The Virgin Master (43 page)

*****

Finally, Frank spoke.“You’re bluffing. Bring the doctor in. But while he’s answering questions, you’re going to stay outside. Your father, too.”

Evan realized he could watch the question and answer session from his bedroom, so he agreed to the conditions without batting an eye and sent security to call in Dr. Meier, watching Frank closely. Frank paled. He thought Evan had bluffed about having the doctor there. Evan stood and left the board room, followed by Allen.

“Come with me Dad. I had this set up so Jeremy could
             
watch it on closed circuit.”

Allen laughed out loud and then put both hands over his mouth, surprised. Evan smiled crookedly at him. The two men were able to get to Evan’s bedroom and make a place for themselves on the bed just before Dr. Meier came into the conference room, escorted by Mark.

Frank stared at Dr. Meier for a few seconds and Dr. Meier stared back. Finally Frank decided on an avenue of attack.

“Do you have any identification?”

“Certainly,” Dr. Meier said with a smile as he dug his wallet out of his inside jacket pocket, “here is my driver’s license, my university ID and my license card.”

Frank accepted the three cards with a frown. “Are you the same Dr. Phillip Meier who performed a psychological evaluation on Evan James?”

“Yes.”

“How much money did he pay you to alter the results
?
”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. How much money did he pay you to give him a good result? He’s already admitted it.”

“I sincerely doubt that, since it never happened. I treated Mr. James no differently than any of my other
evaluees
; even though it was difficult.”

Frank jumped on that. “Why was it difficult?”

Dr. Meier smiled. “I have never seen anyone cope
so gracefully
with the amount of stress Mr. James bears
.
From what he told me I would have expected him to be a complete wreck; instead he was thoughtful, rational and self-deprecating. Charming.  If he had not told me what was happening in his personal life, I would never have guessed he was trying to function with more than the usual high level of stress any CEO of a large company experiences.”

Nonplussed, Frank frowned angrily. “What exactly did he tell you about his personal life?”

“Normally, I wouldn’t even think about answering that question, but Mr. James signed a release and told me to answer any question the board asked if I was called in here. So: he told me that he had lost someone he loved deeply in a particularly unsettling way; that he had been undergoing some personal attacks from a board member; that he had to buy a personal slave who had health issues almost immediately requiring emergency care; that he had been suspended from his job and had just returned to work; that he was involved in several law suits. Any one of those problems, on top of the usual stresses high level managers have to cope with would have put most people out on the ledge. He was anxious about the evaluation, but not overly so. He performed well and none of the indices designed to detect cheating or attempts to subvert the test showed positive. In short, it is my opinion that he is remarkably resilient and almost preternaturally sane.”

Frank couldn’t let it go. “He mentioned his personal slave.”

“He did.”

“In what way?”

“He said that having to take care of his slave’s needs pulled him out of the self-centered spiral of grief he found himself in.”

“Wouldn’t that indicate an abnormal degree of personal attachment?”

“No. He would have probably experienced the same degree of relief from taking care of a rescue animal. He didn’t dwell on the slave or express anything other than normal interest in him.”

“Dr. Meier, would you sign this release so that I can look at your bank records?” Frank slid a piece of paper across the table to the psychologist.

“Whatever for?”

“I know that Mr. James is not fit to run this company. Somehow he has suborned you. I don’t believe your statement that he didn’t offer you money; I know at least one psychologist he has paid off in the past. I want to objectively review your bank records to see if you’ve made any large deposits or if any new regular deposits have started turning up there.”

Dr. Meier glared at him. “You must be the board member giving Mr. James difficulty.”

All the other board members laughed. Frank just glared.

“I’ll sign your release. You won’t find anything. Mr. James was completely professional throughout our interaction and never even alluded to attempting to suborn me.”

“He’s a pretty thing. Maybe he fucked you for it.”

“I have no sexual interest in men. Even if I did, do you honestly believe I would risk my entire career for some sex? I am too much of a fiscal coward to take a chance like that.”

Laughter filled the room again. Frank, frustrated and flushed, took back the signed release and tried one more time.

“Come on, Doctor
…
you said it yourself. Any other person wouldn’t be able to cope with that much stress. Why should James be any different?”

Dr. Meier thought. “I really don’t know.
Perhaps the long period he spent caring for his dying life-partner while working full-time raised his capacity to stand stress. From what I can tell, even in the depths of grief and depression he was still highly effective as a profit driver for this Company, right? Stress handling is like a muscle
;
the more you learn to cope with, the more you can handle. Evan just happened to have the bad luck of having a lot of practice.”

*****

Frank
’s frustration escalated
.
Ilya
awaited him in the car. If he couldn’t get this done tonight, he would be dead before the car arrived back at his home.
Ilya
had already bought a Styrofoam shipping cooler and some dry ice. James had just literally murdered him. Rage filled him. If the board voted to keep Evan on as CEO, well, he would just have to kill him. He was going to die anyway. Being executed by the state was probably preferable to having his head sawed off with a serrated hunting knife.

