Chapter 46

I was up early, even though I had stayed up late ordering scanners and drawing pens sets. Yes I bought two of everything. I had one of the scanners sent to Luis at the Senior Towers address in College Hill as promised.

I stoked the fire while I tried to think of a way to handle Luis, when I was in deep cover. There was none. I would have to feed him the oil rig story and hope he didn't hock the computer while I was under. Hell he could hock it while I was in town, if that was his intent, I decided.

I wasn't nearly as depressed that morning. I suppose it was because I was working toward something. Whatever the reason, I beat Jeremy into the parking lot by a full trike length. I couldn't get off the trike before he made it into the parking space we share, but I was attempting it for sure. Poor Alice never won. I wondered why she bothered to race at all. She was at least two bike lengths behind that morning.

The SMP officers in their Jackboots were waiting for us as usual. "So we saw you pull in and it looked like Rose won again?" the youngest of the SMP officers suggested to Jeremy.

"He lets me win every once in a while, or I would lose interest," I said it as I passed with the tray of food while Jeremy was getting coffee for us all. It was restaurant blend but it was hot on a cold morning, so I didn't bitch.

"So you gonna come by and look at the cabin today," Jeremy asked when we were all seated.

"So, do I have to walk in," I asked.

"You can drive up during the construction phase," he replied.

"Then give me the GPS coordinates for the road entrance and I'll be up there after lunch. I have to go to College Hill for lunch," I explained. Jeremy wrote them on a sandwich wrapper, which seemed to be the only paper he ever had available when he was with me.

"So when are you going to put the cabins up for sale?" he asked. What he really was asking was when was I going to have the deed redrawn.

"I don't even know how to do it," I said.

"First you need to separate the land into two lots. I have a company doing surveying and plat maps for the resort. I would be happy to have them come up and take care of it for you," Jeremy suggested.

I had a feeling he would take it off the price of the cabin, but I didn't mind. "Sure why don't you do that," I suggested.

Back at home after breakfast, I took a shower and then dressed for the day. I still wore over sized sweatshirts and heavy jeans. It was much too cold to think about trying to be sexy.

When I got to the park bench I was carrying the computer and the bag of sandwiches so I was pretty much a beast of burden. He was waiting for me in the cold.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, there was a line at the Burger King," I said.

"Yeah, I should have warned you. So what you got for me?" he asked.

"It's an HP laptop just like we talked about. I need to know that you are going to teach me to use the inks," I said.

"I gave you my word, but I'm not great on technology. My friend Hector is going to help with the computer shit. So write down how we gonna work this and send it by email. If I need help Hector will explain it to me. I promise to help you and it will help me to pass the time," Luis said. He put the computer aside and unwrapped the burger. I handed him the canned coke he had also specified.

"Now there is one thing I have to tell you. I do security work. Some of the jobs last a few days, and some a few months. It's out on oil rigs usually, so if you don't hear from me for a while, don't worry we will catch up when I get back," I said.

"You some kind of spy?" he asked.

"Lord no, I'm a glorified rent a cop. That's all," I said. "It takes a thief to catch a thief, that kind of thing."

"So what you got for me?" he asked after I watched him eat the burger.

I have three drawings I made using the vector method. They are really just sketch copies of photographs." I was a little embarrassed to admit that I used a camera to shoot the images.

"These are what I would expect a copy to look like. In the business we did that with snapshots, the customer wanted them tattooed on his or her body. Put them on a copy machine, adjust the size, then copy them onto the skin. The art work is in the finishing of the tattoo. Not so much in the base plan. Long as you don't freehand it, you should be fine this far along. Send me your attempts at finishing these, and I will tell you what is right and wrong. Then explain the techniques to improve them," he agreed.

"You need any help getting this crap to your place? You do have a bad back."

"Sweetie, with a young attractive lady like you, I would have more trouble fighting off the other old men, than I will carrying the computer. Thanks for the offer though," he said.

"I will carry it to the door anyway," I said. "Here is a card with my Email address on it."

"Mine is tattoomanluis99@btg.com," he informed me. I figured I could remember that so I didn't write it down. I remembered his provider by the phrase buy the goat. A memory of Molly came to mind.

I wondered who would get Molly, since Carlos and I were not working together any more. Maybe I'll remember to ask, when I got to Jeremy's resort project. I might have to confront Carlos there.

