Chapter 21

I got my acceptance from UT without having to buy a new library or a pool or something. My grade point average throughout high school at stayed at 3.85 or better and this year would be the same. That and my being a cash student got me accepted pretty quickly!

This line of thought made me think that visiting Austin over Christmas break might be a good idea. I wasn’t sure if living in the penthouse would be the best idea or whether I should get more modest student housing. Thankfully, while UT suggested dorm living for Freshman, you could opt out if you were not a scholarship student.

Talking about scholarships, I had a notification that I was being awarded a small grant! My name had been submitted and I had been awarded a grant by the Propeller Club of America! As the youngest American to ever receive a master’s ticket from the USCG, the PCA wanted to give me five thousand dollars to be used towards my education.

While I was flattered, and I expected Lt. Gannon had something to do with that, maybe the Admiral? It took me almost an hour on the phone to explain to the current president of the PCA that I really did want the money to go to someone else. He seemed to have trouble with the idea that I was financially solvent and was asking that the money go to a student who needed that help.

“I am certain, sir. There are bright kids my age who just can’t find or make enough money to go to college, and I want that money to go to one of them. In fact, I have instructed my lawyer to create a dozen scholarships and fund them from the Charity I started, because you inspired me to help others.”

“A charity? You started a charity? You are, but, you are so young!” the man sputtered.

“Yes sir, I am, but I have more than enough money, honestly. I do thank you and your organization for the recognition though, it was an unexpected surprise.”

We finally worked it out. The guy was still sounding surprised when we hung up, but he understood what I wanted. Now I had to make good on my claim!

“Yo, Terry!”

“Boss! What’s happening, big man? Got something for me?” Terry asked, sounding chipper. We had gotten even closer over the last few months. Now that he worked directly for me, he felt a lot better about being my friend as well as my attorney and investment guru.

“Yeah, I want to start some scholarships. I want to fund a dozen kids that couldn’t otherwise go to school. I want them to be need based, but fully qualified, if that makes sense.” I told him.

“So, the kids have to have the grades to get accepted, but not have the wherewithal to actually go without a scholarship?”

“Right, but don’t be overly restrictive based on income. I hear some of the kids in my class complaining. Their parents make too much for them to qualify for assistance or most grants, but not enough to put them and their siblings through college without help. Put the cutoff somewhere in the middle class, I think.”

“Okay, I can see that. Any strings or riders? You know, like you have to keep grades above a certain point or you have to join the military.”

“Good point, Terry. Grades are a must. I want them to remain above 3.0 to keep the money flowing. Put something in there that gives them a cash bonus, for anything other than school costs, if they stay above 3.5. Oh, and I want a rule that says, ‘No Studies Majors’. That means no major where the name ends in studies. Gender Studies, Race Studies, Sexual Studies, none of that shit. How do we word something like that?”

Terry was laughing and, when he finally got a grip on himself, he had to get something to drink before he could continue.

“You could make the scholarships specific to the sciences. STEM, you know, Science, Technology, Engineering, Math. No BA degrees, which means no art or English degrees. No studies.” Terry explained.

“Okay, I can see that, and it makes sense. How do we do that and add in business stuff too. In fact, I want to fund them if they keep their grades up and want graduate school, so like an MBA would be in bounds. Maybe just do Arts stuff if it is MBA related or just Masters level? Hey, I am at loose ends over Christmas and was going to Austin to scout the town for apartments and so on. Why don’t we meet while I am out there and hammer this out? I want to get some kids in school this year.”

“Sounds like a plan, boss man. Let me get a couple of folks together that way I at least have an idea what will be required. Give me your itinerary when you have it and we’ll get this rolling.”

I found Dean in his office, working on his book, and took a seat on the other side of the desk until he noticed me.

“Hey, Jack! Didn’t even see you come in. Some security guy I turned out to be!” he said with a laugh.

“You were busy and you know Deb is here.” I said, brushing it off. “Dean, as of Friday morning, you are on thirty days paid leave. You should use the AmEx to book tickets to wherever you want to go in the world, and to pay for your accommodations while you are there.”

