Monahan 01 Options

by Rosemarie A D'Amico

  In the whole mess, Rick Cox’s name came up at every turn. Rick Cox and the stock options. Rick Cox and the memos from the regional vp’s. A board meeting with only outside directors. That meant Rick Cox was not to be invited. As an employee of the company he was considered an inside director. Outside directors were the big guns we put on the board to give us a good name. Besides Cox and Oakes, the only other two inside directors were senior members of our management team. Senior puppets. And both of those puppets had sent Oakes memos which were on the file called Roosters.

  What the hell did Roosters mean, I thought. I couldn’t remember seeing any reference to Roosters in the memos I had read. And then I got it. Very good, Vee. Cox, roosters. Cocks and roosters. Things were about to take an interesting turn.

  chapter seventeen

  I opened the top drawer of my desk and pulled out the list of directors. The sheet of paper had each director’s name and beside the name were their various telephone numbers. Some of them had office, cellular, home, country home, ski chalet and hunting lodge telephone numbers. Beside two directors’ names, in pencil, was the phone number of their current mistress. Below the director’s information was their secretary’s name and phone numbers. Oops. Executive Assistants, excuse me. It was very passe and uncouth to call someone a secretary nowadays. Everyone was an executive assistant. A junior clerk typist was an executive secretary. And most of them didn’t even work for executives. Up until the time I became a full fledged paralegal, I called a spade a spade and referred to myself as a secretary.

  I started at the top of the list. It was seven-thirty on a Saturday night and I had to track down six people. I decided to put their secretaries to work. They should all know if their bosses were available on a Saturday night.

  Bill Frankford’s secretary, Jessica, was the first on my list. Bill was a paper baron. At least that’s the way Oakes described him when he was bragging about our directors.

  “Hello,” a voice answered.

  “Jessica?” I asked.

  “That you Kate?” she replied.

  “Yeah. Hi. Sorry to bother you. Chris needs to get in touch with Bill. Any idea where he is? I thought I’d start with you before I tried his numbers.”

  “He’s out at some social function and I don’t know if he’s got his cell phone with him. Want me to try him?” she offered.

  “Please. Let him know Chris wants a board meeting at eight-thirty tonight. By phone. Call me back. If you get my voice mail leave me a message.”

  “All right. So they’re keeping you hopping on a Saturday night, aren’t they? Where’s Vanessa?” she asked.

  “I got roped into it because I was in the office. She’s at home enjoying some peace and quiet,” I said. I had to get a move on here to get in contact with everyone else, so I ended the conversation quickly.

  I grabbed my Hilroy notebook that contained my doodlings and notes from each day and turned to a fresh page where I wrote down Bill’s name and marked beside it, l/m. Left message. Oakes would no doubt want a status report within the next fifteen seconds and I’d have to let him know the situation with each person. If I heard back that Bill was able to attend the meeting, I’d scratch out the l/m and write okay.

  I had the same luck with the next four secretaries I talked to. They were all at home and would get in touch with their bosses. Whit Williams’ secretary didn’t answer her home phone number in Dallas, so I called his house directly. Sue-Ellen, his wife, answered on the fifth ring. She sounded out of breath.

  “Sue-Ellen, it’s Kathleen Monahan at TechniGroup. How are you?” I started.

  “Kathleen,” she drawled. “How nice to hear from you.” What a classy broad. I had probably interrupted her Saturday evening and she didn’t act the least bit put out.

  “Sorry to bother you Sue-Ellen. Is Mr. Williams in?” I asked. I used the Mr. because with Sue-Ellen it seemed right to be formal.

  “Certainly Kathleen. Hold on just a moment.” There was a slight knock as she laid the phone down and I could hear her calling his name. Whitney Williams was an oil baron. We had lots of barons on our board. He insisted that everyone call him Whit. I waited a few minutes and he finally came on the phone.

  “Kate,” he bellowed. “How’s my favourite girl?”

  “I’m just fine, Mr. Williams. How’re things in Dallas?”

