Chapter 3
Max and Sarah
Day after black Friday
Pulling into the underground parking Max negotiates his Tesla into his assigned parking spot. He gets a free spot and free electricity because he has an electric car so he and Sarah have used the second spot they own for a parking spot sized container to store things they don’t have room for but want to keep. He heads over to the 8 x 12 container and opens it up. On the neatly staked shelves are a wide assortment to electronic devices, new and used, small barely used kitchen appliances, never used tools and a locked gun case. He put 2 of the new laptops on the shelf and several other boxes of things he “saved money on”. As he is just locking the door, he smiles as Sarah pulls her white x5 into the adjoining spot.
He helps carry the TV, a new game console and a one of the laptops to the elevator. As they wait for the elevator he asks if it would be a good idea to upgrade their satellite package.
“I think that’s a great idea because with the new TV we can save money on entertainment by not going out as often.” Exclaims Sarah. “I think if we set up the console on the old TV in the den we can both enjoy some well-deserved downtime without spending as much at theaters and bars.”
They proceed up to their 16th floor condo and enter the roomy 2 plus den corner unit. They place their packages on the floor and begin the process of opening them and removing the contents. Several hours later all the electronics are up and running. During that time Sarah spends about 45 minutes on the phone to their satellite provider changing their plan and Max does the wiring and testing of the systems. Once done it is now 4:30 and Sarah plops down on the leather couch, “I’m pooped, unless you want to make dinner I think we should go out to eat.”
“Okay, how about Ming’s down the street, we don’t even have to drive.”
“works for me”. Off they go to spend another 50 dollars.
December 21, 2018
Sarah grabs the mail on her way up to the condo. Flipping through it on the way up, she notices one is from LSG financial. That is their mortgage holder, “probably with an offer for an equity loan or maybe a late Christmas card. “I’ll look at it later,” she says to herself. The rest of the mail is boxing day and January first flyers. “Not really anything we need but max can see them”. Inside the apartment she puts the letter in the wall mounted holder and tosses the flyers on the table. Opening the fridge, she starts removing food to make dinner with.
2 Hours later she hears a key in the door, it opens and Max appears as he is already removing his jacket. He puts his shoes and jacket in the closet and walks into the living room flipping on the TV as he passes. News channel is just announcing that Angela Merkle has just dissolved government and a new election is called for in May. Media opts to pan two opposing demonstrations, one unhappy with the decision and one absolutely excited with the prospect of going back to the poles. In the group of those wanting another election is a smattering of Nazi flags. Very weird thinks Max.
As he walks into the kitchen and kisses Sarah on the neck he asks what’s for dinner. Sarah responds with “Chicken and Rice with Asian vegetables.” “Awesome” says max as he picks up the flyers on the table.” “My sister is really going to love the laptop we are giving her for Christmas, I was thinking that if we bought the commercial tax software she may do our taxes for us too this year. She can do 25 returns with it so she could do several and make some money for school.
Sarah turns to face him and responds, “makes sense, a win/win is always good in my books. Are you going to get her into your law firm for her next co-op term?”
Max turns to the fridge and taking a Coors from the fridge says, “that won’t likely happen this year because for some reason they seem to be cutting back in the office. I don’t know what’s going on but they sent out a memo today limiting us to only pre-approved meals and expenses with clients and our mileage has been limited as well. I think the rich bastard partners are trying to get a bigger slice of the pie and us peons who do the real work are going to get pissed on.”
“I doubt John has seen the inside of a courtroom for 10 years and he is always gone long before I leave. By the way, they are only sending 3 junior partners to the conference in Dallas next February so there is a chance I am not going. If I don’t get selected I will be expected to carry some the load for the ones that go. That means not only will I miss out but I will end up with overtime and at least 1 more case. I guess I have to do some serious ass kissing between now and the time they make their decision.”
Sarah feigns exasperation “you know you are the best Junior partner on staff, have the best close rate for mergers and have settled or won outright almost every lawsuit in the last 3 years. They would be idiots to leave you out!” Max replies, “they would be idiots to let me go, if they do, someone else will have to handle my cases while I am gone and what happens if they screw something up? Thinking about it now, I doubt I am actually going. Change subject, I don’t want to even think about it anymore, talk about being screwed for doing a good job.”
“How’s things at the store, did you hire that new assistant manager you interviewed today?”
Sarah turns the stove off and walks into the living room to turn down the TV, not noticing that the money markets just announced another quarter point increase in the prime rate with another expected in late march. She returns to the kitchen, “I might, she seems really bright, has great references, lots of experience but no management experience plus she has the weirdest college schedule I have ever seen. Straight A’s and full ride academic scholarship though.” Sarah jokingly adds, “If I hire her I could be working for her within 5 years, kind of scary.”
Max looks up from the flyers and says, “wouldn’t be so bad, Jason got the partnership I wanted, he tosses me all the best cases and he made sure I got his office when he moved up. What does she study anyways, basket weaving?”
“I wish” says Sarah. She is an economics major, I have no idea what she minors in.”
Max responds, “then why retail? Wouldn’t accounting or some other money cruncher job be more to her skills.”
“she says it is to learn how money is spent and earned and that she likes retail. She will need to learn about fashion though. She could be really pretty but she came to the interview in a discount store outfit and no makeup. Thinking about it now, I doubt she would be a good fit, all the sales staff would hate her.”
With a frown Max turns away from Sarah and heads into the living room. Max himself came from a Midwest farm and he was lucky his law firm looked beyond the discount store suit and community college degree to give him his first chance.
February 2nd 2018
Max is home early today. He was prepared to present a client’s case in court today against a Computer software developer who, his client claimed had stolen their code for a new financial accounting upgrade. Their claim was that he had participated in and developed it when he was employed by them and because he used their system it was technically theirs. The software was sold for millions to a competing firm and his client wanted their due. It was a pretty solid case but in the last 2 days the defendant had disappeared and just this morning they fished his body out of the river.
Early signs are suicide but for Max it really doesn’t matter, he was married and now all the money would be tied up for years. Max could not win now as any compensation would not be paid out for years, if ever. Because of the low possibility of a reasonable return, his firm will withdraw from the case. Hundreds of hours up in smoke and no bonus. Max hated to lose.
Idly max pulls the mail from the holder and begins leafing through it. Three unopened items from LSG financial, “what the hell thought max”. As he hurriedly opens one, he recalls transferring money from the mortgage account. “Yep, just as I thought, 2 missed payments and a third due next week.” Quickly he hops on the computer, pulls up their account and transfers several thousand dollars into the mortgage account. He then pulls his phone out and makes a quick call to his mortgage company and lets them know the money is there.
Now he has to get back on his back account and take money from his tax-free saving and put it in other accounts. Paying the minimum balance on all the cards, he closes the page and pulls up a news site he has been following lately.
On the corporate section is an article about a medium sized Pharmaceutical company from France, Silade Pharmaceutical. This little company has somehow vaulted into the top 10 in the world and it isn’t even publicly traded. Reading the article, Max is intrigued with the meteoric rise of a firm that has not actually developed any of their own products but has been successful in buying up smaller labs who have.
Max researches the company on the internet and then uses his access as a corporate lawyer to get details not available to the average person. On the other side of the world, an alert is sounded that someone is poking around the Silade merger details using legal authorization. “That could be an issue,” whistles the computer operator as he takes note of the IP address and tracks the user. He collects all the pertinent data as well as the information accessed and sends the report to his supervisor.
Max researches all the smaller subsidiaries and the products they have produced. After he is finished he calls a fellow Lawyer and poses this question. “How can a privately held company swallow up publicly held companies?”
“It depends if they are listed on any major exchanges.”
“they are. US, British, Indian, German or French exchanges.”
“Rules vary in different countries but they are all essentially the same. They would have to try a reverse takeover and purchase control of the public shell company, then merge it with the private company. Once they have control of the board of directors, it is almost automatic. Shell company is still publicly traded though.”
“Can they then go private?”
“No way I know of, at least not legally and even if it was legal it would cost plenty. All the shareholders would need to get paid out and agree to the transition. 1 holdout and it would get denied. Most countries have varying rules on this but there is no way I would even attempt it.”
Looking at the clock, Max realizes he has been at this 4 hours and Sarah would be home soon. He saves his data and decides he is going to look into this again when he has more time, there is something very wrong here.
Sarah gets home later with some news, and she is pretty mad about it. Max decides to talk to her later about the mortgage faux pas and let her rant about the latest drama at work.
Sarah pours herself a glass of red wine and starts in on her frustration. “guess who got the assistant manager job at the Willoughby store.”
She seems a little upset and max knows that going from manager in a small store to assistant manager in the head office store would have been a major stepping stone to district manager and that is the job Sarah really coveted. “who? I bet it was Karla from the Seattle center store?”
Snapping back Sarah says “no Jessica got it.”
Confused, Max replies, “who’s Jessica?”
