EASY GREEN

by Bill WENHAM

  Whoops, Factor thought.

  “Well, yes, of course I did, Nellie. I just meant I haven’t spent much time socially with him yet. I intend to remedy that over lunch today. There’s no doubt he’ll be an excellent asset to the corporation.”

  He smiled warmly at her.

  “Just as you are, Nellie,” he added.

  Harry Brownlow looked up from his desk as he saw the two men exiting from the elevators. They were met by Dean’s secretary and were obviously here to see him. Although he was aware that Brownlow would be there, the older of the two didn’t even bother to glance in his direction.

  It had been almost eight years since Brownlow had last seen the man and even that hadn’t been in Saginaw. He’d received his instructions when they’d first met and he had only been in highly discreet phone contact with him since then.

  Brownlow had been hired on the recommendation of Willoughby.

  “How do you come to know him?” Factor had asked, even though he wasn’t questioning Willoughby’s choice of Brownlow as their in-house accountant.

  Willoughby laughed.

  “Old Harry and I go a long way back, Dean. He was my accountant out west but when I sold the business, Harry didn’t like the new owner and apparently the feeling was mutual.”

  Factor said, “Even so, I’m surprised he didn’t want to stay in California.”

  “California?”

  “It was in California, wasn’t it? Your business, I mean? It would be a hell of a lot warmer for him there than here, I would think.”

  “Hell of a lot smoggier there too, and poor old Harry’s got a spot of the asthma as well.”

  In actual fact ‘poor old Harry’ didn’t have a spot of asthma, he’d never even been to California, let alone lived and worked there – and he’d only met Willoughby a few days before he’d shown up at the corporate offices.

  Willoughby hadn’t selected or recommended him either. He’d been directed to hire him, even if it meant firing someone else.

  Factor glanced over towards Harry’s office. If Willoughby had hired him, that only meant one thing. Harry didn’t work for him either. He worked for Max Torrance. Of course he did! How else could the money Torrance was taking out of Garden World be funneled to him.

  Factor shrugged his shoulders and smiled ruefully. We all have to do what we all have to do, he thought. Even poor old Harry.

  In the early days, before the Easy Green Garden World partnership, Dellie had ‘done the books’ herself. But as soon as the corporation started to develop, she had soon realized the necessary accounting was way beyond her capabilities.

  Consequently and reluctantly, she gave up her former connection to Easy Green, the company she’d actually named. She didn’t become a lady of leisure either since both she and Patti Thatcher were each given a salary to be ‘Goodwill Ambassadors’ at the park itself.

  With two young girls to assist them, they manned a welcome and information center. They gave out the preferred supplier’s brochures and business cards and kept a file of those people who had shown an interest in their products. In addition to that they sold gift certificates and gave out discount coupons for the various food franchises.

  All four of the ladies looked very smart in their mini-skirted uniforms of emerald green. It came complete with a sun hat with matching tights and shoes. In the winter, the uniforms, trimmed with white fur, would be made of red woolen material with a poke bonnet and boots. They were dressed to resemble the winter dress of ladies in the 1800’s.

  They each wore two tags. One bore their name and the other the logo of Easy Green with the words ‘Goodwill Ambassador’ on it.

  Dellie had been instrumental in designing their corporate logo. She had made the initial sketch at the dinner table one evening. Then professional graphic artists had tailored it into the present corporate logo.

  When finished, it consisted of a full color globe of the Earth. Leading the eye into the center of it was a yellow brick path flanked by orange flowers. The path itself, broad at the base and disappearing at the center point of contact with the Earth, was in the form of an equilateral triangle.

  Following the contour of the curve of the Earth at the top were the words ‘Easy Green’ in emerald green block letters. ‘Garden World’ was printed in black block letters under the base of the triangle.

  Because of the yellow path in the logo, Easy Green’s ‘yellow brick road’ theme was stolen quite blatantly from Frank L. Baum’s ‘The Wizard of Oz’.

  Yellow brick pathways meandered throughout the park, leading visitors to key areas. Signs and pamphlets urged the visors and hopefully potential buyers to ‘Just follow the yellow brick roads through the Wonderful World of Easy Green’.

  Because its main purpose was to be a huge garden center, massed plantings of flowers of every imaginable type were everywhere. Each display was accompanied by a plastic coated sheet describing the type of plant, its growing habit and hardiness zone and whether it was an annual or a perennial. And most importantly, of course, where it could be found for purchase along the yellow brick road! Kids made a game of it to see who could find the selected flowers first.

  As each person or family paid their entry fee they were given a color coded map which showed where everything was located within the park, including restrooms, baby changing stations and first aid posts.

  Small jitney style busses were available throughout the park to take the elderly, the tired or the just plain lazy anywhere they wanted to go. Any purchases of plant material they made would be identified and placed in a holding area near the front entrance. When the visitors were ready to leave, they just showed their receipts and their purchases would be delivered to their vehicles in the free parking lot.

  Larger purchases such as trees, large shrubs, barbeques, garden buildings etc would be delivered free within a twenty mile radius. Beyond that, a small charge would be made based upon the mileage involved.

