Chapter 3

"I don't care man, I ain't talking in front of you."

"Why don't you wait in the car EJ?" Bitsy asked.

"No way, Why don't you two go out and do your interview on the hood of the car. There is still plenty of light. I will just sit on the porch and make sure Freddie here doesn't get any ideas. What do you say Freddie, you want to talk to the lady or do you want to ride the needle."

For an answer, I got to see him stand and walk out the front door. They walked to the hood of the car. I sat in a metal chair on the porch to watch. I also listened but not to them. I listened for sounds coming from the house. First I heard a door being opened deep inside the house. Then I heard someone trying to walk quietly to the front door. I forced myself out of the chair. I moved to stand beside the door.

First the long blue black pipe eased out of the open door. I waited until about a foot of it was outside the door. I grabbed the barrel of the shot gun. First, I yanked it down and out. The gun fired making a nasty hole in the wooden porch. As quickly as I could I pushed the burning barrel hard backwards. I was rewarded by the sound of air rushing from the second man's lungs. The first yank had pulled him into the open door. The forcing of the gun rearward. had struck him in the chest with the stock. He was at least off balence, if not going down. I pulled the shot gun free of him. Even though the hot barrel burned like hell, I held firm. I knew that the pellets would have hurt a lot worse.

When the shotgun was free of his hands, I struck him as hard as I could in the face with the stock. His face disolved into a mass of bloody flesh. Unlike Mike, I got his jaw as well as his nose. The whole thing took less time than the telling. I raised the shotgun and pointed it toward Freddie. While I had been tussling with the second man Freddie had gotten behind Bitsy. He was now holding a knife to her throat.

I took a deep breath, then began walking toward them. I heard the nervous voice of Freddie, "Drop the shotgun or I am going to cut her fucking throat."

"Then what Freddie?" I asked calmly. "What exactly do you think I am going to do to you after she is dead?" I waited a second for that to sink in. "No better still, let me tell you. I am going to shoot you in the right knee. I am going to let you lay around screaming for a while. Then I am going to shoot you in the left knee. After a while I am going to gut shoot you. Then if you are still alive after a half hour or so, I am going to put the barrel of this shotgun in your mouth and I am going to pull the trigger. In other words Freddie, if anything happens to that woman, I am going to kill you just as many times as I can."

I looked into Bitsy dancing eyes. "Now Freddie, either let her go or kiss my black belted ass because I am coming for you." I'll give Bitsy this, she was terrified but she made the right move. She grabbed his arm, then rolled into it. Her move actually moved the knife in front of her eyes as she spun away from Freddie. She stood a couple of feet away and Freddie stood in front of the shotgun barrel.

He tossed the knife quickly to the ground. "You are a big man with that shotgun. Why don't you put it down. If you do, we will see how big you are one eye."

I walked up to Freddie lowered the shotgun for a second, then brought the stock around and struck him as hard as I could on the side of the head. He went down to his knees. I raised it to hit him again but he sank to the ground before I got the chance to strike him again.

"Bitsy, you about finished here?" I asked as calmly as I could. I put the shotgun in the rear of her car as she nodded her head. "Don't forget your briefcase." I reminded her. I drove us out of the drive and toward home.

"God EJ, you scared the hell out of me. How did you know he would fall for your bluff?" she asked.

"Exactly what bluff is that?" I asked with a grin.

"You mean you would have let him kill me?" she asked.

"Tell me what I could have done to stop him. You surely don't think giving him my shotgun would have saved either of us do you?" I asked.

"Maybe," she said quietly.

"Lady you are from a different planet. All that would have happened is he would have killed us both." I answered.

"Would you have really killed him?" she asked.

"Exactly like I discribed it to him. Just as many times as I could." I said.

"I guess I would have had to settle for justice."

"It wouldn't have been justice. It would have been revenge, pure and simple. Are you up to driving now. I don't see all that well at night. I think it must be the lights."

"Sure I can drive." She took over the wheel after a short stop.

I could have driven fine, I just wanted her to get her mind off how close she had come to dying.

"You know." she said. "I might not have been willing to kill that pig, but all those lessons paid off after all."

"You mean the karate?" I asked.

"Yeah those," she answered.

"If you say so." I answered.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"It mean, Freddie should never have gotten behind you in the first place. You didn't learn much, if you allowed that to happen," I explained.

