Chapter Nine
Clarity looked at the screen showing the camera of the pawnshop reception area, to ensure no customer was there to pawn anything. Using Mannen's computer, she got into a deep web area that Mannen used to get information no else provided. She scanned one of the bonds taken from the vault of Moe Alamy, and sent the scan to a bond location crawler, to check on the serial numbers showing on the bonds. The answer from the crawler came as sold through genuine intermediaries, not stolen. Continuing her search, Clarity found out that the bonds came from a private outfit in New York, indirectly associated with the New York Fed, owned by Kailash Hills, a private vault company from New Delhi in India. The vault of the Federal Reserve of New York held over five hundred thousand gold bars, eighty feet below street level, held by banks, institutions, and wealthy individuals. Not completely reassured by the international banking system, some people decided to leave their valuables, including bonds, or gold, with a private vault company, outside the banking system.
Clarity looked at another folder in the computer, which said federal bonds. In it, there was a snapshot of one of the bonds previously owned by Buddha Talk, given to him in exchange for the gold bar of Lady Fortuna, bonds that were held by federal authorities. She put the bond scan in the crawler, and the system came back with the comment 'stolen from the New York Fed vault, from a prominent family of bankers, during a visit on a bank holiday'. She dialed the private number of Mannen, who was at Swankeye making calls to his new pilot.
"The bonds of Moe are not stolen," said Clarity, "the ones whistled to the authorities by Di Laure were stolen apparently, during a bank holiday."
She ended the call and got back to the front reception counter of the pawnshop. About an hour later, Ambrosio came in with Giacomino behind him, pushing an aluminum platform trolley.
"Moe told us to come here, to ensure you wouldn't be working here anymore."
"I like to work here. Mr. Mannen decides that. I take care of his fitball matters."
Ambrosio rubbed his cheek, thinking he was missing something, with this idea of the fitballs. He lifted his index and his companion pushed the trolley close to one of the showroom walls of the shop. Giacomino looted one whole shelf of the pawnshop in less than ten minutes, loading several items on the cart, including a roof rack, three electric guitars, several handbags, two laptops, a used dishwasher, and five digital cameras. The message to Mannen was to close the pawnshop.
"Tell Mr. Mannen that we'll come back in a few days," said Ambrosio, "to get more items here. We want the pawnshop closed."
"All right, I'll tell him. You're not creating any jobs, you know," said Clarity. In fact, they were putting her out of a job. She saw the henchman of Di Laure close the door, and then she began to think about a few suggestions given to her by Mannen, which came from the Cocoanomics manual. One of them, was carve your own place, even if it's small. Her place at the pawnshop was getting smaller with each day. She had no belongings, except for a tablet, and very little money. The other suggestion of the manual was to turn salt into sugar, the idea that you could make something favorable, out of something else, which was not particularly good. Place problems in the area of normality, was another suggestion, things happen. She placed a handbag dropped by Giacomino on the empty shelf of the shop. Apparently, there was a way of transforming the visit of Ambrosio into something good, or not bad.
After the incident, Mannen decided to send Clarity out of Miami for a day or two, to keep the other Cappi siding with Moe unaware of his plans. He also left South Florida for a few days, leaving from Vero Beach airport, in order to gather additional funds in Cayman for his new finance vehicle, and also to talk to investors about his new business. He was also going to George Town in order to get the vehicle memorandum in place, the two hundred page document that authorities in Cayman requested for every new money vehicle created.
Clarity heard the honk of Jaguar 73 outside the pawnshop. She closed the shop and hopped in the back seat of the car, letting Baggio drive her through highway 75, to a golf course in Polk County, officially in North Florida. As they drove through the Florida highway, she turned on the backseat television-screen to get instructions from the chubby guy. Mannen shot some video with his ideas at times, and then asked others to do what he said in the video, without always talking to people directly. As the large face of Mannen showed up on-screen, Clarity adjusted the volume knob of the tv set to hear the banking agent talk. The task of Clarity was to talk to one of the golfers associated with Lofty, a guy named Perkins, who had seen the franchise disclosure document of Mclannan's, a few months earlier, as a potential investor. Perkins knew about the franchise flagship and most secret location, the place where the company held its order information system. Once Clarity had gathered all the relevant information, her task was to get hired at that Mclannan's location, in order to understand how the information system worked, in particular the meat ordering module.
