Chapter 52

Friday

This was definitely a TGIF. If there was ever a day that I felt like phoning in a fake health issue it would have been that day. I can’t do that. My head’s not screwed on right if I let myself do that.

I was on my back with Katie’s large breasts on one side of my chest and Jules on the other. Although Willy had gone to sleep on the other side of Katie, her head was on my stomach and both her hands were holding my growing morning greeting. I looked at the clock on the nightstand and saw it was just after six so I began getting out of bed. I brought Willy up to be between the two women and let them all hug each other. I slipped my workout stuff on and went to the basement to stretch and then begin on the treadmill. I didn’t push too hard this morning, and stopped after twenty minutes to do my lifting.

I passed through the kitchen and looked to see if anyone had made coffee, and the Mr. Coffee on the counter had some fresh brewed ready for me. I had a half cup and went upstairs to get ready for the day.

The girls were really groggy that morning, but we had stayed up later than normal because Hideki and Nobuko had come by. It was Friday, and Jules didn’t seem to think that there was any earth shattering trading to be done.

I wore slacks, a knit shirt, and sport coat today after destroying another suit yesterday crawling around in the parking lot. I would have to go get clothes again soon. I picked up the Glock Dai had left on the nightstand, checked the magazine, and then checked to see if there was a round in the chamber. I should know that Dai wouldn’t leave a loaded weapon on the nightstand with a round in the chamber. All the people in the house who possessed a gun were very conscious about safety.

Donte came into the kitchen and told me, “I’m going to the doctor’s this morning for a checkup. I haven’t felt well lately and think I need to be looked at. Vicki will go with you today. I’ll call you with the doctor’s report.”

Vicki came in, poured herself a mug of coffee, and accepted a dish of three strips of bacon, two eggs, and toast. I was thinking that Vicki was getting my breakfast, but another plate appeared with the same thing for me. We ate without much conversation until Vicki asked, “Do you think there will be more of what happened yesterday?”

“I don’t think so. The news people uncovered the bad guys and the cops raided them. I would think they would hesitate to continue trying to pull the same scam on people who know them and how they work.”

She asked, “Do you need to notify all your offices that these people could still be out there and could still attempt to force the office to steal from the company.”

“I sent an e-mail out yesterday that went to all Managers and Assistants about the continued existence of these people. We’ll have to see if the raids the police did will take care of the problem. Dai has hired a private investigation firm to track down any of these people who may have escaped the raid. The people he hired are going to go over all the offices that I’m responsible for to confirm we’re not being targeted by more people like that. That mess should be finished.”

We took the BMW to the office with Vicki driving. She thinks that she should be the driver if she’s in a car. I wonder how Hideki got to drive himself anywhere.

I was first in at seven-thirty this morning and started coffee both downstairs and upstairs. I opened my computer to check for new e-mails only to receive congratulations on the first sale at the new temporary office in San Antonio. I sent an e-mail to my pilot to advise him that we wouldn’t be going anywhere this weekend and would travel Monday. I hoped that he could find something for the airplane to do to earn a buck while I wasn’t using it.

The office was filling up by eight with people who may have had too much to drink the night before. Danny came into my office, and said, “You scared the shit out of us with all that shooting going on yesterday. I thought Vicki was going to cry because she couldn’t leave us with the guy who was a prisoner. Kelly said that she would have shot him if he caused a problem. “Chica and I are more passive than all this. I know Oakland has its share of hoodlums, but this crap happening right in the heart of Hollywood is crazy. Do you think the condo offices will be like that? There is a chance for almost anything to happen with probably close to a thousand full-time employees and several thousand residents.”

I smiled at Danny and said, “Let’s see if these threats have gone away. That group has been developing for close to five years, but I think we’ve cut it off at the roots. I have a private firm making sure of it.”

I led the Assistants through the building at eight thirty to check on everyone to make sure they were all in good spirits and not concerned about a repeat. I think the news reports have the people worried because they didn’t stress that the organization that was responsible for the problem had now been crippled. All the management folks were excited about gaining back the sales that we might have lost yesterday. There were only twenty-seven sales, but five salespeople had brought sales this morning that they had completed the previous night. Since the Mooney office was mentioned in the news coverage as the location of a shootout, I got with our advertising people to make sure any ad spots for the next week announced that the group that caused the problem had been entirely wiped out, but that as a precaution extra security would be provided so that people completing sales or closings wouldn’t need to worry. I also arranged for the additional security, and contacted a publicist to make sure that the news media properly reported the problem as having been fully resolved. We needed to make sure that customers weren’t frightened away by the news.

