Termination Man: a novel (55 page)

“Isn’t it true, Ms. Porter,” Sanders continued. “That your organization is currently working on an story about a company in the Channel 11 viewing area?”  

“That’s right.” Janet Porter cleared her throat. “We’ve uncovered some issues at a company called United Press and Stamping, or UP&S, in New Hastings, Ohio. As many of your viewers will know, UP&S began as a joint venture between a Japanese automotive components manufacturer and a spun-off division of General Motors. More recently, UP&S was acquired by TP Automotive, which is one of the largest companies in the automotive components field.”

“And according to Citizens for Corporate Truth,” Bob Sanders said, picking up the conversational baton. “The real source of concern here is not UP&S, the original joint venture firm, but rather TP Automotive.”   

“That’s exactly right. TP Automotive has been on our radar for a while. We’ve received complaints from workers at Great Lakes Fuel Systems, a Cleveland automotive components manufacturer that TP Automotive acquired last year.”

Janet went on to relate the story of Eileen Cosgrove, a production floor machine operator who was injured after TP Automotive managers and their hired consultants made changes to the layout of the factory in Cleveland. According to Janet’s version of events, Cosgrove—a long-time employee of Great Lakes Fuel Systems—had appealed to the management team repeatedly about the changes. Citing past time studies and workflow comparison charts, she had argued that the new operational rules made her workstation unsafe. TP Automotive managers had basically told her that a machine operator could not argue with the findings of a management consultant team.

“Of course,” Janet added. “None of the management consultants hired by TP Automotive had ever worked in a production environment. They were all recent MBA graduates.”

“And then what happened?” Sanders asked.

“Then Eileen Cosgrove got hurt.”

Janet described Eileen Cosgrove’s injury. After her workstation was combined with an adjacent one, she had to monitor two production machines, whereas before she had only operated one. One day, while struggling to keep up with the new pace of production, Cosgrove had slipped and fallen into one of the machines in her charge. She attempted to break her fall with her hands. As a result, she lost two fingers from each hand, and one thumb was mangled so badly that it was unusable. Cosgrove was presently attempting to sue TP Automotive. The company countered with the claim that the accident had been caused by Cosgrove’s own carelessness.

“That’s awful,” Sanders observed. “However, the issue in New Hastings is not an accident, is it?”

“No,” Janet said. “The matter in Cleveland is the sort of story that Citizens for Corporate Truth sees routinely: In an effort to remain competitive with companies in the developing world—where worker safety standards are minimal to nonexistent—American corporate managers implement regimens that endanger worker safety here. No, what we have in New Hastings is far more personal, and far more ‘awful,’ as you put it. We’re talking about unconscionable abuses of power, and crimes against individuals. I can’t name names or discuss specific crimes at this juncture; but I will in the near future.”

Sanders gave Janet and the audience a mild frown of disappointment. Clearly he wanted both names and specific crimes. When he asked Janet for more information, she demurred.

“This information is presently being reviewed by a group of attorneys and private investigators that have been retained by Citizens for Corporate Truth,” she said. “For liability reasons, I can’t let you know the details at this time. But mark my words: When this comes out, the resultant scandal is going to make Enron look like a relatively minor affair.”

Sanders raised his eyebrows at the mention of the word
Enron
. This had been the name of a Houston-based energy and commodities firm, Enron Corporation. Now, however, Enron was synonymous with the scandal that had first broken in August 2001, when it was revealed that Enron’s top managers were dishonestly inflating revenues, compensating themselves exorbitantly, and engaging in other forms of unethical behavior. A media frenzy had ensued, as one damning revelation about the company’s mismanagement followed another. Enron folded in November of the same year, costing shareholders $11 billion. The firm’s CEO, Kenneth Lay, was charged with and indicted for six counts of fraud and conspiracy. The scandal also brought down a major accounting firm, Arthur Anderson.

“You’ll forgive me, Ms. Porter,” Sanders said. “If I hasten to point out that a comparison to Enron sets the bar pretty high, as corporate scandals go.” Sanders laughed. “Enron’s management team was guilty of practically everything but homicide.”

Janet Porter raised her eyebrows at the last word Sanders uttered. She gave him a tight smile.

“I think that the final report from Citizens for Corporate Truth will meet your highest expectations,” she said. “In every way.”

“Well,” Sanders said. “When you are ready to describe the details, I hope that you will come back and share your findings with the viewers here at Channel 11. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us, tonight, Ms. Porter.”

From a couch in the living room of his rented condominium, Shawn watched Janet Porter finish her spiel on the Channel 11 news.

For one full minute, his body would not stop shaking. The word “homicide” had chilled him, made him light-headed. That single word could only mean one thing. Janet Porter had not provided any details; no doubt the details would be forthcoming. What were the odds that there were other members
of
the TP Automotive management team who had a murder or two in their backgrounds? 

Somehow this woman on Channel 11 had connected him to the deaths of those girls in Columbus—who were now more than fifteen years dead.

Shawn didn’t believe that some cold case detective had suddenly linked him to the crime. If the police had found evidence of his involvement in 1996 or 1997, they would have acted upon it years ago. There was only one person who had been in Columbus in 1996—who would have also had the knowledge and the motivation to connect the dots.

Tina Shields
.

His fear was suddenly displaced by rage. He crumpled up an empty beer can and threw it in the direction of his 65” flat-screen television set. It ricocheted off the display, likely leaving a scratch on the surface.

If only a damaged television set was his
worst
preoccupation right now. If only.

