Robert IV

We have had scandals in this business before, there was a case a lot like this in the past as well. I think it’s been about seven years since then, Robert wasn’t with us then, he came a year later. I try to avoid too much scandal so I told Dave to give Robert a chance to redeem himself honorably.

I got a call about an hour later from Dave telling me that he had been forced to call the police on Robert. He was making sure it was alright if we released the company books to the police. Of course I gave him permission; we had nothing to hide in our books after all. I had been generous to give Robert the chance to pay his way out of trouble and if he was going to be stubborn then he would have to face the penalty.

I didn’t go to talk to the police when they came to take Robert away. I thought that the least I got involved and drew attention to the matter the better. Instead I called my brother, who usually doesn’t work out of the office like I do. He’s older then I am and has a larger part of the business then I do, this is the sort thing I have to report to him. I’m his eyes in the office. He does all of the work with the outside world, it would seem that includes lots of parties with barely dressed women, but who am I to judge.

My brother told me that he approved of all that I had done, he sounded distracted and I thought I heard giggling in the background so I hung up fairly quickly. Instead I wandered around the office, trying to sound out what the effects of the event had had on the employees. It was the only thing being talked about in the break room, and people were wandering around gossiping instead of working, though they tried to hide this when I walked up. This was only to be expected though, so I didn’t make a fuss about it. It isn’t every day that a man is dragged through your office screaming.

By the end of the day I think that the talk had mostly died down. Tomorrow the talk would probably have gone away as much as it ever would; at least people would be working again. We’re a company, people working is a good thing. I think the rumors had grown more and more wild as they traveled as well. I had one of the secretaries ask me where Robert had gotten the gun and I don’t think she believed me when I told her that Robert hadn’t had one.

Once everyone from the office was gone I got down to my real work. It had been postponed while dealing with the chaos that Robert had caused, it was going to be a late night at the office, and I called my wife to tell her so. They I got out my own private record books from where they were in the office safe. You have to look close to notice that the back isn’t a real back, but contains more ledgers. Those are the truest ledgers in the whole company, so no one should read them but me. They keep record of the money the company lost seven years ago, and the money we have been losing since Robert came to work for us. They also show which bank accounts I distributed the money in. It might be suspicious if I deposited such large amounts in one account after all. My brother sometimes snoops, and I would hate for him to find me out.