Hampton Manor (21 page)

The search for a second bomb site took longer and required some ingenuity on the Assassin’s part. It would have to be a Pyro/Nitrex bomb that would create enough heat to ignite wood, plastic and some metals on contact. To work best it needed to be placed near the East Wing somewhere between the front and back doors so the conflagration would spread quickly through the main living space and the East Wing, simultaneously. No obvious location was evident on the prints. Out of frustration he tossed the highlighter he was using down onto his desk, knocking over a half filled Styrofoam cup and sending a stream of black coffee down onto the blueprints of the first floor. He grabbed a napkin and began sopping up the coffee. As he did he noticed that the spill ended at the bottom of the broad staircase leading up to the second floor. It was as if providence was pointing at the answer to his dilemma.
Of course, that’s it. There has to be a space under the staircase. That would make a perfect location, but why isn’t a door or panel shown anywhere on the prints? I’ll have to check on that.

Two days later, in the guise of a reporter from an Architectural magazine, the Assassin was given permission to roam about Hampton Manor to take photographs. He located the panel on the second floor and the entrance to the space under staircase. He had was sufficient time to plant the Nitrex devices he had stored in his backpack. A late night visit to the Old Brooking Water District’s pumping station and the abandoned warehouse completed the preliminaries of his plan.

He needed the Hamptons to be together, preferably, after dark. There was always more confusion at nighttime fires. This required an inside contact to alert him when the father and son were together in the West Wing. Ten thousand dollars bought him that contact in the person of Neil Gilbert a young Registered Nurse employed by Adam Hampton. All that was left to do was to wait for the right opportunity.
Hopefully that won’t be too long.

He took a room in a rundown motel at the edge of town. It was a perfect location for what he had in mind. From there it would take only minutes to be within the range of the remote detonator that would destroy the pumping station and set off the warehouse fire. Ten minutes later he could be driving past Hampton Manor where a press of the last button would finish the job for which he would be paid a cool one million dollars.

Chapter 29

Lauren sat on a box in the storage area of her house. Packing was not going well. She started two days ago but has made little progress. There were too many memories attached to the items she picked up.
At this rate it’ll take me a week to pack. I’ve got to stop reminiscing about everything I touch. Hell, half of this crap should go in the trash can. I think I’m going to have to go by the rule that if I haven’t used it in the past three months, or plan to use it in the next three, it goes to the poor or out in the trash. That should help move things along.

With her new resolve she emptied the storage room within two hours and returned to the kitchen for a glass of wine. Daniel walked into the kitchen just as Lauren was ready to uncork the bottle.

“When did you get back?”

“Just a few minutes ago. I was at my lawyer’s office signing the last of the contracts. Everything is on schedule. We’re free to go. That is if I can get you to finish up here. Hell I had all my stuff packed two days ago. You’re still days away.”

“I’m sorry it’s taking so long, Daniel, but I am making progress. I just finished going through the storage room.”

“That’s great. How can I help?”

“Actually, I think you can help. I made a decision that will help me weed through everything faster. I’m going to build a big pile of things I’m not going to take. You could go through it and separate what is good enough for Goodwill and what has to be trashed. That will help me a lot.”

“At your service, ma’am. I’ll get a box of large trash bags and build some cartons. I’ll be ready to go in about five minutes.”

Lauren uncorked the bottle and poured him a glass. “Sit and have a glass of wine with me, first.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” he said as he pulled up a chair. “You know, if you wanted to, I could get someone in to pack everything up and you can go through the boxes at your leisure up in Westfield. They’d mark what is in each box so if you really needed something, you’d be able to locate it quickly. It would relieve a lot of pressure on you. We have lots of space up there to store the boxes until you can get around to unpacking them.”

“That’s a very tempting offer, Daniel, but I wouldn’t want to have a stack of boxes piled up reminding me that I had to go through them. I only want to take the things that can be used when we get there. We’ll probably have to move only twenty or thirty percent of this stuff. I just have to concentrate on the job at hand.”

