Mandy said, “Well, I'm glad it appears that whatever this woman says is either a fabrication from her own imagination or just conjecture on behalf of the public. Knowing this, I'll feel better if Hedon ever calls me back, knowing I'm dealing with a reputable company.”
“Yeah, I wouldn't worry too much about it. At the end of the day, they're just one in the many opportunities we hope will open up for you as you promote the web page and Facebook page for Roger. That's really what's going to bring more interest in the future. And you never know how that interest is going to develop. The web is a strange thing and you may get groups interested in Roger that you didn't even know existed. I mean that in a good way.” Jill was the eternal optimist and Mandy was grateful for her encouragement.
“Well, I decided I'm going to take this one day at a time. Every day I'll do a little more to get the word out there and see what comes my way as a result. I have simply got to stop worrying so much about the future. It's too bad my last job was with a company being run by a horrible person. Otherwise, as a normal business, it would have been a great job. But hey, I'm sure there's going to be something else for me.”
In the middle of Mandy's pep talk to herself, Joanie brought over their order.
“Wow, that looks great Joanie. I think you outdid yourself with the veggie burgers today.”
“Yeah, I did a little something different with them, I put in some Indian spices, so even though they're a little spicy, it's not over the top. Just something to jazz up the vegetables.”
At the smell of food, Roger jumped up on the booth chair and inspected what they ordered.
“Now Roger, I just fed you recently. You have to let me eat a little bit too.”
“I'll bring him some milk and see if he goes for it. Otherwise, he'll be begging for food all while you eat. It's the smells that attract him.”
While waiting for Joanie to come back, Mandy heard the ping on her phone telling her she received an email. She looked to see who it could be and noticed it was from Hedon.
“Hey, I just got an email from Hedon, I wonder what that's about.”
Mandy read the email while eating her burger.
“Well, apparently I truly have been exonerated by Hedon for Stacy Parks' death. They're inviting me to her funeral.”
“Wow, that's strange. Unless they're sending that out as an olive branch, meaning to say, nothing personal. From what you told me, the secretary is crazy.”
“Yeah, she was a way too overprotective of Stacy Parks and took her job a little too seriously. A lot of staff level people in corporate America believe that because they work for an executive, they're endowed with the powers and responsibilities befitting only the very elite.
“Well, it can't hurt to be in the line of vision of Carol Stamis and Thomas Parks for the future. At least at this funeral, I don't have to interview anybody.” Mandy investigated her friend's murder at the last funeral she attended.
“Actually, if you want to come along, you're welcome. I'm sure they won't care if I bring another person. I don't think it's a good idea to bring Roger, though. That might be pushing it with these people.” Mandy invited Jill.
“Well, let me see what's going on tomorrow and I'll let you know. I'd like to get a look at these people, but going to a funeral is not my idea of socializing.”
“I know what you mean.” Mandy commiserated with her friend.
When Mandy called her the next day, Jill begged off. The animal shelter called, they were short-handed and asked if Jill could come in and help them. She agreed but insisted Mandy give her a blow-by-blow account of the entire affair. Mandy wanted Jill's company because she figured she would be the only stranger in the group. But she determined she could use this as a networking session, to talk to as many people as she could. She'd talk about Roger, talk about what she did. You never could tell what might resonate with someone.
The viewing only lasted one day so Mandy decided to go in the afternoon. She fed Roger and told him, “I'm sorry baby, I'm not going to be able to take you to this event. But we'll go out later for a nice walk.”
Mandy arrived at the funeral and, of course, she didn't know anyone there. She walked up to the front to view the deceased and was surprised at how natural Stacy looked. Except for a certain stiffness, one would think she was sleeping. It amazed Mandy what could be done with bodies these days.
She then walked around the rest of the hall. Large and spacious, it accommodated large crowds with ease. It seemed quite a number of people had been invited. As she started to mingle and to talk to a few people, Mandy became aware nobody knew anybody else there. Hedon invited executives from other pet supply companies Stacy Parks had dealt with over the years. Although all these companies knew Hedon, they really didn't know the other companies.
While wending her way through the crowd, she got into a conversation with yet another small pet food supplier.
“So, how did you get invited? Are you part of a pet food company?” she was asked.
“No, my cat was going to do a commercial with Hedon, but unfortunately, it happened right around the time when Stacy Parks passed away. So, we'll see what happens.” Mandy was slightly evasive in her answer.
“Well, best of luck to you. We don't do commercials, we're too small. We just have ads on the web.”
At that point Carol Stamis came over to speak to Mandy.
“Hi, there, my name is Carol Stamis, and I'm the manager of Hedon Pet Nutrition. You're Mandy, right??”
“That's right. Thank you for inviting me.”
“Oh, that's quite alright. Listen, I wanted to apologize to you for what happened on the day Stacy died. Conchetta, Stacy's assistant, accused you of attacking Stacy. Such accusations were completely uncalled for and we were very embarrassed and concerned when we heard about it. She had been Stacy's assistant for decades and she felt very protective of her. She's very old school and more than a little set in her ways. So, inasmuch as Conchetta overstepped her bounds, not for one minute did Thomas Parks, Stacy's husband, nor I believe you had anything to do with this.”