"God EJ, you are kind of tough on me aren't you?" she said.

"A little, but maybe you learned more tonight than you did during all those lessons.," I suggested.

"And what would that be.?" she asked.

"If you want to live, you have to take some chances sometimes. You know, bite the bullet and do what has to be done," I replied.

"Do you mean what happened out there, or in my life in general?" she asked.

"I don't know about anything, except what happened down there. Maybe you can work out the rest of it. You are after all, a lot smarter than me," I admitted.

She didn't skip a beat. Her mind moved with the spead of a stiking snake. "So what are we going to do about Freddie and his friend?" she asked.

"What do you want to do?" I asked.

"I want to see their ass in jail, but I don't want to see you in the next cell." she said.

"Let it go. If they bring charges, which I doubt, it will be those two slim balls against us. You are a respected attourney. I am a decorated cop. Not much question who the jury will believe," I admitted.

"Should we call them an ambulance?" she asked.

"Sure, they are an ambulance. I don't know what good that did, but if it makes you feel better." she actually laughed.

"To tell the truth, I hope they both die. One more question before I let it go. How did you know there was a second man?" she asked.

"I didn't, but I also didn't think Freddie rode both those hogs. If there was a second man, I wanted him to come to me. I most certainly didn't want to go to him. That is why I made you meet with Freddie outside." I explained.

"But," she began.

I interrupted her. "That was your one question." I said.

When we arrived back a the office Bitsy said, "If it weren't so late, I would invite you home to meet my daughter."

"I couldn't go anyway, I have to go home and change my pants." I laughted.

"I doubt that," Bitsy said.

The next morning I was in the shower when Lucy called me, yet again. This time the message from Sam was to get my ass down to the office and bring my check book. Lucy had no idea what it was about. She also told me she couldn't say even if she did. Sam loved surprises.

When I was dressed, I drove the beast down to Sam's office. Lucy led me right into his small office. I found Sam behind his desk and Bitsy in a chair beside him. Sam motioned me to the chair across from them.

"Okay EJ, it's time you made some decissions. Do you want to be an investigator or not. I have pulled and pushed you as far as I can. It is time for you to make the decission."

"Why Sam? What's the hurry?" I asked.

"Because, if you intend to do this right, it is time you spent some serious money. If you want to play at it, then I don't have time for you anymore." He sounded angry.

"I have actually been giving this some thought. I'll make a deal with you Sam. You tell me why you are going to all this trouble for me, and I will make a decission on the spot. I want to know what you plan to do to me frankly." I explained.%%

"I don't plan to do anything except help you get established." He said angrily.

"Why Sam, why go to all this trouble?" I asked again.

"I'm going to tell you why just this once. I don't ever want you to ask me again. Okay?" he asked.

"If you tell me the truth, there won't be any need for me to ask again." I answered.

"Okay, before you were born, my wife came down with cancer. In those days there wasn't a hell of a lot they could do for her. She wanted to be home, so I had a nurse stay with her in the mornings. The nurse left at three. Your Mama was still in school, but she came to sit with Mattie every day at three. She stayed till I got home from work. I couldn't have paid her enough for what she did for Mattie. She was her friend even on the days where Mattie was a mess. I promised that someday, I would repay your mother. You are my chance. Now I have told you the truth do you want to go on with this or not?" Sam's asked.

It didn't ring quite true, but it was probably how he remembered it. After all Sam was over seventy. "Okay Sam, I don't imagine there will be a lot of business in this small town. I can still get in my laying on the beach time. I want to do it. Why did you want me to bring my check book?" I asked.

"Because you owe me five hundred bucks, that's why." He said.

"How come?" I asked. He handed me a fax copy of a Private Invesitgators license. I read it over then asked, "How the hell did you do this. I expected it to take a month or more."

"Actually it takes about six weeks," Bitsy answered for Sam. "That is, if there isn't a Democratic sitting Governor. Sam has been giving money to those guys for years. When he asks a favor, they usually do it. The attourney general issued you a probabionary license on Sam's reccomendation. If you keep your nose clean for six months then it is permenant. At least as permanent as those things can be."

"Now EJ," Sam said. "You need to buy a lot of things. You need to have an office ready to go yesterday. Bitsy there has a list. She is going to help you get started. You do have enough money to cover the purchases don't you?" Sam asked.

