Page 67 of Gross Misconduct

“John?”

He looked up at me. “You must be Jill.”

“I am. Thanks for meeting me. I’m going to grab a coffee. Can I get you anything else?”

“No. I’m fine.”

I ordered a coffee and watched him casually. The man looked sad, his shoulders sagging, and a frown on his face. I grabbed my coffee from the barista and took the seat across from him.

“I know you’re probably wondering why I wanted to meet you.”

“One guess. Mark?”

I was taken aback. “How did you know?”

“He has a history of making people miserable. I guess he’s moved on to you?”

“Pretty much. Tell me, why did you leave?”

He huffed and shook his head. “I couldn’t take it anymore. He was on me all the time. He wanted me to do what he wanted, even if it wasn’t good for the team. And I had no choice.”

“Why is that?”

He hung his head and sighed. “How do I know you won’t get me in trouble?”

“Because I think we can help each other, and we probably both want to bring Mark down.”

He looked out the window again, and when he set his gaze on me, I knew he was ready to talk. “I did some really dumb things. To make a long story short, we were having some money troubles. My oldest daughter was getting married, my other daughter was starting university, and bills were mounting. So instead of comping the tickets and merchandise we were getting, I was selling a lot of it. I shouldn’t have done it, and it was a huge mistake, but we needed the extra cash. Mark foundout and said he’d report me unless I agreed to what he needed and wanted. I had no choice because I needed the job. I should have stood up to him, but we were strapped, and I couldn’t let my family down. After a while I couldn’t take it anymore, so I got another job and took a huge financial hit, but I had to. He was ruining my life. Once he gets ahold of you, he never lets go.”

John had made some bad choices, that was for sure. “You didn’t go to HR?”

“No. I couldn’t risk it. What if I had to pay all the money back? I couldn’t afford to do it.”

I could see his dilemma, but I was pretty sure I could get Clay to forgive him. Or, at least that was my hope.

“Would you consider coming forward now?”

“No. I know Clay well enough that he’d be furious with me for the deception. Like I told you, I took a pay cut for this new job. I don’t have the money to pay the team back.”

I tapped my finger against my takeout coffee cup. “I have a proposition. If I was able to convince Clay to forgive you, would you agree to make a complaint against Mark? You wouldn’t be the only one. I would make a complaint against him too. And I believe there are others within his department. John, I know you want to do the right thing. I bet you don’t want Mark terrorizing anyone else.”

He looked down at his cup. “What makes you think Clay will forgive me?”

“Deep down, I think Clay would rather have a happy team where he is at the top of the food chain and not some jerk like Mark.”

He closed his eyes tightly and groaned. “I can’t have this blow up in my face. I can’t get into trouble. I need the job I have.”

“What if I spoke to Clay first? I won’t mentionyour name, and if he is receptive and promises to forgive you, you will make that complaint?”

“Sure, why not? Then Mark won’t have anything to hold over me.”

“Thank you, John. I’ll be in touch.”

Clay was due back to Vancouver the same day the Kodiaks got back from their latest road trip, which happened to be one week from Jeremy’s mea culpa. In the meantime, Whitney and I looked over candidates for the Ravens job, and had narrowed it down to four. Clay wanted to be in on the interviews, so we scheduled them accordingly. We’d been working like dogs and delegating as much as we could, and when it came to doing the interviews for the Ravens PR job, I couldn’t wait to get it over with. Before we met with Clay and the first interviewee, I asked Whitney about John.

“Taking Mark out of the equation, do you think John would have been a good head of PR?”

She shrugged. “Maybe? I’ve only been here a few years. Zane would know better. I think he started off well, and then Mark got ahold of him.”

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