Chapter 5

I set up my computer on the picnic table, then began the laborious task of copying CDs. I didn't even stop for lunch. Instead I heated a can of BeanieWienies.

"I ate enough of those in my childhood to make me want to throw up at the sight of them. I am going to go find real food while you play with that damn computer. If you let me drive the van, I will bring you something back."

"Good plan," I replied. "Ice, I always need ice."

"Right, I have my cell phone if Angela calls, I will let you know."

I smiled to myself wondering if she really would. I simply nodded since I wasn't overly concerned. I had my story so let them play their games. It would be better to know it all, since truth really is stranger than fiction.

"Okay, what does five grand above her regular purchases at the stock broker's mean?" It was Mike who had slipped up on me. I was surprised until I saw that his car was parked in the grass at the entrance to my camp spot. He hadn't pulled into the driveway since he hadn't seen the van or me until he was walking down the path beside the drive. I wondered if he had a search of the tent in mind. It hadn't been up when he left so it would be a tempting target no doubt...

"Beats me, but I get to make up something. You need to know for sure." I smiled at him with what i hoped didn't have too much smart ass in it.

"It has happened twice more since the Rape. My guess is that it was hush money. Somebody didn't want her to push the rape?" Mike made it a question with his voice.

"You could write it that way, and probably wouldn't even get sued. That is your main consideration isn't it. The truth is secondary to the litigation."

"What does that mean?"

"Mike reporters want a good story and not to get sued. If the truth gets stepped on in the process, what the hell?"

"So you don't think it was hush money?"

"It could have been, that's why you probably wont get sued. Hush money assumes there was some possibility of her telling something somebody wanted kept quiet. So to prove that you have to know who she was protecting."

"The rapist of course," he snapped.

"Then you are assuming that the rapist was known to her, either before or after she talked to the police. That becomes criminal either way. You are pretty much gonna have to know who the rapist was to pull it off. You do know that it could be coincidence. The governor might come up with one of those, 'It was a gift from her mother and I. We know how a single mother has to struggle, the money was for junior's education fund." She does seem to have put it in her stocks. If something like that happens, you are gonna get your paper sued. In which case they aren't going to run this without a lot of proof."

"How the hell do I prove the small town cops didn't try hard enough, and that June is a hooker who got raped by someone who could afford that kind of money."

"Mike you don't have any idea what is going on do you. I can give you ten scenarios where she wasn't raped by someone she knew, but was still paid to let it die a natural death."

"Like?" he asked.

"That shadow company in Charlotte was afraid something would lead back to them, so they paid her to just let it go. That is one possibility, or the governor didn't want the rape of his virginal step daughter to get looked at all that hard. This might not look good to some of his voters. I mean her part time gig not the rape. He can get a few sympathy votes along with a lot of mileage from a law and order plank in the platform, if it is still an open case."

"Jesus Burke, you have an evil wicked mind." He shook his head grinning.

"So how do we prove any of this?"

"What is with this we shit paleface. I can make it anything I want."

"Yes Burke, but you are one of those people to whom the truth does matter."

"It matters some Mike, but how much is still up in the air. There are only two people who know for sure," I added.

"So somebody has to talk to June Silver?" It was another one of those statements that he made questions."You want to do it?"

"Not me Mike, like I said before I got no dog in the fight."

"Then I guess it is me,."

"Would be my guess," I replied smiling up at him. During the conversation, which took longer than it seems, I was changing CDs in the copier every ten minutes. "I have way too much work to do here."

"So where is your next show?"

"Wilkesboro or North Wilkesboro I have no idea which. It's in a mall up there."

"So where are you going to stay?. I mean, I might just want to talk to you after the show."

"After I leave here I am going to move to the Fiddlers Grove campground. You can ask anyone up there for directions. Oh, Mike see if Dee wants to go along." He nodded but none to enthusiastically.

