Chapter 38

Bitsy found a friend of Eddie’s girlfriend. She claimed that the girlfriend hated him toward the end of her life. The girlfriend only stayed because she needed his income to add to her welfare and food stamps in order to make her life bearable. According to those same friends she never mentioned Eddie and Sarah’s relationship. So far Bitsy had drawn a blank.

Yes, the physical evidence proved that Eddie had a relations with Sarah. It could be like the state claimed. Eddie had raped and killed Sarah. Then he killed the mother. There were so many holes in that theory, that it would never float. I tended to believe Eddie’s version. Proving it was our problem.

“Bitsy, before I drag my ass all the way up there, see if you can’t find some friends of the kid from back in the day. They might remember something,” I suggested.

I called to make the suggestion partly because I wanted her to figure it out with just a little help from me. I did it mostly because I did not want to drive to Raleigh. The packages were due to start arriving in a couple of days. I didn’t want to get involved in SJL until I had them all in hand. That could take as long as a week.

I wanted to keep Bitsy occupied while I worked on the trailer. The plan was not to store the expensive, and easy to pawn items in the trailer. I planned to store them inside the reinforced lock shop.

About the only thing I did to make it more secure was to put a motion activated local alarm on the building. It covered the doors, front and back, as well as the gate at the rear of the house. When it was activated the siren went off for three minutes then reset. I had a pretty good idea the kids with burglary in mind would turn tail and run. It didn’t hurt that I lived downtown, and had a friend or two on the local force.

I hired Ed to install the sensors for the alarm and flood lights. I hooked them up myself. Ed also removed the storm doors on the front and rear of the Lock Shop. He replaced both doors with heavy duty metal doors They came with bars included. He also reinforced the air conditioner mount. I felt like the place was pretty secure by the time the valuable electronics came into the house. The security had never concerned me before, even though I had three quarters of a million hidden among the in ‘milk duds’ in my freezer. That was because no one in the area knew about them.

I had the security measures in place by the time I brought the two Chrome laptops home. Then the rest of my purchases came dragging in over the next two weeks.

“Bitsy do you still want to interview the cousins,” I asked after the most expensive things were locked safely inside the Lock Shop. I figured that I was going to do better with the installation when I had more time.

“Yes, are you finally going to fit me in?” she asked with an edge to her voice.

“Hey you will appreciate it when you work with me again,” I said. “So, will tomorrow at ten work for you?”

“Sure but you put me off so long, You are going to buy my lunch,” she demanded.

“Yes ma’am,” I replied.

The next morning I turned the alarm system on with my phone. At that time I was in the driveway just before I entering the road. Tiger was safely in the house. He would be fine for a few hours.

The plan was that after school Shelly would phone me and I would turn the alarm off while she was there. When Tonya came by to pick up Shelly, she would call again and I would turn the alarm on again. Don’t worry, I carried Shelly’s dogie daycare fee as an expense item for SJL.

I was on the clock by ten in the morning. We didn’t get the interview completed with the first cousin until one in the afternoon. His information was sketchy at best. He was a stone cold junkie, so he would never be able to testify in court. He didn’t have much to say anyway.

For the first two hours I looked over her notes. I gave her a list of follow up questions, just in case Addie wanted her to re-interview the friends of the girlfriend. Then over our late lunch, at a frilly little coffee shop, and restaurant, I Emailed Lillian all the names and addresses of the girls. I explained that I wanted to know, if there was anything on line about her relationship with Eddie Marsh. Even it if was just a photo I wanted to see it.

I planned to bill a couple of hours to SJL. They actually wished I would bill more to help justify all that fund raising they continued to work. I kept my bills down to what I could show on paper. The amounts were so small I didn’t expect to ever be questioned on them.

I either paid Lillian in cash, or through a PayPal deposit. She didn’t need to sign invoices, so she was in the clear. I might have to explain it someday, but I thought I could come up with some reasonable lie, if necessary. I was working on the assumption that ninety percent legal was close enough.