“Thank you very much for clarifying that. I was very upset that day as she continued to accuse me, but the police explained to me Stacy died of natural causes and with no signs of foul play.” Mandy graciously accepted Carol Stamis' apology.
“Also, I wanted to say, I've seen your cat, Roger, and we definitely still want to make the commercial with him. However, it may not be for a couple of weeks. I'll definitely be in touch as soon as we can see a schedule clearing that will work with all concerned. Depending on the results of that first commercial, we may do more in the future. Inasmuch as Stacy started this company, I have been working with her now for several years, and I understand her vision for the future and we hope to bring Hedon to new heights with our pet food products.”
“That is very nice. I am still interested but, of course, I didn't know how Stacy's passing would affect your plans for future, so I figured I'd wait till you wanted to talk about it. But thank you for bringing it up, I look forward to getting together in the future.”
“Me too. And also feel free to drop by so I can give you a tour of Hedon and what we do. I'm sure Stacy would have done it, but I'll be happy to introduce you to our line of products and our philosophy.”
“I will keep it in mind.”
During this interchange Thomas Parks showed up. Carol Stamis started to speak.
“Hi, Tom, let me introduce you to Mandy Cummings.”
“Oh, Ms. Cummings…”
“Call me Mandy.”
“Mandy, please let me apologize to you for Conchetta's behavior. That was completely uncalled for but she's an older woman who is sometimes too wrapped up in her work and from time to time loses perspective of things. At no point did we think you had anything to do with this, and I'm so sorry you had to be subjected to actually finding the body. It was a very unfortunate accident, and I'm sorry this was your first introduction to our company.”
�
��I appreciate your concern, I, too was shocked by the experience, it took me quite a while to calm down. Afterwards with getting caught up in the police investigation, the whole experience became a very disturbing day for me, I can assure you.”
“Again, I truly apologize.”
“Thank you.”
“Carol, may I speak with you for a moment?” Thomas Parks asked Carol. They went off to another side of the room and began a conversation with some other people. Mandy thought, well, at least they apologized, and she realized that crazy secretary's interpretation of the situation made for a very bad experience. If somebody else had been there, the situation never would have happened. Bad enough to find somebody dead but then to be accused of doing it, she still couldn't believe it. And if Roger hadn't intervened, those two security guards would have had her in handcuffs. All because of a crazy secretary.
Mandy wandered around the room talking to this person and that. She had no idea there were so many pet supply vendors that did this as a small business. Those involved in pet food preparation were smaller because they needed the manufacturing and distribution capabilities and she thought only Hedon could handle that. Maybe they used this opportunity to network with all these other companies. As she slipped into a corner of the room, she heard an animated discussion going on in whispers in a nearby hallway. A man's voice was saying: “Listen, we could go away for a while, just you and me, take a vacation to somewhere far away.”
“It's too soon, it's too soon,” a female voice replied. “Besides, if we do that, it has to be overseas, where nobody will recognize us.”
“Ok, overseas it is, when do you want to go?”
“You have to take it easy, we have to look like it's business as usual. I think we should do the cat commercial and couple of other projects.”
“Forget the cat commercial, I'm not interested. We have to invest our advertising dollars in other cheaper and less gaudy ways. These commercials are a dog and pony show. We could just post some ads online and do a photo shoot. That's cheaper and easier. We could even use stock photos of animals, no need for a photo shoot.” he said.
“I want to do the cat commercial, I think it will be a big hit,” she insisted.
“Forget the cat commercial, I'm not interested.”
Mandy started to figure out who the two speakers were, and she hurried to get away before they came back. And sure enough, not a half-minute later, Thomas Parks came out of the hallway, looking a little upset. Carol followed shortly after, looking far more upset than he did. So, Mandy thought, what was that all about? Were these two having an affair? He asked her to go away with him and she agreed, but not right now. And now they're in conflict about the commercial.
Suddenly, a loud commotion at the door interrupted everything, and a woman with a megaphone came in, followed by a strange-looking man with a video camera. She also carried a poster of a sickly looking one-eyed cat. Gwen Fetlock decided to crash the funeral. She had a megaphone and she yelled at all the attendees: “And here we have a collection of animal exploiters. All these people exploit cute animals in one way or another in order to sell their products. Some are bigger exploiters than others, but they all exploit animals for the sake of a profit.”
At that point Carol and Tom rushed up to her, both very upset.
“What are you doing here? You were not invited! Get yourself and your freak show out of here! This is a funeral, not a platform for your crazy unfounded political views. How dare you insult all these people, hard working business people, as animal exploiters? Everyone here is dedicated to the welfare and well- being of animals,” Thomas Parks roared.
This got Gwen even more riled up.
“And here you have two of the biggest exploiters of all.” She screamed into the megaphone as her photographer recorded it all.
“Yes, people, these two are responsible for heading a company that not only makes false claims about its food products, but it's also responsible for illegal cock fighting, the real source of its income! Hedon Pet Nutrition is nothing but a lie! They get all their meat from China, they don't raise their own chickens!”
