Chapter 3

I went around to Mom's entrance after Roma left. Pat had stayed the night and was drinking coffee with mother. They both exclaimed over Roma's performance. I said I was attending again tonight.

Mom got me coffee and as she set it before me, I said, "Let's talk about your problem, Pat. Did the mayor give you any hope as far as getting the time extended before closing the bridge to heavy traffic?"

"He did, but not as much as I had hoped and he is working on it. He is a personal friend of the governor. The trouble is, the Department of Transportation is almost a separate entity and doesn't change when the governor changes, so he doesn't know how much help he will be."

"It seems as if you will have to do it on your own to be on the safe side. Find yourself an engineering firm that is qualified to do the bridge inspection. It may be money down the drain, but at least you are trying. That may count for a lot if you have to go to court and counter a lawsuit."

"Will it make any difference at all? I mean we know the bridge is going to be closed."

"It may make all the difference in the world."

"How so?"

"It will give us time to provide another access to the plaza."

Mom spoke up, "Cecil, how can you tell Pat what to do? You're pushing awful hard."

"I have already invested considerable sums in this. I am going to be pushing you almost as hard as I am Pat. You are friends with our council member and his wife. I am going to need some demolition permits, a permit for two curb cuts and various permits that I probably am not even aware of yet. All this is going to take time and we don't have much, so yes, I'm pushing."

There was silence as mom and Pat stared at me. I went on to explain what I had in mind. I continued, "Please get me a piece of paper and a pencil. I'll make a sketch of what I have been talking about." I did not reveal who owned the tobacco shop and the salon/barbershop until questioned.

"Christ Cecil, I talked to you less than forty-eight hours ago about my problem and you bought these properties just to save me?"

"Hey Pat, you offered me half the ownership in the plaza. I have a witness to that statement. Father left me money and I'm making your problem one of my investments." I grinned and they could not tell if I was serious.

"It will be worth it and I stand on it."

"Don't take me that serious, Pat. I am in this to make money, but I am not greedy. Remember we haven't solved the problem yet and it is premature to be counting on its success."

Now Pat was thinking ahead. "So we are trying to buy more time before the state shuts off access. You have bought property that you think the city will go along with for a new access. What is our next move?"

"We meet with Tony Gibson and have him draw up the papers for the construction permits we will need. I imagine we will have to go before the planning commission and maybe the environmental board. I know we will have to get a permit for change of use. You can help by having him work overtime on this."

"What else?"

"We get Mom involved with all of this as soon as it is announced that the bridge will be closed. Do you know when that public announcement is going to take place?"

"It will be in the paper Monday. What are Sharon's duties?"

"Mom can get up a petition and have everyone who will be affected sign it. She will not be able to do it alone. Maybe she can get her women friends to help circulate it. I know Connie Williams would be glad to. If she is hesitant, use my name."

"Why would I use your name?"

"I worked for her in her store for a short time and came up with a couple of good ideas to increase her profits. She would want to return the favor."

"I didn't know you worked for her."

"I did for a few weeks. You remember Georgy, her date at my party. He was her lead sales clerk and she made him her manager when their business improved. He has feelings for her and I pushed him to declare himself. They are working as a team now. A very efficient one, I might add. I think Connie Williams' business troubles are over. That is what makes me think she will help you now when she learns Pat is having difficulties."

"What am I supposed to do with these petitions after I secure them? I won't need help as Pat has only seventeen businesses."

"You won't be asking just the business owners to sign. You will be asking all of those who work at each business. In addition, you will knock on the doors of all the tenants. They are all affected. You should not stop there either. Go up onto the street and impress the store owners and their workers that they are about to lose their own parking places as well as those of their customers.

"Don't be afraid to spread the word how bad it is going to get for everyone if the bridge is closed. When you have all of the signatures, we will give them to our council member. We will see if we can get the newspaper involved. Do either of you know any of the reporters?"

Both shook their heads, no. Then Pat said, "Tony Gibson has a nephew that works for the paper. I will ask him if he could be of any help."

I said, "Good. Remember this may be all for nothing if we do not get the closing of the bridge set back. There just is not enough time to get the permits in place and the work done. We need the access open with an extension."

Mom and Pat looked at me. Mom spoke, "How come you are so on top of this? You seem so in control."

"Remember, Father invested in many companies for his clients during his lifetime. Some were fine companies, but some were not well managed. Some had problems that had nothing to do with the company itself. He rescued several by examining the problem and made money for not only his investors, but for himself as well.

