Chapter 64

I woke up for a potty break just before six. Looking at the three beautiful Japanese women in the bed was like opening a Playboy magazine with three centerfolds.

Using the bathroom in the suite that had been assigned to me when I first came to this house almost felt naughty, since I had just gotten out of bed with three new women in my wives’ and my lives. I knew that I needed to work out and possibly get a nap later in the day. My muscles needed stretching, and I needed to sweat out the poison emotions that threatened us yesterday.

I went into our room to get my workout clothes and shoes. I dressed in my suite across the hall, and then went downstairs to stretch out in the gym before using the treadmill. I got off the torture treadmill, after forty minutes of running hard with a high incline, to cool down and have a sip of water before lifting free weights.

I was just starting to lift when Mika came in the door. She came to me for a hug and a soft kiss. This beautiful lady said, “Thank you for letting your wives comfort me last night. They helped me get all that negative energy out of me. The people in your home are so loving that it’s a place that draws me to everyone. Even your new security guards are as delicious as anyone could believe. Katie told me last night that the three are sisters. Is that correct?”

“Yes, Ma’am, they are. It’s hard to believe there are three so beautiful who come from the same family.”

Mika had stretched and was now beginning to run on the treadmill. The beautiful Japanese woman asked me, “May I talk to you about Dan? I really need to talk about this, and I don’t want to wait for his partners to get up. Your women don’t have to know Dan’s and my private lives, but I know that I can tell you without it bothering you.”

I had stopped lifting and put the weights back on the racks. Using my towel to dry off the excess sweat, I told the lady, “Talk to me, Mika. I’m willing to listen to anything you have to say.”

Mika was heavily sweating now from running at a decent speed. “Dan and I have been struggling for a while because he’s been having some heart problems. He developed ED which is common for heart patients, but they get over it and can get help with some of the pills that are available. The man became maniacal about how much you and some of your Managers were making. You had new Managers who were making what he was making. That’s his fault, because he and his partners were the ones who withheld their bonuses so that they could invest more money into the business. I found receipts where Dan was using his travel account to siphon money off and put it into an account somewhere. He took several trips that I found out were personal trips using company money. I never did find out where he went, but he always connected through Miami. He told me that he was coming out here to work with you on some of your projects. I wondered why I didn’t get to go with him, but it’s his business. I heard from Ken’s and Kurt’s wives that the men were concerned about some of Dan’s activities. I didn’t realize that he was taking money from the company for his own benefit.”

“I knew there was a serious problem when Forest had me meet him for lunch at our favorite restaurant. He brought Ann with him, and we talked around our suspicions. Forest told me that Dan was, and had been, his best friend for many years, but he didn’t feel comfortable with him lately. We didn’t come to any conclusions, and then you had the confrontation with him that sent him to the hospital.”

Mika started cooling down, and while wiping the sweat from her face, said, “Let’s go upstairs and see if we can get one of those killer Bloody Marys. I’m addicted to Irish Coffees too.”

Charles and Tina amazingly were behind the bar in the saloon, getting things ready for the day. I asked Charles, “How about a couple of your famous Bloody Mary’s? You might want to prepare some if you haven’t already made some up, because the guys all said that they wanted some this morning.”

Mika and I sat on a couple of heavy chairs in one of the conversation groupings. We were going to enjoy the drink Tina brought us, and she said, “You left your phone in the office last night. It has been ringing almost constantly. You might need to answer it.”

I left Mika in the saloon and went to the office. I didn’t recognize the number that I had the missed calls from. Another call came through while I was looking at the display. It was an Indy area code, so I answered, “Johnson.”

It was a scratchy-voiced Dorothy who sounded like she was going to collapse any second. The first thing she said was, “Dan is dead.”

“What do you mean Dan is dead. He left out of here yesterday on his way to somewhere he said was far away.”

Dot said it again. “Dan is dead. He had a massive coronary at the airport in Miami, and died before they could get him to the hospital. You have to tell Mika since she obviously wasn’t with him. He’s been bugging me to consider relocating to Panama with him. He says we can live like a king for the rest of our lives down there. Ann called me yesterday to tell me that Dan took off. I figured that it was another of his south of the border pussy hunts. I guess there was more to it than that.”

