I remained silent as he and David relished my obvious torment. He studied my discomfort as I began searching the room for an escape. Any escape. I glanced over at the table where an ornate chess set sat ready for a game. I thought of all the games I played against Charles Buckman and lost. I continued to stare fixated on the chessboard. The ebony Stanton pieces and their counterparts carved from ivory by a master craftsman many years ago. Now silently they were waiting for a game. Charles Buckman followed my gaze and a glimpse of a smile spread on his face.
“You know Troy, it has been quite some time since we’ve played a game of chess. Why don’t we make a little wager? If I win, David will take over as the President of Camden Bank & Trust and you go to the penitentiary.”
“And if I win?” I postulated as I took a sip of the very expensive cognac.
The very idea seemed to have been a slap in Charles Buckman’s face. I saw him redden and fight for control at the ludicrous idea. He narrowed his eyes and said, “If you win, you get to remain as President of Camden Bank & Trust and work for me for the rest of your life instead of going to prison.”
“If it wasn’t for the fact that you’ve never beaten me in a game of chess, I might have been tempted to lose on purpose to keep you under my thumb. But I think it would be better all around for you to leave this town with your tail between your legs!” He malevolently hissed at me.
He turned away and snatched a couple of chess pieces while he was shielded from my view. He turned back to me and stuck out both his fists at arms’ length. In his hands were pawns concealed. All I had to do was guess right and I would start as white and have the advantage of the opening move.
He continued to wait on my decision of which hand I wished to see open. I waited a half a minute before I brought the palm of my right hand underneath Charles Buckman’s left fist. A knowing victorious gleam appeared in his eyes as he transferred the pawn to my hand. I clenched my hand in a fist, the pawn remained unrevealed to everyone.
“Since I know I have the black pawn in my hand, I chose your remaining hand. I will start as white.” I opened my hand to reveal the black pawn in my grasp. I saw a look of anger and frustration on Buckman’s face as he hadn’t calculated on my ploy.
Ever since the first time I’ve ever played him, I was allowed the option of choosing pawns. Against the law of averages I always lost. It was only after I had fallen from grace that I dared to think how he accomplished that achievement.
Through sleight of hand he always produced two black pawns for me to chose from. Even for something as trivial as a chess game he sought an advantage.
We took our seats at the table. Gladiators removed from bloodshed by culture and civilization only. David moved and stood besides his father-in-law, serving as the loyal vassal he was.
I made my opening move with a pawn. He instantly countered with a Knight’s move. That assured me of his tendency to rely heavily on his Knights during the opening game had continued despite not playing him for six years. I made a move with Queen’s Bishop. He brought out his other Knight. That confirmed he was committed to overplaying his Knights.
Three moves later, my knight landed on his Queen’s Bishop pawn.
“Check,” I quietly announced.
He looked in disbelief at his predicament. My Knight was poised to take either his King or his Queen’s Rook with my next move. Usually, the countermove is to have the Queen take the threatening Knight. That would not help him in the current game. My Bishop was poised to take his Queen in response if she attacked.
The other usual countermove was to move the King and sacrifice the Queen’s Rook. That could not happen here. Buckman had played his usual rigid game of protecting the King and denied him any maneuverability. He was trapped to take my Knight’s sacrifice.
Still, he searched for a way out. His eyes were darting to every piece on the board. I had leaned back in my chair to relish another taste of the brandy. “You’re going to have to take my Knight, Charles. It is your only play.”
Again, he glared at me. Not just for having the temerity of capturing his Queen, but the audacity of addressing him as an equal rather than my superior. I continued to wait for the inevitable.
Finally, in disgust he moved his Queen and took my Knight. I didn’t hesitate as I moved my Bishop and captured his Queen. I held the Queen piece before him. I just looked at the piece, rubbing against the ebony princess.
“Funny thing about in the other game we are playing, you had another queen and it still didn’t help you,” I commented.
“What are you talking about Troy?”