It wasn’t difficult to piece this together. Tina Shields was gone; but she was not
truly
gone. She was reaching out from beyond the grave to make trouble for him. In the final weeks of her miserable life, Tina had obviously been talking to the bitch from Citizens for Corporate Truth. Tina Shields was the source of Janet Porter’s ominous information—the information that could not be revealed until it was “verified by attorneys and private investigators.” They were mobilizing a team, a team that was bent on his ruination.

He had never imagined, over the course of all these years, that Tina Shields had somehow known the truth about the deaths of Jill Johnson and Carla Marsh. No other living person had known about that.

Correction
, Shawn thought:
With the recent exception of Nick
King
.

But Nick King could be ruled out as Janet Porter’s source: Nick now had blood on his hands as well: The ex-UP&S employee had dispatched Tina Shields for the tidy sum of $5,000—a bargain, when you considered that her death had tied up a very dangerous loose end. The unfinished business of Shawn’s college days had been washed away by the waters of the Olentangy River.
Or so he had thought.

He could assume that there was no physical evidence to connect him to the long-ago murders. He had indeed been careful that night. That meant that someone had made some insightful extrapolations. And with Tina Shields dead, the lawyers and private snoops hired by Citizens for Corporate Truth would need another person who could tie him to the old murders. Another person who could connect all the dots for them, and even worse, the police. 

Donna Chalmers would be that link.
She had a clear motive: She hated him for what he had done—or tried to do—to her miserable daughter. And it could be assumed that Tina Shields had confided in her. He had seen Tina Shields at the UP&S plant, where Donna and Alyssa cleaned the offices.

Yes, it all made perfect sense now:
Donna Chalmers had been the link between Tina Shields and Craig Walker. How else would Tina and the business consultant have been acquainted? There was no other way to explain Tina Shields’s clandestine visit to Craig Walker in the UP&S parking lot, was there? First Donna Chalmers met Craig Walker. Then she met Tina Shields. Then she introduced them.

It was obvious that Donna was pulling the strings now. Craig Walker might be an asshole; but he was acting contrary to his interests as a businessman. Why else would a consultant, who lived by his reputation and the recommendations of clients, backstab his most significant client? Because Donna Chalmers had her emotional and sexual hooks in him, of course.

And it was a sure bet that Donna and this woman on television weren’t done with trying to ruin him. How long would it be before Donna Chalmers was holding joint press conferences with Janet Porter? He imagined Chalmers speaking to the Channel 11 reporters:
“
Yes, that monster tried to rape my daughter. And the recently deceased Tina Shields told me what he did to her fifteen years ago.
S
he also told me what Shawn did to two other women.
”

This could spell his ruination. Between them, Donna Chalmers and the Citizens for Corporate Truth woman would collude to place him behind bars. He would have to flee the country. His flight would be interpreted as an admission of guilt. His career at TP Automotive—miserable though that was—would be over. His father would disown him.

In other words, this could lead to the end of his entire life. All because of Donna Chalmers and this Janet Porter.

He would have to kill one of them—and the obvious choice was Donna Chalmers. She had a personal stake in his destruction, after all. With her dead, moreover, Janet Porter would have nothing to go on. The campaign against him would come to an abrupt end.

If he didn't act quickly, the situation would follow a predictable and disastrous course: Within a matter of days or weeks, the Columbus police would name him as a person of interest in the untimely demise of Tina Shields. How thoroughly had Nick King covered his tracks?
About as thoroughly as he had covered his embezzling scheme
, Shawn figured. He had no doubt that Nick would betray him in a heartbeat if he were questioned by the police. Hadn’t the prick more or less blackmailed him the night they had gone to the strip bar?

But he would need Nick King one more time, wouldn’t he? He dialed Nick King’s cell phone number. The ex-UP&S employee didn't pick up the phone. So Shawn left him a message, instructing him to call. Then, for good measure, he sent a text message with the same instructions.

Shortly thereafter, his own cell phone rang. He lifted the phone from the living room coffee table; luckily he checked the display before answering. It was a call not from Nick King—but from his father. The old man wanted to talk to him. Of course: His father had seen the news report, too. Shawn gently laid the yodeling cell phone back down on the coffee table. Then he avoided the device as if it were a poisonous snake.

Doing his best to think like his father, Shawn wondered if he should simply take care of matters by himself. He was more than capable of killing Donna Chalmers. He had killed before, after all. He knew where the Chalmers woman and her daughter lived. He could do it tonight, and tomorrow morning his problems would be over.

This resolve lasted for only a few minutes. No, he would need the services of Nick King. He would need the hoodlum one more time.

For a long time after that, Shawn indulged in a bit of personal reflection. He was in a difficult jam now; but he would be able to work his way out of it, provided that he maintained his cool. The years really had made him wiser. He had, in fact, become a man that his father could be proud of—even though there were still many aspects of his life that he needed to keep hidden from the elder Myers.

For one thing, he knew his limitations. That was why he hadn’t killed Tina Shields with his own hands. He realized that that sort of killing—up close and personal—was a task that he no longer had the nerve for. Killing had been far easier when he was younger.

He recalled the night that he had dispatched the two coeds in Columbus—the ones who had so rudely rebuffed his advances. He had followed them home from the bar, but not before opening the trunk of his car to retrieve a crowbar, an implement that could easily be hidden inside his jacket as he trailed Jill Johnson and Carla Marsh at a safe distance.

The two girls had shared an apartment near High Street, just north of the OSU campus. Their cohabitation made the work of killing them both all the easier.
Two birds with one stone
, he had thought triumphantly, as he crept ever closer to the semi-intoxicated girls who had just made a left from the sidewalk toward their front door—an apartment that had convenient ground-floor access.