"What else do you have?"
"Not much. Not a conclusion, anyway. I do have a potential action plan."
Steve pulled his chair closer to the desk, clapping his hands with excitement. "Great, let's hear it!"
Alex started scribbling on the whiteboard. "We have four major issues that Dr. Barnaby brought to our attention: the handwritten note, fluctuating stock price, employee engagement, and potential issues with the products." As she was speaking, she was drawing on the whiteboard a table with four columns, each column titled by one of the issues. "Let's call these four issues the four key complaints, and number them one through four," she continued, picking up a red marker and numbering the columns. "Now let's talk about each one and see how, if at all, it correlates with the other key complaints." She picked the handwritten note from the table and quickly examined it up close. "Number one. We know it was sneaked into Dr. Barnaby's pocket, so we can assume the author was afraid to speak directly to Dr. Barnaby."
"Or be seen speaking with him," Steve added.
"Or be seen — that's a somewhat different story," Alex continued undeterred, "but we're still talking about fear." She wrote fear in the first column, right under the title. "Moving on to the note's content, we have a reference to people dying, which, to Dr. Barnaby's point, does not play like a threat. It sounds more like…" she turned and underlined the word she had just written on the board, "fear. Fear is also reflected by the note's content."
Both Steve and Tom were listening, and both seemed to agree with her thinking. Tom was taking quick one-word notes, making Alex curious. Was she missing something? Was she wrong in her deductions? There was going to be a time to find that out later, after she was finished.
"The note speaks of people dying," she continued, "so I would think it might be worth looking into past deaths involving, well, anyone connected to NanoLance. Employees, military personnel, civilians overseas, anything that could be related to NanoLance. My logic is that if a random employee was able to link people's deaths to the company, so could we."
"What if the employee was not random? What if it's someone whose position with the company provides access to information, allowing him or her to link the events?" Tom asked, with his usual encouraging smile.
"True," she conceded, blushing slightly, "I jumped to conclusions. I am sorry."
Tom dismissed the apology with a wave of his hand.
"We should still look into this," she said, turning to the whiteboard and writing the word death(s) right under fear. "Could be more than one dead," she said, justifying the potential plural of the word.
"Yes, we should definitely explore this avenue," Tom agreed, jotting one more note on his pad.
"We know Dr. Barnaby did not report the note incident, and we have no way to get fingerprints now, after the note has been through so many hands." She picked up the note from Tom's desk and continued. "Please stop this insanity or more people will die," she said, reading the note again, to refresh everyone's memory. "I noticed the polite addressing, leading me to believe the author doesn't consider Dr. Barnaby directly responsible for these deaths, but rather someone who has the power to change things for the better, if he is willing to learn what's wrong in the first place."
"Interesting conclusion," Steve said. "What made you think that's the case?"
"There's no negative feeling in the note toward Dr. Barnaby. There's no venom, no contempt. If the note's author thought that Dr. Barnaby is directly responsible for these deaths, I think the note would read more along the lines of 'stop this insanity, you irresponsible maniac,' or 'killer,' or whatever. At the very least, it wouldn't include the word please."
"I think you're right," Steve said. "If there were a direct link between Barnaby and these deaths, the author's opinion would be directly accusatory toward him."
"And more venomous. Let's not forget the note's author is risking something to try to stop the bad stuff from happening, so he, or she, is a good guy. Such a good guy would feel strongly against someone who's directly responsible for one or more deaths." She paused to look at the note again. "We can assume, by the fact that the note was handwritten in a hurry and crumpled, rather than folded, that the author was pressed for time. This spells out that the author saw an opportunity and quickly took advantage of it. He did not expect to come so close to Dr. Barnaby. Then it's safe to assume he doesn't usually come into contact with him; they do not roam the same corridors, nor do they casually meet by the coffee machine."
She turned to the whiteboard again, writing and underlining at the bottom of the first column the word author, and under it the phrases good guy, not usual entourage, rare encounters, remote?
"This could mean they only came in contact in passing, didn't even speak at the party." She turned away from the whiteboard and continued. "Do we have any possibility to do a handwriting analysis on this note? Can we use a lab or something? I'm not expecting much, but it might be worth it."
"I'll see that it gets done," Steve said, taking a quick note on his pad.
"Number two, the stock price issue, has me stupefied. The only things I can think of doing don't seem promising in terms of results. I could investigate each leak, and find out where the information came from, but without authority, it's highly unlikely anyone will reveal anything to me. I could look at old emails and communications dating back around those events, but I think that whoever did this was no idiot. Chances are they covered their tracks well. So, on this one I am stumped," she sighed, shrugging and looking down.
"Chin up, Alex, if this was an easy job, anyone could do it," Tom said. "You did great on number one, on number two you need to change the approach."
"How?" she asked.
"Once you're going to be working for NanoLance, you'll have the time to observe. You'll be looking for motive and opportunity, and you will figure out who stands to gain the most from this maneuver. Then you'll piece the puzzle together."
"I see," Alex said, without looking convinced.
"When you presented the leadership team to us, you didn't like any of the front-runners, remember?"
"Yes, that's true. But why do you consider Sheppard and Walker to be front-runners?"
"Because they are the leaders in the succession race, the most likely choices for the CEO role, after Dr. Barnaby retires."
"I see. Well, to some extent. I can understand why Benjamin Walker is a front-runner. As chief operating officer he is second in command, and it makes sense for him to be the successor. However, why would you consider Dustin Sheppard as a front-runner? He's chief of technology, and these executives rarely climb higher in the ranks, to the CEO role."
"Questions are yet again wasted, Alex." Tom paused, allowing himself a long drag from his cigar, and then, slowly exhaling the smoke, he watched it twirl in the sunrays.
"Ugh…" Alex's reaction brought a smile on Steve's face.
"Again, you're not thinking. While it might be generally true that technology leaders seldom rise to the top level in corporations, the only exception to this rule happens in—"
"Technology corporations. Duh!" Alex finished the phrase, with a frustrated smile. "I wasn't thinking. OK, so they're both front-runners. That means some fight over power could most likely exist; we need to consider that."
"Or an alliance," Steve offered.
"An alliance? How could that be serving both their interests?" Alex asked.
"See how you're showing your true nature, Alex?" Steve said. "You wouldn't consider forming an alliance, then turning against your ally at the right moment and stabbing him in the back. However, any of these executives might consider doing just that."