I closed the fucking door. “Chuck, the door is as good a topic as any other. Must we be so secretive?”
“Jim, I don’t make the rules.” [which, of course, he did]
“Okay, I’ll not argue with you on that. But I am working with a guy who has a big ask, he could help me, but I can’t ask him. Why?”
“BHA is an imperfect organization. We help people without the resources, or well, the balls, to get their own revenge. We go out and give some guy a good beating; maybe that is exactly what he deserves for what he did, but the one he did it to is not involved. So, one could ask, is it really even revenge?”
“I get that.” I didn’t see what this had to do with my problem.
“You believe you are going to take down your guy because he did something unlawful. If he did and you can catch him, that will be great. If he didn’t, we are going to have to figure out another way to get him. You might not think what is chosen is so great.”
“Well, when you asked me …”
“I promised I’d see to it you didn’t have to do anything unlawful.”
“Right!”
“So, now, let’s take that one step further. We get some victim involved in the totally legal take-down of his nemesis. But we can’t find anything. So, it needs to go to — what I’ll call the other side of the house for a less legal solution.”
I interrupted, “The other side of the house does it and neither he nor I have anything to do with it. What’s the problem?”
“Let’s say Mr. Nemesis gets beat up or robbed or both. The number one suspect will be Mr. Victim, agree?”
“Sure.”
“Jim, this is the most important part of why we are so cautious. The police will question Mr. Victim. He may well be up to being interrogated, but probably he will not. It is essential he knows nothing, so he can say nothing. If you worked together, look at what happens.
“He says he was working with you, to discover a crime. None was discovered. Now, the police have reason to talk to you. They have a path to Perfect. Now, two people have the opportunity, under police pressure, to say, we found nothing, so it went to the other guys.”
I nodded my understanding. “I want no part of that, for sure. I can see he and I must never meet. I want nothing to do with some solution which is illegal.”
“That’s what I promised you, Jim. Those who formed the organization assure that none of us ever do anything we can’t live with.”
“But that can be done because others are totally without conscience.”
“You want me to agree with that?”
“No. I want to be able to swear I will do nothing unlawful, and the organization supports that view.”
Chuck smiled, “Exactly. Now, what do you need help with?”
“It appears there is something fishy about Wellborn and their relationship with Armstrong Construction. I know no one. I need help getting started.”
“Our big competitor here in town is Adams Business Systems. Brian Adams is a friend. About the same time as Armstrong lost the Wellborn contract, Wellborn blacklisted Armstrong.”
“Are you saying that is connected?”
“Might be. But what I know is the business manager for Armstrong, a woman named Bridget Connolly, was about to be hired away from Armstrong, by Adams. The blacklisting apparently killed that move. You can talk to Bridget, about getting a job here. See what you learn. I’ll call Brian and let you know what I find.”
I thanked Chuck and was starting to understand BHA better than I had before. If all the pieces of someone’s desired revenge were kept separate, no one was likely to ever get caught. The victims’ revenge was discounted by no involvement, but nothing comes for free.
++++++
I thought the Bridget tip to be a good one. I went back to my desk and called Armstrong Construction’s number from their website.
“Armstrong Construction, Bridget speaking, how may I help you?”
“Bridget, my name is Jim Anderson, I work for a firm called Perfect Project Planning. We are relatively new here in town, have you heard of us?”
She was intrigued, I could hear it in her voice, “Yes, as a matter of fact, I was going to call you. Well, notyou you, your company. I just didn’t know who to call.”
Oh! That opens the possibility of exploring why she wants to leave — but that might make me look like I had an ulterior motive. I’ll play it straight. “I have heard good things about you. I’d like a chance to interview you and find out more about your capabilities.”
“That might be difficult, Simon doesn’t want me to leave. I think he had something to do with my not getting on with Adams.”
“I don’t understand. Adams?”
“I shouldn’t have said that!” She paused like she wanted to say more. “Forgive me.”
“Bridget, are you married?”
“Are you looking for employees or friends?”
“Strictly employees. That was an inadept way of asking if you could go out with me, seeming socially, for an interview. I guess you could do that, married or not. I’m babbling. How does that sound?”
“We could do that. How about Saturday?”
“Saturday? Sure, why not?” I was sorry I more asked than stated my answer.
She sounded concerned, “Is Saturday bad?”
“No, I was just thinking a weekday evening, but I have nothing to do on Saturday, it will be fine.”
“Saturday is easier for me. I start very early in the morning, six days a week.”
I mentioned several nice restaurants. She picked Italian. I was sorry I asked. We agreed to meet at the restaurant. The nice thing about the restaurant, it had a large bar area. We agreed to meet at 6:00pm and I made dinner reservations for 7:30pm.
I was off the phone with Bridget for maybe twenty minutes when Chuck called me in his office. I made a show of closing the door. He wasn’t amused but decided to let it go. He started, “I have been thinking about Brian Adams.”
“You need to get a life, Chuck.” I smiled.
“No shit. I told you I’d call him, but I don’t like where that leads. He will wonder why I am calling, and I’d rather not bullshit him, though I’d never consider telling him the truth.”
“That leaves you little room.” I wondered why you’d never tell a guy the truth.
“Hence, hand the job off. You don’t know him. Tell him we’re considering hiring Bridget and you found out she’d been turned down there. He’ll ask how; tell him I thought I remembered that and asked you to call.”
“He’ll probably call you and ask why.”
“Certainly. I have no problem bullshitting him on his dime.”
He gave me a big smile and I returned it. Chuck had a lot of class, most of it third, but a lot of class. His ethics were solid, slimy but uniformly slimy — you could count on parity in the distribution of his slime. Being evasive to a questioner is far different than lying while questioning. I wondered if my own ethics would hold up in this shrine to secrecy and deception.
I called Brian. He was very friendly, if you define that in terms of effusive and illusive. He told me “these matters” are delicate. Did I mind if he called Chuck?Did I mind? What if I said, yes I do? “No, of course not,” I said warmly, not feeling a bit of that emotion, “I’m sure he’d love to hear from you.” I could sling shit with them, since that’s what we seemed to do.
After I said that, the rest of the conversation was, thanks, click. Chuck promised he’d talk to Brian and now I was sure he would.