Chapter 11

I tried to call Anne on Sunday morning, but the call went to voice mail. My guess was that she was pissed. My opinion was she would either get over it, or die pissed off. I was glad that I wasn’t too invested in Anne Corcoran yet.

Later Sunday Anne returned my call. “Deacon you need to come to Jackson tomorrow and meet the staff.”

“Okay I’ll try to make it around noon,” I said. “So give me the address.” The address turned out to be on Pearl street. It was in a classy older part of the downtown. Of course I didn’t know that at the time. I just managed to get driving directions from Google.

“Are we okay?” I asked Anne.

“Sure the fun and games are over it’s back to work for me. I’m in the new offices today. I have a feeling I’m going to hate the hour and a half commute,” she said it in way which seemed to be preparing me for the ‘Dear Deacon Speech’. What she didn’t know was that I had been ready for it from day one.

It was like my daddy said, “Son there are two rules to live by when looking for women. Rule one: Never get involved with people you work for, who work for you, or who you work with. It never ends well. Rule two: Just know women almost never marry beneath their station in life, When they do that it never end well either. I should have listened to my daddy. I went against both rules with Anne and now I was about to pay the price.

I stayed up late sourcing parts for my next scooter. When I finally got to sleep it was after 1AM. Because of that I slept in Monday morning. First thing I did was make coffee, then I showered and slipped a tee shirt over my head and some briefs over my ass. Then I went in search of a breakfast muffin in the refrigerator.

The muffins were still quite good. I had worked it into my diet quite easily. A muffin with low calorie cream cheese for breakfast. Then I would quickly occupy my mind with something. Well on the days when I didn’t have any physical activity planned.

That Monday morning I would have enjoyed a few miles around the Grenada lake and marina. If I had not promised to drive to Jackson, I would in fact be paddling at that moment. It was ten, so I should leave in the next half hour. I thought that as I sat on he deck in my underwear and my second cup of coffee in hand. Another reason I wouldn’t miss being in a relationship, most women hated the idea that I could enjoy being mostly naked on a hot morning. I guessed I could understand why they wouldn’t want to be mostly naked. In my case I doubted seriously that I would arouse a dangerous lust condition in anyone.

I chuckled as I rose to return inside and dress in my camouflage fatigue pants. I debated which tee shirt to wear. My black tee with the bike naked logo won. It was just a bit suggestive without being pornographic. I removed the white tee I had put on after breakfast and replaced it with the black one. No one was likely to tag me as a law firm employee, I thought. Of course it didn’t matter. if they did to be honest. As I slid behind the wheel of the cruiser, I thought yet again that I had to get started on my conversion of it soon.

On the drive to Jackson I decided to immediately replace the fatigue pants with my cutoff carpenter jeans when I returned home. For the time being I just drove to Jackson while sipping on my half gallon thermos of iced tea.

My thoughts wonder around between bike building and investigations. I knew I enjoyed both and could afford to do both for many years, but only if I factored in my ill gotten gains. Of course I wanted to show a profit, but it was an ego thing, not a necessity. I reached the outskirts of Jackson so I enter the address into my off brand smart phone.

A woman’s all business voice came over the speaker. ‘Turn left in one thousand feet,’ she said. I followed her instruction for three more turns until I came to a stop outside an office building with no sign. I figured it was the MJL’s office building. I parked on the street twenty yards from the front door. I was pretty sure there would be a parking lot behind the building, but I didn’t bother to check, since I wouldn’t be staying longer than the one hour max time.

I placed a quarter into the meter and got thirty minutes parking. Once I got a look at the neighborhood shops, I was glad I had chosen to leave the Magnum revolver locked in the newly reinforced glove compartment. Someone would need more than a big screw driver to get that beast open. I was pretty sure that they would have been noticed. Not to mention the car alarm’s beeping.

Had I worn the magnum on my belt the customers who were attracted by the upscale boutiques and shoe stores would have run from me screaming, It would have been a traumatic twenty yard walk to the MJL building’s front door.

Once inside I immediately noticed the office had an unfinished feel to it. There was carpet in only one room downstairs. I doubted that I would ever get to see the upstairs. It looked as though I would be working from home considering how small the building was. There was also that long the commute that would be just to hangout without pay.

The only other human visible was a man in an office supply uniform. He was busy assembling desks. From the looks of the desk he was working on, the big donations hadn’t started pouring in at that moment. There was an inexpensive desk for the receptionist, with a very elaborate telephone console sitting on it. There wasn’t no receptionist though.

“Anybody here?” I asked the office supply guy.

“They are in a meeting upstairs,” he said pointing to the staircase. The building had once been a retail store of some kind, since the staircase was too elaborate for an office building. I took the steps two at a time the, followed the sound of Anne’s voice.

I found the room and since the door was ajar, I entered. Anne saw me enter of course, so she stopped speaking. She obviously was trying to decide how much to say in front of me. I decided to help her after an awkward couple of seconds.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize it was a staff only meeting,” I said and turned to go.

“Don’t go deacon,” She then addressed everyone else. “Some of you probably have heard of the Deacon. You will all get to know Deacon Andrews. So just introduce yourselves.” she said. The meeting broke for lunch at that point.

“Hey Judge Corcoran I didn’t mean to break up your meeting,” I said.

“You didn’t. We were finished anyway, she replied.

“Okay,” I said.

“So what do you think?” she asked.

“Very nice,” I said almost meaning it. “Since you aren’t likely to do the day to day work on the Eddie Smith case, who will I be dealing with?”

“Let me introduce you to Julie Amos and her husband Marshall,” Anne said “They are interns and very young and inexperienced.”

