Fare Game

by Cade Haddock Strong

  “Very well then, let’s talk again right after the holidays, once I’ve had a chance to review all of the evidence you’ve provided.” He pointed toward the banker’s box and other items Riley and Kay had brought to his office. “I assume these are copies and that you’ve got the originals tucked away safely somewhere?”

  “Yes,” Kay said. “Except for the notebooks.”

  He looked at the chubby notetaker. “Chris, will you please run and get those scanned.”

  Chris grunted, closed his laptop and snatched up the notebooks.

  “It should just take Chris a minute. I’ll have him bring them back out to the lobby when he’s done so you can take them home with you.” Fred stood and shook hands with each of them. “It was a pleasure meeting both of you. I’ll be in touch.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Christmas was usually one of Riley’s favorite times of year. She should have been singing along to the carols on the radio, but she just wasn’t up to it. She felt more anxious than excited as she made the drive to her parents’ house in Buckhead on Christmas Eve. It had only been a day since Kay had left for Asheville, but Riley already missed her like crazy, and she dreaded the love life interrogation she was certain to face from her mother over the holidays.

  She chuckled when she spotted a huge blow-up Santa in her parents’ front yard. Her brother Beau had to be behind it. He and his girlfriend Shelia had flown in from Singapore the day before, and they would be home for Christmas for the first time in years.

  The front door to the house flew open before she was even out of the car and Beau beamed at her from the doorway. The gravel on the driveway crunched beneath his bulky six-foot-two frame. It had been almost a year since they’d seen each other, and she smiled at the sight of him. He gave her a big bear hug and asked, “Need a hand with your bags, little sis?”

  She pressed a button on her key fob and the trunk of her car popped open. She waved toward the Santa towering nearby. “Where the hell did that come from?”

  Beau’s deep laugh echoed through the air. “I bought it as a joke,” he said. “Mom made me promise I’d take it down tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, I bet she did,” Riley said as she followed Beau into the house. Her mother was fussing over the tablecloth in the dining room and paused to give Riley a hug and kiss. “Hi, honey. How was the drive?”

  “Not bad. I-75 was quieter than normal. I guess everyone left work early because of the holiday. What can I do to help?”

  “The dinner napkins need to be ironed,” her mother said before turning to her brother. “Beau, honey. Be a dear and go down and get the good wineglasses out of the basement.”

  “Sure thing, Mom.”

  Riley retrieved the massive pile of linen napkins from the laundry room and plunked them down on the side table in the dining room. Once she had the ironing board set up, she pulled the first napkin from the stack. Her mother puttered around, rearranging chairs and laying out the silver. “I have no idea how we’re going to fit seventeen people around this table,” she muttered.

  “We always seem to manage,” Riley said from her perch behind the ironing board.

  Her mother nodded. “That we do.”

  “We’re lucky,” Riley said. “A lot of people spend the holidays alone. We should be thankful we need to squeeze around the table.”

  “I suppose. Oh, did I tell you cousin Charlie is bringing his fiancée?”

  “No, no, you didn’t, but that’s great. I only met her that one time at the baby shower, but she seemed really sweet.”

  “Auntie Jo is beside herself. Charlie will be thirty next month. She was beginning to wonder if he’d ever settle down and—”

  As if on cue, Riley’s phone vibrated and nearly fell off the ironing board. When she saw Kay’s name on the screen, a smile crept across her face. She set down the iron and snatched up her phone. “Hey, hi,” she said and stepped into the kitchen.

  “Hey, baby. I just wanted to make sure you made it to Buckhead okay.”

  Just hearing Kay’s raspy voice made her warm all over. “Yeah, I got here about thirty minutes ago. My mom already has me busy ironing. How’s Asheville?”

  “Great. Of course, I’ve been talking about you nonstop. My family can’t wait to meet you.”

