Chapter 17

Months passed. One by one, Sally sold some of her Wrigleyville buildings to pay Rubenstein his fees. However none of them were her prime areas. He sent Josh a weekly report on his progress. One thing that was clearly established was that Victoria Michaels or Mikleski turned up on any death certificates. That was the good news. The bad was no other headway had been made.

He searched the computers at City Hall looking for any marriage between Theodore Swanson. He had married the year before. On June 13th to a woman named Priscilla Jennings. He found a picture of their wedding at the public library. There was absolutely no resemblence between Priscilla and Victoria. The next bit of news he found was the year before the wedding, Swanson and Bellform merged in one of the biggest joining together of corporations in business history. It almost came to a combined forty-five billion dollar stock amalgamation.

They moved their headquarters from downtown Chicago to Rolling Meadows a far northwest suburb. Jame Bellform and Theodore Swanson were co-COO's. He faxed all this info to his home and to Rubenstein's office.

In the meantime, Josh started learning his parents' business. They owned a total of 112 building in the Wrigleyville and Roscoe Village areas. All were claimed by the yuppies and the rents went through the roof. He permanently froze Jane and Estelle's rent. They made a fortune from these rentals but they also paid an enormous amount of taxes too. They owned the multi-flat buildings across from Wrigley Field which had bleachers on their roofs from private entreperneurs who had to pay them seven percent of their daily take to the Howards. That alone amounted to almost a million a year.

He had his mother drop the real estate broker and sent notices to have them mail their monthly rents to a post office box in Barrington. At the first of every month, Joshua would pick up these rents, check them out then make the deposit in the bank. He pulled out several hundred thousand dollars to invest in other properties or high interest yielding rates. Soon he'd be investing millions.

Clark and Sally turned the business over to Brie and Josh. Brie going into her last year of college was coming home after graduation to help Josh. She had many guys hitting on her at Northwestern. Instead, she dated a nerdish guy from her high school class. Whether they were having sex or not was none of Josh's business. He looked around for a place nearby to purchase to set up his office. He found one down the block. It was a house badly in need of repair because the deceased owner didn't pay his taxes and let the place go to pot. It would take six months before the house could be repaired and turned into an office.

"Hello," Sally answered the phone. "Yes, Josh is here. Whom should I say is calling? Oh, yes Jane, I'll get him."

"Hi Jane, how's it hanging," Josh joked, trying to get his sense of humor back. He was making slow but steady progress.

"Josh, I just learned where Victoria is!"

"Where?" Josh felt a jolt go through him. He had come to the conclusion that he may never see his wife again. Hope started surging through him.

"Do you remember a girl named Robin at Bellform?"

"Yeah, I do but don't ask me what she looks like, I can't recall how she looked. I just recall she was young and friendly."

"Well she has been Jim Bellform's fuck buddy for at least two years. She still works at the office. Jim didn't know it until this week where his niece was until Robin intercepted a piece of mail. She gave me the address of where she's at. She is under the name of Sheila Crawford and is in an institution called Peachtree Street in Atlanta."

"Atlanta?"

"Yes, and she been heavily drugged since your wedding day. Her parents are responsible for this. They hated you so much they sacrificed their own daughter to a life of institutional living under drugs than marrying you."

"The bastards! I'll sue her."

"You do that. Mikleski is related to Bellform and there's a lot of money there that you to sue for."

Josh was writing everything down as fast as he could. I'm going to call my lawyer and let him know. I'm going to Atlanta as soon as I can and get my wife back. I don't know how to repay you Jane. You're a honey."

"At one time I'd ask repayment in marrying you, but it's me and Estelle right now. I guess I had lesbian tendencies hidden somewhere because now I can't picture me being with a man."

"I'll do something for you," he stated.

As soon as he was off the phone with Jane, he called Irving Rubenstein's private number. He answered on the first ring.

"Irv, Josh here. I may have found Victoria."

"Good, where?"

"She's been shut in a mental institution since the day we would have been married. She's heavily drugged. I'm on my way down there."

"Hold your horses," Rubenstein growled. "You can't go busting down their door and insisting on taking her out of there. There are laws that will prevent you from doing so. Let me make the arrangements. I'll call a judge down there who is a friend of mine. I'll get the proper documentation going. Also you need to remember that if she's induced with drugs she might not know you, but we haven't have any idea what they are. Hell, she might not even know how long she's been there and might not even have any idea where she is or who she is. There are ways to do this properly. Let me handle it and I'll get back to you. Don't jump the gun and leave without me. I'll arrange everything. Flights, hotels, legal proceedings and all the rest. You don't want to be a fugitive wanted for kidnapping, do you?"

"I guess not," Josh replied, downhearted. He wanted to see her so badly.

"We should be on a plane in about three days, four at the most. In the meantime take your pretty sister out to dinner and a movie. She'll help you pass the time until we leave."