Chapter 19: External Threats

June 19, 1990, Chicago, Illinois

“Mr. Stephen Adams and Miss Elyse Clarke to see Mrs. Lundgren,” I said.

“And those other two gentlemen? Are they with you?” the receptionist asked.

“Yes. Those are my attorneys, Mr. Jamie Ferguson and Mr. Philip Lache.”

“Mrs. Lundgren was only expecting you.”

“I understand. She wanted the meeting, not me. It’s on my terms, not hers. If she doesn’t want to speak to me in front of my CFO and my attorneys, we’ll leave now. And once we do, she’ll only be able to deal with my attorneys. It’s her choice.”

The receptionist picked up a headset, put it on, and dialed an internal extension. She quickly explained that I was there and had brought two attorneys and my CFO with me. She received instructions and then asked me to take a seat. About ten minutes later, the phone buzzed, and she answered it.

“Mrs. Lundgren will see you now,” she said.

She led us to an office that was about six times the size of mine, with an amazing view of Grant Park and Lake Michigan. There was a large desk, a conference table that seated twelve, a pair of couches, several chairs by the desk, and several more near the couch. There was a full bar built into one of the walls, and there were two large cabinets that housed televisions, which were muted. The one thing I didn’t see was a computer.

“Mrs. Lundgren? I have Mr. Adams, Miss Clarke, and attorneys Ferguson and Lache.”

“Thank you, Julie. We’ll have tea and coffee, please.”

“Right away, Mrs. Lundgren,” she said.

“Two lawyers? Am I that scary, Mr. Adams?” Mrs. Lundgren asked.

“An overabundance of caution,” I said. “I was uncomfortable due to the tone of our conversation about your daughter.”

“Yes, my wayward daughter. Please take seats on the couch and chairs around the coffee table.”

We sat down, and about a minute later, a very well-dressed young man brought in a tray with a teapot, a carafe of coffee, a sugar bowl, a pitcher of cream, and five cups. He fixed tea with cream and sugar for Mrs. Lundgren, then offered the rest of us tea or coffee and fixed our cups as we’d specified. I took note of the fact that he’d served her first rather than the guests, which told me quite a bit about what she thought of us.

“What are your concerns, Mrs. Lundgren?” Jamie asked as he and Phil had planned when we had lunch before the meeting.

Both he and Phil had yellow legal pads on their laps, with pens poised to take notes.

“That this young man has filled my daughter’s head with crazy notions and convinced her to abandon her family.”

Jamie smiled, “For the sake of argument only and admitting no such thing, even if it were true, I fail to see what you expect to come of this meeting. Your daughter is,” he checked his notes, “twenty-four. She applied for the position at NIKA, apparently at your insistence, after you blocked her from even interviewing with firms outside the Chicago area. She’s been a model employee for two years and has no issues of which we are aware that would make her your ward or a ward of the state.”

“Be that as it may, she has obligations to her family with which Mr. Adams is interfering.”

“Ma’am,” Phil said. “Unless you’re claiming that he is threatening, blackmailing, or otherwise acting illegally, this is between you and your daughter. My client, and his firm, which Mr. Ferguson represents, are simply innocent third parties.”

“What is it that you want?” I asked as we’d planned.

“I want my daughter to fulfill her obligations to her family. This Foundation must continue in the family, and she, as my only child, must take it over. I want you to end her employment.”

I look at Jamie, who raised his pen, signaling that I should continue.

I shook my head, “That I will not do. If Jeri wishes to leave voluntarily, that’s her business, and I can’t stop her. I will, of course, try to change her mind, but the one thing I will not do is end her employment.”

“Mrs. Lundgren,” Jamie said. “I’m going to reiterate what my learned colleague said — this is between you and your daughter. Our client has done nothing wrong, and his continued employment of your daughter is on rock-solid legal, moral, and ethical grounds. She’s an adult and has made her choices. Mr. Adams is respecting those choices. We’d ask you to do the same.”

“You have no idea how much damage this will do!” she said firmly. “The Lundgren Foundation supports numerous very important causes, and without it, many of them would not exist! This is far more important than some small computer company in Hyde Park! It is far more important than some theoretical ethical and moral ground on which you claim to stand! I have a duty to my family and to the Foundation to ensure that it continues. Geraldine has an obligation to her family. She was raised for this, and I simply won’t let you take her from her destiny!”

