by Mark Gannon
As I moved into the alleyway of the barn, Dan and Biscuit started striking the front of the box with their hooves demanding their evening bale of hay. Tonight I added a small shot of oats in their feed box. Their supper had been late tonight due to Frank dragging me off to the bar and then to John’s.
The barn itself was on the small size. Small was generous, it was actually tiny. The barn was originally built to hold a team of horses and a milk cow for the small truck garden farm. But it was just right for me. It had room for Dan and Biscuit and a loft to store hay. On the off side of the alley from the horse stalls was an old oats bin that had been converted to a tack room.
Every bit of the barn interior was old weathered natural colored wood. The top boards on the stalls were nipped and marked from horse teeth. The horses enjoyed curbing their teeth on the wood. The spider webs were thick in the corners and the three electric light bulbs were fly-specked. The floor was dirt and there was a slight sag to the roof. But it smelled of musty hay and horses that reminded me of my parents’ ranch and it was the perfect place to sit and finish my sandwich and drink my Jack while watching the critters eat their supper.
I pulled up a hay bale chair to enjoy my horses. “You know, Dan, this has been a stressful day. I’ll sure be glad to get to Wednesday and head out for the trail ride.” Dan cocked his ear at me while pulling in a stem of hay. “I don’t know what woman I detest more – the ex-wife or the new boss lady at the bank. It’s almost a toss-up. Both of them want to boss me around and want to look sweet and nice while they do it. At least when Biscuit lays into you she does it openly and doesn’t care how she looks doing it.” Biscuit heard her name and laid her ears back. ‘
“You know you think you know people after being around them for years and then they just up and do something way out of character. Or at least what you think is their character. Take Charlie who was married to Pearl for forty years. Pearl was a great woman. She put up with Charlie’s devotion to the bank and his job and went to functions and put on dinners. I know Charlie was heartbroken after Pearl died. I didn’t think he would even look at another woman. And here he is making time with Nancy, that flirting new teller. I just don’t see what he sees in her. Well – that may be stretching things a little, she does fill out that sweater awfully well. ‘
“You know by now I thought things would be pretty well ironed out. TT would be out of the house and going to college, probably have the house about paid for, retirement savings well on the way, able to afford a few of the nice things in life, Emily and I pretty well settled into a comfortable routine and my career at the bank solid. Instead here I sit with my son having issues, a trailer house to live in, Emily and I divorced and things at the bank heading in a sour direction. Life sure takes some unexpected turns along the way.”
Dan and Biscuit continued to chew on the alfalfa while pretending to listen. “I sure am glad I have you two – well at least you Dan. I’m not always sure it’s a blessing to have you Biscuit. But I supposed I should count my blessings – a good horse, a mule, a roof over my head, this acreage and this barn. And even if I don’t like some things at work, I have a steady pay check with good benefits. John and Frank are as good friends as I have a right to expect. I get to live in a great little town – about the prettiest place in the country. And best of all the Trail Ride is right around the corner. Speaking of which it’s time to get to work.”
I had planned on getting my gear ready and partially packed for the trail ride coming up on Wednesday. Since the ride was a five-day event, preparations were lengthier then the occasional day ride. Thankfully my old horse trailer could sit. John Many Hawks was bringing the horses up in his new camping horse trailer. I was pulling the reefer storage trailer with the beer and liquor. My tack needed to be checked for wear spots and the leather and bits need to be cleaned. I made sure my rain slicker was tied on behind the saddle and put some new horse brushes in the toolbox. Next I rounded up some oats in a gunnysack and made sure to tuck a supply of sugar cubes for Dan in the pickup cab.
Rounding up the camping supplies and stacking them by the door of the barn was always the worst part of getting ready for the trail ride. Normally when I stayed out overnight on a trail ride I used the trailer for cover. On the Black Hills Trail Ride you were not allowed to use anything but a tent to sleep in and my tent was a throw away from an old cowboy that quit going on the trail ride about ten years ago.
