The P.U.R.E. (17 page)

“Yes. I’ll take them to the bank and put them in my safe deposit box today.”

“That’s secure?”

“Yes, of course. I have the only key. What’s going on, Gayle?”

“A lot more than just a half million dollars of missing cash, Jayna, so you have to keep mum on this. You can’t tell anyone else from Anderson-Blakely—not Doug, not Marilyn and not Bob.”

“Oh? Oh …” Her features transformed from puzzlement to comprehension. “You’ll contact me when I can pull the files back? When it’s safe?”

“I will. Thank you so much for your help.”

Copies in hand, I sprinted to the audit room, where Jon sorted through a huge mass of cancelled checks. We might have spent hours going through them, not knowing exactly what we were looking for.

“Come on Jon. Let’s go. I’ve got what we need. I’ll explain on the way to the office.”

We dashed to his Porsche. I needed forty minutes to be at the office by two, a dicey gamble if the tollway and downtown traffic were heavy. Christine’s clock read 1:25 p.m.

Jon tossed me a bag of Cheetos and a Diet Coke, both of which he’d procured from the Aphrodite break room while I talked to Jayna. I had the best boyfriend in the world.

“Thanks.” I flashed him my widest grin. “Now Christine, honey, lovely girl, I need you to get us safely to the office no later than two o’clock, girlfriend. You’re a superstar, sweetheart, so let’s go!”

By an unseen hand or force, my seat tilted back, and my sun visor flipped down. Jon laughed and leaned over to give me a peck on the cheek. “I told you so,” he said still laughing.

I shared Jayna’s confession with Jon as we made our way south.

“You know who I think sold Kenneth those stock tips?”

Jon pursed his lips but kept his eyes on the road. “No, but I’m sure you’re about to enlighten me.”

“Bob Turner.”

“Hmm.”

I shifted in my seat to watch his profile. Only a faint furrow marred his forehead or betrayed any reaction to my theory.

“Bob had access to that type of information, and he had a financial interest in Aphrodite. Kind of puts a new spin on Kenneth’s murder, doesn’t it?”

Jon sighed and nodded. “Given Anderson-Blakely’s client list, Bob has access to a slew of insider information. Can’t use the intelligence for himself, so he secretly sells it to others.”

He rattled his conclusion off like he’d read it in yesterday’s news. Had he already suspected eons ago but never bothered to share with me?

“This file Jayna gave me contains the stock options Kenneth purchased. I recognize most of them as Anderson-Blakely clients. The others probably are too; I’m just not familiar with them.”

“How’d you discover the sales to Dalrymple and Elizabethan?” Jon asked.

“I saw them in the inventory file, only the names were LD Beauty and EI Beauty Supply. I took a wild guess that ‘LD’ was ‘Leslie Dalrymple’ and ‘EI’ was ‘Elizabethan Investments’. Plus, Bob’s hand had to be in there somewhere, and those companies are Leslie’s.”

“Our kids are going to be so smart!” He cut his eyes over to me. “Gotcha! I do know that was a weird thing to say … had I meant it … which, come to think of it, I did.”

“Yet, you said it anyway. I guess you’ve still been making clandestine visits to weirdo land, haven’t you Jon? Tsk, tsk. Clearly you’re going to need a lot of my attention to break you of this troublesome habit.”

Jon’s eyes flashed with mirth. “Lots and lots, I’m afraid.”

23

We parked at exactly 1:55 p.m. I praised Christine profusely for her wily manipulation through the tangled Dallas traffic.

“I did the maneuvering. Where’s my praise?” Jon pouted with mock jealousy.

I patted Christine and whispered, “’Scuse me a second, Chrissy, I gotta stroke the male ego. You understand, I’m sure.” I turned to Jon, pulled him to me by his tie and kissed him. “Come on. Let’s go.”

“I can’t go in there. I left quietly as part of my deal.”

“You aren’t going as an employee. You’re going as my witness. This has nothing to do with your situation … yet. I’m allowed to bring a witness, and they can’t stop me from bringing you, nor can they associate anything you say as
not
going quietly if it has to do with me. Plus, I want you there with me.”

He nodded. “I really do want to see how this goes down.”

We took the elevator to the fifty-fourth floor, where Human Resources occupied half the space. As a service business, Anderson-Blakely’s largest and most valuable asset was its human talent. A large staff dedicated to keeping us in line as well as protecting our interests made sense—in theory.

