Ray Tostum escorted Preston Marbury to the conference room on the third floor, not the larger, plusher conference room on the top floor.  He stood with Marbury in the room per May Major’s instructions, which made the attorney even angrier.

May waited about fifteen minutes before entering the conference room with Jessup and Mrs. Sweeney.  By the time she arrived Preston Marbury was fit to be tied.

“What the hell is the meaning of this?” Marbury barked out in anger. “Who do you think you are banning me and the other investors from this office?”

“I’m the interim CEO,” May said calmly, “and you are not an employee of this company. You are a ‘silent’ investor and a guest. You may come and go as other guests do when they have appointments and guest passes.”

“I have an office on the top floor,” Marbury hissed.

“As did the other investors,” May said. “That was a courtesy offered by my father. I rescind that courtesy.”

“Ashley Calder told me you hired back the women I fired and brought in a librarian as a consultant,” he ranted. “Your father would be so disappointed in you right now.”

“Actually, I don’t think so,” May said. “I think my father would be more disappointed in a man who he trusted sending two thugs to pressure his daughter into signing a proxy.”

“That’s bullshit!” Marbury said. “I did nothing like that. You have no evidence I did. Did you know two police officers came into my office today to question me about that? That was humiliating. Who the hell do you think you are? I could sue you—I may, too.”

“I doubt you’ll take your eye off the ball long enough to mess with something like that,” Jessup said. “Since we both know you did it, and since you know when we find them, we’ll dig far enough into your questionable background until we find something that connects you to them, so why don’t you drop the empty threats.”

“Whatever,” he shot back, glaring at Mrs. Sweeney, Ray Tostum and Jessup. “I have things to discuss with Miss Major. You three leave and give us the room.”

“I guess I didn’t make myself clear,” May said. “You aren’t giving the orders around here.  I am.  Ms. Sweeney will record the minutes of our meeting and Mr. Jessup will act as my consultant.”

“What I have to say is confidential,” he argued.

“Anything you can say you can say in front of these people,” she said. “There’s been too many secrets around here.”

“We don’t need Ray,” Marbury said.

“I’m coming to find you never know when you need security,” she answered, “but if it makes you feel better, I’ll ask Ray to stand outside the door.”

She nodded to Ray, who glared at Marbury and left the room. He stood by the glass door taking care to remain in Marbury’s line of sight.

Marbury took a seat. May sat at the head of the table; Jessup to her right and Mrs. Sweeney to her left.

“Peter Phillips is coming to town tomorrow,” Marbury said. “Have you signed the proxy so I can complete this transaction? I need an answer.”

“Mrs. Sweeney, do you have that proxy agreement with you?” May said.

“I do,” she replied, holding it in the air. 

“Please give Mr. Marbury my answer.”

Mrs. Sweeney tore the document in two.

“I trust my position regarding the proxy document is clear, Mr. Marbury,” May said.

Marbury gritted his teeth and let out an audible breath, “That was a huge mistake. Phillips has made it clear that if he leaves here without a signed letter of intent, the deal is off. Miss Major, if there is no deal, this company and its investors, including you, will suffer dire consequences.”

“I didn’t say the deal was off,” May corrected. “I said I wasn’t signing a proxy. I am happy to meet with Mr. Phillips.”

“You?” he guffawed. He suppressed a laugh for dramatic effect. “You will negotiate a half billion-dollar business transaction? You and the… librarian? You are out of your element, Miss Major, you and your… boy toy.”

“Let’s keep this on a professional level, Mr. Marbury,” Jessup said.

“Oh… it speaks,” Marbury snarked.

Jessup leaned forward, choosing to ignore the remark, “Mr. Marbury, can you explain the urgency?”

“As I’ve told Miss Major, this process has been going on for a long time and…”

“Why has it been going on for a long time?” Jessup asked. “Is it because Mike Major didn’t want to sell and was looking for alternatives?”

Marbury grimaced, “Of course not. He wanted to sell. He wanted to cash out just like the rest of us.”

“Really?” Jessup replied. “Then why the delay?”

Marbury paused; he removed a handkerchief from his brow and swiped his forehead, “If you had any experience in business, you’d know sales like this are complicated. They take time.”

“Oh, I realize that, Mr. Marbury,” Jessup said, “but when both parties are heading toward a mutual agreement, one party rarely establishes a deadline without warning, then threatens to pull out of the agreement if they do not meet the deadline.”

“Well… Why am I discussing this with you?”

“In fact,” Jessup continued, “the only reason one party establishes a deadline is because they perceive the other party has changed their mind or is tactically delaying a decision.  You’ve represented to us that Mike Major and all other investors wanted to sell. May attended an investor’s meeting, and you’re right, all living investors do want to sell. She heard loud and clear from all investors but one—her father.  We tried to check his emails to see if there were indications that he was on board with the sale but those emails all disappeared.  They disappeared at your order, Mr. Marbury. Why did you have all Mr. Major’s emails deleted?”

