Las Vegas' Sins & Scams - Book 8 – Unscrupulous Mellow Scoundrels (The Girls Take Over) (FIRST PART)

By Paul Wallace Winquist

By this time, the original mobsters had scammed into several Las Vegas, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Isla De San Andres, and Costa Rica casinos.
They had set up a porn recording studio and music studios already.
Sheldon's three girlfriends had moved into a special suite in Costa Rica.
Sheldon's plane was shot down in Colombia.
NOW: Lots of action.
They were making Cocaine in Washington from tomato plants. Scam into a hotel in Antigua. Ski facility in Chile. Whiskey in Tennessee. Set up a farm and resort in Albania. Rip some Russians off of a TV network in Russia. A bizarre wedding in Panama. A Coffee Plantation south of Cali. Colombia. A Totem Pole at Whitehorse. Purchase land in Colon Panama. 3 Russians starved to death. Kill a politician in Panama. Politician eaten by pigs in Albania. Purchase of two hotels and auto parts building on Malta and find tunnels from WW1 and WW2. They scammed into Resorts on Florianopolis Island in Brazil. They were eliminating the rebels and banditos in Columbia by Venezuela. Banditos on the river in Venezuela were eliminated. DEA guys were found pretending to be banditos.
Tony Returns to Las Vegas, Halfway House; Tony loads up a Mercedes full of apple boxes full of cash and takes it to the dock in Longview, Washington, to put on the ship to Panama. Tony gets a new face in Panama. Tony goes to Sicilia to set up farms and a resort. He buys several wineries, including one called Stephano's, and finds a little girlfriend.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Wallace Winquist
• Release date: Aug 14, 2014

Paul Wallace Winquist

Born 1945BS from Portland State University - Business Administration / Real Estate LawMany courses toward MS in Electronics EngineeringInstalled big satellite TV systems into casinos, race and sports books, and hotels in Las Vegas 20 years.Writing this series of books part time since 1990.

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Las Vegas Sins & Scams – Book 8 – Unscrupulous Mellow Scoundrels (The Girls Take Over) (FIRST PART)

Paul W. Winquist

Published by Paul W. Winquist at Smashwords

Copyright 2008 pwinquist.com

Distributed Through Smashwords(tm) http:///www.smashwords.com

ISBN 9781310077470

eBooks Version 3.1 – 6/18/2023

(c) 2008 Paul Wallace Winquist

All the characters in this book were introduced in the previous books, so read them first.

8

Table of Contents

Chapter 135 - Bad Decisions

Chapter 136 - Skiing

Chapter 137 – Instantaneously

Chapter 138 - Pleasurable

Chapter 139 - Famous

Chapter 140 – Finish the Job

Chapter 141 - Slow

Chapter 142 - Zoo

Chapter 143 - Antiques & Relics

Chapter 135 - Bad Decisions

Several Weeks Went By…

At first, Northern Chile seemed like the ideal place for a resort; a desert along the ocean, but it turned out that because when the winds are from the west blowing across the cool water, or when they come from the east, they are blowing down off the high mountains, the resort is always a little cool being in the lower 70s most of the time.

Wikipedia

They made some complete changes in their thinking about what the resort should be. They decided to put the marketing push to the parts of the earth where 72° would seem warm, Canada, Scandinavia, Russia, southern Chile, southern Argentina, and so on. 68° to 72° (20.00 C to 22.22 C) is perfect golf weather, so they would add another golf course complete with more little lakes and a serious expansion of the irrigated jungle.

Because of the lower temperature, the planned jungle was turning out to be more of a woods. It also turned out that it became an ideal temperature for many endangered species that would be compatible with the resort environment with its irrigation.

They didn’t trust the well to not run dry, so they expanded the desalination plant to supply plenty of water to the tanks during the day when the solar panels were working at their maximum.

The church Sheldon allowed them to build in Ecuador was much more popular than Sheldon had figured it would be. The people didn’t understand the subtle differences between the various religious factions and accepted the couple as true church leaders. A volunteer effort was to put up some temporary walls in the warehouse and cut in a door in the back. The first meeting overwhelmed the couple and the volunteers. It was short on the singing and hocus-pocus, and heavy on getting organized.

When a Colombian old lady died in her sleep one night, it triggered the first problem; the family didn’t want to have the black witchdoctor do a cremation. The new priest wanted to start a cemetery for the Christians. Robert figured that would be good, but he called Sheldon for the official okay.

