Chapter 22
CHAPTER 22
Laurie walked to the front of the crowd, and on her way she saw Agent Haller, Michaels, and Scott and breathed easier. Her encounter with Griff had her rattled, but after seeing the agents, she was able to calm down. When Haller tapped his ear, she took that as he had overheard the conversation with Griff, and Laurie nodded, allowing the last of the tension to leave her body. With a smile plastered on her face, she made her way up onto the makeshift stage, and turned to look out at the crowd. Once she spotted Harmon, it was like peace settled over her body, and she knew this would work out in her favor.
“Excuse me!” she called out, then smiled when someone handed her a microphone. She held it up and called for everyone’s attention.
“Thank you all for coming tonight!” She waited until everyone looked at her, and then they made their way to the front. Once the noise settled down, she spoke again, “Thank you for coming tonight. I threw this little reception together in appreciation for all of you and your hard work. I hadn’t realized that it had been a few years since our last party, and decided to rectify that error.” She smiled and nodded when there was applause, and didn’t continue until it died down.
“If you’ll bear with me, I’d like to make a few announcements, then after the next person gives their speech, we can continue the party.” She nodded and saw their expressions of wonder. “It won’t take long, I promise! Twenty to thirty minutes to listen to boring speeches, then you can party well into the night.
“As I said, this reception is for me, Laurie Gibson, CEO of Gibson Associates to appreciate all your hard work you’ve put in over the last few years. I never could have been as successful as I am if it hadn’t been for you. I owe not only my success, but the success of Gibson’s to all of you. Please give yourself a round of applause, you deserve it.” She put the microphone under her arm and started clapping. Before long, the entire room burst into a round of applause and there were even some whistles and whoops of joy. The longer they clapped, the more joyous the mood turned.
Laughing, Laurie held up her hand and spoke again. “I can’t tell you enough times how much you all mean to me.” She drew in a deep breath and smiled at everyone. It took her a couple of seconds to get her emotions under control, and she even had to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye.
“Now, with that being said, I have to tell you that I’ve been at this job for over thirty years. Not once in all that time have I ever regretted working here. As you all know, my grandfather started this business, my father took it over from him, and I took over from my father. There is a lot of history of Gibson’s in this building.” She looked at her mother and daughter and gave them a sappy smile. Then she looked into the crowd.
“This next part is going to be hard. It is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that two weeks ago, I sold Gibson Associates to Harmon Brooks. After tonight, I will no longer be here. Harmon reassured me that all of you will still have a job come Monday morning.” Laurie looked around. “Harmon, would you like to come up and say something.” She watched as the other man started forward.
She didn’t know whether it was what she’d said, or if it was a natural lull in the conversation, but everyone turned as one as they heard Griff Franklin scream, “You fucking bitch! You can’t do this to me!” He drew his arms back and threw what was in his hand as he continued to scream at the top of his lungs. “You’ll regret this! I’ll take you out!”
The people around him quickly backed away, and some of them wore the liquid from his glass as he threw it. However, when he reached into his jacket pocket, and pulled out a gun, it was like the entire room froze and went into super, super slow motion. Laurie saw the glass coming toward her, she saw Griff pull out a gun, and the next thing she knew, she was lying on her side on the floor with Duane over her entire body, people were screaming, and between their legs as they ran away, four men had Griff on the ground and were putting him in handcuffs. But the action wasn’t over. The door slammed open and there were several loud pops before a deadly scream rent the air. When it was over Laurie lay there dazed. She looked at Duane in shock.
“What happened?” She looked and saw Harmon was on her other side and he shook his head. “What?”
“Griff Franklin not only threw his rock glass at you, but he pulled a gun and tried to shoot you. After our agent friends took him down, the door opened and someone came in shooting. I didn’t see who it was or what happened. I was helping Duane cover you.”
“Thank you,” she said and hugged him, then she turned to Duane. “What happened?”
Duane drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly and stood. He helped her to her feet, got her cane for her, and waited until Harmon stood beside them. There were two agents on the floor before them. Since she had been on the small makeshift stage, she stood above the others and could see everyone as they started rising. Toward the back of the room everyone started backing away, and Laurie stared in horror as two people lay there. Several agents approached the downed people and kicked guns away from them. They bent down and put fingers to their necks, but Laurie couldn’t see who they were.
“Call 9-1-1! They have a pulse!” An agent called out and that was when Laurie saw both Beatrice and Peter Stanton lying there with blood coming from somewhere. She saw the agents start to work on them, and looked at Duane in shock when they had to remove Kevlar vests from the two of them.
“This was well planned,” Duane said as he held Laurie back.
She looked at him in shock. “Do you think they’ve been working with Griff all this time?”
“I don’t know, we’ll have to go over his phone records, and stuff. All I know that for right now, you’re not leaving my sight, and you’re not leaving this stage until it’s cleared out.”
“I agree,” Lois said as she approached with a chair. Lorissa was right beside her and carried several more. Harmon hopped off the stage and helped them set them up. Once they were seated, they literally had a front row seat to the action. When the EMTs arrived Laurie swore at least fifty police officers converged on them. They started to take statements from her employees, and she watched in shock. It was over two hours before someone came to her, and it was Agent Haller.
“Are you okay, Ms. Gibson?”
“Please, call me Laurie, and yes, I’m fine. Since Duane wouldn’t let me leave, I figured this was the best place for me.”
“It was, and I’m glad you kept your head and didn’t get hysterical.”
