Dot Com Murder

by Emma Lathen

He did not fool the others in the company who were frequently made nervous by the impulsive and impetuous Jack. Chuck knew that in Jack’s mind what he chose not to see did not exist and that was that, as it always had been. It was that of late Jack chose not to see many more things.

  “Great,” Jack said with bravado. “I am entering a new period, aren’t I? I know, Chuck, you think I should be more defensive. But I won’t stand for it. Now is the time to keep charging forward.” Chuck had seen the danger up close and personal at his Vermont hideaway. He did not let Jack know he knew about all that nor did Jack comment on it himself. Their divide was broadening by the hour, Jack thought. Well, tonight those hours would be up.

  Chuck paused, and said attempting to bridge the yawning gap so Jack would still think he was hopeful, “But will your army follow you? Remember Alexander’s that rebelled in India because they realized he wanted to keep charging while they just wanted to go home, enjoy the booty, and smell the flowers with their spoils of war.”

  “Yes, but that’s not for me and they can’t stop me,” He declared starkly, subtlely pleased that Chuck was still trying. Well, not for long he thought, not for long as he thought he would deal with that tomorrow since something must have gone wrong with his cowboy effort some weeks ago.

  Chuck looked at him, seeing that this was the end of things for them together. There would be no getting over it. He smiled carefully as he said, “OK, glad it will work for you. I’ll ride the sidecar.”

  Jack smiled his magnanimous smile and nodded, but the glimmer in his eye indicated to Chuck he wouldn’t be riding in that side car for long. “OK, good you are with me on that. I’ll call the party for this afternoon at my place. Get it set up with the caterer,” as Jack left the room imperially, having treated Chuck as the servant he had become.

  Chuck took it while smiling, nodded, and left the room. He spoke briefly with their 4 key people, Bruce Dahl, VP Marketing & Sales, Jane Johnson, CFO, Jackie Marlow, Social Media, and Amar Prince, Data.

  None of them seem terribly excited. Well, Chuck thought, this would not be good for them individually. Collectively he was unsure about how things would unfold for them.

  That was that for now. Chuck elected to go home to his nearby condo and await the party’s beginning next door at Jack’s. He had texted the caterer and everything was good to go. They had done this many times before, under less chilly circumstances. This wasn’t their first rodeo, but it was a different one.

  Now they were done, sort of. But, being only 30, they seemed to have a long way to go in life and Chuck wasn’t sure Jack had any idea what a big moment this was for both of them.

  Chapter 4

  party

  Pride before fall.

  The party started at 3 PM. Jack came in with the 4 major players who had walked over with him as his entourage. Chuck knew they came in from his hall surveillance camera. He elected to stay put for a while.

  About 3 hours later the key 25 people had shown up. Then Chuck moseyed on over, opened Jack’s door with the code, and went in to join the gathering. Jack hadn’t changed it yet; interesting.

  Their core group was there. The party had been going on for some time. Chuck noticed a fair amount of concern among the partygoers related, he was sure, to their “what’s next” question so prevalent in dot coms. He noticed the few dot com veterans were less concerned; these were the fatalists. Along for the ride as long as it went; pretty sure it wouldn’t be long they suspected. Possibly so, he thought. They’d seen enough upheaval in the dot com boom to think, “What’s one more?”

  Also of course, the top 4 had plenty of stock for life if the price held up for another few months when the stock vested over $15 billion valuation. The other 25 had enough to each buy a new house if the stock held up. No one else would benefit much and that was why Jack didn’t have any of them at the party.

  These 29 were tied to Jack. His decisions would impact their lives deeply. Jack liked the power; Chuck knew he liked it too much and could have someone take issue with it. He would be right about that as it turned out.

  The dancing and noise continued. Jack had a 2 floor condo so with the party on the upper floor no one below would be disturbed. Next door was Chuck, and he was here so could not be disturbed either. The other side was a glorious view of the Manhattan Skyline. So they could make as much racket as Jack wanted. Most people thought Jack only swaggered; he did so, but carefully as the condo layout was but one example and the carefully selected party attendees another.

