"No, thank you," she said. "And Matthew, you can call me Lauri if you like. It makes things less formal."
"All right. Good-bye, Lauri…" And for the second time he heard her call his name as he went to hang up the phone. "Now what?" he said, affably.
"I'm sorry, Matthew. There's one more thing. The picture in your office, of your wife and her horse. Where is that? I mean, where does she keep her horse?"
"You ride? I had no idea. It's Woodside Ranch. About a half-mile north of the BMW shop. There's a turnoff, with a sign. You can't miss it. That it?"
"Yes," she replied.
"You're sure?" He laughed. "Okay, then. Good-bye." He snapped the phone back onto its cradle and settled into the comfort of the leather seat. Tomorrow's meeting. The press. The future. Laurence's certainty and control helped him strengthen his own hold on the immediacy of tomorrow's meeting, and his overall plan.
His plan. He'd spent the past six months analyzing and plotting its current phase. If the vote was successful, Peter Jones would be removed from his position as Wallaby's chairman and engineering division vice president. Company-wide responsibility would be turned over to Matthew.
All the pieces were in place. To begin with, Matthew had gained tentative agreement from Wallaby's vice chairman, Hank Towers, to consider "repositioning" Peter within the company. He had then spent many hours with each member of the executive staff over the last several months, subtly gaining their confidence as he explained his strategy for the company's future, one that would increase Wallaby's profitability and competitive position in the industry.
Dissolving the executive staff's confidence in Peter Jones as a leader, while building its trust and gaining its loyalty for himself as company president, had been an extremely delicate operation. Resistance from even one member of the executive staff could have prevented his plan from advancing to its present place.
The first phase of Matthew's plan, to gain support after his arrival at Wallaby, had been successful. He had become a credible and qualified champion of Wallaby's high technology platform of computer products, a status he would have never reached without Peter's focused coaching and friendship.