  “Glorious, just glorious. I’ve got my grand-kiddies here for the weekend and they were just teaching me how to use the computer. I’m not sure I’ve got the hang of it yet, though,” he said with a chuckle. The man was a charmer and I liked him.

  “Sorry to interrupt your computer lesson. Chris asked me to poll the directors to find out their availability for a board meeting. Tonight. In about an hour,” I said.

  “Fine, fine. Is there a number to call in to or will you call me?” he asked.

  “We’ll call you,” I said.

  “What’s the meeting about? Don’t we have one set up for later in the week?”

  “Chris didn’t say,” I said.

  “Alright. Call me back,” he said.

  The red light on my phone was flashing indicating messages. Before I checked them I wrote down Whit’s name and okay beside it in my notebook. All six names were there now and I dialled my voice mail. Two confirmations and I scratched out l/m beside their names and marked okay. I looked at my watch and it was seven forty-five. Not bad for fifteen minutes. Three okay’s and three to go. My phone rang. It was Jessica.

  “Hi Kate. Listen, Bill’s at a black-tie function at the Four Seasons. He said he can sneak out and you can patch him in through his cell phone. He wasn’t impressed that I called him in the middle of his shrimp cocktail,” she giggled.

  “Well, we can save him a few calories. I’ll probably call him about the time they’re serving the baked Alaska,” I responded. I confirmed his cell phone number and marked okay beside his name.

  While I waited for the other two secretaries to call me back I lit a cigarette and thought about everything. Rick Cox was in deep shit. And I think I knew what the board meeting was going to be about. Oakes was obviously about to make a power play and Cox wouldn’t be around to defend himself. Couple of babies, I thought. Oakes obviously knew about Grace’s investigation because he wanted her on the call for the meeting. And the most disturbing factor was the contents of those three memos.

  The three regional vice presidents had sent memos detailing incidents involving Cox. One incident reported was on the west coast in a client meeting. The client was upset about the progress on their contract and Cox had chewed out our people in front of the client. Chewed out is probably mild. The memo said he was a raving lunatic and had embarrassed the company. Nothing about Cox embarrassing himself. I believed this story. Cox didn’t give a shit who he chewed out. His ranting and raving put professional wrestlers to shame.

  The second memo was about Cox ordering the controller of our international division to falsely report revenue. I didn’t understand the mechanics of it but Cox was being accused of fraud. This story I didn’t believe. He may be a lunatic but I had trouble believing he would do anything criminal. Most of his ranting and raving was because he was a perfectionist, and the fact that he believed the people around him didn’t live up to his standards.

  The third memo was just as bad as the others. It was from a female vice president who accused Cox of sexual harassment. She ended the memo threatening to charge Cox with sexual assault, and I didn’t know what to think about this one. The harassment accusation I could understand. Harassment takes many forms and verbal abuse is one form as far as I was concerned. I could understand it if she’d accused him of verbal harassment. The sexual side, I wasn’t so sure. Assault? Had I ever seen him get physical?

  Regardless, Cox was history. Whether these stories were true was besides the point. Oakes had managed to get his people to write these memos and assuming that they were willing to confirm everything if asked, Cox was toast. Coupled with the stock option fiasco, Cox was fin
ito. History. Oakes was victorious. Sure glad I’m not working for him, I thought selfishly. When he leaves, so does his secretary. I wondered if it was too soon to ask the office manager for his reserved parking spot.

  I heard from the other two board members’ secretaries in the next five minutes. It was five to eight when I headed back down the hall to Oakes’ office to give him an update. I could have called him but I knew he wouldn’t answer his phone. He never talks to a person, voice to voice, unless he initiates the call. His door was shut so I knocked before I opened the door. Grace was sitting across from him at the table and they both looked up when I came in.

  “I’ve contacted the outside directors and everyone’s on board for a call at eight-thirty,” I said.

