by Duncan More
“Obviously. It is funny though – the thought of a 53-year-old getting into a 22-year-old or vice-versa – never gonna happen.”
“Still, my curiosity is aroused. I’d love to meet this guy who’s got the rumor mill all abuzz.”
“How about I invite him and his lover to dinner? You haven’t made your lasagna in ages.”
“He has a lover?”
“Yes, Eugene – one of my tellers.”
“Fine. How about Saturday night? We can have the driver pick them up.”
“Sounds good, unless Eugene is doing a performance at Wayne’s Wild West.”
“Oh yes. He’s the one who does drag. He’s the guy Mike Bonavena beat up. I’m afraid I’d have to recuse myself from that case. Personal interest, you know.”
“You could wait for the arson case. You know he tried to burn Wayne’s down with lots of customers inside.”
“That hasn’t even gone to the magistrate’s court yet.”
“So you’ve got something to look forward to. Think of the headline – ‘Bachstein Puts Arsonist Away. Saves Hundreds of Lives.’ Good for your retention campaign.”
“That’s probably two or three years away. I’m sure something more headline grabbing will come before me by then.”
“Look. How about if you put those potatoes in a bowl of water and refrigerate them until tomorrow. I think I’d rather dine out at the country club. If someone thinks I could screw a twenty-two year old, I think I should celebrate. I’ll call Hernando and have him bring the car around.”
“Okay. Just give me time to change.”
Chapter Twelve
On Thursday morning Mr. Fredericks motioned Eugene to his office and had Marge summon Dillon. “It seems there are some disgruntled feelings about my hiring you. My husband received an anonymous phone call that I thought both of you should know about. Claims I visited Dillon’s office, bent him over his desk and screwed the hell out of him. Eugene, I just wanted you to know there is absolutely no truth to that story. Dillon, keep your back covered. Address the situation as you see fit. Also, Donald would like to meet both of you for dinner on Saturday night if that’s convenient. You’re not doing a show or anything, I hope.”
“Nothing planned,” Eugene replied.
“Wonderful. I’ll send the car for you at six. We’ll dine at seven. Dress is casual. Now get back to work.”
As they left the office, Eugene just smiled at Dillon. “You’ll love their house. It’s gorgeous. Mr. Fredericks and the judge always host a Christmas party for the employees here and at the courthouse.”
“He’s married to a judge!”
“Technically, the judge is married to him. Mr. Fredericks popped the question shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, but they’ve been together for years.”
“Twenty-seven. He told me that the day we went to lunch. Speaking of lunch, what did you make for us?”
“Chef Salad minus the hard-boiled eggs and onion rings. Everything else in the refrigerator: spinach, cherry tomatoes, diced ham, shredded carrots, sliced mushrooms and cucumbers, olives, cheese chunks, garlic croutons, and French dressing.”
“You know, this diet of yours is going to make me healthy.”
“Well, I expect to keep you around for a long, long time – at least twenty-seven years.”
“See you later.”
Dillon returned to his office and thought about how to handle the problem. After much consideration of different approaches from direct confrontation to ignoring the rumor, he asked the others to come to his office.
“It has come to my attention that there are rumors being spread about me. I wish to clear them up immediately for those who do not know. I’m sharing a house with Eugene. I’m also sharing his bed. That does not make me a whore. I do not and will not have sex with anyone else. I am quite content. So, whoever made a phone call, please restrain yourself in the future. Now, there are a few things that need to be done as soon as possible. Mrs. Williams, please contact those borrowers in arrears to whom we sent letters. Let’s get them in and see if we can renegotiate their loans somehow. This is the friendly bank. We don’t want to foreclose unless it’s unavoidable. Second, there are new computer programs on the market that can handle our work more efficiently. Mr. Phelps, would you please check out a program called Intellex and let me know what you think of it, for speed and ease. Mr. Hopkins, please look into Cashwire.com for their latest loan processing offering. They were supposed to update it this summer. I’d like your evaluations before noon tomorrow so I can discuss these with Mr. Fredericks at one. Thank you so much.” Dillon preferred that final expression like Kyra Sedgwick’s line in The Closer.
Alone, Dillon smiled at himself. He already knew Intellex was a good program and the one he was leaning toward. He was also aware that Cashwire had updated but the program still required a large amount of time to enter the initial data, but processed that data extremely fast and provided easy to understand printouts. He would be interested in their reports, not so much for the information but for how the men evaluated the program.
Mavis Williams returned shortly to the office. “You must be psychic. Michael Kistler is in the waiting room. He wanted to see what we could do to help him with his loan.”
“And your opinion of him?”
“Oh, good man. Had a mild heart attack and just isn’t able to push himself like he used to. Does home repairs and had to hire an extra assistant. But if you want a bathroom remodeled or a deck added to your house or a patio, Mike is the man to call.”
“What are the particulars of his loan?”
“Borrowed $110,500 for his home. Balance is down to just over $40,000. $41.328.18 to be exact.”
“I know it’s not smart banking, but let’s see if we can get him a new loan for that balance. Hate to take a home when he’s already paid nearly seventy grand back. I know we should hold for the original balance. It’s good banking policy, but not a good banking policy for a friendly bank. Just the mega-banks. Invite him to join us.”
