Chapter 13

Weekend 2

Saturday

Mike awoke that Saturday with nothing on his plate. He couldn't go into the office because of some stupid rule about over time. They could track his logging on and off the computer. The door lock also had a tracker on it. He could access the computer from home, but the requests from the others were all filled for the time being.

He wanted to work on the puzzle, but it wouldn't be fair to force the others. So he went up to see if his mother's companion had gone. He really didn't want to see the man who forced his mother to moan, whine, and scream obscenities.

Mike: My God, didn't she know mothers didn't do that kind of thing. (mumbling to no one)

In the kitchen he found a note ... Gone out to breakfast.

Mike: Simple and to the point. Time for me to ride the bike.

He got on his boyhood bicycle and rode it to a diner in the closest shopping center. Every shopping center in the burbs had some kind of small restaurant. The one he chose was 70% take out, but they did have a few booths. Since he was on a bicycle he ate at the booth.

After his dry eggs and burned bacon, he sat at the booth using the restaurant's WiFi. He checked out the sites he used most often. Most of them bored him almost to tears. That is until he got to his online bank account. He found that unbeknown to him someone had made a $1500 dollar deposit in his account. He assumed it was his pay for two weeks as a government contractor. Of course it could have been from his previous business. He occasionally got commission payments on the account. He had never before found one so large in the account. He decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

In the same plaza, where he ate breakfast, there was a moped store. Actually, it was a pawn shop which had branched out to selling a few scooters.

Salesman: That's a real beauty. 50cc, 4stroke, top speed forty miles an hour. A really nice ride for the money. It's the next logical move up from the bicycle.

Mike: The bike is more about exercise than transportation. I just came by to look since I was here having breakfast.

Salesman: I can make you a great deal. Gas it up and you can ride it home. I'll even hold the bike for you till you come back for it.

Mike: What is the great deal?

Salesman: Normally this model is $999, but I'll fill the gas tank and give it to you for $899. I might be able to get it financed for you, but then it will be $999.

Mike: Let me get the name and other specifications and I'll research this model. If it is what you say it is, I'll catch a ride over to pick up one.

Salesman: Right, is there anything I can do?

Mike: Not for the next four or five hours.

Wes woke up in Salina's bed. Unfortunately Salina wasn't in it. She was sitting in the kitchen at the table with a cup of coffee. Wes joined her with no shoes or socks and in his tee shirt.

Salina: You look comfortable.

Wes: I am comfortable. How are you this morning?

Salina: Making a list for the grocery store. It seems the Government made a deposit into my account last night.

Wes: I guess I should check my account when I get home.

Salina: Oh, you are going home?

Wes: Eventually yes, maybe not today though. Of course I need to go take a shower.

He needed to do it with the smell of death off his body, but he didn't say that to Salina. She didn't need to know what happened when he last had to run out for a bit.

Salina: So go take your shower and I'll be back by noon I'm sure.

Wes: I need to check on some things around the house. How about we meet back here at three. Maybe we can go somewhere?

Salina: Not till you convince Lucille I can be trusted. She has control of the ankle thing. At least I think she does.

Wes: Okay, we will still do something, I just don't know what.

When he got home Wes downloaded five movies. They were the newest ones on the premium service. He put them all on flash drives so that he could take his laptop to Salina's house. His plan was to use his computer /TV connection gizmo. He carried that along as well. Of course he had to remove it from his own TV first.

He left his house planning to return to Salina's all clean and sweet smelling. His plan also called for him to stop for a deli sandwich tray from the Jewish Deli on the same block as his slightly better than slum apartment. He always visited it when he needed fancy take out to impress a woman. He hadn't done that in a very long time.

May: (Into the phone) Hello.

Lucille: It's me. Are you busy this afternoon?

May: I was going to wash my hair and do my laundry, so no not at all.

Lucille: I am taking my kids to the Lincoln Park this afternoon. Could you meet me at the playground area? I can bring coffee and donuts and you can bring me a real update, since all I get is 'nothing to report' reports from Steady Eddie.

May: Sure, I take my coffee black. I like donut fillings and I don't care much what they are filled with.

Lucille: Good shall we say 3 PM?

May: Sure, I'll throw my laundry in the car and do it after we meet.

Lucille: Don't you have a laundry room in your apartment?

May: No the apartment has one for everyone but it's all closed off. It's also pretty creepy. I always go to one of those suds and brew places. I have a drink while the clothes wash.

