Chapter 41

Tamara's ringing phone woke me up that Friday morning. I heard her answer, and then felt her leave the bed. I rolled over and saw her walk out the bedroom door. She quietly closed the door behind her. I was curious; was she being quiet to not wake me or was it she didn't want me to hear her conversation? I couldn't believe I was doubting her.

I got out of bed and went to the bathroom. When I came out I could hear her yelling. I opened the door and started down the hall. As I turned the corner to the stairs, I saw she was yelling at whoever was on the other end of the phone. Feeling this was an awkward situation, I went back to the bedroom quietly.

I thought for a minute and decided a shower would be the best way to act like I didn't hear her. If she wanted to tell me, then she would find the right time. The water felt good but my mind was on my baby. I hadn't heard her yell before and it was a little disheartening. It also brought to light how little I really knew about Tamara Sanger.

I expected her to join me in the shower but that didn't happen. After about ten minutes, I turned off the shower and stepped out to dry off. For the first time since I met Tamara, I felt naked and... I felt helpless. Thousands of thoughts were running through my mind. Should I get dressed and leave, should I climb back in bed, or should I get dressed and go downstairs and fix coffee?

I dressed and did the hair thing. I was beside myself, I was usually in control and right now, I wasn't. When I was completely ready, I opened the door and listened to see if I could hear anything downstairs. All was quiet so I went down the stairs. I reached the bottom and turned toward the kitchen. There I saw her balled up on the sofa. She was crying with her face buried in a pillow.

I walked around to the sofa and sat on the opposite end. I didn't say anything. I just looked at her. She looked up over the edge of the pillow. Her eyes were red and tears were streaming from them. "Will you hold me?" she asked.

"Sure, baby, come here." She flew into my arms and buried her face in my chest and began to cry again. I held her and caressed her back. I didn't ask any questions. So much for my dry shirt... she soaked it. She cried for what seemed like forever yet it was only a few more minutes.

She started speaking, "That was my ex on the phone. He's such an ass."

"You don't have to say anything. Just relax."

"I need to tell you because he's on his way over here. He's bringing me some legal papers for me to sign. He said he's going to take me to court over my business."

"How long before he gets here?"

"Probably within the hour. He was at his apartment and he said he still had to get ready."

I reached for the phone. "Who are you calling?" she asked.

"Tom," I said. "Give me a minute."

I went into the kitchen and called Tom. I told him that he had thirty minutes to get to Tamara's. I told him to call the police detective he used for serving subpoenas and have him either come himself or get another police officer here as soon as possible. I asked him to call me from his cell phone while he was driving here.

I walked back in and asked Tamara to go upstairs and freshen up. I said it would be best if she didn't look like she had been crying.

My cell phone rang; I looked at the caller ID. It was Michael, the actor. "Hey, what's up?"

"Not a whole lot. I wanted to check with you on the Scottsdale deal. McKenzie's lawyer has been pestering me."

"I can imagine. I'll suggest to you what I did to Phil and Blaine, hire Tom as your attorney and have him deal with McKenzie's lawyer."

"I'll do that. Can you give me his number?"

"Better yet, I'll have him call you in a little while. He's on his way to meet Tamara and me this morning. Tamara's ex is starting some shit."

"John, you seem to get into some real interesting shit."

"I know, but what can I do?" I replied.

"By the way, this may not be a good time to talk about this, but how would you and Tamara like to come to LA for a visit and see part of the movie I'll be shooting?"

"I'm sure that will be great, but let us get through this first. I'll call you later after Tom gets here." Tom beeped in so I hung up with Michael.

Tom said he was five minutes away. I briefed him on what I knew which wasn't much. Tom said the police officer should be there any minute. Tom hung up and I went to the front to watch for the cop.

I saw a typical "brown wrapper" pull up across the street. A brown wrapper was a name for an unmarked police car. A guy got out, walked across the street and up to the door. I opened the door and introduced myself. His name was Dan Smithers. I invited him in and led him to the kitchen.

I told him I'd asked for a police officer to be there because there might be a domestic disturbance between my girlfriend and her ex-husband. He asked me what I wanted him to do. I told him I hoped all he would be doing would be drinking coffee with me in the kitchen. He smiled and said he liked my attitude.

