Hampton Manor (10 page)

She spoke first, “I’m sorry, Daniel. I should have told you, but it was so long ago that I never thought it would surface again. It only lasted two months. It was really at a low point in my marriage. I was vulnerable and Luke was available. I’m so ashamed.”

He took her hands in his. “You’ve done nothing wrong, Lauren. None of this matters to me. I love you for who you are now, not who you were. I wish I knew what’s going to happen next. I suspect he’ll go to Adam with his tape, and maybe Adam will think about using it as a wedge to reduce or cancel your support payments. Of course if he did, he would risk exposure of the fraud he committed. More than likely, regardless of how tempted he is, he will probably send Luke packing just as I did.”

“What will Luke do then?”

“He threatened to sell his story to the media. It would be a much smaller payday or him, but from the short conversation I had with him, I think he’s vindictive enough to do it. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens when he talks to Adam. I’m pretty sure Adam will call you as soon as he hears about it.”

Daniel put his arms around her and held her close. “I love you too much to let anyone smear your good name. Just as a precaution I’ll call Walt Madding at Palentine and ask him to do a quick check on Luke Martin. Let’s see who we’re dealing with before we do anything more.”

He called Walt with the details. Walt promised to do a quick probe of Luke.

As Daniel was concluding his call with Walt, Lauren’s cell phone rang. She saw that it was Adam calling. She answered the call and got a three minute tirade from him about infidelity and how he was faithful throughout their marriage. He finished with the wish that he had known about her affair before he agreed to pay her the exorbitant amount of support he put out every month. When his venting was over, she asked him to hold for a minute. Daniel had finished his call and was urging her to let him talk to Adam. She handed him the phone.

“Adam, Daniel here.”

“What do you want, McKnight? This has nothing to do with you. Don’t you think that you’ve meddled enough in my business?”

“I beg to differ. What concerns Lauren, concerns me, now. Besides, when she gets a call asking for a hundred thousand dollars, it becomes my business.” He stopped for a second to collect his thoughts. “Look, Adam, there’s nothing to be gained by rehashing the past. I think we need to work together to figure out how to deal with this weasel.”

Adam had no immediate response. There was reluctance in his voice when he finally spoke, “He asked me for the same amount. I told him I had no interest in dealing with him.”

“I told him to take a hike, too. He threatened to call you and if that didn’t work he said that he’d sell his story to a gossip rag.”

“I’m going to level with you, McKnight, I don’t give a rat’s ass what he does. Don’t try to make her sordid affair my business. I’m the one who was cuckolded and she has a lot more to lose by a scandal than I do. I’ll take my chances.”

“I don‘t disagree with you, Adam. Does that mean that you’re washing your hands on the entire situation, even if it means bad publicity for Lauren and for you?”

“She made her bed, or should I say hay stack, let the cheatin’ bitch sleep in it. Don‘t call me again.” Adam hung up.

Daniel turned to Lauren and updated her, “He wants no part of it. He’s very bitter. It looks like we’re going to have to handle this by ourselves.”

“I guess he has every right to be upset. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to call Walt again. We need to stop Luke from going to the media.”

Adam’s face was fiery red as he slammed the phone down.
The
nerve
of
those
two
expecting
me
to
help
them
cover
up
her
affair
.
So
McKnight
wants
to
b
e
her
“
knight
in
shining
armor
”.
Well
,
we’ll
see
.
Maybe
it’s
about
time
to
topple
the
high
and
mighty
Daniel
McKnight
. Adam picked up the phone and set up a meeting.

Two days later Daniel met Lauren in his office to update her on the “Luke Martin” situation. She could tell from his relaxed demeanor that he had good news.

“Well, it’s over,” he said as he handed her the tape.

“The little pissant decided to surrender the tape and take a bus to Florida with ten thousand dollars in his pocket. I think he was very happy to put Old Brooking behind him.”

“How did you get him to do that?”

“Walt borrowed two of my three hundred pound Wildcat line backers and paid Luke a visit at the room where he was staying. He traded the tape for the ten thousand dollars, a one-way ticket to Miami and two unbroken legs. Walt says he seemed happy with the arrangement. It turns out he has a long arrest record as a minor, which the club never knew about. Walt found a small quantity of cocaine in his room, which he claimed they planted. He had prior convictions as a juvie, it would have put him away for a while. The bottom line is that he’s on the bus and is out of our lives for good. He’s lucky that Walt is a nice guy. Luke swears that this is the only copy. Walt warned him that if anything ever came out about the affair, that he would find him and finish the job. I had to play the tape to make sure it was the right one.”

She looked at the tape in her hand. “Again, I‘m sorry, Daniel, that you had to get involved in this. I guess the only thing left to do is to destroy this.”

Daniel found a “butt can” in a supply closet. They went out to the practice field. He squirted lighter fluid on the tape and dropped a match on top. They both watched silently as the tape twisted and squirmed as it surrendered to its inevitable expiration. In minutes it was a molten mass at the bottom of the can.

“Should we call Adam and let him know?

“No, let him sweat. We don’t owe him a thing.”

Chapter 15

Adam guided the delivery men into the den. They carried a two by three foot painting covered with a canvas cloth. He gave each man a twenty dollar bill and asked if they would do him a favor by removing the portrait of his grandfather that hung over the mantle and delivering it to John who was waiting at the door to the West Wing. They were happy to oblige. When they were gone Adam carefully removed the covering and held the painting at arms’ length. A small brass tag tacked on the bottom of the frame read “THE CONTENDER.” The picture was of a young British boxer with fists raised in a threatening manner. The signature in the lower right corner identified it as the work of Terrance Wellington, an obscure nineteenth century British artist.

