It was not an hour later I go the call from my oldest daughter informing me her mom was in the operating room still and it looked like it would be several hours before she was done and mom had agreed to let her take Christopher to see grandma. The office phone rang. I let the machine pick it up and was surprised to hear my ex handler ask me what was going on. Picking it up I asked her what she was talking about. She told me my wife ditched her at the airport and my children had made other arrangements it seemed. I told her thanks for the update on my ex and my grown daughters but since I was not married any more it appeared I was also out of the loop and was a little busy trying to start anew to keep tabs on my wife or anyone else for that matter. While still on the phone with her I got a text message from Ben telling me all three of my children were on the way to visit family and not to worry as my mom had accompanied his mom to visit the ranch. My renewed ticket was to leave Vegas the following day, I left that day and arriving in Vegas used my card to check into a room for a week and then paid cash for a ticket to Mexico leaving that night on a clean passport which I had to shave my head to use as my darkened hair would not stand up to the short blond military style hair in the photo. With my beard growing out and a bald head, I boarded my plane more than content to enjoy the first class upgrade they had thrown in for free. Thankfully I had a second ID that allowed me to bypass the security line as my side had started bleeding.
Landing in Mexico I did not expect to be met by anyone but it seemed someone knew I was coming which was no great surprise as I had not hidden the fact. I saw the men before they saw me and I was able to walk past them by joining a group of women and volunteering to help with their luggage. I usually avoided the major tourist traps as I really never wanted to run into someone by accident but here I was heading to one of America's favorite weekend getaways. For that reason I had chosen a more secluded resort outside of town which had private bungalows and thankfully internet access. Even better they had their own medical staff and I had the wound restitched. The young doctor trained in America wanted to know how it happened. Smiling I told him it was a hazard to my trade and thanks to the laws in the states this was a paid vacation of sorts. At dinner it happened someone recognized me, it was the wife of a client who I had only met once. Her husband half lit wanted me to spend the evening to catch up. I told him it was simple I was not longer in the employ of FES as my ex took that a few months back and instead of celebrating out anniversary I was hear to think through some stuff as I was venturing out on my own. His wife smiled and told me they were down celebrating the phenomenal growth of their little company before trying to figure out how to get the new plant up and running. I asked where they were putting the plant. Her husband nodded and said they were thinking about here, or rather Mexico. I shook me head and told him to have fun with that. When she asked where I would suggest I told her to take a look at the south, yes the labor costs would be a bit higher but they could probably pick up and already built factory for next to nothing, had an already trained and skilled workforce and could make use of Made in America as a selling point, charge more for it and the security would be easier to deal with as well.
He tried to explain why it was better to make his products elsewhere and I shrugged saying to each his own, but it would take time to get a factory built elsewhere and he would need partners, losing some control over the company he and his wife had spent a life time building. The man just kept drinking himself into a stupor while his wife maintained a buzz, flirting with me. When I helped her get her husband to their room as he more or less was passed out, she asked if I wanted to have a night cap. I smiled and told her thanks for the offer but we both new if I stayed clothes would come off and we would be playing tongue tag on the floor while joined at the hip and that would not be good for her celebration and would definitely make any future meetings public or private uncomfortable to say the least. She was persistent and dropping her dress she asked if I was sure I did not want to reconsider. I pointed to the room her husband was in and told her to go get in bed and give me five minutes. With a quizzical look she headed toward the room and told me her husband was in there. Smiling I told her I would make sure this was thee night she would not ever forget. As soon as I heard her lay down, I slipped out and left. Back in my room I locked the door and called the front desk to check for messages and then told the night manager I did not want to be disturbed until noon when I wanted oatmeal and an orange juice brought to my room along with seasonal fresh fruits. After hanging up she called back and asked if I knew a Mr. C as his secretary had called several times looking for a Christian and I was the only one whose name came close. I told her the name did not sound familiar.
