by Susan Wolfe
CHAPTER 22
Georgia followed the red dress of the sultry, olive-skinned receptionist down the carpeted hallway and into Charlie Reebuck’s corner office on the 17th floor of Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. He rose to greet her from behind a desk that seemed too big for him, tucking in a creased, pale gray shirt and straightening his diagonal-striped tie. His professionally mussed hair had been flattened on one side, and he ran one hand over it as he used his other to grip hers. Sunset was streaking the wispy clouds with pink as she accepted a bottle of water and sat down at his round table.
“Wow,” she said, gesturing with her Crystal Geyser bottle at the window. “I see why you prefer to work out of San Francisco.”
“Yeah. So, is this a friendly visit from a gorgeous doll named Georgia, or is ‘legal’ on my tail again?” She could hear his knee jiggling under the table as it had in the interview with Zack, but his brown eyes remained on her face instead of darting around the room. He wasn’t afraid exactly. He was cautious. Her job now was to help his lousy impulse control defeat that caution.
“I’m not really here as part of the legal department, Mr. Reebuck. That’s one of the two things I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Call me Charlie. What did you want to talk about?”
“Well, when I saw you in the San Jose office a few days ago, we talked a little bit about our two departments. I just wondered if the sales team would ever hire somebody out of the legal department to become a sales executive.”
His shoulders relaxed a bit. “Salespeople can come from anywhere. But why would you want to? Haven’t you spent years on a fancy education?”
“Not really. I’m not a lawyer. I’m a paralegal, and that was only a year of training.”
“Why sales?”
“Well, I’m thinking I could use something a little more . . . social than what I’m doing now. Discovery and document retention can get pretty lonely sometimes.” He waited. “And then, the other thing is that I have a little sister to support, and it’s quite a challenge to do that on a paralegal salary. Wouldn’t I make a lot more as a sales executive?”
At the mention of money he settled back in his chair and loosened his tie again. Her visit seemed suddenly to make perfect sense.
“Either a lot more or nothing,” he counseled. “It’s very, very tough for a sales executive in the first six months, even if they have experience. Ever sold anything?”
“No. But isn’t it persuasion? I can persuade people to do things sometimes.”
“Yeah, but this is subtle stuff. You don’t want people to know they’re being influenced.”
Excellent advice. So she probably shouldn’t bat her eyelashes. “That does sound sophisticated. Do you think I could learn?”
“Hard to say. The other thing is, sales might not always be quite as black and white as the law. I couldn’t have anybody on my team bleeding stuff back to her legal buddies.”
Well, maybe one tasteful little bat, to offset her solemn “Of course not.”
He shrugged. “Possibly could work. I might be willing to try it, but I’d want you to shadow one of my sales guys for a few days, so you’d know what you were getting into. Can you do that?”
“At the right time I can. I have to do some things on this SEC investigation first.”
“Yeah, I heard about that. Some troublemaker out of the Boston office. How’s it going?”
“Well, it’s a huge amount of work, but I think it’s going okay. You know about the person who complained?”
Charlie snickered. “Yeah, Ben Larkin. Buck thinks the guy got a little freaked out by his management style.”
“So it seems, and in fact that’s the other thing I wanted to ask you about. You know Buck very well?”
Charlie shrugged. “Medium. Why?”
“Is he a good sales executive?”
“Okay, from what I hear. Not as good as I am. Why?”
“Well, I wonder if he’s bothered by all the rumors since the harassment complaint.”
“What rumors?”
“That he’s, you know, homosexual.”
Charlie’s whole body jerked with astonishment. “Buck? A faggot?? I mean, a gaaayy person, right, legal?” He winked. “Nah, Buck’s as straight as they come. Wife and kids, as a matter of fact.”
“I’m sure you’re right. I just wondered if the rumors were affecting his self-confidence, or making it harder for him to manage.”
