Chapter 27

Beep, beep, beep, beep

I almost tried to use the snooze button on my phone. I know better and swung over Katie to her side of the bed. There was a third body in bed on the other side of Jules. I looked at the hotel directory to find out where their exercise room was after using the bathroom.

It was on the first floor, but there was a notation that said the hours were from eight AM until ten PM. How is a traveler supposed to exercise with those hours? I called the front desk to ask if there was access to the exercise facility before eight. The concierge assured me there was no way to use the facility outside the published hours.

I decided to let the girls sleep a little longer and did my morning bathroom stuff. This screwed up my usual pattern of morning exercise. I woke the girls as it came around to six thirty, and they actually were easy to wake up this morning. The three sat up, letting the blanket reveal their beautiful tops. Kelly rubbed her eyes and asked, "Are you going to exercise this morning?"

"No, the exercise facility isn't open until eight, so I let you guys sleep an extra half hour. Let's roll and get breakfast before we go to the office."

I was surprised that Kelly didn't leave our room and went into the bathroom to the shower with the girls. I made coffee in the suite's sitting room and had poured a cup when Yori came out. I had brought my luggage out, so he went back to his room and brought his out. I explained about the lack of an exercise facility and he said that he had seen that last night.

He had a cup and the girls had a cup of coffee with us as they came from the room with their luggage. We thought that we might try the hotel breakfast, so we left our luggage in the suite and went down to the free stuff. It was almost disgusting. Everything was jumbled and not displayed very well. The bacon was cold and the scrambled eggs looked rubbery. The toast was already done, stacked, and cold. We all looked at each other, and I said, "Let's check out and find breakfast somewhere else."

We found a small restaurant nearby that appeared busy. That's usually a giveaway that the place is good. The five of us were amazed at how big the restaurant really was when we walked in. A hostess greeted us, asked how many were in our party, and led us to a table for six. That there was a free table was a bonus, because the place was packed. The hostess left us with menus, and a waitress placed five cups on the table and began pouring coffee almost as soon as the hostess walked back toward the front. She told us that they also had tea if anyone wanted some. She told us what they had as specials, and then said, "If you want something light, try some scrambled eggs and our melon slices. We have SOS that would rival anything the military ever served if you men want something heavy."

Yori and I thought we might try the SOS to see what it was all about since neither of us had ever served in the armed forces. It was recommended to have a couple of sunny side up eggs to decorate the top of the dish. We ordered it the recommended way.

The coffee was some of the best I've had in a while. It was rich tasting and strong, but made you want more. Our waitress kept making passes through her tables with a carafe of coffee to refill cups. We were served within five minutes of ordering and dug in. The SOS was made with some kind of spicy ground beef mixed with thick milk gravy over the top of Texas toast. The busted yolk of the eggs mixed with the gravy and ground beef was delicious. I didn't think I could eat it all when the waitress had served us, but Yori and I soon were almost licking the plate. We finished our coffee and headed for the office.

I didn't know the habits of this office, so I didn't expect anyone to be there. The construction yard had a building instead of a trailer. There were cars parked in front of it. There were no cars in front of the office building. I walked to the construction building and walked in. Three men and two women were discussing something when I walked in. They all apprehensively looked up, so I introduced myself. "Good morning. I'm Brad Johnson, the new Regional Manager. I hope I didn't interrupt an important meeting."

One man said, "Not at all. As a matter of fact, you can settle the discussion for us. We've been cut back a little about building inventory homes for both of our moderate and higher priced developments. That wouldn't be bad if sales were slow, but they aren't and the sales group will run out of inventory homes very fast. Maybe you can discuss this with the Manager to see what his plan is. We will be laying men off if we don't begin some new inventory homes, and that's one thing we don't want to do."

"Are you the Construction Supervisor?"

"Yep, that's me. These men are development foremen and the two ladies are my office assistants."

"How about coming with me to talk to the Manager? I'd like to hear why we would cut back, as well."

