What Were They Thinking?
33 Getting Down to Business
“PAPA, WE NEED YOUR HELP,” Lexi said as her entire cadre stood in my office door. I was very proud of them. They were nearly through their junior year and everyone was excited about the new production work that would be happening at the ranch this summer. It was a little daunting to see ten of the twelve second generation clan all gathered together and asking for help.
“What do you need, kids?”
“We’ve started a business,” Lexi said. “We need help getting our supplies and production facility set up. It will require a buying trip to Chicago and we’ll need a guide. And maybe security.”
“Whoa! You’ve got a business and you need to go on a buying trip? How about slowing down a bit and starting me at the beginning. When did you start a business?”
“Informally, it started when we were freshmen,” Monte said. “We didn’t know what we were doing, but a lot of freshmen wanted prison shirts so they could participate in the Prison Break Day Brian and Cassie started the year before. Well, none of the older girls wanted to go back into organizing sewing teams, and Leonard suggested that we could do it.”
“Leonard?”
“Yes sir. I guess it’s my fault. I plan to be a fashion designer. The rest of the group has kind of been my mannequins for the past year. I sew up something. Lexi or Nancy or Pam wear it to school. Girls ask where they got it and if they can get one, too. We take orders, and get together to sew.”
“You guys all sew?” I asked, looking at Rich, Monte, and Ross.
“I kind of enjoy the sewing,” Ross said. “Mostly, I do cutting. We’ve been doing it over at my house. Mom and Dad let me kind of take over the entertainment room in the basement.”
“We’re just muscle,” Rich laughed. “We cart and haul and clean.”
“You’re cute,” Susan said. “You do as much to sell our stuff by escorting us as we do by wearing it.”
“How are you funding this enterprise?” I asked. I saw Lil standing in the doorway with a bemused expression on her face.
“None of us have really drawn any pay from what we do,” Susan continued. “I kind of keep the books and the money. We’ve bought three sewing machines, fabric, and notions. Everything else is in a bank account Ross’s dad helped us set up. But we’ve recently received an influx of cash and that’s what makes us think we can really move forward.”
“Where did that influx of cash come from?”
“Hearthstone Entertainment. Everybody in the whole clan gets a royalty on Young Cooking. And next fall, it should increase significantly when they release the new show with Elaine.”
“Leonard has a contract to provide all Elaine’s wardrobe. We’re going to be sewing our little fingers off this summer.”
“Okay. I’m sold. I knew you were all up to something. Other than sports events and dances at the school you never go out on dates. You’re all together each weekend and no one is pregnant. You have money in the bank. You have some equipment but I take it you need some other things.”
“We need a serger,” Leonard said. “We’re spending way too much time finishing edges. We’ll need a good cutting table and a place to work down at the ranch. It’s going to get crowded down there this summer.”
“I need to talk to Rex and then make some calls to Chicago,” I said. “I don’t know where the best deals are, but I know people who do. Put together a list of what we’re shopping for and what kind of contacts you need. We’ll plan a trip the day after your last finals.”
Lil and I knew nothing at all about the fashion industry. My sister, on the other hand, was a maven. And she had two daughters who loved to shop. Her son, my namesake, was another matter entirely. He was seven months older than Samantha and had been in and out of trouble his entire life. Joe was trying to get him involved in the security business but was still having discipline problems.
Nonetheless, he was assigned to our detail to keep watch as the ten kids—eleven. Rich had a new girlfriend named Amanda and she wanted to go along—and three adults. Mama Bear joined Lily and me as escorts for the kids. Rex had set it up so that she held the business license for the new company on Leonard’s behalf. It was clear that Leonard was the keystone of their company, just as Brian was the keystone of Hearthstone Entertainment.
“Great. Babysitting a bunch of faggots from Indiana,” Sylvestro muttered when he saw our group. All of the kids were dressed in fashions they had sewn from designs by Leonard.
“Just do your job,” I growled at him. “You don’t have to interact with any of them. You are on perimeter duty.” I saw him smirk. This kid had no respect for anyone. I had to think that Big Joe would have had him taken to the end of the dock and pushed into the Lake… permanently. He acted like a thug.
“Sly!” my sister exclaimed when she joined us with Sofia Marie and Gabby. Sofia Marie was almost seventeen and Gabby was a very talkative thirteen. She reminded me of Lexi the first time I brought her to Chicago. The two girls fit in with our crew just fine, though I could tell Sofia Marie was assessing the boys as possible conquests. Gabby attached herself to Leonard and grabbed Lexi’s hand as we started the crawl up Van Buren’s Garment District toward the Mercantile Exchange and fabric warehouses.
“I want a dress like yours, Cousin Lexi,” Gabby said. “It’s so cool. No one in school has anything like that.”