When Dee returned, she had information about the bank accounts of our Lady. It seemed that June had hidden most of the money in stocks. There was a thousand dollar deposit in her account the same day that she purchased the stock. The exact thing happened thirty days later, and again the next month. Each time she purchased larger than usual blocks of stock.

"I think you two need to go talk to June." I suggested it while changing discs yet again.

"How about it Dee, do you want to come along or would you feel better letting me do it?"

"Why the hell would I trust you?" Dee seemed less than thrilled with Mike that day.

"Because I will be happy to share the story with you. Like Deacon says, I have no dog in the fight either."

Being quoted, even if I had stolen the line from a hundred other users didn't feel just right. "Well young lovers, whatever you decide is fine just leave me out of it." I turned my attention back to the disk making.

"Okay Dee, you are welcome to come along but I think it would have more impact if I did it alone. That is all I have to say on it, we will do whatever you want."

"How about this guys," I began just to break the stalemate. "Mike do the interview but tape it and then give the tape to Dee. She might have some good input for the next move. Mike, if you try to screw over her, I consider it the same as screwing over me. In which case don't come to me for advice."

"I don't need your advice old man," he snapped.

"Gee and I thought you were gonna turn out to be human after all. Instead you just made my arrogant prick list."

Mike left angry, while Dee went into the tent to do whatever a pissed off woman does. I continued to copy CDs on my computer. It copied super fast and I had a super fast program, but it still wasn't fast enough. I toyed with buying another outfit, just as I did every time I had to make copies late into the night. I made no decision just as I had not done either of the other times. I shut it all down after a lousy dinner of tuna salad on toast. That toaster oven was becoming my favorite appliance. Dee didn't even ask to use the van, instead she suffered with me.

After a couple of more boring days, with me making CDs and her calling everybody she ever met on the phone, we were ready to move on to the next show. The air was still cool in late May when we pulled into the Fiddler Grove campground near Wilksboro. I went to check out the mall while Dee shopped for warmer clothes. I found that the mall manager was also the show's promoter. She was the one who gave me the tour of the mall. I was set in a corner well away from the bookstore. It was probably more for the bookstore than me. I was the most upset by the no music rule. In my case it meant I couldn't play the demo to attract a crowd, not that it ever drew a crowd with it before.

Turned out I didn't need it after all. I was in the same side wing as the cookie monster. It was some kind of bakery that only made cakes and cookies. Some of which were of a size designed for walk around customers. There was a steady stream of people in and out of that wing all day. It also didn't hurt that Dee was dressed in an only slightly slutty outfit. The men stopped to look and then stopped to listen as she put the head phones on for them. Even with he almost nonexistent breasts it was somehow sexy enough to drag them into the area. I sold as many books as I had at the last two shows combined. Both of those shows had been good one for me too. It was nice to sell the CDs, but it left me having to make more before the next show.

The weekend show closed on Sunday evening instead of Saturday night. The time took full advantage of the extra cost of the show, but it also left me with almost nothing to sell. I was tempted to skip the next show entirely since it was small and I really needed the time to restock the inventory. I thought abut it all day Sunday then again on Monday. Actually I was burning CDs and thinking about how to burn a hell-of-a lot more, when Dee came from the tent in tears. I had been burning on the picnic table while she made calls in the tent.

"Damn it Deke," She said though her gasps.

I could tell it was serious. "What the hell?" I asked.

"Mike got killed this morning," she replied choking on here tears.

"What the hell happened to him?"

"He talked to June last night. He sent me a copy of the interview in an email. Then this morning he was supposed to go home. I called his office and they said he died in a traffic accident."

"'Where did the accident happen?" I asked.

"On that stretch of highway 70 between Jacksonville and New Bern."

"So what happened," I was struggling to get enough pieces from her to make a picture.

"Best they could tell, he stopped for some reason and then somebody ran over him. Who ever it was didn't even stop." She said it bursting into even heavier tears.

"I know this is lousy timing Dee, but have you played that interview yet?"