  “Oh, gosh, that’s nice. I can’t wait to meet them.” A feeling of sadness swept through Riley. She still hadn’t told her parents about Kay, hadn’t told them she was falling in love with this incredible woman. It made her feel hollow and she wished Kay was there next to her instead of on the phone. They’d talked a lot about it, and Kay had tried to be supportive, but Riley knew it made her sad too. Sad that Riley had to hide a big part of who she was from her parents and sad that they didn’t know Kay existed. There was no doubt about it; the situation just plain sucked.

  After they ended the call, Riley walked back into the dining room and her mother asked, “Who was that on the phone, dear?”

  Riley slipped back behind the ironing board and looked at the floor. “Um, just a friend from work.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she winced. Even though she’d dated her ex, Brianna for nearly a year, she’d never once mentioned her to her mother. But with Kay, it was different, and it made her heart ache to call her a “friend from work.” She was way more than that.

  The rest of the afternoon was a blur of activity. Once she finished the heap of napkins, she helped her mother polish the silver candlesticks and make last-minute preparations for Christmas Eve dinner. Bobby, Lynn and the baby showed up in the late afternoon and her aunt and uncle and cousins arrived not long after that. After saying her hellos, Riley retreated to her childhood bedroom to shower and get ready for dinner. She loved her family, she really did, but it felt good to have a few minutes to herself, and her bedroom had always been her sanctuary.

  Cocktail hour was well underway when she got back downstairs. Beau was relegated to the role of bartender and Riley’s mother quickly put her in charge of passing hors d’oeuvres. Once she’d made her rounds, she set the platters on the coffee table and struck up a conversation with her cousin Charlie and his fiancée. She listened to them talk about their wedding plans until they got called into dinner.

  Right after they said the blessing, her youngest cousin declared she’d become a vegan and refused to eat anything on the table. Riley could tell her uncle was about to blow a gasket. “How about green beans, dear?” Riley’s mother asked in an effort to defuse the situation.

  “Um, duh, they’re smothered in butter,” her cousin replied.

  “There’s some hummus in the fridge,” Riley said, hoping to avoid World War III, “Let me grab it.”

  Mercifully, the rest of dinner was a fairly mild affair, and as soon as it was over, she jumped up to help Shelia clear the table.

  Beau wandered into the kitchen and helped them finish the dishes. “Scotch?” he asked when they were done.

  Shelia set her dish rag on the counter and glanced at her watch. “I’m going to try my sister Kathy in Singapore. They should be getting up about now to open presents.”

  “God, yes,” Riley replied and followed him into the study. Beau filled two glasses with ice, poured a healthy amount of Scotch into each and handed one to her.

  “Where’s Bobby?” she asked as she sank into one of the large leather armchairs flanking the gas fireplace.

  Beau gave her a knowing look. “Lynn took him to bed.”

  “Have you talked to him at all?” she asked. “Is everything okay? This isn’t the first time I’ve seen him pretty blasted.”

  Beau leaned back in his chair and crossed his long legs. “We chatted a little before dinner,” he said. “Mostly about superficial shit like how awesome the Bulldogs’ quarterback is and the team’s prospects for next year, but I get the sense he’s just a bit overwhelmed with adulting. He hates his job but obviously he can’t just up and quit because of the baby and everything.”

  She tucked one of her legs underneath her and sw
irled the ice cubes in her glass. “Ah, life.”

  “Speaking of life, how are things with you?” Beau asked.

  “I’m good…just in a little bit of a funk.”

  His kind eyes settled on her. “What’s got you down?”

  “You mean aside from Mom and Auntie Jo constantly riding my ass about not being married, not dating, biological clock ticking, blah, blah, blah.”

  “I know that’s gotta suck, but, yeah, besides that.”

  She leaned forward in her chair and rested her elbows on her knees. He’d been supportive ever since she’d come out to him a few years back, and she knew he’d lend an understanding ear. “It’s the same shit every holiday, but, well, it hurts especially bad right now because I’m seeing someone.” She smiled up at him. “Someone really special.”

