Chapter 39

Chuck

The weekend had been good for me. Staying at the hotel with the kids had been good for me as well. Lisa, Frieda, Nancy, Judy, and I had a ball playing with the kids. We played cards, or rather a multiple deck version of "War." It's funny to have so many in the game. It took a long time to get completely around the table to everyone. It also took forever for someone to win.

We also played with about ten sets of checker games. Some of the older kids organized a game of monopoly with Frieda and Nancy, while Lisa and Judy were playing some video games with some others. As it got later, we had a snack and put in a Disney movie.

The kids all settled down on the floor with pillows and blankets. Glenda and Martin went to bed while the ladies pulled out one of couches and laid on that while watching the movie. I sat on the couch over a bunch of the kids and watched them all drift off to sleep. That had been fun.

Anyway, that had been a lot of fun, as was the nice hot sun. While I was down there, I called Rosie to see how she was doing. She said the house was ready for visitors again any time. I asked if she needed anything and she said no. She told me, "I get to spend a least a couple of hours sunbathing every day. You should come by to see, you know I sunbathe in the nude."

"You don't say. Hmm, I'll have to come by to see that. I might bring along one of my ladies, they like nude young ladies."

"Oh, Mr. Johnson, you are a devil."

"Not any more than your proposal, Rosie. But it's just to look, right?"

She giggled before hanging up on me. People do that to me all the time.

I was planning on making a quick trip to Miami this morning to see a man about a black bag I had. Out at the airpark, I took the Phenom and was quickly in Miami. My appointment was for ten thirty, so I was about twenty minutes early.

When I met with the jeweler at his store I said, "I wish to turn these stones into cash for an investment fund. I understand you buy bulk diamonds."

Mr. Cohen said, "Let me look at them. I'll have to evaluate each one and make sure they are all real."

"Yes sir, you will. If you don't mind, I'll stay with you and you can get this done quickly."

The man looked up at me quickly as I spread the diamonds on the tray the man set out for me, "There are a lot of diamonds here."

"I know. I'm sure you can have one of your other people test them for authenticity while you grade them. I've seen people grade diamonds quickly before. I'm sure you do it all the time."

"But I should weigh each one and that will take some time."

I suggested, "How about doing a hundred today and I'll come back for another appointment in the future. Or, you could weigh all of them after they are tested and graded. That way you can pay me on weight and grade just like you do at the market."

The man's face fell, "No, I can do this. You have a good suggestion. I don't want you to leave. You could go to someone else and they may make a good deal instead of me."

"Good, let me help."

"Oh no, you sit and watch. Here's a loupe to check what I grade."

Another man came with a bunch of tiny discs and tweezers. They sorted them first by physical size, then began using the discs to see if the diamonds were real.

The jeweler spent an exorbitant amount of time looking at the first diamond, then did the same on the second. He kept looking and looking at each diamond until he handed one to his helper and said, "You grade this one for me to see if you see what I see."

The helper took a long time examining the diamond then said, "I don't know what you think, but it is in the VVS-1 category."

The helper picked up one of the other diamonds the jeweler had looked at already and did the same examination. "Yes, definitely VVS-1."

The jeweler said, "This is going to be expensive, let's continue." It took three hours to look at all of the diamonds, and when they finished he had three piles. He pointed at each and said, "VVS-1 blue, then these are all VVS-1 white, and these five are VVS-2 white."

Next they weighed each pile first with a digital scale, then with a balance beam scale. The man noted the weight of each group and went for a sheet of paper that he had printed out from his computer. He calculated the amounts for the diamonds then subtracted ten percent from the total. He said, "I get ten percent for appraising them and reselling them. I will make more than that on these, but this is my final offer. If you want to wait to sell them, you still owe me the appraisal fee."

The amount was much more than I would have possibly thought. I gave him the bank transfer number and he went into his office to make the transaction. The helper said, "You know he's checking to make sure there wasn't this amount of diamonds stolen somewhere in the world, don't you?"

I said, "I think that would be smart, but I'm surprised he didn't do that first."

The helper said, "If I tell you and you get nervous and leave quickly, you might leave us some diamonds."

"As you can see, I'm not leaving. I am going to call my person who watches my account to make sure the money is transferred."

The helper laughed and went to the door of the office. "He's calling to make sure we transfer the money."