  Dellie enjoyed being a part of all this but without actually realizing she’d gone from being Dean’s business partner to being just another employee.

  Once she did realize it, she started to resent it and it bothered her intensely. She felt she hadn’t gone to university to end up as a little female version of the Jolly Green Giant! She was still his life partner, of course, but that wasn’t quite the same.

  The enormous ‘overnight’ success of the Easy Green Garden World didn’t come without its related costs either.

  At the time neither Dean Factor nor his wife, Dellie, had any idea what those costs could possibly be.

  Harry Brownlow watched as the older man, his real boss, Max Torrance, got into the elevator. Once again, he’d not acknowledged Harry’s existence. The younger man, who Harry hadn’t met, nor had been advised of yet, was being shown into Willoughby’s old office by Nellie.

  There are about to be some big changes now, Harry thought to himself.

  “Vinnie, honey, I think you’ve got yourself a problem. Factor’s got a new partner. He arrived from New York today,” Nellie told her husband when she got home. Then she instinctively ducked as he threw his beer bottle furiously across the room at her. It smashed against the wall behind her, spraying her with cold beer and shards of glass.

  He got up from his chair in front of the TV, pushed angrily past her and went out to his pickup. Moments later she heard it start up and he was gone, thank God.

  She hated bringing bad news to him these days because he always reacted so violently to it and there was always a nasty mess for her to clean up afterwards.

  Nellie knew her husband had changed over the past several months. He was always moody now and flew into a rage over practically nothing at all as he’d just done today.

  She knew he’d been terribly angry when he’d sold the farm to the guy from Easy Green and she knew he felt he’d been cheated. Personally, she preferred the smaller house on just a couple of acres but Vinnie hated it.

  These days he would go off in the pickup for hours
at a time without saying where he was going and that was just in the evenings. Lord knew what he did during the day while she was at work, apart from lazing around and drinking beer.

  He never worked and sure as hell never thought of cleaning the house or repairing anything in it. Only last week he’d flown into a terrible rage when he couldn’t find his bloody hammer.

  It wasn’t the only one he had, after all, was it? What was so special about that one? Maybe it was left handed, she thought, and grinned to herself.

  Although she hadn’t been aware of it, her choice of words had been most appropriate.

  It actually was his bloody hammer that Vinnie couldn’t find!

  Chapter Twenty One

  Once again Chairman Torrance was addressing his four man board in New York.

  “An interesting situation has arisen, gentlemen. It was uncovered by our financial investigators following the successful recovery of our missing funds. Apparently, our former colleague and now deceased executioner was not quite as good at the game of give and take as we were led to believe.”

  He looked around at the puzzled faces of the board members. Faces that all had one thing in common and was one of the main reasons they were selected for the board. Not one of them would ever, by their appearances, be mistaken for a gangster or even a minor criminal.

  “Give and take, gentlemen. Our concept for Garden World is that the land owners sell us their land and we give them money for it. Then, after the deal was successfully concluded, it was Willoughby’s job to take it all back again. Then he was to dispose of the sellers.”

  “And didn’t he?” Vito Machina asked. Vito was an older man, obviously of Italian heritage and very much of the old school in his thinking. He looked like someone’s benign old grandfather but had probably had killed more men in his time than all the others in the room combined.

  “Yes, he did, with one notable exception - that of the first franchise.”

  David Carpenter said, “Thatcher?”

  “Yes, Thatcher, and there was a reason for that. Apart from the prototype, we wanted the one and only actual franchise to be as squeaky clean as possible. Which means the seller of that land is still alive.”

  “So,” Machina said. “What’s the problem?”

  Torrance shook his head as though he was explaining simple addition to a group of high school kids.

  “The money from that transaction was never recovered.” he said.

  “I thought you just said it wasn’t supposed to be,” Helmut Hessler said.

  “That’s right, it wasn’t, but when our financial guys checked they were amazed at how little Willoughby got it for. That land wasn’t bought, gentlemen. It was stolen. Willoughby cheated the land owner out of it.” Torrance said.

  “And that’s a problem?” Machina asked.

  “Normally no, Vito, but it got me wondering about what has been happening in Garden World.”

  “The murders, you mean?” Carpenter asked.

  “Of course, the bloody murders, you jackass,” Torrance growled at him. “And I got to wondering why Thatcher’s wife was the first one targeted and who might be motivated to do that?”

  “The guy who was cheated out of his land, would be my guess,” Carpenter said, as though he’d just put forward the Big Bang theory.

  “Yes, right, David, and what was also strange and suspicious was that the man and his wife disappeared right afterwards.”

  “So Willoughby did get rid of him then?” Machina said.

  “It would seem that way, Vito, but my two tame Dobermans, Lawson and Maxwell, who can now claim to Bloodhounds as well, have just found them. They changed their name and are now Mr. and Mrs. Cardilli, and even that is somewhat of a coincidence,” Torrance said.

  Harold Walker asked, “And why is that?”

  Torrance grinned around at them.

  “The idiots didn’t even move out of Saginaw. It is pretty obvious to me that Factor’s nemesis is one Vincent Cardilli and Factor’s new secretary just happens to be called Nellie - Nellie Cardilli! – his wife.

