Terminated (15 page)

G
wen left the office for lunch on
Friday, as she’d done so many times before, but this time she felt vulnerable walking to her car. Nothing implied that Tarbell was following her, and Ingram’s people were supposed to have that possibility covered, but they’d yet to prove themselves. She got behind the wheel and headed to a Thai restaurant on Alameda’s main drag.

The constant stress she felt around her these days lifted when she entered the restaurant and Judy Brent popped up from her seat. She hadn’t seen Judy since she’d left Roche to have Kirsten.

Judy hugged Gwen. “It’s so good to see you. It seems like forever.”

“I know.”

The lunch crowd at the restaurant was light enough for them to get a window table. They ordered right away, to avoid having an ever-present waitress hover near their table.

“So how are things?” Judy asked.

“Good,” Gwen answered, the word hard to say. It would have been so easy to let it pour out to Judy, but it was too much to load onto her.

Besides, Gwen knew that Judy had made the hour-plus drive from Vacaville to do more than eat lunch and catch up. She was hoping to entice Gwen away from Pace to Blackwell Biotech, the company she’d moved to after Roche. Even if they
wanted Gwen to wash the floor, it was a tempting proposition at the moment.

“How’s the family?” Judy asked.

It was an excuse to bring out the snapshots. Bragging about Kirsten took her mind off her problems. She told Judy some of her favorite parenting stories. Then, Judy returned the favor by bringing out her pictures. There were no children, but there was a new fiancé in her life. He was a handsome guy she’d met at the office.

“You’d think as the HR manager I would know all the risks about interoffice relationships, but in our case, it worked. We’re looking at an April wedding.”

The food came and the conversation changed from life to the real reason they were meeting. Judy’s easygoing manner turned business professional. She sat up straighter, and her voice dropped a couple of octaves.

“Blackwell Biotech is looking for a new manager of QA.”

“Like I said in the e-mail, I’m not really interested.”

“I know, but please hear me out. If you don’t, I can’t write this off as a business expense.”

Gwen smiled. “OK, then.”

Judy outlined the position. The job was similar to the one Gwen held now. More staff and managerial decisions constituted the major differences. Right now, Gwen was still very much hands-on and found herself continuing with a number of preexisting tasks she had before her promotion. The idea of more people to take that work away from her sounded pretty sweet when she considered what was sitting on her desk.

“It’s still a no.”

“Why? Is it the money?”

“No, it’s good. It’s better than what I’m getting now.”

“Then what’s the problem? The money’s better. The house prices are better. You’d get a better bang for your buck. The benefits are just as good. And the best thing, no more Bay Area traffic.”

“I just can’t, Judy.”

“What’s holding you back?”

Tarbell was. With the mess their lives were
in, it would be so easy to take Judy’s offer, but Tarbell would win if Gwen ran away. He couldn’t be allowed to get away with what he’d done. If Tarbell was gone and the job offer was still out there, then she might reconsider.

“Pace has been good to me. They promoted me after a year, and I haven’t been in charge all that long. I don’t want to be seen as jumping ship.”

“No one is going to think that. We asked you.”

“I know, but that’s not what it’s going to look like on my résumé. Others are going to think that I quit when the next job comes along.”

“Not if you stick with us long-term. All that goes away.”

Gwen smiled. “You’re good at this.”

“Guilty as charged.”

Judy gave Gwen a couple of minutes of uninterrupted eating before starting up again.

“I don’t get this, Gwen. I’m offering you a better job with better money and prospects, and you’re saying no. There’s got to be something behind it. Tell me what you need, and I’ll do my best to make it happen.”

Tarbell nailed inside a crate on a slow boat to China
, she thought.

“Gwen? Is something wrong?”

“No, of course not.”

“You could have fooled me. You’re on the verge of tears.”

Gwen’s facade was slipping, and she could keep holding it in place, but she was too tired.

“There’s a lot going on. I can’t walk away from it. Not yet, anyway.”

“Like what?”

“Paul’s out of work. The construction trade is down and so are careers.”

“Even more reason to come out to
Vacaville. House prices are cheaper, and while the downturn is hitting everyone, Vacaville is going to keep on growing. They’re going to need people like Paul more there than they do here.”

“I know.”

“Then what? Gwen, I can feel you holding back. We’ve known each other since college. Tell me.”

“You’re right. It’s not just Paul. I have a lot of headaches at the moment.”

