Chapter 2

We went ahead and opened up escrow on the property the following morning. Mr. Bennett called me and he strongly advised me to set up a formal limited partnership agreement that clearly spelled out all the various ownership positions and setting down exactly how everything was to be run. He recommended a lawyer to me who he claimed was very well versed in limited partnerships. I followed his advice and Ray and I made an appointment and went in to see him that next afternoon. He recommended that we have a single general partner, Ray, and that Billy and I be the sole limited partners. He drew up two separate agreements between Ellen's parents and I, and between Ray and my parents. The partnership was to have a maximum lifetime of seven years. We had to file copies of the partnership agreement with the state, and it became a separate tax paying entity. The main advantage, as far as I could see, was that the limited partners had far less liability in the event that the deal went sour. Ray, on the other hand, was now more subject to scrutiny by regulatory agencies, and he assumed most of the financial liability in the event that things got screwed up somehow. To offset this, Ray had almost unlimited powers to do anything he wanted to with the partnership assets without having to secure prior approval from the limited partners. Ray could borrow on the partnership assets if he chose to. I probably should have paid more attention to all the details before Billy and I signed everything, but I relied on Ray almost totally on these deals and didn't question what I was giving him in the way of control over this investment. Billy signed just because he saw that I had. My parents and Ellen's parents signed their separate agreements with Ray and I, and everything was all set to go from our end.

We went ahead and closed on the deal early in order to give Ray the best opportunity to get the land divided up into three pieces and to line up the buyers for the two smaller parcels we were planning to sell off. As soon as the land was ours, Billy sent out a crew to survey the trees and plan out a harvesting program for the logging that he would be doing. After a couple days had gone by he phoned me to say that everything looked okay from his end to begin the logging. I told him to start as soon as he wanted to, and that I was leaving all of that strictly up to him because I didn't have any plans or time table of my own.

It was to be almost the last thing about this investment deal that didn't have problems and complications to it. Ray did manage to get the property split up into the three separate parcels, just like he had planned for, but it wasn't done quickly, and it wasn't accomplished nearly as easily or as cheaply as he had projected. Watergate was still in the news every night and the president was about to resign in disgrace. Inflation was also in the news, but only in so far as it was making it harder for builders to get credit for their projects. Manny Trujillo was one of the first builders to fall victim to the financing problems, and he lost his whole development to foreclosure with the banks when his takeout construction loans and and a series of bridge loans came due and he hadn't been able to complete a single home. Manny had fallen victim to the practice of doing everything with subcontractors rather than using construction crews of his own. Overnight, his Farley's Brook project was stopped until after the several banks that were fighting over who had priority could come to some agreement. There were numerous subs that stepped up claiming that they hadn't been paid for their work, and various liens were filed against the project as well.

Because of the uncertainty of the times, all of Ray's land speculator friends were sitting back on their heels waiting to see if the bottom was going to drop out of the market, so they could step in with their cash and be bottom feeders. After six months had gone by without any progress in the development other than Billy's steady harvesting of the trees, Ray had pretty well gone through all of the money that he'd borrowed from my father, and was looking to me for financial help. Ellen's mother was calling Ellen every other day, giving her plenty of grief over her contention of Ellen's having coerced her into coming in on what she now was referring to as "Jackie's Folly". Ellen, in turn was begging me to step in and do something to get her mother off of her back. Theresa, though to a much lesser extent, was showing signs of nervous strain about the possibility that the mortgage would come due before we could sell the properties and we'd all lose the land, and with that, any hope of getting our original investments back. Billy had become awfully quiet around me as well, to the point where I felt a distinct tension when I came out to the farm to pick up my loads and discuss the furniture business and the following week's delivery scheduling. I finally decided that it was time for another dinner and meeting about the investment situation. I made damn sure to hold it at Ray's house this time, since he was the general partner and he'd be the one doing almost all of the talking.

We had a nice meal, only talking about the food that was served. Sandy had been taking classes at the YWCA, studying authentic Mexican cooking, and she'd really gone all out with tacos, chile rellanos, and taquitos, including an nice quacamole dip and chips, and a homemade salsa. She even made authentic Mexican beans and rice, with cheese melted over the beans. It was once again the ten of us, and this time there was much less talk about family and children growing so fast. This time the table conversation centered squarely on who was to blame for the fact that our big investment wasn't going anywhere. I took as much of it as I could before I finally had to tell everyone to be quiet and just let it go until we were done enjoying Sandy's wonderful dinner. Sandy had been the one most affected emotionally by the heated table conversation. She knew how much trouble Ray was in, everyday trying to make something happen on the land, while still doing everything in his power to not lose their own dream house and the property it was on. Ray had rented out the little caretaker's cottage next to his house, trying to get at least a little money coming in for food and the other things they absolutely needed in order to live. Their home was really beautiful, big, and with a view of the river that was breathtaking the first time that you saw it. It is safe to say that no one in our family had ever owned anything to compare with that property. We all retired to the big living room after we finished eating, and then the inquisition began in earnest.

