A la Noir? I think so.

Jerry had always been a big name in the industry. He'd headed up a lot of big projects, wrangled some big game, and talked the talk with the best of 'em. Really driven the bottom line if you know what I mean. I had a lot of respect for Jerry. He was always a man who walked too close to the line, but he watched out for his guys. I know he generally tried to do the right thing, but in this crazy world, sometimes you got to watch out for yourself first. If his nose wasn't as clean as it should have been, we were all willing to look the other way. After all, business is business and a man's gotta feed his family.

Nobody was surprised when he left to do his own thing. Jerry was a man with big ideas and sometimes you could see him getting impatient-like trying to squeeze things past the big cheeses upstairs. So when he walked, we all wished him good luck. So it was business as usual and from time to time we would hear from little Jimmy that he was doing ok with his new gig. Funny business, poor Jimmy. That kid was pretty cut up when Jerry walked. I think he really depended on him and it broke his heart when Jerry left. Jimmy wasn't really a bad sort, reminded me of a scared little rabbit, but with a good head on his shoulders. He'd been here a long time but I think he was real happy just dishing out stuff. He never wanted to be a big mover and shaker. So when Boss called him into his office and told him to start taking on some of Jerry's old duties, that poor kid turned three shades of pale and came out shaking like an autumn leaf.

That kid didn't want to be Jerry. Hell, I think he would have given anything to have Jerry back. He didn't want to have to get up and tell every Tom, Dick and Harry on the floor what to do. The thought terrified him, all of us could see that. None of us could figure what the Boss was aiming at, pulling a stunt like that with Jimmy. Yeah, so what if the kid had been here a long time. But anyone with half a bean upstairs could see the kid was scared shitless. But if there's one thing you learn at the Company, you don't question the boss.

Now me, I just keep my head down and my eyes open. I've been around the block, so to speak, and I'd done all sorts of crazy shit in my time. Coming to the Company was like coming back home to say howdy-doody to the folks. I knew I had a sweet deal and I wasn't going to sour the pot by jawing in, so to speak.