Southern Justice, Part 24

I’m Fixin’ To present part 24 of Southern Justice:

A deep silence fell over B. Wendell Hormel’s conference room after he announced his client, Jackie Payne-Haselton’s intention to leave all of her worldly goods to her son-in-law, Rick Haselton, Junior. B. Wendell was slightly startled when his little announcement didn’t seem to have any effect on the attendees. He had expected some head-nodding and some smiles of agreement, but saw none, so he quickly realized his little false diversion had added no levity to the occasion.

At this point he decided all he could do was forge ahead and conclude the meeting as quickly as possible. He picked up the folder in front of him, opened it and began to read. He began with Rick Senior’s full name, social security number, legal residence and spouse’s full name.

Then he read off the list of assets, which included the stock, 401K plan, the Executive Deferred Compensation Fund, the condo, and lastly Pic-Ric Products, Inc.

Before anyone could say a word he concluded by saying, “All the worldly goods of the late Mr. Haselton are left to his surviving spouse, Jackie Payne-Haselton!”

Chris Adams couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The room became so quiet that he could hear everyone breathing.

Jones was the first to break the silence when he said out loud, “I knew it—I damn well knew it!”

Visibly nervous, B. Wendell closed the folder, tapped the documents down into it and said, “In approximately 30 days, after the will has been probated, Mrs. Haselton will be arriving at Pic-Ric Products to take control of the company. We’ll inform you of the exact date in the form of a letter. Now if there are no more questions—-”

“Like hell she will!” Rick Junior interrupted.

“I, uh, beg your pardon?” B Wendell asked, visibly shaken.

“This is wrong. My father would never do this. I don’t care about all the other stuff, but not Pic-Ric Products—it belongs to the three of us. We worked for years and took it from nothing to what it is today and nobody is going to take it away from us Mr. Hormel!”

Holding the legal folder up in his shaking hand while looking directly at Rick Junior, B. Wendell replied, “Inside this folder I have a copy of your father’s will signed by him and two witnesses on April 19th, leaving his estate to his wife. It also contains a list of his aforementioned properties in his handwriting. The will has been filed with the courts, it’s perfectly legal and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it!”

Meanwhile, Chris Adams concentrated very hard on the folder in B. Wendell’s hand. He couldn’t read the label on the tab, but he took note that it was a dark green folder with what looked like a circular coffee cup stain in the center of it.

His concentration was broken when he heard Rick Junior’s retort to B. Wendell, “I don’t give a damn what you’ve got in your folder. My father would never take the company away from us and there’s no way in hell you and that woman next to you will ever get your hands on it!”

Chris could feel the passion in Rick Junior’s voice and the tension in the room. He saw that Jackie had no reaction to the statement. She just sat poker-faced with a slight sheen of perspiration on her upper lip.

B. Wendell sat wide-eyed searching for a response.

Directly across the table from Jones, Patty Osborn was still staring at him, but she was no longer blushing. At the far end of the table and to his right, Ray McKinley had risen to his feet and was pointing a finger at Rick Junior when he spat out, “You watch your mouth, boy!”

Jones, who had always been the coolest head of the Three Musketeers, leaned forward, looked directly at Ray and said with a threatening tone, “You sit down and shut up, fat boy!”

Ray’s face transformed into a red mask of fury as he said through clenched teeth, “I’ll be more than happy to throw all three of you punks out of this building!”

Chris Adams decided it was time to take control. He stood up, walked past Vickie and to within two steps of Ray, looked down at him from five inches above and softly said, “Mister McKinley, we don’t take kindly to threats; in fact we have been known to respond with violence. Now, I suggest you comply with Mr. Jones’ request.”

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