Sarah pours herself another glass of wine, to the top this time. “The girl I interviewed for the assistant manager job last month. When personal sent me her resume they also sent it to all the other stores as well. I never thought about that. I told her she was too plain to be a good fit and wished her luck in her job search, now she has my job, what a bitch.”
The conversation is broken by a buzz from the foyer. She picks up the intercom and snaps “what?”
The doorman replies, “there is a man in the lobby to see you, mam.”
“Who is he?”.
“He gave me his ID. Brad Collins. Says he doesn’t know you but he has a delivery for you and you need to sign for it.”
“Keep him there, I will be down to talk to him.”
On the way down, she wonders what it could be, a delivery, a surprise or maybe an invitation. As she steps out of the elevator she sees the jeans, cheap shirt and department store dress shoes. Instantly she feels superior to this redneck bumpkin.
Brad hands her the envelope and askes her to sign his log. She does and without another word spins on her heels and marches back to the elevator. How rude thinks Brad, oh well. He knows full well most of the envelopes he hands out are not good news so he makes a quick exit before she finds out what’s inside.
Fuming, she stomps into the condo loudly proclaiming her innocence. “that fat pig, she was trying to take the TV from me, I had it first, all I did was push her. If she wasn’t so fat she wouldn’t have fallen. This is not my fault.”
Max waits and picks up the summons she is holding. It says on the summons she has received previous notices so he walks over to the mail, nothing. In the summons it says she must attend the police precinct within 48 hours of signing to turn herself in. She will be charged with assault causing bodily harm, processed and released with a promise to appear. Failing to do so would result in a warrant for her arrest and she could be arrested anywhere police can find her, even if that is at work.
Max decides to let her cool down and get her to the station tomorrow. Even with his corporate legal experience, he knows that ignoring a summons is contempt of court and she could end up in jail.
Chapter 4
Jessica
December 26th 2018
Boxing day sales over and Jessica is done for the day. Its early and she has nothing planned so she decides to catch a movie by herself. Sometimes there are so many people she never gets a moment to think. Star Wars is currently running and there are long lines for it but the other theaters are running less popular movies so she chooses one of them. Some popcorn, a drink and a good choice of seats. What more could she ask for. As she is sitting there she considers her life. School is a constant but it is hard to find a job that is flexible enough around school. maybe it is time to work in a higher end store. Less volume, slower pace and she will get to experience the spending habits of a wealthier class.
January 2nd
School doesn’t start until January 8th but Jessica wants to turn in an assignment she has been working on and pick up some books from her locker. On the way back, she was planning on dropping off some resumes at a few of the higher end fashion outlets. She had heard they get better pay and there were several in the vicinity of Washington state.
Walking around her makeshift basement apartment she can hear her mother in the kitchen above her living room. Her only cooking appliance dings as it has completed warming some leftover stew so she takes it out and sits at her little table. As she is eating her cell rings so she picks it up and without looking at the call display answers it. Brad is calling and he is wanting to know when she needs him to bring his year end tax stuff over. “you mean your two shoe boxes of scrambled papers, it took me an hour just to sort out your invoices from your receipts?” Brad responds, “three boxes this year, one for repos now. Anyways, when can I drop them off?” Jessica says, Anytime before the end of month will be good. My mom is home most days, drop them off with her, I will get them.” Brad ends the conversation with an, ok, probably this week then and says see ya.”
Tucking her phone away She grabs her coat and heads out the back door to her Honda parked in the back drive, addresses in hand. Along with her mathematical mind, Jessica was so good with maps that all she has to do is google the address, take one look at it and without thinking find her way there. For numerical streets she doesn’t even need a map. All her friends consider her a walking talking calculator and map. Jessica takes it is a compliment but to most of her peers, “here come the calculator” is intended as a slight.
Out on the highway she reaches over and flips on the radio. Talk radio is on and right now they are talking about an earlier then planned interest rate increase contemplated by the Fed. Stop borrowing money she shouts at the radio as she switches it to FM. First stop is at the HR dept. of a large Ladies fashion chain. Thinking she is just applying for a sales job she doesn’t even think to specify what position she is seeking. Next stop a Hr dept. for a national sporting apparel store. After a few more stops she heads to the college that is usually bustling with students but today she is the only student on the Macro economics floor. Knocking at her professor’s door she is bid “enter.” She opens the door and steps in. Leaving the door ajar she approaches the desk and responds when she is offered a seat. “got my assignment ready so I am handing it in now in case I am not able to get in next week.” Perplexed, Sam Rodgers asks” why,” Are you going away?” She replies, “No but the weather forecast has a big front coming in so the roads may be socked in by Monday.” Sam looks at his student and responds, “Jessica, you are one of my best students, I would have no problem at all giving you an extension if that were the case.” “I know but I would rather have it in on time so here you go.”
Jessica asks, “do you think they will increase the FED rate this month? I heard they were considering it on the radio today.” He opens his browser and as he searches the news feed responds, “not likely, going to be big deficit in this year’s budget so they need to keep rate low until it blows over. My opinion is that ¼ point is not nearly enough, I think more like a full percent now and another by the end of summer. We would suffer big pain now or by next Christmas it will be too late.”
“too late?”
“this is my opinion only, but I think we are on the brink of another recession, could be a really bad one too. Even now it could be too late to cut spending and reduce the deficit. Public spending is out of control as well, we now have more debt per person than we had in 2008 and it is growing at a rate of almost 5%.” Sam says as he turns the screen to show her. In this department only, numbers count and the numbers do not look good. He flips through several other pages and traces the graphs as he explains to her what he thinks.
Wow, thinks Jessica, I wonder why he hasn't covered it like this this in class, so she innocently asks him. "Why the difference in lectures? I have never seen the graph you just showed me and how is it nobody ever talks about how supply/demand affects interest rates? I thought the fed controlled it based on policy."
"it does but that only works if the GDP is high enough to support the debt. At the currant rate, debt is growing faster than the GDP and when the inevitable downturn happens GDP growth will slow and the government will need to spend more to stimulate the economy while revenues decline. At some point lenders will begin to increase interest rates because they can, banks will make it harder to get loans and blame it on rising defaults. The finance companies they own and private lenders will step in to pick up the all the rejected loans at higher interest rates. Because supply of money will be outstripped by demand mortgage and finance rates will increase. As a result, demand for these things will diminish and prices will begin to fall. In the midst of all this the government could get reassessed by the bond rating agencies and a drop to an AA would be catastrophic because the bond ratings are based on supply/demand. Can you see how fast the collapse could happen?'
I do see and I have a good friend who is a repossession agent, he shares with me sometimes how busy he is. I think it is already happening. Why not share this in class?
I can't. The school policy dictates we teach in accordance with generally accepted economic theories. If I shared this with the class I would be branded a conspiracy theorist and could lose my tenure in disgrace. You may think this is a free-thinking institution of higher learning, encouraging critical thinking but, you didn't hear it from me, it is not. Enough politics for now, I get too worked up when I talk about this. I will see you next week?
You sure will, you just gave me a lot to think about, can I include some of this in my next assignment?
With a suddenly worried look on his face Sam says "Better not. My department head looks at all my students work and if you head off on a tangent like this she will be wondering where you got the ideas."
With a "bye" and a wave she is off to her locker. After she grabs the books she needs she heads off to the coffee shop to do some reading. At the counter is one of her classmates from accounting who greets her with “so how was Christmas?” She thinks for a moment and says, “pretty good, my brother came home from Pendleton and my aunt and cousin were here from Montana. Do you remember Nick?” “your cousin who dropped out last year?” “The same, he just enlisted, leaves for basic next month, marines I think. My aunt is going to move back to Skagit. I may ask to live with her, it is a little closer to school. How was your Christmas?” Rebecca looks away and says “eventful.” “sorry” says Jessica, “if you want to talk about it I am going to be right over there.”
Jessica sits down with her tea and begins reading some loose leaflets she found on the table. There is a group at the college promoting a movement calling for a common world currency supported by the United Nations. She has several members of her class who spout this drivel and much to her dismay they refuse to look at any economic models that show how this could not possibly work. As she tosses it aside Rebecca approaches. Since Jessica is the only customer in the shop she uses this opportunity to talk with her friend. While Jessica still lives at home, Rebecca live further away and has to live in residence. They are frequently the only females in class and have bonded over the last three years. Rebecca recounts the holidays and how they need to move because her mother got laid off at the aircraft plant. Dad doesn’t make enough money and the only jobs her mom can get pay minimum wage. It also means that they cannot afford to pay for school anymore and she will have to get student loans to pay for next year. Jessica listens and consoles her friend. Promises to help in any way possible but in reality there is absolutely nothing she can do except be a good friend and a listening ear. A group of customers come in and Rebecca dashes to the checkout to take their order as Jessica rounds up he books and prepares to leave. She passes the counter as Rebecca is just handing coffees to the customers and says, “call me”, knowing that it is very unlikely Rebecca will. With that she is off to her car and the long trip home.
