Finnegan's Week Read Online Free Page A

“Friends of Samantha” would receive a small parcel from Uncle Desmond which they would excitedly open, only to find an audiotape rather than more photos. On the audiotape would be the caller’s own voice recorded during his lewd conversation with Uncle Desmond wherein he’d negotiated terms for the use of Samantha. The conversations included specific questions and answers about all the things Uncle Desmond had taught the little girl. There wasn’t a caller who wasn’t stunned to hear how explicit his own excited phone call had been.
    At the end of the tape would be a message from Uncle Desmond that varied slightly, depending upon how much Jules had been able to learn during his conversation and correspondence with the pedophile, and how much Jules sensed the pedophile was worth. The message was:
    Hi (using the caller’s name). I have several more copies of this tape which I am considering sending to your local police department, as well as to the FBI and to your local newspaper. I might even include a copy to your closest relative. I think you know who I mean, don’t you? I shudder to think what your family and friends will say when they hear your own voice telling me what you want Samantha to do to you and how much you are willing to pay for it .
    You are very lucky that I happen to need money at the moment. If you will immediately send cash in the amount of (this would vary), I will send you the duplicate audiotapes of your phone conversation telling Uncle Desmond what you intend to do to this helpless little six-year-old. I’d better hear from you by next week .
    Jules Temple would often go so far as to hire a street person to pick up envelopes from his post office box and carry them to his car parked a safe distance away. But finally, Jules decided that he needn’t have gone to such lengths. He was always overestimating people, and in this case he’d overestimated the authorities. About half a dozen pedophiles summoned up the nerve to go to the police and admit to being extortion victims, but the police and postal authorities had never got to a post office box that hadn’t already been closed.
    In that one year, Jules made $123,000 (tax free, of course) before the pedophile publications began printing warnings about Uncle Desmond. Cynthia’s photos ended up in the files of several law enforcement agencies, but never were traced back to her or to her mother.
    During that same year Jules Temple’s father died after his second stroke, having kept his word to leave his son a stipend only. Jules did not visit his comatose father in the hospital, claiming he was too busy expanding his capital base. Having acted upon a hot tip from a country club acquaintance, Jules had invested the money in a mismanaged waste hauling company, a business field that was opening up with unlimited possibilities for someone like himself. Jules called his company Green Earth Hauling and Disposal.
    One of Jules’s first moves as a waste hauler was to form a corporation with a bogus president, in this case a former real estate agent of Mexican descent who’d worked for Jules in land development. Raul Medina drew a salary of $1,500 a month for doing nothing more than signing documents from time to time. Raul Medina never set foot in Green Earth Hauling and Disposal, spending most of his time at home nursing a chronic back problem.
    Jules owned forty-nine percent of the stock in the Green Earth corporation and the other fifty-one percent was “owned” by Raul Medina. All of the trucks, equipment, and material assets were transferred to the company by Jules, who took back a note from Raul Medina for twice the assets’ value. Jules subleased the property to the company for twice what he paid to his landlord, and siphoned off all profits except for the $1,500 a month that Raul Medina received.
    Because of Raul Medina’s Hispanic surname, Jules had been able to secure government