Plans Change A Story 11

Christina was holding my phone and tapping her chin with as she gave me an odd look.  I never expected what happened next.  She called the office and then asked to speak to Rachel.  When she answered Christina asked if she had recently received a call from Mr. C.  Rachel said she had;  Christina nodded as she said she thought so and effective immediately he no longer worked for the company and she should disregard his orders.  Rachel asked if Mr. C happened to be standing next to her.  Christina said that she just became aware who Mr. C was so yes he was standing next to her and as far as his back pay went she could take it out of the account she set up for him and send her the check per judges orders.  I asked Christina when exactly did she have the divorced finalized, she nodded and said strike that take the funds and put them into an escrow account.  Christina told her to tell Mr. Jeffery that she was with Mr. C and would need a ride home.  When she gave her the name of the resort, I began packing up.   When I finished gathering my knew gear and putting it into the larger rolling case I had also bought she asked what I was doing.  I smiled and told her it was nice of her to want to spend the day with me but since she no longer needed my services I was leaving.  I went straight to the office and was lucky to catch a shuttle heading back to the airport.  I had the driver drop me off at a stoplight two miles from the airport and then walked to a cafe just up the street from the airport.  I was not sure who I could call so I called my old handler and asked if there was something else she would like to mention.

She told me I could at least say hi and explain what I was calling for.  I told her Christina had made it final I was out and I was on my way somewhere.  She asked me where I was and I told her that was not important but if she was near the colonel I would appreciate if he looked into the crew that was hired to spy on my wife; I paused and said no that was wrong I meant Christina and my daughters.  She told me that just so I would know both she and Colonel were on the board.  I asked if she could to please tell me whose idea it was for Christina to divorce me.  When she did not readily answer I told her thanks for the help.  The colonel came on and told me we should talk; I told him later when I was in a secure location I would call.  I hung up and waited after ordering a sandwich and a beer.  I watched as the SUV's went by toward the airport.  I kissed my Cabo trip good bye.  Using a different phone I called another number, it was to the owner of a company which managed a fleet of executive jets for charter.  I told him I needed a ride but not from the Palm Springs Airport.  I could almost see him smile when he told me I had two choices unless I had wheels and then the possibilities were endless.  I chose the second option which would mean I would need to get to a small private airport.  I walked the two blocks to the airport and meandered my way through the parking lot stopped near a group of trees and use the camera to take pictures of the airport and specifically of the men who were milling about the SUV's and the sedan which I had taken the keys out of earlier.  As I waited I took out a cap and glasses and when a large group was arriving by bus as a plane was unloading I walked right through the group of men and noticed my wife inside the airport looking at passing faces. I climbed aboard one of the small public airport shuttles and had to wait for a family who was heading gratefully in my general direction.  In order to make room for a couple I took the passenger seat and guessed correctly by the drivers accent, he was from Jordan.  It was not until I was the last on the plane I told him to drop me at the private airport.  When I paid for my trip the extra two hundred dollars I told him was to take his kids to whatever theme park they wanted to go to.

I was not a drinking man per se but that night sitting in the restaurant at the little airport I did down a couple of drinks while chatting with a couple of old timers about engineering, the situation with our dependency on oil and from them I gleaned they were starting to work the fields up in the Dakotas.  Having been apart of the teams who had helped map out those fields for several large companies I smiled.  I hated the idea of going back to the cold but finding work would not be a problem.  When my old friend showed up himself he asked what I had gotten myself into.  I told him I had saved a woman from being ravaged, got beaten by a cop and arrested for it and I was not sure of what happened to that lawsuit as I had been stabbed in the leg with a dirty shank after I was arrested for getting my ribs broke by the cop and ended up in the hospital incognito for several months and then during that time Christina who had said she would not divorce me did and took everything after having an affair with the woman I had saved.  Helping me with one of my bags he told me he thought his divorce had been bad but at least she did not get his company; he smiled and said actually she did so he opened a new one and took all his clients with him.  Once aboard the plane he reintroduced me to the pilot and copilot who I had used on many occasions. Thankfully my good friend gave them what details they did not know.  The pilot asked how I was set for cash.  I smiled and said that part of this trip was to make some withdrawals.

