The Perfect Revenge: The Couplete Series

by Grey, Madyson

  They would hire only couples to fill the positions of the three live-in employees. In both couples, the men would take charge of the farm and farm animals while the women tended the farmhouse, giving the guided tours, and scheduling the various pioneer activity demonstrations. The two couples would share duties and give each other days off.

  The wife of the general manager would run the gift shop. The remainder of the necessary staff would be hired to come in daily, but not live on the premises. Victoria would be the buyer for the gift shop, and of course, Rafael would be the top dog overseeing the entire operation.

  They had asked Lena if she was interested in working at some position in the park, even as a part-time relief person. She could work the gift shop or the ticket booth, or whatever she liked, if she wanted to at all. She had jumped at the chance to work in the gift shop two days a week. So that was settled.

  Lena’s dad had improved to a point after breaking his hip back in January, but then hit a plateau where no more progress was to be made. It had taken the Ericksens until April to decide that maybe it was in their best interest to take Rafael and Victoria up on their kind offer to come and live in the house on their property.

  So it was that in mid-April, a moving van pulled up to the Ericksens home of 4o-some years, three men hopped out and loaded up the furniture and the boxes that Signe Ericksen had so carefully packed. Within the hour, the moving van pulled up to their new home and the men began unloading what they had just loaded.

  Lena helped her mom direct the men as to where the furniture should go and what room each box should be placed in. Within a couple of hours it was all done, except for the chore of unpacking. Lena and her mom got the bed made and the clothes hung up in the closets. That was the most urgent things to do.

  Next, they unpacked the bathroom things and got them put away. The kitchen was next, beginning with the food and the basic dishes. Erik Ericksen was unable to help, which frustrated him to no end. He did manage to unpack his collection of sailing ship models and place them in the shelving unit that he had made especially to hold them.

  By suppertime, the women were tired and hungry, and so was Erik. Lena insisted that she drive them down to a nearby café and buy them some supper. They were too tired and hungry to protest.

  It took the better part of a week to get the Ericksens settled into their new home, everything unpacked and put away, and for them to begin getting used to a new place. They had to admit that it was nice to be just a five-minute walk away from Lena. Rafael and Victoria made it clear to them that they were welcome to come up and visit Lena anytime they wanted to. They were welcome to use the swimming pool, too. Lena and Victoria both thought that the water might do Erik some good.

  Victoria had gone down and helped a little bit, but she felt like she was more in the way than she was help, so she did her part by fixing food several times and taking it down to them.

  After they were all settled, Lena and Victoria drove them over to the park to take a look at what all was going on there. They were on the verge of being ready to open. They just had to do a little more hiring. They still needed a third person to work the ticket booth and a third train engineer.

  The third week of April Rafael and Victoria flew to Dallas to do their building inspections there. They rented a car to run around in. The buildings there were of a moderate size. One was four stories and the other was six stories high. These two buildings were all business units; no apartments.

  They got them both done the day they arrived, then took a commuter flight to Houston, where they again got a rental car to go inspect the one building they had in that city. The building in Houston was ten stories, and a mix of business and apartments. It took them the better part of the day to do it.

  On the spur of the moment, they decided to drive from Houston to New Orleans. They had been working hard and decided that they could use a day’s vacation. They spent the night in Lake Charles, Louisiana. It was only a couple of hours east of Houston and put them over a third of the way to New Orleans. The next morning they covered the remaining 200-plus miles on in to New Orleans, where they did their one building inspection. Then they were ready to fly home and back to working on Thornton Park.

  The three couples who would run the farm had been hired and were in the process of moving in. They had been able to find the perfect people, or so it appeared at the outset. Only time would tell, but they came with excellent credentials.

  Jim and Jan Williams had both been raised on farms, and had farmed after they were married. They had raised their family and were now looking for a new phase to their lives. This seemed like the perfect move for them. The five acres that would be their joint responsibility with the two other couples was nothing compared to the 500-acre place they had farmed in Nebraska.

  Ted and Darlene Carsten had a similar background, only they had had a cattle and horse ranch in Texas for thirty years. Ted had been thrown from an unbroken horse one too many times, and was too stove up to run a big ranch anymore. But he could sure putter around a little one like Thornton Park, and talk to kids about animals.

  Darlene and Jan both knew all about farm gardening, canning, and making do. The two couples hit it off right from the start and knew that they would have fun working together.

  Mickey and Sarah Dixon were the general manager couple, and the last of the three to arrive, lock, stock, and barrel. Mickey had a couple of degrees in business management, plus twenty-five years of real-life experience in management. Plus, he had grown up on a Kansas wheat farm, so he knew something about farming, too.

  Sarah had been a museum curator, so she was perfect for being in charge of the farmhouse, with Jan and Darlene under her. Sarah would also be in charge of the gift shop, with a couple of other cashiers working under her. The first time that Rafael and Victoria met with the three couples, they were impressed that they had made good choices.

