The Lights of Tenth Street

  He waited while the man went to make a call on his cell phone. “When he comes back, we need to move on to the next order of business.” He gave the others a smooth smile. “We’re ready for the first trial.”

  Ronnie heard the phone ringing, but didn’t answer it. She was deep in the bath, bubbles up to her nose, meditative music wafting from the CD player.

  She felt herself stiffening more with each ring, waiting for the call to go to voice mail and leave her in peace. What if it was Glenn? What if he’d found out where she lived? She forced herself to take a few deep breaths, remembering Marco’s words.

  It’ll be taken care of …

  How, she didn’t want to know. She also didn’t want to think how she would replace the income Glenn had brought her. She’d have to cut back a bit. Or maybe she could do more of these special jobs Marco kept proposing.

  The phone stopped ringing as voice mail picked up. Later, snuggled in her robe, Ronnie listened to Marco’s voice on the recorder and breathed a sigh of relief:

  “Macy, thought you’d want to know that Glenn won’t be coming back into the club. And he won’t be looking to bother you again. He’s been warned off, you might say. He’ll probably not be walking too good for the next few days either, but he had it coming. Well, that’s it. Just thought you’d want to know. I put you down on the schedule for Friday night. Give you two more days to recoup.”

  Ronnie put down the phone and crawled into bed. When was the last time she’d gone to sleep before midnight? At least she’d finally be chipper for her classes the next day.

  FORTY-FIVE

  No.”

  Doug Turner crossed his arms, staring at the surprise, the latent fury on the face of his colleague.

  “What do you mean, no?” the COO said.

  “I mean no.” Doug took a breath, settling his stomach. “I told you at the outset that I will do nothing illegal, blackmail or no. I’d rather face public humiliation than go to jail.”

  He gestured at the paper the COO held, a document certifying that they did not own stock in a company they had, in fact, partly acquired the previous year. “I’m not signing that.”

  The COO gave the small chuckle that always infuriated Doug. “It’s just a small, closely held company that no one cares about. No one will ever find out—”

  “Forget it. You can just forget the whole thing.” Doug grabbed the telephone and punched in Jordan’s number, watching the COO’s eyes narrow.

  Jordan’s secretary answered. “Yes, Doug?”

  “I need to see Jordan right away.”

  “I’m sorry, he’s in a meeting—”

  “No. I need to see him right now. Interrupt him. Now.”

  There was a pause. Doug could hear the secretary lay the receiver on her desk and knock on Jordan’s door. He could hear Jordan’s annoyed bark, the secretary’s quiet explanations, the returning footsteps.

  She picked up the phone. “He said he’ll be in your office in two minutes.”

  “Thanks.” Doug hung up and stared at the company’s chief operating officer. “It’s time we got this all out on the table, don’t you think?”

  The COO glared at him and didn’t answer. Both men stood, waiting through the pause, facing each other across Doug’s desk like gunfighters ready to draw.

  Doug’s thoughts turned to Sherry, to their conversation just last night about how to handle the blackmail that still hung over Doug’s head. Their family was healing, and Doug could no longer accept succumbing to the COO’s corruption. Late at night, snuggled in his arms, Sherry had kissed him and assured him that when he decided to take a stand, she would stand with him no matter what happened.

  He had lain awake for hours, listening to his wife’s quiet breathing, giving thanks for the return of their marriage and her unconditional support in the inevitable showdown. He just hadn’t thought the showdown would happen so quickly.

  Lord, Thy will be done …

  Jordan barged in the door to Doug’s office. He stopped in front of the desk and glowered at both men, letting loose a string of curses for good measure.

  “I was right in the middle of a big meeting. Would you please tell me what’s going on?”

  Doug walked over to the door and closed it. “Jordan, for the last nine months, I have been blackmailed into approving deals and signing documents against my better judgment.”

  Jordan looked at his COO, who stared straight ahead.

  Doug continued. “I have some personal problems that our colleague here somehow found out about, videotaped, and threatened to release to my wife, my church, and anyone else I cared about, unless I did his bidding. The first deal I was forced to approve was the Silicon Valley deal, and there have been a half-dozen since then. But I can’t do it anymore. I need to know where you stand on this, if you had any part in it, and what you intend to do about it. If you knew about this, I will submit my resignation here and now.”

  Jordan held up his hands. “No! No, Doug, don’t quit. I wondered why you kept changing your mind on things but I had no idea …” He turned to the COO, his voice rising. “What were you doing, plumbing the company for personal gain? Using us as your personal piggy bank?”

  The COO continued to stare straight ahead, his neck rigid, looking like he was just inches away from lashing out and punching both of them.

  “No, sir. I was just trying to make the company all it could be. Just trying to earn us all more money, chief.”

  “Oh, that’s a bunch of—” Doug cut off his protestations at Jordan’s quelling look.

  Jordan stuck his face close to the COO’s. “So you decided to destroy the morale of one of our best people, just to bump up our profit margin?”

  Receiving no answer, Jordan turned back to Doug, the fury still vibrating. “And you—did you do anything illegal?”

  “No, sir. That’s what started this. He wanted me to, today.”

