Company Man (23 page)

Dr. Aaron Landis, the clinical director of mental health services for County Medical, seemed to wear a permanent sneer. Audrey realized, though, that there was something not quite right about the man's face, a crookedness to the mouth, a congenital deformity that made him look that way. His gray hair resembled a Brillo pad, and he had a receding chin that he tried to disguise, not very successfully, with a neatly trimmed gray beard. At first Audrey felt a bit sorry for the psychiatrist because of his homeliness, but her compassion quickly faded.

His office was small and messy, so heaped with books and papers that there was scarcely room for the two of them to sit. The only decoration was a photograph of a plain-looking wife and an even plainer son, and a series of colorful scans of a human brain, purple with yellow-orange highlights, on curling slick paper, thumbtacked along one wall.

“I don't think I understand what you're asking, Detective,” he said.

She had been as clear as day. “I'm asking whether Andrew Stadler exhibited violent tendencies.”

“You're asking me to breach doctor–patient confidentiality.”

“Your patient is dead,” she said gently.

“And the confidentiality of his medical records survives
his death, Detective. As does physician–patient confidentiality. You know that, or if you don't, you should. The Supreme Court upheld that privilege a decade ago. More important, it's part of the Hippocratic oath I took when I became a doctor.”

“Mr. Stadler was murdered, Doctor. I want to find his killer or killers.”

“An effort I certainly applaud. But I don't see how it concerns me.”

“You see, there are a number of unanswered questions about his death that might help us determine what really happened. I'm sure you want to help us do our job.”

“I'm happy to help in any way I can. Just so long as you don't ask me to violate Mr. Stadler's rights.”

“Thank you, Doctor. Then let me restate my question. Speaking generally. Do most schizophrenics tend to be violent?”

The psychiatrist looked upward for a moment, as if consulting the heavens. He exhaled noisily. Then he fixed her with a sorrowful look. “That, Detective, is one of the most pernicious myths about schizophrenia.”

“Then maybe you can enlighten me, Doctor.”

“Schizophrenia is a chronic recurring psychotic illness that begins in early adulthood, as a rule, and lasts until death. We don't even know if it's a single disease or a syndrome. Myself, I prefer to call it SSD, or schizophrenia spectrum disorder, though I'm in the minority on this. Now, the defining symptoms of schizophrenia are thought disorder, a failure of logic, reality distortion, and hallucinations.”

“And paranoia?”

“Often, yes. And a psychosocial disability. So let me ask
you
something, Detective. You see a good deal of violence in your work, I'm sure.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Is most of it inflicted by schizophrenics?”

“No.”

“My point. Most violent crimes are not committed by
persons with schizophrenia, and most persons with schizophrenia don't commit violent crimes.”

“But there's a—”

“Let me finish, please. The vast majority of patients with schizophrenia have never been violent. They're a hundred times more likely to commit
suicide
than homicide.”

“So are you saying that Andrew Stadler was not a violent man?”

“Detective, I admire your persistence, but the backdoor approach won't work either. I will not discuss the particulars of his case. But let me tell you what the real correlation is between schizophrenia and violence: schizophrenia increases the likelihood of being the
victim
of a crime.”

“Exactly. Mr. Stadler was the victim of a terrible crime. Which is why I need to know whether he might have provoked his own death by killing an animal, a family pet.”

“If I knew that, I wouldn't tell you.”

“I'm asking whether he was capable of such an act.”

“I won't tell you that either.”

“Are you saying that schizophrenics are never violent?”

After a long pause, he said: “Obviously there are the exceptions.”

“Was Andrew Stadler one of those exceptions, Doctor?”

“Please, Detective. I won't discuss the particulars of Mr. Stadler's medical records. I don't know how much more clear I can be.”

Audrey sighed in exasperation. “Then let me ask you a purely hypothetical question, all right?”

“Purely hypothetical,” Dr. Landis repeated.

“Let's take a…
hypothetical
case in which an individual repeatedly breaks into a family's house in order to write threatening graffiti. Is able to do so, cleverly and without leaving any evidence, despite the security provided by the gated community in which this family lives. And has even slaughtered the family's pet. What sort of person might do this, would you say?”

“What sort of
hypothetical
individual?” He attempted a smile, which twisted unpleasantly. “Someone, I would say,
who's extremely intelligent, high-functioning, capable of higher-order thinking and goal-governed behavior, and yet has pervasive impulse-control problems, marked mood swings, and is highly sensitive to rejection. There may be, say, a great fear of abandonment, derived from difficulties in childhood feeling connected to important persons in one's life. He might have absolutely black-and-white views of others—might tend to idealize people and then suddenly despise them.”

