Chapter 19

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

My phone was waking us up. I stretched and was hugged by both Jules and Kelly. The three of us got out of bed and put workout clothes on. Yori showed up with the appropriate attire when we were leaving to go next door to the gym.

We did our individual workouts while chatting about what we would find at the office. We all went back to the hotel, showered, and dressed for the workday.

There was an IHOP close by, so we went there. Jules was smiling when she said that IHOP had put an extra five to ten pounds on her. I told her that I would work off any extra she thought she might have picked up from our light breakfast. We went to the office when we were done and found the parking lot empty. I checked the door and it was locked. I was a little worried when seven-thirty came and went with no one in the construction yard. A car parked in front of the construction trailer around seven fifty. Another and another soon came and parked nearby.

I told the folks in the car to stay loose, but that I was going to check on who was in so far.

I heard the voices of people almost hollering about what they were going to do as I approached the construction trailer. One voice kept saying that they all could be manufacturing homes of the best quality and making as much money as they were by scamming the company.

I stepped into the trailer and everyone turned to face me. The man who had been saying what I wanted to hear was still waving his hands around emphasizing what he had said. I asked, "Who's the construction supervisor and who is a foreman?" The man who I thought was the one that spoke, said, "I'm a foreman as are the rest of the men here. We represent five crews that don't do enough in a week to equal what we should do in a day."

One of the other men asked, "Who the fuck are you, and what do you care?"

I smiled and said, "I'm the new Regional Manager, and I'm here to fix the problems that exist here. So where is the construction supervisor?"

The smart mouth guy said, "Who knows, he comes in to sign time cards on Monday, and that's the whole of what he does."

"So where are your men and why aren't you on the job with them?"

The man replied, "There is no job, so we don't make them come in. We might have something later this week, but there's nothing now."

"And these men still get paid even though they aren't working?"

"Well, they should. It isn't their fault that they don't have any work."

I looked around the room, and said, "I'm going to give you men a chance to keep your jobs. You will call your men into the office, and I want those men to go to the models in the two developments and fix them. They are a disgrace. You will call me when they are perfect, and that includes landscaping and having the decorator out there to make the home appealing."

Another of the foremen gave me the middle finger gesture, and said, "Fuck you! You can't make me do anything like that. Get the fuck out of here or you'll be swimming with the fishes." All but one of the men laughed at the guy and acted like they wanted to take me on.

"I'll tell you what. You men who feel this way remain at your own risk. I'm going to have anyone not on the job terminated, and you will not be paid past a half day today." I pointed at the guy who was now standing away from the antagonistic men, "Come with me. I have something for you to do."

The man was nervous about following me, but he did. I walked out of the construction trailer toward the office. Kelly, Jules, and Yori were all out of the rental car watching me. I saw there were two cars parked up near the office as we walked toward them. I checked my watch and saw that it was already eight. I told the man following me that we would talk when we were inside.

A person behind the receptionist counter asked, "Good morning, may I help you?" when I walked in the lobby.

I explained that I was the Regional Manager and would be here for a few days to work on some problems. Tears began running down the woman's face as she said, "Oh, please help us. This used to be a wonderful place to work before some kind of terrible virus infected a lot of the people and all they wanted to do was to take and abuse the other employees."

I told her, "Kelly is going to visit with you for a few minutes, and I want you to tell her everything you can about what is happening that you know to be true. Who else is here this morning? I see another car out there."

She told me, "That's the Sales Manager. I think he's ready to quit because of the attitude and having nothing to sell."

"I'll talk to him in a minute to see if he wants to get this place back in action. Can you tell me if you think Accounting is honest and when they might be in?"

"The last Manager only has her on part time, but she has to come in today to do payroll. She isn't allowed to be in the office until nine. It barely gives her time to get the payroll ready to fax to the home office."

"Okay, we'll work that out. Now do you have a name? I'm Brad Johnson, and this is Kelly, my secretary, and Yori and Jules my two Assistants in training."

In a soft voice, the woman said, "I'm Sonya Gentry, and I've worked for Mooney for almost ten years. I will help you get this place back together."

The four other foremen from the construction trailer came barging into the lobby at that moment. They all had a piece of wood that they were holding like clubs. I pushed Kelly and Jules away from me to stand near the counter, and asked the men, "What do you plan to do with those clubs?"

The loudmouth of the group said, "We're going to show you what happens to someone who thinks they can mess with our operation." He made a move to come toward me and my hand went to my gun. I didn't realize that Yori had done the same thing, and Jules had her hand in her purse.

