A Family Divided

by Tom Berreman

  Neither man knew Brent was selling defective long-range sensor technology.

  * * *

  Adam reviewed the Autonohaul request for proposal. It relied heavily on representations made by the prospective manufacturer that its sensor passed internal quality assurance testing. Hartwig had told him he wanted to purchase the technology to avoid expensive research, development and testing, and as part of PCI’s RFP submission planned to fabricate quality assurance test results on the sensor it didn’t develop, relying instead on Jennco’s QA testing.

  The RFP also summarized the preliminary testing protocol Autonohaul would independently perform before granting an exclusive contract. It was not as extensive as the final testing protocol required before releasing the truck with the sensor to the market.

  He ran the original sensor Curt took off-line for Eric Rogers’ additional R&D through this protocol and it passed ninety-five out of one hundred times. His plan to monetize his corporate espionage depended on Brent selling Jennco’s defective sensor technology and the ninety-five percent chance it would make it through Autonohaul’s preliminary QA testing.

  Brent joined the company after Eric continued his defective sensor R&D off-line at his Oregon cabin, so he was able to convince him the technology in the files he downloaded from his dad’s computer passed all diagnostic testing and was ready for submission to Autonohaul to compete for the exclusive contract.

  * * *

  After Brent sold Hartwig the technology, Adam recruited him to be his second in command in QA. He convinced him to help delay Jennco’s quality assurance approval to keep the company from competing with PCI for the Autonohaul contract, assuring his second half million dollar payment. To this end Brent often made his team redo tests despite their acceptable results and fired the engineer who approached the regulator.

  Adam also took steps of his own to delay Jennco’s success. He was the only person, other than Curt, who knew Rogers was continuing the sensor R&D at his remote, Oregon cabin. So he burned Eric’s cabin, setting his R&D back at least three months. He smiled as he recalled Eric calling him when he discovered his cabin burned. If only Eric knew at the time he was less than a mile away, looking at the haze of smoke over the area where his cabin once stood.

  He burned the cabin the same weekend as Brent’s trip to visit a friend in Oregon, hoping the timing might deflect suspicion from him. Rogers’ comment that Hartwig or his minions were the arsonists further helped deflect blame.

  No one suspected Hartwig’s main minion was Jennco’s director of quality assurance.

  When Jason Burke told him he had a good relationship with Autonohaul’s CEO, and suggested if Jennco got its sensor through QA he might give the company a second chance, Adam ramped up the QA delay even further. He took a page from Hartwig’s playbook and turn it upside down. He fabricated QA diagnostics supporting unwarranted failure and convinced Brent to present them to Burke and Rogers to deny QA approval.

  Between Eric’s cabin burning and the unnecessary delays in QA testing, Jennco could not submit a sensor to compete for the exclusive Autonohaul contract, and it was awarded to Pacific Coast Industries. Adam sold all his PCI shares at its fifty-two-week high market price. He also shorted another one hundred seventy-five thousand shares, posting the proceeds from the sale of his stock to his brokerage account as collateral.

  He would wait for PCI’s sensor to fail final QA testing, Autonohaul to cancel the contract and PCI’s share price to tumble. He would close out his short position at a substantial profit and move home to Massachusetts.

  He never anticipated an accident with tragic consequences would result from the sale of the defective sensor technology.

  Chapter 72.

  Adam couldn’t foresee Autonohaul would make a ceremonious delivery with a test driver in live traffic without additional, extensive QA testing only a week after they awarded the contract to PCI. And when the truck hit the tour bus, he experienced terrible guilt. But the precipitous drop in PCI shares’ market value following the accident eased some of his guilt.

  It more than doubled his anticipated short position gain.

  Prior to the Autonohaul contract, PCI shares traded in the $9.00 to $11.00 range, making his holdings worth just under $2 million. After PCI signed the Autonohaul contract, its share price surged to $16.00 per share, and he sold his holdings for $2.8 million. He received another $2.8 million when he shorted the same number of PCI shares. When the price fell to $5.00 per share following the bus accident, he repurchased the borrowed shares for $875,000, giving him a $1.9 million profit on his short position.

  The total profit from his short-term career in corporate espionage was $4.7 million. He decided a Caribbean tax haven would be a better place to retire than Massachusetts.

  But pre-tax versus after-tax profits didn’t concern him, Adam Ritter would never file another IRS Form 1040. And if he were ever caught, tax evasion would be the least of his concerns.

  * * *

  The plan to steal Jennco’s long-range laser sensor and make Adam millions succeeded only because Curt and Laura Jennings lost their lives plunging off a cliff onto the rocky Pacific Ocean beach. And the overwhelming guilt he battled overshadowed his newfound wealth.

  After the accident he tried to convince himself he didn’t kill them, he just rode a motorcycle to distract Curt. It was Louis Hartwig who developed the plan, blackmailed him to participate, sabotaged the brakes and caused their deaths. But he couldn’t accept this self-serving rationalization.

