The Tale of Her Mother Too Pt. 02

"What's going on, Rick said, what's with the crackers?"

Audrey was holding her laughter in with all her might.

"You see daddy, when ladies get pregnant they sometimes suffer from morning sickness."

"But, but, how is that possible, she's on the pill. I see her take it every morning."

"Just because they're 99% effective doesn't mean some people don't get caught in those 1% spots."

Rick slowly fell back onto the chair behind him. He was in shock, his face white. Then slowly, very slowly, he began to realize one of his wives was pregnant with his baby.

"I'm going to be a father," a big smile broke out across his face; he rushed into the other bedroom. Susan was sitting on the bed looking peaked when Rick rushed in. He took her in his arms and lifted her off the bed swinging her into the air.

"This is wonderful; I'm going to be a daddy."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Your morning sickness, you're pregnant."

"How can that be, I'm on the pill?"

"Like Audrey said, there's always that one percent chance."

Rick kissed her, then he kissed her again, then he started to kiss her all over her face and neck. Audrey was standing in the doorway to the bedroom smiling. Rick rushed over to her and picked her up, swinging her round and round through the air, in a circle. "You maniac, put me down, put me down I said. Oh my, I'm going to be a ... What am I going to be, a grandmother, or an aunt? Oh what the hell's the difference? I don't care what I'll be.

Rick put her down and looked at his watch. "Dammit I have an appointment I can't miss. I'll be back as quickly as I can. When I get back we're going to celebrate."

The taxi dropped him off in front of the shop. There was no sign out front. Just the name R. Kohen and sons. He went to the door and found a button in the door frame. He pushed the button and the door buzzed and clicked open. Rick went in and found himself in small glass enclosed vestibule and facing another door. Mr. Kohen came to the door, looked at Rick and nodded to someone in the back and the new door buzzed open.

"That's quite a security system Mr. Kohen"

"Call me Reuben. You have never been to a diamond dealer before, have you?"

"Er ... No. I haven't.

"All dealers have security systems similar to ours. Most are much more elaborate. Did you bring your diamonds?"

"Yes, yes I did. Do you want to see them now?"

"You're not Dutch are you Mr. Kohen ... I mean Reuben."

"No, I'm not. Before the Nazis, my family lived in Germany, in Berlin. You have a very discerning ear, Mr. Marshall."

"Please call me Rick. I have a thing about accents. I can pick out different sounds. I really thought you would have a much larger establishment."

Before the Nazis came to power my family was very wealthy. We owned a large shop with many employees. Two of my uncles were designers of settings and all sorts of jewelry. My father had seven sons, two of my brothers were world famous diamond cutters. Dealers from all around the world sent them diamonds to cut. My two boys are also cutters, they must have inherited their uncle's gifts. They claim that the diamonds show them their souls and how they should be cut. Silly, but I humor them. You should meet them, they're twins. He shouted, Aaron, Jacob, come in here I have someone you should meet.

The two young men that entered the room were perhaps twenty three or four. They stood about 5'7" or 5'8" slightly built and very handsome.

"Hello I'm Aaron and this is my brother Jacob, he said while extending his hand to shake."

"Your father was just telling me that you are both diamond cutters. And that you will one day become famous, Rick said as he took Aaron hand."

"Oh yes, I know papa doesn't believe us when I told this to him. But I know this will happen, I even dreamed this only last night."

"You know I think you're right, I just got a very good idea."

"Reuben, if you sold this place, how much do you think you could raise?"

"Very little I'm afraid, I have virtually no inventory. I put all my available cash into this place. My two daughters Esther and Rebecca have been keeping us going by selling their jewelry designs to other shops.

"Well, no matter, we'll just do it another way. There's you and your wife two sons, and two daughters. Six people all together. First class about $3500.00, that's $21,000.00. A week's stay in New York In a three bedroom suite at the Hyatt will be $17,500.00. Walking around money for a week $15,000.00. Then $9,000.00 for plane tickets to Miami. We will have to rent a house for six, furnished, for at least six months $12,000.00 a month. How would you like to move to the U.S.A. I'll front you the money for all of you to set up an 'Exclusively Diamonds' store in Miami. Let's say, $250,000.00 and you can take as long as you like to pay it back. There's more millionaires than regular folks in that town. If your daughters are as good as you say they are. We can get a Public Relations firm to plant a layout of some of you designs in the Sunday magazine section of the Miami Times.

Ten percent of all sales will be kept aside to cover overhead up to $150,000.00. Then the remaining sales will be split fifty, fifty.

"But, where will we get our inventory from?"

"I'll supply all your needs for inventory, from one carat to much larger."

"How many of these diamonds do you have and are they all the same quality?"

"I have thousands and thousands of them, and all, the same quality. But above three carats they are raw and uncut. My partner says the uncut stones could be as large as 30 to 50 carats, maybe more. But he's not an expert in diamonds."

