Chapter 4



When Roger opened his eyes again he reached over and turned on the light next to the bed. It took a few seconds for his eyes to focus and then he looked at his watch. Damn, it was four-thirty in the morning. He had slept eight hours. He never slept that long.

He pushed the covers off of his stiff body and put his feet on the floor. He knew that he'd never get back to sleep so he decided to take another shower and check out of the Days Inn and get some breakfast.

He took a quick shower, trying to avoid waking anyone in the next room and then got dressed. Within a few minutes he was ready to check out. There was a different desk clerk on duty and he paid for his bill with his credit card and asked for directions to a place that served a decent breakfast. The clerk suggested the Denny's on Front Street. Roger thanked him and went to his truck.

Roger pulled a legal pad out of his truck and headed for the restaurant. Since it was still early the Denny's wasn't busy. There were only three other tables occupied. He ordered a big breakfast since he was hungry, having missed dinner last night. After his order was taken he started to list all of the particulars of the deal with the Hamms, the contractors and Paula Barton. He had a few questions for Paula that he had to clear up before he left Binghamton. He wanted to talk to Hal Iverson about everything before he got back on the road.

The waitress brought his breakfast and he asked that she keep his coffee filled, as he wanted to work for a while after he finished eating. He continued to write as he ate the Grand Slam Breakfast. By the time that he finished the meal he had three pages of notes. He went over the notes several times and drank the coffee that the waitress kept bringing. When he looked up he saw that it light outside and he signaled the waitress for his check. He left a twenty on the table for the waitress. She had been perfect. His coffee cup was always full and she had let him alone, apparently knowing that he didn't want to be disturbed while he was working.

As he walked outside he debated calling Hal. He knew that Hal would be up but that he wouldn't be awake yet. It took four cups of coffee for Hal to get moving in the morning. Hal was even a coffee addict in college.

Roger drove around Binghamton for a couple of hours checking out what the town was like. It had grown a lot since he was here as a child. There were many new developments and many of the homes in the developments were high-end homes.

After a while he pulled over to the side of the road and dialed his lawyer's number. After a couple of minutes Hal came on the line. Hal immediately had to put Roger on hold to take another call. When he came back Hal had a different tone to his voice.

"That call was from the broker that's been working on your warehouse deal. The company accepts your offer and they'll let you do the financing. I'll make sure that you're protected fully in this. They're sending a letter of intent today and they'd like settlement in about sixty days. I don't know what the big rush is. Most companies don't work that fast. That means you'll have a big chunk of money coming in in about two months and then a nice monthly income after that."

Roger didn't answer for a minute. This was much better than he could have wished for. If he had had to tear down the warehouse and develop the property he would have made a lot less. This was also a big annual tax saving for him but now he had to figure out the income tax ramifications.

"Hal, you'd better get with my CPA and see what we have to do to minimize the tax bite on this. We just might have to buy another property."

"Roger, when are you going to be in this area again? We have to talk about money. With this warehouse deal you'll have a monthly income that even you can live off of, even with the way that you spend money. There's also the issue about your father's assets. You just can't leave that as is unless you're here to keep an eye on things. It's just too dangerous."

Roger began to think about what Hal had said. His mother had died about ten years ago and when his father died he had left Roger a stock portfolio worth about four million dollars. Roger had never done anything with the stocks and he was letting his aunt live in the house that his father had owned. In the back of his mind Roger felt that if he sold the stocks or the house he would no longer have a link to his past. As long as he kept his parents assets intact he felt that he remained close to his mother and father.

"Hal, I don't know what I want to do with my parents investments yet. I think that we can leave things there as is for now."

Roger heard Hal let out a deep breath, "Roger you can't do that. Stocks are Ok if you keep an eye on them. With you traveling the country you can't react fast enough if something happens. Just look at Enron stock. It seemed like a pretty good stock until just before the bottom dropped out. If you had been invested in Enron you would have lost most of what you had in it. I know how you feel but I also know how you'll feel if you lose everything that your parents worked for all of their life."

"Ok Hal. Get with a broker and sell the stocks. I don't think that there's enough of any one stock to affect the market price if they're all sold at once. My father had a good diversified portfolio. In a couple of days I'll call you and tell you what to do with the proceeds.

Roger could hear Hal shuffling through papers and then he heard him talking to someone in his office. Hal asked him to hang on for a minute and Roger heard a woman discussing something.

Hal came back on the line, "Ok Buddy. I'm back. I had to hire another associate because of you. You're keeping me busy all by yourself. Maybe I should just have you as a client like that lawyer on the "Godfather."

Hal and Roger exchange good-natured barbs for a while and then hung up. Hal reminded him again that they had to talk money. Roger sat for a minute thinking about how his money situation had changed since he started this trip. He had to agree with Hal, he had been a bit free with his money but now he had much more money than when he started the trip. Maybe it's like the old-timers say... every good is returned to you threefold.

Roger dialed Paula Barton's number. When she got on the line she told him that she had the appraisal done and that she could meet him at the Hamm's house at noon. He told Paula that he would meet her there. After he hung up he decided to stop by Pete Salmon's shop to see if he had done any work on getting the new furnace delivered. When he pulled into the parking lot Roger saw that the shop was deserted so he decided to see if Aaron and Ethyl had talked to their children and then find out what their children thought about the deal.

As he pulled in front of the house Roger was surprised to find several workmen busy carrying material into the basement and another crew installing two of the windows on the house. As he walked up to Pete Salmon the workman stopped and waved at him.

