The Florencia Lozano Homepage - Fan Fiction
LIES FEARS & LOVE
BY TROG |
CHAPTER
36 |
chapter 36
DOWNTOWN LLANVIEW
Todd followed Blair at a safe distance as she headed down Main Street toward downtown. He had expected another meeting with RJ this morning, but instead she came here. Her car suddenly made a sharp turn and entered the parking garage of Llanview Bank and Trust and he pulled into a space nearby and waited.
Finally after a few minutes, she came out, carrying a black briefcase, and made her way across the street into the bank. Blair had not worked in quite some time and he wondered what she would need a briefcase for.
After what seemed like an exorbitant amount of time, he checked his watch. She had been in there for a half hour and he wondered what could be taking so long. Eventually she emerged with the briefcase and where earlier she had carried it easily, on leaving the bank the case seemed to possess more weight and she lugged it with some difficulty.
She disappeared into the garage, and within minutes her car reappeared and made its way back down Main street. He waited till she was at a safe distance and continued following her.
Todd practically owned Llanview Bank and Trust, having quite a bit of his money tied up with them,and as he followed Blair he picked up his car phone and dialed the office of Al Saperstein, the bank manager.
“Yeah, let me speak to Al Saperstein...tell him it’s Todd Manning.”
“Mr. Manning. Al Saperstein here. What can I do for you,” said a deep voice on the other end.
“Listen, my fiance, Blair Cramer is going by your bank this morning and...”
“Oh, you just missed her, Mr. Manning. She only left a few minutes ago.”
“Oh...so she had no problems...with her....transaction.”
“No, there was no problem at all. I mean that was quite a bit of money on such short notice, but we were able to accommodate her.”
Todd looked at the phone and smiled.
“That’s great, Al. I was calling to say that if there was a problem you could use my account to cover the difference. I mean if Blair didn’t have that amount in her account.”
“Ms. Cramer had just enough to cover the withdrawal. She had called yesterday so we had it all ready for her--although I had to give her some larger bills than she wanted on such short notice. We don’t generally keep a hundred thousand dollars in small bills around.”
Todd’s eyes widened at the dollar amount.
“Well, thanks a lot, Al. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem, Mr. Manning. You’re our most valued customer and anytime we can help you or your family, we are only to happy to do so.”
Todd rolled his eyes and hung up the phone.
“A hundred grand in small bills, ha Blair? Sounds like a pay-off to me. What the hell are you up to?”
As Blair made her way down Main Street, she suddenly veered right and started heading somewhere familiar--RJ’s club. Todd pulled over down the block as she parked in front of the club, emerged with the briefcase and approached the door only to find it locked. Todd watched her knock a few times before RJ Gannon finally came to the door wearing a peacock-blue jacket that glowed against the dark entrance behind him. They exchanged a few words as Blair handed him the suitcase, but than something weird happened. RJ reached out his hand and caressed Blair’s face with very sensual gesture as he moved closer to her, almost kissing her.
“What the fuck....” said Todd, sitting back completely confused and rather amused.
“Hey, is my pregnant fiance doing RJ Gannon?”
Blair pulled away and walked back to her car and finally drove away.
Todd just sat in his car for a while, his mind reeling, trying to grasp what just happened. Why was Blair paying off RJ? Was she screwing around with him? And what did all this have to do with Dr. Parker and his baby and that mysterious procedure that Blair had? There was no connection that he could grasp...unless...RJ had something on Blair! But what could that possibly be?
Todd turned his car on and was about to take off when he noticed RJ leaving the club with the same briefcase in his hand. Walking quickly to his British-racing-green Jaguar parked across the street, he got in quickly and peeled out heading toward Todd. Todd ducked down quickly in his seat, wondering why the hell he ever got a vanity plate saying TODDREX, and hoping like hell RJ didn’t notice it, but the Jaguar sped by so fast, Todd was sure he hadn’t seen him. He waited a few moments, then made chase.
As Todd followed RJ at a safe distance, he continued to play with all the pieces of this puzzle in his head, but they just didn’t fit. Something was missing from all this and he just couldn’t figure out--at least not yet.
