A Place in the Sun

By Tim Tingle

While on vacation in Costa Rica with his wife and friends, Travis Lee, also tries to fulfill a promise to his uncle. He is instructed to find a property that was given to his uncle, and to sell it. Not even knowing for sure if the property exists, he not only finds it, but also digs up a lot more than he expected to find.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524613723

Book preview

1

Janice loved the new house that Travis had built for her. It was just like her old house, but with up-grades that they had discussed making for years, if they ever decided to built another house. Of course, they never thought they would have to build another house, because the one they had lived in for the past 22 years had served them well in raising five children, and they could see no reason why it would not do them the rest of their natural lives. In retrospect, they could not have chosen a better neighborhood to raise their children, right there in rural Arlington County, near Laurel Grove, where Travis had grown up and lived all his life.

But that was before the fire, which burned their old house to the ground, along with almost all their worldly possessions.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the fire, which started in the kitchen, and quickly engulfed the entire house. Travis, Janice, and Calvin were out of the country for 'health reasons' when it happened. When Travis found out about it, he said nothing to Janice at first, but flew home to assess the situation, report it to the insurance company, and get their new house under construction. He hoped to get the new house built, before Janice knew the old one was gone. And in this, he succeed, because there was much for them to do in Ecuador.

Ah yes, Ecuador! Why was it that Travis and his family were really gone to Ecuador? To make a long story short, Travis had been involved in a misunderstanding with the Muslim Brotherhood, while in Egypt. They were so pissed off that they sent assassins to Alabama to kill him. Had they done their homework, and checked out Travis' past, they might have aborted the hit. But they didn't, and the two Muslim hit men left Travis' property in body bags.

Fearing that the Muslim Brotherhood might try again, Travis needed to keep his family out of harm's way, so he looked for somewhere to send them where they would be safe. Therefore, he sent them to Ecuador. Why Ecuador? Because Travis had just recently gone in with three of his life-long buddies to buy 900 acres of land in Ecuador, bordering on the Napo River. Much of the land was untouched rain forest, covered with impressive teak and mahogany trees. But it wasn't the valuable exotic wood that spurred them to buy the land, because by international law, they could not legally cut the trees.

The land also contained a rich trove of minerals, which contributed to the formation of valuable trapiche emeralds. But they could not outright mine the emeralds, because they did not own the mineral rights to the land they had just bought.

So they struck upon the plan to build an eco-lodge on the property. In building the eco-lodge, they could secretly mine out more than enough emeralds to pay for the property, and their investments. They were also encouraged by their lawyer, to donate half of the property (the half without the emeralds, of course) to the International Nature Conservancy, which was a non-profit environmental organization that would preserve the rain forest. This would provide all of the investors with a tax shelter that would almost off-set the cost of the land.

So they would be running an eco-lodge as their up-front business, and would profit from that. But the real profits would come from the covert emerald mining operation, if they could keep it a secret from Exxon, who still owned the mineral rights.

So Travis had a legitimate reason to be in Ecuador, helping Steve get the project under way. But the reason his family was also there, was because of the before mentioned attack at his home by the Muslim Brotherhood.

So what had Travis done that was so bad that they put a hit out on him? After the 9/11 attacks, he was recruited back into active service by a secretive agency which he used to work for, and was given an assignment in the Middle East. Due to bad intelligence, the assignment was botched, and caused a serious international incident. The bad guys found out his real identity, and sent the two hit-men to his home in Alabama. They failed, and Travis immediately moved his family to Ecuador, until the danger was past.

The agency for which Travis had worked, had sent agents to pose as him and his wife, and set a trap for future assassins at his home, in case they tried the hit again. Their aim was to capture and interrogate one of these terrorists, to gain valuable information. It was while these agents were house-sitting for Travis, that they accidentally started a grease fire in the kitchen that burned their house down.

So that was, in a nut shell, why Janice had a new home. She was not ungrateful for the new house, but she was still seething over the loss of her old one, and all her irreplaceable items of sentimental value. But it was like Travis had told her, everything she had lost was just stuff, and stuff was replaceable. To which Janice replied, "Yeah, but it was my stuff!" He reminded her that half the stuff they had lost was his stuff, but he was going to just put it behind him. At least no one had been killed in the fire. They still had fond memories of their past life before the fire, and that was something that a fire couldn't take away from them.

