Hampton Manor (6 page)

The strained relationship continued for over a year, until Lauren had an accident in a “jumping” exhibition at the Club’s annual riding show. Against Adam’s advice, she entered the “triple combination” jump. Her horse balked after the first obstacle, throwing Lauren into a hedge at the right side of the fence. The hedge absorbed most of the impact, and although she wasn’t physically hurt the fall resulted in the miscarriage of her four month old fetus. Adam was unforgiving about the loss of his unborn son. Daniel, moved by Lauren’s misfortune, sent flowers and a comforting letter to her. When she did not respond, he chalked it up to her lack of social grace. Still, it seemed to him to be a deliberate snub.

Four years passed before he heard from her again. It was under very unusual circumstances, brought on by Adam’s involvement in his father’s attempted hostile take-over of Preston Industries. She called Daniel to set up a meeting at a park in an nearby town. Out of curiosity, more than anything else, he agreed to meet with her. In his mind there was some kind of poetic justice at work.

“How have you been, Daniel?” She asked the question as if she was talking to an old friend.

This one has balls
, he couldn’t help but think. “I’m just fine, Lauren. How have things been with you?

“About the same.” She seemed to be bent on engaging in small talk.

Daniel took control of the situation. “Let’s cut to the chase, Lauren. Why did you ask to see me? What insidious plan are you hatching, that you need me to involve me. I haven’t forgotten, the way you’ve treated me the past few years.”

She looked hurt by his remarks. Tears welled up in her eyes and began the voyage down her well tanned cheeks. She moved her hazel eyes in several directions, trying to avoid eye contact, but finally she met his. “You have every right to feel that way, Daniel. I certainly don’t deserve any help from you after the way I’ve behaved all these years, but you‘re the only person I feel safe talking to, about this.” Lauren reached into her coat pocket for a tissue. She dabbed at the tears as they began flowing freely.

Daniel started to speak, but she held up a hand to stop him.

“Let me finish, please, or I’ll lose what little nerve I’ve mustered in coming here. The bottom line is that I’m in big trouble in my marriage, or what would better be described as the sham of my marriage. Adam is not cheating on me, at least as far as I know, but I believe that he has stolen some valuable antique jewelry that my family has passed down for generations. I always kept them in a vault at the Centurion Bank. Three days ago I went to the vault to get some papers and the jewels weren’t there. The signature card showed that Adam visited the box two months ago.”

“Maybe he’s having them cleaned or perhaps he’s having them reset as a surprise for you.”

Lauren looked annoyed at his rejoinder. “I keep them polished and they’re sealed in air-tight containers.” As if to refute his simplistic explanation, she added, “These are valuable antique pieces. You don’t have them reset,” she added, a bit sarcastically.

He ignored the rebuke. “You’re saying that Adam stole your jewelry? Why would he do such a thing? After all they belong to you.”

Anger replaced the crying as she spouted, “He did it for money and power; he does everything for those two reasons. He’s drained all our bank accounts to buy Preston Industries stock. His father is obsessed with taking over Preston and Adam is a willing co-conspirator. It’s all they think about. After all their shenanigans they fell short of the required votes anyway. It was all for naught.”

“I knew about the takeover attempt. I know that obsessions do strange things to people.” Daniel reached over to take her hand. “How can I help you, Lauren?”

Lauren looked into his eyes and realized that he wasn’t holding any grudges against her for her disgraceful behavior of the past several years. “You’re a very decent man, Daniel McKnight. I’m really sorry for the way I treated you. Adam wanted to invite you to our wedding. I was the one who said no. Can you ever forgive me?

“There’s nothing to forgive, Lauren. Please let me help you, if I can.”

“I’m not sure that you can do anything. I think I just needed to ventilate. I won’t bother you any more with this.”

She rose to leave, but he gestured for her to sit back down.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I can do more for you than just listen. You can get a minister or an analyst to do that. I‘m offering you my friendship. You look like you can use a friend about now. I know people who can find out what happened to your jewelry. They are top-notch investigators. They are very thorough and very discrete. Do you have pictures and descriptions of each piece?”

She reached into her handbag and removed an envelope. “This is the information we put together for our insurance company, a few years back. The pictures are very good, as are the descriptions of the pieces.”

“Give me a few days. I’ll ask the investigators to look around. I’ll get back to you if they need to have any additional information.”

“How can I thank you?”

Daniel slid next to her on the bench and gently placed his arm around her. He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Don’t you worry about a thing, Lauren. We’ll get to the bottom of this. I’ll call you by the end of the week. I should have something by then.”

They walked together to the parking lot. As she got into her Mercedes, she leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek.

Daniel contacted a friend, Walter Madding, at Palentine Investigations, a P.I. firm he often used to do background checks. He sent the jewelry information to them by courier and requested a thorough check of Adam Hampton III’s personal and professional life. After all, what did he really know about the man that Adam had become? It was many years since they had beers together.

It only took three days for Walter to trace the jewelry to a private collector who paid three hundred thousand dollars for the collection. There was a direct link to Adam. The background check on Adam uncovered an application for a seven hundred thousand dollar mortgage on their summer house, an application bearing the signature of Adam Hampton III and Lauren S. Hampton. He faxed Daniel a copy.

Daniel and Lauren met again at the park bench. She calmly read the report and looked at the mortgage application. “This isn’t my signature,” she told him.

Daniel put the envelope down on the bench. He took her hands in his. “Lauren, my investigator says that the jewelry was bought in good faith by a collector. The man refuses to give them up under any conditions. Walter thinks that the man may have some legal standing. As for the summer house, since you and Adam still own it, the only issue is the commission of fraud and what you want to do about that. Adam is on very shaky ground there. As I look at all of this, my advice to you is to retain a good lawyer. I can recommend several if you’re interested.”