"That is what I'm doing. I really think Pat is going to come out of this just fine. Politics will play a big part in getting it resolved."

"How?"

"Pat think of this, the councilman in this district has been elected by us constituents to make their lives as good or better this year than it was last year. You watch, he will pick this up and run with it. After all, he will want to be re-elected. Who will he push? The mayor, of course who also wants to keep his job.

"And it won't look good for the governor to have the mayor knocking on the door of the statehouse looking for help to relocate a segment of this city. The governor will be calling up the Department of Transportation and do a little leaning to re-think the decision to close the bridge immediately.

"The taxes coming in will take a nose dive if the city has a problem with the closing of the Plaza. The city will have to find housing for the displaced tenants. I suspect when all of these people find there is a viable plan before them, and see the alternative, it will all come together. I am going to put a fair price on the two properties I own and that will be included in the plan. I am not looking to gouge the city, or at least not much. I'll ask twenty-five percent, but someone will leak that I will settle for fifteen percent over what I paid."

"You should hold out for the full twenty-five percent."

"No, I think if you do the math, fifteen percent realized on a three-month investment is damned profitable. If this isn't resolved in three months, we'll have to wait for the new bridge to be built and start over from scratch."

"You have all the angles figured, don't you?"

"I hope so, but it is always the unexpected that can trip you up. That is why there are so many criminals in prison. A person gets an idea and plans out everything as best as he can. The trouble is you have to figure how the people that are in the plan are going to react. Some of those you deal with will not even know their own minds and they will have their own interests. If you could get into the minds of them, you would be fine. However, if they don't react the way you think they will, you might lose the whole game."

"Son, you are going at this as if it is a game. I think Dick Tracy or Batman would call this a caper?"

"Why isn't it the same, mother? Money is at the end of it."

"I guess you are right."

Roma's play was a success, but it did not receive many raves. She was satisfied with her own performance and was as happy as could be. A week later, her troupe was to leave town and return to the road. I would miss her, for she had been in my bed every night after that first time. I thought about her. Did I want to make love to her? Yes, and I had a difficult time suppressing my desire.

I had to keep telling myself this was just a business arrangement. I had no doubt if I asked for sex, she would comply, but it would destroy the closeness we had. It would also make my first project a failure. She trusted me. Now I had to trust myself.

Monday, the news about the bridge was in the newspapers. The paper's editor wrote about all of the trouble this would cause to one particular area of the city. He had been in contact with the mayor to discuss the problem and quoted him as saying that there were meetings going on to minimize the worst of the situation.

I decided I needed an office and spent time when not engaged with Pat and the bridge situation working on renting one. I took a short-term lease in an older office building. It was on the second floor because it was much cheaper than on the first level. This was a good address with law offices on the first floor. On my floor, there were a couple of dentists and I think two psychiatrists plus one accountant. I was located in the back of the building. These were the offices I passed getting to mine. I did not walk around to see who else was on my floor or in the other wing.

There were two rooms to the office. I had "Investments" in small letters center and C. Corliss even smaller in the lower right hand corner painted on the frosted glass. The office consisted of a reception room and then my office in the back. I did not expect to be here much and I did not expect much walk-in traffic either, but I did need a place to keep my paper work files.

I went looking for what I needed for furniture. Modern accouterments looked too brash, so I went to a secondhand store and found just what I wanted. The front desk was huge, heavy, and made of mahogany with a nice patina. There were two captain's chairs of the same wood.

I had a matching desk in my office and two period chairs upholstered in forest green velvet. These looked to be antique and I paid a good price for them. Thinking I might need to rest on occasion, I purchased a futon and found a pad that went well with the chairs. The pad was covered in plaid corduroy, and was predominantly the same shade of green. I also purchased a horizontal file that was more of a safe than a cabinet.

I went out into the hall after the movers had installed and arranged the furniture to my satisfaction. I opened the door to the outer office and paused in the doorway. I thought to myself that if I got busy, I might put in a small refrigerator to hold bottled water and soda. It would be years before I could offer alcohol. I doubted I would ever need a secretary, but any clients I had would not have to know I did not employ one.

I walked by the desk and opened the door to my office. I looked around. Yes, it had the effect I wanted ... rich, but not glaringly ostentatious. The only thing lacking was a computer desk. I would look for something that was compatible. I hurried home and got ready for the theater. I did not mention to mom that I had an office. We were closer than ever, but then this was my business.

