Chapter 76

I woke about three in the morning with a nagging feeling that something was going on. I thought real hard about what I had been doing and what I was planning to do today and tomorrow. It was too early to get up, but I put workout clothes on and went out into the yard to do forms so that I could relax to go back to bed. I usually encountered the night guard, but didn’t see him nearby.

I heard the door open and Mitsi and June came out to join me. I saw a figure in the corner of the yard standing over a form as I turned. I held my hand up and motioned the two women back toward the house. We all three raced upstairs to get our weapons after I told them what I had seen.

My suggestion was to have Mitsi go out the front door, June go out the side door where the garage was, and I would go out the back the way that I had been before. I went to the middle of the grassy area and began a slow form that gave me the opportunity to view the corner of the yard, as well as all the area around the back of the house. The person was still there over the form on the ground, but I saw another man a few feet away. I tried to see if either had what looked like a weapon, but I couldn’t tell.

There was a loud groan after the sound of something hitting flesh. This startled a third person who was near the shrubbery to show himself and jumped up to look around. I walked over to the side of the building to pull the phone there to dial 911. I described what was going on and the potential harmed guard. I then called the guard shack at the entrance to advise them that the police were on the way.

I hollered to the intruders hoping that my two girl guards were prepared, “Whoever you are, you are going to be arrested for trespassing and harming our guard. You have no one else to assist you in getting away. Give up now to avoid being hurt or dead.”

Brindle came to the door holding a pistol, so I told her to stay at the door to keep it secure. I sent her inside to shut all the lights off so that it would be more difficult for the intruders to see any of us. I was focused on the guy standing over the form on the ground when I saw one of the girls off to the left, and another to the right, closing in on the three men still there. I watched and could tell that it was June who attacked the man on the right. Whatever she did, the man went down without a sound. It must have been Mitsi who pulled the man on the left side down in a chokehold and held him until he was still.

This left the man over the form who now was turning from side to side trying to see his cohorts. I hollered to him, “You are alone now and will be arrested by the police when they come. Hear the sirens? They are getting close.”

The man looked around trying to find a way out and raised his hand holding a gun. Something hit him on the back of his head and he crumpled to the ground. Both Mitsi and June immediately began checking the man on the ground. I ran across the yard and asked the girls, “What’s his condition?”

Mitsi said, “He has a good pulse, but he was hit hard enough on the back of his head to open up a large gash. He needs medical assistance.”

I hollered for Brindle to call 911 for paramedics and an ambulance.

Knowing that the police would be arriving at our gate, I went to the front of the house, opened the gate, and stood in front to wave the police car in. There were two police cars that slid to a stop and two men came from each car. I took them to the back of the house and showed them the guard who was down and then the men the girls had disarmed. June got up from attending to the downed guard and showed the policeman where she had left the man she had encountered first. He was alive but could barely breathe as he had been chopped in the throat. The two other intruders the girls disabled were both DOA but the man who had been standing over the injured guard was still alive and recovering from being knocked out.

It took most of a couple hours to get statements from all of us and to get the bodies out of the yard. It was now almost six o’clock in the morning so there was no reason to try to get back to sleep. An LA County Detective had shown up and promised to advise us of what he found out the four were after. He was surprised that we had contained the problem and had not fired a weapon.

One of the officers pulled the Detective away to have a private conversation with him. The Detective came back and asked if I had been flashing a lot of cash at the Rack the night before. I explained that I had played a few high dollar matches, but had given most of the one bet back to the opponent and used the rest to buy drinks and appetizers. The Detective said the man recovering admitted to following us home and then organizing some of his cohorts to rob the house as a home invasion because they felt that we had a lot of cash.

That told the tale, so I wasn’t worried those breaking in had other motives. I needed to advise Mattie to be on the lookout for men possibly watching players to see who would have big bucks on them.

All the police activity was finally completed, leaving our group without outsiders, so the girls and I began doing forms to loosen up and get ready for the day. I wondered what internal sixth sense woke us up.

The girls and I went upstairs to wake Debbie and get ready to go to work. I made sure to call each of the visitors’ rooms and found that they were awake as the time zone change let them awaken rested.

We had breakfast at the big table where I used the time to explain my plan for the day. June and Mitsi decided between them that Mitsi would escort the wives into the wilds of Hollywood for some shopping, while I showed the visitors how my office functioned.

June drove the small bus that seemed to constantly be needed with the five of us going to the office. All the Chicago men were in awe of the new three-story office building and the construction of the third floor of our original building. They thought that the scrolling arcade sign on both buildings made the complex look like a carnival.

We were the first in at 7:25, allowing the visitors to run around looking at the departments. One of the Chicago office managers came to my office and asked about the white boards displaying the previous day’s sales. The man said, “Are you trying to show a bunch of exaggerated sales to impress us? My weekend days have to stretch to make over thirty sales.”

I smiled at the man and told him, “Matt, the sales manager, or his girls don’t write the sale on the board until the contracts have been checked and forwarded to finance. He and his secretaries will be here any minute now and will show you the contracts sent upstairs. There are probably some contracts still on their desks left from when they had to leave at five yesterday.”

