If I was under investigation, they wouldn’t just come to my house with one guy. Any investigation would have required two interviewers; no federal agency would send just one. Plus, the pure size of the guy made it unlikely that he actually worked for the Securities Exchange Commission; they were filled with brainiacs and number crunchers. Of course, it was possible that he worked there, but my gut was saying something else was going on and I had to figure it out.
“Now, it’s time to call your lawyer.”
“I have no idea what’s going on here. Is this about me or about Antonio?” I mumbled as I talked to myself and tried to figure out what was happening. “It seemed like it was actually about me. But he didn’t work for the government. Was he casing the joint? Maybe going to rob me or something? Perhaps going to try and blackmail me? This is so strange.”
“Yeah, it’s strange and dangerous. Brandon, you’re a billionaire. People come after men like you because they want money. Any number of things could be going on here. We need to get your lawyer involved, and we probably need to call the police.”
Josh was right about getting my lawyer involved. I had to make sure there wasn’t a real investigation, and I needed some help in figuring out who this guy was and why he was after me. I tried to lead a legitimate life and couldn’t think of anyone that I had pissed off so bad that they would have sent that beast to my house.
“No, no police. What if I actually did something and I am being investigated? I think we should deal with my lawyer first and then wait and see what your private investigator has to say.”
“Do you really think that guy works for the Securities Exchange Commission? Because if he works there, then I’m actually Brad Pitt.”
“Yeah, you look nothing like Brad.”
“That dude was scary looking. Did you see the size of his neck?” I asked.
“Yeah, Josh, I saw it and the size of his giant hands. I don’t want anything to do with that dude and it’s freaking me out. So, this isn’t a securities investigation?”
“I mean, I can’t say so one hundred percent, but it’s looking more like you have something much worse.”
“It’s funny how yesterday the worst thing I could imagine was all my bank accounts getting frozen. Now, I clearly see there are much worse things that could be going on.”
Life had a way of putting things into perspective for you. I had learned that lesson the hard way over the years, but it was true. There was always someone else who had it worse that you did. Always something worse that could happen to you.
After losing my son, I did my best to look at the positives in every situation. It didn’t always work that way, but I was getting better at seeing the goodness in the world.
In this particular situation, it was baffling me why this guy had come to my house and purposely tried to scare us to death. I tried not to think the worse of the guy, though. Maybe he really did work for some agency? But more than likely he was some guy or a friend of someone that I had pissed off somehow. I racked my brain to think of anyone I could have made angry enough to send a guy like him after me. There wasn’t a single person that came to mind.
“Dude, you really pissed someone off.”
The problem was, I had no idea what I could have done. As I scrolled through the people in my past, none of them struck me as people who would want to set something like this up. This guy, or his co-workers, had actually been following me. He was calling my date names and trying to work me up. It seemed personal to me.
“What if he wasn’t talking about Delilah?” I muttered. “What if he was talking about a different girl I brought home?”
“The prostitute comment?”
“Yeah, Delilah didn’t come back here. I guess they could have been following me when I went to meet her, but damn… I have no idea.”
“Here’s what we are going to do, Brandon. First, you’re going to call your lawyer and tell him what’s going on. Second, get your damn alarm system fixed. It’s been broken for a month. You could have any number of horrible things happen to you and no one would be notified. You spend thousands for the system; get them out here to fix it.”
“I know, right? It just kept going off for no reason, and I always had to take calls and verify who I was.”
The alarm was useful and I really did like having it around, but about a month prior, I had been notified over a dozen times that the alarm was triggered when I wasn’t home. The first few times, I hurried home to see what had happened and absolutely nothing was gone. The door was still locked, there was no sign of forced entry; everything was fine, so I figured it was the stupid system and had disconnected the main line.
I lived in a gated community with a private security company that patrolled the streets. We hadn’t had any break-ins in all the years that I’d lived there. Plus, if the alarm was going off so much when nothing was happening, I didn’t really trust that it would actually go off when I needed it.
But Josh had a point. I promised to call the company that afternoon to get them over to check things out and get the system back up and running.
“Dude, I can’t get over how you just let that guy into the house. What if he was here to kill you? You can’t just let strangers come in here. Maybe we need to get you security cameras at the door? I don’t know, but you aren’t safe here.”
“Josh, don’t go getting all conspiracy theorist on me. If he wanted to kill me, he would have done it. I bet it’s the brother of some girl I brought home, and he’s just trying to scare the crap out of me. I probably broke her heart or some crazy shit like that. Let’s not make it into something too wild. I’ll take some more precautions and get the alarm up and running today; we can go from there.”
“Okay, but if you turn up missing, I’m going to feel like an ass for not going to the cops. What if he kills you? What if I’m watching the news and I hear that you’ve been killed? Am I supposed to go to the cops then? Will this guy come find me? Will you haunt me from the grave? Dude, this is scary shit.”
“If I get murdered, I promise not to haunt you,” I laughed. “Or only really cool ghost shit, deal?”
“Man, I don’t know why you aren’t freaking out. You should be the one losing it here,” he said as he frantically paced my living room and ran his fingers through his hair. “I annoyed the guy, but he looked like he was going to kill you when you spoke up to him,” he said.