With a wave she is off to her locker. After she grabs the books she needs she heads off to the coffee shop to do some reading. At the counter is one of her classmates from accounting who greets her with “so how was Christmas?” She thinks for a moment and says, “pretty good, my brother came home from Pendleton and my aunt and cousin were here from Montana. Do you remember Nick?” “your cousin who dropped out last year?” “The same, he just enlisted, leaves for basic next month, marines I think. My aunt is going to move back to Skagit. I may ask to live with her, it is a little closer to school. How was your Christmas?” Rebecca looks away and says “eventful.” “sorry” says Jessica, “if you want to talk about it I am going to right over there.”
Jessica sits down with her tea and begins reading some loose leaflets she found on the table. There is a group at the college promoting a movement calling for a common world currency supported by the United Nations. She has several members of her class who spout this drivel and much to her dismay they refuse to look at any economic models that show how this could possibly work. As she tosses it aside Rebecca approaches. Since Jessica is the only customer in the shop she uses this opportunity to talk with her friend. While Jessica still lives at home, Rebecca live further away and lives in residence. They are frequently the only females in class and have bonded over the last three years. Rebecca recounts the holidays and how they need to move because her mother got laid off at the aircraft plant. Dad doesn’t make enough money and the only jobs her mom can get pay minimum wage. It also means that they cannot afford to pay for school anymore and she will have to get student loans to pay for next year. Jessica listens and consoles her friend. Promises to help in any way possible but in reality there is absolutely nothing she can do except be a good friend and a listening ear. A group of customers come in and Rebecca dashes to the checkout to take their order as Jessica rounds up he books and prepares to leave. She passes the counter as Rebecca is just handing coffees to the customers and says, “call me”, knowing that it is very unlikely Rebecca will. With that she is off to her car and the long trip home.
February 2nd 2017
Working on Brads taxes is always an experience. She has to sort out all his cases and match the appropriate expenses with them. As she came to what is most likely a court summons he had served to Sarah Davis-Jones she sat back and thought a little about how small the world really is. She had been interviewed by her only last week and had been told that she was not a good fit, rudely at that. And then someone form head office called the next day to book her for an appointment for a position there. Not knowing what the court summons was for she never thought any more of it.
Finishing up she prepared a report for brad, including recommendations for how he should cut expenses plus some investment tips for the sizeable refund he was going to get. Knowing Brad she sighed, “that money will all end up making his stupid truck look even more ridicules.” That truck was her main competition before he even got his license and it is still he first love 3 years later. She doubts that he even has a regular girlfriend though she has seen him with girls they both know a few times.
As she heads upstairs to see what leftovers she can pillage she almost bumps into her stepdad. Pedro Martine had married her mom when she was only 4. Her real father only bothers to contact her on birthdays and Christmas so Pedro is in action her dad. “what’s up” he says?
Rubbing her stomach, she replies, “sustenance” as she heads towards the kitchen.
“Made some awesome enchiladas last night, should be enough to have some now and take some for later.”
Collecting the enchiladas, she thinks how great it is to have a father who conveniently makes way more dinner for the family than they actually need and acts like she is doing them a favor by taking the leftovers off their hands. Giving him a hip check as she passes she heads downstairs to enjoy her bounty. Once settled back at her desk she takes the next tax return out and begins reviewing it.
As she is looking at the return her cell rings, idly she picks it up and says hello. The caller identifies himself as Mr. Wilson, Western division manager for Vogue West botiques, “I would like you to come in this week so we can discuss bringing you on board as an assistant Manager for our Spokane store.”
Chapter 5
Brad
December 18, 2017
8:00 AM and Brad is sitting with his coworkers around a board room table which in reality is two folding tables pushed together and the boardroom is actually the lunchroom with several desks, filing cabinets and some computer equipment on the south half. Downstairs is a large garage where newly impounded vehicles and other seized property is kept for a short period of time.
He rarely comes into the office but Monday morning is mandatory for the 40 or so process servers and repossession agents working for the company. Brad prefers serving because he only needs to locate the recipient, hand them the document and get them to sign his log, easy peasy. On the rare occasion a recipient refuses to sign he leaves the item and he then fills out an affidavit which he gets signed after swearing to its content. The money is much better repossessing but he needs to locate the person and the item to be repossessed and there is always risk. You are taking someone’s property and they are never happy about it.
Wilson Sanchez, the owner, walks in the door, “alright everyone, take a seat and let’s get this thing going.” Quickly the entire group shuffles and scuffs all the chairs into position and within minutes 40 pairs of eyes are expectantly waiting for the weeks assignments. Wilson starts with a report on a few issues from the previous week; a vehicle owner who chased the repo agent off his property with a shotgun, a couple of rejected summons and a person who tried to drive their vehicle away with the boot on. In addition, the police are reluctant to attend every repo as they are very short staffed.
After this he launches into this week’s assignments and in the middle of doing so he acknowledges the increase in repossessions for those who are currently qualified.
“in order to make it more efficient for us all we are going to break repossessions into two distinct tasks. One is all motor vehicles, licensed and traceable though our link with the license issuing office. The second will be for everything else; trailers, boats, off road recreational vehicles, construction equipment and anything else a lender has a lean on and wants to recover. Because we have so many on the dockets I am willing to send some of you to a 5-day course dealing with repossession of non-vehicular assets. You will be paid base pay for the week and the course costs will be covered by the company, anyone interested?” Several hands shot up at the offer and he took all the names and asked them to remain after the main meeting.
He then opens another topic, “we have been asked by a local mortgage broker to help them serving Notices of default, foreclosure notices and eviction notices. This is a lot riskier as most of these people have received several notices already and know you are coming. You will be handing these notices to people who are at risk of losing their homes and for some of you I don’t know if that is something you want to do. If you deliver the initial notice, the recipient will become your case and you will be the only one to deliver and administer any successive actions.
While very unlikely that could mean you may be the one who has to contact the sheriff to have the residents forcibly removed if it comes to that. I will not fault anyone here who doesn’t want to accept these assignments.” Nonetheless there will be a good premium for successful delivery and most clients will work out the bill with the lender after service so it will rarely come to evictions. Sign up list is on the wall, put your name there if you’re willing to do them.”
“That’s all for today, have a good week.” With that he hands out the weeks assignments.
Brad looks at his list, quickly determining how long it would be to trace the recipients and noted that he had 2 vehicle repos this week. As he flipped through the summons and notices he put them all in geographic order with the exception of two that would require some skip tracing. Easy week as most of the recipients don’t appear to be skips and the 2 vehicles were both local. Walking over to the board he puts his name on the list, knowing that he can do even more each week without pushing himself too hard.
Heading over to the board table he pulls his laptop out of its case and plops it open in front of him. Logging in he pulls up his personal search engine and quickly types in the name on the first skip. Last known address, last known job, known friends and affiliation. Member of a local Legion and a gym. May find information about where to find him there. Clicking print he quickly types up the second name. This is a family court summons and this person has been off the radar for over a year. He prints everything he can find about this guy but doesn’t feel confident about finding him.
February 5th, 2018
Brad heads over to Jessica’s house to pick up his books and prepared taxes. She has already told him that he will be getting a substantial return and he is very pleased with that. Contrary to Jessica’s misplaced evaluation of his monetary values he has decided to put the money into a savings plan of some sort so he will need to ask her for advice. She isn’t home when he picks them up from her house but her father is.
“Do you have time for a java”, askes Mr. Martine.
“yours? anytime!”
“Great, come on in, have to admit, I thought retirement was going to be great but wow, it can be boring some days. How is the business going? Jessica is pretty tight lipped but I know she does your books and most of your administration? She seems pretty impressed.”
“I doubt she is going to be too impressed with what I will be doing this year.”
“Why?” are you going to quit.
“No but I am going to start repossessing houses by the spring.”
“Wow. Tough gig, same company?”
“It is but they are only give these assignments to agents who want them. Apparently, mortgage defaults are on the rise, I don’t see how, prices are still going up.”
Mr. Martine gets up and grabs the coffee pot. Refilling both cups, then replacing the pot he grabs the newspaper beside it. Opening it to the financial section he shows it to Brad. “Not really, only single-family homes in the city and commercial properties. Everything else is showing a decrease in sales numbers and steady prices.” Only the people who got in over their heads or those who used equity to support their lifestyle will be in trouble though. Everyone else just needs to sit tight.”
“I don’t know about that, Boeing just laid off another 1200 people effective end of February. How do you pay your mortgage when you lose a paycheck? My dad says that running away from debt only makes it worse. He told me that most people have enough equity to refinance if they do it before they miss payments but once they miss a few payments not many lenders are willing to carry a mortgage. Unless they can get one from a private lender at way above prime.”