The man quickly got up and followed me outside. I stopped and asked, "Is there anything else going on I should know about? Have you been asked to okay bills of lading that aren't correct or short-shipped?"

The man looked at me a long time, and finally said, "Yeah, I've been asked to do that, but it won't happen. You asking that question makes me think that you've run into this before. I don't like telling tales out of school, but something's happened to our manager. He was the most gung-ho manager in the system but he began getting weird about a lot of things about six months ago. He keeps saying that he's going to change some things that will make us more efficient, but he's hurting us with every change. He even told us and the other department managers not to talk to you about the office. That's not right. You're here to help make the office better, right?"

I nodded, and as we neared the office building, told the man, "Meet my secretary, Kelly. The two other women and this man are Assistant Managers in training. I see someone came in, so let's go say good morning."

The man said, "Don't look for the Manager to be in early. He's been coming in around nine and leaves fairly early."

The three women and Yori heard this, and they all stiffened. I told the man, "Go check your inventory balances on the computer and see if they match your last manual inventory. I'll call you to come to the office when the time is right."

The person who was in was the receptionist. She suspiciously looked at me and asked if she could help us. I told her who I was, and she had two big tears running down her cheeks. "What's the matter? I know I'm ugly as all get out, but usually not so ugly that I make women cry."

The woman sniggered and sobbed at the same time, before saying, "I knew this would come and it's going to be bad. Our Manager has been here for over ten years. This was a great office until that slime ball from LA began coming up here. Harry has been a different man since then. He argued with Bennington at first, but he must have had something on Harry that made him begin to act the way he has been. Harry was upset and didn't know what to do when Bennington was sent to Florida, and he talked to that horrible man every day and began doing some other things. I didn't like those at all."

I asked the question that would be important, "Do you know if our Oakland Manager has been influenced by Bennington?"

The woman said, "I don't think so. I've heard Harry argue with Mr. Foxworth about the changes over the phone, and I think the man is better than Harry."

"Tell me your name, Honey."

"Shirley Donner, I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself."

"That's okay. Jules and Katie are going to stay up here with you for now. Yori will sit over there in that chair to watch for right now. Kelly and I are going to use the Manager's office for some things."

I called the home office as soon as we were in the Manager's office. I told Dan what I had just found when I reached him. He groaned and said, "This is horrible. San Francisco was one of our top producers until recently. This is terrible. What are you going to do?"

"Whatever's necessary. I called to let you know the situation. Quickly find me a Manager or I'll have to bring Rebecca up here. I should actually send Rebecca to Salt Lake and bring Sheila here. She's probably capable of running this office."

Dan said, "They're all your people, so move them around however you need to. Talk to Dot first to see if she knows of someone ready for an office. Good luck."

Dan transferred me to Dorothy, who instantly told me that I was nuts to think that she and her people could put together all the information that I wanted in a day. I said to her, "I hate to bring bad news, but I need a Manager for San Francisco. I don't see how I can keep this one since it's just like the other locations, but I think that it's early enough that the damage can quickly be undone."

Dorothy paused for a few minutes, and then said, "You like the Regional Manager in Atlanta, so how about sending his Assistant to San Francisco. The man's been an Assistant for almost three years, and he was going to be someone I was going to steal anyway. San Francisco has a much larger potential than any offices in the Atlanta Region, so this would be a good promotion. He's a good guy and is ex-military, so he should be able to handle any outside people who could be around. Let me talk to the two men and I'll call you back on your cell phone."

Kelly asked, "Would you really let Rebecca manage an office with just a couple weeks of experience?"

"Sure if she's ready, and she seems to be. I'd like more time with her, but we need people and there are not a lot of them around."

Kelly looked at me and asked, "Do you think I could be an Assistant in training?"

"Yes I do, Kelly, but I'd hate to lose you. We've only worked together for a little over a month and I've really become accustomed to depending on you."