Every year I tell myself I am going to fix the tent pole that is cracked, patch the holes in the roof and air the thing out ahead of time to get rid of the musty smell. And every year I procrastinate thinking I will finally buy a new tent. And every year I am too broke to spring for a new one and haul out the old one for one more year. This year is different. John purchased a new tent and I could leave mine at home. With a gesture of defiance at my routine I picked up my ratty old tent and tossed it in the garbage bin. There are some other things I want to toss out also, but the tent was a good start.
With the late start on prepping my gear, the work, the horses, the sandwich, the Jack and Diet Coke and my small act of defiance I was definitely calmer. Time to turn in - my favorite annual event; the Black Hills Trail Ride was only a day away.
Chapter 14
Opening Duty
This was my day for Opening Duty. That means you get to the bank at seven thirty so you can be the first person into the bank in the morning and make sure it is safe for everyone else to enter. Bigger town banks have hired security that performs this function, but Spearfish is still small town and we do this the old way.
Pulling into the parking lot starts the opening ritual. Eyeball the parking lot and rear entrance of the bank for any strange vehicles or individuals loitering in the area. Continue to scan while walking to the back door. Have my keys out and the bank key already in my hand. Pick up the newspapers the paperboys threw on the cement at the back of the bank and open the door. The motion detector will start a methodical beeping reminding you that you have two minutes to go to the alarm and punch in the numbered code to disarm the motion detector. If you don’t get the motion sensor disarmed in time, the silent alarm will go off sending a message to the security alarm company who dispatch the police to the bank. Two minutes is less time than you think, as I well know from experience. It is not fun explaining to the local police that you set off the alarm accidentally - again.
After disarming the motion detector the opening duty officer walks through the entire bank looking for hidden robbers or signs of possible forced entry. Continue the walk through the entire bank switching on lights as you go. As corny as this may sound, I take the circuit walk seriously and look in every office, the bathrooms, behind the teller line and especially take a quick look at the vault door to try and spot evidence of tampering.
In twenty years of banking, I have never found any issues. When the entire bank circuit is complete, you go back to give the ‘All Clear’ signal. The idea of this is that if someone is lurking inside the bank, only one employee will be put in a hostage position. The ‘All Clear’ signal is changed routinely but we currently were putting a certain flowerpot in the back window. I did this on my way to the back door.
With this signal, it was now okay for other bank staff to enter the building for the day. If you are late getting the walk through completed like I was today, the two opening tellers are already waiting in the parking lot. I opened the back door to let Mary Beth Arron and Colleen Preacher inside the bank. “A little late again aren’t you Mitch?” chastised Mary Beth. “You know Deb Miller gets here early and will have a fit if we don’t have the vault open and our money drawers in place and ready to go by exactly five minutes to eight.”
Mary Beth was the head teller and knew more about running the bank than most of the officers. She was not one to take her job lightly and felt offended when the Ice Princess had started correcting her. One less fan of Deb Miller. Mary Beth and Colleen went directly to the vault door with me rather than putting their jackets away
. “Let’s get it open,” ordered Mary Beth.
Opening the vault requires the correct combination for two dials. The Opening Officer (me) ran through the combination on the first dial and the Head Teller ran through the combination on the second dial. I don’t know her combination and she doesn’t know mine. Only the Security Officer and the Bank President had access to all of the combinations. The vault has a time lock that is set every night at closing by the closing teller, the vault door will not open until a set hour in the morning, usually sometime after seven am. After the vault is open each teller has a separate secure drawer in the vault for his or her individual money supply, which requires another combination. As Mary Beth was opening her cash drawer I asked, “You gals have a good evening?”
“Just the usual Mitch, how about you?’
That was a good question. Was going to the bar with Frank, stopping by John’s and having the Ex stop by usual? Well in a way yes. “Yeah. Just the usual. Want me to put the coffee on?”