I told the man, "You might be making a life and death decision if you want to proceed. The man to my right is my Assistant, but he is also my bodyguard in case I run into people like you. What's it going to be, Gentlemen?"

The loudmouth didn't put his club down, but said, "You can't come in here and disrupt what we've had going for over a year. It's probably against the law for you to do that. Where are we going to get jobs if you fire us?"

"Well, Guys, I think you're going to be looking to find the answer to that. You were fired about ten minutes ago, and you are still terminated. I suggest that you leave peacefully unless you want to leave feet first."

Yori flipped his coat back to show his pistol. I didn't do that as I wanted my weapon to be a surprise if it became necessary. The sight of a superior weapon made the men become a hell of lot more timid. The loudmouth said, "Let's get out of here until we can figure out what to do."

They left dropping their clubs in the lobby. I picked them up and put them into a wastebasket behind the counter. Sonja was smiling when she said, "Oh sure, fill up the waste baskets so that I have to empty them again."

I looked at the woman and said, "The first order of business is to call the cleaning service you had before and make arrangements for them to get in here and make this place sparkle. Have them work on the model homes as well."

Kelly was behind the counter with her and was jotting notes on a lined pad of paper.

I tugged the now awed foreman toward the Manager's office and had him sit at the conference table. This office didn't have a bathroom or the adjoining secretarial office, but it had an L-shaped desk across the room from the Manager's desk. Here was a Manager's desk without a PC monitor once again. Behind the desk was a credenza with a PC keyboard that had to be slid out to be used. A small flat screen monitor was behind some folding doors.

I set my laptop on the desk and sat at the conference table with the foreman, Jules, and Yori. "Okay, we have time to chat for a second. You probably heard that I'm Brad Johnson. Who are you?"

The man was caught by my abruptness, but responded, "I'm Dunaldo Funica. I've been working for Mooney for a lot of years, and I can't stand what these people have been doing. Make it right and let me be the foreman of a good crew. We do work to be proud of when my men are on the job, not the sloppy shit those clowns call craftsmanship."

"I guess that tells me how you feel. How about being the Construction Supervisor for me. You have a big task to hire good crews and responsible foremen. You're going to need men because you're going to be busy. I know how to make us busy. Think about it for a few minutes while I go back to talk to the Sales Manager."

I walked down the hall to the Sales Department. The place was very bleak looking. A guy walked out of the office at the head of the room, and asked, "How can I help you?"

I told him, "I'm Brad Johnson, the new Regional Manager for the expanded West Coast. I'm here to see if I can get this office back into a profitable condition. You are?"

The man looked at me for a long time before he finally said, "Tod Forsythe, but I'm about to leave because there is nothing to sell, nor anyone to sell it but me."

"How fast can you find and hire salespeople, Tod? I want you to find a sales secretary to help you with hiring and scheduling people for the models. Immediately do that, and begin preparing what the home office likes to do for advertising at the same time. I mean real advertising, using an agency, and include radio, TV, and newspaper. Begin to work on this right now. Call Ginger in the LA office and tell her that Brad wants her to tell you how she found people."

Tod asked, "You can just walk in here and do all this?"

"I can, and I'll be doing it all over the building. Now, I believe everything begins with a sale, so let's get this office rolling so it will have some. Oh yeah, I want at least twenty listings of preowned homes by tomorrow."

I left the man gasping and thinking that he might be walking along the yellow brick road.

A man was standing in the Manager's office with a briefcase in his hand when I went back there. He waited a second and asked, "Are you Brad Johnson?"

"I am."

"I'm Brooks Jennings, the accountant/bookkeeper for the company. The receptionist said you wanted to see me. I need to get to my desk because today is payroll and I don't have much time."

I said, "I'm going to give you Jules who has some experience in accounting. Go get payroll ready but I will approve every entry before you transmit it. I've terminated a few people."

"Oh shit," Brooks quietly said.

I pointed to Yori, and said, "Give Yori your employee list and he will confirm that they are part of this office. Those who aren't here will not be paid."

Brooks said, "You know that these people aren't good about coming in early or even coming in. The Managers sent by the home office leave almost immediately, so we haven't really had any management for nearly six months. How are you going to make a difference?"

I looked the man in the eye, and said, "Because I don't take any shit from people who want to scam my company. Mooney is my company, and I will make sure it's successful in the Seattle area or close the place down. Will you work with me?"

"Sure, I'd love the place to be productive again. I'll go work on payroll and give your girl the invoices to work on."

I shook my head, "There will be no invoices transmitted to the home office until I get to review them and confirm that they are valid."

