Love at 11 - By Mari Mancusi Page 0,84

he was some crazed psycho?

I raised my hand to knock, but before I could, the door swung inward. A man with a shock of white hair that made him seem older than he probably was stared at us from behind the screen.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

“Um, yeah, hi. I’m Maddy Madison of News Nine and this is my photographer Jamie.”

The door slammed closed.

Oh-kay then. Not exactly the greeting I’d been hoping for. I banged on the door, not willing to give up.

“Mr. Reardon? I’m sorry to intrude and all, but really we just had a few questions.”

Silence.

“A, uh, few questions about Reardon Oil and Rocky Rodriguez, that is.” As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I regretted them. What the heck was I doing? What if he opened that door with a rifle and shot me to kingdom come?

The door opened and Reardon (sans gun, thank the Lord) peeked through again.

“What the hell do you want to know about Reardon Oil?” he asked.

“Please, sir.” I took a deep breath. “I just want to ask you a few questions.”

“You best ask Rocky. He owns Reardon Oil now. I don’t have anything to do with that shit. I got kids, you know.” He paused, peering at me with watery blue eyes. Then he raked a hand through his already ruffled hair and sighed. “You know about it, don’t you? That’s why you’ve come asking.”

I nodded, wondering if that was the right move. I could barely breathe.

“Right. I knew one day someone would find out. That’s why I wasn’t about to get involved with it all. I always said someday the shit would hit the fan and when it did, my nose would be clean.”

“Can you tell us the story?” I asked.

He thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Sure ’nough I guess. Long as you make sure it’s clear I had nothing to do with anything illegal. I don’t want the cops knocking on my door. But if this is all going to be made public in any case, might as well have the truth on record.”

My heart pounded with excitement as he ushered us inside. This was it! He was going to tell us everything. I stole a glance at Jamie, who still looked a little wary.

At least the interior had undergone a decent house-cleaning. It was small and the furniture worn, but it was clean and smelled like lemon-scented pledge. It could have been much worse. Like the time I did the story on Backyard Breeders and we went undercover to a woman’s house who kept fifty dogs (literally!) in a trailer. Bleh!

“I know it ain’t much, but it’s all paid for with honest, hardworking money. Not drug money,” said Reardon.

We sat down across from each other, him on a ratty armchair and me on the flowered couch and chatted about the weather while Jamie set up a few lights. A few minutes later Jamie touched me on the shoulder to let me know he was rolling tape.

“So, Mr. Reardon …” I began.

“Bob. Call me Bob.”

“Okay, Bob.” I smiled. I was calm. I was poised. I wasn’t going to get up and run screaming from the room at the first sign of trouble. “I wanted to talk to you a little about Coastal Kings. I understand you and three others started the company back in college?”

“Yes. Me, Rocky, Felix, and Senator Gorman,” he said. “Of course, Gorman wasn’t a senator then, though I think the slime bag had political ambitions even then.” He gave a toothy grin. “The man was always a smooth talker.”

Interesting. Evidently Bob wasn’t too keen on his former classmate. Then again, neither was I and I’d never even met the guy.

“So when you graduated from business school, what happened then?”

“Well, we all went our separate ways, I guess. Gorman got a staff assistant position with the EPA, Rocky took over his dad’s car business, Felix went back to Mexico to squander his family’s wealth, and I started my own company, Reardon Oil.”

I felt the excitement tingling all the way to my toes. I could barely stand to sit there and act cool, calm, and collected.

“The same Reardon Oil located by Calla Verda? Now owned by Rocky?” I asked, wanting to be extremely clear. “Under the Coastal Kings umbrella?”

“There’s only one Reardon Oil,” Bob replied. “Though back then it had nothing to do with Coastal Kings. You see, my grandfather willed me the land and he died right before my graduation. He always told