Chapter 4

The next day Ashlee and I drove to Blue Springs and picked up the rest of the family (John, Krystal, Jenna and Johnny) and met with the investigator. She was an middle aged former police officer who had retired from the force after being shot. She was a detective and had a reputation and a work record that many would envy. She introduced herself in Craig’s office and we got started.

Helen: jenna, tell me your story.

Jenna started out telling pretty much the same story that she told us when we rescued her in Oregon. she left with Bobby, she loved him, but his attitude changed when she got pregnant and she was dumped at the Wal-Mart where the police picked her up and then we arrived. that was about it.

Helen: Thank you Jenna. What is Bobby’s full name?

Jenna: Robert Anthony. I don’t know his middle name.

Helen: That doesn’t matter. I’m sure I can get some work done with that. Do you have a picture of him?

Jenna picked up her phone and scrolled through her pictures and finally found one. Helen looked it over and asked to have her e-mail over to her.

Helen: thanks. Now, have you called in to have your credit cards reported as lost?

Jenna: No.

Helen: Have you called your phone company to report it lost?

Jenna: No.

Helen then took out an extra pad of paper and made a few notes on it and handed the paper to Jenna.

Helen: Ok, now, where was Bobby from? I’ll need that to try and find him or his family.

Jenna looked at her family and they shrugged their shoulders. She turned back to Helen, “Well, I’m not really sure. I met him here in KC at church but he never did take me home to meet his folks so I am not sure where he was from. Sorry.”

Helen made some notes on her tablet and went on with a several other questions. Jenna answered as many as she could and then we finally finished our meeting. Helen gave jenna a couple of other tasks to do when we left her one of which was to call the bank, the credit card company and report her cards lost and then call the DMV and find out how to get a replacement license. We all shook hands and I swung by Craig’s office shook his hand and thanked him for the help.

We piled back into the car and I drove everyone to lunch where we discussed our situation. Jenna was feeling even worse at being abandoned by Bobby and with all of the phone calls she had to make today, she wasn’t exactly chatty.

After lunch, I dropped them at home and Ashlee and I started for home.

Ashlee: So what are we going to do for the rest of the day?

I shrugged my shoulders with no idea, but something came to mind when Ashlee’s phone rang. It was the famous Brenda. “hi honey, how are you doing? ... Really? ... Well that is wonderful. How are the guys doing? ... Good. Glad to hear it ... Ok honey, I’ll tell him.” She took the phone away from her face and turned to me. “Brenda says that she won a race up in Wisconsin and she wants us to come up and see her race again tomorrow, or if we can’t make it there, she is going to be in Iowa the weekend after next for another off road race. Do you wanna go?”

“Sure, why not. I am sure the kids would love to see their sister.”

Ashlee went back to the phone and confirmed that yes, we would love to come to Iowa and see her race. Cool. I haven’t seen her race in a few years and I am sure that the kids will love it.

“How about we run over to the race office and find out the address and timing of the race before we get home? Maybe we can have some fun while there too.”

“That sounds fine, but be nice.” Ashlee warned me. I tend to take joking too far sometimes.

That is what we did. The race office was just off of I-70 and we pulled off and into the parking lot in the front like we were guests not the owners.

We walked in and neither of us knew the receptionist sitting at the front desk. She was typing away on her keyboard and greeted us warmly when we got to her desk. “Good afternoon. How can I help you?”

“Hello. My wife and I were wondering if the race car driver was here. We saw the building from the highway and just wondered if someone famous worked here. We would love to get an autograph.”

Ashlee just smiled and nodded her head playing the part of my wingman.

“No, the team is out of town at an event at the moment. I might be able to find the team manager, I am sure he could talk to you and maybe find some souvenirs for your trouble. Would that be ok?”

I played the part of a disappointed fan and gave a loud sigh, slumped my shoulders and said that would be fine. Ashlee had to turn away and cover her face with her hands, I didn’t think she was going to be able to keep from laughing if I kept this up for too long.

“Ok, please wait here and I’ll be right back.” The receptionist got up and went back to find Elliot who doesn’t travel very much now that his wife has had another baby.

I pulled out my phone and sent a quick message to Elliot telling him that we were in the front playing a prank on the receptionist and to play along.

We sat down and Ashlee found Brenda’s Victoria Secret photoshoot pictures. We managed to convince VS that sponsoring a female race car driver would do nothing but convince the rest of the women of the world that you can be beautiful and kick ass at the same time. Well, it worked and they became our primary sponsor which meant that most of our cars and uniforms were pink. I have heard through the grapevine that our team was negotiating with VS to change the colors or at least allow us to make pink an accent color, but I didn’t know for sure.

Ashlee had opened the portfolio and started looking through the gorgeous pictures. Brenda was wearing many of the clothes that VS makes in a studio environment and then some of their workout clothes in and around her truck, car and buggy. They were amazing and she look gorgeous.

Elliot wrote back to me while we were looking at the pictures saying he would do it.

