And he called his first supervisor's meeting and it lasted 4 minutes. Two things changed today, he said. First one, no nightgate ticket goes into the system with one signature on it ever again. Two names, two badges, and the second name has to be somebody who physically walked out and put his hand on the trailer. That's going to slow us down, somebody said.
14 minutes a night. I timed it Saturday in my driveway with a stopwatch. Marcus looked around the table. 14 minutes a night is what it costs to make sure no man in this building can ever be hung on his own badge number by himself. If that's too much, come see me and I'll do the 14 minutes myself.
Nobody came to see him. Second thing, paper stays. He tapped the table. Facilities wants everything scanned and the box is gone. Boxes stay.
3 years in the cage taped and dated. And Earl Dupri keeps the key. And I do not care what it costs in floor space. The only reason I am standing in this room is that somebody in 1998 decided to keep a piece of paper. 10:40 in the morning and a 20-year-old named Tavio Reyes knocked on the door of an office Marcus had not yet figured out how to sit in.
Mr. Carter, can I ask about an advance? Sit down. It's my mom's car transmission. She can't get to dialysis without it and I've been driving her before shift, but I got rode up twice for being late already and I can't.
How much is the transmission? 1,900. And how much have you got? Tavio's jaw worked. 400 and change.
Marcus sat back and looked at that kid 20 years old sitting in a chair asking a man with a title for money to keep his mother alive and heard. Curtis Vance saying he said the company had a hardship fund. There ain't no hardship fund. Give me till Wednesday. Marcus said, "Sir, if it's a problem, it's not a problem.
It's Wednesday. " Wednesday 2:00 and Marcus sat across a conference table from Naen Whitaker and a woman from finance and laid a single page in front of them. I want a hardship fund, he said. Naen read it. We have an employee assistance program. Ma'am, with respect, your employee assistance program is a phone number that gives you three counseling sessions.
I'm talking about money. Same day, no committee, no application, no supervisor's approval, no repayment. And who administers that? Two people, one from the dock, one from HR, and neither one can approve a loan. He slid a second page across, and the first 100,000 comes from me.
The room stopped. Mr. Carter, the woman from finance said, that's half of your settlement. Yes, ma'am. You understand the company can fund this?
I understand the company will fund it starting in year two once it's already running and you can't quietly kill it in a budget cycle. Marcus kept his voice easy, but it starts with my money because Richard Hail bought a 24year-old kid's whole life for $11,000. And the only reason that worked is that there was nowhere else on God's earth that kid could get $11,000 in a week. Naen Whitaker took her glasses off. You're saying this is a security measure?
I'm saying every man on my dock who can be bought is a man with a bill. He can't pay. Marcus said, "You want to protect this company? Make sure nobody in it is desperate. That's it.
That's the whole security program. " Naen looked at the page for a long moment. "50,000 from you," she said. "50 from the company matched this quarter. I am not letting a supervisor fund a corporate program out of a settlement we paid him for wrecking his name. Ma'am, Mr.
Carter, take the win, she said. Thursday, Antavio Reyes got $1,900 in his hand before lunch and stood in the doorway of the dock office with the check and could not speak. "Go get your mother's car fixed," Marcus said. "When do I pay it back? " "You don't, Mr. Carter.
You don't pay it back, Tavio. That's the entire point. The second there's a string on it, it's a leash. He turned back to his screen. You want to do something then in about 15 years when you're standing where I'm standing, some kid's going to knock on your door.
That's the payment. 2 weeks later, on a Tuesday at 4:00 in the afternoon, Pria Rammen called and her voice had a thing in it he had not heard before. Marcus, sit down. Everybody keeps telling me to sit down. Witcom and Reyes resigned the Halverson engagement this morning and Gregory Linfist was placed on leave by his firm on Friday and retained his own council over the weekend.
He flipped. He is talking. Priya said that's all I can say and I've probably said too much. But Marcus, there's another thing and I wanted you to hear it from me because they're going to make it public in about a week and it is going to be on every trade site in the country. Go ahead.