  Beau patted her on the knee. “Hey, that’s great. What’s her name?”

  “Kay. She works at Logan. She’s amazing, Beau, and things with us, well, they’re starting to get serious.”

  “Have you thought about telling Mom and Dad?”

  Her shoulders slumped. “Sure, I’ve thought about it, but I get sick to my stomach when I think about how they might react, especially Mom. God, we were at the club over Thanksgiving and we had this super effeminate waiter. Mom made some remark about him being, ‘queer.’ It was like she couldn’t even bring herself to say the word gay.”

  “I’m sorry, sis,” he said. “You want me to talk to her?”

  “It’s sweet of you to offer, but no, this is something I’ve got to figure out on my own. I’m mad at myself for letting it go this long. I’m just so goddamn terrified to come out and tell her the truth. Shit, I didn’t even have the guts to call her out for whispering behind the waiter’s back. She didn’t even have the decency to make sure he was out of earshot, not that it would have excused her comments.” Riley let out a long sigh. “I’m pathetic.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Mom’s not exactly approachable about this kind of stuff.”

  She tossed back a big swig of Scotch. “You are so fucking lucky you live 10,000 miles away. Sometimes I envy you. I mean, Mom doesn’t ride you about the fact you and Shelia aren’t married, does she?”

  “No,” he replied sheepishly. “And to be honest, I don’t exactly broadcast that we live together… See I’m just as chickenshit as you are when it comes to Mom.”

  “Aren’t we a pair. Do Shelia’s parents give you guys grief about shacking up?”

  Beau shook his head. “Not at all. Even though they live in Singapore now, they’re from California and her parents are, how shall I say this, a little bit more progressive than Mom and Dad.”

  Riley groaned. “God, sometimes I just want to pull my hair out.”

  He held up his glass. “Want a splash more?”

  “Nah, I should probably head to bed.” She suddenly felt exhausted and she wanted to call Kay before she went to sleep. She just needed to hear her voice. “Merry Christmas, Beau.”

  Chapter Thirty

  After the holidays, Riley and Kay met with Fred Archie again a half a dozen times. His team had spent countless hours poring over the data they’d provided and he felt confident they had enough to go to the SEC. “The information you’ve gathered clearly demonstrates a material violation of federal securities law,” he told them one afternoon when they were all gathered at his office. “The SEC has limited resources and obviously they can’t look into every tip they receive. However, what’s going on at Logan… I have no doubt the SEC will consider it serious enough to warrant their attention.”

  Kay felt herself relax. After all these months of worrying about whether they had enough evidence, she felt a ray of hope. She looked over at Riley and they shared a smile. “When do you plan to officially submit the complaint?”

  “In a couple of weeks. My team and I need some time to get our ducks in a row.”

  “I’ve got a question,” Riley said. “Can Kay and I do this together. I mean, can more than one person be a whistleblower on the same complaint?”

  “Yes, one or more people are allowed to act as a whistleblower.”

  “So, how does it work?” Kay asked. “Do we just send off all the information we’ve gathered?”

  “There’s a formal process for submitting a claim. It involves some paper work.”

  “Of course it does,” Riley chimed.

  “The key is,” he continued, “the case we present has to be rock solid. The SEC will be looking for specific and credible information that indicates a material violation of the law.” He turned his attention on Kay. “To answer your question, yes, we’ll provide them with most of the information you two have gathered, but we’ve got to present it in a compelling way. We can’t just send the SEC a pile of documents and expect them to figure it out. We need to provide them with a clear roadmap, spell it out for them.”

  “Okay,” Riley said. “How do we do that?”

  “Don’t worry,” he said and gave them a reassuring smile. “We’ve got years of experience working with the SEC. We know the drill. In the meantime, I’d like to answer any additional questions you two have. How familiar are you two with the SEC’s Whistleblower Program?”

  Kay and Riley both shrugged. “We know a little bit about it,” Kay replied.

