Fare Game

by Cade Haddock Strong

  “Well it stands to reason, when he learned about the subpoena, and I’m just speculating here, he asked someone to dig around and find out who was behind it.”

  “Isn’t that illegal?”

  “It most definitely is illegal. It’s what the government calls ‘unmasking’, revealing the identity of an anonymous whistleblower.”

  “Yeah, I remember the term. You mentioned it in one of our early meetings. I just didn’t think...” Kay blew out a long breath. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. Howard Rome obviously thinks he’s above the law.”

  Fred stood and paced. “Well he most certainly is not, and not only did he unmask you, he went a step further. He retaliated against you—he fired you—for blowing the whistle, for going to the SEC.” Fred turned to face her. “The law is extremely clear on this matter, Kay. Retaliating against a whistleblower is in grave violation of the law. An employer may not fire, demote, suspend, harass or discriminate against you for cooperating with the SEC.” The tiniest smile crept across his face. “This case just got a great deal more interesting.”

  Kay threw her head back. “Ha, well, I’m glad you think so. If you want my two cents, this case just got a whole lot more fucked up.”

  “That it did. That it did.”

  “I’m going to sue that little shit for wrongful termination.”

  “Based on what you’ve told me, you’d have a pretty strong case, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

  “Fine, okay. Where do we go from here?” she asked.

  “Let me make some calls. Why don’t you and I regroup tomorrow.”

  Kay stood to leave.

  “And Kay,” Fred said.

  “Yeah?”

  “If it’s any consolation… If all of this is true, you’ll most certainly bring down Logan’s CEO in all of this.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  As soon as her flight from Seattle touched down in Atlanta, Riley switched her phone out of airplane mode and within seconds, the device began to vibrate like it was having a seizure. Text message after text message fought to populate her screen. One was from Kay but most of them were from Stephanie, and a knot formed in Riley’s stomach as she scrolled through them.

  2:19 p.m. Did you hear about Kay?????

  2:21 p.m. Where are you???

  2:27 p.m. I think you’re in the air. Call me the second you land!

  The clock on her phone read 3:57 p.m. As soon as they pulled into the gate and the captain turned off the seatbelt sign, Riley sprung from her seat. Unfortunately, the passengers ahead of her didn’t seem to be in any hurry. They leisurely tugged their bags from the overhead bins and filed off the plane. While she waited her turn to disembark, she tried Kay. No answer. She let out a low groan, eliciting looks from her fellow passengers. When the coast was finally clear, Riley slid her overnight bag over her shoulder and dashed off the plane. The second she stepped into the terminal, she tried Kay again. It went straight to voice mail. She dialed Stephanie.

  Before she even had a chance to say hello, Stephanie asked, “Oh, my God. Did you hear about Kay?”

  “No, I just landed. “Is she all right? I just tried to call her, but she didn’t pick up.”

  “She got fired!”

  “What?”

  “Yeah. Security escorted her out of the building, right in front of everyone. People at the office are going nuts. No one knows what’s going on. And Kay’s like a rock star around here…”

  “Fuck, fuck fuck.”

  “I know, seriously. It’s crazy.”

  Riley began to weed through the massive airport. She pushed by a man and a woman in matching leisure suits. “I need to call—”

  “Watch where you’re going, lady,” leisure suit man yelled when Riley bumped him with her shoulder bag.

  She waved him an apology. “Steph, I gotta go. I’ll call you later.”

  She ended the call and tried Kay’s cell again. Still no answer. Kay, where are you? She threw her phone into her purse and picked up her pace, her shoulder bag banging rhythmically against her hip as she trotted through the corridor and down the escalator to the train that ran between terminals. As luck would have it, her plane had parked at Terminal E, the terminal they dubbed E for End of the World because it was furthest from the exit.

  She was sweating by the time she reached the daily parking garage, and for the life of her, she couldn’t remember where the hell she’d parked her car the day before. “Fuuuuck,” she yelled as she repeatedly stabbed the unlock button on her key fob. When she finally heard the familiar chirp of her car, she lurched in its direction, tossed her bag in the backseat and peeled out of the garage.

  Riley had planned to swing by the office when she got back from Seattle, but immediately aborted that plan and sped north on I-85 toward Virginia Highland.

  Before she was up the front steps, Kay opened the door. She was still in her suit, but her shirt was untucked, and her feet were bare. Kay clutched onto her and they stood holding each other on her front stoop for a long time.

  “I’m so glad you’re here, baby,” Kay finally uttered. “I assume you’ve heard the news?”

  Riley stepped back and nodded. “What the hell happened?”

  Kay gave her a sad smile. “Come on in and I’ll give you the highlights.”

  Riley dropped her bag on the floor and followed Kay into the kitchen.

  “Want some water?” Kay asked. “I was just getting myself some, although I may switch to something a bit harder in the very near future.”

  “Water would be good, thanks.”

  Kay pulled two glasses from the cupboard, filled them from the tap and handed one to Riley.

  Riley climbed up on one of the kitchen stools. “So, tell me what happened.”

  Kay drained her glass and set it on the counter. “I got fired.”

  “I don’t understand, why?”

