CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Worth
I handed Ford to Bernie, who headed back to the barn. Cautiously, we approached the house but Bill’s men eventually waved us in. I walked through the door that had always meant disapproval, punishment, and pain for me. I walked in and followed bloody tracks across the polished flooring, into my father’s study. There was Linc, lying over the desk, just as Father had. He was dead, a pocket knife embedded in his juggler. The knife was engraved, “Merry Christmas, Father. From your son, Ford.”
The men from Chicago were the only two in the room who weren’t mentally celebrating. Even they shrugged and then left for parts unknown.
Bill made a call and soon police were flooding the drive and yard, even back to the barn. Bill stood out front, giving a statement and I went in search of my son.
I found him behind the barn, wrapped in Bernie’s warm coat. Bernie was holding him and they were both sober-faced. We went back to the vehicles and I loaded them into mine, turning on the heat to warm them both. Bill came up to the window and asked us to go to the police station for a statement, but I shook my head. “I’m taking them home. There’s a doctor there and they’ve both been through a trauma and may likely go into shock. They can come and talk to us there, but we’re going home.”
Bill tapped the roof of the car to signal me to go on home and that’s where I headed. When we got there, Auggie was waiting at the door. She grabbed Ford up in her arms and cried unabashedly. Betsy was waiting with blankets and food and we wouldn’t even let go of Ford long enough for him to go and shower. The police arrived shortly thereafter, as did Bill and his men. They sat around the dining table and Bill gave them all the evidence and information he’d assembled. Then it was time to talk to Ford.
I held my hand up to the others. I would do the talking.
“Son, can you tell us what happened?”
“Sure. I heard you and Mother talking in your study and was coming to get you. I wanted you to see the presents I’d wrapped. The front door opened and a man was standing there who looked almost like you, except he had a beard and his eyes were like Mother’s and mine. I called out to him, thinking it was you in a costume, going to surprise me and he grabbed me. I still thought it was you but when we got in his car, I knew it wasn’t. I tried to yell, but you couldn’t hear me. I knew you’d be worried, so I sat really quiet and waited to see what he would do.”
I smiled at him. “That was very smart of you, Ford. What happened next?”
“He took me to that place where you found me. It was sort of like a farm and sort of like an office. He locked me in a room and went out to the barn. I heard noises like a gun shooting and I figured he went out rabbit hunting for food. When he came back, he didn’t say anything to me but made me a peanut butter sandwich and he ate something else from the refrigerator. We went into another room that had no windows and he turned on a big screen TV. We watched movies and I think I must have fallen asleep. When I woke up, I didn’t know if it was daytime or nighttime because it was dark in that room.”
“You did everything exactly right, son. I’m very proud of you.”
“Thanks. The guy was dumb because he left my phone on the table. I found it and turned it on and used the light to look around. He was sitting at the big desk and was asleep. His head was laying on his arms. Like this.”
I smiled as he demonstrated Linc’s position.
“I knew he was planning to hurt me, Father, I just knew it,” he continued quietly. “So, I reached into my pocket and got out a pocket knife. I’m sorry, but when you took me shopping, it took me so long because I had to wait while they engraved a message on it for you. It was your Christmas present from me.”
“No reason to apologize, Ford. I’m really glad you had a way to defend yourself. But how did you know what to do?”
He nodded and went on. “Well, I’d seen plenty of movies on how to kill people, especially at school, so I opened up the knife and stabbed him in the side of the neck. He jerked a little and tried to grab me, but I knew he would so I had already jumped back. Pretty soon, his blood all ran out and his head just laid there on his arms. He didn’t move anymore and his eyes were open and staring.”
“That must have been scary.”
He lifted a shoulder. “I was just trying to figure out what to do next when my phone rang and it was you. I was glad you came to get me. I was getting hungry and I didn’t know where I was. I guess I could have called you, or Bernie. I wouldn’t have called Mother, though. She worries so much.”
I hugged Ford and Auggie in one huge grasp and the men all nodded, shut off their recorders and left us alone. I took Auggie and Ford upstairs and Ford took a long, hot bath, as did Auggie and I. By the time I got downstairs, everyone was gone and the equipment had disappeared. It was as if it had never happened. The Christmas tree was lit.
