Chapter 24

CHUCK – Hawaii – Day 17 - Wednesday

When I came down to breakfast, I was intercepted by the concierge, who handed me a large packet.

I didn't open it until I had finished eating, but as soon as I did so, I got the concierge to call me a cab and went straight around to the Deputy Marshal's Station.

When the Station Chief and I were sitting at a conference table in his office, and had consumed the obligatory coffee and law enforcement donuts, I re-opened the package and after I had handed the Chief a notarized statement, I spread a large five year diary and a bunch of other files out on the table.

The Chief read the short statement then, after putting some gloves on and handing a pair to me, he picked up the diary.

"Could Sykes have really been so stupid as to keep a diary such as this statement alleges," he wondered. "But the notary certifies that the statement is written by Josh Billings, and in it he graphically describes how he acquired the diary with the help of this other man who he calls "the killer".

"By the way, I've discovered that the inquiry into Josh Billings' death was closed surprisingly quickly. I don't recall any reports of an incident like the one described here, but he definitely states that Sykes was injured, and the other man fatally wounded in the exchange of gunfire."

I raised the first sheet of paper I'd picked up.

"This is a statement by a handwriting expert certifying that the diary is written by the same person who wrote some attached letters signed by Sykes," I remarked.

"What else have we got?" the Chief asked.

I leafed through the folders in front of me.

"Well," I began, "This one is the proof that we need to bring the FBI in. It's a confession by a senior FAA man that he forged documents to prove that Aloha Airways' operating licenses were incorrectly issued. The next is another confession, apparently by a middleman who was blackmailed by Sykes into bribing two people who both appear to be civic leaders."

I turned a page over.

"Aah. There are a number of police officers listed here who are alleged to have taken bribes too. Let's cross check and see if the diary entries support these allegations."

The first five items we studied all checked out, so the Chief reached for a telephone.

"We definitely need our FBI colleagues here; this is too hot to ignore any longer," he remarked, as he put the call through. "We'd better immediately get Sykes under observation too."

As the Chief was talking, I quickly ran through the other folders. There was a remarkable selection, some of which I put on one side. They made quite a list.

One described "arranging" various things for Sykes' friends who were named in the statement, while another listed a number of bribes to various people to arrange favorable treatment or contracts for his airline. There were also a series of statements from men who were present when Josh Billings was drowned.

I was interested in some statements that concerned dealings with Donatello, the Italian gangster whom I had been forced to shoot some years ago, when we bought our first resort on the islands.

But most important of all, there was a handwritten confession by a man concerning fourteen people whose deaths he had arranged on Sykes' orders, giving details of whom, when, and how the bodies were disposed of. The list even included a man who was said to be a Honolulu County Commissioner. Also, the man who had written the confession was clearly the "killer" who had died helping Josh Billings steal the diary.

When the Chief saw this last one, he called in four of his Deputies and they started an extensive study of all the evidence.

I decided to leave them to it, and after arranging for the Chief to keep me informed, I went back to the hotel where we were supposed to meet Sykes later in the morning.

A couple of hours later, Steve and I were joined in our suite's conference room by Crystal, Bear, and Jimmy's dad. They were accompanied by Sam Perkins, who was very pleased to see Steve and me again. There was another man with him, who he introduced as Ricky Johannsen, the aircraft appraiser. Jimmy's dad and Ricky were soon huddled together going over the list of the Diamond Head Airways aircraft. Bear was looking over their shoulders, nodding as Ricky mentioned each valuation and explained how he had arrived at the figure.

While this was going on, Sam was running through the highlights of the contract he had drawn up. After explaining why he thought this was a good idea, with my approval, he called his bank and had the net purchase price placed in escrow.

Fifteen minutes late, Jack Sykes arrived, accompanied by a man in his forties who he introduced as Bob Manners, his Operations Manager. I did one of my quick mind scans, and was surprised to find that Bob appeared to be completely honest, although he was apprehensive about the outcome of our meeting.

After everyone had been introduced, Sam Perkins addressed Sykes.