“Mrs. Lundgren,” I said, ignoring Jamie’s signal not to respond. “I don’t give a damn about your daughter’s destiny. She’s an adult who has made her choice. Take it up with her.”

“I see we have nothing more to discuss,” she said. “I’m sorry you couldn’t see reason. This is far from over, young man.”

“Mrs. Lundgren,” Jamie said. “From this point forward, all communication with Mr. Adams, NIKA Consulting, its employees, or Mr. Adams’ family, must come through either me or my colleague, Mr. Lache. Here’s a letter stating that fact, signed by Mr. Adams, and another letter from the Board of Directors of NIKA authorizing me to represent their interests, signed by the corporate secretary. I’ll also ask you to refrain from contacting your daughter at work unless she specifically authorizes you to do so.”

Her jaw set, Mrs. Lundgren spoke firmly, “As you wish. Good day.”

“We can see ourselves out,” I said.

The four of us left her office and walked back to the lobby to wait for the elevator. Nobody spoke until we reached the street.

“At least you were careful when you ignored my signal not to speak,” Jamie sighed.

“That hag needed to be put in her place,” Elyse said. “It was all I could do to remain quiet.”

“She is VERY well connected in this city,” Phil said. “If she wants to cause trouble, she probably can. I don’t think she’ll try any legal maneuvers; you showing up with two lawyers in tow told her you were prepared for that.”

“So what do you think she’ll do?”

“If I were her? A whisper campaign amongst the doctors and lawyers in her social circles to interfere with your business. It’s perfectly legal, and there’s not a damned thing you can do unless you can prove libel or slander. Again, if I were her, I’d use the moral angle and simply talk about your fathering children out of wedlock and, please excuse me for using this term, Ms. Clarke, having a harem.”

Elyse laughed, “You aren’t the first one to use that term, and you won’t be the last. But it’s not like that. If anything, it’s Steve who’s the kept man. The women are in charge of everything.”

Jamie chuckled, “Isn’t THAT the truth! Phil, I’ve known Steve for about seven years, and she’s not kidding when he says that the women run things. We’ve dealt with this before, and Steve stepped back as the face of the company for a time to keep the lid on, so to speak, while they got established.”

“But he’s taking on the CEO role next month, correct?” Phil asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s where the problems will come, most likely.”

“Most likely?” I asked.

“Who does your taxes?”

“Bruce Grady, a friend of Jamie’s.”

“He’s a CPA and fully aware of Steve’s personal relationships,” Jamie said. “He does Steve’s taxes as well as the corporate ones. I am positive there are no loose ends there. Granted, it’s always possible that mistakes were made, given the complexities of the tax code, but there are no legal issues. Bruce is good.”

“And the private agreements with the women and about child support?”

“All done by my friend Gwen Meyer,” Jamie said. “She’s one of the best family law attorneys in the city. She mostly works with gays and lesbians, so she has quite a bit of experience navigating the legal system for people the state doesn’t recognize as married.”

“At this point,” Phil said, “all we can do is let it play out and respond as it does. Steve, don’t talk to her, and only talk to your employee as much as necessary to do business. And make sure you have someone with you at all times when you do. I’d like to interview Miss Lundgren if you’re OK with that.”

“It’s fine with me. I’ll let her know you’ll be calling her. I know she’s talked to her attorney and the trustee responsible for managing her trust until she turns 25.”

“Her mother has nothing to do with that?”

“No. It was established in Jeri’s name by her grandparents, and the trustee is independent of the Foundation and any control by her parents.”

“OK. Call us if anything comes up. And warn your staff to report ANY comments about the firm or you personally that they hear.”

“Will do,” I said.

We all shook hands, and Elyse and I headed back to my car for the drive back to the office.

“So what do you think?” she asked.

“I think she’s going to do exactly what Phil suggested — try to pressure us in such a way that Jeri leaves or is terminated. The problem is, that’s not going to solve the problem. Jeri could easily get a job at a big company that her mom couldn’t pressure, or Jeri could say ‘fuck it’ and just live off her trust fund. Margaret Lundgren’s problem is Jeri, and that’s not solvable in my opinion.”

“So why try to wreck your business?”

“So that I’ll pressure Jeri to embrace her ‘destiny’ as her mother sees it. If she takes away Jeri’s dream job, maybe Jeri changes her mind. That’s her thinking, anyway. I don’t see it happening. Of course, it could just be vindictive, and she’s going to do it just to prove how powerful she is.”

