Southern Justice, Part 57
I’m Fixin’ To present part 57 of Southern Justice:
As Roland James exited the building he thought about the instructions from that sleazy man with the incriminating and more than just naughty pictures of himself and that beautiful dancer from The Gentlemen’s Club. He really despised having to deceive those nice people at Pic-Ric Products, but he realized that he had no choice. After all, what was losing one client compared to losing his family, his social status and possibly his livelihood?
That Friday was the last day of school for his sons. For that, Roland was thankful. He always took his wife and three sons on a two-week cross-country trip every summer in his 26 foot motor home. This year they were going to leave early and extend it throughout the entire summer. He thought he would make all the preparations this weekend and leave early Monday morning. Surely this thing would blow over in three months and he would say the Pic-Ric file somehow got lost in the shuffle.
These aforementioned thoughts were going through Roland’s head while he sat in his car waiting for the red light to change at the intersection of Peachtree and Piedmont. He needed to turn left in order to get to Georgia Hwy 400, leading toward home. That’s when he realized he was in the right-hand lane and couldn’t take a left. Subconsciously he had driven his car in the right-hand lane, because if he turned there, The Gentlemen’s Club was only moments away.
When the light changed he took a right on Piedmont while saying out loud to himself, “What the hell—the damage is already done.”
The blackmailing of Roland James and his subsequent deception and departure succeeded in leaving Pic-Ric Products unprotected, and Rick Haselton Senior’s will was probated on the morning of Monday, June the fifth.
That afternoon, while Chris Adams was preparing for their regularly scheduled operating committee meeting, his fax machine began humming. When the transmission was complete he picked up the piece of paper. It was a letter from B. Wendell Hormel, Esquire. The color drained from his face as he read it.
The operating committee now included Vickie Bain and Patty Osborn. They, along with Rick Junior and Jones were already seated around the conference table when Chris entered the room. He took a seat directly across from Rick Junior and looked at him with a pale face displaying a painful expression.
“What’s wrong, Chris?” Rick Junior immediately asked.
Chris inhaled deeply before he weakly said, “Bad news—very bad news.”
Rick Junior leaned forward and asked, “Has our business taken a downturn?”
“I’m sorry to say that it’s much worse than that,” Chris said as looked all around the table.
“So tell us,” Rick Junior demanded, “how bad can it be?”
Chris took a deep breath, exhaled, waved the letter around and began: “Just a few moments ago this letter arrived via my fax. It says that your father’s will was probated this morning and that Jackie Payne-Haselton is now the legal owner of Pic-Ric Products, Inc.
“It goes on to say that the author of the letter has been appointed by the new owner to take control of the company, and that he will be arriving with a court order one week from today. It also states his intentions are to establish the worth of the company and sell it. It’s signed, B. Wendell Hormel, Esquire!”
There was absolute silence in the room for a few moments as everyone absorbed the shocking news.
Then Rick Junior leaped to his feet and exploded, “How the hell can this be? We had the will contested!”
He turned toward Jones and demanded, “Jones, what about it? You were handling it with our outside law firm!”
Wide-eyed and stammering, Jones replied, “Roland James’ secretary confirmed to me on Monday, May 21st, that everything had been taken care of. Those were her exact words!”
“Get James on the phone right now!” Rick Junior shouted out.
Everyone sat silently while Jones conversed on the telephone. A couple of minutes later he sheepishly looked at Rick Junior and explained that according to his secretary Roland James had departed on a three month vacation due to health reasons without leaving any contact information.
“She also said if we inquired that he said he had taken care of our case. It doesn’t make any sense!”
At this point Patty stood up and said, “This doesn’t surprise me at all. I’ll guarantee you that Hormel got to James somehow.”
“So what can we do now?” Rick Junior asked.
Patty didn’t hesitate at all. “I’ll drop the ownership project and get right on this, but I’m going to need to do some research. I will need to spend tomorrow at the Georgia State University Law Library. We’ve got a week. I think I can solve it by then.”
“You sound a lot more confident than I feel,” Rick Junior said. “If you can’t stop them, then I will. We’ll lock the damn doors and defy the court order!”
(tmdunagan@aol.com)