I help up my hand to cut off his protests. “Dave has also been given the same instructions. Whether the two of you want to go chase cocktail waitresses together in Vegas or go separately to chase grass skirts on different islands, you are both off for a solid month. Go skiing. Go snorkeling. Take the E² or the E-Key if you want or rent something and just drift around getting drunk. Whatever you do, you can’t do it here.”

Dean looked thoughtful for a moment, mulish, but thoughtful.

“So, I could take one of the boats?” he asked thoughtfully.

“Sure. You can run them. Dave is a resourceful man if you take him along. If not, he’ll find a way to keep busy.”

“What are you doing while I am gone?” Dean asked suspiciously.

“Nunya damn business. You are on vacation. Still, knowing what a worrier you are, I am going to Texas. I am going to spend time with Terry hammering out this idea I have about granting some scholarships to kids who need money for college. I will not be doing anything scary, or going anywhere that I might run into fun, without you. Deb will come with me, then she can go skiing when you come back in January.”

He looked like he was going to protest but managed to swallow it again. Finally, almost as if it hurt him, he nodded.

“Fine. Damn. This is awfully short notice. Maybe we should put it off so...”

He was still talking when I walked out, giving him a one finger salute behind my back as I cleared the door.

Behind me, I heard a grumpy, “Asshole” but I knew he said it in with love.

Deb seemed okay with the plans, shrugging her shoulders. “No sweat. Make sure you get two rooms or a suite. That Steph plays for both sides and is a squirmy handful. Maybe she can break free for a couple of days, hang out with us.” she said with a wink and a grin.

Damn.

School was out at noon on Friday. Dean was flying to Austin with us, then taking a connector to Dallas where he was meeting up with Dave and a couple of guys they had served with in the military. It was going to be, Dean told me, a full-out assault on Vegas. My AmEx would pay for a huge, high-roller suite at the MGM and they were going to get drunk, and laid, for a week straight before using Jake’s AmEx for flights to Hawaii for recovery time on the beach. From there, who knows?

Sounded like a lot of fun! I made sure he understood that I really wanted him to have fun, and that it was on me, on my dime. He had been working non-stop since before I started my sophomore year at school! It was now the middle of my senior year without a real day off, much less a vacation, and he deserved it.

We were met by a protected Suburban and a professional driver, something Deb insisted on since my last visit here was so eventful. If, as I suspected, things were calm and cool we might be able to ditch the driver next week but, for starters, she felt better with some cover.

Terry wasn’t coming up until Monday, I didn’t want to take his weekend away from his family, so until then we were on our own. First things first, we were going shopping.

After two and a half years of working out, and going through puberty, I was now six foot, two inches tall, and I had added considerable bulk to my build, weighing in at two hundred and ten pounds now! My waist was a thirty-two now, up from twenty-eight just last Christmas, and my chest was pushing fifty inches! I was a big boy now by anyone’s standards. Not Arnold big, and I wasn’t willing to work that hard to get there, but I was happy with how things looked and was just maintaining now.

But, that meant I needed new clothes. In Key West, that meant buying surfer shorts and new t-shirts, not exactly something difficult to find down there. Here in the city though, they expected different. The two expensive suits I had bought in London last summer were already too tight in the shoulders and across my chest.

We spent almost all day Saturday getting me outfitted again. I would have bet good money, and lost it all, that Deb would not be a typical woman when it came to shopping. I mean, she was more macho that most of the guys at my school, right? Oh no! When I said “Let’s go shopping, I need a new wardrobe.” I thought she was going to mess her panties. She giggled.

GIGGLED! DEB!

I made her shop for herself as well, explaining that if we were going to be hob knobbing with the rich and powerful, she would have to blend in like she was back in Washington DC. Deb just nodded and we bought her a dozen new outfits as well.

