A
Twice-Told Tale-With Katrina The Girl With The Sparkling Eyes In Mind
By
Zack James
Hey,
Phil Larkin, P.I. private eye to you here to give you the low-done on my lawyer
friend (and a guy I have worked for on a contract basis for several years), Tim
Clary, who has as usual let himself get in way over his head with a dame, a
young dame too, boot who has been leading him by the nose (or another more private
part if you ask me) for a few months now. Usually I like to make some commentary
but here I will just let him bask in his glory since apparently this time, this
one last time as the dame, Katrina, has said right along he has finally got
everything right-Good luck brother-and forget about “last time” with this one:
Sweetie-
some days it is great to be a lawyer, to actual help somebody, to help a damsel
in distress, you okay, and today is one of them. Yeah, to actually help somebody
without having to crush somebody else which is the usual case in our
adversarial legal system where in court one side wins and the other side loses
most of the time. Most days are like
that, dog eat dog, not at all like they tried to play with your head with in
law school about justice being blind and everybody is equal under the law.
And
it is not just the court system that is screwed up but I remember back when I
was doing more criminal cases starting out like a lot of young hungry lawyers looking
to get a start in the business and some guy, usually they were guys, was in
court on a drug charge, maybe trafficking, maybe possession of too much dope to
not be prosecuted like for kilos or something who would get up on the stand and
act all innocent (like I told him to do) and the prosecutor starts talking
about a couple of prior convictions for the same offenses that had been “continued
without a finding” (meaning they would go away if the guy kept his nose,
literally his nose in cocaine cases, clean for a period long enough to say he
was rehabilitated). Of course he never told me that little piece of information
when I had asked him about “priors” so naturally I looked like a fool when I
went to the bench and asked for some kind of plea bargain rather than the “not
guilty” I was looking for. Or the time a guy in all honesty (he was a little
simple-minded but not as much as he pretended) thought he had some kind of
constitutional right to have a pistol in his hand when he displayed it in a
7/11 store in Dracut and the clerk, scared out of her mind, though it was an
armed robbery as she handed over the money. It was, the guy had about six
“priors,” for various armed and unarmed robberies. Had a million cases like that.
Hell
later the civil case clients would still goof with me sometimes like when I did
a few divorce cases before I gave that up as too scary once I realized that I
would rather defend the low-rent criminals who at least were half honest when they
would lie, male or female it didn’t matter, about why they wanted a divorce.
Worse when it came to dividing up the property. Christ they fought tooth and
nail over a television set or some foolish piece of furniture. I won’t even go
into the “civil wars” when there were lawsuits between two unrelated parties
about ownership of land, or chattels. Worse when there were personal injury
cases (although “win or lose” I made good money on those cases I will admit)
and one party would almost ask the judge for the death penalty beside money
damages in the case for some car dent or whiplash back deal. Jesus.
You
will appreciate this one. I have to chuckle every time I think about Harry’s
case, or rather cases. Harry was from up your way, up in Bedford if I recall,
who had a small printing business in Lowell over on Merrimack Street by the
river in the Taylor Building (now converted to condos at some outrageous price
just because they had a river view but they were poorly constructed and I
wouldn’t live in one if you paid me). He was always coming to me to “negotiate”
with some customer who was not paying his or her bills. One time a big customer,
an independent book publisher, got behind on his payments, had as it turned out
made a bunch of bad decisions about what books would sell in the consumers’
market, and got so far behind in his bills that Harry took him to court,
rightfully so. When Harry got up on the stand to say his piece he, on his own,
started talking about putting the poor guy in now non-existent debtor’s prison
like something out of Charles Dickens’ Great
Expectations which you probably read in school. Like Harry had never heard of bankruptcy laws
(that the guy finally had to go to which was sad in a way because he had in his
younger days published some very good if not exactly best-seller books which is
always worthwhile). When I asked you about your situation in the hospital and whether
you could leave or were being held before you explained everything to my satisfaction
I thought of you as a Harry’s case for real.