"Oh, Man, this isn't going to be fun. Do you know that these people have enforcers who come to find out why one of their invoices hasn't been paid? How are you going to handle that?"

All I could say was, "Don't worry, I will."

He left with Jules following as I turned to Yori. "Find me a local security firm and have them send some armed men who look like businessmen. I want two here in the office and one out in construction. We're going to clean this place up now and not wait for it to collapse."

I looked at the man I wanted to make Construction Supervisor and said, "Do you want the job, Dunaldo? Can you withstand the pressure of these people offering you money to bilk the company out of even more?"

The man smiled, and said, "I want the job, but I need to qualify a few things. I will need a secretary assistant who comes in to really help me. The current one doesn't show up except when the existing super calls her. I won't sign for any equipment or materials that aren't delivered. I'm going to have to hire Latinos in order to make up crews. Some of the men in our crews may be good at their craft, but they are lazy and probably won't give a hundred percent. I'm for cleaning them all out and starting over again."

"I'm with you so far. Can you find crews to build some inventory homes so that we have something to sell? I really want the models to be as near to perfect as possible. Work on it. Call me if you feel uncomfortable at any time so that I can get you someone to watch over you."

The man almost ran out of my office in his desire to begin working the way he knew he should.

As I watched Dunaldo go to the trailer, Sonja said to me; "One of the construction foremen is in his car in the parking lot and wants to talk to you. He said for you to wave for him to come in if you will speak to him."

I do need people, so I went to the door and waved. A man got out of his car and rapidly walked toward the office. He brought his hand from behind his hip when he approached me, and he had a gun in it. I dove to the side of the door while reaching for my pistol. I heard, 'Bang, bang, bang' as I rolled over and saw the guy bringing his gun up at me. He collapsed where he was. I holstered my weapon and got up to see if the man might still be alive. I found a strong pulse that wasn't erratic when I checked. Jules said, "I shot him in the shoulder, arm, and leg. He's not bleeding very badly, but he will need medical attention."

I opened the door and said to Sonja, "Call 911, we need the police and paramedics."

I was tearing the man's shirt to pack his bullet holes and already heard sirens. Two men got out of a car across the lot and were walking toward Yori and me. I pulled my gun and Yori told me, "Wait until they raise their guns. They may decide not to do this."

A police car came sliding into the parking lot, and the two men looked around in a panic. One of the men raised his gun and fired at the police car. Dumb, dumb, dumb. The police officer came out of the car in a crouch and shot both men. There was another shot from the other side of the parking area, and a policeman staggered. I couldn't see where the shot came from, but knew that Yori and I had to help the policeman. I ran to where the police car was and saw a man rise holding some kind of hunting rifle as I did. I snapped a shot at the guy and he either ducked or dropped. Yori was circling the man, came up behind him, and waved at me. Yori yelled, "You got him."

I checked the police officer and he was moaning. I looked for blood and finally saw a hole in his shirt. I unbuttoned his blouse and saw a flattened round stuck in his vest. The officer told me, a little hoarsely, "Damn, that really hurts. Thanks for taking care of that last guy. Those other two were going to fight their way out, but I had the drop on them. Let me call in, I think I might have some cracked or broken ribs."

Yori came up and said, "I have a wounded man who was with these other three. Can I use your cuffs to keep him in one place?"

"Do it, Man, you two sure did help me out."

There soon were several police officers, detectives, a Coroner's van, paramedics, and some crime scene men moving around. Yori and I were questioned and had to show all our credentials to almost every entity. The officer who was injured stayed with us and protected us from some of the other officers who wanted to know why people from California were carrying guns in Washington.

We had to retell our story of the men threatening us with clubs in the lobby area and showed them the clubs. Sonja gave a statement, and they then questioned Dunaldo. A truck with materials for an inventory home showed up while all this was happening, and wanted his bill of lading signed. Dunaldo began checking it off and had a police officer come over to show him what had been going on. The bill of lading had materials listed for three homes, but there were only materials for one, and it was short. I went over and sent the delivery driver away. He was cussing and threatening that his buddies were going to take care of this problem. A detective made note of the attempted fake delivery, and asked me how I would handle the problem. I advised him that I had contacted a security firm to watch the place for me. He nodded and said he might leave a unit on site for a few days.

Several cars had parked in the lot and people had gone inside. I had asked Sonja to hold anyone who arrived in the lobby until I had spoken to them.

