Chapter 7

Beth and I decided to split our efforts. We’d had such good luck with James and Olsen that we thought we should give it a try again. This time, Beth would stick to Ann Inson while I patrolled the road on the far side of the wet-lands. If a supplier was going to come there, he had to use that road.

I was not worried because I had my .40 caliber pistol, and I had become quite a good shot with all of the practice that I had put in. I still had to keep it hidden because I had not yet reached 18 when I could get a concealed-carry permit. But I would worry about that when I had to.

There was no place to hide myself as I patrolled the street, so I went the opposite route. I was going to hide in plain sight. I figured that if I ambled along as if I were just killing time until the next class started, I would be ignored by 99% of the people who drove by. Well, maybe that was an exaggeration because I doubt that 100 people drove on this street in a single day, but you get the picture. I was in my sixth day of patrolling when I finally got something to work with.

A car pulled past me, which was no problem, considering how fast I was walking. The car parked down the road about 100 yards away. I thought nothing about it because a woman was driving, then I snapped fully awake. The woman was highly agitated, but I could not identify her problem. I didn’t think that it was a car problem because she could use her cellphone to call for help.

Suddenly I realized that the woman was wearing a blue shirt. It was a long shot, but she might be a member of the Blue Shirt Gang. If I were what was upsetting her, it was time for me to disappear. I turned toward the wet-lands and crossed the road to reach them. Conveniently, there was sort of a natural bridge along here where I could walk between ponds without getting my feet wet.

Yeah, there it was. As soon as I turned away from the road, the woman’s disquiet disappeared. Dammit, she had to be a member of the Blue Shirt Gang. I walked in among the trees far enough so that I could not be seen by the woman in her car. That was when I turned again and moved as fast as I could toward where her car was parked. There was another natural bridge up there, and that was probably the route she was going to follow to enter the wet-lands.

That blue shirt really stood out among all of the browns, grays, and greens of the plants in the wet-lands, so she was easy to spot as she made her way farther into the preserve. I was wearing a white tee-shirt, and that was also obvious, so I realized that I had to wear some other color while I was on this assignment. Well, nothing for it today but to keep on and hope for the best. At least, I did have her license plate number if I couldn’t continue to follow her.

The woman came into the preserve and stopped. I could not tell if that was because she had spotted me, but I didn’t have a whole lot of choice in the matter. I froze in place and hoped for the best. The woman and I both waited for about 10 minutes until a girl I didn’t know showed up. I tried to memorize her features so that I could pick her out from last year’s Yearbook photographs. There was one of those in the library, so I had no worry about finding one of them.

Anyway, the girl was wearing one of the ubiquitous backpacks, so she would have no problems with carrying a supply of drugs if that, indeed, was why she was here. I was too far away to hear them talk, but I did see the girl hand the woman a fist-full of money. The woman counted it, nodded, and handed the girl a small plastic bag that I was sure was full of drug packets. What else would be worth that many bills?

The girl counted the packets, nodded, and stuffed them into her backpack. After a few more words the girl turned back toward the way she had come and the woman headed back to her car. Dammit, this was too good a chance to miss! I knew the pool I was standing beside was not very deep, so I cut through it and ran as hard as I could toward the woman’s car. I pulled my knife and slashed her front tire. She was bound to notice that it was flat when she got back.

I ducked back into the woods and called Dad. He promised to come immediately. All I could do was to wait nervously, but I did call Beth to tell her what was going on. The woman showed up and immediately noticed that she had a flat tire. I was close enough to hear a string of cuss words that I found very impressive. Dad was not one to use anything much more than shit or damn, so a lot of the words the woman used were new to me. I wished that I’d had a recorder because some of the expressions she used were well worth noting.

She opened the trunk of her car, and I heard her say, “Where is the fucking jack?” That was the first time in a couple of minutes that she had used only one cuss word in a sentence. Anyway, she hauled the spare tire, the jack, and the lug wrench from the trunk and carried them to the front wheel that was flat. She was just trying to loosen the first lug nut when Dad drove up.

He got out of the car and walked toward her. Undoubtedly, he had noticed the blue shirt that she was wearing. She said, “Mister, could you change this tire for me? I’ve never done it before, and I’m not sure how to proceed.”

She handed him the lug wrench just as I walked up to them from behind her. Dad said, “Hello, Bob. Is this the drug dealer you called me about?” Dad was certainly smart enough to know what he was doing, so I knew that comment was not a mistake. Surely, he was testing to see how the woman would react.

React she did! She was so fast that I was not sure what I was seeing. Her shirt tail was not tucked in, and she flipped it up and pulled her gun so fast that I would not have believed it possible.

Dad was a match for her. He threw the lug wrench at her and hit her in the solar plexus with it. She reflexively bent over at the blow and fired her pistol into the ground. He knocked her to the ground and grabbed her neck with both hands. He put pressure on her carotid arteries. In only a few seconds, she was out like a light; however, she was still able to struggle to breathe.

Dad said, “Search her car to see if she has any more drugs stashed in it. Look under the seats and under the dashboard. Also check the obvious places like the glove compartment and the trunk. Be sure to look in the wheel wells, too. Put whatever you find in the SUV when Beth gets here with it. Ah, I see her coming now. She can help you with the search. When you finish the search, lock up the car and use the SUV to pick up J. Come to our interrogation point as soon as you can. I’ll head there now after I call to announce our projected arrival.

“Here, take these. You may need them at any time. They just came in today’s mail.”

Beth and I began our search of the woman’s car while Dad was making his phone call. I helped him put the woman in his car, and he drove off after making sure that the woman was securely fastened in place and could not escape. She was in the back seat, and Dad even used a handcuff to fasten her left leg to the frame of the front seat. He had also put a cloth bag over her head so that she could not see where she was being taken.

Beth automatically took the driver’s seat, and I pulled the shotgun from its secure mounting. I always took riding shotgun seriously. She said, “When he called, Dad said that he was going to give you something for me. What was it?”

“I don’t know for sure. Let me see. Oh, my God. Beth, you and I are now special agents of the Governor, answering only to him. Here are also special driver’s licenses for us, and it says that they are for unrestricted usage. And last, but far from least, here are special concealed carry gun licenses, one for each of us. All of them are signed by the Governor.”

“Oh, Boy! Does that mean that I could drive 100 MPH through a School Zone and get away with it?”