  Doug gestured at the page in the COO’s hand, and Jordan snatched it away.

  “What is this?”

  “He wanted it to look like we don’t own a piece of a company that is in fact a partial subsidiary. Wanted me to file it with the government. And that would instantly become securities fraud.”

  Jordan stared at the paper in his hand, then ripped it in two. He pointed to the door, speaking to his COO without looking at him.

  “I need to finish my meeting, but I want to see you in my office in thirty minutes. Understood?”

  “That’s it?” Doug stepped forward. “He wants to commit securities fraud, and you’re going to let him off with just a scolding?”

  “Listen, I need to get to the bottom of this,” Jordan said. “I don’t know who to believe at this point. You’d better chill, too. But know that we will do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this and we will take action, if necessary.”

  He looked at his watch and his lips pressed together in a taut line. “Mean while, we might be losing a very prominent client. And if we do, you both are in for it. Now if you’ll excuse me …” He swept out the door without a backward glance.

  The COO also turned and left without a word.

  Doug shut the door behind them, then felt his legs go weak. He sat in his comfortable leather chair and picked up the phone.

  “Come in.”

  Jordan held open the door to the office, gesturing his COO inside, his expression severe. He noticed Doug standing at the other end of the executive hallway, watching the transaction.

  He shut the door behind him and faced his COO. The man took one look at him, and broke down laughing.

  “Oh, Jordan, you are good, man. I don’t know how you kept a straight face.”

  Jordan motioned for him to keep it down and took a seat behind his desk. “I thought you were going to punch me there for a second.” He began to pull out a cigar, then reconsidered.

  “So what’re you going to tell our boy scout down there?” the COO asked. “We can’t let him leave the company. He knows too much. He’d b
e an easy target for any Feds snooping around the money trail.”

  Jordan tried not to roll his eyes. Little did his COO know; it wasn’t the money trail that Jordan was worried about. He settled back into his chair.

  “Our tracks are well hidden; don’t you worry.”

  “You always say that, chief, but you never say how.” He held up a hand, forestalling Jordan’s usual comeback. “Don’t worry, I trust you. But I just want to be sure I’m going to be able to provide for me and my family in the style we’ve become accustomed to.”

  “I would’ve thought that you’d be amply reassured of that by now. Didn’t you get another payment just … what … two days ago?”

  “Three, boss, three. And it’s already spent.”

  “What this time? A new boat? The summer house in Cancún?”

  “Nope. A ski chalet in Banff. To go with all our new ski gear.”

  “Amazing. I’ve never seen anyone able to spend money as fast as you.”

  “It’s a gift.”

  Enjoy it while you can, buddy.

  Jordan sat forward. “So we need to figure out what to tell Doug. First, and I mean this seriously—scrap the tape. It appears to have served its purpose and any inadvertent use would backfire at this point.”

  “Too bad. It was a work of art.”

  “Second, I tell our man that I can’t fire you because you’re too crucial at this point in the big Speed Shoes deal, etcetera, etcetera. Also, I’ll say that you claim the tape was made half on a lark, and you were never really serious about using it.”

  “Whooo, that’ll burn his buns!”

  “Probably.” This upstart man was going to get on his nerves pretty soon, but he needed him. For now. “I’ll tell Doug that I’ve been considering firing you anyway, but that I really can’t consider it until after the Speed Shoes deal is done.”

  “Which could take months.”

  “Which could take months. But he doesn’t need to know that. I’ll tell him I’ll see if you’re being a good boy by then, and we’ll go from there.” He hesitated, and a ghost of a smile crossed his lips. “Plus, I’ll tell him that you’ve agreed to apologize.”

  “What? Give me a break!”

  “It’s the only way to even remotely persuade him that you’ve had a change of heart. That’s the only thing I can think of that would help ensure he stays on board. That, and the fact that I’ll give him a big raise for his trouble and loyalty.”

  “Fine.” There was some grumbling, but he subsided. “So I really have to apologize?”

  “You really have to apologize. Make it sincere. And give him a copy of the CD and let him break it in two.”

  “I could have a copy.”

  “You could. But you’d better not.” Jordan leveled a warning glance at his COO, and the room grew very still for a moment. “You understand me?”

  “Yes, yes. Okay, I’ll get rid of the copies, too.”

  Jordan held his gaze, waiting until the man shifted and looked away, uncomfortable.

  He couldn’t afford any wild cards. He needed Doug to trust him, needed him to stay. It was true that he couldn’t afford to have him wandering loose, with all he knew. But it was more than that. The blasted board liked him and would ask all sorts of impossible questions if he left in a huff. There were still far too many original board members from his brother’s tenure at the company, directors who were truly independent and could not be replaced without arousing suspicion. This would indeed be a bad time for Doug to leave; he couldn’t let that happen.

  He shook himself out of that train of thought and stood, tacitly dismissing his COO, his mind already turning to means and methods.

  He buzzed his secretary, who came in as the COO was leaving.

  “Yes, boss?”

  “Please arrange a lunch meeting with Doug today. By twelve-thirty if possible. I need to be back for that two o’clock meeting.”

  “Sure thing. Anything else?”