Matt told me, “We’ll do two hundred and fifty again this week, but barely. I’ll cut the week off if we do well today, and let the weekend be the beginning of next week. We have the new development of ten million and up homes that has two models and is ready to market. Julio is apprehensive about inventory homes in that price category. He’s probably right. I’m supposed to go over to visit with Julio about the first condo complex. He says he has an idea of how to get sales started and wanted to talk to me about it before he approaches you. I’ll let you know.”

I checked in with the Title office and the Manager, Margaret Peterson, admitted that she was a little behind on closings as she had never anticipated that she might have to close over three hundred houses and loans a week. She also said she was getting more outside closings than she ever had to reach that number of closings.

There was a man sitting at a desk facing out from the wall just beyond Margaret’s desk. She saw my interest and said, “We’ve constantly had to call for legal assistance lately that I thought it would be less expensive to just hire an attorney. We’ll get him a better office, but he’s where he needs to be right now. We’re doing enough pre-owned that we need this guy for a final look at the package.”

The desks were beginning to be crowded even with the files removed from the office. I asked, “Margaret, two things, do you need more closing rooms, and two, do you want to move to more space? We have most of the third floor that can be for you. Don’t get too crowded. You have to be the highest volume title office in the country.”

“I’ll let you know, Brad. I just underestimated the number that I thought this office could produce. I think the new north office will take some of my volume because we’re getting a lot of outside business from up there. Thanks for thinking of me.”

I went through the rest of the office and thought that we probably should have made this building even larger than we did. It was almost twice the square footage of the old building and we were already filling it up.

Jimmy was his usual happy self while going over a loan’s final approval. There was a stack of folders by the door that Jimmy said were approved loans for the title office. Since several were custom homes, those folders would be held back for a couple of months during construction and reviewed before closing.

I told the Assistants that I was done with the tour for this morning and we would talk when I came down. I wanted some private time with Connie. “You’ve done a hell of job keeping me advised of how this office is doing, Connie, and you’ve taken it upon yourself to get information from all the offices I supervise to keep me informed. Everyone in my office is using your information. Thank you for doing all of that.”

I took a deep breath and said, “Turn around and look out the window. Tell me what you see.”

Connie was confused but said, “I see our old building that was supposed to have come down right away and is still standing. What happened to the creation of a larger parking lot?”

“I had been feeling the same way, Connie, but I’m not so sure today. Julio is going to rent a dozen office trailers to see if we can keep a handle on all the condo business. That’s going to be a separate entity with a separate office in the new downtown complex. That portion of our business is going to be rag tag and not as professional as it should be until then. What about using that building for the Condo business for now? We didn’t sell the furniture, so we could very quickly reoccupy that building. Call Julio for me and tell him that I need him here as fast as he can get here.”

I listened and Connie made sure that he knew I wanted him now. Connie said, “You have something else on your mind. Spill it.”

“I’m going to have to have Regional management. That means a Regional Accounting office that can teach the regular office accounting people how to receive, record, and disseminate numbers to Office Managers and the other management in an office. This office is keeping up because you’re pumping the information out. I’m sure that you’ve considered this condo operation and wonder how we’ll do it. Well, we’re going to do it by knowing the numbers at each step of our way to success, Connie. I want you to become my Regional Accountant. I’m sure that you have this office set up to provide everything we need, so your absence a day or two a week won’t be a problem. You can do this the same way I do it. I might be going your way sometimes and you can thumb a ride. You can use the plane if I’m not using it.”

Julio came running into the room. “What’s up, Brad? Connie said this is really important.”

I did the same with Julio as I did with Connie. “Look out that window and tell me what you see.”

Julio shrugged his shoulders, and said, “A building that I was supposed to tear down two months ago but we’ve been busy and I haven’t found all the people to tear it down yet. Hollywood requires you have a place to recycle every brick and every piece of plumbing. I’ll get it done.”

I smiled at Julio, and said, “You may have done the company a huge favor. You’re having someone try to rent a bunch of office trailers. Look out that window and see an unused building full of furniture that can be our condo office until the complex office is built downtown. We’ll get at least a year’s use of the building. Find the company who installed the digital media arcade on the outside of this building and have more installed over there so people will see we’re now bigger than ever. Don’t put anyone in the former Manager’s office as a Manager may have to move in there. Remodel however you want and you should probably put an elevator in. Keep in mind we’ll need a sales group and we might have to duplicate Title, Finance, Decorators, Architects, Insurance, and Accounting. That needs to be a separate office from this one. What do you think? Will that work better?”