“And then?”

“And then he might be subject to sudden and unpredictable rages, brief psychotic episodes, with suicidal impulses.”

“What might set him off?”

“A situation of great stress. The loss of someone or something important to him.”

“Or the loss of a job?”

“Certainly.”

“Can a schizophrenic exhibit this pattern of behavior you're describing?”

Dr. Landis paused for a long moment. “Conceivably. It's not impossible.” Then he gave a creepy sort of smile. “But what does all this have to do with Andrew Stadler?”

“Grover Herrick,” Marjorie said over the intercom the next morning.

Grover Herrick was a senior procurement manager at the U.S. General Services Administration, which did purchasing for federal agencies. He was also the point man for an enormous contract Stratton had negotiated for the Department of Homeland Security. DHS now encompassed the Coast Guard, Customs, Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Transportation Security Administration—thousands of offices, a hundred and eighty thousand employees, and a major infusion of federal cash. The contract was second in value only to the Atlas McKenzie deal, and had been in the works almost as long.

You didn't keep a GSA procurement manager on hold for long. That was one rule. Another was that anytime Grover Herrick wanted to talk to the CEO, Grover Herrick talked to the CEO. On half a dozen occasions in the past year, Nick fulfilled his duties as Stratton's chief executive by feigning interest as Grover talked about the sailboat he was going to buy as soon as he retired, and pretending to care about the difference between a ketch and a yawl. If Herrick had wanted to talk about hemorrhoids, Nick would have boned up on that topic too.

This time, though, there were no preliminaries.

“Nick,” the GSA man said, “Gotta tell you, it looks like we're going with Haworth.”

Nick felt gut-punched. It was all he could do not to double over. “You're
kidding
.”

“I think you know by now when I'm kidding.” There was a pause. “Remember when I told you the story about dropping the Thanksgiving turkey in front of all the guests, and how my wife had the presence of mind to say, ‘Never mind, just bring out the other bird'?
That
I was kidding about.”

“Fucking
Haworth
?”

“Well, what the hell did you
think
would happen?” Herrick's voice was a squawk of indignation. “You were going to have us ink the deal, move the company to
Shenzhen
, and then what? Have us outfit Homeland Security offices with desks from
China
?”

“What—?” Nick managed to choke out.

“When were you planning on telling us? I can think of some Senators who'd have a ball with that—but politics aside, it's completely against GSA procurement guidelines. Can't happen. Don't pretend you've forgotten about 41 USC 10. You guys oughta have the Buy American Act tattooed on your forehead.”

“Wait a minute—who told you Stratton's going offshore?”

“What does it matter? Where there's smoke, there's fire. We liked Stratton. Great American company. I can see the temptation to cash in, put everything on a fast boat to China. Still think it's a mistake, though. My personal opinion.”

“What you're saying doesn't make any sense. We're not going anywhere. I don't care what you've heard.”

Herrick ignored him. “What was the game plan—inflate revenues with a hefty GSA prepayment, jack up the purchase price, figure the Heathen Chinese wouldn't figure out the game? Strategic vision, huh? I guess that's why you get the big bucks.”

“
No
, Grover. This is bullshit.”

“I told you before. We really liked you guys. We liked Haworth, too, but the Stratton price points looked better, all
in. We just didn't realize your price points came courtesy of cheap Chinese labor.”

“Listen to me, Grover.” Nick tried to cut him off, to no avail.

“Thing that chafes my ass is, you guys wasted a
hell
of a lot of my time. Got half a mind to bill you for it.”

“Grover,
no
.”

“Happy sailing, Nick,” the GSA man said, and he hung up.

Nick cursed loudly. He wanted to fling the phone across the room—across
a
room—but the Ambience system didn't really lend itself to boss-man theatrics.

Marjorie came over. “Something going on that I should know about?”

“That's pretty much
my
question, Marge,” Nick said, struggling to regain his composure.

He walked across the executive floor to Scott's area, taking a back way in order to bypass Gloria, Scott's admin. As he approached, he heard Scott talking on the phone.

“Well, sure,” Scott was saying. “We'll give it a try, Todd man, why not?”

Nick advanced until he was in Scott's line of sight.

Scott noticed him now, seemed to flinch just a bit, but instantly recovered: widening his eyes and smiling, raising his chin by way of greeting. “Right,” he said, more loudly. “Sounds like a great trip. Gotta go.” He hung up and said to Nick, “Hey, my liege, welcome to the low-rent district.”

