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“I’m HR. I was the first Black professional hired in the eighties after the first wave of Title VII cases. You’re too young to know what it was like back then. Racism, sexism, everything was tolerated in the workplace. You could call somebody the N-word, you could touch a woman’s behind. It was all laughed off as a joke.”
“The bad old days.”
“Yes. Stan hired me because he had to. He thinks HR is a necessary evil, and I’m the entire department. He won’t spend another dime.”
“I understand.” I went for it. “Mike, did you ever get wind of any financial improprieties at the company? Like Neil embezzling, with or without Stan?”
Mike blinked. “My job is to mind the people, not the money. If there’s shenanigans with the books, I don’t know about it.”
“Would you be shocked?”
Mike smiled slightly. “Do I look shocked?”
Duly noted. “Here’s what I don’t get. Vuarnex is doing their own due diligence, and if there are any financial improprieties, they’re going to find them, right?”
“True.”
“So are they willing to overlook them? They have to be, or they wouldn’t have gone this far.”
“You want my take? It depends on what the improprieties are. The problem isn’t when you steal from the company, the problem is when you steal from thegovernment. Unreported income, tax evasion.” Mike clucked, folding his arms. “Vuarnex can’t overlook that. They’renotgoing to acquire Runstan if that’s what’s going on. The rest, maybe they overlook. It’s all about the deal, and the acquisition will bring in way more than any embezzlement would take.”
“If the acquisition doesn’t go through, does that affect you?”
“No, I’m retiring next month. It makes no never-mind to me whether we get acquired or not. I already gave my notice, and my pension will kick in.”
“Do the employees stand to gain by the acquisition?”
“No. Only a handful in admin will stay, and their salary remains the same. The only person who benefits from the acquisition is Stan, and he’s gonna make a fortune. But only if he keeps the wheels on this thing long enough. Before somebody figures out what’s going on. Like you.”
I met his eye. “Do you have those pictures?”
•••
I stood at the table with Mike looking down at a photograph, its edges scalloped and colors faded with time. It was taken in Stan’s office at Runstan and showed three twentysomething men in T-shirts, with big grins and full heads of hair. A young Stan was in the middle, flanked by a young Mike Dedham and a man whose face was blurry and half out of the frame. He looked like Fake Elliott Thompson in the driver’s license, but I couldn’t be sure.
I pointed at the blurry face. “Who’s this guy?”
“Hold on.” Mike turned the picture over, and names were written on the back:Me, Stan, Ryan. “I remember him. Ryan Martell. He was a buddy of Stan’s from the old days in Philly. I think he was a union steward, Local 98, IBEW.”
“The electrical union.”
“Yes. You know its business manager? Johnny Doc?”
“No. Who’s he?”
“John Dougherty. He was Local 98’s business manager since 1993. He’s been indicted for embezzlement of union assets, wire fraud,mail fraud, honest services fraud. A conspiracy between him and a few others.” Mike snorted. “If Stan’s helping himself to company money, he learned from the best.”
“Wow.” I made a mental note, then returned to the photo. “Who took the picture?”
“Janine, Stan’s then-wife. That’s why it’s crappy. She was loopy.”
“Let’s compare.” I set my phone down next to the old photo and compared the facial fragment to the picture on my phone. “I see a similarity, but I’m not sure.”
“I think it’s him.” Mike pointed. “See? The way the cheek curves?”
“Right.” I wondered if there was another way to identify the man. “Would my dad know Martell?”
“No, this was early on, before we were incorporated. Stan didn’t have a pot to piss in back then. He’d just married Janine.”
