Friday, for Leo, was an interesting day. It was likely the most interesting day he had experienced in over two years. Nomar and Benjy sat at a large meeting table in a long room with windows and skylights. Benjy had a laptop in front of him, which he was using to play Minefield, while Nomar had a pad of legal paper with several pens and pencils set out before him.
Then began a sort of inventor’s day. People of all manners and ages came into the room. One by one, they presented a concept to Nomar, who would then either ask for further information or a demonstration, or admit that he wasn’t interested in the idea at this time. If they gave him further information, he would then either reject them or tell them to talk to Leo, who opened up Nomar’s calendar program and scheduled one-hour meetings for in-depth discussions.
There was a fourth option, as well, and that was to buy the idea on the spot. This happened for a man who ran one of the money accounting cells. He came up with a new way to launder cash. Nomar paid him ten grand on the grounds that he remain available for consulting once Nomar was ready to put the idea into action. Leo was sent to the large safe in the room beside Nomar’s master bedroom to collect the money for the man.
Leo learned more about the inner workings of the Vasquez cartel, and underground operations in general, during this single day than in the entire four years prior. His brain was buzzing with ideas, concepts, and schemes he wouldn’t have — couldn’t have — conceived with ten years of focused creative thought on his own.
Afterward, he went to the room that was provided for him in the hacienda, opened the laptop, got onto his cloud drive writer program, and began typing furiously. He was still at it near four in the morning, when he forced himself to sleep for four hours so he could be ready and alert by ten o’clock.
Those notes contained several fortunes. With the rider’s network established, even greater revenues could be achieved.
He woke, showered, and found that four suits with shirts, shoes, and accessories were in the closet and drawers in the room. He wondered how long they had been hanging there, since this was the first time he had actually used this room. Until this point, he had rented a nearby hotel room by the week.
The light cotton suits were basic black with narrow black, gold, red, and blue ties to choose from. There were three sets of black shoes for variety. A gold ring mounted with a sizable diamond
“A man could lose his hand wearing a watch like this on his arm,” he murmured. He put both the watch and the ring on, and he chose the ivory and silver tie clasp to go with the black tie.
In the bathroom, he discovered a complete grooming kit. After shaving and brushing his hair into a ponytail, he went to the dining area to see if he might steal a few pieces of sausage from Courtney the cook.
Once in an open office room with Nomar, Nomar asked Leo, “You’ve had time to process. So tell me, what are your impressions of Santos Gonzalez?”
“He desires only one thing from you.”
Nomar lifted his eyes from his reading. “What’s that?”
“Your death,” Leo told him.
Nomar leaned back and studied Leo, and then said, “If any other man in my organization would have said that this morning, I would not have believed them, and would hear no more. But you.… As always, you sound so certain. Do you know why he wants this?”
“You had sex with his eldest granddaughter last year, mistaking her for one of the entertainment girls. She was too frightened to say anything then or scream, and too ashamed to say anything after until she confessed the ordeal to her mother, maybe a week later,” Leo said.
All of the wind went out of Nomar. His hands dropped to his sides, and he looked at Leo, absolutely stunned. “I recall Gonzalez questioning me about her, even bringing up the color of her dress that day. Oh sweet Constance.”
Leo waited while Nomar processed the scope of this mistake.
“And I,” Nomar began again, “couldn’t even recall her while I was talking to him. I damned myself twice in that meeting. And you are very right. I myself would want nothing less. I wonder why we are not at war right now.”
“Gonzalez is old school. It is his personal shame for not protecting his granddaughter while they were here. He will handle this personally, not with a war,” Leo told him.
“Si, bueno, you are absolutely correct. How do I fix this, Leo? I mean, I like and respect Gonzalez. Yes, he’s old, and a dinosaur when it comes to business, but I would never, ever willingly offend him in this manner.”
Leo was silent for a long time. He had thought out the answer to this question two days ago. Nomar’s wife had died from cancer two years ago. He had one son from that marriage.
“I’m not completely up on the inner working of society in Mexican culture, so all I can think of is to beg the girl’s forgiveness, and offer to marry her.”
“Would a girl wish to marry her rapist?” Nomar asked.
“If she forgives you, but declines the offer, Gonzalez may accept the magnitude of your willingness to amend the situation. After all, he is old school,” Leo pointed out.
Nomar leaned forward. “Leo, I have to say this now. When I introduced you to Gonzalez as my executive assistant, I was merely attempting to explain your presence, but now, that is exactly the position I need you in. None of my men or women would have picked up on this, and Gonzalez would have had his revenge without me ever knowing why. If there is one thing that old man knows how to do, it is how to kill another man.”
I’m counting on that, Leo thought to himself.
“I noticed that you spent the night here. Any reason why?”
“After yesterday, I had so many ideas in my head, I wanted to get them down before I lost them. It was 4am before I realized it,” Leo said with a grin.
“Ideas? Such as?”
Leo explained two variations on the laundering scheme Nomar had purchased the day before.
“You are full of surprises, Leo. I owe you twenty grand. Be sure to pay yourself after you leave. And I think that should be now. You have dropped a bomb on me, and I will do nothing else until I fix this problem with…”
“Kari,” Leo offered.
“Blessed Virgin, I’m going to rot in hell for this on,e Leo. Even after all of this, I still can’t recall her name. I can’t even recall her face. She could walk into this room right now, and I would not know her.”
“I suggest that you get some very recent photos and even video of her soon, then. That would destroy your chances before they began,” Leo told him.
“You are very right there. Now go. I don’t wish to see you until Tuesday, late Tuesday. After lunch. I will be dedicating myself to this major fuck-up until then, and since you are not up on Mexican social workings, I can use other minds who are.”
Leo nodded his head and left the office. He collected his twenty grand from the safe, put that into a bag, and left the hacienda with the laptop and his money. He took off the tie, put that into his pocket, and got on his bike.
Tuesday. That was good. Very good.