"The audio file is in some oddball format I don't know. It's a QPC file or something."

"Yeah I know, copy it to a floppy, then bring it here. I can open it." I smiled at her as I had done with Mike.

The little known program was better than a cipher. It was impossible to play on anything but their own little player. I used the program to record stories. It was a super condensed program and extremely useful in moving stories from one computer to another.

When I had the interview ready to run, I found that it actually covered three disks. That made it a minimum of forty-five minutes long. It might even run longer. Mike had plugged his tape recorder into his laptop in the motel. He evidently converted the audio to the program, then attached it to an email, which he then sent to Dee.

"Hello, Miss Silver? My name is Mike Hutchins. I am a reporter for the Charlotte Cbserver."

"Go Away, I have nothing to say."

"You probably should hear me out before you make that your final answer." Mike seemed to be a bit of a wise ass. I liked that.

"You have nothing I wish to hear," she replied.

"Okay, I think the cops should check out a Charlotte company called Nightlite." It got quiet for one of those really long seconds. The sounds on the tape made no sense till later. In rethinking it, the sound was the door opening then closing.

"So what about nightlite?"

"It is my opinion that they probably had something to do with the rape. I'm not sure just what you do for them but I expect something you do there got you raped. Exactly what is it that you do there?"

"How much do you know?" she asked.

"I know enough to bring me to your door. Look June I am going to bring them down, I can take you down with them or I can keep you and your step father out of it." That statement was followed by another one of those long silences. "So what did you do there?"

"Come on honey, surely you are a big enough boy to know what I was doing working for a sex shop."

"Pardon me HONEY, but I can't think of a single reason they would send a car over a hundred miles for you."

"Well, other than the fact that I am very good at what I do, there are several other reasons."

"Like?" Mike asked.

"I am not a known prostitute, I have a little class, and last but not least, I am the sitting Governor's step brat. He has some enemies who pay dearly to screw me. Somehow they think it is getting even with him."

"Is that all, there has to be more to keep you working. Honey even with that, there are only so many people who want to screw him that much."

"Yeah, I delve into rough fantasy a bit now and then."

"Rape?"

"No, that was a straight up rape. You don't think I would do that with my son along do you?"

Mike seemed to think. "Well suppose someone followed you home. If he raped you and was a client, you might not be too anxious to get him caught. It could get real embarrassing at the trial."

"Get out of here you prick," she said.

"I don't suppose you want to tell me about the extra five grand a month?"

"Do you know what this is," It was the voice of June. "It is a.38 Derringer. I am going to give you both barrels if you don't get the hell out of my house now."

There were those noises again. Mike was in the car when he spoke. Well you heard it Deke, not much there. A little background but it was pretty much like you expected." Those were the last words on the disk, and most likely the last words we were going to hear from Mike.

"Did she kill Mike," Dee asked.

"Probably not, my guess is that she was on the phone to someone before Mike got his car started. Whoever she talked to is the most likely."

"So how do we find out?"

"Her phone records," I suggested.

"Do you have any idea how hard that is going to be?" Dee asked.

"You mean you never screwed anyone at the phone company?" I was grinning.

"Actually, there was one." She smiled as she headed back to the tent with her cell phone. Dee was proving to be a real piece of work all right. I just had no idea if that was good or bad.

"Out of luck Deke, my friend won't help. Some BS about court orders and the like. I could out her, but what good would that do. It won't get us where we need to be."

"Then I guess I need to do it the hard way. I need to go back to Charlotte then visit Ms Silver."

"Not without me you don't."

"Up to you lady, but I would be careful if I were you. So far I don't think anyone knows about you. At least not anyone who can hurt you. You get involved in this and it might just be you who goes down next." I suggested.

"Most likely it is going to be you," she replied...

"Seems to me to be a reasonably good way to go."

"Well it wasn't clean and easy for Mike it took him a couple of hours to die. At least that is the word from the paper."

