Chapter 3

As the first item of business the next morning, Bill called me into his office to discuss the "accident" with the hoist. He wanted to know what I thought. After assuring him that I had no proof, I told him of my suspicions of Joey and why I figured that he was the only one who would and could have done the sabotage.

Bill thought for a minute or so and said, "Jimmy, I hate to say this about one of my men, but I think that you are right. Joey was making too hard a play for Janice about six months ago; so much so that he scared her. I had to tell him to leave her alone, and, if I had to, I would fire him. I thought it was just sour grapes at the time, but I heard that he warned the other mechanics to stay away from Janice. He said something to the effect that, if he couldn't have her, then nobody could. You showed up several months after that, so I guess that he never thought to warn you away."

"Dammit, Bill, what are we going to do?"

"I don't know right now. Joey is a good mechanic, so I would have a hard time finding cause to fire him for a work-related reason. He could sue me if I fired him for any other reason or no reason. There are plenty of shyster lawyers who would love to take his case under those circumstances. With the courts the way they are now, he could force the shop to close, and I wouldn't be the only one hurt.

"The only thing that I can think of is to ask you to be very careful until we can find a reason to get rid of Joey. Up until then, I guess that you will just to have to double check everything you do to be on the lookout for booby traps. It's my guess that Joey is too much of a coward to try anything that would not look like an accident. Can you do that?"

"Yeah, I can do that. I came in here afraid that you were going to order me away from Janice, so I figure that I am coming out ahead."

"Hell, Jimmy, if I ordered you to stay away from Janice, she would kill me! I guess that you know that she thinks that you could walk on water if you just set your mind to it. At supper and afterwards, you are all she wants to talk about. You look to me like you feel the same way, so I am going to be careful to stay out from between you two. For my own peace of mind, I don't want to be the one who causes you two to break up. You look to me like a good man, and I hope you two stay together. You certainly have the blessings of her mother and me!"

"My God, Bill, you don't know how good that makes me feel. Well, I'll be doing my damnedest to live up to your expectations. All I can say is 'thank you.'"

We talked for a few more minutes before I walked out to return to the shop. I was walking on air, and it was probably good that Janice was in the toilet when I went by; otherwise, I might have said something that I would regret later. Of course, I was late getting my work-apron put on, and the other guys looked at me kind of funny. Joey had made a point of letting everybody know that I had been in Bill's office. I didn't know what they might have thought, but there was nothing that I could say to them about it. I didn't notice any friction later at coffee break, so I guessed they were giving me the benefit of the doubt, no matter what Joey had to say.

Jay must have known that I would be tied up with Bill, so he had saved a job for me that would not take all day. This was an electrical system job that would be another one for the diagnostic machine. Jay showed me how to set up the testing machine and then left me to return to his particular project. He must have figured that I was smart enough to read the instruction manual and follow directions, so he only came by once in a while to be sure that I was not having any unusual problems.

This job did involve swapping one of the car's computer cards, but that was no big deal in this case. When I finished, I asked Jay to run a quick diagnostic to make sure that I had done everything according to the book. He found everything to be exactly as the specifications called for, so he had me drive the car out to the parking lot to wait for the customer to pick it up.

The customer picked up her car before quitting time and drove away with it, apparently happy with the work that I had done. As usual, I finished the job a little ahead of schedule, so Jay put me on another job. It was so near quitting time that he gave me a routine maintenance job which would normally take about 90 minutes. I finished the job and drove this car outside to wait for the customer to pick it up.

By the time I got back into the shop, some of the guys had already punched out, but I noticed that Joey was still standing around. That seemed kind of suspicious to me, but I went ahead and punched out. However, I had an inspiration. I left the shop, but I didn't go home. Instead, I went back to the customer pickup lot and settled myself to where I could keep an eye on the car I had just finished, but where I would not be seen by a casual observer.

Joey left the shop about 10 minutes after the rest of the mechanics, but he did not head for the bus stop. Instead, he came out to the same parking lot where I was waiting and walked up to the car I had been servicing. He leaned down under the car and popped the hood. He raised the hood and leaned in. I couldn't see what he was doing from my hiding place, but I figured that he could not be up to any good, so I walked quickly to the car to see what kind of devilment he was up to. I caught him pulling the air filter and pouring something that looked like sand down the throat of the air intake.

That was sure to ruin the motor, no matter what the solid substance was! He had not seen me come up, so he was totally surprised when I slammed the hood down over the small of his back. That was bound to hurt like hell, but it was not likely to cause any permanent damage. Obviously, Joey was sabotaging the car to make me look bad. Furthermore, a replacement motor is not cheap, and the shop would have to foot the bill, even if insurance paid some of it.

He let out a scream when the hood came down, and, luckily for me, Bill and Janice were just leaving for the day. They heard the scream where nobody was supposed to be and came running to see what was going on.

They saw me at the car and holding down the hood pinching Joey's guts. He was yelling to be released, so I opened the hood. He turned to look at me and must have gone crazy! He pulled a knife out of his pocket and flicked it open. The blade was about 4½ inches long, and he did not hesitate to jab it into my gut! I jumped back, more out of surprise than anything else, and the knife was pulled loose from my abdomen. It was a warm day and I was wearing just a tee-shirt. As the knife came out, it left behind some blood on my shirt and a neat slice through the fabric.

Bill and Janice arrived about then, and Janice screamed as she saw the evidence of the knife attack on my shirt. That woman was smart! She did not faint or run to embrace me, instead, she reached for her cellphone and called for the cops and an ambulance, saying that I had a knife wound in my belly.

Meanwhile, Bill faced Joey and demanded that he drop the knife. Instead, Joey swung at Bill and cut the skin just above his belly-button. There was a lot of blood, but it really was hardly more than a scratch. Bill was stunned by the attack, and that gave time for Joey to pull back.

The cop showed up almost right away and saw all of the blood pouring from Bill's wound. Joey was standing there, still holding his knife, and he must have panicked, because he tried to stab the cop. That was a fatal mistake! The cop put four .40 caliber bullets into Joey before he fell dead, but the cop was not injured. The cop certainly had three witnesses that he fired in self defense.