Our first stop was home base for my friend and near one of my emergency fund deposit boxes. Prescott, AZ was not where you would think about headquartering anything but that was where my good friend oversaw a very lucrative business from.  While on the plane he told me he had a proposition to make me.  I nodded and he said he could use someone from time to time to negotiate terms, with clients and help explain how they could make money while losing it.  I looked at him and shook my head; smiling he said he was talking about the tax stuff.  I nodded and told him I was not an attorney and could not give legal advice, the pilot said no but I could explain what I would do if I found myself recently wealthy and went out and splurged on a private jet.  I nodded and told him from time to time if I was not busy I would be glad to talk economic theory.  I stayed at my friends house or rather ranch that night and he allowed me to borrow some wheels if he could come along for the ride.  His third wife I had only met once, but he had been smart enough to have a prenuptial but being ten years his junior she did not seem to care about anything other than her horses, her two young children and making her husband happy to come home.  She told me she was sorry to hear about my loss.  I looked at him and he shrugged saying I had been all over the news over the last year, well not necessarily me but they figured I was involved since Christina was all over the news and was always wrapped into the stories about Christopher's daddy he or rather they as he motioned to his wife figured I had somehow gotten into trouble with her.  Looking down I said I supposed getting married that young had not been such a good idea.

Kasey told me her take was that woman was still in love with me.  Shrugging I did not answer as I had not really had the time to process what had transpired.  At the moment I really did not want to as I did not want to deal with the emotional trauma, but I had to to an extent as I was not so sure who was after me.  The fact someone was, at that moment was evidently clear.  I would need to do some research on this man who had taken over my company, that he was military and probably in the intelligence community was evident. As I let it happen more questions flooded my mind, the first one being why had I been kept sequestered without visitors.  In the spare room study I was too use I set up my computers. Normally I avoided the fluff media but needing information I did a search that brought up fluff media.  Somebody was controlling the flow of information to the media as I was more or less my wife's estranged husband.  She had even won business woman of the year.  I had to give it to her she was taking my quiet little company and turning it into a major contender of which I was no longer apart of.  Two of my stops would be in driving distance and it hit me that trying to get work in America in my own name would not work and though I would travel under aliases getting work under one of them was not something I wanted to do as the headaches of being caught was definitely not something I wanted to do.  In Nevada were two of my stops, but first I would need keys and those were hopefully still at the house in the Carolina's.  As well I had a another set of papers at the office if they had not been found.  I made a call to the home of my longtime office manager.  Her husband answered and realizing it was me he told me just to let me know life was not as much fun now as it appeared his lovely bride who had kind of passed out would most likely be looking for a job.  I told him I was going to have to start a new company and it would be easier to hire someone who knew what she was doing than to train some sweet looking tiny bopper and hope she could remember where she put the to do list I gave her.  His next comment was to ask me if I would need an ex cop as he had been offered an early retirement.  I told him even better than that I could help him set up his own company with his wife in Vegas just as soon as I could get out their and pick up a few things and it would be nice to get an unbiased opinion on the man who was sitting in the driver seat.  He asked when I could be there, I told him to wait a minute and went and asked Ben how long it would take to get to Greenville.  He looked at his watch and told me before sunrise and asked his wife if she wanted to take the kids to see grandma for breakfast.

With that we were headed back to the airport.  On the plane as I watched the children I could feel the emotions forming; a soft voice asked what it had been like not seeing my children grew up.  Glancing next to me I said I actually did get to a lot of games and recitals as the girls were growing up and visited them whenever they were visiting grandma and grandpa and got home for their birthdays as well as Christopher's most years.  Though I suppose it was not the same as being there day in and day out, picking them up when they fell or helping change diapers.  Looking at Ben she told me that in her mind was definitely a good reason for divorce.  I smiled and told her I did not blame Christina and was surprise she had not cut me off a long time ago.  We both fell silent for the rest of the trip.  I must have fallen asleep as when I awoke we were on the ground.  I almost forgot Ben knew the two people we would be meeting.  He was hugging his old girlfriend now married to his best friend from high school. As Ben's wife took the loaner car to see his parents she told me to bring back her husband in one piece and preferably by breakfast.  The two pilots joined us and I was asked what kind of spy stuff would we be doing.  Shaking my head I told them we were not doing anything spy stuff we were just getting my wallet from my Office managers desk and a small box of keys I had collected over the years from my house.  It was the lone woman among us who said she had been fine with everything until Christina sold that house to the company she stole from us.  I told her to take it easy as their was plenty of work to be had with the expanding oil fields in the Dakotas.  Steven spoke up and said there was the issue of me not being gainfully employed by the company and not owning the house.  Nodding I told them the house was being leased out as a vacation rental and from my understanding was being currently rented by a production company making a movie.  With a smile on her face Christina's one time friend said she had never actually looked in that little wooden box.  Smiling I told her it was her dad's old wallet I had used and the passport was in a hidden bottom along with that i had thrown in some of the fake jewelry she and Christina used to wear along with her dad's obituary and pictures of her parent wedding and her children and since it was her dad's old cigar box with his name engraved on the bottom.  I nodded to the pilot and copilot and they nodded.