"Who is this partner?" This was asked by Rachel, Reuben's wife, she had entered the room while Rick was describing how he was about to change their lives. "How do you do, I'm Rick Marshall." He shook hands with her and her two daughters.

"Listen, I know you folks don't know me, or anything about me. My partner and I came into a lot of money. We are not jewelers nor do we know anything about jewels. In fact we are in the process of buying an investment bank. He's a lawyer, a tax lawyer. I handle the investment side of the firm. Talk it over among yourselves. I know I'm asking a lot of you all, asking you to trust me; but to show my good faith, if you all say yes. I will transfer to your bank tomorrow, $250,000.00. Consider it a gift. You don't have to pay it back. It's yours. But you will have to move to the United States and live in a Paradise called Florida and make a fortune of money."

"My wife and I just found out she's pregnant with our first child. I would love it if you all would join me, my wife, and her sister for dinner at the Criterion Hotel as my guests. I will expect a yes or no answer to my proposal this evening, Is eight o'clock good for you?"

They all looked at him with a dumb founded expression on their faces. Finally Rueben nodded his head yes.

"Good, then I'll see you all tonight. He grabbed Rueben's hand and shook it. I must get back to my wife. Don't forget, 8:00 o'clock tonight."

As soon as Rick left, Rachel said "Is he joking with us, or is he crazy?"

"Aaron said, "I don't think he's crazy, and I don't think he's joking. But I do know how we can prove if he serious or not."

"Oh and just how do we do that?" said Esther.

Aaron smiled, and then he said, "It's really quite simple, we go to his dinner party tonight. We tell him we agree to his proposition, and then tomorrow if we receive $250,000.00 in our account. I guess we're going to America."

The dinner party was a great success. Audrey kept them all entertained with anecdotes about the rich and famous from the time when she was a model; and she also knew many Hollywood stars. She told an amusing story about Frank Sinatra who had been trying to get her into one of the bedrooms. When she told him how old she was, only 15 years old, he not only ran out of the bedroom but he left the party as well.

A little while later Aaron was able to get Rick alone at the desert table, and he said ...

"We all talked your proposition over and decided that we accept your proposal. It seems more than fair. How soon will we receive the money?"

"It will be in your account tomorrow just after 10:00 AM tomorrow. I already have someone searching for a location for the new store. I assume you wanted to keep the same name."

"Yes, of course."

"Well then the only thing left for you to do right now is to get started on arranging for you visas to the U.S."

"My father has a cousin living in New York City and he will vouch for us, so I don't think there will be much of a problem. Especially if you will give us a letter on one on your investment companies' Letter Heads stating that we are forming a partnership."

"Excellent, I'll inform my investment partner about the letter tomorrow and ask him to send the letter as soon as possible to your address here in Amsterdam, so the next time I'll see you I expect it to be in Miami, but I'll keep in touch by phone. I'll just need your cell phone number."

*****************************************

Two days later, Rick, Audrey, and Susan left Amsterdam and flew home to Miami. Audrey called her friend Shelly and told her about Rick's friend's the Kohen's and that they were looking to set up a new jewelry store in Miami; and that they would need a fairly large place to accommodate the diamond setting area, the design area, and the cutting section.

Shelly was more than happy to oblige, she wanted to expand into the industrial area of real estate and now that she had her broker's license she was going to hire more real estate agents and start her own firm.

She was lucky enough to hire six new real estate agents. Four of the gals were people she knew from when she was an agent. She chose two of the four and made them managers, saying they could hire up to six agents each, as long as they produced.

The other two people had experience in industrial rentals and sales. So they immediately started to bring in revenue. Shelly herself had some experience in industrial sales, so she went looking for a site for the jewelry store. She was driving down Collins Ave. when she saw it; a three story building near the end of Collins Ave. The ground floor was an empty store but what was the upstairs like. There was a sign in the window of the store giving the real estate agency name and the agent handling the listing.

The following morning, Shelly had an appointment to view the property. After seeing the whole building, Shelly was certain that this was exactly what Rick's friend was looking for. It was right on the edge of a major shopping area. The building was large enough to hold 30 -- 50 workers. She turned to the agent and said ...

"This place is really too big for their needs, would the owner be willing to rent out the retail space and also make some improvements."

"No definitely not. They are looking to move into an assisted living apartment, and they can't be bothered with rental income."

"Too bad, well what else have you got that might interest me?"

"This is it, I have nothing else in your price range."

"By the way, what was your name again?"

"Marie Martinez I'm with 21^st Century Real Estate."

"Sorry Marie, I'm terrible with names, how much did you say they were asking for this place?"

"They're asking for 3.5 million, but maybe I can get them down to 3.25 mill."

"Not from my buyers they won't. Your sellers are already 2 million to high especially in this market."

"Why don't you ask your buyers what they would bid."

"I would have to tell them it's not worth more than 1.25 million."

"OK, put that in, as an actual bid and I'll present it as an offer, then we'll see what they say."