I heard the jeweler laugh while he was still in the office.

"Chuck Johnson for Ben Phillips."

"Just a second, Mr. Johnson."

"Hi, Chuck, what are you up to?"

"I need for you to make sure a good chunk of money is deposited into the fund as we're speaking. Can you do that?"

"Sure, hang on while I log into the account. Let's see, okay there is a transaction in progress and the amount is, wow, seven million, four hundred fifty six thousand? Where did that come from?"

"Some loose jewelry that I had from one of the boxes. Buy some houses for some single moms out there."

"We'll talk about it okay? The fund is looking good."

I said, "Thanks Ben, I'll talk to you later this week."

The jeweler had come back in with me and the diamonds and began putting them into trays. I said, "I have some miscellaneous jewelry that could have been stolen at one time or another. The pieces look expensive enough that it will take you some time to evaluate them and to check them out. I would appreciate it if you would do that. I will pay for your appraisal and if you want to buy any of the good jewelry, that would be even better. I'll bring it around later today. Do you make rings?"

The jeweler said, "Yes, we will make anything you want."

"Good, I may have a bunch of rings to be made and I want them all to be nice and to be alike."

"I can do that, Mr. Johnson. Please, bring your other jewelry by for me to appraise. If it is stolen, I can get it to the rightful owner, and if it is all good, I will buy it at wholesale market value less ten percent."

"Fair enough, Mr. Cohen. It was nice to do business with you. I'll see you later this afternoon."

I drove to the Magellan Company, where I was treated like a king. They wanted to feed me, give me champagne, a drink, anything. I told them that I needed to get something from the office on the boat.

They took me out to the dock and I boarded. I went down to the second deck below the main and went to the desk in the office. There, I used the key to open the door then keyed "chuck" on the safe's keypad and opened the door. I pulled out one of the bundles of cash, split it up to different pockets, then took the two big boxes of jewelry.

To make it look like I was after more than the box, I took a couple of file folders from the small cabinet then locked up everything. Topside, I thanked the Magellan people and complimented them on the work they had completed. The owner said that they should finish by Friday and for me to plan on coming down to get the boat then.

I drove back to the jeweler and handed him the two boxes. I said, "This should be all of the miscellaneous jewelry I want to get rid of. Hopefully, it is all good as the source was rich enough to have paid a fair price for it."

Mr. Cohen was happy to accept the jewelry and he and his helper made a quick inventory and gave me a copy of the list. It looked like a lot of glitter to me, but what do I know.

I was touching down in Tampa at four thirty. As I taxied to the big jet hangar, both of the little helicopters came back to their pads and took some time to get centered and set down on the rolling pads. Lisa and Sue got out of the helicopters. Lisa came over to me and said, "I like those things. The man said I was like you, a natural at handling them. You and me, Buddy, we're right for this stuff."

I told Lisa, "I'm on my way to the patio for a drink. Am I going to meet you there?"

"No, Chuck, I have to take some men to Atlanta. We're leaving at five thirty."

"Are you alone or do you have a right seat?"

Lisa said, "No one else is available. There are six passengers and we should have a right seat."

I said, "Let me call and tell Brandy that I'm doing the charter with you."

"Oh goody, we'll go see my mom while we're there. I'll call her right now, while you call Brandy."

We made our calls before I went in to tell DeDe that I was going with Lisa. She said, "Good, you don't even have to worry about a uniform. I'll get your name tag and these guys will be cool with it. Besides, you have a thousand dollar sport coat over a pair of slacks that has to be at least two hundred bucks. Man, you sure to do buy some good clothes."

"I'll take you down to the warehouse, DeDe. This coat was probably a hundred and the pants were probably thirty or so. The knit shirt was as much as the pants."

DeDe said, "You do have to take me there. I'll be out of this wheelchair soon. I want some of those good threads for that kind of money."

Lisa and I did the preflight on the Learjet with Jimmy watching over our shoulder. As we finished, he wandered off nodding his head. We must have passed, as he didn't say anything.

As soon as the six men showed up, I seated them as Lisa began the startup procedure. I pulled the door shut then settled into the right seat after punching the coffee pot button.

We were soon at altitude, so I got up and made sure that the pilot had coffee, and the passengers had what they wanted to drink. All six were straight bourbon drinkers. I showed them where the bottle was and went back to the cockpit as some of our Atlanta music came over the speakers.

