Chapter 4

“Mr. Orange, My name is Ed Rollins. Mike from Vicksburg gave me your name,” I suggested.

“Yeah, he called me. He said you could handle my distribution problems,” Jessie said.

“I hope he said, that maybe I could handle your problems. That is if I knew what your problems were,” I suggested.

“Well Mike said you had been working with him and he was very impressed with your efficiency.” Orange said.

“Well I’m glad for the kind words of course. Frankly I’ve developed a group of customers over a three state area,” I said. “The shine season is about over, but the drinking season is never over.”

“Yes and thank god for that. In order to grow I need a steady supply of cash. Mike said that you will pay up front for the shine and take care of the delivery.” he said.

“Let’s just say you deliver your product to a site of my choice where you will find the required cash. Should you take my cash and not leave my product at the agreed time and place, I will come get my money with interest. The interest is pretty heavy. Since I don’t know you, I am spelling it out just this once. If I have to come to collect, you will regret it.” I said.

“I don’t like to be threatened,” Jessie said.

“Nobody does, but most folks don’t like to be surprised either,” I suggested. “Oh one more thing. I will test the liquor from a random sample. If it isn’t straight, you will have a problem. I’m just saying be careful with your quality control.”

“How much can you move?” he asked.

“Probably forty gallons a week,” I suggested. “It doesn’t have to be that much, but it’s important that if you say twenty, you deliver twenty.”

“It doesn’t work that way. It takes about a week to make a batch and another couple of days to get it to a drop site and do the exchange,” Jessie said. “The still produces a little over thirty gallons a run.”

“Sixty gallons a month is a fair amount. In that case I’ll pay you two grand for a thirty gallon run. You drop it somewhere you feel safe leaving it. I’ll drop you the money where I feel safe doing it. Again I’m very careful, this is not a hobby for me. It’s something I’m good at.” I explained.

Since Jessie Orange was planning to run year round his product would see me through the winter and keep my regular customers satisfied. I should have enough cash by the time summer came around to stock pile the white liquor. Just in case Jessie ever thought he had me over a barrel.

That was the plan for the next summer. But first of course I had to get through the winter. Like all good criminals, I owned a smart phone and prepaid flip phone. I kept the smart phone turned off while I was doing anything. It was for family and the number was listed with a few legitimate businesses.

I was headed home from Arkansas when the smart phone rang. I picked up the flip phone first before I realized it was my smart phone. It wasn’t an ‘I’ phone they were too smart and too expensive for me. Preferred the slightly retarded Moto smartphone. It was about a third of the cost of an I phone. I glanced down and saw my son John’s code name. His code name was bookworm.

“What’s up John?” I asked.

“I need you to do me a favor dad,” John said.

“What kind of favor?” I asked.

“Does it matter?” he asked.

“Well I won’t bury the body for you,” I said.