Reluctantly, Janice agreed to move on as well. What else could she do? So for the past month, while Calvin was still in Ecuador helping Steve get the eco-lodge up and running, she had been furnishing the new house, with the insurance money from the old house, and the eco-lodge profits. This morning she was measuring a wall, because she was thinking about coercing Travis into building shelves here, when the phone rang. She did not recognize the caller ID number, and Travis had warned her against answering such calls, because it could be the bad guys again, scoping them out for another hit. But she couldn't resist. She answered it anyway.

Lee residence.

A deep, raspy male voice replied.

Is this Janice?

Yes. With whom am I speaking?

This is Uncle Bulldog. Do you remember me?

Janice hesitated, then replied, Yes. But it has been a long time! I thought you would be dead by now.

Bulldog erupted into his signature raspy laugh, that sounded like clapping two bricks together, which evolved into a fit of coughing, that finally ended with a slight gagging, and then a clearing of his throat. "That's funny, Janice. A real riot. I'm sure you wish I was dead, but no, I am still hanging on. Living and breathing."

I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound like that.

"Aw, it's okay. I know you don't like me, and I'm cool with that. I admit that I haven't done a whole lot to improve my image over the years. Yeah, that's my fault. But family is still family."

What has it been? Twenty years or more? Janice asked.

Oh yeah, at least. So how are you and Travis doing? And the kids! How many kids do you have now?

We had five children, and they have all flown from the nest now, except Calvin, the youngest.

Five kids! That's great! I think you only had two, the last time I saw you. But that was, like you said, at least 20 years ago.

And if I remember correctly, you and your wife had seven children?

Yeah, but they were grown and gone from home 20 years ago! They're in their 40's and 50's now. Is Travis still a coal miner?

No, he left the mine almost three years ago. Now he is an insurance investigator.

"An insurance investigator? The hell you say! That don't even sound like something that Travis would want to do!"

Well, he seems to like it, and he makes a lot of money, and he travels all the time.

Travels all the time, huh? Where does he travel to?

All over the world. He investigates plane crashes, so he goes where the crashes are.

That's really interesting. Can I talk to him? Is he home now?

He is gone to town right now, but he should be back any time. Would you like for him to call you back?

Yes, I certainly would. I'd like to catch up on the family gossip, and chew the fat with him. I was talking to Myrtle earlier today. That's who gave me your phone number. Yes, tell him I called.

Your number is on the caller ID. I'll tell him.

Good. And also tell him that I might have something that he can help me with. I'll make it worth his while. A proposition that he can't refuse.

Er...okay. I'll tell him.

After she hung up the phone, she thought it might not be such a good thing, to tell Travis that Bulldog had called. From what little she remembered about him, Bulldog was not exactly Travis's favorite uncle. Nor was she very fond of him either, back then. She supposed that it was the profession that Bulldog was in. She wondered if he was still in Miami? Perhaps she should have asked that. Oh well, she would pass the message on to Travis anyway.

Travis drove up ten minutes later, and went past the house, to the chicken pen, where he unloaded several bags of chicken feed into the storage shed. Janice went out to meet him as he worked.

You need to return a phone call when you get to the house.

Who was it? Jim?

No.

General Morgan?

No.

My publisher?

No.

"Okay, instead of us playing this silly game, why don't you just tell me who called?" Travis said, impatiently.

You'd never guess who it was! It was Bulldog!

Who?

Your Uncle Bulldog!

Oh, okay. But why would he be calling me? Did someone in the family die?

No, I think he just wants to catch up on family news.

Well, the news is, the rest of us have gotten along just fine without him all these years! Frankly, I am surprised that he's still alive, considering the business he is in. It's a profession that hardly anyone lives long enough to retire from.

"Exactly what does he do?"

You don't remember?

"I don't think I ever knew exactly what his business was, just that it was something illegal. I knew that you didn't like him, but your dad did."

Yeah, he was Daddy's younger step-brother, and Daddy always did like him. And Bulldog thought a lot of Daddy too, because they grew up together. When I was a kid, Daddy used his vacation every summer to take us to Miami, because he wanted to stay in touch with Bulldog. And sometimes Bulldog would come up to Alabama to see us, but not as often. I think part of the allure for Daddy going to see him so often was more of a morbid fascination with Bulldog's chosen profession, than anything. And now, looking back, it was probably a lot more dangerous for us to visit him than any of us knew at the time. We could have been killed in the cross-fire, just by being there.

Good lord! What kind of business was he in?