"I know that all of you are as disappointed as I am that things don't seem to be running as smoothly as I thought they would go when we first formed this partnership. The investment and building climates have shifted significantly since then, and I don't think that there was any way that we could have anticipated any of it. I want you all to know that I am still working towards a profitable conclusion to this investment, and that I have confidence that we'll all make good money in the end. Do you have any question or points that you want to have clarified by me?"

"I've got a question Ray, where are we going to get the two thousand a month to pay the taxes and interest on the land after Billy gets done cutting down all those trees?" Theresa probably tried to keep the anger out of her question, but, if so, she wasn't entirely successful.

"The partnership agreement clearly calls for the limited partners to pay any assessments I might need to make in order to protect the partnership assets and to meet partnership obligations. To date, because of the logging money, it hasn't been necessary to make any assessments. Hopefully, the trees will continue to support our debt service for long enough to allow us to pay down or pay off the underlying mortgage. After that, all we'll have to worry about is approximately two hundred a month for taxes on our remaining parcel."

"So Billy and Jackie get stuck throwing more of our money down the drain every single month, and you get to just sit up here in this big mansion of yours and wait comfortably for the day we finally get rid of this investment. Have I got that right Ray?" Theresa was definitely not trying to hide any of her anger now.

"Theresa why are you being so hateful to Ray? You might not know it, but we're probably going to lose this big mansion, as you call it, and every penny we've ever put into it. How long did you think we could go without a penny coming in to pay our bills? How do you think Ray feels when he talks to you all the time and he knows that you're all blaming him for something that he didn't have any way of anticipating? Ray has done everything he possibly could to make this investment work out for all of us. You seem to think that you're the only ones who stand to lose anything if it doesn't turn out good. You couldn't be more wrong, Theresa. I hope that you're satisfied knowing that we'll be out of our home any day now, so you won't have to envy us having such a wonderful place to live in and raise our family!" Sandy got up and ran off into one of the back rooms, crying as she ran. Ray got up, as if to go after her, but seemed to change his mind halfway and sat back down in his chair.

My father got up and signaled my mother to get up as well. "We'll be leaving now Ray. You tell Sandy that we'll help in any way that we can. Don't you worry about that insurance thing anymore, you hear me? We'll just wait and see how this thing plays itself out. You come over and see me tomorrow, okay, and I'll see if I can't come up with some idea or something to get you some money to get caught up on some things." They left right away. Ray turned to Billy and Theresa and explained that things were hard right now on Sandy, because of their money problems, and because they had just found out that she was expecting again.

"Maybe the rest of you can afford to simply sit around and watch your money get flushed away, but not Tom and I. We've got two girls still at home or away at college, and a grandson with a medical condition that we need to worry about. That money was important to us, and I'm sorry we ever got involved with the lot of you." Tom looked stricken as he listened to his wife's words, but he'd long ago given up any thoughts of trying to control either his wife or his eldest daughter when they decided to speak their minds.

"I'll tell you what Flo, even though I can't really afford to make you this offer, if it would make you feel better about things, I'll buy you out of your share of the investment. There's one condition to my offer though, you have to promise never to bring it up again with Ellen. What do you say?" Ellen started to protest, only to be rudely countered by her mother.

"The whole ten thousand Jackie?"

"Yes."

"What about the interest that we've lost?"

"I withdraw my offer Flo. Good luck with finding someone to give you another one."

"Forget the interest then. When can we get our money back?"

"I'll go to the bank tomorrow. Will that be soon enough?"

"That will be fine. I'll consider this a binding agreement."

"Florence, it is at times like this that I wish fervently that we'd never met each other. Jackie, you don't have to buy us out. We both knew that there was a risk to making this investment. You can be sure that she wouldn't be offering you terms if it had turned out to be profitable."

"Tom, I want to do it. Ellen is too worried about this thing already. I think we'd all feel better if she didn't have to worry about constantly having to answer your wife's questions and accusations. I'll have Ellen bring over your money tomorrow. Can you make sure that she gets the original partnership papers that you and I signed when she drops the money off?"