Authors: Dennis Larsen
hand
and
some
Caribbean
hooker
massaging my neck.”
Different scenarios had played out
in his imagination over the past eight
years, each complete with beautiful
women, exotic locations and lots and lots
of money. When Jeremy’s dad passed
away it looked like cooler heads were
going to prevail, and Beverly would
concede and see the will as overreaching
and unfair, in light of only a two-year
marriage. In an attempt to avoid years in
court and numerous parties contesting the
will, Jeremy had his attorneys draft an
offer to his stepmother with a cash
settlement without having to liquidate the
estate. He had thought it more than fair and
Ignatius had agreed. The will would have
been settled, leaving all the assets, or at
least most of them intact. Jeremy would
have to sell off some of the smaller
holdings to come up with the five million
he had offered, but after the way they had
bonded in the Atlanta hospital, he felt it
very generous.
The realtor had also considered it
quite reasonable, and in theory, thought
they had a deal, until the lawyers got
involved. Iggy recalled the greed and
avarice that the council on both sides had
shown. At the time, their suggestions and
advice seemed to make sense, but in
hindsight it was clear they had more
interest in dragging the negotiations out as
long as possible. At the time of his
father’s death, Jeremy estimated the entire
estate worth about twenty five million,
however, Bev’s attorney’s estimated the
value closer to forty million, even after
Beverly Davis, realtor, had done an
assessment and found the value closer to
her stepson's.
Over these long, past eight years
there continued to be one piece of
information that Jeremy never disclosed to
anyone, not even Iggy. The property that
his father owned south of Moody Air
Force Base would be a gold mine when,
and if, the US Government decided to
expand. The possibility had been bantered
around a number of times but kept behind
closed doors. Very few had access to the
information but the congressman that
Jeremy worked for was one of the
privileged. The aide was not even sure if
the congressman knew that technically his
top aide owned the property, or at least
half of it, if the will should be upheld.
What the younger Marshall did know was
the time was not right, at least not yet, and
the ‘IF’ in the equation of the government
buyout loomed very large.
As Iggy looked back over the
rollercoaster of a ride in and out of court,
himself always taking a backseat, not
letting on that he was anything but an
interested party representing the county, he
had always been there for Jeremy, a
confidant and source of information in all
of the legal shenanigans. He was glad that
his conspirator trusted him; he was the
closest ‘friend’ he had and would miss
him when they concluded their business
arrangement.
The possible buyout of five
million had been buried, along with a
number of other equally fair offers, but
meetings turned into, “he said” - “she
said”, name calling affairs that Jeremy had
recounted to Iggy through their coded
communication system online. Eventually
the two sides squared off in a battle over
the authenticity and veracity of the will.
Jeremy contested and sent the proceedings
into court after court, along with every
other relative, including his mother,
contesting for a portion of the estate as
well.
It was incredible how much money
could be poured down a drain and into a
legal firm's pocket once the ball is rolling.
They just never roll the ball very fast, just
enough to suck every nickel they can out of
their clients, all the time telling them that
they were keeping their best interest in
mind. Iggy and Jeremy had learned to hate
attorneys and the legal profession at large.
“Yup, eight years I’ve been doing
this,” Iggy said, looking into the driver’s
side mirror of his older model sedan,
adjusting his sunglasses in the process.
“Pretty damn tired of it!” he concluded.
A car turned down the lane from
the main road, paused for a moment, then
proceeded until it came to a stop next to
Iggy’s vehicle. A smiling Felix stepped
from the driver’s door, brought two
fingers to his forehead in a makeshift
salute, and greeted the heavier fellow.
“You been waiting long?”
“Well, I for one was on time.
Where you been? I can’t believe Jeremy’s
not here. He’s always on time. Do you
think he didn’t see the location notice I
posted?” the sweating director asked.
“I got it, no reason he should have
missed it. Did you catch what our friend
did today just a short ways from here?”
Felix asked.
“No, how would I have access to
that information? Is it already on the news
or something?” he responded, somewhat
irritated.
“Nothing on the news, but I’ve got
a scanner and there’s all kinds of shit on
there about a break-in where a woman
was assaulted. Had to be our guy. He’s
pulling out all the stops, the extra five
grand you put in his mailbox looks to have
paid off,” a very chipper Felix informed
the more serious Iggy.
“When Jeremy gets here we need
to talk about this last job we have for him.
Hope you’re up to it,” he said, looking for
a response from Felix.
“I do what I get paid to do, little
man, and don’t you forget it. I’ll hold up
my end of the deal, don’t fall down on
yours,” Felix said, still remaining
cheerful.
“What’s got you so happy today?