“How dare you insult our products? These accusations are baseless. Where is security? Has someone called the police? Get this woman off these premises!” Thomas was livid.
Gwen continued to scream into the megaphone and shove the picture of the sick cat into everyone's face, saying “See, this is an unfortunate animal, why don't you use him in your campaigns? Because he's not cute!”
By now, security showed up and grabbed Gwen and the photographer. She started kicking and punching the security guards, ranting “Get your hands off me, I'll sue for abuse, who do you think you are, you're nobody to touch me!”
The security guards continued to drag Gwen out of the room; while the videographer, being escorted out, continued filming the whole scene. The crazier the situation got, the more excited he became.
As she's dragged out, Gwen passes by Mandy.
“You're Mandy Cummings! You're still going to sell your beautiful cat to these freaks! You're an animal hater! You have no respect for your cat! You don't deserve to have a pet! Nobody deserves a pet they're going to exploit! No one! No one!”
She continued screaming through the megaphone as they continued to drag her out of the funeral parlor.
All eyes were on Mandy as she became the mysterious interesting person on the floor. Was she a celebrity? What about the cat that Gwen ranted about? This did not sit well with Mandy. Never in her wildest dreams did she think that the crazy woman that called her, would actually be THIS crazy - completely off the charts. Gwen Fetlock came to a funeral and disrupted everything for the sake of her personal platform. Mandy could see her mental illness had impaired her judgment. And yet, she walked around uncared for. Apparently, if you don't kill someone, but you're crazy, you can get away with all sorts of things.
Loretta Gumble came up to Mandy to check on her. “Are you all right? That was so unwarranted.”
“Yes, I guess I'm ok.”
“By the way, I'm Loretta Gumble, I didn't know you were here until Gwen pointed you out.”
“Who is that woman, and why is she getting away with this?”
“Oh, we've all known her for years, but most of the time, she keeps these protests to parking lots at malls and the internet. This is the craziest I've ever seen her. This is completely disrespectful, too. And those things she said about Hedon! They're just not true.”
“So, are you very friendly with the Hedon executives?” Mandy asked Loretta.
“Actually, no, but I received an invitation and I figured I'd come out of respect. I really didn't know Stacy all that well, but I see now most of the people here are all in the pet supply business. I know some of the people, and they, too, were surprised to be invited. Maybe there isn't a lot of family,” Loretta suggested.
“I didn't think I'd be invited, I just met them.”
Others joined the discussion between Mandy and Loretta and they were commenting about Gwen Fetlock and that she should really be institutionalized.
On the other side of the room, Carol and Thomas were talking to the police, represented by Jimmy. They were trying to see if they could press charges against Gwen Fetlock in some way. Mandy didn't want Jimmy to see her; she really didn't need any more police attention.
Mandy worried about how that woman seemed to know her. She probably had been stalking her online; since Roger became famous. It's likely she watched Roger's video over and over again. Mandy became frightened of celebrity-dom. This was still small potatoes but look at all the trouble it had caused, just because Roger became famous for a video.
Chapter Five
Mandy couldn't leave the funeral fast enough. She's never seen anything so crazy. She went there to pay her respects and do a little networking, and it turned into something from a horror science fiction movie, or worse. And she still couldn't get it out of her mind how Gwen Fetlock knew about the possibility of Roger doing a commercial wi
th Hedon. That really freaked her out. The time had come to let Jill know about this crazy circus. She pressed Jill's speed-dial button on her phone.
“Hi Mandy.”
“Jill, you have no idea what a circus this funeral turned into. Gwen Fetlock showed up, accusing everybody of exploiting animals by using cute animals to advertise their products. She carried a megaphone! Like something out of movie. And somehow she knew about the commercial with Roger and Hedon. She said I didn't deserve a pet.”
“Wow, I saw her website before, but she sounds like a real psycho.”
“She is, she is. Eventually security took her out and Hedon is trying to see if they can press charges against her.”
“Let me check out her site. Yep, she's got the video up. Hey, I see you among all these people. Definitely crazy, I can hear the megaphone and see the poster with the abused cat. And she has captions about how all these people are exploiting animals and how she is risking her life and liberty to protect these animals. She really lives in her head.” Jill said.
“Tell me about it. But I found something else giving me a picture maybe things aren't so rosy over at Hedon.”
“Oh, what happened?”
“Listen to this. While walking around the room, exploring the space, I overheard two people talking. At first I didn't know who they were. The guy saying they should go away together and the woman replying it's too soon. Afterwards, they started to talk about the commercial and she wanted to do it and he didn't. Right there and then I figured out who it was and walked away. Jill, I think Carol and Thomas, Stacy's husband, are having an affair.”
“Wow, this gets more and more dramatic as it goes on!”
“So now, who knows if I get to make the commercial at all?”
“But you say she wants to do it.”
“Well, it's possible it will still get done. It may be the kind of thing where if he wants a piece of the action, he's going to have to go along with the commercial.”
Mandy and Jill both laughed at Mandy's unintentional double entendre.
Mystery at the Pet Food Corp. Page 4
