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#Post#: 2996--------------------------------------------------
Haunted by the Past - Chapter 25 - Plan B
By: RampageSports Date: March 28, 2016, 10:00 am
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Haunted by the Past - Chapter 25 - Plan B
"Do you know a Young Lochinvar?" I said into the phone, as I
read the name from the envelope sitting on my desk.
"That would be me," Spenser replied.
"Oh," I said. "Well, then I guess your mail is here."
"You're not going to ask for an explanation?"
"No point," I said. "I doubt I'm going to understand it,
anyway."
"That's a fair assumption."
"When can we expect you?"
"Are you kidding?" he asked. "I'll use any excuse not to sit
here any longer."
Apparently, he put the car in gear the second he disconnected,
because he was in my office less than an hour later. Hawk was
there, too, looking remarkably refreshed for someone who
couldn't have had more than four hours of sleep.
"Okay, Lochinvar," I said as I handed over the package. "This
is the moment we've been waiting for."
Spenser looked at Hawk and said, "Ives."
Hawk nodded, as if that explained everything.
"What's Ives?" I asked.
"Friend of mine," Spenser said. "Works for the CIA."
I put on my impressed face and looked at Danni.
"CIA," I said. "Now, we're getting somewhere."
"Yeah, but where?" she asked.
"I asked him to translate the real estate documents, and look
into what they were about," Spenser said.
"Well, what has he found?" I asked.
Spenser broke the seal on the envelope, pulled out a small sheaf
of papers and started to read through them.
"Ah-ha!" he said after a few moments.
"Told you," Hawk said without expression.
"Ah-ha?" Danni questioned.
"It means I've found a clue," Spenser said.
"Jinkies," I said.
A pronounced frown appeared on his face.
"I think we can do a little better than Scooby Doo," he scolded.
"I know what I know," I shrugged. "What did you find?"
"It looks like Powers is trying to buy into a sports arena in
Helsinki," he said.
"That's interesting, but what does it mean to us?" I asked
doubtfully.
"What's the name of the arena?" Danni asked.
Spenser scanned the page and said, "Hartwall Arena."
"That's one of our stops," Danni said.
"Oh, yeah, I remember it," I said. "I remember I was shocked to
have flown all the way to Finland, only to find a Pizza Hut on
the arena concourse. But, that connection seems like a
stretch."
"Who owns it now?" Danni asked.
Another glance at the papers.
"The seller is a Finnish management firm, but it's the potential
buyers that are most interesting," Spenser said.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"There are four firms listed, but it appears the purchase is
being spearheaded by the UMMA."
Danni and I looked at each other.
"Okay," I said. "I buy that connection, now."
"Why would they want to own it?" Danni asked.
"Diversification be the key to financial security," Hawk said.
We all turned in his direction.
"The Banking Brother from Beantown," Danni said with a smile.
Her use of the word brother not only surprised me, it made me
wonder if she'd lost her mind. Hawk was capable of taking
racial connotation remarkably well, but only from a select group
of people.
A broad, exaggerated smile briefly crossed his face — a quick
flash of gleaming white teeth, and then it was gone. But it was
enough to tell me Danni was now a member of that tiny group.
"Hey, she's getting good," Spenser commented.
The thought of Hawk and Danni together popped into my head
again, but I quickly shooed it away. We had enough mysteries
going, and there was no room for that one, right now.
"I guess it makes sense," I said. "Real estate is usually a
good investment, and the UMMA is already familiar with the
property."
"Speaking of property," Spenser said, "it seems Powers is
involved in another real estate transaction based in the lovely
Republic of Finland."
"Oh?"
"He's in the process of purchasing an unused warehouse, not far
from the arena. And, according to Ives, he's already filed
preliminary plans with the city of Helsinki to make some major
modifications."
"What is he turning it into?" I asked.
"From the looks of it, he's building an athletic training
facility," he said. "Not unlike the one we're in now."
"Jesus," I said. "He plans to build his own stable?"
"Man like King don't build things," Hawk said. "He take them."
Danni drew in a sharp breath.
"You think he wants RSI?" she said, the shock of the suggestion
evident in her voice.
Her words kicked off a series of cascading thoughts and
conclusions for me, and my eyes clouded over as I mentally left
the room. Suddenly, the game board was clear in my mind, and
the clues to the mystery were queued up like Tetris blocks.
Why had Powers not simply killed me? Why drag it out the way he
had?
The L-shaped block appeared and slowly slid it's way down my
mental screen. I pushed it left and let it fall with the long
side neatly set against the edge of the playing area.
The answer was simple, and it had been provided by Powers
himself. He wanted something from me. Something he couldn't
easily take if I was dead.