“Leonard designed it for me,” Lexi said. “If we get some measurements for you before we leave, I’ll bet he’d consider sewing one up for you. Wouldn’t you Leonard? Please? For me?”
“Yes, Lexi. But not for you. I’ll do it for Gabby. Come on, sweetheart. I’ll show you a couple of fabrics I think would look good on you.” Gabby was in heaven.
I caught some of the strategy the kids were using. I had to wonder if they manipulated us parents as effectively. In each store and warehouse, they talked about what they were wearing and how it would be adjusted to match different fabrics. Inevitably a sales clerk would call a manager and the manager would come to discuss with Leonard his fabric choices and designs. Business cards were exchanged. Orders were placed. Equipment was purchased.
We arranged for a van to pick up all the purchases and have them delivered the next week to the ranch.
“Stop it!” The shout was from the back of our group as we entered the Palmer House for dinner. I was near the front and spun to see what was happening. Sylvestro had finally stepped over the line and made a pass at one of the girls. I was too far away and was blocked by the others entering the restaurant. It made no difference.
Sylvestro had chosen the wrong target for his affections.
It was just like him to single out the smallest and apparently most vulnerable of the girls to try to dominate. But Judy had taken her training seriously… more seriously, perhaps, than any of the others. I heard the solid sound of flesh on flesh and by the time I’d forced my way back through the crowded doorway, Sylvestro was lying on his stomach on the pavement and Judy had a knee in his back with his thumb bent at an odd angle behind him.
“Bitch!” he yelled. “Let go! Get off me. I’ll kill you!”
“You assault and then threaten one of the people you were hired to protect?” I growled as I took the thumb lock from Judy and she scampered back. Monte put a protective arm around her shoulders. A little late on that, kid. “You’re dismissed. Your father is only supposed to send professionals out on these jobs. You don’t even rank as an amateur. Now get up and get lost, punk. And find a new name for yourself. I hate having people think we’re related.”
I gave him a shove and he stumbled away, looking back to glare at me. I let my jacket fall open so he could see my shoulder holster and he just kept going.
Before we left the restaurant after dinner, Joe had joined our party with two bodyguards who knew how to keep their distance and keep watch.
With the ranch going into full-time production for the summer and the upper level of the barn housing twenty-five people in dormitories, there wasn’t much room for cutting and sewing. I found a vacant office in Bloomington just a few miles away and got them space to do the cutting and sewing.
Lily and I got to sit in the audience for Elaine’s show a couple of times. I was impressed. To my unpracticed eye, Leonard’s fashions on Elaine were elegant and understated. That girl doesn’t need fashion to make a statement for her. The seamstresses and cutters were doing a good job of turning out variations on the clan gi for people as well. There was a nice sleeveless model with Bermuda-length shorts. Of course, I guessed the gis were superfluous once the parents and guests were off the ranch at night. I’d been out for morning forms a couple of times and bikinis seemed to be the most anyone was wearing.
There were even more orders from students at the high school for Leonard’s fashions in the fall and winter. He’d made quite a splash with his prom outfit and all the girls had worn Leonard-designed dresses. The orders for prom dresses started coming in before Christmas and the cutting and sewing room that used to be my two-car garage was a beehive of activity on weekends and many evenings. I checked in. Lily checked in. Mama Bear checked in. Bonnie Owens checked in. We all wanted to make sure grades weren’t suffering because of their enterprise. By mid-January, they’d all received early acceptance to start studying in the fall at IU in Bloomington. And they’d selected majors that would help them enhance their business. Leonard, of course, had declared that he was majoring in Fashion Design. I was surprised to find that Pam and Nancy had both elected to major in Fashion Merchandising. I didn’t even know that was an option. What was more surprising to me, though, was that both Lexi and Susan were majoring in business. Susan continued to be the corporate treasurer while Lexi took on the role of corporate president. Theresa, also known as TK, had chosen to major in hospitality, but she would minor in marketing. The boys were another matter. Ross was always ready to support his partners, but had chosen to study philosophy. His comment was that for the kinds of things he could do for the company, it didn’t matter what he majored in. He’d cut fabric if that’s where they needed him, or help with security if that was where he was most useful. Monte had declared that he’d deal with electrical engineering because someone would have to maintain their systems. He had already installed a simplified alarm system for the ranch and on our garage with my help. Rich was less enthused about education in general. He said he’d major in physical education and hope he could get a job teaching and coaching somewhere. He’d taken up golf in the fall. He was reserved and, I think, a little sad when his girlfriend Amanda had moved to the ranch at the end of the fall semester to get out of an unhappy home life. He didn’t date much during the last semester but seemed to get along with TK best.
