She took a sip of her wine. “Just wait. There’s more.”
Emma handed Daniel the photo of the senator on the boat. “This photograph was taken in July 2015—over a year before the award of the contract, and a year and a half before the testing of the rifles. It was a fund-raising event for Morgan at the senator’s summer home.” She tapped a fingertip on the image of the senator. “Our guest of honor.” She moved her finger to the faintly visible figures in the boat’s cabin. “Some guests, you will note, preferred to stay out of the glare of the sun...and cameras.”
She pulled a second photograph from her folder and placed it next to the first. “This is an enlarged version of the first photograph, zoomed in on the cabin. Josh digitally enhanced it to make the image of the two men inside clearer.”
Emma placed the American Freedom Munitions annual report, open to the page of Hughes’s picture, next to the enlarged photo.
“So Morgan knew Hughes before he became CEO of AFM,” Daniel concluded.
“So it would seem.”
“How convenient.” Daniel reached for a chip and munched on it as he made a notation on his pad.
“It gets better.” Emma shifted her gaze to Josh. He had kicked back in his chair, and was swirling the red wine in his glass. When her eyes connected with his, he gave her an encouraging smile. It gave her the confidence to continue. Knowing Daniel would have recognized Hughes, she wasn’t so sure about Stewart. “Do you know who the other man is?” she asked him.
Daniel lifted the print to take a closer look. “No. Should I?”
“Let’s see if this helps.” Emma handed Stewart’s bio to Daniel.
Jenna reached for some pretzels and leaned in toward Daniel to take a look as well. The smile that spread across Daniel’s face was a little predatory. “Small world, isn’t it?”
Emma couldn’t help but feel self-satisfied at Daniel’s reaction. She reached for Josh’s hand as she summarized their findings. “So the senator knew the CEO of AFM before he actually became the CEO, entertaining him at his summer home. We presume Hughes had made a donation to the senator, and had done so well before the tender for the contract was even issued. They both knew Stewart, too, well before he was engaged to provide independent testing of the rifles.”
Daniel started to lift his glass in a toast but Emma raised a hand to forestall him.
“The final piece of information I have is that I personally saw Morgan and Stewart together at Morgan’s office. That was after the contract had been awarded and already had the media’s attention. Because of Morgan’s odd behavior at the time, it made me wonder who he was, although I had completely forgotten until Josh made the connection. Now I wonder what business they’d have had after the award of the contract.” Emma frowned. “Could his presence further support the allegation that Morgan knew about the manufacturing defects associated with the rifles? If so, why meet so openly?”
“Arrogance,” Daniel stated with a shrug. “Morgan has been in the game for a long time. I expect this isn’t the first time he’s stepped over the line. He likely believes he can outsmart everyone and that being a long-serving, all-powerful senator, he’s above the law...untouchable. I’ve seen it before.”
Emma nodded thoughtfully. “He wouldn’t be the first politician to think that.”
“Nor the first to be proven wrong. This will all be very helpful to us. We’ll have to prove the authenticity of the photo. Try to find the photographer, if we can, and get the original file and maybe have him testify, but we have no idea if he’s a friend of Morgan’s. The defense might argue that it was a major gathering—a political fund-raiser—and there were bound to be a lot of people there, not necessarily all of them connected. You testifying that you had seen Morgan and Stewart together would solidify the personal connection.” He watched her face intently. “Will you be prepared to testify, Emma?”
Emma had been so pleased about what she and Josh had discovered, she hadn’t considered that possibility. To take her involvement back to a public level, and the thought of facing Morgan, and more than likely, Richard, in a court of law disconcerted her. Her palms were getting clammy just thinking about it.
She slid her hand into Josh’s under the table, and he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.
With a resigned sigh, she responded, “Yes. If I have to, I will.”
“Good. Now, let me bring you up-to-date on what I learned,” Daniel said. As he shuffled some of the papers in front of him, Emma topped up everyone’s wineglasses.
“Most of the background you already know, so I’ll summarize briefly for context. You’re aware of the connections between Morgan and Chuck Innes, the chairman of AFM. Those connections date back as far as twenty years, by the way. You are also aware that Innes’s appointment to AFM was a major coup for him. He was, and is, an ambitious, driven individual. Yet the first time he appears to have truly excelled has been in his role as chairman of AFM. Over the course of his tenure as chairman, share value for the company has nearly doubled. Not a bad return on five years’ investment, and much stronger performance than their competitors.
“The CEO before Hughes, Robert Ferguson, had been hired by Innes shortly after he became chair. A solid enough individual, but, like Innes, not someone who was reputed to be an exceptional leader. Nor was he seen as strong-willed. Yet together, Innes and Ferguson had, as I noted, steadily been creating shareholder value. It was believed that Ferguson was more of a figurehead and that Innes essentially ran the business.