  “Well, let me give you the highlights,” he said. “It was created by Congress to give people an incentive to report possible violations of the federal securities laws to the SEC. And as I mentioned when we first met, if, and I stress the word if, the information you’ve provided leads them to open an investigation, you might be entitled to a financial award. There are a lot of factors that go into determining—”

  “I’m not going to lie, a financial reward would be a serious bonus but that’s not why we came forward,” Kay reiterated, and Riley nodded in agreement.

  “You made that clear when we first met. I just want you to understand how the program works.”

  “At this point, I’m most concerned about what submitting the complaint will mean for us,” Riley said. “Will Logan know we’ve gone to the SEC?”

  He shook his head. “No, none of this will be public.”

  “Are you sure?” Kay asked.

  “Yes, I’m sure,” Fred said. “We’ll submit the letter of complaint anonymously. As your attorney, I’ll submit it on your behalf. Nowhere in the letter, will you be identified as the whistleblowers.”

  “When I was getting my MBA, we read some case studies that involved whistleblowers,” Riley said. “If I remember correctly, it’s pretty typical for whistleblowers to remain anonymous, is that right?”

  He nodded. “In most cases, yes.”

  “But someone might still find out it was us,” Kay said, “and I cannot imagine the higher-ups at Logan would be too happy with us.” She thought back to her conversation with Heather Corn. “I mean, it wouldn’t be a big stretch for someone at Logan to connect the dots if and when they find out they’re being investigated by the SEC.”

  “There have been instances,” Fred said, “where whistleblowers were unmasked—their identities were exposed—and that’s always a possibility, even though it’s illegal to do so.”

  Kay was under no delusion. She knew, even if their complaint was submitted anonymously, she and Riley were going way out on a limb. Still, they’d agreed it was the right thing to do, which was why they were sitting there in Fred’s office.

  “As I’ve said before,” he said, “these cases are never easy for anyone involved, but the SEC Whistleblower Program strictly prohibits retaliation by employers against employees who report possible securities violations.”

  “I don’t trust Greg or Howard Rome, for that matter, to give a shit about whether retaliation is prohibited or not,” Kay said. “If they knew we were sitting here with you right now, God, there’s no telling what they might do.” Considering the possibilities made her shudder.

  Riley placed a hand on Kay’s arm. “They aren’t going to find out.” She
turned back to him. “So, once we submit the complaint, what happens after that?”

  “The SEC will review our submission and assess whether they think it warrants deeper scrutiny, and if they do, they’ll likely initiate an investigation.”

  “If the SEC decides to open an investigation, will they notify Logan?” Kay asked.

  He shook his head again. “No. It’s very unlikely the airline will know they are under investigation, at least initially. Typically, the SEC conducts its investigations on a confidential basis. They do this to protect the integrity of the investigation and to protect the privacy of persons involved in an investigation.”

  “Will the SEC notify us if they decide to open an investigation?” Riley asked.

  “No, the SEC is not in the habit of providing status updates on its investigations. They don’t generally comment on whether they have opened an investigation in a particular matter.” Fred leaned back in his chair. “I’ve got to be honest with you. Once we submit the letter of complaint, it is likely to be radio silence for a good long while. It can be extremely frustrating. We just need to be patient while the SEC does their thing.”

  “When you say ‘a good long while,’ are we talking weeks, months?” Kay asked.

  “If I had to guess, once we hand over all the evidence, it could be six months or more before we hear anything.”

  The color drained from her face. “And during this time, we’ll have virtually no insight into what, or even if, the SEC has decided to investigate Logan.”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  Kay sank down in her chair. Six months was a very long time in the scheme of things. During this time, they’d have to go to work day after day and keep up the charade. It was going to be a fucking nightmare.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Final word came from Fred Archie in early February that everything had been submitted to the SEC. He advised them to keep their heads down and their mouths shut. Kay was both relieved and terrified. It felt good to have officially sounded the alarm on the fraud at Logan, but now she and Riley faced months of going to work and acting normal while things were anything but normal.