The Morrisons Ch. 28

Joe commented, "I know I'm early Dan, but I didn't know what you had planned for your first day back in the office."

Within minutes, Terri set a plate in front of Joe and he looked up and thanked her.

I told Joe I was glad he came early, and I'd take advantage of that and go to the office early. I also asked Joe if he had a pistol permit and he replied he has an unrestricted concealed carry pistol license. He told us as a chauffeur, he's held one for many years. Then he shocked me by saying that he has always carried a concealed pistol in his limo, just in case.

Ted mentioned to Joe he wouldn't get a personal reception at the door tomorrow like he did this morning. Ted went on to advise Joe there would be a security person down by the gate to survey anyone who wanted to come in, even if they had the code to open the gate.

Ted said, "When you pressed the code into the gate keypad this morning, we were notified when the monitor over there sounded. We didn't know who was coming in so early, so we were ready just in case."

"We talked with Marsh this morning and one of the many things that we are adding is a security person at the gate, just like I had an officer down there before we left on vacation. Joe this security person will be a bit different than having a cop there. Don't worry if the security person wants to check inside your limo any time you approach the gate, even if you have the Morrisons with you. We are using an extra layer of security. Also, the security person at the gate, will radio the house to clear your entry every time."

"As I already said, the security person will be one of Marsh's people so they will rotate shifts. The girl who is going to replace these two guys at nine o'clock this morning, will be bringing her own radio and I will be stopping by the bullpen and picking up a third radio so I can hear what's going on also. What I'm saying is; this is the new normal until we put those bastards back in jail."

Joe smiled saying, "That's no problem, I'd rather them take a few minutes more to have my car checked than have someone get through and cause a problem."

Terri smiled and thanked Joe for his consideration.

I said, "Well since you're here and had a chance to eat, I guess we can all go get dressed and get on the road. Kim, I want you and Shelly to ride with me, we'll drop you off at your office and pick you up this afternoon. That way we all stay together."

All of us excused ourselves as we stood up and headed for the stairs. I talked to Kim as we dressed and asked her to put her pistol in a bag or something so she could back up Shelly if any trouble started. I was surprised when she readily agreed to carry. I went to the closet and took out both pistols and checked them and then popped a clip in each one. I put the first round in the pipe and made sure the safety was on both weapons. I took out two additional clips and put one beside each gun. I went back to the closet and selected my shoulder holster and Kim let me know she was going to put her pistol in her briefcase. When all of us finished dressing we went back down to the kitchen.

Although the two security guys had seen Kim and Beth completely naked, I noticed they had a hard time keeping their eyes off them when they were dressed. I must admit both of my lovely wives were model material and even if I was a little bit bias, the stares of those guys confirmed I was correct.

I looked at Terri and Mary and reinforced what both Ted reported after talking to Marsh and what the one security guy said. I asked Mary to keep her weapon next to her all day even if the new girl was going to have her weapon near her as well. Terri came over to me and hugged me tightly as she whispered in my ear, "Don't worry honey, I feel safe with all the preparations you and Ted have made. I love you and I'll be here when you get home tonight."

I pulled back and looked into Terri's blue eyes and said, "I love you sweetheart and I always will. You are my girl and I won't let anything happen to you if I can prevent it. I will use all that I have to make sure you are safe."

Kim and Beth joined us and each of them took a turn saying, "I love you Terri."

I let Terri go and stepped back before saying, "Ok, let's get this show on the road, we've got work to do."

As the girls and Jeff walked towards the door I hung back and shook hands with Ted while I congratulated him again and wished him a good day. He wished me a good day and then I turned and followed the others.

Terri and Mary had quickly made their way to the front door and made sure the tradition of hugs and kisses at the door was continued.

We entered the limo and Joe closed the door behind us. At first, we rode in silence until Jeff made his verbal observation that our mode of transportation this morning was one, he never expected to be in. I told him until I took Tom's job, I used to drive to work just like he had to do.

