With Cruel Intent (40 page)

hand

and

some

Caribbean

hooker

massaging my neck.”

Different scenarios had played out

in his imagination over the past eight

years, each complete with beautiful

women, exotic locations and lots and lots

of money. When Jeremy’s dad passed

away it looked like cooler heads were

going to prevail, and Beverly would

concede and see the will as overreaching

and unfair, in light of only a two-year

marriage. In an attempt to avoid years in

court and numerous parties contesting the

will, Jeremy had his attorneys draft an

offer to his stepmother with a cash

settlement without having to liquidate the

estate. He had thought it more than fair and

Ignatius had agreed. The will would have

been settled, leaving all the assets, or at

least most of them intact. Jeremy would

have to sell off some of the smaller

holdings to come up with the five million

he had offered, but after the way they had

bonded in the Atlanta hospital, he felt it

very generous.

The realtor had also considered it

quite reasonable, and in theory, thought

they had a deal, until the lawyers got

involved. Iggy recalled the greed and

avarice that the council on both sides had

shown. At the time, their suggestions and

advice seemed to make sense, but in

hindsight it was clear they had more

interest in dragging the negotiations out as

long as possible. At the time of his

father’s death, Jeremy estimated the entire

estate worth about twenty five million,

however, Bev’s attorney’s estimated the

value closer to forty million, even after

Beverly Davis, realtor, had done an

assessment and found the value closer to

her stepson's.

Over these long, past eight years

there continued to be one piece of

information that Jeremy never disclosed to

anyone, not even Iggy. The property that

his father owned south of Moody Air

Force Base would be a gold mine when,

and if, the US Government decided to

expand. The possibility had been bantered

around a number of times but kept behind

closed doors. Very few had access to the

information but the congressman that

Jeremy worked for was one of the

privileged. The aide was not even sure if

the congressman knew that technically his

top aide owned the property, or at least

half of it, if the will should be upheld.

What the younger Marshall did know was

the time was not right, at least not yet, and

the ‘IF’ in the equation of the government

buyout loomed very large.

As Iggy looked back over the

rollercoaster of a ride in and out of court,

himself always taking a backseat, not

letting on that he was anything but an

interested party representing the county, he

had always been there for Jeremy, a

confidant and source of information in all

of the legal shenanigans. He was glad that

his conspirator trusted him; he was the

closest ‘friend’ he had and would miss

him when they concluded their business

arrangement.

The possible buyout of five

million had been buried, along with a

number of other equally fair offers, but

meetings turned into, “he said” - “she

said”, name calling affairs that Jeremy had

recounted to Iggy through their coded

communication system online. Eventually

the two sides squared off in a battle over

the authenticity and veracity of the will.

Jeremy contested and sent the proceedings

into court after court, along with every

other relative, including his mother,

contesting for a portion of the estate as

well.

It was incredible how much money

could be poured down a drain and into a

legal firm's pocket once the ball is rolling.

They just never roll the ball very fast, just

enough to suck every nickel they can out of

their clients, all the time telling them that

they were keeping their best interest in

mind. Iggy and Jeremy had learned to hate

attorneys and the legal profession at large.

“Yup, eight years I’ve been doing

this,” Iggy said, looking into the driver’s

side mirror of his older model sedan,

adjusting his sunglasses in the process.

“Pretty damn tired of it!” he concluded.

A car turned down the lane from

the main road, paused for a moment, then

proceeded until it came to a stop next to

Iggy’s vehicle. A smiling Felix stepped

from the driver’s door, brought two

fingers to his forehead in a makeshift

salute, and greeted the heavier fellow.

“You been waiting long?”

“Well, I for one was on time.

Where you been? I can’t believe Jeremy’s

not here. He’s always on time. Do you

think he didn’t see the location notice I

posted?” the sweating director asked.

“I got it, no reason he should have

missed it. Did you catch what our friend

did today just a short ways from here?”

Felix asked.

“No, how would I have access to

that information? Is it already on the news

or something?” he responded, somewhat

irritated.

“Nothing on the news, but I’ve got

a scanner and there’s all kinds of shit on

there about a break-in where a woman

was assaulted. Had to be our guy. He’s

pulling out all the stops, the extra five

grand you put in his mailbox looks to have

paid off,” a very chipper Felix informed

the more serious Iggy.

“When Jeremy gets here we need

to talk about this last job we have for him.

Hope you’re up to it,” he said, looking for

a response from Felix.

“I do what I get paid to do, little

man, and don’t you forget it. I’ll hold up

my end of the deal, don’t fall down on

yours,” Felix said, still remaining

cheerful.

“What’s got you so happy today?