“Father?” Ford asked, fingering an ornament on the tree. “Could you take me back to the store again? I need to get you a new Christmas present. I don’t think those men are going to let me have your knife back again.”
***
Auggie and I began to suffer from nightmares from that night on. Ford, on the other hand, didn’t seem bothered by anything. I packed us up the next day and we moved temporarily into the condo. It seemed to be the only place where nightmares had not yet followed us. Auggie was content with the change.
She was examined thoroughly by several top doctors and was indeed pregnant and in perfect health. I was very excited at the thought of having another child. Auggie was somewhat less thrilled, although I knew she would warm to it over time. She was just completely tapped out.
On Christmas Eve, I chartered a private jet and Auggie, Ford, Walter, Mother, Bernie, his friend and I headed for the warm weather. We went down to the Keys of Florida and found a huge bungalow we were lucky enough was not yet rented. We spent the entire holiday with our toes dug into the sand and our skin cooled by the waters of the Gulf.
It was a somber holiday, but there definitely was relief in the idea that Linc could no longer rise from the dead. There were too many witnesses and I had him cremated to be on the safe side. There was, however, collateral damage.
The gentlemen in Chicago were put out by the fact that they’d missed their reward and their revenge. I sent them their reward, despite the circumstances, as a donation to their favorite charity. Of course, it was their own coffers and that seemed to be enough to offset their desire for blood revenge. Before Linc was cremated, prints were taken and Brandon promised he would see to it that the bodies in my family plot and the one from the car with Jessie Klinger would be appropriately identified. The world had far too many dead Linc LaVieres.
Bill and his men were heavily rewarded, as was Earl Kinsey. I heard a rumor that he had moved north and perhaps his family’s ties were not yet completed severed. I wished him good luck.
Betsy was holding down the fort at home for us and I had a feeling she might be moving before too long. I had plans of buying a house or condo here in Florida. I wanted one large enough that Mother and Walter could live there and the rest of us could drop in when the mood struck us. Betsy and her sister would be treasured as staff there, but it would ultimately be up to them.
I used my contacts to have Brandon invited to run as state attorney general. My contacts assured me he was a shoe-in, particularly with my financial and personal endorsements.
This left decisions to be made for Auggie, Ford and myself. I would hold off a bit on these. I wanted to buy that condo in the meantime.
I rented us a limo bus and we were driven north along the Gulf Coast to Naples, Florida. I knew several people who had winter places here and I understood why. The temperature was pleasantly warm; in the upper seventies and the sun glittered across the Gulf waters. It was a quiet and very private community, catering to the very wealthy. The shops were brand names, leading the area to be known as 5th Avenue South. The city boasted no fewer than a dozen art galleries or museums and more than thirty restaurants that featured local seafood and exquisite cuisine.
I had an agent waiting for us when we disembarked and she began our tour in a set of condo towers that overlooked the Gulf. While it had a private beach, there were four pools with the condos themselves; two in and two outside. I looked at the penthouse floor which was currently available. It featured eight bedrooms with baths plus servants’ quarters, two kitchens — one inside and one on the massive patio. There was also an office, private gym, a massive great room with vaulted ceilings, the only such ceilings in the building due to it being on the top floor. We had an unobstructed view of the Gulf from more than half of the rooms.
While the building was certified hurricane-proof, it was only about ten years old but had recently been completely remodeled. Groceries could be delivered to your doorstep and there was a private physician who only took care of the residents in that building. Ownership included membership in the yacht club and a slip large enough to accommodate a hundred-foot yacht.
It was luxury living at its finest and well within my budget. What I particularly liked was that families lived there, not just retirees. This provided the chance of Ford making some friends, something I sincerely felt he badly needed. The condo had been completely decorated by a famous Miami interior designer and Auggie seemed enchanted with it. I made an offer on the spot and we closed the next day.
The condo became our home for the next month. I’d spoken to Ford’s military commandant and arranged for home tutoring, explaining the trauma that happened over the holidays. He did not, for some reason, seem particularly upset and I wondered whether there were things that Ford hadn’t shared with Auggie and me. I made a mental note to visit the man at some point and get a better idea of my son’s behavior.
Walter and I went shopping for a sea-worthy vessel and I bought a brand new yacht with five staterooms and three decks. It was large enough to travel to Europe, although I doubted whether Auggie would want to go any further than Alabama. It seemed, however, to be the thing to have.