  “Get everyone on the line,” he replied. He started to speak again to Grace and I interrupted him. “Do me a favour then. When your phone rings at eight-thirty pick it up,” I said. “If I have to get everyone on the phone I’ll have to do it from reception. My phone only has the capability to patch in five others. I need to use the switchboard and I don’t want to be running back here to make sure you pick up.” He wasn’t listening.

  “I’ll be sure to answer,” Grace said. “Thanks Kathleen.” It was a dismissal.

  My stomach was grumbling and I knew there wasn’t enough time to go out and get something to eat before I had to make the call. I headed for the kitchen and thought about eating some leftovers in the fridge but my stomach turned at the thought. Ptomaine poisoning was not on my agenda for the weekend.

  I settled for a coffee with sugar to stave off the headache I felt coming on. I had another 20 minutes to kill so I grabbed my cigarettes off my desk and headed for the reception to familiarize myself with the switchboard. It’d been a long time since I used the system and I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing. If I cut one person off on this call, Oakes would consider it grounds for firing me. I needed the job.

  chapter eighteen

  I picked up the phone and dialled Arthur Graves first because he was the least pushy of the directors and wouldn’t mind being the first on the call and waiting for me to patch in the others. He answered on the first ring and I asked him to hold while I went to work. I was successful getting the next two and then ran into two busy numbers so I thought I might as well get Grace and Oakes on the phone and they could all chat while I got the other three. I dialled Chris’ extension number and Grace answered. Her voice sounded hollow so I knew they were on the speaker phone.

  I punched a button. “Mr. Oakes, I’ve got Mr. Graves, Mr. Frankford and Mr. Williams. Go ahead. I’ll try the other numbers now,” I said into the phone.

  I was able to get two more directors and waited for a break in the conversation going on before I announced them and added them to the call. The last number kept giving me a busy signal and after about ten tries I wondered if I should go on the call and tell Oakes I was having trouble reaching the last director, but he’d probably bite my face off for interrupting. Jesus, this was pissing me off. The guy knew the call was scheduled for eight-thirty, I thought to myself. I tried one more time before having to admit defeat to Oakes, and the phone on the other end finally rang.

  “Larry Everly,” the voice barked. Ooh, what a charmer. Larry was an investment banker and he never let anyone forget it. He acted as if his participation on our board of directors was the single-most irritating factor in his life. He was impatient and pushy.

  I sugar-coated my voice and said, “Mr. Everly, please hold for the conference call.” I hit the button on the console to patch him through and waited for a break in the conversation to announce him but the pace of the conversation I overheard made it difficult to cut in.

  Before I could announce Larry, he did it himself. “Chris, Larry here,” he cut in. “What’s up?”

  “Well, we’ve got a serious situation here with Rick Cox,” Oakes replied.

  “I take it he’s not on this call,” Larry said.

  “No he’s not. There’s just outside directors and myself,” Chris continued. “I’ve filled in the other directors on the situation and I don’t think we have any recourse but to fire Rick.”

  I realized with a start that I was eavesdropping and thought about hanging up. To hell with them. They don’t pay me enough, so I considered this a bonus. I continued to listen.

  “What’ll that do to the stock price?” Larry asked. My, my, another one with a heart. No one was allowed to express a view on the stock price without bowing to Larry first. He was Mr. Dow Jones. Because it was a rhetorical question, Larry continued. “I’ll tell you what it’ll do to the stock price. It won’t be pretty. And we can’t afford any more dips in the price. The stock closed down a buck on Friday. Overall for the week, it was down one and seven-eighths.” That was a dollar and eighty-seven and a half cents. I wasn’t just another pretty face.

  Larry continued. “If it goes down much more it’s going to fuck the deal we’re working on.”

  Whit Williams interrupted. “What deal’s that, Larry?” he drawled.

  Oakes’ turn to interrupt. “I’ll call you each individually and fill you in. I had a meeting with Jack Vincent this week. About the stock though, I don’t think this’ll have an adverse affect.”

