Taking Texas By Storm
by: E Walk
(© 2009 by the Author)
 

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

Chapter 22 

Intellectually Challenged

After all of the employees of the Contracting Division had departed, Grant returned with the woman who blew the whistle, so to speak, Grant introduced the lady, “This is Nancy Patterson.”

I looked at the lady, “Ma’am, we’re closing the Contracting Division until Monday.  I would appreciate it if you would report to my office in room 4903 after you have had lunch.”

I turned to Joe, “Please go ask Steve and Juan to have the locks to the contracting division changed, as soon as possible.  I would like to meet with you and Katie after lunch at one o’clock.  We need to decide how to proceed with our investigation of what has been happening here in this division.  Something smells very rotten.”

When I got to my office, Tammy smiled, “Good, you’re here.  Trig has asked us to be his guests at his restaurant, and we’re not going to talk business.”

I frowned, “Tammy, I don’t have time to go to lunch.  I’ll eat here at my desk.  Take Grant, Joe and Katie to be your bodyguards.  I’ll answer the phones.  Where is Oz, anyway?”

“Who knows?  He comes and goes like the breeze in the night.  Speaking of which, you need to tell him to take some time off.”

Tammy departed and returned with a club sandwich and a bowl of soup.  The Wakefields didn’t want you to starve while we go have a decadent lunch.”

I was eating my sandwich at Tammy’s desk when the door opened.  I was surprised when Dr. Rudy entered.  “Ed, do you have a minute to talk?”

“Of course.  Please sit down.  Have you eaten?”

“Yes, I grabbed a fruit plate and half a sandwich at the Shell Pit Stop.   The reason I’m here is to find out what you expect of me, if I’m going to be head of the Legal Division, since I‘ve been told I work for you?”

“That’s an easy one to answer, my dear lady.  The day to day operations are yours.  The only time I would need to be involved is if there were to be a problem.  You have the right to terminate anyone whom you think is not performing in the best interest of the company.  Quite frankly, Evelyn, your biggest responsibility is going to be to keep me from getting my butt in a crack.  As you are well aware, I am not the most popular person in the building.”

She started to laugh, “Ed, you’re the talk of the headquarters.  When I was eating at the Pit Stop with an acquaintance, I overheard two gentlemen talking.  The one gentleman was saying, it’s about time that management got someone on board to get rid of these old fogies who haven’t been earning their pay.”

“The other gentleman responded, ‘Yeah, it will be interesting to see how many more people Mr. Waller has fired before he’s done.’”

I decided to change the subject, “Evelyn, do you have anyone on your staff who could be the liaison for my people, so they don’t need to bother you.  I think you will find that you’re going to be too busy to be involved in the day to day routine.”

Dr. Rudy was quiet for the longest time, “Ed, quite frankly I’m not enamored with my staff.  There is one young man who I think might the person you would be looking for.  His name is Todd Withem.”

“Evelyn, please bring the gentleman with you to the staff meeting tomorrow.  If you say he’s the person to be our contact, then he will be that contact.”

Tammy arrived with Joe, Grant and Katie, “Wouldn’t you know, the boss is eating at my desk, so I will have to clean up his mess.  Here, Trig sent you some dessert to keep you from wasting away.”

“Whatever you say, Madame Secretary.  Joe and Katie, I want you to go to the Contracting Office and see if you can find any evidence that Mr. Sampson was indeed getting kickbacks for the contracts.  Mrs. Rudy has suggested that you have one of her people, a Mr. Withem, accompany you to provide any legal advice that might be required.”

“Tammy, when Ms Patterson arrives, please send her into my office.”

I had just gotten seated at my desk when Tammy opened the door.  “Ms Patterson is here, as you requested.”

I stood and went to greet Ms Patterson. “Thank you for coming, Ms Patterson.  I have some questions for you.  First, why did you come to Grant with this problem?”

“Mr. Waller, I’ve been trying for two years to get someone to listen to me.  Quite frankly, I was very leery about even bringing the matter to Grant’s attention, because I have been severely chastised for even daring to suggest that Mr. Sampson was doing anything illegal.”

“Nancy, my name is Ed.  Why don’t you start with what happened to make you suspect that Mr. Sampson was receiving kickbacks from the contractors.  It should be a simple matter of determining if he was indeed awarding the contracts to the highest bidders and excluding minority contractors.   But proving that he was receiving kickbacks may be difficult.”

“Ed, up until two years ago, I was the receptionist where you met Danny today.  When I started to make waves, Mr. Sampson made me a glorified filing clerk, saying that women shouldn’t be in positions with any responsibility.  I went to the legal division and they told me that they couldn’t do anything about the problem, unless I had concrete information.  Mr. Sampson caught wind of my visit to the legal division and threatened to fire me.”

“I was so frustrated that I went to talk to Vice President Farnum, since he was a frequent visitor to our office.  He always seemed like a nice guy, but I was to find out otherwise.  He told me to mind my own business and informed me that Mr. Sampson has been very helpful getting things down at his house.”

“Nancy, I think you and I need to go and see if we can be of assistance to Joe and Katie.”

