Chapter 9

Early Sunday evening Tom received a phone call from Carrie. He could hear the happiness in her voice as she told him that she had just gotten engaged. Her fiancé was a retired military man who she says treats her like royalty. It was sort of a whirlwind courtship but she knew he was the man for her after their first date. Carrie said she had started dating him soon after she met him at her son-in-law’s wake. She sounded genuinely sincere in telling Tom about this and in no way did she seem to be inferring that for want of a few words Tom could have been engaged to her.

Tom who was a little shocked by this news she had just given him. She was a good person and deserved to be happy. He congratulated her and wished her much happiness in her life and marriage. He said if he ever was in Texas he would look her up.

George Pilot phoned Tom the next day and told him the States Attorney was seriously investigating the tip Tom gave them on the sale of insurance company certificates of deposit. George also asked Tom to keep him company Tuesday night and go with him to a town hall meeting the senior U S Senator for their State was having. Where this Senator had avoided having such meetings in the past, the polls were showing he was in a close race for re-election and he was having these meetings in an effort to garner more votes. The current mood of the voters was not favorable for incumbents.

“You do know I don’t care this man or his politics. It would do him good to lose the election and eat some humble pie.”

“Just come with me as you do owe me.”

“So you are calling in a chip?”

“No but I would appreciate it if you would go with me to this meeting.”

George didn’t say why he needed to attend this town hall meeting but Tom did agree to go because George was a good friend.

There was a large crowd at the town hall meeting. Tom came to a quick conclusion that the good Senator had salted the audience with supporters who were asking pre-screened no-wave questions. The Senator was just too quick on his feet in answering the questions. This salting pissed Tom off that this would be done. Toward the end of the meeting the Senator asked if there were any other questions and Tom raised his hand. Apparently one of the assistants thought Tom had a pre-approved question and came to him with a microphone.

Tom stood and said, “Senator, I could ask questions about the national debt or why you voted against the Keystone pipeline or drilling in Alaska just to name a few but my concern is this. As a legislator you pass laws that affect us all. My question is why do you pass these laws and then vote to exempt yourself or your staff from the laws you pass as the Affordable Care Act or refuse to pass a law that bans you from insider trading but prohibits everyone else from doing that? Why is that?”

The look on the Senator face as this question was asked was priceless. He had not expected this question and was unprepared to answer it. He hemmed and hawed and then he talked around the question in trying to give an answer. It was obvious to everyone that he didn’t answer the question.

He rapidly called for the next question. A lady stood up and said, “Why haven’t you answered that man’s question and explained why you think you are better than us?”

That was enough for the Senator as he made a show of looking at his watch and thanking everyone for coming as he hurriedly left the stage.

The local news media that was there recorded Tom asking the question, the Senator’s non-responsive answer, the follow up question and the Senator’s hurried exit. This clip was played the next day on all the major news stations except for CBS and CNN. Talk radio did a scalding number on the Senator in discussing this incident. It was said this episode dropped the Senator four points in the poll and put his re-election in serious jeopardy.

The final session of Tom’s current investment class involved discussing two problems that the students had worked on at home. One was to give recommendations on how a younger couple should invest and the other concerned how a retired couple should invest. Tom was pleased with the responses he received from the students. It seemed that they had learned quite a bit about investing, albeit conservative investing.

Thanking the class for their participation, Tom said he had enjoyed teaching this course and wished them success in investing in the future. He cautioned them on their having limited investment knowledge and passed out a list of books and web sites which he encouraged them to read or visit to gain more knowledge. With a few exceptions, all of the student came up to Tom and thanked him.

While this was going on Tom noticed that Ellie, who normally was the first one to leave the classroom when the session was over, was still there observing what was going on. It seemed like she was waiting for all of the students to leave. As per her usual style she was impeccably dressed, this time in a dark business suit and she was wearing three inch high heel shoes. The cut of the suit showed the fine figure she had.

After all the students had left she came up to Tom and said, “I want to apologize to you.”

“For what, asking tough questions? I hope I answered them to your satisfaction?”

“Yes you did, but that’s not the reason I want to apologize, it’s because I attended your class under false pretenses. I was anticipating after you gave the class I would complain and report you for being an inadequate and unprepared teacher. I found out that was not the case as you presented a very good class on conservative investing. I would call how you advised on how to select stocks, ‘Probable appreciation stock selection.”

“Why would you want to complain about the quality of my teaching and report me?”

“Well to be honest with you, I am a Certified Financial Advisor. The investment brokerage firm I work for became concerned when three of our large clients asked that their accounts be closed and transferred to low fee brokerage companies. This was a loss of close to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year in fees. We wanted to know why they had left and also to make sure they weren’t victims of some investment scheme. Our investigation disclosed the reason that these accounts were leaving was you. All three of the clients involved women who had attended your investing class and felt confident they could do an adequate job on their own of investing their funds. These women said they could save some money by not having to pay our advisor fees.”