No Hiding Behind the Potted Palms! A Dance with Danger Mystery #7

by Barton, Sara M.

  “Excuse me?” I was stunned. Ralph never said anything to me about a price change.”

  “I just got the bill for the last commercial. It’s the same number of hours, but you’ve upped your rates. In this economy? It’s a recipe for disaster, Dori. After all the business we’ve sent your way, I expect better than that from Dynamic Productions!”

  “Thad, there must be some kind of clerical error on that bill. We haven’t changed our fees. Let me find out what went wrong and get back to you.”

  As soon as I hung up the desk phone, I pulled out my cell and dialed Bosco’s. In a quiet voice, I filled him in. Standing in the doorway of my office, I had a view through the front window. I could see Gloria pull into the parking lot. She lingered in the car, running a brush through her long hair, before pulling it back in a ponytail. The office phone rang again as she dawdled over her makeup.

  “Bosco, let me get that. I’ll call you right back.” I picked up the receiver. It was Mary Lemanski, the advertising manager at Good Fruit, a gourmet foods company that had a national distribution delivery service. We had just finished three thirty-second commercials and an infomercial for their website.

  “Hey, Dori,” she said in a friendly tone. “How’s everything?”

  “Same old, same old. How’s everything with you?”

  “Not so good, I’m afraid. My boss took a chunk out of me this morning, after she saw the bill for Dynamic Productions.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You people quoted us $45,000 for those spots, but the bill is for $63,000.”

  “That’s a mistake. I sent you the quote myself, and I know there were no overages. Is it itemized?”

  “It is. There’s even a new fee for production quality assurance, which is $4,300. What the hell is production quality assurance?”

  “I’ve never heard of it. Listen, Mary. How long have you known me?” I walked over to the door and shut it quietly. Gloria was now in the office, starting a pot of coffee. Kendall was coming through the front door, carrying camera equipment.

  “A long, long time.”

  “Can I ask you to do me a huge favor? You’re the second call today about the fee increase. I’m a part-owner in this business and no one informed me that we were changing prices. I’d like to find out what’s going on. But just to be on the safe side, I’d like to keep it quiet. Any chance you could email me a copy of the bill you got, so I can check it against what’s showing in our books?”

  “You think someone is ripping the company off?” Mary sounded intrigued.

  “I don’t know, but I want to have a chance to get to the bottom of this. If we do have a problem, I’d like to handle it right away. You know that we’ve worked hard for you, so I’m asking you to help me out on this. Let me find out what’s really going on. In the meantime, tell your boss that I said you’ll pay the same rate you paid last year. Just give me a day or two to straighten this mess out.”

  “Sure. Why not? We loved the commercials.”

  As soon as I got off the phone with her, I called Thad back. He answered on the third ring.

  “Tell me something. That bill you got today, did it have something listed as production quality assurance?” I asked. I waited as he got out the invoice.

  “Yes, it does. What the hell is production quality assurance?”

  “I have no bloody idea, Thad, but I assure you I’m going to find out, and when I find out, I’m going to do a little ass-kicking!”

  “You go, girl!” he cheered. “There are also fees for video play-by-play synchronization and audio resonance control.”

  “How much?” My fingers were itching to dial Bosco with the news.

  “Let’s see — $3,200 and $670.”

  “Thad, if you take out the production quality assurance, the video play-by-play synchronization, and the audio resonance, does your bill come back down to normal?”

  “It pretty much does, Dori. Why?”

  “I want to thank you, Thad. I think you just saved my company. Can you email me a copy of the invoice you received?”

  “You’ve got it.”

  Fifteen minutes later, I forwarded the emails to Bosco, who was all fired up and ready to do battle. I had a meeting at nine-thirty with a client, but it was curtly canceled in an email, without explanation. I began to think I knew the reason why, since I had given Gloria my estimate for the job last week.

