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CHAPTER twenty-three

  By the time I reached the office the next morning I was in a complete panic. It was eight forty-five and I was late for work for the first time in recent history. I had slept like a well-fed baby the night before and my dreams had been wonderful. I slept through the alarm and then got caught in traffic.

  My breath was short as I hurried down the hall to my office and I tried to calm myself. First of all, Kate, you’re never late for work. Secondly, who cares? You work most nights well past quitting time. I continued to lecture myself as I hung my coat on the back of the door. Continue acting like a junior secretary who’s required to punch a clock and you’ll be treated like one.

  The door caught Harold Didrickson on the foot as I tried to close it after hanging up my coat. I quickly caught the handle and pulled it back open.

  "Sorry. I didn’t see you there," I apologized. What the hell does he want, I thought. He never comes in my office.

  "Kate. Have you got a minute?" he asked politely.

  "Sure Harold."

  He hesitated for a moment like he was on the edge of a high diving board. "I wanted to remind you that working hours here are from eight to five. If you’re late, it doesn’t set a good example for the other support staff," he said. With a straight face. I looked closely at him to make sure he wasn’t joking. Of course, I thought, he doesn’t joke around.

  My blood pressure started rising and my right ear lobe started to burn. I thought about all the times Harold wandered into the office on his own sweet time and left early on those beautiful summer days to get in nine holes. Obviously though, he didn’t consider himself support staff.

  I thought about all the times I had stayed late into the night working on documentation for an acquisition. Or preparing for board meetings. All the times I’d traveled on weekends, on my time, to attend those board meetings to look after grown men and all their whims and fancies. Some times I’d worked so late I only had time to go home and shower because I had to be back at the office by eight. Or the times Harold had gone on vacation leaving me to deal with outside counsel, the auditors, bankers and underwriters on a crucial financing.

  The miserable little prick was about to find out about my interpretation of work-to-rule.

  "Eight to five?" I repeated. He nodded.

  "Then remember that when I leave today at five," I said. "And for that matter, I’ll be leaving every day this week, including Thursday when the board meeting is in full swing, at five." I opened the top drawer of my desk and slammed it shut for emphasis. He blanched.

  "Can I get you a coffee, Harold?" I asked sweetly. His colour quickly returned and his cheeks turned pink. He quickly left my office.

  Shit, fuck and damn. I was mad at myself for my reaction to his pettiness and then felt sorry for myself. I’ll never get out of this stereotype of being a secretary. Always having someone to report to. Always looking after everyone else. I was sick and tired of it. Sick and tired of looking after grown men.

  I grabbed my purse and went to find Vanessa. In for a penny, in for a pound - I was taking a coffee-break. If Harold could act like a spoiled brat, so could I.

  Vee was coming out of Chris Oakes’ office and I raised two fingers to my lips as if smoking. She nodded and pulled the door shut behind her. While she forwarded her phone calls back to the switchboard, I breathed deeply a few times to get my blood pressure back to normal. I was still spitting mad at Harold.

  Vee and I didn’t talk as we walked quickly down the corridor to the elevator and this time she had to trot to keep up with me. I viciously punched the button for the elevator.

  "Well, who pissed in your Corn Flakes?" she asked.

  "Short lawyer, big attitude," I told her. "He gave me shit for being late this morning. Perfect way to start the day."

  The line-up at the coffee shop was out the door and Vanessa grabbed a table in the smoking area while I waited in line for coffee. By the time I got to the table I was seething.

  I lit a cigarette and took a deep drag and watched Vanessa struggle with the little containers of cream. Her nails were so long she couldn’t get the lids off. I grabbed them from her and peeled back the covers and poured two creams in her coffee.

  "There," I said. "Want me to drink it for you too?"

  "Oh, take it easy Kate. Calm down. I thought we were on the same cycle. Is it that time of month again?" We laughed. I could never stay mad long and especially not around Vanessa. Laughter was the bond that kept us going.

  "So," I said. "I hope you enjoyed your Saturday. Mine was one straight out of a Stephen King novel. It got weirder and weirder as the day went on. I didn’t get out of here until after eleven."

  "You’re kidding. What happened? Why didn’t you call me yesterday?" she asked.

  "Um. I was busy yesterday." I wasn't sure about talking out loud about Jay and I yet. "Saturday though," I continued. "What a day from hell. I got a call from Harold in the afternoon to come to the office to help Grace with an audit. Then Oakes found me. After I called you and got the file he wanted he made me book a directors meeting. Then I had to get everyone on the phone for that. And then Cleveland Johnson arrived and I had to stick around in case he needed any help. Lotsa fun."

  "Stop, stop. Hang on. Let’s start at the beginning. Since when do you help Grace with audits? You're not turning on me and joining the finance department are you?"

  "Right. I’ve always aspired to be a bean-counter. And I’d do so well in the finance group. I’m such a wizard with numbers. You know what Harold always says about me. Kate, you don’t have a problem with math. You have a problem with arithmetic. He’s such a sweet and inspiring little man. Anyway, there was a problem with the stock options. A big problem. I spent about four hours with Grace going over numbers. That’s just background though. The dirt is, they’re firing Rick Cox," I said.

  Vee shook her head. "I knew it. I knew it. Oakes has been digging around for dirt on him for so long, I’m surprised he’s lasted this long. Give it to me. What happened?"

  I explained to her what had happened on Saturday night.

  "Didn’t Oakes tell you this morning?" I asked her.

  "He’s not in."

