“He never read page seven.”

Victor rarely read anything longer than a restaurant menu.

By midday, our board members had heard about the situation. Three contacted me privately. One offered an apology. Another acted as though he’d suspected Victor’s instability for years.

Arthur Bell, the third, wanted to know whether quarterly deliveries would suffer.

“No,” I told him. “The company will run better by Monday.”

At 2:30 p.m., I listened to Victor’s first recorded message.