The Partnership aka Bad Deacon
Chapter 10

Copyright© 2017 by MysteryWriter

As promised I took another shower to cool off, then drove to the court house. A nice clerk in the Sheriff’s office walked me through the steps. Anne had called to alert her that I was on the way. Exactly why she needed it I didn’t understand, but I gave her information which she typed into her computer. A few minutes later she told me to take the form to the clerk of court’s office.

In the clerk of court’s office I made a debit withdrawal against my bank account. I got a concealed carry permit for the state of Mississippi for that fee. There was no Private investigators license required, but the clerk explained that the I was in the computer in case I ran into some unexpected situation. I knew that it was likely I would sooner or later.

The whole thing took less than an hour, and cost me less than a hundred bucks. Anne had said being employed might come in handy. After talking to the two clerks I understood why. Doing my new gig was going to be all about knowing who to ask for information, and knowing how to ask for it. Something I usually was good at. Even so an ID card from some official sounding entity would be a big plus.

On the way home I drop into the Hometown Used Auto Mart car lot. “What can I show you?” a salesman asked.

“Is Jasper here?” I asked. You don’t hang around a town the size of Grenada without learning who the players are.

“He’s in the office,” the man said knowing he had lost his chance to sell me anything. His attitude would cost him his job, if I ratted him out. Jake didn’t tolerate bad customer service.

“Deacon Andrews, you old crook. What can I do for you?” Jasper the ferret faced slightly under middle aged man asked.

“What you got to have for the PT cruiser?” I asked.

“That beauty is only fifty five hundred,” Jasper said.

I laughed, then headed for my car.

“Hold on Deacon. You know I have the biggest discount in town for a cash deal. How about forty nine fifty, for cash?” he asked.

I continued walking toward the car. “Tell you what Jasper, make it forty five, and throw in a thirty day satisfaction guarantee,” I said. “And we might be able to do something.”

“Make it a power train warranty for the first thirty days,” Jasper said.

“I’ll drive it and if it runs out we can do the forty five and the power train warranty. I’m driving it to Sampson to get it checked out before I sign anything,” I said.

“I don’t mind that at all,” Jasper said.

I returned a half hour later with a cashier’s check for $4,500. I hadn’t bought a check in years. I had it debited from my bank account. That big a purchase meant I’d be buying everything possible with cash for a while. The account needed some cash deposits as well.

I sold a three wheeled electric scooter for five hundred dollars, but showed it as a cash flea market sale of nine hundred. I had attended the flea market in Jackson over the weekend alright, but I sold nothing. So I moved some paint can money and made a start on replacing some of my money from the bank.

I spent a week waiting for Corcoran to start her new project. Word got around slowly that I was doing some PI work. Believe it or not I got a job following a spouse with itchy feet. The deal I made with his wife was a flat rate of one hundred to follow him. The catch was she had to call when she was sure he would be with his lady friend. The deal also was she got pictures and audio of it, if was possible. For sure it was a case of supplying some type proof. Proof was almost always pictures, unless the guy was just super careful. In which case I might need to be creative. There was just no way to tell what that meant, since it was seldom the same thing twice.

I made an over night trip Memphis to purchase some high tech equip for the new business. Those items I purchased with cash. I purchased a Lumix SLR camera with a zoom lens capable of very low light images. I also bought an auxiliary lens to enhance my cell phone camera just in case I needed to use it to make a capture. Then came a wireless camera for video surveillance, should I need it at some future date.

The man who sold it to me knew his shit. He convinced me I needed a shotgun directional Microphone and video camera. I agreed on the microphone, but wasn’t all that sure about a video camera. He did convince me to buy the GPS marker kit. That I figured might be of use sooner than later.

When I checked out of the motel six in Memphis I was carrying a lot of technology and four grand less cash. I also carried a list of things he suggested I get, when I had the money. It looked as thought I could tie up ten grand really quickly, if I wasn’t careful.

Betty Forest was my first official client. She called two days after I returned from Memphis. I had spent every minute since I returned with those cameras in my hands. I knew it would be important for me to know how to work them.

“Hal called me a few minutes ago,” Betty said. I noted it was 3PM. “He said he was going to work late tonight. I’m sure he is going to meet someone.”

“Could he really be working late?” I asked.

“Not a chance,” she said.

“Okay, where does he work? What kind of car does he drive? Email me a picture of him, and I’ll see what he is up to tonight. If he is up to something, but I can’t get proof, I’ll try it next time and keep doing it till I get him with his girl friend,” I promised.

I had the PT cruiser set up on his office parking lot. Betty had told me, “Hal ordinarily leaves the office at five. If he is really working late he would still be there at six she informed me. If his car isn’t there you have missed him.”

One of the things I had purchased was a GPS tracking coin system. It had a magnet, so I just had to slip it under his wheel then just sit in my car. If his car left the parking lot, I would know it and could follow. I walked from the cruiser to the building passing beside Hal Forest’s new Toyota. The office where Hal worked was a county school administration building.

As I walked by his car, I dropped my car keys. When I went to the ground to retrieve them. I put the coin under his fender. Hal was pretty much screwed from that moment forward. His car left the parking lot at 5:05 PM. I saw him drive past me headed in the other direction. It took me a few moments to turn the car around, then catch up to him, but I managed it.

I parked in an on site restaurant’s lot. I had a view of his car parked outside the office of a tourist motel. I saw him go inside, then come out to move his car. He drove from the motel to a restaurant down the street. My guess was that restaurant served drinks.