Julio was stunned, and said, “That’s a great idea. I might have to move my office staff there so that I can be closer to the information I need. The men don’t come in any longer because our crews are so spread out. The foremen and supervisors will work out of our lot, but the rest will probably move. Do I have a budget to remodel?”

“Just do it, Julio. I want to have a working office that will be the predecessor of the office at the complex downtown. You know that we’re going to be selling as soon as you have the first street built.”

He was excited and I went to get him a cup of coffee. I came back with some for him and Connie. “You’ve been smart and continued to hire people to supervise for you, Julio. Continue to do that. Find another man to take some of the load when one man has too much on his plate. One last thing; I think that it’s time to make a big push to get the new north office done. Considering what has happened here, I’m glad we duplicated this building up there. Let’s get it finished and open that office. How are you doing with your model and inventory homes for that office?”

“We’ll be ready to sell inventory homes in four to five weeks. We should be able to move into that building within six weeks, maybe sooner. That’s a month before I promised. Will that work?”

“Great, Julio, take your pick if you need an architect and decorator to work with you on the condo office and get the remodel started. We’re one hell of a company. I’ll talk to you more about the Regional thing, Connie. I want you to think about what I’m looking to do and you can rip it apart Monday or one day next week.”

I went downstairs and was surprised to find Dan and Forest in my office. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

Dan said, “We needed to come to town to dot eyes and cross tees. I’m also looking for more property for developments. The volume at which you’re selling is going to require a hell of lot of property. You have already started pouring foundations for the first street of condos according to Georgia and Kelly. I also just heard how you made a deal with the new country club next door to that property to include a membership to the club and to collect the annual fees through the monthly and annual maintenance fees. That’s a hell of a good idea. You won’t have to have but the minimum of onsite recreation. Can you do that with the other two locations?”

“We have some of the construction secretaries canvassing the country clubs in those areas, so we should come up with something. You guys could look at property that’s large enough to have a decent golf course or two with a clubhouse, swimming pools, tennis courts, and enough ground to build a few homes and a bunch of condos. We’re going to have the staff to handle the management of a country club, so why not get in the business?”

Forest and Dan looked at each other and grinned. Dan said, “We’ll talk more about that later. We came because we heard you were requested to let Jim, Don, and Jack manage the new temporary office and see how the first weekend went. We thought we could go over some things since you would be in this weekend.”

Matt came in the door and said, “Okay, I’m stopping the week’s sales count as of noon today. We’re at two hundred and sixty-two unless someone brings another sale in before then. We could sell three hundred properties next week if we have a big weekend. Those pre-owned listings get more important every day.”

I shook Matt’s hand and asked him, “Have you been looking for another Sales Manager for me? I need two now that we’re opening the condo sales office. Find me a guy for the new north store, and we may use Chica as the condo Sales Manager.”

Dan said, “That’s one of things we wanted to discuss, but you may be ahead of us. Can you get out of here early? Forest and I have a list to go over with you. The wives are doing the phone work about properties for us, so they’re earning their allowances this week.”

I looked at Kelly, then at Georgia. I told Georgia, “We’ll be traveling on Monday, so bring clothes for two days and nights. I looked at Kelly, and said, “I want you to come with me on this one too. You need to be eyes and ears and help the men finish setting up the office. Georgia can handle the secretarial stuff. Go over everything that needs to be done by Joan and the Foxworth girls. Tell them this is their first test.”

We went out to my car that had changed from the BMW to the standard black limo. We three men sat in the back. My cell phone rang, as luck would have it. It was Dai. “Donte has an infection that he probably contracted out at Hideki’s while climbing around the old building out here. They are going to keep him in the hospital this weekend and I’m going to keep him at home for the week. Is Vicki enough to handle your traveling? I’m short of people right now, but we can hire from outside if we need someone. Yuu has been using three of my people since he’s been in the USA so much lately. Hope this doesn’t affect what you do.”

“That’s fine, Dai. Make sure to tell that derelict to get well. I’ve become fond of the man. He is a friend.”

Dai softly said, “We do become attached to each other, don’t we?”

I was sure that Vicki had already been approached so that she wouldn’t be surprised. She might have to get more clothes, but I would have the girls buy her some good travel clothes.

“Okay, Guys, you both seem like you’re loaded for bear. Do you want to begin now or wait until we get home?”

Forest said, “We had Jules call the country clubs you belong to for a tee time this afternoon. I figured that you could take an afternoon off. Most Managers do, although I don’t think I’ve ever heard of you doing it.”