“Lots of people having trouble making ends meet these days. All the new jobs are at 15 dollar an hour and usually part time. Good paying manufacturing jobs are disappearing and it seems the government doesn’t care. Canada has this thing call guaranteed minimum income. Everybody gets it and if you have a job they just tax it back. No sense working if you make the same laying around at home. They have been talking about doing something like that here as well. Fucking communism?”
Changing the subject, brad says, “Jessica Graduates this May, what is she doing then, going back for a Masters? She could be working for me, I could pay her more money and she wouldn’t be selling junk to people who can’t afford it anyways.”
“She will be making a lot more soon, she was just offered an assistant manager position at some exclusive high fashion store in Seattle. I think she is going to take it. they are going to bring her on part time until the school year is finished and then full time after that. She hasn’t decided when to go for her masters yet. She may go next September, wait a year or 2 and maybe not go at all, depends on how things work out.”
“Good for her. There are lots of jobs out there but most of them are heading nowhere. Starting as assistant manager is a pretty good beginning. What is the name of the company?”
“She told me but I never heard of them before and cannot remember the name now. They have several stores in the state and stores all the way up the coast to San Diego. Lots of opportunity there.”
“Do you see any future in what you do?”
“I was actually thinking about becoming a police officer eventually but I want to make enough to buy a decent house before I do. I don’t want to carry a big mortgage and the police force doesn’t pay that well.”
“Municipal or state?”
“Probably Seattle or Tacoma city police.”
Brad continues on, “I’m going in to get a carry permit this week. The state police recommend it for all repossession agents now. Sometimes the police can’t even attend because we do so many actions. It seems people are even more pissed than they used to be too. I have had a few scary actions but nothing too bad. We did have one guy hospitalized when he was hit by a car while he was recovering a vehicle and someone pointed a shotgun at another guy. It feels like people are getting desperate.”
“Do you know when they are going to be dangerous?”
“We now get flagged assignments and for those we have to do the recovery in pairs. I think our dispatch gets reports on the clients and determines which ones are likely to be violent. The police used to respond with us in these cases but now they want us to take a partner instead. You are retired and already have a permit, would you be interested?”
“How often?”
“I doubt more than 2 or 3 times a week, sometimes not at all. I never know until Monday what I get for the week.”
“Give my name to your boss, see if he is interested. My 30 years as a weapons specialist did not really prepare me for civy street but to be honest, I could stand a day or two out of the house now and then.”
“I know he would take you on in an instant, we are so busy they pretty well take on anyone who walks in the door. Plus, he is also ex-military, Navy I think. You would really like him. They are trying to get all the experienced people to take a newbie and train them on the road but I haven’t been asked yet. If you joined I may be spared the hassle. A little action, some money and you get to hang with me, what more could you ask for?”
Wednesday April 21st 2018
Brad and Pedro sit in Brads truck discussing the recovery of a brand-new pickup. It has never been registered and the owner has never made a payment on it. They know it is inside a garage on front street because Brad had left his truck on the street overnight with his dash cam turned towards the house. The garage door was opened once and you could see the truck in there and it had not been opened since. Since this is an involuntary and extremely dicey repo they will get the maximum for it. The question is, how do they get it out of the garage without committing a Break and enter, which is illegal. If caught it would cost both of them their job, license and probably land them in jail.
Pedro has a great idea, he will pose as a cash buyer and try to get the owner to take it out of the garage. He will then try to distract the owner while Brad puts the boot on so he can’t drive it back into the garage. The boot has to go on the front tire so the owner cannot drag it back in with the boot on, and if possible, Brad was going to put one on the rear too.
Pedro walks up to the house and rings the bell. There is a stereo blasting inside so he rings it again, “I’m coming, hold your fuckin horses,” he hears over the music. The music turns down and in a few moments the door opens. “whadya want, I’m fuckin busy.”
Pedro hold up a roll of cash, “I am here to see the truck.”
“Fine. I said 25 thousand, that is not 25 thou.”
“Rest is in the truck” says Pedro, pointing at Brads truck.
“That piece of crap was there all night, what is this a setup?”
Thinking quickly, Pedro says, “I don’t know you, I needed to know you aren’t setting me up, this truck has to be clean. My camera shows nothing to be worried about so let’s get this done. I can’t afford to be seen here.”
Stalking out to the roll up doors the owner inserts a key and pulls it open. Inside is a brand new Black F350 pickup. Duellies, Harley Davidson decals, all the options. Pedro walks up to it but the owner shouts, “Hold it there asshole, where do you think you’re going?”
“Not handing out cash without knowing what I am getting. That is what I am doing. Keys?”
“No keys. You buying or not?”
“I am not giving you anything until I know it isn’t stolen. No keys, no deal.” Pedro says as he waves a wad of cash in front of the owner’s face as he is heading out the door.
“Fine start it up but you aint driving it anywhere until I got 25 grand in my hand.”
Pedro gets in and starts it up, pretending to check out the windows and radio he waits until the owner walks up beside the drivers’ window.
“Seen enough? We are done unless you want to deal.” Shouts the now agitated owner.
Pedro realizes he is not so much agitated but strung out. At this Pedro drops the truck into reverse and squeals out into the driveway, he jumps out and runs off with the keys. Confused the owner shouts obscenities at him and chases him down the street.
Brad standing around the other corner with two boots inwardly laughs as he quickly runs to the truck and snaps a boot on the rear tire of the truck. As he is just heading to the front he hears gunshots. He steps back and draws his own gun. Looking over the box he sees the owner firing wildly into some bushes, as soon as he has emptied his gun he starts running back to the truck. Brad snaps the other boot on, locks it and runs in the opposite direction, click, click, click behind him. The owner, panting and screaming runs into the house as 2 more men exit. Brad rounds the corner, cellphone in hand, 911 autodialed. He puts the ringing phone into his pocket and as soon as a voice answers he shouts, “Shots fired, front street. 2 armed men chasing me, I am also armed. Men chasing are Caucasian 30’s, I am now heading west on 21st.
Brad runs across a park and behind a play structure. The two men have stopped and are now conversing. They turn as a distant siren sounds. As it is obviously getting closer they split up, one coming towards Brad, the other east on 21st. Brad, hoping the phone is still connected yells that they have split up and one is heading east on 21st and the other is chasing him out the west side of Burnside park. A police cruiser comes to a screeching halt as brad exits the walkway, he raises his hands, handgun in hand and slows as he trots towards the cruiser.
The officer shouts “drop it”, and Brad lets go. As the gun drops to the ground a shot rings out, a thud and Brad realizes the shot came from the police officer. Looking behind him, he sees the prone figure of the man he presumes was chasing him. “Face down on the ground,” shouts the Officer. Brad responds by kneeling and then lying face down. “hands behind your back”. Brad does.
As the officer is about to cuff him Brad says, “I am a licensed repossession agent and permitted to carry.”
“Where is your id?”
Brad tells him, “in wallet, back pocket. I have a partner north of the house who may be injured. He was in the bushes last I saw him. Latino, names Pedro.”
The officer takes Brads wallet and opens it. After a quick look at the cards he says, “you can get up Mr. Collins. He takes his radio and says into it, “One perp down, guy here says there are at least 2 more and his partner is hiding in bushes, names Pedro. ID says they are licensed Repossession agents and this guy has carry permit. I am going to put him in back of cruiser and sweep toward you through the park.”
With that Brad finds himself in the back of the police cruiser as another unit squeals to a stop.
20 minutes later the door opens and Pedro, holding his right arm laughs, “you missed all the action. They got the other two and a woman in the house. Lot of guns, another brand-new truck in the garage and lots of drugs in there as well. At least that’s what I gleaned from the radio calls I overheard. Crackhead got me in the upper arm but I was lucky the guy was so stoned he couldn’t hit the side door of a barn door. I stayed in the bushes until the police called me out by name.”
The officer hands Brad his wallet back and asks him to go take the boots off. “Ambulance is on the way, should be here any moment. I need you to come in and make a statement when we are done here.” Looking at Pedro, he says, “when they release you from hospital, please come in and make a statement as well.” With that he hands them both a card, “well done guys.”
“What about the truck, it’s not stolen, we were repossessing it. I get a fee from the bank to recover their property.”
“I will let the precinct captain decide that, it’s evidence now. We have been seeing a lot of this lately, cars and trucks bought no money down and they use them for crime or ship them out before the first payment is due. Easier than stealing and way better return. The dealerships don’t give a crap, everyone who walks in can drive out with a brand-new vehicle. Doesn’t make sense. Somebody has to be losing money somewhere?”
Pedro responds, “Ya, you and I, in our bank fees, credit card rates and in our taxes every time the government bails out a mismanaged bank. Banks don’t take risks, they make money and when they lose it somebody else pays, Legalized thievery.
one of the officers replies as he is getting into his cruiser, “Preach it deacon,” and he closes the door.
