Chapter 69

I woke to the sound of my cellphone going berserk on the nightstand. “This is Johnson.”

“Mr. Johnson, I have just had your luggage delivered to your hotel. Please forgive us for forgetting to get it to you. My office is trying to get your aircraft replaced. We will replace it since your company owned it outright. My staff will go through the aircraft to duplicate all the accessories it has. Meanwhile, we want you to use one of our executive Gulfstream aircraft. We are extremely sorry for the process we put you and your crew through. We haven’t found your weapons yet, but we will. This has been a very regrettable situation.”

I was confused. What the fuck time was it anyway? Why would someone call me in the middle of the night?

I finally found the clock in the room and showed that it was eleven o’clock.

“Ah, I know this may sound silly to you, but I was asleep. I had to be up at three thirty this morning to catch my flight here at five. Thank you for finding our luggage, so now please find our weapons. I’m curious to find out what hit my airplane. Can you tell me?”

The voice on the other end of the call said, “It must have some been clear air turbulence that caused the damage. It was probably caused by some tests we were doing in the area.”

“Whatever. Find those weapons. There are risks to our security and we could need them to defend ourselves.”

“Yeah, right, Johnson. You and your unarmed bodyguard destroyed a couple of career criminals in front of your hotel. My men weren’t fast enough to help, but you didn’t need any. Just to let you know. We will be near you for a while. You do get into some crazy shit for a ‘know-nothing’ real estate guy.”

“Thanks for the warning. Tell your men to fly with us instead of hiring another aircraft. I’m on my way to Hawaii as soon as I’m done here in the Midwest.”

“We heard that. Our local men will stop surveillance here and others will pick it up in Hawaii. Don’t let it freak you out, and don’t let the security people you have get itchy trigger fingers.”

I called down to the front desk to let them know that they could bring the luggage to my room. I called back to the front desk when no one came, and they said that the luggage had been delivered to my suite. “Look, I’m in room 510, which is the last one on the right when you get off the elevator. Please bring all the luggage to this room.”

A soft knock on the door less than five minutes later was from a guy with a cart full of luggage. I held my hand up to stop him, and began checking the bags. Only my regular bag and my suit bag were mine. I called Debbie and asked her if she had all her luggage. She said that she had it all.

I woke the sleepy Sumi up and she sat up in bed, displaying her tiny breasts, and I asked her what bags were hers. We unloaded hers and set them aside. The bellman asked, “Would you like to be relocated to the suite that was reserved for you?”

“We’re here. You didn’t give Sumi a separate room, so she’s sleeping here tonight. Take the rest of the luggage on this cart and call the FBI, because it doesn’t belong to me. I don’t want to be disturbed for the rest of the day or night unless there’s a major threat.”

I made sure the night latch was on the door and slid back into bed. Sumi snuggled to my side and kissed my cheek. “It is so nice to sleep with my man.”

That was enough to keep me awake for another few seconds.

I woke up to my phone ringing again. I could see on the bedside clock radio that it was nearly seven. “Johnson.”

A voice said, “Who in the fuck are you to get so much attention? You wouldn’t accept all your luggage; you refused to be moved to your reserved suite, and now all kinds of people are trying to make sure you are not being harassed. I ask you again; who the fuck are you anyway?”

“I have no idea of what you’re talking about since I don’t know who is calling. It’s time for me to be up and about, so go away. I’ll be in the dining area in about an hour if you want to talk to me. Show me some identification and we’ll talk. Now go away.”

The phone immediately rang again, so I just said, “Johnson.”

Forest said, “I stirred the hornets up by calling my buddy in the Secret Service. I told him that you were an important part of the company I represented. He took it from there and began eating ass from the top down. I heard that you were given your luggage last night and refused a lot of other luggage they were trying to give you. I’d bet it’s all bugged. You don’t care one way or the other, do you?”

“Not in the least, Forest. What do I have to hide? They still haven’t found our weapons. I’m guessing they are running ballistics checks on them and that might take a while. I’m not sure about Sumi’s weapons, but mine is new. I’d bet Sumi’s are also new. Screw it, I can buy more guns, but it is a hassle.”