Well, when he went to Miami in the '60's, he was a tree surgeon, and a really good one. He had several crews of men who removed trees from residential and commercial areas, and did a good job. And it was a profession that paid really well too, in South Florida. But over the years, he began to dabble in other, more 'questionable' things that paid even better, until it got to the point that his tree surgeon business was just a cover for what he really did.

Which was what?

He was a smuggler. He would smuggle things into the States from the islands. People, drugs, jewelry, guns, it didn't matter what, as long as it paid well. Bulldog told me and Daddy that he could make $100,000 in one night, if he smuggled the right things, for the right people. He had access to several small airplanes, and had speed-boats stashed away all over South Florida, that could out-run anything the Coast Guard had. In fact, the Coast Guard shot him down over the Everglades one night, but he survived the crash, and eluded the man-hunt afterwards.

Mercy! I didn't know all that about him. Janice said.

Yeah, he is a pretty hard-core individual himself. He has been known to execute his rivals and people who double cross him, then dispose of their bodies in the Everglades. He has to deal with some pretty rough characters in his line of work. That's why I'm surprised that he's still alive. Someone should have put a hit out on him long ago. The fact that he is still alive, tells you just how good he is at what he does, and that he is very lucky. He has got to be in his 70's by now. One vacation when we went down to see him, he was in the emergency room at the hospital, having buck-shot removed from his ass. He said he was running as fast as he could, but he couldn't out-run that buck-shot!

Who shot him?

"He didn't say, and we didn't ask. He was a big, imposing fellow. In his prime, he weighed 350, but it wasn't fat. He was just big! I remember one of the few times he came up to visit us. His son Mike, who was my age, came with him. When they arrived, Daddy was at work, and I was still at school, so he and Mike borrowed my shotgun and went hunting in the woods. Of course, they got lost. When they didn't get back before dark, his wife started to panic. She called the County Deputies to look for him. When they asked for a description of her husband, she said, 'He's as big as a grizzly bear, and almost as mean!'. To which the Deputy replied, 'And you're worried about his safety'?"

So he would have been a really big target for anyone wanting to kill him.

Yeah, but I think he had a little help in staying alive. It just so happened that his brother-in-law was a Narcotics Officer in Miami. What we would call a DEA agent today. I always thought that was an ironic fact. Though Edward was on the opposite side of the law from Bulldog, they got along pretty well. I'm sure Edward knew what Bulldog did, but he looked the other way. In fact, they probably worked together secretly. I can envision Bulldog eliminating his competition, one by one, by tipping off his nephew about their operations. Edward weeded out his competition for him, and in the process, earned a lot of citations, for his good police work. He kind of deliberately 'overlooked' his brother-in-law's dealings. I know that on at least one occasion, Edward's superiors supposedly asked him why he didn't go after Bulldog, because he was obviously on their radar as a smuggler. Edward replied that he was just a 'small fish', and he was more important to the DEA as an informant. So Bulldog was snitching out his competition, and as a reward, was allowed to operate just under the stern gaze of the law. In a sense, the DEA was protecting Bulldog, by legally eliminating his enemies. Maybe that's one reason why he's still alive.

Well, he sounded rough over the phone. I think he might be in bad health. He said he wanted you to do something for him.

What?

He didn't say. That's why he wants you to call him back, I think.

Hmph! He is sadly mistaken, if he thinks I'm going to do something for him that's illegal! Travis said. I learned a long time ago, that he doesn't mind involving family in his business. At least one of his sons did time in jail for getting involved in his business. He even tried to get Daddy to do things for him, but Daddy knew better than to get involved. He was fond of Bulldog, but knew better than to get involved in his business.

What did he want Chester to do?

Something like laundering money for him. Daddy just told him no. I think the IRS would have caught him trying to do something like that. The IRS watched Bulldog like a hawk. And because the DEA wouldn't arrest him for smuggling, the IRS tried to get him for non-payment of taxes. Bulldog made no secret of the fact that he had tons of money. He was always buying new sports cars, and the IRS was constantly confiscating them, for back taxes. The same with Bulldog's houses. The IRS would confiscate his house and property, and he would just go out and buy another one. It took the IRS about eight months to go through the red tape of confiscating property, so he got to live there almost a year before he had to move again. And every time he moved, he bought a house that was bigger and more expensive than the last one! That was just to stick a thumb in the eye of the IRS, and say 'so what?'. I know every time Daddy went down to Miami to visit Bulldog, he had to call ahead and get direction to his new house.