A couple of minutes later Elliot came out, “Good afternoon, I’m Elliot, the team manager, how can i help you?”

Ashlee and I stood up, “We saw the building from the highway and wanted to meet the driver. Is he here? I hear that race car drivers are hunky.” Ashlee said.

Elliott almost lost it. “We don’t have a male driver with this team. We have a woman who is our primary drive.”

“You do?” I said. “I didn’t know girls could drive...” Ashlee then slugged me in the arm

“Hey, girls can do anything that you men can do, just better.” Ashlee said defending her gender.

“Ok, Ok. Sure they can...” I said dragging the ‘can’ out a bit.

Ashlee pulled me back and stepped up toward Elliott. “Was that her in the pictures in the portfolio?”

“Yes, that is our Brenda. Not only can she drive, she is quite beautiful as well.”

“Is she here?” I asked.

“No. She and the team are up in Wisconsin at an event. Why don’t you come with me and I’ll show around the garage.”

I turned to the receptionist and thanked her for her time as we followed Elliott off to the back of the building.

Once we got into the real garage area and a door was between us and the front reception area was closed, I stopped and covered my face and let out a giggle at our antics. Ashlee and Elliott both smiled and laughed with me. “Well that went well.” I said and they both agreed with me. He then showed us around the garage. My Rally Fighter was there complete and ready to be used. Brenda’s Rally Fighter race car was also there, but in the middle of a repair. “What happened to Brenda’s Rally Fighter?”

We walked over to it and looked it over. the suspension was broken, twisted and in several pieces on the floor. “While you all were in the great white north, we spent a couple of weeks in the desert practicing for the Baja race.” Elliott walked around pointing to this and that as he explained, “Brenda took a hump too quickly and the landing wasn’t what we had hoped and it tore the suspension right off and the car did a couple of flips and landed, well, on its roof.”

Ashlee gasped when Elliott said roof, “Why didn’t I hear about this? Why didn’t you call?”

I put my arm around my wife and held her back from going over the edge. “Well, Brenda was fine so no harm, no foul?” Elliott said with his hands up defensively.

Ashlee was breathing hard and a bit red faced, “Listen, Brenda may be an adult and working on fulfilling her dreams but she is still my baby and when something happens to my baby I get very concerned. So, when she crashes or gets hurt, I expect a phone call mister.”

She had gotten right into his face and was jabbing her finger right into his chest as she spoke. She was making a point and using her finger to enforce it.

“I’m sorry Mrs Johnson. It won’t happen again.”

Ashlee backed down and put her hands on her hips, “Please make sure that it doesn’t happen again. She may not be my only baby, but she is my first.”

After that little scene, Elliott took us around and we saw the cars and trucks our team had assembled. Each one had a special purpose and raced in a specific circumstance, no one of them could do everything so we had to have many race cars and trucks.

In the back corner under a cover was Brenda’s Koenigsegg. She used when she was home, but since she was gone racing much of the year, it just sits in the corner waiting for someone to drive it. It was sad, a machine of that quality just sitting there, collecting dust. Elliott went one direction and I went the other, toward the Koenigsegg. I bent over and grabbed a corner of the cover and pulled. It came off the corner and I pulled it back enough to open the door and climb in.

“It is still the fastest thing we have for going around the short track Paul. I still have to pinch myself sometimes when Brenda gets out of it after setting some new record and such. I mean, this thing is bone stock and kicks ass without even having to stretch itself.”

“You are correct, it is amazing.” I pushed the seat back, Brenda must have been the last one to drive it. The key was is in the ignition so I turned it and the dash lit up so the battery was still good. “Elliott, would you take the cover off the back, I want to hear this thing turn over.”

“Sure thing.”

The cover was off, I twisted the key and the engine ground and ignited and came to life in a symphony of horsepower and noise. I bumped the throttle and the engine revved then settled back down to the idle. I did it a couple of more times and each time the engine reacted instantaneously. It was quite a rush.

“Paul, are you going to take it for a drive?” Elliott asked me.

“Only if you want to go with me.” I said to him.

“Sure, anything for the boss.” He laughed and then went around to the other side and got in.

“Honey, are you going to be long? We need to get home.” Ashlee asked me while standing next to the open door.

“No, honey, just around the block, we won’t be gone long.”

Ashlee leaned in, gave me a quick kiss, then stood back up and went back to the reception area.

Ok, the trip around the block was a bit longer than you would expect. We made the block bigger than one city block, we made it about the size of the downtown area and made it back to the office after about 30 minutes of driving.

“Good grief, don’t you know the meaning of around the block?” Ashlee said coming into the garage not a happy camper. The receptionist was right behind her and she didn’t look happy either.

“Mr. Johnson, I’m so sorry that I didn’t recognize you, but that wasn’t nice of you to trick me like that.”

I got out of the car, closing the door and turned to the angry receptionist. “I’m very sorry for the prank. Just goofing around is all, I hope that you understand.” I held out my hand to her. “Hi, I’m Paul Johnson. It’s good to meet you.”