L Sellers - The Suicide Effect

“Good. But when will we know?”

“By the end of the week. Monday at the latest.”

A grunt, followed by a pause. Rudker knew something unpleasant was coming.

“John and Harvey and I had a meeting yesterday, Karl. W decided that in light of the merger, we needed to reorganize the leadership structure.”

Long pause. Rudker’s face began to sweat.

“In essence, we’re creating a group of vice-presidents, each with his own area of responsibility.”

A knife to the gut. They were taking his power and giving it away.

“You’ll oversee operations.”

The knife twisted. A glorified plant manager. He felt ill. Outraged. He could not speak.

“Karl? Are you still there?”

“Yes.”

“We think it’ll make the company stronger. We expect your cooperation. I’ll e-mail you the memo outlining the new structure.”

“Who’s being promoted?”

“Tibbs, Reilly, and Oberkow. Good people. You’ll see the responsibility breakdown on the memo.”

Rudker tried to recover, to keep himself in the game. “I’ll make a call today about the environmental report and put some pressure on. I’ll have it signed, sealed, and delivered by Monday.” His voice sounded strange, even to him.

“Excellent. You’ll make a great head of operations.”

“Talk to you soon.”

He set the phone down and began to rub his temples. He had manipulated the company’s books, bribed the local government, and neglected his wife to the point that she cheated on him-all so he could relocate to Seattle for a plant manager’s job. Jesus H. fucking Christ.

He slammed the fat side of his fist against the desktop. It wasn’t enough. He smashed it again and again, ignoring the pain from the other night’s bruising. The action was rhythmic and loud, like a drummer at the end of a hard rock set. About the time he couldn’t take any more, Alice timidly opened the door to his office.

“Sir? Are you all right?”

“Do I seem all right?” Rudker gave her a look that sent her scurrying.

He stopped pounding, lest he start any rumors about his instability. Just what Akron needed to hear. The asshole. His hatred for his new boss felt physical, like a tumor growing in his belly. He hoped he would be able to hide his feelings from the man. At least long enough to put feelers out for a new position.

He checked his e-mail, looking for the management structure memo, but it wasn’t there yet. Probably a good thing. Why feed the fire?

He called Cindy Taylor, his buddy on the county’s environmental committee, but she wasn’t in. The message he left on her voice mail was briefer and gruffer than he intended, but he only had so much control over his mood.

While the cell phone was still in his hand, Jimmy Jorgovitch called.

“Hey Karl, it’s Jimmy.”

Rudker was startled by the man’s use of his name. He hadn’t given it to the PI. “I don’t know how you got my name, but don’t say it again. In fact, forget you know it.”

“Seems extreme, but I’ll go along.”

“What’s the girl up to?”

“You’re not going to like this.”

“Ah shit.” Rudker couldn’t take much more bad news. “What the hell is it now?”

“She took a flight first thing this morning. I just spent five bills of your money on a pimply faced kid to find out where. ”

“Just fucking tell me.”

“San Juan, Puerto Rico.”

The air left his lungs and wave of heat traveled through his body. Sula was now up there with Akron on the list of people he would gladly murder if he ever decided to completely let go. “When is she coming back?”

“I didn’t find out.”

“Why the hell not? For five hundred dollars, I expect to know exactly when her return flight hits the runway.”

“I’ll find out and I’ll be there.”

“Just call me and let me know.” Rudker hung up the phone. “Fucking nosy, pain in the ass bitch!” He was no longer concerned with what Prolabs’ employees thought.

His cell phone rang again. Rudker was afraid to answer it.

It was his son Robbie. The call surprised and pleased him at first. Then he realized the boy was drunk and obviously not at work where he should have been. Rudker was in no mood for nonsense, so he put him off until later. The boy was clearly having trouble again, and Rudker wished he knew how to help him. He had never understood Robbie’s problems, and he certainly did not have the time or patience to deal with them at the moment.

Rudker grabbed his jacket and strode from the office. Alice averted her eyes as he walked by. She was a pain in ass too. He would fire her as soon as he got back. Right now he needed to think and plan and he couldn’t do that in his confining office.

A company saleswoman stepped on the elevator in front of him. She was in her mid-thirties, with shoulder-length hair, and an attractive face. Rudker recognized her from a recent sales meeting, but couldn’t remember her name. He didn’t care and didn’t return her nod.

Thoughts and images he could not control flooded his mind. He visualized Sula’s plane crashing into the ocean and killing her on impact before she ever reached the island. He imagined a pack of indigent thieves coming out of an alley in San Juan and stabbing her to death for the cash in her purse. If only he could get that lucky.

The saleswoman behind him began to whisper. At first he thought she was making a cell phone call and trying to keep her conversation private. Then he realized she was making comments about him. Sleazy crook who runs this business can’t even keep his wife happy. Now he’s after that poor PR girl who used to work here before he fired her.

Rudker jerked around to face her. “Shut up!”

The woman drew back in shock.

Phony bitch. He turned around without further comment.

She was quiet for a moment, then started up again with her snake-like whisper. Sula’s right, you know, and she may beat you at your own game.

The elevator jerked to a stop. Rudker turned around again. “You’re fired.” The door opened and he stepped off.

The saleswoman ran after him, calling, “Why?”

Rudker ignored her, crazy as she was, and strode through the lobby. A few people glanced up, aware that something was going on, but no one looked him in the eye. He stopped long enough to snap at the security man, “Keep that woman away from me.”

He stepped out through the glass doors and into the bright sun. The back-stabbing saleswoman didn’t follow. Rudker took in the blue sky and warm breezed and longed for a day on the golf course. He suspected it would be a quite a while before he could relax that much again.

Taking the wheel of his big rig and powering it down the road helped clear his mind and reinstate his confidence. For a few minutes. Soon the voice from the elevator was in his head. It insisted Sula was dangerous. She went to the clinic in San Juan, it whispered. She traveled halfway around the world to gather evidence against you. She is hell bent on sabotaging Nexapra’s development and will stop at nothing to accomplish her mission.

Rudker could not silence the voice or ignore it. In his gut, he knew it was all true. Sula was a fanatic. By raising the stakes, she had changed the rules of the game. Now anything was fair. Rudker could play at that level too.

Cricket was in a funk. He couldn’t believe the city council had voted to amend the zoning regulations. Now the only thing standing between Prolabs and its new chemical-spewing factory was an environmental impact report. That report, which was being produced by a county-appointed committee of three, would not have any real “green” input.

He sat on his back deck in a canvas chair and stared into the tall pines trees. He wanted to smoke a joint, but he wouldn’t let himself. Not until he had formulated his next step. He was giving some serious thought to quitting pot anyway. A comment he’d heard behind his back yesterday made him realize he had become the very thing he’d run from all his life-a stereotype.