Page 3 of Weston

He left five minutes later after telling him again that it had all been a joke.It wasn’t that he wasn’t in the mood for a good joke, but the man had hit his wife, and all jokes weren’t funny to him.

By the time he headed to the meeting place, leaving Belinda in charge of the office, he had a list of questions for his older brother about her having to pay leap fines while working for him.He’d not realized that wasn’t a rule until he looked into it.Sitting at the long conference table, he was happy to see that Danny wasn’t there.The rest of the family was, so he asked Archie his questions so that they could all get answers about what was going on.

“I did look it up in the by-laws, and there isn’t a law that says that she has to pay the fines.I’ve contacted our king, Major Ramit.His first name is Major, not a rank.He said that he’s had trouble with that shadow before.He is going to look into other things that he’s heard.Also, none of this will get back to your leader, as he said he’s been hearing complaints about him before.”Leanord asked if she’d get a refund.“If she doesn’t get one from her previous leap, she will get one from mine.I’ll make it right for her.”

“Thank you for that.”Archie looked at him when the man had a second question.“We, my brothers have come here on our own to be able to hang out with Belinda.We miss her, and I know that the kids do as well.I want to personally thank you for allowing us all to be here, too.”

“We were hoping that you could help with some of your skills as well.We could use some ideas on how to get a garden going.We were thinking something like a community garden where the people who want can have their own place to get veggies and such.”Toby, the man with four kids, said that there were plenty of benefits to having a garden started now.“Good, that’s what we were hoping for.A way to make sure that we can get what we need going by the time summer comes around.”

The meeting lasted for several hours.He was having too much fun to be exhausted and was glad that Archie told them that dinner would be at his house tonight.They were all happy about that, and he was looking forward to being able to talk to them all about the suggestions that they’d brought up in dealing with a new company.It would bring in another fifty jobs by summer if things went the way that he wanted.

Chapter 2

Major didn’t care for the little man in front of him.But so far, he’d not made any moves so that he could kill him.And he wanted to, in the worst sort of way, just to get him away from him.The man was a shyster, as his mother would have said, and he needed to be eliminated sooner rather than later.

“They have the money.I don’t see why it would bother you if they’re running a little short.I mean, it all goes to someplace in the leap.”Another thing that he didn’t like about the man was that while he wasn’t telling him everything, he was just short of telling the truth, too, like what he just said.It was only benefiting him, the people paying dues, and since he was in the leap as well, he was getting the extra cash.“Is this about that Warrior family?They bitch about everything anymore.From having to pay monthly fines to having to go outside the leap for jobs.Some people just aren’t happy unless they’re complaining all the time.Or is it the Watsons?They’re getting on my last nerve about everything as well.”

“That’s another thing that I wanted to talk to you about.Once someone pledges to another leader, you can’t charge them for fees in your own.You should be bringing in more jobs if you need to have income coming from people that no longer want to be a part of what you’re doing here.”He said the name Belinda Watson.“I don’t know her.But if she’s the first person that pops into your head about what I just said, then don’t do it anymore.If you wanted her to stay in your leap, then you’d have to go another way, like having more jobs for the people here.This isn’t working the way that it’s supposed to be.It’s for the others, not just to benefit you.”

“She’s not told me directly that she’s going to another leap.”He asked him why he’d say it that way.“Well, I was notified that she was thinking about pledging to someone named Sheppard, but she has to tell me herself before I believe it.”

“It’s a done deal for her if she’s talking about Archie Sheppard.Now, there is a good leader.You should go and talk to him about having things done for the betterment of the leap.You could learn a few things.”And if he ended up dead there, it would be all the better for him.“In fact, you’re to go to him in the coming weeks to get information from him.I’m telling you this directly to your face and reminding you again that what I say goes.If you’re charging this Belinda person for fines, get together what she’s paid you and return it to her.Without more fees or penalties, too.She’s in a different leap, and that’s all there is to it.”

“That’s a bit of money I’ve collected from her.How about I just say that she’s off the hook for now and tell her that she’s fine.For now.”Major stood up and put both hands on the desk of the man in front of him.It was the most intimidating stare he had, and it didn’t take long for the man to pull out his checkbook and start writing out a check.Major told him cash and he’d made sure she got it.“It’s going to hurt me if I have to pay that back to her now.I have investments that need to be paid from that.”

“Cash.Now.”When he opened the drawer that was to his left, Major got a good look at the amount of cash that was just lying there.Instead of commenting on it, he pulled out the biggest stack of more money than he’d seen in one place before.“Is this from you charging fines from people no longer in your leap?”