"We are here to complete the sale of the name and undertaking of Diamond Head Airways, in a form already agreed," he began.

"But it was agreed that you would buy the shares," blustered Sykes.

"No Sir." Sam replied, "This has already been agreed with your attorneys, whom I'm surprised are not present."

Sykes glowered, but said nothing, while Bob Manners started to look uncomfortable.

"The Agreement provides for the aircraft to be purchased at an appraisal figure fixed by Ricky here, after the deduction of the leasing valuations. The inventory is to be sold at cost and the receivables are at a figure as of last night, agreed by both sets of accountants. They have also prepared this list of the amounts owing. Any more debts that are not on this list are your sole liability. Your attorneys have agreed that your operating licenses shall be included at a zero value as they all expire in four months. Is this understood?"

Sykes had been looking increasingly unhappy, and he exploded when he was shown the summary.

"The business is worth more than twice that," he shouted, as he hoisted himself to his feet. "I'm not..."

At that moment his cell rang. Half out of his seat, he froze as he listened to the caller.

"The FBI?" He muttered, then flopped back into his seat as he listened to the rest of what was being said, his face getting whiter by the second. When the call was over, he swallowed, and looking at the summary again, he asked.

"How are you going to pay me this money?"

"It is already in escrow," explained Sam. "It will be yours to do whatever you want with when it's released, which will happen just as soon as you sign this agreement."

He pushed a copy over to Sykes and threw a pen down.

Sykes scribbled his name, and was just about to get up again when there was a knock at the door. Three men entered; they were dressed in dark gray suits and were each holding up badge wallets.

"Jack Sykes?" The leader asked. "FBI, you are under arrest..."

After the four men had left the room, I turned to Sam. Everyone else was looking shell-shocked.

"Is the sale complete and legal?" I asked him

"Definitely," he replied.

I turned to Bob.

"Welcome to CS&S," I told him. "We will get you and your fellow employees signed up on our payroll as soon as possible. You, yourself, will continue with your duties, and report to Barton Meyer and Crystal Mendoza here. As you probably know, they supervise all CS&S operations here on the Islands.

"Is there any problem on which you need an immediate decision?"

Bob nodded.

"Yes Sir, the salaries are due tomorrow, so we will need funds transferred to cover them," he said. "But what do I do about Jack's friends? They're always hanging about, and they are not nice people at all."

Bear's smile was evil as he replied.

"Bill Hammond, our new security chief, and his men will soon deal with them. Where will they be now?"

He was pressing buttons on his cell as he spoke and immediately started giving orders.

I turned to a relieved looking Bob.

"If you'll let Crystal here know how much you need, we'll have the payroll covered. She will also arrange for the accountants to make sure everything is properly provided for in the future, so you only need to worry about operational problems.

"We are having a dinner for the senior staff from all our companies on the Islands tonight," I explained. "It is in one of the reception rooms here in my partner's resort. I do hope you and your wife will be able to come?"

After Sam Perkins and Ricky Johannsen had shaken everyone's' hand and left, Bob didn't seem eager to leave, and started to discuss ways of integrating Diamond Head into the CS&S operations with Bear and Crystal,. Jimmy's dad was interested in the current maintenance arrangements, and had a lot of questions. It soon became obvious that there were a number of possible cost saving efforts that could be initiated, so I phoned down to the concierge to arrange for sandwiches, iced tea, and other beverages.

Diamond operated from the Honolulu International Airport's newly built passenger hub; so I requested a study of the passenger and baggage handling arrangements, together with the costs of parking the DH aircraft there to see what savings might be made by transferring these operations to our CS&S airpark.

We were discussing this, and the consensus was that we should leave the passenger operations as they are, when the concierge phoned up to say that two gentlemen, a Mr. Billings and his attorney, were in the lobby asking for me.

I asked for them to be shown up to the conference room, and quickly explained to the others what I thought this was all about.

When Herb Billings and his companion entered, I quickly explained that I and my associates had already completed the purchase of Diamond Head from Jack Sykes, who had been arrested by the FBI. I also said that Bob Manners was present as a new member of the CS&S management team. I then introduced the others who were present.