Lucille: I have never been to one of those. Maybe I'll stop by and buy you a drink for my next update?

May: Sure, why not. But for today it's Lincoln Park by the swings at 3 PM.

Lucille: That's right. The kids have already been promised.

While May and Lucille were having their phone conversation Eddie was at the Outdoor Mart. He had found online that they had a two burner propane stove for less than a hundred bucks. That would give him his burners to complete his kitchen appliance set up.

Eddie: Hey there. How about some help over here?

Salesgirl: Just a minute.

The bottle redhead was talking into a cell phone. Eddie waited a couple of more minutes then he decided, fuck it. He walked to the next aisle over and asked a man at least seventy for some help.

Old Man: Sure, let me get someone in that department.

Eddie: If you are going to call the redhead, don't bother. She is too busy on the phone with her boyfriend.

Old Man: How about I get the department manager?

Eddie: That would be fine.

Five minutes later a kid about fifteen showed up. Eddie explained what he needed and the kid found a complete table top cook setup. Burners line valves and all. Eddie went to the register to pay.

Redhead: Hey mister, why couldn't you wait five minutes for me to finish that call.

Eddie: Because my time is probably just as important to me as yours is to you. The difference is you are being paid for your time, and I'm the one doing the paying. So technically I'm paying you to ignore me and I really don't like that at all. Now get the fuck out of my way.

Eddie pushed past her. A black woman rang it up, he paid with his debit card, then went to his car.

White is driving home, he drove by a flea market, so he stopped to check out a couple of used furniture dealers.

Eddie: Hey there. I like this chest. Do you have a ruler? I need to measure it and I didn't bring mine.

He took a scrap of paper from his wallet and compared it to the chest. He carefully measured it.

Eddie: Sorry it's too short by five inches. It's wide enough and deep enough, but it's five inches too short.

Very old Gray haired lady: Too bad. People once used a can of veggies under the legs to raise them up.

Eddie: That's an excellent idea. Not a can of veggies, but a couple of two by fours will lift it high enough. How much do you want for it?

Old Lady: Since you got to do all that, how about twenty dollars?

Eddie: Fifteen would be better. (haggling was expected)

Old Lady: Done.

Mike: So mom where is your married politician tonight?

Mom: Oh, he is home with his family. I guess I'll see him next weekend. He might even call a few times during the week. That's how this is most likely going to play out.

Mike: You have done this before?

Mom: Since your dad moved out there have been a few times. It's always the same. They find a younger woman and they just move on. I'm usually their first affair. Of course I am a little older now, so I don't have quite as many options.

Mike: Why do you do it?

Mom: I like sex, of course.

Mike: Hell, mom, everybody likes sex, but we don't chose inappropriate lovers.

Mom: Have you finally found yourself a woman? Maybe you will move out of the basement now.

Mike: I found a woman, but I still can't afford to live anywhere else. Also, she is about five hundred miles away.

Mom: I don't believe that. The woman sure, but about you moving out it was never about money, it was always about being alone.

Mike: I guess you are right. I like living here with you. It's comfortable and I can wash your car so it's not all bad.

Mom: No it's not all bad. When you were a teenage boy did you even fantasize about me? I mean it wouldn't have been unusual, or even shameful, it's just a fact most boys do. I'm not too bad looking and you have seen me at my best and worst.

Wes and Salina were only interrupted three times during their movie night. Two of the interruptions were patients and one was a cop canvassing the neighborhood.

Cop: Ma'am, we are going door to door asking, if anyone knows this man?

He showed her a mug shot picture.

Salina: Of course that is Raphael, he is some kind of representative for the owner, I think. At least when I see him he tells me he is taking care of the place. Has something happened to him?

Cop: Why do you ask that?

Salina: When cops ask about someone in this neighborhood, he is either dead or he killed someone.

Cop: We found his body this morning. We just got around to organizing the door to door.

Salina: I really don't know anything about it. He was here last night asking me if I needed anything. That was about 9 PM.

Cop: How about you, sir.

Wes: I'm just visiting Salina here. We work together. I never met the man.

Cop: Call me, if you think of anything. (He gave Salina a card)

After the cop left Wes made a sandwich on a Hoagie roll. He opened a beer and looked up to see Salina staring down at him.

Wes: What?

Salina: How dangerous are you?

Wes: Honey, I'm a pussy cat.

Salina: More like a Tiger.