Bitsy got the interview with the second cousin set for Saturday morning at 10AM. He worked out of town on the new pipeline construction. Bitsy had to agree to interview him at his church with his pastor present. It was slightly unusual, but it was doable.

I kissed Bitsy on the cheek and headed home. When I arrived home just after 4PM, I turned off the alarm and found tiger inside the house. He jumped on me, wagged his tail, then left the house to walk around town.

I changed for my afternoon ride and reactivated the alarm on my way out. I had tested it, even though the directions assured me that animals the size of Tiger and smaller wouldn’t set it off. Tiger was going to grow to about thirty pounds, and that was below the limits of the sensor. I guess they figured two years old weren’t a threat.

Later that night Lillian emailed me three photos of Eddie and the daughter. All three were taken inside the two month window before her death. She and Eddie were all smiles and hugs. It certainly looked to me like they were in some kind of relationship. What we needed were some creditable witnesses. I hoped that the cousin would be the first to come forward.

Since I had Friday off, after my ride I worked on loading the plug and play cameras into the laptop computer. There proved to be a slight problem. I had to either be located physically within a hundred yards, or I had to have a repeater within a hundred yards. The repeater could be attached to the street light pole with zip ties at the base. I guessed that it wouldn’t be noticeable if it were painted the same color as the poles. Everything seemed to have a simple answer, if I looked hard enough. I figured we about ready to start taking jobs.

First however I had to do to the interview of Eddie’s cousin. I finished my ride on Saturday morning then hurried to the ‘Across Jordan Baptist Meeting House’. I had Lillian check it’s bona fides. It was listed with the state and federal government as a non profit religious organization.

“So, what’s the Pastor’s name,” I asked.

“The Pastor’s is Archie Black. He has a rap sheet for some B&Es back in the day. He did some soft time on the county farm. It got his attention, so he joined the church. That led him to his present gig.” Bitsy explained. “The cousin’s name is Jerome.”

Bitsy still wouldn’t tell me where she lived, so I had to meet her at the office. She drove to the small brick building about as wide and the lock shop, but three times as deep. It still had the large glass windows of it’s previous occupants. The only thing church like about it was a sign with the name of the church, and a wooden cross, made from treated two by fours, erected in the yard.

There were four cars parked in the gravel and broken concrete parking lot. We went through the front door. Inside we found two women and four men waiting for us. I could easily have been intimidated, if I hadn’t been with Bitsy.

I stuck my hand out to the older man who stood. He was dressed the best, so I asked, “Reverend Black?”

“That’s right and you are?” he asked.

I’m Ray Selfridge. My friends call me Sarge. This is Bitsy,” I said leaving it up to her how much she wished to divulge.

“This is Jerome,” he said pointing to a man several years younger than Eddie Marsh.

“Hello Jerome,” I said extending my hand to him. He just stared at me. I was beginning to feel out numbered.

“Jerome, we need to ask you some questions about Eddie Marsh,” Bitsy interjected.

“I don’t know nothing about what happened. I wasn’t there and was only about fifteen years old back then,” he replied.

I took the lead to explain some of the facts to him. I told him why SJL was interested in Eddie’s case. Then Bitsy took over.

“So Jerome did you ever hear Eddie bragging about Sarah,” she asked.

“Will the truth help him get out of jail faster?” he asked.

“It might I said, but it might also make sure he stays put,” I explained. I was pretty sure I saw something in his eyes.

“Yeah, he told me how he forced Sarah to do things with him. She hated it at first. She was just twelve years old. He said she came to crave his dick.” he said. He looked at the pastor before he said. “I hope he never gets out of prison.”

“Thank you Jerome will you tell your story at his new trial, if we get him one?” Bitsy asked.

“Yes I’ll tell the truth of course,” Jerome said.

Bitsy drove to a family style pancake house. She showed me the fancy recorder. She had used an even fancier wireless microphone that looked like a necklace to record his statement.