"You don't waste time do you?" Herb said to me. "I never expected that bastard to be pulled in so soon."

I smiled my most enigmatic smile.

"I understand that a great deal of new evidence has come into the possession of the Federal Law Enforcement agencies," I explained, for the others' benefit. "This was apparently the reason for Mr. Sykes' earlier arrest by the FBI.

"What can we do for you, Herb?" I continued.

"I was quite serious about selling you Haleiwa Air Cargo yesterday," Herb told us.

Everyone suddenly looked interested, wondering if they would have to change any of the arrangements that had just been made.

"Con, my attorney here, has drawn up a short agreement," he continued.

The attorney took a couple of typed pages from the document case in front of him, and passed them to me, and, after a quick glance, I handed them to Steve.

After reading the document through twice, Steve looked up.

"Let me get this straight. You are willing to sell the complete undertaking of HAC to CS&S for a consideration that amounts to only ten thousand dollars, plus a consulting agreement, and a condo out near the airpark for yourself?"

"Yes," Herb replied. "I hope you will allow me to help around the place where I can, but as Chuck here knows, I could be dead as early as next week, so..."

"You are really serious about this?" I asked, wanting to be absolutely sure.

"Yes, definitely."

"Okay, where do I sign?" I asked, picking up a pen.

I signed my name in the place indicated, then Herb signed too.

He looked up with one of the biggest, shit-eating grins that any of them had ever seen.

"Thanks, Con," he said, shaking his companion's hand. "I think that's all you can do for. I'm sure that these gentlemen will look after me from now on."

Seeing that everyone was about to reopen their discussions to plan the integration of a second business, I left the meeting and went to meet Bill Hammond, the leader of our new four-man special security team here on the Islands.

"Did you get rid of Sykes' hangers on?" I first enquired.

"Oh yes," Bill ginned. "I had a word with our local Police Captain, and he said to bring them down to him, and he would deal with them. The rest of the team is doing that now."

"You've been here for a day. How have you been getting along, and what are your first impressions?"

"We'd only been here for a couple of hours, when the Secret Service Station Chief called to invite us to meet his opposite numbers in the FBI, and Marshal's Service, along with the local Police Captain and his Lieutenants for the Precinct which covers the airpark. That took place last night, and we were welcomed by everyone. It was mentioned that we were Deputy Marshals, and I wanted to ask you about that. The Marshal's Station Chief remarked that he looked forward to our being able to fill in for his men when needed. Can he require this from us?"

"Definitely not," I firmly replied. "Any such request must be immediately referred to your superior officers. You are not responsible to the locals in any way, and it is unlikely that I would ever grant permission unless it was cleared with DC. What else?"

"Well," Bill continued, "At Lutz, there is a secure fence around the whole airpark, and I understand there will soon be similar fences at your other locations. Shouldn't we have one here too?

"Certainly," I replied, "I'll get that taken care of. What's your impression of the local security people?"

"They seem okay, but they are nowhere up to the level of your own CS&S Guard Force. Do you have plans to bring them here?"

I shrugged.

"I hadn't planned to do that, but this was because of a shortage of trained Marines. However, the situation has since changed because we've decided to hire ex-army MPs for the Guard Company in The Valley. We'll have to see how things go. The dog patrols will certainly help until we can get the fence up, but you'd better ask Crystal to arrange for mobile patrols 24/7 as well."

We discussed a few other minor matters before I left to go and join the others.

My personal plans took an immediate change when I received a call from Jake Goodison, the Honolulu Bureau SAC. The Sykes case evidence had been transferred over to the FBI, and could I please come in, as he would appreciate my thoughts on a number of matters.

I made sure that everyone else had plans for the afternoon. The ladies wanted to raid the shops again; Dewey was meeting with his Waikiki manager; and the others were visiting Honolulu International Airport to inspect the facilities as I'd requested. Bob Manners was worried about having problems with the authorities if we took business away from there; as the newly built passenger facilitieswere only barely in the black financially. I was happy to pay landing fees there, as the place was centrally located, but I didn't want to have to pay for parking our aircraft when we could do this without cost at our own place. The party would return to the airpark after that, but Jimmy wanted to help his dad checkout the new aircraft.

