by Laney Kay
“I walked down the hall to her bedroom. The door was locked, so I knocked. No answer. I didn’t hear any signs of life, so I took out my pocketknife and popped the lock. I opened the door and walked inside and her room was spotless and perfect, as usual. Then I see a letter on the dresser addressed to me. I picked it up and stared at it, suddenly afraid to open it. Finally, I ripped off the top flap, unfolded the letter, and began to read.” He took a sip of his water.
I was enthralled. “So don’t keep me hanging. What did it say?”
“I still remember every word.” He began to recite it from memory. “Dear Luke, sorry you had to find out this way, but please consider this to be notice that you and I are done. I am tired of your lack of appreciation for all of my hard work to keep myself and our house so beautiful. Nick and I are leaving for a better life together, so I would appreciate if you would do everything to make our divorce and division of assets as easy as possible. You can send my half of everything to my lawyer, who can forward it to me. Sorry it didn’t work out, but I need a man who appreciates how special I am. Please get this done as soon as possible. Sincerely, Glenda.”
I let out a long, long whistle. “Wow. So what did you do then?”
“I just sat there with the letter in my hand. It made no sense to me. What the hell? She’s leaving me to go with Nick? Why would Nick want Glenda?”
“So I got up, shoved the letter in my back pocket, and went over to her closet and yanked it open. There were a few clothes on hangers, but everything else was gone. Obviously, she’d packed her stuff when she and Nick decided to skip town. And put it in my freaking Camaro convertible. Shit. I couldn’t believe it. They took my favorite car. Unfortunately, the car was in both of our names or I would’ve called the cops and reported a theft. I was so pissed.”
“I went downstairs and as I ran out of the house toward my truck, I caught a glimpse of blue behind the garage. I hadn’t noticed it on the way in, but when I saw it, I realized it was the same color as Nick’s truck so I went to check it out. Sure enough, Nick’s truck was parked beside one of my work trailers behind the garage. At that point, it was starting to sink in, but I guess I needed more proof. I jumped back in my truck and took off back toward Nick’s house. As soon as I got there, I slammed on the brakes, shoved the truck into park, ran up to the front door, and tried to open it. It was locked, so I circled around the house, testing every window until I found a bathroom window that was unlocked. I ripped off the screen, threw up the window and climbed into Nick’s house.”
“First, I went to his bedroom to see if all of his clothes were there, but they were all gone with just his winter coat left in the closet. Next, I went through the house and noticed that all of his photos were gone, along with several paintings his mom had done. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe my best friend and business partner had run off with my wife. Trust me, I wasn’t upset about losing Glenda, but I incredibly upset about Nick’s betrayal. What did this meant to our business? And most important, where the hell was the levee money?”
“I looked for his laptop, but it was missing too, so I grabbed one of Nick’s spare sets of house keys out of the kitchen, locked everything behind me, and headed back to the office. On the way, I called our accountant, Lou Morris, and asked him if he could meet me at the office to take a look at some accounts with me. Even though Lou wasn’t our bookkeeper, I figured he’d dealt with our general numbers for so many years that he would have a good idea of how the accounts were set up and what the federal government required its contractors to do. At the very least, maybe he could help me figure out where the levee money was. Lou told me he’d meet me at the office in about thirty minutes, and to put on some coffee.”
“We pulled in at the same time. We sat down, and as the computer booted up, I handed him Glenda’s letter. I made us some coffee in our office kitchen, and when I came back in, Lou’s eyebrows were halfway up his forehead and he kept saying, ‘Glenda and Nick? No shit? Glenda and Nick?’”
“Once Lou calmed down, I told him about the welders who hadn’t been paid and the money for the levee that wasn’t where it should be, and asked him if he could help me figure out what was going on. Lou said he’d be happy to do it and got to work while I wrote checks for the welders out of my operating account so they could get paid. I called the guys to come pick up their checks and then spent a while returning calls and returning some texts and emails.”
“After about an hour, Lou came in with a grim look on his face and asked me to come see what he’d found. I followed him back to the computer and pulled up a chair beside him.”
“Lou told me I wasn’t looking at the correct account initially, and that most of the money for the various FEMA projects was right where it should be. One account had about $2,000 in it, another had a couple of million dollars that Nick hadn’t been able to touch because it wouldn’t be available for another 5 days, and a few others had $20 thousand here, $30 thousand there.”
I was perched on the edge of my seat. “But no $13 million?”
“Nope. Lou showed me where it was deposited in the main account, and where Nick transferred it to the operating account, and then it was transferred somewhere else, but Lou couldn’t see where. When I pointed out that $13 million doesn’t just disappear, Lou said he was waiting for a call from a contact at the bank, and then we’d know. The guy called back while I was sitting there and told Lou that it had been transferred to a bank in the Cayman Islands and now that account was empty. When I asked him who had an account in the Caymans, he said that apparently it was mine because my name was on it.”
I gasped at the idea. “What? What did he mean it was yours?”
“That’s what I said. I told him I’ve never had an account in the Cayman Islands and I had never touched any of this money. Lou said that Nick had apparently set up the account in my name so it looked like I was the one who stole it.”