That's crazy! Janice said.

Well, Bulldog liked it that way. He liked to be flamboyant and throw his money around. I mean, when you made as much money as he did, buying a new house to him was like buying a new pair of shoes. He had his realtor friend on speed-dial.

Wow. Janice said.

The last time I saw Bulldog, was when my Mom and Dad drove down there to see him and Terri, and Dad had to go into the hospital down there for heat stroke, or something. What year was that?

You mean when Chester had those fainting spells, and the doctor didn't want him to drive back home?

Yeah, that's what it was.

I think that was the same year you took Jenny to Peru.

So it was about eight years ago. I remember that I flew to Miami, to drive Mom back home in their car, and we sent Dad home on an airplane. Yeah, that was the last time I actually saw Bulldog. He was starting to have health problems even then, and it was slowing him down. At that time, he was concerned that the IRS was closing in on him, and he was afraid that he wasn't going to have any money left in his old age. That was when I made a proposition to him. I suggested that he could give me one million dollars in cash, and I would take it home and spread it out in investments, and CD's, and stocks, so it would be building interest for the next ten years. But after ten years, I would give him the one million dollars back, and I would keep the interest I made off of it. And if he was deceased after ten years, I would give it to Terri, his widow. That way, she would have money to fall back on, in case the IRS got all they had.

You offered to do that?

Yeah, but I don't guess he trusted me, because he said no. Hey, I was just trying to help out his wife, because I know they won't have anything left after he dies. They have plenty of money, when he can make his smuggling runs. But they are both big spenders. They can go through a lot of money in no time, and if he is not able to smuggle, then they will run out real quick. And because the IRS is watching them so closely, they can't invest in anything themselves.

I'm glad he didn't trust you, because then you'd be arrested for laundering his money!

No, I think I could have spread it out in so many different accounts, in so many different names, that I could have pulled it off. I would have had accounts in 20 different banks, in the names of all the kids, and even the dogs! As long as each deposit was under $9,000, it wouldn't have attracted any scrutiny from the IRS.

Janice just shook her head. Her husband had done some crazy things before, but that scheme would have landed him in prison. And you would have done something like that without asking me?

"Well yeah! If you didn't know about it, they couldn't send you to jail! Somebody needed to be here to watch the kids."

If you call Uncle Bulldog back, and he wants you to do something like that, you tell him no! I don't want you going to jail for something stupid like that!

Don't worry! I'm older and wiser now.

And there is no fool, like an old fool!

Old is what I will be in another 30 years!

Have you looked in the mirror lately, Travis?

I don't like mirrors.

Why, because they speak the truth?

Something like that.

As she was leaving, he thought about something else, and called her back.

What? she asked.

Before I went to the feed store, I was digging around in the ruins of our old house, and I found it.

Found what?

That ammo box full of old gold and silver coins that Calvin said was hidden in the wall of his bedroom closet. I found it!

He'll be glad to hear that when he gets back from Ecuador. Where is it?

Right here, let me show it to you. He reached down in the feed barrel to retrieve it, as he told about how he found it. It was buried under a lot of chalky ash, that was what was left of the sheetrock from the walls. It was an awfully hot fire. The ammo box itself was warped and distorted from the heat. I broke it apart and found this.

He pulled a large rectangular brick of goldish metal from the barrel, and brushed the cracked corn off it. It was shaped like the bottom of the ammo box it had been hidden in. He threw the bar onto the tailgate of the truck, with a heavy metallic clang.

It melted! Janice said, stating the obvious.

Yep, that was a pretty hot fire, to melt those coins into a chunk like that! It's kind of neat though. Look at this. See this round gold spot, surrounded by silver? That's where a gold coin melted, after the silver had already melted and run into the spaces surrounding it. Calvin is going to hate that they melted, but at least the precious metal is still there.

But the gold and silver is all mixed up together!

That's no problem. When I went to town, I stopped by Lacey Jewelers, to ask a few questions, and he said that when they melt down a hunk of metal like this, the gold and silver will separate again. So Calvin can melt it down again, separate the gold from the silver, and sell it as melt silver and gold, at whatever the market price is at the time. Yeah, it would have been worth more as old coins, but at least he has this.

I'll carry it to his room for him. Wow, it's heavy!

It's about 15 or 20 pounds, by my estimate.

2

When Travis got through unloading the chicken feed, he walked up the driveway to his parent's house. Chester and Lois Lee had lived there since Chester bought this land back in '62. He built Lois a house that she could call their 'dream home', after living in rental homes all their married lives.