“That would be great but don’t make it too strong.” To Mary Beth ‘too strong’ was anything with flavor. I needed to put my sandwich makings into the fridge and then put the colored water on for Mary Beth.
While I was in the break room Charlie Garrets popped in and asked with a smile, “Coffee done yet?”
“Morning Charlie. Have a good evening?” This was unusual. Charlie normally came to the bank right at eight or a little later. Why was he here fifteen minutes early?
I poured off a cup for both Charlie and myself. “Here you go.”
“Thanks. Don’t forget Loan Committee at eight thirty.” And with that he gave me another look and stepped out of the break room. What was up with Charlie?
Just then in walked Steve Blake looking neat and well-groomed in a new blue pin stripe suit. His quick assessment of my poor attire lent him a smug smile of superiority.
“Good morning Mitch. Good to see you here ready for the day.” Rather than respond with a comment to the effect that it was a good day until I saw him, I just left and headed for my desk.
Chapter 15
Loan Committee
Loan Committee is made up of the bank president, Charlie; two directors, this time it was Robert Dunbar III (Robby) and Robert Dunbar II (better known as Junior) and Deb Miller, the Ice Princess. Loan officers made copies of the credit presentation for all members attending. This was in addition to the electronic copy sent out on E-mail in a password protected secure file. The password protection was necessary to meet privacy protection as mandated by the Bank Secrecy Act. Credit presentations were anywhere from one to forty pages depending on the complexity or size of the loan request.
The Loan Committee members were the only ones allowed a vote. Loan officers only presented the credit but did not vote. It really came down to whether Charlie endorsed the credit and whether Junior liked or disliked the customer. Charlie was the acknowledged credit expert having forty plus years of lending experience. Junior was the current Chairman of the Board and the largest stockholder. He had made his money the old fashioned way by inheriting the bank stock from his father the original Robert Dunbar, known as Mr. Dunbar.
Mr. Dunbar had recently passed away at the young age of ninety-three while still active on the bank board. The reason he was active was he didn’t trust Robby to manage the bank without running it into the ground. Junior was a young sixty-six and absolutely bored with the banking business except in the power it gave him over his fellow townsman.
Junior had never learned lending skills from Mr. Dunbar. He figured Charlie would always be around to tell him who was a good credit risk. The only time Junior might vote opposed to Charlie was if the customer was a friend or an enemy. There were several million dollars of loans on the books simply due to the fact that they were friends of Junior. The loan officers learned to run and hide if a dead-beat friend of Junior’s showed at the bank. Even though Junior pushed through approval of his friends’ loans, it was up to the loan officer handling the account to collect the money without aggravating Junior’s buddy. Not an easy task.
There was usually a new young loan officer kept around the bank just for the purpose of handling Junior’s customers. They learned quickly to hide from Junior’s friends and identify his enemies. Several times my long hard preparations taken to Loan Committee died because the potential customer had done something minor to Junior such as cutting him off in traffic. He voted against the credit requests and I lost face with the customers and lost a lot of time and effort. Try explaining to a hard working successful small business owner with good credit scores that his reasonable request was declined. A new loan officer learned quickly or didn’t stay long.
I had one credit to present but was second on the list for the day. Steve Blake was first up today. He was presenting a one hundred thousand dollar line of credit for a local tire shop, Bob’s Tires. Bob was a good business man and his credit had been given to Steve because no matter what Steve did, Bob was in good enough financial shape to survive. Steve came into loan committee with his presentation polished and figuring this was a slam dunk. I knew for a fact that Steve had a Masters in Business and this was his first job. He really thought a small credit was beneath him and he should be handling bigger credits.
Charlie ran the meetings as the senior officer in the bank. “Okay Steve, we want you to go first.” With a nod to encourage Steve, Charlie leaned back in his seat.
