by Matthew Nuth
I did not know exactly what to say to Dad. “Dad, does it hurt a lot?”
“Only when I am breathing, peeing, eating, you know pretty much all the time.”
Continuing, I said, “Do you remember talking about Johnny last night?”
“Johnny? You mean, Johnny Jackson? My friend, he died so long ago.” Dad started to weep. “You remember Johnny, don’t you William?” Dad was looking not at William, but at nurse Bob. “We fixed that fence at your house yesterday.” Dad had slipped back in time, into delusion. Oh, but for a brief moment he was here with me.
Mom walked in on us and said. “Boys, why not go get some air. William, I suspect you could certainly use some given how much you must have liked that wine last night. Maybe you can get Tim or Mark to open up a little early for you two. They called earlier this morning to make sure you two got home okay and to invite you back to talk a little. If there is one thing Mark and Tim like more than cooking, it’s talking.”
“I’m up for it if you are, Uncle Bill.”
* * *
William, I have always thought I knew you, but you constantly surprise me. I thought I was the good man of the two of us . . . and you surprised me again, Forgive me.
Paul,
January 3, 1963
Lanny had joined the Simmons & Sons team shortly after his father had hosted what he would come to refer to as the “Come-to-Jesus” meeting to begin forging a path to the future for the business. The move had been rewarding, both developmentally and financially for Lanny. Although his position at the bank certainly provided a nice, consistent, and safe pay, it would have been years before he could aspire to the wealth his father enjoyed. The Simmons family business had had a very good run over the past five years, and he had been lucky enough to participate in the success.
Simmons & Sons had taken his father’s advice to heart and had moved aggressively to put in place a corporate structure creating PW Simmons, Inc. and had added the subsidiary, Simmons Company. The restructuring of the Simmons & Sons had also provided another opportunity for the team and to ensure some business continuity.
As part of the corporate structure, James Horton tentatively suggested the corporate structure might be a good time to expand the ownership to include the significant members of the management team., thereby creating some real incentive to stay with the firm. Although Paul had initially been cool to the topic, he had come to see the wisdom in the move. He was confident in the team they had assembled, and it seemed to make sense that they participate in both risks and rewards in the future.
PW Simmons essentially doubled their closely held stock and redistributed the additional stock in equal parts to Lyle, Virginia, Arlin, Lanny, Joe Jr., Paul, and William. The additional allocation to Paul and William guaranteed the Simmons would maintain ultimate control of the company.
For Lanny, he had moved from a basic bank manager to the Controller and a part owner of the town’s most successful real estate developer in a few short years. It had been a very good run.
With the addition of Lanny and his new position, it was obvious PW Simmons had outgrown the old awning shop space. Although the shop held high sentimental value, the space’s location on the main street in the town proved to be of even a larger financial value. Its sale had largely funded the business relocation to a newly renovated office space a block west of College Boulevard. The new facilities were a tremendous boon to the team. Although the office required the climbing of stairs to a second floor, the office provided an abundance of square footage, enough to accommodate a staff of up to 20 people, a conference area for clients, and enough room for the business’s growing bank of files and plans. The facility also came with the luxury of natural light, beaming in through huge, west-facing windows that spanned the entire width of the office. Gone were the dreary days of laboring in the old awning shop.
Simmons Company occupied a small, walled-off section at the rear of the office, next to the conference area. When not in use, the space doubled as a quiet spot for PW Simmons client discussions and negotiations. Although Simmons Company had largely been managed by Lyle and Lattimore initially, Paul had become more hands on over the past year as Lattimore bowed out of the day-to-day operations. Paul had engaged to outline a path forward to expand Simmons Company’s footprint and its impact on the town; truly embracing its original charter of redevelopment. As such, he had also relegated much of the day-to-day business management of PW Simmons to Virginia and Lanny. William still handled all the construction operations for the company.
Lanny walked into the walled off section of the office that had now become Paul’s domain with a ledger book tucked under his arm. His face did not provide even a glimmer of the happiness that it normally exhibited. He had not bothered knocking upon entering and now, uninvited, he closed the door and plopped himself down next Paul’s desk.
“Paul, I think we have a serious issue to talk about,” started Lanny.
No greetings, no jokes, no small talk before jumping into business was unlike Lanny; and it had captured Paul’s attention. “What’s the matter Lanny? You lose your pencil or something?” Paul joked in the normal banter only he and Lanny normally engaged in. In private, Paul would kid Lanny about being a pencil pusher, Lanny would respond by referring to Paul as a B-school drop-out, even though Paul had yet to attend his first day of college. The banter was always good to elicit a smile, but not today.
“No, seriously, Paul, we have a real problem. It involves your brother and I am not sure what to do.”
“With William? What happened?
Lanny placed the ledger on Paul’s desk and flipped to a section he marked with a paper clip. He began to go through a series of cash transactions that had been initiated by William during the past year. The description merely referenced MM Enterprises—installment. Normally, Lanny had never questioned transactions that had been initiated by Paul, William, or Lattimore, but in this case, Lanny had been reviewing the previous year’s expenses in order to complete the tax returns for the PW Simmons and discovered this particular vendor. Over the period of a year, William had initiated payments of $3,500 to the company, an amount that justified making sure that future payments were completed via check to provide an audit trail. Upon recommending the change to William and offering to add MM to their vendor listing, Lanny had been rebuffed with a “never mind, I don’t think I’ll be doing business with them in the future, anyway.”