Max and Sarah
Day after black Friday
Pulling into the underground parking Max negotiates his Tesla into his assigned parking spot. He gets a free spot and free electricity because he has an electric car so he and Sarah have used the second spot they own for a parking spot sized container to store things they don’t have room for but want to keep. He heads over to the 8 x 12 container and opens it up. On the neatly staked shelves are a wide assortment to electronic devices, new and used, small barely used kitchen appliances, never used tools and a locked gun case. He put 2 of the new laptops on the shelf and several other boxes of things he “saved money on”. As he is just locking the door, he smiles as Sarah pulls her white x5 into the adjoining spot.
He helps carry the TV, a new game console and a one of the laptops to the elevator. As they wait for the elevator he asks if it would be a good idea to upgrade their satellite package.
“I think that’s a great idea because with the new TV we can save money on entertainment by not going out as often.” Exclaims Sarah. “I think if we set up the console on the old TV in the den we can both enjoy some well-deserved downtime without spending as much at theaters and bars.”
They proceed up to their 16th floor condo and enter the roomy 2 plus den corner unit. They place their packages on the floor and begin the process of opening them and removing the contents. Several hours later all the electronics are up and running. During that time Sarah spends about 45 minutes on the phone to their satellite provider changing their plan and Max does the wiring and testing of the systems. Once done it is now 4:30 and Sarah plops down on the leather couch, “I’m pooped, unless you want to make dinner I think we should go out to eat.”
“Okay, how about Ming’s down the street, we don’t even have to drive.”
“works for me”. Off they go to spend another 50 dollars.
December 21, 2018
Sarah grabs the mail on her way up to the condo. Flipping through it on the way up, she notices one is from LSG financial. That is their mortgage holder, “probably with an offer for an equity loan or maybe a late Christmas card. “I’ll look at it later,” she says to herself. The rest of the mail is boxing day and January first flyers. “Not really anything we need but max can see them”. Inside the apartment she puts the letter in the wall mounted holder and tosses the flyers on the table. Opening the fridge, she starts removing food to make dinner with.
2 Hours later she hears a key in the door, it opens and Max appears as he is already removing his jacket. He puts his shoes and jacket in the closet and walks into the living room flipping on the TV as he passes. News channel is just announcing that Angela Merkle has just dissolved government and a new election is called for in May. Media opts to pan two opposing demonstrations, one unhappy with the decision and one absolutely excited with the prospect of going back to the poles. In the group of those wanting another election is a smattering of Nazi flags. Very weird thinks Max.
As he walks into the kitchen and kisses Sarah on the neck he asks what’s for dinner. Sarah responds with “Chicken and Rice with Asian vegetables.” “Awesome” says max as he picks up the flyers on the table.” “My sister is really going to love the laptop we are giving her for Christmas, I was thinking that if we bought the commercial tax software she may do our taxes for us too this year. She can do 25 returns with it so she could do several and make some money for school.
Sarah turns to face him and responds, “makes sense, a win/win is always good in my books. Are you going to get her into your law firm for her next co-op term?”
Max turns to the fridge and taking a Coors from the fridge says, “that won’t likely happen this year because for some reason they seem to be cutting back in the office. I don’t know what’s going on but they sent out a memo today limiting us to only pre-approved meals and expenses with clients and our mileage has been limited as well. I think the rich bastard partners are trying to get a bigger slice of the pie and us peons who do the real work are going to get pissed on.”
“I doubt John has seen the inside of a courtroom for 10 years and he is always gone long before I leave. By the way, they are only sending 3 junior partners to the conference in Dallas next February so there is a chance I am not going. If I don’t get selected I will be expected to carry some the load for the ones that go. That means not only will I miss out but I will end up with overtime and at least 1 more case. I guess I have to do some serious ass kissing between now and the time they make their decision.”
Sarah feigns exasperation “you know you are the best Junior partner on staff, have the best close rate for mergers and have settled or won outright almost every lawsuit in the last 3 years. They would be idiots to leave you out!” Max replies, “they would be idiots to let me go, if they do, someone else will have to handle my cases while I am gone and what happens if they screw something up? Thinking about it now, I doubt I am actually going. Change subject, I don’t want to even think about it anymore, talk about being screwed for doing a good job.”
“How’s things at the store, did you hire that new assistant manager you interviewed today?”
Sarah turns the stove off and walks into the living room to turn down the TV, not noticing that the money markets just announced another quarter point increase in the prime rate with another expected in late march. She returns to the kitchen, “I might, she seems really bright, has great references, lots of experience but no management experience plus she has the weirdest college schedule I have ever seen. Straight A’s and full ride academic scholarship though.” Sarah jokingly adds, “If I hire her I could be working for her within 5 years, kind of scary.”
Max looks up from the flyers and says, “wouldn’t be so bad, Jason got the partnership I wanted, he tosses me all the best cases and he made sure I got his office when he moved up. What does she study anyways, basket weaving?”
“I wish” says Sarah. She is an economics major, I have no idea what she minors in.”
Max responds, “then why retail? Wouldn’t accounting or some other money cruncher job be more to her skills.”
“she says it is to learn how money is spent and earned and that she likes retail. She will need to learn about fashion though. She could be really pretty but she came to the interview in a discount store outfit and no makeup. Thinking about it now, I doubt she would be a good fit, all the sales staff would hate her.”
With a frown Max turns away from Sarah and heads into the living room. Max himself came from a Midwest farm and he was lucky his law firm looked beyond the discount store suit and community college degree to give him his first chance.
February 2nd 2018
Max is home early today. He was prepared to present a client’s case in court today against a Computer software developer who, his client claimed had stolen their code for a new financial accounting upgrade. Their claim was that he had participated in and developed it when he was employed by them and because he used their system it was technically theirs. The software was sold for millions to a competing firm and his client wanted their due. It was a pretty solid case but in the last 2 days the defendant had disappeared and just this morning they fished his body out of the river.
Early signs are suicide but for Max it really doesn’t matter, he was married and now all the money would be tied up for years. Max could not win now as any compensation would not be paid out for years, if ever. Because of the low possibility of a reasonable return, his firm will withdraw from the case. Hundreds of hours up in smoke and no bonus. Max hated to lose.
Idly max pulls the mail from the holder and begins leafing through it. Three unopened items from LSG financial, “what the hell thought max”. As he hurriedly opens one, he recalls transferring money from the mortgage account. “Yep, just as I thought, 2 missed payments and a third due next week.” Quickly he hops on the computer, pulls up their account and transfers several thousand dollars into the mortgage account. He then pulls his phone out and makes a quick call to his mortgage company and lets them know the money is there.
Now he has to get back on his back account and take money from his tax-free saving and put it in other accounts. Paying the minimum balance on all the cards, he closes the page and pulls up a news site he has been following lately.
On the corporate section is an article about a medium sized Pharmaceutical company from France, Silade Pharmaceutical. This little company has somehow vaulted into the top 10 in the world and it isn’t even publicly traded. Reading the article, Max is intrigued with the meteoric rise of a firm that has not actually developed any of their own products but has been successful in buying up smaller labs who have.
Max researches the company on the internet and then uses his access as a corporate lawyer to get details not available to the average person. On the other side of the world, an alert is sounded that someone is poking around the Silade merger details using legal authorization. “That could be an issue,” whistles the computer operator as he takes note of the IP address and tracks the user. He collects all the pertinent data as well as the information accessed and sends the report to his supervisor.
Max researches all the smaller subsidiaries and the products they have produced. After he is finished he calls a fellow Lawyer and poses this question. “How can a privately held company swallow up publicly held companies?”
“It depends if they are listed on any major exchanges.”
“they are. US, British, Indian, German or French exchanges.”
“Rules vary in different countries but they are all essentially the same. They would have to try a reverse takeover and purchase control of the public shell company, then merge it with the private company. Once they have control of the board of directors, it is almost automatic. Shell company is still publicly traded though.”
“Can they then go private?”
“No way I know of, at least not legally and even if it was legal it would cost plenty. All the shareholders would need to get paid out and agree to the transition. 1 holdout and it would get denied. Most countries have varying rules on this but there is no way I would even attempt it.”
Looking at the clock, Max realizes he has been at this 4 hours and Sarah would be home soon. He saves his data and decides he is going to look into this again when he has more time, there is something very wrong here.
Sarah gets home later with some news, and she is pretty mad about it. Max decides to talk to her later about the mortgage faux pas and let her rant about the latest drama at work.
Sarah pours herself a glass of red wine and starts in on her frustration. “guess who got the assistant manager job at the Willoughby store.”
She seems a little upset and max knows that going from manager in a small store to assistant manager in the head office store would have been a major stepping stone to district manager and that is the job Sarah really coveted. “who? I bet it was Karla from the Seattle center store?”
Snapping back Sarah says “no Jessica got it.”
Confused, Max replies, “who’s Jessica?”
