Moe waved Daniel off as he returned to police car and returned to his patrol, which was something that would be pretty typical among patrol officers. They often had a beat that they patrolled to protect the town from what crime might be there and to be available as a first response. Anything more than that would come later in case something big comes up. He guessed that protecting his family might be one of those things for Daniel, as they had been good friends in the past, and in that he had great trust in Daniel Brooks with regard to many of the things that related to surprises that Moon Lake had thrown at the Charleston family.
Of course, some of the sexual things was something that privately made Moe think that he and Nichole would need to be the ones to take the plunge as it were. He didn't want to forbid her from it, eventually, but Karen was only sixteen, a legal minor. Even if he were to allow it, he'd need to make sure that the "only" time she'd be involved in that sort of thing as part of the transformation and that once she was a were, she'd retain control of herself and not get into that sort of thing until she was eighteen. As while weres might be able to control themselves, that wasn't something that Moe saw as an excuse for being overly active. And if Karen learned of that and was nervous, in theory, he and Nichole could go with it and the sex issue wouldn't be a problem for them as they were adults.
However, as Moe got into his car, that issue wasn't really the biggest thing on his mind, as so far he'd made it fairly clear that they needed to learn more before anyone converted. The biggest and most immediate thing was getting Moe's Pizza up and running, as if it worked out well, he and Nichole could begin to make up for the financial losses they'd had to take getting away from the Gambonis. Daniel's warning and theory that some of his suppliers might have had ties to the Gambonis in some way, which may have helped with regard to their ability to find them, or at least get close enough to pick the tracer signal from his phone up, was big, and Moe figured he would need to look into it, but for the moment, dealing with that issue would be of secondary importance. After all, he could not sell pizzas if he didn't have a physical restaurant to sell them in, and that made his first stop the Wells Fargo bank. Especially as since his phone didn't get great service in Moon Lake, he'd need to use some other phone sources to check into other suppliers anyway.
And so he drove down to the bank. Moon Lake's Wells Fargo wasn't particularly large, when compared to many of its other branches, but it was large enough that they had the room for many of the bank's normal functions. And since they had switched to Wells Fargo when they started running from the Gambonis in order to have easy access to banking that went nationwide, they would have easy to his payment histories and all that. As he made his way up to the loan officer's desk placed along one wall of the building, Moe knew his only real obstacle with the bank would be in many of the financial hurdles that he'd had to confront, but for the most part he had been able to cover his debts.
"Can I help you?" a young man looked up to him as Moe approached.
"Yes, I'm Moe Charleston," Moe introduced himself and offered the man a hand. They shook hands and Moe found the man's grip to be fairly strong, but he paid more attention to what would have to be done. "I'm here to talk about applying for a loan."
"Charleston... Charleston..." the man said slowly with one hand absentmindedly tapping against his desk, "Did you just move here?"
"Yes, a couple of days ago," Moe answered, "to..."
"It's okay," the man held up a hand with a small smile, "just about everyone has heard about you and the fact that the Gambonis have been after your family..."
"They have?" Moe wondered, as most of the other banks had no knowledge of his presence until he'd come in the door.
"Well the police here want to be very thorough," the man replied, "and wanted to make sure that we remain on the look out for any sort of fraudulent activity that the Gambonis might try to pull to get your address or your financial records. The local Moon Lake bank was given the same updates, should you wish to transfer your accounts there. Though, we would wish you stay with us here at Wells Fargo."
"Well... I'm not planning on transferring any accounts," Moe answered, "but I will need to arrange for a business loan so I can get Moe's Pizza up and running."
"Is this to pay for supplies or the building?" the man asked curiously.
"Ultimately it'll be a bit of everything," Moe answered, "I found an old restaurant that apparently went out of business that is for sale, and I'd figured that'd be a good place to start... but I couldn't make any direct offer with the realtor at the time, as finding it was pure chance and my wife and business partner wasn't with me at the time."
Moe then pulled out the folder and notepad where he'd had things arranged and presented the realtor's card that he'd gotten to the loan officer and explained the meeting and the offer that had been made and the specific payment method that Moe and Nichole had agreed on at breakfast. The man sitting opposite him slowly nodded and looked some things over. As Moe finished, he then turned over to look at the card again.
"Have you been able to call this realtor?" the man asked.
"No," Moe admitted, "my cellphone doesn't get good service here and I'd recently had to have it debugged... and things were a bit hectic this morning."
"Well... the good news is that I'm fairly familiar with this guy, he's a pretty straight shooter and you can trust him," the man commented, "but it'll mean that it may take a bit of time to get all the paperwork filed out."
The man then turned in his chair and rolled over to a metal filing cabinet and pulled out one of the drawers. Moe watched as the man thumbed through the papers inside the drawer and then pulled one out and offered it to Moe, along with a clipboard.
"This should get you started on the loan process," the man instructed, "do you have your account number available?"
Moe nodded, and pulled out a couple of the other papers that were annotated from the bank to indicate Moe and Nichole's accounts. The man thanked him and then turned to his computer while Moe settled back to begin filling out the paperwork for the loan. It was a fairly typical process and one that Moe had actually gotten rather used to over the various moves and so on. He could here the loan agent giving occasional "hmmms" as he went through his end. Eventually Moe finished and returned the paper to the loan agent who smiled, took it and looked it over.
"Okay, and the account to go to IS for Moe's Pizza and not Moe Charleston, as you said this is a business loan?" the loan agent asked as he began to fill in the sections that were applicable to the bank to fill out.