“Yes.It does add up.”The large ledger was next.“Let’s see how much she’s paid in fines and dues?”

It totaled to be more than ten grand, and Major was embarrassed that he thought it might work for him, too.But only for a second.The ten thousand dollars hardly made a dent in the money in the drawer, which had him grabbing the ledger from the man to see what else he was going to be dealing with.

He had to sit down hard when he realized that families were paying for their family members to be buried on the land that was set up for them.Then, there were taxes on things like going to school on the land.Car taxes, as well as baby taxes.A family of six was paying out sixteen percent—four percent per child of their income to have children.No wonder people weren’t pledging to the leap here.They would go broke if they hung out longer than a couple of kids in their family.

“You’re fired.I can’t have you doing this to others who depend on their leap to be there for them, and you’re gouging them all the time.”He had him remove all the money from the drawer and count it.“There is fifty-eight thousand dollars here, you idiot.Why don’t you have it in a bank or something so that you can—Christ.You’re using this money as your own cash, aren’t you?”

“I have expenses, too, you know.I mean, I get paid from the accounts, but this is better for me all the way around.This way, I don’t have to use my own money for things that I can just get.You have no idea how much little things can catch up with you when you don’t have cash just lying around.I bet that I save myself fifty grand a week by just having cash around.”

“The only reason you have it around is because you’re stealing it from the members of your own leap.”He just smiled at him.“I was right in firing you.I should use you as an example of what happens to people who take advantage of people they’re supposed to be caring for.But I’m afraid it’ll get around to how you’re doing this, and others will think that they can do it.”

“Thank you.”Major growled and started putting money in a bank bag that was also in the drawer.He had to wonder if there was more money around that had been stolen but didn’t want to think about it.“To think that you want to brag on me and what I do around here makes me feel special.”

There was no help for it.He was going to have to kill the man so that word didn’t get around on what he’d been doing so that others were stealing from the very hand that paid them.As it was now, there were going to be people coming out of the woodwork on trying to figure out how things had gotten so out of hand like this had.

Having Franklin arrested was the least of his problems.He might well lose his own job from this.After spending nearly six hours going over the ledger—the man had kept good books as to where the money was coming from—he had a small accounting of what Franklin’s leap was owed.As it was now, he was going to have to spend weeks hunting down others who had been cheated and were no longer a part of this shadow.Christ, he was going to need help and decided to call up Archie Sheppard.The man would know just how to get things going to make this right.

After telling him what had happened, the man didn’t say anything for some time.He didn’t want to think that he might well have hung up on him.It would have been something he might have been tempted to do.Just as he was going to say his name, Archie spoke again.

“I’m thinking that this isn’t a single-month deal.I know that Belinda has been paying out the ass since moving here three years ago.”Major said he didn’t know how long it had been going on.“I see.”

“I don’t blame you for thinking that I should have been more up on things.I have been feeling that I’ve failed the people here myself.I’ve actually thought about stepping down from being king with this plot.”Archie asked him if he’d really do that.“I have been thinking on it hard, I must admit.What would you do had you been in my position?You’re a good man, Archie, and if you think that I should step down, then I will.”

“Someone else would just take over that would think it was all right with the way things have been going.No, you’re in a position to fix this, and that’s what needs to be done.”He didn’t care for his answer and told him so.“I don’t know what to tell you.Since I’ve been a leap leader, all you’ve done is tell me to fix this when you have your own mess to clean up after.No, I’m in no position to tell you what to do.I’m grateful that I don’t have anything going on here that might cause me to quit what I’m doing.”

Major had known that Archie was an honest man.He’d not thought that he’d be so honest with him.But he didn’t want to go get into who was to blame, so he decided to make things right.And he would.Not living up to someone’s expectations was a painful pill to swallow, especially when it came from such a good man as he knew Archie to be.

They spoke about giving the money back, and Archie explained to him that might not be the way to go.People would be coming to him for more money than he might have, and that wasn’t going to be helping anyone.So, for his help, it was decided to give the money back to Belinda because, without her help, it would never have come up.He was also going to use the money found for projects that poorer shadows might need help with, like new schools and better homes for the elderly.

After another hour of talking to the younger man, he had a better outlook on the way things were going.There was something so wonderful about having fresh eyes on things that he was glad now that he’d spoken to him.Archie was going to be taking his job when he retired or, for that matter fucked up again, and Major knew that he’d do a great job.Much better than he thought he’d done since taking over the position from his own father.

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