Wes knew that a secret shared, is no longer a secret. It didn't matter how much you trusted the person.

Eddie spent the afternoon trying to fit the dresser into the space beside the sink. He had decided that the space should be his cook area. The chest of drawers would make a fine replacement for a base cabinet. He was able to fit the two gas burners beside the microwave, but not the toaster oven. He changed his mind. Instead of the microwave he placed the toaster oven beside the cook top. He used those items less than the microwave so he planned to place the microwave and the Mr. Coffee clone on the other side of the sink when he found another dresser.

Eddie: Hello.

Voice on phone: What are you finding out?

Eddie: Well, today I found out that kids have no respect for anyone. I have no idea how this country is going to operate when they are the majority. The last generation fucked it up bad enough.

Voice: You know that's not what I mean.

Eddie: To be honest we can't get anyone to talk at all. Not even a casual interview. They just clam up and refuse to discuss anything.

Voice: So what are you going to do next?

Eddie: We are going to try to follow the evidence. Whatever we can pull out of the stew.

Voice: Stay at it Eddie. I know you are fighting the good fight.

Eddie: Did you have anything to do with selecting the team?

Voice: Do you want to change the members?

Eddie: No I just want to know if whoever chose them couldn't have found competent people without all the baggage.

Voice: Eddie people in their right minds would never go near this investigation.

Eddie: Yeah, I guess you are right. There aren't likely to be any winners.

Voice: Keep me informed.

May was on time for her meeting. She saw Lucille by the playground equipment. She allowed the children to play on the large climb and slide village. May expected to see Lucille in a different light. Instead, she was reminded even more that Lucille was a political animal and seemed to have no human emotions. She was almost robotic with a computer for a brain.

Lucille: Here is your coffee and donut as promised. So what does the team know now that it didn't last time we talked?

May: They know maybe even less than before. We have some theories and leads, but none of it can be proved and shouldn't be in the public domain. I would rather not be the source of conjecture, that we later have to clarify or take back.

Lucille: So this is all a waste of taxpayer money?

May: Surely you knew that was likely, since people all over capitol hill are looking into all this. There may just be nothing to find. If you think the things they have done need reigning in, you may have to find a way to do it which doesn't require a smoking gun.

Lucille: Do you know anything at all which we don't.

May: It's pretty much accepted that one of their contractors was involved in some killings in the Caribbean, but they were ruled self defense. One of those contractors might have been involved in the murder of a Drug distributor in this country. We know she was working for a second contractor at the time of the Caribbean incident. There were sketch ties to Swamp Dog. She was imprisoned there. She was later released, but we haven't pursued how that happened. Someone with Juice might have interceded for her. That might be a place we could look next. That person might be an opening to the congressional connection.

May had realized that as she spoke. She knew it was a lead they should follow. The boss might not know what the investigation was about, but May did. Which was why she was being asked to narc on the others.

Lucille: Keep me in the loop. (Louder and to her children) Come on kids time to go.

May went home to call Mike and arrange a meeting. She decided to make the meeting with Mike for the next day. She needed some release. So instead of Mike, she called a man from DOJ, one who had nothing to do with her career. He could neither help her, nor toss a monkey wrench into the works when she proved to be not as loving as she seemed on the surface.

Lucille went home. She, her husband and the kids had a cook out. They grilled hamburgers for the kids and steaks for themselves.

Lucille's husband: We should have called some friends over.

Lucille: We don't have those kinds of friends. Beside what would we talk about, who you were screwing these days?

Husband: I was thinking we could talk about how much more important your job is than mine.

Mike slept alone in his basement wondering why his mother seemed to be flirting with him all of a sudden. She was attractive, even at forty four. She kept her figure and dressed well. Since she worked in the clerical office of the FBI she had been instrumental in keeping him out of jail. The ankle monitor was a great improvement over gang rape in prison.

He just wondered why she was so flirty at the moment. He gave up on the idea and decided it was his imagination. Since the waitress in County Seat, he had begun to see everything in a sexual light.

He climbed the stairs to look at the scooter in his garage. It was bright orange and didn't look quite so cutesy as his other choices.

Wes had spent the day with Salina so spending the night was expected so he did.

Eddie went to bed with his unfinished kitchen cabinet on his mind. He had the name of a handy man he could get to install the upper cabinets. Which left him only the conversion of the base units. It would be an eclectic mismatched mess of a kitchen, but it would suit him.