She had good taste, I have to give her that. I came out looking like a million bucks, and a good five years older as well. I had five suits out being tailored and a pair of quickly altered jackets I could use in the meantime. We would come back on Wednesday next week for final fittings, and a few days after for the special-order jackets I ordered with extra room under the arm for a holster.

We went out to dinner Saturday night, after dropping all the packages off at the penthouse. I would use the place while I decided whether or not it would be appropriate for a student next year. Deb surprised me by showing me the G36 in a SOB she was carrying, assuring me that it was for me. She also showed me her deputy marshal’s badge!

It seems that She and Dean had been busy while I was in school this year. Not only had they gotten her sworn in, she had attended the training course that Dean still hadn’t gotten around to taking! He swore to me that he had been given a pass because of his military experience, but that he would go for the annual refreshers.

I had been told that Deb was attending a training course, but I hadn’t known it was for the marshals. I don’t recall what I thought it was about, though, so maybe I had been wrapped up in my juvenile high school stuff at the time. You know, being a kid?

Yes, I am still using that excuse and will until I am too old. Then it will be young adult or something, at least until I can start using “I am a senior citizen, don’t like it? Bite me!” like Jake does.

Sunday, we stayed in and just chilled. I got to meet the new building manager. She was actually a live in with permission to live in! The apartment was one of the perks that came with the job now.

Emily Davis was a divorced mother of two who used to manage a hotel in town. She resigned when she and her husband decided to have children and she had loved being a stay-at-home mother.

At least until her husband came to her and confessed to being madly in love with the male barista who made his coffee every day. He swore he had done nothing yet, but realized that he would, eventually, and asked for a divorce so he could explore this side of himself.

They still got along famously, and she even liked Vasily, her husband’s new lover. He came by religiously to see the kids, took them every other weekend and they shared or split holidays depending on the circumstances.

Emily could live on the alimony and child support, her now ex-husband made damn good money, but she had the itch to work again and, when a friend of hers heard about this job, she applied immediately.

The friend who suggested it? One Adam Trujillo! He and his wife were friends with Emily and Charles, even after the divorce, and Adam thought that her experience running a hotel would come in handy keeping the upscale apartments on track.

When Emily heard that there was someone in the penthouse, and she knew she hadn’t given out any keys, she made it a point to come up and introduce herself. Once the intros were done, and we had talked to Adam on the speaker phone so he could verify both of us, I insisted, I actually got her to bring her girls up and have lunch with us as we got to know each other better.

“Adam told me you were young, but I was expecting someone, well, younger? Smaller? He didn’t tell me you looked like a Longhorn.” she said with a laugh, meaning the University of Texas Longhorns football team.

“Well, to be fair to Adam, it was almost three years ago that we met and I went through a major growth spurt after I turned fifteen. My friends Dave and Dean got me into exercising and working out, so that helped a lot.”

“I’ll say!” Emily said with a fake leer.

Her daughters, Alicia and Maria, were ten and eight respectively. Both were cute as all get out and both seemed very curious about me and about Deb.

“Is she your girlfriend?” Alicia asked between bites of the pizza I had delivered. Maria watched, fascinated and her head swiveling towards whoever was talking at the moment.

“No, Deb is my friend. She is also part of my security team. She looks out for me.” I told her, refilling her soda glass. I had gotten the caffeine free diet Coke this time, in deference to the girls.

“Like a body guard? I thought body guards were boys.” Alicia said, cocking her head. Her mother smothered a laugh but looked at Deb and I curiously.

“What do you think the first lady, you know, the president’s wife, would like more. Do you think she would want a boy bodyguard or a girl bodyguard? The boy couldn’t go places like the girls’ bathroom or her bedroom to make sure no monsters were under the bed, but a girl bodyguard could!”

“I guess that makes sense.” Alicia said thoughtfully, then turned to Deb. “Did you protect the president’s wife?”

“Actually, I did, but not this one, the previous president. Then I came to work for Jack here. He is not as pretty as the president’s wife, but he is pretty nice for boy.” Deb told them, getting both girls giggling. Emily seemed amused as well.