We walked to the Contracting Division and I knocked on the door until Joe came to let us in, “Boss, we haven’t uncovered anything yet.  We’re obviously missing something.  We can’t even find the records of the contracts that were awarded.”

Nancy nodded, “The most recent records are locked in the safe that’s in the division chief’s office.  The older records are stored in the closet in the division chief’s office.”

Katie heard the comment, “We found the safes, but they’re all locked.  We can’t find the keys to unlock them.  Mr. Waller, this is Todd Withem.”

I shook the gentleman’s hand, “I hear you’re to be our point of contact in the Legal Division.  The young lady with me is Nancy Patterson.  She’s here to provide assistance if she can.”

“People, if you can’t get in the safes, call Steve and Juan and have them open them with a blow torch if need be.”

Nancy shook her head no.  “Mr. Waller, I have an idea of where the keys might be, but it’s just a hunch.  Mr. Sampson always seemed to need to go to the bathroom right before and after he would be in the safe.  He never left the safe open if he wasn’t in the room.  Let’s check the bathroom to see if the keys just happen to be in there.” 

I looked at the clock and it was one forty five.  So what, if I was a little late for my meeting with President Odom.   Nancy showed us where the bathroom door was.  Joe tried to open it and it was locked.  Joe pushed against the door and it budged a little.  Todd and Joe pushed and the door flew open causing Joe and Todd to almost fall flat on their faces.

Katie stepped back, “We need to inform Ozzie that his people need to clean this bathroom.  It looks as if it hasn’t been cleaned in years.  We need to get some gloves before we touch anything.”

Nancy nodded, “I have some latex gloves in my desk that I used when the bathrooms in the building were unsanitary.”

Joe and Katie put on a pair of gloves, and I watched as they checked all around the bathroom without any success.  I looked at the toilet, “Take the lid off the toilet tank and see if the keys are in the tank, per-  chance.”

Joe lifted the lid off and looked in the tank, “There’s nothing in the tank except water.”

Nancy looked at the lid, “Joe, turn the lid over, there’s something hanging down.”

Joe put lid upside down and their was waterproof container with a number of keys.  Nancy chuckled, “I think we solved the case of the missing keys.”

I watched as Joe and Katie kept trying the keys that were number coded on the safe in the office.  Finally the lock popped open and the top drawer opened.  Not only did it have the latest contracts but a cashbox with a large sum of money.  “People, I need to go.  I was scheduled to meet with President Odom ten minutes ago.  Surely between the four of you, you can figure out what needs to be done.”

When I walked into President Odom’s office, Marlene motioned for me to sit down.  “He’s busy and I don’t think you want to go into the lion’s den.”

The door was open and I heard a loud lady’s voice, “Adam, you're being unreasonable.  You can’t take the car away.  That would mean I would have to drive the old Buick.  I’ll be the laughing stock of the club.”

“Olivia, the car belongs to the company.  There are no longer going to be company cars that are used for personal purposes.  As far as your husband’s finances, you and he allowed yourselves to get so deeply in debt that he saw no way out.  You have may sympathy, but the company owes you nothing.”

“But Adam, how am I going to be able to live?”

“Olivia, it would appear to me that you need to find someone to help you take care of your legal problems.  The Company’s Legal Division is here to take care of company business, and not personal problems.”

 A woman rushed out of the office yelling, “You people haven’t heard the last of me.”

President Odom motioned for me to come in, “Ed, I need to calm down.  I feel as if my blood is running through my head at a hundred miles per hour.  I’ll be with you in a minute.”

When he reappeared, “Ed, this last encounter made me realize that I’ve made the correct decision.  I’m resigning as the President of Shell.  I’m going to recommend that you be named the President of this corporation.”

 

I started to choke, “President Odom, you’ve got to be kidding.  No one is going to buy into the idea that I be the president of this corporation.  First, I’m too young, and secondly, I haven’t a clue what I would be supposed to be doing.   You need to name someone like Roger Reed, who has been around for some time, to the position.”

“Ed, Roger is going to be retiring on Tuesday at the Board meeting.  In case you hadn’t noticed, he’s not been around the last two weeks because he was in the hospital and has been diagnosed as having terminal cancer.”

“Ed, there isn’t anyone else around who can fill the position as well as you can.  You and you’re people have accomplished more since we sent you to Algeria, than I had in the five years I’ve been here.  I’ll remain as the CEO until such time as you would feel comfortable assuming that position.  There is no doubt that your appointment will send shock waves through the business world, but so be it.  Nothing that we have talked about is to be made public until next Tuesday.  I apologize, but that’s the way it needs to be.”

“Now what have you been able to come up with, in the Contracting Division.”

“We solved the case of the missing keys.  When we opened the first file cabinet, not only did we find the most recent contracts, but a cash box with money, as well.  When I left to come here, Joe, Katie, Nancy and Todd were going through the findings.  It will be very interesting to hear their report tomorrow, at the staff meeting.”

President Odom frowned, “Who is this Todd person?  That’s a new name to me.”

