Taking Care of Business Pt. 01

"Meine mutter also works for him at the bank. I am just, how do you say, a gofer. Mutti, she is very skilled in the banking requirements. She handles all of the money transfers for the bank; she reviews all of the customer statements, and she und Heinrich close the books at the end of the month, and so on. She is the most important person at the bank, second only to Heinrich himself!

"Since Heinrich's frau has died, he was always so lonely, so I asked him if he would like me to suck his cock. Of course, he said 'Ja!' He is a clean man, like you, but he is not so big as you are. And his taste is not bad, so I do it for him. Sometimes when he is feeling very strong und bold, he will bent me over his desk and we will have sex that way. But he does not take very long."

She laughed.

"I think that his wife did not have so gut a sex life with him. But he loved her and took care of her."

Early in the morning, Heidi was up and took a quick shower. I had ordered some breakfast for the two of us, served in the room.

"I must go to my apartment and change clothes. It will not do for everyone at the bank to see me in the same clothes that I wore yesterday!" She laughed again.

"The next time you are in Vaduz, let me know ahead of time. I think that my roommate would perhaps like to share you with me. Have you ever had a manage a trois? No? Ich auch nicht, so it would be a first for both of us. But I think it would be fun, ja?"

I had to agree, I would be up to a threesome, ja! Ja, ja,ja!

Shortly after Heidi left, while I was still hanging around in my robe, there was a quiet knock on the door to my suite. When I opened it there was a mature woman outside, looking rather paranoid as she glanced around wondering if anyone could see here.

"May I come in, Herr Walker? I don't want to be seen here in the hall."

I stepped aside to let her in and closed the door behind her.

"I am sorry to disturb you, Herr Walker, but I needed to contact you.

"I am Frau Lange. I work at the bank with Herr Schmidt. I am Heidi's mother."

"Shit," I thought, "Now I'm in trouble."

"Frau Lange, so far as I know Heidi is of age, and..."

"No, no. You do not understand, Herr Walker. I worked for your Uncle Jack. I reported to him and kept an eye on Herr Schmidt to be sure that he was not up to any tricks. You understand? Your Uncle said that I was there to make sure that no one got greedy. He used to quote your President Reagan — Trust, but Verify.

"I was how he kept an eye open on the bank."

Wow! So The Trust had a spy in the bank! I should have known that Uncle Jack would have thought of that.

After assuring Frau Lange that the existing arrangement would continue, and her pay would continue to show up, she handed me an envelope and told me to give it to Mrs. Walker who did the accounting for The Trust. In other words, my mother.

She told me how Uncle Jack arranges to meet with her when he was in town, and how she normally transmitted the documents for my mom to review.

Frau Lange was very succinct and well organized, so we didn't need to spend much time covering the basics. And then she was gone. She normally got to the bank at least half an hour before Heinrich arrived, and she didn't want to break that pattern.

