34
Friday, June 17th, 1983, 1:20 P.M.
“I can’t believe these people are late,” Charlotte whispered to herself. “Don’t they know how important this is?”
Unable to fidget in her chair any longer, Charlotte stood up and walked over to the serving table and poured herself another cup of coffee. She stood there for the next several moments, taking small sips of her coffee, and pondering the stability of the present situation. In her mind, for her to be representing the entire investment group by herself bordered on the ridiculous. Even though this was going to be her third interview, she really felt like she could use some help. How could she be sure that she was doing the right thing? How could she know if she was asking the right questions? She had nothing else to compare it with. On the other hand, what good would it do to have two other people sitting at the table, staring at her during the entire session, and relatively incapable of providing any input? With that in mind, she figured she was better off alone. A couple of mutes sitting there might make the company look bad.
For the first interview, Charlotte designed the entire questionnaire herself, something she was sincerely proud of. She tried to liken it to the other creative processes she was accustomed to, but found very few comparisons. In the end, asking some strangers a series of questions about taking care of a building was nothing like writing a song.
Charlotte slowly made her way over to the conference table and sat back down. It was only natural for her to wonder if she was making the correct move with this deal, or if she was making the correct move with any of the deals she was currently involved with.
“Is there any reason why I have to be such a goddamn dynamo?” she wondered to herself. “Isn’t being in a successful band and having your own T.V. show enough?”
“Where is all this gusto coming from?”
Charlotte essentially had no answers to any of these questions. All she knew was that she was acting out of instinct. Something was compelling her to do these things and she seemed to have no control over it. Perhaps it was some unseen force that was pushing her out of her comfort zone.
Unfortunately, it was those exact same instincts that got her into trouble seven months earlier. It was impossible for this painful memory not to rear its ugly head from time to time, and this afternoon was going to be one of those times no matter how hard Charlotte tried to shake it off.
Shortly after her 29th birthday, Charlotte was riding an enormous high. Her reputation in the investment community was growing, everyone wanted to meet her, and everybody wanted to do business with her. She was sizzling hot.
On top of that, the banks that she got into bed with were more than willing to lend her money, as she became more and more enamored with the idea of having extra capital to work with. It was this premise, however, that started getting Charlotte into hot water.
Shortly after meeting her, Oscar Klefbom, the Chief Loan Officer over at Fifth-Third, fell madly in love with Charlotte and even talked about leaving his wife for her. It was just the kind of leverage that Charlotte was looking for. She teased the living piss out of the guy and borrowed as much money as she possibly could. She didn’t think there would be any repercussions from her actions until Mr. Klefbom started getting overly aggressive with his feelings. Being Swedish, declaring his love for her and showing a willingness to leave his wife was like a badge of honor. Women where he came from were expected to show a certain amount of reverence towards this dauntless act of chivalry.
But, Charlotte was an all-American girl. After she got what she wanted, she needed him to back off — and basically told him that right to his face. This did not sit well with Mr. Klefbom. He continued to act more aggressively towards Charlotte and pushed her to the brink. She eventually saw no choice and ratted him out to his wife. Then she reported him to the President of the bank and had the poor bastard fired for professional misconduct.
Infused with shame and embarrassment, a disgraced Oscar Klefbom gathered his wife and their two children and returned to Sweden. Naturally, he never told his wife the truth behind his firing, instead choosing to tell her that his termination was the result of gross negligence on behalf of the accounting department that somehow got traced back to him. His wife never questioned his lie, nor did she ask him to investigate the matter any further in an attempt to save his job. Perhaps she was merely looking forward to returning to her homeland.
In addition to Mr. Klefbom’s silence in the matter, the bank proceeded to cover up their end of the story as well. Looking to protect their reputation and graciously protecting Charlotte’s celebrity image, a bank spokesperson told a financial reporter from the L.A. Times that Mr. Klefbom was terminated for “a substantial misappropriation of funds that could not be accounted for.” Having virtually no meat on the bone, the story ended up being nothing more than a few sentences in their NOTES AND NEWS column. The report garnered little attention.
It was an unbelievable stroke of good luck for Charlotte. Since the major press never found out about the whole mess, the studio didn’t hear about it either. It was bad enough that she was already hearing the whispers from insiders around the water cooler that the network was not exactly thrilled with her moonlighting; the last thing in the world she needed was a scandal. They were concerned that her outside business interests might interfere with her duties around the set. Fortunately, her contract could not forbid her from investing her money, so Charlotte returned to business as usual.
But, the story didn’t end there. Wracked with guilt about what she had done to Mr. Klefbom and feeling like she needed to make a gesture of good faith, Charlotte somewhat impulsively decided to return all of the money that she borrowed back to the bank along with her sincerest apologies. Even though she had to pay the applicable penalties and fees, it still seemed like the right thing to do. The money felt dirty to Charlotte and she needed to clear her conscience. David Klingberg, the President of the bank, told Charlotte that it wasn’t necessary for her to do that, but sympathized with her, nonetheless. He agreed with her assessment of the situation and apologized in return, telling her that he hoped the two of them could still conduct business in the future. Charlotte was more than satisfied with that notion.
A couple of months had gone by and the matter was all but forgotten, until one night, Charlotte received a very disturbing phone call. On the end of the line, a man’s voice growled,
“You better watch the way you do business, bitch! You could get hurt.. badly!”
That was all he said.
Charlotte hung up the phone and was visibly shaken. She could feel the electricity run through her body as she sat there for the next couple of minutes unable to move. She didn’t recognize the man’s voice, but couldn’t help wondering all the time if it was him.
She never stopped wondering.
And, unbeknownst to Charlotte, Mr. Klefbom eventually divorced his wife and fled the country of Sweden.
He was never heard from again.
Copyright 2020
by Clark Wright