Chapter 28

The phone made whatever noise it is that they make since they no longer rings. That week my ‘rotating ring’ was a bit of sixties rock music from a movie score. Don’t ask me, I have no idea what movie, or what the name of the song might be. What I did know was that the music was to alert me that Leigh, Siler City’s lady cop, was on the line. The phone didn’t have her number in the memory, so it just said unk caller.

“Hello,” I answered.

“Sarge it’s Leigh. I can be there in about fifteen minutes. I’m getting ready to walk out of the station now,” she informed me.

“Cool, if you want to drink anything other than coffee or tea, you should probably consider this to be a BYOB date,” I suggested.

“Black coffee is fine. I’m trying to lose a few pounds,” she suggested.

“Me to,” I admitted.

About twenty minutes later I saw her headlights pull into my drive. I stood and walked the few steps to the door. She walked right up to the door, then she kissed me. It was not a thank you kiss, there was too much passion in it for that.

If took only a minute for her to shed the Kevlar vest. We were still kissing while I carefully opened the buttons on her uniform shirt. Then I reached behind her and unhooked her heavy duty bra. I was very clumsy as I unbuckled her belt and unzipped her uniform pants. Fortunately she had kicked off her shoes. I was still kissing her, but the location had moved from her mouth to her breasts. One then the other fell victim to my hot kisses and tiny bites.

“Fuck yes,” she moaned as my finger found the opening between her legs. I continued to mangle her breasts while I fingered her slippery entrance. In a few minutes I was out of control, and didn’t have a single intelligent thought. I was just reacting to her slightly chubby body’s clues. I definitely had control of her, but she was guiding me along a path that led to her orgasm. It was fun exploring her goals, and her limits. After over an hour we were both exhausted.

She and I sat at my dining bar on the edge of the kitchen.

It was a piece of furniture I used for everything except a dinning room table. I had built battery packs on it, and used it as a work bench for everything from bicycles to computers. Well I couldn’t do much to the computer, except change out components. I had done that and more while seated at the dining bar.

Now I could add that I fucked a cop on it. Then sat at the bar and drank coffee with her. It seemed surreal.

“You know I dreamed of sex with you,” Leigh said. “Reality is much, much better than my dreams. It was like you read my mind. I thought of what the ideal next step should be, and you were doing it.”

“Thanks, but Leigh you gave me clues,” I said.

“If that is true, you are the only one who ever figured out the code,” she said with a laugh.

I stood up from my chair beside the dinning bar and I kissed her then pushed down on her shoulders. She immediately went to her knees and began to nurse on my penis. I encouraged her with lots of off color language and names. I suddenly felt her shudder and work harder. I quickly rose to the point of orgasm. I allowed myself to erupt in her mouth, since she didn’t protest. When she finished I took her to to my front porch were we sat drinking coffee without saying a word. There were too many feelings to deal with, to try to speak. Every now and then one of us would kiss the other.

“Do we need to talk about this,” Leigh asked.

“I don’t. I have no idea about you,” I replied After I finished my day old coffee, Leigh and I squeezed ourselves onto my lock shop bed. We cuddled all night probably because it really wasn’t comfortable.

“Are you working today?” I asked.

“My platoon is starting a three day break, but before you ask, I have plans every day and night. It’s a little thing called my husband.” she declared.

“Where is he tonight,” I asked.

Teacher’s conference in Raleigh,” she advised me. I didn’t pass on Addie’s number for her to pass on to her husband. I thought, even though they were in the same city, there was no sense trying to make a spider web out of a short string, I left her in bed while I rode off on my bike. When I got back, over ninety minutes later, she and her car were gone. That seemed to be the ideal way to end our one night stand. If it went more than that, it would be up to her again.

I figured even for a long time juggler, I had too many balls in the air. I decided to settle for forgetting all of them for now and making plans for my new storage building. I had been needing one for some time, and now I finally had the time and the money to have one built. I figured it was the one thing to have on my mind, since it would be far from my personal issues.

I called Ed to come by the lock shop the next day. I had already done my ride, had my breakfast, and showered for the day. I was sitting on my front deck under the awning when he showed up.

I explained what I wanted.

“Let me get this straight. You want an eight by twelve wood framed storage building which is just a shell. The corner and other necessary posts to be sunk in the ground and then cut to the correct height. You also want cedar siding and a composition roof, and a roll up overhead door. Is that about it?” he asked.

“Yes that’s about it,” I agreed. The shed I planned was almost half the size of the lock shop. It would certainly be large enough to house the bikes during the winter. It would be a pretty good storage facility, I told myself.

“I can build it for about two grand,” Ed suggested.

“How long will it take?” I asked.

“Three days,” Ed suggested

“Okay, but if it is one dollar over two grand, you will have to eat it,” I demanded. “The clock starts with the first hole being dug in the parking lot, at the end of the third day, it is finished. If not there will be a hundred dollar a day penalty,” I said. “I’ll have a contract for you to sign tomorrow.”

“You and I have always worked with a handshake as a contract,” Ed suggested.

“I know, but now I have a lawyer. She tells me that I need to get it all in writing,” I said. “So if you want to do the job, come by tomorrow and sign the contract. Otherwise I’ll look for someone else.

Ed got in his truck and drove away. He was not happy, but I didn’t think he was really angry. I sent Addie an email explaining what I needed, and she sent me back a simple contract a couple of hours later. She also wanted to know if I planned to come to Raleigh anytime soon.

“Okay Addie, I’ll ride up there Friday evening, spend the night and come home when you get tired of me. That is if the builder is finished and no one books the spa,” I said. Addie knew all about my business interests. “By the way, did you get promoted to chairman of the board yet?”