Kelly said, "Joan is good and could do what I do. Sandy is good too, but she's going to be an architect upstairs. Have Ginger, Willy, Francine, Joan, and Sandy hunt for some more people. They know a lot of strong women who could do what I do. You would be their perfect boss."

I missed what she was saying while I was thinking that I was tired of problems with greedy Managers.

Kelly said, "This desk hasn't been used in over a month. I wonder what happened to his secretary. Her notes says there was an Assistant, but I don't see him."

I told Kelly, "Go ask Shirley if she knows what happened to the secretary and Assistant, and get the Manager's home and cell phone numbers."

Kelly left the office and quickly came back with two numbers on a slip of paper. I called the cell number first. The call was answered, "Peters; is this Bennington? How did you get out so fast?"

"No, this isn't Bennington. This is Brad Johnson, the new Regional Manager for California and the Northwest. I want you to come to the office as soon as possible. We need to talk."

There wasn't a sound for a long time before he said, "I'll be there in about fifteen minutes. Don't touch anything in my office or we will have a problem."

I said, "Just get here."

I went through his drawers because he said what he did, and found a large notebook and opened it. There was a step by step description of how to turn the office into a funnel for money to whoever was running it. He didn't have many items checked off, and had some notes where he had met resistance.

My cell phone rang and displayed a home office number. Dorothy said, "I have the kid from Atlanta on his way. He's like you were, but doesn't own his housing. He said he can have someone else pack up for him and he'll be out there this afternoon. I had travel get him a reservation. Book him a room and he can get a rental car."

"Thanks, Dorothy; we'll get this place back in order."

Kelly came in and told me, "The secretary quit about two months ago and was suing the company and Harry for sexual harassment. The Assistant was fired, but there was no reason for it."

I walked up to the receptionist and asked her, "Do you have telephone numbers for the former secretary and Assistant?" When she said she did, I said "Call them and ask them if they would like their jobs back with a new Manager. The man coming has been an Assistant Manager in Atlanta who is being promoted to come here. He's a very likeable guy."

The receptionist said she would try to call both individuals.

The building was filling up, so I went back to speak with the Sales Manager. He looked at me when I introduced myself, and asked, "I hope you have help. Harry just brought a couple of guys in who he says will back up what he wants to do. I've lost a couple of good saleswomen because of Harry's inability to keep his hands off them. I'm not sure what happened, but the man swallowed a mean pill or something."

I told the man, "My plan is to replace Harry as fast as possible. A new Manager will be here this afternoon. You'll like the guy. He works hard with his people to be successful. Try to get those good salespeople back. You might even want to check out the straight commission contract the company is now offering. A lot of the good salespeople like it better than the small draw and stipend plus commission."

I checked on the decorator and found out that she was down to just two and an assistant. She told me the office had an architect who she worked with, but he wasn't very busy lately. The Title Office Manager said they haven't been that busy, he wasn't allowed to solicit outside business, and had been advised that the office may not need a Title Office at all.

I didn't go upstairs right then, but went to see Shirley the receptionist. "Can you contact the former cleaning service and have them come back and begin cleaning the office and models again, Shirley?"

"How did you know we lost the cleaning service?"

"It was in Harry's notes." I didn't remember seeing it, but the cleaning service had been let go if Harry followed what the others did.

Shirley told me, "You should know that Harry brings in a couple of men who act like they are his goons or something. I wanted to tell you so that you can be prepared."

I looked to Yori and he nodded. I turned and saw Jules move from behind the counter while Katie stayed there. I went back to the office and told Kelly, "You might want to go somewhere else for a while. The guy has a couple of heavies who are usually with him."

Kelly put her purse on her desk, pulled a Glock 27, checked the chamber for a round, and laid it back in her purse so that it couldn't be seen but was within easy reach. That's when I realized that I didn't see a Sales secretary. I went back to the Sales Manager and told him, "Get your secretary back as soon as you can. Offer her a five percent increase if you have to."