Sleep came slowly that night or rather not at all as i lay awake trying to piece together what had happened since I had decided to come home. Christina called my new phone and asked where I was as she was in Vegas. I told her she had not been there when I was. She told me it was probably for the best as mom told her she would not come to Vegas as she liked the idea of the church back home. I let her carry the conversation more or less listening as I got on the computer. When she said she was using the room I paid for I held my tongue though I was not sure that was a good idea. Hacking into her companies computer system was easy enough as I had designed the security system. I would have to get a copy of the divorce decree as I still held the copyright and had the paperwork tucked away. Thankfully I had been using an outside accountant who new exactly was at stake with the company if the books were wrong and I checked to see her notations. Apparently someone had been spending a lot of cash in the past few days and she caught it and had started an audit and notified the authorities. I accessed the bank accounts I was not surprised to find the Colonel had been moving money in and out over the last several months. Doing some research I found where several of the smaller holding companies I had set up were about to go public. I smelled a rat as other than owning a piece of FES and some investments none of those companies actually sold anything. My wife was definitely over her head and not knowing who to talk to as she had not listened I told her after several hours of her just talking that I needed some sleep. When she hung up I looked up the ownership on her properties and found all of them were held by a company that someone was hoping would be allowed to go public.
My next mover was to research the current man in charge and yes he was my old handler's dad who had retired from the marines as a full colonel. Trying to find his service record was extremely difficult and when I did call another handler who was still in the business but had moved onto desk jockey work he let me in a little secret neither the colonel or a certain lovely lady were out of the business and were working together on the same project as was her dad who was as black as they came. My next call was to the colonel's private cell phone he kept for emergencies. When he answered he asked where I was and I told him not to worry I was not missing as he lied to the sheriff. When he tried to back pedal I told him he might want to know it was illegal for him to operate withing the borders of our country if he was still working for a certain company. When he told me he had retired I told him I was glad to hear that and was grateful for all he had done for my family but I would no longer be needing his services. I could almost see his kindly aged face smiling when he told me he figured that out when the charges were dropped. I asked him what had happened with my civil suits against the county, the two players and the sheriff's department. He told me they settled, so I asked for how much and was told it was into the eight figures/ I simply asked him where my share of the money was. When he could not answer I told him he might want to find it or we would be in court by the end of the week. My next call was not to either of the two lawyers but the brother of the petite little blond who was somewhat surprised to hear from me.
I asked if he was busy the following day, when he said he was working on his campaign, I told him I might be able to help and would like to meet with him at a mutual friend's house in the desert and he might want to not tell anyone why he was really visiting his friends. With a dinner appointment set up for two days hence in order for him to make the necessary arrangements. I made some calls to former employees who it seemed were sitting on the sidelines scratching their heads, still getting paychecks but not actually doing any work. I told them they were being bought to keep silent just in case the world blew up or the skies began to fall and my ex did not run the company except on paper. My next call was to my new partner who I asked what exactly did the new boss have her doing over the last several months and she told me that her job was to do payroll and that was it but she had seen other things like the large cash transactions. I asked her point blank had she been involved with any of these transactions or the plans to take some of the holding companies public. When she asked why Christina would want to do that I told her I did not think it was Christina but when the house of cards came crashing down she would be the one sitting behind bars, wondering what the hell happened. Before I could hang up she told me just so I was caught up we had signed seven more contracts four of which were consulting contracts only for which we would need to do some auditing. I told her I trusted her to get who she needed and pay them accordingly on a per job basis. She then told me we would be the Project Managers for a series of safety overhauls for a restaurant chain which would probably take the next five years. I smiled and told her I was glad to have the work but we did not have the manpower. Laughing she told me actually she had already taken care of that and had negotiated with three contractors who would actually do the work and the nice thing was we had worked with the owners of all three companies or rather they used to work for us before they settled down.a few years back when I had my vacation. I asked her what did I need to do and she told me at the moment nothing as she had found a couple of boys who had gotten tired of getting paid to do nothing and had quit who were helping Steven get brought up to speed. I asked if she new any good lawyers and when she asked why I told her I was thinking about petitioning the courts to review my divorce decree.