“No, but the chairman wants to interview you,” she informed me.

“Really and when does this happen?” I asked.

“Whenever you say. I was hoping to save it as a surprise for when you came up next. I know you have other irons in the fire. This iron doesn’t carry a gun and neither would you,” she said seriously.

“Well I’ll have to think about that. If I don’t commit to the interview, do I still get invited to your house for the weekend,” I asked.

“Of course you do. By the way Bitsy said to tell you hello. She might even stop bye herself.” Addie said.

“Oh hell no. My heart would give out, if I tried that,” I reported to her.

“No way, I have seen you in action. It takes you awhile to get the equipment working, but then it keeps working for hours before the big bang happens,” Addie suggested with a laugh.

“Hell no it won’t work at all, if I’m terrified. Which I would be with that kind of pressure,” I suggested.

“Did I ever tell you my son is a doctor,” she said with a laugh. “I can get you the blue pill.”

“I thought you kept them on your night stand?” I asked with a laugh. “By the way, I know your son is the leader of a biker gang.”

“Second in command,” she corrected me.

“Do you ever tell the truth?” I asked.

“Not about my family, or any other part of my private life,” she snapped.

“I’ll keep the secret job thing in mind, but it isn’t likely that I would be interested.” I admitted.

“Keep it in mind,” she suggested.

“Like I said I will, but I hate political intrigue,” I agreed yet again.

All that crap just hung in the air for the next three weeks. During that time I visited Addie at her home. As usual she was full of kinky fantasies. They were at least as dramatic as hell.

The storage building was started and finished the week after my visit to Addie. Since I didn’t specify painting, Ed informed me that our contract didn’t call for him to paint the building. He wanted extra to punish me for the contract. I told him to forget it.

For a couple of days the storage building sat completely empty while I tried to decide on paint. I finally decided to paint it myself. I bought a gallon of white latex enamel paint, a quart of mineral spirits, a couple of brushes, then I was ready to give it a shot.

I had Ed set the front corner post even with the house rear corner. He left a two foot space between the two corners. The painting was easy since I had all the room in the world. I had been able to bring in a four foot step ladder on top of the push trailer. It allowed me to reach everywhere I needed to reach. I had expected it to take me a full day to cover the storage building with it’s rough cut cedar siding sheets. There was one window in the rear for light and ventilation. Its trim got a coat of white paint as well. The latex enamel covered it all pretty well. It wasn’t up to the standards of a professional painter, but I figured it would hold up for a couple of years.

Even before I started to paint, Jasper’s friend came and towed the Ambulance away. He did give me twenty four hour notice, so that I could strip out anything I wanted to save. There were a few special things I wanted like my cookware, the mattress from the camp bed, a mid-evil looking axe, and a very thick camp knife. Those and few other tools, I put inside a black backpack. I had planned to use the pack while hiking. Well, I would use it if I ever went hiking again.

During those weeks, I had people running in, out, and around my lock shop home. I could never got up to more than on thing at a time, but still I had groups running around.

Martin once said I lacked some special kind ofmanagement skill. When he said that, I just shrugged my shoulders and walked away. That had been too many years ago to count. Nonetheless it all got done as usual, and within the time frame i had in mind. The only item with a time limit was the storage building. It was complete within one week, not the three days. I ignored the penalty. Everything else just happened, when it happened.

The plastering boss show up one day and promised to get right on it. The full crew didn’t even bothered to show up, or call for a week. My job just wasn’t big enough to warrant their full attention. Then one day they showed did up and knocked it out before lunch. We actually were painting on the same day. They were a lot more efficient. They started later and finished much earlier.

I didn’t have a client for the Spa, which was a good thing. I was consumed with getting my house in order again. Since the storage building was open studs it was easy to add the brackets for the road bike to hang on the wall. While doing that I went ape shit crazy and added sixteen penny nails along the walls to hang other things. The power for the storage building was an extension cord I pulled through the rear door of the lock shop. I had mounted a six outlet extension strip with a fifteen amp breaker built in. I bought a 900 watt ceramic heater for use in the building.

I would never again have to struggle with the mountain bike and trailer covers. With the cold weather coming that would be a blessing. I could simply pull the bike into the building, where I could disassemble it in a warm dry place. Then store it just a few inches away from the locks shot in a safe place.

Dis-assembly meant unplugging the throttle wires, and removing the linchpin bolt, then just rolling the trailer away. It was a very simple chore. Since I didn’t need to use the motorized cargo hauling mountain bike often, I expected it to mostly remain in the storage building, foolish me.

I also stored two other trailers hung on the wall of that building. I had a lightweight bicycle trailer, I had bought at Walmart, and a heavy duty cargo trailer, I had purchased from the dealer to tow behind the scooter.

The phone played the terrible ring tone Tuesday night after I ate my prepackaged frozen meatloaf dinner. “What can I do for you Martin?”

“I need to use the safe house,” He explained. “I don’t know how long our people will be staying.”

“So when do you need it,” I demanded knowing the answer.

“Our people will be there after dark tonight,” he said.

“Okay three hundred a day plus expenses,” I demanded.

“Fair enough does that include you?” he asked.

“I’ll run errands of course, but nothing more,” I agreed.

“Got it,” he answered.

I had things to do before they arrived. I did a walk through of the Spa first. I didn’t find anything out of place. Then I returned to the storage building to reassemble the cargo and travel bike. It was just a matter of plugging in the throttle, replace the battery, then hooking the trailer to the hitch. A ten minute job at the very most. After all that, I went back to my boring day.

I was watching the computer run a remodeling show from Australia. The competition had five couples working on the same type buildings. It was a winner take all competition. I was rooting for the older couple of course.