When Donald told Jay about their conversation, he frowned.
“Something’s up. I don’t know what, but...”
Donald was now dog-tired. He’d told Jay he was going to bed. “There’s linens and extra pillows in the hallway closet,” he’d said. “I’ll get some for you.”
“Thanks,” Jay said. He leaned back on the sofa. “I might just watch TV for awhile. You okay with that?”
Donald was okay with that, and when he turned in he kept his bedroom door open. The faint light from the TV seeped in from the hallway and he heard Jay get up once to venture into the kitchen for something. The next thing he was aware of was sunlight streaming through the Venetian blinds of his and Michelle’s bedroom window.
Now with a fresh pot of coffee brewing, Donald headed into the living room. Jay was on the sofa, still staring at the TV. As far as Donald knew he could have been up all night. Jay yawned. “What time is it?”
“Eight-thirty,” Donald answered.
“Think we should call Michelle?”
“Yeah.” Donald reached for the phone in the kitchen and dialed Michelle’s cell phone number.
Jay watched while the call went through. When it was picked up Donald barely recognized Michelle’s voice. “’lo.”
“Michelle?” She sounded dog-tired.
“Donald!” Her voice perked up, but it was still heavily tinged with fatigue. “What’s up?”
“How’d it go? You in your room?”
“Yeah.” There was a pause. It sounded like his call woke her up. Donald glanced at Jay and nodded. Jay held an imaginary phone to his ear, a questioning look in his eyes. Donald nodded and Jay darted into the master bedroom to pick up the extension there.
“You okay, honey?” Donald asked.
“Just...real tired.”
There was a clicking on the line and then Jay’s voice came through sharp and clear. “Hey, Michelle.”
“Jay.” Donald heard her yawn. “Damn, I’m beat.”
“No wonder,” Donald said. “You’ve been at it non stop now for over a week.”
“Yeah, and I’ve got more today.” There was another pause. “Shit,” she said, more of the fatigue trailing away from her voice as she began to slowly wake up. “I’ve got thirty minutes to shower and get ready.”
“The meeting’s at eight?” Donald asked.
“Yeah.”
Jay asked, “How’d it go last night?”
“I don’t know. Okay I guess. I was so tired I zoned out through most of it.”
“Who was there?”
“Oh...damn, you’re not gonna believe this.” Her voice grew sharper, more defined. “Dennis Harrington was there.”
“No shit?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t help thinking what you said yesterday,” Michelle said. There was another sound in the background, and then he heard running water. “He and Alma were there.”
“What was he like?” Jay asked.
“The same.” Donald could hear the rushing water more clearly now; it sounded like she was in the bathroom. “Listen, I gotta get ready for this meeting. I was up last night till two-thirty.”
“The meeting went on till two-thirty?” Donald blurted. He couldn’t believe it.
“Yeah. I tried to get out of it...tried to excuse myself, but Bill and Tom...they’re the guys from Corporate Financial who met me at the airport...they...they wouldn’t let me leave...and—”
Jay and Donald blurted simultaneously: “What the fuck do you mean they wouldn’t let you leave?” “They met you at the airport?”
“Whoa, one at a time here,” Michelle said. Donald detected a grin behind her voice. She was definitely waking up, slowly but surely.
“What’s this bullshit that they wouldn’t let you leave?” Jay demanded.
“They kept telling me it was important for me to be there,” Michelle said. “Look, I’ll tell you more tonight. I’ve really got to get ready for this meeting and—”
“They didn’t hurt you, did they?” Donald asked.
“No!” The denial came so quick that Donald knew she was telling the truth. “No, it’s nothing like that. It was more like...I didn’t want to get in trouble with my boss.”
“So they intimidated you,” Jay said.
“I guess you could say that.”
“Fuckers,” Jay muttered.
“And this meeting went on till two-thirty,” Donald reiterated.
“Yeah. But like I said, I zoned out. I stopped caring about being there and I think I actually fell asleep at one point.”