Auggie found her heart, though. Florida was a growing thoroughbred breeding state, coming close to Kentucky and Maryland. She shopped horses and found a boarding farm where she promptly bought three horses, boarding them there. It was less than an hour from the condo and she spent most of her time there, taking refuge in the familiar sights and smells of her world. The doctors certified she was in excellent health, so I let her go. Sometimes she took Ford with her and he had become an excellent horseman. I, on the other hand, was less enthusiastic but joined in occasionally in the spirit of family togetherness.
We still had decisions to make about our future. Auggie and I had decided, after the Christmas incident, that Ford had shown some tendencies that had us concerned, and we would need to make some hard decisions on his behalf until at least he was older. He had seemed completely unaffected by killing Linc. We consulted with Tyler, who agreed with us and suggested that we remove him from the school and keep a closer eye on him.
Once spring began to approach, Auggie was beginning to show in her pregnancy and I wanted to get her back to Louisville before she could possibly have any issues with flying. So we left Mother and Walter with the condo and staff and headed back north.
It was Derby time and although we weren’t planning a party this year, we had been invited to several and had accepted one. The dogwood were blooming when we arrived home and Derby week was about to begin. We took Ford down to the Belvedeere and watched Thunder Over Louisville, the massive day of celebration that included fly-overs by the Thunderbirds. There were also parachuting military from helicopters, vintage aircraft, hot air balloons and once darkness fell, a tremendous fireworks show that included rockets off the old railroad bridge, coordinated with huge speakers on both river banks. It was the sort of thing that you never forgot and no matter how crowded it was, you still wanted to go back each year.
We opted for the Great Balloon Race and I managed to snag a couple of seats for us on the Belle of Louisville as she raced for a win. We attended the Derby but stayed in the shade as the day had grown quite warm and the heat made Auggie nauseous. After the Derby, we visited the party that, despite having gone on all day, was still in full swing with a Dixie Land Jazz band and dancing on a raised floor beneath colored lamps and the moon as a spotlight. I held Auggie close to me and it felt good to feel her bare skin, still tanned from the Florida beaches.
We met with Brandon, who had completed the paperwork and establishment of the foundation. It was now up to us how we wanted to organize it and what its purpose would be.
Auggie and I sat down one evening after Ford had gone to bed to discuss our plans.
“Worth, I really don’t want to live here on the estate any longer.” She was blunt.
“Why, sweetheart?”
“I can’t put my finger on it, but it seems we’ve had bad things happen to us while we’re here. It’s almost as if we weren’t intended to live here.”
I nodded, fully open to suggestions. “Well, we have the condo here in town and the one in Florida. Do either of those sound better?”
“Dad and your mother are already living down there. I think if we moved in full time, we’d probably be on top of one another and there wouldn’t be that much privacy. I think the winter months are fine, but I’d like somewhere here in Kentucky for the rest of the year. I want our next child to be raised here as we all were.”
“I take it the condo in town won’t do the trick?”
“It’s fine, but really not enough room. What would you say to this? What if we were to turn over the entire estate, track to house, to the foundation and allow Tyler Peterson to live here and be the director. I think he’s much better suited for that and quite frankly, with this next baby coming, I’m feeling a little selfish and want you to myself. Would that upset you too badly?”
I gave it some thought. “No, I can understand that. So, where would you like to live?”
“I’m thinking somewhere that neither of us have any connections to. A place that is brand new and would only have good, healthy memories. Do you still have Beverly Dexter’s number floating about?”
“I’m sure I can find it. I don’t know if she could whip something together in time for the baby, though. I think that might be pushing it a bit much.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “We can stay at the condo in town until the house is ready. There’s enough room for the three of us. It’s just four might be a bit much, especially if Betsy is with us.”
I nodded. “Do you want enough land for horses?” I asked and she threw me a look. “Of course, how stupid of me.”
She said, “I was thinking of ground that’s a bit closer to the river. Maybe in Oldham County. They have the best schools in the state and there’s money there. I think Ford would do better if he socialized with kids of his own financial group. I drove over there one day and I was quite impressed. There’s not much in the way of shopping, naturally, but it’s close to downtown and then there’s the river nearby. I think I would like water for a change.”
“Auggie, most of that land is already developed. At least the good, level ground.”