The people in the lobby were aggravated because some had been waiting for close to an hour before I came in. I smiled at all the people, and asked who each was and what their jobs were. Of the four people, one was the decorator, one was the Title Manager's clerk, who said that she had been told this was the Title office's last week. The Loan Manager was a guy who looked a little worse for wear. The fourth person said he was an employee. I asked what department, and he looked around at the others and said, "I'm just an employee. I come in, be an employee for part of the day, and go home. My uncle set this up." I took his name and sent him home. He told me that his uncle was an important person with this company, but couldn't give me what his job title was. I was able to get his and his uncle's name so that I could cross reference it with the payroll.

Sonja whispered to me, "You know there are a lot of people getting money from the company who are going to be angry. You should probably just close this office and not take the chance of trying to resurrect this place."

I told the woman, "I'm going to make this place work because you need a job. There are others here that also need a job, so we are going to make this place a good Mooney office again."

Yori was acting nervous, so I had him make himself some tea and go into the Manager's office and relax. I was watching the front door when four men who looked like cops came in. They identified themselves as security agents sent by their company. I directed one to go to the construction trailer, two to stay in the lobby, and one to go out to the nearby Redmond, Washington model home. Before any of them left, I told them, "It's very possible that the people who are being terminated may try something. You're hired to keep them from damaging the homes or from harming any of the employees. Check with me or the Branch Manager every day until the need for your services is over."

I walked over to the construction trailer and found Dunaldo working out a material list for an inventory home. I asked if he was any farther along in finding people, and he responded, "I have eighteen men for tomorrow morning. I'm putting the materials together for an inventory home that already has a basement poured. We have six basements ready, but it's been only one home at a time, and none turned out to be really nice places."

"This is the deal, Dunaldo. I want the homes you build to be perfect. I want the decorator to help you make it that way, including the basement. Finish everything and make it saleable. Get ready, because you will soon be building several of them a week, along with some custom homes. Now, find me some handymen to work on the existing models. I'll send the decorator out to critique the houses so that they will attract people and not try to get a discount."

I had to ask where the decorator's office was. It was where most were, but she had put paper up over her windows. She jumped up and looked panicked when I walked in. She immediately told me, "If you try to touch or molest me I will call 911. What do you want?"

"Easy there, Lady. We don't know each other, but my name is Brad Johnson, and I'm the new Regional Manager for Mooney in this area. My job is to get everything that has gotten off track back where it should be. My request to you is to go out to the models and make sure they are being put into perfect condition and to make them desirable for salespeople to sell more custom homes. After you are assured the home is what you would want, begin helping spruce up the inventory homes that we will be building to be what someone would want. You will be given leads of those buyers of pre-owned homes, as well as inventory and custom. You'll work with an architect for the custom homes. We are short an architect, but I'm sure you know where one is. You are probably knowledgeable about how to get more decorators too. I want you to be selling your services to other companies. We want the reputation of providing the best in design and decorating."

The lady looked at me and asked, "Are you going to make this a reality, or are you just blowing smoke like the other guys who were here?"

"This is going to happen. You are going to make it happen. Now do it."

"We didn't get off on the right foot, but like I said, I'm Brad Johnson."

The woman smiled and said, "And I'm June Mackenzie. I can only pray that you are going to save this place. I will do my part to make it happen."

I went to the Loan office and began with the very cowed man. "My name is Brad Johnson. I'm the new Regional Manager for the West Coast and I'm here to put this office back together."

The man seemed to become a little more alive. "I'm George Carter, the Finance Manager. That doesn't mean much if I'm not making loans."

"I know you have been restricted from doing a lot of business outside of what was sold within the company. No more. I want you to market your ability to get loans approved and that you have money available for home loans. Do some telemarketing, but also be ready for a surge in sales. We're going to make this office rock once again."

The man asked, "I will need an assistant if we are going to be doing a lot of business. I will hold off until the business begins to come in, but I look forward to being a busy loan office again. Several banks were sending people to us before our disaster here. I'll re-connect with them to advise them of our return to the market."

"That's great. You will be important to everyone in the office."

I went back to the Sales Manager and asked, "How are you doing at hiring a secretary and finding more salesmen?"

The man said, "There is a small guy who is shutting down and actually retiring. He has six salesmen and a secretary. I'd like to hire them all. I talked to Ginger, and I like the commission contract your office in LA works under. All the people will want to make it work here, but I don't have a way to put the sales secretary on a commission basis. I'm sure she'll share in the successes of the office."

"I'd bet Ginger told you about how she was able to get some salespeople from Craigslist. Try that here to see if you might get some takers. You can even advertise the commission schedule and let's do something to stimulate listings. Put in that there is a bonus program for new listings. I'll clear it with the home office, but I want to reward every bona fide listing with a fifty dollar bill. That should bring some business in."