Adam carried the painting to the mantle and mounted it on the hooks. He stepped back to admire it. His eyes focused on the fighters nipples. They were the same shape and size as Marcia’s. Adam had purchased the painting solely for the purpose of having a lurid representation of them available to dwell upon at will; his own private voyeurism. As he looked at the picture he became aware that he was aroused. The feeling felt good to Adam. It would have to do until he could get to see her again.

Chapter 16

Kane met Marcia in the parking lot of the Elegant Sportswear Communications Center at 7:50 a.m. “Good morning, Miss Bloom.”

“Good Morning,” Marcia answered, “I’m glad to see you’re on time. Let’s get started,” she said, as she headed towards the entrance. “I got here early and met with the Lead Foreman, John Marshall. We’ll be using the conference room as our base while were here.”

“That’s a good idea. We have a presentation that we show to major customers and suppliers. I can have them set it up.”

Marcia stopped abruptly at the front door. “Let me remind you of something. You are persona non grata on Preston property. For you, there is no ‘we’. You are here strictly as an advisor. You don’t arrange anything unless I tell you to. Is that understood?”

Kane was taken aback.
Whoa! Where did that come from? What’s with this woman? Doesn’t she realize that I’m here to help her?
Then, not realizing how close to the truth he was, he concluded his thoughts with,
She must have had a bad night.

“I was only trying to help.”

“That may well be, but I believe Mister Hampton made your role very clear.”

Whatever,
he thought.
Why does she have to make this so difficult?

An attendant opened the door and handed them badges. Kane knew the man quite well, but decided not to say anything that might set her off again.

She continued, “For your information John already recommended that I view the presentation. It is set up and waiting for us in the conference room. Now, let’s start.”

Yes
,
boss
!

The conference room was a thousand foot square room with a long highly polished conference table and seats for twelve. Two places at the end of the table were set up with coffee and sweet rolls and a large binder. They faced a wall-to-wall screen at the far end of the room.

Kane just nodded to John when he entered the room. He waited for Marcia to choose which seat to occupy and settled down in the other.

John Marshall rose from a chair in the corner. “If you are ready I will start the presentation.”

Marcia nodded and he turned down the lights.
 

The narrator had a slight British accent which harmonized well with the musical background:

Three years ago Elegant Sportswear hired a consulting firm to put together a video presentation that would illustrate the dramatic metamorphosis that the garment industry has undergone during the past one hundred years and tout the advances made at Elegant. The video required extensive editing and thirty six revisions to get it down to the total running time of thirty nine minutes.

Within the first ten minutes, with pictures of thread making, massive looms, cutting rooms and sewing sweatshops, the narrator deftly moved from the industry tableau to modern day Elegant Sportswear.

As the presentation neared completion the camera zoomed in on models wearing Elegant’s patented Neo-Weaves. These one-piece knitted sweaters and skirts rocked the industry when they were first introduced at an international exposition earlier in the year. An entire plant is dedicated to their production. Demand was so high that the company developed a new back-order system just to log orders for these non-seasonal garments.

When the video ended, John asked Marcia, “So, what did you think?”

This was a question that Kane would have normally asked, but he was glad that John had taken the lead. He assumed that he was only to speak when he was spoken to.

Again, whatever!

“Very impressive. I can see why Elegant has done so well. I’m from a trading company at Hampton and I haven’t had the opportunity to see many manufacturing processes, but I doubt that Hampton Sportswear is anywhere near as modernized as you are here. That alone speaks well for the merger.”

Kane remained expressionless, but his thoughts were running rampant.
Not even close, sister. Elegant runs circles around you guys. It’s the one thing that might save your sorry asses when the shit hits the fan.”

Marcia returned to her notes. Her head was down when she asked, “What’s next?”

Kane looked at John, who was looking at him. Neither knew to whom the question had been directed.

Sensing their dilemma she raised her head and looked directly at Kane. “That question was for you.”

“Well you may want to start the tour with a walk-through the plant next door. That is where the fiber and fabrics are produced. It starts with materials from natural sources, like cotton and wool, from regenerative cellulose material like rayon and acetate or entirely synthetic like polyester and nylon. Elegant is unique in that they manufacture all their own thread and the fabrics are produced solely for their own consumption based on demand from confirmed orders. The processes are highly automated. Natural fibers must be cleaned, carded, combed, drawn, roved and finally spun. Manmade fibers such as rayon and acrylics are wet spun. Acetates and spandex are dry spun, Polymerics are melt spun.”
 

Kane observed that the technical information was beginning to overwhelm her. “Maybe we should save the fiber manufacturing plant for last. Since it’s just next door it would be the perfect place to end.”

“I think that’s a good idea. Let’s make the tour a cursory walk through for now. Any decisions we ultimately make will be based mainly on which Elegant lines we decide to continue. It will be marketing, not manufacturing, driven.”

Kane didn’t reply. Being a numbers guy he was used to making decisions based on the bottom line regardless of the which division was affected.
This gal is in way over her head. What was Hampton thinking of when he put her in charge? She’s from a trading company for god’s sake. She doesn’t know squat about manufacturing. Well, it really doesn’t matter who he chose. When this house of cards collapses every one of their divisions will be affected.
He looked down at her legs to see what type of shoes she had worn. He was distracted momentarily, by her shapely legs. Finally he said, “I’m glad to see you wore walking shoes. This tour covers over seven and a half miles and it’s all concrete flooring. One of our six cafeterias is around the half-way mark in case you want to stop for a quick lunch. You may want to bring along a bottle of water or juice from the table over there.”