Say it. Say Tarbell. Get it out before it eats you up
. But she couldn’t say it. Not yet. Judy was going to keep on digging until she got her answers. If Gwen didn’t give her something, she would spill everything about Tarbell. She had to give her something else and she had it.

“Desmond Parker. He’s up for parole.”

Judy put a hand to her mouth. She understood more than anyone about Parker. She’d been there that night. Judy had broken down at Gwen’s hospital bedside and evoked the one scenario that had haunted the both of them for years afterward. If she had stayed, would Parker have done what he’d done or would he have moved on to another girl? To Gwen, it now seemed a pointless question. If Parker hadn’t abducted her, he would have abducted another girl, and that girl might not have been as lucky as her. Gwen’s near death could have saved several other girls. That was the story she told herself.

“Oh, Gwen. How can they?”

“It was going to happen someday. It happens to be now.”

“Just because he’s up for parole doesn’t mean he’ll get it.”

“It looks like he will.”

“Is anyone doing anything about it?”

“I’m speaking at the hearing in a couple of weeks. It might sway the decision, but I’m not optimistic.”

Gwen told Judy about her visit to San Quentin. Judy was in tears before Gwen reached the end. Parker dragged up a lot of old memories for both of them. Seeing Judy
break down reminded Gwen of how far she’d come. As much of an influence as Parker was and would remain in Gwen’s life, he was just a small part now. For Judy, it looked as if he represented more.

“I never should have left you that night.”

“And I shouldn’t have put myself in that situation. No one is to blame for what happened to me except for Parker.”

The waitress came over and asked if there was a problem. Gwen said there wasn’t and asked for the check. Judy paid and they left, their meals mostly uneaten. They walked up the street, ignoring the stores.

“Look, are you interested in the job?” There was no hard sell this time with Judy’s question. It was heartfelt.

“Of course, but the circumstances aren’t good.”

Judy nodded. “I know, but I want you to really think about this. I’m going to hold the position open. Deal with Parker, then call me. If you want the job, it’s yours. With everything in your life, it might make for the perfect fresh beginning. It’ll be a chance for you and Paul to start over.”

Gwen wondered if an element of guilt was playing into Judy’s decision. She’d always held herself responsible in some way, and here was a chance to redeem herself. Gwen killed the thought dead. It was an unfair assumption. She put that down to Parker and to Tarbell’s recent influence in her life. She took the offer for what it was.

Judy hugged Gwen. “Let’s hope Parker’s parole is denied and your problems end there.”

Gwen wished they would.

Tarbell was finding it remarkably easy to frame Gwen. He put it down to his inside knowledge, his ease with handling electronic files, and the element of surprise. All he needed was a little privacy to make it work, and he was getting
that moment now. It was five forty-five, and virtually everyone had had enough of another day in the salt mines. Gwen had gone, as had all his coworkers. A few managers and VPs were milling about, but they were used to seeing him plugging away. He needed them to leave so he could complete some final tweaks on Gwen’s computer. In the meantime, he could get on with the real heavy lifting.

Each division of Pace Pharmaceuticals was assigned a particular mission. Here at the Alameda division, it was medical devices. The next big thing Pace Pharmaceuticals board members had nailed their bonuses on was a test for determining whether someone was likely to suffer from breast cancer. When they received FDA approval, Pace was looking at new business worth at least 200 million bucks. It was the hottest thing on Pace’s books, and while it wasn’t exactly an industry secret, no one else in the industry was close to coming up with their own version.

It went without saying that Pace would be pretty pissed if five years of research and development fell into a competitor’s hands. Tarbell could barely contain his delight when he came up with the plan to discredit Gwen and switch the focus away from himself.

Pace had been going electronic for a number of years. All documentation was scanned and archived on network drives. Very little paper documentation was on hand unless it was only a few weeks old. The breast cancer research was kept on a protected drive that could only be viewed by staff with certain passwords. He wasn’t one, but Gwen was and he knew her password.

That afternoon, he’d logged on as Gwen and copied the files to her computer. This simple act left an electronic trail with the IT people even though Gwen and the IT people weren’t aware of it—yet.

When the last manager left, he went into Gwen’s office, fired up her PC, and logged into her company e-mail account. He was pleased to see a couple of messages
going back and forth between Gwen and Judy Brent. There was nothing too interesting in the correspondence, but beyond the banal banter there were a couple of juicy tidbits. Gwen had written, “Thanks for listening. It meant a lot opening up. You’re one of the few people I can talk to about this.”