“Do they handle divorces too?”

He was both surprised and pleased by her question. “Are you sure you want to go that route?”

“How can you ask me that? You can see what kind of a man he became. Do you expect me to stay married to that lying, thieving snake in the grass?”

“No, I suppose not. To answer your question, yes I do know an excellent divorce lawyer. His name is Bert Wiegans. He’s one of the best in the area. I can probably get you in to see him as early as tomorrow if you’re ready to move forward right away.

“I am!”

Adam offered no resistance to Lauren’s divorce motion. He agreed to her settlement demands including re-mortgaging the summer house solely in his name.

Shortly after her divorce. Daniel started dating Lauren. The relationship was described as “just good friends”, although a month ago, on his fiftieth birthday they traveled together to Las Vegas.. Two suites were reserved; only one was used.

Chapter 11

Adam ushered Marcia into his office. He made no overt gestures of affection, knowing that she would understand that anything personal between them was not to be reflected in their professional relationship. His wardrobe selection of the day included a Brooks Brothers black wool suit, lavender button down shirt and a Raffaello checkered tie. These were complemented by two-tone Fratelli loafers. He took note of her approval as she scanned him from head to toe. Adam, at thirty three, had retained much of his youthful appearance.

“How are you today?”

“Just fine, Adam. I’m anxious to hear about my new assignment. I could never in my wildest dreams have imagined having the great Kane Masterson reporting to me.”

Adam looked a little annoyed at her definition of Kane as ‘great.’ “He puts his pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us do. Anyway, if he was as great as everyone thinks, he wouldn’t be in the fix he’s in, now would he?”

Marcia backed off, “I certainly can’t argue with that.” She sat down in a plush side chair next to Adam’s desk. She clicked her pen, and flipped open the note pad. “Do you have any special instructions for me regarding Mister Kane Masterson?

“You bet I do. You know how much I hate that man. I’m convinced that he contributed to my father’s collapse. Dad would never have ignored the business if it hadn’t been for the failure to take over Preston. The playboy lifestyle he adopted was only a facade to cover up how much the loss was tearing him apart. Eventually it just got to be too much for him. I blame it all on Kane Masterson, the man that kept him from his dream. Since I took over the reins here at Hampton Industries, a day hasn’t gone by that I haven’t taken at least one step toward getting revenge on him. To that end, I have a list of instructions for you.

“The most important thing is that he is not to have an ID. I want him to check in at the front desk every day. He is to be escorted by an armed guard to either your office or his cubicle. He is to have no access to the copy room. If he needs any copies he’ll have to get them through you. I’ve arranged for his computer to have limited access to operational data. You will decide what his daily assignments will be. Any visitors he might have must be cleared by you in advance.”

He stopped for a minute as Marcia caught up with her notes. “Elegant Sportswear is the ‘plum’ in this deal. I have to admit that they run circles around Hampton Sportswear, but together, they will be the industry leader. That’s why I want you to work with Masterson to bring it all together. His input is essential.”

“I really appreciate this opportunity. I know how important this is to you. Don’t worry, I’ll make good use of Kane Masterson. It sounds like you expect me to monitor his activities down to and including his potty breaks.”

With a straight face he said, “Speaking of potty breaks, do you think it would be out of order if I hired someone to act as a homosexual and accost him in the men’s room?”

Marcia’s eyes darted from the notebook to Adam.

He looked serious for about ten seconds, then burst into a raucous laugh.

Marcia was relieved that he was only jesting. “You had me going there for a minute, Adam.”

“You must admit that it would be fun to “punk” him, albeit a bit unprofessional. Unless, of course, he’s gay. In that case the joke would be on me. Anyway, what could he do about it. Maybe I’ll save that one for his last day.”

“I think you’d be best to forget about it completely.”

“You’re probably right. The bastard would probably sue me for harassment.”

Marcia went back to her notes. “Well, I think I get the idea. Rest assured Kane Masterson will leave here at the end of every day wishing that he had never agreed to work for us during the transition. I intend to make every day as tough for him as possible.”

“That’s the spirit. Remember that even though he is contractually obligated to work for us, it was a voluntary gesture on his part. He feels an obligation to the company’s vendors, customers and employees to look out for their interests. He’ll show them more loyalty than he will Hampton Industries, so he’ll need constant monitoring.

“That’s to be expected. Don’t worry, I’ll keep my eyes open.”

“One more thing, make sure that I have a minimum of personal contact with the man, if possible, none at all. I despise the sight of him. I’m sure you can find ways to prevent our paths from crossing.”

“That won‘t be any problem. I‘ll keep him away from you.”

“I’m taking off for the rest of the day. If you need me I’ll be at home. I’ve got to see dad and convey the good news to him. The doctors have prescribed a new medicine that’s supposed to increase his clarity. After all he went through, I hope that our takeover of Preston won’t be completely lost to him.” As he spoke tears formed in Adam’s eyes. He looked away to hide them from Marcia. When he looked back his eyes had cleared. “I haven’t forgotten that we have a date tonight. I made reservations at Champs Elysees for eight, so I’ll be by to pick you up at seven.”

“I’ll be ready. Say hello to your father for me. I’m glad to hear he’s getting better.”

Kane Masterson approached the reception desk as Adam was leaving the building. Their eyes met briefly, but neither man gave any sign of recognition. He gave the receptionist his card and waited as she called someone. A minute later an armed guard appeared to escort him to Marcia Bloom’s office.

Marcia met him at the door.
He’s much more handsome in person than on the Web.
They shook hands, exchanged pleasantries and moved to a small meeting table.