Lisa was smiling as she said, "I always have some of our CDs with me whenever I fly. I play them for most of our customers. Nice, isn't it?"

We were down in Atlanta by seven, and after getting services for the aircraft, I rented a car and we were on our way to Peaches.

When we walked in the door, you would think we were some kind of aristocracy, or perhaps kids that had been away for ten or more years. All of the family there came running to give us both hugs. Mom, or 'Peaches' to me, was waiting for her hug from Lisa.

Peaches was getting upset as she didn't have anything special for us to eat, so Lisa said, "How about us taking you out for something? I know you don't eat until you close, so let's close early and go out."

The big black lady was undecided until I leaned over and said, "Come on, let your daughter take you and your kids out."

She smiled real big and said, "Let me get a clean scarf for my hair."

We drove to a fancy restaurant that Peaches said she wanted to try. There, I gave the maitre d' one of the hundreds I had and was immediately given a great table in the rear that was quiet and lavish. We were immediately attended to and everyone had coffee or tea, and Peaches had a glass of wine.

The young girls were fascinated by how ornate all of the place settings were, and how fancy the dinnerware was. We ordered some spicy crawfish for an appetizer and enjoyed the hot sweet delicacy as we talked. When the crawfish were finished, and before our salads were served, Lisa said to Peaches, "Mama, I think you will have to come to Tampa for my wedding."

The lady looked at Lisa with a surprised look and big tears began running down her face. She leaned over and gave her a big hug. "Oh, bless you child, bless you. I'm so happy for you, when is it going to be."

"I don't know yet, Momma, he hasn't asked me yet."

The whole restaurant heard Peaches begin to laugh. She said "Lordy, Lisa, how can you ask me to come to a wedding that you don't know whether it will happen or not?"

Lisa said, "It will happen, Momma. Just ask Chuck."

Peaches looked at me and I said, "It will happen. I really don't know when yet, though. I suppose I've asked her in different ways and we have the approval of all of our friends. I think there is something else that goes with this though. Ask her, Lisa."

"Momma, Chuck is building a beautiful home in Tampa for us to live in. It's very big and he's building some extra houses and apartments there too. How about you come to live with us down there? The girls can go to school there and I'll make sure they go to college. You won't have to work so hard, and if you want to cook, there are people we live around that eat together. You can cook with them."

Peaches had a serious look on her face, "Lisa, Honey, this is all I'se known for over twenty years. This is how I'se raised my babies, including you, Honey. I feeds lots of people at my place. You knows that."

"Momma," Lisa said, as she held the big lady, "You told me several times lately that you're just not making enough to even buy the girls clothes lately. You told me you were going to Goodwill to get their clothes."

The big lady hung her head and I could see a big tear run down her face.

"Momma, it's time I looked after you. I want you to live in lots of luxury, I want you to enjoy your days, and I want you around when I have my own baby to raise. Please, Momma, let me take care of you?"

Peaches raised her face with the biggest smile and said, "Sure, Baby, I'll let you do that, but leavin' here is gonna be hard. What will I do without Pops around or that big lug, Rags. They don't eat here much anymore like they used to, but they's still my best friends."

Now Lisa had tears in her eyes, "I know, Momma, but you'll have lots of friends where you'll live with me."

After we ate a delicious meal and went back to the little restaurant. We were sitting, having some iced tea.

Peaches looked up at us and said, "Lisa, Honey, I have a problem that's gonna be difficult to handle. We were short the rent and utilities last month and I borrowed from Sharky. You knows what he's like. He says if I don't pay him soon, he be takin' one of the girls to work for him. I have to do something about him."

That's when I said something, "How much do you owe him, Momma. Let's call him and I'll take care of it."

Peaches looked a little shocked and also had a little fear in her eyes. "Oh no, Honey, you can't do that. He don't know you and he's mean. Besides, he thinks he's gonna get one of my girls."

"Let me worry about that, Momma. You don't know me well, but I can take care of myself."

Peaches said, "He be big, I mean really big."

"It's okay, you know what they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall."

"Oh, Lisa, Honey, what kind a man you got? Does he do everything like that?"

"He's a good man, Momma, and he's a pretty tough guy when he has to be."