by Bill WENHAM
The doubters were never considered again and all they lived to regret their hasty decision when Easy Green became huge. Gradually, over that first year, our Easy Green Garden World took shape.”
Factor took a deep breath and carried on. It was obvious to Elaine Reid that he was both tiring and also becoming upset as he recalled some the things he was telling her.
“We had our Grand Opening in the spring of 2003 and our future success was obvious from the moment we opened our gates on that first day.
Our opening day specials were at almost giveaway prices, with free food and drink and half price on all rentals. The weather even cooperated. It was a gloriously warm and sunny day and the park was crowded.
We expected a huge drop in attendance on the second day but it didn’t happen. Easy Green was crowded and remained that way throughout the summer.”
Elaine Reid stopped the recording.
“What about the winter, Dean?” she asked.
“I was just getting to that,” he replied and she restarted the tape.
“We advertised that we’d be open all winter and described what would be available, Christmas trees, skiing, skating, bonfire parties and so on. The first few weeks were a little slow because, for the prototype at least, we relied on natural snow but once again the weather cooperated with a heavy snowfall that turned our Garden World into a winter wonderland. After that we never looked back.
We offered our friend Paul first refusal when we started franchising, if he could raise the money. He was eager to do it, was well connected and had no trouble forming a financing consortium.”
Elaine Reid stopped the tape again.
“Tell me something about the franchising structure, Dean. The structure, not the money,” she said and pushed the start button on the recorder.
“Well, one of the main concerns in any franchise operation is that of non-competition by any other franchisee. They all want a territory. The first of the main clauses was there would be no more than three Garden Worlds in any one state. The second was they had to be located a minimum of forty miles apart. Most of them would be way more than that because the availability of suitable land determined the actual location.
Paul and I were actually the closest together at almost exactly forty miles apart but there was a reason for that. Ours would handle business to the east of Saginaw and Paul’s, in Gratiot County, would look after the west. His sales area included Saginaw and Lansing, the capital, and ours would come from Saginaw, Flint and from as far away as Detroit.
The third and last Michigan Garden World, when built, would be somewhere to the south of Kalamazoo.
Since Paul and I, and our wives, wanted to remain friends and to socialize on a regular basis, we both bought our new homes in the suburbs of Flint. We each gave ourselves a twenty mile or so commute but only a few hundred yards to socialize.
Everything was just wonderful for both families. We were about to become very, very wealthy, so what could possibly go wrong?”
Factor stopped speaking and hung his head down. After a moment or two he looked up again at Elaine Reid. There were tears in his eyes. She kept the tape running.
“Both of our wives were murdered! That’s what went wrong,” he said bitterly.
Elaine Reid interrupted, saying, “Let’s get back to Willoughby please, Dean.”
Factor nodded and started again.
“Ah, yes, my good friend and partner, Willoughby,” he snarled.
“Everything should have been perfect and we should have been good friends. However, in his pitch to me Willoughby had left out two major items.
First of all, he did exactly as he said he would and put up all of the additional expansion financing. That part was fine except the problem with it was - his money hadn’t come from the sale of a large manufacturing plant out west at all - far from it, in fact. It was mob money.”
Factor looked quickly across at the lawyer to gauge her reaction but there was none. She just sat there listening impassively and making occasional notes on her legal pad. He continued with his story.
“The second and far more important item omitted from our discussion, was one which ultimately concerned me directly. When Willoughby said he wanted half of everything, he wasn’t being completely honest with me, his new partner, about that either.
What he really wanted was all of my Dellie!
In our Easy Green Garden World, everything should have been just about perfect but,”
Factor gestured at the steel restraints holding him into the chair.
“- as you can see for yourself, it’s far from it, right?”
Elaine Reid restarted the tape recorder and a couple of hours later she was convinced she had a truthful account of Dean Factor’s predicament on tape. Her employer, Factor’s mysterious sympathizer, would be very pleased with her day’s work.
She put her collection of numbered tapes into her briefcase, stood up and walked around the table to shake Factor’s hand. Then she beckoned to the watching guard at the door, indicating that the session was finally over and now she wished to leave.
She had just wished Factor good luck but the real purpose of her visit was not to find out about Factor at all. Her employer already knew all about him.
Somewhere within those tapes he expected to find information leading to somebody entirely different – someone Factor himself wasn’t even aware of.
Elaine Reid’s employer intended to find the real murderer!
Chapter Three
Delilah Factor was a very beautiful woman. Physically, she was tall, 5’ 10”, with long naturally blonde hair which she usually wore in a ponytail. She had a trim figure on a hundred and ten pound frame and she was now in her late thirties.
It was her other attributes which made her even more beautiful. She was always very nice, pleasant and friendly towards everyone - and everyone, unfortunately for Dean Factor, also included Jim Willoughby.
Willoughby could be considered quite a catch. First of all he was single. He was a very good looking man, tan, forty, also tall, around six two, blonde and muscular. Then there was also the fact that, with his partnership in the highly successful Easy Green Garden Worlds, now a corporation, he was very, very well off - even more so than before. A multi- millionaire, in fact.