“I guess some security makes sense after your last visit here. Adam told me all about it before I took over, in case it was a concern for me. There was no more trouble with the drug cartel, so I guess they were more concerned with finding a new place than sweating who was running an apartment building. Big weight off my shoulders, let me tell you.”

“I imagine so, with the girls and all.”

“Oh no, I waited three months to actually move in here to be sure! I wasn’t happy with the way our neighborhood was becoming more gentrified so I was glad to accept an offer for way more than the place was worth and move in to the apartment. We are closer to town, there is a great school just a couple blocks away, and I can go back to taking some courses at the college later.”

Emily and her girls would become almost family as time passed. Emily was an Aunt that I never knew I missed and the girls were favorite cousins. I even like her Ex and his boyfriend Vasily, but I didn’t meet them until Freshman year at UT.

Monday, Terry flew in, prepared to stay for a couple of days, and we spent Monday and Tuesday hammering out exactly what I wanted to offer to prospective students. We would offer a STEM based scholarship for up to eight full years with some provisos.

The scholarships would go to kids who had the grades and a recommendation from their school or a qualified counselor at the college; and who could not otherwise afford to pay for college. They would be in hard-core STEM fields or business fields and required prerequisites ONLY. They would not pay for any soft science based classes, no humanities beyond the required hours and would not pay for any classes not required for the course of study chosen.

The scholarship paid for dorms, a meal plan, books, a high-end laptop, all fees related to classes and labs and finally, gave each student a credit at the campus store for several hundred dollars in school supplies like paper and pens. On the non-scholastic side, it also paid for the student to go home twice a year, round trip, the timing was up to the student.

Last, but not least, I wanted to figure out a way for each student who wanted to have a part time job so they could have some spending money. This included paid summer internships if we could find enough positions for everyone. Whoever signed up to run this thing was going to be busier than a one-legged grasshopper kicking the seeds out of a watermelon. Or something.

Students would be required to maintain a 3.0 grade point level and, if they managed to maintain an average equal to, or greater, than 3.5 for a semester, they would receive a cash bonus that could be spent however they wanted and get that reward each semester they kept their grades up!

Failure to maintain their grades for more than two semesters or receiving an end of term grade below that point would place them in a probationary status. A third occurrence would mean loss of the scholarship. The only period that the grade point requirement would not be in effect would be their first semester. After that, they should have adjusted and gotten their shit together.

It sounded harsh, but I wanted kids who were serious, who wanted to learn.

We would hire a person whose only job was to monitor these students, a full dozen, to insure compliance with the rules of the scholarship. They would be responsible for travel, for making sure the students had the credit at their local college book stores, working with the school or even coordinating with the local employment offices to find jobs for the students and so on. He or she would be their second mothers.

We were going to provide free student counseling, including psychological counseling if the student needed it or just wanted help coping. We wanted to provide every tool the student needed to succeed.

Terry didn’t have anybody in mind but would check around to find someone to fill the mother role. In the meantime, we had to figure out how to get this idea cleared with the colleges!

Terry had set up an appointment on Wednesday morning with the UT campus administration, so Wednesday, after breakfast, we found ourselves on the steps of what the map just called the “Main Building” but what everyone else seemed to call the UTA Tower building.

We were meeting Marcia Alberghoney, from the UTA Office of Financial Aid and Trevor Patton, from the UTA President’s office. We had been at a loss where to even start when Terry got the idea to call Adam Trujillo who put us in touch with the Federal Judge he knew was a friend of Arturo Ramirez!

William Kenny was a contemporary of Judge Ramirez and an alumnus of UTA. Not only did he like what I was proposing, he thought he could help smooth things and, through him, we had the meeting we had set up for this morning.

When we walked into the building, the place was very busy already and it wasn’t even nine o’clock! There were forty or fifty people just in the big lobby area but, evidently, someone had been waiting for us to appear and had a description.