  “You know how Fred Archie assured us our identities would be protected?”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  “Well, he was wrong. Fucking Howard Rome evidently put two and two together and figured out I went to the SEC. The question is, does he know about you too?”

  “Wait, hold on, back up,” Riley said. “How did Howard Rome find out Logan was even under investigation?”

  “Well, apparently, and I say apparently because I don’t know for sure, the SEC recently issued a subpoena—”

  “So we were right. That’s why people at Logan have been acting so weird lately, but how’d you hear about it? Fred Archie?”

  “No. Howard Rome told me. He took the pleasure of personally firing me, and in the process, he referenced a subpoena from the SEC.”

  “I’ve heard he’s a vindictive little shit,” Riley replied.

  “You can say that again.”

  “Did Howard say when the subpoena was issued?”

  Kay shook her head. “My conversation with him was pretty brief, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was a few weeks ago, not long before you and I started sensing something at the office was amiss.”

  “Do you know what the subpoena is for?”

  “I don’t know for sure. Howard didn’t offer a lot of details. But, based on what we’ve learned through this whole process, it was probably for some of Logan’s internal documents—memos, emails, financial documents, stuff like that.”

  “I can’t believe we got zero heads up from the SEC about this.”

  “I know, me neither. It’s funny, we formally filed the initial complaint, but yet we’re in the dark about everything.”

  “Fred warned us about that,” Riley said. “He said we’d likely be out of the loop, at least from the SEC side of things.”

  Kay leaned up against the counter. “I know, but it still seems odd that we had no clue about the subpoena, if in fact one was actually issued.”

  “It sure sounds like it was, but wait, you still haven’t explained how Howard Rome knew you went to the SEC. Our identities are a secret, or at least they’
re supposed to be.”

  “I met with Fred this afternoon—I’ll get to that in a minute—but his theory is that when Howard Rome learned about the subpoena, he asked someone to snoop around and determine who the internal leak was. That’s another reason why I think the subpoena was issued a few weeks ago. Howard’s goons needed time to carry out their fishing expedition.”

  “Is that even legal?” Riley asked

  “No, not even close. This is where things get even more fucked up. As I mentioned, I went to see Fred Archie this afternoon and told him what had happened. According to him, Howard Rome really stepped in it when he unmasked me.”

  “I remember Fred using that term. That’s what they call it when the identity of a whistleblower is revealed, right?”

  “Right, but then, Howard went a step further. He fired me. He retaliated against me for being a whistleblower, which by the way, is also seriously illegal.”

  “Stupid fucker. I’d love to see him go down.”

  “You and me both.”

  “Fuck this is so nuts. You couldn’t make this shit up.” Riley ran both hands through her hair. “And there’s no way for us to know whether my name surfaced during Howard’s little investigation.”

  “I’ve been going back and forth about that. Part of me thinks it’s possible he doesn’t know you’re involved. His goons may have just zeroed in on me because of my direct involvement with Concordia and because I went singing to Heather Corn. On the other hand, it’s no secret around the office that you and I are a couple and you do work in Finance…”

  “I guess we’ll find out tomorrow. If they suspect I played a role, one’s got to assume they’ll fire me too.”

  “I can’t believe how calm you are,” Kay said.

  “What choice do I have?” Riley asked. “Flipping out isn’t going to do any good.” She was quiet for a second and then she asked, “Who else at Logan do you think knows about the subpoena and everything?”

  Kay shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but given that we had no clue a subpoena had been issued, I’ve got to imagine only a handful of people at the airline are aware of it and the underlying investigation. Probably the general counsel plus maybe a core group of top-level executives.”

  “Ha, them, and a small team of underlings who’ve been tasked with actually gathering the documents referenced in the subpoena. I mean, some poor soul actually has to get the SEC all the stuff they’ve requested.”

  “True,” Kay replied, “but I think we’re still talking a pretty small group of people.”

  Riley scratched her head. “But wait, Stephanie told me the whole office knew you’d been fired.”

  “That wouldn’t surprise me,” Kay said. “It was pretty public. They marched me out of the building like a damn prisoner.” She massaged the base of her neck. “But I doubt very many people know why I was fired.”

  “I can’t believe none of this has leaked to the press.”

  “Good point, especially given the fact that the subpoena was probably issued a few weeks ago.”

  Riley let out a deep laugh. “I bet no one has spilled the beans because Howard Rome threatened to kill them if they uttered a single word about it.”

  “Ha, I wouldn’t put it past him.”

  “So, what do we do now? Is Fred Archie going to go after their asses?”

  “I don’t really know. He and I are meeting again tomorrow, hopefully I’ll find out more then.”

  “It looks like you could use a glass of wine,” Riley said.

  “More like a bottle. It’s not like I have to go to work tomorrow.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Riley reluctantly dragged herself out of their warm bed at six thirty the next morning to get ready for work. She’d really wanted to call in sick, but Kay had talked her out of it the night before, believing it would only serve to make a bad situation worse.

