Chapter 10

Leroy looked at Ed puzzled by his insistence that he meet this Tom person. Time was short that day, he had to be at the University in a couple of hours to meet with his professor. This was an important meeting as he expected to be told that he was ready to start writing his dissertation. It was about time since he had collected data over two full years.

George came down from the security center and opened the front door. The odd looking man, Tom Hardy, stood at the door looking over the front of the house with an amused expression on his face. Winking at George, he said, “What a dump.”

Not quite sure what to make of the strange man standing in front of him, George replied, “I take it you are Tom Hardy.”

“Guilty as charged,” replied the Tom as he spun around with his arms up in the air in a parody of a pirouette.

“Dr. Biggers and Mr. Jones are expecting you. If you would follow me, I’ll take you to them.”

“And if I choose not to follow you?”

“I’ll knock you senseless and drop your unconscious body at their feet,” replied George without a smile trying to figure out why Ed had invited this man over. It was hard not to smile, the man’s humor was contagious.

“Then I’ll follow you,” answered Tom as he ran his fingers over his mustache shaping the handlebars.

George led him to the formal living room where Ed and Leroy were waiting. As George turned to leave the room, Tom quipped, “Thanks James.”

“My name is not James.”

“Oh, I thought all butlers were named James.”

“I’m not a butler. I’m in charge of security around here. My job is beat abusive individuals into a pulp and pack them into suitcases, preferably three, to ship them to random destinations.”

Tom paused to look at George for a second. With a broad smile he said, “At least you won’t need to spend all that the money getting large suitcases for me. I ought to fit in four makeup cases.”

Against his will, George had to laugh at the little man standing in front of him. Shaking his head, he left the room with a parting shot as he said, “Must be a Druid.”

Without waiting to be offered a seat, Tom plopped into one of the larger stuffed chairs. His small body practically disappeared in the chair, but the energy of the man shone forth. Turning to look at Leroy, he said to Ed, “So, this is the man you insisted I meet.”

Shaking his head in amusement, Ed said, “Leroy, I would like you to meet Tom Hardy. Tom, this is Leroy Jones.”

Leroy looked at the little man and wondered why Ed would want them to meet. Although the little man seemed to be flippant, Leroy understood that Ed wouldn’t waste his time. Leroy nodded in the man’s direction and said, “What brings you here?”

Pointing at Ed with forefinger extended and thumb up in shooters gestures, Tom replied, “Him.”

Smiling at the antics of the little man, Ed said, “Tom works for the Game and Wildlife Department and brought a problem to my attention. He’s trying to contain Chronic Wasting Disease among deer herds in his state. This is a significant problem and one that deserves some of the best minds in the country working on it. Of course, I thought of you. I thought that since you were about to write your dissertation, that you might be interested in lining up a research area to pursue afterwards.”

Thoughtful, Leroy settled back in his chair trying to remember all that he could about CWD. It had first been identified in captive deer in Colorado and had slowly spread across the country in the wild populations of deer and elk. While there was a lot known about the disease, there were questions about how its spread could be halted and reversed. He had never considered pursuing this area of research, but could become interested in it very easily. He turned to Tom and asked, “What are your plans?”

Tom answered, “I’d like to put together a core set of researchers to study the problem, solely in terms of identifying efficient mechanisms for halting the spread.”

Ed slipped out of the room leaving the two men to discuss the problem. Entering the kitchen he found Marguerite seated at the table reading a bridal magazine. Sitting across from her, he said, “You only have two weeks of single life ahead of you.”

She smiled up at him and said, “I know. In a way, I’m lucky that most of the family is up at the Druid College. I can hardly concentrate on cooking.”

Sighing at the reminder, Ed said, “I think that this house is going to be empty much of the time over the next few years. The kids need to be around John and he has to stay at the College.”

“You are bothered by this.”

“I wouldn’t say that I’m bothered by it, but I’m saddened. I love this house and I don’t want to leave it for a long period of time. This is such a great town, and all of my friends live here.”

The comment about friends provided her with a perfect segue to a topic she wanted to discuss with Ed. She had a great surprise for him and knew that he would happy to hear her news. Marguerite said, “I finally found someone to fill in for me while I’m on my honeymoon.”

