A Bullet For God

by Eben Le Roux

  Chapter 14

  The sudden call for a meeting had Shannon Buoys very bothered. She knew the directors had called for this after learning that the best producer they ever had was behind the success of the ‘Hour of Truth’ event. This was considered a crisis by the board, as they were not informed that Bruce Ashton was no longer in their employment. Most of all, with Bruce Ashton on board, the company could comfortably plan ahead because of his success ratings.

  The clock on the wall showed 14.21 p.m. as she walked into the boardroom. Everybody had already arrived, but she could not read any expression on their faces as they greeted her. All of them were standing around the coffee table in the corner, and she could feel their eyes on her. She studied the conference table and noticed her allocated place, the third chair from the left. She would be sitting next to Tim Zimmer, the oldest of them all. Tim, who would be sixty-four next month, did not look his age but much younger. A basketball player in his younger days, his body still showed the posture of the athlete he once was. His tall stature towered over her as she stood next to him, making herself a cup of tea. The seat right in front of her would be for Richard Marlon. He was the one she was most worried about. Richard was the son of the founder of Live Entertainment and he could sometimes be a nuisance for anybody. She always thought of him as a spoilt child, for he always insisted on getting matters solved his way. While busying herself with her tea, she could feel him studying her with his eyes. She turned around so suddenly that he did not have the time to move his eyes away from where he had them locked on her buttocks. She was wearing a full navy blue dress that accentuated every curve of her body. In front, it had a slit that ran high up her leg. As she turned towards him, he unashamedly moved his eyes right along the exposed leg through the opening. She felt a bit embarrassed but tried not to show it, instead giving him a very contented smile. On Richard’s left would be the general manager of the company, her boss, Bryan Rolland. She knew everything about Bryan. The two of them were in a very secret relationship over the last year. In fact, that relationship was what had guaranteed the position she was in. Still, her concerns were growing as she saw the layout of the table. There were laptops and monthly reports in front of every chair.

  ‘The table is ready, Mr Zimmer.’

  They all turned around when they heard Martha’s voice. Martha, who was in charge of facilities around the building, just had a final check to see if everything was in place.

  ‘Thank you, Martha. You can close the door behind you,’ said Richard, thanking her as Tim was still on the phone. Just as the boardroom door closed, Shannon’s phone rang. This annoyed Richard Marlon and got him to say, ‘I want that to be the last call coming in on our phones. Everybody, please switch off your phone. We need to start immediately. We still need to beat the traffic rush, and I sure don’t want to be caught up in it.’

  When Shannon saw the number, it was as if she was furious and ecstatic at the same time. Her heartbeat picked up pace, and she was only hoping it was not showing on her face. She spoke in quick succession not to give the person on the other side a chance to go into conversation.

  ‘Sam, good afternoon . . .’ There was a small interruption as he tried to say something, but she did not allow him to speak.

  ‘Listen, I am in a meeting right now. I will phone you as soon as we are done. Please stay with your phone. I need to speak to you urgently. Call you later . . . Bye.’

  She then dropped the call, switched her phone off, and took her seat at the table.

  ‘Right, let us get down to business.’ It was Richard addressing them. Without pausing, he continued, ‘I hope you consider this meeting as urgent as I do. We might be sitting on a crisis, and thus the urgency of this meeting.’

  He turned to Shannon, looking at her as if he wanted to see right through her. She felt uncomfortable, but was doing well hiding it. She was not going to be intimidated, not even by Richard Marlon.

  ‘Shannon, we are sitting with two major problems, and let me say honestly that the company has not been in such a position for more than ten years as far as my memory can carry me. First, about Bruce Ashton . . .’ He paused, and there was a chill running down Shannon’s spine.

  Richard took out a three-page document from the lot that was lying in front of him. ‘In front of you are exact copies of what I have with me. Look at the one that says “Bruce Ashton Confidential”.’ He paused to give them all a chance to open the letter written by Bruce to the directors of Live TV Entertainment, and then he carried on.

