The Bootlegger’s Legacy (35 page)

Michelle went home with Joe that night. They both felt that they had found their treasure and would never let it go—never.

They became the best of lovers and the best of friends. Joe said it was like they each found a missing part of themselves.

Their romance was whirlwind by most standards. Joe asked Michelle to marry him within a week of meeting her, and they planned the wedding for the following month in Dallas. Joe’s list of invitees was going to be small, so it made sense to accommodate Michelle’s friends and co-workers. Joe thought that once it was in the papers he would hear from Mike, but he didn’t. Maybe Mike didn’t even know who Michelle was. Or maybe he did—it really didn’t matter.

Joe missed his old friend Mike, in the odd way you can miss a toothache. They had spent a lot of time together, and it had seemed that they would be friends forever. Joe spent time thinking about what had happened with Mike and decided that he had never really liked his father, but growing up he’d wanted to be like his dad. Then finding out his dad had cheated on his mother, Mike decided somehow he was at fault, and therefore he didn’t like himself. He decided that the old Mike was still his friend, locked away in the new Mike’s body—maybe someday the old Mike would escape and meet him at Triples.

After the wedding, he was going to spend a week in Las Cruces getting to know his new best friend, Michelle Meadows. He had planned their trip—where they would stay, where they would eat—and smiled a lot, thinking about the fun they were going to have together.

Michelle was excited about visiting some of the places she’d heard Joe talk about in Old Mesilla, and even though a Paris honeymoon might have sounded more romantic to her friends, she couldn’t think of a better place for her and Joe to be together.

It occurred to Joe that his depression might be cured.

Mike and Samantha Allen

Everything continued to go well for Mike Allen. The Legacy Chapel grew into a national broadcasting powerhouse and Mike expanded into all kinds of activities, with books, several syndicated television programs, a radio talk show, and more. He was quite literally everywhere. He and Sam had become worldwide celebrities. The stream of money from his various enterprises had made them one of the wealthiest families in Oklahoma. They lived in a 20,000-square-foot mansion, with a household staff of ten. Mike had found his calling in life and was being richly rewarded. He took himself very seriously, had lost his sense of humor, and was considering a run for the U.S. senate.

Then trouble came knocking. One of his youth ministers, a very attractive twenty-three-year-old blonde woman, came forward and accused Mike of sexual harassment. She claimed that she and Mike had been having an affair for the past two years. In the midst of the media firestorm over these revelations, three more women, coincidentally all blonde, attractive, and young, came forward and accused the Reverend of less-than-Reverend-like deeds. Mike’s empire was looking shaky.

In an Oscar-worthy performance, Mike went on one of his TV shows with his lovely wife, Samantha, and confessed to his sins. He asked for forgiveness. He told his audience of the pain he had experienced when he’d learned that his father had been a bootlegger. He had suffered greatly learning that the man he’d worshiped had led a double life of sin. He begged for a second chance. Samantha tearfully joined in the appeal. She asked everyone to pray for her and Mike, and to give her husband a second chance—she had forgiven him and they had rededicated themselves to each other. Their ratings went through the roof.

Not only was Mike given a second chance, donations doubled the following week. Whether Mike noticed a pattern in any of this, no one knows. He was his father’s son, giving the customers what they wanted.

In an effort to expand its national and international audience, Legacy Chapel moved its headquarters to Colorado Springs, Colorado. They opened one of the largest private broadcasting studios in the country. Mike gave up his political ambitions and concentrated on his role as a church leader. He never saw or talked to Joe again. He never knew about Sally’s daughter or found out that Joe and she had married. He was entirely focused on his vital role as the moral leader of his devoted flock.

Liz Meadows

Liz moved back to Tulsa where she reconnected with an old high school classmate, now a well-known Tulsa surgeon who was recently divorced from his third wife. She pursued him with a vengeance. Observers thought she chased him shamelessly, but Liz didn’t care and felt no shame. She wanted status, she wanted to be someone—and Mrs. Doctor, living in a million-dollar mansion, fit the bill exactly.

They were married in one of the major social events of the year. For a short while everything was fine—Liz kept busy with a very full social calendar, and the doctor kept busy doing whatever he did—she hardly noticed that he wasn’t around much. But the doctor had an ugly secret, he was a drug addict—prescription drugs, self-prescribed. When regulations and disclosure requirements for prescription drugs were tightened, the doctor found himself in trouble with the law and the Medical Board. As the scandal became known, Liz began to berate her new husband, much as she used to dress Joe down. The doctor had a different reaction and beat Liz on several occasions. After a beating that resulted in a hospital stay, she moved to her mother’s and filed for divorce.

Liz and Joe’s children grew tired of their mother’s ways, and after she married the doctor they broke off contact. As they grew older, they thought that they might not have given their father a proper chance. As they approached their thirties, they both decided to make contact with Joe. They visited Joe and Michelle and found that they liked them both. They also discovered that their father was one of the funniest guys they’d ever known. They started having family gatherings and seemed to enjoy each other’s company. Not much was said about Liz.

Jim Emerson

Jim Emerson’s downfall started soon after his deal with Mike was completed. Jane, his browbeaten bookkeeper, contacted the DEA and made a deal for immunity. Emerson had applied the booze-smuggling skills he’d developed working with Pat to building a drug smuggling operation. As the state and DEA investigated, a mystery developed as to where all the money had gone. By most accounts there should have been many millions of dollars somewhere, and while Emerson was a wealthy man, the wealth they could track down all appeared to be based on legitimate business dealings. He’d lived simply and had always had frugal ways. His assets were larger than they should have been, but only because he’d lied to Mike. There were a lot more properties, mostly in Las Cruces, than he’d admitted. He’d always been a good liar. The authorities never did uncover the missing money, which weakened the case against him since it relied almost entirely on Jane’s evidence. During the investigation she disappeared, and the prosecutors were forced to drop the case against him.