“Jack McCoy?” An older man, tall and well-dressed with a head of dark hair set off by silver sideburns, stepped forward and thrust out his hand. “Will Kenny, Jack. Arturo has nothing but good to say about you and I wanted to be here to smooth things over.”

“Good to meet you, your honor. Any friend of Judge Ramirez is always welcome! This is Terry Alcott, my lawyer and investment guru, and this is Deb Williams who is leading my security team.”

“Will, please, Jack. Good to meet you Terry, you come well recommended as well, even if you are an Aggie.” he said, getting laughs from several people. Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University, Texas A&M Aggies, were longtime rivals of the Longhorns, though it was mostly done in fun. “Ms. Williams, I hope you have nothing to do but follow him around during this visit!” he finished, getting a laugh from Terry and me, at least.

“Let me introduce you to the folks who can help you, or at least get you started. This is Marcia Alberghoney, she is actually in charge of the department that coordinates with various scholarship programs to both fill the slots in the programs and to make sure that both the school and the programs are both on the same pages.”

We all shook hands and the Judge turned to the man with her. “This is Trevor Patton who, despite the name, went airborne instead of into to Armor, to his father’s great shame. Still, he’s a good man and is the power behind the throne here at UTA.” Trevor laughed and gave me his hand.

“I think we might have a friend in common, though he seemed to be out of town at the moment so I couldn’t verify. You know Dave Foster?” Patton asked curiously.

“Ah, he’s in Vegas, I think. That was the plan anyway, a week there then recovering in Maui. Anyway, yes, I have known Dave for several years. He is as much to blame as Dean, his contemporary on my team, for my transformation from couch potato to fitness nut.”

Trevor Patton looked surprised, but pleased.

“Look, I have a conference room set up just over here. Why don’t we go and take some seats, get some coffee, and you can tell us what we can do for you, Jack.”

Once we were in the conference room, they all turned to look at me. It was an odd feeling, you know?

“I am going to fund a dozen eight-year scholarships for deserving kids who can’t afford school. They will be complete, housing, meals, books, jobs, all fees and so on. They will be restricted to STEM fields or business and won’t pay for fluff classes. If the students want to take underwater basket weaving, they can pay for it themselves. Since I am a Texan, I thought we would do this here and at A&M to start off with. It if is a success, we might include other colleges both here in Texas and nationally.”

There were several moments of silence as the three who were hearing this for the first time exchanged glances.

“Jack, not to be indelicate, but you can afford that?” Marcia asked, jotting a note in her folio.

“Ms. Alberghoney, I could write you a check right now to fund them fully from day one, though we won’t. The whole package, for twelve students for eight years will run about six million, and that money will be invested in a trust until needed each semester. That way, the interest on the investments will be seed money for the next set of scholarships. I want this to be an ongoing effort.” I told her with a grin.

She smiled and nodded. “Well, it was certainly worth asking.” she said with a shrug.

“Marcia, the Dave we were talking about in the lobby works for Jake Reilly. Jack here is, if what I hear is right, a protégé of sorts for Jake and, if not a contemporary, at least someone who is treated as an equal in those circles.” Trevor Patton said, trying to be delicate.

Marcia’s eyes flared, as did her nostrils, and I had to keep from smiling when I could suddenly smell her from where she sat across the table. Well, I knew what got this one going! Without being obvious, I scratched a quick note on my tablet and turned it so Deb could see it.

Deb’s only response was a casual kick under the table.

Our discussions lasted until one and the crux of it was going to be timing. The University of Texas was ecstatic and would do whatever it took to help out, going even so far as to contact Texas A&M about candidates and so on. We all promised to keep in touch and I promised to have my coordinator, as soon as I hired the right person, contact them to get things going.

The issue today was that it was a bit late to start the hunt for worthy candidates. For next year, we could have the selection criteria set up and a vetting process to pick the finalists. I would work with Terry and whoever we hired to manage the process to choose the winners.

For this year, we might have time to vet and pick three or four between the two schools, but it would require that we find a coordinator pretty quick!