  He had blood on his hands.

  A visit to Pacific Coast Industries’ executive parking garage was the last thing he did before leaving California for Barbados. He partially severed the brake line of Hartwig’s Jaguar, a trick he learned from the heartless bastard, that would cause his brakes to fail someday soon. He wanted Hartwig to experience the panic Curt Jennings felt just before his Ferrari plunged off the cliff. He hoped Hartwig’s brake failure would harm no innocent bystander.

  But in the end, when his Jaguar slammed into a FedEx truck at fifty miles per hour, it was Hartwig who paid the ultimate price for his greed.

  Chapter 73.

  Jason pulled his roller bag onto the deck where Allison stood at the railing, staring out at the Pacific. She appeared lost in thought, but turned when she heard his bag’s wheels click on the deck boards.

  “Where have you been?” she asked. “You scheduled your flight to leave early this morning. And when I woke and you were gone, I assumed you left without saying goodbye.”

  “I’m sorry, but you know I wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye. I had an early meeting at Autonohaul so I rescheduled my flight. And when I was ready to leave for the meeting both you and Ryan were still sleeping, so I just left.”

  “What were you doing at Autonohaul?”Allison asked, caught off guard.

  “Henry Mattson called me late last night. He had just left dinner with the company’s board of directors where they discussed an interesting proposal to ensure exclusive access to Jennco’s long-range sensor technology. And he wanted to discuss it with me before I left for Minnesota.”

  “What kind of proposal?”

  “When I met with him after the first day of the joinder hearing he commented that his company and Jennco could work well together, that he wished we’d beaten Pacific Coast Industries for the contract. And it looks like he meant it.”

  “How so?”

  “This morning we negotiated a preliminary letter of intent under which Autonohaul would acquire Jennco for three hundred million dollars.”

  “Are you serious?” was all Allison could say, stunned by this unexpected turn of events.

  “Yes, and I agree it makes sense. But it’s early in the process, and the letter contains contingencies, including that Autonohaul survives the wrongful death lawsuit with minimal and reasonable damages.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Evidence from our motion hearing should exonerate the company from excessive da
mages, putting most of the liability on PCI. But the concern is that a jury might vote to allocate significant liability to another deep pocket despite the evidence, so they need the contingency.”

  “Okay, where do I sign?”

  “Not so fast.” he said, laughing as he appreciated her lack of experience in corporate transactions. “The letter needs additional fine tuning, this is only a first draft. The board of directors needs to approve and put it to a shareholder vote. But those are formalities, I’m confident it will happen.”

  “So, you’re cancelling your flight, right? And you’ll stay here to see this through to the end?”

  “No, this could drag on for months, and I’ve already decided it’s time for me to get back to Grand Marais. You can afford to hire competent California attorneys, and I can always review drafts by email and comment by phone if you want me to.”

  “I know you need to get back home,” she said, fighting back tears. “I just hoped this day wouldn’t come so soon.”

  So soon? I’ve been here months longer than either of us planned.

  “We both knew it would come,” Jason said.

  “Will Megan be waiting for you when you return?” she asked, ignoring his last comment as she walked close to him.

  “No, she won’t be waiting for me. I’m pretty sure she took the Moscow post, her deadline to provide an answer was last week.”

  He was unsure where his relationship with Megan stood. They hadn’t communicated since their last Skype which left him wondering whether she would be in Moscow or Grand Marais in six months.

  “Will she ever come back to you?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know.”

  “Then why not stay here for a while, see what happens,” she said as she moved closer, taking his hands in hers. “My husband agreed to a divorce, no strings attached. I know he was frustrated with a marriage held together for all the wrong reasons. Maybe if we take some time, we could rekindle the spark between us. You told me yourself, you regretted our breakup way back when.”

  Jason smiled and looked into her eyes, a variety of emotions circulating in his mind. She was beautiful, and she was right, he had loved her, and often regretted letting her go over a decade before. He was fighting his urge to stay, and deep down he wondered if maybe there was a spark that could be rekindled.

  “I’m sorry, Allison. I need to get back to Grand Marais. I started a new life there and really miss it. And I’ve been inundated by emails from clients wondering when I’ll return.”

  “And you’re grasping at that small chance that Megan will return.”

  He just smiled, unsure what he wanted to happen when he returned.

  “You always were a romantic Jason Burke,” she said as she returned his smile. “I’m just sorry I wasn’t the one.”

  She kissed him on the cheek, turned and walked into the house, leaving him alone on the deck with his roller bag.

  Chapter 74.

  Jason sat behind the desk in his small law office overlooking Superior Images Gallery. He had just returned from a solo, half day Lake Superior sail, the thing he loved and missed most during his California stay. It had been a month since he returned to Grand Marais, and he was still catching up on paperwork and legal matters his clients patiently waited on until he returned from his extended hiatus.