They had met in 1942, during World War II. Chester had come straight off their Sumiton, Alabama farm and joined the Marines. After Boot Camp, he was shipped by rail to San Diego, California, to await deployment to fight the Japs in the pacific.

This in itself was quite an adventure for a farm boy from Alabama, who grew up dirt poor during the Great Depression. Even the rigors of military training was exciting to him, and he couldn't wait to go halfway around the world to show those Japs a thing or two.

But as luck would have it, he caught pneumonia while drilling in the rain, and he had it bad for several days. The Marine doctor shook his head and said the boy would probably not recover. While he was down with the pneumonia, his unit moved out to the South Pacific, where they later fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the entire war, and suffered a 90% casualty rate. Perhaps it was a good fate that Chester almost died from pneumonia, because he missed almost certain death in the South Pacific.

After his platoon shipped out, the drill sergeant got with the military doctor, and they sat Chester up and forced him to chug a 16 ounce glass of red whisky. Said the sergeant,

"It'll cure him, or kill him, but one way or the other, he'll be getting his ass out of that bed!"

After this 'whisky treatment', Chester slept for 48 hours, but when he finally woke up, he had miraculously recovered from the pneumonia.

While he was waiting to be re-assigned to a new unit, he was temporarily assigned to KP duty, where he learned that war could be hell, in trying to cook three meals a day, for 6,000 soldiers. But he held up pretty well, and his commanding officers noticed that he seemed to be a pretty good cook as well. So as fate would have it, he was assigned to the job permanently, and served his country, by literally serving his fellow soldiers who passed through San Diego, on their way to the war.

And that was about the time he met Lois, during a week-end pass from the base. He visited a public swimming pool in Escondido, where Lois was working as a life guard. He pretended to be drowning, so she would have to 'save him'. Relationships developed quickly during war time. They were married a month later. A year later, their first child was born. Just after the war ended, they had their second child, both girls.

With the war over, Chester decided he had seen enough of the world, and made plans to go back to the farm in Alabama, and to take his new family with him. They got train tickets to Birmingham, where his Papa and Mama met them at the train station to see his new family for the first time. After the happy reunion, Chester got Papa aside and asked if they could stay at the farm, until they could find a place of their own. Papa said he wished they could, because they could sure use a few more hands on the farm, but he was one of eleven children, and most of his older brothers and sisters were married, and had their families with them on the farm as well, so there really wasn't any room for another family, unless they shared a room with somebody. Chester didn't want to do that.

Well, Papa said, I reckon the only place I can offer you then, is out in the barn. You can have that corner feed lot, where we had the hogs put up a few years ago. It's mostly closed in.

It was literally better than nothing. Almost. It was Summer time, so it didn't matter that you could feel the wind blowing through the wooden slats that made up the walls. And the floor was dirt (or more accurately, dried hog shit), but a layer of fresh sawdust would make it as good as new. The roof didn't leak, so at least it was dry, unless there was wind blowing in from the southwest. Besides, it was only temporary, until someone moved out of the house, or somebody died, whichever came first.

Travis often wondered what his mother had thought, when she learned that she had gone from the glamorous lifestyle of a life guard in sunny Southern California, to living in a used hog-pen in the back-woods of Alabama! Did she ever wonder where she made the wrong turn? Did she consider packing her suitcase, and going back to California? Well, no, because back then, marriage vows meant something, and when she agreed to love him, 'for better or for worst', she had to believe that this was the 'worst' part. If this was where Chester was, then this was where she would be.

No doubt, it was at this lowest point in their marriage, that Chester made his promise to her. The promise that if she would put up with this temporary disgrace of living in an old hog pen, then one day, he would build her a house that she could call her 'dream home'. And true to his word, sixteen years, and six kids later, after he finally landed a good paying job in the coal mines, he was able to do it. He bought 20 acres of good farm land in Laurel Grove, and build her that dream home. And they had been here, living happily for the past forty years, and would most likely, continue to live out their days here.

He went up the front steps, and Chester's dog 'woofed' just enough to let them know that company had arrived. If the dog had barked with a hostile tone, then Chester would have come to the door with his shotgun. But a mild 'woof' meant that the visitor was family.

Anybody home? he called, though he knew they were, because the car and truck were both there.

