Bringgggggggggggggggg… hello this is John Steal’s phone, may I take a message? No he is not in… I know you have been calling for days. I am sorry he isn’t in but I can take a message. I know Mr. Sapp, I have told him that you want to talk to him- yes I can leave another message… I am sorry, I know, yes I know, I will tell him how important it is … yes, thank you, hope you have a better day, ok … thank you.
My God if Mr. Steal doesn’t start answering… or at least calling these people back Karen I am going to go to Human Resources and demand to be moved to another department … I can’t take this much longer. You know when he first started here I thought he would be someone nice to work for.
He was 24, straight out of Harvard Business school … nicely dressed and a smile… but he always looked like he knew something no one else knew. He laid low … you could see him watching everybody… joined in just enough but really said nothing. No one knew anything about him or his family life. No pictures of the family or mementos- it was nothing I could complain about …but, I knew something wasn’t quite “kosher”.
But Marge, the first few months he was here he was a …very …considerate man… lately… over the last 6 months, he has been involved in something unethical and possibly criminal. He has changed since he first came to “The Company”. The upfront problem is not if we like him, the problem is what should be done now. No one at the firm has an inkling of what he is doing. He has been coming in at night to do paper work that he doesn’t want anyone to see but… I found something he meant to shred.
Karen… what were you doing in his office? “I just had papers I needed to put on his desk. But, while I was in there …I found these papers wedged between the file cabinets. It was a preliminary bid for a home right outside of King’s Court. The dilemma is that the city is bidding on the contracts to buy all of King’s Court Housing and converting the property into ‘Luxury’ apartments, to revitalize the area. Well, Mr. Steal has been going to the surrounding home owners and buying up the property so he can flip them and make a mint. The King’s Court deal is hush-hush, we know about it because we have to file papers but how he found out I don’t know. Many of the people have been trying to sell for years; they are willing to sell for rock bottom prices to get out of the area”.
Several weeks pass… Mr. Steal is becoming more and more erratic. Marge, your phone is ringing… do you want me to get it … no Karen I’ve got it…“Yes, Mr. Steal I will cancel all your appointments … but you know that the head of the firm has a 4 o’clock meeting scheduled with the entire senior staff. Yes, I will tell him you will try to make it”.
Karen I think that Mr. Steal may finally be called onto the carpet. The Senior V.P. met with the corporate lawyers yesterday… most times you can hear them chatting about their golf games… you know small talk but, not this time. They looked very uneasy… I heard that during the meeting they made several calls to the Housing Authority and even to the Mayor’s office.
Marge I still say that Mr. Steal’s personality has changed over the past year, first he bought a 15’ Schooner, and then … a vintage 1958 Red Aston-Martin and he had been driving in a 1995 Mini-Van. How does he afford these things… it is just so different from the conservative man he was when he first came here. He comes in at all different hours and he’s not eating … he’s lost at least 20 pounds. It is just very strange… I feel sorry for him, something is just weird.
“Excuse me ladies, but have either of you seen or heard from Mr. Steal today”? “Oh, Mr. Herd- Mr. Steal said he will try to make it to the meeting at 4pm”. “Well, send him to my office Karen, as soon as he gets in… I have something of great consequence to discuss with him”. Mr. Herd was anxiously wringing his hands while looking around the office…“Do you know where he is because… this really can’t wait”.
Just as we were talking… the elevator door “pings” then opens…. John Steal walks onto the floor. He moves to greet Mr. Herd with a grim face. I notice he has a bandage on his left arm… like he had blood drawn at a hospital. The men walked out of the area toward the President’s Office. There was a quietness that came over the entire office…. I found myself holding my breath, what is happening… I looked at Marge and shook my head.
Moments later there was a voluble thud… the stillness was replaced by chaos. “Call 911 someone… call 911… oh my God he’s having a seizure… its Mr. Steal…. give him room to breathe… he’s having a seizure”. Only seconds later we heard the ambulance sirens resonate through the streets and stop at our building… we would usually jump up to see what was happening to some nameless person down the street but it was our turn now and people are looking at us… I feel violated. Why do people have to know our business!
That day was certainly a day I will remember…it has been about two months since the entire commotion occurred. The ambulance arrived in time Mr. Steal did have a Grand-Mal Seizure… he had been to a Neurologist earlier in the day. The doctor found shadows on the X-ray preformed several days before… and they felt that he would be able to go to the executives of the company and explain…unfortunately the tumor was more serious and caused him to seizure. He was admitted to an area hospital and received immediate surgery.
After the surgery Mr. Steal awakened as a completely different man. It seems that the tumor had been growing for some time, possibly several years and just before he came to the company the tumor had caused amnesia. He had wandered away from his life, in Colorado, he did graduate from college just not Harvard- somehow he fabricated all his credentials because he was ashamed to tell anyone he didn’t know his past. Then when the tumor began to grow rapidly…. that is when his personality changed radically. He cheated home owners, he violated laws by defrauding the people when he knew about the deal our firm had with the city to turn King’s Court into luxury apartments. He also started living a more reckless life… buying boats, cars and doing drugs along with parties on the weekends. I did finally discover that Mr. Sapp was a private investigator hired to find Mr. Steal … who for some reason thought he was after him and did everything he could to hide himself from the one man who knew at least a part of his past. Also Mr. Steal’s real name was John Smith.
The authorities are working out settlements with the home owners… he has sold the expensive toys and has been reunited with his wife and two children.