  ‘Shannon, I need an explanation for this. For over twenty years, this man has been working for this company. He was here when my father started this business and became the most successful producer this company ever had. Honestly speaking, seventy-five per cent of the shows currently running on our channels are his ideas, and they are all revenue generators, big revenue generators. Right now, the company is reversing a hundred and fifty million in payments back to clients. This was all because we could not convince them to take other slots. Some of them are already informed that Bruce Ashton no longer works here. This man got fired five days ago by you, and we need to know why.’

  ‘Richard, I . . .’

  ‘Not now, Shannon, not now. You will have plenty of time to explain,’ Richard said calmly as he interrupted her. ‘First, read the letter, and then you see if it is truthful or not. I had a call from his lawyers this morning wanting to know when we are intending to pay him out. I also need to know how this man can be working right under our noses for our opposition without us knowing it. Let me also warn you, at the same time, that Channel 91 was never a threat to me. Now with Bruce Ashton as their senior producer, we now have created a serious rival. For the record, this is not a disciplinary hearing or anything of the kind. Consider it an inquest for now, but the bottom line is that I am worried, very worried to have that man as opposition while we do not even have a thought of hiring a man of half his calibre.’

  Bryan could see the discomfort on Shannon’s face, and he knew he had to do something to get her more relaxed.

  ‘Okay, Shannon, if you’re ready, we would like to hear what happened.’

  Bryan sounded calm, in an effort to make her more comfortable while addressing them.

  She slowly lifted her eyes off the document to face Tim Zimmer, trying hard to avoid Richard Marlon.

  ‘I never fired that man,’ she said, very relieved that Bryan had saved her from Richard’s onslaught.

  ‘Well, according to the letter, he says he has proof. What proof is he talking about?’ Richard was quick to respond.

  ‘With respect, gentlemen, will you allow me to explain?’ She was making a statement more than a request while shifting her eyes over all of them. When she was certain she had their attention, she continued in a very convincing voice, ‘When I had the phone call from Bruce that Paul Simmons had been in an accident, I knew we had a crisis, so I asked him to keep the cameras going. At that time, we had no backup programme in place. I admit we faltered there, for we should always have been prepared for a crisis. I told him to buy time with the cameras until I had figured out a suitable programme to replace it with. When this hobo took to the stage, I was in the archive searching through the documentaries. Coming back, I saw this stranger on that stage. I phoned Bruce to shift the cameras away from the man, so I could do the switch over, but he ignored my instructions. He kept the cameras on that man throughout that entire speech.’

  While she allowed herself a moment to pause, Richard quickly made use of the opportunity to ask, ‘If you had a suitable programme, why didn’t you take the initiative to do the changeover then?’

  Shannon knew this question was solely to question her decision-making capabilities, and she answered without hesitation, ‘When I looked at the audience, I knew it would be an insult to our religious viewers to make the cut with all the cameras focusing on that man. There was not a single camera not focussed on him. It came as a surprise when he even phoned me with a suggestion t
o keep this man and replace the miracles with his speeches.’

  ‘Did you at least give it a thought?’

  ‘No, I could not believe that he wanted the company to put trust in a man that looked like a joke to me. I stayed with the decision that I was not interested. So when he walked into my office with the same request, I put it to him again, loudly and clearly, that I was still not interested.’

  ‘Shannon, we have shows from which we made idols out of any Tom, Dick, and Harry. Did you listen to what this hobo had to say while he was up on that stage?’

  ‘Yes, sir, I did,’ she answered, as if annoyed by his question.

  ‘At no time did he make any impact on you?’

  ‘Richard, if I have to put religion before what is good for the future of your company, then I do not belong here.’

  Richard Marlon was not going to let go on Shannon. He admired Bruce for what he did that night. Losing him in this manner was an insult to his intelligence.

  ‘You say you did not see the possible potential that man’s speeches could have had for this company.’

  ‘No, sir,’ she said, feeling cornered.

  ‘Now do you see why Bruce Ashton carries so much respect around here . . . and did you at any stage mention to him that he was dismissed or fired?’

  ‘Well . . . he told me he could turn that hobo into the biggest drawing card in a single show. He told me that I was making a mistake, and he did not agree with me to cancel it completely. I was angry . . . I was so angry that . . . that I told him if he could not work with me, then he did not belong on my team. I also told him that church sermons did not belong to Live Entertainment and that he could take it somewhere else. I never meant for him to leave, and nor was it my intention to dismiss him. Gentlemen, I know as much as you do of the capabilities of that man.’