Steve leaned forward and with a look to Junior and Robby he started in. “This is a credit request for Bob’s Tire Shop on Jackson Street. Bob has been in business for over ten years and has been a customer of this bank for his entire business career. He has excellent credit and this is merely an annual reset of his one hundred thousand dollar line of credit.” Steve was really cutting this short depending on the past relationship of Bob with the bank to carry the vote. He was about to wrap up. “I have the credit priced at Wall Street Journal Prime plus one percent with a one percent origination fee. I recommend we approve the credit.” Steve sat back with an expectant gloat on his face. He was sure this presentation could not go wrong.
Charlie knew this was an easy credit but looked reluctant to approve the request without more discussion so Steve would learn a little something from coming to Loan Committee. I was waiting for his questions and as he started to lean forward getting ready to ask Steve something, I heard Junior from the other side of the table with a soft nasty voice, “Is Bob the one with a red headed kid in high school that is overweight?” Everyone was caught off guard by Junior’s question and not ready to answer let alone Steve who is new to Spearfish and doesn’t have a clue whether Bob has any kids let alone an overweight red head in high school.
It doesn’t matter as Junior continues, “You know his kid was at the golf course on Saturday and I went into the club house to get some beer for my cart. When I came out Bob’s boy was walking away from my cart looking suspicious. It wasn’t until later that I noticed my new range finder was missing from the cart.” Junior looked at Steve and asked, “Have you been golfing with Bob or his boy?’ Steve was caught completely off base. How was this related to the credit he was presenting? All he could do was shake his head no. “Well, I just wanted to know if Bob had a new range finder.”
Charlie and I knew what was coming now. “You know Bob has a lot of dissatisfied customers. I’ve heard that from several people on the street. We may need to consider this request a little closer. You know what happens when those bad service rumors start making the rounds about a tire business. They can really lose customers.” I looked over at Charlie and noticed a tightening around his mouth. He knew what was happening. Here was another good credit customer that was going to bite the dust.
Steve was caught off guard and stumbled trying to reply. “Everyone I’ve talked to said Bob does good work.” He looked around for support but didn’t find any. Charlie and I were not offering any. He was on his own. “I mean – er, huh. His numbers are good. Just look at them.” This last was said wi
th a sinking look. He was starting to realize he was about to lose a slam-dunk approval for no reason he could have predicted. Stumbling over his words he said, “I guess I will look at those numbers again. Maybe I was wrong.” He threw this out as a peace offering to Junior.
Junior was leaning forward ready to do battle. After Steve threw out his white flag, Junior backed down and relaxed in his chair. It was good to be king. Looking over at Robby I saw a nasty glint in his eyes. He knew Junior was doing a good customer bad, but it was not his time to challenge Junior. But that look said he was going to challenge Junior at some point, just not yet. Steve in the meantime closed his loan file and spiritually withdrew from the meeting. He looked like a young dog that was being beaten for something he didn’t understand and all he wanted was to get out of the room.
Charlie leaned forward to throw out a small peace offering to Junior. “You know Bob may have some service issues but he has been a customer for over ten years.” Junior leaned forward ready to do battle again. Charlie continued with, “Maybe instead of turning it down outright, we will just increase the rate a percent or two? It won’t take long to make up a range finder on the extra interest.” You could tell this appealed to Junior. He nodded his head and sat back again. “Steve, why don’t you visit with me after the meeting and we’ll adjust that rate.” Steve was visibly relieved to have a chance to save the credit that he didn’t even stop to consider how to explain a higher rate to a solid customer.
Charlie was sitting across from me and his right eye was hidden from both Junior and Robby. He gave me a wink and a slight smile. I knew what that meant from previous meetings. Charlie had loan authority of five hundred thousand dollars on his own signature. The only reason Bob’s credit had come to the meeting was as a lesson for Steve. Charlie would sign off on the loan at a later date at a rate that was fair and Bob would never know what went on at the Loan Committee and Junior was too lazy to ever check the loan rate. Steve owed Charlie for saving his customer and Charlie saved a good customer for the bank. Charlie was just smooth.