They reached the Evanston golf and country club about three hours later. Clarity stepped out and took a clean, fresh breath of air, seeing the lakeside lodge and clubhouse of the facility. Using people like Eiesland as a go-between, Mannen had a network of potential investors for his ventures, who were members of the top golf clubs in Florida, places like the Normandy Shores on Biscayne Bay, the Breakers in Palm Beach, the North Palm Beach Country Club, Tiburon in Naples, Pontevedra Inn and Club, Waldorf in Orlando, and Osprey Point in Boca Raton. Over one hundred golf courses, country clubs and resorts, in Florida were among the places where the golfers associated with Lofty liked to play golf or stay for a few weeks during the year, to talk with people like Eiesland. Evanston was one those country clubs and it was the favorite club of Perkins.
The lodge of Evanston included more than one hundred rooms, two casual and elegant dining restaurants, a bar, and a grotto-style spa. Evanston had a few scenic areas without city lights, which allowed for clear views of starlight, from some of its lounges. Baggio got two separate rooms, and gave her a Callaway bag of golf clubs to use with Perkins, a man in his fifties, who's made his fortune as a contractor. She worked as golf Caddie for the Lofty investor during a day or two. Officially, she was replacing Mitchell Eiesland to provide information to Perkins on the new vehicle set up by Mannen.
"Are you interested in Oakland?" She Asked. She handed him an iron, not having a clue of how golf worked.
"I'll use a driver, thanks. Going after Mclannan's?" Perkins grabbed a driver from the bag to shoot his first shot from the tee to a bush next to the fairway.
"Yes, twenty four locations or so," she said. They drove in the golf cart to the place where the ball had landed.
"All right," said Perkins, "I might chip in about five hundred thousand dollars. I got some figures from Eiesland that he sent, the return is not too bad."
"We do need something which may help get things off the ground," said Clarity.
She handed the golfer and investor a utility golf club, that Perkins used to get back on the fairway. His third shot landed him on the green. As they rode the golf cart to the green, she asked him about the flagship location of Mclannan's in Florida, saying that Mannen wanted to improve its information system once he bought some of its locations. The chubby guy who was a resident of Cayman, just didn't want to reinvent the wheel when it came to handling data, or any kind of information.
"It's in Manalapan," said Perkins, "about half an hour from Boca Raton. Flagship of Mclannan's is there, they keep the list of ingredients for the Ollie burger, and keep the servers of the franchise information system. Mclannan's University is near that place, in Boynton Beach. It's where they hire and train employees."
Clarity placed the golf bag on the green, watching Perkins make a put. After enjoying a few drinks at the clubhouse, she went back to her room, to jot the information from the golfer. She had the information Mannen was requesting. And she also had a way to get hired at Mclannan's. The next day, she had a good breakfast, and went out in her swimsuit, to relax at th
e country club timber frame pavilion beside the pool. A few plants and palm trees gave the pool a tropical setting. The beam trusses of the pavilion sat on a set of composite style columns, which together provided shelter and shade for club members. She took a seat in one of the tables, sitting next to Perkins, who was drinking fresh orange juice.
"I'm working a lot," she said. "Sometimes I think I should ask for a raise."
"Mannen works people, I know. You should ask him to get you a home in Florida. Not a bad place to live." Clarity was caught off-guard by the answer.
"That's expensive, I don't have a lot of money."
"Pay for it over time, make an arrangement with him."
Clarity took note of the idea. She'd never thought of owning a home, much less in a place like Florida. The place in Malibu where she lived was a rent. It would take her years to pay for any home. On the other hand, it was not a bad way to frame her crashworthy arrangement with Lofty. She got up and took a swim in the pool, before getting back to her room and pack a trolley that Baggio had gotten for her. Manalpan was listed as one of the most expensive cities in Florida. It was not a bad place to go, after Evanston. Before that, she had to get hired by Mclannan's, and go through training at OBU, Ollie Burger University.