"Then where was he at the end?" I saw her look. It was both curious and loathing. "We need to talk to anyone who he might have spoken to."

She looked at me in disbelief then said, "You just don't get it do you?"

"Get what?" I asked. Of course I had a pretty good idea that she was trying to turn human on me. It wasn't going to wash but she could try.

"You don't understand Mike is not a piece of your damn puzzle he was a human being. I just don't understand you at all."

"Funny how Mike's murder isn't just another piece of the puzzle, but the June Silver's rape is. Before you start talking about her lifestyle remember, when we started you didn't know she was a working girl."

"But it is all so dehumanizing the way you do it. Your only response was we need to talk to the people who spoke to him last. You are just a cold cruel person."

"I am that sweetie. I just don't have the time or the tears for anyone else. My time is too precious and I've already cried myself out. Now find out where he died or go home." Might as well let her know what her place was on the train. She sure as hell was no passenger.

Dee disappeared back into the tent to make the calls about Mike. "I spoke to the ER nurse at home. Mike never said a word about anything at all. He never regained consciousness."

"Probably a good thing for him, but not so good for us. Oh well there is always plan B."

"What is plan B?" she asked.

"You really don't want to know trust me."

"Oh, I want to know. I don't think I want to be involved in anything that will send me to jail."

"It's only illegal if we get caught." I smiled my best tough guy smile at her. While she thought about that revelation, I searched for my grape juice among the food items in the plastic larder. I made CDs until noon. Once she had decided to continue with the shadowy part of the investigation, Dee was chomping at the bit to get on with it.

I forced her to wait until noon before I made a move. Even then I packed slowly. I had the tent down and loaded before I stopped the CD burner. At one we pulled into a roadside cafe for lunch. Since the parking lot was filled, I expected the food to be at least palatable. I'm sure that the restaurant had some reason for all the cars in the parking lot, but it wasn't the over priced food. It had to be the waitresses.

Dee grinned from ear to ear as we entered the place. The waitresses wrote scanty uniforms that barely left anything to the imagination. Why families with small kids didn't wander into the place by accident was beyond me.

"If there had been an adult only sign outside, I missed it."

"I don't think there was one, but you know Deke they are dressed."

"Barely but I was thinking about the southern Baptist around here. Surely the law has been onto this place?"

"If you are curious ask," Dee suggested.

The foot long hot dog was eight bucks and the coke three. I was incensed but way too curious to leave. Since the waitress hovered I asked, "Don't you get hassled by the law?"

"Not that I know of, worst hassle I ever got was from the customers. We are open late to serve the bar crowd and they get a little rowdy sometimes."

"Don't you object to dressing like that?" Dee asked of the women in what had to be the smallest bikini made." Dee was also leering at her. I had never seen a woman leer before, it was quite a sight.

"Not a bit honey, I make a damn sight more money here than I did as a school teacher. Sorry duty calls," she said as she went to a table down the aisle.

"You reckon she was a teacher?" Dee asked me smiling.

"If we hear a tinny piano, we will know for sure." She pretended to get it, so I didn't explain. The reference was to a movie I had seen on the late show a dozen times. It was to the music that accompanied every hooker's sad story.

After the far to expensive lunch and the exorbitant tip Dee left, we were on the road again. Dee and I checked into a motel. S Since she was tired of campgrounds in one day. she paid. I could have pulled out the old Visa but I didn't want to let her off cheap, the trip was not a love affair kind of thing. I will give her this, she didn't bother to ask for a room with too beds. She must have felt a lot safer than she really was.

Who was I kidding, I thought. She was probably safer with me that she would be with any monk in a robe. I didn't know but I expected that sex was pretty much out of the question, even with the morning erection that lasted until I urinated. It was painful to realize that I was no longer a stud. Since I hadn't ever been, especially not in the last five years, I laughed to myself quietly.