  The party attendees needed Jack’s corporate dance to go on so their stock vested, which he knew. And Jack knew after that there would be a whole new world at everything.com. He had planned for it. What Jack knew, and thought Chuck did not, is that Chuck would no longer be part of it.

  2 of the top 4 were now just highly paid staff; Jack had terminated their predecessors 6 months ago when they indicated Jack needed to fix the company or it would spin out of control. Jack squelched rebellions 1 rebel at a time. He got each nicely placed elsewhere, playing paddy cake not hard ball with them. But they were gone and that was the point.

  He had termination plans for the other 2 and most of the 25. Chuck knew that Jack had such a plan for him too. Well, that was now, so Chuck could not afford to wait any longer. Even if had just been edged out, and Jack would say it was him or me, the Board would have to back Jack. And that was that.

  As the Islamics say, “It is written” and they would be right. The market cap was based on hype that only Jack could provide. Chuck could only provide cashflow and profit, which were not nearly as marketable these days, certainly not at everything.com’s inflated market cap.

  With those thoughts Chuck thought he should nurse his bourbon tonight to get through all this to the finale. This was a Jack “look at me” party. He would fall in line because despite being boyhood friends, Jack had edged out from that brotherly twosome to be the king pin. And that too was that.

  Chuck could tell his sliding fate from the newer hires who just considered him another boss, not a top boss. Well, that was the way it was and Chuck had learned to live with it.

  Chuck was standing alone. This had started to happen more and more often of late since people below him didn’t consider him part of their group and the top 4 were uncertain. This in fact suited his lone wolf approach to life and had made him far more effective of late, emphasized by bagging the elephant with Simply, and their gold mine of proprietary content and accelerating cashflow with no investment required to maintain the content and little to expand it. The perfect business. Now they owned it; rather Jack and everything.com did.

  “Boring, old line serial entrepreneur, cautious, conservative, a lone wolf worker like you, Chuck.” Jack had said with disdain about the Simply Founder. He had been right. They were soulmates sharing lone wolf profit oriented canoe guide Thoreauian simplicity, and that was a mouthful to even think about, Chuck thought smiling to himself.

  “You’ll get on well with him,” Jack had said when Chuck first broached the acquisition subject. He was right about that; but also, Jack missed a point: that old guy Brown could teach him a thing or two about streamlining their business.

  Brown had already done that just with a few of his throw away lines. Now Chuck could appeal to him for more. Chuck had wisely not introduced him, or Janet the CEO, to Jack. That would have killed the deal for sure.

  Chuck knew that Brown thought Jack should be moved out to preserve the company but didn’t expect it to happen, indicated by his only accepting an all cash offer. Did Jack get that? Chuck didn’t know.

  Chuck had unconsciously gotten a second bourbon to stimulate his thinking, though he knew he always paid the price for it the next day. That was a point, wasn’t it? But Chuck needed to get through this.

  Jack and he didn’t even pretend to talk as they used to do. It was like a hot romance that had turned into a boring marriage. And as the richer husband in that situation, Jack had started to withhold what he really thoug
ht about things. But Chuck did too, to extend the metaphor, to his being the subordinate wife.

  Chuck could tell everyone had prepared in their own way for this party. They knew everything.com had a new more reliable stream of cash from Simply. It would be the company’s own little bank, a bank they didn’t have to answer to but could take all their money, stripping them as clean as a Safeway chicken. And yes, Chuck thought, they were correct they could get away with it if things stayed the same. But they wouldn’t, which the other party goers didn’t know.

  Chuck admired Warren Buffett, a man and thinking Jack despised because it was all about measurable financial value which offended Jack’s sense of real value, hype, and market cap.