Luke was quiet for a moment and I was sitting there with my mouth open. I finally managed to choke out, “Holy shit, Luke. So, what happened? You’ve got this huge job you already got money for and that jackass and your bitch wife took everything and set you up to take the fall. What did you do?”
He shook his head at the memory. “It was a nightmare for a long time. The feds came in and told me that they were going to prosecute me for fraud against the government and then they froze our business accounts. I spent the next 5 years digging out from under all of that crap.”
I was confused. “How did you manage to dig out from under that with your accounts frozen and having every government agency in New Orleans crawling up your ass?”
He leaned back and Diego growled in his sleep at being disturbed. Luke chuckled and settled him more comfortably in his lap. “Well, I was very lucky that I knew a bunch of the FBI agents in New Orleans, so they were, at least, willing to listen to my side of the story. We had renovated their building a few years back, and several of them later had me build or renovate their personal homes, and I was on good terms with all of them. It was also fortunate that Glenda and Nick weren’t exactly master criminals. It didn’t take much for them to follow the paper trails and see that I really had nothing to do with it. My lawyer hopped on dealing with the frozen accounts, and we were able to get back up and running within a week.”
I was impressed. “A week? That’s unbelievable. Usually, working with the federal government takes forever and is a nightmare to deal with.”
Luke nodded. “I know. I think someone up there was looking out for us.” He looked at me, shaking his head slowly back and forth.
I leaned forward and grabbed his hand, squeezed it and then let go, leaning back in my chair. “It’s amazing everything fell into place like it did.”
He laughed, and rubbed his hands over his eyes. “Truthfully, a lot of it was just luck, and I never could have done it if it wasn’t immediately after Katrina. Everyone was desperate to save whatever they could, people were working around the clock to clear out
debris, and we were all trying to get our town back as quickly as possible.”
“It turns out that after 9-11, the federal district court in Louisiana had put emergency plans in place and they actually had their shit together, so within a few days after Katrina, they had a bunch of court employees and federal marshals come move their computers and records to Houston, and they were up and running almost immediately.”
“Our lawyer filed an order for an emergency hearing in the court, and it turns out that Lou, our accountant…” I nodded. “…His uncle was a district judge in New Orleans. Lou told him the situation and asked him to give us a chance and to hear the motion so we could get back to work. He agreed to the hearing and granted the motion to allow me to keep on doing business, but he did put some restrictions in place. I don’t blame them because no one really knew for sure if I was involved, at that point. They put the company in a special receivership situation until everything could be sorted out. The receiver paid all of the bills, oversaw the business, and kept the business going until my name could be cleared.”
I put down my glass. “But how could you keep everything going since Nick ran off with the $13 million from the levee money? You hadn’t bought materials or anything, right?”
Nick shook his head. “No. Before Nick left, we hadn’t bought anything for the levee, but fortunately, we had already bought all of the other materials for the other jobs we were awarded. Plus, we had a lot of materials from our warehouse and leftovers from other jobs, so the materials list was nowhere as bad as it could be. Also, because of the way the FEMA folks were awarding contracts, they were paying insane amounts of money if you could just get jobs done in a hurry, which we were great at doing, so my side of the business had already made a ton of money that was sitting there. And there was still a couple million dollars that hadn’t cleared when Nick left. All that gave me enough financial cushion that I was able to complete all of the jobs we had agreed to do.”
I was amazed. “Holy shit. You must have been working around the clock.”
He laughed at the memory. “All of the time. Day and night. It was insane. It took almost a year before the judge gave me back control over my business accounts, another couple of years before the IRS and the FBI officially cleared me of any wrongdoing and a judge awarded me the entire business, and then another two before all of the jobs were completed, including that levee.” He looked traumatized just talking about it. “I actually completed everything on time and on budget, but, honest to God, it just about killed me. All the money that was left went toward finishing these existing projects, so I also had to pick up as much new business as possible so that I could pay myself something and keep my employees’ salaries and benefits current. I was running around like a crazy man trying to keep all those balls in the air.”
I couldn’t believe he’d managed to do all that by himself for so long. He shrugged. “Well, you do what you have to do. Fortunately, we already had great foremen and supervisors, so they supervised the actual work, while I oversaw the different jobs and kept everything moving.”
He shook his head slowly. “Looking back, I can’t believe we managed to get everything done. The good part was that at the end of that five years, not only was the business still open, but it had actually grown. I worked another couple of years, but I was so fried I needed a break.” He laughed, “I told my sister I thought I had post-traumatic stress disorder. Anyway, I had restructured the business after Nick disappeared and so I sold the whole thing for a shit ton of money, put it in the bank, and took six months off to recover. Then, for the next few years, I flipped houses and did some renovation jobs for friends, and finally decided I needed a total change. That’s when I came here.”
One thought hit me. “Hey wait, so what about Nick and Glenda? Did they get busted?”
