Chapter 25: Prepare to Repair

June,1985

[After showers, we ‘summoned’ Mary and Jamie, and got treated to a VERY erotic show, that left all of us in need of another shower!]

In the morning, we awoke at 6:30, then had breakfast at a Denny’s, right next door to our hotel. The weather was looking rather dreary. Just as we arrived at the airport, the skies opened up and lightning was striking everywhere.

Our flight was delayed for over an hour, while the storm raged on. I knew I was going to miss our meeting with Stan.

It was almost 11:15AM when our plane landed at DuPage County Airport.

Since I didn’t know where Stan’s office was, I decided to just go to our office.

I was dismayed to see Sam’s car parked in his spot. I was getting bad vibes because the meeting was so short.

I was headed for his office when Larry caught me. “You might want to leave him alone for a while Charlie, Stan just pulled the plug and shut down the project. I’ve never seen Sam this despondent.”

“No dammit, it’s not over, it can’t be! This isn’t the way I saw it ending.”

Larry just sighed deeply, “With everything I’ve seen, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but, now you’re telling me you can see the future?”

“Not with 100% certainty”, I exhaled, “and it’s not like I can see all the details.” I inhaled deeply, then continued, “but that building does get built and it turns out being exactly what Stan wanted. Didn’t Sam tell him that we found that notebook?”

“I don’t think he got the chance Charlie, Sam said that as soon as Stan learned about Jack’s scam and the cost overruns, Stan’s exact quote was, ‘That’s it then, I’m shutting the project down and cutting my losses.’”

I thought about it for a second and realized, that if I were Stan, I probably would’ve done the same thing, since the building was NOTHING like what Stan had envisioned. I went to Sam’s office anyway and closed the door behind me.

Sam really did look distraught and before I could say anything, he said, “I’m sorry Charlie, but Stan pulled the plug and shut down the project. I just got off the phone with Al Jeffries who is just getting on a plane to fly here. I’m pretty sure I won’t have a job in a few hours.”

“Well then, maybe the two of us should just join the French Foreign Legion and go fight the Mau-Mau on Kilimanjaro somewhere.”

Sam fought back a chuckle and sighed, “Maybe that’s what I’ll do, but you’ve got nothing to worry about. There’s no way Al would ever fire you.”

“If Al fires you, then I don’t have any reason to keep working here. Didn’t you try to explain to Stan what we talked about?”

“He didn’t even give me a chance, Charlie. I told him about Jack and what we discovered and how it was going to result in a cost increase and he got really angry with me and shut the project down. I tried to talk to him, but he just shooed me out the door and said it was ‘nice knowing me.’ I’ve never seen him that angry or disappointed.”

“Think about it Sam, knowing that building wasn’t going to be anything like what he wanted, would you have done anything differently?”

“No, I guess not. But, my friend didn’t even give me a chance!”

“Well, I still want to go and talk to him.”

“I can’t let you do that Charlie, it’ll just look like we’re begging.”

“Well then, I quit! Effective immediately.”

“Please don’t do that Charlie, none of this is your fault.”

“Look Sam, I don’t want to work here if I’m not going to be working for you. It appears that if I can’t get Stan to change his mind, then I’m probably going to end up working full-time for the FBI.”

I began looking through the Rolodex on Sam’s desk and found the number for Stan’s office. He snorted. “Charlie, you’re not gonna find him there. 100 to 1 says he’ll be at McGillicuddy’s, drowning his sorrows.”

With that I got up and walked briskly out of his office and out to my car.

Linda came running up, in tears.

“Sam said that you just quit! Please don’t leave Charlie ... I think I love you!”

I felt bad that she was upset over something that she clearly didn’t understand.

I whispered in her ear, “Linda, this isn’t over yet, but I have something that I HAVE to do. Trust me, you haven’t seen the last of me, I have pretty strong feelings for you, too.”

Linda sighed, “You promise me Charlie? I’ve been hoping to work with you for the last two years. I feel like all those dreams are going down the tubes.”

“Can you keep a secret Linda?” She nodded yes. “You and I ARE going to work together AND for a very, very long time. You have my word on that.”

The next thing I knew, Linda jumped into my arms and wrapped her arms and legs around me. She gave me a kiss that threatened to take my breath away.

I felt Mary tittering, “Are you going to need a ‘hall pass’ Charlie? I think Linda really IS in love with you.”

“Mary, I honestly had no idea, but I don’t think I need a ‘hall pass’ just yet...”

Linda had a bewildered look on her face. “Who just asked you about a ‘hall pass’ Charlie?”

“OH MY GOD, Linda, did I just say that?”

She looked even more bewildered, saying, “Not out loud, but I heard it just as if you did. What’s going on?”

