Chapter 9
The VP
Shelly got out of the elevator on the ninth floor of One Main Place in downtown Dallas. She looked to her right, saw the offices of Reliable Mortgage Servicing, and walked over and through the glass doors. The receptionist looked up, and recognition showed on her face.
“Shelly. I heard you’d be in today.”
“Hi, Sally. Yes, I decided I needed a job worse than my moral integrity.”
Sally laughed. “Ain’t that the truth.”
Sally Sterns had been the receptionist at NAS, and she and Shelly were good friends. Lucius Jones’s unethical business practices had been the topic of many conversations in the lunchroom at NAS. In fact, most of the employees talked badly about him behind his back.
“You can tell him I’m here.”
“Will do, sis. Oh, I’m so glad you’re coming on board. It’s been a little gloomy around here with the Lizard in charge.”
Lucius Jones had been dubbed “the Lizard” by his staff at NAS for obvious reasons. A wave of dread washed over Shelly as she took a seat to wait. A few moments later he walked in with a broad smile on his face.
“At least you make him smile,” Sally said under her breath. “That’s the first one I’ve seen in a week.”
Shelly stifled a laugh. “Good morning, Lucius.”
“Good morning,” Lucius said, extending his hand. Shelly shook it warily and immediately regretted it. He locked onto it with both hands and squeezed it like it was a prized possession. “Get Shelly some coffee,” he said, still holding on tightly. She jerked her hand free while he was barking out the order.
“So, I like your new offices,” she said to distract him.
He nodded. “Yeah, we went first class. You’ve got to impress the clients. If you don’t look successful they won’t have confidence in you.”
“So, where is my office?” she asked, looking around.
He pointed down the hall from the direction he had come. “At the end of the hall, right next to my office.”
She looked over at Sally and grimaced. Sally turned her head and coughed so Lucius wouldn’t see her laugh. Shelly followed Lucius down the hall and into an office. It was small but had a nice view over North Dallas.
“This will do nicely,” Shelly said.
“Good. You have a half hour to get settled. Then at ten o’clock we have a meeting with Consolidated Document Retrieval in the conference room.”
“Okay,” Shelly said, taking a seat in her executive chair. “Thanks, Lucius.”
He nodded and left. Shelly took a deep breath and swiveled around to look out over the city. The view will be good for daydreaming, she thought. Not that she’d have much time for that. Sally walked in and put a cup of coffee on her desk. Shelly turned around and smiled.
“So, what’s your job going to be here?” Sally asked. “We already have a customer service rep.”
“I know. I’m going to be VP of document retrieval.”
“Oh. Our forgery division.”
They both laughed hard.
“Right. So, where’s the supply room? I need to get organized.”
Sally led her to the supply room and helped her gather together what she needed. At ten she walked into the conference room. Three men were seated on the opposite side of the huge conference table. Lizard was at the end of the table. He motioned for her to sit next to him. Her stomach turned, but she managed to force a smile and take the appointed seat. The three men stood up.
“Gentlemen, this is Shelly Simms, our new VP of document retrieval. She’ll be coordinating the work with your company.”
“I’m Sanford Ross,” the blond man said. “I’m the owner and founder of CDR.” He pointed to the men next to him. “This is Roger Stafford and Juan Rubio. They have been assigned to work with you on supplying whatever you need.”
“Excellent,” Shelly said and took a seat.
“Okay, let’s get started,” Lucius said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, but our first priority is accounts in foreclosure. We only have a short period of time to file proofs of claim and lift stay motions. In order to do that we have to document the lender’s secured position. Currently we have about two thousand accounts in bankruptcy around the country without a clean paper trail.”
“Two thousand?” Shelly gasped.
Lucius nodded bleakly. “So, you’re going to have to go through each file, determine what documents are missing, and give Roger and Juan the specifications for creating new ones.”
“Specifications?”
“Yes. The type of document needed, the parties, the date of execution, the person or persons who should have signed the document. Then within seventy-two hours of submission CDR will deliver to you the needed documents.”
Shelly looked at Roger. “How will you be able to create the documents so fast?” Shelly asked.
“You don’t need to know that,” Lucius interjected. “You just accept the documents, check them for quality and conformity, and then send them to the law firm that needs them.”
“Does the law firm know where the documents are coming from?” Shelly asked.
“No. Nobody knows where they come from except the people in this room, and I want it to stay that way. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, you simply dug through the files and found the documents requested. Is that clear?”
Shelly nodded. “Absolutely.”
Lucius sighed. “Now, I cannot stress enough about security. There will be no emails, telephone calls, or use of the US mail. Everything going back and forth between our two companies will be by messenger or overnight courier. All packages are to be stamped confidential for the recipient only, and no one is allowed to open documents not addressed to them. No exceptions.”
Shelly swallowed hard. She quickly calculated in her head the number of documents she’d likely need for two thousand accounts. It could easily be five thousand individual documents, all with different mortgagors, dates, and officer signatures.
“How about my staff?”
“You’ll have to recruit what you need but no one who works for you must ever know where you’re getting the missing documents.”
“What do I tell them when they ask where I found it?”
“Just that our law firm had it or the original mortgage company forgot to forward it with the original loan file. Use your imagination.”
“Okay. Who will be certifying the documents as the custodian of records?” Shelly asked.
“Georgia Jenkins,” Lucius replied. “She’s our custodian of records and we pay her enough that she’ll sign whatever affidavit you put in front of her.”
She swallowed hard. “Right.”
“Okay. Any questions?” Lucius asked.
“No. I think we’re clear. We got your documents samples, so we are working on finding the right grades of paper and inks necessary to make them look authentic.”
“What about notaries?”
“We have actual notaries for every state of the Union. They work for one year but never renew their commissions. That way no one will ever be able to find them to testify.”
Shelly was glad the meeting was over. She had a splitting headache just thinking about the enormity of the task she had in front of her, not to mention the ethics involved. She wondered if she’d ever be able to sleep again. When she got back to her office she was shocked to see that twenty-two boxes of loan files had been delivered to her. She sighed and opened the first box.
As she went through the files she found the original documents were in place but after that it was hit or miss. Many of the transfers had been made en masse by computer and there was nothing in the file documenting the transfer of the notes or the liens on the real estate that secured them. For each file she’d have to figure out its history and then be sure the proper documents populated each file.
Her immediate problem was staffing up. There was no way she could possible handle this job alone, so she got on the phone with the
personnel firm she’d used with NAS and arranged for them to send over a half dozen prospective employees with some real estate experience. After she’d hung up the phone rang. She picked it up.
“This is Tim Simpson over at Jones, Stratford and Simpson.”
“Okay,” Shelly said.
“I understand you’re the person I need to talk to about getting some documents.”
“Who are you?”
“Your attorneys in Austin. We handle your bankruptcy cases.”
“Oh. Right. What can I do for you?”
“We’re running up on deadlines for filing a half dozen proofs of claim. I was told you were working on getting us the documentation?”
“Yes. Okay. Can you email me a list of what you need and I’ll get right on it?”
“Sure, but we’ve got less than ten days to get it filed or the claim will be disallowed.”
“Right. I’ll get right on it.”
Shelly hung up the phone and looked at the twenty-one boxes of files she hadn’t even inventoried yet and sighed. Her computer beeped, indicating she’d just gotten her first email. She opened it and saw it was from Tim Simpson. She looked at the list, then at the boxes, and wondered how she’d been talked into taking on such a horrible job.