Chapter Two - Blog Date 042906

Cedar Rapids 18April05 0900

Melanie and Holly turned south onto tree-lined Kings Boulevard for the final leg of their training run. They had met up with about twenty other members of the Cedar County Running Club at 6:45, and after the prerequiste stretching and chit-chat, they took off just after 7:00. The two women ran with the faster-paced group that had immediately separated from the others and set about churning out mile-after-mile at an eight minute pace. Today's route was drawn for those looking to complete either 15 or 20 miles. Melanie and Holly were scheduled for the shorter route, but had elected to go the extra distance at a reduced pace.

Holly was definitely going to run in the Green Bay Marathon at the end of May, and she needed long runs each of the next two weekends before tapering the last three weeks before the race. Melanie had no plans to race before the Chicago Marathon in October, but she was glad to support Holly, and by keeping her base at a high level, the more focussed training later in the summer would be that much easier. Besides, she loved running, and it was a great activity for general socializing and for meeting new friends.

They cruised through the last 5 miles in just over forty-five minutes, reaching their cars in the parking lot of Panera Bread as the other twenty milers headed into the coffee shop for treats.

"Going in?", asked Holly as she opened the trunk of her car.

"Not this morning", said Melanie. "I need to get home and check on some things. Maybe a late lunch? Are you doing anything later?"

"I'll have to give you a call. I told Donovan that I would help him pick out a new suit for his parents' anniversary party next month. He such a klutz. You'll have your cell?", asked Holly.

"Sure", replied Melanie. "But if you have stuff to do, that's ok. Just give me a call. See 'ya."

Melanie gave a final wave to Holly, and stepped into her Jaguar XGS which came to immediate life at her twist of the ignition switch. She pulled out of the parking lot and onto 27th Street and headed East. Although the wine from last night had made the early appointment to run with the group a bit fragile, the fresh air had invigorated her and she almost felt the runners' "high" during those last cool down miles. She knew that she could easily join Holly in Green Bay, and have a reasonable time, but she was determined to break 3:25 in her next marathon, and her conditioning wasn't there yet. Chicago in the Fall. And if the moon and stars lined up correctly that day, she would definitely qualify for next year's Boston Marathon.

Melanie McDermott had run some track and cross-country in high school, but had not got the distance running bug until after law school. During her under-graduate days at St. Mary's of Notre Dame, she had concentrated on school, with an occasional tryst with a friend from across the road at "that boys' school." She had done well enough in the classroom and on the LSAT that several big name law schools offered her full rides. She had ended up at Stanford on the recommendation of her distant "Crazy Uncle Howard" who thought the Ivies were over-rated unless you wanted to work on Wall Street. And he was right. Particularly when Silicon Valley became Ground Zero for the technology revolution.

Melanie made a turn north on Marion Road for six blocks and then pushed the electronic control on her visor as she turned left into the entance of the gated sub-division known as McKelvey Heights. The automated barrier arm lifted and Melanie passed the un-manned sentry shack. There were nineteen homes on the former evening pasture for Phil McKelvey's dairy cows. The money had finally been too much for Old Man McKelvey to ignore, so he had collected his price, sold the cows and took up residence in tax-friendly Reno. The developer had created the plat for twenty building lots of two acres each, with an initial asking price of $300,000 per acre.

Surprisingly, there were takers, and when Melanie came to town in late 2002, only the 2 prime lots at the far end of the development were left for sale, and the price had risen to $750,000 per acre. She bought both lots, 4 acres at $750,000 per. Do the math. The multi-gabled house took a year to build and had everything the designer could think of included in the 5000 square feet of living space. Melanie enjoyed the seclusion and comfort of her lavish Alpine home.

Melanie punched a seconded button on the visor and the garage door raised for her. After pulling in, she cut the engine, stepped from the car and opened the door to the spacious mud room. She hung her keys on the hook by the door, grabbed a bottled water from the secondary refrigerator, and walked through the kitchen to the library located just off the main-floor great room. She had not checked her email since yesterday afternoon. She also wanted to check her Capital Asset Advisor's account and see if the Cyberware special dividend had been deposited. Even with her legal education and experience, she had trouble following some of the transactions that Anthony completed at the company. This latest one on the special dividend gave her an uneasy feeling.

The computer had been turned on automatically by a sensor when she had walked into the library. "Henri (the home interior designer) was a greedy son-of-a-bitch," Melanie thought to herself, "but I like that automated sensor stuff!" She typed in her password and her Yahoo home page came to view. She had five new emails, four of which were ads. The fifth was from Anthony. She opened it, but it was several paragraphs long and was talking about too many technical things for her current level of interest. Slipping to the final few sentences of the email, she read his final point which was, as she had anticipated, that a complication had developed on the dividend. They needed to talk.

Sure, Anthony. Let's talk. Its only 15 million dollars. Tell me a new lie. Tell me that you're not an asshole.

With no need to check her CAA account on the deposit of the dividend, Melanie rose from her chair and headed upstairs for a shower to cool down her now aggravated mental health.