She told me she had read a copy in its entirety and it was pretty solid and by the book; I said except for the fact I was being kept in a hospital and not told once that it had happened and my guess the same attorneys who had handled the details were supposed to be representing me. I was told now that she thought about it was interesting that it had been filed in South Carolina which Christina had not been a resident for more than sixteen years. I asked if she could also do me a favor and track down my personal items I had taken from me. When someone knocked on the door I jumped a little but remembered my noon order. When I looked at the time it was half past noon and taking a look out saw it was room service except it was a familiar face like in one of the men I had seen at the airport. After securing my laptop and putting it in its bag I threw on a pair of shorts and the only loud shirt I owned and walking out I yelled at the man that he was late and he could take the food back as I was going to talk to the manager as to their poor service. He looked around at the faces of other guests who had stopped to watch. When he looked back at me I told him in a quieter tone I did not know who he worked for but he should tell his boss to send him to training camp so he could learn how to do his job and then go get his money back and give back the jacket as it was too small on him and his shoes were all wrong. When he just stood their I shooed him away as I said if on the chance he had killed to get that jacket then he had better go find a deep hole to bury himself in and hide there for eternity. When he said it was his cousins I told him to go shared the meal with her and when he looked at it and made a face I told him I thought as much grabbing my computer bag which now had all my ID's and cash I told grabbed his elbow and walked him to the lobby and asked for the manager. When a young woman came out she eyed me and then looked at the man and shook her head saying he did not work for them, I nodded and said he had tried to say he did as he delivered my meal a half hour late so she might want to call the authorities. The resorts detective came out and upon seeing him I smiled, when I nodded to the young man he nodded, I told the young man to go run along and gather his friend and eat that lovely breakfast. When he said he was would get something later I told him on second thought forget his friend and eat all to himself and then led him to a table, sat him down and served him.
I told him quietly he had two choices either eat his breakfast as a good little boy or I would feed it to him. He took option three and went running but was tripped when he practically ran over the woman who tried to seduce me last night. The detective an American with a Hispanic heritage I happened to know from years ago scooped up the young man and told him he needed to watch where he was going but first needed to see the doctor to check out his knee. The woman looked at me sheepishly and asked if that was another victim of my bedside manners; and when she went to grab a piece of fruit I pushed her hand away and told her that meal would be her last. When her eyes went wide I smiled and told her they were pretty and if she ever found herself unmarried she should look me up and we could finish the game we started last night. She went red and said about that she was sorry, well maybe not as senior hangover helped put her to sleep. I whispered too much information. She smiled and asked if I had a card as I might be right about the south. I told her sadly since I just started my new business cards had not even been designed or ordered. Smiling she told me since there business was printing, I walked her to the front desk where the manager was standing at one end talking on the phone and borrowed a piece of paper and wrote down the names of both companies and the new office numbers and the cell phones of both of my partners and told her to call either of them as they would be handling all details. When the manager looked up at the bikini clad woman she had to do a double take as I shook my head no. When she looked at this possibly client the woman told her they never were delivered their room service or morning paper. The manager looked at me as if I were to blame. I had kept an eye on the food and when a housekeeper went to move it I called to him and said it was mine and to leave it. Walking over I grabbed the tray and asked which way to the kitchen.
The manager waited until we were in the back hallways and asked who I was. Smiling I told her I was thinking the same thing as she spoke better English than most Americans with just a hint of the deep south but not the swamp folks more like southern belle say from Savannah. Smiling she told me I was good and I told her to please call my ex-wife and tell her how good I was as she did not believe me. When she asked what my ex wife did I told her she made perfect breasts like hers even better as well as helping burn victims and accident victims who needed reconstructive surgery. The manager only nodded and as we entered the kitchen she asked if I had eaten lunch. One of the cooks saw the tray and went to run and I told him stop. I had to ask through the manager why he had wanted to run when he saw the tray and after a game of verbal running in circles he spit out he had been paid to put something in the food. When he went into the trash to pull out the vials, I smiled and told him to enjoy the money and hoped when they found out he had failed they would not be too mad. The look of fear came over him. I did not really care what had been in the syringes but guessed it would have made it look like I had tried to end my life. The manager asked what I would do in her position. I told her not having worn high heels before I could only guess on some of it but I would definitely call the local authorities and then try to comfort the poor man whose life had been one meal away from being finished and like all the other women try to seduce him so he could work on a new way to let women down gently. She eyed me as she led me out of the kitchen after I destroyed the food on the off chance someone else was involved and told me no one had ever used that line on her.