You
know even this big deal case from Washington I am working on now that I keep
telling you I am busy on is a “one side wins, the other side loses” situation
(except me because I am getting paid, paid a lot, or I should say I shall get
paid a lot since I am working by the hour on the thing and so not dependent on
winning like in some cases I have had, some cases when I put a lot of time in
and got nothing for it when the client lost). It is about land, or really land
use which people come to me about since I won a case a while back, a big case
in Massachusetts, on appeal about who owned the land. Not a big case like the U.S.
Supreme Court case in Miranda, the
give you your rights case, or Lawrence,
the gay civil rights case, but a big land use case that lawyers still refer to
when they have what are called “adverse possession” cases. What that means in
laymen’s terms is that one guy used land for a long time, over twenty years,
thinking it was his but on the land deed it was really another guy’s. That
other guy showed no proof of active ownership so the first guy got possession.
What was important to the first guy, my guy, was that he have that land to sell
because a huge condo developer wanted the land but only if he could have all of
it undisputed. That is what the D.C. case is all about but the land use size is
much bigger, the developer wants to put 160 condos/townhouses up but needs a
disputed strip for a street between sections. Without that-no go.
But
enough of these law court “war stories” let’s get to why you should be happy
that I feel good to be a lawyer today. Last night I was talking to my
accountant about your situation, about the blizzard of e-mails we had sent back
and forth earlier in the day in order to made a plan to move forward and get
you out of “jail,” about what had been happening to you over the past couple of
weeks since you paid off that late insurance premium on your mother’s life
insurance policy. See I need his authorization from the law office accounts,
especially for a large sum like $2100. I have been keeping him “out of the
loop” on those bank transfer things that didn’t work because they were being
drawn off my credit cards which he doesn’t have control over (meaning he
doesn’t have to authorize use although he does need the monthly statements for
tax purposes, Christ, he always as you know wants some damn receipt for every
little thing).
By
the way when I told him about the failed bank transfers from my bank, Bank of
America (hereafter B of A), to your bank, Banco de Or, especially from Xoom which
he uses all the time and likes and which you said you were not in favor of
using he had the problem solves in a jiffy. That paperwork BOD (Banco de Oro)
wanted you to sign was because you had a savings account and not a checking
account. According to him there was no way Xoom or Bank of America (I mean B of
A) could transfer money from my bank account to yours because you didn’t have a
routing number. So what that local branch of BOD (Banco de Ora, okay) would
have wanted from you if you could have contacted them was to sign off on
paperwork to allow international bank transfers into your savings account. That
was all.
But
that wasn’t the reason he, my accountant, called me, although while I had him
the line I told him about your situation. You know about you being in the
hospital for stomach ulcers since you had not been eating, or had been fasting
for some reason, I don’t remember off-hand which it was, the former I think,
but basically not taking care of yourself because you had no dough to live on
until you cashed in on the $45,000 (sorry I don’t know how many pesos,
Philippine pesos that was, about 2,000,000 if I remember the conversion rate
correctly) insurance policy we had paid the premium on. That you had gone to
the hospital, taken I think by your brother and two cousins, Rufus, no, Ricky,
and Jonathan the night before you were supposed to get the big insurance pay-out
you were entitled too. Damn getting sick just when you were going to get financially
well. (Did you ever tell me your brother’s name I know he is a student and is
about seventeen, right?). They had taken you to the same hospital, Saint Tomas,
where your mother had been taken to before she passed away and which we had had
to buy off for $800 USD (United States dollars, 35,000 pesos right) in medical
bills before they would let you give her a proper burial.
My
accountant asked about which wing of the hospital you were being held at, the low-rent
charity ward or the “plush suites,” his terms since he knew the hospital from
trips to Manila on business, and I told him because we had pieced off the place
in your mother’s case with that 800
clams (35,000 pesos clams) before they let you be treated with the Mayfair
swells, you know the upper crust, in the nicer section (his saying “being held
at” like you were a prisoner which is as you know I thought until just
yesterday when you straightened me out and so I did the same for him about your
wanting to do everything by the book, legally).