The man smiled when he realized that I knew what was happening throughout the office.

I was walking toward the Manager's office when a well-dressed man was leading three men toward me. I saw both Yori and Jules following these men. I smiled and asked, "Harry McPherson, right?"

The man grunted at me and wanted to get past me to get to what he thought was still his office. I held my hand up and asked, "Who are the men with you, Harry? I would like to meet them if they are employees. I'm Brad Johnson, the new Regional Manager for California and the man who shut down the scams in LA, Las Vegas, Seattle, and Portland. It looks like I'm also going to shut this one down before it goes too far."

All four men were suddenly very uneasy and looking at each other. I told the group, "Go have a seat at your desk, Harry. You other three, I want you to be very careful and put your hands on the wall, and make note I have a couple of very well-trained people with itchy trigger fingers behind you. You're welcome to try if you think you can reach under your arm and get your gun out faster than we can. You take the middle, Yori; you get the one on your end, Jules, and I'll shoot this one. It's been over a week since I've killed someone."

The three did as I requested and knew the drill. They leaned up against the wall and Yori very carefully removed weapons from under each man's arm. He then did a frisk of each man and discovered two had ankle holsters with small 9mms. I told the men; "Stay right there so that you don't accidentally get shot."

I took a breather and looked at Jules, "Go call the cops if Katie hasn't done it yet."

The one man nearest me said, "Hey, can we make a deal, Buddy. We don't need no cops. We'll get out of here and leave you alone. Harry promised us a lot of money if we covered him. Come on, Man, we don't need this shit."

"It's too late. You came into my building carrying guns to possibly defend someone who was stealing from his company. I do thank you for not making me shoot anyone. I hate the smell of all that blood. Please reach back to your wallet if any of you men have a legal permit to carry a firearm, and show it to me. I'll let you recover your firearm and leave."

Three uniformed policemen and one who obviously was a Detective in a suit came up the hallway. The Detective laughed, and said, "Look who we have here; the twins and their even dumber sidekick. Are you guys carrying again? What's it worth this second time around, ten years? Convicted felons cannot possess firearms and you certainly wouldn't be given a permit to carry." He said to the uniformed policemen, "Cuff them and bag those weapons. I see they are located behind the individual who had them."

The Detective asked me, "You must have a weapon, so show it and your right to carry to me if you would."

I showed him the butt of my Glock in a shoulder holster, and pulled the cards for my carry permit and my guard and P.I. licenses. He handed my P.I. license to a uniformed policeman and said, "Go run this and come back with what they have."

The Detective looked into the office to see the man behind the desk staring at Kelly. She was sitting there looking very sweet and innocent, except that she was steadily holding her Glock at Harry. "What's the problem, Honey? Is this guy looking at you wrong?"

Kelly said, "No, but he was reaching for something inside his coat a couple of minutes ago. I just wanted whatever it was to stay there. This guy is a thief who has been stealing from the company. We don't need that."

The Detective said to Harry, "Stand up and come around here. Let's see if she had something to worry about."

Harry stood, then turned around to get out from behind the desk and he was pulling a gun when he came back around.

Bang, bang, bang.

Harry looked startled and then just wilted to the ground. Kelly said, "I tried to hit him in the legs and arm but he was moving around pretty fast with that gun in his hand."

The Detective was visibly shaken. He looked at Kelly and then at Harry. Kelly was already calling 911 for an ambulance. The policeman who had gone out to check my ID came running in with his gun drawn. He knelt down to Harry, kicked his gun away, and checked his pulse. He said, "He's alive, but he needs help."

The Detective finally got his bearings and said, "Thank you for shooting. I would have been dead if he shot at me. Are you a guard and P.I. too?"

Kelly smiled and said, "No, just a citizen with the right to carry a gun. I have my permit right here."

Kelly next did something that the detective noted with a smile. She dropped the magazine in her Glock and inserted a fresh one before sliding the gun into her purse.

