Chapter 88

Patti and I were sitting at our desks at 8 sharp. I pulled up the GPS locater and found Sarah Grayson. I sent one of the day guys to get her.

I called Mr. Skaggs to verify that everything was still a go for tomorrow's seminar. I went over the travel plans with him and gave him our estimated arrival time. I asked for and he gave the field house number that we were going to use. It was my intention to park and leave the trailer there before we went to the motel. That would give us an excuse to be there so Sarah could find her friend and her roommate.

I spent the time working on e-mails, reviewing the next seven days work schedule making sure the last minute requests for vacation and time off were correctly marked.

I checked with Kate to make sure everything was ready or if she anything that needed packing in the trailer.

Sarah was standing at the counter when I finished with several calls.

"Do you have the contact information for me?" I asked.

She handed me a slip of paper with the information on it. We made some small talk. What I was trying to do was to find out what she was doing for the next couple of days. At the end of our conversation I knew that she was staying over the holidays to save her parents some travel expenses. She also was looking for a part-time job over the holidays in one of the local stores, but as of yet had no firm offers.

"Sarah, how would you like to go with us?" I asked. "We have one empty bed in Kate's room. Your friend might be glad to see you."

"I don't have any extra money for meals," she said.

"All expenses paid." I replied.

"OK, I'll call her and tell her I'm coming," she said.

"No, you don't want to do that. I will explain why on the way - to surprise her is best," I said. "Go pack a bag. Always pack for a day extra. I plan on leaving here around 11."

At 10:30 I fueled up the truck and hooked up to the trailer, checked the lights and tires including both spares. Then I pulled it near the office to wait for Sarah and Kate. I spent the time finishing up paper work and giving final instructions to Patti and the day guy that I had assigned to office duty for the next two days. When I walked back outside Sarah and Kate were waiting by the truck. Next stop was 1001 Summers Road for lunch and to pick up the rest of my crew. I was amazed at how well the Suburban with the gas engine handled the sixteen foot trailer and three passengers.

As I pulled the Suburban and trailer onto Summers Road I looked to the left at the gym to see the place packed with contractors trucks. I stopped in front of the garage. Sarah, Kate and I went into the house for lunch. It was in the final stages of preparation. While we were waiting Marcy filled me in on this morning's events related to the gym.

"The bank called to ask if we minded if the federal auditor sat in on our loan request presentation. The rules for the banking industry required that the feds do these randomly and it happened to be our loan request that came up." I agreed to their request, then Marcy said. "I didn't see where we had much choice."

"The lawyers called. They wanted to let us know they have everything ready," Vicky said.

"I took over the membership requests from Marcy, she is getting so busy. I have over one hundred confirmed and then I have this," she said, as she handed me several papers.

One was a signed contract from Shelia Roush with a check for $2400. It included a full year's membership fee. It was attached to a media contract for a boxing match between her and second ranked Amanda Black for 250k at the gym of her choice.

Attached was a note from Shelia that read "This is a televised pay-for-view 4 round fight. Seating is by invitation only. Each fighter gets 150 tickets. I think your building is just right. This is a woman's fight so no men would be allowed in the audience. I'm known as a basic hard-knocks fighter. As the champ I get to chose where and when. I want to see her histrung inside fans group on metal chairs and wooden bleachers. The gym fee from the TV company is 75000. Please think about it.

The other two contracts were from Shelia's housemates with a year's check attached

"The gas company called. We are on the schedule for an 8 AM tank installation on Thursday. I called the heating contractor. He will have a crew on site to check for leaks and to check out the new heaters," she said.

"As you can see there are a lot of people working over there today. I hope you have a few minutes to go look before you leave," Marcy said.

I nodded and smiled and said "OK, I'm sure we have a few minutes to spare."

I noticed that Sarah and Kate were all ears during the conversations.

Lunch was loaded salad and soup with a sandwich of choice.

After lunch we went over and looked at the gym. There were a lot of things going on. Framing that was on the floor yesterday was up with plywood or drywall going on it. You could get a real idea of the layout now. It was a lot different than chalk marks on the floor. I walked to the middle of the floor so I could get a good look at the big picture.