“Okay, but the offer is open in case you change your mind. It would allow us to move sooner and that ain’t all bad.”

Lauren sat back in her chair and gazed up at the ceiling. A pensive expression appeared on her face as her mind abandoned the mundane chores at hand and traveled to a deeper place.

“You look like you have something on your mind besides moving. Am I right?”

“Yes, but it’s nothing I can talk about.”
There’s no way I can tell him what I‘m planning. I can‘t believe that I’ve stooped so low as to play by Adam Hampton’s rules, but I don’t feel that I have any alternative.
She answered, “You know how sometimes you have to do something even though it goes against everything in your nature. It’s like that.”

Daniel thought for a moment about what she said.
Man, if she knew what I did, she’d be very disappointed in me. This is one secret that I best take to the grave. I led her to believe that I was taking everything in stride, but I couldn’t sit idly by while that man undermines my livelihood.
“I think I understand what you’re talking about. I’ve had to do some things in my life that I’m not very proud of, but, as you said, sometimes there is no way out. The decision is often taken out of our hands.”

“I’m glad you understand. I don’t ever want to have this discussion with you again. I just want us to get on with our lives.”

He raised his glass in a solemn toast, “Here’s to secrets, best left untold.”

Chapter 30

Bert Wilson was slow in responding to Kane’s question. “I don’t know how to advise you. I know it’s been a week since we got word about the SEC investigation, but the wheels of government move slowly. They either have a case and are being careful to dot all the ‘i’s’ and cross all the ‘t’s’ or they can’t find anything and are trying to find a way to justify having spent tens of thousands of dollars of the taxpayer’s money on a wild goose chase. Either way, my contacts tell me that a statement is due out tomorrow morning. We’ll just have to wait until then.”

“It’s the damn waiting that is getting to me. I want to leave this town, but I can’t until this matter is cleared up. Don’t you have any clue about which way they’ll go?”

“None whatsoever. I just got back to the office, but Tom kept me current while I was recuperating. Once an official inquiry begins, even the most reliable contacts clam up. They all have their careers to worry about. Thanks to some recent bad press, the SEC is taking leaks very seriously.”

“I hear you, but I don’t like it one bit. Call me as soon as you hear anything. I guess I can be patient for one more day. By the way, shouldn’t you be taking things easy for awhile? It’s only been six days.”

“Thanks for your concern. It seems they do things differently these days. They want you on your feet as quickly as possible. They figured out you heal better with some activity than without. Don’t worry, I’m following my doctor’s orders to the letter. As long as I limit my physical activity, I’ll be fine. I’ll call you the moment I hear anything. Thanks for being so patient, Kane. I’m betting they’ll drop the investigation soon and you’ll be free to get on with your life. Say hello to Marcia and your mother for me, and thank them for the get-well cards and flowers. They were really appreciated.”

“You bet!”

Kane was finally alone with his thoughts,
This SEC nonsense will be over soon. I just have to play along for a little while longer and continue to look like the abused party. I can do that. One thing , is for sure, I’m going to leave Old Brooking with Marcia, but I’ll be back and when I am, I’ll be in the driver’s seat.

Kane called his mother and Marcia to update them. Neither were surprised by the lack of definitive news. They both knew that Adam Hampton was behind the bogus investigation and that he would continue to do all he could to muddy the waters in an attempt to destroy Kane’s reputation.

Evelyn was especially unsettled by the news. Her mind became a fertile ground for retribution as she contemplated taking justice into her own hands.
That man can’t help himself. He just doesn’t know when to stop. He thinks he can terrorize people and they won’t fight back. Well, Kane may be too much of a gentleman to fight dirty, but being a good mother, I will stop at nothing to protect my son, which the Hamptons are about to find out.

Marcia was not surprised that the attacks by Adam continued. During her several years at Hampton Industries, she observed that Adam’s II and III could be ruthless in their dealings with people. It didn’t matter whether it was a customer, friend, employee or business associate that was involved. If they felt that someone crossed the line, they struck back with a vengeance totally disproportionate to the alleged transgression. Once she asked Adam why he was being so harsh with a female employee who had only misplaced a file. His reply was, “I don’t ever want her to forget the lesson that I’m teaching her. There is no place in this business for slipshod work.”

