-Part One-
Jill and Dave Teller owned and managed a construction consulting firm of about twenty employees. They were a young couple and had only been married about five years and seemed to enjoy a good relationship. The Tellers were demanding to their employees and ruthless competitors. Despite rough economic times, their company did well, thanks in large part to its contracts with the city.
Mike Goss worked for the Tellers. He was a young man and new to the company. Mike was a hard worker but resented the authoritarian management style at the firm right away. He felt he was often saddled with extra work and didn't appreciate the tone that Jill and Dave took with him. Had the economy been better, Mike would have gladly left and found work elsewhere. However, the pay was good and there were very few jobs available in the city.
One of the things that Mike resented was the strict dress code. He was required to wear a suit and tie daily just to sit at his desk and type up scopes and draw building plans on his computer. As well, Jill handled all the scope and drawings and thus everything he did had to go by the boss. She would review his work and often send it back to him for improvement. Jill never addressed him as "Mr. Goss" but with demeaning titles such as "boy" or "hey you" or even "you there in the grey suit". Mike felt unappreciated and had begun to hate working at the company. As he had very little contact with Dave, who spent most of the day in the field dealing with customers and getting new contracts, Mike found himself despising his boss Jill.
What made the situation particularly frustrating for Mike was that Jill was a beautiful woman. She was rather short and had dark brown hair and tan skin. She looked to be at least part Italian or Spanish and had many of those features. Mike lusted after her, staring at her backside as she walked away from him in the office. He found it hard to pull his gaze away from her when she as around and often imagined what she looked like without her slacks and blouse. For all his spite towards her, Mike still found her presence intoxicating.
A unique opportunity fell into Mike's lap after a few months of working at the company. He came across some financial records he had never before seen. They were in a group of folders Jill had brought from her office and put on his desk. The particularly interesting file dealt with work the company had done for the city's new mayor. This wasn't work for the city itself, but had to do with some condos that she personally owned and rented. Mike noticed that there was no bill for the work and that it had been written off by the company. What made the file even more interesting was an unaddressed envelope he found that went with the file. Upon further inspection it turned out to be a hand-written thank you note from the mayor for the work on the condos. In the note she mentioned that she hoped to "make it up to you" soon. Checking other records, Mike noticed that shortly after the work on the condos had been completed, the company had landed a large contract with the city to do some work on office buildings downtown.
Put together, it certainly looked incriminating. Mike couldn't decide what to do with the file. He thought about it for a few moments and on a whim decided to make photo copies of everything. He then put them back as he found everything and returned it to Jill with the other files she had given him when he was finished with the other work. He only hoped that she hadn't suspected anything.
For the next couple weeks Mike followed Jill and Dave home from the office. He became accustomed to their upscale neighborhood and found places he could park and discretely watch their home without raising the neighbors' alarm. Since Mike was young and had no family of his own he had more than enough time on his hands to quietly watch his bosses from a distance. Several days into this little "project" of his, as he liked to think of his spy work, he followed Jill to the mayor's house.
The mayor lived in a nice house a few miles from the Tellers. Mike parked his car on the edge of the street and watched through the zoom on his camera as the mayor herself met Jill at the door. They embraced and went inside. Mike caught the hug on camera and chuckled as he mentally added the picture to his collection of evidence.
A few weeks after he had first come across the mystery file at work, Mike decided to make his move. He made duplicate copies of all his "evidence" and put the original copies away at home. The duplicates he put together in a package and wrote "Jill Teller" on the front of it.
The next day at work Mike waited anxiously at his desk until Dave left the office that morning to check on a job the company was doing. A few minutes after Dave left and with no one else in Jill's office, Mike gathered his courage and walked into her office.
"What is it?" Jill asked without even an attempt at being polite. This was her usual demeanor with the employees and one of the main reasons that Mike hated working for her.
Mike handed her the package without a word and sat down in one of the chairs across from her desk. Jill gave him a strange look as she had not invited him to sit. Never before had he came in and sat down in her office. Curious at what the package could hold, Jill opened it up. Her eyes grew large as she saw the picture on top of her and the mayor hugging at the door of the mayor's house.
"What the...?!" She started to yell as she looked up.
"Just look through the rest of it before you say anything," Mike answered, moving nervously in his chair. "There's also a short note there on the back of the picture you need to see," he said.
Her eyes narrowed as she skimmed through the documents prepared for her. She paid particular interest to the financial records and the thank you note the mayor had hand written.
"How did you get this?," she mumbled in disbelief, more to herself than to Mike.
"Like I said, you need to read the short note on stick-it on the back of the picture there," Mike pointed to the picture she in her hand.
Jill turned it over and read carefully. As she did her brows grew narrower and narrower until her face was as contorted and angry as Mike had ever seen it. He watched nervously, trying to put on his bravest face, as she looked up from time to time and then back at the note.
"This is blackmail," she finally managed.
"It's an opportunity," Mike countered, having anticipated this response. "It's an opportunity to save your business and stay out of prison."
Jill made an even angrier face and browsed back through the documents in her hand. She was stunned and hurt. She was also suddenly afraid of what might happen of the papers fell into the wrong hands.
"I'm going to keep these," she suddenly declared with as much authority as she could manage at the moment.
"Fine. I have other copies," Mike answered. "In fact, I want you to keep them and look over them tonight. Make up your mind about what you're going to do. Of course, your husband doesn't have to know about any of this," he tried to sound a little soothing but yet in control. It didn't really work. Mike was sure he sounded like a scared school boy trying to order around his principal. "No one has to know about this. And if you agree with my proposal then no one will ever find out about all this and you can go on with your career."
Mike got up to leave and saw the sudden desperation on his boss's face. She as scared to death, he realized.
"I expect you to decide tonight and comply with the instructions on the back of the picture if you want to save yourself. Otherwise, I'm calling the papers and the local TV stations tomorrow afternoon," Mike said before leaving her office. He close the door behind himself and made his way to his desk. It was only then that he realized his legs were trembling. Could he pull this off?
-Part Two-
The next morning Mike waited as patiently as he could at his desk, trying to busy himself with various tasks and appear as cool as possible. Strangely, Jill was late. Her husband had came in quickly and left. This added to Mike's nervousness. Sweat had broken out on his brow and his heart beat like crazy. He kept imaging his "project" backfiring and he ending up in prison. He imagined the police storming the office and everyone staring as he was handcuffed and hauled out the door.
Jill finally walked in at half past nine. Never before had she arrived so late. And never before had she been dressed as she was. Her short red skirt barely reached mid-thigh. For a woman who normally dressed conservatively, especially on the job, this was a radical change. Her hair as up as well, showing off her neck. Everyone in the office stared as Jill hurried to her office and shut the door. Mike tried hard to suppress a grin.
An hour later Mike received a call at his desk from Jill, asking him to see her in her office.