"I guess. Hell how much are we talking about?" I asked Bitsy.

"Five or six thousand at the absolute most." she said.

"Damn, what an I doing equiping a police force?" I asked.

"No just a modern office." she replied.

"Okay, it's doable, But who is going to teach me to run this modern office. I had trouble with the electric typewriter at the police station."

"Not to worry, Lucy or I can keep you streight. I wouldn't bother to ask Sam, he know nothing about computers."

"You mean, I have to have a computer?" I asked.

"And a lot of other modern shit," Sam said. "Now you two get going. Bitsy has to be in court this afternoon. Oh I almost forgot, Here EJ." Sam said handing me a check.

"What is this for?" I asked.

"You worked for me yesterday. It is payment, your first I might add."

"Sam, I did that as a favor. I wasn't expecting payment." I said.

"EJ, that was business. You don't do favors in business. Now take the check." He ordered.

"Well thanks, I appreciate it." I said.

"That is nothing, you wait till word gets around about last night. You are going to be one busy boy." Sam said as he buried his head in the folder before him.

Bitsy motioned me out of the room. "Well, I don't have much time. Lucy and I have

made you a list of things you need. We need to hurry. I have to get back by the three o'clock court session." Bitsy admonished.

She drove her Chevy again. She, after all, knew where we were going. I had no idea at all. She drove us to a office supply discount store. From them she forced me almost at gunpoint to purchase a laptop computer. I couldn't believe the cost of the thing. Almost two grand for a gadget the size of a volume from an encyclopedia.

The salesman did toss in a modeum. At the time I had no idea what he was talking about. It could have been Greek as far as I knew. Another four hundred went for a printer. "Might as well get the best one," Bitsy told the clerk.

Bitsy added a flat bed scanner to the order. "You might want to copy documents on the competer. This will keep you from having to buy a copy machine. It is a lot more versitile than a plain old copy machine."

I had to trust her since I, at the time, had no idea what so ever. I was totally lost in the high tech enviornment. She even bought an inexpensive digital camera.

"You might want to take some pictures that shouldn't be seen by the lab people."

Bitsy said with a wink.

She picked out a couple of programs not included with the computer. Then she purchases me a cell phone with a monthly contract. The company was practically giving the phones away with the years service. They must be making a bundle on the service.

When she finished my bill was three grand and change. As we followed the smiling clerk to her car I asked, "Are you absolutely sure, I need all that." I was more frieghtened by the machines than I had been of the shotgun last night.

"Not to worry, you will be a pro in a couple of months," she promised. I had my doubts but I kept them to myself.

"I have to get back to the office. You need to go buy yourself a couple of real cameras. Get them with really long telephoto lenses. You might as well get them zoom while you are at it. You need at least a thousand millimeters on the still and about twenty power or more on the video. Get a couple of VCRs while you are doing it."

"Are you reserving me a spot in the poor house?" I asked.

Bitsy laughed, then said, "You can afford it."

"How do you know that?" I asked kidding more than anything else.

"Sam told me, you got a huge settlement from the City of Atlanta." she said. She saw my reaction then asked, "Was that supposed to be a secret?"

"Not really, I just wonder how Sam knew that. I haven't told anyone outside the family."

"Oh, he probably assumed as much. You know we do deal in personal injuries. He probably just assumed you got a large settlement."

"Well, It wasn't large enough to go shopping with you. At least, not more than once more." I laughed at my own poor joke.

When we reached Sam's office, I transferred all the purchases into my Honda. They filled the car beyound it's capacity. We had all the seats filled as well as the trunk. There would have been no way for me to transport a full sized computer in the little beast.

By the time I unloaded the car it was too late to drive into Wilmington for the camera purchases. I waited for mom, than droves us both to dinner in her Lincoln. After dinner she dropped me at the house. It seemed she had a church circle meeting, women only.

I watched the lousy TV for a while. "When I became bored, I went to bed. I got probably my best and longest nights sleep in months. Something about being home and in my childhood bed lulled me to sleep.

Mama woke me the next morning. %% I looked at my watch and found that it was only six a.m. I struggled down the stairs. "Mom what in the world made you think I wanted to wake up at six in the morning?" I asked.

"First, tell me what all those computer boxes are for?" she asked.

