It was the last thing he would ever say to his mother.
Should he write Jason a note? It felt wrong to leave the world without speaking to someone or writing a real farewell. He started to get up for a pen and paper but the room lurched and he slid back to his chair. His laid his face on the table and waited for the dizziness to pass. Images of his father flashed though his hazy thoughts. His dad standing in the back of the auditorium during a sixth-grade Christmas concert because he’d come in late. His dad standing at the foot of his bed on a Saturday morning saying, “I don’t understand you. Get up. It’s a great day.”
Robbie struggled to remember his father’s cell phone number. His first guess was wrong and a Chinese woman answered the phone. He mumbled “sorry” and hung up. Maybe he had dialed wrong. His fingers felt clumsy. He tried again. The phone rang three times, then he heard his fathers’ impatient “Hello.”
“Hi Dad. It’s Robbie.”
“Hello son.” Long pause. “It’s been a while.”
“I know. I was just thinking about you and decided to say hello.”
“You sound drunk.”
“Maybe a little.”
“You should call back when you’re sober. Unless you called for a reason. Do you need money?”
Robbie wanted to cry. He needed so much, and yet, so little.
“Not money. Sorry to bother you.”
He hung up and his head fell to the table, with his heart thumping in his ears. The vodka was overwhelming him. He knew he needed to act fast before he passed out.
Where had he put the pills? He could barely lift his head to look around. Had he taken them already? He must have, he couldn’t keep his eyes open.
Chapter 24
Rudker snatched up the buzzing phone and barked, “Yes?”
“Gerald Akron is on line one.” His secretary said the CEO’s name as if he were God. Her deference for the fat, arrogant SOB soured Rudker’s mood even more.
He pressed the top red button. “Hello, Gerald. What can I do for you?”
“What’s the word on the expansion, Karl? We need to know if it’s a go. We’ve been offered a sweet deal on some land up here and need to make a decision.” Akron sounded a little distant, a little edgy.
Rudker was immediately worried. “The council voted our way. Now we’re just waiting for the environmental report, which I guarantee will be favorable. I made sure of that.”
“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.