I told the Detective to make sure he keeps the keys to whatever Harry was driving as there would be illegal automatic rifles in the vehicle if he did what his other buddies had done. The Detective said, "I hope so, this guy is good for ten years now, and I can't wait to add to that."

Harry was awake now and we were trying to keep the blood off the floor. He asked, "Who gave me away? I thought I had this wrapped up."

I told him, "Honest people won't hide what you're doing to others. You were targeted when you took advantage of the first person. Be thankful that the person who shot you didn't do what her trainers had taught her to do. Defensive shots are supposed to be body mass; head and body mass. You wouldn't be alive."

When all the police were gone and the blood on the floor was cleaned up, Kelly said, "How about buying lunch, Boss? I think this office needs some fuel for this afternoon."

I went from office to office to get their Subway orders to all of their astounded surprise. A salesman came out when I was going to go to the store where the orders were placed, and said, "I'll run for them. Did you pay over the phone?" Kelly nodded.

The coffee in the break room was old, so I poured it out and brewed some fresh. I was watching the coffeemaker flow black liquid into the pot while thinking of how nuts this whole thing was. At least no one died today. The former Manager would probably be in jail for fifteen years, maybe more. I knew that I didn't need any more adrenaline pumping events in my life. I thought we should get a couple of months of night time protection for the office to be sure of security. I didn't think this guy had his dynasty built yet, and was just trying to get it started.

I stood up when I had most of the office assembled in the large sales room eating their sandwiches, and said, "I think the culprits who began tearing down this office are gone. Anyone who had visions of easy money should know that it isn't true, and will be met by some harsh resistance. My job is to make the office productive and to show the replacement manager how to become even stronger in his community. Work with this new man and you will all be rewarded. You have a special opportunity, so take advantage of it. I'll work with him to show him how I like an office to run, and then he'll be the one calling the shots from there on. There are several things that we can do to increase the profits of this office, and we're going to do them all. That means bigger quarterly bonuses and bigger annual bonuses. You are all responsible to make it happen. It all begins with sales and goes from there. Let's help the Sales Manager exceed his objectives and goals, and follow the sale right through to when we get paid at closing."

Everyone in the room was applauding and hollering. I didn't think too much of the talk, but they did. I saw that Kelly had spruced up the Manager's as well as the secretary's desks when we went back to the office. There was a third desk in the room that must have been the Assistant's desk, but there was no computer on it. I called our data guy in LA, and told him, "Come to San Francisco when you get a chance, and get them the equipment they need to be productive. The Manager has been replaced and the new guy is going to want what I like. Make it happen."

I went back to Sales and asked the Manager, "Will you show me your advertising folder?"

"Sure, it's almost four months old. We cancelled the agreement with our agency and really haven't done anything since then. I noticed my department was still being charged with the same amount of advertising as before the problems began. How do you want to handle this?"

"Get your old agency to come and work with you for the coming weekend. Call the home office if you don't have the latest ads, and have them e-mailed to you. Your agency can localize them for you. I want 10 and 15 second radio ads once an hour on the best and strongest sports stations from about six in the morning through about ten at night. Then choose the most popular news and talk station and advertise with them the same way, with once an hour from seven to seven. TV will coincide with newspaper. You should probably have a quarter page on Friday, half page on Saturday, and a full page on Sunday. Let's get our name in front of people again. Remember that you'll need to have coverage of the models seven days a week."

The man's glazed look shook free and he said, "My former secretary will be here in the morning, and might even come in this afternoon. She was and is good. I'm happy that she hasn't gone to work for anyone else. Six of the salespeople who left will be back in the morning, so we might recover a little by the weekend."

I went across the parking lot to construction and talked with the supervisor. I asked, "Is it possible to hire at least two temporary crews to build Inventory homes?" You have two developments that are running out of inventory, so you need to get those built quickly. Make sure the same quality is there and build them out through the basement. Let's have some quality inventory homes. The price will be immaterial if we do this right."