By Wednesday, Pat was on a first name basis with the mayor. Tony had filed on the sales of my two properties with the assessors' office. He had most of the paper work completed applying for the necessary permits to demolish the buildings and the construction. Pat was keeping the mayor abreast of our progress and it was opening doors.

The planning commission moved their regularly scheduled meeting to the next week from when it would have been next month. The regular council meeting was on Thursday and mother and her cadre of women had canvassed the businesses and the tenants with their petition to keep the bridge open or find a way to access the plaza.

I was damned excited, for it looked as if everything was coming together. The Department of Transportation showed up the following week to inspect the bridge again. The results were both good and bad. They determined that the bridge really was worse than they at first determined. The state now ordered the bridge closed to the heaviest traffic immediately. Posted, they would allow cars and small delivery trucks only as long as the bridge was one-way traffic.

They also shortened the time the bridge was open by two months. This meant there were only two and a half months left. After that, it was then blocked to traffic. The next day the city had traffic control in place to direct the one-way traffic. Two heavy tractor-trailer trucks were halted and not allowed to cross the bridge. The companies did comply by sending smaller delivery vans to off-load their supplies. From then on that is what they would be sending.

The good part of all of this was to make everyone aware there really was a crisis. Tony had warned me that bureaucracy moved slowly. Warnings were posted for the meetings in the daily newspaper. As far as the demolition of my properties, the permits had to be in place before construction contracts could be let. Young as I was, I suppose I was impatient. I was also frustrated as well.

The city government was a little hesitant to come up with the money for the access and exit construction costs. Pat and I were at the council meeting when this was on the agenda. Tony was the spokesperson. "This can be financed privately if the city doesn't want to get involved. However, it is quite a sum and to pay this off it would need to be bonded. The pay comes from tolls. That is not too efficient as toll keepers would have to be employed.

"That would be one way this could be financed. Another way would be to sell municipal bonds. This is a capital investment and again bonds could be sold to pay for the construction. Those same private investors could purchase these. Another option would be to let this construction take place and all costs associated with the project be paid on a cost plus basis. The city could then sell the bonds to the public. This might be the fastest way to develop the access."

He sat down and awaited the discussion. The conversations became heated at times. Who owned the property was a question raised. Tony said his client wanted to remain anonymous at this time. There was no mortgage involved and the two properties owned outright.

Was the person or persons who owned the property financially able to pay for the construction? "Yes, definitely."

"What would the plus amount to?"

"The financier would require twenty-five percent above the present assessment on the property and fifteen percent above the contract price on the construction costs. He would also guarantee with a surety bond to have the access completed by the time the bridge is permanently closed. Any delays and cost overruns, he would pick up himself and pay a penalty."

At the end of an hour's discussion, nothing had been resolved. Tony stood and asked to be heard again. "I have the exact figures before me for your perusal. The only requirement on my client's part is that the permits are in place by next week. There is no time for delay." Tony made one more point. "Another thing to take into consideration. There are traffic control officers around the clock out there paid by the city. That is six men for every twenty-four hours."

Tony did well for me. The city decided to go with the final option that Tony had presented. By the end of the evening, I had sold two properties for twenty percent above assessed value to the city. I also had a contract to see that demolition of those same two properties take place and a macadam road be constructed for an access on one end and an exit on the other end of the Herkimer Plaza. The city could do whatever they wanted about bonding the costs.

A question about whether the financier could fulfill this contract came up. Pat readily stepped forward as a cosignatory of the performance bond. It was to be finalized the next day. This was the only time my name was mentioned, but I was not identified.

I made a call to the Biscotti Construction Company and informed the owner that permits would be in hand within five business days and Primo Biscotti could start work. It was 11 p.m. when I shook hands with Tony and Pat to say goodnight. A good day's work done and I had made a little money. That is if everything was completed on time.

My name was discussed nowhere. The only record so far of me was my purchase of the properties and the sales of the two properties and of course on the construction contract. It would not take much of an investigation to lay bare my involvement, but as long as the project went forward, who would care.

You might wonder how I had managed to put this all together in the last three weeks. I have to return to mother's friends and my year of listening to their talking amongst themselves. One woman, Caroline Mancini, now divorced, had found out her husband had cheated on her with the wife of one Primo Biscotti.

Caroline had known Primo from her grade school days many years before. They talked several times during the divorce proceedings and dated a couple times after the divorce. Primo was having trouble paying the settlement to his ex-wife and needed one good contract to be able to get a loan to continue in his construction business. Way under capitalized, he had hung onto his business.