Sheldon said, Oh shit; have them start it about ¼ mile behind where they are going to build the church, so it will never be in the way of anything; it’s all bananas there anyway… Hum… they need to do some kind of joint ritual for the ones that want to be cremated… that will never work…maybe the church can copy the cremation process back by their cemetery for the ones that want to go that way….

Jason decided to use the nice guy approach with Judy. He had been talking to her on the phone and never mentioned the sex topic. When he returned to Ecuador, she waited at the airstrip with a golf cart to take him and his baggage to his room in the executive lodge/villa. They ate dinner at the villa and then walked over to the winery for some cocktails and conversation. He never mentioned sex and took her back home like a real gentleman.

On Saturday, she was teaching a pair of adult classes, but they met up in the evening for dinner and some wine again. Later they watched a pair of movies in the villa.

On Sunday, they drove into Esmeraldas for lunch at her folk’s house above the hardware store her father owns. Her father proudly showed Jason his store, that’s closed on Sundays; Jason noticed that he carried the Hitachi line of power tools, so he ordered about $2000 worth of assorted green tools for the communications department. Then they visited the college she went to and then on to the neighborhood park, where a band always plays on Sunday evenings.

They had to cut the evening short because Jason needed to catch the plane that leaves at 7:30 PM.

On the next Friday night, when Jason came to visit her, she mentioned that she was ready now and in the safe time of her month on the way to the company villa. After a quick dinner, he took her up to his suite, and they had sex many times into the night, morning, and the next day:

One day, at the Playa Pacifica, a group of drunken tourists drove a golf cart into the lake; it sank, and the maintenance guys managed to pull it to shore later with a big farm tractor.

When Sheldon got wind of the event, he was with Jeanne. They discussed the situation, and she said, …We should be able to program the carts not to be able to go to certain areas….

Sheldon replied, …Yeah, I can picture that in my mind, but it would take a hell of a long time to map a golf course with that level of detail….

It would be like mapping the roads by driving along the borders and letting the data go into the computer.

Dam, we could make the carts stop if they tried to leave the resort… Yeah, we could stop drunks from driving into the flowers and onto the putting greens too….

That would be good around the zoo in Chile too.

Sheldon called the cart manufacturer in San Jose, Costa Rica, and explained the concepts to him.

He responded, "…I don’t know anything about programming the computers, but it looks to me like the carts with the joystick controllers and GPS computers could be set up that way by the computer people…."

Sheldon called Bruce, the head computer whiz, next. …That’s no problem; if the cart is heading directly toward a restricted area, the cart can stop and then only work in reverse. If the cart is running parallel to a restricted area, it could be restricted from turning in that direction… Hum, it could be made to work if the cart is backing up too… Yeah, it can be done…actually, Jason can write it, and he is in a good position to debug it too… Dam, you are looking at a hell of a mapping project; that would be the only problem I see… and cost….

Sheldon ordered four special carts to work on the programming and mapping, one at the Playa Pacifica, one at Full Moon Island, one in Chile, and one in Ecuador. They would place a laptop computer on the seat and plug it in with a CAT-5 wire for programming and mapping.

Display on the Cart - The cart can’t go into red areas…

Wikipedia Picture

As they were drinking some of the rum on Full Moon Island, Sheldon got the hair-brain idea of building the Tower of Pisa at the top of the hill instead of the lighthouse after dinner.

Sheldon told Jeanne, …Go see if you can get some detailed pictures of the thing for the masons to go by….

Jeanne ended up finding the official website torre.duomo.pisa.it and brought it up on the big screen TV, all 7000+ detailed pictures; she was clicking through them rapidly.

Sheldon said, "Fuck that idea; that would cost a whopping hundred million to duplicate, and the lights wouldn’t look right on it…."

Much later, when Sheldon was down in Chile, he decided it was time to deal with trying to get some radio station licenses. He went out to his Mercedes SUV that has a good radio and put it on 101.1, his favorite frequency for the Pacific coast; there was a faint station that he listened to until they mentioned Iquique Chile. Jeanne looked on the internet satellite pictures, couldn’t find any towers on the hilltops, and noticed that the airport is 20 miles (32 Km) from the town. Sheldon decided to have Jeanne drive, so they departed at about 1 PM. It was getting dark when they arrived in the main part of Iquique. They spotted a Holiday Inn, so they settled in for the evening.

Iquique Chile

Wikipedia

After breakfast in the morning, Sheldon asked the desk clerk if he knew where any of the radio station studios were located. He had no clue, but another worker standing there, told about a building with some tower stuff on the roof.