  The three couples secretly joked about this young city couple trying to mastermind a pioneer farm, but they took it all in stride and agreed that it was a great idea. Rafael also had made it clear to them that it was because they were city folk that they needed the experienced workers to do the actual work.

  The first week of May, Rafael and Victoria took an early flight to Memphis, Tennessee, arriving there just before noon. The three-hour time difference took a bite out of their day. They owned two buildings in Memphis to inspect, which took all the rest of that day, and part of the following morning. They drove the two hundred miles to Nashville, arriving there by noon. The three buildings they owned in Nashville took them that afternoon plus all the next day to inspect.

  They flew out of Nashville on Thursday morning and arrived back in LA just a little over an hour after they left Nashville. Well, it was actually nearly a four-hour flight, but due to crossing several time zones, when they landed in LA it was 10:15 in the morning Pacific Daylight Time. They had left Nashville at 9:05 Eastern Daylight Time.

  All that was left now at Thornton Park was to gather up some animals. Rafael left that to the two farmers to choose the best animals they could find. They preferred baby animals, at least to begin with, so the visitors could pet and touch and interact with the animals. Jim and Ted understood perfectly what the needs were and set about finding the animals.

  They barely had time to squeeze in a flying trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Denver, Colorado, to do their inspections before the grand opening of Thornton Memorial Pioneer Farm and Botanical Gardens. But squeeze it in, they did. As there was only one building in each of those cities, they were only gone two days. They flew to Albuquerque first, got that building done, hopped a commuter up to Denver, and spent the night. The next morning they took care of the Denver property, and flew home that afternoon.

  It was too close to opening the park to spend time sightseeing in those two cities. However, they agreed that they would find the time later on to go back. Right now, however, the park demanded their full and undivided attention.

 
; On opening day, there would be two beautiful little Jersey calves and a mama Jersey cow, a couple of lambs, a miniature goat, a very docile donkey, a dozen assorted hens, one friendly rooster, a pair of white ducks, a pair of rabbits, and a team of black Percherons that were broke to the plow.

  Opening day was slated for the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Rafael had done due diligence in advertising on TV, radio, and Internet. As with any new enterprise, one always hopes for the best, but fears the worst. What if only a few showed up? What if no one came? What if all this money was wasted and no one wanted to visit a pioneer farm on the edge of Los Angeles?

  Rafael and Victoria both spent a restless night before opening day. But they needn’t have worried.

  Chapter Ten

  Rafael and Victoria were up early the next morning. So early that they were groomed, dressed, and breakfasted by seven o’clock, and eager to get over to Thornton Park to make sure that everything and everyone was ready to open at ten o’clock. They rode the quad over to the park. Rafael had blazed a trail from their house through the back of the park property that connected with the driveways of the three mobile homes.

  It was a beautiful, sunny day, full of promise. They had requested that all the employees be there at eight o’clock that first morning so that Rafael could go over their duties with them and make certain that everyone knew what he or she was to do.

  They had a group meeting first, and then Rafael and Victoria took the group on a tour of the grounds. They felt that it was very important that every employee know as much as possible about the whole park so that they could answer any question about any part of the park that any guest might ask.

  The staff meeting had been held in the barn, as it had the most standing room. When they left the barn to start the tour, it was eight-thirty. Rafael and Victoria were shocked to see a line already forming at the ticket booth. Here it was still a hour and a half until opening time, and cars were already streaming into the parking lot.

  The tour took the better part of an hour as questions were asked and answered, and they walked and rode the train through the whole park. As soon as the group arrived back at the gift shop, Rafael gave them one more short pep talk about being friendly, courteous, professional, and happy. Then everyone was sent to their posts of duty.

  At precisely ten o’clock the ticket booth opened and people of all ages began pouring into the Thornton Memorial Pioneer Farm and Botanical Gardens. As there was no particular order in which a visitor had to tour the park, people scattered everywhere, with some going straight to the farmhouse, others to the barn and the petting zoo, others to the gift shop and the botanical gardens, and still others opted to take the train ride first of all.

  Rafael and Victoria roamed the park all day, going home only to grab a quick lunch, and then hurry back. They watched the employees interacting with the visitors, and talked with visitors themselves. The park was packed with people, and they began to wonder if they had dreamed too small.

  Several reporters from local TV stations and newspapers were there with their cameramen, too, to report on this new attraction. Rafael gave several short interviews, and gave them permission to roam the park, take photos, and interview willing visitors.

  “Say, aren’t you the woman who was recently kidnapped and held for ransom?” one reporter asked Victoria. “You two are the ones who cracked that human trafficking ring, aren’t you?”

  Victoria hesitated and looked to Rafael for help. He nodded.

  “Yes, I’m the one who was kidnapped,” Victoria admitted.

  “I’d like to do a human interest segment on you, if you would be willing,” the reporter said.

  “I, I don’t know about that,” Victoria said slowly. “It wasn’t very interesting, I’ll tell you that much.”

  She gave the reporter a wry smile.