“Because of the potential leaks,” he said. “Mike Major was a powerful man.”

“Isn’t it possible that Mike Major didn’t want to sell, and you had those emails deleted to cover up that fact?” Jessup speculated.

“You’re full of shit,” Marbury barked. “What the hell do you know? You never even met the man.”

“Well, I knew the man,” Mrs. Sweeney snapped, “and better than you. I worked at the man’s side for over three decades.”

“Mike Major was under a non-disclosure agreement regarding the terms of the proposed sale, Mrs. Sweeney. He could not discuss any potential sale with you,” Marbury came back.

“I understand that but I can tell you Mr. Major was not an indecisive man,” Mrs. Sweeney argued. “If he wanted to sell, he’d have pushed for it and gotten the job done. If he was the one holding things up, I promise you there was a reason. My money says he didn’t want to sell.”

Marbury stood, “This meeting is useless. None of you know what’s on the line. None of you know what you’re talking about. I know this much; the investors all have a right to have a say in how the company handles its business transactions. If this sale fails to execute because you have failed to handle matters in a manner that is fiscally responsible, the investors will sue for damages.”

May looked at Jessup, “Did he threaten me?”

Jessup shrugged, “Pretty sure.”

May stood, “You’re correct, Mr. Marbury. This meeting is useless. I’ll let you know the outcomes once I’ve met with Mr. Phillips, tomorrow.”

“What do you mean, ‘let me know?’” Marbury exposed. “I will be there, as will all the other investors.”

“Not this time, I’m afraid,” May said. “Mrs. Sweeney already contacted Peter Phillips two hours ago. We knew he was coming. I requested a private meeting as interim CEO and principle shareholder.”

“This is outrageous,” Marbury exclaimed. “You think you can exclude us?”

“Not at all,” May responded. “I’m new as CEO. I’ve gotten your perspective on the sale. I would like to get Mr. Phillips’ perspective. You can’t prevent me from meeting with him privately.”

Marbury slammed his palms on the table, drawing a gasp from May and a glare from Jessup. “Don’t screw this up, Ms. Major. I mean it.”

“Good day, Mr. Marbury,” May responded.

Marbury said something unintelligible under his breath and he left the room in a huff, loudly slamming the door on his way out. Over twenty company employees witnessed Marbury steaming off toward the elevator.

Ray Tostum walked back inside the conference room, “That was a good call, Mr. Jessup,” he said. “Two dozen employees just saw Marbury throw a fit and then stomp off in a huff.  That news will filter through the entire company within a half hour.”

Mrs. Sweeney’s cell phone rang. She stood, excused herself, walked to the corner of the room and took the call.

“I hope you are correct that the employees didn’t care for Marbury,” Jessup said.

“Trust me on that one, Mr. Jessup,” Ray replied.

“So far, so good,” May said. “What now?”

“I’m afraid I have bad news,” Mrs. Sweeney said. “I got off the phone with our IT guy, Jason Nelson. He could not hack into Mr. Major’s Gmail account. He says Gmail is locked down tighter than Ft. Knox. He needs the password.”

“I have an idea,” Jessup said. “Mrs. Sweeney, open a web browser on your laptop. Go to Gmail.com.”

Mrs. Sweeney shrugged and opened the web browser, “Ok, now what?”

“You said you knew Mr. Major’s Gmail user name. Type that in.”

Mrs. Sweeney clicked the keyboard, “Ok, now I need the password.”

“May, what was the electronic gate code?” Jessup asked.

“My birthday, ‘1109,’” she replied.

“Try that Mrs. Sweeney,” Jessup said.

“That won’t work,” Ray interjected. “With Gmail you need a minimum of eight characters, including one capital letter, one lowercase letter, one number and one special character.”

“What about ‘May1109?’” Mrs. Sweeney asked.

“That’s seven characters,” Ray replied. “You need eight… and you don’t have a special character.”

Mrs. Sweeney looked at the keyboard, smiled and nodded.  She tapped the keys one more time, “I’m in,” she said.

“Are his emails in place?” May asked.

“Oh yeah,” she replied. “All 6,242 of them.”

“That’s incredible,” Jessup said. “How did you know what special character to use?”

“I looked at the keyboard and thought to myself, ‘What special character would Mr. Major use?’  I decided it had to be the dollar sign, so I typed in ‘$May1109’ and voilà, it worked.”

“Mrs. Sweeney, you’re a genius,” May said.

“I have my moments,” she replied.

“Ok, Mrs. Sweeney, you have a job to do,” Jessup said. “Use the Gmail search function and find every email that had anything to do with the sale of the company, with Preston Marbury and with the investors.”

“That will take a while,” Mrs. Sweeney said.

“May I suggest you use the date filter,” Ray said. “All this sale hubbub started about six months ago.  You are probably looking for newer emails.”

“Good suggestion,” May agreed.

“Got it,” Mrs. Sweeney said. “I’m going back to my desk. Even with the filters, it’s going to be a long night.”