He rolled his eyes. “Hell no. I started divorce proceedings immediately, but when I contacted her lawyer to find out where to send the papers, he said he didn’t have any contact information and didn’t know where she was, so I had to put everything on hold for six months to give her time to respond to the papers I filed. We published a notification, but she never answered. In those cases, Louisiana requires you to select another attorney to represent the spouse’s interests in the divorce, which I also had to pay for. When that lawyer asked what I had done to try to find Glenda, I referred her to the FBI agent investigating the case. He told her that Glenda and my business partner had embezzled millions of Katrina funds from our company and then run off together. The FBI knew they crossed the border into Mexico, but then they disappeared, along with my classic Camaro. They theorized that she and Nick were living the high life somewhere like Costa Rica or Belize, but they never had any specific leads.
The attorney turned out to be very reasonable and said that if the FBI said she couldn’t be found, that was good enough for her, and she agreed that all assets should go to me since she had illegally taken more than her share when she stole the money from our business. She presented that to the judge, and considering the circumstances, he agreed. So, at the end, I got all of our personal assets, including the full amount for the sale of the business, and I just walked away from New Orleans.”
I was outraged that Glenda and Nick weren’t in jail. “Didn’t they get charged with anything?”
“Oh yeah, they’ve been charged with all kinds of charges, like false claims against the government; theft of government property; credit card, bank, mail, and wire fraud, but the FBI doesn’t have the resources to pursue them. The good news is that they’re fugitives, so the statute of limitations for the fraud hasn’t run out, plus they’ve increased the penalties for fraud arising from disaster relief funds, so if they ever turn up, they’ll definitely go to prison. The FBI guys I knew worked with the U.S. attorney to make sure that the original levee money was considered to be stolen and I was completely exonerated from any involvement. That case was then closed. Then, FEMA awarded me a separate contract to complete the levee. That way, I could still fulfill my contract, they didn’t have to pay someone an additional $13 million, and I was kept clear of the criminal charges. If they ever catch Nick and Glenda, they will be charged with the theft.”
I still didn’t understand. “So basically, you were awarded a contract for $13 million to build a levee, but you never saw a dime of it?”
He nodded. “Exactly. That original case was closed and the money they stole is considered to still be unrecovered. I was awarded a separate contract to build the levee, I completed the contract, and that way my business and I were completely in the clear. Like I said, it was a nightmare for a few years, but it worked out in the end.”
He looked at me and smiled. “So here I am. I sold my house and everything I owned and moved to Atlanta, and now I’m kind of chilling, renting a little furnished apartment, teaching a few classes, hanging out with old friends, and trying to decide what’s next. I’m fine money-wise, so I can take my time in deciding what to do.”
I smiled back at him. “Sugar, that’s a nice place to be in life.” I shook my head, amazed by his story. “And, by the way, you totally win. Your story was much worse than mine.”
He laughed and rolled his eyes. “Woo hoo, oh yeah, I’m quite a winner.”
I laughed and reached over to squeeze his hand. “Luke, that makes you a complete winner. The fact that you went through all that and came out the other side with your sanity and sense of humor intact is an amazing accomplishment.”
When I said that, he smiled into my eyes and all of a sudden I felt a feeling that I hadn’t felt in a long time. My heart started beating a little faster, my stomach felt a little nervous, and I stared at him, a little freaked out at the sensation. He stared back, and then his gaze dropped to our linked hands and then to my mouth and his gaze became very focused. He pulled me toward him and started leaning toward me, but just then, Diego yawned and started to stretch in Luke’s lap and we both reached for him before he tumbled off onto the floor.
Whatev
er that weird-ass moment was, Diego broke the spell. I jumped to my feet and excused myself, fumbling through the back door. I ran, panicked, into my bathroom and shut the door and locked it behind me. I stared at myself in the mirror and realized that Luke and I had almost kissed. Holy shit, Lola was right. I was actually interested in him.
I told myself to get a grip. So what if I thought he was a nice guy and kind of adorable? That doesn’t mean we’re going to start dating. Maybe it was just some weird moment, or maybe I felt sorry for him after his awful story.
I didn’t know what to do. I realized my phone was in my pocket so I pulled it out and called Lola. I told her in one long breath what had happened, “…And then we looked at each other and he looked at my mouth and I knew he wanted to kiss me and then Diego almost fell off his lap, so I ran to the bathroom and now I’m calling you.”
There was dead silence on the line. I thought I’d lost her. “Lola?”
I heard her take a deep breath. Okay, she was still there. Then I heard her say, “Who is this?”
I thought my head was going to explode. “Ha, ha, hilarious. Lola, be serious. This is not funny.”
She sighed. “Fine. So, that’s it? So you almost kissed. So, what’s the big deal?”
“What’s the big deal?” I couldn’t believe she didn’t get it. This was huge! “I almost kissed Luke, and I’m barely divorced! Oh, and to make it even weirder, I haven’t kissed anyone but Bobby since I was eighteen. What if I suck at it?”
I could tell Lola was trying to be patient. “Ooookay. Let’s look at this like, I don’t know, a normal person, for a minute. Y’all are both single, you’ve been separated and/or divorced for more than a year, and he’s freakin’ hot. And I’m pretty sure you don’t suck at kissing. Daisy, sorry but I really can’t see the problem.”