  They all looked at her intensely and then at one another. It was Richard again who broke the quietness.

  ‘Bryan, between you and Shannon, I do not care what it takes, but I want that man back in this company. You have one week to report on your progress, and if there are any demands, I mean any demands that he has from us, I want to know about it immediately. Start working on it from this very moment.’

  Richard had a shrewd look as he turned to Tim.

  ‘Tim, we should take a look into whether he is not legally bound by his contract with us. As much as I hate doing that, that much I hate losing him. See what you can come up with.’ When he stood from his chair, everybody could see he was furious. ‘Is everyone happy with that?’

  They all nodded in agreement.

  ‘Then that will be all for now.’

  After Tim and Richard gathered their stuff, they excused themselves and left Bryan and Shannon still seated at the table.

  When the boardroom door had closed, Bryan turned to Shannon.

  ‘Well, I have a feeling there is big trouble with this one, or do you have a plan.’ Bryan sounded bothered, and he showed some anger while speaking to her.

  ‘Bryan, please, not now. I need to make a couple of phone calls first. We can take it from there. There has to be a plan for us.’

  ‘We . . . us . . . what do you mean us? This is your damn baby, my girl. You will sort this one out yourself. I warned you to let go of that hatred you had for Bruce, but no, you had to go and wait for a chance to show him who is the boss. You should have considered the respect that man carried around in this company. Now that the damage is there, all of a sudden it is our problem. No, my girl, I will have no part of this. Like I said, you have been warned.’

  ‘Bryan, are you saying that with what exists between us, you are just going . . . ?’

  ‘Shannon, what you and I have been doing behind closed doors has nothing to do with this. Now, don’t you go dirty on me. You know your reputation around here will not help you much. Do you know how much revenue we lost because of the cancellation . . .?’

  They were interrupting one another quite aggressively.

  ‘I did not cancel that show. It happened by accident, and all of you know that.’

  ‘Shannon, you know when companies pay for advertising, they look at what programmes would be broadcast. If you had Bruce go his way, the viewers would have been the same, and many, if not all, of the clients would have stayed. Look at the success Channel 91 is running at. They still have three venues to go, and not even one is cancelled. Maybe that hobo of yours is worth the millions Bruce was talking about. You screwed up, Shannon. You screwed up big time, and you can thank your butt they are still giving you a chance to come out of this mess.’ Her head was now hanging in her hands.

  ‘So stop wasting time. You have one week to bring Bruce back or come up with plans to bring in the profits like he used to do.’

  ‘Bryan...,’ she said, speaking softly. ‘I’m sorry, but can I count on you while I’m going through this?’

  ‘I am your boss, Shannon. This problem is as much mine as it is yours, but only as long as it is a corporate problem. I need not be pulled into personal agendas. Is that clear . . . You promise?’

  She sat quietly, just nodding, but somehow she got to whisper, ‘Yes . . . I promise.’

  Looking at her and feeling somewhat sorry for her, Bryan picked up his briefcase and told her, ‘All right. We had better get out of here. Martha still has to clean up for tomorrow’s meeting. I will see you in the morning.’

  Without saying another word, he left.

  Shannon went to her office and closed the door behind her. After putting her documents on her desk, she dialled Sam’s number and waited. She felt stressed, and it seemed nobody was going to pick up. When Sam finally answered, it felt like a relief to her.

  ‘Hi, Sam it is Shannon Buoys.’

  ‘Hi, Miss Buoys. I thought you would never call.’

  ‘Sam, you have something to tell me?’

  ‘Yes Ma’am, charges has been laid and a file has been opened. They should be looking for them by now.” ‘That sounds good Sam. Do you have a case number and maybe the name of the investigating officer?’

  ‘Yes...but...uh...I can only give you this information once I get the final payment from you.’

  She hesitated before she started speaking. ‘You do not trust me, do you Sam but it is fine. I will meet you in the coffee shop across the road from Flanagan on 4th Street. Give me one hour but please don’t make me wait.’

  “I will be there most definitely ma’am.” She could hear his excitement and knew it was only for the money. The information he had for her might be little, but the damage she planned to cause with it, will be very much destructive.