That led to the next question: What was it he wanted?
The S-shaped piece appeared. Normally a troublemaker, but my
mental board was still nearly empty, and Spenser had just
provided the info I needed to answer the question. I turned the
piece on it's end, and let it fall snugly over the short end of
the L.
He wanted what I cared most about. What better way to make me
suffer than to take the thing I took the most pride in? The
thing I had built from the ground up after clawing my way out of
the hole I'd dug for myself.
Powers wanted RSI.
How would he get it?
The long, straight piece appeared. So seemingly simple, yet
there was no neat place for it to fit with the pieces I already
had. I sent it right and it dropped along the side of the
growing pile.
Suddenly, there was a troublesome hole in the middle of my
puzzle.
How would he get it? He'd kill me, then take it... just like he
did everything else. Tell me his plans, revel in my reaction,
then shoot me dead without a second thought. But, we'd already
been over that. He hadn't killed me, because he needed me. But
he didn't need me to get what he wanted. So, what the hell?
The logic got stuck in an endless loop, and then the square
piece materialized.
Didn't kill me. Couldn't kill me. Why?
No answer came, so I stacked the block on the left.
Now I was in trouble. The hole was growing bigger and more
oddly shaped. And here came my least favorite piece — the
backwards L. My problem with this piece was that my brain
regularly became convinced that if I kept flipping it, it would
somehow turn forward. This was impossible, of course, but I
always wasted time trying to do it anyway.
Here, the piece represented the most nonsensical part of all
this.
Danni.
What possible reason could Powers have for going after her? She
had no part in this. She didn't even know who Powers was until
I told her.
The piece slid steadily down, threatening to turn my board into
chaos. I turned it left. I turned it right. There was no
place for it, and I was running out of time.
What did he want with her? How could she cause him any...
Suddenly, I saw it. I turned the piece upside-down and it fit
perfectly into the gap in my mental puzzle. The pieces now
formed a perfect, solid block that flickered and disappeared,
leaving only a crystal clear view of my own stupidity.
Danni was in danger because she stood directly between Powers
and what he wanted. And she didn't even know I'd put her there.
Spenser saw the recognition on my face.
"What is it?" he asked.
I glanced sideways at Danni.
"Can you gentlemen excuse us for a second?" I said, not
disguising the urgency in my voice.
Spenser looked confused for a moment, but quickly recovered.
Hawk stood against the wall and looked unfailingly like Hawk.
"C'mon," Spenser said. "We'll go see if Vinnie shot anybody
last week."
"Not much of a mystery," Hawk said. "You know he did."
The men left, but my eyes held on Danni.
"I need to sit for this, don't I?" she said.
I nodded slowly, and she stepped around the desk and took a
seat.
"I don't even know where to start," I said.
"Really can't help you there."
I noticed she was shifting into full-on smart*ss mode, which was
something she did when she sensed something unavoidably bad was
coming her way.
Depending on how she took what I was about to say, she might be
right.
"RSI," I began, "is kind of a big deal."
"I'm aware," she said with a funny smile. "Not sure if you
recall, but I've been here since the beginning."
"Oh, I recall quite well," I said, "and that's kind of where
this is headed."
She sat back and waited for me to explain.
"The UMMA would not be happy if RSI was to simply disappear
overnight," I said.
She glanced around at the walls.
"Place seems pretty solidly built," she said. "You know an evil
magician, or something?"
"You're being funny."
"I am."
"Keep your day job."
"I shall."
"Obviously, I'm not talking about the building. I'm not even
talking about the organization, or the roster itself. Legally
speaking, RSI is one person."
"You."
"Yes," I said with a nod. "I am the sole owner. If something
were to happen to me, chaos would likely ensue."
"You're not really that important."
"Danni, I love you... but shut the f*ck up, okay? This is
serious."
For a moment, she looked like she'd swallowed her own tongue,
and — in an event so rare I wondered if it was real — she
actually did as I asked without even the slightest impudent
remark.
"Naturally, the UMMA would prefer to avoid such chaos," I
continued. "They like to know there is a plan in place for an
orderly transition. A Plan B, if you will."
"They tell you what will happen to your own stable?"
"No, they can't do that," I said. "They require a plan, but
that plan is my own. In my case, it comes via my will."
"As in Last Will and Testament?"
"The very same."
"A cheery thought."
She leaned forward, sensing I was getting to the point.
"Originally, I left RSI to my brother," I said.
"You've spoken in the past of these brothers of yours. The
stories were fun, but they do not instill confidence."
"This one would be okay, and I really didn't have much choice.
Tom is a good man, and he would do his best. But he knows
nothing about anything regarding this place. It would be almost
as bad as no plan, at all. But who else could I leave it to?"