This was a fact I had filed away. It had been awhile, but when I contacted Caroline, she told me nothing had changed for either of them. The three of us met. He came away with the contract needed, predicated on getting the permits. I suppose you might guess that the capital loan he needed came from me as well.

I had investigated Primo before the meeting. He maintained his equipment well. His business reputation was excellent. Bottom line was that I invested in the company. I asked Caroline to keep my name out of any conversation among her friends and my family. "Of course, if that is your wish."

I showed the contract to Pat while we were dining with mom the next day. He was quiet and just looked at me. "How in hell do you know what to do and how to do it?"

"What am I doing, Pat?"

"You know, buying property to keep me from losing my ass. Forcing politicians to bend to your will to get the necessary permits. You get those same politicians to pay the cost of all of this. You even provide a construction company that is readily available to start the work on time. You've done this in less than a month."

"I guess it all goes back to my father and the way he worked. I was with him for hours on end from the time I was small. I was not allowed to speak except when we were alone. I was there to observe him while he dealt with his clients. He would say, There is a pattern in life. Most people want to get from A to B and are always searching for the way to get there. There is usually an answer and it can be found."

Pat wanted more explanation. "Why would a young person take an interest such as you in learning this lesson? I cannot imagine one in a hundred kids in your situation would listen and learn from even his father. They would be bored and be turned off to the point of wanting to escape their confinement."

"Pat, were you ever in his office?"

"Yes, many times."

"Pretty austere, dark and formal wasn't it?"

"Yes it was, Cecil. What has that got to do with this?"

"Let me explain. Mom did not particularly want to mother me. She spent most of her time with her friends. This was fine with my father as long as she was readily available when he had needs. So I would sit in his office, bade not to interrupt, and to listen if there was a client with him.

"If we were alone, I had all kinds of investment books and investment models to read. He spent hours looking at different companies to see if they were worth investing in. He also spent hours explaining how he conducted business. I looked up to him, so he had my attention.

"We had a strange relationship in many ways. Every once in awhile he would share some tidbit about investing with me.

"You know he sometimes shared the fact that money wasn't everything to being happy. Just to have money in the bank did not make that many people ecstatic. If you used money to make other people move forward by giving them the chance to work and earn it themselves, then both you and they were happy. I have come to realize that he had a great love for me and that is my legacy. What a pair we could have been if he had only lived."

I choked up, knowing these facts were coming to me as I was speaking. I felt closer to my father at this moment than I ever had.

Mom got up, came around, and hugged me. "Son, I'm sorry. I just was not ready to be a mother. Samson knew this and that is why he would take you with him to the office whenever you were not in school. He never said too much, about what you did while you were at the office. In some ways, he was a simple man. You are like him in many ways, but you are more outgoing than he was. You seem to like people more than he did.

"You know more about Samson and what he did than I do. I often wondered how he could be so successful investing. He was as far from what you would imagine a salesperson to be. Please tell me how he did so well."

"Father wasn't a people person, but he had something else going for him. For any investment he was interested in, he would learn all he could about it, and then he would sit back and think about what would influence a stocks value. I say stock, but it could be anything. A client would approach him and tell him where his interest lay.

"Maybe it was precious metals or gems, but most of his business was in stocks. Take a coin for instance. If it was gold, there would be the face value price, the bullion price, or it might be rare with only one or two others known. Some famous person may have owned the coin. Father would know everything about that coin before he would advise investing in it. He would have a good idea if it were going to rise in price or fall.

"Pat, you knew him. Say that a year ago you wanted to purchase the plaza property that you now own. I would almost guarantee he would have spotted the bridge condition and pointed it out to you. He would have advised you not to buy it just for that reason.

"But he wouldn't have ended it there if he thought you were serious about wanting the property. He would have told you to wait until they closed the bridge and pick it up for a song. That is when he would have advised you to do just what we have been doing. The thing is, at this point you would be behind the curve and it would be a lot more costly to do what has been done."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, you would have an empty property and you would need to go the same route with the mayor, the councilman, and maybe the governor. You might have a few businesses on the front street who would themselves try to get up a petition. You would not have all of the people who live and work in your building to sign on so you would not have the weight of their signatures behind your petition. Eventually it would come together for you, but it would be long and costly.