  Chuck’s favorite Buffett line was, “First you make a judgment about the value; later you weigh the earnings and cashflow.” Well, Chuck had weighed Simply earnings and they had no debt and $100 million annual cashflow growing 20% per year with no end in sight. Also, importantly, the brand and the content shrieked out value at a low cost to the consumer with delivery seamlessly and virtually free through downloads, the coming thing worldwide.

  Check that he thought. Already worldwide, just that most of the world didn’t have a lot of money. Most importantly, mobile was picking up momentum in the rich markets of the US, UK, Germany, and Japan which Simply near free audiobooks and eBooks were perfect for.

  Chuck sighed. The bartender thought it was the bourbon. No, it was Chuck thinking about Simply as a Mozart of business as long as it didn’t get messed up. He never understood why Coke or Proctor & Gamble had armies of people when the brands were what mattered.

  They got 80% market share when priced like their competitors. With their volume they could easily do that but elected not to do so. Simply had done that and gone a step further, priced lower than their competitors so saw their cashflow and market share grow, grow, grow seemingly effortlessly.

  Well, Simply had done it right. He would like to ride that wave, from the top now. But he knew that wouldn’t happen because once before when he had tried to take a smaller piece and go out on his own Jack had said, “No, Chuck, I need that part of the business. You can’t do that.”

  Chuck had come to realized that once Jack had sold the sizzle the steak would be enough and Chuck could go along without Jack. It had been a profound moment as those moments are. It was clear that only one of them could win out and Jack had the rail.

  With that Chuck got a third and last bourbon so he could work the party for his ends. Chuck was a handsome six footer with kind eyes that women liked so he never had any trouble attracting nice ones. And pretty ones. The hot numbers liked him and the smart ones trusted him. It was just part of being Chuck so he was largely unaware of this.

  He had no interest in conquering women or putting notches on his belt. He liked them and often that was quite enough for him, though not always for them. But as one woman said, “Chuck, a girl can rest with you. It is nice.” He had always wondered about that; when he told other women about that comment, they nodded knowingly. Seeing that, he learned to use it for a mellow time with women.

  Tonight was no exception. Chuck was someone people instantly respected and trusted, hence no one had felt required to come over and talk him up. They would wait for him to make his gentlemanly rounds which he always did, with tonight being no exception.

  He talked to each person about their interests. He danced with a few and drank no more. And generally partied on. He was a good dancer so always found women to dance with.

  He had noticed that Jack had cut one of the women out and gone towards the back bedroom to descend the stairs to bed her. Jack always did this in such a way as to appear private but show off his new trophy at the same time, not an easy thing to pull off, Chuck thought. Jack was not a particularly handsome man or at ease with women. So displaying them was important to him.

  Well, that was that for Jack tonight. About an hour later when the party was going at full tilt without people being concerned the big boss was around, and Kit Miller, his latest squeeze, was occupied dancing with another, Chuck drifted off to the rear bathroom. Chuck returned to the party 9 minutes later. No one missed him because the party was in full swing and most had had more than enough to drink. The party was going full swing as Kit was still dancing happily with the guy Chuck had left her with.

  More people had drifted in, people personally connected to the 29 already there. Chuck suspected they had texted them once Jack left; he would be right about that. They knew Jack was fun-loving on the surface but could take offense quickly and permanently in an instant. They also knew that although Jack gave an open party invitation, they had to be on the doorman’s list or approved by Jack before entering.

  Jack was always careful about that as about many things he thought others didn’t notice. He never seemed to realize everyone took his temperature because he could suddenly promote, fire, exile, or destroy a career.

  Yes, Chuck thought, for Jack’s security that doorman list made sense. It was a good idea because Jack had made many enemies in his life, primarily on purpose Chuck knew. With that in mind, he patiently waited a couple of hours or so for the party to wind down enough that Kit would want to go back to his condo to crash for the night.

  In the meantime, Chuck drifted around the party to be seen but not heard other than with a nod or laugh, tipping of the head or clinking of drink glasses.

