Chapter 93

I thought our last words had given Rita some incentive to nip the bullshit charge in the bud. I also thought that Hannah was going to have to go. I knew the Feds would keep an eye on her from that point forward. I also knew that she was a really good worker and would be hard to replace. However she would always be tempted to skim off some of the pot. I could afford the skim, but not if it caused me to lose my potalot. That was always a possibility, so I had to take it into consideration. Hannah and I both needed the charge to just go away, I thought.

Rita and I returned to the police station where a magistrate had been summoned to set bail. Where the female magistrate had been at midnight, I had no idea. She wasn't supposed to be on call, she was supposed to be on duty. That was part of the justification for a Federal Law Enforcement takeover. They were supposed to be fully operational 24/7 no matter which station you were taken to.

She set bail at $50,000. I put it up so Hannah wouldn't have to spend the night in jail. Once she was out on bail, her mother came for her.

"Don't talk to Hannah about the details of the case," I warned her mother. "She needs to get everything straight before she tells the tale."

I awoke the next morning, then pulled out the trike. I needed to ride. Frankly I needed the workout to clear my mind. Riding in the chilly morning air did that for me. I also needed the ride to wake me, because I was operating on very little sleep.

I saw a black trike just like mine at the Dairy Queen. I looked at my multifunction watch and noted that it was 6 AM. I don't suppose I was surprised to see Bart. He had said he wanted a trike like mine. I had no idea he planned to ride it to my morning place as well.

"Where is the shyster?" I asked.

"You should have known she would sleep late. You did keep her up most of the night," Bart said.

"Hell tell her to send me a bill." I thought a minute then added, "Actually I should send her one. She loved rubbing my nose in her smarts. That had to be worth something," I said.

"She might be gloating after she wakes up, but unlike you she can't operate on two hour sleep," he said.

"Not many of us can," I said.

"Play nice," Liam said.

"Did she do okay," he asked.

"She did very good indeed," I said.

"I can't believe you said something nice about Rita," Bart said.

"Just giving the devil her due," I replied with a charmingly sarcastic smile.

I went back home and began to work in the houses. I knew three days without any help and I would be begging Miss Sadie to find me some more bodies. By noon I was pretty far behind. What was worse was that by the end of the week the schedule called for me to pull plants and groom product.

If something didn't come along I was going to be fucked big time. I struggled through the day and found myself a half day behind after having worked my ass off. I sat down at 7 PM with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and glass of Diet Coke to assess my day. I could only conclude that it hadn't been a disaster, but by the end of the next day I would be a full day behind and from there it could only get worse.

I reached for my cell phone to call Rita. Bart answered. "Bart I need to speak with Rita," I suggested.

"Yes Rose," Rita said as she picked up.

"Rita, is there any chance that Hannah can come back to work for me?" I asked.

"I'm working on a plea bargain. The deal will require one year's probation. One of the conditions is she not be found in possession of any listed drugs. That includes Marijuana. If some cop found a leaf in her car in a pocket or anywhere near her, she could do five years," she said.

"What if the punk who rolled on her didn't testify?" I asked.

"Don't even think that. Especially don't talk to me about it. You don't need to be under suspicion. You don't want to come up on any law enforcement radar. Remember homeland security had a stop for interview on anyone with your New York ID. You are still not home free on that," Rita said.

"Then I have to let her go?" I asked.

"Neither you, nor Bart can afford to have her around. Nor can she afford to work for either of you. It would at least be risking a violation of her probation."

"Shit," I said.

"I know Bart says the same thing," Rita replied. "If I were you I would look for a replacement."

"All right," I said.

"You know, let me do some checking. I think I might find some way to help you out while you can do some good." Rita said.

"Oh how is that?" I asked.

"Let me check around some first," she said.

I put the phone down then went back to work. I spent the evening working on the records just in case we had a government inspection. They wanted to be sure nothing was leaving through the back door. They could never hope to catch a half pound that Hannah skimmed from the records but if the sales amount to the government went down significantly they would be all over me. That's why the office work took so much of my time. All the purchases, salaries, and equipment were figured into the operating cost which were then deducted from the sales. If all that crap had any spikes in any area, I had better have documentation to prove it was on the up and up.

