by Susan Wolfe
CHAPTER 27
The next morning, after a late night of meditation, star contemplation and email drafting, Georgia sent an email to Roy Zisko, copied to Ken, and then forwarded the email to Nikki with a request to bring it to Roy’s attention promptly:
Dear Roy,
I request your help regarding a matter that is of grave importance to me and possibly to the company.
Ken informed me yesterday that Sally has accused me of proposing to falsify a very important document. She claims I offered to alter her Change of Control Agreement to make it a single trigger instead of a double trigger. If you haven’t heard about this already, I’m pretty sure you shortly will.
I have given considerable thought to what could motivate Sally to make such a hurtful and completely false accusation. She’s an executive of unquestionable integrity, and so must actually believe what she is saying. Ken asked me whether I might have said something that Sally could have misinterpreted, but I have never discussed Change of Control Agreements with her, ever. Is it possible that she’s beset by personal or professional problems at the moment?
Sally is such a respected person here at Lumina that I’m afraid her accusation could make it hard for me to continue doing my job. That is what brings me to write to you. Do you think you could talk to Sally on my behalf, confirm that she has no evidence for what she says, and then ask her as kindly as possible not to spread this story further? Whatever her mental condition at the moment, I know she will always listen to you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this email. I know how very busy you are, and would never presume to ask for your help if I didn’t believe it would afford you an opportunity to assess Sally’s impact on other, more important parts of the company. I assure you that this misunderstanding will not alter the respect I feel for Sally, or my willingness to cooperate with her in any way. I will certainly continue to do my very best to make a positive difference to our shareholders and the company.
Yours very truly,
Georgia Griffin
Paralegal
Bold action didn’t always succeed, of course, but it did help you feel like the hunter instead of the sitting duck.
The first reaction came shortly after 9 a.m.
“Georgia?” She heard Nikki’s muffled whisper. Maybe Roy was close by.
“Yes, Nikki, hi. You got my email?”
“Like a brick between the eyes. You serious about this?”
“Completely serious.”
“She said this about you?”
“Oh, yeah. She came and complained to Ken about it.”
“And there’s no basis?”
She made her voice sound appropriately affronted. “Of course there’s no basis.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean you’d actually done it. But why would she make this up?”
“No idea. But if I wait to figure that out, Katie-Ann and I could be out on the street, lining up for breakfast at Sallie’s.”
“Breakfast . . . ?”
“Sorry. That’s what they call the soup kitchen at Salvation Army.” Dumb. Why reveal she knew that? “No connection to our Sally. I just mean I had to do something.”
“You don’t think Ken should handle this for you?”
“I’m the one who knows how urgent it is.”
She heard Nikki’s slow, restricted exhale through puckered lips. “Your call. I’ll take it to him now.”
The second response came a few minutes later. “Georgia,” Ken called from behind his monitor. “Come in. I see you sent an email to Roy.” When he stood up to join her he looked slightly pale, accentuating the bright kelly green of his bow tie. Had she actually given him a shock?
She seated herself across from him at his oval conference table. “You think I shouldn’t have sent it?”
“Well, it certainly was quite daring. Especially the part about her ‘mental condition.’ We’ve had some impressive evidence lately of just how inseparable those two are. Given that they’re so close, he’s probably going to show her your letter, and then she’ll be furious. You should definitely expect some fireworks.”
So he thought she’d made a serious blunder by being so provocative. But then, he also thought she was actually seeking Roy’s support.
She said, “What exactly is the polite way to accuse somebody of lying about you? I had to say something to Roy. She was going to tell him about this, and I’d never have known or had a chance to defend myself.”
He smiled skeptically, mingled with what looked to her like sad but genuine respect. “Bless you, Georgia, you’re a braver soul than I am.” Then he threw his hands in the air. “And for all I know, you could be right. I admit she wasn’t very receptive to my suggestion last night that she might be mistaken. You’re often quite intuitive about people, and this definitely brings it all out into the open.”
“I hope you don’t get dragged into the middle of it.”
He waved a hand. “Don’t worry about that. I just hope I don’t have trouble keeping my best paralegal.”
Yeesh. Did he have to remind her what a narrow ledge she was on? She willed herself not to look down. “Believe me, Ken, I intend to stay right here.”
“Well, I hope it works out exactly as you intend. You certainly have the courage of your convictions.”
She thought it a fine compliment, and grinned. “I suppose I do. Have you got a minute on the SEC production? I need to finalize our response today, and since it’s still informal I’m not sure what the tone should be.”
Katie-Ann dropped the spaghetti in to boil the minute Georgia entered the apartment. When they sat down at the table Georgia asked, “How’s school?”
“Okay. I retook the ‘F’ test, and now it’s a ‘B.’”
“Fabulous. I hope you feel proud of yourself.” Good news on the home front, at least. A welcome distraction. “Maybe you’ll stop getting crap from that Ginger person now.”
“Actually, she already stopped.”
“You’re on a roll here. Guess she got tired of it and moved on.”
“She really did move on. She’s not there anymore.”
