THICKER THAN WATER
by Benjamin J. Frazier


Southeast Lumber Company’s eccentric owner summons Pyke Elliott from Galax, Virginia to the tiny coastal village of Georgetown, South Carolina. Well aware of Pyke’s credentials, Steve Styvenger offers a complicated stock option proposal similar to what his four sons have who work in the business. Pyke accepts but only after receiving assurance of a free hand. Steve introduces Pyke to Patty Rogers, a sexy real estate agent, who exhausts Pyke with every detail of a well-appointed, old Victorian mansion in the historic district. Spoiled by years of unchallenged success, the sons have not been melded over the fires of life as their obnoxious, egotistical and overbearing father has. Howie, the youngest, pigeon-holed in the computer area, will be the least problem. Lenny, the third son, nominally manages the expansive lumberyards. The dark and aloof Uris pleases his father with his competency as a bean counter, though Steve still makes the financial decisions. The elder charismatic, Valdis is in charge of marketing rendering him invaluable to the company. As the old man spends more and more time with his investment firm and less with Southeast Lumber, Valdis and Uris vigorously compete with Pyke for day-to-day control of the business. Conversations with a local bar keep, reveal the closed door company’s financial problems and the family’s connections. After a terrorist act suspected as a Mafia revenge hit, Pyke Elliott only knows his life is not his anymore. He is the Company Man.