I followed her down the hall and into the office Julie and Mark Amos. She introduced us, so we all shook hands.

“Have you read the case file yet?” I asked.

The two them just looked at Anne. “Deacon we just started this morning,” Marshall said.

“Okay sure, well when you want to discuss it give me a call, Anne has my number,” I said. I turned and walked toward the exit.

“Deacon don’t be too hard on them. Remember the statements from the bible ‘forgive them father for they know not what they do’.”

“I’m going to extend that to you Judge Corcoran. Call me if you want something done,” I said leaving as she tried to make a further comment.

I got back to the cruiser with ten minutes left on the parking meter. Since I didn’t drive in city traffic often, I was in a hurry to clear the Jackson traffic. I got back to Grenada before five. I had made the drive without getting caught in either city’s rush hour traffic. I had a few minutes to work in my the shop after I got my clothes changed.

I went to work on the last of my two wheel bikes. There were three of them I needed to do an axle bearing grease job, a chain oiling and a paint job. I sometimes stripped the parts from the frame and painted it with a flat black coat then camouflage pattern with brown and green spots. I always used those colors but sometime I added a gray primer or a white line. It was a fun thing to do. If the handle bars didn’t have any rust, I usually left them chrome.

When I finished the bikes I loaded them up to take to Sarah’s 2nd chance store. It seemed a little late to go into town, so I left the delivery for the next day. Once I was inside I took another shower since I had a layer of sweat and red dirt on my skin. In Mississippi I’m told it is impossible to avoid it. All one can do is wash several times between showers.

Tuesday, I carried the bikes to Sarah’s, but found that she was out on a lawn job. Shelby was at the register. “Write me a receipt for the bikes,” I demanded.

“Look Deke, I’m sorry about the other night. I smoked too much grass and was a little paranoid,” she said.

“You better get that shit under control,” I said as I turned to go.

“Asshole,” she called after me.

“Bitch,” I mumbled.

I went home to pick up the multicolored kayak. After a quick trip through the drive through at McDonald’s, I make it to the Grenada marina. I ate lunch on the lake. Lunch consisted of a Quarter Pounder with cheese and two quarts of Iced Tea. I found the shady side of the lake and pulled beside a felled log. I stretched out as best I could in the Kayak for a nap.

I awoke floating in the lake. Also my cell phone was ringing. I waited until I felt a little less retarded before I answered. “Yes,” I said.

“Matt, this is Anne. I’m calling to make sure we are still okay. I know that was awkward yesterday,” Judge Corcoran said,

“No problem I understood. I’m just wondering if I’m still going to be doing work for the Mississippi Justice league? I asked.

“Of course you are. One thing has absolutely nothing to do with the other,” she said.

“I was afraid you were so ashamed of having gone out with me that you had decided to cut me off completely,” I said.

“Not likely, from what I understand you are the best,” she said.

“And I work cheap,” I said.

“Yeah how can you afford to do that?” she asked.

“Take a look at how I live,” I said.

“Good point,” she admitted.

“So why did you really call?” I asked.

“We are going balls to the wall on Eddie Smith. I need for you and the lawyers to get together and map a plan,” she said.

“Am I going to have to hold their hands, or can I work alone?” I asked.

“I’ll explain you are results oriented. I’ll have them tell you what they need and let you give them the results without to much detail on how you came by them. Will that be satisfactory? She asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“You will meet with our two of the interns tomorrow won’t you?” she asked.

“I we can do it in this part of the state. Y’all can pick the city just as long as it is somewhere between my house and Jackson,” I suggested. Matter of fact Eddie was from Grenada. Have them bring their copy of the file and we will walk through everybody’s statements.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” she said.

“Cool so who am I getting,” I asked.

“Remember the young man with the blond hair?” she asked.

“The surfer dude?” I asked with a laugh.

“Just for your information he did a tour with the army after he graduated from Wake Forest Law school. He did it to pay off his student loans, so he could afford to work for someone like me,” Anne said.

“Admirable, so is he any good,” I asked.

“He is at least curious. He wants to know how everything works,” she added.

“So what is his name?” I asked.

“Marshall,” she said. “You already forgot him?”

“Sorta, I’m sure I will have at least one more to shepherd around,” I said.

“Julie Amos but she goes by Jones, don’t laugh there really are some people named Jones.” she stated with a smile in her voice.

“What’s her claim to fame, besides being Marshall’s wife,” I suggested.

“You did listen to the introduction. Her father is a politician,” she said.

“I don’t much like politicians,” I admitted.

“Seems like I heard that somewhere. Be nice to her he can help us,” she said.

“If she needs special treatment, you need to send someone else. I don’t do that,” I said.

“I said be nice you treat her. Like youwould anyone else. You do that and it will all be good,” Anne said.

“So when do you want us to meet?” I ask.

“Sometime in the morning,” She suggested

“Breakfast at 10am Downtown Dinner,” I said.

“Fair enough,” she said breaking the connection.

I got to my place around 3PM, so I took advantage of the time to work on a couple of two wheelers for Sarah’s 2nd chance store. I cleaned and greased the bearings. That’s about all I felt comfortable doing to them. I could replace a chain and even change a tire, but that ended my knowledge of bicycles. I did have a slightly rusty boys bike, so I sanded it lightly and put a brown, green, black, and spots of white paint on it for a camouflage paint job.

I had to let that one dry over night anyway, so I went inside the house to await morning. I could load them into the truck and get them to Sarah’s shop before meeting the kiddie lawyers from Jackson. I almost fell asleep over my computer. It was difficult to watch old TV shows and stay awake.