“Stroke of luck. Did her family move?”
“Don’t think so. I think they found some kind of bad stuff in her locker.”
“Really. How do you know that?”
Katie-Ann shrugged. “Just, you know, what kids are saying.”
“I see. That’s pretty convenient for you, isn’t it?”
“I guess,” Katie-Ann muttered, very focused on the spaghetti she was winding around her fork.
Georgia set her own fork down and stared at Katie-Ann until she looked up.
“What?” she asked defensively.
“You tell me what.”
Katie-Ann resisted a moment, and then gave up. “Come on, Georgia. She had a choice. She could have chosen to leave me alone.”
“Katie-Ann Griffin, this really concerns me, and it would concern Daddy, too.”
“Oh God . . . !”
“No, I’m not going to worry him with this. What I am saying is that scams are no substitute for developing social skills and figuring out how to deal with your own problems. You could have toughed this one out. Did you get her in trouble with the cops?”
She gave Georgia a hooded look. “Don’t think so. She just can’t come to Lynbrook anymore. Well, or any other school in San Jose.”
“What did revenge ever get anybody, Katie-Ann? Total loser’s game. Not to mention that teenage bullies are like dandelions. How do you know another one won’t pop up any day now?”
Katie-Ann crossed her arms in defiance. “It wasn’t just revenge. I needed her to stop. And I don’t think the next dandelion is popping up from that crowd anytime soon. Since Ginger left they look like they’ve been flattened under a bush hog.”
Georgia planted her palms firmly on the rickety card table and leaned forward. “I’m very disappointed in you. When did this happen?”
“Three days ago.”
“S
o it could still blow up right in your face, just when you’re doing so well with everything else. You took an unnecessary risk of getting attention we do not need right now.”
Was she yelling at Katie-Ann, or herself? Good thing people couldn’t die of irony.
“Besides,” she continued, “you never know when you might really need a scam for something important, and now you’ve left a trail.” She winced. That last sounded a little less principled than she’d have liked.
Fortunately, Katie-Ann seemed too busy defending herself to notice. “You should see how you’d like getting harassed all the time,” she flung out tearfully. “Day in, day out, by people too dumb to pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel. What’s more important than stopping that?” Her glare wavered. “Well, other than your job. Money and stuff.”
Georgia acknowledged the concession by leaning back again. “How about you getting into UC?”
Katie-Ann’s glare hardened again in defiance, and then disappeared. “Fine. I suppose you’re right. It was too risky, and I shouldn’t have done it. It isn’t going to blow up, though. I totally nailed it.” A look of triumph flickered and was quickly suppressed. “And if another dandelion pops up, I promise to go after it with some totally appropriate garden tool.” They resumed eating in silence, their forks scraping their plates. “You know what, though, can I just tell you how I . . .”
“No!” Georgia barked, and then coughed into her paper towel to suppress a grin. Actually, she’d have loved to hear the details. Her little sister was shaping up to be tough as nails and twice as sharp.
Katie-Ann shrugged. “Fine. But speaking of social solutions, my name is Kate now, okay? Hyphenated names are totally lame.”
She had a note on her chair from Ken at 7 a.m. the next morning.
“Have a seat,” he said, closing his door. “I need to show you something.” His mouth was set in that thin, determined line again as he handed her an email from Sally. The email was directed to Ken and Roy, and the subject line was “Does this look like a misunderstanding to you??”
The body of the email was a forwarded message from Georgia to Sally, with the subject line “For Your Eyes Only.” The attachment was a six-page document titled “Executive Change of Control Agreement.”
Ha!
The trap had sprung. Sally had manufactured evidence. Georgia coughed into her hand to keep from chortling. She had a breathtaking vision of Sally-feathers, wafting gracefully up through sun-dappled air.
“Let me guess,” she said solemnly, hoping her eyes didn’t betray unseemly glee. “This is a single trigger Change of Control for Sally Kurtz.”
“That’s exactly what it is, sent by you to Sally. Roy has asked me to terminate your employment.”
“That would be quite unfair, since I didn’t send this email.”
“Georgia.” His earnest green eyes looked so disappointed.
“I didn’t send this email to Sally or anybody else.”
His raised eyebrows expressed profound skepticism. “Then who did?”
“Don’t know. Maybe somebody else sent it from my computer, or maybe Sally altered some other email to make it look like I sent this to her.”
Ken leaned back and tilted his head to the side. “Would she even know how to do that?”
Not very well, hopefully. She widened her eyes and shrugged. “She could’ve had help. There has to be some explanation, because I didn’t send it.” She stared at it and sighed dramatically. “Look at this. ‘For Your Eyes Only.’ Can you think of a better way to get unwanted attention? She’s even insulting my intelligence.”
He stared at her for a moment, and then his grim expression wavered. “Let me get this straight. Are you saying you don’t know anything about this email?”
“I only know I had nothing to do with it.”
“Jesus, Mary and Joseph!” he said softly. He frowned at the document for a minute. “I have no idea what’s going on here. I’m not going to take any action now, Georgia, but you’ll have to go home while I try to figure it out.”
