Scott looked around accusingly. “Somebody sent me a text message announcing my promotion, and now they’ve erased the evidence on my phone and on yours!” He stared at Peter, then turned his head in my direction. I quickly ducked back behind the door.
“Young man,” Mr. Moffatt thundered, “none of this is important. We’re having this meeting because I want to know what went on in the hospitality suite last night. Would you care to explain?”
“There’s really nothing to explain,” Scott said hastily. “After somebody misled me into believing I had been promoted, my team and I had a little celebration, that’s all. It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been the victim of a malicious prank.”
“I see,” Mr. Moffatt said somewhat ominously. Then he looked up. “Ms. Martin, would you come help me, please?”
When I hurried to his side, he pointed at his computer. “Can you set this damned thing up so we can look at some pictures I got by email?”
I quickly went to his keyboard and expanded the window to full-screen mode. “It’s all set,” I assured him.
“Good,” he said. “Now, please check my email for one from Lucas Masterson.” As I did so, he looked at Scott and Peter. “Does the name Lucas Masterson mean anything to either of you?”
Scott quickly piped up, “Of course. Lucas Masterson is president of Masterson Industries, our biggest single customer.”
“Very good, Scott,” Mr. Moffatt said patronizingly. “And would you agree that we would always want to impress Mr. Masterson with our professionalism and competence?”
“Of course,” Scott said with a puzzled look on his face.
Now Mr. Moffatt’s tone was low and menacing. “Late last night I received a call from Lucas, who’s an old friend of mine. He wanted to know if this Expo was typical of the type of behavior we condone at Magnetadyne. When I professed my ignorance, he sent me an email with some photographs he took when he went looking for someone from Magnetadyne who could answer a question. Ms. Martin, would you display those photos for us?”
Hesitantly I clicked to start the slide show in motion. The first picture showed a group of people from our Sales department milling around the bar at the hospitality suite. It appeared that people were helping themselves to the liquor there.
The next slide showed Scott standing on a small stage that had been erected next to the bar. He was drinking from a bottle and leading the people below him in a cheer. I noted that there was a banner with the Magnetadyne name and logo directly behind the stage. The story was that Mr. Moffatt had personally designed the company’s logo: an upright hand with the index finger making the number one sign. I knew Mr. Moffatt wouldn’t be happy to see that included in the picture.
But the next photo was worse. Now in addition to Scott there were two young women standing on either side of him, and he had his arms around both. I glanced over at Peter and mouthed, “Who are they?” He shrugged his shoulders in ignorance.
The next picture showed Scott dancing with the two women on the stage. Looking at them, my impression was that all three of them were quite drunk. That impression was reinforced by the fact that the two women appeared to be performing a striptease, to Scott’s obvious delight.
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