Looking at Steven I asked if he had retired yet.  Smiling he said two weeks and led Ben and I to his SUV.  he was on the phone almost instantly as he pulled away from the private terminal.  He smiled and said we were in luck he knew the deputies collecting overtime babysitting that old barn and his sister just happened to be the property manager and was more than happy to meet the county code violation people.  Both Ben and I looked at him and he said we just needed to inspect the building which had never ever had a permit issued for the remodel.  I told him because we did not need one and smiling he said in California they did.  Both men were surprised when it turned out I did not need to pretend anything as I was recognized by the director who called the producer out of her trailer.  When she asked what I was doing her I told the truth I was the previous owners estranged husband and had forgot my collection of trinkets and for old time sake I would really love to see the house my children were conceived in.  Apparently my face looked pathetic as she wiped a tear from her eye and led me inside and showed me my house which was filled with lighting equipment and camera gear.  When we got to the nursery I told her to excuse me for a moment and I walked over to the built in changing table and reaching underneath I pushed on the panel which released the latches in the wall.  Pulling on the table the wall opened to reveal a small access way between the interior walls and the old barn.  Steven said he remembered the doorway but not the changing table.  I told him I built it in after Christina decided this would be the nursery.  All four of them followed me up to what had been the play room for the girls.  There in the toy box was a smaller box which looked like an old toy jack in the box it was the only thing I had come to the farm with besides the clothes on my back as a child.  Ushering them out I told the producer she might want to check with the current owner which was essentially the previous owner by way of her company before going snooping.  In any event I set the lock which would take some work and cause damage if they chose to go snooping.

Once back in the SUV Steven looked at the old toy and asked if it still worked and I showed him that it did.  Ben said he remembered that thing and how I used to guard it like it was filled with gold.  I told him it had held memories.  The lock to open the box was triggered by the same handle that made the clown pop out.  It was basically set up like a combination lock only there were no numbers,  I had made use of the music and going forward and backwards it took me a couple of tries before it opened.  At the bottom of the now opened box were copies of every key I had ever needed, they filled a small felt lined tub. Steve said he would have never in a million years thought to look in that toy for keys.  Ben nodded and said if he had and found them he would just assume one of the children had collected keys.  Steve asked if I was sure I was not a spy.  I nodded.

With that done we headed to Ben's parents house for breakfast.  It had been a long time.  While there Christina called and asked if I happened to be there.  Ben's mom was not one to ever lie and told her yes as was Ben and Steve as well as her littlest angels her newest daughter and of course that little angel she used to play with.  Christina asked what I was doing and I told her I was visiting old friends and retrieving the only thing I brought with me into our relationship, my old clown in the box unless she wanted to take that away too.   She told me it was interesting how her office manager quit that same morning I showed up.  I said it was interesting that she quit right before she was going to be fired.  Christina told me she had no such plans and I sighed and said probably not but then she was not actually running the company and either she was going to let him do his job as he saw fit or she should let him go.  She asked if that was the only reason she went home; I reminded her I did not have a home but I also wanted to remind myself what I had given up over the years.  When she started to tell me my son would like to see me I quietly told her she should look at the news sometime as they were pretty clear on that I was not the father and that Christopher's father had rekindled a relationship with the mother of his child.  She told me she did not want to fight and I told her neither did I, and I needed to get back to rebuilding my life.  I handed the phone back to Ben's mom who had a way at calming people down and making them feel like it as all better.  When she was done talking to Christina she told her she would pass it on.  Sitting down to her big table for breakfast reminded me of years past.  I could not stop tears from forming. As we finished and said our goodbyes she arranged for her babies to stay a few days.  By that afternoon we were back in Arizona with two more guests as Steve took his two week vacation to finish out his time with the State Troopers.  At dinner that night one of the women asked me what I was going to do about Christina.  I told them there was nothing I could do as she had made up her mind without me and signed on the dotted line.  When I dumped out the keys onto the table I quickly sorted them.  House and office keys I would give back to Christina.