I thanked her, and she was off.

~~~***~~~

After Frau Lange left I dressed and walked to Herr Weber's — Wilhelm's — office. I spent the rest of the morning reviewing the two flash drives that Uncle Jack had made me to address what he suspected might be the businesses that needed my immediate attention. I took hand written notes on a few things, but most I would keep in my head for security purposes.

I thought that I was ready to leave at that point, only to have Wilhelm stop me and ask me to come into his office.

"Kevin, there a couple of things we need to discuss before you are on your way.

"First: I have received emails back from all of the GMs of your companies, except two, acknowledging your position and basically saying that they are looking forward to having you visit them. The two exceptions are the two that Jack had warned you about: the Southwest African gem mine and the gold mining operation in Peru."

"I will be going to those two directly from here."

"Gut. Now for some good news: now that you are officially in your position with The Trust, I need to hand over keys and paperwork to you for three company assets here in Lichtenstein.

"First," he said, dropping a set of keys into my hand, "are the keys to a Range Rover vehicle, which is located," he dropped a second set of keys in my hand, "in the garage of the villa that belongs to The Trust, outside of town. Your Uncle acquired these, but if you wish to get something else, or have a place closer to town, just let me know.

"Finally, you have flown on it before, but the Honda Jet Aircraft is yours to use as the representative of The Trust, is waiting for you at the Friedrichshafen airport. The crew is on standby and is expecting to hear from you when you wish to leave. It is leased, so if you don't like it, or want a larger aircraft, that can be arranged."

I started to stand, "Thank you, Wilhelm. I think they will all do for the time being."

As I left Wilhelm's offices, a Range Rover pulled up to me and I got into the front passenger seat.

"Good morning, Johan," I said to the man driving. Despite his name, Johan was Afrikaans, not German, and he wasn't normally a driver.

"Good morning, Kevin. Good to see you again."

I then turned to the woman in the rear seat, Mrs. Gray, who had been my Uncle Jack's P.A. for as long as I could remember.

"Good morning to you as well, Mrs. Gray!"

"Likewise to you, Mr. Walker."

"I'm glad to see you, because if you don't mind continuing working for The Trust, I would like you to work for me now."

"Thank you, Mr. Walker," (I tried to break her of the habit of calling me Mr. Walker, but I'd given up on it; she had her own old fashioned sensibilities.)

I turned and gave her the envelope that Frau Lange had given me.

"Could you see that mother gets this? It is the latest review of the bank's activities with respect to The Trust."

"Of course. I'll take it back with me personally," she assured me.

"So, Johan, are we prepared for 'meeting' with the Minister about the mine?"

"Ja, ja, ja!" he answered sounding rather pleased about the whole affair.

"We have been surveilling him for the past three weeks — ever since Kembo first got wind that the government might be up to no good!

"All right. Do you have a plan in mind?"

"Sure, boss. Let me give you the outline..."

"Wait. We'll go over it while we are one the plane.

"In the meantime, Mrs. Gray, what do you have for me?"

"I have a number of things for you to sign, Mr. Walker. I prepared these at your uncle's request. For the most part, they are just confirming —for now, but you can change instructions if and when you want — for the GMs of The Trust's companies to continue what they have been doing, and await your visit.

"There is also this document that your uncle had me prepare for your trip to Africa. He seems to have had some advance knowledge on what to expect, and this was his solution. I assume you will want to take it."

Indeed I did, in fact on the video, uncle Jack had briefed me on what to expect and suggested what I should do. I appreciated the heads-up, so that I didn't walk into a situation for which I was unprepared.

As Mrs. Gray spoke, I looked at her. She had been there in the background helping Uncle Jack for years, but I'd never really looked at her, I mean REALLY looked at her before. I'd just taken her for granted. Now I was really happy to have her on my side, helping me make it through this initial period as I assumed control of The Trust.

I estimated that she was likely in her early 40's. She was trim. As I recalled she was probably about 5' 6" tall, with light brown hair, cut fairly short, and blue eyes.

She wasn't flat by any means, but she didn't have particularly large breasts either. But I realized that when she took off the rather thick-rimmed glasses she habitually wore, she had an attractive face.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Gray, but may I ask you a couple questions?"

"Of course, Mr. Walker."

"Of course I know that you worked for my uncle, but beyond that, I really don't know how you fit into the operation.

"For one thing, and if it is too personal, you can tell me to mind my own business, but, is there a Mr. Gray?"

She laughed, so I assumed that I had not offended her.

"There was once, many years ago, but we were divorced before I started working for your uncle. And, before you ask, I kept my married name to discourage men from hitting on me. I was too busy working for your uncle and The Trust that I didn't have time to waste on what would have been short-term relationships."

"Ah, I see. Thank you for answering.

"And what is your normal working schedule? By that, I mean, are you always resident in Vaduz?"

"No. I alternate between locations, depending on where Mr. Walker, that is, your uncle, needed me to be. On the whole, though, I usually work out of the office with your mother, perhaps six weeks out of eight, and then I would accompany your uncle to one of the other locations where The Trust has offices. Most often in Vaduz, to cover Switzerland and Germany; England; and sometime to Lima, where he supervised the Latin American holdings — which are mainly in Chile and Peru. There are other houses and buildings that The Trust owns, but those are not involved with the management of the companies. And there are some offices in places that I have never been — like the concession in Africa."

I thought about what she had said, and asked her,

"Are you willing to work for me and do the things that you used to do for uncle Jack?"

As I suspected, she blushed after I asked the question, then she looked at me eye-to-eye, with a certain look, and said, "Yes, Mr. Walker, I would enjoy doing what I did for your uncle, for you." Then a wink. I smiled back at her thinking about the various services she had very likely been giving uncle Jack, and now passed to me.

"Good," I replied, "If you could put together a briefing of what issues uncle Jack was dealing with that are still outstanding, and what projects he had you working on when he passed away.

"Then we will talk about this more when I get back from Africa and Latin America."

I asked her what her immediate plan was, and she told me that after we got off at the airport, she was going to drive the Land Rover to Zurich, where The Trust leased a long-term parking spot, and catch a plane for the U.S. She would take the documents to my mother, and would work out of the East Coast office until I returned.

"By-the-way, Mr. Walker, I thought that I would mention, that the next time when you are in Vaduz, you might want to stay at the villa. Security is better there and it is more comfortable than using a hotel. On this occasion, I put you into the hotel because it was so convenient to the bank and to The Trust's lawyer in Lichtenstein."

Then we chitchatted about current events; what we saw as important trends and how The Trust could profit from the changes we foresaw.

That discussion lasted until we arrived at the Friedrichshafen airport.

Johan pulled up to the private aviation entrance, where he and I got out and Mrs. Gray got into the driver's seat and bid us farewell.

End of Part 1