Chapter 6: Sentence First. Verdict Afterwards

Naomi made sure that she was outside Omar’s building by 8:45 the next morning. She wanted to catch Rosa before she went into the building. At 9:00, Naomi started scanning the parking lot for Rosa’s car. It wasn’t like her to be late, so Naomi started thinking she had missed her somehow. 10 minutes later, Naomi really started worrying. Finally, Rosa arrived at 9:20 looking very tired. 

“Hey. Good morning,” said Naomi.

“Good morning,” replied Rosa with a faint smile. 

Naomi couldn’t remember ever seeing Rosa this fried. “Are you OK?” 

“Oh, I’m OK, I suppose. Let’s sit, shall we?” Rosa gestured to the bench. Once they settled, Rosa took a deep breath and said, “I know about your conversation with Richard yesterday.” 

“Oh,” replied Naomi. She was overwhelmed with guilt as she saw Rosa’s sagging shoulders. “I’m so sorry, Rosa. I really did try to explain to him what we were doing. He wouldn’t listen." 

“No, I’m sorry. I can only imagine what that was like. Richard can be very…” she hesitated while she searched for a word, “…demanding when he’s under stress.” 

“That’s not your fault, Rosa.” 

“I should have realized that we couldn’t just leave. With so much riding on our work, Richard was bound to check in on us.”

“Rosa, you can’t beat yourself up. If we stayed at the office, he probably would have fired us because we couldn’t figure anything out. Since we left, he decided to fire us for abandoning ship. He was going to fire us either way. It’s not your fault.” 

“But I know you need this job to help your family.” 

“It’s OK. We’ll figure it out.” 

“But I was telling you just yesterday not to worry about it. You must think I’m totally clueless.” 

“No, just optimistic.” Naomi paused for a moment. “Rosa, how do you know about my conversation with Richard?”

“After you and I spoke, I realized I had forgotten something at the office. I drove back. When I pulled into the parking lot, he saw me and flagged me down.”

“Oh.”

“At first, he seemed pretty reasonable. He mentioned that he saw you in the office and that your phone was working. He asked if I could get his phone working too.”

“But I told him that wasn’t possible!” 

“Yes, that came up during our conversation. I told him he was free to call his friends and family, but we still hadn’t figured out how to stop the virus from blocking business functions. Then, he got mad.”

“Uh oh.” 

“Uh oh is right. He started by demanding answers. Why we weren’t in the office trying to fix things?” 

“I tried to explain that to him!” 

“Yes, I’m sure you did. He wasn’t in the mood to listen. He was ranting about the Board of Directors and activist stockholders. I get the impression he’s afraid of getting fired if he doesn’t get this fixed soon.” 

“Have they been threatening him?” 

“On the contrary. He hasn’t heard from them at all. He hasn’t heard from anyone. He can’t use his phone. He can’t use his computer. When he tries to watch TV, he can’t even get the business channels or news; all he sees is sitcoms and old movies. He even tried looking at a print newspaper but couldn’t find anything.” 

“He told you all that?”

“That, and more. Apparently, he’s completely cut off from all his business contacts. He tried to visit another CEO that he knows, but when he entered the address in his car’s navigation system, the whole thing just shut down.” 

“The nav system?” 

“The car.” 

“Woah. How did he get to work?”

“Apparently he has a motorcycle that doesn’t have an onboard computer.” 

“Oh.” Naomi paused, “It sounds like he’s kind of losing it.” 

“Yes. And he blames me. He’s decided that I knowingly spread the virus throughout the company,” said Rosa.

“What? That’s ridiculous!” Naomi responded with genuine outrage. “Has he ever met you? You’re the most conscientious person I know!” 

“Yes, well he needs someone to blame, I suppose.” 

“Maybe he should blame himself for cutting his staff too much.” 

“Well, I might have mentioned that to him,” replied Rosa with a weak smile. “It didn’t go over well.” 

“You did? That doesn’t sound like you.” 

“No, I suppose it doesn't. But I’ve never been in a situation anything like this one and I didn’t have a script for how to handle it.” With that, Rosa actually laughed. “They don’t train you how to deal how to deal with angry CEOs reacting to sloth computer viruses in management classes.”

Naomi looked at her incredulously for a moment before she started laughing too. “Did you really tell him it was his own fault?”  

Rosa hid her eyes for a moment, then peaked out and said, “Actually, I told him it was his own damn fault.” She laughed some more.

“What?” Naomi broke out into a belly laugh, gasping for breath. “Oh, I wish I could have seen that.” 

Once the laughter wore off, Rosa said, “It’s not all bad news. After the shock wore off, I called my mother to let her know I wouldn’t be able to send her money for a while. She said she didn’t need it. Someone had transferred a bunch of money to her account yesterday. She didn’t know who sent it, but she’s set for a while.”  

“Really? Do you have any idea who would do that?” asked Naomi. 

“No idea. I have access to her account though, so I signed in to check. Sure enough, there’s enough money there to last her a few years.” 

“Wow. That’s great.” 

“Mmm,” Rosa replied noncommittally. 

“You don’t seem convinced,” said Naomi. 

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful. I just can’t figure out where the money could have come from. Also, I’m glad I was able to log into her account after all the problems we’ve been having with the internet lately, but it was a little odd too.” 

“How so?” asked Naomi.

“Well, this white rabbit sprinted onto the screen,” said Rosa. 

“Oh! I saw one of those too when I called by brother!” exclaimed Naomi. 

“Did it stop and, I don’t know, talk to you?” asked Rosa. 

“Noooo,” replied Naomi slowly. 

Rosa laughed a little bitterly. “Just me then. I feel like I’m going crazy. I suppose the rabbit didn’t really talk to me, but it felt like it did. It just paused there on the screen for maybe 30 or 40 seconds just twitching its little nose. I felt like it was telling me everything was going to be OK.” She laughed again. “Maybe that’s just what I wanted it to say.” 

“You’re under a lot of stress Rosa. It’s OK if you take comfort from a rabbit. They’re cute, after all.” 

Rosa smiled weakly, “I suppose so.” 

“And your mom is taken care of. That’s great.” 

“Yes. I really am thankful for that,” Rosa sighed. “What do you think? Should we go tell the guys we’re off the case?”

“Do you want to be off the case?” asked Naomi. 

“What do you mean?” asked Rosa.

“Aren’t you curious about what’s happening?” 

“I am curious. But I need to figure out what to do next,” replied Rosa. 

“I get it. Me too.” Naomi paused before she continued. “How about we just see what we can figure out today? We probably won’t figure out who’s giving your mom money, but maybe we can figure out something.” 

“Well, I really am curious. Maybe I’ll find out I’m not crazy,” Rosa laughed. 

“Or that we’re all crazy together,” smiled Naomi. 

“That works too,” Rosa laughed.