by Dan Decker
“So there’s two classes of voting shares?”
“The second class only has control over selling the entire company or accepting outside investment. Other than that, Mason can control everything else, though he usually does not because he chooses not to.”
“Why wasn’t Mason the CEO?”
“You know, that’s one of the things I’ve wondered about myself. Mason is remarkably self-aware and recognized that he was not an ideal candidate to lead the company, at least not in the way that it needed to be led.” Vivian nodded. “I respect him for that. Most other people would’ve been running the company themselves. Mason was smart enough to recognize he was not the best person for the job.”
“What was Mason’s role?”
“Officially, he was the Chief Financial Officer. Unofficially, he kind of did a little bit of everything. We are gonna miss him around here, but there isn’t much I can do about it now.”
“How did the question of venture capital arise?”
“It was by pure chance it even became an issue.” Vivian stopped and held my gaze. “I’m going to be quite frank with you, Mr. Turner, because I’ve told you I’m going to be open about everything I can. The other partners and I were interested in the venture capital primarily because we thought it would be a good way to get rid of the contention in the company.
“We assumed that if we brought in venture capital, Mason would sell all his ownership and leave the business.
“Let me be very clear. It’s not that we were trying to force him out, but we recognized that the tension needed to stop or it would tear apart the executive leadership. After we decided to take on venture capital, if Mason decided to stay, great, we would have been happy to have him, but he would no longer have control of the company.”
“The others wanted this?”
“Yes, Max especially. Not to speak ill of him, but this was one thing that always ate away at him.
“It always bothered him that every decision he made had to be done with Mason’s permission or at least acceptance. It didn’t actually work that way, but that’s how Max viewed it.” She shrugged. “He couldn’t live with it. One way or another, we had to fix the tension.”
I nodded. “When did the venture capital get added to the agenda at your partner meetings?
“I would say that it was a year ago. One of my other partners, Ronald Berg, was approached by a venture capital firm. I can’t disclose the name because there are confidentiality agreements in place. At the time, we didn’t take it seriously. Ronald told them we were not interested.”
“He didn’t bring it to the partners?”
“I tried to kill the idea when Ronald originally told me about it. Frank and I talked him out of bringing it up at the next partnership meeting.”
Vivian rubbed the side of her head. “Unfortunately, the venture capital firm was not to be deterred, and Ronald blabbed about it to Max, who got big ideas as soon as he heard it.” She smiled. “Max was nothing if not a visionary, something Mason recognized and appreciated. Even though Max was approaching retirement age, he showed no sign of slowing down and would frequently tell us he was going to die in his office.”
Vivian chuckled quietly, but the mirth soon turned to a frown. “Of course, I’m sure he didn’t mean that it would happen in the way that that it did.”
“Did Mason ever talk about his retirement plans?”
“I don’t think Mason had any intention of ever leaving the company. He was planning to die in his office too. As I said, it was part of the reason why the venture capital was interesting to us because it provided us with a way forward for the company.”
“When did you come around?”
“After Max showed interest, Ronald convinced me that there might be an opportunity to solve the contention.” Vivian smiled. “I wish I would’ve thought of it myself because it was a genius plan.”
“What if the venture capital firm wanted to buy the entire company and leave you guys with no ownership?”
“That is what they wanted. The others and I had had enough of the problems between Max and Mason that we were willing to do it, even if it meant we had to exit. It was the best thing for the company.”
“Did the VC want Max to stay on as CEO?”
“They did. They planned to offer positions to everybody, including Mason.”
“What was Max’s big vision?”
“He wanted to get into everything. And I do mean everything. Our company has developed a diverse portfolio over the years. What started out as a small technology company has grown into a conglomerate that spans the world.”
“What was the next big thing for Max?”
“He wanted to get into private contracting for the military.” Vivian shrugged. “That wasn’t something that tickled my fancy, but it was just the first phase of twenty different phases Max wanted to pursue. For some reason, it really worked for Max. It got him excited. Max had a military background—I believe he was in the army back in the day—and because of that, he jumped at the opportunity of feeling like he was back in that world again.”
“What were Mason’s feelings?”
“Mason was all for it. He liked the idea of doing defense work. He just didn’t believe we needed the sell the company to make it happen. He wanted to retain ownership and see the dividends the new direction would pay, rather than sell out and build the company for somebody else.
“The rest of us recognized we could not do it without the cash. Mason thought we could.” Vivian leaned back in her chair. “He might have been right, we could have procured a loan for some of the bigger needs, and we could have taken less home as partners, but in the end, the venture capital offer was just too good. It was enticing. I would’ve been able to cash out for more money than I thought possible. I never would’ve had to work again. The others would have all been similarly situated.”
“What do you believe happened between Max and Mason?”
“You mean the night of the murder?”
“Yes.”
“We had our partners meeting, and looking back on it, I can certainly see how that played into it. It went well enough, but Max and Mason were doing their usual headbutting, which was, of course, no surprise to anybody.”