Daniel took a moment to grab a pretzel. “When Ferguson announced his intention to retire in January 2016, being only in his mid-fifties, it came as a surprise to everyone. He stated that it was for personal reasons. Not soon after, he was said to have left the country. Despite my best efforts, I hadn’t been able to find anything on him in terms of business ventures since then. It seems he really did retire.” Daniel glanced around the table. “Odd but not unheard of. He did leave the country. But not for long. Ferguson had some contact with the media before he left; however, he was guarded. He would not go into details about his retirement. After those initial contacts, there has been no communication with Ferguson, and no one could find him. At least until now. I located him.”
This was news to Emma.
“He’s living in Arizona. He was resistant to talking. He’d only recently returned from overseas, and he wasn’t aware of the fatality.” Daniel’s gaze met Emma’s and held. “Much like you, he had purposefully avoided following the media. I caught him unaware. He was greatly disturbed by the turn of events. Eventually, he agreed to meet with me. I flew to Phoenix to see him on Sunday.”
Emma placed her glass down. Resting her arms on the table, she laced her fingers together. “And? Did he shed any light on what happened?”
Daniel’s lips formed a hard, straight line, as he nodded. “Yes, he did. He was willing to talk, but was cautious enough to have his lawyer with him.”
“If Ferguson had legal representation, it would suggest he knows something he’s worried about, but I doubt you could get much out of him that would be of use,” Josh interjected.
Daniel tilted his head in acknowledgment. “True. To a point. But what I was able to get is crucial. And he can and will be subpoenaed to testify.”
“What did he say?” Emma asked.
Daniel shifted his gaze back to her. “Most of it we’ve suspected. But here’s the key. He’s corroborated our suppositions. And because of his direct knowledge of the circumstances leading up to the events, his testimony will carry more weight in a court of law.
“AFM was already considering putting a bid in for the tender. Preparing a bid for such a substantial government contract is a long and onerous process. Although appreciating the upside potential—huge for a company of their size—Ferguson had advised his board of directors they shouldn’t pursue it. In conducting an assessment of the sele
ction criteria and resultant probabilities of success, Ferguson believed that unless they partnered with another, larger firm, their chance of being shortlisted, let alone for winning the contract, was negligible.”
“Interesting that his view is consistent with what everyone generally believed,” Josh noted.
“Yeah. He was being realistic in his assessment. Ferguson’s position was that the time, effort and expense they would have needed to invest in preparing the qualification document and financial bid would have been a wasted effort, and not insignificant in terms of the drain on the company’s resources. Resources he believed could have been better utilized. I agree he had a compelling argument. After Ferguson made his recommendation to the board, they met in-camera without Ferguson—according to Ferguson, a couple of times, in fact. He believes that with Innes being the driving force, they decided to overrule him.”
“Is that unusual?” Josh inquired.
“Not necessarily, however, in a matter as significant as this contract, and with the company having so much at stake, win or lose, it’s not a good sign if a board completely rejects the recommendation of its CEO. It can be interpreted as a vote of no confidence.”
“That would explain why Ferguson left?” Emma mused.
“It could, yes, but that wasn’t what happened, according to Ferguson. Ferguson was told to prepare the bid. In addition, he was advised not to seek a partner, but have AFM’s bid stand on its own merits. Ferguson wasn’t happy about it, as he still believed it was wasted effort. But, unless he chose to resign—which he didn’t at that time—he had no alternative but to comply with the board’s directive. In Ferguson’s opinion, he and his team did the best they could.
“It was a two-stage selection process. A two-envelope system, whereby the proponent firms had to demonstrate their qualifications and compliance with the terms of the bidding process in the first envelope. The firms meeting the criteria would advance to the second stage and the second envelope, which would be the financial bid. If they qualified in the first stage, the selection at the second stage was based on lowest bid.
“Ferguson felt that the financial bid they prepared was solid and, as ultimately demonstrated through the selection process, their bid was the lowest. The assumption is that there was no manipulation of the financial bids. A relatively small firm, they had considerably lower overhead than the major players. His concern was that they would never make it to the second stage, as they wouldn’t meet the mandatory qualifying criteria.”
“What did he say about how they qualified, then, and Morgan’s role in it?” Josh asked.
“First of all, it was during the qualification process, while the submissions were being assessed, that he decided to step down as CEO.”
“If he didn’t resign when the board overturned his recommendation, why would he have done so in the midst of the selection process?”
“That’s the key. Ferguson left, Innes stepped into the role of CEO on an interim basis and Jack Hughes was hired, all while the government was evaluating the submissions.”
“You would think that such a substantial change in control of the company would hurt them in the evaluation process, and they would’ve wanted to avoid it,” Josh noted.
Daniel gestured toward Josh with his glass of wine in acknowledgement. “One would think. It certainly had an impact on share value in the short term.”
“I’d thought the same thing,” Jenna added. “That if there was already some concern about the company’s ability to deliver, would a change in leadership not make it worse?”
“Yes. It would make sense, as it could hurt stability and continuity of operations, especially when they were already seen as a long shot, at best. I asked Ferguson about that and this is where he became more guarded. Although Innes had always been hands-on, more so than is good governance practice for a nonexecutive chair—and most CEOs would like—Ferguson acknowledged that this was Innes’s style. He’d accepted it over the years for the most part.”