  At this point, they didn’t know if Riley had been caught in Howard Rome’s dragnet, and Kay was anxious about Riley doing anything that would draw attention to herself. The night before she’d urged Riley to fly beneath the radar. Riley didn’t think that was even remotely possible. There was no doubt news of Kay’s firing had spread like wildfire and the gossip mill at the office would be in full swing. If she and Kay hadn’t already been one of the most notorious couples at Logan headquarters, they certainly would be now. She might as well have a neon sign on her back.

  Although not a certainty, Riley was fairly confident that the vast majority of people at Logan hadn’t the slightest clue why Kay was fired—even though a few dozen people at Logan likely knew about the subpoena, it stood to reason that only Howard Rome, plus one or two of his goons, knew Kay’s firing was directly related to her suspected role in the SEC’s investigation. This meant there would be no shortage of inquiring minds eager to find out why “superstar Kay” was shown the door.

  She and Kay had stayed up half the night trying to figure out what Riley should say when she was asked this question. They didn’t want to lie, but they also couldn’t tell the truth. Even though the CEO of Logan didn’t care much about protecting the whistleblower’s identity, she and Kay sure did and even if Howard Rome decided to leak the identity of the whistleblower, they planned to stay mum on the topic.

  After splitting a bottle of wine the night before, they’d finally come up with what they thought was a suitable explanation for Kay being fired: she refused to do something she thought was unethical. She stood up for what was right. This answer was not the whole truth, but it wasn’t a lie either.

  Riley slugged through her morning routine of showering and getting dressed. It was going to be a seriously long day at the office. When she wasn’t fielding questions about Kay, she’d be constantly looking over her shoulder, wondering if she was next on Howard Rome’s chopping block. On top of that, she somehow had to go about her day acting like she knew nothing about the SEC investigation. No problemo.

  When she wandered down into the kitchen, Kay handed her a cup of coffee and asked, “You okay, baby?”

  Riley cupped the coffee mug in her hands and took a sip. “Yeah, just dreading what promises to be a day from hell.”

  “I know, baby.” Kay gently rubbed her back. “I’m sorry I’m sending you off to the front lines alone.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Riley reminded her. “It’s not like you asked to get fired. Speaking of which, what time are you meeting with Fred Archie?”

  “At two this afternoon.”

  “Let me know the second you hear anything.”

  “I will, I promise.” Kay pulled Riley into her arms. “Be strong today. I’ll be with you in spirit.”

  Riley was barely out of her car when Wayne, her asshole coworker, cornered her in the parking lot. “So, what’s the deal with Kay?” he asked with absolutely no preamble.

  “Oh, hello, Wayne.” Riley paused to get her thoughts together. She stood tall and looked him in the eye, “Kay stood by her convictions and got fired for it. It’s called ethics. You should google it.”

  Wayne grunted something and walked away.

  She locked her car and walked across the parking lot. That was probably a little harsh. Be strong. Try to smile.

  It turned out the encounter with Wayne was just a precursor to what Riley would face the rest of the day. Not surprisingly, a lot of people assumed Kay had done something wrong. Riley understood that people weren’t generally fired for doing something good and Kay was marched out of the office by security. It just made her so damn mad she couldn’t tell them the truth.

  Mostly, though, people at the office were worried about Kay. They just wanted to know how she was faring. They seemed less interested in the juicy details surrounding her dismissal, or at least they had the decency not to ask. Not only was Kay exceptionally good at her job, she was universally well liked and well respected.

  Early afternoon, while Riley was attempting to get some work done, her office phone rang, something that rarely happened in the days
of email and instant messaging. As soon as she heard it, her heart began to race. This was it. She jolted upright so fast she almost fell off her chair. She reached for the receiver without looking at the caller ID and clenched it in her sweaty palm. “Riley Bauer,” she squeaked. There was no reply on the other end. “Hello,” she said. “Is anyone there?”

  “Oh, hey Rye, it’s Stephanie.”

  Riley slumped back in her chair. “Why are you calling me on this phone?”

  “I sent you like twelve texts and tried calling your cell. When you didn’t respond, I thought I’d go old school.”

  “Oh,” Riley said as she searched around for her cell phone. “Fuck.”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “I must have left my phone in the car.”

  “Anyway, I was calling to see how you were holding up.”

  “Um, okay, I guess, under the circumstances, but hey, do you mind if I call you back in a bit. I’m anxious to get my cell phone. Kay might be trying to reach me.”

  Riley hung up, dug around her purse for her car keys and sped out of her office. Just before the doors to the elevator closed, a man with shocking red hair stepped on and stood next to her. His thighs were the size of steel drums. Riley knew she’d seen him before, but she couldn’t recall where. She gave him a timid smile, but he didn’t smile back. As soon as the elevator began to move, he grabbed her arm.

  She stared into his ice blue eyes. “What the fuck.” She struggled to pull away, but his massive hands pinched tighter. “Ow, you’re hurting me?” She kicked him in the shin, but he didn’t even flinch. No one else was on the elevator and she figured that was by design.

  When the elevator reached the ground floor, he growled, “Don’t move.”

  The door opened and two men tried to step on. “This elevator is out of service,” the red-haired giant said.

  The men didn’t argue with him. They stepped aside and the doors slid shut. Riley’s captor stabbed the button for “B” – the basement, which also housed the executive parking garage.