Like
I said the real reason my accountant called was because he had received an
e-mail by some parish priest from that Quinpo (sorry if I misspelt it) church
your mother belonged to thanking me for sending the five years Mass Card who
although not familiar with your mother’s name, didn’t know her from Adam or Eve
from what my accountant said, was pleased that I had thought of her, one of
God’s children, and that of course on
her death anniversary day they would do their duty to her by saying a Mass in
her name. (I gave February 27th as her death date since that was the
day you left I think and if that is not right then that will still count for
her as her remembrance time anyway.) Of course you know I only did that out of
respect for you (and indirectly your brother whose name I don’t know, is it
Angel, maybe you did tell me). I have mentioned my feelings as an old-time
sinner myself about the Church before and I don’t want to get started on that
because that is not what this message to you is about. About great news not
ancient Catholic childhood mental wounds that have never properly healed. But
just be aware that as for your mother somebody is looking out for her when you
are away elsewhere.
Of
course since I have known my accountant for a long time and except when he goes
crazy over receipts and invoices he and I get along, and he has after all kept
me out of trouble, out of serious trouble anyway, he felt free to make his
usual “pussy-whipped” comment after I told him about your sad ass tale and your
various post insurance premium- related capers. You remember I hope that e-mail
I sent you one time about his comment about “thinking with cock, not my brain,”
in dealing with you once he saw how pretty you were and how nice too. Here is a
copy just in case you forgot what with your other worries and stuff:
“Hi Sweetie-hope things are going
well with you-thanks for the revealing photos of you. They certainly had my
woodie getting hard just thinking about those beautiful tits of yours (“Woodie”
that’s your word for cock right-I remember you calling it that once time when
we were talking before you left for the Philippines). Of course I would have to
have a closer inspection, a much closer inspection in order to confirm how nice
they are.
Now that the business stuff is over
let me tell you a story about why I was asking for revealing photos of you.
During this last insurance premium go-round my accountant said I was thinking with
“my cock and not my brain” in dealing with you what with all the zigzags we
went through. He didn’t exactly put it
that way but you know how guys talk about good-looking women and their desire
for them what he meant was that I was
pussy-whipped, “cyber-pussy-whipped” by you because every little request by you
for anything and I was calling him up day and night to see if it could be done
without getting into trouble. That got me to thinking back to the previous
photos that you had sent me of you before you went away. I was thinking that if
I was pussy-whipped (which you and I know I am not but rather just trying to
help a damsel in distress and will in the future too if necessary and we will
work out some kind of thing that will be okay for both of us so we are on the
same page) then I might as well have a look at the pussy I am being whipped by.
Sometime when you get a chance I would not a little photo like that. This would
be just between us but I would be able to laugh every time he went on and on about
stuff like that. You could do that for me sweetie I hope.
As usual when I have gone to
Washington I always get behind and so I have been working today to get caught
up on an interesting case I will tell you about sometime. I also jogged this
morning before the rain started here. If you can believe this and this is no
April Fools’ joke tomorrow and the day after (Sunday and Monday here) it is
supposed to snow-not much but what the heck it is April. I am also finishing up
an interesting novel by Ernest Hemingway-do you know who he is-or remember
reading anything by him in high school-about Paris in the 1920s during the Jazz
Age. I would like to go Paris this year in the fall so I am reading stuff like
that to get motivated to go –Of course Paris is a place you don’t want to go
alone if you know what I mean.
I often think about what you are
reading about, what you are doing over there while you are waiting for your
fortunes to change. Tell me some stuff like that, what kind of food do they have
there, did you go any place of interest. You know stuff like that so we can
“reconnect”
I have learned the basics of sexting
(oops) texting but it takes me a long time to put a message together. I haven’t
got all the symbols and shorthand down. As you can tell it is much easier (and
faster) for me to write a bunch of stuff in an e-mail-Let me hear from you and
what you are up to and remember I will continue to be your amigo as things go
forward-Later.”
Then I sent another e-mail which went like
this:
“Hi
sweetie- thanks for note- I sent you a note about sending your photos to g-mail
address but that can wait until you have a phone-Will you have a phone before
you leave the Philippines or wait until you get back to America. I sure
would like to have a voice to put with that lovely face. I hope you don't
mind me being a little sexy with you- all I know is that “woodie” was pretty
hard when I saw those photos-kind of got hard just like that but I am sure you
know that would happen when I saw them and I hope you are glad about it-I don't
think you do mind about the little sexy stuff but everything I say is just
between us-
As far as my accountant goes if he
had seen those photos of you and the ones you sent before he would have
the same reaction I did. Then who would be cyber-pussy-whipped. He's a good guy
and like I said he has kept me out of trouble for a while and so that is good
but he would never understand why I like a nice younger woman like you
and have gone out of my way to help you even though we haven't met in
person. But accountants are like that-never take a risk because it
might throw their balance sheets off. You know the only sheets I am
worrying about taking off-I hope.