I told our legal guy, “We’re just about to come down for breakfast. Meet us in the dining room and we’ll talk. We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

Sumi and I washed our faces and brushed our teeth. We dressed in fresh clothes and repacked our bags. A clip on bug was really obvious, so I took it with me. I’m sure there were more, but they didn’t bother me since we weren’t a threat to anyone.

All the partners except Mika met us downstairs. Some guy who was being way too obvious about watching us came close, so I pretended to stumble against him and put the bug in his pocket. He apologized and almost ran away.

We all had breakfast and I was asked if I wanted to go see the office. I told the men that I wanted to fly back to Indy with them so that I could be there for the visitation this evening and tomorrow’s funeral. I was going back to LA after that, make sure all was okay there, and then taking off for Hawaii. Forest asked, “Do you still have vacation time left?”

I smiled and told him, “Let’s see, I’ve worked for the company for almost ten years. I get two weeks a year for the first three; three weeks a year for the next three, and then four weeks a year as an Office Manager until I retire. I took a week for being harassed so much. I think I still have most of about six months left. I’ve told my intentions to Mika, my reporting official, but I’m still going to stay in contact with my offices. So I’ll only be using a half day of my vacation while I’m off.”

“It will give me a few more free days if you guys show up on my doorstep to stay during our monthly meeting. What’s the deal, Forest? Do you think I need some needling to be made to feel at home?”

Forest gave me one of his lopsided grins, and said, “You know that you can tell me to kiss your ass. I was told you surpassed the dollar amount the partners set for you to be one of them. I’m not sure how many millions they have withheld, but I’d bet it is a bunch. You’ll still get all your office and region commissions, but you won’t get region commissions from all the offices in the company. We want you to oversee them to the point of teaching them to become top earners. We’re back to four partners again, and I believe that we all think alike. I’m happy to tell you all of you that my plans for retirement are shelved for a while.”

Ken said, “The plan is to use you to help with problems like the one Mika just had. She’s told us you had the place under control with a partial solution, and hadn’t even been there yet. Mika said that you had made the perfect choices to have everything moving right along. We want you to set yourself up as the person who will manage all our offices. We’re not talking about personally running them, but to work with the individual Managers to help them get rich like you did. It will take some time to get you set up to do everything.”

Kurt said, “This next part is something that I’m totally against. Ken, Mika, and Forest want you in the Indy office. I’ve been trying to tell them that it wasn’t going to happen. They think that you being a partner would influence you to move.”

I laughed, and said, “You have always been perceptive, Kurt. You’re on the money again this time. I know that being in the middle of the country could be an advantage to get to a trouble spot, but everything we do is usually at a snail’s pace. I can go coast to coast in five hours or so. Just so you know, I’m going to be spending about fifty percent of my time in Hawaii. I figure that you guys are going to want to spend a week for our partner meetings the same as you used to, but in Hawaii now where the accommodations are free at the moment. The other half of the month will be some make up time for the extra effort I’ll be putting in to make everything work.”

I looked at the three men and said, “We’ll talk about this again at the partner meeting next week. Plan on me not being in an office in Indy. You can give me an office, dust it once a week, hire a secretary for me who I’ll have so busy that she’ll be complaining. My work desk will still be a briefcase and in Hollywood. There’s too much to do out in the field to be in Indy.”

Ken said, “What would be your reaction if Mika and I made it a condition of you being a partner?”

“I’ll tell you the short version, Ken. Stuff it. The long version is that you don’t have anyone who can do what I do yet. There is one person, but she’s not ready yet. No, Forest, it isn’t Sheila. Handling just the three offices and watching the City Center begin shaping up is going to be a major time consumer. I think Danny can do most of the condo management, but she’s going to need a bunch of Assistants. She’ll do it if she finds a Manager for each group she opens. She’s already seen that she’ll have to have a major accounting staff. We’re adding the third floor to her building so that she can begin staffing it with experienced people.”