“I found a place,” she began. “It was owned by the Binghams.” I recognized the family who had owned all the media in town for decades. “I thought we could buy it and tear down the house and build our own. What do you think?”
“Let’s drive there tomorrow and you show me what you’re thinking.” She agreed and went out to the patio where Betsy was frying steaks on the grill.
We sat on lounge chairs until long after dark, looking at the sky and imagining what it would be like to be able to fly. Ford joined us and although he was quiet, he did chuckle once in a while, particularly when we suggested he might have pink wings and look like a flamingo.
“You wouldn’t like to be a flamingo?” I suggested to him in a mocking tone.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I want to be a hawk. I want to dive down and kill gophers and mice and small dogs,” he proclaimed as though this was an admirable point of view. I looked at Auggie and we exchanged worried looks.
“Let’s go look at that property first thing tomorrow,” I suggested and she nodded in agreement.
***
The next day began with tremendous humidity. I had never been particularly fond of humidity myself and I knew Auggie must be extra uncomfortable. Nevertheless, we climbed into her convertible, put the top down and drove the back country roads of Oldham County toward the River. We found the Bingham place and there was a for sale sign out front. It appeared to be otherwise vacant. I called the agent’s number on the sign and she agreed to meet us there.
The house was definitely past its prime and, therefore, was of no real purpose to us. It would be torn down and a brand new structure put in its place. There were also some horse barns, but none of these were state of the art, either. “Auggie, honey, I’m not sure what you want with this place. It would take forever to tear all this down and then we’d have to start all over. Wouldn’t you rather find some open ground and begin fresh? We’d never get this done in time for the birth and probably not for another year, at the earliest. I’m not even sure this area works. There are old houses all around us. I really don’t think this is for us.”
Auggie pouted a bit but in the spirit of our new commitment to one another, she accepted my judgment and we passed.
The next day, the same agent called and said she had another property she’d like us to look at. We followed her directions and found ourselves at the northern edge of Oldham County. There were more than a thousand acres and it was completely developed.
“This was an Arabian horse complex,” she said as she showed us around. “The acreage is broken down into ten-acre plots and gentleman farmers would build a house on each for when they were in town. The central part of the development has new, state-of-the-art barns, breeding facilities, show ring, physical fitness including a pool for the horses. There’s also a hotel where out of town guests could come and stay while choosing to buy a horse or simply come to watch the business of Arabian breeding. There’s nothing like it in this part of the country. The closest would be the facilities in Arizona. It’s sat vacant for a few years — bad management. I was thinking that you could move into one of the farms — the houses really are quite nice — and build yourself a new home using the hotel as a foundation for it. You could have plenty of room for company for the people who work for you. You’re only two miles from the river to the east, you’re in the school system you want for your son and this is a small, quaint town where everyone knows everyone. They’d be quite impressed with you. Best of all, there’s a straight shot to downtown along highway 42 and another using I-71. If you go north, you can cross the Ohio at Madison and be on your way to Indianapolis. I-71 will take you straight to Cincinnati. I know, Dr. LaViere, that you have business interests in those communities so this would give you a very centralized location.”
I was impressed by this agent; she’d done her homework. “What do you think, Auggie?” I asked and she wanted to check out some of the smaller farms.
“Worth, this is perfect.” Her eyes sparkled in her excitement. “Remember how I said I liked the size of the condo? We can build a house here that fits our family. We don’t need a huge thing. There are several homes here that we could easily live in while we build. Dad and your mother could have one of the others. There’s one for Betsy and her sister, one for Bernie, and when Ford is old enough, one for him as well. There’s plenty of room to build outward on any of them. Then there're the facilities for the horses. They’re gorgeous and are as nice, if not nicer than the ones I had built. I would really like this, Worth. And she’s right. You wouldn’t be but an hour or so from several of your clinics.”
Auggie didn’t need to convince me. I could see the logic in her words and her plans. I knew, most of all, that this made her heart sing and she would have the room to expand her dreams. She wasn’t cut out for downtown chic, even though she could certainly put on the swagger.
“So how about the existing estate?” I asked.
“Let’s do what we said. Let’s donate the whole thing and ask Tyler to be the director. You can stay on as CEO, but it will be a hobby for us; not a full-time job and certainly not a place where we need to live.”
“I like it,” I agreed, pulling her to my chest. “Consider it done.”