Ordeal by Cheque by Dan Mayhak

Lawrence Exeter was very excited when he learned that a child of his own would soon be coming into his life. He went to the Baby Shoppe and stocked up on supplies for the baby. When the baby was delivered by Dr. David at Hollywood Hospital, he was showered with gifts from his excited father. The baby was named Lawrence Jr., after his father. Throughout Lawrence Jr.'s entire life, he was showered with gifts. After being enrolled in school at around 4 years old, his father bought him a top notch bicycle for being a star student. This spoiling must have led Jr. the wrong way because he soon started committing small crimes and felonies, so Sr. enrolled him in Military School to get his act together again. After graduating through Military School just before his 18th birthday, Jr. was given a car by his father for making it through Military School and for his birthday. Not long after receiving the car, Jr. got in an accident, which his father paid for the repairs.

Jr. is accepted into Stanford University and his father pays for the pricey tuition. After getting drunk at a Frat party, Jr. strays off of campus and into a woman's home. As she tries to get him to leave, Jr. slaps her across the face and proceeds to rape her. Sr. pays her a large sum of money to keep her mouth shut and believes they have a deal and that this incident would never be spoken of again. Soon, though, the woman Jr. assaulted, Daisy Windsor, begins to threaten to sue Jr. for the assault, and Sr. for the bribe. She says she want 100,000 dollars more, or she will sue them publicly. Sr. and Jr. flee to France. They decide that they will live here until the situation is no longer in anyone's mind. They open a bank account in France. To seem like good neighbors, Sr. buys flowers for each of their new neighbors on the floor of their apartment. He also gives flowers to his new boss and coworkers. Soon, they become sick of living in a rental place, so they buy a plot of land and build a house of their own. They hire an interior decorator to make up their home however they so please.

While touring around atop the Eiffel Tower, Jr. met a gorgeous young woman by the name of Giselle. It was love at first sight. Not long later, Jr. proposed to Giselle, with a ring that Sr. payed for. Jr. and his new wife cruise to Hawaii for their honeymoon. Sr., not wanting his son and his wife to live at his home anymore, gave them a huge sum of money, and sent them on their way. They move to Manhattan. Jr. and his wife stay at one of the most renowned hotels in the world for their anniversary. Sr. sends them flowers in celebration. Jr. sends his father a box of chocolates and other sweets to thank him. Soon the Gown Shoppe starts bothering Jr.'s father to make the payment for the wedding gown they had bought, so Jr. pays for it. Giselle becomes worried for Jr.'s and her safety, so she prompts him to buy a gun, which he does. He decides he wants to test the gun out, so he buys some heavy duty boots, and goes out hunting. He soon gets involved with a man named Tony Spagoni, a member of the mob in New York. After they get to know each other better, Tony discovers that Jr. is cheating on Giselle with Ms. Wentworth. Jr. promises to pay Tony a certain amount of money every so often if he keeps his mouth shut. In a terrible attempt to get out of this whole mess, he proposes, illegally, to Ms. Wentworth. She claims to be pregnant and she refuses to marry him once finding out it was an affair. He pays her a large sum of money to go away and never speak a word of it. When finding out Ms. Wentworth was not actually pregnant, Jr. threatened to have her killed if she didnt return his money. When she refuses, Jr. sends his wife on a trip around the world to get her out of the picture for awhile. while she is gone, Jr. sues Ms. Wentworth and wins. His wife finds out about everything and makes a big fuss and they get divorced. Little did Jr. know, but Ms. Wentworth was a female member of the mob, and the news traveled back to Tony, who knew where Jr. lived.

While writing a check for the money he owes his wife, Jr. is visited by a knock on the door. He puts down his stuff and answers the door. It is Tony Spagoni and another mob member. They are both intensely enraged with what they have heard. They hold a gun to his head and force him to write them a check, but not one too large so that nothing would seem suspicious. Soon enough, Jr. is revisited by Tony and his friend. They are pissed at him because the original check was cancelled 2 hours after it was written. They beat Jr. close to his death. They force him to write another check and swear that if this one bounces, they'd be back that night to finish the job. Shaken, aching, and in deep pain, Jr. struggles to write out a check to them.

His handwriting was barely recognizable. They give him one last blow to the stomach and leave him to suffer on the floor. He is later found dead in that same spot, by his father who had come to surprise him by visiting. Sr. is devastated. He pays for a space in the hospital for Jr.'s body. He wants them to perform an autopsy to find out what had happened, but they demanded more money, so he paid, as he always did. Sr. pays for a proper funeral for his son and has him buried at a cemetery. The results of the autopsy come back and it is revealed that Jr. didn't die from blunt force trauma, but he was poisoned, and they never found out by who. All they had as evidence against anyone wasn't enough to take to court. This evidence was that Sr. had been in Manhattan for four days before he visited Jr., and Jr. didn't know.