Jeanne was driving, and Sheldon was looking through his binoculars; he quickly spotted the little FM broadcast antenna; they found a parking spot and walked into the lobby of the office building. They could see from the chart that the radio station was on the eighth floor. A huge stairwell went up the 200+-year-old building, and an elevator that looked like it was added around 1920; they rode the elevator with modern controls added around 1980.

The studios looked like they were built around 1930 to 1940, but a new mixer board, microphones, CD players, and computers were added.

Sheldon got right to the point with the receptionist, I would like to talk to the owner of this station….

The girl pushed a button, and a flashing light started in one disk jockey booth. The man in there motioned them to come in. It turned out the little room was also functioning as his office.

Iquique Chile

Wikipedia

Sheldon was right to the point again, …I would like to talk to you about buying the 101.1 frequency.

You don’t sound like a Chilean; only citizens can own radio stations here… Why would you want the FM; the AM has all the listeners?

Oh, why is that?

The AM is 100,000 watts and goes for a thousand miles at night; the FM is only 10,000 watts and only covers this little town.

How about we set up a Chilean corporation; just for the FM; how much power are you authorized for?

A Chilean corporation…hum…maybe… We are licensed for 100,000 watts, but that would be a total waste of money; the hills block the signal.

You don’t have a transmitter up on that big hill?

There is no electricity up there, and there are no listeners out in that desert.

Iquique Chile

Wikipedia

You have a point there. How about if I purchase the 101.1 frequency, you can apply for another frequency later, you can keep the hardware, and I will hire you to set up a Chilean corporation?

"You are going to put the transmitter up on that 840-meter (2,756 feet) hill with no power?"

It has an access road that looks good from the satellite photos; is it good?

It’s okay for small trucks.

"Is my theory right that 50,000 watts, at that elevation, would get us about 400 kilometers (250 miles) up and down the coastline and out to sea?"

Part of the coastline is blocked by hills; for example, Arica will be blocked… What would you use for power?

Solar panels and a windmill; if the wind stops at night, it will have to drop down to 1000 watts for a while.

Making a setup like that would cost a million dollars.

Yes, and another $100,000 for the frequency and $80,000 a year for you to help me expand the system all the way to the southern tip of Chile.

Iquique Chile

Wikipedia

Maybe.

I want a repeater transmitter up by Arica; all of the Chilean transmitters will run from a satellite feed out of a resort we are building just south of Arica….

When Sheldon and Jeanne returned to Ecuador, they noticed that the store and housing for the merchants from Quito were ready for them to move into. Sheldon called several of them on the phone and had Robert send three semi trucks up to Quito to help them move.

A new golf cart with the prototype computer system arrived in Ecuador two weeks later. Jason had written some test software, so Jeanne set out to program in all the forbidden areas for the golf carts and the resort's boundaries. This was a very time-consuming project, so they added some high school students to do it as a weekend job for money.

Up in Las Vegas, Joe had hired some recent college graduates to find suitable expansion projects for the hotels; this gave Sheldon the idea, so he hired one girl, …Enter into your computer all of our resorts in Latin America, and then your job will be to find, on the internet, properties that come up for sale adjacent to our existing properties, that we can expand onto… Also, try to spot any coastal resorts or hotels that come up for sale in northern Colombia and the Pacific side of Costa Rica….

About two days into the project, she called Sheldon, "…There are three little resorts close to Santa Marta Colombia, on highway-90; one is a golf course with a lodge that has 42 small hotel rooms; one is a hotel on a cliff by the ocean; the other is a small old hotel up at a ski resort…."

Good girl…

I also read that that’s an area where the rebels might be holding some hostages in the jungle.

Oh, that’s interesting; we’ll have to try and avoid them…

A while later, Sheldon asked Jeanne, Do you have any skis with you?

Like I would bring my skis to a tropical place?

Santa Marta Colombia

Left - Wikipedia

Right - The copyright holder has released this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide: Wikipedia: Zero Gravity.

Oh, I guess you will have to rent some then… Let’s load up the Kingair to go up to Santa Marta in the morning….

I guess we’ll need our northern clothes?

Yes; we will look at a ski resort area…and a resort on the coast….

Sheldon, Jeanne, and two security guards flew to Santa Marta and rented a car; an hour later, they checked into the target hotel along the coast. The hotel looked about ¼ full, and it was almost empty when they went to the restaurant. The workers were not very friendly, so Sheldon knew they would have to make many changes.

After lunch, Sheldon and Jeanne went to the front desk. Sheldon asked, We read about this place being for sale on the internet; who do I talk to?

"Dillon is in the office over there."

They took that as an invitation to head directly into Dillon’s office. It was a big office room with four desks, but Dillon was the only person there. Sheldon said, We read on the internet that you are trying to sell this place?