They had a rather friendly meeting that left everyone satisfied, pending board approval. The bank would provide a total of $50,000 to cover the balance of the original loan and any unforeseen expenses for the business or Michael’s health; Michael, because of his previous heart attack, would name the bank in a $200,000 life insurance policy and he would have a 2% lower interest rate.
“You know,” Mavis said, after Michael was gone, “Sam Waters never would have done that. He was strictly by the book. I doubt he would have even thought of it. I think I’m really going to enjoy working with you. If word gets out what you just did – and I’m sure it will – you probably just did more to insure the good name of this bank throughout the town.”
“True, and should Mr. Kistler unfortunately die in the meantime, I make us two hundred grand on a fifty-grand note. That’s what I call good business.”
When she returned to her desk, Mavis noticed Boyd staring intently at his computer screen. She presumed he was checking out the cashwire.com website programs, while Greg was busy with crediting the previous day’s loan repayments in his ledger. While he trusted the computer work, he still preferred to have a hard personal copy. As Dillon had discovered two weeks earlier, mistakes in data entry do occur. “Aren’t you checking out that website Mr. Evans directed you to?”
“No, I’ll do it at home tonight. That way I get out of helping my wife lug boxes from the attic to the garage for Saturday’s sale. My boy can help her when he’s done with his homework. By the way, you interested in some younger child’s ski poles? I can get you a good price.”
“Afraid not. My darlings are all grown and gone, and the grandkids aren’t old enough yet.”
“How about a George Foreman countertop grill?”
“Sorry.”
“Damn,” said Boyd from his desk. “Down to three cards. Needed to unearth the nine of diamonds. Oh well, maybe next time.”
“If you’ve got so much time on your hands, Boyd, how a
bout calling Frank Eastman and Bill Troutman and have them come in tomorrow at nine or ten for a meeting with Mr. Evans. I already have Lenny Kalinowski coming in this afternoon at two.”
“I can’t. I’ve got to check my e-mail and then check out that cashwire.com thing. Besides, fagboy gave that job to you.”
She shook her head sadly and picked up the phone and called Bill Troutman. She told Dillon that she had arranged for two renegotiations for Friday morning and that she had asked Boyd’s help, but that he was too busy doing other things.
Friday morning both Bill Troutman and Frank Eastman entered Dillon’s office with trepidation and left smiling. They liked dealing with this new guy who seemed to have their well-being, as well as the bank’s, foremost in his mind.
While Mavis, smiling at the results of the meetings, returned to her desk to have all the data ready for the Board of Director’s meeting at two, Dillon summoned Greg to his office for his evaluation of Intellex.
“Well, what did you think of the program?”
“Wow, man! That thing did things in seconds that takes our current program minutes to do. It seemed easy to enter the data. The only thing that I see as a drawback is the initial cost of the program, but I liked its versatility and capability.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, with varying interest rates, it’s still able to quickly calculate monthly payments regardless of length of loan, always has an instant total repayment amount ready, and if the interest is a variable rate, the figures show up instantly. Spent about three hours last night putting the sample through its paces, and it was more a mental challenge to try and stump it. I really like it. Compared to our system, it’s like a mule to a souped-up Nascar. Just don’t think our Board of Directors would go for the cost. They’re a pretty stingy bunch. I mean, I’ve been here 14 years and only ever got a $100 Christmas bonus. Same as I got when I was a newbie here only four months.”
“Thank you for your input, Mr. Phelps. I appreciate it.”
“Please, call me Greg. I always think of Mr. Phelps as my father. Only my son’s friends call me Mr. Phelps.”
“How many kids you got? I mean, if we’re going to be working together, I think I should know more about you as a person. Mrs. Williams has been filling me in on the people I’ve been meeting about their loans. I guess I should know the people I’m working with even better.”
“Just one wife – June – married eighteen years. Have a sixteen-year-old son who at fourteen told me he preferred men to women, like you.”
“Not exactly. I didn’t really know until about a month ago. Liked girls, just couldn’t force myself to go to bed with one. Actually, Eugene is my first and only. But I’m quite comfortable with that.”
“I think I would be too, if I were so inclined, and younger. He’s a good looker, wonderful personality, great with people, honest to a fault. And I’m not saying that to suck up. I have liked him since the day he started working here. Just not the way you do.”
“I’m glad. I wouldn’t want two here having the hots for him.” Dillon laughed a little which put Greg at ease. “Well, Greg, would you ask Mr. Hopkins to come in. I want to hear his take on Cashwire.com.”
Boyd entered the office. “Guess you want to know what I think of Cashwire.com. Well, you were right. Current version was released July 1st. It’s a modern program complete with lots of bells and whistles. Seemed easy to use. Didn’t seem too much different from our current program which we have been using since 2006. Just don’t see why we have to change. Waste all those hours learning the new program when the old one works just fine.”
“What did you think of the speed?”
“It’s fast.”
“How long did it take you to enter some data in the sample?”
“Not long at all.”
“Do you think that having a non-changeable interest rate is a positive factor?”