Tod said, "I'm really getting excited. This is your first morning in the office, and I'm feeling like someone turned the light switch on. I know some of our former salespeople would like to come back if the office came back to normal. Let me contact them and tell them about the commission contract."

The next stop was important. I went into the Title office to see the Manager putting her personal items into a banker's box. The clerk was sitting at her desk with a box of tissues that she was using to wipe tears away.

"What is all this sadness and why are you cleaning out your desk, Ladies. You aren't going anywhere. How can we close a home loan and title without you? Whatever the last man said isn't valid any longer. This office is never going back to that. How would you like to be closing five or six a day? I think that will be a minimum because sales is going to be selling, finance is going to making loans, and you will be closing."

The woman said, "You said your name was Brad Johnson. Are you the new guy in LA who was in the newsletter?"

"That's me. I was the Florida Regional Manager and now the company wants me to be the California and West Coast Regional Manager. They specifically asked me to be here today to begin getting this place back into shape. Your office is key to a lot of activity, and it will have to be a hell of lot larger than what it is today. Put your personal stuff back in your desk and both of you begin calling banks and other loan organizations to solicit business for our closing office. Let's make some money. How about telling me your names before you do anything else?"

The Title Manager said, "I'm Mary Jane Turner, and my clerk, Diane Stallings." She looked at me for almost a full minute, and finally said, "Please make this happen. This used to be such a fun and vibrant office with a lot of sales and smiling faces."

"Make it that way and start making your office known for what it can do. Hire as you need people. Maybe use temps to find the right people, but also look around for other small title offices we might be able to acquire. I'll be back in a little while to see how you're doing."

I went upstairs and found Jules and the accountant with a list of people who were actually in the office and had been in the office working. The roles showed there were over sixty people on the payroll, but I could only account for eight. The construction crews would account for a lot of them. I asked Jules, "Can you see if you can give me a list of everyone who isn't here with a home and or cell phone number? We need to call them to advise them they will not be receiving money from the company and to have an attorney contact our legal counsel if they feel they have a valid claim."

George said, "You really have some balls. Sorry about the language, Jules, but a lot of these people may have underworld ties. I know you don't seem afraid of much but you might want some extra security."

"I've hired four armed men from a security company recommended by a couple of police detectives. They are already on site."

There was a lot of yelling going on downstairs. I was down the stairs in a flash and saw one of the new security men standing in the doorway to the Manager's office. Yori was holding his gun on a man now behind the Manager's desk. The man was making a lot of noise about who the fuck were we to come into his office and disrupt activity.

I walked in and told the man, "I was advised that the Manager of this office had been terminated. As a matter of fact, a total of three Managers in this branch office have been terminated. Which one are you? The one who started this mess, or one of the ones who were sent here by the home office?"

"No one terminates me or fires me. I have been and still am the Manager of this office. Now get the fuck out of here or I'll have you forcibly removed."

I smiled at the man, "So you admit to initiating false invoices, putting people on the payroll who don't exist, or who are personal friends. The scam with the short materials on the bill of lading is easy to fix. I wonder how many years you can get for intentional fraud. You are going to be charged with Federal crimes since you've been doing some of your business between Oregon, California, and even Canada."

Another man entered the office and showed his badge. He said, "So this is the head guy who is doing the stealing around here?"

The man behind the desk was getting really aggravated, and said, "All of you get out of my office or I'll make all of you into shark bait. Now get."

The policeman said, "Now that was a threat to not only do bodily harm, but to kill me. You are under arrest, sir."

The detective moved to get behind the man to cuff him, but the guy swung at the detective. The man reached into his suit coat and was bringing a gun out as the detective was falling away from the blow. I was instantly holding my gun on him, and Yori was still holding his aimed at the guy. He saw both guns and let his gun slide back into its holster.

The detective stood up and pushed the man onto the desk and cuffed him while advising him of his rights. He then removed the gun from the guy's shoulder holster and laid it on the desk. He went through all his pockets, pulling the contents out and putting them on the desk. An interesting baggy was full of pills that would have to be something interesting. The cop said, "I see that you carry a major supply of these tranquillizers. I'm sure you don't take them, and I'll bet you like to slip them to the women you meet. This quantity has to be worth at least a year in the slammer. Assault on an officer is a year, and resisting arrest is usually a year. The other stuff these people want to charge you with should keep you out of circulation for at least five, and maybe ten years."