"Makes sense."
"At the time it did, but I was never comfortable with the
arrangement. So, about a year ago, I changed it."
I took a deep breath, then hit her with the the big revelation.
"Danni, you are my new Plan B. If something were to happen to
me, RSI goes to you."
I thought the eventual conclusion to my little presentation had
been painfully obvious from the beginning, but Danni's jaw hit
the floor, just the same.
"I... wha... me?" she stammered.
She sat back in the chair and looked off into space, her eyes
glassy and unfocused.
"I know this is a bit of a surprise," I said, "but there really
isn't anyone else."
"A bit of a surprise?" she said, suddenly snapping back to
reality.
"Okay. It's a big surprise. But I wasn't thinking about Powers
or anything like..."
"What exactly were you thinking?" she said.
"I already told you. I needed to leave RSI to someone who would
know what to do with it."
"And why didn't you tell me?"
"Easy," I said. "I was afraid you'd say no."
"Shouldn't I have had that right?"
"Of course."
"But you didn't give me the chance."
"I don't believe you have to accept..."
"Please don't give me legal bullsh*t."
Her voice was even, but the tone was there. The low,
not-quite-growl-but-definitely-not-friendly edge she puts into
her words when someone has entered the danger zone. It reminded
me of the distant rumble of thunder from an approaching storm,
and it's warning was no less serious.
The question was, could I skirt the edge and avoid the dangerous
weather coming my way, or was it about to pour on my head?
"Okay," I said. "No, I did not give you the chance."
"Didn't I deserve that much?"
"Of course," I said again, "and it was wrong of me not to. But
I couldn't take the risk."
You could almost see the lightning flash in her eyes.
I got up and came around to her, choosing to confront the storm
head-on. There wasn't anyplace to hide, anyway. I leaned
casually on the front edge of my desk directly in front of her,
leaving my fate to be decided by the direction of the wind.
"You watch Castle," I said. "You remember the episode where
Kate got shot?"
"Yeah..."
"You remember what Montgomery said?"
The fierceness I had seen in her eyes vanished in a split-second
as she realized where I was going.
"About making his stand," she said.
"In this life, there are no victories," I quoted. "There's only
the battle. And the best that you could hope for is that you
find some place where you can make your stand."
"I remember it," she said.
"I would love to tell you that the reason I did what I did
before, in and after Boston was because I'd had a terrible life
that I was running from," I said. "Isn't that crazy? To wish
that I could tell you that I'd been abused or neglected or
something... just so I had an excuse for the choices I made?"
Those same eyes that had been so filled with furor had gone soft
and warm. I had avoided the storm... or, maybe, I had just
transferred that uncontrolled energy to myself.
"The thing is, my life was fine. Good parents, a good family.
It wasn't perfect, but whose life is? And, I don't know... I
just threw it away. I don't even know why. At first, it was
like being... well, not a superhero, but... like I had a secret
life. By day, I was this mild-mannered, college student..."
"Okay, I believe absolutely none of that."
"...but, by night, I was living on the edge. Living a life no
one knew about. And I could do it. I could have both."
"It doesn't sound like you did anything wrong."
"But I did. Maybe not right away, but, over time, I definitely
did. I embraced the thrill... the rush that came with being the
other me. I was addicted to it, and — like any addict — I let
it consume me. I let my real life slip away, and, before I knew
it, there was no way back."
"I thought you liked that... other life."
"I did. For a long time, I did. But it was... it was nothing,
Danni. I call it a career, but it wasn't. There was no future
in it. No real money. No retirement. It was a road to
nowhere, and I started to realize that, even before Boston.
Then... well, then I learned that life was never really mine to
begin with."
"What does that mean?"
"Nothing," I said dismissively. "I just... after Boston, I was
done. But I still owed people, so..."
"Owed them for what?"
"That's a real good question," I said vaguely.
I didn't offer anything further, and she didn't ask.
"The point is, I eventually got free of all that. I used the
time after Boston to get my sh*t together, and then I found a
way to put the only useful knowledge I had to work for me."
I spread my arms out wide.
"The result is this," I said. "This... RSI... this is my stand.
This is the place where I made something of myself. I may not
have saved the world or cured cancer, but I'm proud of what
we've built here."
"I am, too."
"Then you understand why I put your name down," I said. "I
needed someone... not just someone who would know what to do,
but someone who would give a sh*t what happened to it."
She took a deep breath and let it out slow, letting go of the
remnants of her earlier desire to tear my head off.
"I've never really had any desire to run a stable like this,"
she said.
