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The fate of Coupar Angus might have been one of the least just outcomes of the whole sorry affair. True, he was an unscrupulous businessman who had made a very good profit from selling over-priced properties to those whose money had been acquired in dubious ways - for all that it was his wife's money which allowed him to set up the business in the first place. And he was a tedious bore, a drunk and a faithless husband, at least in a theoretical way, but he probably didn't deserve everything that was meted out. In any case, his business came under the close scrutiny of the police, ostensibly as part of the investigation into Garrick's plot, although I suspect that a fat file had been building on Mister Angus for a long time back at police headquarters. According to the prosecution's case, it seemed he had been a very naughty boy indeed. Top of the charge sheet was money-laundering: helping racketeers to buy properties with cash acquired in a variety of illegal and, in some cases, highly improbable ways, and selling them again at a modest loss but releasing untraceable cash. Then there were charges related to irregularities in some of his accounting practices - basically, he had his hand in the till - and, perhaps worst of all, he had been under-reporting his income to the tax authorities. The last of these was a crime where I suspect few Goblins are entirely innocent, the fault being one of degree rather than commission, but the authorities seemed determined to make an example of him. As with all legal processes, bringing Angus to court took an exceedingly long time, and it was much later when I saw him again. I sat in the back of the courtroom for much of the trial, as my part in his activities was too small for me to be called as a witness. He cried and wailed through most of the proceedings, his supposedly affable and avuncular demeanour collapsing to the snivelling of a schoolboy caught with his fingers in the cookie jar. Coupar Angus sensibly elected to plead guilty and throw himself on the mercy of the court. In the end, he would suffer a large fine, a short prison sentence, and the end of his country-club lifestyle for ever. Even while he was being prosecuted in the criminal courts, his wife was engaging a lawyer in the divorce courts, citing mental cruelty - so much for "for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer". She would take him to the cleaners; the money was originally hers and she argued that she should be allowed to keep almost all of it. Afterwards, he became a sad old Goblin, often penniless and always dreaming of the one big deal which would re-establish his fortunes. In between times, he frequented bars even more seedy than the Deepest Joy where a punter desperate for company might be persuaded to buy him a drink in exchange for being regaled with garbled stories about fabulous business dealings and dark mysteries and faithless partners. But, basically, the world forgot about Coupar Angus.
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Part 98