Sarah pours herself another glass of wine, to the top this time. “The girl I interviewed for the assistant manager job last month. When personal sent me her resume they also sent it to all the other stores as well. I never thought about that. I told her she was too plain to be a good fit and wished her luck in her job search, now she has my job, what a bitch.”
The conversation is broken by a buzz from the foyer. She picks up the intercom and snaps “what?”
The doorman replies, “there is a man in the lobby to see you, mam.”
“Who is he?”.
“He gave me his ID. Brad Collins. Says he doesn’t know you but he has a delivery for you and you need to sign for it.”
“Keep him there, I will be down to talk to him.”
On the way down, she wonders what it could be, a delivery, a surprise or maybe an invitation. As she steps out of the elevator she sees the jeans, cheap shirt and department store dress shoes. Instantly she feels superior to this redneck bumpkin.
Brad hands her the envelope and askes her to sign his log. She does and without another word spins on her heels and marches back to the elevator. How rude thinks Brad, oh well. He knows full well most of the envelopes he hands out are not good news so he makes a quick exit before she finds out what’s inside.
Fuming, she stomps into the condo loudly proclaiming her innocence. “that fat pig, she was trying to take the TV from me, I had it first, all I did was push her. If she wasn’t so fat she wouldn’t have fallen. This is not my fault.”
Max waits and picks up the summons she is holding. It says on the summons she has received previous notices so he walks over to the mail, nothing. In the summons it says she must attend the police precinct within 48 hours of signing to turn herself in. She will be charged with assault causing bodily harm, processed and released with a promise to appear. Failing to do so would result in a warrant for her arrest and she could be arrested anywhere police can find her, even if that is at work.
Max decides to let her cool down and get her to the station tomorrow. Even with his corporate legal experience, he knows that ignoring a summons is contempt of court and she could end up in jail.
Chapter 4
Jessica
December 26th 2018
Boxing day sales over and Jessica is done for the day. Its early and she has nothing planned so she decides to catch a movie by herself. Sometimes there are so many people she never gets a moment to think. Star Wars is currently running and there are long lines for it but the other theaters are running less popular movies so she chooses one of them. Some popcorn, a drink and a good choice of seats. What more could she ask for. As she is sitting there she considers her life. School is a constant but it is hard to find a job that is flexible enough around school. maybe it is time to work in a higher end store. Less volume, slower pace and she will get to experience the spending habits of a wealthier class.
January 2nd
School doesn’t start until January 8th but Jessica wants to turn in an assignment she has been working on and pick up some books from her locker. On the way back, she was planning on dropping off some resumes at a few of the higher end fashion outlets. She had heard they get better pay and there were several in the vicinity of Washington state.
Walking around her makeshift basement apartment she can hear her mother in the kitchen above her living room. Her only cooking appliance dings as it has completed warming some leftover stew so she takes it out and sits at her little table. As she is eating her cell rings so she picks it up and without looking at the call display answers it. Brad is calling and he is wanting to know when she needs him to bring his year end tax stuff over. “you mean your two shoe boxes of scrambled papers, it took me an hour just to sort out your invoices from your receipts?” Brad responds, “three boxes this year, one for repos now. Anyways, when can I drop them off?” Jessica says, Anytime before the end of month will be good. My mom is home most days, drop them off with her, I will get them.” Brad ends the conversation with an, ok, probably this week then and says see ya.”
Tucking her phone away She grabs her coat and heads out the back door to her Honda parked in the back drive, addresses in hand. Along with her mathematical mind, Jessica was so good with maps that all she has to do is google the address, take one look at it and without thinking find her way there. For numerical streets she doesn’t even need a map. All her friends consider her a walking talking calculator and map. Jessica takes it is a compliment but to most of her peers, “here come the calculator” is intended as a slight.
Out on the highway she reaches over and flips on the radio. Talk radio is on and right now they are talking about an earlier then planned interest rate increase contemplated by the Fed. Stop borrowing money she shouts at the radio as she switches it to FM. First stop is at the HR dept. of a large Ladies fashion chain. Thinking she is just applying for a sales job she doesn’t even think to specify what position she is seeking. Next stop a Hr dept. for a national sporting apparel store. After a few more stops she heads to the college that is usually bustling with students but today she is the only student on the Macro economics floor. Knocking at her professor’s door she is bid “enter.” She opens the door and steps in. Leaving the door ajar she approaches the desk and responds when she is offered a seat. “got my assignment ready so I am handing it in now in case I am not able to get in next week.” Perplexed, Sam Rodgers asks” why,” Are you going away?” She replies, “No but the weather forecast has a big front coming in so the roads may be socked in by Monday.” Sam looks at his student and responds, “Jessica, you are one of my best students, I would have no problem at all giving you an extension if that were the case.” “I know but I would rather have it in on time so here you go.”
Jessica asks, “do you think they will increase the FED rate this month? I heard they were considering it on the radio today.” He opens his browser and as he searches the news feed responds, “not likely, going to be big deficit in this year’s budget so they need to keep rate low until it blows over. My opinion is that ¼ point is not nearly enough, I think more like a full percent now and another by the end of summer. We would suffer big pain now or by next Christmas it will be too late.”
“too late?”
“this is my opinion only, but I think we are on the brink of another recession, could be a really bad one too. Even now it could be too late to cut spending and reduce the deficit. Public spending is out of control as well, we now have more debt per person than we had in 2008 and it is growing at a rate of almost 5%.” Sam says as he turns the screen to show her. In this department only, numbers count and the numbers do not look good. He flips through several other pages and traces the graphs as he explains to her what he thinks.
Wow, thinks Jessica, I wonder why he hasn't covered it like this this in class, so she innocently asks him. "Why the difference in lectures? I have never seen the graph you just showed me and how is it nobody ever talks about how supply/demand affects interest rates? I thought the fed controlled it based on policy."
"it does but that only works if the GDP is high enough to support the debt. At the currant rate, debt is growing faster than the GDP and when the inevitable downturn happens GDP growth will slow and the government will need to spend more to stimulate the economy while revenues decline. At some point lenders will begin to increase interest rates because they can, banks will make it harder to get loans and blame it on rising defaults. The finance companies they own and private lenders will step in to pick up the all the rejected loans at higher interest rates. Because supply of money will be outstripped by demand mortgage and finance rates will increase. As a result, demand for these things will diminish and prices will begin to fall. In the midst of all this the government could get reassessed by the bond rating agencies and a drop to an AA would be catastrophic because the bond ratings are based on supply/demand. Can you see how fast the collapse could happen?'
I do see and I have a good friend who is a repossession agent, he shares with me sometimes how busy he is. I think it is already happening. Why not share this in class?
I can't. The school policy dictates we teach in accordance with generally accepted economic theories. If I shared this with the class I would be branded a conspiracy theorist and could lose my tenure in disgrace. You may think this is a free-thinking institution of higher learning, encouraging critical thinking but, you didn't hear it from me, it is not. Enough politics for now, I get too worked up when I talk about this. I will see you next week?
You sure will, you just gave me a lot to think about, can I include some of this in my next assignment?
With a suddenly worried look on his face Sam says "Better not. My department head looks at all my students work and if you head off on a tangent like this she will be wondering where you got the ideas."
With a "bye" and a wave she is off to her locker. After she grabs the books she needs she heads off to the coffee shop to do some reading. At the counter is one of her classmates from accounting who greets her with “so how was Christmas?” She thinks for a moment and says, “pretty good, my brother came home from Pendleton and my aunt and cousin were here from Montana. Do you remember Nick?” “your cousin who dropped out last year?” “The same, he just enlisted, leaves for basic next month, marines I think. My aunt is going to move back to Skagit. I may ask to live with her, it is a little closer to school. How was your Christmas?” Rebecca looks away and says “eventful.” “sorry” says Jessica, “if you want to talk about it I am going to be right over there.”
Jessica sits down with her tea and begins reading some loose leaflets she found on the table. There is a group at the college promoting a movement calling for a common world currency supported by the United Nations. She has several members of her class who spout this drivel and much to her dismay they refuse to look at any economic models that show how this could not possibly work. As she tosses it aside Rebecca approaches. Since Jessica is the only customer in the shop she uses this opportunity to talk with her friend. While Jessica still lives at home, Rebecca live further away and has to live in residence. They are frequently the only females in class and have bonded over the last three years. Rebecca recounts the holidays and how they need to move because her mother got laid off at the aircraft plant. Dad doesn’t make enough money and the only jobs her mom can get pay minimum wage. It also means that they cannot afford to pay for school anymore and she will have to get student loans to pay for next year. Jessica listens and consoles her friend. Promises to help in any way possible but in reality there is absolutely nothing she can do except be a good friend and a listening ear. A group of customers come in and Rebecca dashes to the checkout to take their order as Jessica rounds up he books and prepares to leave. She passes the counter as Rebecca is just handing coffees to the customers and says, “call me”, knowing that it is very unlikely Rebecca will. With that she is off to her car and the long trip home.