  By ten o’clock, the phone had been ringing almost non-stop, all the calls fielded by Gloria. I could see her trying to smooth over the ruffled feathers at her desk. Ralph was in briefly before heading out with Dom and a couple of interns. They were shooting two commercials for a regional shopping service.

  I made a point of stepping out into the main office, to grab a cup of coffee, when I saw her in an animated discussion over the phone. Hoping to hear something valuable, I lingered at the coffee machine, fiddling with a couple of packets of sweetener and some creamers. She hung up the phone and pulled open her desk drawer. She was frowning.

  “Everything okay?” I asked. She blew her nose on a tissue and dabbed at her eyes.

  “Yes, yes. Everything is fine.” Gloria waved me away.

  “I wanted to ask you about something. A client called me today, wanting to know about a new fee on her bill. Production quality assurance. What exactly is the purpose of that fee?”

  “You’ll have to talk to Ralph about that, Dori. I’m only his assistant. He’s the boss.”

  “I’m asking you because I have stock in this company and that makes me part-owner.” I moved up to her desk and gazed down at her with unwavering interest. “What is the fee for? My clients have the right to know.”

  Gloria’s gaze faltered and she glanced away, unable to maintain eye contact. She pulled some papers off her desk and began to tidy them.

  “It used to be bundled under related charges, but Ralph decided to separate everything out with his new system. That’s all I know. You’ll have to talk to him when he comes in. And now,” she insisted,” you’ll have to excuse me. I have work to do.”

  That didn’t sound at all like a woman who was addressing an employer, and it struck a sour note with me.

  Chapter Ten —

  “What’s the problem, Dori?” A jovial Ralph greeted me at the door when I came back from lunch. “Come on into my office and we’ll talk about it.”

  I followed him into his office, where he waved me into one of the chairs opposite his desk. He folded his hands and waited expectantly for me to explain. I took a deep breath and measured my words.

  “We gave a quote to Platinum Health that was twenty percent less than the final bill, even though there were no problems with the shoot. And we did the same kind of thing to Good Fruit. What’s going on, Ralph?”

  “Oh, kid. Don’t worry about that stuff. You have enough on your mind. I’ll handle it.” Ralph brushed off my concerns. It suddenly occurred to me that this was something he often did, and I rarely bucked his final word. But today, I actually accepted the fact that what was left of my money was invested in Dynamic Productions and I wanted to know what those charges were.

  “I told you I’ll take care of it,” he said as his smile tightened on his face.

  “I don’t want you to take care of it, Ralph. The clients are mine and I want to know why they were overcharged. What is production quality assurance? What is video play-by-play synchronization? What is audio resonance?”

  “Look, Dori, I don’t want to get you upset. I understand you’re really stressed out right now by all that’s happening in your life. You’re not really a business person, so you don’t understand all the things that go into running a production company….” His voice trailed off as he opened his arms wide, as if to drive home the point that running Dynamic Productions was too complex a concept for me to comprehend.

  “It’s not a hard question, Ralph. Start with production quality assurance. What do my clients get for that fee?”

  “Don’t you mean our clients
, Dori?” he corrected me. “After all, last time I looked, my name was on the masthead.”

  “I billed those clients, Ralph, after I gave them an estimate. I did not exceed the estimated production time, nor did I have any production problems. Increasing the fees was wrong.”

  “Well, if you don’t like it, you can always quit.”

  “Excuse me?” I stood up, my heart pounding and my hands shaking. “I asked you why you added fees to client bills, Ralph. You still need to give me a satisfactory answer.”

  “And I’m telling you I’m still your boss. I can still fire you.” The smile never left his face. As I stood there, stunned, the instinct to survive kicked on inside my brain. I remembered Bosco’s directive to not let on how much we knew. I bit my tongue, holding back what I wanted to tell Ralph about his business ethics. With a deep breath, I focused on the clients.

  “Well, you should call Thad Macklehenny and Mary Lemanski ASAP, because we’re about to lose those accounts,” I said seriously. “They’re pretty upset.”

