Chapter 6

Thursday, November 15, 2029...

I apologized personally for canceling our dinner plans when I met with Briana, Trent, Rodrick, and Carly for breakfast. It had been two weeks ago when they had arrived in Atlanta, so they told me they knew what I meant by jet lag exhausting someone.

Over breakfast, I said, “The main reason for my visit is to check on a friend. Since I want to take the cost of the trip off of my income tax, I have to have a good business reason for being here. What I plan to do while here, is to go out with you on a few interviews and sit in as you analyze the interview results. The stated reason to justify my trip as a business expense is for me to find things that will improve the Interview phase of developing an exposé.”

Rodrick said, “I can get behind that plan for I don’t like the IRS any more than you do. They audit me frequently and it seems like they have to deny a few of my valid travel expenses in order to justify the cost of their auditing me.” Carly and Briana nodded their heads in agreement.

I had worked with Mary creating the methodology for conducting the interviews, so I knew the basics of what was involved in the Interview phase. I didn’t think that I would find anything that would actually improve the process, but you never know. What I wasn’t expecting was that by being part of the process I would see the approach in a different manner.

They brought me up to speed on where they were in the interview process. While doing the Celebrity Eye Witness interviews, they found that the four of them breaking up into two 2-person interview teams worked the best for them with a man and woman on each interview team.

I didn’t recall that as part of the process, so I asked, “Briana, have you mentioned the structure of your interview teams to Mary?”

Briana said, “Yes, and it is being incorporated into our procedures and the structure of our teams.”

Briana continued her explanation by telling me each interview team selected an interviewee from their list of people to be interviewed. When conducting the interview, they would go through the standard introductory steps and then conduct the question and answer portion of the interview.

Toward the end of the interview, they asked the interviewee if there was anyone in the area that the interviewers should interview to get a wider view of the media outlet they were interested in and its staff. Most of the time, they would get at least one referral. The team would then interview those referrals and anyone those people suggested as sources of further information before selecting the next person from their list. Frequently, their follow-up interviews would be with someone already on their list.

They would go ahead and interview the person citing the interviewee who suggested they talk with the new interviewee. When the interviewees started referring people who had already been interviewed, they knew it was time to select the next person on the list that had not already been interviewed. I recognized that portion of the interview process from discussions I had with Mary.

Today I would go out with Briana and Trent. They would introduce me as Carl Thompson, a new hire who the company was training to conduct field interviews. The person they were interviewing this morning accepted my presence and I sat back silently monitoring the interview. When the interview ended, I took Briana and Trent to lunch.

During lunch, I said, “Briana, Trent, I was very impressed by the way the two of you handled the interviewee. I didn’t see anything you could have done to improve the interview. However, there is one thing I’m curious about. You introduced me as a trainee. I don’t recall that in the training program. Would that be something that should be added?”

Briana said, “No, that isn’t necessary. Our experience before we were hired has prepared us to conduct interviews. The differences between the interviews we did before we were hired and those we conduct now are minimal. The only significant difference I can think of is the structure of our interview teams for we used to do solo interviews.”

Trent said, “I agree with Briana. However, there is one thing you couldn’t see, Carl, from watching a single interview. That is, depending on who the interviewee seems to identify with at the start of the interview, either Briana and I will become the lead interviewer.”

“Humm. That is an interesting point. I suggest the two of you talk with Mary about how you share the position of lead interviewer. I think we need to add that to the standardized techniques for conducting an interview.”

Briana asked, “Shouldn’t you be the one to point that out to her? After all, finding things like that is the purpose of you monitoring us.”

“Don’t worry about me, Briana. Mary and I have discussed creating an incentive program for suggestions. The two of you developed the technique and pointed it out to me. By you two pointing it out to Mary, you will get the credit. If Mary thinks your approach is significant, then she may decide monetary recognition is warranted.”