  “Make reservations at 103 West. Give the maître d’ my name.”

  The secretary’s eyes rose skyward at the mention of the exclusive restaurant, but she left the room without a word, closing the door behind her.

  Jordan stretched, a catty smile crossing his face. It would work, and this chapter would be wrapped up. One way or another.

  Doug stirred sugar into his coffee to stall for time. Jordan was sitting back in his chair, his little presentation over, watching him with worried eyes.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Doug said. “You keep him away from me, and I’ll go home and discuss the whole thing with my wife. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled about the raise and the vacation, but that’s not the only thing at stake here. We want to be sure that this company is operating in an ethical manner, and that I’m not inadvertently digging myself into a hole. Not to mention that I don’t think I can ever work with him again.”

  “We can take care of that,” Jordan said. “We’ll just tap one of his subordinates to liaise with you whenever necessary. No problem.” He lowered his voice in a conspiratorial manner. “It’ll be good for his ego to be taken down a peg or two.

  “Then, depending on how he seems after the Speed Shoes deal is wrapped up, we’ll revisit the whole thing and see if he still needs to go. And I’ve told him that if he tries anything funny again—with you or with anything fraudulent—I’ll fire him on the spot. As I told you, I’d been considering making a change anyway, as I wasn’t 100 percent happy with his performance before. But it would be devastating to operate without him during one of our biggest deals of the year. Especially since, as you know, I’m pretty lousy at operational details.”

  Doug let his guard down enough to chuckle at that one, then tried one more tactic. “Jordan, don’t you think the board needs to know about this?”

  His boss gave a nervous laugh. “No, no! They’re not operational folks either; they wouldn’t realize how critical it is to have a long-term COO at this point in the game. This isn’t the right time to bring this to their attention. I’ll put it on the agenda at the next board meeting.”

  Jordan shook his head, his smile rueful. “You just keep being so gosh-darned honest, and we’ll do fine. I apologize again that you were placed in such a rough spot for so long. Unfortunately, we can’t reverse any of the deals you’ve approved—we’re in them too deep now—but you come straight to me if you’re being pressured to do anything against your better judgment again.”

  The two men sat in silence for a minute, sipping their coffees.

  “All I can say, Jordan, is that I’m going to have to go home and talk to Sherry about it. And pray about it.”

  “Sure. But please let me know by tomorrow, if you can. Because if you are leaving, that’ll require us to do some serious scrambling. And I don’t even want to think about that unless I have to.”

  The two men stood, the conversation over by mutual consent, and headed out of the restaurant.

  Back in the office, Doug walked down the executive hallway and noticed the COO in his office, waiting for him, a contrite look on his face. He braced himself to see what would happen during this “apology,” and pushed open the door.

  Doug stood beside Sherry, rinsing dishes, giving her the postmortem on the day. Sherry stopped rinsing as he repeated what the former blackmailer had said, and looked at him, incredulous, her voice rising.

  “And you believe him? You think that jerk was sincere?”

  “I didn’t say that. I’m merely repeating the conversation.”

  She looked at his face, then put a sudsy hand to her cheek. “I did it again, didn’t I? Darn it, why can’t I ever learn?” She leaned forward and kissed him, trying awkwardly to hug him without getting soap on his clothes. “I’m sorry. Forgive me. I’m listening, really I am.”

  Doug smiled down at her. “I know you are. Thank you for being aware of how that sounded.”

  “It would be better for me to catch it before it left my mouth, but I’m learning.”

  He returned h
er hug, glad to feel her arms around him.

  “Go on.” She stepped back and playfully tapped his nose, leaving sudsy bubbles on the tip. “You were saying?”

  “Thank you very much.” Doug wiped the soap off, smiling. “I was saying that he seemed embarrassed the whole time—like Brandon does when we catch him at something he knows is wrong. It was weird. I honestly don’t know what to believe. I guess there’s at least a possibility that he was being honest—that once he was caught, he realized how stupid his actions were and felt bad about it.” He shook his head. “I just don’t know.”

  “Well, what do you want to do?”

  “I don’t know. For some reason, I don’t feel like God is telling me to leave. But that could just be because my eyes have been blinded by this huge raise Jordan’s giving me!”

  “Yeah, me, too. Let’s pray about this after we put the kids to bed. Okay?”

  “Deal.” He stood behind her and gave her another hug, pressing her into his body. He rested his cheek against her hair, grateful to feel her pliant against him. “Thank you for standing with me in this.”

  She turned her head, and he could see a smile on her face. “No matter what, babe.”

  “No matter what.”

  FORTY-SIX

  Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace, Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above, Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love …

  Doug Turner looked around him as the auditorium resounded with singing, a thousand voices lifted in praise. The words to the great old hymn were displayed on the large screen above the altar, every eye upturned, every voice lifting with a new-felt joy, a new vibrancy.

  Doug closed his eyes and let the music wash over him, almost unable to sing from the fullness in his heart. He had no final answers at work—nothing but a sense to hang in there, to see it through. He had no final answers yet at home—although with every day that passed he knew God’s healing. But here, he had the only Answer that mattered. The reality of God’s redeeming love.