Page 109 of The List


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“We have a press release ready to go on this end. I believe it’s time to issue it.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“We don’t know exactly what Bozin has done, so we can’t act till things are clearer. That brown envelope is a concern. There’s no indication at this point that either Reed or Walker can, or will, hurt us. Bozin could be bluffing, hoping we’ll make a mistake and expose ourselves. That old man was clever and jumping in blind could create even more problems. For now, just watch those two. Carefully.”

1:25P.M.

BRENT ARRIVED BACK ATBUILDINGBAND LEARNED THAT HIS BOSShad been called to Hickory Row. The information trickling in was that Bozin had been discovered midmorning when the house staff became worried. They found him snuggled under the covers apparently sleeping, death coming sometime during the night. The coroner was called, but since he wasn’t a physician, merely an assembly-line supervisor at the mill elected to his position, a medical doctor was also summoned. Heart failure brought on by the stress from prostate cancer was the official cause of death. A prescription medicine bottle found in the house provided the name of Bozin’s Atlanta doctor, who verified the cancer and its extent. The whole thing was awful, and a solemn sense pervaded the building.

Obviously, Bozin would be missed.

He lingered a little with the secretaries before going into his office. He hadn’t been around much during the past week and noticed a few new files stacked to one side. They needed attention.Hopefully, negotiations would be over by Monday or Tuesday and he could get back to work.

He removed the flash drive from the envelope and inserted it into his desktop. Remembering Bozin’s instruction that he view the material in private, he closed and locked the office door. He punched the keyboard and called up the drive’s index. There was only one file, titledREVELATION.

He brought it to the screen.

It was a narrative addressed specifically to him, dated yesterday. He resisted the temptation to scroll through its entire contents.

Instead, he began to read.

I have always been a history buff. Years ago, I read the story of Qin Shi, a second century b.c. ruler who consolidated what would eventually be called China into a single political entity. Qin Shi had enemies, though. Lots of them. Scattered everywhere, protected by mountains, rivers, forests, walls, or sometimes mere anonymity. In order to maintain his empire a way of controlling those enemies had to be found. But how? That was a problem which plagued his advisors for years. They thought of force, execution, imprisonment, and banishment. But each carried a price in terms of time, energy, and retaliation. They thought of doing nothing. But the message sent by indifference cautioned otherwise. Finally, the emperor himself came upon the method that proved most effective.

He ordered the construction of a city littered with magnificent palaces and splendid manor houses, each richly suited for the aristocracy who would soon occupy them. He staffed the city with hundreds of servants charged with providing all of the labor the inhabitants would ever need. He made the city an opulent place. A place of envy. A place where people wanted to live. Then he commanded all of his enemies to live there.

Many grumbled at first. But once there, accustomed to the luxuries freely provided, it became hard for any of them to leave, and none ever did. But that was the whole idea. For the residents it was a good life. For Qin Shi even better since his enemies were all contained in one place. Rebellion became next to impossible. Sedition disappeared. Qin Shi rested easier each night knowing his enemies were monitored around-the-clock by servants absolutely loyal to him, and his descendants ruled China, unchallenged, for another two hundred years.

Southern Republic Pulp & Paper’s methodology is a step back to Qin Shi’s time. We too built a town and within the limits of Concord we dominated. But just like with the enemies of Qin Shi, who over 2000 years ago basked in ignorance amongst the luxury of their surroundings, no resident of Woods County ever realized the full extent of our presence.

For the first few years of our existence, we obtained our operating capital through borrowing and remained heavily in debt. We based the company out of Atlanta, renting space in a variety of downtown office buildings. Not until twenty years into the venture did we build the Blue Tower.

Keeping trained and stable employees is critical to any business’ long-term success. So we immediately implemented a development program to upgrade Concord and Woods County. Our first venture was the Woods County State Bank, which offered a variety of services not then available locally. The institution immediately prospered and complemented the Southern Republic Credit Union, which was also company-controlled.

Eventually, we diversified into more covert investments, ones that didn’t leave an obvious link back to the companyor any one person. The decision to conceal our ownership was designed more as a public relations move than anything else (negating any charge of a company town) and a lot of money was spent purchasing these varied businesses.

Here are some examples. Hamilton Lee owns the Hardee’s, Burger King, Ace Hardware, the building supply center, Ford dealership, NAPA store, and, with some other partners, the Oak Trail shopping center.

Larry Hughes invested in convenience stores, buying commercial tracts all over the county. Hughes also has exclusive gasoline supply contracts through several wholesale suppliers. Home construction was another area Hughes concentrated on. Over fifty percent of the houses built in Concord during the last thirty years were by his companies. Hughes also owns the GM dealership, produce market, funeral home, flea market in the north end of the county, a variety of commercial office space, and the Bull Creek shopping center.

I stayed in banking, opening the competing South Central Georgia Savings. We assumed enough business existed for at least one other financial institution, so before someone else moved in we agreed I should open it. I also hold a controlling interest in the Toyota dealership, Econo Lodge, Eagle Lake Lodge, McDonald’s, the truck stop on Highway 16A, the cable television company, and, like Hughes, various commercial buildings all over the county.

All of these holdings are noted at the end of this narrative in Appendix A. Appendix B is a listing of undeveloped real estate we still own. Our landholdings are extensive. Early on we recognized what could happen if we were successfulwith our investment, so a point was made to buy as many parcels as possible.

You should know that these businesses and land tracts are controlled through management companies, themselves owned by holding companies, which are in turn run by corporations controlled by one, two, or all three of us. The names of all these various LLCs and partnerships are provided in Appendix C.

None of these ventures were overly profitable and some even lost money. And, unlike Qin Shi, we do not own or control everything in town. But we have enough to provide the means by which a substantial amount of company wages could be recycled back into our pockets. Someone, or some entity, was going to secondarily profit from our investment. It might as well have been us who derived the bulk of any money to be made. We even coined a name, “recycled payroll,” for the dollars realized from these secondary businesses.

This diversification ultimately provided another benefit, one we initially did not realize, but one we now regard as priceless. Access to an enormous amount of personal information. Banking records, tax records, credit information, sales histories, new and used car purchases, and the like.

Our original plan called for ten years of investment then several decades of profit. However, unexpected dips in the economy, two recessions (one quite deep), and foreign competition plummeted the price of paper. At the same time our three labor unions relentlessly demanded more in the way of wages and benefits. A dangerous spiral evolved, one that easily could have forced either reductions in our work force or the shutting of our doors. Butthat didn’t happen, and to fully understand why a few other points about Southern Republic need explaining.

Initially, like most companies, we maintained employee health insurance through a variety of outside insurers. The same was true for our workers’ compensation coverage and retirement programs. Over the years the costs associated with these third-party providers skyrocketed and the continuous demands from the unions for more benefits compounded an already difficult situation. Then, with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, new financial pressures were placed on our coverages. So imagine if a way could be found to control those costs. Perhaps even predict them with reasonable certainty. A company with that capability would certainly have an advantage.

We found such a way.

Murder.

Robbie Shuman was first. We discussed him the other evening at my house. Suffice it to say Shuman was not the victim of a random act of violence, as the police and everyone else so easily assumed. He was slain by a hired killer, then posthumously revealed to be a thief to destroy his credibility.