The first time, I asked to see a van. Derek threw a catalog near my feet and told me to pick it up if I was serious. When I went toward the van, he struck my hand away. Then he had plastic and barriers put around the display so I couldn't look inside."
Malcolm turned slowly toward Derek. "You put your hands on her?" "I was protecting the new inventory," Derek said, his voice rising defensively. "She had grease on her hands.
I couldn't let her leave fingerprints on a vehicle that costs that much." Gloria looked at him. "I hadn't touched the door. Your employee can tell you that. And you didn't need to touch me to ask me not to."
Anna's expression tightened, but she did not interrupt. Malcolm noticed and asked her directly, "You were present at the first visit?" "I saw what happened near the van, sir," she answered.
"I saw Mr. Lawson make contact with Mrs. Hayes's hand. The barrier went up immediately afterward. I reported the incident through the employee channel because it didn't seem appropriate."
The regional operations manager, a woman named Fiona Grant, looked down at her tablet and began searching the incident system. Within seconds she found Anna's submission, entered the previous evening and still marked awaiting assignment. She showed the entry to Malcolm without comment. The fact that a report existed mattered to him as much as the words in it, because it showed that someone had tried to use the company's established process and the process had not yet responded.
"Kelsey," Malcolm said. She straightened. "Sir?" "Were you present?" Kelsey looked at Derek, then at Gloria, then down at the floor. "Derek is the senior salesperson.
He was in charge of the floor. I just followed his lead." Malcolm waited without speaking, and she seemed to realize that this was not an answer. "I laughed," she admitted. "I helped bring the plastic barriers. And this morning I told him to call the tow truck."
Gloria spoke before Malcolm could reply. "She also heard me say I had an appointment, and she made no effort to check it." Malcolm looked at the customer system on Fiona's tablet. The appointment was there, with a confirmation time, the depot visit, the route specifications, and the fleet team's attached proposal. Nothing in the record suggested confusion about why Gloria had returned.
"Is any of that untrue?" Malcolm asked Derek. The older salesman shifted his weight. "I may have been more direct than I needed to be, sir.
But we have a certain standard here, and she didn't look like a serious commercial buyer. I didn't know she was your mother." "You keep saying that," Malcolm replied, quietly enough that Derek had to stop talking to hear him. "And every time you say it, you tell me the same thing: you would have treated her differently if you thought she could affect your career."