Chapter 1

It began OK. 8-5 with time for lunch. Within six months things had changed and not for the better. I would have complained about having to work past 8 or 9pm just to stay even. With the economy in the tank I had to consider myself lucky just to have this job. Three more months of 8am-9pm, six and seven days a week got old real quick. When word got out that the executives had done such a wonderful job that bonus pools would put $50-$90,000 extra in each of their pockets. I had one comment before I resigned. Duh, how stupid was I? Don't answer that.

This was about the time someone would go to the Piggly-Wiggly, buy a lotto ticket and win $350 gazillion dollars. Wouldn't that be nice? I tried, my 5 chances got me just that, 5 chances and $5 poorer. I wasn't exactly destitute, I had money invested from inheritances and about $1,342 coming in each month from my parents trust and from Uncle Andy's will. My Mom had to be laughing in her grave, or jar as she was cremated. At 28 if I had not married, the trust changed. I would get, you guessed it, Nada from the trust. The $342 from Uncle Andy would continue though. That 'Evil' woman was not happy with that though, if I married the monthly stipend would go from $1,000 to $3,000 a month. Should I not stay married or separate from my wife, another kicker, monthly money would cease. If we had a child, $12,000 bonus for five years. That went on for each kid along with $500 a month additional for each of us. On our 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th anniversary same thing, this time we each get $12,000 cash each year for five years. I got the message Mom. I guess it could have been worse, her dad was named Clarence and there was no way my kid would be named Clarence Cleary. My name is Jason Cleary and all through school the assholes would ask me if we would be having Cleary skies. Neat joke huh?

Yep! It was a kind of bribery, but only if I did what she wanted. Wish now that I had just up and done what she tried to make me do, even after her death, but nope. I did very quickly decide that I needed a job, but did not want a 9 to 5 type of work again. I decided to be a finder, of sorts. There was not any clear-cut path, qualifications or direction for doing this type of work, it was more luck and perseverance, a lot of luck. Sometimes luck is all it takes.

My very first contract was something that got me into the game. The old man had an ancient artifact he wanted to sell. Unlike the norm, I was asked to find and select a buyer. I always thought that the way I added-value was getting the best deal. Most finders, for that is what I now was, would seek the highest amount of cash in the least amount of time. My approach was to better understand why the item or collection was being sold and who, what and where the funds would be going.

In some cases the item was not clearly owned by the seller; in others, 'providence'(Appraisal, chain of custody, expert opinion, etc) was not in order. The best case and easiest to sell were items that were in the $10 to $100 million range. The rare and priceless items were most often fakes or stolen loot with a lot of people after it.

As I also said, it was unusual to be asked to find a buyer, 99 of 100 times we would be asked to find the item. The old man was dying, in his case there were no family members he needed to consider, he just did not want to have the scroll lost or stolen when he died. The London Museum not only would pay off all his expenses before he died, they would pay my a huge fee and exhibit the treasure bearing his name as the donor. That fee set me up for life, I never had anything like that again. Like I said, this was very unusual.

In general, the normal fee for this kind of work was equal to 10% of the purchase price plus expenses, the total not to exceed 15% for items up to $150 Million. In other words, anything higher, a special, rare or priceless item was on a negotiated schedule, usually requiring a very large upfront deposit by the client's who wanted the item found.

Sounds like an easy line of work, Ehh. Well, it's not. The kind of people you meet in this line of work are either screwy, insane or probably are wanted by somebody someplace. If you ignore that and just keep your eyes on the money things can work out. The world out there is so big, varied and infested with fraud that you need to focus on either a repeat customer like an insurance company or a museum and stay centered on a period of history or a type of recovery, that or get enough up-front to have a small army with you. Everything considered, that was not a bad idea in any case.

Trust becomes a huge thing in this business. Searching for any definite thing(Usually others are trying to find it also) takes you to places and meeting people one would not want to call a friend. Greed, jealousy and mistrust are the common traits in this business. The guy or gal who promises some percentage of fabulous wealth or a huge payday when a treasure is found is the same one to make certain you have an accident along the way or become missing when it looks like something is found. Am I being cynical?

Stick to the age old adage about he who has the gold, makes the rules. If you agree to do the work for say, $5 Mil then get it up front, walk away at the end and never look back. I know one guy, Mel, who spent 35 years and millions of his and other peoples money looking for sunken treasure. He found one or two, $350-550 Million in gold, jewels and artifacts. Unfortunately both the government and him having taken in and promising more to some partners meant more than 100% had already been pledged. Those partners were not the understanding type. If you check out Vegas and Monte Carlo you can see what I mean. Payback can be a bitch.