We stopped in front of Kim's work and she kissed both me and Beth before the door opened and she stepped out behind Shelly. I wished them a good day and I had Joe stand with the door open until they were inside the building. Joe then closed the door and drove to our workplace. This time I got out first and looked around before Beth and Jeff had a chance to exit the car.

We were early so I told Jeff to come up to my office with me. There weren't any of the normal people there to greet us, so it didn't take long to get to my office. When we arrived all three of us went in and sat down. I told Jeff, "I know you have a responsibility in your department, but I want you to stop by here hourly, so I know all is well. I also told him if he ever had any little hint of trouble, he was to hightail it to this office immediately. I reminded him, even though I didn't have to, that he was also in need of protection just like the girls. He nodded his head to indicate he understood, and he thanked me again for caring about him and his family.

We talked for a little while until my phone alerted me to a call and when I picked it up, Kelly said, "Good morning Dan, may we come into your office?"

I asked who "we" were, and she responded that Allison was with her. I told her to come in.

When they came into the office they sat down, and I inquired of them why they came in so early. They looked at each other and laughed before Kelly said, "Dan it wasn't planned for both of us to be here now, I swear. I met Allison down by the front door and I asked her the same question. I'll admit I planned for me to get here early so I could see what was on my desk and clean it up before the day started."

Allison smiled, "And I planned to get here early so I could see what was on my desk and clean it up before my day got started."

I looked at Beth and said, "Honey it seems to me that your pick of secretaries was right on the money. I'm sure the other candidates would not have been as committed as these two wonderful girls are."

"Dan, it makes work easier when we have two bosses who share the same personality and have something other than derogatory comments to give us." Kelly was quick to respond.

"I second the motion." Allison added.

"Well I'm certainly glad to hear you like your boss and I'll remember that when the next trip to some exotic place or Hawaii comes our way again."

My phone buzzed again and this time when I picked it up Taffy excitedly exclaimed, "YOU'RE REALLY BACK. OH, THANK GOD! May we come to see you?"

I told her to come in, everyone else was here so she might as well join us. Seconds later two screeching girls bounced through my office door and raced over to give me a hug. Taffy Davis and Connie Swensen tried to talk at the same time inquiring about our trip to Hawaii and asked why we came home early.

I sat in my chair totally stunned that the small group of people that Beth and I hired had come to the office early so they could get some extra work done before starting their day. I felt the love and I'm sure by the look on Beth's face, she did as well.

I asked the girls if everything was going good for them and both excitedly answered "YES!"

I let them babble for a few minutes before I said, "Listen ladies, we'll have to continue this later, I want to catch up and set up some meetings while Kelly and Allison want to clear their desks. Both girls hugged me again and then promptly left the room.

I told Kelly to call the shop and ask them to bring a TV set up to her office and get it tuned in to the local news station. I told her to monitor the TV while she works and let me know when the governor makes his announcement. I told her I didn't expect it to come on until late morning or very early afternoon, but I wanted to see it when it happened. That way I could get my work done and turn on my big screen TV in my office when it came on.

I looked at Beth and asked her to set up a meeting at nine with all the department heads and at the same time I asked Allison to have conference room number one set up with coffee and pastries. I also asked Allison to be present to take the notes at this meeting. While I was at it, I asked Jeff to prepare a brief statement knowing that he would have to gather the information second hand and he didn't have much time to do it. I also told him not to worry about a detailed report this time if he presented some information on how his department was doing.

Everyone got up and quietly left my office and I picked up the phone and called home. Terri answered the phone as usual and I asked her how things were going, and she told me everything was quiet. I told her to remember my office number was on speed dial and don't be afraid to use it. We said our goodbyes and I hung up.

I called my attorney Ed Hurley and spoke with him for a few minutes but that's all I needed to pass the great news on to Beth.

