In the early hours of the morning of the 18th August 1966, Geoffrey Landgraab snuck out of Affluista Mansion and headed on in to the city to the Perfect Balance Spa. He knew that in a couple of hours he would be in a meeting with his legal team and they were going to recommend he hand himself over to the police before they came and got him. The reasoning was that he would appear to be cooperating with the hope of a reduced sentence. They would even give him a script to say, one that was prepared by his lawyers operating under Mal Landgraab's authority.
In an act of symbolism, which felt right to Geoffrey, he headed for the sauna; there to purge out of his system all the contaminants. They would be forced out of his pores and he could begin again, fresh, clean, pure. Ever since he was a boy he had dreamed of making it to the top and he had genuinely achieved that but all the poisons, the vices and greed had seeped into his body and soul.
He sat there, pondering his life's journey: Born to an impoverished minor branch of the Landgraab family, he remembered when he was a boy on a hot, sunny day in 1928 and his first visit to Affluista Mansion; the family home of his richer cousins. He was awed by its opulence and splendour as well as being bowled over by a precocious little girl who teased him and fawned over him in equal measures. His wealthy, pampered and pretty little cousin; Nancy. That was the life he wanted. He latched on to Big Mal Landgraab, his wife and Nancy and as soon as he was old enough he got a job in the mail room at the company, had his education paid for by Big Mal before the war came. Then it was off to the War Department (Mal had made sure Geoffrey avoided the draft) for "vital work" before coming back, settling down, taking a management role at Landgraabs and marrying Nancy.
"Well, I suppose you had a good run there...more than you could have expected" he mused to himself as he basked in the warm memories. Two sons...maybe Johnny will come around one day when he inevitably fails as a comedian, he thought. And Malcolm; yes he's taken some wrong turns but he's smart, he's charming (when he wants to be) and he knows what he wants in life. He'll do well, he'll be a great CEO in 15 to 20 years. Geoffrey would be out of prison by then...1981...we'll probably be flying around in jet packs on Mars and living on pill food by then. A Landgraab owned colony on Mars...what a dream! He thought about all the acts of revenge he could take whilst in prison on everyone but he thought of the longer term picture. Just another link in the great chain: Dirk, Malcolm I, Gordon, Gregory, Big Mal and now him and, eventually, Nancy and Malcolm IV. "I did my bit; took success and made it more successful." he muttered.
But as Geoffrey finally made peace with his fate, other forces were in action. Geoffrey knew too much, he was now a liability. Whether it was Big Mal's bribery, Nancy's criminal activities, Malcolm's little drug empire, Johnny's romantic entanglements, George's crossdressing, trying to undermine Victor Feng's election campaign or his links to The Visitors...it was decided by one, or more, of them that Geoffrey had to go. They had followed him, discretely to the spa, and watched him go in to the sauna room. Without anyone noticing, the door was locked from the outside and the thermostat turned up to full...
Very soon Geoffrey started to notice that the sauna was getting too hot and unbearable to be in.
He was feeling very woozy so he got up and went to leave but found the door was locked! He pulled it hard a few times but it wouldn't budge. All the while the exertions made him feel worse and his breathing became laboured. He tried again to wrench the door open but it still wouldn't give so he gave up and started pounding on it and crying out for help. The room was so well insulated with its thick wooden walls that no one could hear him and whoever tampered with the door and thermostat had also put a "CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE" sign on the outside of the sauna as well.
Geoffrey was about to pass out, his breathing now very laboured and his heart muscles were tightening. "HELP....HELP...ugh...no...not...this...way..." he said, still shaking the door as he slumped to his knees.
Even though his cries for help weren't heard on the outside, one of the patrons of the spa had noticed that the door was rattling. It wasn't often that the famous movie star, Judith Ward, noticed anything that wasn't about her but on this occasion she had, as she was trying to avoid a paparazzi photographer and had darted down the corridor that led to the sauna to give them the slip. She saw the door rattling violently and went to fetch a spa employee who could see what was going on.
"What's that sign doing there? There's no scheduled maintenance of the sauna today!" said the employee. He took it down, and called out "is there anyone in there?" but got no response. Finally he took out a pass key and unlocked the doors to the sauna. The moment he did that, Geoffrey staggered out, went a few paces and then collapsed to the ground in front of Judith Ward.
The spa employee was a qualified first aider and bent down to help Geoffrey. "Sir, sir! Can you hear me?"
"You...win..." gasped Geoffrey before giving out his last breath.
More people had gathered to see what was going on. It was Liberty Lee who was first to ask the question "Is he dead?"
"I'm afraid so, Miss. Geoffrey Landgraab is....DEAD"
