"What can I help you with?" I croaked.

"I don't like to interfere in the lives of my employees," he said, "but if they are having problems I want to give them assistance."

Ah, the benevolent dictator.

He paused, searching for words, something he didn't have to do very often. He asked, "Do you know who Ned Mackay is?" (He pronounced it Mack-eye.)

"Yes, he's your number two. President and possible successor-if you ever retire. I met him once a long time ago."

My father raised his eyebrows, perhaps surprised that I knew that much about Dionysus Corporation. But my words seemed to loosen his tongue. "Partly right, at least. I'm not convinced yet that he can run the show by himself. But he has been a good president-up to a few weeks ago. Lately, however, he's been acting strangely."

"In what way?" I was struggling to fit myself into this scenario.

"It first came to my attention because he recently exercised all the stock options in which he is currently vested. This isn't confidential information; it's common knowledge. In fact, because he's a corporate officer it may get reported in the Wall Street Journal as insider selling because he exercised in such a way that he bought and sold simultaneously so that he didn't have to put up any cash. I'm talking about thousands of shares."

"And the stock is near its low for the year."

"Not to mention the tax implications for exercising so many shares in one year." What I had said suddenly registered on his face. "I didn't know you followed the stock."

"Just a guess." I'd better be careful or I might give away something about my real life. "Okay, so he's not the sharpest stock trader in the world. And I'm sure he has an accountant who handles his taxes. Exercising options when the stock is low doesn't by itself mean he's in trouble."

"No, but there's more. Recently, he's been coming in late and leaving early. It's not like Ned; he usually works a minimum of 60 hours a week. Now, even when he's there he seems distracted. His eyes are red and he even fell asleep in one meeting, something he's never done before."