Tamara came downstairs and into the kitchen. I introduced her to Dan. She asked him if he needed any more coffee and brought refills.

There was a knock on the door and Tamara went to answer it. I could see Dan tense up and position himself to see the front door. Tamara walked into the kitchen with Tom.

Tom asked Tamara to sit down and fill him in on the problem. I was impressed with the way he handled the legal matters.

"Sam and I separated two years ago. Our divorce was final almost four months ago. Within a week after the divorce was final, my grandmother sold me all of her hair salons, twenty in all. The deal was that she would carry the note and I'm to pay her a balloon payment in ten years.

"Sam got furious because he felt that he should be getting half of the income. I had been running the business for my grandmother for the past five years and she paid me a decent salary, but nothing outrageous. Sam is an engineer by education but is working as a glorified office manager for the local CPA association.

"He is living with the last woman he cheated on me with. Now he's in debt and is coming after my business under the guise that I already owned and had control of the business at the time our divorce was finalized."

"Why is he coming here this morning?" Tom asked.

"He said he was bringing me the court papers."

Tom looked at me and said, "My guess is he is trying to scare her into signing some legal papers giving him part ownership of the salons. Tamara, I suggest you do not accept anything from him. If they are truly papers issued by the court, then an officer of the court would serve them on you, such as Dan or me. "

We discussed a bit more but mostly just chatted. The doorbell rang; Tamara went the front door. Dan was watching with interest at what was transpiring. I saw Tamara let Sam in and lead him to the kitchen. Sam had started in on her immediately in a berating, badgering sort of tone. It seemed obvious to me that he was trying to bully her.

He did a double take when he saw the three of us sitting at the table. He stammered for a minute and asked who we were, as if he still ran that household.

Tom introduced himself and then he introduced Dan and me as his associates. Tom said, "Tamara mentioned you were bringing some court papers by and she asked if I could look at them."

Sam sort of backed up a step and said the papers could wait as they were for her eyes only. Tom said he was Tamara's attorney retained by her grandmother.

Tom continued, "One of the conditions of the sale is that Tamara isn't allowed to sign anything without me reviewing it."

You could have pushed Sam over with a feather. Sam said what he had for her wasn't for anyone else to read. Tom introduced Sam to Dan again and this time used his title, Sergeant Dan Smithers, APD Vice.

Dan stood up and showed Sam his badge. He asked for the papers. Sam reluctantly handed them to Dan who in turn handed them to Tom. Tamara had moved around the table and was standing beside me. She had her hand on my shoulder and I could feel her trembling.

Dan remained standing within a few feet of Sam. Tom was reading the papers with a very serious look on his face. Tom folded the papers and laid them down on the table.

"Dan, I think you can sit back down. Sam, these papers look above board. I think I can recommend Tamara to sign these. Is that what you want?"

Sam stood up a little straighter and said, "Yes, if she signs these papers then we can go to court and have a judge decide if she withheld assets in the divorce."

"Good, Dan would you mind reading Sam his rights? I want him charged with fraud. There is a clause in this document that gives Sam half control of the business. If Tamara had signed those papers, she would have lost half of everything to him."

I was shocked at what had just transpired. I watched Dan handcuff Sam. He then took out a radio and called for a patrol car. We didn't say much until after two police officers came and took Sam away in the car. I tried to ignore all the expletives that Sam had been spouting.

After Sam was taken away, Tom asked us to sit down. He wanted to explain what had happened. He turned to Dan and asked him to turn off the tape recorder; another shocker for me. Tom told us Dan had recorded all the conversation since he arrived.

Tom told us that since Sam presented the documents for Tamara to sign and falsely represented what was in them, he had committed extortion. He said there might be a few other charges after we looked into this and that Sam's ranting might be very detrimental to his case.

Dan said he needed to go to the police station to file the charges. We thanked him and he left.

"Tom, thank you for coming over here on such short notice this morning," Tamara said. "And John, thank you for taking charge and helping me."

"You're welcome, sweetheart," I said. "I just did what I thought was best."

Tom interjected, "John, if you had not interceded and Sam had gotten Tamara to sign the papers, Sam could have done some serious damage before Tamara could have legally stopped him."

Tamara asked what would happen to him. Tom said that more than likely he would plea-bargain this down to probation. "I'll try to see that a restraining order is placed on him."