“Kathy Benoit died.”
“Not a good sign, reading the obituaries. I don’t know the name, should I?”
“She won an Olympic gold medal a while back.”
“Can’t say that I remember.”
“You might recall that she was the one who disappeared after the Olympics and later on brought down a member of parliament. And it was all planned.”
“Oh I vaguely recall now, what exactly was behind that anyway?”
“It’s quite a story. Kathy was a sharp gal as well as a top athlete. Once she won the Olympic gold, she announced that she was going to travel and didn’t return to Canada with the other members of the Olympic squad. The government, and Jimmy Martin MP in particular, started to raise a stink about how much the government had invested in the Olympic program and its athletes and how the athletes should return to show their gratitude and wave the flag. And that’s when Jimmy Martin and the government got into hot water. They started to bad mouth her, singling her out. Kathy, through her lawyers, successfully sued Jimmy Martin for defamation of character.”
“Oh yes, I do remember, but how was it planned?”
“It goes back a bit. Kathy’s grandfather, George Fergus, had started a lumbering operation in British Columbia way back when. He was quite successful and planned to grow his business but his bid to get additional logging rights was turned down by the government at that time. The minister responsible, Ted Martin, had been bought off by a competitor of Fergus’s, Colin Sedgwick. Ted Martin had a taste for the good life that his salary couldn’t support.
“Kathy’s grandfather didn’t have the connections to expose the corruption but there was a lot of ill will and he held a grudge against both the Sedgwicks and Martins and made it known he’d get back at them. This is what Kathy grew up with and Kathy’s mother, who was raising a family and helping with the business at the time, fuelled the fires of revenge through Kathy.”
‘But nobody could plan to win a gold medal.’
“Quite right. Kathy was a superb athlete and it took a lot of work plus luck but she became a champion rower. At the time Kathy was exploring a lot of ideas on how to avenge her grandfather. Her first thought was to go after the Sedgwicks. She once had fanciful visions of walking down the aisle with one of the grandsons and then bringing down their business. It turned out, however, that the lack of romantic interest was mutual so that plan died.
“So Kathy next turned to the minister’s family where there was a grandson, Jimmy Martin, and she couldn’t bring herself to show any romantic interest in him either. But Jimmy had political ambitions, just like his grandfather, and this is where Kathy thought there was an opportunity and where she focused her energies.”
‘Why wouldn’t Jimmy be suspicious of Kathy?’
‘Benoit, of course, was Kathy’s father’s name. Since she didn’t carry her mother’s name, Jimmy didn’t make the connection between Benoit and the running feud his family had had with George Fergus.
“Jimmy was self important at an early age so it was fairly easy for Kathy to pump up his ego. She encouraged him to become a member the debating team and run for school council. She followed him to university and, with her encouragement, he got involved in the university political scene. At this time Kathy’s athletic career blossomed and she started to win provincial rowing events setting national records. This started her thinking about how she could set him up to bring him down. Jimmy made it a lot easier by showing a romantic interest in Kathy and she encouraged it. When she was picked for the Olympic team she had her plan.
“Jimmy was making a name for himself in politics by that time and his plans included Kathy. This is what Kathy had hoped for so when Jimmy proposed, she turned him down flat and, as she suspected, Jimmy never got over it. So the scene was set, Kathy, with her mom’s financial help through the company, made sure that every government related cost associated with her Olympic journey was paid for and Jimmy was primed to dump on Kathy for dumping him. When Kathy disappeared, Jimmy was quick to denounce her for wasting tax payers’ money. Kathy, through her lawyers, showed the country she had financially made it to the Olympics on her own. Jimmy had to pay plus leave a promising career in politics.”
“Wow, so she avenged her grandfather.”
“Well, partly, there were still the Sedgwicks to deal with. And this, too, is an interesting story.
“Frank Sedgwick, a dour but crafty Scot, had emigrated to Canada and done well in logging on the west coast.
“The fact that Frank had once resorted to bribery probably suggested a vulnerability that had passed its way down through the generations. The great grandsons, who had grown up in the business Frank had started and now ran the company, were running into rough times like the rest of the industry so they weren’t above considering deals that would help them survive. And they were probably well aware of, and maybe even a bit proud of, the history of how the clan got an early jump on the competition.
“The story goes the Sedgwicks were approached by a ministry of lands and forest advisor on the QT who said that, for a price, there was a way to open up native lands for logging. The advisor was working directly with a senior government official who agreed to clear the paper work for a bribe. The advisor took them to the track of land in question and showed them a breakdown of the forestation. The Sedgwicks liked what they saw. It wasn’t going to be cheap but the Sedgwicks calculated that it could easily turn a profit. The advisor gave them a week to decide.
“Now the Sedgwicks weren’t born yesterday and did their homework. The lands in question were protected by a treaty but the natives didn’t inhabit or use the land. Also, there was some question about who actually owned the lands, the natives or the government. And there had been public pressure to open them up to logging. Lumber mills were being abandoned at that time and the government had to support several of them to keep employment up so any plan that saved the lumber industry was going to be popular. And once the ownership had been changed to the Sedgwicks, it would be to up to the natives to disprove it and that would take a lot of time and money. By then the Sedgwicks would have made a handsome return.
“What clinched the deal for the Sedgwicks was the admission by the advisor that he was having trouble supporting a lifestyle he enjoyed and needed to find ways to supplement his income. They knew all about that first hand; they had dealing with corrupt officials in their blood.
‘True to form, the Sedgwicks gave the advisor his price plus the bribe to pass on to the senior official.
“When they started logging operations, however, the natives quickly organized, became militant and brought things to a bitter standstill. This opened up the issue and once the details of the deal became public, the government vehemently denied having anything to do with it and started an inquiry which stopped the logging in its tracks. The Sedgwicks never recovered.”
“Well, well, so in a way old man Fergus did get his revenge but Kathy wasn’t a part of that.”
“No, not directly, but the advisor, once he got his money, like his mother, disappeared.”