Free Dirty Tricks: A Kate Lawrence Mystery by Judith Ivie

him.
    “We could do that, but then what
would you pretend to be looking at while you go inside your head and think your
very private thoughts with a worried expression on your face?” I leaned across
Gracie and punched the mute button on the remote, and he looked at me warily.
“Don’t you think it’s about time you let me in on whatever the problem is?”
    He smiled a little to himself but
stayed quiet. I poked him, and Gracie opened one yellow eye to assess the
situation before deciding whether to abandon her position of privilege. After a
few seconds she decided her cozy lap would not be disappearing anytime soon and
returned to her nap.
    “I did not want to worry you, Cara .”
    My heart thumped faster, but I
managed to keep my voice even. “Why not? I do it so
well. In fact, worrying is one of my best things, you know that.” I had a
feeling that despite my efforts, my smile didn’t fool him. “Besides, now that I
know there’s something to worry about, I’m going to go right ahead and do it, so you may as well tell me what it is.” Please don’t let it
be his health, I begged the universe silently.
    “You have a point there,” he
agreed. “Well, you know that TeleCom has been looking
to expand …”
    “As if you don’t have enough work
to do already,” I interrupted. “Sorry. Go on.”
    He shifted in his seat carefully
so as not to disturb Gracie. “I have been assuming that would happen over a
period of a few years, and those of us who have been
with the company from almost the beginning would all have an opportunity to
evaluate where we might best fit into the new structure.”
    “But?”
    He smiled again at my impatience.
“But a different scenario has arisen over the past few weeks, one I had not
anticipated.”
    I waited, willing myself not to
jump in with questions. It took Armando an extraordinary amount of time to get
to the point of a story under the best of circumstances, which these obviously
were not. Best to let him get there in his own time.
    “It would seem that we are being
acquired by a corporation called OmniFutures . One of
the outcomes of the financial shake-up a few years ago was that banking institutions
and other narrowly positioned companies needed to diversify their operations,
buy up small outfits that do other kinds of things, in order to remain viable.
It took several years, but one of them finally made George an offer he couldn’t
refuse.”
    I tried to understand the meaning
behind his words. George Dunphy was the president and
CEO of TeleCom , but the company was publicly held
these days. No matter how much he liked an offer, George couldn’t proceed
unilaterally.   He needed the approval of
at least the board of directors and probably the stockholders, as well, but all
that could wait until later. I needed to get to the bottom line here.
    “I’m sure there are many steps to
this process, so let’s not jump the gun here. Assuming the acquisition does eventually
happen, which is probably a long shot at this point, what would that mean to
you … us?” I amended hastily.
    “That is the problem in a nut,”
Armando assured me, mangling an English idiom in the process as he often did
when stressed. “This is not a merger, where the officers of both companies
would have equal say in the matter. OmniFutures , the
company acquiring TeleCom , would absorb our entire
operation. That means similar departments, such as personnel and accounting,
would be consolidated. Positions that are redundant would be lost.”
    “Surely you can’t be worried about
losing your job. They couldn’t do without you,” I protested. “You’ve been there
forever. You know everything. You deal with TeleCom’s biggest clients all over the world. You speak Spanish,” I finished up lamely.
“Who would do the translating and the liaison work when a client in South
America gets a bug up?”
    Armando chuckled softly.   “I imagine I would, if I am still with the
company.”
    “Why