In the kitchen! came a reply from his dad. His dad was sitting at the kitchen table working the crossword puzzle from the daily newspaper. His mother was engaged in her favorite pastime, cooking something for Chester. Come in and get a cup of coffee, Travis!

Travis walked to the coffee pot and got a cup out of the cabinet. He looked sideways at the old 'percolator' coffee pot, as his dad called it.

You're still using that old thing? Ain't it an antique by now?

It don't matter how old something is, as long as it still works! his dad said, without looking up from his crossword. His statement was obviously inferring that 'old people' were still useful too.

Didn't me and Janice get you a 'Mr. Coffee' coffee maker for Christmas one year?

You did, and we appreciate it. It is in the hall closet, still in the box. When this 'percolator' don't perk no more, we'll get it out and figure out how to use it!

Well, okay. Travis said, as he poured a cup of coffee, added cream and sugar, and then went to the ice maker for ice to cool it off. Chester started to ask what he was doing, but then remembered. Travis lost a large section of his intestines in the Vietnam War, and couldn't drink hot beverages. He sat down at the table across from Chester.

What brings you around, Travis? his mom asked. She knew her son hardly ever came to see them, unless he had a reason. Is Janice over the shock of losing her house yet?

Yeah, she's over the shock, but she's still pissed off that I didn't tell her about the fire earlier.

Chester looked up from his crossword and pointed his pencil at Travis. I done told you about using that kind of language in front of your mother!

What? You mean 'pissed off'? That's in every day use now days, Dad!

Not in this house it ain't!

It's okay, Chester! she said. I hear it on TV every day. It's no big deal!

Humph! Chester said, as he went back to his crossword.

Oh yeah, Janice said that Uncle Bulldog called this morning. Travis said. He knew this would get his dad's attention, and it did. He put his pencil down and looked at him over his reading glasses.

So what did your Uncle Bulldog have to say? Chester asked, giving Travis his full attention.

I don't know, I haven't call him back yet. I thought I would talk to you first, to see if you can tell me what Bulldog is up to these days. It might be helpful to know that, before I call him back.

"I reckon Bulldog is up to the same things he is always up to! Chester said. But I can't say, because I haven't talked to him in over two years now."

I remember that we used to visit him every year, so I assumed that you still talk to him occasionally.

No, I ain't talked to Bulldog but one time, since that last time we went down there. You know, the time you had to fly down there and drive your mother back home.

I knew that was your last time to go down there, but I thought you called him regular.

Nope! We kind'a drifted apart the last few years. I need to call him though, to see what he's up to.

Well, I brought my cell phone. I thought I'd call him back, and let you guys talk to him too, if you want to.

Sure, that will work, Chester said.

So sitting at the kitchen table, Travis called Bulldog on his cell phone. He was about to hang up, assuming that no one was home, when someone finally answered. It was the deep, raspy voice of Bulldog, and he was huffing as though he had to run to answer the phone.

Bulldog? This is Travis.

Hey, buddy! I'm glad you called back, Travis. I was hoping you would.

You must have had to run to answer the phone.

No, it was just across the room. Terri is gone to the grocery store, so I had to get up to answer it myself. I'm not in too good'a shape these days.

Oh? What's the problem?

You name it, I got it! The main thing is, I got a bad heart, high blood pressure and diabetes, and all kinds of complications from those three things. The Doc has got me on 70 different kinds of medications, and most of them is to counter the side affects of something else! I shit you not! Seventy different medications! I tell you, Travis, It's a bitch growing old! If I'd known it was going to be like this, I would have went ahead and died years ago!

So you must not be in 'the business' anymore? Travis hinted.

The business? I ain't into nothing anymore! I'm just sitting around waiting to die! Yeah, that's about it. Waiting to die.

But Janice said you had something you wanted me to do. I thought it was business related.

No, not really. You know, years ago, I loaned large sums of money to just about anybody that needed it, and they paid me back when they could. I figured that I might as well let somebody else use the money, since the IRS was watching me like a hawk! I hate those bastards! Every time I bought something, those thievin' bastards would come in and take it from me, for back taxes, they said! So there wasn't no need in me hoarding cash, because they were good at finding it!

Yeah, I remember when you loaned money to Mel Fisher, so he could look for that old Spanish ship-wreck.

Yeah, the 'Atosha', and he found it too! He paid me back with 318,000 pounds of silver bullion! That was one of the few times I loaned out money, and actually saw it pay off!

So what did you do with all that silver?

"I can't tell you over the phone. The Feds are probably listening