  As Tolstoy had said, he reflected, time and patience are the ultimate warriors. Well, Chuck let them work for him that night as the hours drifted away until the early morning hours when Kit gave him the high sign and they left for his place next door.

  By then most people had left so the remaining ones took a cue from their leaving and did so shortly after Kit and Chuck went back to his place.

  In his condo, he poured his fourth bourbon and a glass of Shiraz for Kit. Some minutes later they went comfortably off to bed together. He had no landlines to ring and always turned off all his devices when a woman was with him so they had a peaceful sleep until later that morning.

  He woke up by being shaken by Kit, who said, “Jack died last night.”

  “Jack?”

  Kit continued, “Carla just texted me. She was scared to death waking up next to a dead man she hardly knew. Now what?”

  Chapter 5

  night before

  A journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step

  When Jack had cut out his new girl, making a show of it, Chuck had gone an hour later to the rear bathroom. He used the listening device he had planted in Jack’s room and heard gentle snores, a deeper male one and a lighter female one.

  With that signal, Chuck descended the stairs, used the special code to open the door, and went along the corridor to Jack’s room. Upon entering he saw them rather restlessly asleep.

  Jack always kept a handy glass of water next to his side of the bed to knock back after a few hours’ sleep to help him hydrate for a better work morning as he put it. Chuck had picked up the habit which worked well for him too.

  Today it would be Jack’s doom as Chuck poured the colorless poison in his glass which was enough to kill 3 mules he had figured. He also took Jack’s cell phone and nearby laptop.

  With that, Chuck left the room, went upstairs, and removed the video tape from the security camera of the evening’s goings on. He opened the safe and removed everything but Jack’s will and their buy/sell agreement which, in effect, gave the stock tax free to the other upon a death. He read the will and saw that it remained the same, stating that he, Chuck, was the executor and sole beneficiary since Jack had no family or friends other than Chuck, and some friend he turned out to be Chuck thought.

  His money motive was clear but would be obscured by the fact he had plenty already. But best he be prepared he had considered, chuckling about the Boy Scout motto of that title.

  He removed the hard drive from Jack’s PC, replacing it with another, pocketing the several flash drives from the safe and Jack’s cell, and a
few papers he folded and put in his pocket. He was pleased to see there were no bulges. He had worn a loose fitting jacket to provide for a little extra luggage, as he thought of it.

  He then returned to the party. Chuck had only been gone about 9 minutes. No one seemed to have missed him and why should they? He had stood by behind the door back to the party for 15 seconds or so to get his game face on, chill down, motor down, and otherwise think party not killing. It worked he thought, as he strolled into the party and purposefully went on a wandering diagonal so as not to appear headed for anything, which in fact he was not.

  He fixed himself a light bourbon and water so as to appear occupied. One of their party innovations was to allow people to pour their own drinks if they chose not to use the bartender. With the mixed drinks they had learned that some people liked to coach others so that worked too.

  In fact, many dating contacts were made that way as women selected a man they thought they might like and asked him to make them a special drink. Sometimes they drank it and sometimes they didn’t. Men liked this approach because they could feel competent, helpful, and nice all at the same time. Women liked it because they could appraise the man in the process.

  Chuck had discovered that most younger men had learned to let women do the choosing, which put less stress on the men and simplified things for them. There were enough attractive single women in New York that men could wait for the next one. It probably made things tougher on men in Grand Rapids and such places but Chuck wasn’t there nor were his colleagues. In reading John Cheever stories, he had realized it probably had always been this way as Manhattan had always been a chick magnet, to use the modern lingo.

  He was thinking about this as a semi-drunk colleague was talking mildly to himself and Chuck about some story from long ago that neither would remember in 15 minutes. It was companionable as this guy always was. Tommy Frank, the companionable guy, had long liked and admired Chuck. They seemed to have a casual and happy relationship that both could rely upon. That was good for them both now, though, of course, for different reasons.