Page 38 of Stranded with the Billionaire
Chapter Seven
Jake waited in the grey concrete room with a single window. His father’s head lawyer Creymarn was there, already seated. He watched Jake pace the small space.
He and Creymarn had gone over the evidence that had been offered by the FBI to go against the drug running charges. It was substantial. Most of it was based on David Ramesly’s statements testifying to Robert’s guilt. Some of it was eye witness accounts from people who were in the drug smuggling industry, offering their testimony in an attempt to find lighter sentences for themselves. There was physical evidence from Ramesly Insurance. Three decades of laundering money through the company. The accounting was incriminatory. Jake wondered how they would fight the charges.
The door opened and a guard ushered Robert Ramesly in. Jake’s father wore an orange jumpsuit with shackles. He looked grey and drawn, not the man who commanded boardrooms of people. The guard escorted Robert to his seat, unlocking the shackles but looping a pair of handcuffs through a bar on the table before clasping them over Robert’s wrists. Checking that they were secure, he nodded to Creymarn. “You have thirty minutes.”
Jake waited until the guard had exited before sitting down. “Dad are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Robert said tersely. He sighed and frowned. “I’m sorry about this.”
“What do you mean?” Jake had rarely heard his father apologize before.
“I didn’t mean to do this to you boys. At the time I thought I was helping to save both our companies. Things had been bad for pharmaceutical and insurance industries. There was a rash of lawsuits that David wasn’t winning, he was having a hard time getting new drug research underway that was costly and some of his staff had walked out on him. The insurance business wasn’t faring much better. We were taking too many losses. Other insurance companies were folding under the financial pressure and it came close for us. I couldn’t let that happen. The Ramesly name had a reputation to uphold and I had a family to support.”
“Dad,” Jake looked at Robert in astonishment. “You didn’t do this.”
“I did. I didn’t smuggle the drugs,” Robert grimaced. “I never had a hand in that. That was all David’s doing. He just gave me the money to launder through Ramesly Insurance. That is my crime. Laundering drug money and profiting from it. It bore the company through a tough time. That money helped me build the company up so that I could hand an empire over to my sons. I was greedy, so help me. When I come before the judge tomorrow, I’ll plead guilty to laundering money and being an accessory to drug smuggling.”
Jake leaned back in his chair. He struggled to believe what his father had just told him.
“I’ve resigned my position with the company. Everett will have to take over your role. You’re now in charge and will have to deal with the fallout. I’m sorry about that,” Robert apologized again, his eyes bleak as he looked at his oldest son. “It’s a bad position I’ve left you in.”
“Uncle David is free pending his testimony against you,” Jake leaned forward. “How is it that he’s not in prison? How is it that he managed to turn this around so that he’s not at fault?”
“He’s pinning it on me, Ted, and Michael,” Robert responded. “Ted Searson did help David with the drops until they put other people in place to do the dirty work for them as they grew older. With Ted dead, there’s no one who can put David at the drops all those years ago. I never saw the drugs, I just had a portion of the money to launder. I guess it was more than Ted and David’s companies could handle without alerting the authorities, which is probably why I was offered the opportunity. I never knew Michael might be involved until now when the FBI arrested him.”
“They wouldn’t arrest him without some evidence,” Jake still couldn’t believe that his cousin was involved. They had grown up together. While Michael was an intensely private person, he wasn’t the criminal type.
“Maybe so,” Robert mused. “It just doesn’t make sense to me. Michael who is wealthy in his own right, still having drug residue on his boat? How stupid would that be to use his own boat for drops where the FBI could collect evidence from when his own father had outsourced that part of the operation long ago? No, I don’t buy it.”
“You think Uncle David is framing his own son?” Jake questioned. Robert’s reasoning mirrored his own and Jake wondered what he could do to help clear Michael’s name.
“David has always been about himself. He’s a man not to be crossed and Michael forced him to retire,” Robert shook his head, replying bitterly. “Don’t ask me how, I have no idea. Whether Michael is really involved or not, I don’t know but it wouldn’t surprise me if David threw his own son to the wolves. David’s thoughts on loyalty and trust only apply to himself. He’s a sick man who is drunk on power. We should have done something about him long ago.”
“What can I do?” Jake wondered.
“I wish I knew,” Robert sighed again. “Right now, you’ll probably have your hands full taking care of the company and your mother. Beverly is going to be distraught over this.”
“Dad, are you sure you don’t want to fight this? There might be some legality, a loophole that we can exploit,” Jake insisted. That last thing he wanted was his father to go to jail.
“No. It’s time I paid for my wrongdoings,” Robert stared steadily at Jake. “I should have stepped down years ago when Everett was ready to take on a division. I should have let you be in charge. Instead I’ve held on too long. I suppose I was addicted to the power as well. Don’t do that to yourself, Jake. Remember that the company pays the bills, but it shouldn’t be your entire life. If it goes under because of my actions, let it go and take care of your family. Don’t let it hang like an albatross around your neck like I let it do to me.”
“You always loved working at Ramesly Insurance. We were expected to follow you in the family business,” Jake frowned at Robert as he remembered. “There was never any question that a Ramesly doesn’t follow their father into business.”
“That’s a fool expectation put on us by our fathers and we transferred it to each of you,” Robert growled. “It was wrong of me to do that, just as it was wrong for my brothers to do it to their sons. Don’t do it to your kids when you get married.”
Jake blinked in surprise. He had no idea his father felt this way. They rarely talked like this.
The door to the room opened as the guard stepped back in, bringing the interview to a close.
“Dad, you need to let Dillon and Everett visit,” Jake said as he rose from his chair, giving his father’s hand a squeeze.
“I know,” Robert cleared his throat, blinking back tears. “Not until I’ve entered my plea. I don’t want them to talk me out of doing the right thing.”
Jake nodded. He could respect his father for that. Creymarn and Jake left the room, escorted by another guard.
“We’re going to do our best to try to get his time reduced. He’s cooperating, his age is against him, and his health. Hopefully the judge will be sympathetic,” Creymarn didn’t sound too hopeful himself.