When I arrived at the Bureau, I was greeted at the door and immediately escorted to a big conference room where teams of men, both Agents and Deputies, were working. More and more files were being brought in as men struggled to match the various statements against their own records.

Jake stood by me as we watched, and remarked that their unsolved cases list was getting shorter by the minute; he was a very satisfied man, and couldn't help looking over at an unhappy Police Lieutenant who had obviously been called in as a liaison.

Jake told me that although Jack Sykes had clammed right up, the other twelve men whom they had pulled in so far, were all singing their hearts out to whoever would listen.

The Agents were surprised that Herb Billings had voluntarily come in, and was cooperating fully. He was, of course, going to be the key witness. I told Jake about Herb's health problems, and he promised to see that his men went easy on him and made sure that everything was properly nailed down in case Herb died before the court hearings could begin.

I was wondering why I was there, when Jake drew me into his office and gave me a photocopy of a notarized statement. It was Josh Billings' account of how he had acquired the now famous diary.

It recounted how Billings and his unnamed companion, who had already been identified as "the killer" in other statements, had gone out to Sykes' house to see what they could find. They'd seen Sykes sitting at his desk in front of an open window, making diary entries and chuckling as he did so. Sykes had left the room after a while, presumably to visit the bathroom. The companion had sprinted across and was just stepping back from the window with the diary in his hands when Sykes re-entered the room.

There was an exchange of shots, and Sykes fell to the floor with a shoulder wound, while the companion dropped to the grass fatally wounded as it turned out. In the statement, Billings claimed to have rushed across, grabbed the diary, and dragged his companion into cover; however the man died when they reached the trees.

Billings claimed he couldn't do anything for the man, so he left the body and got out as fast as he could. He had heard no more about the incident, had no idea what had happened to the body, and after reading the diary, had given it to his dad for safekeeping after making this statement and having the notary witness his signature and also stamp the diary with his seal as evidence.

Seeing that I had finished reading, Jake asked.

"Now that you have read it, do you think it's all true?"

"What do you mean? How it happened, or whether as it's hard to believe that Sykes would be so stupid as to keep such a diary in the first place, and that it could be a forgery?"

"Both."

"Yes, to the first question, I think, and your forensics people will prove whether or not the diary is a forgery. From what I've heard, Sykes sounds like your classic megalomaniac, so goodness knows what his motives were."

Jake reluctantly agreed.

I clearly couldn't help any more, so I got a Deputy to drive me out to the airpark where I spent an hour walking over the farmland that we wanted to develop.

I decided that we could certainly do the airpark extension, and there would probably be enough land left over for the golf course, but we might have to forgo some of the new resort's tennis courts and other sports facilities.

The others had already returned to the hotel when I finished.

Steve came over as soon as I walked in the room where he and Dewey were chatting to the three resort General Managers. We would soon have to be going to our rooms to change for the formal dinner.

"I just got a call from Sam Perkins," Steve told me. "He said that he urgently needs to speak to the three of us, so I've invited him over to join us."

"Did he say what it was about?" I asked, fearing more problems with Jack Sykes.

"No, just that he had a proposition that he thought would interest us."

Just as we came up to the table where the others were sitting, Dewey asked a question.

"Each of you General Managers must keep a list of things you would like to do, but what is the number one item on your 'wish list'?"

Josie Floyd, who was in charge of the main resort here on Oahu, was the first to speak.

"I'd like a special annex dedicated to young families," she began. "It would need to be separate from the main complex so that the kids are in a separate building from the casino. There is some spare land on the other side of the resort from the clothing optional facilities and beaches, where there are only very gentle waves, and my research indicates that there is a lot of potential."

She grinned at her colleague sitting on her left. Julie was the next to speak.