  Somehow, Cardilli has somehow managed to have his own wife selected to be Factor’s new private secretary, and as such, would have access to everything he does. If she’s a good secretary, she probably schedules it all for him and passes all the information on to her husband.

  Rather ingenious really, don’t you think? In fact, if I didn’t want him dead so badly, I think he would have made an excellent addition to our organization.”

  He pressed a buzzer built into the edge of the table at his position and his two enforcers entered the boardroom. The four board members looked at each other uneasily, each of them remembering what had happened the last time the two men had been in the room.

  Torrance beckoned them forward and said, “Mr. Lawson and Mr. Maxwell have already been instructed to pay the Cardillis a visit in their home. They will be unable to retrieve the money we paid Cardilli because he bought his present home with it. We will not be able to be involved in the sale of it so these two gentlemen will burn it later.

  The main purpose of their visit will be to convince Mr. Cardilli to confess to all the murders, which will clear Dean Factor of any involvement in them.”

  David Carpenter said, “If he’s a multi-murderer, he won’t voluntarily confess, surely?”

  Torrance and his two henchmen grinned at him.

  “No one will ask him to give his confession voluntarily, David. Lawson and Maxwell here will derive a great deal of pleasure from forcing him to confess, won’t you, boys?”

  The Dobermans both showed their teeth in a devilish smirk.

  Lawson said, “We certainly will, Mr. Torrance.”

  Helmut Hessler said, “Don’t you think the police will be just a bit suspicious of taking a confession from someone as beaten up as this Cardilli guy will be, Max?”

  “I would have thought, Helmut, you would all know by now that these two gentlemen are extremely skilled at what they do. In fact, I would be willing to bet a bundle they will have him begging to confess without ever having to lay a finger on him.”

  He looked at each of his board members from under his bushy white eyebrows.

  “After he’s confessed, we will have this Cardilli clown disposed of first. He will be accused of killing his wife because she will be found beaten to death before he even confesses to the others. Just a little icing on the cake, gentlemen. Then we’ll get rid of Factor as well.” he said.

  “I’m not sure I understand all this, Max,” Vito Machina said. “We’re doing all this for Factor and then you plan to get rid of him? Why?”

  “This is being done to protect our investment in Garden World, not for Factor. Once those confessions are obtained, we don’t need him any more, that’s why. The bad publicity will disappear and so will he. End of conversation, Vito.” Torrance said in an irritated tone.

  Machina, the oldest member of the group said, “No honor among thieves, then, Max?”

  Machina was in no way religious but when he saw the way Torrance glared at him, he thought this would an excellent time to take a vow of silence. He didn’t care about Factor one way or another. He’d never even met the man. Factor was just a name and he certainly wasn’t about to lose his own life defending him.

  Like the others, Machina knew better than to argue with the Chairman. As a member of the board, he had certain very unique privileges – but arguing with Torrance wasn’t one of them.

  None of the board members were men to be easily intimidated or frightened, but they also knew that Torrance, with his ever present pair of grim reapers, had the power of life and death over anyone at all who opposed him.

  Machina merely bowed his head in compliance and Torrance said, “Right then, if there’s nothing else,” he said, “Same time, same place, next week. See you all then.”

  For a moment there was just a general shaking of heads. None of them were in the least bit compassionate but they were all of the old school of a bullet in the back of
the head and be done with it. All of them thought privately that Torrance’s methods of disposal were unnecessarily bloody and sadistic.

  With a final glare at Machina, Torrance was gone, trailing his two enforcers behind him.

  Cardilli cruised past Paul Thatcher’s house in his pickup. He’d been to the house before when he and Nellie had gate-crashed his pool party. That had been way back in the beginning when he had started planning his vendetta against Factor and Willoughby.

  With so many people present at the party and all milling around the house and grounds, it had been a simple matter for him to take a good look around inside of the house.

  He had made a mental note of the layout but didn’t have any particular plans for it at that point.

  But today was different. It was now time to eliminate the wife of the next franchisee. He grinned to himself as an idea came into his mind and he thought about it all the way home.

  If he actually did what he planned, it would really put the cops in a dither. They were confident now, with the facts of the Santini case against him, that they had Factor dead to rights now.

  But what if the next murder, one Factor couldn’t possibly have committed, unless they let him out of jail to do it, was in exactly the same style as all the others? What then? A copycat perhaps? Could the copycat be his best friend Thatcher, maybe? Well, when he was done, it will sure as hell look like it, Cardilli thought.

  He remembered that Thatcher’s house had very similar features to Factor’s because they were built by the same construction company. He could even check out one or two of the unfinished ones if he wasn’t quite sure.

  Each house in the builder’s designs featured a large and comfortable main floor family room with an equally large open wood burning fireplace.

  The face of Thatcher’s fireplace was constructed of beige fieldstone with an eight foot slab of black marble as a mantelpiece. The chimney front, seven feet wide, was of the same beige fieldstone and reached up to the top of the high ceiling. The fireplace was the dominant feature of the room.