What have you opened up about, Gwen
? he thought.
Me
? He didn’t think so, but it didn’t really matter who Gwen told. There was nothing she could do to stop him now. His mood was buoyed again by Judy’s final remark. “Please, think my offer over. You’d be a great asset here.”

The nonspecific comment worked perfectly for Tarbell. He wrote a response to Judy’s e-mail, attaching the breast cancer research files. He cc’ed the e-mail to one of Blackwell’s senior VPs and made it very blatant what he was sending.

He reached around the back of Gwen’s computer and jerked the network cable out, then hit send. With the cable disconnected, the e-mail with its career-ending payload went as far as the out-box, but not the sent folder. A dialog box popped up on the screen stating the message couldn’t be sent and asked if he would like to try again. He clicked the no option and closed the e-mail program. Then he plugged the network cable back in.

He’d just done a very simple but clever thing. The message was unsent, trapped in Gwen’s out-box. Nothing would happen until Monday when Gwen logged on and opened her e-mail program. As soon as she did, the program would send the message automatically. The e-mail would be date stamped with a Monday date and time that would put Gwen squarely at her desk and would override any record of the message having being stuck in the out-box. From there, the damage would be done. For all intents and purposes, Gwen would have sent the e-mail and there’d be a nice electronic log proving it.

That was it. Gwen was done. It was that simple.

He uninstalled the spy
software. It wasn’t needed anymore, and he couldn’t afford for anyone to find it. He was already looking forward to replaying this moment of triumph at home. The spy software would have captured everything up until this moment and a copy would be waiting for him at home on his laptop.

“Done and done,” he said and shut down Gwen’s computer.

It had been a long week but one that had proved more than fruitful. Everything was in play. It was time to celebrate and enjoy his weekend. Next week promised to be one of fresh opportunities, all without Gwen Farris’s interference.

“W
hy’d you do it?” Deborah asked.

Deborah’s accusing tone put Gwen’s Tuesday morning into a downward spiral. Deborah
had been all smiles when she called Gwen. She was still playing the close-friend role when she showed Gwen into her office and sat her down, but the pretense ended with that question.

The question threw Gwen. When Deborah had called her to her office, she thought there’d been a breakthrough with Tarbell. Maybe he’d tripped himself up and Ingram had been there to catch him, finally ending this mess.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Deborah. Why’d I do what?”

Deborah sighed. “How much of this run in with Stephen Tarbell is made up? Some of it? All of it? Now I know the man is insufferable and no one here would miss him, so I understand it, but I can’t condone it.”

Deborah pretended to sound understanding, but she was granite. There was nothing forgiving in her tone or demeanor. Gwen had never seen this side of her. She was usually the typical HR person, openly friendly and a company cheerleader. She didn’t greet anyone without a smile and a thoughtful question about their family.

“What’s going on?”

“PSI has yet to come up with a scrap of evidence
supporting your claim.”

“That’s not what Robert Ingram said at his office.”

“The benefit of the doubt was with you then,” Deborah said.

Gwen pounced on the word. “
Then
?”

“Since then, there’s been nothing. There’s no evidence to support your claims.”

Rising panic opened up a hole in the pit of Gwen’s stomach. It left her nauseous. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. Ingram was supposed to find evidence on Tarbell and put him away for it. But the game plan had been failing all week, and Ingram had lost his faith in her.

But this meeting wasn’t simply because PSI hadn’t come up with any evidence exonerating Tarbell. If the investigation had simply not turned up any supporting evidence, Deborah’s attitude would be different. She’d be consolatory, wrapping a comforting arm around Gwen’s shoulders and telling her they’d done their best but there was nothing proving Tarbell had done anything. Instead, she was hostile and accusatory. Something had gone seriously wrong.

“Was Stephen supposed to be the scapegoat?” Deborah looked at Gwen with disgust.

“What?”

“Were you going to use his assault as a precursor to set him up?”

“Seriously, I don’t know what you’re talking about, so you’re going to have to tell me.”

Deborah opened a file in front of her. She removed a color photo and slid it across to Gwen. Gwen picked up the photo gingerly. It was a shot of her and Judy from the Thai restaurant. The photograph had been taken from across the street. It wasn’t the greatest piece of photography in the world, the image was grainy and the sun shining down on the restaurant’s window washed a lot of the detail away, but it was clearly her and Judy.

“Who is that?”

“Judy Brent. She’s a friend of mine.”

“Just a friend?”

“Just a friend.”

“Who does she work for?”