"I'd like to put in some special two-person cottages for honeymooners who want more seclusion, but they will still have all our clothing optional facilities close at hand."

"I'd like some of those too," said Martin, the GM from our Molokai resort complex. "But my number one 'Want' is a PGA Competition standard golf course that will rival the existing courses that currently host the three Hawaiian mini-tour competitions each January. There it quite a bit of land out beyond our current golf course, and the owner has been making noises that he might consider an offer. There would even be room for another resort complex at the other end. Gloria will explain."

"I'm Irish, as you know," Gloria began, "Last January, after almost everyone involved in the annual Golf Fest had gone back to the mainland, we had one of the top Irish golf pros visit us looking at the existing courses on Molokai. He knows my family, so he got in touch. He was accompanied by a couple of Japanese pros who now work for Sony in organizing their promotions. I accompanied them when they played our existing course, and they explained that the present three tour venues: the Waialae Country Club here on Oahu; Plantation on Maui; and Hualalai on the big island, are all par 72 courses, and they would like to find at least one outstanding new course that was considerably more challenging."

Sam Perkins, who had arrived just before Gloria began to speak, now cleared his throat. Everyone turned to him, so he began.

"Thank you for letting me join you; I think I have something for you that will fit right in with your discussion.

"When I got back to my office earlier today, I received a call from an old client who wants me to find a buyer for her partner's share in the resort complex she runs."

He looked at Dewey first, then at Steve and me.

"Would you be interested in buying a majority interest in one of the foremost resort hotels on Maui? The news will probably have leaked out by tomorrow, so I'm not breaking confidences when I tell you that Billy Grainger needs to sell his 60% interest in the Royal Swan Resort at Kapalua..."

"Wow, the NeNe," gasped Julie, "It's one of the very best resorts on the islands. You've simply got to have that."

Martin and Gloria were nodding in agreement, both of them with looks of awe on their faces.

"Yes, I know that one. It would be a good one to have, if the price was right," Dewey remarked. "Please tell us more, Sam."

"The NeNe, right on," Sam grinned, then added for the benefit of the other visitors like me. "The Royal Swan Resort is nicknamed the NeNe after our native swan which is just being re-introduced to Maui after becoming virtually extinct.

"Sheila and Billy Grainger bought the place when it was just a rundown beach hotel about 20 years ago. They have built it up into an outstanding resort that is one of the best in the whole USA, and with the Ritz-Carlton, one of the two five-star resorts at Kapalua. It has about 380 recently refurbished suites and rooms, three top restaurants (one with a Michelin chef), a large spa, two golf courses, twelve tennis courts, three large pools, and much, much more.

"The main buildings are on a promontory between two lovely bays, both with such mild waves that it would be an ideal location for one of your young family annexes. Sheila also wants the funds to complete her next project, which is to buy an adjoining ancient pineapple plantation and build some luxurious two/three bed condos around the edge."

Sam grinned.

"The Japanese and Koreans who run the Sony and Hyundai golf events appear to have talked to her too, and she's proposing a new top competition course to be built around the foothills of the nearby mountains...

"Billy ran off with his secretary a couple of years ago, but he and Sheila (who actually manages the place and is the primary mover in its success) have always got along, and Billy has been able to supply all the money Sheila needed to make the place such an outstanding success up to now. However, some investments of his on the mainland have apparently gone sour, and Sheila urgently needs another partner, or partners.

"Are you interested?"

Steve glanced at me, but Dewey answered Sam.

"I think we're certainly interested if the price is right, Sam. Is Billie's whole 60% up for sale?" He turned to Steve and me. "If we can use one of your helicopters, we could look at our existing three resorts in the morning, and talk to Josie, Julie, and Martin more fully about their various plans, then fly over to Maui in the afternoon.

"What do you think?"

Everyone agreed that this was a good plan.

Steve looked at our three managers, one after the other.

"Before we break for tonight," he said. "You've all read Kurt Eccleston's study paper regarding the shortage of beds for the golfing visitors. Well, he's made an additional recommendation to Chuck that Dewey and I have agreed must be taken seriously. We would like to double the size of the proposed "golfing annexes" to 600 beds each, and build a second 18-hole golf course at each of your resorts. I would think that this should be considered as in addition to your own proposal, Martin.