The government had taken all the fun out of growing pot. I heard that from all the old time growers. Since I was new to it, it was just the way it was in my eyes. Petty bureaucratic bullshit defined it best.

Even so I worked on reconciling the books with the company's bank statement. I worked on making sure every entry on one was supported by an entry on the other. The company's books were in order, so I went to play on the computer then I went to bed.

I didn't care how much shit I had to do. When the day began at 5 AM I rolled the trike out. I took off pedaling till I got to the road, then I turned on the motor and pedaled along where it was possible. It took me forty five minutes to get to the Dairy Queen. I found Bart's trike out front. It sort of reminded me of Jeremy and Alice. I would like to see them, but I had Bart. No matter how hard I tried not to, I made friends everywhere I went. Most of the time Swamp Dog followed me. The damn thing was like a virus.

After Bart and I talked business a little I saw Hannah come into the place. It was way early for her but everyone in town knew I came to the Dairy queen for breakfast. I had no idea who she came to see.

I motioned her over with her tray of oatmeal. "So how you doing girl?" I asked.

"Not too good. I hear from mom and dad almost every hour how I let them down," she said sadly.

"Yeah, parents are like that," I said. "Am I the devil's spawn in their eyes?"

"No they are upset because I let you down. They know the government is going to be checking you real close because of me," she said.

"Don't worry kid my books are in good shape. There is nothing they can do. If they audit the company I will have two accountants and two lawyers with me. We can sling as much bullshit as them," I said with a smile to comfort her. Truth is nobody wants to raise big brother's interest. Putting them in their place is an expensive proposition.

"I hoped to find you so that I can apologize. Rita said I couldn't work for you again while I was on probation, even if they make a deal," Hannah suggested.

"Yeah, I'm getting pretty far behind so I asked her about that myself.

I don't know what I'm going to do," she said. "I wish I could help you but I have my hands tied right now," she said.

"I will settle up with you, if you want to stop by. I still owe you some salary."

"Honest, I didn't come here for that. I just came to apologize," she said.

Bart, who had been quiet during the whole conversation, suddenly came to life. "You know what this area needs?" he asked then went on to answer. "We need a pickup and delivery service. I don't need anyone full time but I do need someone a couple of days a week to make deliveries. I bet I could get Rita to work out an exemption for you to open a courier service. Even if the customers were pot growers and processors. Everything comes sealed and you can get the recipients to check the seals. That should satisfy the court."

"I think that is a hell of an idea." It wasn't really a great idea for me but I could throw some business her way.

"I don't know anything about running a courier business," Hannah said.

"You are plenty bright, you can figure it out as you go along. You can always ask Bart or me, if you have any questions," I said to her then turned my attention to Bart. "This was your idea, I expect you to take the lead. I'm already a day behind on the Catfish Farm and can't see how I'm ever going to catch up."

"No problem but you will find a way. I have faith in you," Bart said.

What I was not going to do was work night and day to grow pot. I was making more money than I would ever spend in my lifetime. So I make half as much, maybe then I could spend all I made. I know there were huge farms growing pot. They would buy up every small potalot that came on the market. They grew it all over the place and some of it was on consolidated farms. Those must look like a jungle, I thought.

A couple of the farms sold scrap to Bart. It didn't matter since I was the only one who had scrap all year round. There were no other greenhouses in the area simply because they were a lot of work, and required a lot of maintenance. No one with enough potalots would bother with greenhouses. The large growers were probably going to try putting people like me out of business. Let them try, I thought. I could take care of myself.

"Yes you can old girl. You do know that was the reason for so much interest in Hannah. It was all because she worked for you," Liam said.

"I hadn't thought of that but you might be right," I said.

"I'm always right. I can see into their fucking souls, " Liam replied.

"Okay what is Rita cooking up?" I asked.

"It's a surprise, but you will like it I promise," he said.

I worked like a slave for three more days, even so I was at least two and half days behind when Sylvia called. "I'm sending someone up to help you. He has a good work ethic, if you can control him."