Thought the idea of having to move back
to Valdosta for a few days would have
you on edge.”
“Nah, I loved the little place for
the few days I was there. Can’t wait to get
back to that bed and breakfast where I
stayed before. You wouldn’t believe the
body on this blonde staying there. Don’t
think she likes me very much but I can be
very persuasive,” Felix said, cupping his
hands in front of himself to describe the
woman more fully to Iggy.
The sound of a car turning into the
drive brought both of their attention to the
newcomer.
“Finally,” they said, in unison.
The silver car eased down the dirt
path, the driver trying not to stir up the
dust that was sure to result. Jeremy saw
his co-conspirators before him, unhappy
that he was the last to arrive. The drive
from DC had taken much longer than
expected, with construction delays the
entire way. It had been good though,
giving him plenty of time to put his
calculating mind to work, sorting out the
final details.
“Gentlemen,” he said, as he exited
his Acura. “Good to see you both, hope
everything is going well.”
“You in a good mood too?” Iggy
asked. “Why is everyone in such a good
mood? I don’t get it, we could all go to
prison for the rest of our lives and you
two seem happy for some reason. Could
you give me a clue or was I the only one
here that didn’t get laid today or
something?”
“Yes, and most likely yes again,”
Felix taunted the older man.
“Okay, we have a lot to decide on
today and only a short time to finalize
these
arrangements,”
Jeremy
said,
knowing that the pocket recorder was
picking up everything that was being said.
“Let me bring you up to speed on where
we are with the legal developments. Short
and simple, we lost. The courts, as high as
I want to take this sham, have concluded
that the will is authentic and has stood up
to every legal barb we’ve thrown at it.
Bottom line, I get half the estate, less thirty
percent to the blood-sucking lawyers, and
the same for Beverly. They have
concluded that the entire estate must be
liquidated and a disbursement of the
resulting assets. I have an option to buy
her half out, at a number the court has
decided on, with no input from either side.
That number is fifty million dollars, and I
can tell you that is not going to happen!”
The congressional aide took a
deep breath to collect his thoughts and
continued, “My legal council has offered
one possible sidestep to this whole thing,
and that has to do with our friend and his
affect on the market, also as we predicted.
The court came up with their estimation of
property value when markets were higher,
but included in their final wording a
‘shotgun’ type clause, that allows either
Beverly, to offer the other party a buyout
or myself. If that offer is accepted it
concludes the will, but if not, the one
making the offer must be willing to accept
that same amount for their half of the
estate, without the right of refusal. Does
that make sense?” He did not wait to see
how much of this they were getting, didn’t
really concern them anyway.
“In any case, I can return to court
and press that the amount is too high in
today’s market, and I think we have a
pretty good case to bring the value down
or I can lowball her again, but she could
turn it around on me. That’s where we
stand today if we decide that we don’t
move ahead. It could mean a lot of money
out of all our pockets.” He gave that a
minute to sink in.
As the three mulled that over,
Jeremy looked around at the setting Iggy
had selected for the meeting, reminding
him of the place where it all started on
that morning his father passed away eight
years ago.
“Iggy, you did well, I like this
place, another foreclosure?” he asked.
“Yeah, lots of them these days. I
knew the place was empty and it’s not
listed yet so no one will be around. I was
thinking it was kind of like that first place
we met years ago.”
“I was thinking the same thing,
guess great minds think alike,” Marshall
said.
“Okay, you two are we done with
the reminiscing and can we get to the work
at hand?” an anxious Felix asked.
“Why not, alright then, Felix fill us
in on what is happening with our hired
help,” the ringleader directed.
Felix filled in the other two on the
events of the past couple of days and what
he had heard that morning over the
scanner. The authorities were in pursuit of
a possible assailant that was last seen
leaving the area near the assault, on a
yellow motorcycle, wearing a matching
helmet, painted with flames on the sides;
however, they didn’t catch him. Some
numb-nuts deputy put his car in the ditch
and couldn’t continue the chase. Doesn’t
sound like they got a very good look at
him though, he’s a cagey one, but he’s
getting sloppy, too sloppy for my liking.”
“That’s okay, which actually plays
into our needs even better than I would
have thought. We need him to just lay low
now for a week. Nothing, and I mean
nothing. Give him a few extra bucks to
maybe leave the area for the week and
entertain
himself
with
hookers
or
whatever he does for fun. We just need to
see how the public and authorities deal
with this for a few days,” the mastermind
instructed the other men.
“I have good news on the sale of
that property that was represented by
Beverly. It fell through just like you said it
would. Wish I could have been there the
day she found that out, stupid bitch is
getting what she deserves. So I guess that