“Paul, I asked Arlin and Virginia if they knew anything about an MM Enterprises. They never heard of them.” Lanny was looking to Paul as if in hope that, miraculously, Paul would know of the company and the whole thing would be dismissed as a non-issue.
Unfortunately, it was not to happen. “Lanny, did you ask Dad or Lyle? Maybe they know something about it,” Paul asked.
“Not yet. I didn’t want to this to get out of hand if it was really nothing. Arlin and Virginia do not have any idea as to why I asked; and they certainly have no idea as to the dollar amount involved. So, what do you think we should do?”
Paul was silent, although his mind was going a mile a minute and not on good thoughts, he calmly suggested “Why don’t you sit on this for a couple of days? I suspect US Government is not going to fold up if it takes us another week to file our tax returns, right?”
“But what then?” asked Lanny
“Look Lanny and I invited William over for dinner tonight. I don’t want to talk about it in front of Sam. It just would not be right. Let me talk with him tomorrow morning.”
* * *
William showed up to Paul and Sam’s house promptly at seven. Paul and Sam had moved from their apartment two years earlier to a comfortable new home from their second housing development and their first as PW Simmons. The new house was only a short walk from William’s home, so he had left his car with the excuse of providing him the opportunity to get some fresh air. In reality, Paul figured it
just gave William the freedom to drink a couple additional beers over dinner without any worry of driving home inebriated. Being prepared, Paul had picked up an additional 6-pack of Budweiser on the way home.
“So how goes life for my favorite family?” William yelled as he both knocked and walked in through the front door without waiting for an answer.
“Come on back to the kitchen, William. We are just getting Cal cleaned up.”
Smiling, William asked as he walked into the kitchen “Why, what happened to Cal?”
“Uncle Bill!” called little Cal with a tomato-orange stained mouth.
Sam cut in “Cal loves Chef Boy-Ar-Dee spaghetti so much he decided to wear it on his shirt. William. Go ahead a grab a beer while I get him wiped off.”
Paul smiled and opened the refrigerator to grab a couple of beers; one for William and one for himself. Paul plopped the two beer bottles down onto the table and popped the caps. “You want to sit in here or in the living room while Sam takes care of your favorite nephew?” Then to Sam, “You mind, honey?”
“No, go ahead. I know you two boys probably want to talk shop or something. I will be right in with Cal once I get him into his PJs.
“Excellent, we can flip on the television. I heard that Cassius Clay’s first pro fight is tonight; against some guy named Hunsaker. The paper said Hunsaker is a cop during the day. Clay is going to mop up the floor with him. You want to watch?” William asked.
“Sure.”
For the rest of the fight and through most of a reserved dinner, Paul remained quiet. It was a very un-Paul and William evening.
“Why don’t you two have a couple fresh beers and head into the living room? I’ll be right in after cleaning away the dishes.” Sam grabbed a couple beers along with a bottle opener and handed them to William. “William, find something good on television, would you? Paul, can you help me here in the kitchen?”
William headed into the living room, turned the channel and began to fidget with the rabbit-ear antennae.
“What do you need, Sam?”
“What do you mean, asking me that. Hell, Paul, you didn’t say but a few words over dinner. What is up with you? You are being positively rude to your brother.”
“I guess you’re right, but I cannot talk about it now. You want to give me and William some time alone? I’ll tell you later what is going on, okay?”
“Okay, but be nice.”
Paul turned and walked into the living room and flipped off the television. “William, you and I need to talk.”
What had started out as an awkward evening now moved rapidly from clumsy to impossible. Paul laid out the concerns both he and Lanny had regarding MM Enterprises. He went so far as to accuse William of stealing from the firm when William refused to discuss what the expenses were for.
“William, if you are in trouble, Sam and I can help, but you have to tell me what’s going on. Hell, this is a lot of money at stake. What did you do?”
“Paul, I really don’t want to talk about it; especially with you and don’t bring Sam into this, please. I don’t want anyone to know about this. Please?” William’s eyes belied the helplessness he felt now that the situation had surfaced. “If you want, I will quit the company now. You can take the money out of my share of the profits; there is plenty there that is mine. I wasn’t stealing. You have to believe me. Just don’t tell anyone.” Tears began to run down Williams checks and his voice was beginning to choke.
“William, keep your voice down. I just don’t know what to think right now. You say you were not stealing, but, my God, it is thirty-five hundred bucks. That’s a lot of money. Lanny and I need to talk about this tomorrow morning. I think you should swing by the office tomorrow. We’ll figure this out then, but you have to give me a reason to believe you.” Paul fell silent and William slowly got out of his chair and let himself out of the house alone.
“Okay, what was that all about, Paul?” Sam was leaning against the doorjamb leading into the kitchen. “I wasn’t listening, but I caught parts of it. Is William stealing from the company?”