“Todd works in the Legal Division.  Dr. Rudy visited with me at lunch time, and I asked that she recommend someone from her division to be the liaison between Legal and my people and she recommended Todd Withem.”

“I know Todd’s parents and they’re good people.  I had forgotten that Todd was working here.  What are you going to do about Ms Patterson, and who are you going to put in charge of the Contracting Division?”

“Sir, I didn’t get good vibes when we were in the contracting department this morning.  It will be interesting to see how many of the employees return on Monday.  I would guess that we may be facing a few lawsuits because of my action this morning.”

“Anyway, I was contemplating putting Robin Sheraton in charge of the division. He has a degree in marketing.  He had an unpleasant experience when he was employed with one of our competitors.  He was charged with embezzlement, but was cleared of the charge, and the guilty party has since been convicted.  I was thinking that perhaps we should make Ms Patterson his executive assistant, since she knows the contracting business.  This is subject to my reviewing Ms Patterson’s dossier.  I have already met with Rob, but have promised him nothing.”

President Odom started to laugh, “Ed, you amaze me.  You find the misfits and plug them into odd shaped holes, and it works.  You haven’t missed yet.  As of now, the decisions are yours to make.  I’ll play CEO and sit back and read comic books.  I’ll have to see if Caroline will increase my allowance, so I can buy some new ones.  Ed, I’ll see you at your staff meeting in the morning, to find out what’s happening.  It’s so refreshing to see people doing something for the company, instead of themselves.”

When I arrived in the office, Tammy looked up at me, “Look, Waller, I don’t need this abuse.”

“Tammy, what are you talking about, now?”

“Some guy named Joseph Wagner called and informed me that he was going to sue all of us for making him and his family starve.  He said he was going to file a law suit in the morning.  Oh yeah, Mr. Sampson called demanding that he be permitted back in the building to get his personal things.”

I looked at Tammy, “What did you tell the callers?”

“I told Mr. Wagner, that I was a single parent Mother and that you were a single parent Father, and that it was going to be very difficult to get money from empty wells.  I told Mr. Sampson that he would have to take the problem of getting his personal things to security, since we had nothing to do with the Contracting Office.”

Our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Joe, Katie and Nancy.  Nancy plopped down in a chair, “Mr. Waller, these two are workaholics.”

“I know that, but what did they do now?”

“We packed all of the contract information for the past five years and moved it to Mr. Withem’s office.  The poor man will never be able to breathe.”

I asked, “What did you do with the money that was in the safe?”

Joe giggled, “We divided it four ways of course.  We took the money to Mr. Taylor and he verified that we had given him twelve thousand six hundred dollars.  He gave us a receipt and locked the money in the vault.  Ed, Todd is a good guy.  He was frustrated by what had been happening here at Shell, and was getting ready to throw in the towel.”

I nodded, “People, it’s already after five.  I expect to see you all, and that includes you, Nancy, here at eight o’clock sharp in the morning.  Let’s split this place.”

When I arrived at the house, after dropping my passengers off, I was greeted by Allie.  “Happy Birthday again, Dad.  Dad, guess what.”

“Allie, thank you and I have no idea.  You didn’t burn dinner tonight?”

“Dad, be serious.  This is important.  The principal and the special education teacher talked to me today, and they want me to be the mentor for this kindergarten boy who is intellectually challenged.  You need to sign the form so I can be the mentor to Mikey.”

“Allie, what would you be doing and how much time would it take each day.  What about your other friends that you are helping.   What do you know about this Mikey person?”

“Dad, his name is Mikey Sheraton.  He’s five years old and has trouble learning.  He can say his ABC’s but he can’t identify the letters.  He can count but he can’t identify or write his numbers.  I think there is something wrong with his eyes.”

I took a deep breath, “Allie, I’ll sign the paperwork, but I’m concerned that you will be spending too much trying to help the young man and get frustrated if you aren’t seeing any results.”

“Allie, did Brahim say when he would be home?”

“Oh yeah, he called and said we were to go ahead and eat.  He hoped to be home by eight thirty at the latest.”

It was after nine and Allie had gone to get ready for bed and I started to worry.  I could feel my body getting tenser and tenser.  It was almost nine thirty when I heard the garage door.  I sat back on the sofa and breathed a sigh of relief.

Brahim came in and plopped down beside me, “Ed, I don’t ever want to do another opera.  These people don’t have a clue what to do.  We’ll be so bad that no one will ever come to see us.  I’m sorry, Happy Birthday, my man. Let’s go to bed so you can get your present.”

We went to bed and this time Bra got to feel the difference that the absence of latex makes.

To be continued...

Editor's Notes:  I was definitely wondering what President Odom was up to, giving so many tasks to Ed.  I kinda had an idea that he was going to assign Ed to a new position.  I didn't actually realize that he was going to resign and appoint Ed to replace him.  I would say that Ed is certainly well qualified to handle the position, and I am pretty sure that the board will think so too, but I hope he can take the pressure. 

Ed has managed to surround himself with a dedicated and efficient staff.  I can hardly wait to see what happens next.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 04/09/10