“What were they fighting about? Just the VC money?”
“The primary issue was the venture capital. We took a vote, and Mason lost. We decided to pursue the offer to see where it took us.”
I nodded. “How did Mason take this news?”
“The first thing he did was point his finger at Max!” Vivian shook her head. “I jumped in and tried to explain to Mason that this was not Max’s fault, even though he was the one that had originally championed it. I told Mason that I felt it was the best thing for the company if we sold, citing this very incident as the reason. ‘We can’t continue to go on like this,’ I said.”
“Did Mason yell?”
“No, but he came close.”
“How did Mason respond?”
“My words calmed him down. He studied me for what seemed like five minutes. ‘You want to sell because of the contention between Max and me, is that correct?’ he asked. I nodded in the affirmative.”
“What did he do next?”
“Well, he sat there fuming, his eyes looking around the room as if calculating what to do. He could have fired anyone of us. We would still have our ownership in the company, but it would’ve been within his rights to can us. After he was done glaring, he focused his attention on Max again. I wondered if he was gonna fire him. Max clearly expected such an outcome and appeared to be bracing for it. Mason and Max stared at each other for a long time. When Mason finally opened his mouth to speak, he said that it looked like the partnership had spoken, and he would accept the result of the vote. We all heaved a collective sigh of relief.” Vivian shook her head. “If I would’ve known, if I could’ve predicted that he was going to kill Max, we would have gone a different route. We would never have even considered it.” Viv
ian looked at me. “I blame myself.”
I arched an eyebrow. “How so?”
“I was the one who pushed for selling as a solution. Sure, it was Ronald’s idea, but I went to the other partners and prevailed upon them to consider this as our only viable option forward because we needed to solve the division in the partnership.”
“Was Mason aware that the vote was likely to go this way?”
“That’s another regret. He had no idea that we would talk about this. At the time, it had seemed like a good idea to keep him in the dark, but it must’ve really taken him off guard.”
“Had the partnership discussed the venture capital before?”
“Yes, and perhaps it was another part of the reason why Mason was so upset. We had already voted on it, and the idea had been voted down. Max had been dejected about the whole thing, but he had, in the end, accepted our vote. I will never forget the look of betrayal on Mason’s face. I would not have blamed him in the slightest if he would’ve taken it out on me, particularly as I was the one who brought it up again in the meeting and championed the cause. Mason didn’t blame me, though. He could scarcely take his eyes off Max.”
“What happened after this exchange?”
“We moved on to other matters. Believe it or not, there is a lengthy list of issues that we have to get through in every partnership meeting. We couldn’t afford to be railroaded by any one issue. Max got that, Mason knew that, everybody understood that. We moved on with our regular business.”
“How long did that last?”
“Approximately another hour. We still were not finished with our business, but it was getting late, so we took the rest of our agenda to dinner.”
“How were things at dinner?”
“Better, perhaps. Mason sat by Max and made a big effort to be polite even though I could see the anger seething beneath the surface. Max, for his part, looked amused, and was even taking the opportunity to rib Mason a bit.”
“How so?”
“Oh, just by saying things. It was the comments he would make here or there. They were meant as digs at Mason, but he did a good job ignoring them.”
“In other words, he was trying to show he could play ball and be a good team member.”
“I believe so, yes. That appeared to be his intention.”
“Did the investment come up at dinner?”
“Perhaps in a roundabout manner, nobody talked about it directly, everybody seemed quite anxious to avoid it.
“What happened after that?”
“We all returned to the office. We had more business to take care of, nothing interesting, and then we adjourned for the night.”
I studied Vivian, trying to decide if her words were true. There did not seem to be many discrepancies between Mason’s account of the night and Vivian’s.
Of course, Vivian had had almost a full week since the meeting to think about how she wanted to present it. I had to give her credit for doing a good job of seeming disinterested, which enhanced her credibility.
She had offered sympathy towards Mason, but not as much towards Max, making me think this was calculated.
“If only I had known,” she said, “I would’ve talked sense into both of them. It’s so terrible. I think Mason’s gonna hang for it, sorry, no offense. I’m sure you’re a good attorney, but you are going to have a difficult time overcoming the evidence against him. It is indisputable that Mason took a knife and stabbed it into Max’s chest multiple times. Mason’s going away, and he’s going away for a long time. I’m glad he has sense enough to sell now, rather than dragging the whole company through the murder trial too. At least his wife and children are going to be well set up.”
I studied Vivian. “I have reason to believe that you are in a relationship with Ronald Berg, is that accurate?”
Vivian was taken aback by my question. She hesitated before finally smiling. “You’re pretty good if you’ve already figured that out. I must admit I had my doubts about you, but if anybody is going to do a good job representing Mason, it’ll be you.”
Another complement. Is flattery how she gets what she wants?
I shrugged.
