Chapter 14

"We you basically know all there is to know. I was to push through invoices every 4 to 6 weeks for up to just under sixty thousand dollars. I did hear them talking about bribing some guys to screw up your production."

"There is one more thing. The order that Monique talked to you about in her e-mail, it is not going to be a real order. They are going to jerk you around. Asking for re-designs again and again and after you've spend a bundle on those, they will just cancel it."

I took a deep breath "is there anything else I need to know?"

"Sorry Peter, if there is, I don't know about it. So what is going to happen to me?"

"Did they give you a copy of the disc?"

""No, I don't have any evidence against them."

"Well, you are going to turn in your keys and cell phone, credit cards and car keys. Then you are going home and never come back. I'm not going to press charges but there may come a time when I will need your testimony regarding this conspiracy. So I want you to stay in touch with me. If I have to come looking for you, I will file criminal charges against you. Are we clear on this?"

"Yes Peter, I understand. I know it is a lot to ask, I plan on going home to Alabama. If I need a reference, would there be any chance of you giving me one based on the years I worked for you?"

"I'll have to think about that. I can't promise that I will but what I can promise is that as long as you cooperate if needed, I won't give you a bad reference. So good luck. I'm really sorry about this."

"Peter, I'm so, so sorry. I wish there was some way to regain your trust but I understand."

With that Sue dug out her keys, phone and company credit card, left them on the table and walked out.

I was sad and upset so I went to my office to get my thoughts together before confronting the production guys.

I had one of the security guys bring in the three guys from quality control.

"We rechecked all your work from last week and found almost half of the units defective. We haven't had time to check who signed off on those faulty units".

I introduced Detective Snyder to them and before he started to asking questions one of the guys piped up.

"Sir, I have no idea what is going on, I was working all week on the Boeing order and it is still here. There was nothing wrong with those parts."

He looked hopefully at me and I told him to go and wait in the reception area and picked up the phone.

"Karl, how fast can you have someone check the Boeing order that is in the shipping area. One of the guys claims that he worked on that all last week?"

"Peter, I can have someone on it this afternoon. I don't think it will take much time. Maybe we keep one of the shipping guys on overtime. He can unpack and repack while my checks the units."

"Yeah that sounds OK, we haven't had any trouble with Boeing. I think these assemblies are too simple to mess with and only two guys work on them. Check every tenth unit and let me know."

I was quickly getting tired of this and said:

"Here is the deal, the first one who speaks up and tells the truth of what is going on here gets a free pass from criminal prosecution, he just gets fired."

"There is three minute time limit on the offer"

They started arguing among each other but one of them said "I talk".

"It started when the other guy still owned the company and we were unhappy about the pay and working conditions, stuff like that. So Tom here came to me and said 'one of the guys in production wants to mess with the product if we let it go through. You know every third or fourth piece. Maybe if the customer bitches enough, the owner comes around and we get some more money'. Well it didn't seem to work, so we increased the number of bad units. I know it's stupid but until you took over and spoke to us, neither of thought about possible consequences like losing the contract."

"So when, you took over and told us about the bonus program, we all agreed that was a good thing and we stopped."

"Then Friday a week ago we were sitting in the bar down the block having an after work brew, when this really hot broad with great boobs and lots of cleavage and judging from the way her boobs where moving, no bra, walked in and sat next to me."

"Before I knew it she had new beers for each of us and she started talking, telling us that she worked for a competitor and if we helped her screwing up production, she would pay us five hundred buck a week and if any of us could prove to have at least an eight inch cock, we could fuck her too. I mean I was stunned. I sure liked what I saw and thought that I would "measure" up."

"Anyway, one of the guys asked her 'what if we get found out and get fired'? 'Don't worry about that, my employer will have similar jobs for you once he gets the contract because of what you'll do for us'. With that she got up and left, leaving a plain card with a phone number on the bar. 'Call me when you make up your mind and leave a message.' She sure was nice to look at as she walked out of the bar, swinging her ass."

"So we sat there and talked for probably an hour or more, finally deciding that we would do it. Five hundred bucks a week and a job if things went south sounded too good to pass up. (a wry grin on his face) None of us talked about getting laid because none of us was sure if we would "measure up" and if the offer was real."

