by Myles Knapp
“So, dead end on the car. No way to track the guys who snatched Morano, and the only lead means going to the mat with the government.” Pay sighed.
The phone rang and Chase picked up. “Ok. Yeah.” He listened some more. “They’re all here.” He punched the speakerphone button. “Caller says he’s got something we need to hear.”
A voice none of them would ever forget met their ears. “Remember me from last night?” It was the voice from the shootout.
“Hard to forget,” Pay responded.
“You were a little outgunned. Sucks when that happens, doesn’t it?” The voice continued, “You know who I represent?”
“Got a pretty good idea,” Pay replied.
“That’s all you’re going to get. Have you tracked down the car license plates?”
“Yeah. We know all about Mr. Lucas.”
“Anything you do to track us will end the same way. Dead ends. Dead people. Morano’s ours now.”
“Bastard threatened to kill me and my friends.”
“It’s an unfortunate, unfair situation. But nothing you say will change that. And nothing you do will help you get Morano.”
“We can’t just leave him walking around out there.”
“Odious as it is, Morano is useful to us. And he won’t be walking around anymore, anywhere near San Francisco.”
Pay looked to the team for support. “I don’t think we can accept that.”
“Personally, I like what you guys stand for. Might even consider asking to join your team someday. But, if it comes down to you or Morano, I know who my current employers would support.”
“What do you want us to do?” asked Pay. “We got people we owe. People Morano hurt.”
“Drop it. That’s your only play.” The phone clicked off.
Pay struggled to his feet. “We’ve got to search Morano’s properties before those guys get a chance to sanitize them.”
Brooke pulled a list of Morano’s holdings from a file on the table. “Barbara Jane and I will take the warehouse. Richard and Chase can take his penthouse. Pay and Amy, take his Marina home.”
Pay pulled his gun and a grenade off the table. “Go heavy.”
There wasn’t much in the warehouse. Morano’s weight lifting stuff, a powerboat, and an almost empty office suite that included, a desk, secure phone, empty filing cabinet and filthy toilet. Finding nothing useful, Brooke and Barbara Jane went to help Pay in the Marina.
Chase recognized the penthouse from the videos. Other than high-end furnishings, artwork and state-of-the-art video recording equipment, they didn’t find anything useful there, either.
In just over an hour, everyone was searching the Marina home, which turned out to be the treasure trove of Morano’s life.
In addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of art, jewelry and furnishings, Mary Ellen discovered a huge safe cemented into the floor under a hand loomed Indian rug. It took Chase less than ten minutes to cut the hinges off with a portable laser cutter. Inside, were stacks of DVDs, boxes of thumb drives, gold coins, piles of cash, and a single sheet of paper with three handwritten lines of numbers, letters and punctuation marks. Each line was sixteen characters long.
Chase immediately recognized the list as passwords, which he used to crack Morano’s computers. In addition to blackmail emails, he found a list of New York City strip clubs and a lease for a Manhattan penthouse.
By the end of the day, they had compiled an inventory list of Morano’s possessions.
Warehouse, penthouse and personal residence with furnishings: Total value, approximately seven million.
1. $250,000 in U.S. currency; primarily in non-sequential hundred dollar bills.
2. Approximately $500,000 in Canadian $20 gold pieces; investor grade slabbed in plastic coin cases and sealed with holographic seals.
3. Thumb drives and DVDs.
4. Plus furnishings, artwork and high end computer systems.
They destroyed the thumb drives and DVDs. With the help of Craig’s list they sold everything else, but the real estate.
At first, Chase thought it would be hard to sell the properties without clear title. But it turned out to be easy. Pay called a realtor and asked to put them on the market. Claiming to be a successful businessman relocating to Hong Kong, he requested that the necessary documents be sent to him for electronic signatures. As was typical for real estate transactions in California, no ID would be required until it came time to notarize the final closing documents.
Pay and the team picked SF Title, which was owned by one of their blackmail clients. They arranged for Amy, who was a licensed notary, to provide remote signing services for the transaction. She delivered the documents to HQ where Pay signed Morano’s essentially illegible signature and Amy notarized everything.
If anyone asked, Amy could show she had followed the approved system for working with an individual not personally known to her. For ID they used a forged copy of Morano’s driver’s license. With a final flourish, Pay used a pair of tongs to remove Morano’s severed thumb from a bottle of embalming fluid. He carefully dried the appendage, inked it, and then rolled it lightly in the notary log’s thumbprint spot.
When everything was done, twenty-eight days and fourteen hours after the fight at the warehouse, the team was ready to distribute the funds they’d earned. All told, the total came to $15,175,000. With just over seven million coming from the sale of Morano’s properties, and another eight million from their happy blackmail clients.
The first $10,000 went to pay back Richard’s initial investment. An additional $15,000 went to compensate him for damage done to his apartment. $150,000 went to Mary Ellen to pay her medical bills and to compensate her for pain, suffering and lost income.
That left fifteen million.
Per agreement, Pay asked Richard what charity he’d like to donate his portion to; Richard decided to give three million to the University of San Francisco medical school to create a scholarship for financially stressed medical students. Behind the scenes, unbeknownst to Richard, Brooke made sure Mary Ellen would be the first beneficiary of the scholarship.
The remaining funds Richard suggested they donate to a charity that provided funds for children who’d been victims of violent crimes. And he asked that sufficient funds be reserved for him to open a new Revenge School in the city of his choice.
Pay smiled and the team agreed.
One million dollars was reserved to cover the operation for Jon D.
The balance of the funds were split using a previously agreed formula between Amy, Peggy, Brooke, Jon D, Denny, Chase and Pay. The team agreed that Barbara Jane had more than earned a share. Pay didn’t ask how anyone planned to use their money, but he was pretty sure as soon as Morano was dead, Chase would be using his to buy a fractional ownership position in a Gulfstream executive jet.
One month to the day after the shootout, Pay and Chase got on a plane and left for New York City. In their carry on they had several thousand dollars in low-denomination bills, a list containing strip clubs and one of Chinese restaurants.
In their checked luggage were enough weapons to start World War III.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Myles Knapp has been held at gunpoint by the Rio police, fought for his life against a hammer-wielding psycho and lost more full contact judo fights to Marines than he can count. As a reviewer, he’s read over 5,000 thrillers and is determined to read another 5,000. Since 2001, his column, “Grit-Lit,” has appeared in major newspapers and websites including The San Jose Mercury, Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times and affiliates.
A marketing and sales professional, he has lived and worked in the United States, Asia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. When not busy completing his second and third Revenge School novels, Myles is reading, lifting heavy weights and riding his motorcycle or bike.
Myles Knapp, Revenge School (A Pay Back Novel Book 1)