“I can have a plane come get you if you want, Dot. Do you want to be with Mika or what?”

“Do that, Brad. I’ll be ready when they get here if you can have someone come for me. I need to have Mika in my arms. We’re going to need each other.”

“I’ll arrange it now and get the plane on its way. Be at the airport so that it can be a quick turnaround. They might have to refuel, but that won’t take long. Now go get ready.”

I used my phone index to find the number for our plane and pilots. It only took me a few minutes to get hold of them and get the CJ4 ready to go pick Dorothy up. Then came the tough part.

Going back into the saloon, I told Mika to wait a minute as I needed to get the girls up. I raced up the stairs and woke my two women. As she was coming out of her fog, I told Jules, “Dan is dead. He died of a heart attack in Miami. I’m going to tell Mika and it might be good for you two to come down to make her feel better.”

Katie and Jules were instantly awake and slipping their shifts on. I told them to brush their teeth and then come down. I was going to break the news to Mika.

I sat across from Mika and took a big gulp of my Bloody Mary. “There’s no way to delicately put this, Mika, but Dan has had a major heart attack and died.”

Mika stared at me for some long minutes, and finally said, “I love Dan more than should be allowed by law. I would do anything for him and constantly did. I thought that we were smoothing things out after some very bitter talking while he was first suffering from ED. I kept trying to tell him that guys have that problem as they get older, and it wasn’t a problem that couldn’t be overcome.”

Mika came to sit on my lap and hugged me while tears were streaming down her face. She kept saying, “I really do love Dan, even if he did try to leave me.”

Jules came into the saloon and immediately began consoling Mika. Nobuko came into the saloon almost as soon as Jules came, and sat with her and Mika. She gradually learned the gravity of the situation. I was able to tell Mika that Dorothy was on her way. I had sent my plane after her, so she would be here in a few hours.

Nobuko asked me, “Should I call Hideki or Yuu? Will this affect any of their dealings?”

“It won’t now, Nobuko. Our job will be to make sure that all Dan’s dealings have been accepted by whatever country he was escaping to. It will take a long time for those in the company to get over losing a partner. I think that we should try to keep his actions quiet.”

The stately Japanese woman said, “It’s such a waste to have a man leave us with his wife not knowing he was leaving. Your Jules and Katie are good for Mika. Let me gather the gown of a new widow.”

I had a long list of things that needed doing, so I went into my office and called our LA legal counsel’s off hours contact number. A young intern still in law school answered the phone. I gave him all the details and told him to locate the body and make arrangements to have it shipped to Indianapolis. It would be fine if it has to be embalmed before shipping, but that should be done as fast as possible.

No one was going to want to deal with Dan’s body. It/he needs to get back to Indy regardless of if he’s buried or cremated.

I was working on my second Bloody Mary when Forest and Ann showed for some wake up spirits. Ann changed her order to grapefruit juice with vodka. Charles happily made it for her. I told the couple while they were at the bar, “Dan died in Miami last night. He was at the airport when he had a massive coronary and died before he reached the hospital. I’ve advised our legal counsel out here to locate Dan’s body and have it sent to Indy. I’ll need to call him to tell him where to send it. Have you had much discussion with Dan as to how he wanted to be handled if he were to die?”

Forest said, “I have an envelope from each of the men that advise me, or whoever is counsel at the time, of what they wanted. I guess this is going to cut our mini-vacation short. We’re going to need a funeral director in Indy, so I’ll call the funeral home that the company has dealt with and have them expect Dan’s body. We have a few days for Mika and us to make our minds up. I’m sure that it’ll be at least a week before Dan is sent home with all the legal stuff that has to be done.”

I asked Forest, “Could you be the bearer of bad tidings to Kurt and Ken? I can do it, but it might sound gentler if you do it.”

The other two partners were in the saloon with their wives to have various spirits to wake up, and heard the news within fifteen minutes. There surprisingly were no tears from any of the women, including Mika. Dan’s actions had destroyed the friendship that been built over twenty years together.

I was standing with the men when Kurt said, “The partnership life insurance will buy out Dan’s portion of the business if Mika wishes to give up Dan’s rights as a partner. Forest was the smart one and made us have a buy/sell agreement among us if one of us should die. The life policy will secure Mika’s future, although she could still have a fourth of the company’s stock if not the proceeds of the policy. Their personal life policies will be enough to carry them through any problems they may have while attempting to recover from this loss.