I invited Judge Kenny to lunch and that turned out to be a good idea, since he wanted a private word with me anyway.

“Jack, I know we just met, but I might be able to help here. I have a law clerk who is the most able administrator that I have ever had. My docket and my desk look better than they have since my first day at law school. Unfortunately, she is never going to be a great lawyer. She is the most terminally shy and retiring person I have ever met and a courtroom would eat her alive. Any law firm she goes to will be cut throat, trying for the coveted partnership, and they would chew her up and spit her out.”

“And you think she could do this? But would she? She has all that school, all that training, do you think she would or even could change horses in mid-stream?” I asked, concerned about the girl as much as the job.

“She needs to take the Bar exam, no question there, but that would be a bonus. I think she could thrive working for you, doing this job. It is what she wanted when she decided on the law. She wants to help people, to make a difference. She was a scholarship student too, so she would understand how important this is. Now, obviously I haven’t asked her, but listening to you in that meeting, all I could see was her face. This is right up her alley and her internship is up Dec 31^st. I would be willing to let her go, to the right job, before then.”

“Can you get her to come down and meet us for lunch?”

While the judge was calling his intern, I figured I might as well get another meet and greet out of the way and dialed the number I had been given for Frank Pitts, the man chosen to be the Chairman of the Demeter Trust this year.

“This is Frank.”

“Mister Pitts? Jack McCoy here, sorry to call you out of the blue.”

“McCoy, as in the McCoy trust? No problem at all, Mister McCoy, what can I do for you?”

“Well, I am in Austin this week on another couple of projects and it occurred to me that we haven’t met yet. Since you will need to be involved in this other project, I thought there was no time like the present and called to see if you had eaten lunch yet.”

“No, in fact, I was going to ask Nancy to run out and get us some sandwiches.” the man said with a laugh. “Oh, before I get off on the wrong foot, Nancy is my wife of thirty years and the best administrative assistant I have ever had.” He said, a bit defensively.

“You should definitely bring her! Let me buy you both lunch. We are leaving the UT campus now, heading for the Capital Grille. I have no idea how long that will take, but you and your wife are cordially invited to eat with us and talk shop. Oh, and before I forget, please, please call me Jack.”

“Well, that will be easy for us. It is a three-minute walk. We have our offices in the Colorado Tower, the tall building behind the restaurant! We’ll meet you there in about twenty minutes or so then. Looking forward to it, Jack!”

When we arrived and were let off at the door, one of the perks of having a driver, the Judge led the way into the restaurant, saying that if there was any issue with getting a table without a reservation, that he would be as likely as any to be accommodated.

Deb said she would choose a seat at the bar where she could see the front door and our table, so we requested a table for six.

“We are meeting three other people, so if they have not arrived and ask for McCoy, that’s us.” I told the hostess, but she just smiled.

“Your party is here, two of them anyway. I will show you to your table and then let them know.”

We didn’t even have time to sit down before an older couple and a petite, very cute but obviously uncomfortable young woman were shown to our table.

“You must be Frank and Nancy? I am Jack McCoy.” I said, holding out my hand. They both looked a little surprised but welcomed me warmly. “To my left is Terry Alcott, you probably know him already since he is the one who shuffled money around for the trust. To his left is Judge William Kenny with the Fifth Circuit. Terry, Judge, these are Frank and Nancy Pitts. Frank is the chairman of the Demeter Trust.”

Hand were shaken all around and then the Judge, looking around, finally found who he was searching for standing almost all but hidden by a big plant.

“Everyone, this is Patricia Nance, the best law clerk and best law intern I have ever had in all my years on the bench. We asked her to join us here today.” Judge Kenny said, ushering Patricia forward, his hand in the middle of her back. He was, to all the world, a proud dad or even grandfather, considering their ages. We all made sure to greet her, but I noticed Terry seemed to be fascinated with the girl.

Once I explained who everyone was and what relationship everyone shared with everyone else, business could begin! After we put our orders in, of course!