Chương 6
“I wasn’t undercover.”
“You were a mystery backpack child in a luxury showroom.”
“I’m twenty-two.”
“That did not help your argument.”
He smiled.
Then stopped.
“What do I do?”
“You investigate.”
“I know.”
“You stop making decisions because you’re embarrassed.”
“I know.”
“You stop making decisions because strangers online love you.”
“I know.”
“And when you find out what happened, you decide what kind of owner you are.”
Noah looked through the windshield at the dealership.
The black McLaren was visible through the glass.
“So nothing useful.”
“Correct.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
She hung up.
The next morning, the video passed twelve million views.
Unfortunately, a second video appeared.
This one started earlier.
It showed Derek approaching Noah near the McLaren.
It showed Noah leaning briefly through the open driver’s door while Mia walked toward the inventory desk.
It showed Derek saying something the camera could not clearly pick up.
It showed Noah answer.
Then Derek grabbed the backpack.
The second video changed the story.
Not because it made Derek look better.
It made Noah look calmer.
That should have helped.
Instead, the internet discovered a new argument.
Some people said Noah had intentionally provoked the confrontation.
Others said the gray T-shirt was part of a publicity stunt.
Someone found a photograph of him wearing the same shirt three months earlier and presented it as evidence of long-term planning.
Noah stared at that post over breakfast.
His mother called.
“Do not read comments.”
“I’m not.”
“I can hear you reading comments.”
He put the phone down and stared at the hotel eggs.
“You bought a dealership.”
“Yes.”
“You’re still going to school?”
“Yes.”
“Noah.”
“I have two classes left.”
“You said that last semester.”
“I had four then.”
She sighed.
His mother had spent twenty-two years learning that when Noah became anxious, he organized his life into solvable units. Credits. Cash flows. Customer acquisition costs. Lists.
“What are you scared of?” she asked.
He looked around the hotel breakfast room.
A man in a Dodgers cap was trying to make a waffle while arguing with the machine.
“I’m not scared.”
“Noah.”
He picked at the eggs.
“That I bought something I don’t know how to run.”
“Good.”
He frowned.
“Good?”
“Yes.”
“Why is that good?”
“Because if you weren’t scared, I’d be much more worried.”
He looked out the window.
“You saw the bag.”
“Yes.”
“You still have that thing?”
“It works.”
“It looks like it survived a house fire.”
“It works.”
“Buy a new backpack.”
“No.”
“Fine.”
The waffle machine beeped.
The man in the Dodgers cap swore at it.
Noah smiled.
His mother said, “You’re trying to solve the wrong problem.”
“What’s the right one?”
“I don’t know. It’s your dealership.”
“Very helpful family.”
“I raised you. I’m retired.”
She was not retired.
She managed scheduling at a dental office in Sacramento.
Noah did not correct her.
At nine fifteen he arrived at the dealership through the service entrance.
He used his new key fob for the first time.
Nothing happened.
He tried again.
Red light.
A technician inside saw him through the glass and opened the door.
“Owner key doesn’t work?”
“No.”
The technician looked at the fob.
“That’s for inventory lock boxes.”
Noah stared at it.
The technician tried not to smile.
“Good start,” Noah said.
The technician laughed.
His name was Sam.
Noah learned that after asking.
Inside, Mia had already prepared the complaint reports.
Derek was formally suspended with pay pending investigation.
Mike, the sales manager, was back from his daughter’s wedding rehearsal and furious about everything.
He was fifty-six, barrel-chested, red-faced, and ten minutes into his conversation with Noah he had not yet sat down.
“This is insane.”
Noah waited.
“You know what salespeople are like.”
“No.”
“You will.”
“Probably.”
“They push. Customers complain. Half the complaints are people trying to negotiate after the fact.”
“Half?”
“It’s an expression.”
“Okay.”
Mike put both hands on the conference table.
“You fire every salesperson who makes someone uncomfortable, you won’t have a sales team.”
“I’m reviewing complaints.”
“Because of the video.”
“Because there are complaints.”
“Which you’re reviewing because of the video.”
Noah leaned back.
“That’s fair.”
Mike seemed disappointed by the agreement.
He sat.
“Derek screwed up.”
“Yes.”
“He knows it.”
“Good.”
“But you need to understand the environment.”
“I’m trying to.”
“Luxury sales is judgment.”
Noah looked at him.
Mike continued.
“You qualify people.”
“Based on what?”
“Conversation. Behavior. Experience.”
“Clothes?”
Mike hesitated.
“Sometimes.”
“Age?”
“Sometimes.”
“Backpacks?”
Mike rubbed his face.
“You’re making it sound worse than it is.”
“I’m asking.”
“If you’ve got three customers and one salesperson, you decide who’s buying and who’s looking.”
“Did Derek have three customers?”
“No.”
“Did he have one?”
Mike’s eyes narrowed.
“You want me to say he was wrong.”
“I already know he was wrong.”
“Then what are we doing?”
“Finding out whether he’s one wrong employee or whether this place taught him wrong things.”
Mike leaned back.
That landed.
His face changed.
“You think I taught him that.”
“Did you?”
Silence.
Outside the conference room, a phone rang twice before someone answered it.
Mike looked through the glass wall toward the showroom.
“We reward numbers.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the answer.”
Noah waited.
Mike sighed.
“Derek made money.”
“For the dealership.”
“For everybody. When he sells, finance makes money. Service gets customers. Bonuses go up.”
“So you overlooked complaints.”
“I managed them.”
“Meaning?”
“I told him to be less of an asshole.”
“How’d that work?”
Mike gave him a tired look.
“You met him.”
They reviewed eighteen months of reports.
Some complaints were trivial.
One customer was angry that free bottled water was not cold.
Another accused a salesman of “psychological manipulation” because the dealership would not lower the price by twelve thousand dollars.
Noah read all of them anyway.
Patterns emerged slowly.
Derek interrupted younger customers.
He resisted test drives when he doubted purchasing intent.
May you like
He was impatient with anyone who asked basic questions.
He was especially dismissive of customers shopping below the dealership’s highest price tier.
