by Earl Nelson
Landing in Savannah early evening we went straight to The Marshal House. There was no special reception trip. It almost seemed like they wanted us here for as short a time as possible.
We were to have a two-hour tour in the morning, then a project review, and have us on our way by noon. We three talked about that, it smelled fishy.
The tour the next morning was all dog and pony show, things were set up for us to see and we weren’t allowed to deviate from the path. Jim, Todd, and I had discussed this in the morning. We decided to go along with them for the half day. From there we would see.
Chapter 52
The project review was all rah-rah and little substance. Once it was finished the project manager thanked us for coming and stood to see us out the door.
I told him we were not done, we would be here for another two days going over the site. In the meantime, Jim was on the phone arranging for our accountants to fly in from LA.
Talk about seeing someone break out into a sweat.
Long story short the project manager had fraud and embezzlement charges filed. We had to end up replacing over half the supervisors. It was a grand mess. Instead of the half-day scheduled, and the two days we thought it would take Jim and I were there for two weeks. Todd had to get back to run his plant.
We found that the breakdown in financial reporting was due to the accountant who checked the Savannah books was the project manager's niece. She ended up in jail with him.
Between Spain and Savanna, it led to a revamping of hiring procedures. We decided that we had left too much power in the hands of the project manager.
We came up with a shortlist of positions that Jackson Transportation headquarters would interview for and hire. There was no chance of recovering the money.
The project manager had a gambling problem. Prison would be hard on the ex-manager as he still owed a lot to his bookie. There was a good chance he wouldn’t survive the experience. I left word that if anything happened to him in prison it was to be shared around the company. For the encouragement of the others if you will.
It is a bit ironic that his niece was using her share to support her church. I don’t think her minister would take out a contract on her while she was incarcerated but you never know.
When all that was done it was time to head to LA for Christmas. The flight was ho-hum and over before you knew it. I was now so used to having all my conveniences at hand that it didn’t even seem like I was flying. That would change if I decided to take a walk outside.
My plane dropped me off in LA and the crew couldn’t get it turned around fast enough to get back to England for the holidays.
Dad was waiting with the limo. I updated him on the Savanna fiasco. He thought I was lucky to only lose a couple of million. All in all my businesses were doing pretty well. He asked me if I had learned anything on the trip.
I told him that I now realized I had to pay closer attention than I had been. If let go things would only get worse.
I shared with him how Jim and Todd thought I was a man of the world, able to speak other languages, be comfortable in other cultures and deal with world leaders.
“Rick, what part of that isn’t so?”
“Comfortable in other cultures.”
“Did you get by enough that there was no embarrassment?”
“Yes.”
“Then you did better than most.”
I still had a hard time accepting the title, man of the world.
Dad had met me to specifically debrief me before I got home. He didn’t want talking business to ruin the family gathering.
Grand Mum had come from England accompanied by Mr. Hamilton. Aunt Sybil and Uncle Popeye were there. Roger had stayed on the plane back to England to spend time with his family.
Christmas but I had planned on presents well before my trip. At each stop, I had asked to be taken to a high-end store that dealt in local products.
The only place that didn’t work was Spain as we had to high tail it out of the country. I did have time in Rome to make up for it.
On Christmas Eve we had a luncheon for family and close friends. Christmas day would be family only.
For the luncheon, I provided poppers for the table. Two people would each pull an end of the popper tearing it apart.in doing so a small-cap would pop and providing the name.
With Mr. Hammonds's help, I found a specialty store in London that would make a popper with whatever contents you provided. I had a common popper made up and a couple of special ones.
The common ones held a gold bracelet for men and a small diamond tennis bracelet for women.
I had to snigger when I realized that Denny had invited his girlfriend to lunch. I had just raised her expectations of Denny.
The special ones were for Mrs. Hernandez and her date who reminded me of Ceasar Romero. A doubletake and I realized it was Ceasar Romero. She was traveling in high company.
Her present was an antique set of turquoise hair combs Spanish style. For the guy who I was guessing at I included a white silk scarf of a very high thread count. I don’t know who counted all those small threads but I had been told the more the better.
Later Mr. Romero thanked me for the present. Several years later I saw that scarf in one of his movies. Mrs. Hernandez was in heaven with her combs. They became a trademark of hers.
For Mum and Dad, the popper contained a tiara worthy of Countess Jackson. Dad got a certificate for a safari in Kenya and a license to take one bull elephant.
Eddie was sitting with Patty, who had made up with Mary. They had the common bracelet.
Grand Mum sat with Mr. Hamilton. They seemed rather chummy. I had got her a smaller tiara so she wouldn’t feel out of place with all her high friends.
While I had no way of knowing that she would be sitting with Mr. Hamilton I was glad that I had put a diamond stickpin in the popper.
Aunt Sybil got another tiara, I mean why should her sister have one and not her. It wasn’t as big but she was still thrilled. Popeye was the hardest. I bet he was the only guy in town with a pearl-handled blackjack in sharkskin. I could see him thumping against his hand as though he couldn’t wait to use it.
Saving the best for last I handed Mary hers. When taking it she remarked that it was too small for a puppy. Missed opportunity!
What it contained was a Lady Mary sized tiara. The diamonds were real. Take that! Patty. She was sitting with a young man I didn’t know. He was a friend from her school by the name of Eddie. He couldn’t keep still, I think that Van Halen kid had ants in his pants.
Not knowing who she would have with her I had a men's Bulova watch with a small band for her date.
The poppers were the hit of the day. The one I got the most kick out of was Denny’s girlfriend, even though she wasn’t the only one to get a tennis bracelet you would think she was engaged. Denny looked scared to death. Score!
My date for the party was Nina. She had come from Switzerland to spend Christmas with her parents. Her mother was staying with her father here. Nina didn’t say anything but you could tell she hoped they would get back together.
My gift to her inside the popper was a sheet of paper with a phone number and code on it. Once she opened it she gave me a quizzical look.
“It’s the air charterhouse where I keep the 707. The sale has been completed and I now own it our right. Call that number and give the code, then you can schedule the plane whenever and wherever you want.
Being rich is good, it certainly can keep you in your girlfriend's good graces. This was demonstrated by the yelp, hug, and kiss I received.
Since many around the table didn’t know about my personal jet it required an explanation which Nina was glad to give. She knew the plane better than I did from all the tours she had given at her school.
Christmas day was a quieter affair. The presents were on the order of fuzzy slippers and smoking jackets. Mum and Dad had got me a red one, and Nina a white silk scar
f. I had to put them on at once.
They looked spiffy. All I need now was a pencil mustache and a monocle.
The week between Christmas was low key. She invited me to dinner with her mother and father. From the way they paid attention to each other things were looking up.
Nina and I found plenty of time to be alone.
New Year's Eve Mum and Dad threw a big charity ball. Nina and I made a short appearance for proprieties sake and then went to a party at one of her high school friend’s house. Since these were all Hollywood kids we spoke on a level playing field.
Maybe my field wasn’t as level as theirs but we could still talk. In describing what I had been doing for the last year I realized I had been taking care of business.
Finis for now, to be continued in Book 11
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