"I had my accountant check you out yesterday. Everything checked out so I thought that I'd get started today. I'm installing flexible insulated duct. I can get that right away and it's cheaper to buy and cheaper to install. My brother decided to start today too. He ordered the bay window and it should be here tomorrow. I think that we'll have this knocked out by the end of the week. Your lawyer works fast. I've already got the one-third in the bank. He transferred the funds last night."

Roger nodded, "Paula Barton is going to oversee the work you guys are doing. As soon as she says the job is done you'll have the rest of your money."

Pete smiled, "I like doing business with people like you. You don't have any other work around here do you?"

"No, but if you're willing to do the annual maintenance on the furnace I'll sign a contract for it now."

Pete got a bigger grin on his face, "I'll be here every fall for the heating system checkup. I'll have the Hamms send you the receipt so you know that the work has been done. With the proper maintenance this furnace should last a long time."

A younger man walked up to them and Pete introduced him as his brother, "You'd better make sure that you do it right," Pete said to his younger brother, " Paula is inspecting the job. You don't get paid until she says it's right."

"Oh, shit," the brother said and turned and walked back to the house.

Pete chuckled, "He'll do a good job. Paula gives him a fit when she uses him on one of her properties. She just rides him because she knows he'll buckle. She'll get under your skin if you let her."

Roger nodded, turned and walked to the house. Ethyl was standing in the doorway waiting for him to come up the sidewalk. She grabbed his arm and dragged him into the house. Aaron was sitting on the sofa watching two men install a window.

"These windows! I can't believe how fast they can put them in," she said excitedly, "They said that they'd be done in a couple of days. They said something about double glaze. I guess that's good. You don't even have to get a ladder out to clean them, they just pop open."

Roger made her sit down, "Ethyl, double glaze is good. You don't have to use storm windows anymore either. Now you won't have air leaking in and no more windows rattling. I told them to do the basement windows too because you're loosing a lot of heat there. I think that when this work is done your heat bills will be cut in half."

Roger saw that something was bothering Ethyl, "What's on your mind Ethyl? Have you talked to your kids? Did they have reservations about this setup?"

Tears came to Ethyl's eyes, " No, they can't believe that someone is willing to make a deal like this. It will take a load off of their mind. I know that they feel bad because they can't help more than they do now. But I know that it costs a lot to raise kids now days. I just wish that they could be here to see what you're doing to the house."

Roger thought for a minute, "What's bothering you Ethyl? Are you having second thoughts?"

Ethyl looked down at her hands, "I just feel that we are taking advantage of you. What can you possibly get out of this?"

Roger went over to her and hugged her, "As I told you this is an investment. When I take over the house it will be worth more than it is today. I hope to make a healthy profit on this deal. As I told you, I try to structure all of my deals as a win-win situation. You would have had to move out eventually and someone would have bought it for a song, fixed it up and made a pile of money on it. Now you have a home to live in for as long as you want and I have a fine house and two people that I can trust to take care of it for me. Also, you'll have enough money so that you won't have any money worries for the rest of your life. See? Everybody wins."

Just then Paula walked into the house and they began to go over the appraisal with the Hamm's. Ethyl looked shocked at the appraisal and for a while Roger thought that she felt the appraisal was too low. Finally she told Paula that she had made a mistake, the house couldn't be worth that much. Ethyl argued for over a half an hour before Paula finally convinced them that the appraisal was accurate.

Byron Safire had left the contract with the Hamm's before he left for his office and Roger, Paula and the Hamm's went over it. Roger made Paula explain every part of the agreement so that Aaron and Ethyl understood it. After they had all signed the contract Roger pulled out his checkbook and wrote a check for 75% of the appraised value of the home and handed it to Paula. Paula grinned and held it up for Aaron and Ethyl to see how much it was. Ethyl put her hand over her mouth and gasped.

"Paula, try to make the settlement as soon as possible so that Aaron and Ethyl can have use of their money," he told her.

Paula assured him that she could arrange settlement within two weeks. They all talked for a while and Roger went outside to make sure that Pete Salmon and his brother had everything from him that they needed and that they knew what he expected of them. After he was satisfied he went back into the house.

"Aaron... Ethyl, I think that it's time for me to get back on the road. Paula will make sure that Pete and his brother do everything that we contracted to do and I'm sure that you will be very pleased with the improvements. Now... unless there is anything that I've forgotten I'm going to leave you good people and be on my way."

Ethyl tried her best to get him to stay a while longer and when he insisted that he had to get on the road she darted into the kitchen and came back with a tin of home-made cookies. She handed the cookies to Roger with tears running down her cheeks. Aaron started to get tears in his eyes and he walked into the kitchen so that they wouldn't see his tears. In a few minutes he came back and shook Roger's hand and told him to be careful in his travels

After many hugs and not a few tears Roger and Paula left the house and started toward their vehicles. Roger stopped Paula and stood for a minute looking out at the street.

"Paula, after the improvements are done and the Hamm's have a chance to see how nice the house is going to be, get two first-class tickets for them so that they can go see their kids. Just tack it on your fee. It will give them a chance to soak up some of that Arizona sun before they have to come back and fight the Binghamton winter."

Paula looked at him for a minute, nodded and turned and walked toward her car shaking her head. Roger smiled and headed for his pickup feeling very good about what he had done. He turned the truck toward I-81 and took one last look at Binghamton before he started his journey. He turned on the southbound ramp to I-81 and headed toward Scranton.

Tallorder64

Chapter 5