Justin Thyme Ch. 16

Steph changed the subject, "What's Michael doing, anyway?"

"The railroad guys asked him to look at some of their schedule programming to see if he could help them, but the head of their IT department told Michael he didn't want him. Pete Fleming, the President, got really hot about what the IT guy said, and he grabbed the company plane and flew down to pick up Michael and to take him to Chicago to meet with the guy. I guess the President and the CEO both use Mikey's software and think he could do something similar for the railroad. Mikey thinks it is going to be a rough trip, but interesting."

"I'm getting hungry. Want to stop at Bill's on the way to the house?"

"Sounds good to me. Maybe they will be done with their meeting by the time we get there. What's going on there anyway?"

"I think it has to do with all of the gold they found, but there is something else. Justin won't tell me anything about it, and Rosemary won't either."

"Sounds exciting! Maybe they found more gold or something."

Stephanie just shrugged. "I don't really care. I mean, I hope it is something good for them, but it doesn't matter to me. I just wish I was living there with Justin and Rosemary."

"I know what you mean. Sometimes when I'm with Mikey I just ache for him to do something with me." Susie looked down at her hands. "I was teasing Michael, and I really thought he was going to break down and do something, but he wouldn't, and I'm really glad. It would have changed who he is, and I don't want that to happen. I went too far, and I know I really hurt him, but we understand each other now. I know he wants to marry me, but I sure hope we don't have to wait until I graduate from college! I don't know how I can wait that long!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Grandpa stood up with a groan. "These buckets aren't made for me. Justin, this old desk has stood the test of people finding those drawers for a long time, but I would be a lot more comfortable if these papers were locked up more securely. I don't have time to do any research on them before we meet with Michael tomorrow, whenever he can get here. Let me suggest you lock them in that basement room, but please hide them in one of those ledgers or something. Maybe I'm being a worry wart, but I've never held that much money in my hands in my life, and I want those papers secured."

"After you lock them up, I suggest we do something about finding some lunch, and I think you are the one who can afford to buy!"

That was fine with me. I was hungry, but to be honest, my mind was in such a whirl I wasn't sure if I could eat or not. "Bill's?"

"Why not. We'll save the fancy stuff until we actually cash in some of that money of yours. By the way, why don't you ask Michael to fly in here to Phoenix rather than Tucson, and we can go over the stuff here, and then we can figure out what to do about evaluating things."

"Yes, Sir. I'll text him right now and ask him to call me when he can."

I put all of the paperwork into a plastic bag very carefully because some of the papers were rather brittle and carried them down the ladder to the basement. After unlocking the storeroom I spread out the documents between several of the journals, because they were too thick to put into just one. Carefully, I locked the door and then put the key back into the drawer in the desk and made my way up the ladder to head out for lunch.

Rosemary gave me a big hug when I came back out of the coat closet in the library. "I'm so happy for you, Justin! Just think what this can do for you!"

"I'm not so sure. I almost wish I hadn't found it. I liked things the way they were, and I'm afraid this is just going to complicate things a lot." Already I was working in my mind what to do with all of the money and how best to handle it. How did Samuel Johnson deal with all of his wealth? This house obviously was part of it, but how did he deal with all of the day to day things? I really wish I could sit down with him and ask. Obviously, it had its downside, as two skeletons in the basement testified. I wished I could go back to the days of trying to sneak peeks at Rosemary, Steph, and Susie's nipples through their bikinis, or even through the eyes of Mr. Koala. For sure nothing will ever be that simple again.

Mom and Dad had little to say as we drove over to Bill's, and Grandma said nothing, but that was not totally unusual. She was not much of one for talking unless she had something to say. I really couldn't read what Mom and Dad were thinking, either. Usually I had some sort of idea what was going on in their minds. I couldn't tell if they were happy about things or worried about them. As far as being worried about things, I was!

Debbie was working when we walked in, and she pulled strings to get us into her section. "I saw the story on TV the other night! I hope that doesn't mean you won't be renting rooms next year like you planned."

Dad gave her a smile, albeit a bit forced. "No changes in our plans. We're still going on with things, and hopefully all of that will pass over quickly. The publicity is unfortunate, but it can't be helped."

