Chapter 26

I called Lola and told her that Shawna and I could stop by any time after nine-thirty. We had to wait on the overnight delivery driver. She sputtered and then told me that Shawna wasn't invited.

I said, "I'm sorry I thought that you just needed me to stop by sometime to take care of something. What's this about?"

"The Prince and Princess wanted to thank you for saving their daughter and since we're protecting your identity only the ambassador, the Royal Family of Monaco and me know who you are. The head of security may also know, but if it gets out then the risk continues to grow."

"I really don't need a ceremony and I didn't know who she was. I just saw a bad guy doing a bad thing and made a bad attempt at stopping him."

"Just come by. I think that Princess Stephanie needs to thank you before she can put this behind her."

"I can be there whenever you want. Just let me know and I'll move anything in the way."

"Can you come at eleven and then we can have lunch?"

"I'll be there."

I was glad that I stayed for the early pick-up. The delivery guy had twelve medium size boxes of framed photos for me. I carried them into the living room before changing into other clothes. I stopped by the tailors to order a new shirt and jacket. He was upset that it had been such a short time, but when I explained about the mugging he felt bad, and would replace it at half cost.

Lola greeted me and slipped me in through the office as they had before. She escorted me to a small meeting room where the royals were sitting. Princess Stephanie broke free and surrounded me with a hug. I held her and she cried gently on my chest. I just held her and rubbed her back. Her parents were hesitant to do anything, so we just let her have her time. When she composed herself, she leaned up, kissed my cheek, and said, "Thank you." She was quite pretty and it was a nice dream to take her back to my place and get to know her but after the previous events, her parents wouldn't let her out of their sight.

I leaned in, kissed her forehead, and said, "You're more than welcome. I'm happy that you're safe." She came back in for one more hug before she went back to her mom who wrapped her in her arms. The ambassador motioned me over to the side of the room to have a quiet word with himself and the Prince.

The ambassador said, "We both wanted to thank you for what you did on Friday. Normally we'd have a public ceremony to show our appreciation. We both have concerns about making your identity public. We were meeting here to discuss a new cruise line that will be sailing the Mediterranean. The owner of the vessels is an American company and we're forming a partnership to promote the new line. The Mafia wants to have their part in the deal and they're making it hard to complete the negotiations. They wanted to use the kidnapping as leverage."

"Will it be safe for the passengers to sail on these cruises?" I asked.

"Yes, once we finalize the deal they'd gain no benefit. They want to get in on the front end. If they did anything to the passengers or the ships, they'd be pirates and that would be too much negative press for them. We let our guard down here in the embassy and that's been addressed."

The Prince spoke, "Britt, We'd normally offer you a medal, but without the documentation it would just be a medal. You couldn't back up your claims of receiving it."

"I don't want or need a medal. Your daughter being safe is more than enough for me."

"Thank you. I'd love if you could come to visit our small country, so that we can show our appreciation. We, as the Royal Family, have controlling interests in the Monte Carlo Casino, the ballet, the Opera House and many hotels and clubs. We'd love if you'd be our guest."

"Spain is also very grateful and would like to give you a small gift of appreciation."

"Please stop. I appreciate your offers and would one day like to visit both countries, but I'm too busy to travel out of the country any time soon. I'm grateful for your offers, but the thanks you've offered today are more than enough."

The Prince said, "I understand. I'll make sure that you have a way to contact me if I can ever be of help, but you must promise to contact me if you ever set foot in my country, so that I can at least buy you dinner."

"That's a deal that I can live with," I said. He shook my hand with both of his.

The ambassador said, "I'll do the same, as long as you make me the same promise."

We shook on it and turned back to the ladies. They were talking and Stephanie seemed to have composed herself. The ambassador offered to have lunch served, but thankfully, the Prince said that they couldn't stay and that let Lola and me off the hook to stay as well. We all said goodbye, then Lola and I slipped out. We went to a small diner a block from the embassy and Lola asked what they said to me in the meeting.

I said, "They wanted to knight me or something, but I told them that I couldn't accept the offer, so we agreed that they could take me to dinner if I ever went to Monaco or Spain."

"Britt, you passed up being a knight for a bowl of soup?"

"I thought you had steak and rice. Do you only eat soup?"

"You know what I mean."

"No, they couldn't have made it public because they couldn't tell anyone what I did. I didn't want to pay for the suit of armor if I couldn't take it out of the closet."

"Did they offer you anything?"

"They were going to, but I stopped them before they got too far. I didn't do it for a reward and would have done the same thing if it was a waitress or lowly translator instead of the Princess."

"Lowly translator, huh. I'm not sure how to respond to that."

"Good. Let's change the subject. What time do you have to return to work?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Nice try, but I have to return in less time than you'd need to do what you want to do."

"I guess I'll have to go home and unpack my artwork."

"You bought some art?"

"No, it's just some photos that I took when I was younger, that I had my old roommate ship to me."

"I knew you bought the darkroom equipment. I guess that I should have known that you took photos. I'll have to stop by and see them."

"Just let me know."

