Chapter 6

After they had gone, Roger went out on the patio to think a while. This house had created its own set of problems. In order to be able to keep it he had to get a job that would pay enough to be able to afford the utilities and the taxes. He had always thought about starting another company but the startup money wasn't available in this tight market and probably wouldn't be available anytime soon. He knew that there was a market for knowledgeable people that could go into a company and set up the IT; everything from the hardware to the custom software. But it would take big bucks to get a company like that up and running though.

He looked at the view from his chair. The house had an almost perfect view of the hills, the Pacific and Bodega Bay. After really looking at the layout of the house and grounds he saw that someone had put a lot of time, money and thought into the place.

Roger got up to see if the phones were still connected so that he could call and have something delivered for dinner. When he picked up the phone he found that he had a dial tone. There was a sticker on a small bulletin board next to the phone that had the number of a local pizza joint that delivered so he dialed the number and ordered a large pizza.

While he was waiting for the pizza to be delivered Roger began to look around the house. His first tour of the house had been quick and he had not really taken a good look at the place. This time he opened each closet and made a mental note of the contents. The house had more than enough towels and linens for quite a while and Roger even found soap, shampoo and a stock of men's toiletries and first aid items. The previous owner had apparently left on the spur of the moment.

In the master bedroom Roger marveled at the size. There was a round bed that was huge and it faced a wall of glass that provided a million dollar view of the Pacific. There was a remote on the bed and when Roger pushed a couple of buttons the bed began to turn. He found out that there was even a vibrating function built into the bed. There was a full bath off of the master bedroom that was bigger than most people's living room.

He opened the door to the walk in closet and he whistled at the size of the closet. There was a place for everything. Sitting on the floor was a medium sized safe. The door was closed and it was the type that had push buttons instead of a dial. Taking a chance Roger punched in one, two, three, and four. With only the light from the master bedroom, he turned the handle and the door opened a bit. Roger shook his head. Mr. Portman was too lazy to even reset the combinations on the safe from the default combinations.

He opened the safe and saw that there were things inside. Roger reached behind him and turned on the closet light so that he could see what was in the safe. Roger gasped when he saw that there was a lot of money in the safe. When he counted it, he found that there was forty-three thousand dollars in the safe. There was a large paper bag toward the back of the safe that appeared to have several packages in it and when he took it out Roger saw that they were like the packages of drugs that he had seen on TV. Roger had never used drugs and had never hung around people that did but he thought that the package looked like the kilos of cocaine that he saw on TV.

Roger felt around the safe and his hand found several pieces of jewelry in the safe including two men's rings that had to be worth thousands. Tucked away in one corner was a Rolex watch with a diamond face. Roger closed the safe and stood for a minute looking at it. He thought to himself that Mr. Portman must have lived a wild existence and that he had probably gotten out of town minutes before Chu caught him. Suddenly it occurred to Roger that maybe Mr. Portman might not have gotten out of town before Ben Chu caught up with him.

Roger decided to look at the car. When he got inside and started the engine the car came to life with a throaty roar that all Ferrari's had. The car was a 2004 Ferrari Maranello with fifty-four hundred miles on it. Roger sat in the car with his jaw hanging open. He knew that this car was fast and the maintenance on it was super expensive. He smiled as he thought to himself; Chu would never get this car away from him even if Chu was one of the most powerful men in San Francisco. This was every man's dream car. Roger turned the engine off and sat there for a minute soaking up the Ferrari ambiance.

As he walked back into the house Roger remembered that he didn't have enough cash to pay for the pizza. A went to the safe and took two twenties and stuck them in his pocket.

A car pulled in the driveway and a young man got out balancing a pizza. Roger reached in his pocket and pulled out the money. The pizza was eleven twenty with tax and Roger gave the man the two twenties. Lucky that he had found the money in the safe! The guy left the house grinning from ear to ear.

After Roger had eaten several slices of the pizza he went into the only room that had a TV and watched a couple of shows. About eight o'clock he fell a sleep in the chair and only woke up when a western on TV started a gun fight scene.

He went into the master bedroom, undressed and slipped between the satin sheets naked and was asleep within seconds.

The telephone ringing at nine o'clock in the morning woke him up. It took a second before Roger woke enough to reach over and answer the phone next to the bed.

"Well Roger, how is your new house?" Ben Chu asked.