"You could sell tickets and give tours! I'll bet you couldn't get people through there as fast as they lined up."

I just shook my head. "No. All we want to do is have a place to live while we go to school. I'd rather just be as anonymous as possible. I'm just a guy, not a celebrity."

"It must be exciting to be friends with Jeff Thibodeaux's son, though!"

"Yeah, he's a cool guy, and he's like me. He likes to stay in obscurity."

"Any chance I could get to meet him?"

"You never know. You may run in to him one day or another, and you probably won't even know it. He lives pretty simply."

She took our orders finally and left to get them filled.

"I'm afraid you are in for quite a bit of this, Justin. You'd better be prepared for it. Fame, though often fleeting, is not without its pleasures and its pitfalls. You might want to talk with your friend Michael about how to handle it. He seems to have weathered it pretty well." Grandpa has a pretty good head on his shoulders, and he has dealt with quite a few famous people in his career, so I know he has seen both side of the issue. I would value Michael's input, but I'm definitely going to listen to Grandpa's sagacity. I just wish Dad would open up a little bit.

Rosemary spoke up. "Here come Stephanie and Susie!"

"Oh no. That we did not need right now! Not a word about anything. Clear?" Dad definitely was not in a good mood at the moment. We all shook our heads and agreed. To be honest, as much as I love Steph I didn't feel like seeing her right now. I had too much on my mind, and while she will be a major beneficiary, as will Susie, neither of them can be told anything yet. I wasn't sure just how I was going to be able to hide things from them though, and I was afraid Rosemary might spill the beans, too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dr. Meechum was preoccupied when he stepped off of the elevator at the cafeteria level. The entire morning had been slow and boring, allowing for introspection and thought. Paperwork he normally did as a matter of course proved to be difficult to concentrate on and he found himself making errors and having to go back and correct them. He was able to focus on his patients, but only because they were a challenge to him. Paperwork on the other hand was mundane and stultifying. Stonyfaced, he walked into the cafeteria and picked up a tray, selected a salad, but walked off without any dressing.

Without thought he walked past the rest of the serving line to the checkout, and was only snapped out of his reverie when the lady running the register asked if he was having 'honeymoon salad' for lunch.

"Excuse me?"

"Honeymoon Salad. You know, 'lettuce alone'?"

Embarrassed he stepped back from the register with his tray. "I'm sorry. I've got a lot on my mind today." When he turned around he literally ran into Mary, who was right behind him. "Mary! I didn't see you in here!"

She smiled. "I noticed! I walked in right behind you and spoke to you a couple of times, but you didn't even hear me. I was hoping you were OK."

"Wait right here, and let me get some food. I was thinking about you, to be honest."

He quickly made his way back toward the end of the line, but one of the other nurses, having seen his interchange with Mary insisted he cut in front of her. It was about time Mary got a break, she thought. Tom grabbed some dressing, he didn't even notice what kind, and selected some baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans, then made his way to check out. The lady at the register gave him a big smile when he returned, especially when he also paid for Mary's lunch.

"Would you do me the honor of joining me?" He led the way to a table in the corner away from everyone else and pulled out a chair for Mary. "My mind has been out of it all day, and it is your fault."

"Oh? What did I do?"

"I had managed to wall people off pretty well, and was getting along OK until I met you and Stephanie. You have broken through my shell and made me look at myself, and frankly I don't like what I've seen. I want to thank you both. May I take you two ladies out to dinner tonight, and maybe I can hold things together long enough to talk with Stephanie about her Dad like I promised?"

"She will be disappointed! She and a friend of hers went up to Scottsdale for the night. Since school is out tomorrow I let her go."

"Oh. That's too bad. Would you like to go with me alone?"

"I would love to, Tom. It seems you have broken through my shell, too."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michael had nearly finished his polish sausage/Italian beef combo sandwich when Dave Drugan spoke up. "Pete, two things. First, whatever Abernathy is talking with the people from Electromotive about, shouldn't that have all been determined in Omaha before he came out? If so, why does the secretary have to redo it? And second, if she is getting it to Abernathy how do I see it before I meet with the engine people?"