"I am going into business. I was told, I needed all those things." I answered.

"What kind of business are you going into. The kind that gets blood on two different shirts on two different nights?" she asked.

"Those were accidents. That kind of thing won't happen again for ten years. I am going to open a private investigator office." I said.

"First, you are a policeman, now you are going to be a private investigator. Why don't you go back to school. Become a lawyer if you want to stay in that kind of work?" she asked.

"Because Ma, I am good at this. I would be a lousy lawyer." I replied patiently.

"You certainly aren't planning to open the office in my house are you?" she asked.

"Actually, I hadn't given it any thought. You have got a point. I can hardly operate from your kitchen."

"Damned right you can't. I will not have thugs and the like, in my house." Mama said.

"I don't blame you there. I will find a place in a couple of days. I promise I won't do any business until I have an office, Okay?"

"I don't like this, but you are a grown man. If you must play cowboys and indians then you must." She said. Mama still wasn't thrilled, but she did kiss me on the cheek as she left the house.

"Son of a bitch," I thought. "Now I have to have an office. This may prove to be too damned expensive for a hobby. I might actually have to work to pay the overhead." I kicked at the ottaman as I headed upstairs to shower.%%

Even with the time I killed at the Memphis, I was still too early for the Wilmington Camera Store. I waited till the old man entered the parking lot. He recognized me as I walked to the door with him.

"You do know, there was no quarentee with that camera?" He asked.

"I haven't even used it yet. I don't want to return it, I am here to buy another camera." I said.

"In that case you can come in," he said with a smile.

Once inside, I handed him the spec sheet Bitsy had typed. He read it then mumbled something to himself. I watched as he wandered into the store room. He was burdened with several boxes when he returned. He piled the boxes on the glass showcase.

"Now," he said. "You got yourself lots of choices.

For the next half hour I examined camera's and haggled with the old man. In the end I spent almost eight hundred bucks but he assured me that I had what I needed. I had to take his word for it since I had no idea what all the crap would do or what possible use I would ever make of it all.

Most of the junk was off brand equipment, since I flatly refused to pay for Nikons. Even the brands I did buy were too damned expensive but what are you going to do. When you are told by people who are going to employ you that you need the crap, then you buy the crap.

I locked the cameras inside the trunk of the beast, then drove to one of those appliance discount stores. I got talked into a Cannon eight millimeter camcorder, then into two VCRs. One very expensive and one not so expensive. This salesman was in a generous mood, I took a long time thinging over the purchases so he tossed in a couple of tapes. some patch cords, a cheap tape rewinder, and an extra battery for the Cannon. That stalling thing worked pretty well. I would have to remember to use it in the future.

Shortly after one p.m. I arrived home loaded down with even more boxes. I dumped them beside the others in Mama's parlor. I still hadn't opened any of them. I waited to decide what, if anything, I would do about an office. No sense repacking them, I thought. I guess I was actually stalling.

The phone rang while I was stalling. "Hello,"

"Mr. Barnes?" the woman's voice asked.

"Yes ma'am."

"My name is Edna, I am with Great Northern, I was wondering if you could run a small errand for me. I need someone to run into Shallotte and verify a death. All you have to do is talk to the doctor and pick up a death certificate. I can fax you the forms."

"I will be happy to do it but I don't have my fax connected at the moment." I said. I acutually hoped she would forget the whole thing."

"I can fax it to Sam's office for now. Get us the number when you get you fax connected. By the way the job pays seventy five dollars. Should take you more than an hour or so once you get there. You ought to call the doctor before you go down. You know, just to make sure he is going to be in. Just fax us your report. You can mail the death certificate." She proceeded to give me the address to use for all my mailings.

I wrote it down on a scrap of paper. I could see why the computer would come in handy. Lucy called me half hour later to advise me she had the Fax. I agreed to come right down for it.

When I had the fax in my hand, I called the doctor for an appointment. His receptionist agreed to set up a meet for me. I should be at the office the next day at eleven am. While I was on the phone, Bitsy came into the room. She smiled at me then returned to her office.

I hung up the phone, then turned for the door. "Ej, would you come in here a moment please?" Bitsy asked.

"Sure," I said as I entered the room.

"Have you found a place for your office yet?" How could she know that I had been ordered out of Mama's house. At least the business had been.