Chapter 13.
Tuesday 9:30 AM β Rudy's Deli
Karl Gerring was sitting across from his attorney, Dave Powers, finishing off his third cup of coffee since he sat down. At 8:00 AM sharp, papers had been delivered to the K.G. Construction office from lawyers representing CableNex, and they appeared to be voiding the large contract that he had signed with them less than four months before.
Powers had been looking over the documents for the past half-an-hour. The papers weren't terribly complex, but they were bad news for Karl Gerring's company, if they held up in court.
"Karl," asked Powers, "It doesn't come right out and say it, but the implication in these papers is
not
that you got confidential documents, which is what the media has been suggesting, but that you had access to some secret insider information through a source in the office. You weren't screwing the procurement manager or something, were you?"
"Hell no," came Karl's immediate reply, "I didn't do anything wrong...." There was a pregnant pause.
"What?" Powers finally asked, unable to sit in silence any longer.
"Damn, damn, damn. No, it wasn't the procurement manager, but I've been involved with Kathy Matthews, the H.R. Director. It's a long story, but briefly, she was my girlfriend 20 years ago in high school, and we started seeing each other recently. In fact, it was while I was submitting the bid for this that I ran into her again," was Karl's explanation.
The look on Dave Power's face momentarily turned incredulous, his eyebrows rising and his lips pursing, almost as if he was going to whistle.
"Unfortunately my friend," Powers said, shaking his head, "You are most likely screwed, then. They are perfectly within their rights to void the contract under those circumstances. In fact, they could potentially sue YOU for the costs associated with rebidding the contract. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but to contest this action would be very expensive, you will almost certainly be out of business before you would get it into court, and you will most likely lose if you do."
"I've got to get going, I have to be in court in about an hour," Powers noted, looking at his wristwatch. "Here, let me pick up the check." he said as he moved towards the exit door. "See you, Karl."
Karl was just sitting there staring into space. He was thinking, trying to see some way to save his business from this disaster, and not at all sure that he could.
Just then his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller I.D., and it said 'County Dept. Hlth', he answered it wondering who the hell wanted to talk to him now?
11:00 AM β Equity Corp, Paul Matthew's Office
My personal cell phone rang, and when I looked at the caller I.D., it was a blocked number. Probably a sales call, but with the wheels in motion and the wall tumbling down, I decided to answer.
It was Jill Jones, my inside source at CableNex.
"Paul?" I heard Jill's voice.
"Yes, Jill. What's going on?" I replied.
"Kathy packed up her personal things this morning, and left the building. The rumors are that she is resigning for personal reasons. Tom is supposed to send out a memo later today. I just thought that you would want to know," she concluded.
"Thanks, Jill. No surprise, eh? At least not to some of us," was my almost sad response.
Jill chuckled a little,
"I guess not. You know, Paul, I don't think that I would want to get on your bad side! But I really hope that you and Kathy can work things out β she's really a good woman, and I know that she loves you and your kids more than anything."
"I do too, Jill. And I'll just say 'thanks'." We made our goodbyes, and I ended the conversation.
2:00 PM β K.G. Construction, Karl Gerring's Office
To describe Karl Gerring's day as 'shitty' was akin to describing the bomb dropped on Hiroshima as 'a modest explosive device.' In relative terms, the destructive effects were about the same.
First came the cancellation of the contract with CableNex, which was about 75% of K.G.'s existing business. Then his meeting with his lawyer, who basically told him that he was wasting his time and money trying to take legal action to contest the decision.
Then, and maybe what had him the most angry, was the call from the fucking County Health Department, telling him that he needed to come in an be tested for a so-called STD β a sexually transmitted disease. So he stopped by the County Center, sure that it was some stupid screw up, only to be tested and told that he had fucking gonorrhea! Then they started asking about his sexual partners, and all of that kind or crap. Well, he'd only had one damn sexual partner, and her name was Kathy Matthews. The bitch must have gotten it from her husband, he thought. Oh, she's going to love that, he thought, when she finds out that her 'perfect husband' has been getting a little on the side.
When he finally got to his office, he had another immediate concern. He had to call in his crews, and lay most of them off, explaining to them that the major contract that they'd been working on had been cancelled. He didn't let them know why it had been cancelled, and tried to fudge a little by telling them that he was looking into potential legal recourse. They all knew that was bullshit! They left, first to stop by the unemployment office to get their unemployment checks started, and then they would grab a newspaper and start hoofing it to find another job. Damn.
Oh, hell, what else could go wrong. He'd reached bottom.
Lacking anything else that he could do at that moment, he decided to check his email for the first time in a couple of days.
Junk, delete, more junk, delete, request for proposal, oops β not in town, delete.