Hampton Manor

“I certainly will, sir.”

Adam left his father’s bedroom in an agitated state. Questions raced through his mind as he made his way back to the main house. Do I have a half-brother somewhere? Would he have any legal claim to the estate if this gets out? Does he know who his real father is? I sure don’t need this now, with everything else I have to deal with. Life’s a real bitch sometime. I’m going to have to follow up on this, with, or without, my father’s help. My instincts tell me that there is something more to this.

Milton approached him in the foyer. “Are you ready for breakfast now, sir?”

“No, Milton. I’m going to skip breakfast today. Just bring some coffee to my den.

“Right away, sir.”

When the coffee arrived he closed the doors to the den and took out his cell phone. “Chuck, I’ve got another job for you. I need an extensive background check done.” He explained that he needed some information dating back to 1974.

“Wow! That’s a long time. You’re talking thirty seven years ago. It won’t be easy to access records going back that far.”

“I understand that. You’ll just have to do your best.”

“Who’s the subject?”

“My father, Adam Hampton II. That should make your job easier. I need you to look at his activities for that entire year. I should have all his personal papers for that year in storage. You just have to sort through them.”

There was silence on the other end. Then finally, “You want me to investigate your own father?”

“That’s right. Does that present a problem for you?”

“No, of course not, it just caught me by surprise. Is there something specific you want us to look for?”

“Yes! I want you to look into every relationship he had with women, especially with married women. I want to know their names and everything you can find out about them and their families. This will be a monumental job, but my father kept meticulous records. You’ll have file copies of memos, personal papers, his bank statements and appointment calendars. to go through. He was away from home for long periods at a time when I was young, From what I’ve heard, he was hell raiser back then, but what I am looking for should be in evidence somewhere in those papers.”

“It sounds like I’ll need to assign a lot of people to this. It’s gonna be costly.”

“I don’t care about the expense. Get me those names, and make sure that this is kept on the q.t. I’ll make his private records for that year available for pick-up at our long-term storage facility. You’ll need to check them very carefully.”

“We’ll do the best we can, but this kind of an investigation will requires a certain amount of candor.”

“Don’t tell anyone any more than you need to and do it as quickly as possible.”

“You can count on me Mister Hampton.”

Chapter 20

Adam was the first to reach his office. Marcia and Kane showed up with three bankers boxes full of files slightly before 10 o‘clock.

“Good Morning, Adam”

“Good Morning, Marcia.”

The men nodded perfunctorily. Coffee service was wheeled in and all three filled their cups, picked up a donut and chose a seat at the round meeting table. Marcia presented the sales and revenue projections. She was interrupted several times by Adam as he rechecked the data on a hand held calculator. Her analysis was flawless and brought them to the same conclusions that she had given Adam earlier that morning.

Adam sat quietly for a few minutes ruminating over what the next step would be. He glared at Kane and finally said, “Masterson, do you expect me to believe that you didn’t know that this was going to happen. Any executive worth his salt would have foreseen a defection of this magnitude. It doesn’t make any sense that you missed it.”

Marcia, looked at Adam with disbelief. Why did he say that? I told him that Kane couldn’t have known anything in advance. All the companies verified that. Sometimes Adam has a real stubborn streak in him. I don’t like him when he’s like this. I hope that he doesn’t do anything stupid to assuage his bruised ego.

“I’m sorry you feel that way, Mister Hampton. I wish I had known. We might have been able to save them. I am as shocked as you are about this. They were all good customers. They paid their invoices on time. That consortium made them a damned good offer to get them to turn. One good thing is that only one of them was a Neo-Weaves customer. Any more and it would have been a disaster. This change must have been in the works well before Hampton announced that they had enough stock to take over Preston. So don’t blame yourself for them leaving. It is obvious that there wasn’t any way either of us could have prevented it from happening.”

Adam heard him out, but the flushing of his face presaged what was coming. “Spare me the speeches, Masterson. I’m not buying it. Why should I blaming myself for anything, but I know in my gut that you hand in this, somehow. I’ve decided that your continued involvement in the merger is counterproductive. So, I’m releasing you from your commitment to us. I want you off our property immediately. Get out, now!”

Marcia stood up and glared at Adam. “What are you doing,? Kane has worked harder than anyone during the past month to make this merger work. I told you that I was assured that he couldn’t have known about this in advance. I need his help to maximize the potential of the expanded Hampton Sportswear line.”

“I’ll give you all the additional analysts you need them, but I want that man out of here, now.”

Kane gathered up his personal laptop and headed for the door. He turned to Marcia. “I thank you for being the civil one at this company. Keep on in the direction you’re headed and it will all work out. This company will do just fine in the long run because of people like you and in spite of its unstable upper management.”

He smiled at Adam, turned and left the office.

Marcia wanted to go after Kane, but thought better of it. Instead she turned to Adam. “What the hell is wrong with you? Do you realize how much more difficult it is going to be without his input Without the VP and now Kane, I’m going to have one hell of a time making this merger work. Sometimes I don’t understand what motivates you.” She left the office and asked Adam’s secretary to have the file boxes moved to her office.

Adam called the security desk to check that Kane. He followed up with strict instructions that Kane was banned from ever entering the building.

Kane returned to the Belmonte and switched his room billing to his personal account. The front desk had already prepared the new signature card when Adam called to cancel any future charges to the Hampton account.

Adam’s impulsiveness had taken Kane by surprise. He hadn’t expect to be cut loose, especially by the man who had warned him that he planned to extract every last drop of his blood. He wanted to see Marcia before he made any concrete plans, but decided against talking to her at her office in the fear that Adam would find a way to penalize her as well. Instead, he called his mother to give her an update on his experience with Adam Hampton.

Evelyn Littleton didn’t take the news graciously. “I warned you to be careful with that son-of-a-bitch. I don’t know how you kept from punching his lights out.”

“There was nothing to be gained by doing that, although I must admit that I was tempted to wipe that smug look off his face. There’s more satisfaction in knowing that he’s going to have his hands full when more customers jump ship. The word will get around fast. They’ll find out, over time, that Hampton isn’t as nice to do business with as I was. Well, that’s behind me now. I’ve got to move forward.”

“So, what are your plans, now?”

“Well first, you’ll be glad to know that I have a love interest in my life. Her name is Marcia Bloom. She’s the lady I’ve been working with on the merger.”

“How could you be interested in her when she’s working for that man?”

“What? Did that just come from the woman who’s been bugging me for years to date more. Aren’t you the one wants more grandchildren running around? Look, I’m no longer obligated to Hampton and she can go out with