"Please think about this all of you, because we want to come to a decision tomorrow and quickly get all this expansion underway."

He smiled at them.

"Don't worry; there will be enough money for your 'wish list' items as well."

KURT – The Junction

Before I left the airpark last night, Cindy handed me a note from Jack Smith, saying that he needed to see me first thing this morning. He was waiting for me when I came out of the cafeteria, after I'd enjoyed my morning coffee and some delicious bacon and eggs, but he wasn't alone. He had the man from McCarran who owned the independent maintenance outfit with the impossible initials with him.

I just remembered in time; he was Bertie Green of I.A.M.S.

"Nice to see you again, Bertie," I greeted him, shaking his hand. "Good morning, Jack, you wanted to see me? Come over to the RV and we can talk.

"This has become my base," I explained to Bertie, "It's likely to continue to be so while the military is here."

After seeing that we all had coffee, I asked Jack to begin.

"Chuck told me to put a credible engineering department together as soon as I could," he started. "I'm already using half of Bertie's men under his foreman, Bob Parry, to check out the Airbuses, and Bertie came to see me yesterday to see if I needed any more men. Well, we were talking about this when he picked up a picture of one of the maintenance shops at Lutz that Tiny had left, showing the clean, sparkling white with our logos and the "Is it Perfect" signs on all the walls.

"Well, I joked that if his hangar at McCarran was like that, he'd be soon turning customers away. Well, we started discussing what was needed and Bertie suddenly picked up the photo and said that this was what he needed."

"That's correct," Bertie nodded.

"He wants to become part of CS&S, so can we take him and his outfit over?"

Well, Chuck and Steve told me to buy Nevada Air Services, and I did, so why not do it again? It makes perfect sense.

"That sounds good for everyone," I remarked. "How would you propose to do this?"

Bertie looked at Jack for a lead.

"I don't have any buildings or infrastructure yet, and it makes sense to keep the shop at McCarran, anyway. If we could hire contractors to get it repainted this weekend, I bet Bertie gets more work pretty quickly.

"He doesn't have many physical assets, just some really experienced men, so I thought we should talk to one of the CFOs in Tampa and get their advice on what would be a reasonable sale price. He suggested that all his men could be signed on as S&S employees today, so can we get the HR lady to come out from the Vegas depot to do it? I'd also like to hire Bertie as my number two; I personally lack commercial experience and he's got a lot of that.

"Fine. Do it," I told them. Now I understood where Star got her kicks from.

"There's one other thing," he continued. "I know that Jimmy is planning on building a mechanic's school in Lutz, but can I spend some time exploring the possibilities of doing the same thing here at The Junction? Bertie is interested and could head it up."

Actually, I thought that it was another great idea, and I told him so.

Next, I had a call from Mac. He said that their visit to the Valley had gone well, so would I arrange for the forty MPs to be signed up? They would be returning with Jesse as soon as their transport arrived. He was delighted when I told him about my conversation with Cal Noble last night. He thought that everything was falling into place.

That reminded me, I'd never got around to talking to Rupert yesterday, so I called his cell and asked him to drop in.

I'm finding that managing a business is thirsty work, so when he arrived and we both had our coffees, I started to tell him about last Friday's big meeting at Lutz.

"So you see we will be getting a lot of new aircraft in the next day or so. You saw Star's lovely Lear yesterday? Well, we are expecting three more like it from an agency in St. Louis tomorrow, plus four newer G550 Gulfstreams. In addition to those, there will hopefully be three Gulfstream C-20s and three S-76s for Pete's shuttle from the Federal auction website tomorrow. You need to talk to Bill Bates at Spring Field about ferrying them all, and Star is letting us have two Pipers, a Seneca and a Meridian, as well as one of those Fairchild Merlin 300s. I thought we could use the Merlin to run around in, and let Jesse have the two ex-flying school King Airs for the charter business."