My oldest called Ben's phone and asked if she could talk with me.  She wanted to know when mom and I were going to work this out.  I had to ask her what exactly she thought there was to work out.  When she asked if I still loved her I said yes but if she had noticed her mom had made sure I had nothing left.  My daughter told me that maybe that was mom trying to start from scratch.  I had let that thought stew for a moment and then gave her my cell and told her to tell mom if she really wanted to talk to call me but if it was for a fight I really did not have time for that as I really needed to start working or she would be visiting me in a soup kitchen.  My daughter told me it was not that bad and I told her to have her mom let her look at the divorce decree and after reading it to call me and let me know what exactly was I left with and I would still like to know why she made the decision to go back on her promise.  When she told me that she felt like a prisoner in her own home, I pointed out to my daughter she was old enough to live on her own and could just leave and if those men pestered her to go to the sheriff and ask for his help and file for a restraining order.  To change the subject I asked how had she enjoyed doing the whole premier thing and she told me it was okay and then asked if I had not seen the news.  I told her no but if she wanted to she could tell me what happened and how her mom looked and who escorted her in.  When my daughter caught herself I asked if it was the fellow who starred in the movie; there was no answer.

I told my daughter I was not mad just curious as to what changed her mom's mind enough to break a promise.  The next morning as I took up an offer to go horseback riding I left early with Ben who decided I was his knew hobby.  Boulder City was my first stop, there I retrieved all the contents from the safe deposit box and closed the account.  In Laughlin I actually had three stops to make all of them at hotels.  One thing I had learned years ago, if you kept a balance with a casino so that when you dropped by they did not mind letting you make use of a safe deposit box.  I also dropped word I was looking for clients.  Vegas was no different.but I actually used the convenience banks in grocery stores.  I consolidated the three safety deposit boxes into one and went down and the way from that bank and rented a mail box.  In Mesquite I found a house for rent and paid cash for six months rent.  While looking it over I saw the pickup down the street for sale.  It was a good deal as I talked the elderly gentleman into selling it to me for half of what he was asking as my wife pretty much cleaned me out. That night we were joined by my knew partners.  When she asked how I planned on running a business out of a house I told her same way we ran a business out of that small office when I first started but at least this office would have a nice view of the mountains, the eighteenth green and our own swimming pool which I figured would be where I would keep office hours.  By the end of the next day I had a registered Nevada LLC, which then owned my percentage in the LLP I set up with both her and Steven and then handed him the keys to the truck and her the money, stock certificates and bonds accept for five thousand dollars.  Steve asked about furniture and I told him he was married to a very savvy and beautiful women who had an eye for interior design and could do so on a budget. His years as a cop kicked in and he asked where the money had come from and I told him I did not steal it or do anything illegal I had just thought it might be beneficial at times to have access to cash and so when I did side consultations I put some away for a rainy day.  Using the computers she wrote all the necessary paperwork and set up TIN's for both companies and then went and started opening accounts including secured credit cards.

The largest of which was for ten thousand dollars which she gave to me. She also set up for the phone services and local utilities.  Ben and I made a flight to New York and then Atlanta after which we picked up his children.  When we were back at his ranch he told me there was two ways we could deal with the bill for playing taxi; he could charge me or he could write it off as client relations but I had to sign a contract.  I told him to talk to the Operations Manager as she handled the details.  By the time we made it back to Mesquite she had lined up with old clients some ongoing consultation work this is where I told Steve he would earn his paycheck.  While his wife went back home as they still had teen children I went with my two old friends back into Colorado north of Grand Junction to a small town which was primarily made up of oil execs, ranchers and the community college professors. During our first meeting I through Dan a very nice bone indeed as the company which had been operating its own corporate fleet was moving away from doing so in order to appease the environmental groups.  Ben took over the leases right then and there and hired the pilots and flight crews.  Before we walked out I had my first job which was not so much  fixing a broken piece of machinery or building a new facility or upgrading an old one but auditing  their current operations in the northern plains.  What they were really wanting to know was how much did they really have to pay to keep the oil and gas fields secure.  As we were driven back to the airport by a senior vice president he asked me how much work did I really want.  I told him that depended on the kind of work and what my resources were at the time.  He told me primarily he was thinking more or less as a consultant.  I nodded and told him whatever I could not handle I knew who to hand it off to.  Nodding he told me he had sent out the word I had opened up shop.  I smiled and said if he stopped by the office we could pretend we like chasing a little white ball around a cow pasture.  He said his wife does and I told him to bring her along as the Senior Director of  Operations loved the game.  When he asked if he would know him I corrected saying he was a she and yes he probably would as she had been the operations manager over at Field Engineering Services.  Nodding he said we were lucky on that one and would pit her against any man in the business.  On the flight back to Arizona Steve asked what exactly he would be doing.  I told him he was going to be travelling a lot and could bring his children.  Nodding to toward where we had left I told him for this it was more or less going up and investigating a crime before it happens and then looking at their bottom line give them several options starting with all the bells and whistles and complete lock down to act like nothing was wrong and use your staff as the security.

