An hour later, Chuck called me in. I closed the door.
“I just spent forty minutes on the phone with Brian and another 15 trying to figure out what we said.”
“Pardon me, I am trying to understand what you just said. Why did it take so long to figure out?”
“My, my, Jim. You do have much to learn. Brian never said what he meant and I responded cryptically to get him to expand on what he meant — but hadn’t said.
“I heard a joke once, the punch-line was something like — you may disagree with what you think I said, but what you don’t understand is what I said is not what I meant.”
Chuck looked at me, “What’s funny about that?”
“Apparently, nothing in this environment. So, what didn’t he say, or did he mean when he said something else?” Now I was talking the same gibberish he was.
“He thinks Bridget is a spy for Mason. He said a series of things — he was going to hire her. He had Wellborn work. Armstrong had the Wellborn Tower. He got black-balled by Mason, so he didn’t hire Bridget, and Armstrong lost the Tower.”
“He thinks he lost a client because Bridget is at the intersection of some grand scheme?”
“That’s what I was struggling with. If you think she is in on something, you’d want to get her close, I’d think. And if she was the lynchpin, why’d Armstrong lose the work?”
“I assume you asked?”
“I’m not sure. I can’t remember the words, nor the context, but I think he said the scheme fell short. I thought that meant he had no clue.”
“Maybe it’s just me, but I find saying what you mean is helpful.”
“That’s because you never have ill-intent behind what you say.”
“So, did you gain anything while not talking to one another?”
He paused, frowning, “I think he started the Bridget nonsense because he sensed I was probing him more successfully than he was me. Bridget was a red herring. He thinks Mason has something on Trey and Trey has fled the country to plan a counter-attack.”
I perked up at that and wondered why we’d wandered down Bridget’s-a-spy lane. I’d have asked him, but I wouldn’t know whether he was saying what he meant or trying to teach me the advantages of obfuscation in common conversation. “Trey – guilty of wrongdoing or personal disgrace?”
“Personal. No doubt.”
“Then, he is a potential ally?”
“You’d think so. But his dad is a real tight-ass; no nonsense kind of a guy.
Trey will not admit someone has something on him, because that would acknowledge there is something on him. So, if we can find a way to talk to him, on Bora Bora, or wherever the fuck he is, we have to offer him a way to take down Mason, without any strings on it.”
I was worn out. “Do you ever try to communicate with someone, directly? What does the elasticity of Deuce’s sphincter have to do with Trey’s willingness to talk?”
“Oh, Wellborn senior was a free spirit. He made and lost several fortunes. His son took over running the businesses when he was about 30. He was his father’s opposite. Extremely conservative and a shrewd businessman. After he took over, his dad could not lose money anymore — Deuce, as you called him, made everything work.”
“Sounds like he was the brains.”
“Not really. He was a great manager. His dad put everything together, just lacked any discipline to actually run it.”
“Deuce kept a tight rein on everything until he was 70. I’d guess he is approaching 80 now. Trey is more like his granddad than his dad. I guess Deuce is a one and one-half drinks per night kind of a guy. Never more, never less. Devoted husband, church goer, and art patron.”
“A solid citizen. A guy I could talk to — says what he means.”
“Okay, smartass, the thing is he might forgive Trey cutting a corner here or there, but if Trey has been fucking the neighbor’s pet goat, he’s in real trouble.”
“If Deuce is so overbearing, might he wonder why Trey is off island hopping?”
“No one has seen him in a while. I don’t know if he has all his buttons.”
“Then, why would Trey fear him?”
“Good point. I’ll see what I can find out.”
I left shaking my head.
++++++
I was driving to my interview with Bridget. I was thinking through the conversation with Chuck about her being a spy… No, I am not going there; I am here to meet Bridget.
We arrived right on time, found a table and ordered iced tea. The waiter looked like we were going to cost him a bigger tip. We laughed at his mood and got right to it. Simon Armstrong was good at construction and at getting work, he had no idea how to keep books, pay taxes, or any of the dozens of other things he needed to know to be successful. Bridget did all that.
I had given us 90 minutes, so if she was only marginally qualified, I’d have enough time to ask questions to see if she would fit at 3P. She was so qualified I knew she had the job in 15 minutes. There was a lot of time to fill.
I thought I’d see what I could learn from her slip-up earlier in the week. “Bridget, I am impressed. I am sure we will come to terms on a job. But I want to talk about your comment about Adams the other day.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Well, I know, but let me say this — Adams is a competitor, I’d like to know all I can about them.”
“Why?”
“Know thy enemy.”
She sat and seemingly weighed the pros and cons. She smiled; she’d come to terms with what she’d do. “I have wanted to talk about this for ever but had no idea with whom. I feel like I am a prisoner at Armstrong, and I don’t know why. Well, I am desperate for the income, don’t have the education to go elsewhere — well, until now.” She looked at me like she’d just peed away her chances.
I laughed, “Talking to me is not going to hurt your chances — you’re a lock for the job.”
“Tell me if I am going too fast. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I told you I do almost all the estimating for the jobs. We have tables we use to calculate the steel, concrete, and other materials — very accurately. Simon gets me prints and physical measurements, and I figure everything out. Getting the materials estimate right is most of the battle in winning contracts. Simon always estimates the labor.”
“Okay?” Where was she going, I wondered.
“There were a couple of jobs where Simon told me not to estimate, he would do it. I really never thought about it. Then, the biggest job we ever bid on, the Wellborn Building, and he wants to do it. He was done in only two days. We got the job. Then, we lost the job.”
“And that made you suspicious of what?”
“In this business, you can underbid and intentionally try to build substandard. That is risky. It is less risky, if you have someone on the inside, to underbid, then make it up by changes in scope to the original contract. I think that is what this was. The file has a rendering of a building like Wellborn’s Headquarters, but more traditional; less avant garde.”
“So?”
“It would be cheaper to build, maybe 20 or 25% cheaper. I would guess we bid on the cheaper building, everyone else on the more expensive one. The insider awarded us the contract, based on the low bid, then tried to persuade Wellborn to build the lesser cost building. When he refused, the insider said we’ll just handle the changes as they come. Wellborn refused that, too, and we lost the job.”