Yes, we need 4.2 million UD dollars.

"Oh, never mind; goodbye"; Sheldon walked out with Jeanne following closely.

Dillon followed them and said, We are a little flexible.

Sheldon handed him a card, Call me when you get down to 3.0. Sheldon hardly hesitated, heading for the rental car. The two security guards were waiting in the parking lot and jumped in the back seat.

They drove about ten miles (16 km) steeply up to the golf course at about 4000 feet (1,219 m) elevation in a valley surrounded by woods that looked more like northern California or Southern Oregon. One big building housed the lobby, restaurant, bar, starter, and hotel rooms.

Sheldon walked straight to the bar, where he wanted to get as much information as possible before people knew he was a prospective buyer. After getting their drinks, Sheldon asked, Wow… this is a trippy wood building; how old is it?

It was built in 1945 and 1946, just after the war.

No fire sprinklers?

No; if it catches fire, you better start running.

That’s 36 holes out there? The view from the bar overlooked a lot of the golf course. Are you the starter too?

Yes.

Can we get a T-time at about 9:00 in the morning?

Hum, 9:15?

Photo by Paul Winquist

Good… What do you do for water here, a well?

Yes, two of them, one for the building here and one to irrigate the course during the dry season.

That’s interesting; so the electricity must be reliable then?

Lately, but we have a big generator in the basement that comes on automatically, anyway.

Oh, this building has a basement; I thought everything in Colombia was built up or on slabs.

"The old owner was from Germany; he built it his way."

Can we eat here at the bar?

Yes, Helga will bring you some menus. He pushed a button, and a buzzer could be heard in the kitchen. A minute later, she presented them with menus written in Spanish, English, and German. Sheldon told Jeanne, Go get those guards; they’ll be hungry too….

After a hearty German-type meal, Sheldon said to the bartender, We saw the ad on the internet that you are selling this place for the equivalent of 3.3 million American dollars; that seems like a fair price, so I will send my son and my lawyer to deal with it.

Just like that; you are going to purchase it?

"Absolutely; I love these old buildings. We’ll keep all the employees; you will like working for our company."

Helga and I each have 5% interest in the place; do we have to sell?

Oh, we like it when people take an interest like that; it’s totally up to you and her….

All of the workers here have been here for many years.

That’s exactly the kind of resorts we like; everyone is happy for many years… We just looked at a hotel down by where the road comes out to the highway; we would probably have to replace 90% of the personnel; their attitude is so bad that they have killed the business… Oh, what is the vacancy rate here?

It goes up and down with the governments; lately, the rebels have a lot of tourists scared to come to Colombia, so we are down to about 60% full as an average, but in the very short term, it has been a lot better.

What is the situation on the rebels around here?

They are up in the hills with their hostages; it has been quite a while since they grabbed any new hostages. People are getting tired of them disrupting everyone’s lives….

Let’s go take a look at the basement; I like to have all the resorts be totally independent of any outside utilities for long periods, like when the big storms hit or another earthquake takes out the road….

Then a few minutes later, Sheldon said, Wow, this is some seriously antique infrastructure here.

"Yes, but it all still works; I figure any day the boiler or the water tanks will rust through…."

This place needs heat?

A little; some of the mornings are a little cool for some of the guests, and it’s always cycling on to heat the hot water for the kitchen and bathrooms….

What does it burn, fuel oil?

Yes; a tank of 20,000 liters (5,282 gal) is buried outside.

It must be time for that to rust through too.

I think it already might leak a little; I suggest putting in one of the fiberglass types soon.

How about that generator?

It’s a Mercedes truck engine; Günter kept it up religiously; it’s good for another 60 years if it’s kept up.

It powers this whole place or just some of the stuff?

It runs everything; the amp gage has never even gotten ½ ways up.

Is the refrigeration equipment for the walk-in freezer and refrigerator original equipment?

No, both compressors were replaced with slightly bigger ones about ten years ago. These run on ammonia instead of Freon, so they have a better life expectancy.

Sheldon decided to drive a cart around the golf course now to free up the time to go to the ski hotel in the morning. He liked the course just how it was, except the carts were all too old.

In the evening, when they returned to the hotel by the coast, Dillon came running to Sheldon, We decided that we can come down to 3.8 million; that’s the amount we owe on the loans.

"Oh, it might have been worth that when you built the place, but now you have a bad reputation, and the vacancy rate is terrible; forget it."