  “Who’re you kidding Chris?” Larry Everly demanded. “When a company fires its chief financial officer, it affects the stock price. When a company fires its chief operating officer, it affects the stock price. Rick is both chief financial officer and chief operating officer.” He had yelled for emphasis when he said affects. I moved the receiver away from my ear.

  Larry continued. “If you remember correctly Chris, the analysts like it when a company has a chief financial officer. It gives them a warm and fuzzy feeling,” he said sarcastically. “The analysts are not going to feel warm and fuzzy if we fire Rick Cox.”

  “Well, then,” Whit said. “We’ll just have to get him to resign.”

  I was amazed that Larry Everly hadn’t even asked what had gone wrong. But I knew that he and Chris Oakes were on the phone many times during the day and Vee and I sometimes wondered who in fact was running this company. Chris had probably filled Larry in before the conference call.

  Larry must have read my mind because he demanded, “What happened anyway?” I almost laughed out loud and quickly caught myself. Cutting someone off a call would be nothing compared to getting caught eavesdropping on a board of directors meeting. Oakes would definitely have grounds to fire me. I had sat in on several meetings before but in those instances I had been invited to take minutes in Didrickson’s absence. This was a little different.

  “A few things. You know this has been building up for the past while,” Oakes said in response to Larry’s question. “The straw that broke the camel’s back was the discovery today that he fiddled with the stock option numbers and granted himself a whole bunch more.”

  “He what?” Larry asked incredulously. “How can anyone be so stupid? Have you got proof of this?”

  It was Grace’s turn to speak. “Hi Larry. Grace O’Grady here. Yes, we’ve got proof. I’ve been in the office all of today going over things and my investigation points to Rick being responsible. In fact, our computer logs prove he did it.” She sounded a little depressed as she reported this. She was certainly not flying high like Oakes and I could tell Grace was very disappointed in Rick.

  “What else?” Larry demanded.

  “We’ve got an accusation of fraud and a sexual harassment claim,” Oakes answered.

  “Sure he didn’t murder the Pope as well?” Whit Williams asked.

  “This all happened today?” Arthur Graves asked. I was impressed because I was sure Arthur would be asleep. He normally slept through most board meetings.

  “No Arthur. The fraud and harassment charges have been lying around. The stock option mess came to light yesterday. One of the clerks discovered it,” Oakes said.

  Jay was going to be happy to hear he got a promotion to clerk.

  “As far as
I was concerned,” Chris continued, “that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

  Larry interrupted. “When did you find out about the fraud?” In typical male fashion, he was ignoring the sexual harassment issue. “This stock option thing is fraud too. Our shareholders’ll kill us when they find out we didn’t act on the first complaint. A chief financial officer has to be beyond reproach,” he lectured.

  “Uh, um. The other fraud issue was just brought up too,” Chris lied. He had just told Arthur the other charges had been lying around and no one reminded him of this little slip up.

  “Good,” Larry said. Larry had now taken over the meeting and was in charge. “If asked, we can say both things came to light at the same time. Grace, have you looked into both charges?”

  “I’m not aware of the other issue. The only thing I was asked to look at by Harold Didrickson, with Chris Oakes’ approval, was the stock options,” she said.

  “Chris, you haven’t investigated the other charge?” Larry demanded. Before Chris could lie again, Larry charged on. “Grace, investigate the other fraud charge. Let me have your report by Monday afternoon.”

  “People,” Larry continued. “We’ll issue a press release before market opens on Monday. Take the hit right away. Chris, get Rick into the office and have him sign a resignation. Grace, you should be present as a witness. The only way this goes out is as a resignation. Word it something like, Rick Cox wants to pursue other business interests. Get your PR people on it. Is everyone in agreement?” he asked.

  There were a few murmurs of consent but Whit Williams piped up, “Now hold on a second Larry. We have to at least give the man a chance to defend himself. Accusing him of fraud is a very serious issue. We’ve got to look at the legal ramifications here. Has anyone consulted Harold?”

  Chris answered. “I don’t want Harold consulted. I’ll call in outside counsel. Harold and Rick are too chummy-chummy for my liking.”