“So Innes had been essentially in control as had been suggested in the media,” Emma reflected.
“Yes. And according to Ferguson, he was becoming progressively more controlling through the bidding process. Innes, according to Ferguson, chose to attend bid clarification meetings on his own, without Ferguson, which was highly unorthodox, and he chose to be involved in every aspect of the process. When Ferguson became aware that Innes was in fact having private meetings with certain key decision makers, including Morgan, his concerns were exacerbated. Questioning Innes led nowhere, not until Innes came to him to suggest that to win the bid, AFM would need to make certain strategic investments.”
“Investments in the business? To increase their production capacity?” Emma asked.
“That’s what Ferguson first believed. It would’ve made sense. But no. Apparently that’s not what Innes had in mind. Ferguson asked his lawyer to step out at this point.”
Emma edged forward.
“Innes wanted Ferguson to make the payments to Morgan in exchange for an assurance that they would win the contract.”
“The kickback...”
“That’s right.” Daniel paused and took a drink of his wine. “In two installments. Half for short-listing and the other half for winning the contract.”
Josh interjected, “But you already knew that. You have copies of the canceled checks. Morgan has been charged.”
“But there was the whole question of admissibility because of the way I got the checks. The prosecution has also obtained them through the appropriate channels, and we have Ferguson to testify to it.”
“So what happened? Why did Ferguson quit?”
Daniel let out a mirthless laugh. “It seems Ferguson had some scruples after all.”
“He balked at paying the senator,” Emma declared, understanding what had happened.
“That’s right. He claims he might have been willing to stretch the line but was not prepared to step completely over it. That was the deal-breaker for him.”
“So Innes fired him,” Josh concluded.
“More or less. Ferguson claims he was given a choice. Pay the bribe or resign. Applying his own code of ethics, he chose to resign.”
“But why wouldn’t he have gone public with what was going on? Why not go to the authorities?” Emma asked.
“Probably had to do with the severance that they would’ve payed him. He also had shares in the company. If he went public, share value would have dropped dramatically. He had a lot to lose.”
Emma made a snorting sound. “And his departure cleared the way for Innes to step in.”
“And to negotiate the deal with Morgan. Ferguson said it was Morgan who recommended Hughes for the job. Innes hired him, Hughes paid the bribe and Morgan manipulated the short-listing process. From that point, AFM’s bid was the lowest and won the contract. Ferguson believes they had a contingency plan in place in case their bid wasn’t the lowest, but it never had to be exercised. That was the purpose of the second payment, whether needed or not. Hughes made the final payment to Morgan, and the contract was awarded.”
“Hughes was hired to carry out the dirty work?” Emma concluded.
“Yes. That’s why Morgan had recommended him. Innes and Hughes were on common ground to do what needed to be done to win the bid. We have proof of the payments and the rest—the connections between the key players and the prior knowledge of the defects with the rifles—you provided. To state the obvious, Innes and Hughes both had a lot at stake financially.”
Daniel looked around the table and raised his glass in a toast. “I believe we have what we need. The prosecutors will definitely be in touch with you, Emma, and thank you,” he said, before taking a long drink.
* * *
EMMA PACKED UP all the files that Daniel had provided in a cardboard box. She made copies of her own
personal notes and included them as well. Daniel took everything with him when he and Jenna left. They agreed that other than testifying in court, Emma had now done all she could. The rest was up to the legal team. Daniel and Jenna drove off with a final wave to Emma and Josh, and a promise to keep them updated.
* * *
FROM A HIDDEN driveway a short distance down the road, a dark sedan pulled out behind Daniel’s car and followed him until he reached Interstate 87 to New York City. It then turned and headed back in the direction it had come from.
Toward Emma’s cottage.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
EMMA FELT AS if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She knew the whole Morgan situation wasn’t over yet, but she’d spoken at length with the prosecuting attorneys and they felt that they had enough to charge not just Hughes and Innes, but also Morgan and Stewart with one count each of criminal negligence causing death and another of causing injury. Specialist Samuel Reading’s injury had been verified to also have resulted from a defective AFM firearm.
Emma checked her watch again. Josh had said he would be there for dinner. Usually that was six or seven, by the time he closed the clinic. That meant she had time to relax with a cold glass of wine. She took the wineglass with her to the great room, lit a couple of scented candles and grabbed the book she was currently reading. She got the dogs settled, and with a long sigh stretched out on the sofa and started reading.
* * *
WHEN THERE WAS no answer at the front door, Josh let himself and Winston into Emma’s cottage. She’d given him a key a few weeks back. After greeting Max and Theo, and offering each dog one of the treats he regularly carried in his jacket pockets, he went in search of Emma.
The scent of something soothing and floral led him to the great room. Leaning against the wall by the steps leading down, he indulged in watching Emma for a few moments.
She lay on the sofa, her lips slightly parted and curved into a soft smile, her skin glowing with the flickering candlelight. A few strands of hair had escaped from the clip on top of her head, and were curling around her face.