“For starters? I’m going to sue his girlfriend where he’s living for interfering with a child support case.”
“What? Is that even a thing?”
I laugh. “No, but it’ll probably terrify her into giving him up. I’ll also give her notice I’ll be going after her employer to garnish her wages, and then start filing lawsuits against anyone I think is employing him under the table, including threatening them that I’ll be filing complaints with the IRS, the state’s sales tax office, and any professional organizations they might need to rely upon for certification to be in business.”
Her eyes widen in shock. “Is that…is it legal?”
I shrug. “It’s not illegal. Doesn’t mean we’d win any of them. The point is to literally stun them into rolling over immediately and cooperating rather than have to engage an attorney of their own.” I return everything to the box and replace the lid. “I can afford to do all the filings for you and make him my hobby. Essentially, I am opposing counsel’s worst nightmare, because I have what amounts to unlimited resources and energy to devote to this.”
She bursts into tears. “Oh, my gosh! Thank you so much! What can I ever do to make this up to you?”
A thought hits me. “Tom said your hours were reduced?”
She sniffles. “Yeah.”
“What if I can get you another part-time job you can do from home at first that won’t pay anything to start with, but will eventually transition into a full-time paying job?”
“Doing what?”
I explain everything to her and her eyes light up. “Oh! I took a course in grant writing in college!”
“So you’d be willing to do it?” This is working out even better than I’d planned. “I would always be there to answer questions or provide advice, if you need it.”
“Absolutely! Dad and Mr. Barnes were good friends.” She plucks a tissue from a box of them on the end table and blows her nose. “If I can help him out, I’ll be happy to.”
This is something I never would have had in Miami, and something I didn’t realize how badly I’ve missed. A community that rallies around each other and helps people out, because it’s the right thing to do and because they give a damn about each other.
With that all settled, I head over to Keith Barnes’ property and I won’t lie, it feels danged good when he removes his glasses and wipes at his eyes after I finish updating him about the paperwork issues.
“Desi, I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate all you’re doing for me. It means the world to me.”
“I’m glad I could help. I’ll keep helping you as much as you need with the administrative and legal parts of it until the non-profit is able to run itself with a director. We’ll need someone who can do grant writing. That’s practically its own art form. Fortunately, I have someone in mind.” I tell him about Kelly and his gaze lights up.
“Her dad and I were friends. We went to high school together years ago. Oh, that would be wonderful!”
“Then you’ll sign everything so I can get it filed?”
He eagerly nods. “Just tell me where, son.”
* * * *
The rest of the day flashes by in a blur. I send Tomas texts updating him on my progress as I accomplish everything I needed to complete today. On one of my passes through Sarcan, I swing past the hotel and don’t see Freddy’s Jag in the parking lot.
I don’t know if that means he’s checked out or still lurking around in the area, but Mom hasn’t called me so I’m guessing he hasn’t relayed the news of our confrontation to her yet.
I have one last big thing I have to do today, and I wait until I’m back home and have privacy and my laptop set up to do it.
That’s placing a call to Arthur Graham, the head of the firm who hired me.
I have two draft e-mails ready to go in my e-mail account and nervously wait on hold for a moment while his admin assistant gets him on the line for me.
His deep voice booms through the line. “Desi, what’s up?”
“Art, we need to talk about the Maudlin Falls project.” I dive right in, hittingsendon the first e-mail that includes a cover letter and a series of attachments listing all the better properties I’ve researched, then ready the next draft. “It’s in your e-mail right now. And we need to discuss Freddy Krutz and his behavior.”
Arthur is a reasonable guy who doesn’t appreciate it when junior members of his firm engage in behavior, personally or professionally, that can reflect poorly upon him and his firm or put either in legal jeopardy.
I discuss how Freddy had personal knowledge about my past and deliberately withheld critical information about the project that would have negatively impacted everything.