  “You let me handle that side of the business. You stick to what you do best. Finish the Dandy Fresh storyboard and the Red Dragon Garden commercial.”

  “Fine,” I replied, turning to go.

  “Dori,” he called after me. I turned at the door. “Have you given any more thought to my offer?”

  “Sorry, Ralph. I’ve been too busy dealing with upset clients all day, and Bosco hasn’t been available.”

  “Well, sooner,” he strongly intimated, “rather than later, okay?”

  I decided I’d better get out of the office for a while, so I could cool down and regroup. Kendall was headed out to take some shots of the Chinese restaurant, so I decided to accompany her. I figured it was a chance to pump her for information. I waited until we were on the road before I started.

  “Any chance you know what the new fees are for?”

  “What new fees?” She glanced over at me as she drove.

  “Production quality assurance, video play-by-play synchronization, audio resonance….”

  “What the hell are those things?” Kendall seemed confused.

  “I haven’t a clue,” I admitted. “I heard it’s some new system Ralph’s using.”

  “Sounds like crap to me.”

  I helped Kendall with the light balance and moved the metal stands to redirect the lights around until we found the right positions, then I watched the monitor for glitches as she filmed. We worked for a couple of hours, shooting and re-shooting, until we had some good footage. After we packed up the equipment and loaded it back in the van, Kendall suggested we stop for a cold drink and a quick bite. We settled ourselves at a small bistro table under the striped green-and-white awning of the Coffee Bean.

  “I was thinking about what you said, about those fees.” Kendall took a long sip of her mocha caramel iced coffee. “Have you noticed anything unusual at the office lately?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, we’re missing some equipment. Two of the JVC shoulder cameras aren’t around anymore, and I’ve noticed that there’s a sound mixer gone from the audio booth, not to mention a couple of microphones. I went to grab one last week when I was shooting that Hungry Snail commercial, but the only thing we had left was an old hand-held piece of junk. Ralph said they were being repaired. I didn’t even know they were broken.”

  “Really?” I thought about that, swirling my iced tea around in my cup. “That’s odd.”

  “I know. So, when you said that there were new fees, well…” Kendall stopped talking suddenly. I glanced up, curious. Her gaze was on a couple, sitting in a car, in the parking lot.

  “Something wrong?” I wondered.

  “Check it out. Ralphy and Gloria are slugging it out.” I let my eyes follow her gaze and sure enough, there were Ralph and his girl Friday, screaming at each other, the windows rolled up and the car still running.

  “Can you get this on tape, Kendall?”

  “Hell, yes!” She strode to the van, her eyes on the prize, climbed into the side away from Ralph’s car, and within thirty seconds, had the camera discreetly positioned out the driver’s window, red light on. I grabbed her iced coffee and my tea before following her. I parked myself in the passenger seat, listening to her blow-by-blow of the action.

  “Man, is Gloria pissed! She is reaming him out like you wouldn’t believe. Ralph looks like he’s going to cry. Or throw up.”

  “Wow. What I would give to be a fly on the wall,” I decided. “You know, if we scooted back to the shop, we could check on that missing equipment, do a quick little inventory.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  Half an hour later, between the two of us, we came up with an inventory list, and it was a significant one. Kendall also filmed the equipment still on the premises, in case any more of it disappeared. Gloria arrived at her desk a short time later, looking like she was in a foul mood. Ralph was nowhere to be seen.

  I was in the middle of reading my emails when Gloria appeared in my doorway. She had a file folder in her hand.

  “Ralph said to tell you that there was a billing error for Platinum Health and Good Fruit. He called their representatives and smoothed things over. He also wanted me to tell you that the next time there is a complaint, you’re to direct your clients to speak with me, since I am the bookkeeper.”

  “Promotion?” I said that one word as evenly as I could, but Gloria took offense anyway. A dark storm cloud hovered over her auburn-haired head, threatening her cheery disposition.