The supervisor asked, "Can I have three crews? I'll use my three for custom homes and the other three for nothing but inventory. I promise to watch the quality."

"Get 'em and get them started. I want you to begin checking prices of other suppliers to keep the ones we use honest. They could be sticking us with higher prices than we should pay if Harry corrupted them."

"I've already been doing that and have made our main supplier lower his prices when I've seen something too high. I'll have one of my assistants do some more price checking. We should get some price breaks if we're buying heavier."

A car pulled into the parking lot and a tall good looking young guy in a suit got out and looked around. I walked up to him and said, "I'm your man if you're looking for Brad Johnson."

The guy grinned wide enough to split a lip. "I'm Kenneth Martin. You can call me Kenny, fresh from Atlanta and about as much of a bubba as you're gonna' find. Thank you for finally using me. Ole' Kelly Sellers just didn't want to lose the guy who can cover for him to play some golf and go fishin'. He's a smart guy and will get another Assistant."

We shook hands and I took him inside. I introduced him to Shirley Donner, and to my two "assistants", Jules Kamatsu and Katie Johnson. Yori was quietly sitting in the chair at the front, so I didn't see any reason to introduce him at that point. I took him into the Manager's office and found Kelly sitting in the desk chair next to the secretary's desk. There was a very attractive lady in her late thirties sitting at the secretary's desk. Kelly quickly said, "This is Marion Counterman, the secretary for this office." I smiled and said, "Marion, this is Kenneth Martin, the new Manager for our office here. He likes to be called Kenny, so you two will have to work out how that all works."

Kenny was once again smiling so broadly that it hurt my face. As he looked at the small monitor on his desk, I told him, "I called our data guy and he will be here to upgrade your data equipment from top to bottom. Your sales will cover the costs, so don't worry about it right now. You need the proper tools. Make sure our data guru checks every department to make sure we're current. I like the salespeople to have laptops and use Wi-Fi here and in the models to work better."

Marion held up a form and told Kenny, "You need to fill this out so that our Accountant can do her HR thing and get you into the system for this office. I can't tell you how happy I am to be working for you, Kenny. We've been through a traumatic period of time with our former Manager."

Kenny put the form on his desk, and looked at me. I told him, "Let's follow the business so you can meet everyone."

Kenny followed me just like Rebecca does when I left the office. We talked to the Sales Manager for a minute. I told him, "It's my experience that we have something good happen as soon as life gets back to normal. Find or page me as soon as you hear of that sale."

We stopped by the Decorator's office and said hi. We said hi to the Title Manager in her office. Upstairs we talked to the finance manager who had made a loan for a local Century 21 office, but couldn't convince them to use our title office. We went to see the accountant, a lady who was sitting alone in an office with two other desks.

I explained to Kenny, "This office was attacked by a rogue Manager and Regional Manager who wanted to do nothing except rob the company through any means possible. I'm sure you're heard how Bennington is now in jail probably for the rest of his life. I think and hope this is the last of his influence. You get to bring this place back to life and out of its doldrums."

I saw Kenny look into the break room when we went back downstairs, so we went in to look for some sort of okay coffee. I poured two mugs and started a new pot. We went into the Manager's office and I sat at the conference table as Kenny checked the desk out. I told him, "There may be some references in that desk that may sicken you, Kenny. Put any stuff you find that isn't what you believe in into a big envelope, and I'll collect it when I'm here next. I promise to be here at least monthly for a while; maybe more often, but I want you to be free to make this office into your own."

Kenny smiled and said, "I like to tour the office from start to finish at least three times a day. Want to go with me?"

We went through Sales and talked to two salespeople who were lining up appointments for listings. The Sales Manager was working on the advertising program for his meeting with the ad agency tomorrow. We said hi to Decorating on the way to Finance upstairs. They were working on a sale from another company.