So far, Penny had not come up in either one of the discussions I’d had with Mason’s partners.
I wanted to figure out if there had been tension between Max and Penny because I could not get past how she had seemed to cry fake tears when she had come into my office.
“Yes, Ronald and I are in a relationship. For a while, it was just an on and off again sort of thing, but over the last few months, it’s taken a serious turn. We’d discussed revealing it to the other partners.” Vivian shook her head and muttered something under her breath while giving me a piercing stare. It appeared she felt she was saying too much, but my question had taken her off guard, and she was trying to recover.
I was glad I’d surprised her because it gave me a closer look at who she was. You could best judge a person by looking at how they responded to problems and situations that did not go their way.
Anger had crossed her face when I had asked the question. She had frowned and turned pale. I was impressed at how quickly she had overcome the shock and rolled with the question.
Vivian was a smart cookie. I had to give her that. If anybody here was capable of manipulating two people into fighting with one another, she certainly was at the top of my suspect list.
But I wouldn’t put it past Penny either. Ronald hadn’t come off well this morning, so he was on the list too.
“Ronald and I had planned to disclose it to our partners that night, but as the meeting had already been contentious, we decided it was best to wait. This was another reason why both Ronald and I were looking to sell. We have been working like dogs for the last ten years and are both feeling burnt out. It’s time for somebody else to take the helm of the company.”
“Since it looked like you guys were going to sell, was there any point in disclosing the relationship?”
“That was on our minds too. We would probably still have disclosed it at some point. The acquisition would take months, if not years, to get through, and Ronald and I were getting impatient to come out into the open. We would have done it by now except for all the contention. We didn’t feel like we needed to add another problem to the stack we were already dealing with. However, it’s a moot point now, I suppose. It looks like the cat is out of the bag.” Vivian smiled. “And I have to say I’m relieved because we were getting tired of sneaking around. We even thought that Max had spotted us.”
“Really?” I kept my face still. She didn’t appear to notice.
“He saw us late in the garage one night, but he never brought it up, so neither did we. I supposed he figured we could handle our own business without his interference.”
“So it sounds like your mind was set, you were going to sell, correct?”
“Absolutely.”
I nodded as if I believed her.
If I could prove that Max believed that Vivian and the others had changed their mind on the VC, I might just be able to pull out a win.
The only problem was, I was having a hard time disbelieving Vivian.
17
I turned out of the Meridian Solutions parking lot, hands glued to the steering wheel, analyzing my meeting with Vivian.
Things had turned out different than I had expected. I had thought my meeting with Ronald would give me insight into the workings of the partnership. Instead, a chance meeting with Vivian had resulted in an appointment where I had got the information I had sought.
I had not expected to turn up any smoking guns, but I had also not expected to come away liking Vivian as much as I had.
I growled as I turned out onto the road and headed back to my office.
Vivian seemed to be grounded and had come across as believable. She would be credible on the witness stand if it came to that. Even though I’d been skeptical throughout the whole meeting, I had never once suspected her of lying.
Perhaps that was
why I was having such a difficult time thinking.
I was starting to feel like my mind was stuck in the mud. The gears were grinding, but nothing was turning.
I regretted getting involved in this case in the first place. If Mason had just snapped and killed Max, there wasn’t a lot I could do for him.
It had been at Penny’s behest and urging that I had looked into this, thinking there might be more here than there was.
I shouldn’t have trusted Penny from the start, I thought, almost slamming my fists into the steering wheel while I waited at a red light, impatient to get back to the office.
By the time I finally pulled into my parking lot, I was having difficulty keeping my wits about me. I had hit every single stoplight between Meridian Solutions and my office, making it take nearly twice as long to return.
After I parked, I waited, trying to calm down.
I recognized my feelings were irrational. The best thing for me to do was to set this case aside and work on it later in the week.
Sometimes, when I got to an obstacle that seemed insurmountable, a few days of doing something else did wonders towards getting past it.
Before too long, I was back in my office, walking in the door. I was in a better place but still frustrated.
Denise looked up and smiled. “Mr. Turner—”
I didn’t hear another word she said.
Why is she here?
My blood boiled, my hands formed into fists.
“Where is Ellie?” I demanded, cutting Denise off halfway through a sentence I had not heard a word of.
Denise went white in the face. “She had to step out for the afternoon; an emergency came up. I just got the call from the temp company an hour ago. Sorry, I thought you knew.”
“Well, I didn’t, did I?” I snapped, stalking past Denise as I headed toward my office.
I almost slammed the door as I walked in but somehow managed just to shut it sternly. I thought I heard a small squeak from Denise.
A malevolent grin crossed my face, but I wiped it away a moment later.
What’s going on with me? I wondered. I brought up my hands and looked at them; they were shaking. I was suddenly feeling lightheaded like I was going to fall over. My cell phone rang. When I saw it was Penny, I began to bubble over with anger, feeling again like she had misled me.