one more time. Hobbs had requested the reports to be broken down by Contractor; detailing each phase of the insurance claim process; highlighting type of claim; time scales by stage and to claim resolution; average costs and complaint to claim ratio. I was then required to produce a league table, and hand that table to Hobbs, with no bells, whistles or pastel colours, in roughly ... an hour and forty minutes, assuming lunch time occurs at 1pm.

Hobbs must have been aware of an overall league positioning of each contractor, so he would have a yardstick to compare me with although I’d blagged my way this far; so maybe I could keep it going now. I thought back to each meeting I had with individual contractors last week: their demeanour, confidence and relationship with Hobbs and Mike had to count for something. Any one of them who was secure in their position would presumably be near the top of the table, as they would be under less pressure to improve their performance, and vice-versa.

Which contractor had come across as the most uneasy? Bernard Corcoron, the chortling Cornishman, had certainly been concealing nervousness and had even proffered his wife’s theatre tickets. What was he trying to cover up? He would have to be placed near the bottom of the pile.

Then there was Martin Brevett, the impoverished businessman with the diamond encrusted cuff links. There was definitely a suspicious aura about him, as there was about Bob Hustings, he of the opulent wad: why had he felt it so necessary to curry favour from me, and in such an underhand way?

On the other hand, Mike Kavenagh had impressed me with his no-nonsense approach and Hobbs seemed to have built up a good rapport with Giles Winters. As for my day out with Mike, Doug Shires was constantly striving to engage in work-specific conversation, even though Mike was more interested in discussing forthcoming sports events, while George Kelps of Total Building Solutions was a little more difficult to evaluate because Mike just bored him into submission.

I set about compiling my league table and then sought the information I would require to substantiate the ranking of each contractor, from one to seven.

It wasn’t easy but once I had a starting point to work from, the trends developed fairly much as I had expected: Corcoron’s speed in assessing and resolving the claims was by far the slowest; Hustings was the most expensive in every category of claim while Mr Cuff Links had the highest percentage of complaints against his company.

I was also encouraged to note that some of my prejudices had been misplaced: I was beginning to gain an understanding of what I was doing. Corcoron had the lowest number of complaints and his costs were only slightly above average. Hustings dealt with the highest volume of work yet managed to stay around mid-table for everything bar costs. Mick Kavenagh of Kavenagh Building and Property Maintenance, whom I had expected to come out near the top was actually bottom of the table for claim assessment speed, but quicker than most thereafter.

The figures remained complex but as I did not have time to digest them fully I decided to prioritise certain categories and evaluate rankings based on cost, speed and, as a starting template at least, my instincts.

At 12.50pm I presented Hobbs with a single A4 sheet of paper with the following table printed clearly in black and white:

Giles Winters - Bestial-Winters Construction Ltd

Mick Kavenagh - Kavenagh Building and Property Maintenance

Doug Shires - Shires Decorating and Maintenance

Martin Brevett - Brevett Construction, Kentish Town

George Kelps of Total Building Solutions in Stoke Newington

Bob Hustings - N1 Building and Maintenance

Bernard Corcoron - Crest Building Ltd

I added a small summary box, possibly a little smaller than Hobbs had requested but time constraints did not permit me to add anything further. Also, I thought, the less proof I give, the less rope I allow to hang myself.

I was perspiring quite nastily but at least I'd managed to produce a coherent report which I felt could be justified should Hobbs wishe to query any of the league positions.

Hobbs leant back in his chair as I sat before him, waiting for his approval or constructive criticism. His response was a long time in coming.

Eventually, he laughed.

‘Have you got the data there please Ben?’ I scurried out off to collect the papers I had spread across my desk and tried to view and absorb as many figures as I could.

‘Here you go,’ I said.

He took the bundle from me and slowly sorted through it, turning some sheets the right way up every now and then. Hobbs was in the same inscrutable mood as he had been for the entire morning. I had no idea which way this would go.

‘Well, I have to say Ben, I’m surprised,’ said Hobbs, placing my report and the now neatly stacked pile of data on his desk. ‘I really had no idea that Bob Hustings and Bernard Corcoron were our worst two contractors.’

Hobbs looked at me like an adult might look at a child who has inadvertently said something funny or clever. I wanted to know which, but didn’t know how to ask.

‘Having said that Ben, your figures are quite conclusive.’ Hobbs has taken to scrutinising my report again. ‘They are not the figures which I specifically asked for, or at least not all of the figures which I specifically asked for, but they are certainly conclusive.’

I knew the situation was bad: I had attempted to do something which I had no prior experience or knowledge of, yet I thought I could somehow bluff my way through it, as I'd done in my interview and most of last week. It was day six, and I had been found out.

‘Tell me about Principle Holdings, Ben.’