Chapter 4

When Roger opened his eyes again he reached over and turned on the light next to the bed. It took a few seconds for his eyes to focus and then he looked at his watch. Damn, it was four-thirty in the morning. He had slept eight hours. He never slept that long.

He pushed the covers off of his stiff body and put his feet on the floor. He knew that he'd never get back to sleep so he decided to take another shower and check out of the Days Inn and get some breakfast.

He took a quick shower, trying to avoid waking anyone in the next room and then got dressed. Within a few minutes he was ready to check out. There was a different desk clerk on duty and he paid for his bill with his credit card and asked for directions to a place that served a decent breakfast. The clerk suggested the Denny's on Front Street. Roger thanked him and went to his truck.

Roger pulled a legal pad out of his truck and headed for the restaurant. Since it was still early the Denny's wasn't busy. There were only three other tables occupied. He ordered a big breakfast since he was hungry, having missed dinner last night. After his order was taken he started to list all of the particulars of the deal with the Hamms, the contractors and Paula Barton. He had a few questions for Paula that he had to clear up before he left Binghamton. He wanted to talk to Hal Iverson about everything before he got back on the road.

The waitress brought his breakfast and he asked that she keep his coffee filled, as he wanted to work for a while after he finished eating. He continued to write as he ate the Grand Slam Breakfast. By the time that he finished the meal he had three pages of notes. He went over the notes several times and drank the coffee that the waitress kept bringing. When he looked up he saw that it light outside and he signaled the waitress for his check. He left a twenty on the table for the waitress. She had been perfect. His coffee cup was always full and she had let him alone, apparently knowing that he didn't want to be disturbed while he was working.

As he walked outside he debated calling Hal. He knew that Hal would be up but that he wouldn't be awake yet. It took four cups of coffee for Hal to get moving in the morning. Hal was even a coffee addict in college.

Roger drove around Binghamton for a couple of hours checking out what the town was like. It had grown a lot since he was here as a child. There were many new developments and many of the homes in the developments were high-end homes.

After a while he pulled over to the side of the road and dialed his lawyer's number. After a couple of minutes Hal came on the line. Hal immediately had to put Roger on hold to take another call. When he came back Hal had a different tone to his voice.

"That call was from the broker that's been working on your warehouse deal. The company accepts your offer and they'll let you do the financing. I'll make sure that you're protected fully in this. They're sending a letter of intent today and they'd like settlement in about sixty days. I don't know what the big rush is. Most companies don't work that fast. That means you'll have a big chunk of money coming in in about two months and then a nice monthly income after that."

Roger didn't answer for a minute. This was much better than he could have wished for. If he had had to tear down the warehouse and develop the property he would have made a lot less. This was also a big annual tax saving for him but now he had to figure out the income tax ramifications.

"Hal, you'd better get with my CPA and see what we have to do to minimize the tax bite on this. We just might have to buy another property."

"Roger, when are you going to be in this area again? We have to talk about money. With this warehouse deal you'll have a monthly income that even you can live off of, even with the way that you spend money. There's also the issue about your father's assets. You just can't leave that as is unless you're here to keep an eye on things. It's just too dangerous."

Roger began to think about what Hal had said. His mother had died about ten years ago and when his father died he had left Roger a stock portfolio worth about four million dollars. Roger had never done anything with the stocks and he was letting his aunt live in the house that his father had owned. In the back of his mind Roger felt that if he sold the stocks or the house he would no longer have a link to his past. As long as he kept his parents assets intact he felt that he remained close to his mother and father.

"Hal, I don't know what I want to do with my parents investments yet. I think that we can leave things there as is for now."

Roger heard Hal let out a deep breath, "Roger you can't do that. Stocks are Ok if you keep an eye on them. With you traveling the country you can't react fast enough if something happens. Just look at Enron stock. It seemed like a pretty good stock until just before the bottom dropped out. If you had been invested in Enron you would have lost most of what you had in it. I know how you feel but I also know how you'll feel if you lose everything that your parents worked for all of their life."

"Ok Hal. Get with a broker and sell the stocks. I don't think that there's enough of any one stock to affect the market price if they're all sold at once. My father had a good diversified portfolio. In a couple of days I'll call you and tell you what to do with the proceeds.

Roger could hear Hal shuffling through papers and then he heard him talking to someone in his office. Hal asked him to hang on for a minute and Roger heard a woman discussing something.

Hal came back on the line, "Ok Buddy. I'm back. I had to hire another associate because of you. You're keeping me busy all by yourself. Maybe I should just have you as a client like that lawyer on the "Godfather."

Hal and Roger exchange good-natured barbs for a while and then hung up. Hal reminded him again that they had to talk money. Roger sat for a minute thinking about how his money situation had changed since he started this trip. He had to agree with Hal, he had been a bit free with his money but now he had much more money than when he started the trip. Maybe it's like the old-timers say... every good is returned to you threefold.

Roger dialed Paula Barton's number. When she got on the line she told him that she had the appraisal done and that she could meet him at the Hamm's house at noon. He told Paula that he would meet her there. After he hung up he decided to stop by Pete Salmon's shop to see if he had done any work on getting the new furnace delivered. When he pulled into the parking lot Roger saw that the shop was deserted so he decided to see if Aaron and Ethyl had talked to their children and then find out what their children thought about the deal.

As he pulled in front of the house Roger was surprised to find several workmen busy carrying material into the basement and another crew installing two of the windows on the house. As he walked up to Pete Salmon the workman stopped and waved at him.