“No idea. I’m heading out to Las Vegas for the kick-off next week, I can check it out.” He narrowed his eyes slightly, appraising her. “Don’t take this wrong, but why do you give a shit?”
She shrugged. “I don’t want our legal investigation to damage the business. If he is having trouble, it would be great to get the rumors to stop.”
“Sure, be great to get world peace, too. How could Buck make the rumors stop?”
“Well, didn’t you tell me you have ‘friendly girls’ at your parties sometimes?”
“As often and many as possible.”
“Well, if Buck and a friendly girl, you know, with some other sales guys around, maybe he could start a counter-rumor.”
He raised his eyebrows and then cocked his head to one side, his leg very busy under the table. “Surprising suggestion from a ‘legal’ person. You wouldn’t be trying to set us up, would you?”
Her alarm was genuine, if slightly exaggerated. “What would possibly be the purpose of that?” She hesitated, as if slightly flustered, and averted her gaze. “You know what, maybe I’m in over my head here.” She looked back at him. “Sorry if I offended you. Honestly, I had the impression it was pretty routine.”
“It is, sort of.” He stared past her shoulder a minute, jiggling his leg and drumming his lips with two fingers. Then he grinned and flung his hands wide, embracing a vision. “What the hell, save a buddy in need! Genius, really! In fact, we’re set to have a party in Glen’s hotel suite on Sunday night, I’ll just plan it for then. Pick somebody really hot for him, you know, and tell her to stay on him.” He mimed by moving his torso from side to side like a downhill skier. The idea was picking up speed. “Be fun for all of us,” he nodded, eyes sparkling. Then he pointed at her. “You know, maybe you’d be good in sales.”
She feigned modest embarrassment. “And would other people from his office be there?”
“Sure. We’ll get several girls, you know, so he won’t feel self-conscious.”
“Will Mr. Terkes allow that?”
“Don’t see why not. Little bigger than we’ve done before, but that’s the beauty of it. Something we’ll all remember.”
“And you’re pretty sure Buck will react in a good way? Have you seen him at parties before?”
“Hm, well, I can’t actually think of a time . . . There were the exotic dancers in the hot tub in Orlando, but I mostly remember Buck laughing so hard he just fell down on his knees in the grass. But all men react the same to pretty girls, don’t they?”
“I suppose, but does everybody like to be public?”
“I see what you mean. Wouldn’t want to do this and have it fall flat, so to speak.” He considered. “We’ll just do some bluey.”
“Bluey?”
“Viagra. Why not?”
“It won’t make him feel bad that you think he needs bluey?”
He threw his hands up. “How can I win here? I’m trying to do the guy a favor.”
“Of course. I just wondered if cocaine would be a little less . . . medicinal.”
He tilted his head from side to side, lips pursed. “Could be right. Though Glen seems to think it’s ‘medicine.’” She kept her face deliberately blank, refusing to share the joke. “Hell, it’s a party. We’ll do both. Anyway, I’m not gonna broadcast it. In fact, why tell him? I can drop it in the whiskey. We’ll all have some before the girls show up, and nobody the wiser. We’ll all just think we’re amazing studs. Fabulous way to start the week. Huge favor to Buck, even if he’s never heard the rumors.”
“Well. That sounds great, then.”
“Too bad you can’t join us. Maybe by next year, you know?”
“Well,” Georgia said, smiling, “I could hardly be part of this party, even if I was in sales.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. I think you could be one of the friendly girls.” He shrugged. “They get paid, but they aren’t really any better looking than you are.” He thought that was a compliment. Too bad Charlie didn’t have a heart condition.
She made her smile grateful, if slightly shy. “Thanks, Charlie. Appreciate the ego boost. Anyway, I’ll think about what you said about moving into sales. Maybe I’ll call you in a few weeks, after this SEC thing dies down. Have fun at the kick-off.”
Done, she thought, as she waited for the elevator. Do your work, and then step back. The outcome was beyond her control, of course. Now it was up to Glen, and if it didn’t work, there’d be time to figure out something else.