“Your queen, the spy you put in my office, Janet Temple. Your secret agent I was forced to contend with.”
I watched as he belatedly tried to bring his King’s Bishop into action. I began setting up the next sequence of events.
“It took awhile to realize who your queen was,” I continued. “But, once I did she was easy to neutralize. All I had to do was feed her false information and I knew it would get back to you.”
I brought my Queen out to start doing battle as we continued to play.
“You see, Chuck, there are two sets of books. But the false cooked books are the ones showing the bank is in trouble. The public books are real and show correctly that the bank is thriving.”
“I baited you into thinking that my bank was in trouble because I knew what your natural reaction was going to be. ‘The big always eats the small,’ isn’t that what you always say, Chuck?”
He had a stunned look on his face from my use of the patronizing nickname and my sliding my Queen diagonally across the board to capture his King’s Rook.
Again, I was able to quietly say, “Check.”
“I’ve known for close to two years that Janet was passing information to you Chuck. I knew you had her get intimate with me to get me to lower my defenses. I set up a couple of situations where I passed correct information to you via Janet. After you were able to stymie my efforts by her information you trusted her 100 %. Then occasionally I would provide her a legitimate nugget for you to feast on. That kept you hooked.”
Buckman moved his King out of harm’s way into the next row. I then slid my Queen horizontally across the board and now his Queen’s Rook was likewise a victim of the game as I removed it.
“Queen and both Rooks gone, you aren’t doing too good, Chuck,” I observed. “But back to Janet. You relied totally on her reports and she relied totally on the information I provided her. You see, I constantly upgraded the false cooked books to indicate the gradual demise of the bank’s assets.”
“Janet would verify the information on her computer and double check on my computer and then relay the information to you. Janet was never in a capacity to conduct a legitimate audit, so I continued to feed you false information.”
“That allowed me some breathing space to repair the initial damage you caused. What was scary was the steps I had to take over and over to build up the war chest I needed. I would commit every dollar I could to ride a half a point on a stock and cash back out of the market and consolidate the gains. Janet was always informed just a little too late to contact you in time for you to crush me like a bug. It had to be frustrating to see me dancing out of your grasp, day after day. ”
“Of course, for every gain I made, you were erroneously told I lost on four or five other transactions daily. You could and did verify the daily trading of the stocks in question and the reported trading activity would seem to corroborate Janet’s information.”
Woodenly, he took my Queen’s Bishop and I returned the favor and took one of his Knights. He made a move with his remaining Knight trying to pressure my King. I began ravaging his pawns with my Queen.
“So you see Chuck, it won’t amount to anything when the State Auditor comes in Monday. The real books will be presented, your information will be noted and an investigation will be conducted. The only evidence you have is a computer printout from Janet, yours and David’s secondhand account of the information, and Janet herself.”
“There will be no corroborating evidence. The computer from Janet’s office and my personal computer are already missing in action and replaced with new computers with only the correct numbers showing. You will never find the hard drives with the erroneous information you relied upon. The audit will take about a week and the final report will exonerate me and my bank.”
Now my Rooks were free as the end game approached. I took his King’s Bishop.
“So you see Chuck, your plan is going just about as well as your chess game. You underestimated me and now you are paying the price.”
His remaining Knight fell, Buckman’s last major piece besides his King was his Queen’s Bishop. I moved my King to a dark square, now his Queen’s Bishop would remain impotent against my King. With my Queen and my Rooks, I began forcing his King to retreat. One torturous move after another and still Buckman would not concede. But I didn’t want him to. I wanted his King trapped like a rat and finally we were there. My next move would have him in checkmate and he knew it. His face was burning in anger at the humiliating defeats I had presented him this evening. But there was oh so much more that was coming his way.
“So, Chuck it looks like I’ve beaten you for the first time in chess. The moral of this story is never underestimate what lengths your daughter’s horny boyfriend will go to score brownie points with her father, including tanking chess games.”