“So what do we do?”

“First, we talk with the leadership team. Then we talk with the Board. Then, the staff. I think we can head off most things she can say if we think it through.”

“What about someone else acting as CEO instead of you?”

“I thought about that. My first inclination is to stay the course because I’ll be damned if I’m going to let that woman control how I run my company. And, if she sees us reacting that way, it would simply encourage her to put even more pressure on us. And in the end, I’m sure that she knows it’s my company and whoever is in the CEO chair is, at least from her perspective, and the perspective of most of our customers, a figurehead.”

“I guess compared to her desire to control her kid, your mom is an amateur!”

“My mom only dreamed about having that kind of control!” I chuckled. “And once I’d met Don Joseph, she had no real control. Once I turned eighteen, he would be able to provide all the funds I needed to pay for college, a job, or anything else. And I’d founded Four Dimensional Software, which gave me all kinds of freedom as well. So even if my dad hadn’t come through, I’d have been OK. I might not have been able to go to Sweden, but things would have worked out.”

“But it would have been VERY different,” Elyse countered. “You probably never would have met Kara, you wouldn’t have met Sofia, things with Jennifer and me would have been different, and on and on. You wouldn’t have this life. Who’s to say the other one would have been any good?”

“Which is exactly why I generally don’t play the ‘What if?’ game.”

We got into the car, and I headed south on Michigan Avenue.

“I hate to ask this, but is your life EVER going to calm down?”

“It would appear not,” I said. “But, this is tangential, really. It’s not my drama if you will.”

“True. And you could easily rid yourself of it if that becomes necessary.”

“I could, yes, but I’m not going to.”

“Do you think her mom knows anything about you two?”

“She knows that Jeri went on business trips with me to Los Angeles and San Francisco.”

“That last one wasn’t a business trip, Mr. Adams.”

“No, but that’s what Jeri told her mom. And I don’t see any way that Mrs. Lundgren could find out that it wasn’t a business trip.”

“Probably not.”

When we arrived back at the office, we went to Julia’s office.

“Where’s Cindi?” I asked.

“She’s in Memphis today. She’s visiting a firm that’s looking to computerize.”

“When will she be back?” I asked.

“Tomorrow at some point.”

“Can we get her on the phone? We need to talk about this right away.”

Julia picked up the phone and dialed Kimmy’s extension.

“Would you please call Bendini, Lambert, and Locke in Memphis and ask them to have Cindi call us as soon as possible, please?”

She hung up, and I filled her in on what had transpired. She said she’d call me as soon as Cindi called in, and then Elyse and I asked Jeri to come to the small conference room. I told her what had happened and what Phil and Jamie had said.

“I don’t want to cause you trouble,” Jeri said. “I suppose I could just quit.”

“That’s the last thing we want to happen,” I said. “I dealt with stuff like this with my mom before I moved out of the house. It’s why I moved to Chicago. And while they don’t have the kind of money your parents have, I did basically walk away from a large inheritance. My dad has come around, but I didn’t care about the money. I cared about running my own life. And I think you do, too.”

“That’s true, but this could make a real mess for you. Will you at least let me pay for your attorney?”

“Let’s worry about that later. If it becomes an issue, we can discuss it. Right now, though, let’s see how it plays out.”

“Your mom doesn’t know anything about you and Steve, does she?” Elyse asked.

“Oh, HELL no! She thinks I gave in to one of those limp-dicked society assholes years ago. Let her continue to think that!”

“What’s your dad’s take on all of this?” I asked.

“He does whatever my mom says. She wears the pants in the family if you will. He’s really a nice, sweet guy, but he has no balls. None at all. I think my mom keeps them in a jar in her bedroom. Her SEPARATE bedroom. He gets it, but only on her terms and when she decides.”

“Like all men,” I chuckled.

Jeri laughed, “True. But you know what I meant!”

“Yes, I did. Go on back to work, and we’ll wait to see what happens.”

“Thanks for sticking by me,” she said. “I really appreciate it.”

She left, closing the door behind her.

“You should take her up on paying the attorney’s fees.”

“I most likely will, but not yet. Let’s see how things play out.”

We each went back to our offices, and I got back to work. About twenty minutes after I sat down, Kimmy buzzed me to let me know that Julia had Cindi on the phone. I went to Julia’s office to find Dave, Elyse, and my sister waiting there.