Donald felt a grin crack his features. “Good for you!”
“Yeah, well, I don’t want that to get back to Sam,” Michelle said. “I couldn’t help myself, so if I did fall asleep I’m going to be in deep shit.”
“Fuck ’em,” Jay said. “You don’t need them anyway.”
“I need this job, Jay.” The running water was turned off on the other end. Michelle sounded fully awake now. “I’ve got a shit load of debt, a mortgage, car payments, I can’t afford to have this job taken away from me now.”
“So get another one,” Jay said. “If they treat you that way, they don’t deserve you.”
“Easy for you to say,” Michelle said. “But my career is depending on this gig. If I can pull this consulting gig off, I’ll be fine. They need me here.”
“They don’t need you!” Jay protested.
“Look, I gotta go,” Michelle said. “I’ll call later today when the meeting is over. Okay?”
“Be careful, Michelle,” Donald said.
“I will, and I love you.” Michelle hung up.
Donald replaced the phone on the cradle, a tinge of worry running through his system. There was something Michelle said that bothered him. He was thinking about the conversation, replaying it in his mind, when Jay returned from the master bedroom. He looked shocked; his dark eyes were wide, his features suggesting he’d just seen or heard the impossible. “What was that all about? The chick I met Monday night would not have put up with that kind of corporate bullshit!”
“You’re right,” Donald said. The woman he’d met three years ago and fell in love with would not have put up with that kind of intimidation. Three months after they began dating, Michelle was fired from a consulting gig for refusing to be intimidated by an executive who stormed into her cubicle at the job she was working at and began loudly verbally abusing her. The executive had demanded she fix something, make something work that she had no power over, and when she tried explaining to him that this part of the project wasn’t within her scope but that she’d get to the folks who handled it to correct the problem, he wouldn’t take that as an answer. “Fix it now!” He’d thundered, standing over her.
“Would you please lower your voice?” Michelle had asked politely.
“What? Are you telling me to lower my voice? Do you know who I am?”
“I’m telling you to lower your voice because you’re harassing me. Please calm down and—”
“You will do what I say, when I say it. You will fix this problem and—”
“If you’ll just explain to me what you need fixed, I can help you!” Michelle had no idea what the man needed fixed. She’d heard through the grapevine that he was a prima donna, that the decisions he made were based on half-truths, greed, ego, and were not for the betterment of the company as a whole. She also knew he was completely unsuited for his position after he sat in on several meetings at which she was present. He had no grasp of the concepts they were addressing, no firm grounding in the industry he was working in (multimedia), and continually got things mixed up when it came to Michelle’s role and that of her fellow consultants; if she was part of Pomeroy consulting, she must know what Delloite and Touche were doing, who were also part of this project. They were all consultants, right? Not so.
“How goddamned stupid are you?” The exec snarled. By then, everybody in the surrounding cubicles had grown silent as they listened. “How the hell did you get this job
? You are the stupidest bitch I’ve ever—”
“Don’t talk to me like that!”
“I can talk to you anyway I damned well feel like!” The man leaned over her menacingly. Michelle told Donald later that when he leaned close to her she’d actually felt a rise of fear. “I run this show, and I will do whatever the hell I want!”
“You’re harassing me! Stop it!”
“You want to see harassment? I’ll show you harassment! Come to my office, and I’ll give you a—”
“Get out of my cubicle!” Michelle yelled.
“You don’t talk to me like that, bitch!” The exec had spat. “You’ve just fucked with the wrong person and I’m going to see to it that you’re out of here!”
And when the corporate suit said that, Michelle related later that she felt this irresistible urge she couldn’t suppress. “As long as you’re going to fire me, I have a message for you.” The exec stopped, glared at her, and Michelle raised her right hand, middle finger extended. “Fuck you!”