I found out also that finders that had morals and exhibited ethics were few and far between. I prided myself as being one of the good guys in a normally seedy business. I guess I got tested a few times too. One guy wanted a rare coin. Price was no object he had said. By some stroke of luck I found one. I expected the seller would want $1 to $1.5 Million. He wanted $150,000 cash. I paid the man from my advanced funds and contacted the buyer. I told him today was his lucky day. That I had found the coin and after a verification that it was authentic and carried at least a dozen attestation to that I had acquired it for him. His enthusiasm was a lot less than I expected. When he asked me how much it would be for the coin, I hesitated a bit. He took this as a stall and re-affirmed he still wanted the coin. I told him there was some good new and some bad news. The minimum fee for any find I did was $100,000, expenses were another $17,500. He would have to pay this fee. The good news was the coin itself was only $150,000, far less than the expected cost. Total cost would be $267,500.

This honesty would later pay many dividends to me.

A new Direction.

It had been such a beautiful day. When her parents had told her about the trip her first reaction had been to refuse to go. Her responses then began to grow in intensity the more they tried to convince her then insist that she was going whether she liked it or not. Her birth mother had divorced her father. They both had remarried and she spent the school year, September until May with her Mother and the remainder with her Father. Both, she thought had changed, changes that were not for the better.

She was 12 when they had divorced. That first year had gone only so, so. Actually it was the worst time she had ever had. What she did not know at the time was that this arrangement would get worse. Her step father had been trying to seduce her, now those attempts were growing more frequent. That had been almost three years ago.

By the time that 'vacation' idea came up the next year, she was not a 'happy camper' with the whole thing. That demand ended rather painfully with her not only refusing to go but having to ask the 'family' lawyer what she might do to prevent such a trip. She called her Grandmamma who arranged for her lawyer to see Vicky. Grandma told a friend who had someone contact me.

Remember when I mentioned that trust was an important element in the finder business, well I found out that so is a reputation. Somebody, knew somebody who I had done some work for and the idea that a deal was a deal made a lot of points. Grandma was my kind of woman. She was Amanda Leigh DuPont and one of the richest ladies around. We made a deal, at least she told me what it was and I was more than satisfied. The ability to staff my own team made this contract a no-brainer. She would pay everyone double their usual charge. Our focus was to be her Granddaughter, Vicky.

Victoria Leigh Mellon was named for her Grandmamma, Leigh being a middle name in her Mothers family for generations, well before even America had come into existence in 1776. The lawyer had been briefed, no that was not correct, he had been 'told' by Amanda Leigh DuPont what the course of action would be.

James had been the 'family' counsel for many years, his father before him and his grandfather before that. He felt that he had a bit more right to express his opinion to Vicky than to just be a puppet for Amanda, and just spouting off some pre-determined course of action she would dictate. Not that there was much chance of winning an argument, rather, a discussion of views with Mrs. DuPont, but he had to at least try to protect 'his' minor client's rights, even if it cost him his job. He knew Mrs. DuPont owned the firm, via her late husband's estate, but, she was not the lawyer, he was and had to live with himself.

The 'vacation' was created as a suggestion of a so-called 'third party' ostensibly to try to let her step-Father and Mother identify and resolve their own 'personal' issues prior to another divorce. Vicky had her doubts about that. It was the second marriage for each and both were currently having extra-marital affairs.

James won his point with Mrs. DuPont, and in another way he lost too, lost more than he could have realized. James would present both his views as to what she could and should do as well as the direction Mrs. DuPont had advised, Vicky should decide. Amanda also Lost and Won. Yes she saw James's point and had relented to allow him to voice it. She also decided to accept one of the offers to buy her late husband's law firm. She then made arrangements with Peabody, Ogilvie and Caruthers to assign Franklin Caruthers as her new 'family' counsel, replacing James. Prior to that meeting she had been considering making James the executive head of the firm and not selling. She respected how he felt but she needed a counsel to do as she instructed not tell her how they felt about things.

The appointment with Vicky lasted almost 3 hours. He did present several of his personal views, views that he thought a 'child' should consider, then saying that, he presented the course of action Mrs. DuPont had given him. Much to his consternation and surprise Vicky immediately said Yes to that course of action, that was to be her route and to begin ASAP. About that same time a call was put through to James by Franklin S. Caruthers informing him that he would be handling the 'family' activities from now on, including the upcoming things for Ms. Mellon. He also was instructed to inform James that Mrs. DuPont had sold the law firm of her late husband. That James could remain there or could join Peabody, Ogilvie and Caruthers, just not concerning any DuPont activity. There, the Won and Lost scores were still tied. None would know what might have been. What James never realized was that Vicky was not a 'child'. She was more like Amanda than any might suspect. One of those similarities was the determination and single-mindedness to follow through once a course of action had been identified. That was one thing that Franklin S. Caruthers had been told about both, and he had only spoken to Mrs. DuPont on the conference call with Mr. Peabody when she hired the firm.

The course of action was not that unusual, what was strange though was that Vicky was not rich or famous, yet. The first face to face meeting he had was with Vicky and Amanda. The 'Emancipation' of Ms. Victoria L. Mellon would be filed that same day. Mr. Ogilvie entered the meeting, handed a folded paper to Mr. Caruthers, nodded to Amanda and left. As he was reaching for the note, Mrs. DuPont asked him a simple and direct question, "How much?"

On the paper was $5 Million and/or $10 million future worth. He was startled a bit, but calmly read the amounts out.