Just Quit, Jackie!

Jackie pressed her palm into her forehead, scrubbing it down into the crook of her nose as she shed the day’s frustrations into the pressure of her hand, seven years was too long to go without a promotion. For seven years, Jackie had kept books at Dawson-Lettman Industrial, always showing up on time, never leaving early. Her youth withered away inside the walls of an office with more regard for the several industrial equipment plants it oversaw than for the dreams slowly dying in her soul.

Dawson-Lettman had recently opened a new plant, something about exciting new opportunities, electrical regulation infrastructure for new data centers, Dawson-Lettman is uniquely equipped to meet the new demand. Jackie didn’t care about the details, nor did she even know why an industrial company would pivot into electrical equipment. If Jackie was honest, there’s a lot of choices she didn’t agree with, but her student debt wouldn’t pay itself off. In any case, Jackie was stuck at work later than normal with the increased workload.

When Jackie first got her job, she worked for a woman she liked named Amber. She had strict standards, but Amber didn’t micromanage, which is something Jackie worried her first corporate manager might do. As long as there were no errors in the books, Amber was satisfied. Still, Jackie felt like she should get Amber’s job when she left, as her co-workers seemed incompetent at best. One man she worked with, Jaden, was a real piece of work. He never actually did any work, and everyone around him picked up his slack. Jackie remembered the first time Jaden lost his temper in the office. He tried talking to Cece, who he sat beside, Jaden asked if she wanted to go to his favorite sushi place with him sometime. When she told him earnestly that she didn’t like sushi, he accused her of lying and screamed at Cece that she wasn’t giving him a chance. Jaden then slung her laptop across the office.

Despite his outburst, Jaden was not fired. Instead, they quickly moved Cece, even giving her a promotion. One of the executives must have liked Cece to have not found an excuse to fire her, but as Jackie quickly found out, Jaden had a lot of leeway at Dawson-Lettman. After all, he was the son of the COO Justin Lettman.

Jackie’s only work friend was a sweet older lady named Alice. As a rule, Jackie didn’t become too close to anyone in the office, but she felt lonesome without Alice and her friendly energy. Alice warned Jackie that they wouldn’t give her Amber’s job and that the company was rotten. She said the only way she found to be happy was to not expect anything, and she found a lot less stress once she stopped trying to play the stupid political games of the office. Still, Jackie went out of her way to look through the books, find smaller expenditures the company regularly made, and actually contacted and suggested to Amber cheaper suppliers, so much for the purchasing director having to do his job! Jackie hoped her efforts would be notice, but Alice made clear to her that they wouldn’t be.

Sure enough, when Amber left the company, the company hired a candidate from outside, Frederick Williams. Fred was a reasonable man, which Jackie considered lucky, having read the horror stories online about horrid new bosses. He was much like Amber, but he made an effort to get to know all of his employees, which somewhat annoyed Alice.

“I like working here best when I don’t have to talk to management, it’s not like he actually cares about me, none of them do.”

Jackie considered what she said. Alice was usually only in a bad mood whenever she had to interact with anyone running Dawson-Lettman. Her usual peaceful demeanor soured a little with Fred trying to break down the barrier between him and his employees. It didn’t help that Fred was fresh out of college, having never worked a job. He tried relentlessly to apply all of the leadership concepts he learned in school, with none of the skill to actually pull them off and inspire confidence. Still, Jackie actually liked him, he was genuinely supportive and she made an effort to build a connection with him. She figured that when he eventually left his position, he might leave a good word for her, which Jackie hoped would lead to a promotion to his position.

Jackie looked at the time on her screen. 8:37 pm, everyone else was gone except her and Fred, who was also working late trying to get caught up. With the final journal entry, Jackie got up and told Fred she was going home for the weekend. Fred waved her goodbye with a smile and with that, she left for home.

He was set to accept a new job in three months, which was a perfect opportunity for Jackie to try to move up. This time, I’ll actually get the damn job! She worked herself up, thinking about how long she had waited for the opportunity. I’m the most qualified, I’ve put in the work. Surely, they’ll see that! Lost in her own thoughts, it didn’t take her long to fall asleep.

She was woken up by a knock on the door. Jackie answered the door, finding two police officers outside.

“Hello, are you Ms. Taylor?” Asked the officer in the front.

Jackie replied, “Yes, Jackie Taylor, what’s going on?”

The officer up front looked back at the other. “When you left work last night, was there anyone else in the building besides you and Frederick Williams?”

Jackie answered the barrage of questions the cops asked her, only learning at the end from the one in the back, “Mr. Williams was found dead this morning by Dawson-Lettman’s cleaning crew, would you happen to know anything about that?” Fred is dead? Jackie was shocked at the news.