Georgia and Kelly came in, with Juanita following them. I made the introductions of the office people to the visitors, then watched as the new receptionist brought two huge boxes of pastries in. Matt walked in the office with a coffee mug in his hand and said to me as he sat in one of my desk chairs. “You’re not going to believe this but we already had three hundred and fifty-one good sales for the week as of closing time yesterday. Do you know that we might hit four hundred if we have a big day the way that Fridays usually are? Chica says that Danni is sure they will do over two hundred this week. You’ll have to find out how the North office is doing. Just think, we’ll be selling over a thousand properties a week when we get the new East and South offices open. We’ll be doubling our two billion dollar weeks.”

Frank and the other three office managers all loudly gasped at once. Frank asked, “Have you really had a week of two billion dollars?”

Kelly was leaning back in her chair, grinning, and offered, “The three offices will do over two billion again this week. Don’t you love those commissions and bonuses?”

Georgia announced, “I think that everyone is in, so let’s do the morning tour and find out what was turned in this morning.”

The sales secretaries were putting sales on the whiteboards and were already up to twenty-six with folders to be listed still in a pile. It looked like a good day would put this office over four hundred. The running number for total gross sales was way over two billion. A quick glance showed that the average sale price was running just over seven million.

We left that jubilant area to follow the sale. The decorators and engineers were sorting out their assignments, so we went up to finance where Jimmy had done some remodeling. He had a medium-sized conference table where he answered questions from his clerks and directed what needed to be done next. He said to me and the Chicago men, “This is better than hiding behind my desk. I can look everyone in the eye when I book the money for approval. I got the idea from the way you handle people, Brad.”

Jimmy sat back in his chair and observed, “I really thought the North office would take away from my outside of company money sales, but we’ve actually increased the number of outside loans so far. I wonder if the two new East and South offices will do the same.”

I introduced the Chicago crew to Connie, explaining she had created an amazing reporting program that gives me daily numbers for all offices in the regions that I was responsible for. Those numbers are now available to every office manager and all the current Regionals. Ask nicely, and she’ll fly up to work with your accounting people.”

Connie told the men from Chicago, “Listen and learn from Brad. It’s guaranteed that your numbers will improve using Brad’s techniques.”

Georgia led us back to my office, telling the visiting men that she was skipping the Title office, Decorators, Engineer/Architects, Pool construction, Survey, and Insurance departments as they were all loaded up processing business.

The men sat at the conference table with a cup of coffee, and Kelly told me, “Danni and Chica said that you have to see them so they can brag a little. Chica has been teaching a class on getting listings in both buildings. She is the one who found the deal on the bankrupt condo that she made an offer on. I sent all the data to the partners and have already heard from Mika. She said that Forest would be out to close the deal Monday. Go see the Foxworths and you can give them the news.”

I pointed at Kelly and said to the guys, “Come check out our condo division.” I told the Chicago men, “This location will handle most of the accounting for all the projects except the Civic Center,” as we walked across the parking lot. “The Civic Center is going to be so big that it will require up to eight office managers and a huge accounting office.”

The Condo office front door burst open to let Danni and Chica run out to me. Danni breathlessly said, “We did it! We just took two contracts to finance that give us two hundred and one sales this week. All my salespeople are already out at our locations or at appointments.”

Danni pulled my head down and whispered, “You did it; the doctor confirmed it yesterday evening. I already called Jules and Katie.”

I smiled at the exuberant Condo Office Manager and asked, “Do you want to show off your office?”

Chica said, “Come check us out. The only people here are in our finance, accounting, insurance, title, and maybe a decorator or architect. Everyone else is in the field.”

I told Danni, “I’m taking these men to see our Condo sites. Do you want to lead the tour? We also need to show Frank and his men our lowest priced units and a luxury development home. Let’s have June drive us to the standalone condo project then out to the new Country Club project. It must be complete because I saw that an inventory home had been sold out there.”

Danni grabbed her purse, but Chica said that she was teaching a class in the main building at nine.

We rode to the standalone Condo and were shown through the model. All the men praised the architects who designed the great looking buildings. Frank was even impressed because both of the salespeople were with customers who appeared to be in closing interviews.

We went out to our biggest Country Club project from there. The entrance, driveway, and all the parking areas were paved now, with beautiful landscaping everywhere. We rode around the club buildings out to the first three-level building that contained twenty-four units. The Chicago men gasped at the beauty. We drove farther out to look at the homes that were already built and the six other homes in progress from there. We went into a model and were given a tour of the beautifully furnished and decorated home.

I asked Frank, “Could you sell a home like this?”

He grunted and commented, “Anyone could sell something like this. This would be a two or three million dollar place in Chicago. The condos are very nice too. Do the homebuyers get a deal on the Country Club?

Danni spoke up and advised the visiting men, “The condo buyer club membership fee is included in the price of the home, with their annual fee included in their monthly maintenance fee. The regular homes will pay their fees in the homeowner tax district. Bar and restaurant tabs are billed separately in both cases.”

I told the group, “Let’s get back to Hollywood for lunch at my favorite business restaurant.”

Frank asked, “Why not eat at the club here? We can critique it for you.”