After I hung up the phone, I turned my attention to all the papers on my desk. Once I was involved in my work, time flew by and soon Beth used the intercom to let me know my meeting was coming up in fifteen minutes. I asked her to step into my office which she did only seconds later. I looked at the beautiful rings on her left hand and said, "At this meeting, you know someone is going to see your rings and start asking questions. What are you going to tell them?"

Beth looked at me as she said, "I'm going to tell them I married the greatest man in the world while I was away. That he's the love of my life and we will never part."

"That's lovely sweetheart but they are going to ask you what his name is and what are you going to tell them?" I inquired.

Beth came over and put her arm around me and said, "I'm going to tell them my name changed from Thompson to Morrison. Then I'm leaving the rest of it unsaid."

"Well, Mrs. Morrison, you'd better head down to HR and change your name from Thompson to Morrison so there won't be any confusion when some of the wicked gossipers start checking up on you."

"I can't do that until we get word that the judge accepted my name change application." Beth argued.

"It just so happens I called Ed a little while ago and asked him how your attorney Brian Greene made out in court and since Ed is the head of the firm, and he knew what we are doing, he told me you are officially Beth Morrison."

Beth let out a scream I'm positive Terri would have heard at home. I know my ears were ringing as Beth grabbed me and pulled me out of my chair and wrapped herself around me. Allison and Kelly slammed open my office door and asked what the hell happened. I had to answer because Beth was crying and had her face buried in my shoulder.

When I said, meet the official Mrs. Beth Morrison both rushed to Beth and congratulated her. Beth switched from my shoulder to their shoulder and suddenly I had three ladies crying in my office. I tried to comfort them, but I couldn't get a word in edgewise.

Finally, I said, "Ladies, you'll have to dry your eyes, or we'll have to postpone the meeting under flood conditions."

My attempt at being funny went over like a loud fart in a church. All three of them turned and looked at me with a less than happy face. I knew then and there I was beat, so I just sat down in my chair and shut my mouth. The three of them headed into my bathroom and shut the door, that's when I really knew I was in trouble.

I waited patiently, if you can call it that. I kept checking the clock on my desk and watching the seconds tick by. It seemed like they were in there for an hour when it was only five minutes. They came out, all smiles and Beth came over to me and kissed me before she said, "Beth Morrison has a wonderful ring to it. Thank you, sweetheart, I love you."

"I love you too Beth with all my heart. We'll celebrate later at The Hole. But first, let's go do some business. Kelly if the governor comes on before we're out of our meeting, come and get me. Allison, did you have any problems getting the people to set up the room?"

"No, I didn't. Everything went smoothly." Allison confirmed.

We entered the conference room and we received a standing ovation. I took my place with Beth on my right and Allison on my left. I smiled as I said, "Brownnosers, give the boss a standing ovation and expect him to go easy on you. When I was sitting in your chair out there, I wouldn't have thought to do that with Tom Banks up here."

From somewhere in the back of the room, someone said, "That's bullshit, and you know it."

I responded with, "It sounded good when I said it. Ok, make sure you get your coffee and pastries before I start, because I don't want you to be distracted during our meeting."

I started the meeting just like Tom used to do because I always liked his format. We went around the room and some of the departments showed some improvement while others were almost stagnant. I had many questions for the less than efficient departments. I reminded each of my department heads that I came up from the bottom of the company. I worked in most of the departments of the company before I became a manager and then into a department head. I told the department heads that were down, I would come and meet with them one on one and see what we could do to build them back up again. I told them I would be a hands-on boss instead of sitting behind my desk crunching numbers. At the end of the meeting I told each department head they had a chance to take my job some day when I'm ready to retire.

At the end of the meeting we stood around for a few minutes before returning to work and drank some coffee and ate up all the pastries. Many of the guys I had worked with came up and congratulated me and I thanked them and looked forward to working with them again, even though it was in a different capacity.