With a wave she is off to her locker. After she grabs the books she needs she heads off to the coffee shop to do some reading. At the counter is one of her classmates from accounting who greets her with “so how was Christmas?” She thinks for a moment and says, “pretty good, my brother came home from Pendleton and my aunt and cousin were here from Montana. Do you remember Nick?” “your cousin who dropped out last year?” “The same, he just enlisted, leaves for basic next month, marines I think. My aunt is going to move back to Skagit. I may ask to live with her, it is a little closer to school. How was your Christmas?” Rebecca looks away and says “eventful.” “sorry” says Jessica, “if you want to talk about it I am going to right over there.”
Jessica sits down with her tea and begins reading some loose leaflets she found on the table. There is a group at the college promoting a movement calling for a common world currency supported by the United Nations. She has several members of her class who spout this drivel and much to her dismay they refuse to look at any economic models that show how this could possibly work. As she tosses it aside Rebecca approaches. Since Jessica is the only customer in the shop she uses this opportunity to talk with her friend. While Jessica still lives at home, Rebecca live further away and lives in residence. They are frequently the only females in class and have bonded over the last three years. Rebecca recounts the holidays and how they need to move because her mother got laid off at the aircraft plant. Dad doesn’t make enough money and the only jobs her mom can get pay minimum wage. It also means that they cannot afford to pay for school anymore and she will have to get student loans to pay for next year. Jessica listens and consoles her friend. Promises to help in any way possible but in reality there is absolutely nothing she can do except be a good friend and a listening ear. A group of customers come in and Rebecca dashes to the checkout to take their order as Jessica rounds up he books and prepares to leave. She passes the counter as Rebecca is just handing coffees to the customers and says, “call me”, knowing that it is very unlikely Rebecca will. With that she is off to her car and the long trip home.
February 2nd 2017
Working on Brads taxes is always an experience. She has to sort out all his cases and match the appropriate expenses with them. As she came to what is most likely a court summons he had served to Sarah Davis-Jones she sat back and thought a little about how small the world really is. She had been interviewed by her only last week and had been told that she was not a good fit, rudely at that. And then someone form head office called the next day to book her for an appointment for a position there. Not knowing what the court summons was for she never thought any more of it.
Finishing up she prepared a report for brad, including recommendations for how he should cut expenses plus some investment tips for the sizeable refund he was going to get. Knowing Brad she sighed, “that money will all end up making his stupid truck look even more ridicules.” That truck was her main competition before he even got his license and it is still he first love 3 years later. She doubts that he even has a regular girlfriend though she has seen him with girls they both know a few times.
As she heads upstairs to see what leftovers she can pillage she almost bumps into her stepdad. Pedro Martine had married her mom when she was only 4. Her real father only bothers to contact her on birthdays and Christmas so Pedro is in action her dad. “what’s up” he says?
Rubbing her stomach, she replies, “sustenance” as she heads towards the kitchen.
“Made some awesome enchiladas last night, should be enough to have some now and take some for later.”
Collecting the enchiladas, she thinks how great it is to have a father who conveniently makes way more dinner for the family than they actually need and acts like she is doing them a favor by taking the leftovers off their hands. Giving him a hip check as she passes she heads downstairs to enjoy her bounty. Once settled back at her desk she takes the next tax return out and begins reviewing it.
As she is looking at the return her cell rings, idly she picks it up and says hello. The caller identifies himself as Mr. Wilson, Western division manager for Vogue West botiques, “I would like you to come in this week so we can discuss bringing you on board as an assistant Manager for our Spokane store.”
Chapter 5
Brad
December 18, 2017
8:00 AM and Brad is sitting with his coworkers around a board room table which in reality is two folding tables pushed together and the boardroom is actually the lunchroom with several desks, filing cabinets and some computer equipment on the south half. Downstairs is a large garage where newly impounded vehicles and other seized property is kept for a short period of time.
He rarely comes into the office but Monday morning is mandatory for the 40 or so process servers and repossession agents working for the company. Brad prefers serving because he only needs to locate the recipient, hand them the document and get them to sign his log, easy peasy. On the rare occasion a recipient refuses to sign he leaves the item and he then fills out an affidavit which he gets signed after swearing to its content. The money is much better repossessing but he needs to locate the person and the item to be repossessed and there is always risk. You are taking someone’s property and they are never happy about it.
Wilson Sanchez, the owner, walks in the door, “alright everyone, take a seat and let’s get this thing going.” Quickly the entire group shuffles and scuffs all the chairs into position and within minutes 40 pairs of eyes are expectantly waiting for the weeks assignments. Wilson starts with a report on a few issues from the previous week; a vehicle owner who chased the repo agent off his property with a shotgun, a couple of rejected summons and a person who tried to drive their vehicle away with the boot on. In addition, the police are reluctant to attend every repo as they are very short staffed.
After this he launches into this week’s assignments and in the middle of doing so he acknowledges the increase in repossessions for those who are currently qualified.
“in order to make it more efficient for us all we are going to break repossessions into two distinct tasks. One is all motor vehicles, licensed and traceable though our link with the license issuing office. The second will be for everything else; trailers, boats, off road recreational vehicles, construction equipment and anything else a lender has a lean on and wants to recover. Because we have so many on the dockets I am willing to send some of you to a 5-day course dealing with repossession of non-vehicular assets. You will be paid base pay for the week and the course costs will be covered by the company, anyone interested?” Several hands shot up at the offer and he took all the names and asked them to remain after the main meeting.
He then opens another topic, “we have been asked by a local mortgage broker to help them serving Notices of default, foreclosure notices and eviction notices. This is a lot riskier as most of these people have received several notices already and know you are coming. You will be handing these notices to people who are at risk of losing their homes and for some of you I don’t know if that is something you want to do. If you deliver the initial notice, the recipient will become your case and you will be the only one to deliver and administer any successive actions.
While very unlikely that could mean you may be the one who has to contact the sheriff to have the residents forcibly removed if it comes to that. I will not fault anyone here who doesn’t want to accept these assignments.” Nonetheless there will be a good premium for successful delivery and most clients will work out the bill with the lender after service so it will rarely come to evictions. Sign up list is on the wall, put your name there if you’re willing to do them.”
“That’s all for today, have a good week.” With that he hands out the weeks assignments.
Brad looks at his list, quickly determining how long it would be to trace the recipients and noted that he had 2 vehicle repos this week. As he flipped through the summons and notices he put them all in geographic order with the exception of two that would require some skip tracing. Easy week as most of the recipients don’t appear to be skips and the 2 vehicles were both local. Walking over to the board he puts his name on the list, knowing that he can do even more each week without pushing himself too hard.
Heading over to the board table he pulls his laptop out of its case and plops it open in front of him. Logging in he pulls up his personal search engine and quickly types in the name on the first skip. Last known address, last known job, known friends and affiliation. Member of a local Legion and a gym. May find information about where to find him there. Clicking print he quickly types up the second name. This is a family court summons and this person has been off the radar for over a year. He prints everything he can find about this guy but doesn’t feel confident about finding him.
February 5th, 2018
Brad heads over to Jessica’s house to pick up his books and prepared taxes. She has already told him that he will be getting a substantial return and he is very pleased with that. Contrary to Jessica’s misplaced evaluation of his monetary values he has decided to put the money into a savings plan of some sort so he will need to ask her for advice. She isn’t home when he picks them up from her house but her father is.
“Do you have time for a java”, askes Mr. Martine.
“yours? anytime!”
“Great, come on in, have to admit, I thought retirement was going to be great but wow, it can be boring some days. How is the business going? Jessica is pretty tight lipped but I know she does your books and most of your administration? She seems pretty impressed.”
“I doubt she is going to be too impressed with what I will be doing this year.”
“Why?” are you going to quit.
“No but I am going to start repossessing houses by the spring.”
“Wow. Tough gig, same company?”
“It is but they are only give these assignments to agents who want them. Apparently, mortgage defaults are on the rise, I don’t see how, prices are still going up.”
Mr. Martine gets up and grabs the coffee pot. Refilling both cups, then replacing the pot he grabs the newspaper beside it. Opening it to the financial section he shows it to Brad. “Not really, only single-family homes in the city and commercial properties. Everything else is showing a decrease in sales numbers and steady prices.” Only the people who got in over their heads or those who used equity to support their lifestyle will be in trouble though. Everyone else just needs to sit tight.”
“I don’t know about that, Boeing just laid off another 1200 people effective end of February. How do you pay your mortgage when you lose a paycheck? My dad says that running away from debt only makes it worse. He told me that most people have enough equity to refinance if they do it before they miss payments but once they miss a few payments not many lenders are willing to carry a mortgage. Unless they can get one from a private lender at way above prime.”