Pete stopped chewing mid-bite, only to swallow it whole suddenly and wipe at his watering eyes. "Wow that pepper is hot! Maybe I've outsmarted myself. Good thinking there, Dave. Call over there and see if she is still in the office and find out how she is getting it to Abernathy, and have her send you a copy here without telling him. Then I want you to call Omaha and have them send you whatever they have, or at least a good précis of it. I smell something in the wood-pile, and it doesn't smell very good at all."

Moments later Dave said, "She's faxing it over here in just a few minutes. She said she has it nearly done, and will have it all before it's time for the meeting. I asked her to send a separate copy to me at this extension."

"Excellent. Did you get her name?"

"Joan Esposito."

"Very good. I'll be sure to send down an attagirl as soon as this is all over."

It wasn't five minutes later the laser printer in the corner started printing out a number of sheets of paper that Dave took off of the rack as soon as they came out. "From Omaha. It's some of the specs on the engines having to do with the onboard electronics. Seems to be pretty much cut and dried stuff. I really don't even see what we needed to have a meeting with them over this anyway."

"Let Mike take a look at them and see if he is conversant with any of this stuff."

"Yessir," and he handed them off to Mike as he perused them.

"It looks like operating IT for the engines, with some telemetry for remote oversight to me. I'm not all that strong on some of this stuff, but it's pretty basic from what I see."

"That's what I thought," Dave said. "Like I said, I really don't see what we needed to have a meeting with them for. This could all be handled over the phone, if it even needed that."

Moments later the printer started spitting out pages again, and Dave started scanning them quickly as they came out, and then handed them off to Michael. "It looks to me as if it is the same thing. I really don't understand what is going on here."

Michael looked over each page quickly, focusing his attention only on any IT materials and paused mid-page on the fifth page. He picked up the corresponding page from Omaha and compared it quickly. "Here is a difference, Dave. The new document leaves out some of the telemetry and some other functionality in the onboard computers. Perhaps it was decided not all of the bells and whistles were needed?"

"Let me see that! I know nothing has been deleted from these engines by the company. All of the telemetry is necessary to keep track of performance on each engine. We pay a premium for this, but it saves us many dollars in maintenance costs because we can track performance on each engine. It's much less expensive than paying mechanics to inspect everything visually, and it shows problems before they cause breakdowns."

Pete picked up the phone and called the security kiosk. "Who is this?... Ah, Jason. Thanks for the hot sandwiches. Could you step up here for just a couple of minutes please?... Right. As soon as possible... . Thanks."

They only had to wait a couple of minutes until Jason walked in the door. "Thanks for hurrying up here, Jason. Please close the door behind you. Thanks. Now, tell me, can I record this meeting in this room, and if I do so, can I do so without the other party knowing I am doing so?"

"No sir. You can record the meeting, but that little red light on the console will be on while you are doing it."

"I was afraid of that." Pete stood and walked over to a door on the wall, but when he opened it he found it was only over a large flat-screen TV set up for video conferencing. "I hoped I could hide you in here and let you listen, but that isn't going to work."

Michael spoke up. "I can use my iPhone if you like. It has a record app on it, and it doesn't show it's recording if I leave it face down."

"Thanks, Mike. Jason, here's what I want you to do. When you send Mr. Abernathy up, will you please follow him up here, as if you are just doing rounds, but stay just outside the door once he is inside and the door is closed. I may need you quickly. Do you have arrest powers?"

"No sir, but I can detain him until I can get the PD here."

"That will have to work then. It would be easier if we didn't have to involve them, but if it comes to that we will do what we have to do. Please don't contact them yet. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that, but have someone on standby at the kiosk so you can be free when he gets here."

Jason nodded and left.

Dave and Michael had been huddled at the end of the table going over the spec sheets carefully, noting several changes and marking them on the new sheets. They were going over the last page together when Dave was called away to meet with the Electromotive reps.

"Mike, I'm really glad I brought you up here. You have more than earned your fee today!"