The happy surprise to me was Lexi’s best friend, Judy. We’d talked about what I did and I took her and Monte to Chicago on a field trip to talk to Joe about corporate security. She’d decided to major in criminal justice with a possible career choice of law enforcement. Although all the kids had become competent in martial arts, she had excelled. I guessed she had to be one of the top five martial artists in the clan, including Brian and Whitney. During the summer, she and Whitney had worked side-by-side to ensure the production studio and the ranch were secure. When we walked the perimeter to identify potential points of vulnerability, we talked about the kinds of threats that might come from any direction. With the number of high-profile people Elaine was attracting to her show, the clan was a less likely target itself than the guests. With the increasing presence of Heaven at the ranch as part of her new show, Redress, one of the most likely incursions was from paparazzi.
With Whitney and Rose concurring, we sat with Monte and began designing a perimeter alarm system. It would take them a while before they could get everything installed to protect the entire forty acres, and the additional acreage the ranch had just acquired. But we started with monitoring the critical areas of the studio, residential area, and entrance.
The kids neared graduation and the excitement of the second generation was mounting. They all intended to move to Bloomington as soon as they could get out.
“How are you guys dealing with the empty nests?” I asked. I’d invited Hayden Frost and John Clinton out to dinner to talk dad-to-dad. I could see that by June twentieth there was going to be a sudden quiet settle over the families of the clan. I was dreading it.
“It’s quiet. Too quiet,” Hayden had said. “I miss those kids every single day.”
“I managed to keep Cassandra and Josh close for a year after high school but there was no question that as soon as they could get out of here, they were off to join their casa,” John said. “I’ve been looking around down there. I think Bea and I might consider a move.”
I looked at him and he just nodded to me.
“Is it permanent, do you think?”
“I think it is. Those kids aren’t just going to college. They are building something that none of them will want to leave. I figure that is where my grandchildren will be living in a couple of years. I want to be close,” he sighed.
“I agree,” Hayden added. “I’d move down there right now, but my dad’s in a nursing home and his mental faculties are failing. I can’t just leave.”
“Maybe I’ll scout around a little as well,” I said. “I’ve been missing Samantha but Lexi has a special bit of my heart. Without her sister here, she and I have become closer than I ever imagined. Besides, no matter how many businesses they start and how successful they are, they’re kids. They need parents around. I don’t want to let go of my baby.”
“Bea and I have been talking about that. I don’t want to look like I’m watching over them all the time. It’s just that… I miss them.”
“You both know I’ve got a new grandson down there,” Hayden sighed. “Jim and Jill couldn’t wait to sell their place and move to Florida when Doug graduated and moved. They paid for a good bit of the bunkhouse duplex so their kids would have a place to live and then they skedaddled. I think now the reality of having a grandson in Bloomington has given them second thoughts.”
“I’d have a longer flying season in Bloomington. Better weather. I wonder if I could find a place to build a grass airstrip,” John said.
“Doesn’t make much difference where I’m located to do my job,” I said. “Most of it is traveling. You know… I just can’t help but think I need to be near them. For my own sanity. My daughters are an anchor in my life. I don’t know what I’d do without them.”
“Sly, bad news,” Joe said when I picked up the phone. I was on alert immediately and began opening the safe to get my gun.
“What is it, brother?”
“Sylvestro is in jail.”
“You need me to bail him out? Get him out of town?”
“I don’t think we can help him this time,” Joe sighed. “I just wanted you to know before he goes to prison.”
“Prison? Can’t your lawyer do anything?”
“Sure. He’ll probably get the charge reduced to aggravated involuntary manslaughter. But he killed a man, Sly. He’s going down river for five to seven at least.”
“Christ, Joe. He’s just twenty. By that age, we’d killed dozens.”
“We were in a war zone. God! If we’d just had a war I’d have sent him off, but the Gulf was over before it even began. It was fought on television from a hundred miles away. And he was only sixteen.”
“I’m sorry, Joe.” I put my gun back in the safe.
“He heard too many stories about his grandfathers from some of the old guys at the dock. He started believing that a strongarm approach was the right way to handle things. After your little incident a year ago, he quit the company and went to work for the Family. Now they’ve turned their back on him, too. Sly, he’s likely to die in prison. You know, when Big Joe sent us to Vietnam, he knew there was a chance we’d die. But there was a purpose to it. And he figured that was better than us dying trying to enforce union rules. He could have survived losing me—both of us. There’s no purpose to dying in prison. It’s just a waste.”
“I don’t know what to say, Joe. If you want me to do something, tell me. You know all you have to do is point me.”
“I’m not going to point you at this, Sly. There’s no enemy. There’s no one sniping from the trees. I’ll stand by him—beside him when he’s sentenced. But he’s his own enemy in this one. I just feel like I failed my son. How does a man live with that, Sly? How can I live with having failed my own flesh and blood?”
I opened the safe again. I never leave the house without my gun.
“I’ll be there in four hours, Joe. I’m not going to let you face this alone. Maybe we can’t do anything for him, but we need to do something for us.”
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