“I want you guys to consider what’s happening out in LA and in California. We’re about to open a bunch of businesses that will be doing more than a billion in annual profit. The Sales Office in LA has already surpassed a billion in weekly sales, and I know that it’s going to happen in San Jose and in north LA. Just think about having three offices in LA that are doing over a billion a week in sales. How are we going to handle the financing and title closings?”

“Maybe you guys should close up Indy and move out there.”

Kurt said, “There it is. He told you exactly what I told you on Friday. There is so much going on out there that Brad would be out there putting out fires all the time. He has it under control. Don’t disturb the natives and let the man grow that territory into something we would have never thought of. You’re supposed to give him the advantages of being in Indy, not just tell him how he could be there doing what he does wherever he’s at.”

Kurt asked the group, “Ask yourself this, would you give up a multi-million dollar home in LA for a palace in Indy? The man can play golf seven days a week, damn near three hundred sixty-five days a year. Thank goodness that he doesn’t like to play that much or we wouldn’t be seeing a billion dollar week. I get weak in the knees just thinking about a billion dollar week. Think about it, Ken, the entire rest of the country didn’t sell a billion dollars worth of property last week. The office that was barely making numbers two years ago did that last week. Why would we want to upset that apple cart?”

Kurt still had the others’ ears, and said, “I looked up Brad’s record with us since he was hired when Dan was so upset about how much he was making. He’s had a steady upward income progression and it was still growing in Florida. He had his Assistant sharing in his commissions and was still clearing far more than most Regionals throughout the country. We chose him to see if he could resurrect LA. He did, and you now want to penalize him and LA by bringing him to Indy. Get real. California sucks as far as being a tax haven. Hawaii isn’t much better, but that’s where the man lives and prospers. His wife makes so much money that it drove one of our partners nuts. Well, she’s in Hawaii now, and he’s still in LA wanting to be in Hawaii. I’m in favor of letting Brad figure out how to make LA work while he spends half his time in Hawaii.

Forest said, “Sheila says for us to just listen to Brad for a few minutes, and he’ll teach us more in that time than four years in college.”

I laughed and said, “That sounds like something from Rebecca’s mouth rather than Sheila’s. Thanks for the promo, Kurt, but the Indy people have to learn that I’m a company guy who doesn’t need smoke up my butt. First thing is can your aircraft handle three more people to Indy? I seriously doubt a replacement aircraft is ready to fly me to Indy and back to LA. We’ll take commercial to get home.”

Conner and Maggie had their baggage and said they would do as requested. I called the man who had called me this morning, and asked where I could pick up our replacement aircraft. I had my crew with me and didn’t know what to do with them. The man stuttered, and finally said, “This may take more than a couple days to get through our system. Your insurance company won’t pay until they can inspect the aircraft, and we can’t allow that yet. Our agency will reimburse you for your aircraft, but you’ll have to be patient. I’ll forward our billing address to you so that you can charter what you need. Most charter companies will recognize our billing number and not give you any trouble. Call me back if you have trouble with the billing.”

I still didn’t know the name of the guy I was talking to.

I called a local company that advertised that they supplied charter aircraft worldwide. Yeah, right. The company didn’t have a business CJ4 available, but said that we could have a Citation X for the same amount. I knew the CJ4 was a single pilot aircraft and that those larger required two pilots. I told the people on the phone; “Get me a CJ4 because it is going to be busy out of Bob Hope in Burbank next week.”

The voice said, “We don’t fly in or out of California.” Click.

WTF. After hearing what the charter company told me, Conner said “Let me get us an airplane. I’ll try to get you something as nice as the one we just lost. Go to Indy with the others, and I’ll get us an airplane that will take us home and do what you want while you’re in Hawaii.”

Debbie, Sumi, and I rode to the airport in a hotel bus and were ushered into the aircraft. I sat in the far back with Debbie and Sumi as I was really concerned about the partners. Sure, they declared that I was a partner now, but they all seemed to want to gang up on me to do what they would already know I wouldn’t do. I was wondering if I could get my money back.