"So we all agreed, Hank and James from production and the two of us. I think the guy before Karl might have been in on it. I don't know. I think he knew and had figured out what was going on earlier and said nothing. Who knows, he might have identified us to the broad. I mean how would she know that we may do something like the proposed."

After hearing that story, I got up and went to my office. On my computer I had a picture of M that I hadn't gotten around to deleting. I printed it out and went back to the conference room.

"Is this the woman that approached you?"

"Sure is, how did you... ?

"She is my soon to be ex and she doesn't take losing very well. I want you to confirm for the record that the woman in this picture approached you with an offer to pay you for sabotaging production."

"Detective Snyder would you please call your colleagues and have them come and arrest these two and the other we're holding in the plant for sabotage, destroying property and whatever else our esteemed District Attorney can come up with."

"Hey you said..." "I said nothing. You guys talked out of your own volition. We can check the tape if you want. You dug your own holes."

Ted, Mark let's get back to work. We have a company to run. We've wasted enough time on these guys. The detective will make sure they won't go anyplace till the cops get here to arrest them."

We went to my office and Ted raised the question "What about the masterminds behind this whole scheme?"

"I honestly don't know yet. I'll have a talk with my lawyer who is a share holder in the company and I guess eventually the DA to see what his feeling is. If he thinks he has a case to prosecute."

Early afternoon Karl called and told me that he had been able to verify that the third guy in QC was only working on the Boeing part and had no part in the sabotage of the army parts.

"Put him back to work but warn him, tell him that if he thought that those other two were doing something wrong, he should have told management. Have you been able to hire replacements from the list I gave you?"

"Sure have, they all will start tomorrow. I've also gotten one of the retired guys on a part time base to come in 4 hours a day, that's all he wants to work, to repair the defective units we found this weekend plus all the stuff the army is sending back to us. We should be in good shape in four to five weeks and be able to ship trouble free parts in a timely manner."

"Thanks Karl, that was a good idea. I guess he's trying to make some Christmas money."

I called Michelle in her office and asked if she wanted to have dinner with me since I needed her professional advice on an issue that effected their investment in my company. She agreed and we decided on the Bistro that Red had taken me to shortly after moving into my place.

I picked her up at seven and on the walk to the restaurant we talked about her trip to New York with Greg. I had made reservations, even though they really not needed on a Monday night and asked for a booth that would offer us some privacy. As we were sipping on our cocktail I told Michelle about the troubles and attempts to sabotage the production and that M and HH were behind it.

"The guys identified M as the person who approached them with the offer of money for the purpose of sabotaging the production. Do you think we have a case against M and HH if she rolls on him, either civil or criminal?"

"I would need to look at the video recording you made this morning and have a talk with the DA. He may not like going after her, fearing that she'll be able to afford great legal representation and he's got a tight budget and would prefer spending money on cases that make the papers and help his reelection next year."

"I think, I could have some fun going after her for damages in a civil action. I'm thinking if I can convince the DA to convene a grand jury and indict them, we would have a really good case on the civil side. If he decides later not to prosecute, so what."

"Hmm, yeah that could work. I guess we need to have telephone meeting soon where all the partners in the company get a say as to what we want to do."

As we were walking back home I said "I hear that you are flying down to see Red on Sunday."

Michelle looked kind of surprised at me and then nodded.

"I've been invited for Thanksgiving and I'm going to drive down on Tuesday. Red wants me play golf with her Dad on Wednesday. So I guess I'll see down there next week."

I wasn't sure, but somehow I didn't think that went over to well. By that time we had gotten to her door and we said goodnight.

The next morning I called Greg and told him what had transpired and was all in favor of a civil action against both M and HH. I also sent an e-mail to Cindy telling her about what went on yesterday and to please relay it to Red since she had a voice in deciding what actions to take.

The rest of the week was uneventful and things seemed to have settled down enough so that I could take off early on Friday and drive up to the lake for the weekend. Saturday turned out to be a beautiful nice fall day and the Judge and I played a round of golf during which I told him about the goings on at the company.