Frank looked up and noticed
Dr. Meier watch
ing him intently.
Frank
tried not to
fidget.

Do you have any further questions for me, Mr. Owens?”

Knowing not to beat a dead horse, Frank waved his hand dismissively at Dr. Meier. “No. You’re not going to be truthful, that much is obvious, so good riddance.”

Dr. Meier stood up and
frowned.
He looked around the room at the rest of the board members “I hope you don’t plan to use my report as any kind of basis to discharge Mr. James. You have openly slandered me here in full view of many witnesses and the security feed. I altered nothing in the report and Mr. James never even hinted that he wanted me to. He is an exceptional young man and I will fully support him in any lawsuit he plans to bring against the board resulting from wrongful termination. I have taken the liberty of reading your by-laws and if this is the best you
can do to make a case against him…you’re out of luck, Mr. Owens.”

*****

Dr. Meier took his leave, and Evan and Allen hurried down the hallway to Allen’s office to wait for Mark to call them back in. Evan was very glad he had been able to see that bit of interaction, because he was sure Frank would lie about it when he and his father returned to the conference room.

Allen looked at Evan thoughtfully. “I think it’s time to counter attack Frank. Why don’t you call for a vote of no-confidence as a stockholder?”

Evan stared at his father. He had been so deeply entrenched in his own problems that he hadn’t even thought of that.

“Good idea. I need to review the procedure.”

Allen got up and let Evan peruse the stockholder procedures on his computer
. He had only been able to work for
a few minutes before Mark shyly knocked on the door to let them know that the board wanted them back in the conference room. Evan entered the room, head held high and making eye contact with Frank immediately.

Frank smirked at him waving Evan to his seat, “the doctor told us everything, Evan. The Board will accept your resignation now so we don’t have to fire you.”

“Right.” Evan smiled broadly. “Frank you are so full of shit. I have my own resolution to put forward.”

“You’re a non-voting member—you can’t make a resolution.”

“I can make this one
as a stockholder. I call for a vote of no confidence in the Board President, Frank Owens. Anyone
gonna
second that for me?”

Dead silence prevailed for a long minute. Then Elaine Pickering seconded Evan’s motion in a voice pitched nearly too low to be heard. Evan lost his breath; he hadn’t really expected to get this far; he certainly had never thought that Elaine would go against Frank.

Frank stood up and Elaine glared at him. “Frank, I don’t know what you’ve got against Evan, but you’re acting crazy. James Corp posted the highest quarter earnings in the history of the company last quarter. That really doesn’t scream ‘incompetence’ to me.”

Frank huffed and dropped back into his chair as he saw the other board members nodding in agreement.

“Okay, then. The motion has been made and seconded. Now the stockholders will have a chance to vote and Frank, you’re going to have to step down until that vote can be registered.”

Frank glared at Evan.
What the hell. I’m going to die anyway. I might as well take this asshole with me.
Standing up abruptly, Frank drew a handgun from the holster at his waist band, aimed and fired across the table at Evan in one smooth movement. Blood blossomed on Evan’s chest and he fell without a sound.

“There’s your vote of no confidence, buddy. I wish you the pleasure of it.” Frank got up and started to leave the conference room, only to be stopped and disarmed by James security. He dialed for
Ilya
and his phone was wrested from his hand. Allen frantically called 911 as Levi Winchester, a board member who also happened to be a doctor, did his best to stem the blood flowing out of Evan’s chest.

Chapter Twenty-
Six

Jeremy
sprang to his feet when he saw Frank stand up with the gun. His legs wouldn’t support him and he crashed to the floor as he saw Evan falling on the television screen. Ignoring searing pain radiating from his thighs down to his ankles, Jeremy scrabbled for his crutches and accepted Marta’s
h
elp in lurching to a stand.

As he climbed to his feet he saw Frank wrestle his way free from the security guard and flee the conference room; Jeremy knew that
Frank
could only go one of two ways to get out of the building. Jeremy felt sure that Frank would head for the stairs—a path that would take him right by the apartment door.

Swinging gracefully through the apartment, Jeremy
opened the door, just in time to see Frank disappear around the corner, heading for the stairwell. Torn between his need to beat the hell out of Frank and the need to go to Evan, Jeremy turned and pursued Frank. His long arms and his willingness to ignore the pain in his back and shoulders combined with the length of his legs meant that Jeremy could set a blistering pace on the crutches, his body swinging like a pendulum nearly silently exploding down the hallway.

Frank reached the door to the stairs and Jeremy plunged forward, lifting his left crutch and slamming it into the door frame, blocking Frank’s access to the stairwell. Gazing up he noted the security camera
. S
etting his jaw, he stood on his injured legs and leaning against the wall to take some of his weight, smashed the camera with his right crutch. Frank scowled at him and drew back to punch him.