He had a luxury condo in a high rise in the suburbs of Saginaw, a few miles from where he and Factor had built their corporate center. The business was no longer hands on for either of them and had expanded, via franchising agreements, not only in Michigan but into several neighboring states as well. The first of those outside Michigan was near Toledo, in Ohio.
Easy Green Garden Worlds were now in fifteen suburban areas in five states and things were looking good.
Willoughby’s concept was all encompassing and colossal. Each new Easy Green Garden World franchise covered upwards of a half a square mile and Willoughby wanted every possible garden related product to be sold on site.
His huge corporate desk held two walnut framed brass plaques. The first read ‘Expand or Expire!’ The other – ‘Go BIG – or go Home!’ He ran his whole life by those words.
Each massive franchise operation, in addition to the now standard package of pools, garden buildings, maintenance machinery, barbeques, trees, shrubs, flowers and all their assorted accessories, also had a lot of other features.
Because of Willoughby’s concept of ‘if you’re gonna do it – do it all’ the land for each Garden World site had to be very carefully selected. It was essential that somewhere on the property an area of it rose sufficiently high enough to allow a fair sized recreational ski slope to be built on it.
A huge supervised water park with a gigantic multi-lane water slide was built on to the side of the mini-mountain and dropped squealing kids, and adults, into an Olympic sized swimming pool. Each outlet also had several enormous man-made lakes complete with docks and rental fishing boats.
Fishing rods, bait and paddle boat rentals were all available at a nominal hour
ly fee. Ice cream, soft drink and snack stands plus a variety of the most popular fast food franchises were also set up throughout the parks.
Each Garden World also had several out of the way places equipped with comfortable garden chairs and tables especially for smokers. In another part of the park, deliberately separated as far from the smoker’s as possible, was a large picnic area.
In the prototype and earlier versions, the fairly mature trees and shrubs that had been planted now provided a very popular family camping area. As their trees matured, the later franchises would also introduce this feature
Before the Garden World concept had become available, most regular garden centers, especially in the northern states, either operated minimally during the winter months or closed down altogether from late fall to early spring.
Easy Green Garden Worlds did neither. They merely switched gears.
The large fishing lakes became outdoor skating rinks with music piped in to speakers hidden in the surrounding mature spruce trees. A ski tow was permanently set up on the other side of the huge summer water slide hill.
The Garden World winter product line switched to the sale of Christmas trees, decorations, fire pits, skis, skates, snowmobiles, winter hats, coats, gloves and scarves and so on. In the winter, certain areas of the park were also available for private bonfire parties. Hot dog and hot drink stands replaced the summer time ice creamer vendors.
Competitions, with cash and merchandise prizes, were also held for the best snowman built.
Of course, any time it rained, summer or winter, umbrellas and plastic ponchos were readily available - for sale of course. In addition, every part of the park was easily wheelchair accessible. Strollers were also available for rent in the summer and toddler sleds in the winter.
Easy Green was no longer just a ‘Garden Center’. It was now a major corporation trading on the New York Stock Market. Although it wasn’t exactly a theme park, unless you considered gardening a theme, each franchise provided a delightful day out for the whole family, summer and winter, for just a nominal entry fee. Each major holiday also managed to coincide with a major Easy Green Sale Day as well.
Duplicates of the specially designed sales receipts for all purchases in excess of $50.00 were entered for a draw for merchandise or sports equipment to be made every Saturday afternoon at 4p.m. The prizes could include barbeques, riding lawn mowers, golf clubs, skis, fishing gear and so on. The winners didn’t even have to be there – but they did have to return to pick up their prizes!
On Labor Day, an annual Grand prize would be offered. It consisted of a boat, motor and trailer combination.
Easy Green Garden Worlds were unlike any other theme park. Each was primarily a total sales venue where the family went to buy and could also have a lot of fun while they were doing it. As a result the Garden Worlds were phenomenally successful.
Even all the merchandise prizes were all donated by their preferred suppliers as promotional items.
The prototype was built, with access to Hwy 46, near Kingston, Michigan, on Factor’s land and was an hour or less from the major cities of Saginaw, Flint, Port Huron and Detroit. It was only about an hour and a half from Lansing, the State Capitol, as well.
One of the main benefits to Factor and Willoughby was that their many suppliers fell over themselves to either be, or remain, the only supplier of their particular product to the now massive Easy Green Garden World Corporation.
In addition to their donated prize items, the preferred suppliers installed samples of their product free of charge at each franchise – items like pools, ponds, gazebos, cabanas and so on to promote and show off their various wares. Garden World was their year round major sales area and they couldn’t afford to lose it.
All Factor and Willoughby had to do now was to basically sit back and continue to count their money. Both men’s roles had changed considerably with the expansion over the years as well.
Factor looked after product acquisition, whilst Willoughby insisted on locating and buying up new properties for further franchises. At no time was Factor ever aware of how this was accomplished.