I told him what I was going to do was figure out if someone wanted to do some damage with the least amount of resources to cause the greatest financial impact where that would be and then come up with a list of possible suspects.  Ben told him not to worry if I was not available he would figure something out as there was some great hunting and fishing.  Before I started I made the decision to contact the airline and explain to them I had an emergency at work which was why I missed my plane and if at all possible could I reschedule and leave from Either Vegas or one of the coastal airports.  I used my knew credit card to pay the difference.  Ben asked what I was up to and i told I had paid for a flight to Cabo and had planned on going down to drink myself under the table and pass out for a week so I was rescheduling as he would be busy enough and I needed to do some thinking. When it was confirmed we had a contract and a retainer I jotted down some notes for how I wanted a vehicle outfitted and handed it to Steve and told him to bring along our transportation consultant and get us a deal on some used vehicles and have them rebuilt to those specifications, keeping in mind that we would be working in deep snow and may be living in the vehicles and using them as field offices.  I told Ben to keep his ear out for guys with a good mechanical aptitude who could learn quick and fix just about anything.  They dropped me off at the house in Mesquite before driving back to Arizona.  Christina called me to tell me she had lost a longtime customer.   I told her it did not concern me.  Raising her voice she told me to please stop.  I shut up and listened to her vent, when she was done I asked if she felt better because I was a little busy with my new job.  When she asked when that happened I told her pretty much as soon as I started a new consulting company.

Christina caught her breath and calmed down and when she had regained composure she told me she had not called to fight but to ask if we could have dinner.  I told her to figure out a time or place and I would see if I could fit her in but it would have to wait a week or so as I would be out of town.  I stopped the small talk when I asked who she had gone to that movie premier with.  She asked what had I heard and I told her from what it sounded like she had been getting chummy with Christopher's dad again and I was having this idea that might have been a catalyst in her decision to go back on her promise.  Christina told me nothing had happened beyond them agreeing to be civil on behalf of Christopher and his wife had another engagement so when she arrived she agreed to walk in with him so he could ask how I was doing.  I told Christina about losing contracts in this line of business it helped if the person running the company knew something about what the company was doing and did not just use it to bring along his boys to hold their boss hostage in her own home.  She told me she was not hostage and I asked if she wanted to go skinny dipping in that big old pool how many men would be watching and has she asked her daughters how they felt having strange men watch their every move while those men were bleeding dry their inheritance.  Christina told me she had to get ready to go to the clinic as she had a surgery to perform.  I told her I bet she was not going alone.  She told me it sounded like I thought these men would rape their daughters. I told her it was a possibility as they answered to know one accept the man she turned over the company she stole from me to.  Christina told me they were all ex soldiers and I told her I hated to burst her bubble but not all soldiers were choir boys and I had known more than one to take what he wanted even from his fellow soldier as she was available.  I told her it was quite simple they had guns and she and the girls did not and if something were to happen Christopher bless his soul would try to stop them but either end up among the deceased or worse suffer the same fate.  She told me not to worry as he colonel had been staying at the guest house.

I asked her if he had been involved in the divorce settlement and she said her two girlfriends had handled it.  I had not seen that and I told Christina if she was smart she would get the children leave the house and jump on a plane and go home to mom's and sell off Field Engineering Services.  When she told me it was not that simple I asked if she had really wanted to divorce me and she told me no.  I told her to load the kids in the car and head for Vegas with her whole entourage if necessary and check into the Bellagio and I would meet them there. When she started to hesitate I told her not to even pack just get in the car with the girls and Christopher and I would arrange for her wedding dress and get her mom out here.  When she hung up I called Ben and told him I needed him to pick up my mom and anyone else he could think of and haul them to Vegas so they could watch Christina say I do.  I called Christina Back and asked how she was moving and she told me she had the children but had not yet told the colonel and I told her not to as he was the same man who kept me hidden for almost a year.  Something clicked and she said she would meet me there.  When she was gone I called the sheriff and asked if he had looked into my lawyer at all.  The sheriff said it was interesting I called as the man had just left saying he was reporting me as missing.  I told the sheriff I was most definitely not missing as I was in my new home in Nevada and if he could do a small favor I would owe him one as looking back I believe I was kidnapped and put into a medically induced coma by that man or on his orders.   When I hung up I received a call from my old handler who asked where I was and if I was safe.  I told her I was and asked where she was.  She told me at the moment she was driving like a bat out of hell with my wife and children headed for the airport to catch a plane headed for Vegas with her team cleaning up after them.  She told me not to go to hard on her dad as he was trying to run that company but he really had no clue what a field engineer did.