They went back to the hotel room, and Sheldon called LS, …We are going to get two or three more hotels here in northern Colombia. Why don’t you fly up to Santa Marta to take on the purchase, transition, and some remodeling?

Yeah, this remodel is progressing smoothly. Is Loraine there to deal with the paperwork?

I’ll get her and Lori to handle some of the transition management….

Crystal is here now too….

Good, come on up….

Are there security guards there, or should we bring some?

I would bring a couple for good luck; we haven’t had any problems yet, but we haven’t wandered off the main roads yet either….

In the morning, as they were having breakfast in the almost empty restaurant, Dillon came up to them again, I have decided to take a cut in my equity position and make the deal for 3.7 million.

Sheldon responded, "Look how empty this restaurant is; your equity is below zero; don’t bother me anymore…."

They headed up to the ski resort, where Jeanne quickly rented skis and was on her way up the lift. Sheldon headed for the bar to pump the bartender for information. He quickly discovered that the 60-year-old building, with 80 very small rooms, was burning diesel for electricity and being heated by a seriously leaking geothermal well system. This bartender mentioned that the euro is so high that many Europeans are coming over for their vacations and that the rebels don’t bother the Europeans, just the local people on the wrong side of the government and some foreigners that speak out against them.

Sheldon walked into the office area and introduced himself. The manager grabbed his Iridium satellite phone and led Sheldon out the back door where it would work. A minute later, he was talking to the estate executor in Austria. Sheldon asked, …What’s wrong; the place seems to be worth more than the $1,600,000 that you are asking?

After Eric died, nobody wanted to take on the maintenance expenses; it needs a new heating system put in….

How much land goes with the property?

"It’s about 16,000 square meters (4 acres), but a lot of it’s the steep hill above the hotel."

Okay, I will look around some more, and then if I decide to go for it, my lawyer will call you in a couple days to set up the transaction…. Sheldon said to the manager, Let’s go look around at the infrastructure….

They walked over to the building that houses the geothermal well equipment, the power generator, and a 30,00 liter (7,920 gallons) diesel tank. Water was running out of about everything in there. The manager said, It’s time to replace this whole system; this heat exchanger is leaking well water into the water going to heat the building. The bushings in all these pumps need to be repacked. So far, only three rooms had to be shut down because of leaks. That old generator quit twenty years ago, so this one has been going for the whole twenty years already; they say it needs a valve job, but we can’t ever shut it off, or the pumps would quit, and everything would freeze up.

What do you do for drinking water?

"That unit takes the steam and drops it down to hot water, and then it goes into that tank, where the cold air cools it down to 5°C to 20°C (41°F to 68°F), depending on the time of the year…."

Sheldon said, …Let’s look at the lay of the available land here?

"The land goes up about to that trail there and past the parking lot about 100 meters (330 ft) that way…."

Sheldon developed a plan in his head. The first would be to get the 1-Mw generator that’s mounted on a semi-trailer up here right away from Ecuador. Second, he would hire a contractor to put in a new geothermal well beside the old one. Third, they would build a new building separate from the hotels for the power equipment and fuel. Fourth, they would build another 80-room hotel, little casino, bar, and restaurant with much larger food storage rooms, freezer, and refrigerators. Fifth, they would put in temporary electric heaters around the old hotel and restaurant building to keep it from freezing up while it’s closed down to completely replace all the plumbing and electrical equipment.

Sheldon and the manager went to the bar to wait for Jeanne to finish skiing. In the course of the conversation, Sheldon told him that he could stay on as general manager and about how the smooth transition would go to Green Inns International.

When they got back down to the hotel on the coast, LS and Crystal were there already. They went to a table in the restaurant, far from the other customers, to be able to talk. Dillon quickly showed up and said, …I have gotten my partners to give up a little so we can sell at 3.6 million….

Sheldon replied, We are buying a golf course resort and a ski lodge hotel, so we don’t need this place now.

After Dillon was gone, LS asked, What’s up with that; this seems like a place with a lot of potential; that’s a neat beach down there, and the buildings seem sound. I could see putting one of those elevators down to the beach like at the Chula Vista….

"You will get the chance; we need to let the jerk sweat a few more days. Dillon has killed the business; look how empty the restaurant is; it will take the PR department a year to fill this place with fresh customers…."

After dinner and another two hours of discussions, Sheldon went out to the parking lot to use his Iridium satellite phone. He called Jason first, "…it looks like we’ll be getting three more hotels, three more restaurants, three more bars, and a golf course, so send several communications guys with some temporary satellite gear and three phone switches... Let’s use a caravan of trucks for supplies, and we need the big generator on that semi-trailer too… and a trailer