Gwen could see how their meeting could
be misconstrued. It was a misunderstanding that could be corrected with a simple phone call to Judy. But there was something wrong with this picture. Not with the picture itself, but with the existence of the picture at all.

“Have I been under surveillance?”

“You were in danger, Gwen. It was felt someone should be watching your back for your safety.”

Gwen didn’t believe that for a second. If Ingram had decided she needed a bodyguard, he would have told her, even introduced them. Not telling her she was under surveillance meant one thing. They weren’t watching her back, they were watching her.

“Answer my question, Gwen. Who does Judy Brent work for?”

Gwen named Pace’s competitor.

“At least you admit it. I didn’t think you would under the circumstances.”

“Under the circumstances? Look, this is getting out of hand. It’s not what you think. We were college roommates. We were just catching up.” She left out the job offer. She wasn’t interested in taking it, and trying to explain it would only gum up this meeting.

“If you don’t believe me, call Judy. She’ll explain everything.”

“We have called her.”

Instead of this remark easing Gwen’s tension, it served only to heighten it.

“What did she say?”

“Very little, once Blackwell’s legal counsel got involved.”

“Why are lawyers getting involved?”

Deborah looked disgusted
by Gwen’s näiveté. “Why do you think?”

Gwen shook her head.

“Drop the act, Gwen. It’s over. You met with your friend to sell Blackwell the breast cancer research. We know all about it. I can’t believe you were dumb enough to send the files through company e-mail.”

The accusation hit that hole in the pit of Gwen’s stomach. It made no sense. She jumped up. “I didn’t send anything.”

“Sit down, Gwen.” It wasn’t a request.

Gwen retook her seat.

“IT has a log of your e-mails. Not only that, there’s a log of you copying the research files off the system drive. Why in God’s name did you do it? You had to know we’d catch you.”

“I didn’t do it.”

“Stop, Gwen. It’s over. The best thing you can do is come clean.”

“It’s Stephen. He did this.”

“Yes, it would be. Did you invent the assault to throw us off? Was it so you’d have our sympathy while you focused on stealing our research? Was that the idea?”

“It was Stephen.” Gwen couldn’t hide the desperate note from her voice. The falsely accused sounded desperate, but so did the guilty.

“Oh, please, Gwen. Give it up.”

Gwen knew it was Tarbell. Fate and bad luck didn’t have a hand in this. He did. He knew that inflicting physical harm would hurt him as much as her, so destroying her reputation was a far better solution. But for all his deviousness, he couldn’t get away with any of this while she was in her office. He needed to do this while she was at a meeting or away from her desk. If she was at a meeting, she had witnesses to prove it. If she’d left the office for the day, she had PSI’s surveillance to back her up. Tarbell had done a first class job of screwing her over, but it was as fragile and transparent as glass.

“When was the e-mail sent?”

“It’s over, Gwen. See sense.”

“When was the e-mail sent?” she insisted. “I guarantee I wasn’t in my office when the e-mail
was sent.”

“It was sent at eight ten yesterday morning.”

“That can’t be.” The words slipped out. She’d been at her desk from the moment she walked in until just before ten. There was no way Tarbell had gotten to her desk. He’d used the same magic to prove he was at home when he chased her through the office and trashed her home. Whatever it was, she couldn’t see how the trick was done.

“Were you at your desk at eight ten?”

“Yes.”

“It’s over, Gwen. You were caught. Face up to it.”

Gwen was facing up to it. She’d been trapped by something she didn’t do.

“Why’d you do it, Gwen? Really.”

Knowing she was beaten, Gwen said nothing.

Deborah slid a sheet of paper across the table. It was a printout of an e-mail Gwen hadn’t sent. It was a reply to Judy’s last e-mail. It couldn’t be any more incriminating if it wanted to be. It outlined that she was delivering the research she’d promised and that she was ready to accept the new job offer in return. The e-mail contained all the replies to their previous e-mails, including Judy’s oblique offers to a position at Blackwell. It looked as if Judy had lured Gwen into selling out Pace. There was no point in telling Deborah the e-mail thread had only begun after Tarbell had assaulted her. Deborah was finished with Gwen. Decisions had been made. The guilty condemned.

“For a new job? More money? Hasn’t Pace been good to you?”

“Does it matter?”

“Perhaps not, Gwen, but I thought we knew each other better than this.” Deborah took back the photograph and the e-mail printout. “Did you take anything else?”

“If it’s there to be found, you’ll find it.”

Deborah threw her hands up in
surrender. “OK, Gwen, you win.”

