“I need you to route some information from the mail servers my way.”
Connor’s face lost color. “I can’t do that. I’d get fired.”
“You’d get fired for downloading porn, Connor. We could have someone go in and look to see what else we might find. And you know, when you get fired for downloading porn, that information doesn’t remain private. Do you have a girlfriend, Connor?”
His shoulder’s dropped. “What do you need?”
Dane produced a thumb drive and dropped the real bomb. “I need every piece of email to or from Noelle Constance.”
Sophie,
I’m not sure why you have to be such a negative Nancy. I did read the articles you sent me, but I don’t trust the sources. Why would Fleetwood hire Dane if he’d committed illegal activities? Wouldn’t he be sitting in jail? Wouldn’t there be some record of that? Sounds like people are really out to get him for whatever vindictive reasons. I bet he’s made a lot of people jealous over the years. He was so young when he started his company. I can tell how brilliant he is just looking at him. And no, smarty pants, it’s not the Kool-Aid talking. There’s weirdly no cult around him here. It’s like they’ve all forgotten who he is. He doesn’t act like he’s any big deal. He’s been nice enough to come talk to the interns a couple of times.
But I haven’t forgotten who he is. I’m angling to get closer—no, not like that, jeez (although, hmmm . . .).
I wish you’d just be happy for me instead of automatically assuming the worst. Give it a rest already.
Selena
Anthony,
I know I said we shouldn’t use the company email to communicate, but I’m learning that maybe I need to relax a little. Seems like a lot of the rules are just guidelines. Anyway, I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to you yesterday. I hope you enjoyed your first mentoring session as much as I did. I stayed up late last night reading about Dodd-Frank. I’d love to get together later and talk about the loopholes that are still present in the current legislation.
Are you free tonight?
Selena
The thumb drive arrived via interoffice mail just as Dane was settling in to delete all his emails. There was no note accompanying it, but still Dane didn’t like that Connor had taken the risk of letting the memory stick out of sight. Then again, he didn’t want people to see Connor entering his office regularly. And Dane had no reason to stop in to talk to the system administrators. He’d have to think of a better routine.
He slid the device into the port and opened the file. It contained only one email of interest.
Dear Noelle,
I’m surprised that you’re writing to ask these questions after all this time. Honestly, I’m not sure what you’re hoping to learn. At this point does it matter if Dane did everything Geraldo accused him of?
You probably know better than anyone that Dane’s always had a rougher edge. He doesn’t follow the rules, or more accurately, he doesn’t bother to learn what they are. But he does know the law, and I never believed he was making unauthorized trades or any of the other charges. Where was the proof?
But since Dane stepped down willingly, what else could we think? We sure miss having him here. He’s smart, loyal, and hard working.
Is that really what you wanted to ask about, sweetheart?
Kitty Monroe
Dane loved that Kitty didn’t go overboard on the praise. Nobody would believe that he was an altar boy.
He’d never understood why they’d turned on him in the first place. Kitty wasn’t lying that the accusations laid at his feet had been flimsy. Sure, he’d tweaked the code over the years to give himself a back door into the systems so he could dodge the business logic in the software meant to block shady transactions. But none of the board members were savvy enough to realize that. None of his deals had come under scrutiny. Everything Geraldo had trumped up had been completely baseless and offensive. Dane would have every right to nurse a grudge, if he didn’t actually have arguably criminal activity to hide. But his execution had been masterful.
Dane reread the email, looking for clues to understand what Noelle was after. If she was a mole for Geraldo, why would she be talking to the board at R&M about what had happened years ago? Was she having a change of heart?
She wouldn’t be the first. Over the years, different board members had contacted him to express remorse and wonder whether they’d moved too quickly. Encouraged by the ones who reached out to him, he’d made an effort to charm or seduce the ones who hadn’t.
Kitty, in particular. Before he left the company, she had pursued him for months to no avail despite being married. Not that he cared about the oaths she was prepared to break. He balked at having a complicated affair. However, given the choice between an angry husband and a recalcitrant former board member, he opted to soothe the grudge. And he discovered that married women need the same amount of discretion as him. Ever since, he’d made a point to look Kitty up whenever she knew he’d be in town. A good thing, too. It bought him a recommendation.
It was too late to change the past, but at least their revised opinions might help his cause with Noelle.
He owed Val for planting the seeds of doubt in the first place. She’d pleaded his case and laid the groundwork for his rehabilitated image before she turned in her resignation and came out to join him at Fleetwood. He might be more grateful that Val had followed him into the “heartland” if she hadn’t stabbed him in the back first.
Fucking New Year’s Eve.