Sandy Gomez stood as I approached her office. She walked around her desk and extended her hand. “Hi, Gayle. We’ll be in the Dealy conference room down the hall.” She frowned when her gaze landed on Jon behind me.

“I invited Jon to accompany me as my witness. I understand he’s no longer employed by Anderson-Blakely, but he’s still my witness, and I want him present. Will there be any problems with that?”

I’d made a rather cheeky declaration, needing to muster a healthy dose of bravado lest they try to intimidate me into saying or doing something to torpedo my case.

“Alright, I guess,” she said.

A woman I didn’t recognize awaited us in the conference room. She sat at the table, a brand new memo pad and freshly sharpened pencil in front of her. Sandy introduced the other woman as Lisa Fulbright, Anderson-Blakely’s in-house attorney.
Yikes.
I hadn’t expected Legal’s attendance, but I guess it made some sense if they thought I might file a lawsuit. I had no doubt they’d try to manipulate me into some sort of settlement or browbeat me into withdrawing my claim if the meeting got nasty.

“Gayle,” Sandy began, “We will be taking notes throughout and recording the conversation. Our procedure is to take down all of your accusations as well as any proof you can offer. We’ll then conduct our own investigation. Does that sound alright to you?”

“Yes. That’s about what I expected,” I said.

“Please begin then. Tell us about the incidents that prompted your complaint. And be as specific as possible.”

I reached into my briefcase and pulled out the notebook in which I had logged all my encounters with Doug. I’d also transcribed all his text messages before he deleted them from my phone. Sandy glanced at Lisa, her brows lifted. Their wordless exchange told me they hadn’t expected me to be quite so prepared. I opened to page one.

“All the incidents happened at the offices of our client, Aphrodite, unless stated otherwise.”

“On August twenty-ninth, I met Doug Martin at a pre-audit meeting for Aphrodite in a conference room at Anderson-Blakely. After that meeting he collected all of audit team members’ landline and cell phone numbers and told us we were on call twenty-four seven. Before I left, he called me a PURE—previously undetected recruiting error.” The two women nodded. “He told me Aphrodite wasn’t a place to get a makeover. As I left the room, he moved into my path and brushed his body against mine.”

“On September fourth, we were alone in the audit room, and he asked me my bra size.”

“On September ninth, he told me his penis was eight inches long and offered to show me.”

“On September fifteenth, he passed me in the hall, said no one was in the file room and asked if I wanted to engage in a quickie.”

“On September sixteenth, Doug said: quote, ‘your ass is looking sweet today, Gayle,’ then he reached out as if to touch me on the butt as I passed him.”

I looked up from my notes to assess reactions. All the faces except for Jon’s were unreadable. Jon’s was pale, his expression murderous. He needed to simmer down because what I had written in my notes only got worse.

“On September seventeenth, Doug said women often sought him out for his sexual prowess, but lucky me, he wouldn’t even make me beg.” I couldn’t help but heave a weary sigh and roll my eyes after reading that one.

“On October third, Doug asked me why I played so hard to get. He said he wanted to fuck me, and he knew I wanted it too.” I kept my eyes down but heard Sandy groan.

“On October twenty-fifth, Doug came into the client’s file room and told me he needed me run an errand for him. When I set my work down on a table, he came up behind me and dry humped me.”

“On October twenty-sixth, Doug asked if I wanted to mend fences and invited me to dinner with him the following Saturday. He said afterward I could get naked and wrap my legs around him. He said I’d be screaming his name and God’s in the same breath. He also said he’d go down on me afterwards, if I liked.” I paused and muttered under my breath, “As if.”

I looked around the room to gauge the facial expressions. Sandy and Lisa had begun to crack. Jon had calmed down, probably because I’d told him about the incidents from October on.

“You obviously have a thoroughly documented journal of your encounters, Gayle,” Sandy said. “Please make copies of your notes for Lisa and myself. Let’s skip ahead to the events of last night, please, unless there are other more egregious events to report.”

“I need to mention two other things before I get to last night. Over the past two months, someone sent fifty-one text messages to my cell phone from a series of anonymous Internet websites. All the messages were sexually explicit. I don’t have the actual texts anymore because Doug told me last night he’d erased them from my phone. I had logged them all into my journal, however, and will provide you copies of those texts as well.