It’s funny when you say you would never let me
down because all through this business stuff whatever was going on I
think in the back of my mind I had a feeling you would not, you just seemed to
be that way. Maybe it was our both growing up kind of poor, kind of from
the wrong side of the tracks as they say that made me feel that way. We can
take about that some other time but we should talk about it.
I didn't quite understand about the
"constructing church" you were talking about-is that in Paris? I
don't remember hearing about that or seeing it the times I have gone
there. Have you ever been to Paris?
You know you might know that guy Hemingway
although not his name did you ever read about a story called the Old Man and the Sea where this old-time
Cuban fisherman is out by himself and sees a huge fish that will put him
on easy street if he can catch it and bring it back to port and sells it. He
catches the fish but along the way back to port about seven things happen
and when he gets to port there is nothing to sell, the fish is nothing but
bones. So much for easy street…”
You had such a great response-remember. If not
here’s the way that went:
“Hello babe thank you so much
again I’m glad you like my photos! I know Woodie will like it too xoxoxo! Don't
mind your accountant once we meet in person we will both show him and laugh in
him for calling you that way! I know you're not that kind of guy he's just
bitter because you will be with a fine lady and he won't! I appreciated all
your good deeds for me babe and i promise I will never let you down! Speaking of
down I can show you my down stairs of course but right after I get a phone with
camera xoxo! Lol really? No I don't know that person but I love to read what
you been writing! We will both go to the place I wanted so much and see the
still constructing church together!! I've been reading a lot of space lately
just bunch of random facts about universe and galaxy! I have never been to any
nice place here since I don’t have money yet I have been eating more of Philippine
foods and I kind of like it its call tinolang manok and pork sisig! Lol I’m
glad you learning how to text if you can you can shoot me one sometimes and I
will reply back! I only have less than 10$ to survive the week and I hope I can
get the money by this coming week or next week once I do I will let you know
and will keeping you update of my comeback! I miss talking stuff like this with
you!”
Remember too how my accountant
went crazy looking for that Sun Life insurance premium invoice or there was
going to be hell for me to pay (and you bailed me out by sending the copy which
was hard for you do to do when you were hospital and which I haven’t forgotten
about, believe me I haven’t forgotten). Here’s a refresher:
“Desperate situation-HELP
Sweetie this is why the situation is
desperate and I need your help. I, you maybe, we, are in trouble about that
money I loaned you out of my pocket to pay your insurance premium of $1000 or
whatever it was. I told my accountant who handles both the law office and my
personal financial accounts about my sending you the WU money transfer and when
I told him I had lent you from my pocket (what he called “behind his back”) he
flipped out-again. Said didn’t I realize that lending the dough for the
insurance premiums on top of paying the medical bills and funeral expenses made
it look like I had an interest in the insurance money. Make it look like I was
in with you on the insurance deal since I am the guy who sent the WU money
transfers. In any case lawyers involved with client’s (that was the way the
previous medical and funeral expenses went on the books in the law office ) is
a big no-no-not legal, not ethical and he will be forced to report that to the
Massachusetts Board Of Bar Overseers-the people who make sure lawyers don’t do
stuff like that. Where you could be in trouble is that you knew I was a lawyer,
knew the money for the medical expenses and funeral expenses and that first
time I tried to send you the insurance money where I made a mistake on the
name-remember was coming from a lawyer.
He is not going to lose HIS job or
get in trouble with the CPA (Certified Public Accountants) guys who license him
so I need to get that damn insurance receipt and fast to show that I just
loaned you the money to help you out. Otherwise he will be forced to turn his
information over to the Bar Overseers and who knows what will happen. They do
not like and there are plenty of cases about it seeing lawyers even looking
like they are benefitting from third-party (you) insurance claim. I need to
keep my license clean in order to practice law (and help you in the future when
you get back to America and your nursing career or whatever else you want to
do.