The officer up front seemed annoyed that his partner surrendered that information, it seemed he wanted to interrogate her longer without her knowing what was going on. But now, Jackie realized that she was the prime suspect in Fred’s murder. They think I killed him? She could hardly believe anyone would suspect her of such a crime, even though it made the most sense her given the circumstances.

After the miscalculated divulgence, the officers left, not fully satisfied with their questioning but without a warrant or enough cause to arrest her. As they were walking towards their cruiser, one of the officers said, “Let’s see if they were able to subpoena them, we might catch her on camera.”

Jackie wondered if they knew she could hear them, but then it hit her, Dawson-Lettman doesn’t have any reason not to immediately hand over the relevant footage of the killing, why wouldn’t the police already have it? She realized that something was very wrong, and she got ready to go to the office.

The office was usually closed on the weekends, but security worked seven days a week, so someone with access to the cameras should definitely be available. Jackie entered the empty building, devoid of its usual activity. It felt uncomfortably different without the presence of the people who kept themselves busy trying to convince Dawson-Lettman that they were vital for operations. Approaching the security counter, Jackie looked at Amy Dawson, nineteen and in college, but working in security and obviously lined up to head the department once she graduated.

“Hey! Alice, is it? I sorry to bother you, but I was questioned by the police tod-“ Jackie chocked up, realizing that Fred was gone, and the office inside would be a crime scene, already picked through by investigators. Jackie never wanted to get too close to anyone at work, but Fred didn’t deserve this, he was the best boss Jackie had ever had, despite his lack of relevant experience.

“I’m hoping you could get the security camera footage to the police… so they won’t think I…” Jackie was unsure why it was hitting her now, He’s dead! Perhaps it was because she was now in the office, where she would normally see him every morning, greeting everyone and trying to get them exited to work their soulless jobs. His smile should have been forced, but it always seemed genuine to her.

“Well, there are procedures to follow. I’m gonna have to wait for a subpoena unless my manager authorizes me releasing any security footage.” At that, Amy seemed to realize she probably should have contacted her boss and Justin’s wife, Mrs. Lettman, letting her know what had happened and seeing what she should do. As Amy messaged her boss, who didn’t normally work on the weekends, Jackie had a somber impulse to see the crime scene, looking to wrap her head around what had happened. Amy didn’t stop her from wandering into the building, What a great security officer! Jackie found herself wondering why so many of her co-workers could get away with not doing their jobs.

In the end, she couldn’t bring herself to cross the police tape, tears started to run down her face as the feeling of sorrow hit her. Jackie didn’t bawl, but the emotion was still intense. As she walked back, she saw Amy from behind at a computer, selecting stored CCTV footage and hitting delete.

Jackie backed up out of view, Amy hadn’t seen her. Why is she deleting the footage? She was furious. Why wouldn’t her company help her this one time? She had given them so much of her life! Realizing that Amy was protecting someone, Jackie hoped that she wasn’t bright enough to know that the deleted files would be available if not cleared from the recycling bin. Waiting out of sight, Jackie eventually saw Amy leave the security desk for the bathroom. Now’s my chance! She jumped into action.

Jackie opened recycling on the security computer. Yes, it’s all here! Amy really was incompetent at her job. Jackie quickly logged onto her email. I hope she takes a while to get back! She could feel her soul leaving her body as the computer slowly loaded up her inbox. Why are these computers so fricking slow! Finally, after more than 4 minutes, the computer pulled her email up. Quickly, Jackie opened up a draft email and dragged the CCTV files into it. She could hear the bathroom doors open as the files downloaded, she still had to log off of her email. Jackie heard the footsteps approaching the entrance to the front room, and knew she had less than ten seconds.

The files finished loading, and Jackie signed out and closed the browser. Just as Amy turned the corner, Jackie hit the lock button and said, “Oh, there you are! I was just locking the computer for you because you left it open!” With a cheerfulness she was barely able to muster.

Amy looked at her with an unreadable face, she said, “You shouldn’t be behind this desk, get out of here!” Of course she isn’t gonna ask any more questions, why does she even work here? But Jackie knew Amy’s mother would use her time in security to justify putting her in charge of the entire department.

Jackie was about to send the files to the police. Is what I did even legal, could I get in trouble? She figured it was safer to get someone’s approval first, have some backing from someone higher up at Dawson-Lettman, but she only vaguely knew one executive from a few vague interactions, Fred’s boss and CFO, Jeff Chambers. I’ll probably get fired if I admit I stole sensitive company data. Jackie considered that she might have to give up any career progress she made at the company, but eventually she figured her freedom was more important.