“Ohhh Linda, you and I have a whole lot to talk about, but this isn’t the time. There’s something I HAVE to do right now, but, I promise you, I’ll explain everything as soon as I get things straightened out with Stan.”

“I’ll be waiting for you Charlie, I’m a little scared right now, for a couple of reasons. Please tell me everything will be okay?”

I took a deep breath and kissed her on the cheek, “You and I will be right as rain. I promise!”

She put her feet back on the ground and reluctantly released me from her embrace.

Then I jumped in my car and headed for McGillicuddy’s.

Walking into the bar, I realized that I had no idea what Stan looked like.

Luckily, it was just after 1:00 PM and there were only three people in the bar. Since two of them were women, I figured the guy with three shots and a beer in front of him HAD to be Stan.

Two of the shots were already empty.

I walked over and sat down beside him, asking timidly, “Mind if I join you?”

“I’m probably not going to be very good company. I just got done firing my best friend, but you’re welcome to join me.”

“That’s okay, I just quit my job because my boss just told me he was going to get fired.”

The bartender asked what I’d like to drink.

“I’ll have what he’s having,” pointing at Stan.

The bartender said, “Three shots of Maker’s Mark and an Old-Style coming right up.”

I realized I might’ve just ‘stepped in it’, because I’d never even TASTED bourbon before. This was going to be interesting. I knew that Greg loved it, so I felt it couldn’t be too bad.

I pounded down the first two shots and felt a burning in my throat. My eyes were watering as I told Stan, “Whew, just what I needed!” (I was lying my ass off.)

Stan’s dour look showed signs of a chuckle as he snorted, “Not used to bourbon are we?”

“Uhh, no, my buddy drinks this all the time and says it’s the best bourbon around. I thought I’d try it.”

I took a swallow of beer and could barely taste it. It did soothe the burning in my throat, however.

Stan turned in his chair and grinned, “Well, your buddy has good taste! Glad to meet you. My name’s Stan. I guess we can drown our sorrows together.”

“My name is Charlie, I’m glad to meet you, too.”

I grabbed my third shot and held it up as Stan grabbed his. “Bottoms up!”

We clinked glasses and downed our third shot of bourbon. (It went down much better that the first two!)

Curiously, I asked, “So what made you fire your friend? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Stan took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Well, the project he was doing for me turned out to be a COMPLETE disaster. The architect that he had designing my building was trying to use stolen steel, I guess. Because of that, there’s going to be long delays and huge cost overruns. That probably wasn’t really his fault, but at this stage of the game, I really just needed an excuse to scrap the whole thing.”

“Oops,” I said.

“Yeah oops,” he pondered for a second, then asked, “What did you mean by oops?”

“By any chance, is your friend’s name Sam?”

His eyes went wide. “Yes, it is, how did you know that?”

I thought for a second, “Well, that’s because Sam was my boss, until just a few minutes ago. You see, I used to work for Jeffries and Associates. Sam had me on this unimaginative, boring layout of a job that got all screwed up because of Jack Hoff. I take it you know who I’m talking about?”

“Yes, ‘Jack-off’ is more like it. Just what did you mean by unimaginative and boring?”

“No offense meant, but did you really want the building designed that way?”

Stan scoffed. “None taken and hell no! Between you and me, it was that layout that I was so dissatisfied with. I figured, at this late date, there was no way that building was EVER going to be anything like I imagined, so I figured this was as good an excuse as any, to pull the plug. I’m sorry you had to lose your job because of it. Sam isn’t really going to get fired is he?”

“Oh yes, I guess when he told Al, shortly after your meeting, Al made it fairly clear that this was going to be the last straw for Sam.”

“Wow, I really had no idea it was going to be that bad for him. Just out of curiosity, you said my layout was ‘unimaginative and boring’. What would you have done differently?”

I laid my hand on Stan’s and everything that I had guessed was reaffirmed. “Well, for starters, your first three floors appeared to be for commercial. Like specialty shops, restaurants, things like that?”

Stan was nodding his head.

I continued, “If it was my building, I’d want a three-story atrium, using E glass so that the sunlight would come in but not the heat. Instead of a cluster of six elevators in the middle of the building, I’d want to use escalators on the first three floors, one at each end of the building to take advantage of the open view. I’d also take two of the elevators and move them to the outside edges of the building and encase them in glass. That way, on one side of the building you would get a gorgeous view of the Chicago skyline and on the other a view of the suburbs.”

Stan was starting to ‘well-up’.

“That’s exactly what I wanted, Charlie! Jack ridiculed all of that, telling me that it was either impossible, stupid or would add undue cost. It’s probably too late to do that now though, isn’t it?”