  "Oh. I saw you coming out of his office and I just assumed he was there. So the spineless wonder isn’t going to stick around for the firing."

  I lit another cigarette from the butt of the one I was finishing and glanced at my watch. It was time to get back upstairs.

  "Anyway, the worst part is Rick Cox found out about the board meeting. Oakes didn’t want any inside directors on the call and when I finished at the switchboard with the call I ran into him coming out of the kitchen. Somehow, he knew there was a board meeting. And someone on that call told him that he was being fired."

  "Probably Arthur Graves," she said. "He’s the one who pushed so hard initially to get Rick appointed COO. He and Rick are thick as thieves."

  "Well, anyway, it gets better. Rick called Jay in to the office around nine-thirty and fired him."

  "For what?" Vanessa was incredulous. "He fired Jay? What an asshole. He can’t fire Jay. Jesus."

  "He said that he thinks Jay was the one who screwed around with the stock option system because he, Rick, never uses the system and Jay has his password."

  "Ohmigod. I can’t believe this. Have you spoken to Jay?" she asked me.

  "Yeah."

  "And? What’s he going to do? He should get a lawyer. They can’t do this to him." Vanessa always felt the worst for the underdog. She couldn’t stand to see people used and abused. Especially at the hands of Oakes and Cox.

  "I think he might call Tom James and see if there’s anything he can do," I said. "I don’t think he should hold out any hope though. Besides, he’s probably better off not here. This place is a zoo."

  Vanessa gulped down the rest of her coffee. She slung her purse over her shoulder and said, "Come on. Dave
Rowlandson told me we’ve got a press release going out and now I think I know what it’s about." She looked at her watch. "The market’s already open so they must be going to release it at the end of the day. Great. This’ll be a day from hell."

  Vanessa was always involved with the press releases because of Oakes. Dave Rowlandson, our public relations director had his own secretary but with press releases, Vee always ended up typing them. Oakes had final say on the contents of the press releases and he would make what seemed like zillions of changes before they were released. Because Vee was the only person who understood his hieroglyphics, she did the typing.

  While we waited for the elevator in the lobby Vee said, "This should be fun. I’ll have to be faxing drafts of the press release back and forth today. Chris is back in New York."

  "Yeah? Meeting with you know who?" I asked.

  "Yup. Jack Vincent himself. Chris went to New York yesterday. He’s not due back until later today."

  The receptionist was waving frantically at us when we got off the elevator. Vee hurried into reception and I followed.

  "I’ve got Mr. Oakes on the phone," she said. She was very flustered.

  "Calm down. I’ll take it here," Vanessa said and pointed at the guest phone on a side coffee table.

  The receptionist transferred the call to the other phone and sat down heavily in her chair. She held her head in her hands and started mumbling to herself.

  I leaned on the marble counter of the reception desk and told her, "Don’t take it so hard. The man only bites when he’s standing next to you." She looked up at me with tears in her eyes.

  "He told me if I didn’t find her he was going to fire me," she sniffed. "He kept ranting about signing my paycheque."

  "Don’t worry about it. He’s certifiable," I reassured her. I turned around and looked at Vanessa who was scribbling madly on a scrap of paper. She wasn’t doing any of the talking.

  "Okay, okay," she was saying. "Fine." She hung up the phone and looked up at me. "Press release has gone. They let it go before market opened. He wanted to know why I wasn’t here to do the work. I told him he didn’t leave me any instructions and that Dave said it was going out later today. I don’t think he heard because he asked me three times why I wasn’t here to do the work. Jesus, Mary and Joseph."

  "Who sent the release out? The agency?" She nodded. Buckman & Bettles were our public relations agency.

  "Call them and tell them to fax a copy over right away. I’ve got to see this," I said. Vee picked up the phone and dialled B&B and asked for Tony Player. Tony was the account manager at B&B who handled all of our stuff, and he and Vee worked closely together. Tony did all the slide shows for the company on presentations to analysts, or road shows, when our executives were trying to sell shares to investors. He also handled all the arrangements for our annual shareholders meeting. Usually when the executives were making presentations he traveled with them. If the press wanted an interview with Oakes, Tony set it up.

  "Tony, it’s Vee," she said into the phone. "I just heard from Chris that we had a release go before the market opened. Can you fax me a copy asap? Yeah, my private fax number. Thanks." She hung up the phone and said, "Come on. We’ll pick it off the machine in my office."

  The press release was waiting on the fax machine when we got back to her office. I read over her shoulder. It was our standard boilerplate release that went out every time we ‘lost’ another executive. Sorry to see him go. Pursuing other business interests. Standard quotes from Oakes. I glanced at the top of the page and noted that Chris Oakes was contact person. So, if the media, analysts or shareholders had any questions, they were to call Oakes. And he wasn’t around. Vanessa was going to have her hands full today fielding calls and lying for Oakes. She’d take messages and he’d never return the calls. The red light was flashing on her phone console.

  "The flood has started," I said pointing at her phone. "Have fun returning those calls."

  "Right. I’ll call them all back. But I have to call the vet first. Chris said that Baby was in getting groomed and I was to call them first. Must get my priorities straight," she said sarcastically.

  Baby was Chris Oakes’ dog. A miniature white poodle. Vee spent half her time arranging for dog walking, dog grooming and talking to the dog. If Oakes called her from home he often would say, "Here Baby. Say hi to Vanessa." Vanessa was supposed to talk to the stupid dog on the phone. And I thought I didn’t get paid enough. I waved at her as I walked out of her office. No one would ever believe this shit, I thought. I should start taking notes for my book