Rotten Apples Read Online Free PDF Page A

her few shares, the tax-free income from some National Savings Certificates, which he had not included on the form, and interest from a building society account and two separate accounts at her bank.
    Scoffer’s next letter, dated three months later, was more accusatory in tone and reiterated the suggestion that Doctor Fydgett was concealing a further source of income from the Inland Revenue. It was again answered by her accountant.
    Some time later she had written in her own hand, angrily refuting the suggestion that she was doing anything dishonest, and accusing Scoffer in turn of misusing his power, even using the emotive term ‘abuse of process’.
    He had obviously been infuriated by that for he had written back only a few weeks later with a cold, peremptory demand that she should submit copies of all her cash books, invoices, remittance advices, bank statements, and building society passbooks for the previous six years for him to check, together with details of all the travelling she had done and the cost of subsistence in the countries she had visited. He also asked for details of all the paintings she had bought and sold in the four years since the commissioners had ruled in her favour.
    Doctor Fydgett had informed Scoffer that she was reluctant to provide so much information unless he gave her some reason for his mistrust of her accountant’s figures. She wrote several times to tell him that she would be delighted to give him evidence of whichever figure it was that he disputed, but that he would have to tell her which it was before she could help him.
    All he ever told her was that the Inland Revenue had received information that suggested she was concealing income and that it was her duty to provide whatever evidence he demanded.
    Willow could not find anything in the file to show what the information was that Scoffer had received, or why he had believed that the tax Doctor Fydgett owed was £4786.00 rather than any other figure. Willow pushed the file away from her and got up to put her head round the door.
    â€˜Do you know where Jason Tillter is?’ she asked the nearest person, a bored-looking young woman who was riffling through a pile of tax returns.
    â€˜Over there,’ said the young woman, pointing with her chin across the room.
    Willow nodded at her, unsmiling, and walked between the rows of desks to the far wall, where Jason was arguing with another woman, who was trying to give him a file with a large yellow and white tag on it.
    â€˜But it requires immediate action,’ she was saying plaintively. ‘I’m only doing my job. It’s not my fault someone gave it a tiger tag.’
    â€˜Don’t be so ballsachingly boring, Moira. Give it to Len,’ said Jason.
    â€˜I can’t. It’s your file. If you won’t take it, I’ll just put it on your desk with all the red tagged ones for this week. You can’t get away from it.’
    Catching sight of Willow, Jason shrugged and grabbed the file without a word.
    â€˜Yes?’ he said to Willow, turning his back on the furious clerk. ‘Can I give you some help after all?’
    â€˜I think you probably can if you still have time.’ She smiled insincerely at him.
    â€˜Shoot,’ he said, leading the way into his office. It was larger than the one she had been given and the desk had a square of grey ‘leather-look’plastic glued to the top. Jason dropped the disputed file on it and sat down, putting his hands behind his head and stretching.
    â€˜I have one main question,’ Willow said as she took the spare chair. ‘Why are initial enquiries to taxpayers suspected of cheating made in such very vague terms?’
    Jason’s smile expanded to show his excellent teeth. He brought his hands down to the desk and leaned forward to say confidingly: ‘Because it shakes the tree.’
    â€˜I beg your pardon?’
    â€˜It’s common practice to ask general questions