“NO, it’s not! Because of the stolen steel, the entire building is going to have to be redesigned. Because of that, if I was still working on it, we could do anything that you wanted to do. There’s going to be a time delay, obviously and of course it’s going to cost considerably more than the original bid estimate.”

Stan began laughing.

“Charlie, I don’t care about the money! I’m a billionaire, even if this cost 10 million more, I can find that in the seat cushions of my couch.

“Will you answer something for me, honestly?”

“Yes Stan, what did you have in mind?”

“Would you really design the building just the way you said?”

“Of course! I told Sam when I first started working there, which is only a week ago, that I didn’t want to just DESIGN buildings. I wanted to make people’s DREAMS come true. Anything you can dream up, I would do my damnedest to make happen. You would have my WORD on that!”

“Let me buy you another drink, Charlie. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to make a couple of phone calls.”

I said, “I’d really like a Pepsi, if that’s okay. If I have anything more to drink I’ll never be able to drive home!”

“Barkeep, get my friend here a large Pepsi and get me another beer. We’re gonna be here awhile!”

With that, Stan ran off to the payphone over in the corner.

He made two calls.

One lasted less than a minute but the other one lasted almost 15 minutes and he was wiping his eyes as he walked back to me.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Better than okay. Fantastic! Sam is going to be here shortly and so is your buddy Greg, Tim Hansen and Larry Jones.”

“How did you know my buddy’s name was Greg?”

“When I told Tim the job was back on and that I wanted to meet him here, he asked me if he should bring Charlie’s buddy, Greg, with him. I told him the more the merrier!”

Greg flashed, “I don’t know what you just did buddy, but I’ve never seen Tim this happy. We’ll be seeing you shortly.”

“I just reassured a new friend that WE could make his dreams come true.”

“You’re the man, Charlie. You’re the fucking MAN. I love you buddy.”

“The feeling is mutual my friend, see you soon.”

Stan had a bemused grin on his face, “Did you just ‘zone out’ for a second Charlie?”

I chuckled, “No, I was just thinking, there’s a lot about me you don’t know. Like for instance, the reason I missed the meeting this morning was because I was stuck in Pittsburgh.”

Stan’s eyebrows went up, “What were you doing in PITTSBURGH?”

“Helping the FBI find and arrest Jack’s brother Frank. Frank was connected to the skinhead gang and they kidnapped my father and another FBI agent.”

Stan’s eyes grew even wider, shaking his head, “Don’t get me wrong, but how the hell could an architect possibly help the FBI with something like THAT?”

“Let’s just say that, designing buildings, isn’t that the ONLY thing I’m really good at. When I got here, I was seriously considering joining the FBI, permanently.”

Stan chuckled, “You’re pulling my leg, aren’t you Charlie? Or are you like some kind of ‘Ninja Warrior’ dude?”

“It’s a long story actually. Maybe I can tell you someday. For now, just suffice it to say that the FBI has me classified as ‘Top-Secret’. If you don’t believe me, you can just ask Sam.”

“Jesus, now I REALLY feel like a shmuck for kicking Sam out of my office the way I did. I never even gave my friend a chance to explain anything.”

Sam had just come in the bar and Stan went over to meet him. They embraced in a hug that showed me they had been very good friends for quite some time. Each of them must have said ‘I’m sorry’ at least three times, before they came over and sat down on each side of me.

Stan wasted no time, looking at Sam and saying, “Charlie tells me he was in Pittsburgh this morning. He had to go there to help the FBI rescue his father and another FBI agent?”

“I know he went there after getting a call yesterday that his father had been kidnapped.” Sam said, “and like an ass, I never even had the decency to ask him if his father was all right, or what happened to Jack’s brother, Frank.”

I mouthed the word ‘no’ to Sam to let him know not to say a lot. He got the message.

“Dad and Agent Johnson are safe now. The skinheads beat them up pretty bad, but they’ll be okay. Frank Hoff is in custody and will probably never regain the use of either of his arms. The FBI DID, however, recover a mountain of evidence and millions of dollars in cash. They also found more than three times the amount of steel that had been stolen and are now trying to figure out where it all came from.”

I chuckled, “That should make Mr Dunphy happy.”

Then it was Sam’s turn to chuckle.

“Stan, I didn’t get a chance to tell you. Tim and I had a long talk with Brian Dunphy, the owner of Dunphy Steel. It sounded like he was willing to work with us as far as getting us enough steel to finish the job. I’m sure some of the dust is going to have to settle before we get a resolution, but I’m thinking about having Larry and Charlie completely redo the plans. Larry and Charlie discovered that Jack’s idiotic plan for the fourth through 12^th floors simply wasn’t going to work. I’m just hoping the additional cost isn’t astronomical.”