Chapter 33

After a successful project, it usually took a couple of weeks for me to sink into a deep dark funk. I was about halfway though my cooling off period after the case of the slightly special tech thief. It was a nice payday. I didn’t need the money, but as my not really friend, Mason had said recently, “In life money is one way of keeping score.”

I didn’t like Mason at all, but he was right about that. Of course, not only did I have it piling up in my bank, I had even more uncut diamonds disguised as milk duds in my freezer.

I also knew that someday soon, I was going to be forced to buy a gasoline automobile. I had a suspicion that to avoid the deep dark funk, I would need to work. I had also determined that, I didn’t play well with others. Sure, I had over twenty years practice in the military, but I never learned how to manage it. Maybe I was like Lilian in that way. Maybe I was a little special, by being so anal.

Thank god I didn’t sink completely into the funk. I was saved by a gunshot in the middle of the night. First I checked to make sure Tiger wasn’t the victim, then I slipped on a pair of sweat pants and a pullover hoodie. I also armed myself with the antique model 1911 before I stepped outside. The adrenaline was pumping when I stepped onto my deck.

The lights were on inside the Spa. I didn’t see any commotion outside, but inside something was definitely happening. When one of the Marshals in his blue jacket came out of the Spa and began hustling away, I called 911. Things were definitely suspicious up on the hill, I decided.

When the local cops showed up I explained what I heard and saw. They found the bloodbath that Tasha was so fond of describing. It appeared that there were three dead Marshals and the protected witness as well.

As soon as I got a break, I slipped back into my house to return the 1911 onto the upper most shelf of my bookcase. The shelf was seven feet off the floor. It was also just one foot below the ceiling. It was most definitely not visible to anyone standing on the cabin’s floor area.

I sat inside the house, in my sweat suit, while I waited for the arrival of the local police units. Those who responded to that kind of thing after a short time. Later the local cops, and the state police blocked all the roads. I used the time to take a shower and dress in my own ‘uniform’ for the day. I could quickly add the thermal element, if the cops left in time for me to do an early morning ride.

I actually had the best chance to find the Marshal, if he was indeed a Marshal. I didn’t suggest it, since I already knew the decision that would come down. Hell, I was a suspect. I found being a suspect interesting of course. Not interesting enough to wake Addie for advice at four in the morning, but still interesting.

When the Defective, Detectives arrived before the sun, they carried cups of coffee. I walked out to the deck leading Tiger on a short leash. Of course he didn’t understand why I kept him from playing with the cops. The officer, first on the scene, had spoken to me an hour later. I had told him what little I knew about it at the time. Afterward I had gone inside to feed Tiger.

It was quite a bit later about 6AM that the Detectives stopped by to ask me come with them to the station. I agreed, but I also informed them that I had to be home after two hours. I needed to let my dog out for his morning pee break. The Detectives agreed, so I rode with them to the station after locking Tiger inside the house. He was most likely on the bed asleep before we left the driveway.

When we were at the station, I asked for and received a cup of very bad coffee. Free coffee was always the same. It was made from a blend of coffee, right off the grinding plant’s floor. I forced it down while I told my story.

I had to repeat that I heard only one shot, not the ten to twenty the state police detective insisted were fired.

Finally he asked, “Can you explain that?”

“If I do? It will just be a guess,” I declared.

“So guess,” he demanded.

“Okay, there were two or more shooters. The Marshals had gotten sloppy. The shooters slipped in, forced the door, and started shooting. They were there to kill everyone in the building, so they weren’t careful. They thought they had done that when someone fired a single shot at them. It was a total surprise. That one shot is what I heard. Most likely they didn’t get them all. Somebody, in a Marshals jacket, left the building after the shooters were gone. That is who I saw.” I said for the record.

“You were lucky that the shooters were gone. They wouldn’t have had a problem killing you too,” the second detective added.

“That is probably true,” I said. Before I left I gave them the number for Force protection. “Call and ask for Martin or Lucy they own the building.”

After that I left for home with a Siler City uniformed officer. You guessed it Leigh.

“Are you okay,” she demanded.

“Yeah, I’m just glad the shooter didn’t get the wrong address,” I said. “How are you? This is the biggest crime ever in Siler City, I’m sure.’

“Yeah, I’m okay they called me in to work. I was home in bed, so it was okay for me. I didn’t even make it to the crime scene.” she admitted.

“Good, try to keep it that way. It’s pretty gory I expect,” I suggested. She dropped me at the house. The medical examiner’s office had called in a group of ambulances. They came from different counties to remove the remains. The whole thing was a cluster fuck. Ambulances coming and going, mixed with patrol cars getting back on station, and crime scene tape everywhere made for an environment where no one person knew everything. They would be lucky, if anyone ever thought to identify, let alone go looking for the missing Marshal, I thought.

My phone played ‘YMCA’ to alert me to the incoming call. I checked the screen and discovered Martin’s number. “Yes Martin,” I said sadly.

“What the fuck is going on?” Lucy asked.

“Lucy, how would I know. I’m not part of this anymore,” I explained. “I can’t say that I wasn’t expecting it.”

“Come on those guys were professionals,” Lucy said.

“Well, they didn’t show it this time. The building was no longer secure and that’s why it happened,” I suggested.

“Are you saying the cartel couldn’t have done this when you had the building?” she asked.

“Damn right, it wouldn’t have happened on my watch. No one would have known where they were going, and they would never have accidentally leaked it. One of those hero US Marshals probably called home and spilled the beans, or the cartel bought an app that gives the location of a cell phone. Either way the leak was something preventable.”

“Okay your comments are noted. So how bad is it.”

