Chapter 16

With the permission of the FBI and with cooperation of the corresponding authorities in almost all the countries this investigation took us, we had chronicled the unfolding of the corruption scandal, from the moment Jasmine came forward through the trials of the major players. We didn’t divulge facts that would have compromised the good guys or the informants they turned, but it was still pretty stark, a really ugly look at people at their worst, casually discussing the deaths they had caused, the executions they had performed personally, the blackmailing and breaking of good families they held under their thumb. They discussed their utter contempt for the authorities in every country they operated in, and laughed at how many key players they ‘owned’ in America.

We had weeks of footage, and we huddled around the video players editing for months, trying to set the right tone and pace for the best dramatic impression. Finally, we had it down to eight hours that the countries involved would sign off on, and we shopped it, in four two hour segments. The bidding war was horrific, companies were offering us all kinds of things past money. I physically threw two cable company representatives out of my house after they offered Jen and Linds drugs, sex, and under the table money if they would get me to give them the documentary. They didn’t know it, but the whole thing was taped, and we put it at the end of the very last segment. The companies, of course, denied all knowledge of their actions, and both executives and four assistants were fired. We thought about doing a documentary on the lengths news outlets would go to get a story, but didn’t. Jen said it best. “Give me an old fashioned serial killer who does his victims in in a horrible manner over these guys anytime. I’d feel a lot cleaner at the end of the day.”

As Jen had told her mother, financially, we were comfortable. The returns from both documentaries netted us payments in the high six figures, and with residuals the money kept coming in. Jasmine had given the girls a parting gift for taking her in and hiding her while the scandal played out, half a million apiece in a portfolio managed by one of the best investors in the business. He was doing a really good job, so Linds gave him another quarter mil, and we gave him twice that. We were rapidly becoming his favorite clients.

Shaggy took his cut and bought a nice house a couple of blocks away, and moved his girlfriend, a recovering heroin addict, in. She was almost twenty years younger, and with his help, she got her daughter back from social services nine months later. She calls him “Pops”, which makes him smile every time. The girl is a little jock, and he drags us to all her soccer and volleyball games, where we scream our heads off and embarrass her no end. She talked Shaggy into getting her golf lessons, and he decided to see what the fuss was about. The first time he sank a birdie, he was hooked for life. Sandy talked her mother into trying, and she hooked Linds, until soon we all had the bug, and played so much we all joined a small country club.

Shaggy and Sandy got so good they won the Father Daughter Tournament five years running, until Sandy aged out and didn’t qualify any longer. She compensated by entering them into the Mixed Doubles Tournament, where they ruled for three years, until she went to college. We all sat around his big screen and watched his daughter win a televised tournament designed to show the world the future stars of the LPGA. Gwen, his wife, had surprised everyone when she got a cold and took an herbal tonic that killed her birth control pills. She found out she was pregnant, and was scared to death to tell Shaggy. He cried when she told him, then picked her up and twirled her around, whooping the whole time. Seven and a half months later their daughter, Grace, was born, coming into the world at eight and a half pounds and giving a lustful cry. She’s still the loudest child I’ve ever seen.

Linds took a lot of her money and bought the house next door to us when it came up for sale, getting a good price since she could pay cash. The agent never even got a chance to put the sign up.

She didn’t live in it, though, and said she wouldn’t until she found someone special enough to share it with, or we finally grew tired of her and threw her out. Like that was ever going to happen. She went away with some old college friends for a week long reunion, but was back in four days. Jen moped around until she returned, then they hugged and cried like they hadn’t seen each other in years. When they finally got done with each other Lindsey latched down on me.

“How about you, big boy? Miss your little sister?”

I pretended surprise. “You were gone? For how long? Doggone it Jen, why don’t you tell me these things?”

Linds slapped me, then squealed as I picked her up, swinging her around while she screamed in laughter. I put her down, kissed her cheek, and gave her a firm swat on her ass. “Welcome home, baby.”

We held a family meeting, Linds, Shaggy, Gwen, and us, to decide our future. We were all wanting to do documentaries full time, but it meant quitting all our jobs. Gwen, pre-drugs, had been an accountant, so we had added her to the family business in that capacity, although she did more, lugging equipment around when we were in the field, and became pretty good at running the camera. Shaggy and Gwen were the least financially secure, so they had the most to lose. We had money, but these things can take a life of their own, and be expensive to make. We talked it to death, agreed to think about it until the weekend.