THE CINQUEFOIL CONNECTION

The Cinquefoil Connection is about a most unusual politician. Virtuous, ethical, and moral, Jonathan McClendon sought to be the epitome of quality the voting public seeks in their elected officials. But these distinguishing characteristics and qualities so many people admire and so many others pay lip service to can often be exploited. Jonathan in spite of all his attempts to do the right thing finds himself lured and drawn deeper and deeper into the treacherous and murderous Cinquefoil Connection.

In his debut thriller, The Cinquefoil Connection, author Recy Dunn weave a masterful, spellbinding tale of deception, lust, and murder, as he allows the reader to recount Jonathan McClendon’s fall into the abyss of political treachery, breach of faith, cutthroat politics, which is called Capitol Hill.

Jonathan is sandwich between the moral obligations, which drive him, and the secret, malevolent manipulations of those who will take any action to preserve and acquire more power and money. He finds himself a pawn and the last hope for saving his country remaining shreds of freedom in the face of the elaborate illusion of The Cinquefoil Connection.

It is a story of treacherous political maneuvering, sexual manipulation, and conscious less characters, that serves as a warning to those who blindly entrust the future of their nation to the professionals and ranks as a scintillating page turner leading up to its shocking conclusion.

Recy L. Dunn, Jr., author of, The Cinquefoil Connection and The Circle of Time, is a native Texan and a past freelance writer for the African American News & Issues, the largest black owned newspaper in Texas, the International Guardian,  BlackTexas.com,  and Black & Single Magazine.

He and hosts a website called www.askrecy.com   which allows readers to ask specific questions involving minority business situations. His community focus articles are also read weekly by thousands of people on the Internet.

PROLOGUE

Washington, D.C.
1993

My name is Jonathan McClendon.

I was once a proud man.

I was once a cocky S.O. B.

I was once a smart aleck.

I was once a stupid idiot.

In fact I was so darn sure of myself, that I thought the world evolve around, yours truly.

I was single, good looking, too busy trying to make a dollar and did not have the time or patience for commitments, much less long-term love affairs.  The women I allowed in my life satisfied a temporary urge and desire, an overnight here or a weekend there.

I had an iron clad rule with my women. Do not come over to my townhouse unless invited, break it and you are history.

I would fire a female lover before you could say 1-2-3, if she did not do as told.

Women are creatures of habits and most women set out to change a man, and after he had been mold and conformed to their particular desires, he was a defeated and conquered man. That’s why my women had to love me for my charming personality and chauvinistic faults.

There is an old English proverb that says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  That’s perhaps was the root of my problems.

I do not know where to begin.  Maybe I should start when my personal life felt like someone trying to stuff two pounds of dog shit in a one-pound bag. 

The year was 1982 and I had just lost my software business in Houston, Texas.  Even the eight-ounce bottle of Pepto-Bismol that I had drunk throughout the day did little too ease the gaseous flow of juices from tearing up my stomach. During that pitiful year, I had to fire one by one all ten of my employees. I had to tell them that I could no longer pay or even offer them any hope of future job security.  The worst part was that Eli, Yen and Mary were my first hired employees and had stuck with me through the shaky startup period. We have been together for ten years, now, they were the last three to go.

I, no, the three of them help me build a once successful five million dollar custom software programming business. The problem was that over sixty percent of the revenues were from four large corporations.  I knew about all the business logic about having all of your eggs in one basket, but I never dream that in a span of eighteen months, that two of these companies will file for bankruptcy and the other two will merge or purchased by other companies. 

To add to my miseries, the economy was in a recession. Texas went into recession in April 1981. The employment rate declined in the last three quarters of 1981, rose slightly in first quarter 1982, then declined again in the second and third quarters.

I was late paying all of my bills, both business and personal.  My creditors were hounding me at work and at home. I recalled a story that a powerful man once said about his grandpappy’s analogy to a problem he faced, “son, the stack of bills and problems that I have, is so high, a trick dog, can’t jump over them.”  

That’s how I felt.

The mortgage on my home was three months past due and my car note was overdue by two months. I was bouncing checks left and right. The only thing that kept me afloat so long was the personal banking relationship that I had with Victor, the bank’s president.  He “held” a number of my checks throughout the past six months, until there was enough cash in the bank accounts.  Therefore, I was barely getting by, until my four large accounts went south. I was naïve and stupid.  I kept writing checks, hoping for a miracle.

Finally, Victor was force to call the business loan and after four months of not paying the mortgage, he called the house loan.

It didn’t get any better, because, I was also cheating on the business 941 employee taxes and now the IRS was in the process of filing a tax lien for non payment of federal withholding taxes for past three quarters.

I had an American Express, two VISA and Master Card. I used all four credit cards to help pay the bills. They were all at the maximum credit limits.

I had to file a Chapter 7 for the business and a Chapter 13 personal bankruptcy.  I thought filing for bankruptcy was going help. It really did not.  If I had to do it all over again, I would not file. 

Two months after the bankruptcy, I came home one Monday night a little after 9:00 p.m. and noticed the garage door opener did not work.  I also had a propensity for darkness and a habit of mine was to always leave either the garage light or the back door light on whenever I knew it would be dark by the time I arrived home.  Neither was on. Deep down in my gut, I knew that Houston Light and Power had terminated my services.