Todd slowed down as he followed RJ beyond the city limits and watched him get on the expressway. The road was very winding and RJ was driving rather leisurely, like a man who had no wish to be pulled over, so Todd had a hard time keeping up with him having to stay way back to avoid being detected.
Finally, RJ took the exit for Pilot and Todd slowed down, following carefully.
RJ drove toward the center of town and Todd smiled as they passed the parking garage where he and Tea had made savage love on his car. He followed down some small sidestreets until finally the Jaguar pulled over and parked in front of a small, seedy building a few doors down from the Pilot district court house. Todd could make out a sign by the door, but he couldn’t read it from where he was. He waited as RJ came out of his car carrying the briefcase and entered the building.
Todd looked around before exiting his car. There were quite a few people walking about as the courthouse was so close by, so he went relatively unnoticed as he headed toward the building on foot. On approaching he noticed a white sign with black lettering by the door that read:
Artie Vogel, Esquire
Attorney-At-Law
Se Habla Espanol
As Todd stared at the sign, he heard voices and movement behind the door and he rushed around the corner of the building. Peaking around the corner carefully, he watched as RJ came out--without the briefcase--quickly jumping into his car and taking off again.
Todd came out from beside the building and committed the name, Artie Vogel, to memory before heading back toward his car. This mystery was getting more complicated as new characters entered the canvas, and RJ paying off an attorney with Blair’s money made no sense at all. What did all this have to do with his baby? Or did it? Again he had the feeling that one vital piece was missing.
Todd checked his watch and headed back toward Llanview. Briggs had called him this morning and they had a meeting in an hour so he headed back to his office at The Sun.
LLANVIEW, THE SUN
The slam of his office door startled Todd. Sitting behind his desk deep in thought he suddenly looked up and saw Briggs looking rather rumpled and tired holding a file in his hand.
“Did you forget about our meeting?” asked Briggs noticing the annoyed expression on his temperamental publisher’s face.
“No...sit down...tell me what you’ve got on his honor the mayor,” Todd said sitting back with his feet on the desk and his hands behind his head looking up at the ceiling.
Briggs started digging through his file.
“Well, Mr. Manning, it took a while for me to get anyone to talk down at City Hall, but I found a few old contacts who don’t like the mayor and his cronies. Apparently he’s been filling City Hall with his buddies.”
“Yeah, Briggs, I already know that...what else.”
“Well, as you know, contributions to the Mayoral re-election fund can’t exceed a hundred dollars, yet we have a Mayor who spent millions getting elected as mayor of a town Llanview--twice.”
“Well, isn’t he rich...I understood he spent a lot of his own money...he made a lot of money in realestate...right?”
“Yeah, that’s what he said. I did some checking and he owns a realestate business with his brother, Joe Minnelli. They moved their business over from Boston, where they were born. In Boston, however the business never made any kind of money and went bankrupt. Six years ago they set up shop here and suddenly he’s worth millions.”
“So what,” said Todd, starting to get impatient.
“Well, what they did is started buying up rundown property and reselling it. But they didn’t make any money because the property was too worthless and in undesirable locations that couldn’t be zoned for business. It’s taken me days to go through all the records of their realestate transactions--as you know they’re public record--but in the last four years something changed. Suddenly Minnelli Realty is making money hand over fist--I’m talking millions.”
“Briggs, I’m glad you’re having a good time here digging through dusty archives, but give me some dirt! That’s what I want!” said Todd pounding on his desk.
“Well , Sir, I’m getting to the good part. About four years ago the Minnelli brothers started making all this money by selling worthless property. Small dwellings, shacks really, that they purchased for five grand started selling for two-hundred and fifty grand.”
Todd took his feet off the desk and sat up looking straight at Briggs.
“How is that possible...I mean who would be stupid enough to pay that kind of cash for slums that can’t even be zoned.”
“Well, I started noticing that it was all different realestate companies, and mostly from out of town. So I took one of the most recent transaction and started following a paper trail of company after dummy company until I finally landed the parent company. It took me two straight days to find it.”
Todd’s eyes widened at Briggs mischievous smile.
“Well...don’t leave me hanging, Briggsy...what is it?”
Briggs grin got wider as he removed a page from his file and handed it to Todd.