“Oh definitely. Makes the record keeping so much easier.”
“How long did you spend evaluating it?”
“Most of yesterday. Tried all sorts of variables.”
“Such as…?”
“10-15-20-30 year mortgages, car loans, business loans.”
“What about T-bills?”
“Them too.”
“Thank you so much. That will be all. Go and enjoy lunch.”
Dillon knew immediately that Boyd was going to be an old fuddy-duddy, not amenable to changes in the business. Cashwire definitely could compute anything regardless of how often the rate changed; it also had nothing to do with T-bills. He was now curious as to what other things he had been doing. It was obvious it was not evaluating Cashwire. He was also pretty sure after his conversation with Greg that Boyd initiated the anonymous phone call to the judge.
After another salad lunch with Eugene, Dillon, five minutes early, gathered all his files on the renegotiated loans and the Intellex system and was waiting in Mr. Fredericks’ outer office.
“I’m sorry. Mr. Fredericks is running a bit late. It hasn’t been a good day so far. Sam’s drawer was short a hundred dollars last night and he is livid. They can’t find the error.”
“Perhaps I can help. I’m pretty good with things like that. I’d hate to see Sam get into more trouble.”
“Let me see. I’ve never seen Mr. Fredericks so upset before.” She pressed her intercom button and said, “Mr. Evans is here for his one o’clock and has offered to see if he could find the error. Would you like him to come in or wait?”
Five minutes later, after just looking at all the checks, Dillon announced, “Here it is. Here is a check written out for six hundred and thirty-one dollars, but the numbers say $531 or $631, it’s hard to tell. The machine read the check numbers, not the words, and misread it. As it was a deposit, no actual cash was lost, just incorrectly tabulated. That’s easy to correct. Void the transaction with Philly National and resubmit it electronically as the correct amount. Thirty seconds to fix. That’s one problem with this electronic system. Definitely not Sam’s fault.”
“Thank you, Dillon. Thank you, Sam. I am so glad this is not your error. After all, you promised me your best. Now if you’ll excuse us, Dillon and I have things to go over regarding these damn electronics.” Once they were alone, Mr. Fredericks continued, “I must have looked at that check twenty times in the last two hours. Never would have caught it. Read the numbers and the words as $631. Now what do you have for me?”
Dillon went over the loans, and how and why they were renegotiated, and then he made his pitch for the Intellex system, adding that the mistake in Sam’s drawer never would have happened with their newer check readers.
“Now, normally I do all the presentations of loans to the board for their approval, but I think today you should do it, so they get to meet you. And I think you would be more successful in presenting the Intellex system. You understand it, and though it is expensive and they are fiscally most conservative, I think your knowledge could get them to approve a changeover.”
Obediently, he followed Mr. Fredericks to the board room – a dark wood-paneled room with old portraits hanging on the walls. Seated around a long rectangular heavy oak table were nine people whom Mr. Fredericks introduced one by one. Dillon was a little surprised, as he figured the board of directors would be a bunch of grey-bearded senior citizens in dark three-piece suits. Only three fit his stereotype. Three of the men were there with just a shirt and tie, and one was even tie-less with an open collar. Two older women were there in modest dresses, and one woman, probably in her mid-thirties, was in a serious pants suit. For some reason, Dillon thought he had already met her.
When Mr. Fredericks turned the presentation over to him, he began with his background in college, his knowledge of accounting and computer information systems, and his CPA results. He continued with how he came to check the books before the bank examiner and the reasons Mr. Fredericks hired him to bring the banking systems into the new millennium. He presented the first renegotiated loan to Mich
ael Kistler, how it was done and why. He met a lot of disapproval from the board. They couldn’t see the reasoning. If they foreclosed on a $110,000 loan which had only $40,000 remaining, the bank would have that paid $70,000, plus gain the home now worth at least $150,000. It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t until Dillon explained about the life insurance policy and all the goodwill this loan would generate in the community. Added to that was the fact that if the bank foreclosed, there were legal fees, and they probably would not get a home buyer immediately and the town would know they foreclosed on a rather popular man in the town. It was not the reputation the friendly bank would want.
The older gentlemen remained adamantly against approving the loan, but others saw the advantage, particularly if a man with a previous heart attack died from another. The bank would have the money and the widow would still have her house. To them it was a win/win situation. The final vote was 6-3in favor of approving. The other three loans were more quickly approved by the same margin.
Dillon approached the next topic: Intellex. “When Mr. Fredericks hired me, as I said, it was to bring this bank into the present with a look to the future. Your computer systems are outdated, and as we found out this morning, prone to error. Without naming names, he retold the problem that Sam had. He presented all the factual information on Intellex, why it was way better than the current system, why it was better than the other best product on the market, Cashwire. The only problem is that it will probably take us a week to upload all the data on current loans and their history and status, but all new transactions will be smooth and easy. It was during a question and answer session that Dillon finally realized where he had seen the woman in the pants suit – she had been at Gia’s show the night of Michael Bonavena’s assault. She was accompanying the girl that Larry had pointed out as the underweight dyke. When Mr. Fredericks asked for a vote of approval, ayes and nays were evenly divided until Miss Houser was called upon.