Both of them had become exceedingly wealthy, multi-millionaires, in fact, since there was now even a waiting list for Easy Green Garden Worlds to start up new franchise operations in seven other states.
Factor and Willoughby had planted a money tree for themselves and it was now bearing an abundance of fruit for them. Unfortunately, with any fruit comes the likelihood of worms – and in their case a few of those worms were a variety of nasty little bugs called Jealousy, Suspicion, Greed, Envy, Deceit, Revenge and of course – Murder!
All of which had contributed in one way or another to Dean Factor’s current situation.
Chapter Four
The area where the Factors had relocated from their tiny rental house was in the suburbs of Flint, just north of Carpenter Rd and reasonably close to the 475 Interstate. This gave Factor a direct route via State Rd 53 to Easy Green when he needed to be there and about thirty miles straight north on 23 to the Corporate offices in Saginaw.
Their house was one of several one of a kind executive homes, each built on an oversized lot. Dellie and Dean’s was a simulated Tudor fronted style with black wooden beams and leaded windows.
They thought they liked it when they bought it but soon realized it was their new affluence directing their choice rather than a particular liking for the house. In fact, he would only ever describe it as ‘the house’ but never referred to it as his home. If he invited anyone to visit, it was always ‘come on over to ‘the house’.
Even the interior furnishings, elegant and beautiful as they appeared, were not their choice either. The place was so big that they had hired an interior decorator to furnish the whole place for them.
When it was finished and they moved in, they accepted it for what it was – a showplace for beautiful furnishings but they felt no pride of ownership of it.
It was, as Factor referred to it, just ‘the house’.
Dellie even went one better in her description of it. She described herself as just a lodger rattling around in a bloody great big mausoleum.
Factor had grinned when he had first heard her say it but he soon realized that she wasn’t far wrong. ‘The house’ was truly beautiful, and set in lovely manicured grounds but it was beautiful in the same way that a marble statue is beautiful.
‘The house’ had the same kind of beauty. Cold and impersonal and it certainly wasn’t a home.
The builder had offered them the choice of several models from framed artist’s impressions in their model home, and all with similar square footage. Some of them had a swimming pool as an option and others didn’t.
Dean and Dellie both loved to swim and spent many happy hours doing just that from the swim platform off the back of their luxury cabin cruiser. Consequently, they went for the full package including the pool, oversized of course, just like the house and also heated.
They had requested the addition of a large party sized hot tub to be installed on their fully enclosed patio as well. Now they were no longer ‘the country folk’, they still kept up their tradition of winter parties with the Thatchers and other close friends.
One of the main things they both missed as the money came rolling in was that neither of them were hands on anymore. This was especially hard on Dellie because Dean could spend as much or as little time as he liked at the corporate offices. She didn’t have that option.
Although she was obviously benefiting from the income from their corporation, she was also bored to tears with her new life style. She could afford to buy almost anything she wanted but she couldn’t run her whole life as a non-stop shopping spree.
The irony of it was there was nothing she needed to buy for the house. The decorator had provided everything, from the furniture down to the pots, pans and cutlery.
Dellie complained constantly and bitterly that she was bored and although they owned everything, nothing was really theirs.
Unfortunately, she would never know exactly how true those words of hers were.
We never chose a single thing in this place, Dean, she told him. Even the toilet paper was there when they moved in. Sometimes this is just like living in a bloody hotel, she said. Dean couldn’t and didn’t want to argue with her because he agreed with her.
But it was way too late now to go back because their cozy little bungalow, where they’d been happiest, was the victim of the wrecker’s ball years ago.
Now that had been a home, Dellie told Factor bitterly and many times over.
When she looked around the house she knew everything either matched or was color coordinated with everything else. That was fine for a furniture store window or even a hotel but it wasn’t what Dellie thought of as a home.
But Dellie wasn’t being entirely honest with either Dean or herself either. It had a little to do with the house and furnishings but it was the one thing that was missing that bothered her the most.
There were no kids in the house.
A year or two after they were married, the doctors at the fertility clinic had dealt Dellie and Dean a devastating blow. She was told she had a malformed and malfunctioning uterus and as such she would never be able to carry a baby to full term.
In the little bungalow it had been a little easier to accept. She was surrounded with her own things and she worked side by side with Dean every day. Now all of that had changed, except for the one critical thing. She still couldn’t have a baby of her own.
They had been talking about the old bungalow one day and how it wrapped itself around them like an old comforting blanket.
“And what did we do, Dean? We tore down our lovely little home to exchange it for this bloody great big heap of masonry!
It was the first time Dellie had voiced any real dissatisfaction about the house and he felt guilty about it. After all, it was he, not Dellie, who had made the deal with Willoughby to start this ball rolling. Admitted, it was she who had encouraged him at Patti’s party, but neither of them had foreseen the possible effects huge wealth might have on their lives. The sad thing was they hadn’t even needed it.