Why was she so uneasy?
Katie-Ann stood in the open doorway and watched Georgia climb the stairs. She held a piece of paper in one hand and Wizard, their new black cat, in the other.
“Hey, Katie-Ann. What’s up? Letter from Daddy? Traffic from San Francisco was nasty tonight.”
“This is up,” Katie-Ann said triumphantly, handing her the paper as she entered. It was a geometry exam, with red letters scrawled across the top that read, “90. A-. Extraordinary improvement!”
“Wow. Impressive.”
“I even got an exclamation point from the old bullfrog. I’m gonna ask him tomorrow if I can retake the ‘F’ exam.”
“That would be great. It’s great already. Now you know you can do geometry.”
Katie-Ann nuzzled the cat and set him down on the carpet, where he stretched languorously before sauntering away. “So this means donuts again, right?”
“Serious donuts. We’ll head over as soon as I grab a sandwich. I need the fuel, anyway. I’ve got some thinking to do.”
It was 11 by the time she’d cleaned up the kitchen and made it down to her car. She pulled her feet into a cross-legged position under the wool blanket. So what was bugging her? Something Ken had said about benefit of the doubt. He said they should give Terkes the benefit of the doubt. Instead she had eliminated the doubt by reviewing the email. Wasn’t that a whole lot better?
But what if that wasn’t what he meant? He’d also said something about second chances. Would he want Glen to have a second chance, kiddie porn and all? Why on earth would he want that?
And anyway, what if he did? That was Ken’s whole weakness, letting toxic employees stay on when they needed to go. This was one tiny area where she saw things more clearly than he did.
Unless. What if she could offer Glen an alternative that was slightly less drastic, but would still get him out of the company? More trouble for her, of course. Could even be risky, if both plans fell through. Well, maybe not so risky. Retaliation would be a risk for him, too. After all, he knew what was in his email as well as she did.
What the heck. Be interesting to try something straightforward for once. If it worked, so much the better for both the company and Glen. And this second chance wouldn’t depend on Glen being high-minded, exactly. He’d just need to see his own self-interest. If you were going to give Glen Terkes the benefit of the doubt about something, it should probably be about that.
Georgia was rushing by Sally’s office, clutching the draft earnings release, when Sally’s new admin called out, “Georgia. Do you have a minute for Sally? We’ve been looking for you.”
Well, no, as a matter of fact, she didn’t have one single second for the Nusty Beech right now. Which of course was the wrong answer. She forced herself to slow down and turn dutifully into Sally’s office with a friendly smile. Maybe now was as good a time as any. She just had to keep things separate.
“Oh, hi, Sally. How you doing today?” Sally was wearing an acid yellow, shiny blouse with speckled egg shapes on it.
“I’m fine, Georgia. Close the door. I wanted to thank you for alerting me to the meeting the other day about Charlie Reebuck’s warning letter.”
“Oh, no problem. Good meeting?”
“I think we got it under control. And while we were at it, I was able to set some parameters on the SEC inquiry. I can’t believe what they intended to spend on document production. Good thing for the company I was there.”
“I’m sure it was,” Georgia agreed.
“So, what’s new in the department now?”
Georgia pretended to consider. “Oh, well, nothing much. I mean, you know the latest on the options memo.”
“I heard we didn’t have any backdating issues.”
“True. But it looks like we might have another issue that isn’t so great.”
“Which is . . . ?” Sally acted like a dog who’s just heard the word “walk.”
“Well, we may have allowed departing employees to exercise their options after the options had technically expired.”
“Really. And that’s a problem because . . . ?”
“Well, there’s nothing to exercise. I mean, ‘technically expired’ is ‘expired.’ So some people might think they own stock that doesn’t really exist.”
“Well, of course.” Sally waved her hand, dismissing the explanation as obvious and unnecessary. “How could we do something that stupid?”