She was dismissed from Pomeroy the next day—with a generous severance package that was their way of saying, we know that should you wish to pursue legal action against us and/or our client for workplace harassment you’d have a strong case; we want to avoid a costly trial so please...accept this gift and we’ll consider the matter closed.
Michelle had taken the offer. It was close to a year’s salary with her benefits. Had she refused, she would have received nothing and would have had to pay out of pocket for a lawsuit as well as find another job.
The feisty, no-nonsense, smart woman who held her ground, who didn’t take shit from the corporate bully was the woman Donald Beck knew and loved.
Not this tired, almost apologetic woman who claimed that her company needed her all of a sudden.
That bothered Donald. He turned to Jay. “I think you have something there. I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but—”
Jay didn’t say anything. Donald read the thought in his eyes. They’re getting to her.
CHAPTER NINE
MEL HOWARD WAS sitting in the comfortable book-lined study of his home in Highland Ranch, Colorado that he shared with his wife, going through his accounting records for his new online book-selling business, when the doorbell rang.
Mel saved the excel file he was working on and rose to his feet. He stretched. He’d gotten up at eight a.m. this morning, made a pot of coffee, than gone right to work. He operated an online bookstore called Mel’s Books, and he specialized in used and new books, mostly genre fiction, but some non-fiction titles too, mostly true-crime related. He’d been dabbling in it off and on since he discovered eBay seven years ago, and last October Sue said, “You’re doing well enough on eBay and you find enough good stuff at all the flea markets we go to; why not open up an internet storefront?”
So he did.
It was tough starting out, and the business was beginning not only to pay for itself, it was showing a small profit. Sue was able to quit her job so she could take care of their son and daughter when they came home from school, and she used the time the kids were away to pack and ship orders. When Mel came home from his job as a Salesman for Wiedenhammer Products in Littleton, he devoted a few hours a night to the business. He also devoted weekends to it. Business was doing well; he offered free shipping on all orders, discounted new books, and supplied brodart bindings with all hardcovers. He was becoming one of the major independent internet booksellers without a brick and mortar presence.
Mel walked on stocking feet through the hallway to the living room. The kids were at soccer games this morning, which Sue had taken them to. Mel was going to take care of some business this morning—update the online databases, pack and ship some orders, pay some bills—and then he was done for the weekend. They had plans to spend the afternoon with Sue’s parents and go out to dinner that night at a local steakhouse.
In short, he was looking forward to this weekend.
When he opened the door he was surprised to see Mary Barnhill and Jim Fern, Human Resource Representatives from his employer, Wiedenhammer Products. They were flanked by two big burly guys he’d never seen before, dressed in suits. “Hey!” Mel said. “What brings you here?”
Without a word, they shouldered their way through the door and past Mel, who was taken aback by the sudden, bold intrusion into his home. “Uh...excuse me, but what the hell are you doing just barging into my house like this?”
They stopped and Mel saw that Mary and Jim were dressed in business attire—a dark suit and white shirt for Jim, navy blue suit for Mary. Jim carried a large canvas bag while Mary carried a briefcase. “We need to speak to you in your study,” Mary said. Without another word, she turned and headed down the hallway to the study. Jim followed her.
The two burly guys stepped up to Mel. “Please, Mr. Howard,” one of them said. He looked like he’d be a Navy grunt or a linebacker.
“Who the hell are you?” Mel asked.
Both men were wearing dark sunglasses; their features were stony.
“Mr. Howard?” Mary Barnhill called from his study.
Mel strode down the hall to his office, his sense of privacy violated now. He didn’t give a good goddamn that he knew Mary and Jim, that they worked for his employer—he wanted them the hell out of his house!
When he reached his office he saw Mary and Jim were waiting for him. Mary had opened her briefcase and taken out a sheaf of papers. “You signed a loyalty oath with us, Mr. Howard. You have violated this loyalty oath by operating a part-time business on the side that is in direct violation of Wiedenhammer’s stated goals.”
Mel started; he had no idea what the hell they were talking about. “What?”
