Chapter 11

Randy really did have a few things to do over at the Clark Construction office. He decided that he'd better get them out of the way and at least be around for the course of the morning to field any phone calls that might result from the word of Brent's death getting around. His grandfather's passing really wouldn't affect the business much, as the people the company dealt with knew that Randy had more or less been managing things for a while and that Brent's health had been shaky. Still, there were going to be calls that Randy about had to be the one to deal with.

As it happened, he was there early enough to unlock the place, turn on the lights and get the coffeepot going. He settled in at his desk to review things and see if there was anything that absolutely had to be done before Wednesday.

He was just getting started when he heard the front door open. "Randy, are you here?" he heard Regina say.

"In my office," he replied.

After a moment Regina appeared in his office doorway, still peeling out of her heavy winter coat. She was a heavy-set woman in her forties, with nondescript brown hair and a matronly disposition. She had been Brent's bookkeeper since long before Randy started to work for the company, and became his office manager when her predecessor, Eloise, retired a while after Randy came aboard. If there was one key, pivotal employee in the whole business, she was it. She knew where everything was, what was happening, and had her finger on it. "So, are you doing all right?" she asked.

"Pretty well," Randy admitted. "It's not like this was unexpected, but I suspect that the reality of having the responsibility dumped on me hasn't hit home yet. Brent has always been there to backstop me, no matter how little he was actually doing the last few years. Now, he's not. How about you?"

"I'd guess about the same," she said. "It's been hard to see him sliding downhill, but it was happening, and there wasn't much we could do but try to carry on. It's just going to be hard to accept he won't be coming in again. So, what do we do, now?"

"We keep on keeping on," Randy told her. "For the next few days I'll still just be sort of managing the place like we've done the past several years. My understanding is that the place is going to be in my name by the end of the week, so we're just not going to do anything that would have demanded Brent's signature until then. I've been thinking about it, and I can't think of anything that we can't shove to the side for that long."

"I can't either, although Carlos may have something on that Phase III of the Three Pines ski lodge."

"There's nothing there I can't sign off on. Technically speaking, we probably ought to hold off until toward the end of the week. I could hold Norm Eaglebeak off that long if we had to, but I don't think it's necessary. Now, two things. We're probably going to get calls from customers, suppliers, maybe even other people in the industry offering sympathy. Due to family reasons I probably can only be around this morning and maybe for a while tomorrow morning. I'll take what of those calls that I have to, but you may have to screen them for me. Either way, the message I want to get across is that nothing has changed as far as the company is concerned, we're still here and will be carrying on the same way we've been doing, so if I'm not here to tell someone that, try to get the message across. Make a list of people I should call back when I'm not here."

"Good," she replied. "I think that it's important that we show the continuity."

"Right, I do, too. Now, if Larry Warner should happen to call, I do want to talk to him."

"Larry?" she frowned.

"Just courtesy," he smiled. "I know we haven't always gotten along and we're still going to be at each other's throats when bid times roll around, but there's no point in making a war out of it."

"What do you want to tell the employees? I've gotten some calls at home."

"Pretty much the same message. The funeral is at one tomorrow, but after that we're still in business, we still have work on the books, and we're going to get on it in the same schedule we had all along. You can tell everyone who calls I told you to say that. I want you to get hold of everyone we consider full-time, laid off or not, and tell them that we're going to have a meeting at three on Wednesday, I guess out in the shop, since the office isn't big enough for it. I'm basically going to say the same thing, but add some details."

"Would you like to have some refreshments for that?"

"Might as well. Nothing fancy, coffee, pop, doughnuts, whatever you think. Oh, while I'm thinking about it, we'll be closed all tomorrow afternoon for the funeral, so you might want to think about updating the message on the answering machine."

"Anything else?"

"No, not really," he shook his head. "When you get right down to it, that's probably all we're really going to get done today and we might as well admit it. I wouldn't mind seeing Carlos when he gets in, and my door is going to be open today unless something really unexpected happens."

"Would you like me to set it up to move you over to Brent's office?"

Randy thought about it for a moment. Brent's office was bigger and more comfortable – but it was Brent's office and moving in there just didn't seem right, at least not yet.

"Not now," he said. "We need to paw through his stuff, see what needs to get saved and what doesn't, but there's no rush on that and I wouldn't mind if it takes a while. I don't really want to move over there, anyway. Let's think about it a little. Ken and Carlos keep griping that they need more room for the drafting operation, and that might solve that problem and keep us from thinking of it as Brent's office. I might just stay here, or move over to the drafting shop. But let's kick it around after Wednesday; it's not a priority issue."

"If we're going to do that, we probably ought to do it before construction season really gets rolling. That much moving could cause a real disruption."