I went inside carrying my new phone with the low light enhanced camera. I was pretty sure I could get a shot of him inside as I pretended to take a call. It turned out to be easier than I expected. The woman almost posed for the pictures with Hal. I took a few shots while I waited for them to leave. I also ordered a Budweiser beer in a long necked bottle. I did not even pretend to take a drink from the bottle. I did hold it now and then.

I managed to get out of the restaurant ahead of the two of them. When she went to the restroom he handed the waitress his credit card. I wondered it his wife knew he put the nights out on the family credit card. Of course he might have a second card. She still should see unfamiliar charges on his card. Of course maybe it was a recent addition to his life but I doubted it.

I was sitting in the cruiser when he left the restaurant. He drove only a short distance to the original motel. He had already registered so he went directly to unit twenty seven. It was on the second floor. The door was accessed from an outside walkway. The walkway was well lit. Most likely an insurance requirement.

No matter what the reason the Lieca lens on the expensive camera made an excellent picture of him opening the door for her. It also made a very recognizable shot of Hal following her inside. It was the money shot, so I drove home.

The next morning I caught Betty Forest at ‘That Hair Salon’ in a busy shopping center. It was where she worked. She and her partner made a good living there, I thought. Still I honored my cut rate introductory price.

“I got the pictures, and a report stating where he was and who he was doing. The price we agreed upon was one hundred dollars. Now if your lawyer needs me to testify, that’s another one hundred dollars per day for every day I have to attend court,” I explained then I showed her the files before I sent them to her email.

I expected her to cry or curse, she did neither. She said, “That’s Linda.”

“I’m sorry to have to be the bearer of bad news,” I said. “But from now on be careful what you say. If asked, I will have to repeat it in court.”

“Give me your address and I will deliver you a bonus,” she said with just a hint of a smile.

“That’s quite an offer, but I think I’m going to have to pass. It would be hard to stay neutral, f I had to testify,” I explained. “Not to mention how it might effect your divorce action. My testimony would be questioned.” What I didn’t say was that if she said, ‘I could just kill that bastard’, and he died. I would have to repeat it.

I drove home feeling good about the work I had done for Betty. I still had a hell of a long way to go to pay for the equipment, but it was a start. Sarah called while I was heating a frozen pizza. I had stopped by Mcdonalds for a side salad to eat with a couple of slices of the pizza.

“Sarah I have my dinner in the Microwave, so please hurry this up,” I commented.

“I’ll do better than that. I’ll be right over,” she said emphatically.

“Sarah what do you want, honest I’m not in the mood to listen to you whine about business,” I said.

“You are beginning to sound like Shelby. I swear she is a young clone of my mother,” Sarah suggested.

“Even more reason not to invite you over,” I said.

“Come on Deke, I need some fatherly advice,” she said.

“Stop screwing strangers,” I said. “You could easily wind up dead.”

“I had something more specific in mind,” she replied.

“Okay, come on over, but stop at Micky D’s and get a salad, if you want one,” I suggested. I knew the pizza would be cold if she stopped, but the salad I had was too small to share. I know I can be a prick, but if I let her, Sarah would drop in every time she felt the least bit insecure. Since she had been in jail for two days, I was bending my rule for her. It hadn’t helped. I had cut her all the slack, I planned to cut her. From today forward she was going to be just another punk rocker or what ever she was supposed to be.

I was almost finished with my dinner when she arrived. She had come straight over so the almost cold frozen pizza was her only choice.

“Here,” she said slipping me the hundred dollar bill.

“You are a day early. The payment isn’t due till Friday,” I said. “Have your mother keep your receipt. You never know when you will need it.” I said that before I put a red X through the Friday payment on my paper calender.

“Melvin told me you were doing some secret stuff, is there anything for me?” she asked.

“No and Melvin has a big mouth,” I said.

“You never know when you might need an intro into the club scene,” Sarah suggested.

“If I do I’ll call you. Right now I’m just fine,” I said.

“Mom said you had a job and turned a profit,” she said not dropping it at all.

“It wasn’t that much,” I said making a mental note to discus Sarah with her mother Ester. Of course I didn’t see Ester as much at that time. I probably should have allowed Betty over, I thought. Damn, a man with ethics had a lot less fun that a real prick.

“So Sarah are you and Shelby close?” I asked.

“Do you mean are we lovers?” she asked.

“I suppose that is what I’m asking,” I admitted.

“It’s not like love between a man and woman. It’s more like we are friends with benefits. If you know what that is?” she asked.

“As a matter of fact I am familiar with the concept,” I replied.

“Good, I didn’t want to make the explanation to graphic,” Sarah said. She must have thought adults didn’t do anything more exciting than watching HBO.

“You know that giant cast iron frying pan you fix those frozen pizzas in does better than anything I have at my house,” she said smiling to change the subject.

Thanks but it has nothing to do with me. I salvaged it and cleaned it just to have something to make chili on the stove top,” I said. “I learned you could bake in it on TV. However you can’t put it in the Microwave.”

“Interesting,” she said. “Well I need to get to the store to help Shelby close it.”

After she had gone I thought back over the visit. The only thing new was she knew what I was doing thanks to Melvin. She had to know that she wasn’t qualified to help me. If I needed anyone, I needed a computer nerd, not a lawn service operator/punk rocker.

It was almost eight thirty when I finished reviewing Sarah’s visit. Of course it was too late to go anywhere and I really didn’t want to do that anyway. I called Marcy instead.

“So daddy what have you been up to?” she asked.

I told her all about the case I had closed and about Sarah request. I thought it was obvious what my answer had been, but she asked anyway. “I told her she didn’t have the right kind of experience. Her replay was sometime I might need an introduction around a head banger club.”

 
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