She had her own private villa on the property as it was out of town a ways I sat out on the veranda overlooking the Pacific as she went in and changed and made lunch. When she came out and sat down in a bikini she asked how long had I been divorce and I told her honestly I did not know the exact date as it had happened when I was in rehabilitation but having spent most of my adult life on the road for work we had been estranged if that was the correct word. She looked at the water and then asked me if I really thought her breasts were perfect and I told her yes but it was not what I thought that mattered as she had to live with them. Pulling her top down letting them fall as they may she told me she always thought the drooped a little much and her ex had thought they were too small. I tried to be polite and just look at her face but it was difficult. When she realized what she was putting me through she shook them for a moment and told me I could touch them if I wanted. When she fixed her top she asked how that was working as to my seduction. I looked down at the table and shook my head and told her if I was still not so in love with my ex I would have asked to show me the bottom half as well to see how well the went together. Standing up she smiled, pulled on the strings of both her top and bottom took them off and handed them to me and walked back inside. She came back out wearing a towel and put our lunch on the table. I handed her back the bikini and she said don't take that the wrong way as she had never done that before not even for her ex; she then stood up and dropping her towel dressed in reverse and asked for my help with her ties. I did so but fought to stay focused. When she sat back down she put her feet up on my lap and asked if my wife was really a doctor and I nodded and told her she had been a part owner of a practice in Aspen for almost fifteen years and had just opened or joined another one in the desert play ground of the rich and famous but that also happened while I was being held captive by my lawyer who helped make sure she got everything. Shaking her head she told me if I only had a prenuptial agreement like she and her ex had that would have been dealt with. I asked how that had worked for her; smiling she said up to this moment she had asked her self the same thing but now that her feet were getting the best massage she had ever had and had the best job and was part owner of her ex's families company having grown up the daughter of a maid and a gardener she could not complain except that I had seen everything and she had not.
I had not even realized I was massaging her feet but had to cut it short as I needed to use the restroom and grabbing the towel I stood up and asked where her bathroom was. She told me and I dropped my shorts in her lap as well as my shirt and told her I needed a cold shower. When I came out feeling refreshed her house detective eyed me wearing only the towel. He said someone must be looking down on me as those syringes had been straight and uncut and with my enlarged heart I would be a corpse by now. Taking the shorts back I slipped them back on just in time to meet the local chief of police. I got the sense the man was a decent man in a really hard position who understood the balance of power had to be balanced with justice or he would not have the job he had. Smiling he told me after glancing at the manager whose feet were back getting a massage as soon as I sat down that a certain gentleman apologized and wanted to extend an invitation to take a look at his latest addition to his familia. Looking at my host I told the chief if I could bring along a date I would love to but I might need a small favor as I had an appointment back in the states tomorrow night. Contrary to popular belief not everyone involved with the cartels was straight out evil as some were astute business men and were in charge of taking the moneys earned and reinvesting it, some of those men that reaped the benefit of these men's business were completely legit businessmen who did not ask questions. I had known the man who the chief was talking about for years having helped do the engineering on several of his properties one of which was a completely hand built cliff side hacienda not far as the crow flies. One of the man's passions was raising beef and pretending to be a rancher and I had over the years helped him acquire prized bulls which he had managed to train to be like dogs, really big ones with horns. When the chief asked if he should tell him two would be attending tonight I looked at the detective and told him make that six. He nodded and said very well. When the detective asked what I was planning I told him just find some boys who looked good in suits and could handle themselves and I would pay them for the trouble.
The manger asked what she should wear and I told her something that was comfortable but tasteful while making men lose their ability to keep their chins up and the spittle from rolling off their tongues. Her next question was to her detective and asked him how long he had known their guest and he told her their guest had helped save his hide on several occasions when he was still working for chump change in countries he had never been to., to do jobs that never happened/ When he was gone the woman looked at her feet pulled them off my lap stood up and kissed me on the cheek and then told me to go get ready for our date. On my way back to my villa the house detective showed up by my side and asked how long I had known the ice queen. Shrugging as I glanced back I told him since this morning he smiled and said he wished he had my luck. I nodded and and asked who he had in mind. He nodded toward my bungalow. Once inside I set down my bag and noticed the few clothes I had had been hung up. He noticed I was traveling light. Life on the road was easier that way and in my case I would leave bought clothes with maids telling them to find someone who could use them. In most of the world that meant their families.
Tired of living behind the veil of silence and political correctness.
No comments:
Post a Comment