Shelly filled out the bid in Rick's name and then before handing the bid over she said to Marie ...

"You might tell the owners that my buyers will have to pay a considerable amount just to improve the building for their needs; so unless I'm assured that the owners will work with us in making some improvements or come in with a legitimate price I won't submit this bid."

The owners agreed to help with the building improvements but they insisted they couldn't go any lower than one and three quarters million. Rick agreed to their terms quickly and Ted's wife Linda suggested that the whole outside of the building be painted hot pink. Ruben made up the design of the showroom even how he wanted the show cases made. He also spoke to the security company describing how the building should be protected. The safe he described and how he wanted it to be built would cost over $6,350,000.00

Rick didn't care what it cost, he was about to transfer about 30 or 40 billion dollars worth of diamonds into it.

The building was finished to Reuben's specifications. Linda, Ted's wife dubbed it The Pink Palace. The name stuck. Everyone started to call it The Pink Palace. That week end the Sunday magazine section of the paper had a spread all about The Pink Palace and the Kohen's. How they were jewelers' to Kings and Emperors. Napoleon for one. There was two full pages of jewelry designed by Reuben's two daughters. One ring showed three rows of dark pink diamonds surrounding a three carat square cut diamond that had red hearts inside. Only $1,650,000.00. On Monday they got three orders for that exact ring. Tuesday 3weeks hence was St. Valentine's Day several other pieces that were shown in the paper were also ordered. By the end of their first month they had sold $30,427,000.00 and change.

Reuben told Rick they would only need 1% of sales to cover overhead. In the second month the sales more than doubled as people began to see how beautiful their work really was. Reuben again said perhaps we should cut out holding anything back for overhead. The millionaires from Palm beach began to shop at The Pink Palace. Necklaces and bracelets were selling for their beauty and grace not just the gaudy pieces called 'Bling'.

By the end of their first year they had sold over $135,000,000.00; mixing

clear and colored diamonds and the second year looked as if it would be even bigger. Reuben transferred to Rick sixty eight million and he covered all expenses.

He had also hired three more diamond setters and three more sales people. All of the diamonds were transferred from Ricks home to the extra large safe installed under the Pink Palace.

Ted had been keeping in touch with Nigel St James-Smyth and negotiations had been proceeding nicely. He had discovered that Nigel was holding the mortgages on about 77% of the property on the island.

"You see Ted when the market collapsed it was worldwide and most of my friends were caught between a rock and a hard place. So I invested my own money, almost $550,000,000.00 and placed the mortgages in the bank.

"Nigel, what we decided is that we are going to buy up all of your debt. We will force the bank into bankruptcy and that will allow us to take full control of the bank. Don't worry, we're going to keep you on as a figurehead owner, but you will have no say in how we run the bank. Your life style will not be affected because we'll pay you $500,000.00 a year in salary for the rest of your life; and that's more than enough to keep you and your wife in luxury."

"Well, do you agree? All you have to do is show up for an hour or two every day. Then carry on the way you have been doing in the past."

"Of course I agree. I have no living relatives nor does my wife; so we have no one left to inherit anything. However I would like to add one thing. If I pass away before my wife she would continue to receive my salary or pension for as long as she lives."

"Agreed Nigel, and we'll put it in writing."

That evening Ted flew back to Miami, it was only an hour flight since Grand Bahamas was only 50 miles from Miami. He flew in the same Mooney 624 that he that he used when he originally flew there a few weeks ago. He and rick were debating whether or not to buy the plane, because they were flying so often. That evening he and Rick got together.

"Okay Rick we now own seventy seven per cent of all the banks debt. Nigel never properly entered the mortgages into the banks bank's books. So if we set up a holding company, say R & T Holding, and transfer all mortgages to the holding company we can have the bank declare bankruptcy and take over within a week. Once they did that the two companies holding twenty two per cent of the bank's debt settled for ten cents on the dollar and Enterprise Inc. now owned the bank.

The name was changed to Excelsior Capitol Investments. Rick moved 100 million into the investment company and using his algorithm started investing. On the first day he earned $875,000.00 on the second day the algorithm earned $8,903,125.00. At the end of 4 months an article appeared in the Daily News in New York in their gossip column, called the QT written by J. Talky.

'A new genius has arisen in the investment community. It's an investment bank located in Grand Bahamas. They are earning millions for their investors, but don't get too excited you have to plunk down at least $2 million to become one of their clients. The name of the bank is Excelsior Capitol investments, don't forget this is all on the QT, and very hush hush.

A couple weeks later this story was picked up by the Wall Street Journal. They confirmed that Excelsior Capitol Investments Bank was a legitimate investment company and that it was true they were earning millions for their clients. But because of these stories, so much money was flooding into the company that they had to raise their minimum investment. It now took a $10 million investment to become a client. The new minimums hardly stemmed the flow of money. They were very rapidly approaching $1 billion in investment capital.

End Part II