  “I’ll have you know, Dori, that I am very skilled at what I do, so you should expect to see me handle more and more of the day-to-day responsibilities around here. Dynamic Productions is about to take off, so you might want to lose that snotty attitude of yours and treat me with the respect I deserve as Ralph’s partner!”

  “I’m sorry,” I stuttered, standing up suddenly. “Did you say you are Ralph’s partner?”

  “I did. And you’ll do well to remember that or you won’t be working here, not if I have anything to say about it!”

  “What the….” I stared at the empty doorway as Hurricane Gloria disappeared from the horizon. This was all becoming too much. There was something very wrong at Dynamic Productions. I thought about calling Bosco for advice, but I decided to finish what I was doing first. My head was humming with all the thoughts whirling around inside it. I wrote a couple of replies for client inquiries before I opened an email from Thad Macklehenny’s.

  “No way!” I sputtered, reading his words. “No bloody, stinking way!”

  There was another email from Mary, as well as one from Bob Jacobs at Tremont Tech. According to Ralph, I was caught padding the bills for clients and he profusely apologized for the inconvenience. He promised them I would be dismissed as soon as I came back to the office on Monday. Given that this was Friday, it looked like Ralph was buying himself some time.

  “Knock, knock.” It was Tony, Kendall’s competition. A former cameraman for Channel 9 news, he was adept at quick cutaways and fast-paced promos, but he was also good at sound editing. “Have you seen the storyboard for Unger?”

  “Why?” I was working on that with Dom and Kendall.

  “I have to do the rewrite.”

  “What rewrite? It’s already been approved by Paul Unger. We’ve shot most of the footage.”

  “Don’t know. I was told to rework it.” The normally affable Tony seemed flustered.

  “By whom?” I demanded.

  “Gloria just told me Ralph wants it done.”

  I got up from my chair, put a finger to my lips, and crossed the room. Pulling Tony inside, I shut the door.

  “Can I ask you something honestly?” I helped Tony get the job when he was laid off during cutbacks at the station. “Have you noticed strange things going on around here lately? Equipment missing? New fees tacked onto bills? Anything unusual?”

  He took a long, hard look at me. I could tell he had something to say. When he opened his mouth, I neve
r would have guessed that what he had to share was that disturbing.

  “Look, Dori, I know you’re under a strain. I’m happy to help you any way I can. You’ve been a good friend to me. Take Ralph up on his offer. Take a leave of absence and get some counseling.”

  “What?” The expression on my face only seemed to confuse Tony even more. “What in God’s name are you talking about?”

  “I heard about the money.”

  “What money?

  “You tried to shake down Ralph to give you money because you’re broke.”

  “I what?”

  “He said you wanted fifty grand because you’re penniless.” My eyes flew open wide and my jaw dropped. I forced myself to breathe deeply. How was I going to convince Tony that I was being set up? And then I went to my computer.

  “Come here,” I demanded. I opened up the email from Thad, with all of the documentation about our earlier conversation and what Ralph told him. I did the same with Mary’s. He read over my shoulder and I could tell he didn’t know who to believe. He sat down in the chair on the other side of my desk, speechless. “Are you aware of the fact that Bosco and I own forty two percent of Dynamic?”

  “Can Bosco confirm this?” Tony wanted to know.

  “Should he have to?” I shot back. I saw my colleague study me, trying to decide what to say next.

  “Yeah, he should, because if it’s true, there’s something you two should know.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Ralph is selling the company to a group of investors.”

  I leaned back in my chair and looked up at Tony. From the expression on his face, I could tell he was worried.

  “How do you know this?” I wanted answers. He opened his mouth to tell me at the same time Gloria barged in like a runaway tractor trailer truck heading down the mountain without pumping the brakes.

  “Why is your door closed?” she demanded.

  “Excuse me?” Tony was back in the chair across from me and he looked apprehensive, uncertain of what to make of the transformed Gloria.