Well, two can play that game,
Marcia thought, as she mentally pondered what had transpired since the problems with Adam began just a few days ago.
I’m the target of some pretty vicious rumors. I’ve had harassing phone calls, money I have coming to me has been frozen indefinitely, Kane is accused of stock fraud and someone has been following us again. Maybe what I have in store for the Hamptons is disproportionate to all that, but according to their rules, it’s the only way to assure that they learn their lesson.

Chapter 31

Adam had a busy morning on the phone with customers and suppliers of Elegant Sportswear. He was using the den as his office, hoping to take advantage of the time usually spent commuting, to tackle the growing list of concerns. The merger between Hampton Industries and Preston Industries was going well with over half of the companies fully integrated, but Elegant Sportswear’s consolidation into Hampton Sportswear was not one of them. When he fired Marcia, Adam attempted to tackle the remaining work himself but discovered very quickly that he had been away from day-to-day operations too long. He was having difficulty grasping the work-flow differences between the two companies, especially since Elegant was years ahead, technologically. To make matters worse, the vice-president of Elegant had left the company two weeks after the takeover announcement was made and Adam’s decision to push for the unionization of the surviving Elegant workers resulted in work slowdowns on several of the garment lines. Worst of all, the production at the Neo-Weaves plant was involved.

Adam spent ten minutes on the phone with Porter Stinson, CEO of Hampton Sportswear, reviewing where things stood. When the call was finished, he dialed Bill Somerset, their vice-president of sales.

“What can I do for you Mister Hampton?”

“Well, for one thing, you can start by calling me Adam. I was speaking to Porter about re-assigning your work on the sportswear merger to someone else. I need you to be the new CEO of Bretton Trading. What do think of that?”

“I don’t know what to say, Adam.”
 

“A simple ‘yes’ will suffice.”

“Well then, yes, of course. I appreciate your faith in me. Bretton is a real opportunity. When I heard that Marcia Bloom resigned I knew that a hugh vacuum had been created. I never thought I’d be considered to move over there.”

“Porter is assigning Walter Turner to cover your current responsibilities. Get on over to Porter’s office right away. Make sure that Turner has all the files he’ll need to finish the sportswear merger. See me first thing in the morning and we’ll get started on Bretton. Call me at home if you have any further questions.”

Adam felt confident about the promotion. Having a proven executive to pick up at Bretton Trading would reduce many of the demands for his time. He visited the bar in the corner of his den and mixed a Rusty Nail. After several sips, it was back to business.
I better get to this list while I still have my wits about me.

The first call was to Gil Parsons to advise him that the unionization at the Elegant Sportswear plants was now back on track. He listened to Gil’s protests about the loss of representation at the Old Brooking sports stadiums. He assured him that he would make it up to him with a generous check made out to the union’s rainy day fund. Lately, calls to Gil ended up with a donation to something or someone.

Call two was to his contact at the SEC. Unfortunately the investigation of Kane Masterson was winding down. The decision to close their inquiry had already been made. All that was remaining was the official statement that would be released the next day.
What else can I do to that sneaky bastard? Once he’s cleared of any wrongdoing, he and that whore will leave town. I’m not quite finished with them, yet. I’m convinced that he propped up the price of Preston’s stock by not divulging the pending loss of key customers. He had to know about it. I just need to sow some seeds with the SEC to get them to reopen their investigation. For all I know, Marcia may have been covering for him all along. I relied on her to check on his integrity and all the time she was going to bed with him. Why didn’t I realize that sooner. She was spending all that time with him while making excuses as to why she couldn’t see me. What a blind fool I was. Well, I’m going to get back to the SEC. They need to investigate that European Consortium. Washington is interested whenever the U.S, suffers a loss of business to overseas companies. The SEC will get to the truth and when they do, those two will get what they deserve.
He made the call and received assurances that the there would be a full scale investigation into the new charges.