We hung around the room with the TV blasting while I made even more CDs. The computer just wasn't commercial enough to make more than two copies at a time without some major reworking. New power supplies and Ide pc cards just didn't sound like the right move for me. Hell I would have had to find them, then install them. All that for maybe a month's use, spending every spare moment copying seemed far better.

It was well after five when I went to the video store to retrieve my equipment. I was always surprised how a clipboard and a piece of paper with the mooch's name got me access to almost anything. I got the inside and outside equipment then went back to the motel.

Dee took one look, then I saw the light in her eyes. "Damn you have been bugging their phone?"

"Who me? That shit is illegal." I smiled as I packed the transmitter, and receiver away. We listened to messages for an hour only to realize that neither of us would recognize June's voice. It was pretty much a waste of time except that I did find other women calling in. The were several messages just too cryptic to understand.

"I got your message about the Simon. I can do it, but it better pay well enough. Last time I thought I was gonna end up in the emergency room." The young sounding female voice on the tape left that message.

"They seem to have their own language." I said. "Just cryptic enough to confuse me, but not so much that they need a Flash Gordon decoder ring."

"So what is a Simon?" Dee asked.

"I'm just guessing but since these guys are in the sex for hire business, I think it might be something really kinky."

"Yeah but what?" Dee asked.

"Got me, but I can think of several things, cant you?"

"Frankly Deke, I'm trying not to think of the one you are."

"Yeah, I know." I said that as I put the recorder into the cloth bag once used to transport a child's overpriced electronic game. It seemed as though the black canvas case had outlasted the game by years.

"So now that you have your equipment what is the plan dad?"

"What the hall are you doing calling me Dad?" I didn't really have serious thought about sex with her, but my body had plenty of times I expect. It was just a gut reaction I had at the word."

"Come on, I have to explain us camping together and why a women my age is hanging out with an old fart like you?"

It hurt a little but I had to admit that she had a point. People had cast curious looks at us from the start. I wasn't handsome that was for sure. I wasn't rich, the rusty van proved that. So why in the world would a young reasonably attractive woman be hanging out with me? As far as that goes why did there always seem to be a woman around me? Not all of them were sexually motivated, but one or two had been. Actually I should have dumped Dee, since the trip was about a last fling and with her around it wasn't going to happen. I was supposed to be having fun instead I was baby sitting a lez. Sure she was sweet and all that but she was definitely cramping my style. When I laughed out loud at the pompous 'cramping my style' thought Dee looked at me curiously.

"Just thinking how my adventure had changed. Life is just nuts like that I guess."

"Come on Deke, what is next?"

"Shower, sleep, then breakfast in the morning. Afterward, if we are both up to it, the long drive to the coast."

"We going to go talk to June?"

"Not sure about the we yet paleface."

"Huh?" She had a totally blank look on her face. I was about to explain about the Lone Ranger and Tonto joke when I realized she wouldn't have a clue who they were either. That explained why relationships with younger women never lasted with me. Just too young to understand my old jokes and I didn't have a clue who the rock stars were.

"I'm not sure just yet who will talk with June. Could be I send you or I might do it."

"Any chance we both can?"

"I don't know but right now it seems doubtful. Actually this is going to take some finessing."

"You know she isn't going to tell you anything new."

"Sure she is. If a person talks at all, they always tell you something new. You just have to hear it." She gave me that curious look. She had it down pat. It would be a great advantage to a reporter. The old silent question trick. "Most investigators and all reporters come into an interview with a pre conceived idea. When they hear something that doesn't fit their version of the truth, they conveniently don't hear it."

"Now that is rather simplistic. Lumping all reporters into the same pile."

"Pile of what?" I asked with a great grin.

"Screw you old man," she said turning to the bathroom.

"Not likely," I replied almost sadly. The sad tone was for her to hear, I am a hell of an actor.