Surprised to hear that she had problems finding someone to take her place, Ed said, “I thought that you were going with the assistant chef of Jim Ritter.”

Marguerite had met Jim Ritter when he participated in the medieval party that John and Ed had thrown for Kelly and Beth. He was a professional chef and had helped in the kitchen. Since then, their paths had crossed several times as the best chefs in the area often met and discussed their occupations. She answered, “The owner of the restaurant where they worked was arrested for fraud. Jim and his crew have started their own place and can’t spare anyone.”

The owner of the restaurant had been Matt Henderson and had been a real jerk. His old rock-hunting partner, Kim, had dated him, but after one confrontational evening they had broken up. The upside for Kim was that she met her current husband. For Ed, it meant that he had lost his rock-hunting partner and assistant for his consulting business. He commented, “That guy was scum and the world is better with him in jail.”

Marguerite knew how much Ed disliked the owner of the restaurant where Jim had worked. Wanting to get the discussion back on topic, she said, “So that made my search much more difficult, but I finally found the perfect candidate. All you have to do is say okay.”

Curious, Ed asked, “So who is it?”

“Shauna Johnson.”

The choice shocked Ed. She was the assistant that he hired whenever they attended the culinary cooking contest in New York. He knew that she was studying cooking, but hadn’t realized that she had progressed to a point where Marguerite would trust her with the care and feeding of the Carter Clan. Curious, he asked, “She’s that good?”

Marguerite smiled and answered, “She has the same passion for cooking as I have. Until she started attending the competitions, she had never known how good food could taste, nor how amazing a dining experience could actually be. Next year, she’s going to be my assistant at the competition.”

That news really surprised Ed, as he thought that Bob and Marguerite would compete together again. It also meant that he would have to find a new assistant when he went to the competition. He said, “I’m happy to hear that she has found a passion in her life. I felt that being a clerk was not as rewarding to her as she deserved. When does she arrive?”

“Tomorrow,” answered Marguerite knowing that the real surprise was going to come when he saw her. Every year since Marguerite had started competing, Shauna had been losing weight as she adopted better cooking techniques and eating habits. Now, she and Marguerite were about the same size.

Pouring himself an iced tea, Ed said, “I had better get back and see how Leroy and Tom are getting along.”

Nodding absently, Marguerite returned her attention to the bridal magazine. As she looked at the pictures, she knew that she was going to have a wedding that would be the envy of women all over the world. The Carter Clan had spared no expense in making sure that she had everything that a woman could want in a wedding.

Seeing that her attention was lost in the magazine, Ed returned to the formal living room where the two men were locked in a discussion that was highly technical in terms of the biological characteristics of CWD. Ed sat down and interrupted, “Leroy, I thought you had an appointment with your professor.”

Leroy looked at his watch and then shot out of his chair as he said, “I’m going to be late.”

As Leroy dashed out of the room, Ed laughed knowing that his husband had found a new passion. He said, “I’ll have George set up a room for you to stay in for the next day or so. I’m sure that you and Leroy still have much to talk about.”

Stepping out of the living room, Ed called to Cathy, “Can you have George set up a guest room for Tom?”

She called back from the office, “Sure thing.”

Five minutes later, George appeared at the entrance of the formal living room. Glancing over at Tom, he asked with a forced frown on his face, “I take it this creature is staying with us.”

Ed answered, “Yes, he is.”

Smiling at George and the characterization of him as a creature, Tom quipped, “I only require a medium size kennel, some fresh straw, three meals a day, and a good bowl of water.”

Chuckling at the request, George replied, “I’ll take you to your room and explain the rules of the household to you. I shall have to trust that you’ll obey them.”

Mimicking the manner in which George walked, Tom followed him out of the room. Ed took a final sip of his iced tea and put the empty glass on the tray placed in the room for that purpose. Sarah would come by and clear the tray sometime during the day. With the kids in the house, he had thought they would need to get someone to help her, but she had handled the increased workload without a problem.

Leaving the house, he walked down the street to his old place that had been converted into an office for his consulting business. His new assistant was hard at work mapping out the results of their latest survey. Walking over to the workstation, Ed asked, “So, Terry, how’s it look?”