“Really, I don’t know why he would. We are doing great and he doesn’t have a lot of expenses. I cannot imagine what he would need the money for; unless he has gotten tied into gambling or drugs. I just don’t know.” Paul hesitated. “Hell, I do know. William, well he drinks so much. Maybe it is drugs or gambling. It is not so unbelievable. Hopefully, I’ll know more tomorrow. Let’s not talk about it anymore tonight, okay?”
“Okay”
“And don’t say anything to Mom or Dad. They would have an aneurism with this.”
* * *
Uncle Bill and I were seated at the same table we had occupied just several hours earlier. The daylight had transformed the downstairs restaurant from the upscale, high-end dining experience from the previous evening to a trendy gastro-pub for lunch. Ted apologized for not having a breakfast menu for the two, but offered to whip up something from the kitchen. Uncle Bill politely declined, and asked if he and I could just use the time before lunch to share some stories about my Dad. Understanding, Ted left us with a fresh pot of coffee and then deftly retreated back downstairs. He had to get the kitchen prepped for their lunch crowd.
“Uncle Bill, I’m kind of embarrassed to ask, but whatever happened to you with the company back before I was born? Mom always told me you left the company for a while to do your own thing.”
Uncle Bill coughed, “Wow, leave it to Randall to ask the tough question,” turning his head as if talking to a third person even though no one else was in the room. “I didn’t really leave to do my own thing. I kind of didn’t have a choice, but, you know, it was OK. It gave me a time to get to know a lot of new folks. You know folks like Johnny Walker, Jack Daniels, Adolph Coors, and occasionally I had the opportunity to eat with Paul Masson and Mateus. I don’t remember much from that time, but we got over it.
* * *
“I don’t know what he was thinking and I don’t know why he needed the money. Perhaps it’s best that I never know.” Paul was sitting next to Lanny. Even though it was Sunday morning, they had agreed it was critical to go over the discussion that Paul and William had the previous evening.
“Lanny, is there anything we have to do besides getting the money back? I mean I really do not want to make this any worse than it already is.”
“Well, we really should discuss this with the rest of the shareholders, but I guess if we can somehow get the money back from William, I’ll be quiet. Besides, I really don’t have any proof he did something illegal. We cannot trust him though. You agree? And I think we should ask him to leave his current role heading up our operations?”
“I guess I agree. I will need to make up some excuse as to why William is not going to be a part of our team in the future, but I’m not going to ask him to give up his ownership position. He’ll need the income from the business to live on. I sure as hell cannot recommend him to any other companies.”
“What about the thirty-five hundred dollars?”
Paul shot back, “I’ll take care of that by the end of the week. Don’t mention it to anyone. Nobody needs to know Virginia and I paid it back, okay?”
Lanny pushed his chair back from the desk. “I think it has to be okay. Anything else would be bad for William and, even more important, it would be bad for the business. Nobody is going to want to buy a house from a company that has an embezzlement problem. Hell, I won’t even talk about this with my father.”
“Lanny, I do need to talk with Lyle to see if he can handle the operations at the development. I can give him a call this afternoon and ask him to drop into the office before heading over to the renovation project we have going on Mulberry Street. If you talk with him, don’t say anything to him about William. I haven’t come up with an excuse yet for William leaving the team.”
William was waiting outside the door of the darkened
office when Lanny left.
“Paul, can I come in?”
“Sure, close the door.” After William closed the door, Paul jumped right in without waiting for any explanation from William. “William, you probably know we cannot have you working here now or in the future. I need to come up with an excuse as to why you are going to be leaving the business.”
“Are you going to bring charges against me, brother?” William emphasized brother as if insinuating that Paul was out of line with his dismissal. “You know, I am an owner here, too, and I have just as much say in how this business runs as you do, so please have some respect. By the way, I have come here to resign. You don’t need to ask me to leave. I trust you are not going to try to force me to give up my ownership share. I’ll give the company the thirty-five hundred out of my share of the profits when we distribute the profits at the end of this quarter. You okay with that?”
“Don’t worry about the money. I will have the $3,500 by the end of this week and Lanny will take care of the rest; and no, we will not be asking you to sell out your portion of the company. Nobody outside of you, me, Lanny, and Sam know about this.” William cringed at Sam’s name. “Look William, Sam overheard us talking last night. Sorry.”
“So, are you going to do my job for me? We should spend some time going over the schedules and contractors,” William offered.
“I will track down Lyle and have him swing by the office tomorrow to figure out an attack plan to fill in for you until we can find some type of replacement. We might need to pull back on a couple renovation projects though.” Paul paused. “If you are okay with meeting with us to discuss the transition it will make it lot easier; especially if we can come up with a reason for the emergency change in our operations management.”
“Fuck that, Paul. I don’t want to be here in front of the entire staff. Tell the lot of them that I just got caught up in something, don’t say what; and that I need some time to work through it. You will have a replacement before you know it and no one will be the wiser. I’ll bring by my schedules and plans that I left at the site by the end of today. The contractor listings and progress reports are on my desk out there in the office. I don’t want to be here when Lyle gets here. I just don’t think I could keep from crying.” William looked to floor, turned to the door and walked out.