“Evidently our policy was that a person had to submit their exercise notice within the thirty-day time limit, but they could get the check to us a few days later. Which cannot work because payment is required to complete an exercise, and by the time the check arrived the options had already ceased to exist.”
“How utterly incompetent,” Sally exclaimed with relish. “Why haven’t they told me about it?”
Georgia shrugged. “I think they just wanted to get all their data, so they’d know exactly how big the problem is. I’m pretty sure you’d have found out about it sooner or later.”
“That’s not acceptable. I need to be involved now, while I can influence the process.”
“Sure glad I mentioned it, then. Do you think you could do just a little camouflage, you know, like you did with the meeting? That way, he won’t catch on that you got advance warning.”
“Of course I will, Georgia. I always take care to protect my friends. You can count on it. Anything else?”
Georgia hesitated a little too long before delivering an uncertain “No.”
Sally was instantly alert. “Nothing at all?”
“No, nothing else about our teams.”
Sally cocked her head and smiled encouragingly, revealing those sparkly eyeteeth. “I’m interested in all aspects of the company.”
“No, it’s nothing. I’m sure he’ll be able to right himself in no time.”
“Who?”
Georgia’s hand rose to cover her mouth. “Nothing, Sally, really. Didn’t mean to worry you. I should get this press release over to investor relations.”
And Georgia hurried from Sally’s office.
That had probably gone well enough, she decided as she continued down the hall, but she really couldn’t worry about it one way or the other. Very stressful to have two situations requiring special talents pile up like this. Right now she needed to forget that Sally even existed, and devote herself 100 percent to Glen.
At 6:30 p.m. she cruised past Glen’s office for the fifth time. The light was still visible under the door. The later she waited, the less likely they were to be interrupted, but he might leave for dinner soon. This was probably her best shot.
She knocked and cracked the door open. “Mr. Terkes?”
He hit a button on his cell phone and looked up. “Yeah. You need something?” He apparently hadn’t been expecting anyone. His perfectly tailored suit coat was thrown over his table, and his deep purple silk tie was loosened.
“I’d like to talk to you for a minute.” She stepped inside and closed the door.
“Whoa!” he said, holding up his palm. “
No can do. Georgia, isn’t that right? I’m in the middle of something now, Georgia.”
“I’m here to talk about the side deal investigation.” She sat down.
“Definitely no time to talk about yesterday’s crisis. Got a crisis of my own right now. If you need something signed . . .”
“I’m afraid this is still a crisis, too.”
He frowned. “No it’s not. Q’s filed, problem solved.”
“Not exactly, Mr. Terkes. I know there are still a lot of side deals that haven’t been found yet, and that you told your salespeople to do them.”
His mouth fell slightly open and he stared for several seconds, like he’d just spotted a rat in his office and regretted misplacing his baseball bat.
“You obviously have no idea what you’re talking about.” He stood up. “So by all means, stop talking about it before you get yourself in trouble. If you’ll excuse me.”
Georgia remained seated and scooted an email across his desk. “You might want to look at this.”
He read for ten seconds, and tried to hand it back. “So what? The lawyers didn’t think it was worth asking about.”
Georgia kept her hands in her lap. “The lawyers didn’t have it.”
He dropped it on the desk between them. “Then why do you?”
“There are some others. I didn’t think it was good to print them all.”
“Good for what?” He remained standing, towering over her. “Help me out here. Are we talking about something? You are Georgia, the girl from our legal department? Does Ken know you’re here?”
She snickered slightly in spite of herself. “Yes, I’m Georgia. I take notes in the executive team meetings. Ken doesn’t know anything about this yet. That’s why I’m here.”
“Meaning?”
“Well, I just learned about these other side deals, and of course I will have to tell Ken. We both know what will happen then. If you’re still doing these, it means we’re lying to our shareholders. He’ll have to reopen the investigation, just when we thought we’d managed to survive it. Our next 10-Q will be delayed, and our stock will tank.”