I met Virgil Smith at a dinner party I attended as a plus-one for someone I'd rather not dwell on. The date insulted the host over his hunting trophies, in front of his guests, at his table. I did not join her in that. When Virgil looked at me for a reaction, I asked him what caliber he used on the elk head in the corner. We got along fine after that.
He called me that same night and had me in his office the following Monday.
Virgil was a star linebacker for LSU in the late 1980's, played a few years in the NFL and then came back to Baton Rouge. He parlayed the contacts and goodwill he'd made in town into a job working for a big industrial contractor, and then he went on his own and made a fortune.
VS Industries does industrial construction all along the petrochemical corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans — refineries, chemical plants, the big infrastructure work that never really stops down here. Getting Virgil as a client was the first significant step in putting my business back on its feet. I didn't take that lightly, and I still don't.
He was straight with me about the Amber situation. His wife Rebecca had heard the rumor from Sasha and passed it along, and Virgil asked me about it directly rather than just letting it sit there. I gave him the full explanation, he decided it was none of his business, and we moved on. He did tell me to find a nice girl. He also told me to stay far away from Alice the Librarian, which was the most useful advice anyone gave me that year.
The problem he hired me to solve was Dan Cole — a former employee who'd been winning bids he shouldn't have been able to win. Keegan figured out how. We fixed it. VS Industries is still one of my most important clients, and Virgil is one of the people most responsible for where I am right now.
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