"I'm glad I could be of service, Pete, but I'm not really concerned about a fee. Let's see if I can do anything for you on your programming before we worry about that." He continued checking over the last sheet and then carried them over to where Pete was sitting at the other end of the table. "Here's what we have found, sir. There may be more, but these are the obvious changes."

"How about faxing the new spec sheets back to the number from which you got the originals, and I'll call and have someone look it over more carefully. Thanks, Mike."

Michael quickly loaded them in the feed tray and carefully entered the phone number from the original set and pressed send. As each sheet passed through he pulled them out and collated them carefully before handing them back over to Pete, who thumbed through them quickly.

"This is not my area of expertise, nor Dave's either. Had you not caught it we probably would have been on the hook for these changes. It looks to me like a fairly substantial difference in pricing, but I'm seeing nothing about a diminishment in our payout. Ah, there he is."

The door opened and a graying and disheveled man in his mid-forties walked in. "What's going on here? Oh. Hi, Pete."

"Good afternoon, Abernathy. There has been a change in plans, and I needed to see you before you had your meeting with the Electromotive group. Dave Drugan is entertaining them for the moment. Have a seat."

David Abernathy looked suspiciously at Pete, and then at Michael before pulling out a chair, and Michael sat down on the other side of the table and laid his iPhone face down in front of him.

"This is Mike Thibodeaux, a new intern I have with me on this trip. Mike, David Abernathy, the head of our IT department. He is out here for negotiations with Electromotive on some new locomotives we have on order. We'll be certain you get a chance to meet them as well, as you will need to familiarize yourself with that order if you are going to be the intermediary."

"David, were you able to get ahold of Michael Borden like I asked you to, and when are you two going to get together? Ben and I are really excited about the possibilities for a scheduling program."

"Yeah, I called him. After talking a few minutes we both came to the conclusion he wouldn't be of any help to us. As he said, he has no real-world experience in transportation. To be frank, he sounded a little wet behind the ears to me. I don't know what you two saw in him, but I wasn't impressed, and when he begged off I agreed."

"I see. Tell me, how are things going with Electromotive?"

"We are working on some things, but they are trying to hold us up on price increases on the onboard computing, so I'm negotiating them down."

"I see. Were you doing your negotiations at Heavenly Bodies over lunch?"

"Heavenly Bodies? What's that?"

"Don't try to play smart with my, Abernathy. Mike, is this the man you saw?"

"Yes, Sir."

"What are you talking about? I never saw you before in my life."

"That's OK, Abernathy. You may not have seen him, but we saw you. You were sitting behind the club in a silver Lincoln Continental with Colorado plates. By the way, who authorized Continentals on company rentals? We will come back to that in a minute, Abernathy. A moment ago you told me Michael Borden impressed you as 'wet behind the ears.' Would you not say a 'snot nosed kid with no real world experience in transportation' would be a better description, even though I describe him to you as 'the greatest computer programmer in history who would make your job and department obsolete' or words to that effect?"

Abernathy's face turned white. "I never said anything of the sort! I called him first thing, just like you said to do, but... "

Pete cut him off. "Michael, would you like to introduce yourself to Mister Abernathy, as the guards tell me he prefers to be called?"

Michael looked down at the table a moment before looking up and into Abernathy's eyes. "My name is Michael Borden Thibodeaux. Borden is my mother's maiden name, and I have adopted it for use to keep out of the limelight my father's fame stirs up."

Abernathy jumped to his feet, and for a moment looked like he was going to swing at Michael. "You son of a bitch! You set me up!"

"Jason!" Pete called out loudly and waited for the door to open. "Will you come in please? Sit down, Abernathy. Michael didn't set you up, I did, and he does not like to be called Mike, either. You are fired. You are fired for insubordination, for gross misconduct, and as soon as we can discover what your deal is with the Electromotive group you may be arrested for what unauthorized changes you have made in the purchase contract with them. Your personal effects will be boxed up and at the guard desk when you return to Omaha. How you get there is your problem as your company cards will be closed out before you leave this building today. Give Jason your badge, your car keys, we'll get you a cab, and your company credit cards."