“I hope we can collaborate his statement,” Bitsy explained.

“The truth in this case ain’t pretty, but it might set the wrong man free,” I said. “Addie needs to suggest he move far away and change his name.”

“No, he needs to move next door to Sarah’s grandfather,” she suggested.

“Or that,” I said. I waited a moment then asked, “What are you going to do tonight?”

“I have a date,” Bitsy said.

“Good on you,” I commented.

I called Lillian, “How would you like a working dinner in Siler City?”

“Tonight?” she asked.

“I was thinking Chinese take out. Then lots of techie stuff for desert,” I said. After several seconds I added. “The technical work isn’t food, it’s the job I need done.”

“I don’t drive since I am Autistic,” she admitted.

“I’ll be your contract driver tonight,” I suggested.

Tonya and Shelly left my house at four so when Lillian and I arrived at six Tiger hadn’t been home alone very long at all. I didn’t bother with the back yard sensor, since he was too small to trip the alarm. He ran out to do his thing while Lillian just stared at the mountain of electronic boxes. I could tell the lack of order did not fit her mind set at all.

“First we go out to dinner, then we can come home and tackle one job at a time. How does that sound?” I asked.

She didn’t answer she just nodded her head. Then out of nowhere she said, “I love shrimp fried rice. Can we have that.?”

“I’ll tell you what, let’s go to the Chinese buffet instead of doing take out. Then you can pick what you want,” I suggested. She nodded her head again. So that was what we did.

After dinner I stopped at the convenience store near my lock shop house for a bag of beef jerky. It was Tiger’s favorite treat. Probably because it was so expensive.

Lilian and I went to work when we got back to my place. She did most of the work while I drank coffee and watched. When I finally made her stop for the night, she had both laptops loaded with the software for the nanny cam and audio wireless players. It would have taken me days to do that.

“I really like the ease of your Puppy Linux operating system. It is almost stripped down to basics,” she said.

“Next time, we will have to work on the audio apps,” I suggested.

“Yes that is a good idea. Then those bug wireless devices,” she agreed

“Absolutely,” I admitted.

“Would you sleep with me now?” she asked.

“Lillian, we hardly know each other honey,” I said.

“I give great cuddles,” she said. “Just cuddles, that’s all I want.”

“Okay, just cuddles,” I agreed. Other than dealing with Tiger’s jealousy I slept great.

At six thirty in the morning I explained, “I’m going for a bike ride. Would you rather go home first?”

“No, absolutely not,” she demanded.

“Are you sure, I’ll be gone about two hours?” I asked.

“I’m fine. I’ll just take a look at the other communication pieces.” she said.

“Okay, if you are sure,” I said.

I rode the bike on a modified version of my normal morning work out. When I got back she had piggie backed our audio signals with the nanny cam’s signal. It was very impressive. It was a simple idea, but she worked it out. I would never have thought of it.

“Beautiful work.” I said praising her openly. “Now I need to take a shower and dress for the day.”

“Good, I’ll come with you,” she said.

I was in shock, but I agreed. It was quit strange that she was slightly skinny. Her body had at some point gone through puberty, but she hadn’t developed much in the way of breasts, or a rounded butt. She still had the body of a very young woman. Since I was right in the middle of the Eddie and Sarah case I tried to ignored her body. Yes it was almost impossible, but I managed it. She put on her jeans with no panties. She had obviously done the same thing before. She didn’t seem at all embarrassed by the whole episode. I wished that I could say the same.

I was in the common room while she finished dressing. When she came out I asked, “Do you ride bicycles?”

“Sure, I don’t drive a car, because my mind wanders when it is not stimulated. It never did that on a bike,” she said.

“I have a bike I would like for you to try,” I said.

“Okay,” she said simply.

She followed me outside. I rolled out the mountain bike with the electric assist motor out. I explained everything twice, just to be sure she knew what I was doing.