Forest said, “It’s possible that Mika may want to assume Dan’s seat on the Board. I know from experience that she’s very knowledgeable about Mooney and its operations. She might enjoy the business challenge, and can be the tie-breaker if we all want to do something in different ways. I think we men would probably enjoy having a woman such as Mika working with us.”

Ken said to me, “Thank goodness that you’re back to being in charge of this region and the South Central. I know you’re going to give up the South Central when San Antonio is smoothly running, but that won’t be for another couple of months. I’m sure that you’ll do the same with the Central California region and the Northwest. You really did have a direction and method on how to get all the offices and regions straightened out.”

Kurt asked, “This may sound crude, but we’re out here in California with our clubs and a host who belongs to several country clubs. I think the three or four of us should go play some golf. We might have trouble getting a tee time, but I’ll bet Jules has pull somewhere.”

“Let me call someone I’d like you guys to meet. He might be able to get us a tee time.”

I called Don Patrick, the pro at Heritage. The man always had a smile in his voice. He said “How many will be in your group?” when asked about tee times.

I replied four, and he said, “How about eleven o’clock? This is Saturday and it’s all carts today.”

“I’m bringing the partners from my company to play, Don. You’ve met a couple, and you’ll meet the other partner today. I want them to meet the Manager I’m going to hire to get our country club running right. You’re going to want to give me a number so that I can have the home office set your salary up for now until we can remake the club. You’re going to be very busy for a long while.”

“This is great, Brad. I’ve been bored to tears out here, and this will give me some objectives. Thanks for considering me. I’ll be good for your company.”

I told the guys that we had an eleven o’clock tee-time at the usual club, but I didn’t know which course we would play and it would be in carts. They were happy and moving toward the big table that had food for us to eat buffet style.

Forest made some calls, and then called the LA counsel so that the intern could follow up with the Miami people to get the body embalmed and ready to ship to Indy. I heard Forest tell the intern to make sure he ordered a dozen certified copies of the death certificate. It could take a week, considering the bureaucracy that I knew existed down there.

The legal counsel called someone in Indy to get Dan’s letter from the safe about what he wanted in case of his death. Whoever it was he called said that he should have it within an hour and would e-mail a copy to his and my e-mail addresses. This was about all we could do right now. We would need to wait for responses.

Jules came to tell me that she was taking the ladies on a shopping excursion. She would have June drive and Mitsi accompany them, while Sumi went to play golf with me. Jules told me that they would come back to the house and get Dorothy when she arrived. Brindle or Vicki would go get Dorothy at the airport.

It was good that life was going to go on; even though Mika was probably still in shock over Dan’s leaving yesterday and then dying. The beautiful woman, who could be Jules’ older sister, said, “That Dan died is so much better than him running away from me and the company. I’ll miss the man, but I won’t miss his recent attitude.”

The Indy group’s formal introduction to Don Patrick went very well. Don told the group, “I filled out your company’s online employment application so that you can investigate my background. Most of us golf bums come from a university program, and my education just so happens to be in hospitality and business management. This opportunity Brad is offering is ideal for me to progress in this business.”

We had gone to the club a little over an hour early to meet Don and practice a little. I was stroking the ball very smoothly, and kept relating playing golf to playing pool. Both required focus and a smooth swing or stroke.

The course we were playing was the toughest of the country club. Not many golfers apparently wanted to challenge themselves on a course like this. The people in front of us were only a party of three and the people behind us were another group of four, so we were able to move along fairly fast.

The front nine holes were really tough. I was low man at four over par, with Kurt at ten over. The back nine was supposed to be even more difficult, but it wasn’t that bad after the difficult front nine. We all made up strokes and I ended only two over. Kurt was six over, and Forest and Ken were tied at three over. The pro couldn’t believe our scores when we went into the pro shop with our cards. He told the men, “You guys are amazing. Even the pros that come here to practice hardly ever shoot par on that course. I can’t believe Brad’s improvement since he’s been playing.”

I asked the pro for a tee time for tomorrow, and he rattled off several openings. We reserved the nine thirty spot for the same course. We left our clubs with the pro to have them cleaned and stored for us.