But Emerson’s victory was brief. His health had deteriorated rapidly during the investigation. Several weeks after the case was dismissed, he died. At his funeral several people commented that they could not remember ever seeing him smile.

Jane was never found, but someone who looked a whole lot like Jane was living in grand luxury in Baja California with a very attractive young Mexican man.

Ray Pacheco

Sheriff Ray Pacheco moved into the T or C cabin and took up fishing. With the aid of an eccentric local fishing guide, Ray became very skilled at his new pastime, even winning some pro fishing tournaments. While his new love of fishing filled a special need for Ray, his true love remained law enforcement, and his passion for it didn’t stay dormant long. In a move to stay active in his retirement years, Ray started a private investigation company. Pacheco and Chino, Private Investigators, was a partnership between Ray, his Apache fishing guide, and the aptly-named owner of the fishing bait shop on the Elephant Butte Lake, Big Jack. Accompanying this somewhat odd group of misfits was Ray’s new, much younger wife. With an unexpected windfall from reward money, Ray fixed up the cabin and outbuildings, creating an impressive corporate headquarters.

Ray often said, “You just never know where life might take you.” Private investigator and philosopher—Ray had come far.

Molly Thompson

Molly was emotionally spent after giving up Sally’s baby to her brother. She didn’t return to Chicago, but stayed in Dallas and became involved with a Catholic orphanage—she was considered one of its kindest and most thoughtful employees. Due to her efforts and dedication over many years, she was recommended to head up a new orphanage that was being established in Los Angeles.

Molly had become a strong leader despite still speaking with a soft voice, and her caring ways made her a hero in the eyes of many people who needed her help. Today she is seen as a spiritual inspiration in the movement to make adoption a viable alternative for unwanted and abandoned babies. Molly never married. She thinks of her sister constantly and wishes their lives could have been different. Molly never made any effort to contact Michelle because she was embarrassed that she had abandoned the little girl in her time of greatest need. She never spoke to anyone about the great shame of her life and she asks God for forgiveness every day.

Carlos and Jesus

Carlos and Jesus bought Triples from Joe. Carlos’s uncle from Mexico City backed them with ample financing. They kept the restaurant very much as it was when Joe owned it, but added some additional outdoor seating and an open-pit fire for roasting all sorts of wonderful things. They also changed the name to C and J’s. C and J opened new restaurants in Dallas, Denver, and Kansas City, and will soon open in Las Vegas, and they are considered some of the finest restaurants in each market. Carlos and Jesus were always thankful that Joe had trusted them and had risked turning over his kitchen to two men he barely knew, conveniently forgetting that it was mostly based on a fiasco that had worked out for everyone except the old Chef.

Joe and Michelle Meadows

Joe and Michelle lived the dream. After they were married they moved into a new house in Dallas. It was a little too grand for Joe, but he got used to it. Once he moved, he made the deal to sell Triples to Carlos and Jesus. He knew he’d miss it, but he wanted to be with Michelle and she didn’t want to quit her job. She said it was a big part of her identity and that she loved the work—so Joe agreed.

Joe was very surprised when his children made contact. They both visited Dallas, and Joe was amazed that they had turned out so well. He was expecting younger versions of Liz, but instead they seemed to be thoughtful, funny, happy people—go figure. He decided maybe it was because he had more or less left them alone in their formative years. They all knew the story of Liz’s marriage, but no one talked about it. They spent some time planning future family events and, to Joe’s amazement, he looked forward to them.

Shortly after finding the money in the safe on Second Street, Joe had made a better estimate of the amount. He counted several crates at random and then counted the number of crates and estimated that there was $3,860,000 hidden in that old safe in Deep Deuce. Over the years almost $2.8 million was distributed to Joe and Mike, mostly by laundering the money through Triples. With everything that was going on—the success of Triples and the huge success of Mike’s Chapel—Joe had stopped distributing money to either of them in the last few years. He expected to hear from Mike about it, but never did. Before he sold the restaurant to C and J, he moved the remaining money into a shipping crate—very well sealed—and had it transferred to his new house in Dallas. There he stored it in the basement—the money was used to being underground.

Joe gave the money a lot of thought. He didn’t regret what he and Mike had decided. He still thought they’d done the right thing and, of course, it didn’t hurt that both he and Mike were now wealthy, Mike much more so than Joe. He realized that Mike’s financial success and his chosen career path had a lot to do with him shunning Joe, and he didn’t begrudge Mike his selective memory issues.

The one thing that troubled him was what had happened with Sally and her daughter. He just knew that if Pat had known that Sally died giving birth to their daughter—there was no question in his mind that Michelle was Pat’s daughter—he would have wanted some of the money to go to Michelle. Maybe this was all just a rationalization to excuse taking the remaining money, but he thought he was doing the right thing for everyone.

On their first anniversary Joe gave Michelle a little note:

Dearest Michelle,

Joe has helped me accumulate a little over $1 million, which is yours—the inheritance your mother never received. This is for you and only you, because you are the most wonderful daughter an old bootlegger could ever have.

Love, Pat

She turned and looked at Joe. “A million dollars—is this some kind of joke?”

“I hope you don’t mind that I took the liberty of writing Pat’s note, but I think I’ve gotten to know Pat over the years and I know this is what he would want to happen. He loved your mother and he would have loved you—and I know I love you. So congratulations on being a millionaire.”