We ate our lunch and I walked her back to work before driving home. I changed into some shorts and went into the den. I called the CEOs of all the different companies. I got through to half of them and chatted for a few minutes about any concerns or problems they could have on their plate. For the most part, the business plans were tracking along as projected. A couple of the businesses were expanding, and only the banking was dragging, but that was due to the timing and change over for the employees. Many were writing checks from our bank to their old bank. I asked him to think of some ways to get them to keep the money where it was and to make our bank their main bank. I asked if we were paying interest on the checking accounts.

Fred White, the CEO said, "Nobody offers interest on checking accounts."

"Then that would set you apart. Wouldn't it?"

"I'll think about it. It will cost us, but even if they just kept a hundred dollars idle in the account, that would give us close to four hundred million to play with."

"That's a lot of money. Keep the interest rate at a percent or two. If you decide to invest the money at five percent, the added interest income would bring in an extra twelve million a year."

"I'll think about it. How are the other businesses doing? I know that Craig is printing money over there. I was concerned about the line of credit to cover payroll, but he didn't even use half of it before he started to pay it back. It took three months to have positive cash flow and it continues to grow."

"I'll talk to Craig, but I want the extra cash earning a high safe return. I need that to pay off the investors. I want that money to stay in the bank. Maybe you can set up a high yield CD that's a twelve-month minimum. The minimum investment would be a million. You may get some people that move money to you to get the safety and higher yield."

"The FDIC insurance is only good for up to one hundred thousand dollars."

"Fred, just get outside insurance to cover the difference. The investments should be safe, so you should get a great rate. Take a quarter or half of a percent for the bank and give the rest back. Then as much as Craig will let you have can go in there."

"I'll talk to Craig about the surplus and think on ways to get the employees to close their other accounts."

"Whatever you do, please don't put a small sign in the lobby. When you decide to pull the trigger I want them to see it ten times a day. Put it in their pay stub, a flyer on the truck, good for a limited time, and big signs in the lobby. I want to make it happen before the other banks have time to respond."

"That makes sense."

"I'm sorry to interrupt your day, Fred."

"It's always good to hear from you, Britt. I know you look at the weekly reports, but I appreciate the freedom you've given me to get this up and running, my way."

"I don't have time to be a banker, or to learn to be one, and you came highly recommended. If I didn't trust you then you wouldn't be there. We're all working toward the same goal, and the golden parachute for all of us depends on each of us doing our part."

"My wife has already been looking at houses all around the world. She thinks we'll need at least three or four."

"That's why I'm single. A nice hotel with room service is all I need."

"Then why did I just see a check go out to buy a house in DC?"

"All of the girls felt like hookers when I walked them through the lobby."

"I didn't hear that. Have a good day, Britt."

"You too, Fred."

I went out and started to unpack the photos and sort them into piles. I noticed some sticky notes on them. Someone must've asked Jill to box them up for shipping and she decided that she was an art critic. She made comments on sticky notes and then put them on the photos. I was holding one of Monica with her back to the camera, but her labia clearly visible between her spread thighs. The note said "This one is hot. You can see the moisture." One with the high school girls had "Is this one legal? Did you find them at the local elementary school?"

I laughed as I read them. She intended us to read some of them as funny, and the others as serious. She even commented on the framing on the waterfall photo from Yosemite. I called in to Shawna and told her that I wanted to hang some photos, but that I hated to do it. I asked her to call her friend the designer to see if she'd take care of it.

Shawna said, "I'll call her and invite her over for dinner if she's free."

I thought about the subject matter of the photos and then about the upcoming party. I couldn't help thinking that the photos had been great in my college apartment, but may be a little too much for a corporate home in Washington DC. I went down to the basement and finished setting up the darkroom. I didn't get any chemicals at the auction and wouldn't have used any open bottles if I did. I decided to run out to the camera shop.

They had a great assortment of paper, chemicals, and supplies. I bought some larger paper and some larger containers to bathe the photos. I was going to try some larger work. I could turn the projector head and even do wall size. The paper size and the developing trays limited me. I talked to the store manager and he told me about some techniques and common mistakes in developing larger prints. I ended up spending more than I had planned, but was excited about the possibilities.

I also stopped by a frame shop that the store manager had recommended. I looked at their selection of frames and standard sizes. I didn't want to pay custom prices for every frame. I also stopped by the hardware store and bought some tools for around the house and several others that we'd need for hanging photos.

It was almost seven when I came dragging in with my first armful of supplies. Annie, Shawna, and one of Shawna's girlfriends, Ronnie, who was the decorator she'd mentioned, were looking at all of the photos and passing them one to the other, as if they were looking at my photos from my summer vacation. They all looked at me and Annie blushed.

Shawna asked, "Did you take all of these?"

Ronnie said, "They're hot. Who wrote all of the comments?"

I said, "I'm sorry to embarrass you, Annie, I took them all. My best friend's fiancée, Jill, wrote the comments when she packed them up for shipping."

Ronnie asked, "Do you plan to hang these all over the house?"

"Well at first I did, but now I think that it may not be the best idea with some of the visitors we may have."