When I got back to my office Kelly told me Marsh had called and wanted me to call him back ASAP. I left everyone behind and went into my office and closed the door. Before I could call Marsh, Beth peeked into my office and pointed to herself and I waved her in. She sat down across the desk from me, so I put my phone on speaker phone. When Marsh answered his phone, I told him right away he was on speakerphone and only Beth and I were in my office.

Marsh said, "Thanks Dan. Beth can hear what I have to tell you."

"I hope you have some good news for me."

Marsh said, "I sent a team down to Flores, Guatemala to retrieve the body of Bill Jefferson this morning. Apparently, he was shot during the jail break and was still able to move enough to get away, with some help. He was being cared for in a small clinic but with the unsanitary conditions down there, he is reported to have contracted an infection that killed him."

"I sent a message to Ted the minute I found out so he can use that information for his press conference. It seems that those guys have someone behind them to get that far away in short period of time. I wanted you to know we have one of the three down and two more to go."

Beth and I listened to Marsh tell us the news and a smile spread across our faces. When he was finished, I said, "It sounds to me like he might have died a slow and painful death and I'm not a bit sorry to hear that. I'm not one to hold grudges but for what they did to our girls and untold number of other girls which we don't know about, they are well deserving of a slow and painful death."

Marsh agreed with me but then he turned back to the logistics of how the three of them moved so far. We compared notes for a few minutes and then he told me Jimmy was going to broaden the search. He said Jimmy really wanted to get a live one so he could interrogate him. When he finished telling me the news, he told me he'd keep in touch if anything more came up.

I hung up the phone and Beth and I talked for a few minutes more. Beth said she had some work on her desk and need to get it done so she got up and kissed me before she left the office.

Around noon Kelly came in and told me she saw the governor was going to hold his news conference at one o'clock so I could finish up what I was doing in time to watch it. I paged Beth and told her to come into my office a little before one o'clock to watch the governor.

I called Kim and let her know the governor's press conference would be on at one o'clock. I also told Kim the news Marsh gave me, and she was also very delighted to hear Bill was dead.

I paged Jeff and told him the governor's press conference was going to be coming on at one o'clock so if he wanted to see it, he could come to my office. He told me he would be up after he finished talking to one of his people.

I worked on some papers and cleared my desk by the time Jeff came into my office. I told him the news Marsh gave me and he was very happy, but he said the two worst ones were still on the lamb. He told me Bill only waxed the hair off each girl's pussy and any other body parts he was directed to do. It was the other two who made the girls do such atrocious things like fuck or suck the cock of anyone they chose.

When the time came, everyone came into my office and we watched my big screen TV as the camera panned around showing us there was a rather large crowd gathered in front of the police station. NBC, ABC and CBS news media had cameras set up to film the event for their own news stations later in the day. There were countless news reporters present also.

We saw the governor talking to his press secretary before he and Ted approached the podium. Being the politician that he is, the governor recognized various people in the crowd before he went straight into the business of why he was there. He didn't hesitate to tell everyone how upset he was that a group of unscrupulous residents of his state and possibly other states are suspected of perpetrating heinous crimes against young girls. He went on to state some of the girls have been treated for various injuries and there is additional physical evidence which shows there are more than just a few girls who were raped and abused, photographed and made to perform in sexual type movies. He encouraged any female that was abused by Harold Gordon, Pete Jensen and Bill Jefferson, to contact the special eight hundred number which he announced, to call, and report their abuse.

He gave a brief description of the jail break stating by all reports he'd received, the prisoners were in their cells at the time of the breakout, so there must have been some inside help for them to get out and get away. The governor also said, by the reports he received the former police chief was a dirty cop and was as knee deep in the shit as the three perpetrators of the original crime. He told everyone it is reported the chief is the one who facilitated the escape and was shot and killed in the double cross, with his own service weapon. He then announced that anyone who participated, bought a film or tape of the abuse or knowingly remained silent about the girl's abuse, would be arrested and prosecuted, to the fullest extent of the law.