Jackie found herself unable to sleep that night, but by the time Sunday night rolled around, she was too sleep deprived not to pass out. She woke up more than two hours after work was supposed to begin. I don’t need this right now! She scurried to leave as quickly as possible, this was not the day for her first time being late to work. She peeled into the parking lot a little shy of 3 hours after everyone else had already started. She had thought to check her email to see if they would close the office to honor Fred’s death, but found no such email. I guess they don’t want us to stop making them money! Jackie was irritated with how callous her company was, but was actually glad that Jeff would be in the office. Instead of going to her desk, Jackie made a beeline for Jeff’s office. She pounded on the door as his assistant tried telling her that he wouldn’t be available. He answered the door, and Jackie quickly relayed, “I have to talk to you about what happened, right now!”

He must have seen how freaked out Jackie was, because Jeff invited her in. She told him everything, including her espionage and stealing of company data. She expected to be fired at some point in the future, but to her surprise, Jeff seemed relieved.

“You made the right choice, not complying with a subpoena would have been catastrophic, especially once they realized we deleted the footage, you have saved us a lot of trouble, I’m glad you came in and told me this!”

Jackie was stunned, why was I worried about this? He seems glad I did this! She was relieved that she wasn’t in trouble, but the feeling wouldn’t last long. Jackie opened up the CCTV footage from her email draft, and her heart sank when she saw Jaden Lettman strut in drunk to berate Fred. Unlike Amber, he had been bold enough to try and occasionally push him to do even a little work, but usually failed to motivate the lazy psycho. Jaden must have decided he wanted to give Fred a piece of his mind, but after a little while ranting, Jaden picked up a chair and bashed him over the head repeatedly. He thought to take the fragments of the chair he held, taking the only thing in the office with incriminating prints and DNA, as the office would have everyone’s DNA and prints from normal work activity, but he must have realized in the morning that the CCTV would have caught it all. Did he tell Amy to delete the footage? They were surprisingly good friends, as Jaden put in stunning effort to not do anything stupid and alienating towards her. Clearly, he knew how to act decently, he just didn’t care unless he had to.

Jeff sighed, “Well, I’ll make sure to get this to the police, and I’ll tell them about Amy, but honestly, I don’t know what our two founders and majority owners will do once they realize you got their kids locked up.”

She knew she’d have only one chance to fight for her job, and she might as well fight for a promotion as well. She asked Jeff desperately to vouch for her, support her in her plea to them. He told her he didn’t know if he’d still have his job after sending the evidence, but he’d see what he could do.

Jeff called an emergency meeting, but sent Jackie by herself so he could look into the incident more. she arrived late, slowed down by her nerves. When Jackie arrived, she told the board, “Sorry, Jeff will be a little late, he sent me to tell you something important.”

Most of the members looked confused, but Jackie continued, detailing to them all that CCTV footage had been recovered showing the murder of Frederick Williams and that an employee had tried and failed to delete the footage. The board looked even more shocked, but Justin seemed suspiciously nervous, He’s squirming, why does he look- Just then, Jeff entered the board room, full of more energy than Jackie would have guessed him to.

Jeff told the board, “Jackie has no doubt already told you about the CCTV footage incriminating Jaden Lettman and Amy Dawson.”

A few members gasped at the names, and Mary Dawson was stunned to hear her daughter’s name. Jeff continued, ”I found one more video, just before Amy tried to delete the footage.”

Jeff plugged a flash drive into the computer feeding the projector, and played the video loaded onto it. It showed Amy on the phone, “What! You want me to break the law to help him get away with murder, what is wrong with you? I can’t do this!” As it turned out, the audio of the camera’s was surprisingly good, and Justin Lettman’s screeching voice could faintly be made out.

“This is do or die for Jaden and I will do anything, I will destroy you if need be! You will delete those files, do you hear me? Don’t bother telling anyone, no one will believe you, I will make sure of it, and I’ll make sure you go down anyway I can, this might be your last day on Earth, do you hear me girl?”

Mary calmly asked Justin what just happened, but as he tried to answer, she exploded, “Who the fuck do you think you are! I can’t believe I started a company with you! Don’t you ever talk to my daughter again, you psychotic fuck!”

In the end, Justin and Jaden went to prison, Amy was successfully able to claim she feared for her life and was not held responsible for destruction of evidence. The board agreed to grant Jackie her request for Fred’s position, but after everything, she only hoped to leverage the promotion to get a new job soon. Jackie was done with Dawson-Lettman Industrial. Let them manage their hacky data center investment by themselves! She would be somewhere else doing something else soon enough.