  “I’m sure this isn’t a good time here and now,” the reporter said smoothly, “but if you’ll just name the time and place, I think your story would make a great piece. You have proven that even ordinary people can make a difference in the community in regards to reducing crime, if they are just willing to get involved.”

  “I got involved, all right,” Victoria said dryly. “Way too involved to suit me.”

  “I’m sure it was a horrible experience,” the reporter said in a sympathetic tone.

  “You have no idea.”

  “No, I’m sure I don’t.”

  “We might be interested in agreeing to an interview,” Rafael said, stepping into the conversation.

  “We might?” Victoria questioned.

  “Sure, honey. It would be all right. Maybe it would inspire someone else out there to blow the whistle on any crime that they are aware of. It could do some good,” Rafael explained.

  “He’s right, you know,” the reporter said. “Your example could inspire others to report crime.”

  “Well, if you think it would do some good, then I will,” Victoria conceded. “I just don’t want my experience to be sensationalized and exploited just for the sake of ratings.”

  “Oh, no, Mrs. Rivera,” the reporter said. “I truly think that your story, done from a very tasteful angle of what can happen with John Q. Public reports a crime when he sees it. Here’s my card. When you have a free time slot, give me a call, please.”

  Rafael took the card, and slipped it into his shirt pocket.

  “Thanks, we will,” he said.

  The reporter moved on to capture scenes of the activities and insights from visitors throughout the park.

  “We’ll talk about this later,” Rafael told Victoria. “But I do think it could be a good thing.”

  “All right. Later.”

  When the six-thirty closing time came, and the last visitor had gone, they called all the employees together again to thank them for all of their efforts to make opening day a tremendous success. The woman in the ticket booth reported that she had sold 713 adult tickets and 10,320 children’s tickets that day for a whopping total of 11,033 people who had gone through the front gate that day.

  Sarah, who had run the end of day report for the gift shop, reported sales of $22,965.46. That combined the gift shop and the snack bar. Adult ticket sales, at $5 each, amounted to $3,565, and children’s tickets, $2.50 each, added another $25,082.50. The bottom line was that they had taken in $51,612.96 that day, gross. Unbelievable!

  Naturally, that wasn’t all profit, but it was a mighty fine take for the first day of operation. They dismissed the employees, telling them that they wouldn’t need to report for duty until nine forty-five in the morning.

  Rafael and Victoria looked at each other with totally shocked and thrilled expressions. They grabbed each other and hugged and practically danced around the gift shop. Although Victoria had grown up in the lap of luxury, she had never been involved in any of the things that her dad did to make his money. So this was a totally new experience for her. One that she had had a hand in creating. So the success of the first day was thrilling to her beyond words.

  Rafael bagged the cash and credit/debit card slips, put it all into his briefcase to take home. He would take it to the bank in the morning. The POS system that he was using would generate the reports directly to his accountant. Because most people nowadays use plastic instead of cash, the amount of cash for deposit was relatively small.

  They rode the quad back through the park, up past the Ericksens’ house, and on up to their house. It was only about half a mile, so didn’t take them long to run back and forth on the quad. Lena was anxious to hear how the day had gone. She had walked over there earlier in the day and was also pleasantly surprised to see the crowds of people who had come out for the grand opening.

  After Rafael had stashed the deposit in the safe in his office, he rejoined his wife and mother-in-law in the kitchen to hash over the day’s events and eat some supper. Lena had dished up bowls of chili beans for them, along with generous hunks of cornbread, and glasses of cold chocolate milk.

  As they ate
their supper, they told Lena about their day, how well they had done, and all of the nice things that people had told them, or that they had overheard. They also talked about the reporter who wanted to interview them about the kidnapping and the human trafficking ring.

  Lena encouraged them to go for it, saying, “Not only will it inspire someone else to report a crime, but it will make people aware of that horrible practice.”

  “I never thought of that,” Victoria said, her eyes lighting up. “I know, let’s do it on the condition that the reporter will also interview the people up at Angel’s Retreat, if they are willing. Maybe even interview some of the women who have been rescued.”

  “Say, that’s a great idea,” Rafael said enthusiastically. “This one interview could turn into a whole series on human trafficking for that reporter, if she is interested. Maybe I’ll call her now. I wonder when a good time for us would be to talk with her.”

  They tossed around dates for a couple of minutes, finally deciding on the following Thursday morning around eight o’clock, if that was agreeable to the reporter, whose name was Carmen Blakely.

  “Hello, Carmen Blakely?” Rafael said into his phone when someone on the other end of the line answered.

  “This is Rafael Rivera. We spoke earlier today at the Thornton Memorial Pioneer Park about you interviewing my wife and me in regards to her kidnapping by ringleaders of the human trafficking ring.”

  Pause.

  “Yes, well, we are free Thursday morning at eight o’clock if that works for you.”

  Pause.

  “Good. Where would you like to meet?”

  Pause.

  “How about my office downtown. It’s in the Thornton Building on South Broadway, first floor. When you enter, just ask the receptionist where to find us.”

  Pause.