“A loyalty oath to Wiedenhammer,” Mary explained. Mel saw that the papers she was holding up appeared to be Human Resource documents. “All employees signed them about six months ago, yourself included. Remember?”
Mel searched through his memory banks. He supposed at some point he signed some kind of paper—employers always required you to sign stuff; Policies and Procedures documents, Health Care information, Insurance papers, Non-Disclosure Agreements. It was all part and parcel for getting a job. But a loyalty oath? Mel shook his head. “Let me see that,” he said, reaching for the paper.
Mary handed it to him and Mel scanned it quickly. He remembered this now, but vaguely. His supervisor had placed it in his mailbox with a note: Something else we have to sign if we want to keep our jobs. Mel had scanned it quickly at the time, and he read it more carefully now. The heading of the document was Non-Competitive and Conflict of Interest Agreement, which had not raised any red flags for Mel. Non-Competitive and Conflict of Interest Agreements were standard operating procedure for most companies. They stated that as long as you were employed with whatever company you held a job with, you were prohibited from disclosing trade secrets or other secret information to competitors. You were also prohibited from engaging in business practices for your own financial gain within the same industry, which would put you in direct competition with your employer and which could, potentially, create a conflict of interest between employee and employer. It was a way for the company to keep their business practices and development secrets closed, which was understandable. Mel had quickly signed it and put it back in his boss’s In basket. He fostered no desires to work in the Plastics industry, which was Wiedenhammer’s market; they made plastic bottles for the pharmaceutical industry. He could not care less about plastic, screw-top lids, child safety proof lids, and everything that went with it. He had no interest in the product or the industry. He was a salesman for Wiedenhammer because he needed a job to pay his bills, mortgage, and to obtain medical insurance and retirement benefits. Aside from that, he had no interest in the industry his employer was involved in. He was working on Mel’s Books as a side business with the hopes of supplementing his retirement income when that time came. He loved books; loved the smell and feel of them, and as a salesperson he was good at selling them. It made s
ense to direct his interests and talents together.
Now he scanned the document again, trying to process the legalese. “What’s a loyalty oath? This is a standard non-competitive—”
“Paragraph eight, section two,” Jim said, quietly.
Mel flipped a page and found it. The sub-heading was entitled LOYALTY OATH.
Why didn’t I see this before?
He had gone through this document before; such a boldly stated sub-heading would have jumped out at him then as it did now, but he was certain—positive—it hadn’t been there before. He saw the scrawl of his signature at the bottom of the page indicating he had, indeed, signed the document. He read the paragraph in question.
Section II: LOYALTY OATH
Under no circumstances shall an employee of Wiedenhammer Products, Inc engage in any extra-curricular business activity that falls outside the scope of Wiedenhammer’s goals and objectives. As referenced in Section I, Paragraph 2, a conflict of interest occurs when an individual’s private interest interferes—or even appears to interfere—with the interests of Wiedenhammer. A conflict situation can arise when an employee or officer takes actions or has interests that may make it difficult to perform his or her work for Wiedenhammer. Therefore, by signing the overall Conflict of Interest Agreement, the undersigned hereby agrees to this loyalty oath to the company, that they shall be prohibited from engaging in any extra-curricular business and private activity that falls outside the scope of Wiedenhammer’s goals and objectives.
What kind of bullshit is this? The way this is worded could mean...
Mel looked up at Jim and Mary. “What the hell is this?”
“You are a salesman for Wiedenhammer Products, Inc,” Mary said. “It is what you do. By engaging in your part-time bookselling business on eBay and the rest of the Internet, you are violating our Conflict-of-Interest policy.”
Mel felt his anger flare. How dare these...these morons barge into his house, on the fucking weekend and demand that he cease his business! What he did on his own time was nobody’s business—especially Wiedenhammer’s. “It’s Saturday,” he heard himself say. “And I’m in my own house. You’re trespassing. Get the hell out of here or I call the police.”
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