Southern Justice, Part 17
I’m Fixin’ To present part 17 of Southern Justice:
After the latest plotting meeting with B. Wendell Hormel, Jackie Payne arrived home to find Rick still in his pajamas napping on the sofa. She awakened him with a kiss and immediately placed a frosty glass of bourbon in his hand, followed by placing a lit cigarette between his lips. Then she waited until he had drained his glass before announcing the plans for the evening. Whereupon Rick launched into a dialogue about how he thought that due to her condition they should reduce their pace as far as evening activities were concerned.
“No, no, darling,” Jackie insisted, “I don’t want to change a thing. I want to just go along as if nothing is wrong.”
Reluctantly, Rick pulled himself off the sofa and lumbered off toward the bathroom for a shower. Jackie handed him another drink as he was leaving the room. Halfway through his shower, he silently groaned, as she stepped into it with him.
Thursday and Friday nights were killers, so when Rick awoke just before noon on Saturday with a very bad case of the shakes, he was extremely relieved when Jackie announced they were going to take a lovely drive up into the mountains.
She drove and talked incessantly about how she was happier than she had ever been in he life, occasionally glancing at a small map concealed in the car armrest. When she finally pulled off the main highway onto a secluded little road and stopped the vehicle, she turned to Rick and said, “Take a look around, Rick darling, what you see is your inheritance.”
After they had sat and gazed at the beautiful mountain scenery for a few moments, Jackie began talking again. She told Rick where her bonds were located and pressed a key into his hand to a safety deposit box, which supposedly contained the nonexistent bonds.
“Hey,” Rick moaned as he stared down at the key, “I–I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything,” Jackie smiled sadly, “let’s just go for a walk in the woods.”
So it seemed that B. Wendell Hormel’s latest scheme was working just as well as his previous one.
After Rick received the key the two of them went walking in the lovely woods and rested a while beside the gurgling little creek, with Jackie doing all the talking.
Later in the day when they arrived back home, Rick, being so overcome with feelings of sadness and generosity, went straight to his desk. After a few minutes Jackie walked into the room and asked, “What are you doing, darling?”
“Making a list.”
“What kind of list?”
“A list of all my assets, how much they are and where they are located.”
“Whatever for?” Jackie declared. “I’m the one who is sick—not you!”
“I know,” Rick replied without looking up, “but remember Mr. Hormel said that anything can happen at any time, and I just wanted you to be informed just in case.”
“Oh, I think you’re being silly. But if it makes you feel better then just go ahead,” Jackie said as she was leaving the room to fetch Rick a glass of whiskey.
When Rick had finished off his list and his drink, he walked into the living room where he joined Jackie and presented her with the document he had prepared and said, “Please get this to Mr. Hormel and tell him it includes everything I own and want to leave to you, you know, just in case.”
Without even looking at the paper, Jackie nonchalantly placed it on the coffee table and said, “I will if that’s what you want, but right now let’s get ready to go out for dinner.”
With an evil grin, unseen by Rick, she continued, “I think that in spite of everything we still have a great reason to celebrate!”
During the following Sunday morning while Rick lay in a semi-coma induced by the excesses Jackie had lavished upon him the previous night, Jackie silently crept into the living room and greedily snatched the list up off the coffee table and quickly locked herself away in Rick’s office, where she spread the sheet of paper out with both trembling hands and began to read. It was more that she had dreamed.
The first item on the list was 50,000 shares of Home Depot stock. She wasn’t sure how much they were worth, but she figured it was a substantial amount. B. W. would know. Item number two was the condo. She knew it had to be worth over half a million. Next was his 401K plan at work with a current balance of $800,000, and lastly but not least was his Executive Deferred Compensation fund with a balance of just over $1,000,000.
Jackie eased the office door open and peered down the hallway, tiptoed to the bedroom where she saw that Rick was lying on his back, mouth open, snoring loudly.
She immediately retreated to the office, faxed the list to B. Wendell’s office, then returned the list to the coffee table on her way to the kitchen where she began frying up some country ham for Rick’s breakfast.