“Lots of people having trouble making ends meet these days. All the new jobs are at 15 dollar an hour and usually part time. Good paying manufacturing jobs are disappearing and it seems the government doesn’t care. Canada has this thing call guaranteed minimum income. Everybody gets it and if you have a job they just tax it back. No sense working if you make the same laying around at home. They have been talking about doing something like that here as well. Fucking communism?”
Changing the subject, brad says, “Jessica Graduates this May, what is she doing then, going back for a Masters? She could be working for me, I could pay her more money and she wouldn’t be selling junk to people who can’t afford it anyways.”
“She will be making a lot more soon, she was just offered an assistant manager position at some exclusive high fashion store in Seattle. I think she is going to take it. they are going to bring her on part time until the school year is finished and then full time after that. She hasn’t decided when to go for her masters yet. She may go next September, wait a year or 2 and maybe not go at all, depends on how things work out.”
“Good for her. There are lots of jobs out there but most of them are heading nowhere. Starting as assistant manager is a pretty good beginning. What is the name of the company?”
“She told me but I never heard of them before and cannot remember the name now. They have several stores in the state and stores all the way up the coast to San Diego. Lots of opportunity there.”
“Do you see any future in what you do?”
“I was actually thinking about becoming a police officer eventually but I want to make enough to buy a decent house before I do. I don’t want to carry a big mortgage and the police force doesn’t pay that well.”
“Municipal or state?”
“Probably Seattle or Tacoma city police.”
Brad continues on, “I’m going in to get a carry permit this week. The state police recommend it for all repossession agents now. Sometimes the police can’t even attend because we do so many actions. It seems people are even more pissed than they used to be too. I have had a few scary actions but nothing too bad. We did have one guy hospitalized when he was hit by a car while he was recovering a vehicle and someone pointed a shotgun at another guy. It feels like people are getting desperate.”
“Do you know when they are going to be dangerous?”
“We now get flagged assignments and for those we have to do the recovery in pairs. I think our dispatch gets reports on the clients and determines which ones are likely to be violent. The police used to respond with us in these cases but now they want us to take a partner instead. You are retired and already have a permit, would you be interested?”
“How often?”
“I doubt more than 2 or 3 times a week, sometimes not at all. I never know until Monday what I get for the week.”
“Give my name to your boss, see if he is interested. My 30 years as a weapons specialist did not really prepare me for civy street but to be honest, I could stand a day or two out of the house now and then.”
“I know he would take you on in an instant, we are so busy they pretty well take on anyone who walks in the door. Plus, he is also ex-military, Navy I think. You would really like him. They are trying to get all the experienced people to take a newbie and train them on the road but I haven’t been asked yet. If you joined I may be spared the hassle. A little action, some money and you get to hang with me, what more could you ask for?”
Wednesday April 21st 2018
Brad and Pedro sit in Brads truck discussing the recovery of a brand-new pickup. It has never been registered and the owner has never made a payment on it. They know it is inside a garage on front street because Brad had left his truck on the street overnight with his dash cam turned towards the house. The garage door was opened once and you could see the truck in there and it had not been opened since. Since this is an involuntary and extremely dicey repo they will get the maximum for it. The question is, how do they get it out of the garage without committing a Break and enter, which is illegal. If caught it would cost both of them their job, license and probably land them in jail.
Pedro has a great idea, he will pose as a cash buyer and try to get the owner to take it out of the garage. He will then try to distract the owner while Brad puts the boot on so he can’t drive it back into the garage. The boot has to go on the front tire so the owner cannot drag it back in with the boot on, and if possible, Brad was going to put one on the rear too.
Pedro walks up to the house and rings the bell. There is a stereo blasting inside so he rings it again, “I’m coming, hold your fuckin horses,” he hears over the music. The music turns down and in a few moments the door opens. “whadya want, I’m fuckin busy.”
Pedro hold up a roll of cash, “I am here to see the truck.”
“Fine. I said 25 thousand, that is not 25 thou.”
“Rest is in the truck” says Pedro, pointing at Brads truck.
“That piece of crap was there all night, what is this a setup?”
Thinking quickly, Pedro says, “I don’t know you, I needed to know you aren’t setting me up, this truck has to be clean. My camera shows nothing to be worried about so let’s get this done. I can’t afford to be seen here.”
Stalking out to the roll up doors the owner inserts a key and pulls it open. Inside is a brand new Black F350 pickup. Duellies, Harley Davidson decals, all the options. Pedro walks up to it but the owner shouts, “Hold it there asshole, where do you think you’re going?”
“Not handing out cash without knowing what I am getting. That is what I am doing. Keys?”
“No keys. You buying or not?”
“I am not giving you anything until I know it isn’t stolen. No keys, no deal.” Pedro says as he waves a wad of cash in front of the owner’s face as he is heading out the door.
“Fine start it up but you aint driving it anywhere until I got 25 grand in my hand.”
Pedro gets in and starts it up, pretending to check out the windows and radio he waits until the owner walks up beside the drivers’ window.
“Seen enough? We are done unless you want to deal.” Shouts the now agitated owner.
Pedro realizes he is not so much agitated but strung out. At this Pedro drops the truck into reverse and squeals out into the driveway, he jumps out and runs off with the keys. Confused the owner shouts obscenities at him and chases him down the street.
Brad standing around the other corner with two boots inwardly laughs as he quickly runs to the truck and snaps a boot on the rear tire of the truck. As he is just heading to the front he hears gunshots. He steps back and draws his own gun. Looking over the box he sees the owner firing wildly into some bushes, as soon as he has emptied his gun he starts running back to the truck. Brad snaps the other boot on, locks it and runs in the opposite direction, click, click, click behind him. The owner, panting and screaming runs into the house as 2 more men exit. Brad rounds the corner, cellphone in hand, 911 autodialed. He puts the ringing phone into his pocket and as soon as a voice answers he shouts, “Shots fired, front street. 2 armed men chasing me, I am also armed. Men chasing are Caucasian 30’s, I am now heading west on 21st.
Brad runs across a park and behind a play structure. The two men have stopped and are now conversing. They turn as a distant siren sounds. As it is obviously getting closer they split up, one coming towards Brad, the other east on 21st. Brad, hoping the phone is still connected yells that they have split up and one is heading east on 21st and the other is chasing him out the west side of Burnside park. A police cruiser comes to a screeching halt as brad exits the walkway, he raises his hands, handgun in hand and slows as he trots towards the cruiser.
The officer shouts “drop it”, and Brad lets go. As the gun drops to the ground a shot rings out, a thud and Brad realizes the shot came from the police officer. Looking behind him, he sees the prone figure of the man he presumes was chasing him. “Face down on the ground,” shouts the Officer. Brad responds by kneeling and then lying face down. “hands behind your back”. Brad does.
As the officer is about to cuff him Brad says, “I am a licensed repossession agent and permitted to carry.”
“Where is your id?”
Brad tells him, “in wallet, back pocket. I have a partner north of the house who may be injured. He was in the bushes last I saw him. Latino, names Pedro.”
The officer takes Brads wallet and opens it. After a quick look at the cards he says, “you can get up Mr. Collins. He takes his radio and says into it, “One perp down, guy here says there are at least 2 more and his partner is hiding in bushes, names Pedro. ID says they are licensed Repossession agents and this guy has carry permit. I am going to put him in back of cruiser and sweep toward you through the park.”
With that Brad finds himself in the back of the police cruiser as another unit squeals to a stop.
20 minutes later the door opens and Pedro, holding his right arm laughs, “you missed all the action. They got the other two and a woman in the house. Lot of guns, another brand-new truck in the garage and lots of drugs in there as well. At least that’s what I gleaned from the radio calls I overheard. Crackhead got me in the upper arm but I was lucky the guy was so stoned he couldn’t hit the side door of a barn door. I stayed in the bushes until the police called me out by name.”
The officer hands Brad his wallet back and asks him to go take the boots off. “Ambulance is on the way, should be here any moment. I need you to come in and make a statement when we are done here.” Looking at Pedro, he says, “when they release you from hospital, please come in and make a statement as well.” With that he hands them both a card, “well done guys.”
“What about the truck, it’s not stolen, we were repossessing it. I get a fee from the bank to recover their property.”
“I will let the precinct captain decide that, it’s evidence now. We have been seeing a lot of this lately, cars and trucks bought no money down and they use them for crime or ship them out before the first payment is due. Easier than stealing and way better return. The dealerships don’t give a crap, everyone who walks in can drive out with a brand-new vehicle. Doesn’t make sense. Somebody has to be losing money somewhere?”
Pedro responds, “Ya, you and I, in our bank fees, credit card rates and in our taxes every time the government bails out a mismanaged bank. Banks don’t take risks, they make money and when they lose it somebody else pays, Legalized thievery.
one of the officers replies as he is getting into his cruiser, “Preach it deacon,” and he closes the door.
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