Chapter 5

"Obviously, we are going to need to check out where this guy Haskins is living now," I told Ed when we were seated in the den.

"Yes, you're right. Do you know where it is?" Ed asked.

"Yes, it's up just a bit northeast of the city," I told him and gave him the address again. I was fairly familiar with that part of the metropolitan area having done a good bit of work for various people in the area. I got out my new map book of the area and checked on the exact location.

The address that I had been given was in a subdivision located between two of the major towns in the area. I'll call one of them Kingsville, as I don't want to embarrass the residences. The other one is a town known derisively by teens sometime ago as Alphapotato.

"It's way too late to be going up there today," Ed observed. "We would only hit a lot of traffic with the people heading home."

"Tomorrow will be soon enough to check out the location. There may not be a lot to see if he is only renting the house as I suspect. A lot of homes have been turned into rentals due to the economic downturn," I told him.

"That sounds good. What time do you want to head up there?" Ed asked.

"I was thinking of starting around 9:00 in the morning. Traffic will be better then, as most people will already be at work, or at least closer to town anyway," I told him.

"That sounds good. Your truck or mine?" he asked.

"Let's go in mine this time. I have some customers in the area near there, and I also had some fliers printed before I went to the Blacksmith Conference. We can distribute some of them in the area and in his subdivision, but not too close to his house. That might make him suspicious," I told him. "That will also give us a reasonable excuse for being in the area and checking things out," I added after a few seconds. Ed was grinning by then.

"Always looking to dig up business," he said.

"Right now the only business I'm interested in is eliminating the threat from this guy and his cronies," I told him seriously.

"Definitely!" Ed agreed. Esther came into the den shortly after we had decided on what we would be doing tomorrow.

"You ready to go home, Ed?" she asked.

"Yes, that's fine. Will you be coming here with me tomorrow?" he asked her.

"Tomorrow!?" Esther said somewhat surprised.

"We're going to check out where this guy Haskins is now living tomorrow," he told her.

"Yes, I'll be coming with you then," she answered. Ed and Esther stopped to talk to Ashley on the way out and let her know that they would be back in the morning.

"You're going out again tomorrow!" Ashley said in a somewhat upset voice, when she came into the den a short time later. I was still in there studying the road network in the area and committing it to memory. There were a lot of new subdivisions that had been built there in the last ten years or so, and the roads were not as free flowing as previously because of all of the new red lights that had been installed to get people in and out of the subdivisions.

"Yes, we need to see where this guy Haskins is living and try to get an idea of what he and his organization are up to now," I told her.

"Be careful," she told me, as she came into my arms for a kiss plus some reassurance and comforting.

"You know that I'm always careful," I reminded her when we came up for air.

"I know, but I still worry," she said, as she snuggled up against me in my arms. I held her for a long time. We were eventually interrupted again by the twins.

We awoke early the next morning after a good night's sleep. The twins had even slept all of the way through the night. Ashley and I had enjoyed each other immensely before going to sleep, but had required a second shower, just a quick one, when we recovered. The crying of the twins had awakened us at around 7:00 AM.

"They're wet," Ashley said, as she got up to attend to the twins. We had slept in the buff last night all snuggled up together, and seeing my sweet wife naked this morning had me hard in an instant. Ashley noticed immediately.

"None of that!" she warned me. "If you want to do something, get dressed and help me with the girls. Besides you have to go out this morning," she reminded me while she slipped into a dressing gown.

"Yes, I remember!" I said with a sigh, and got out of bed to get dressed and help my wife with the twins. I did get a little kiss before we left the bedroom.

We were aware of the twins before we got to their room, and it wasn't from their crying. How do two such sweet little girls make such a stink?

"Oh boy!" was all that Ashley said, as we entered their room to do what was necessary.

Later downstairs, the twins created their usual mess during breakfast. They were content to sit in their highchairs and play in the mess while Ashley and I had our own breakfast. After that, it was clean up time for the twins, the highchairs, and the floor around them.

I helped with the twins and then put them in their playpen before going out to the shop to get my touch up kit, and a supply of the fliers that I had printed plus pins and tape. Ashley had finished cleaning up.

I was upstairs shaving before showering again when the alarm went off.

"I've got it!" Ashley hollered up to me. I quickly finished shaving and jumped in the shower for a quick rinse before dressing. Ashley and Esther were in the kitchen, and Ed was in the den when I got downstairs.

"We're early!" Ed said, as I entered the den.

"Not a problem. I have everything ready, but we may as well wait until 9:00 before leaving, or we'll hit extra traffic," I reminded him.

"Yes, traffic! I'm sure glad that I didn't buy a house on the north side. Traffic is always bad from that direction," Ed told me.