So sweetie can you please, please,
please find another computer place there must be more than one in Manila to
scan that receipt and send it quickly-very quickly. You can do that sweetie
right-I have stood by you and done the best I could by you but now, right now,
I need you to help me out.
After that is done, after we can show
that the insurance premium money was just a personal loan, then everything will
look right and I can help you with the other stuff like the rent and all and it
will just be personal and all right. You can do that for me sweetie-yes. After
we get this behind us then I will help you to the best of my ability. And you
know that’s true because I have a track record of helping you that you can
depend on.
Right now though nothing else matters
but that receipt so let’s get to that. My lawyer said I shouldn’t even be
communicating with you except to ask for the receipt but I felt I had to tell
what I was up against so you would know how serious the situation is. I will
abide by what he says though-no communication- until I get that receipt- I will
be glad when this is behind us-su amigo”
All of this rehashing of e-mails has
a purpose though, a purpose that will make you realize what a good guy my
accountant really is, how much you and I owe him, and why I am happy to be a
lawyer today. I mentioned to my accountant as we were talking last night that because
you were, in effect, under house arrest you couldn’t leave the hospital under penalty
of arrest and incarceration in a real slammer (jail) and so couldn’t get to
your bank to take care of that international money transfer issue that I mentioned
above that he had solved for us by cluing us in about what BOD (Banco de Oro)
wanted from you. Also that your relationship with Sun Life was thwarted when
you got sick the night before you were to complete the deal and couldn’t get
over to their offices to get your hands on what I then thought was an insurance
check you could deposit in your BOD (Banco de Oro) savings account. After you had
told me that Sun Life only deals in cash pay-outs on insurance policies, even large
ones like $45,000 USD (United States dollars and about 2,000, 000 Philippine
pesos) I told him the same thing, Told him that was why you couldn’t draw the dough
out since you had to go there in person. That because you were in gaol (jail) and
nneeded my help for one last time to pay off your jailers (they really are when
you think about it since you, trying to act legally, can’t leave except under severe
penalty). Needed me to sent you $2100 USD (United States dollars, around 9000
or 10,000 pesos right?) via Moneygram
in care or your cousin Rickey, no, Jonathan, Jonathan Mateo because Rickey had
either lost his driver’s license or had failed to renew it (that’s right isn’t
it, lost it for speeding or something-did he, Ricky, ever get it back).
That’s when my accountant “flipped”
out but also came back to earth and “saved” us. He told me and I quote, “ What
are you crazy, didn’t you know that Moneygram
had been involved in settling a big fraud
claims case a few months ago where they had let scammers use their site for illegal
actions?” I said no, and that I wasn’t until recently in dealing with you up to
speed on all this electronic money transfer stuff. He answered, “I wouldn’t use
Moneygram in a million years.” Period.
When he settled down, after I asked
him, pretty please, asked him how was I to help you if that avenue was closed off,
he, once again came up with the solution. Here is where it is good to know a
few people in key places. See he, as you might expect of a business accountant who
works for lawyers, deals with insurance companies all the time, so he knows,
Sam Larkin, the Vice-President for International Affairs at Sun Life in America,
which Sun Life in the Philippines is a subsidiary of. My accountant called Sam
this morning and told him my/your/our story. No problem. Sam has ordered an
agent in the Philippines, Tomas Ramos, to go to your hospital Monday or any day
you want if Monday is no good and on giving him your insurance policy and
premium invoice do whatever you need done. If you want cash or a check, done. Sam
suggested a check because $45, 000 USD (United States dollars, or what did I
say before a couple of million Philippines pesos) is a lot of money to be
carrying around the Philippines these days and he is right I think from what
you have said about going out at night or just being around that dangerous drug-infested
neighborhood you lived in with the batos hanging out right on that street you
live on. If you need a ride to your bank, done. Anything you need just tell me
what day and what time you want Tomas to come and take care of business and it
is done.
So you can see why I like being a
lawyer today. You win, I win, Angel (I think) wins, Jonathan and Ricky
win. My accountant, a good guy right,
wins. Great news.