Sleeping in the bed with Dee was not like sleeping in the van or the tent. Somehow the bed made the feeling of her beside me more real. I would have been worried had I not already come to grips with my dirty old man status. Even with all that I was surprised when she wiggled up close to me while still awake.

I was about to ask when she said, "That incest thing is heady stuff daddy." If she hadn't burst into laughter, I might have made a really stupid move. It seems that Dee, the lez, was not above teasing an old man.

"Go to sleep Electra," I replied turning away. If nothing else, Dee was energizing me for the next willing lady I found.

Breakfast, at the diner in the motel's parking lot, was no better or worse than it would have been at the Howard Johnson coffee shop. It didn't have the chrome and glass feel to it, but it did have food with that prepackaged taste. I know they use fresh stuff, but it tasted just like I remember airline food tasting.

We arrived at the colonial town, built against the river's bank, in time to search out a real restaurant for a late lunch. The drive down had been filled with Dee's theorizing and my ignoring her. I didn't want her scatterbrained theories confusing my already befuddled mind. To be honest most of her theories were not scatterbrained at all. But my mind was befuddled enough without a hundred new thoughts.

She also spent her time shouting at me about other cars on the road. The brain glitch made my 3D map one dimensional. Keeping track of all the cars on a busy four lane road required all my concentration and Dee was a constant distraction. If she wasn't prattling, she was stretching her thin body just enough to cause me to lose my concentration on the road. Plus she had chosen to wear one of those light weight sweat shirts with the cutout neck ala 'FashDance'. Those things are distractive even if the woman has very little to put in it.

Even with all that I made it to Edenton without wrecking the car. Edenton was the town where both June and Dee resided. The campground was located about twenty miles farther south. The town nearest to the Campground was filled with yuppie, and yankee retire's money. It was why the craft show had been scheduled there. Edenton had not had the influx of their money, so it remained more or less as it had been in the early days. All except for the downtown face lift, designed by some gay decorator on a ten day drunk.

Dee was good enough to direct me to the home of June Silver. I noted that there was no car in the drive. It would be a good time to plant the electronic intercept aka bug, except that Dee was in the van. Even the blacked out windows wouldn't help if she decided that she wanted to watch. I dropped her at the newspaper office, while I went back to make the plant.

I didn't bother to put the communication company sign back onto the van. Instead I took a clip board out then began walking around the house. I made notes on the clipboard as I searched for the telephone block. Just as I expected the box was on the side of the house and pretty much hidden from the view of curious neighbors.

The nut driver opened the box and the alligator clips were on before anyone was the wiser. I continued my walk around just in case anyone saw me. I even made a shot of the house with a digital camera. I had packed it just in case I ran into a nude woman, or a good scene for a book jacket. The later was far more likely to have happened I might add.

It was impossible to find a secure location to leave the receiver so I resorted to plan BS. Make it happen not wait for it to happen, that was my plan. I found a 'do it yourself' carwash within a block of June's house. On the drive back to the paper I put the finishing touches on my plan.

"So did you bug here phone?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked it staring hard at her.

"There is nobody else here."

"So you say and believe. If you ever do anything like that again this is over. Do you understand?"

"Told you there is no one here. I am not that stupid."

"Don't take an opinion pole on that question right now."

"Damn old man you are paranoid." She smiled. "Come on I got some fresh coffee that doesn't have to be strained through a paper towel."

I wanted to slap her but instead I drank her coffee. I was giving more thought to searching for a place to leave the recorder while I interviewed June. Without a secure place I needed Dee, or did I. Since my brain was turning to mush, I needed a while before I figured the simple plan out. It was an alternative so simple, I was amazed that I didn't figure it out first thing.

"Look Dee, I think this might be a good time to part company on this thing."

"Why?" she asked.

"Frankly you are inconvenient." I know that it was hurtful but it was also necessary. Things were more than likely going to get rough at any moment. She could get hurt and I wouldn't like that. Hell, I could get hurt but that didn't matter so much. It might even be preferable.