  Sorting through a stack of papers he came across the handwritten envelope that arrived two weeks after he returned home. It was postmarked London but had no return address. It didn’t need one as he recognized the handwriting. He removed the letter and read it again, but it said the same thing it said the first ten times he read it.

  My Dearest Jason,

  It is with mixed emotions I must tell you I’ve fallen in love with another man. Maybe you were right, our time away caused a strain on our relationship, and maybe made us vulnerable to explore alternatives. I don’t know if that happened to you with Allison or not.

  But it happened to me.

  Paul is a correspondent for the BBC, and we met during my initial London assignment. Whether it was coincidence or fate, I may never know, but he was reassigned to Hong Kong shortly after I arrived. We began to see each other on a regular basis, and fell in love.

  And we are engaged to be married.

  We will be living in London. I passed on the Moscow position and was able to get reassigned to the London bureau. I’m not going to apologize as it feels so right. I just hope you understand and forgive me, and I will always cherish the brief time we were together.

  There will always be a place in my heart for you.

  My Dearest Regards,

  Megan

  A woman he thought loved him had moved on. And a woman he knew loved him left him standing alone with his roller bag on a California deck. He had picked up his phone and entered Allison’s number numerous times after receiving Megan’s letter, but always disconnected the call before it went through. He was beginning to believe he was so focused on saving his relationship with Megan that he suppressed his true feelings for Allison.

  The feelings that erupted their first night together upstairs.

  He was having second thoughts about rejecting Allison’s plea for him to stay in California and see if they could rekindle the spark between them. Years before, after learning she was married, he convinced himself there was nothing to rekindle. But now he realized the spark was never extinguished.

  For either of them.

  His contemplation was interrupted by the tinkle of the antique bell over the gallery door.

  Chapter 75.

  “Hello folks,” Jason said as a couple and their three kids entered Superior Images Gallery. “Please look around, and just let me know if you have any questions.”

  He sensed they were not serious shoppers, just a family on a North Shore vacation browsing through the local shops. With his mind still focused on Allison he stayed at his desk and logged on to his laptop. He Googled Pacific Coast Industries, and the first item in his search was an online article summarizing the PCI trial and its aftermath.

  Adhering to his reputation for managing a tight calendar, Judge Kleinschmidt put the wrongful death trial on an expedited schedule. Citing the indisputable facts supporting liability, he denied every motion by PCI’s lawyers to postpone the trial. After a relatively short trial a jury awarded fifty million dollars to each of the fourteen families of deceased high school students.

  But in a surprising twist, the jury allocated only five percent comparative negligence to Autonohaul. The verdict left PCI responsible for ninety-five percent of seven hundred million dollars in damages, well over its liability insurance coverage limits.

  PCI’s new law firm announced its intent to appeal the “excessive” damages award, unable to rebut the company’s liability. But it was likely the grieving parents would receive only a fraction of any damages award as rumors in the business community were that the company was filing for bankruptcy.

  Brent Jennings was convicted of fourteen counts of negligent vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to fourteen years in prison, a lenient one year for each high school student’s life cut short. Attempts to extradite Adam Ritter were unsuccessful as the evidentiary trail to locate him ended in Barbados.

  The district attorney’s office was pursuing alternative theories to overcome double jeopardy and set aside PCI’s acquittal on criminally negligent vehicular homicide. Its position was that the criminal trial was a well-orchestrated scam founded on fabricated evidence and perjured testimony, and the company was never in jeopardy of facing truthful evidence of its guilt. Unfortunately, the key player in that scam could no longer be charged.

  Finally, the California Board of Lawyer Discipline disbarred Trevor Buchwald for suborning perjury in PCI’s criminal trial.

  In a related story, Autonohaul issued a press release announcing it closed its previously announced three hundred million dollar acquisition of Jennco. Allison must have been satisfied with her new lawyers, she never asked him to review a single docu
ment related to the transaction. Lawyers representing the combined entity were also prepared to file a civil suit against Pacific Coast Industries, but it was unlikely the case would go to trial as a civil judgment would be worthless.

  Ryan Dahlstrom would be financially set for life, a far better outcome than Jason anticipated when he followed Allison to California. He also felt good that Joshua and Jessica would receive much more than they expected. But it would be a long time before Brent could enjoy the inheritance to which he felt entitled.

  Greed brought down too many people, some innocent, some not so innocent.

  * * *

  After the couple and their kids left the gallery without buying anything he picked up his phone and entered Allison’s number again, this time letting it connect.

  “Hey Allison, it’s Jason.”

  Now that you’ve finished my book, I’d appreciate if you took a moment to return to Amazon and write an honest review. Feedback from my readers is the best way for me to improve and to write better books. To learn more about my other books or to drop me a note visit my website at www.tomberreman.com.

  Thanks, Tom

  In case you missed the novel introducing Jason Burke, read

  on for an excerpt from Succession of Power by Tom Berreman.

  Available on Amazon

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