Chapter 5

It was about a month later when Mark received a letter from the publishing company. The letter said they received and reviewed his story and wanted to publish it. They would publish it in November when book sales increased because of the coming gift-giving season. A contract was enclosed which they asked him to sign and return. Remembering what Doris had said about amending the contract, Mark took it to Ron Stallings for him to do the amending.

Ron was out but Carley was in. He explained the situation to her and what Doris had said or recommended. Carley understood and quickly amended the contract. Since it took her ten minutes to do it she said there was no charge.

Mark couldn’t help but notice a change in her attitude toward him now that he was going to be a published author. Her being that way gave him some thought that he could now probably bed her. Her having that type of a changing attitude however was a big turnoff no matter how good of a lover she would be. Because he thought that was how she was, he didn’t want anything to do with her. He thanked her for her help and left the office.

At his home, Mark decided to replace the covering that was on the bottom shelf of the bathroom vanities. In removing one of these coverings he found an envelope underneath one. Contained in this envelope were five traveler’s checks, each one for one hundred dollars. It was obvious they were hidden here for safekeeping. Since they weren’t meant to be part of this home’s turnkey purchase, he mailed the checks to the seller along with a short note. The seller’s address was on the papers Mark received when he purchased the house.

Two weeks later Mark received a letter from the seller. The letter thanked Mark for his honesty in sending the checks and finished with the comment, “Did you find any jewelry?” Mark just shook his head after reading that.

The book ‘The Mavericks” was published and received favorable reviews. Because of the plausibility of the story and what was currently going on in Washington, the book became a best seller. It was on the bestseller list for three weeks. The publisher wanted Mark to write another book.

Mark received his first check from the publisher for the book sales. He returned the check and asked that it along with future checks be reissued with twenty percent going to Emily and the balance to him.

A week later Emily was in his office waving an envelope which he assumed contained that check.

“What’s this?” she said.

“I would guess that it is your share of the book sales.”

“You wrote the book, I just did the editing. I don’t deserve this money.”

“Sorry, but you did more than just editing with those fifty pages you added so the money is yours.”

“What am I going to do with it, I don’t need it.”

“Do what you want with it. You have mentioned that you regret that you haven’t traveled much. Take a cruise or visit Europe and tour that country. Reward yourself because if you didn’t do the editing I doubt the book would have been published.”

Smiling now Emily said, “I’ll think about doing that.”

There was some talk about Mark writing a second book and dictating it rather than writing it on his laptop. Emily said she would transcribe it as that way she could edit it at the same time when she transcribed it. She did ask Mark if he had a storyline in mind.

“Yes I do, I think I am going to continue with this character and have him continue in his efforts by having some Federal Judges retire and making a few long terms local politicians wrap up their careers. This one I am going to call “Term Eliminator.”

Mark did write the story and this one in dictating it part-time took him six months to do not including the time to do the outline. There was no rush on his part to write his second book. Emily did the transcribing and editing. The story was submitted and published and hit the bestseller list where it stayed for four weeks.

A television network through his publisher contacted Mark and indicated they wanted to make a six-part television show involving this character. He asked Ron Stallings to handle their request and negotiate the best deal.

In discussing his next book with Emily he thought this character had run his course as a blackmailer. For what he had successfully done for him, the billionaire as a reward made arrangements for the hero to use his law degree and join a very prestigious law firm. There although he was an attorney he probably wouldn’t be going into the courtroom but would be handling the tough situations celebrities and powerful people can get themselves into and want to get out of. Now he would be looking for blackmailers instead of being one himself.

The checks Mark was getting from the publishing company had him open a brokerage account. He put his funds into an S and P five hundred ETF but thought he should also be investing in some individual stocks. He did do some research for stocks to purchase on the net as well as remembering businesses that seemed to be growing.

He had now completed the outline on the next book which took him a while to do and he started dictating the story.

Things except for his social life were going well for Mark. He thought he could say that until one day when it all turned to crap. That happened when in the late morning Nancy came up to Mark and said she just heard the sad news about a fitness center member.

“What did you hear?”

“I heard that Emily Keefe died. When a friend of hers phoned her and Emily didn’t answer her phone the friend became worried and went to Emily’s house. There she found her collapsed on the floor. They assume it was a heart attack.”

Mark didn’t know what to say and he was shocked to hear this news. He did ask Nancy to find out what the arrangements were as he considered Emily to be a good friend.

There were a large number of people who attended the wake and the funeral. Emily was a teacher and affected many lives for the better was what Mark saw and heard in attending both events.

An older lady at the wake came up to him and asked him if he was Mark Andrews. When he said he was she introduced herself as Beth Snyder and said she was the friend of Emily who found her when she hadn’t answered her phone. Beth went on to say that she had retired as a teacher about a year ago and had replaced Emily teaching her classes when Emily retired.