“It doesn´t matter.” Hector replied.
Then he went to the other bank and asked if he could withdraw all the money in cash. Again eyebrows were raised. The teller asked him to wait while he spoke to another bank employee. Hector imagined he was speaking to the manager.
“The money will be ready in three days.” The cashier informed him.
Hector went home and waited patiently. Three days later he returned to the bank, dressed in the same clothes, and withdrew the money. It was all very simple. He had imagined that many papers would have had to be signed and that he would have had to answer questions. But that hadn´t happened. They gave him the money and asked him to count it.
“That’s not necessary. I trust you.” Hector said.
He signed the payment receipt and left the bank with the money in an orange backpack that looked like it belonged to a schoolboy.
He took a taxi that took him to his destination in twenty minutes, paid the taxi driver, and then sat down in front of the stairs to an office building, holding the backpack against his chest with both arms. On two occasions passers-by dropped coins on the footpath in front of him. But Hector didn´t bother to pick them up.
He stayed there for two hours until he saw his objective on the other side of the street. A very thin, blond woman, accompanied by a little boy with a limp. The boy appeared to be around ten years old and had a prosthesis that had replaced his right leg.
Hector stood up as soon as he saw them and crossed the street without looking. A car jammed its brakes on to avoid hitting him.
“Your mother was a slut!“ The driver yelled out the window. “Watch where you´re going, madman.”
The blond woman turned around attracted by the ruckus and saw Hector walking towards her.
“Don´t be afraid.” He said, trying to sound relaxed. “I´ve only come here to give you this.” He said, offering her the backpack.
The woman looked at it strangely. An indescribable mix of emotions drawn on her face. Hector was worried that she was going to run off. Maybe she would have, if her son hadn´t been with her.
“Who is this man, mummy?” The boy asked. “He´s very dirty and his clothes are torn.”
The mother didn´t answer. She was frozen with fear and anger, doing her best not to show it. But Hector could see through that.
“I could only put this amount together. That´s all I have in this bag.” He said seriously. “I couldn´t get anymore. There´s around seventy-two thousand Euros here.” He said pushing the backpack towards her.
The woman didn´t move.
“I don´t know why you´re doing this.” She managed to say with difficulty.
“It´s the right thing to do. Even if it´s only for your son you´ve got to accept it.” He left it on the ground and stepped back. The boy limped over to his mother and bent down to pick up the backpack. Hector looked at his false leg and added. “I wish I could have done more.”
He walked off without saying another word, returned to his house and waited. Two days later he received the letter. He found it in the morning when he woke up, on the floor, as if someone had slipped it under the door. It was a black envelope with white edges. Hector read it, then left the house.
He didn´t bother to close the door.
Dante´s neck was always covered by an impeccable shirt and a tie with a perfect Windsor knot. That was why it was so surprising to see him enter his office with the button of his shirt undone and the tie loose, without its usual pin, bouncing against his chest as he walked.
Dante took a thirteen page financial report out of a drawer and put it in an empty folder and left his office. He went down the corridor to the meeting unaware of the looks that his employees were giving him.
He hardly had a hair on his head and the few locks that still resisted the ravages of time were totally white. His face was furrowed by a sea of wrinkles. An enormous stomach, a wide back and two dark eyes were the first things one noticed about him. Dante was sixty-three years old and his retirement in two years was foremost in his thoughts.
In the meeting room his lawyer and only friend waited for him with his main financial assessor.
“Have you checked the information that I sent you?” The advisor asked.
“I´ve got it right here.” Dante said waving the folder in front of him. He sat down and then took the report out. “Is this the report you´re referring to?”
The financial advisor confirmed with a quick glance that it was the complex analysis that his team had put together during the last two weeks.
“That´s it. As you can see the numbers are correct and they reveal that . . .”
“Everything’s in order. I agree with everything I´ve read.”
“Then it would appear that we’re all of the same opinion.” The lawyer said.
The financial advisor could barely contain his happiness.
“It´s a safe property deal. In five years, when the land is revalued, the value will increase tenfold. You won´t regret it.”
“Definitely not.” Dante replied. “Because we´re not going to do this deal.”
An uncomfortable silence followed his words.
“I don´t understand.” The advisor said. “If you agree with the report, what´s the problem? We´ve bribed all the key people. There´s no risk.”
“Can´t you see it?” The lawyer asked confused. “It´s your type of operation. You´ve done thousands like this.”
“That´s true. I know that well enough.” Dante agreed. “But I´m not getting involved with this one. I want to sell.”
“What? That doesn´t make any sense.” The advisor said. “We´ve only got to wait five years and we´ll make a packet. You can´t pass that up.”
“Yes, I can.” Dante rebuked him. “I´m not interested in investing in this. I just want to sell.”
“But that’s absurd.”
The advisor said nothing more. He was aware that he´d just exploded in front of his boss. Even so it wasn´t easy to contain himself. The rejection of an opportunity like this was almost impossible for an ambitious man like him to accept.
The lawyer interrupted the two of them before things got any further out of hand, convincing the financial advisor to leave the room before it was too late.
“You have to admit he was right.” The lawyer said to Dante after the advisor had left. ”It was a great deal. Besides, thousands of families will be without a home if we pull out.”
“That´s not my problem,” Dante informed him. “Someone else will go ahead with the project. I´ve got other priorities.”
“I´ve seen a change in you in the last few months.” The lawyer reflected. “What´s happened here today doesn´t seem like you at all.”
“That´s my business.”
Dante picked the report up off the table and opened the folder to put the report back inside but didn’t get that far. His hand remained in the air.
“Is something wrong?” The lawyer asked, looking at Dante´s hand suspended in the air.
Dante didn´t answer him. He kept on looking at a letter that was sitting inside the folder and that he was sure he hadn´t put there. He put the report down and took the envelope out. It was black with white edges, without any address. He opened it and took a sheet of paper with a note written in red ink out. He was amazed at the exceptional handwriting. He began to read it carefully.
“What are you reading?” The lawyer asked out of curiosity. “It´s a blank sheet.”
Dante finished reading and dropped the sheet of paper on the table. He crossed the meeting room without looking back at the lawyer and disappeared.
Two minutes later, he left through the front door of the building with his coat on.
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Table of Contents
TEDD AND TODD'S SECRET
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
&
nbsp; CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
EPILOGUE
BLACK ROCK PRISON (the continuing saga of TEDD AND TODD'S SECRET)
War of the heavens
THE LAST GAME
Tedd and Todd's secret Page 32