Special attention paid not to wrinkle his prized Kirgzy, white Dormeuil suit, Harrison Barnhart scampered inside the Bentley Rapier. Custom crafted, and built to the specifications of the President and CEO of Perigo Fasteners, the four million dollar playtoy topped out at 168 miles per hour. The ultra-elegant vehicle featured high tech, a turbocharged non-catalyst engine, and a right-handed drive system.

Though traffic buzzed heavy, Pablo Ruiz glued his eyes on the rear-view mirror. In his thick Mayan accent he mentioned, "In Gautemala City we stick our enemies, Senor."

His thought not to be taken light, Harrison Barnhart snapped back, "Perhaps you would like to be gutted like a guinea pig?"

"No, Senor. I drive," Pablo Ruiz replied. He cut his focus to the road and narrowly missed a pedestrian.

"Hey, A-Hole, watch where you're going!" the jaywalker yelled. He slammed the palms of his shaky hands down hard on the hood of the car and scurried out of the way.

Pablo Ruiz flipped him off and dropped a thunderous F-Bomb. He turned right on McGillicutty Avenue and headed uptown.

"See that you do. And, watch those asshats in the middle of the road," Harrison Barnhart instructed. He stared at Ruiz's head, and his thicker than a grass burr sharp tongue demanded, "By the way, Coyote, do you have your Green Card, or would you run like your tired ass is catching should I shout I-C-E?"

The question made the scrawny little man nervous. A blue tick hound in heat more settled, an uneasy feeling came over Pablo Ruiz as he sped across the Topango Creek bridge and saw a regatta of kayakers in the cerulean water below. He yearned to join them and knew his passenger to be a rough cob, "Si, Senor. I no smuggled no one."

His variety of colored wristbands stashed away in a secured location, for the right price, Pablo Ruiz spent many days skirting trails around McAllen and the Rio Grande Valley. The Texas heat often found him in the transborder socio-cultural areas of Tamaulipas and Matamoros, Mexico, or the Hispanic colonias. These areas contained self-constructed houses and neglected mobile homes. Prone to floods, they lacked sanitation services. Pablo Ruiz knew when the government was weak, and enforcement ran low, dinero flowed.

"Unlikely story," Harrison Barnhart scoffed. He always treated itinerates like Pablo Ruiz with derision and ridicule. "I will believe you are innocent when you prove you are."

By pure accident, Pable Ruiz hooked up with the venomous serpent on the backseat. He knew Harrison Barnhart never lived his life as a peaceful man and his threats were not honey-covered biscuits to be ignored.

Harrison Barnhart stuck the sharpened point of his knife in the back of Pablo Ruiz's neck. He relished the slight trickle of blood the blade drew, and in a menaced voice said, "You sweat like a bad penny. I could slice your throat any time."

Terrified, Pablo Ruiz trembled, "Spare me, Senor!"

"You do what I say and perhaps you will live to see the sun rise tomorrow, though I have my doubts. That matters not to me," Harrison Barnhart replied. He itched for a fight.

"I have senora. I no bring her. You corrupt her," Pablo Ruiz transmuted.

Harrison Barnhart liked to keep his options opened and expressed, "I am not into old women, only fair maidens."

Pablo Ruiz did not mention his muchachas. To save his life he would not offer his daughters to Harrison Barnhart, a flesher by trade.

"Like a fine woman you better stroke them daily," Harrison Barnhart commented.

Pablo Ruiz laughed.

"When we arrive at our destination you shall see my handiwork," Harrison Barnhart vowed.

Pablo Ruiz held a deep appreciation for such finery. Never knowing when the carver would be extracted, he kept his fifteen inch stiletto under his seat. Harrison Barnhart took a dim view of such knives, in particular fancy Mayan ones with their obsidian-laced, stone blades. He wondered if Pable Ruiz could skin a chicken, let alone wild game, with such a contraption. When they reached Sebastian Cavanaugh's estate perhaps he would get the opportunity.

Cooked books and millions embezzeled. Damage had been done to Perigo by the terminated Chief Financial Officer. But, under Harrison Barnhart's tutelage the company he created recovered stronger than before. Greed and corporate fraud. Manipulated numbers ensured investors offered funds for future growth.

Channel stuffing of vast amounts of shipments to distributors at the end of several quarters were classified as sales. In reality they were not. Capitalized costs transferred product from income to the balance sheet. Hidden subsidiaries housed liabilities and earning manipulations.

All these crimes were uncovered in audits and attributed to one individual. He became the hunted. Harrison Barnhart chose not to prosecute. Instead, he planned revenge. Pablo Diaz failed to realize he would be the scapegoat selected to take the rap for what occurred.