"I firmly believe that the bridge might never get rebuilt now that there will be an adequate access to the plaza. The same thing could have happened in the scenario I laid out for you. By that time, you would have to start all over with leases and rents. I guess I was seeing things through my father's eyes."

Mom and Pat were both staring at me. Then Pat said, "Cecil, I would say you learned the business well. When I said I would give you half ownership in the plaza, you have earned it."

"Let's get this done before we think about that." I was a little uncomfortable, especially with my mother looking at me as she was. There was something new shining from her eyes. Something I had seldom seen. I had seen respect since I became her escort, but now what I saw was love.

Tuesday of the next week I asked Tony to call our city council member and ask if the permits were forthcoming as promised. The council member confirmed that they would be. I made a call to Biscotti Construction and said he could start moving his equipment to the street in preparation to start demolition on Friday. Everything was now out of my hands. Damned good for someone who was going to be nineteen in a few weeks.

I set about organizing my paper work on all of the projects I had going. I found out I did not have the knowledge to get the figures in order. I had to keep track of taxes. I had been doing all this by keeping notes in a notebook, but now I needed to get the details put down so I would have an idea of where I was. There were the two separate investments from the Button and Bows Knitting store, consisting of the loan repayment and the other as me as half-owner.

I just made a note of the money I had put into Cindy's college fund. There was to be no repayment on that money. That was a gift to Cindy.

I had the agreement with Roma Sadowski. That was all outlay. I did have several notations on expenditures. I had kept track of everything including the taxi fares I had laid out. I suppose this was picayune, but it was an expense and should be listed. The two big ones were the flight to New York and the cost of her schooling. All of this did entail substantial sums, but I had faith in my friend.

There were innumerable costs attributed to what I called the Plaza project. Tony knew what these were, including the one dollar I had given him as a retainer. I smiled when I thought of him. He had caught up with me for a minute the last time I had seen him. "Cecil, you know don't you that you have destroyed the chance for me to increase my income for the next few years by a considerable amount? If the bridge had closed as scheduled I would have had many, many lawsuits to defend for Pat."

"You seemed okay with working for me. You didn't hesitate to work on my piddling little problems."

Tony laughed. "Hell, going to court to defend Pat would have been a nightmare. I do not think I could have won too many suits either. My main goal would have been to work and limit the size of the settlements. You saved Pat in many ways. You also saved all the people involved a great deal of money, pain and angst."

He looked as if he wanted to say more. Finally, "I have been directed by Pat to send my bill for the work I did for you to him. You might say that qualifies as a nice little bonus."

I grinned. "I guess that is fair as it was he who asked me to give him a hand. I was glad to do it for him. I don't think he had any faith at all that I could come up with a solution."

"He didn't really. When he was first notified about the bridge closing, it floored him. I suspect he was just thinking out loud."

"Could be. I'll have to listen closer next time."

"Please don't."

I had exited the traffic circle Friday morning and passed up the opposite side of the street, as I wanted one last look at the property. It was daylight at 5:45. There was a lot of construction equipment on the street parked behind orange cones.

Already I could see people moving around in the two buildings and wondered about this. I drove across the bridge and parked my vehicle. It was a bee hive of activity. Men and a few women were stripping both the tobacco shop and the barbershop of anything salvageable.

I asked the first woman I met going up the steps what was going on. It turned out to be Caroline Mancini, my mother's friend. "We are holding a yard sale in the parking lot. All the money goes to the charity at the Catholic Church. There are doors, windows, counters and cabinets. We have until 7:00 to get what we can. At that time the demolition begins."

I had been in a rush to get this done, but now I hated the thought of seeing the tobacco shop demolished. I walked inside. There had been so many things removed, I did not recognize it as the place I had purchased. I turned around and walked out. I went over and watched the crowd around the yard sale.

There was a bidding going on for the front door. I was not surprised. There was considerable gold leaf in the lettering and it would be attractive anywhere. A little old woman won the bid. She cackled at a man I guessed was her husband who was shaking his head. He did drive up a pickup and I helped load it on. I saw him kiss her as they drove off. There must be a story there. I wish I had been smart enough to ask what it was. The church was going to be happy. The items sold right and left.

At exactly 7:00 I heard a diesel crank up out in the street. There was a man now blocking sightseers from getting near the building. At first, you could only hear what was going on the other side of the building. Three hours later, we saw the attached claw of the equipment tear the visible section of the roof off. It was apparently grabbing a piece of the building and loading it onto a truck parked in the street.