"Yeah, but that doesn't have to mean today. Let's just think about it, we'll run it by Ken and Carlos and Rod, and maybe a few other people."

"All right," she said. "Randy, it's probably a good idea to use that space constructively rather than just keep it as Brent's office. We're all going to have to remind ourselves that he isn't around anymore, and it's going to take a while. I think I like your idea of moving the drafting office in there, that solves two problems in a constructive way."

"Well, that's what we're about," he grinned. "Being constructive. The coffee ought to be about done by now."

"Good," she said, then paused for a second. "Randy?" she said softly.

"Yeah?"

"I know things have been building toward this and that you've had some difficulties getting ready for it. But I've worked with you enough to know that you are ready for it, and I think you can handle it."

"Good," he said. "That's important to me. You and the other people who work for Clark Construction are going to have to believe that, or it's not going to work. We can handle the Larry Warners and Norm Eaglebeaks. We know how to do that. Our people, though, well, they're going to have to believe it, too."

It was a busy morning, busier than Randy had anticipated, but the topic was just what he had anticipated – sympathy calls and visits. He tried to get the message across that really nothing much had changed, that Clark Construction was still in business and planned to stay that way. He got universally good response, which was to be expected, but how some of it would play out in the long run was a question that he at least didn't have to confront today.

Fortunately, it died down a little as the morning went along, so at noon he was able to tell Regina, "I guess it'll be all right if I head on out. I'm going to head over to my Dad's and do what has to be done there. I'll be on my cell if you really need me, and unless something comes up I'm planning on being in tomorrow morning. I've got lawyer stuff on Wednesday morning, but I'll try to at least check in here before I head out for it."

"Hang in there," Regina told him. "We'll get along here somehow."

With that, there wasn't much that Randy could do but head for his parents' house, no matter how much he would rather have done something else. He got in his pickup, drove across town and up Point Drive, realizing on the final leg that his father was right behind him, presumably on the way from his office at Clark Plywood. In front of the house, Randy pulled to one side to let his father get into the garage, then parked outside and walked in the still open garage door. "So, how was your morning?" Ryan asked as he got out of the car.

"Busier than I expected," Randy admitted. "A lot of phone calls."

"Yeah, I had a few, too," his father admitted. "I didn't get a lot done, but I didn't expect to get much done, either. Let's try to keep this civil. Joel was pretty low key last night, for Joel anyway."

The two of them headed inside. "I was wondering if you were going to show up, and when," Linda said when she saw them. "I'll call Ruth and tell her you're here and lunch is ready."

Randy would have been happy to just stay in the kitchen and exchange pleasantries with his mother, but realized that was just putting off the inevitable. He headed on into the living room, where there was a nice fire in the fireplace. Both Rachel and Joel were there, leafing through magazines and looking bored.

"So, how are you doing today?" Ryan asked.

"A little on the bored side, with everyone but Linda and Rachel gone," Joel said. "I'm surprised you weren't here."

"We had things to do," Ryan said. "Dad was a well-known person in this town, and I had to take a number of phone calls about it."

"Same thing over at Clark Construction," Randy said. "I was on the phone most of the morning."

"Yeah, we should have held off an extra day," Joel said. "I had things I should have done this morning too. I've got a very complex project I'm going to have to put off for several days."

"Well, it's part of how things have to get done in a small town," Ryan said defensively, getting Joel's point that if he could put aside his business, they could too.

"What kind of project is it?" Randy asked, trying to deflect the criticism and change the subject a little.

"It's a mortgage package," Joel said. "The venture capital business is a little slow in Silicon Valley right now, so I've had to get into some other things. The mortgage market is hot right now, I'm getting involved with it."

Ryan shook his head. "I more or less understood that it was a little bit sluggish."

"In some areas it is," Joel said. "But the government is pushing home ownership and offering some interesting incentives for mortgaging high-risk first time home buyers."

"Sounds like something you could burn your fingers on pretty badly," Ryan said, deciding that the fire in the fireplace needed another log. "I mean, high-risk mortgage holders are high risk for a reason."

"Well, true," Joel said. "But if it's managed right, the risk isn't all that high. Sure, you're going to get some defaults, but the way the housing market is in California right now if a buyer defaults you get the home back for essentially nothing and get to sell it all over again at full price. And there are going to be defaults, especially when some of those people with low-rate adjustable mortgages hit that big balloon payment at the end of five years and have to refinance at a higher rate. Now, we know that, so what we do is get a batch of high risk mortgages, bundle them together with some lower risk ones, then you can sell the whole bundle to one of the big outfits at a more favorable rate. It takes being quick on your feet, but there's some money to be made there."