Luck of the Draw

Chapter 33 - Bickering and Dickering

Richard Korvak read the memo with a sense of dread. He was being summoned by the board, as the next ranking management member, to explain the absence of Malcolm and Barclay, and the delay in announcing the product line.

Richard's first suspicion was that Malcolm and Barclay had jumped ship. Using his password, he accessed the company financials and discovered that a large number of shares had been sold on the market recently. Malcolm, the bastard, had bailed with his nest egg!

He checked Barclay's account and noticed nothing had changed there... just Malcolm. Accessing his superior's financials had been one of Richard's initial steps when the NaturGro experiments began to look questionable. He wasn't going to be the last one in the lifeboat if things went south. Now here he was staring at exactly that scenario, and the boat was pulling away from the ship.

Malcolm's secretary had been reduced to tears by the torrent of telephone calls and e-mails demanding to reach Malcolm. She pleaded with Barclay's secretary to help her, reminding her that both their positions were in jeopardy because of their boss's disappearance. The result was a dead end. All they could discover was that both men had left for parts unknown with no way to contact them.

Richard entered the boardroom, after peeling Malcolm's secretary from his arm, telling her he had his own ass to cover. Four sour looking men sat about the huge table. At the head was Silus Playford, the major stockholder and chairman.

"Mr. Korvak." The greeting was brusque.

"Gentlemen." Richard pulled out a chair as far from the others as possible. "Before we get into any accusations or recriminations I would like to say that I have absolutely no knowledge of the whereabouts of Mr. Wagner or Mr. Hanover. What I do have is a statement about a sale of five thousand NaturGro Christmas trees to a client in Glen Springs. And if I may, Mr. Playford, make note that it was Edward, your son, who placed the order."

A range of emotions swirled over the face of Silus as he took in the statement. Teddy made a sale? Five thousand trees? Glen Springs! "Do you have papers to back this up?" The suspicion filled the air with such a density that Richard felt his sweat glands burst.

"I can have copies of the invoices sent right up, sir."

"Were we paid?"

"In full, sir. And before delivery."

Silus looked mildly bewildered. Teddy actually secured a sale paid in advance! He waved a hand indicating the papers wouldn't be required right then. Richard prayed they wouldn't ask about anything else regarding the tests. He wanted to get out, get his own money situation taken care of and vanish like his bosses had.

"I'd like to know how progress is going in the lab." The voice was shaky but still sprinkled with iron, and the man who owned it gave Richard a tell me or else look. The truth filled up behind his lips and he was afraid it would spill onto the table like Scrabble tiles for these hard-eyed men to assemble, sealing his fate.

"We are vigorously continuing the tests and monitoring the results closely. The tree sale points to the success we had hoped to see." He aimed this at Silus, hoping it would promote the son's achievement and divert any suspicion.

"I can read that in the damn reports. I want you to tell me how it's going." The hard-eyed member insisted.

"We uh- we are encouraged... daily..."

A hand slapped the table and made the water glasses jump. "Bafflegab! I want to see something tangible, something that does more than encourage me, mister."

"Now, now, George. Richard has stated thing are progressing and that sale news should placate your hunger for facts. I think we should turn our concentration to locating our management pair." He turned his gaze on Richard. "You have no idea of their whereabouts?"