“It has everything except torture. It probably would have had that, if someone hadn’t got off a shot. They left in a quite a hurry,” I explained. “Here is one thing they aren’t going to release, someone in a Marshal’s jacket left the building before the cops arrived. I don’t think they found him yet.”

“It’s not your affair, so stay out of it,” Lucy said. “Since I know you aren’t going to listen to me, name me as Tiger’s step mom, if anything happens to you.”

“If that happens, just come get him,” I said seriously.

It was around 8AM when most of the cops left. I decided since third street was open again, Tiger could do his walk about, and I could ride my ‘folder’ bike. Since the sun was up, I didn’t bother to thermal up. But I did dress in layers. I did the calorie burning part of my ride first. I left some extra time for my careful neighborhood search. I checked the streets slowly. I was armed only with my collapsible baton, and a pocket full of zip ties. That was my standard non threat gear. I didn’t expect the shooters to be back with so many cops around. I expected they were headed out of state, since their car hadn’t been spotted.

I was three blocks north of third street when I noticed the empty house. It looked different from all the other mornings I had ridden by it. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but it was something. When I spotted the missing pane of glass on the driveway side of the empty house, I decided to call the local cops. I called Leigh and gave her the tip. I hung around just in case something happened. The cop call was mostly because I didn’t have a firearm.

They rolled up as silently as an automobile can. Then they checked the house and came out with a young man in a white tee and jeans. One of the officers came out later with the bloody Marshal’s jacket. I continued to sit on my bike until the cops rolled away with the suspect. I figured he was the target of the hit, but I didn’t know that for a fact. He could just as easily be a Marshal who was in shock hiding out. Almost everyone looked like kids to me in those days.

After everyone left, I rode the folder home. I found Tiger waiting for me. He obviously knew I was late. We went into the house where the rest of his food and water from breakfast awaited him.

Since the cops had everything I knew, and could possible find out about the hit, I just filed it away. I switched to trying to decide what I was going to do about my freelance security business. For sure there weren’t going to be any clients in Siler City, but I also knew I wasn’t about to change my lifestyle. It was about an hour’s commute to the Raleigh-Durham metro area. I needed a way to setup shop there off and on.

The costs of vehicles weren’t really an issue. It was really a cost vs return on investment issue. I needed more business to prove to myself that I could recover my expenditures. Also entering into my decisions was the advice Addie enjoyed passing on to me regularly. “You aren’t getting any younger, no matter what you think.”

During my try out period, I convinced Addie to allow me to crash at her place once in a while when I needed it. That left me with buying an automobile. One which would not stand out. I knew a lot of the business, at first, would be domestics. It was caused by the nature of society in those days. Cheating husbands and wives who needed to be followed were a staple of the business, as were insurance fraud cases. Lots of those two clients were necessary to make a go of the kind of business I had in mind.

Addie assured me that I would have no problems in getting licensed as a PI in North Carolina. I was way the hell over qualified she informed me. She even secured an application for me. I was pretty well invested mentally in the decision by that time. I still needed a vehicle. I needed a very average looking passenger car at least. A dirty, but not damaged body, and a very dependable engine.

I researched it for three days off and on. I ended renting a car for a drive to the Raleigh Durham area for the day. I went right to a Hyundai dealer who had a two year old Sonata Hybrid for sale. I decided that if it was alright, when I drove it, I would buy it. Since I had decided that I would most likely take the vehicle, I was thinking about the details while I drove to the Durham based dealer’s lot.

My number one reason for buying a hybrid was it’s lack of noise when running on the batteries. It might give me some of the advantages of a bike, which I had become used to having on my side.

I paid more for the car than an ordinary gas powered car. I just hoped it would prove worth the expense. The dealer wasn’t sure about a cash price, but he agreed to take a bank transfer. He even gave me a small discount for the sure sale. It still cost me over fifteen grand, but I could have driven it home that same night if I had wanted.

I actually drove the rental car back to my home in Siler City. I did that so I could take care of Tiger and deal with the remaining details of buying the car. The fact that I didn’t trust Tiger to come home without me being there to greet him also figured into the decision.

I left the car with the dealer in Durham for some service, but I took the paperwork home with me. While I still had the rental car, I went to the license plate agency, a few blocks from my house. I did that the first thing the next morning. Well it wasn’t first thing for me, but it was for them. I had called my insurance agent the afternoon before. He had advised me to stop by before I went to the plate agency. It was all completed well before lunch.

Addie stopped by the car rental location on her lunch hour that day. She drove me to a nice restaurant, where I bought her lunch. After lunch she took me to the dealer’s lot to pick up my new, used car.

Addie left me there after our lunch. I got in the car and twenty minutes later I headed for home. It was after 2PM when I made it home. Tiger was waiting on the deck. I could tell he didn’t know what to think. I knew I was going to have to find something to do with him, when I was out of town overnight. The problem got solved the next morning when Tonya made me an offer over breakfast at her diner.

She and her daughter agreed that Tonya would stop by the lock shop and pick up Tiger. She would do that on her way home after lunch at the diner ended. Her daughter would actually take care of Tiger at their house until I came for him. If I stayed away overnight Tiger could stay in Tonya’s back yard. She had a fenced in area there. Some days I would take him with me, but other days I would have Tonya and her daughter puppy sit. The price they charged me wasn’t too bad, and Tiger loved Tonya and her daughter.

Addie’s only requirement for tiger staying locked in her back yard during the days he need to stay with me at her house was that I clean up after Tiger. I quickly agreed. So at least I had two options. I also had the option of taking him with me all day. Worst case, I could always board him, I thought.

The one option I did not have was to abandon him at the shelter. I was committed to taking care of him. I could always go back into retirement, but I should have made that decision before I bought the car.