“Two nights ago, on November ninth, someone ransacked my apartment and texted me a photo of his handiwork. Whoever did it wrote a series of derogatory words about me on my bathroom mirror and walls. He used a carving knife to shred the suit I’d worn that day and ejaculated on my skirt. Here’s a copy of the police report I filed and pictures of my apartment. They have the DNA evidence, but I’m still waiting for the police to obtain a sample from Doug in order to run a comparison.”

I let Sandy and Lisa finish writing before I launched into the prior night’s events.

“Last night, I went to the office around nine o’clock per Doug’s instructions. He told me he wanted me to prepare a referencer’s aid for Aphrodite but said I wouldn’t be able to access the files until then. When I arrived, he was still using them, so I went to the library to give him more time to finish. At nine thirty, when I returned to check on his status, he’d left, so I began to prepare the aid. Jon arrived sometime around ten o’clock and offered to assist me.”

“Why did Jon come to the office?” Sandy asked.

“Are you asking me or Jon?”

“You, Gayle,” Lisa clarified on Sandy’s behalf.

“He said he was worried Doug might have lured me to the office after hours in order to harass me or worse. He also offered to help me with my work.”

“Are you and Jon romantically involved?” Sandy asked.

To his credit, Jon did an outstanding job holding on to his poker face. In stark contrast, mine blazed.

“Why is that relevant?”

“Because Jon was dismissed this morning for attacking Doug and for inappropriate fraternization with you.”

“I’m aware of why he was fired. Why is that relevant to my sexual harassment complaint against Doug?”

Lisa piped in. “Alright, Gayle, let’s skip that question for now. Please continue with your story of the events of last night.”

“When Jon and I finished the aid, we took a walk around the office. I returned to my cubicle alone. I caught Doug holding my driver’s license and my wallet. I told him to stay out of my personal things and to put my stuff down, which he did. He bumped my shoulder when he walked past. While I was returning my license and wallet to my purse, he doubled back and pressed up against me from behind. It was then he asked why I hadn’t answered any of his text messages. He said he erased them from my phone because he didn’t want HR to get the wrong idea.”

Lisa and Sandy exchanged looks I couldn’t read. Jon gave me a tiny but encouraging smile.

“Excuse me, but I need some water.” I wanted to give them an opportunity to think about the scenario I’d painted—about Doug’s confession he’d been sending me texts and erased them, too.

As I sipped, Lisa jotted down notes, underscoring a word near the end. I wished she’d written in larger letters. I set my glass down.

“I told Doug to get away from me and to stop sending me text messages. He said he liked feisty women and did I talk dirty when I was being fucked? He grabbed my breast. I slapped him, kneed him in the crotch, and he fell to the floor.

“While he was down, I began to collect my things, but he recovered and trapped me in a cubicle. When I turned to confront him and defend myself, he said he didn’t have time to tame me because he had other issues to take care of that evening. Jon returned about then and pulled Doug off.”

“Did you witness Jon punching Doug?”

“Yes.”

I looked at Jon and hoped he read the ‘I’m sorry’ in my eyes. He shrugged as if to say ‘No harm done.’ They hadn’t bothered to interview me prior to firing him because he had admitted attacking Doug. I did wonder why nobody sought my side of the story first.

“Gayle,” Sandy began, “Thank you for your information. Did you know the firm has a policy against staff fraternization?”

“I do now.”

“Did you know the physical inventories at Aphrodite had to be redone at great cost to the firm because of your and Jon’s incompetence?”

“No. I’m aware we did a second count, but it wasn’t because of either Jon’s or my incompetence.”

“Both Doug Martin and Bob Turner believe it was.”

“I have documentary evidence the physical inventory counts Jon and I took were not poorly executed. My evidence shows Aphrodite was attempting to commit fraud by misstating the August inventory counts.” I went on to explain in layman’s terms what I’d discovered. “Neither Jon nor I have had a chance to defend our work.”

Jon and I had agreed on the drive over to keep mum about what Kenneth had done with the money and why. We only had theories that could be very dangerous if divulged to the wrong people at the wrong time.

I handed both Lisa and Sandy copies of the phony Dalrymple and Elizabethan sales invoices, explained the relationship of the two companies to Aphrodite and how the numbers supported the fraud.