After lunch, we started the analysis process. Briana made two working copies of the recorded interview, and stored the original tape for later use. Trent took a working copy of the interview to his room where he would independently analyze the interview. I went with Briana to her room where she walked me through the process of analyzing the recorded interview. There was a lot more to the process than I had realized. Analysis was a time consuming process that could take more than a day for a long interview that contained a large amount of useful content. The process consisted of two basic steps: the most important step at this point in the Interview process was to identify additional people to interview and topics to follow up on while still in Atlanta. The second step was to identify information that would be useful in writing the exposé.

We all had dinner together and discussed what each interview team would do tomorrow. I wanted some time to get ready for my date with Tamerlane tomorrow night and to talk with Steve, Karen, and Margie, so I would not be going with Rodrick and Carly tomorrow. I would go out with them on Monday to observe their interview. I would join the team on Saturday when they went over what the two interview teams learned during the week and planned their activities for the coming week.

After dinner, I met with Briana and Trent in her room. Then they showed me how they merged the results of their analysis into a consolidated database for that interview. I found it interesting that by conducting their analysis independently they had each identified things of interest that the other had overlooked.

Briana said, “Carl, today’s interview was shorter than normal and it mostly covered information that we had already been provided. Even though the information is already in our data base, we will add the information to database again referencing this interviewee as its source.”

I asked, “Why enter it in the database multiple times, if you have already documented the facts?”

Trent said, “Multiple sources of the same facts, Carl. Being able to cite two or more people telling us the same thing adds to the appearance of the information being reliable.”

I asked, “But what if it is multiple people repeating a rumor?”

Briana responded with, “Carl, we try to back up the statements the interviewee makes with documented facts. But that is not possible in all cases. Much of what we work with is about conversations the interviewee participated in or conversations they told someone else about, and they are now telling us about what was said in the conversations.

“When we can’t document something as fact, we say in our articles that multiple confidential sources provided the same information to us. All of our articles contain an introductory paragraph that includes a statement that essentially says, the statements made in this article may be inaccurate or rumors and information proving the comments as factual are provided when available.”

I would have to talk with Vic about the reliability issue regarding the statements we publish that may be false rumor. I realized that our standard methods did not address how two people involved in an interview should address the analysis of the interview’s results.

I said, “Briana, I don’t recall the analysis process including the two of you independently analyzing the tape and then merging your results. It seems like a better way of doing the analysis than doing it jointly. How did you come up with this method of doing the analysis?

“Well, when we were doing the Celebrity Eye Witness exposé, Rodrick and Carly were having problems working together during the analysis. They each felt that certain things might be important that the other believed to be insignificant. They decided to each analyze the interview and then merge their results rather than argue over whether something was or wasn’t important. It worked for them and they told us about their approach. Trent and I tried it, and it worked much better than jointly deciding what was important enough to document. Now we document all of our observations and we will winnow through what we documented when we are ready to do the writing. By documenting everything, an unimportant comment may later prove to be important.”

“When we have breakfast with Rodrick and Carly tomorrow, I’ll mention the incentive program Mary and I discussed and suggest they mention their technique to Mary.”

When we were finished for the night, I said, “I want to thank you for the time you spent with me today. I found the overall interview process interesting.”

Briana said, “We enjoyed having you with us, Carl.”

When I got back to my room, I called Mary. “Mary, we need to get that incentive program up and running, and include a bonus program for producing outstanding exposés. Among the things I learned today is, if their typical workday is like today, they are more than earning their pay and deserve a bonus if the exposé is excellent. I also identified two modifications to the interview process. Briana and Trent developed one and Rodrick and Carly developed the other. I’ll let them explain the changes to you, since they will be able to explain the changes better than I can and answer any of your questions.”

While trying and failing to be serious and not laugh, Mary said, “So, your field trip actually turned out to be worth your time and money. Don’t forget to write a trip report to back up your tax deduction.”

After chatting about how thing were going with her, Margie, Steve, and Karen I said good night. All was good back in San Diego and it was time for me to crash. It had been an exhausting day.

Friday, November 16, 2029...

The day started off with Gary, Jason, Briana, Trent, Carly, Rodrick and I having breakfast together at six thirty in the morning. It was going to be a long day for Gary, Jason, and me.

