To make a long story short, Robert and his director ran off with the entire $500,000 and took a sixty-day vacation in Rio with the Mayo sisters. Instead of getting a profitable skin flick, the five principal investors had become fully liable for an entire half-mill wad of bad commercial paper.

HAWK engaged Strong, Strong & Stryker Assoc., Ltd., to enforce the loan agreement against the guarantors. The guarantors, of course, had disappeared. Evidently, they were stupid enough to co-sign for Robert, but not so stupid as to stick around and make good for the debt. My job was to find them, collect from them if possible, or simply turn their whereabouts over to Hawk. I managed to get Robert on the phone, and to my surprise, he promised me $25,000 and agreed to snitch on the whereabouts of the guarantors (again, his former buddies) in exchange for a complete release from HAWK. Yes, Robert was the kind of guy you eventually find floating peacefully down the East River.

I arranged to meet Robert that morning.