“I’m not that type of woman. I figured once you got it all straightened out, you’d come to me.”
“Thank you for letting me do my job. One thing I didn’t tell you was that after our initial meeting, I was able to get a warrant to tap Franklin’s phone. We’ll have to go back through the records, but after the invitation to tonight’s reception was received by Franklin, he started making calls to a number that was in a different country. It turns out that Griff Franklin has been working with Beatrice and Peter Stanton to try to overthrow your reign in Gibson Associates since the week after Peter was served with divorce papers.”
“Holy shit, that long? But they have nothing to do with Gibson’s.”
“We know that, but I have agents going through their homes and offices as we speak and we believe that because you served Peter the divorce papers, they knew you’d cancel the contract your father set up with them. This is speculation on my part, but it seems like after Peter’s father got caught embezzling and offed himself, the only thing keeping Stanton Enterprises afloat was the money you sent them monthly.”
“Without that, then they would belly up.” Laurie nodded as she finished the thought.
“I don’t believe that,” Lorissa snorted. When everyone turned to look at her, she shook her head. “Think about it, if they were going to go belly up when they lost the hundred grand a month, how could they have been able to pay Mom what they did for the divorce settlement? If they had that kind of money, they could make their business work.”
“This is just speculation on what little we’ve read so far, but apparently some of the women Peter had affairs with were married and they somehow heard that you got paid in the divorce, so they threatened to tell their husbands if they weren’t paid. Again, this is just speculation until we listen to everything and get interviews started, but these affair partners’ husbands were pretty influential in the business world. They could make or break the Stantons.” Agent Haller shrugged. “Apparently, the monies they paid you put them over the edge. I don’t know what happened, but that was the tipping point for them to attack you, leave the country, then hook up with Franklin to take you down.” He shook his head as he turned and looked at the people being loaded on the stretchers. “Again, I’m not completely certain, but it’s like they had an inside guy and used him.”
“Were they shot? Will they make it?” Laurie asked in concern.
“Yes, they were shot, but they had Kevlar vests on. The bullets didn’t penetrate the vests, but my agents hit them several times, center mass, what they were trained to do. They will be severely bruised for weeks. I think, but I’m not sure, but I think Beatrice might even have a broken rib or two.”
Laurie didn’t say anything, and as the employees came up to them, she reassured them herself that she was fine, that they were fine, and that Harmon would talk to them Monday morning. By the time it was all cleaned up, Lois and Lorissa held several bags.
“What’s that?”
“The hors d’oeuvres. After Griff started screaming, and everything that happened afterward, the caterers didn’t put out the replacements. Thankfully, they were in the back getting fresh trays when all hell broke loose. Since you paid for it all, they are sending it home with us.”
“At least I don’t have to cook,” Laurie laughed and said she and Duane would be following them, but she needed to go back up to her office first. They parted, and the women went in one direction, while Duane and Laurie went the other. They were silent the entire ride up, and didn’t say anything until they were alone in her office with the door closed behind them. She pointed to the boxes, but gave a small humph when she found her back against the door. Duane took her face in his hands and bent down to devour her lips. It was several minutes before they broke apart.
With his forehead on hers, he breathed easier. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you when I took you to the ground?”
“I’m fine, and yes, I’m okay. You didn’t hurt me.” She giggled and shook her head. “I think I landed on Harmon.”
“Yeah, I saw him jumping through the air toward you, I think we hit you at the same time, but from opposite directions.” Duane kissed her again, then stepped away.
“Are you okay?” she asked after several moments of him standing there looking lost.
“I will be. I don’t know if living in Colorado has softened me, or what, but all I know is that when Franklin threw that glass at you, my heart was in my throat, then when he pulled the gun, I think I lost several years off my life. I’m just glad that you’re okay.”
“Me too, and I’m also glad that you didn’t get hit. I see your determination to keep me safe has paid off.”
“I protect what is mine,” he said with finality, and Laurie’s insides melted at his determined look. With his eyes still on her, he went to the boxes and picked them up, while Laurie went to her desk and retrieved her purse from the bottom drawer. With that, the raincoat and umbrella in her hands, she led the way to the elevator. In the lobby, she caught sight of Harmon Brooks and called out to him. When they met, she held out her hand and he held his out to shake, but frowned when he felt something placed in them.
“What’s this?”
“The keys to the building, and my office. Along with the key to the desk.”
“Thank you,” he said, then gave her a grin. “Can I call you if I have any questions?”
“Absolutely. I’ll be in town for at least another month, but I’ll be packing up my house because I’m moving out of state.”
“Good, do you think you’ll ever return?”
“Only for the trial for Beatrice and Peter. I will definitely be pressing charges against them. Along with Griff Franklin.”
“Good for you. I wish you luck, and if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to call.”
“Thank you, Harmon,” she said as she hugged him, and with Duane by her side, she walked out of the building with her head held high.
When they returned home, they saw that Lorissa and Lois were already there and had the food from earlier set out on the kitchen island. After excusing herself to go up and change into more comfortable clothes, Laurie joined them and smiled when Duane handed her a glass of wine.
“Thank you,” she said as she leaned up and kissed the corner of his mouth before taking a sip. The four of them stood in the kitchen discussing what happened earlier and their thoughts on why Beatrice and Peter did what they did, and how Griff Franklin became involved and what his beef with Laurie had been. Knowing they wouldn’t get any answers for a long time, they let it go and enjoyed the evening.