“What happens now?”

“You’ll be escorted off the premises by security.”

“I need to collect my things.”

Deborah shook her head. “Security has already collected your purse and that will be given to you on the way out. Everything else will be forwarded to you at a later date.”

“So, I’ve been terminated.”

“You didn’t leave us any choice.”

“It wasn’t my choice to give. If you look deeper, you’ll find I had nothing to do with this.”

But Deborah wasn’t listening. “You will receive your final paycheck and medical benefits will extend until the end of the month, which I think is more than generous under the circumstances.”

Deborah paused for a thank you that Gwen didn’t supply.

“If you’re wondering if there’ll be any civil action for the industrial espionage, there won’t be. The boards of both companies have decided they wouldn’t welcome the unwanted publicity associated with this issue.”

Gwen understood that. As unwitting dupes in this scam, they wouldn’t want their name dragged through the mud. She wondered what assurances Blackwell Biotech had made to Pace about its innocence. Had they painted her as a lone agent trying to curry favor with a potential new employer? That seemed as good a guess as any.

“Blackwell assures us they haven’t examined the documents. Seeing as the breach was discovered before anyone had a chance to benefit from the information, no real harm has been done to Pace.”

“Who brought this to your attention? Stephen?” Gwen asked.

“I can’t discuss the details, but Stephen had nothing to do with it.”

Deborah made a call and two security
guards appeared outside the door. They stood on either side of Gwen, neither one placing a hand on her. Deborah led Gwen on her walk of shame through the building and down the stairs to the lobby. The location of Deborah’s office meant the walk was short and witnessed by very few, but it would be common knowledge before she reached her car. She pictured the shocked faces of her coworkers as they shared the news.

In the lobby, Deborah put out her hand and Gwen handed over her card key. It was an exercise in humiliation but for the wrong reasons. She wasn’t ashamed of her behavior; she was ashamed of being tarred as a liar.

“I’m very disappointed, Gwen.”

“So am I,” Gwen said.

One of the guards pointed to the doors, and Gwen let herself out.

The moment she stepped outside, the enormity of being fired hit her. She’d lost her family’s sole source of income. There were credit cards to pay, mortgage payments, utilities, and future medical bills. Their savings were down to the dregs. At best, they were good for a couple more months before it would get difficult. Her world was being driven onto the rocks, and none of it was her fault. She felt the hole in her stomach suck her in.

She missed her footing as she stepped off the sidewalk. She felt stupid and visible to the world. She glanced back at Pace’s building. Faces pressed against windows watched her leave. She imagined the whispered exchanges as everyone tried to figure out what was transpiring. Some shook their heads. Shame should have forced her to look away, but she scanned the windows for Tarbell. She didn’t see him.

“I didn’t think you’d want to miss your moment of triumph,” she said and got into her car.

Look surprised, you’re clueless as to what’s going on
, Tarbell told himself as the vice president of Quality congregated
what was left of the QA department in a conference room. Until then, everyone at Pace Pharmaceuticals who wasn’t in the know had been left to speculate.

The panic had begun the moment Gwen left her office to see Deborah. The moment she was out of sight of her office, two of the geeks from IT rushed inside, closed the door, and pulled the blinds. They did what geeks do behind closed doors for ten minutes before emerging with Gwen’s PC in hand. He guessed they could find remnants of the spy software if they looked, but they weren’t looking for it. Nothing tracked back to him. Even if they did uncover an outside e-mail address where all Gwen’s correspondence was being sent, all they’d find was a nameless Yahoo! account.

“What do you think’s going on?” Lauren asked him.

He shook his head. “Damned if I know.”

The second wave of hysteria hit when news of Gwen’s supervised departure spread. No one had to be told Gwen had been fired. Everyone recognized the signs. The removal of her PC just confirmed everyone’s suspicions.

Once Gwen had driven away, everyone descended on Quality Assurance. People wanted to know what was going on. How he would have loved to play professor to the students, answering all their questions, but he couldn’t. All he could do was fend them off with clueless comments.

Managers and VPs prowling the area like big-game cats quelled the excitement. The masses returned to their posts. He fielded a few phone calls, eager for knowledge to pass on, but he had nothing for them.

Silence ensued. It left his coworkers edgy but not him. He understood the silence. Upper management needed to formulate a plan, including damage control and a successor to Gwen. Yes, Pace Pharmaceuticals was without a QA manager, but that would be temporary. A replacement would be installed before the day’s end.