The young man looked up at Ed and said, “Not very good for the owners of the mine. It looks to me like they’ve tapped it out.”

The assessment didn’t surprise Ed as he bent down and looked at the computer screen. Pointing to an area, he said, “Can you give me a more detailed look at that area?”

Fingers flying over the keyboard, a three dimensional map of the area that Ed had identified replaced the original image on the screen. There were only a few notes covering that area. Terry shrugged his shoulders and said, “There’s not much there.”

Looking at the notes, Ed searched his memory trying to recall that area a little more clearly. He replied, “I want you to go back out there and survey that area down to a ten-meter resolution. There were traces of quartz in that area and perhaps they can make a profit off it.”

“Okay. You’re the boss.”

No matter how many times Ed had tried to get Terry to quit viewing him as a boss, he was meeting with significant resistance to that idea. Ed shook his head and said, “How many times do I have to say that I’m not your boss?”

“More times than you will have the opportunity.”

“You are using that relationship to keep from having to think for yourself,” replied Ed as he stared at his assistant.

“I would rather err on the side of caution.”

Rather than react directly, Ed looked around his house hardly recognizing it after the changes. The bedroom had been converted into the computer room where Terry spent most of his time working with a GPS system. The living room was the secretarial office with a waiting room. It was still absent a secretary, but he hoped that would change today. After two weeks of advertising for a secretary, they’d had one applicant and he had scheduled the appointment for that morning. Sighing, Ed said, “If you don’t start taking this position a little more seriously, then I won’t be able to turn daily operations over to you in six months. I want you to start thinking like a businessman.”

The idea that Ed would be turning the office over to him was news to Terry, and news that he didn’t want to hear. Staring in disbelief at his boss, he asked, “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that I intend to have you take over running this business in six months. Between now and then, I want you to start taking a more active interest in it, make decisions for yourself without waiting for me to tell you what to do,” replied Ed. This was a difficult discussion, but Terry was one of the brightest students that he had encountered in all of his years at the University. He knew the young man could live up to his expectations, but the lack of commitment to it was puzzling.

“You’re the expert,” replied Terry in doubt of his abilities to live up to the expectations Ed placed upon him. Never in his life had he ever had to work to his fullest capacity to impress people around him. The exception was Ed who pressed him with a relentlessness that was almost terrifying.

“So are you, you just won’t admit it to yourself. You keep taking the easy way out. That won’t be the case from now on,” replied Ed. The first test was going to be hiring the secretary for the business. The pair of them would have to work closely and Terry was going to have to select her.

Terry knew enough not to argue the point. The fact was that Ed was the only man whose talents he actually respected enough to want to work under him. Shrugging with a casualness that he didn’t feel, he said, “I hope I don’t disappoint. Did you ever consider that you may have misplaced your faith in my abilities?”

Looking around for something to use as a prop, Ed pointed to a glass of tea sitting on the desk. Watching Terry carefully, he said, “Suppose that you had a glass that was never filled beyond half full. The rest of the glass is wasted potential. You have to fill it twice as often than if filled to capacity. That is you. You are a glass that has never been filled to the top. We don’t know just how much you can hold, but I do know that there is a lot more to you than you’ve allowed yourself to expose to the world.”

Terry knew that the words had been spoken truly. A shudder went through his body as he considered the full implications of what had been told him. A life spent working just hard enough to be better than others around him had made him lazy and shortsighted. Ed was tearing apart a lifetime of bad habits with such ease that it made him wonder if he was that transparent.

A knock on the front door interrupted the thoughts of the two men. Ed went to the door and guided a young lady into the room. She took in his robe and medallion and recognized that he was a Druid. This only served to make her more nervous about being interviewed and she was already very nervous.

Trying to take her mind off her situation, she looked around the inside of the house. She was surprised by the business interior filled with desks, filing cabinets, and office equipment. When she had learned the interview was taking place in a house in a residential area, she had become suspicious that it was not a legitimate interview. Her boyfriend was in the car out front and would come running if she screamed. Ed, glancing out the door, noticed the nervous young man in the car. Sticking his head out the door, he shouted, “Come in. It’s a little hot out there to be waiting in the car.”