We arrived in Indianapolis in the middle of a nice spring day. The temperature was climbing over seventy, so it was shirt sleeve weather for residents there. I enjoyed introducing Debbie as my secretary and Sumi as my bodyguard. Dot was closely watching me since I was being a little gregarious with all my introductions. I made sure that Debbie knew Dorothy, or Dot, was where all the information for the company was housed. Debbie also knew that we maintained a lot of the management information that we held as private. Dot still didn’t recognize that LA had a handle on all the Managers, Assistants, and Regionals. Our database was growing daily as we added another column to each entrant’s knowledge. Debbie had suggested that the receptionist and alternate receptionist spend their days having some discussions (gossip) with all the receptionists and secretaries at every one of our offices. This was no small project and it was informative. It was fun to read the synopsis of the calls to my former territory and what was thought of Fred. The secretaries and receptionists all thought of him as a hot property and wanted to get permission to take him to a hotel room after work. His wife might have approved if she could ‘come’ along.

I made sure that we were out of the office and checked into a hotel before Mika and Dot could gang up on me to stay with them. I always used the excuse of what it would look like to Debbie, and that my bodyguard had to be near me. This could have been a great distraction.

I attended the viewing and didn’t look at the corpse in the casket. There was a lot of Dan’s family there, but two people who showed up surprised me. Hideki and Yuu were both there for a few minutes. I managed to maneuver them away from the crowd for a minute. I wanted a ride if they were going back to California. The two were on their way to Europe for an important meeting to conclude one of their new acquisitions.

Hideki explained to me, “Dan approached us to borrow a billion dollars for your plan to buy the property being offered that you wanted to build into a huge downtown condominium complex. We rushed to fulfill the loan request knowing your success at most everything you became involved in. We should have come to you, but we also knew that there is often jealousy among American businessmen that keeps them from making good decisions. You seemed to be enthusiastic about the City Center plan, so we wanted to help. Who would have known Dan was going to attempt to abscond with the billion dollars we loaned Mooney? The man could have done it if not for my granddaughter, Jules’, quick actions. I think my Jules would have figured a way to get it back.”

“You two are amazing. I hope that you continue to teach me how to deal with these crazy Americans.” That had both Hideki and Yuu almost rolling on the floor laughing. They questioned me about the collision with a strange aircraft during our flight and cautioned me about being too persistent about what the true cause was. The two shook hands, bowed a few inches, and disappeared as they are so good at doing.

Dai was following them and had me face him, away from other people. He slipped three handguns to me with a pocket full of magazines. He smiled at me and said, “Now we won’t worry about what the authorities may keep.”

At ten, Mika said, “I know you don’t want those in the office to suspect you of improprieties with me or Dot, but I would enjoy you staying with us.”

“How about joining Jules, Katie, and Willy in our bed while in Hawaii. I’ll bet that you could include Dot in that orgy if you were to bring her as support.” I didn’t hesitate and gave her a kiss on the forehead to promise some fun.

The woman smiled at me and whispered, “You’re right, as usual. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

We went back to the hotel and headed straight to the bar. Debbie said that I could fire her if I wanted to, but she was going to have one of the tallest Beefeaters the bar had. Sumi was smiling at me and said, “I’ll have to wait for next month if I’m not taken care of. I want something to drink as well.”

Dai would object, but I knew we were in a very safe situation. One of the people who were supposed to be obscure while watching us was nearby, and being very obvious. The guy couldn’t hide in a pile of pillows.

I ordered sufficient snacks to feed most of the lounge at that point. I had a medium-sized drink and enjoyed it while munching on veggies with a decent dip. What I wanted was some spicy sushi, but it didn’t look like a place to get any.

The bartender responded to my hand wave, so I asked him about any sushi he might have. The guy was genuinely surprised, and said, “The chef will create it for you if you can tell him what you want. He never gets to be creative.”