Disclosure

Outside the restaurant, Garvin paced back and forth angrily on the pavement. Blackburn stood with the phone at his ear.

"Where is that fucking car?" Garvin said.

"I don’t know, Bob."

"I told him to wait."

"I know, Bob. I’m trying to get him."

"Christ Almighty, the simplest things. Can’t even get the fucking cars to work right."

"Maybe he had to go to the bathroom."

"So? How long does that take? Goddamn Sanders. Could you believe him?"

"No, I couldn’t, Bob."

"I just don’t understand. He won’t deal with me on this. And I’m bending over backward here. I offer him his job back, I offer him his stock back, I offer him everything. And what does he do? Jesus."

"He’s not a team player, Bob."

"You got that right. And he’s not willing to meet us. We’ve got to get him to come to the table."

"Yes we do, Bob."

"He’s not feeling it," Garvin said. "That’s the problem."

"The story ran this morning. It can’t have made him happy."

"Well, he’s not feeling it."

Garvin paced again.

"There’s the car," Blackburn said, pointing down the street. The Lincoln sedan was driving toward them.

"Finally," Garvin said. "Now look, Phil. I’m tired of wasting time on Sanders. We tried being nice, and it didn’t work. That’s the long and the short of it. So what are we going to do, to make him feel it?"

"I’ve been thinking about that," Phil said. "What’s Sanders doing? I mean really doing? He’s smearing Meredith, right?"

"Goddamn right."

"He didn’t hesitate to smear her."

"He sure as hell didn’t."

"And it’s not true, what he’s saying about her. But the thing about a smear is that it doesn’t have to be true. It just has to be something people are willing to believe is true."

"So?"

"So maybe Sanders needs to see what that feels like."

"Like what feels like? What’re you talking about?"

Blackburn stared thoughtfully at the approaching car. "I think that Tom’s a violent man."

"Oh hell," Garvin said, "he’s not. I’ve known him for years. He’s a pussycat."

"No," Blackburn said, rubbing his nose. "I disagree. I think he’s violent. He was a football player in college, he’s a rough-and-tumble sort of guy. Plays football on the company team, knocks people around. He has a violent streak. Most men do, after all. Men are violent."

"What kind of shit is this?"

"And you have to admit, he was violent to Meredith," Blackburn continued. "Shouting. Yelling. Pushing her. Knocking her over. Sex and violence. A man out of control. He’s much bigger than she is. Just stand them side by side, anybody can see the difference. He’s much bigger. Much stronger. All you have to do is look, and you see he is a violent abusive man. That nice exterior is just a cover. Sanders is one of those men who take out their hostility by beating up defenseless women."

Garvin was silent. He squinted at Blackburn. "You’ll never make this fly._

"I think I can."

"Nobody in their right mind’ll buy it."

Blackburn said, "I think somebody will."

"Yeah? Who?"

"Somebody," Blackburn said.

The car pulled up to the curb. Garvin opened the door. "Well, all I know," he said, "is that we need to get him to negotiate. We need to apply pressure to bring him to the table."

Blackburn said, "I think that can be arranged."

Garvin nodded. "It’s in your hands, Phil. Just make sure it happens." He got in the car. Blackburn got in the car after Garvin. Garvin said to the driver, "Where the fuck have you been?"

The door slammed shut. The car drove off.

Sanders drove with Fernandez in Alan’s car back to the mediation center. Fernandez listened to Sanders’s report of the conversation with Garvin, shaking her head. "You never should have seen him alone. He couldn’t have behaved that way if I was there. Did he really say you have to make allowances for women?"

"Yes."

"That’s noble of him. He’s found a virtuous reason why we should protect a harasser. It’s a nice touch. Everyone should sit back and allow her to break the law because she’s a woman. Very nice."

Sanders felt stronger hearing her words. The conversation with Garvin had rattled him. He knew that Fernandez was working on him, building him back up, but it worked anyway.

"The whole conversation is ridiculous," Fernandez said. "And then he threatened you?"

Sanders nodded.

"Forget it. It’s just bluster."

"You’re sure?"

"Absolutely," she said. `Just talk. But at least now you know why they say men just don’t get it. Garvin gave you the same lines that every corporate guy has been giving for years: Look at it from the harasser’s point of view. What did they do that was so wrong. Let bygones be bygones. Everybody just go back to work. We’ll be one big happy family again."

"Incredible," Alan said, driving the car.

"It is, in this day and age," Fernandez said. "You can’t pull that stuff anymore. How old is Garvin, anyway?"

"Almost sixty."

"That helps explain it. But Blackburn should have told him it’s completely unacceptable. According to the law, Garvin really _ doesn’t have any choice. At a minimum, he has to transfer Johnson, not you. And almost certainly, he should fire her."

"I don’t think he will," Sanders said.

"No, of course he won’t."