“Does it strike you as strange that she didn’t give this to you when she made the accusation?”
“She said she was trying to downplay it.”
Georgia scoffed. “Yeah, subtle understatement was always her way. Look, before you send me home, can we just investigate it together for a few minutes? I’d like to see if somebody sent it from my computer, though that would be pretty bold with my cube right out in the open. And I think we should run a side-by-side compare of the document in the legal database with this one.”
He searched her face for a moment, considering, and then he stood up. “Have at it.” He opened his door and gestured for her to exit. “You lead the way. Bring the email. Maggie, clear my calendar for the next hour, will you?”
Ten minutes later Ken confirmed that there was no record of the email in Georgia’s sent mail or her electronic trash. “That doesn’t really prove anything, though, because you could have emptied it out of your trash. I’ll get our IT people to search for it.”
“That won’t prove anything either, unless you find it. If I send an email, delete it immediately and then empty the trash, I don’t think it ever makes it into back-up.”
“So where does that leave us?”
“With my head on the chopping block, if the email turns up. Nowhere, if it doesn’t.” She shrugged. “But of course you have to do it anyway. Now, can we compare the Change of Control template in our legal database to the one Sally sent? You can forward her email to me electronically.”
“Let’s ask Maggie to do the compare. What will it show?” he asked over his shoulder as she hurried after him down the hallway, extending her long legs to keep up with his springy stride.
“Not sure. I just don’t think anybody in the legal department would’ve altered the document for her. If we look at the changes, maybe we can figure out whether the document came from somewhere else.”
Five minutes later Maggie hurried into Ken’s office with two copies of the redlined comparison, and they flipped through them.
“There are quite a few changes,” Ken commented after a few minutes. “That’s not surprising, though. It takes a lot to alter the template to make it a single trigger.”
“Has it been changed properly?”
“I’ll need to study it. On its face it looks accurate to me.”
“Look at this.” She pointed. “See this change on page two? What does that change have to do with single trigger?”
He brushed his palm across the top of his short, red hair as he read it. “Nothing.” He handed it back.
“Then why is it different?” They continued reading.
“Here’s another change on page five that has nothing to do with single trigger,” he commented, tapping the page with his forefinger.
“Then I don’t think she used the template from our legal database. She was working with a different document.”
“It’s certainly similar.” He gazed at the child crayon drawings taped to his wall for a moment, tapping his middle finger on the polished table. “Maybe the metadata for this email would tell us what the original email was, and when this one was created. Maggie,” he called, opening the door, “would you see if anybody from IT is in this early?”
He sat back down, and Georgia said, “She’ll never forgive you for pursuing this.”
He looked directly into her eyes. “I have to pursue it. The time to avoid making enemies is when diplomacy still has a chance. We’re beyond that here.”
“Probably right. You sure you want me to go home? If I stay, you can blame the whole search on me.”
He shook his head with a slight smile. “Sorry, Georgia, I think you have to go. And we’re going to need your computer. Can you do something at home without it?” Thank God those unauthorized Terkes emails were all on her ancient gumdrop desktop at home.
“I can definitely read through the new documents we’re planning to produce, if Maggie can pri
nt them out for me.”
“Good, you do that. I’ll work on this for the rest of the day.” He stared out his window for a moment. “Boy, if one of our executives is really capable of this . . .” He stood up decisively, causing her to do the same. “Let’s get some answers and we’ll take it from there.”
“It’s not so much that you’re working at home,” Katie-Ann specified later, “even though you never do. It’s that you won’t tell me why you’re working at home.” She was leaning against the kitchen sink with her arms crossed, one bare foot resting on the other, her eyes narrowed at Georgia in the living room.
“I did tell you. I just need to concentrate on this stuff because it’s boring, and people kept interrupting me.”
Katie-Ann shook her head decisively. “Nah. Most of what you do is boring. And how come you’re as nervous as a cat in a roomful of rockers?”
Well, Georgia thought, staring at the document in her hand and widening her eyes until they bulged slightly, how about because she was playing high stakes poker, and waiting to find out whether she’d gambled away the shirt off Ms. Katie-Ann Nosey’s back?
What she said was, “You know that thing I just said about people interrupting me? My mental state is fine, thanks. Can the same be said of your homework?”
And could this family kindly focus its excellent intuition on somebody else for a while? She’d had about all the penetrating insight she could take. Katie-Ann appeared to be momentarily vanquished as she began yanking tuna casserole ingredients from the cupboard and dropping them heavily onto the counter.
She finished reviewing the box of documents about 8:30, and there wasn’t much else she could accomplish without her laptop. Katie-Ann was seated across from her, twirling the end of her blond ponytail as she bent over a battered copy of Of Mice and Men. Well, she wasn’t going to sit around stewing. Anything she could research on her old Mac? She went online to check her email, and remembered the inquiry about Roy’s degrees. Seemed like forty years ago, even though it had only been twenty-four hours. She wouldn’t have anything back yet. Still, she logged out of her work email and into her personal account.