The main topic we addressed was the interviews the two teams would conduct today. Rodrick and Carly had three follow-up interviews planned before they were ready to select the next person on their list of interviewees. Briana and Trent had completed the follow-up interviews and had already selected the next person on their list.

One of the things they had learned during the interviews was that the owner of God’s Spokesman Weekly Newsletter, Jiles Tumber, was a sixty-year-old widower, who was a devoted member of his church. He and his wife had also inherited very large fortunes when his parents and his wife’s parents passed away. Most of our interviewees had told us his church was ultraconservative. It was the belief of the church’s members that everyone who did not believe what they believed was on their way to Hell.

According to the interviewees, Jiles lived the principles of his church. He made it clear that for him, the lifestyle of Hollywood’s celebrities violated his moral principles. Actually, almost everyone he knew violated his moral principles to some extent. The only people he found acceptable were members of his church, and the congregation consisted of about one hundred members, which is extremely small for a city the size of Atlanta. To Jiles, the actors and actresses were the devil’s disciples. He had been sued on many occasions for what his newsletter printed about celebrities. He won more than half of the lawsuits brought against him. But, even though he was a very wealthy man, the lawsuits he lost had a major impact on his finances. At this time his finances had diminished to the point that he could not afford to lose many more lawsuits.

Briana and Trent had drawn Jiles’ minister as their next interviewee. When Team 1 had prepared their list of interviewees, they had not known Jiles’ religious views were as extreme as they were. Briana and Trent decided they needed to plan their approach to the Reverend Ian Dempsey. If they approached him correctly, they might learn a great deal of information about Jiles Tumber. If handled improperly, the interview was likely to be very short and unproductive. They decided to take today and the weekend to plan how to approach Reverend Dempsey.

Gary and Jason had been left out of the conversation, so Carly decided to ask them what they had planned for the day.

She asked, “Jason, what are you and Gary going to do today?”

Jason glanced at me, then said, “We plan to support whatever Carl wants to do. If he wants to go somewhere, I’ll drive him there, and Gary will keep people from annoying him.”

She said okay and then turned to me, “What are your plans, Carl?”

“I plan to talk with Margie, Karen, and Steve. Staying on top of what is happening at SIMC from here is a challenge. Then I’ll make a reservation somewhere for dinner with my friend. Once that is done, I have some work to keep me busy.”

Some people are very intuitive and pick up on any emotional content in something someone says or perhaps it is their body language when they speak. Carly was one of those people. When I finished talking, she looked me in my eye smiled and said, “Have fun with your friend.”

I’m not that good at hiding my emotions. That is the main reason I don’t play cards for any serious amount of money. I swear her eyes had sparkled when she smiled and I just knew she knew Tamerlane was more to me than just a friend. It was only a moment after her comment when I responded by blushing and it was a full red blush. I had just confirmed her suspicions. Worse still was, Briana caught the byplay and just smiled at me. I decided to not volunteer any more information about my feelings for Tamerlane; my blush had been enough for the two women to know I was not telling everything about this evening’s dinner with my friend. We had all finished eating, so I made my excuses and headed to my room with Gary and Jason hurrying to catchup. They joined me in my room so we could talk about what I had planned for the day.

Gary said, “A good bodyguard learns how to read people, Carl, and he is observant of what is happening around him. Now I am not asking you to talk about your friend, but it was very evident to me that Carly suspected something and your blush confirmed it. Briana heard what she said and saw your blush, so she added two and two, and thinks she knows what is going on.

“I don’t think Trent and Rodrick were paying attention until the end, so they are just curious about what happened between you and Carly. By now, the ladies have probably told them what they suspect.

“Do you want to talk about it, Carl, or should I just shut up?”

“I don’t think it will matter much, Gary. I suspect Briana and Carly will be gossiping with Mary, Karen, and Margie about my friend, Tamerlane. From there the women will want to know everything about the lady they will assume is my girlfriend, so they can help facilitate evolving my friendship into a long-term relationship.

