Part 24:
That number comes from a woman named Linda, who works out of the corporate office in Burlington, who has been taking orders for a long time from a man at the company who is higher than Sharp. That man’s name is Douglas Reinick. He’s the chief operating officer. He’s the one who set this up 3 years ago. He is the one who will clean it up eventually because Sharp is getting sloppy.
Now, Mr. Hale, are we done? We’re done. Get in your truck. Ryan got in his truck. He put it in reverse. He backed slowly out of the logging road, watching the three men in the rearview, seeing them not move until he was out of sight around the first bend. He backed all the way out to the highway. He swung the wheel.
He pulled onto 12A going south. He drove for exactly 1 mile. Then he said quietly, almost to himself, Douglas Reinick. In the van 2 miles behind him, Owen leaned forward over the console and said very calmly, We got it. Ryan kept driving. He did not let himself shake until he got off the highway.
Then he pulled into the parking lot of a gas station, and he put the truck in park, and he sat there with his hands on the wheel, and he shook for about 45 seconds hard, the way a man shakes when he has been holding it in. Then he stopped shaking. He drove back to Montpelier. He did it too. The conference room was already full when he walked in.
Delia was at the head of the table. Marcus was standing against the wall with his arms crossed looking at a tablet. Celeste was sitting in the same chair she had been in Friday night, but she was leaning forward now, both hands flat on the table watching the door. When Ryan came in, she stood up. Rhinock, she said.
Douglas Rhinock. The chief operating officer. That’s what the man said. She sat back down. Slowly. She put both her hands on her face for a second covering her eyes. Not dramatically, just a small private gesture. Then she took them away. Delia? Yes. Get legal. Get the federal people. We’re going to court on Tuesday.
Tuesday. Tuesday. That’s 2 days. 2 days. Celeste, we have been building to a Wednesday next week. We are moving it up. He is going to know by Monday morning that this meeting happened. He is going to know by Monday afternoon that the records he bought are not the only copies. He’s going to start shredding.
If we do not move by Tuesday, we will lose the internal evidence that is sitting in his office right now. Get legal. Get everyone in tonight. Delia did not argue. Delia stood up and walked out. Celeste looked at Ryan. You did it again. I did it again. Sit down. He sat. Someone had put a mug of coffee on his side of the table. He did not remember who or when.
How are you? Tired. Okay. The envelope’s in my coat pocket. There’s $60,000 in it. Give it to Marcus. It’s evidence. You will not get to keep it. I didn’t think I would. Marcus came over. Ryan handed him the envelope. Marcus nodded, put it in a sealed plastic sleeve he had ready, and walked away with it. Celeste.
Yes. Rhinock, you know him. I’ve met him maybe 15 times. He was one of my father’s hires. He stayed on because he was useful and because he knew where a lot of bodies were buried. Not literally, but in a reputational sense. He is 58 years old. He is married. He has four grandchildren. He gave me a fountain pen for my 30th birthday that I keep in my desk and use and now will never use again.
I’m sorry. Don’t be. She stood up. She walked over to the window. She looked out at the parking lot. I thought I knew who the men in my company were, Ryan, Sharp, Carl, Linda. I thought I had taken the measure of them. I did not expect Reinhart. Reinhart is the one who writes the honest company memos.
Reinhart is the one I had on the internal culture committee. Reinhart is the one who told me two years ago that we needed to be tougher on shipping losses because the margins were getting thin and people would start to feel it was all right to pilfer. So, he set up a protection racket against his own crime. Yes. And he made the policy so tight that anyone who tried to report theft from the bottom up would get crushed by the reporting process.
Which is what happened to you. You were not framed by Carl in a vacuum. You were framed by Carl because Reinhart had built the kind of system in which a man framed by Carl would fall through every safety net in the company before landing on the pavement. Jesus. Yes. She turned around.
Her face, Ryan saw, was very pale. Her eyes were hard. I’m going to fire him personally, Ryan, on Tuesday in his own office before the federal people arrive. Celeste? Yes. I want to be there. She looked at him. You want to be where? When you fire him. Why? Because I want him to see me. I want him to see the man he let Carl Voss destroy standing behind the woman who pays his salary on the day he loses everything.
I want him to know that he lost to a warehouse guy and a 7-year-old’s father and a woman who sat at a bus stop. She looked at him for a long time. Ryan? Yes. That is a somewhat dramatic request. I know. It is also exactly the right request. Thank you. You may be there. Thank you. Ryan? Yes.