“You’re going to love this, Sir,” said Briggs laughing.
Todd’s mouth hung open as he read the page. Then he started smiling and laughing out loud.
“Buchanan Enterprises! Well, well, well.”
“And I have a feeling that all those other companies will all lead back to Buchanan Enterprises as well, but I’ll need about a week to get all the documentation.”
Todd stood up and walked toward the window, looking out over Llanview.
“So it seems old Asa has bought himself a Mayor! But why, Briggs? Why do it this way?”
Briggs pulled out a map of the waterfront area.
“Look at all the buildings that have been sold at these astronomical prices. They are all peppered along the waterfront area.”
Todd looked at the map, his eyes lighting up.
“And even though this property couldn’t be zoned for business, when you own the Mayor, that can change, right?” said Todd.
“You got it. In fact, some of this property has been zoned for business in the last year, thanks to the Mayor and if the rest can be zoned, eventually Asa Buchanan will own the waterfront all the way down the river to Pilot.”
“Okay, Briggs, but there’s something missing, right, a missing piece. I mean there’s obviously the perception of wrong doing here, but there’s nothing illegal about paying too much for lousy property!”
“You’re right, sir! What I need to do is find the connection between this money and his re-election campaign fund. I have to prove that Asa’s money is being funneled into his re-election campaign fund somehow.”
“Yeah, and how are you going to do that.”
“Well, I’ve been following a couple of money trails. I tallied up all the bills from his previous re-election campaign and with all the advertising, radio and television ads, campaign consultants from Washington and his staff, it totaled over one million dollars. Well, the contributions to his campaign--they’re also public record--only totaled two hundred and eighty thousand dollars--that’s over seven hundred thousand dollars unaccounted for.”
“What if he used his own money...is that illegal?”
“No, but Mayor Minnelli didn’t have this money before. He only started getting rich when he got in bed with Asa. And why all the dummy companies in between by Buchanan Enterprises to cover legitimate realestate purchases? But you’re right, there is one thing missing--bank records. I found a very disgruntled ex-employee that had access to all the bank records showing the money going form Minnelli Realty to another account that was paying all the services that the re-elction campaign couldn’t cover--now that is illegal. It may be embezzling your own company’s finds, but it is illegal. The records are being mailed to me anonymously by “a concerned citizen,” as we speak.”
“So Asa gives the Mayor millions through dummy realestate corporations and the Mayor zones all the property for commercial development so Asa can own Llanview and Pilot.”
Todd stared at Briggs and extended his hand. Briggs looked flabbergasted but shook it proudly. He didn’t always respect Todd Manning, but he admired his nerve and his drive and the ability to rise above his infamous, criminal past.
“Good work, Briggs. How long before you can get everything you need.”
“Well, sir, if I had some help, I could do it in a few days.”
“No!! You do this on your own...I don’t trust anybody in this town, least of all the hacks that work for me. They hate my guts. I want this all documented and verified. If I’m going to expose Asa Buchanan to criminal charges, I want it to stick. And best of all, I don’t want anyone to know---not a hint until we run it in the Sunday morning edition of The Sun!”
“Alright, Sir. I’ll do my best. I’ll get everything together and call you.”
Briggs started walking away.
“Hey, Briggs! One last thing,” said Todd as he walked up to him. “ I want to write the story. You can take full credit, but I want to write it. How do you feel about that.”
“You know, Mr. Manning, you actually write very well--very persuasively. Actually you write much better than I do. My strong point has always been the investigating and editing part of journalism. But, Sir, I’m very proud of this story and I hope you’re not going to just turn it into a piece of tabloid trash.”
“Briggs, my man, I promise you that I won’t print it until you approve the whole thing. How’s that.”
Briggs smiled.
“In that case, Mr. Manning, you have my approval.”
Todd nodded as Briggs walked out with a big smile on his face.
Crossing his arms, he turned back and looked out over Llanview, smiling at the little cars and people below, and feeling very much like a god on Mt. Olympus with the fate of Asa Buchanan in his hand. This time around Todd Manning was not going to be Llanview’s whipping boy, he was going to be its savior. He threw his head back and laughed out loud.
to be continued...
2001 Copyright by Trog
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