"News flash: you run it, now. And that's not even my point. I
won't lie to you. When I think about what would happen if you
had to take over, I imagine you sitting in my chair and running
the whole damn thing. Not because you owe it to me, but because
I think you'd be great at it. But I don't really care if you
run RSI. Maybe you will, maybe you'll sell it... I don't know.
But these women... I know you'll take care of them. If
something ever happens to me, I know that, whatever you decide,
you'll do it because you think it's the right thing to do.
That's all I want."
She cast her eyes to the floor and seemed lost in her own
thoughts. I was as patient as I could be, but the moment
stretched on until I couldn't take it, anymore.
"Danni, say something."
She raised her eyes to mine.
"Thank you," she said.
I smiled warmly.
"No, thank you," I said.
"For what?" she asked.
"For being you, I guess. It means a lot to know things will be
in good hands if anything ever does happen."
She smiled, and I let the moment linger for a beat. Then I
straightened up and clapped my hands together.
"Now," I said, "let us never speak of this again, because
thinking about my own death makes me very uncomfortable."
"I'm with you there," she said, "but I have one more question."
"Oh?"
She made a big show of glancing around the office.
"How much is this place worth?"
"I drop dead, you'll find out."
She whistled in appreciation.
"That much, huh?"
"Make enough to pay you, don't I?"
I waved Spenser and Hawk back into the room, then filled them in
on Danni's place regarding the continuity of RSI ownership and
my theory on how that related to Powers.
"It still doesn't make sense," Danni said when I was done. "Why
not just kill me, too?"
"If I recall correctly," Spenser said, "he tried to do just
that."
"Okay, good point," Danni said, "but I guess I'm wondering why
that wasn't the plan from the start."
We all pondered that one for a while.
"Even ol' King got some brains," Hawk said. "Killin' two people
draw a lot more attention than one."
"I guess that's true," I said, "but then what was his plan?"
"To drive you apart," Spenser said.
"Why?" I asked. "So I would change my will? There was no
chance of that."
"Wouldn't do much good, anyway," Hawk said. "Just be a new name
there, instead. Someone else for King to worry about."
"Maybe he thought I wouldn't want it," Danni said. "Maybe he
figured, if I had quit, I wouldn't want to come back."
"I don't think so," I said. "If you refused to take RSI...
well, I don't know exactly what would happen, but it sure as
hell wouldn't go to King."
"Probate is a messy thing," Spenser said, "and something Powers
would definitely want to avoid."
"Honestly," I said, "he would need you to accept RSI and then
sell it to him. To sign the papers he knows I wouldn't."
"That would be like stabbing you in the back. I would never do
that."
"Given what you know now," Spenser said, "but what if King had
been the one to control the narrative?"
"He's right," I said. "You think King's a piece of trash
because I told you my story. But, if his original plan had
worked... he'd have been free to tell the story his way. He'd
have made me look like the piece of trash."
"I would never have believed him."
"Really?" I said. "I've told you some horrible things. If I
wasn't here to explain myself, you wouldn't have wondered if
maybe you didn't know me as well as you thought you did?"
"No," Danni said firmly.
"Okay, well... I won't argue with you. But I can certainly see
how King could have believed it would work."
"Ol' King not really a deep thinker," Hawk agreed.
"It does seem like the only explanation that fits," Spenser
said.
Danni shrugged, seemingly relieved that she didn't have to say
she could've doubted me. Personally, I thought she was full of
it. Any reasonable person would have questions in that
situation.
I was secretly glad she'd refused to admit to it, though.
"Something else is bothering me," she said. "I don't care what
anyone told me, there's no way I would just give RSI away."
I slowly spun to look at her, realizing immediately where she
was going.
"You didn't answer my earlier question about the stable's
value," she said, "but is it something a guy like Powers could
afford?"
"Probably not," I said, "and I'll do you one better. There's no
way he can afford a stake in a sports arena."
"Odds are, he's working with someone with deeper pockets,"
Spenser said, "but, unfortunately, there's no way to tell who
that might be from these documents. Only the legal entities
involved are listed."
"What's on the list?"
"There are four buyers," he said. "The UMMA is one, and two of
the others are Finnish firms."
"And the last one?"
"Tammany South Holdings."
"Son of a b*tch," I blurted out.
All eyes turned to me.
"You care to elaborate?" Danni asked.
"I know where he got the money," I said. "I know who his
partner is."
[hr]
Character Reference
HTML http://s19.postimg.org/x7gm9w22n/Richelle_100x120.jpg
Name: Richelle Winterfeld
Nickname(s):
Background: Owner of the RSI stable, former underground fighter
HTML http://s19.postimg.org/9av3z511b/Danni_100x120.jpg
Name: Danneel Harris
Nickname(s): Danni
Background: RSI stable leader, reigning DEF welterweight
champion
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