It wasn't twice. Marcus sat down what he was holding. Say it. Callaway freight in 2012 was the second one. Priya said there was a first.
1999 a regional carrier outside Memphis. $4.1 million through a vendor at a mail drop in Wilmington, Delaware. Sweet 411. Sweet 411. Marcus closed his eyes. Who was the man?
His name was Alvin Prather. He was a doc manager. 52 years old, 26 years with that carrier. He pled to conspiracy in 2001 and served 33 months. Papers moved.
He came home in 2004 and worked at a car wash in White Haven because nobody would hire him. And he died of a heart attack in 2006 at 59. The doc office was very quiet. Marcus, I'm here. There's one more thing in it and I debated telling you.
Tell me. The investigators pulled the personnel files on all three of them. Prather Boyd and you. Priya took a breath. All three of you had perfect attendance records.
All three of you had zero complaints filed in your entire careers against anybody. All three of you had been at your companies more than 8 years and had never once been written up. Marcus sat in a chair in a doc office with a phone against his ear. He wasn't picking men nobody would believe, he said. No.
How is picking the ones who never made trouble? That's what it looks like, Priya. His voice had gone rough. Every single thing about me that he used my attendance, my hours, my staying late, never filing anything, never making a noise about anything. Every one of those is a thing I did on purpose because I was trying to be beyond reproach.
Yes, he hunted us because we were careful. Yes, Priya said, "And Marcus, you're the first one in 27 years who had a shoe box. " He sat there a long while after she hung up. And then he went out and stood on the dock and watched 40 men work and thought about a 59-year-old man in White Haven, Tennessee, drying cars for $8 an hour with a felony. He did not earn dead before anybody ever said his name out loud in a room. That night, he wrote the name Alvin Prather on the back of a work order and put it in his wallet and it stayed there.
3 weeks later, on a Monday morning at 9:00, Priya called again. He wants to see you. Who does? Richard Hail through his attorney. He's asking for a meeting before sentencing.
Marcus laughed once without any humor in it. For what? They didn't say. Tell him no. I already told them I'd relay it and recommend against it.
Marcus stood at the window of the office with the yard in front of him. Priya, don't set it up, he said. In a room with a camera in it with you sitting next to me and his lawyer sitting next to him and I want it recorded and I want the recording. Why on earth would you do that? Because he told me one time that people in buildings like this don't look down, Marcus said.
And I want to be looking at him when he finds out how far down he had to reach. Thursday 11:00 in the morning in a conference room in a law office downtown with a camera on a tripod and four people at a table. Richard Hail had lost about 20 and looked if anything more expensive. Marcus. Mr.
Hail. Would it be possible? Richard said glancing at the lawyers to have a few minutes privately. Marcus almost smiled. No sir, he said.
There is no version of today where I go anywhere private with you. Something moved across Richard's face. You've gotten hard, he said. I've gotten the same, Marcus said. You just never met me before.
Richard folded his hands. I asked for this because I want you to hear one sentence from me and not from a transcript. He looked up. There was nothing personal in it ever, not once. Marcus waited.
You seem to believe I did something to you because of what you are. Richard said, "I want you to know that I never thought about you at all. " "Nobody said anything. " "That's the sentence," Marcus said. "That's the sentence. " "All right," Marcus leaned back. "Then here's mine. I believe you. " Richard blinked.
"I believe you never thought about me," Marcus said. I believe you looked at a personnel file with 26 years of perfect attendance on it and saw a tool. I believe you did the same to Terrence Boyd and I believe you did the same to Alvin Prather in 1999. And I believe when Mr. Prather died at 59 in Memphis.
You did not know it and would not have paused if you had. Richard's lawyer put a hand on his arm. That's the part you got wrong. Marcus said, "You thought the fact that it wasn't personal made it smaller, Mr. Hail, that's what makes it monstrous.