Chapter 4 - The Vote Behind Closed Doors
Blair called me the morning of the trustees' meeting.
"I want you to stay away from headquarters," she said.
"I wasn't invited."
"You already have company documents that weren't meant for you. I don't need you giving a speech in the lobby."
"I don't want a speech. I want the old environmental records reviewed independently."
She let out a short laugh.
"You sound like everybody who thinks a business runs on good intentions."
"I know it runs on people. Some of them live in Westbridge."
Blair went quiet.
"My son works at the main plant," she said. "So do six hundred other people. If lenders pull their lines because the company starts looking insolvent, those jobs don't wait for your moral clarity."
I hadn't known her son worked there. I'd assumed he was studying finance in Boston because that was what Arthur once told me. He'd finished school and come home after a family illness. Blair's fear wasn't imaginary.
"Then we need a plan that protects jobs without hiding legitimate claims," I said.
"That's easy to say when you don't own anything."
The old insult still hurt. I didn't answer it.
After the call, Natalie explained that the trustees' authority came from the trust agreement and the corporate documents, not Blair's mood. Ivy's exclusion from the voting trust didn't mean she couldn't submit information to regulators or speak as a former resident. It also didn't give her power to demand that trustees act on her preferred schedule.
"Your leverage is the evidence and the public process," Natalie said. "Use it carefully."
I spent the day reviewing Westbridge records with Gloria. We met an environmental scientist named Dr. Martin Ruiz, who had worked on industrial-site assessments for years. He agreed to explain the public data but made clear he was not conducting a new site investigation on the spot.
He showed us how screening levels, sampling locations, and groundwater movement affected conclusions. One report identified certain contaminants requiring additional review. Another appeared to show that earlier sampling had been limited to a small area near the fence.
"Can we say the company poisoned the neighborhood?" a resident asked.
"You can say the public records warrant questions about the extent and timing of contamination," Dr. Ruiz answered. "You need additional evidence to claim a particular person's illness or a particular property was caused by this site."
I appreciated his refusal to turn uncertainty into a slogan.
That evening Arthur called after the trustees' meeting.
They had approved a preliminary reserve and authorized negotiations with a potential buyer for one division of the company. They had not agreed to release the full historical files to an independent reviewer before the transaction.
"Gideon says the records are privileged," Arthur told me.
"That isn't a reason to hide factual data from the people responsible for enforcement."
"I know."
"Then why didn't you stop the vote?"
"I don't control the trust alone. And I waited too long to challenge him."
I had imagined that once Arthur admitted he'd been wrong, he could simply order the company to do the right thing. Instead he was one trustee among several, bound by procedures and years of decisions that couldn't be undone in a phone call.
I asked whether he would authorize his own attorney to review what he could lawfully disclose and cooperate with the environmental agency. He said yes.
The next day Gideon sent a letter to Natalie. It warned that confidential company information appeared to have reached an excluded family member and reserved the company's rights concerning unauthorized disclosure.
Natalie told me not to panic. She would respond after reviewing what Arthur had actually given me and the legal status of the records.
Then she asked me a question I hadn't expected.
"Ivy, do you know whether Arthur kept a separate personal trust for you?"
"No."
"The voting trust refers to a confidential schedule of individual arrangements. We need to know whether that schedule exists and whether it was lawfully adopted."
I stared at the trust provision that had begun this fight.
May you like
Arthur had told me he'd written it to protect me.
Now I wondered whether he had also written another document to avoid telling me what he had taken away.