“There is no relationship at this time between Tamerlane and me beyond being acquaintances. When I met her last year, I was hiding from the reporters. I first saw her when she walked into the Broken Yolk on Garnet Avenue. Her looks didn’t register on me right away for I was mesmerized by her presence. As that feeling wore off, I realized she was a beautiful woman. Then I learned that she was a reporter and happily married. We talked while we ate our breakfast about the impact my winning the lottery had on my life and about her job as a reporter. Somehow, we became friends as we talked,

“When Mary announced that Team 1 was headed to Atlanta, it reminded me of Tamerlane. I called her just to stay in contact with a friend. I learned that her husband had been killed, and she was still recovering from his death. I decided to join Team 1 in Atlanta to see how she was doing.

“I have feelings for her, but I’m older than her and I don’t know if she has any feelings for me other than being a friend. I think she may be interested in me, but that is probably wishful thinking on my part. I hope to find out tonight if there might be a future for the two of us. If it looks that way, then we might start a long-distance romance, but they are hard to maintain.

Jason said, “Carl, Gary and I are more than just your employees. We have become your friends. As far as I’m concerned, if you need my help just let me know what you need.”

Gary said, “I’m with Jason. We will be there to do our jobs without being intrusive. Just focus on your lady friend, and as Carly said, have fun with your friend.

“Make your phone calls and then Jason and I can go with you to get what you will need to impress the lady. Did you have anything in mind?”

“Thanks guys. I haven’t done anything like this since I courted Ruth. I want to be more than just friends with Tamerlane, so I need to brush the rust off and get back in the romance game. Candy doesn’t feel right for tonight. I was thinking of a bouquet of flowers. Roses are what I want to give her, but that implies a romantic interest between the two of us, which isn’t present right now.

“Do either of you have any ideas?”

Jason said, “We need to go to a florist and ask their advice. They will know what is available that says ‘I like you’ without implying too much.”

Gary said, “My relationships with women haven’t worked out very well, so I’m with Jason on this.”

I stopped before saying what I planned to say. Then I said, “It just occurred to me that it is seven forty here, which means it is four forty in San Diego. It’s too early for me to call anyone, so let’s go to a florist.

A quick call to the concierge provided me with a recommendation for a local florist not too far from the hotel, and it opened at eight. It was a long walk that would be miserable for us, due to the cold gusty wind, so we decided to drive. Jason liked that the florist was only eight blocks away for the morning commute was in full swing and he wasn’t in the mood to fight traffic across town.

As we pulled away from the hotel, Gary asked, “Carl, I’m curious about why you refer to Mary, Karen, and Steve’s LLCs as SIMC?”

“I need to be careful to not do that in the future, Gary. If you or Jason hear me referring to the LLCs as SIMC remind me to not link them with SIMC.

“I own SIMC and SIMC owns SPI, but the other three LLCs are not part of SIMC. I think of them as part of SIMC because I am the senior partner in each of the three LLCs and Steve, Karen, Mary and I tend to think of them as part of the SIMC family. Me referring to them as part of SIMC could cause problems for the four of us if I continue to make statements like that in the future.”

Gary and Jason nodded to acknowledge what I said and we continued to the florists. We passed the florist and saw it was open, but there were no spaces available on the street to park. We cruised around until we found a parking garage and walked back to the florist.

The florist was a middle-aged woman who I thought might be in her early forties. The bell on the door rang when we opened the door. She looked up and asked if we needed help.

I said, “Definitely! I have a problem. There is this lady who I am friends with and I am in town to see if there is a chance for us to develop a relationship. I will be taking her out to dinner tonight and would like to get flowers for her. I know that roses usually mean affection and love, but that wouldn’t be appropriate for this evening. Other than roses, I am lost when it comes to the significance behind the meaning of most flowers. Do you have any ideas?

She smiled and said, “Come with me. I have just the thing for you.”

I was expecting a bouquet of wild flowers, but she handed me a beautiful yellow orchid in an attractive ceramic pot. She said, “Yellow orchids symbolize friendship and new beginnings. I think that is what you have in mind for tonight. This orchid is easy to care for, and with proper care, it will last for many years. It will also remind her of you every time she looks at it.”

“I’ll take it. Do you have a box to pack it in?”