RaDical MiDDle - ColdType

16 | denis beckett
very close to four. I bumped into him years later, shortly before
he went to live in Scotland, and he told me it had been touchand-go
whether he called the police. He didn’t, whew. I was
escorted to the exit.
Next day I had a phone call: “Mr Beckett, will you kindly call
on Mr McLean at 11.30 tomorrow. ” It was not a question.
Hal Miller had moved up to run the company, and the new
head of Johannesburg Branch, as The Star was known to its
management, was Peter McLean.
I arrived as summonsed and went through the scariest halfhour
I have known. until the very end I did not know whether
he was laying charges or not. I developed a crippling pain in
the small of my back and when I was then abruptly dismissed
the whole pile of emotions – about the issue, the cleaners, my
betrayal, relief, the lot – were all pale next to the blinding terror
that I was paralysed. If Peter reads this he’ll finally know why
I spent so long sitting motionless as if rapt in prayer after he
finished reading me the riot act.