Thought the idea of having to move back

to Valdosta for a few days would have

you on edge.”

“Nah, I loved the little place for

the few days I was there. Can’t wait to get

back to that bed and breakfast where I

stayed before. You wouldn’t believe the

body on this blonde staying there. Don’t

think she likes me very much but I can be

very persuasive,” Felix said, cupping his

hands in front of himself to describe the

woman more fully to Iggy.

The sound of a car turning into the

drive brought both of their attention to the

newcomer.

“Finally,” they said, in unison.

The silver car eased down the dirt

path, the driver trying not to stir up the

dust that was sure to result. Jeremy saw

his co-conspirators before him, unhappy

that he was the last to arrive. The drive

from DC had taken much longer than

expected, with construction delays the

entire way. It had been good though,

giving him plenty of time to put his

calculating mind to work, sorting out the

final details.

“Gentlemen,” he said, as he exited

his Acura. “Good to see you both, hope

everything is going well.”

“You in a good mood too?” Iggy

asked. “Why is everyone in such a good

mood? I don’t get it, we could all go to

prison for the rest of our lives and you

two seem happy for some reason. Could

you give me a clue or was I the only one

here that didn’t get laid today or

something?”

“Yes, and most likely yes again,”

Felix taunted the older man.

“Okay, we have a lot to decide on

today and only a short time to finalize

these

arrangements,”

Jeremy

said,

knowing that the pocket recorder was

picking up everything that was being said.

“Let me bring you up to speed on where

we are with the legal developments. Short

and simple, we lost. The courts, as high as

I want to take this sham, have concluded

that the will is authentic and has stood up

to every legal barb we’ve thrown at it.

Bottom line, I get half the estate, less thirty

percent to the blood-sucking lawyers, and

the same for Beverly. They have

concluded that the entire estate must be

liquidated and a disbursement of the

resulting assets. I have an option to buy

her half out, at a number the court has

decided on, with no input from either side.

That number is fifty million dollars, and I

can tell you that is not going to happen!”

The congressional aide took a

deep breath to collect his thoughts and

continued, “My legal council has offered

one possible sidestep to this whole thing,

and that has to do with our friend and his

affect on the market, also as we predicted.

The court came up with their estimation of

property value when markets were higher,

but included in their final wording a

‘shotgun’ type clause, that allows either

Beverly, to offer the other party a buyout

or myself. If that offer is accepted it

concludes the will, but if not, the one

making the offer must be willing to accept

that same amount for their half of the

estate, without the right of refusal. Does

that make sense?” He did not wait to see

how much of this they were getting, didn’t

really concern them anyway.

“In any case, I can return to court

and press that the amount is too high in

today’s market, and I think we have a

pretty good case to bring the value down

or I can lowball her again, but she could

turn it around on me. That’s where we

stand today if we decide that we don’t

move ahead. It could mean a lot of money

out of all our pockets.” He gave that a

minute to sink in.

As the three mulled that over,

Jeremy looked around at the setting Iggy

had selected for the meeting, reminding

him of the place where it all started on

that morning his father passed away eight

years ago.

“Iggy, you did well, I like this

place, another foreclosure?” he asked.

“Yeah, lots of them these days. I

knew the place was empty and it’s not

listed yet so no one will be around. I was

thinking it was kind of like that first place

we met years ago.”

“I was thinking the same thing,

guess great minds think alike,” Marshall

said.

“Okay, you two are we done with

the reminiscing and can we get to the work

at hand?” an anxious Felix asked.

“Why not, alright then, Felix fill us

in on what is happening with our hired

help,” the ringleader directed.

Felix filled in the other two on the

events of the past couple of days and what

he had heard that morning over the

scanner. The authorities were in pursuit of

a possible assailant that was last seen

leaving the area near the assault, on a

yellow motorcycle, wearing a matching

helmet, painted with flames on the sides;

however, they didn’t catch him. Some

numb-nuts deputy put his car in the ditch

and couldn’t continue the chase. Doesn’t

sound like they got a very good look at

him though, he’s a cagey one, but he’s

getting sloppy, too sloppy for my liking.”

“That’s okay, which actually plays

into our needs even better than I would

have thought. We need him to just lay low

now for a week. Nothing, and I mean

nothing. Give him a few extra bucks to

maybe leave the area for the week and

entertain

himself

with

hookers

or

whatever he does for fun. We just need to

see how the public and authorities deal

with this for a few days,” the mastermind

instructed the other men.

“I have good news on the sale of

that property that was represented by

Beverly. It fell through just like you said it

would. Wish I could have been there the

day she found that out, stupid bitch is

getting what she deserves. So I guess that