“How's Todd?” Nick said.

“Ah, he's trying to set up a golf trip to Hilton Head.”

“I didn't know you golf.”

“I don't.” He laughed uncomfortably. “Well, badly. But that's why they love having me around. Makes them look like Tiger Woods.”

“‘They' being Todd and the other Fairfield boys?”

“Todd and his wife and Eden and another couple. Anyway.”

“I had an interesting talk with MacFarland at Atlas McKenzie.”

“Oh, yeah?” Scott's expression seemed wary.

“Yeah. Learn something new every day. You know why they decided not to go with us?”

“Gotta be price, what else? Not quality, that's for sure. But you get what you pay for.”

“MacFarland seems to think we're on the block. Now, why would he think that?”

Scott spread out his palms.

“Atlas McKenzie uses the same Hong Kong law firm as Fairfield, which is how they heard.”

“That's
crazy
.”

“Funny thing is, I heard something sort of similar from the guy at GSA just now.”

“GSA?” Scott said, swallowing.

“The Homeland Security deal? That just fell apart too.”

“Shit.”

“And you know why? They need Made-in-America, and they heard a rumor we're going to be offshoring our manufacturing to China. Isn't that the craziest thing?”

Scott, picking up on Nick's bitter sarcasm, sat up straight in his chair and said solemnly, “If Todd and those guys were planning a move like that, don't you think they'd at least mention it to me?”

“Yeah, I do, actually. Have they?”

“Obviously not—I would have told you right away.”

“Would you?”

“Of course—Jesus, Nick, I can't believe people listen to stupid rumors like that. I mean, it's no different from those idiotic rumors about the deep-fried chicken head in the box of Chicken McNuggets, or the bonsai kittens, or how the moon walk was a fraud—”

“Scott.”

“Look, I'll make some calls, look into it for you, okay? But I'm sure there's nothing to it.”

“I hope you're right,” Nick said. “I really hope you're right.”

Eddie didn't stand up when Nick came to his office that afternoon. Just gave him a mock salute, as he leaned back in his Symbiosis chair with his feet on his desk. On the silver-mesh fabric wall behind him was a poster with the words “MEDIOCRITY. It Takes a Lot Less Time and Most People Won't Notice the Difference Until It's Too Late.” Above the slogan was a photograph of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was one of those wiseass spoofs of corporate workplace propaganda, but Nick sometimes wondered how much irony Eddie really meant.

“I get a promotion?” Eddie asked. “I mean, with you coming down here instead of making me come up.”

Nick pulled up a small, wheeled stool. “They call it Management by Walking Around. MBWA.”

“Lot to be said for MBSOYA. Management by Sitting on Your Ass.”

Nick forced a smile, and told him about what MacFarland and Grover Herrick had said, skipping the incidentals.

“Fuck me,” Eddie said. “Gotta be bullshit, right? You talk to Scott McNally about this?”

“He says there's nothing to it. But he knows more than he's telling me. I'm sure of it.”

Eddie nodded slowly. “If you're out, I'm out, right?”

“Who said anything about my being out? I just want you to see what Scott's up to, that's all.”

Eddie grinned slowly. “You want an assist, I'll fire you the puck and cross-check the assholes. I'll even break the fucking stick over their heads.”

“A little e-mail surveillance should do it, Eddie.”

“I'll get one of the techs to pull his e-mail records off the server, right? Just get me a few keywords.”

“That sounds like a start.”

“Oh, sure. Phone records, all that stuff. Easy peasy. But boy, you sure do have a knack for stepping in the shit.” Eddie's skin formed webbing around his eyes as he smiled. “Good thing you got a friend who doesn't mind cleaning your shoes.”

“You'll let me know if you find anything.”

“That's what friends are for.”

Nick didn't meet his eyes. “And not a word to anyone.”

“Back at ya, buddy.”

Nick hesitated for a moment, then wheeled the stool close to Eddie's desk. “Eddie, did you tell the cops you went over to my house after we found my dog?”

Eddie peered at him for a while. “They didn't ask me. I don't volunteer information. That's cop interview lesson number one.”

Nick nodded. “They didn't ask me either. Not yet. But in case it comes up, I want to make sure we have a consistent story, okay? I asked you to come over, and you did. Only natural that I'd give you a call. You're my security director.”

“Only natural,” Eddie repeated. “Makes sense. But you got to calm down, buddy. You worry too much.”