"Well, yes to both," Moe answered, "My wife and I have run the business out of our own pocket, particularly as we've often done well enough to have enough to cover things... before the Gambonis started chasing us... but we've always managed to pay our bills and for the moment, all I'm asking for at the moment is just to get started. To cover the initial payment for the property, the possible renovations to it as needed, and bringing in the ingredients to get started."
The loan agent nodded and then said slowly, "well... based on your records that we have with your payment history, I think we can approve the loan to cover at least your first month and then based on the amount you're taking out in this loan to give you two months before we will expect you to begin making payments on said loan. From there, you will be expected to make monthly payments of one hundred seventy two dollars and fifty cents, and the balance of how much you wish to apply to your balance and which to apply to your interest, you can handle that online. You do have an online, account, right?"
"Yes," Moe nodded.
"Very good," the loan agent answered and then typed a few things on his computer and then moved the mouse. Moe tried to follow the screen as best he could as the loan agent pulled up a print menu and then hit the enter button. The agent then handed some paperwork to Moe before he continued, "Okay, this is your receipt. It will cover both the loan you've taken with us today and deposited into your account. Please note that only half of it has gone in today and the other half will actually go in tomorrow."
Moe nodded, "I don't think the initial payment with the realtor will be too high to worry about that. It'll be potential parts, supplies, and ingredients that will be the biggest costs."
The loan agent nodded and watched back as Moe gave a weak smile.
"Do you have a phone I could borrow?" Moe asked, "My cell still isn't getting any service here..."
The loan agent nodded.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The phone call that Moe made was to the realtor that he had met the previous day. In this Moe made the statement that he'd gone over things and was willing to buy the restaurant on the rent to own option that the realtor had presented during their initial meeting. The realtor sounded pleased with this and gave him directions to his office from Moon Lake. Moe wasn't excited about having to make the drive, but Moon Lake was only about an hour from Seattle. That wasn't too hard.
He ultimately arrived in Seattle a bit stiff and sore at the doors to the relatively large building that had a few businesses in it. From the sign at its turn off, he could see that one of those businesses was the realty company that the realtor represented. From there it wasn't too hard to go in and follow the directions to get to it. The doors rang with an electronic ding when he entered them, but it would be enough if it meant that he could get Moe's Pizza up and running. He actually found the realtor waiting for him as he came in.
"Hello, Mr. Charleston," the realtor said with a smile as he came around the front desk and shaking hands with Moe quite eagerly, "You're wanting to take over that old restaurant in Moon Lake?"
"Yes, as I said on the phone, I talked with my wife and we came to an agreement on the rent to own policy," Moe answered.
The realtor nodded and then waved Moe forward. They walked along the carpet from the lobby area to a small office that was close to the front door that Moe had come in. The realtor had a nice desk with a white computer on it, though the monitor was pointed toward the realtor's maroon colored chair. The one thing that he could se on the realtor's photograph was a framed photograph that was on top of the computer tower. It showed a very well endowed woman standing in a black dress that did little to hide her curves with a man standing beside her, who looked trim and fit, almost as if he could be a male model. The man was in a pair of khaki paints and a gray polo shirt. Beside both of them were two children who couldn't be more than five years old.
"My older sister and her husband," the realtor commented.
"Hmm?" Moe turned back to the realtor.
"My sister and her family," the realtor answered, "my family moved to Moon Lake when I was a baby and my sister was turning seventeen. She became a werefox and has started a family of her own."
"You're from Moon Lake?" Moe gasped.
"I haven't lived there in years... and after I turned five, my parents had to move again into Oregon, but my sister had grown up and stayed in Moon Lake," the realtor explained, "and despite distance... our family was happy. And when this company had a realtor's position open up... and one that would do business in Moon Lake, I jumped at the chance just to see my older sister again. I stay here in Seattle, but I try to see when I can."
"So... that's why you were there," Moe said slowly.
"Well... it's part of the region that I'm responsible for," the realtor commented, "but... I do see her when I can if that is what you mean."
Moe slowly nodded.
"Anyway, you are here to start the process of getting your pizza place running?" the realtor asked.
"Yes," Moe said with a nod, "and I did secure the loans to get started with all that. Including the down payment and so on."
The realtor nodded and turned to a print something off his computer. As the printed pages came out of a black plastic printer on a counter behind the realtor, the realtor then moved them onto the desk in front of him. Moe watched as the man wrote down the address that was the same as the restaurant that was for sale. As he finished he then collected a clipboard and offered it and a pen to Moe.
"This should cover the agreement on the payment plan for the restaurant and the end cost for the program," the realtor spoke, "the realtor company will cover any and all repairs for the heating and cooling of the building, should it break, though you will be responsible for the equipment you'll need for your restaurant."
Moe nodded, as this was a pretty standard form that he'd seen before in his past attempts to get Moe's Pizza started again in other places. He signed his name on the line that was needed from him.
"And the equipment and furnishing work as far as you know?" Moe asked.
"So far as I know," the realtor answered, "we've kept it clean and made sure there were no gas leaks or anything like that. Though, I'm not really good enough to know on how well the ovens and stoves work. If you need to get new equipment to make pizza... I might be able to get you some local contacts that would help get the specific things you'll need... but I 'm not good enough with pizza or the restaurant's history to tell you what it has and what you need."
Moe nodded. That'd be another thing to add to the list of things to do, ranging from double checking his own food suppliers to making sure the building was cleaned up and ready for customers. It would be a lot of work, but as he returned the signed documents to the realtor and began making out the check for the agreed on payment listed in the paperwork he'd just signed, he did feel some sense of progress and confidence in that things were moving forward.