"It's bad from the south side of the city now too, and from the west side, plus they get most of the really bad storms there. The main problem that we have here on the east side of the city is that we get the least amount of rain of any area of the city," I reminded him.

"Traffic has gotten a lot worse than it was when I moved here too," Ed observed.

"Yes, there is a lot more traffic going through the area than when I bought the farm also. There's not a lot that we can do about it though," I said.

"True!" Ed answered in resignation. Ashley came in shortly after that.

"When are you leaving?" she asked.

"Are you trying to get rid of us?" Ed inquired of his stepdaughter.

"No, mom and I are going shopping with the girls," she told us. "We'll leave with you if you aren't leaving too quickly."

"We were planning on leaving around 9:00," I told her.

"We'll never have the girls ready by then. Just go ahead and leave when you're ready, and we'll get the girls ready," she told me.

"We could wait until you are ready," I offered.

"Humm ... let me see how quickly we can get the girls ready," she told us.

"Do you want some help?" I offered.

"No, mother is helping me. You could put their stroller in the SUV though," she told me as she was leaving.

"I'll give you a hand," Ed offered, as we went out to get the stroller, collapse it, and put it in the back of the SUV. I also checked that the child safety seats had been reinstalled correctly before we returned to the house.

Ashley and Esther soon came down the stairs holding the twins. Ashley had her shotgun with her, in addition to the large shoulder bag that she usually carries her 9mm pistol in. That's was when I noticed that Esther had brought her large pocketbook with her, the one that she carries her pistol in, and I began to suspect that there was more than just a shopping trip going on here.

It appeared that our wives were a lot more worried about what had happened last Sunday than they had let on. This was not a good sign. I could see that Ed had realized what was going on as soon as I had. We both took our wives in our arms and kissed them with a twin between each of us. Ashley was shaking when I released her. The twins had been delighted by all of this and giggled, wanting a kiss also. They both got a kiss.

"Are we ready?" Ashley asked after a bit when she had settled down.

"Yes. Go ahead and load up. I'll check the house," I told her, as everyone headed for the front door. I did a quick check of the house and all of the doors before following them out.

The twins were secured in their safety seats with their carry along bag between them by the time I closed the front door and made sure that it was locked. I picked up my shotgun on the way out.

"You go ahead, and we'll reset the alarm system after we pass the sensors,"I told Ashley, as she put her shotgun in the rack in the SUV. Both of their purses were on the floor at Esther's feet.

"We'll be at least four hours and maybe more," I told her. "It depends on what we find," I added and leaned in to kiss Ashley again. Ed was busy with Esther.

"All right. Call us when you are on the way back," Esther told us, as she checked that she had her cell phone, after she and Ed had come up for air.

"Sure," I reassured her before we all got in the vehicles. We followed the SUV in my truck. I stopped and reset the alarm system once we had passed the sensors on the entry road.

"They're really scared," Ed observed, as we followed our wives in the SUV.

"I'd kill that bastard for that reason alone," he said in a determined voice after a short break.

"You'll have to get in line," I told him, as I was just as pissed as he was, if not more.

"Put an extra bullet in him for me when you take him out," Ed told me.

"Not a problem," I told him. "But a bullet can be too quick. I want that bastard to suffer some first."

"That works for me!" Ed said with a smile, the first I had seen from him since arriving at the house.

The drive to the north side was uneventful if you discount the traffic jams caused by the county or state crews working on the roads in various places, and a couple of minor accidents. We did finally get there, and headed for the subdivision where Haskins was now living. Along the way, I stopped several times to check on the condition of clients' iron work. Most of it was still in good shape, but at one house I left a flier with a note for him to call me about maintenance on the work that I had done for him. He was one of my earliest clients.

"You really have done a lot of work on the north side," Ed observed, as we continued.

"Yes, people up here can afford to pay for the hand work and custom designs, plus they can appreciate the difference," I told him.

"I know. Custom furniture is the same way," he observed.

The subdivision where Haskins had a house was a medium size one and looked to be made up mostly of medium size houses for the middle class. It didn't look like I would get much work here. Still that wasn't our real objective, just a sideline. We cruised the subdivision, noting house numbers and street names. I left a number of fliers on mail boxes of likely looking houses. I was able to judge by now the type of house that my work would enhance the looks of. On some house designs, it would look out of place.

The house that Haskins was using now was at the bottom of a cul-de-sac in the back part of the subdivision. I noticed that there were many trees behind the houses there which could give me a good approach to the house ... They stood out because the remainder of the subdivision had few large trees remaining in it, I would need to check out who that area belonged to and how to get to it.