It seemed I was meeting a lot of Latin types lately. I wondered if the population of the county was heavily Latino at the time. They did tend to form their own communities rather than live in single family units. But that was true of most ethnic groups when they first came to America.

Since I had opted not to join Luis in the greasy burger, I stopped for a cup of coffee at Helen's. She was still pissed, but she had to let me have the coffee. I had once threatened to file a lawsuit. It had been a joke since at the time I was searching for Rachel. Helen must have taken it to heart, because whenever I came in she had a snide remark or two, but she always fed me.

When I got to the road that ran to the Jones Lake property, I drove down the road very slowly. I was afraid I would break an axle or some other important part of the truck. I found a walk path with a sign that said #1 Jones Lake Drive. Okay, I thought that was pretentious. The track was suitable for a small ATV like they used at Church Camp, but not much else. They obviously brought the logs in on a sled pulled by an ATV. They might have used a snow mobile, but I doubted it. The snow just didn't stay around long enough for one of those things. It was deep enough for a few days, but then the bright sun came and it started to melt. There was probably a foot and a half on the edges of the path which made it hard on the ATV I was sure. The path itself looked as though they kept it scraped down using a blade on the front of an ATV.

"You looking forward to spring?" I asked Carlos, when I saw him. I figured that was a pretty harmless thing to ask.

"I am grateful for the work, but yes I look forward to spring," he said. "How have you been?"

"Fine, how about Nita?" I asked.

"She is having a hard time. She no longer blames you for what happened. She now blames herself, and me I expect. We didn't keep a close enough eye on him," he confided.

"If she needs to blame someone, she can go back to blaming me. Jose met Joan at the hospital visiting me. If I had done something then, maybe they both would be alive. I don't think blame does anyone any good, but if she needs someone to blame, let her blame me," I suggested.

"Jose was not your responsibility, and you did not lie to hurt us. You just didn't tell us to protect us all. We should have known something was wrong."

There was a silence that followed. After a while I asked, "Can I go in and look around?"

"Of course, I am sorry to keep you out in the cold," he answered.

Cabin one was just as I had envisioned it on the outside. Inside it was walls filled with rigid insulation, with thin plywood paneling over it. The walls were solid but not very rich looking. I had hoped to see the church paneling. Then again there wasn't much of it left so it was probably being saved for some project Jeremy had in mind. They had built 2x4 frames inside the post for the insulation so the post showed through the walls. There were the wall posts as well as the roof beams exposed. They were rustic and beautiful at the same time. I could see Alice's hand in the design as well as my own. We had used bits of the plan from the Internet as well.

"I like what you have done. Did it take you long?" I asked.

"We had to clean the roads and the paths to get in to work so this one took too long. I think we will be able to build one every two weeks. I'm not sure how long it will take Senor Jeremy to sell them," he said with a smile.

"Well he has big plans for the place," I said.

"Yes I know, we will see," Carlos said.

"I was wondering one thing. Am I still going to have use of Molly the goat?" I asked.

"Of course," he said. Neither of us mentioned the woman who had done my laundry. That probably was a good thing.

One of the consequences of my dependence on Carlos' family was that I had to find someone else to look in on the Country Store and cabins if Andrew called. After a lot of thought, during the drive home, I decided not to get anyone. Instead I compiled a list of things I needed to do in order to winterize the place while I was away. I assumed I could fill a backpack with my valuables and leave it at Church Camp, when we did our face to face briefing.

Things went along great for another week. During that time I got my scanner one day after Luis got his. After that we traded pictures during the next week. At the end of that week I got a message by coded email. It said to come home for a short visit that very night. I packed a large backpack with a few things to leave there and added clean underwear. I never needed my own things. I never knew exactly what his cryptic messages meant except he wanted to see me.

When I arrived at the camp Andrew kept me waiting in the dining room. At least I got to drink the coffee while I waited for Jeremy and Alice.

"Do you have any idea what the assignment is this time?" Jeremy asked when he and Alice arrived.

"Not a clue, I have been waiting here in the dining hall the whole time. Maybe now the man is here they will tell me," I suggested with a laugh.

"More likely he just don't want to do the briefing twice, ' Jeremy suggested.

"Or that," I agreed with a laugh. "So now it is time to get a move on. The coffee is good, but I have had enough of it."

"It's been a long drive for us and I don't mind sitting here and resting with a cup of coffee," Jeremy said.