Chapter 40

Lillian and I managed to make it four months while spending almost every weekend together. It was still no more than one of us hugging the other. Okay maybe a father, daughter kiss once in a while, but I swear it was nothing more.

Just before Halloween found us in Sanford following a cheating husband’s Friday night out. It was our poor excuse for a date. The man, we were following, was half my age. He was also in a hell of a lot better shape, but we still had a job to do. He and his date left the Community Center’s Halloween party at eleven. We follow Barney and his date to someone’s house. It was either the boyfriend’s house, or it was someone’s loaner. Either way it was difficult to get the evidence. Since it would be hard to prove without evidence we continued with the stakeout.

Stakeouts are always boring. Since Halloween was only two day away, we discussed Halloween costumes. “I’m sorry, I don’t do ‘dress up’.” I suggested.”

“Come on, I’ll even buy the candy,” Lillian suggested.

“You can buy it, and you can dress up, your can even sit by the door all evening, but I will not be any part of it,” I said. “But I will allow you to decorate the outside of the lock shop with goblins.”

When the CCTV showed some activity, I rode my bike to the house and parked not too far away. I got shots of Barney and Clyde, as they left for work. I thought it was a shame, but the wife was going to do pretty good in the divorce settlement. I expected, that was what it was about after all.

Halloween costumes didn’t happen, but we did sit on the deck wearing red mop wigs, and huge freckles painted on, After almost four years, I finally met some of my neighbors. Tiger was locked in the rear fence for a couple of hours. He wasn’t pardoned until all the kids were gone.

Lillian dressed for work the next day with a clean long sleeve top, and her jeans from the night before. I made the drive back to Raleigh with a real dislike of the roads. I was even happier than Lillian when her probation ended the week after thanksgiving.

The day her probation ended. she walked into her office and explained that she had hated every minute of the last year. She also served her boss with a court ordered ruling. It was something about indentured servitude. It said simply that she was getting the fuck out of Dodge. If the company tried any other shit to try to collect their debt, she planned to sue them. Since she had been paid far less than her job was worth, to other similar companies, she was almost guaranteed to win. There was also a mention of the persons with disabilities act, or whatever it was called. Thing were normal for a few days before Christmas.

Two days after Christmas Addie called. “Sarge you were right. The FBI came in this morning and removed everything. They did leave me my land line and desk chair.”

“Do I need to ask why?” I said into the phone.

“Fraud and money laundering were both mentioned, along with lots of other things. They also mentioned I was a person of interest,” she informed me.

“Since the FBI raided the office this morning. You need to be expecting them. Get yourself a lawyer, who is not me, and be ready for them. I can give you a name if it would help.”

“So how much shit are you in?” I asked.

“I’m the chief operating officer, so I am just not sure what they have me for,” she replied.

“Then get yourself a good lawyer,” I said. She actually laughed. “If there is anything I can do call me.”

I went to the Chairman’s office the same day Addie called me. I figured I was going to have a little trouble getting past the receptionist, so I just ignored her and walked right in to his office.

“You and me are going to have a little talk,” I said.

“I don’t think so,” he said standing indignantly.

“Don’t make me start doing shit to get your attention. You know what I’m capable of bringing down on you. I would do it even if the people weren’t my friends. Pick up your phone and come with me. We are just going outside where the air is clear,” I said.

“If I don’t?” he asked it most likely for the FBI’s wire.

I just showed him a picture of his wife and grand kids. I had made the images on the way to his office. “We just need to have a talk in private,” I said for the wire.” The FBI clowns needed to know who they were dealing with as well.

Once we were in the elevator I stopped it between floors. The bell rang, but the conversation wasn’t going to last long. I took his cell phone. “You can tell the Fibs what Addie did. That’s fine, but it’s not fine for you put her in the jackpot to save your own ass. I don’t make threats, I just advise people of their choices. Give the Fibs Mason, since he was involved with the slight of hand shit, but keep Addie out of it.” I said.

“Or what?” he asked.

“Or I will be very unhappy. You wouldn’t like that I assure you,” I said. As I said it, I also grabbed him by the throat. I cut off his air supply for only a few seconds. “Remember it isn’t just you. It’s those you love as well.”

The whole exchange took less than five minutes. When we got to the lobby I stepped out of the elevator and walked directly to my car. I made the return drive to the lock shop which lasted until sundown. That warning could have put me in serious shit, if it had been recorded. The fact is the wireless mike or the phone signals weren’t going anywhere. They had been shielded by the elevator walls and scrambled by the transmitter in my cargo pants pocket. If the elevator had been filled, we would have gone to the outside plaza. The scrambler would have been equally effective, but the elevator shaft made me feel better.

Addie had been careful about the paperwork, I was sure. The shit she had done could still come back to haunt her. I might need Martin again, but I hoped not. I hated owing him favors. It was much better for him to owe me.

Since I was in the RTP area again the next morning, I stopped by to see Bitsy. We left her office without the grand tour. We went to the outdoor park. I sat down one a sculptural bench with a cup of designer coffee. I could see my breath as I drank the coffee.

“So what do you want?” she asked.

“Just to give you a heads up. The Feds are doing their tap dance on SJL. They are probably going for money laundering at least. They may even come down on you,” I said.

“They have nothing on me, but thanks for the heads up,” she said cautiously.

“No problem, so how are things going in the insurance world?” I asked.

“Damn it’s lonely at the top,” she said with a smile.

“Yeah everyone is looking to trip you up,” I said. “The politics are always there.”

“Ain’t that the truth. I am so sorry about how things ended between us. You know I still have feeling for you?” she asked.

“I think we both have fond memories,” I said to ease the tension.

“Yeah, we looked some nasty bastard in the eye,” she agreed with a sad look. “You know, I thought I lost my cherry to the coppers, but it was with SJL. That’s where I came into contact with some truly evil people.

Later that after noon I waited in Lillian’s office parking lot while she formally ended her relationship with the company. It had meant one last trip to the human resources office. When she walked out there were signs she had been crying, but like always Lilian was already over it.

“Sarge I want to move into your guest house, I promise that I won’t be any trouble,” she demanded.

“That is a hard thing for me to agree with, since we work together. If you promise to respect boundaries. I guess we can give it a try,” I promised. She was so excited, that she wanted to hug and kiss me. Just to be safe I had to fight her off while driving.

The move was the event which overshadowed all the other things going on. She assured me that we could move everything she owned in my pickup truck, which we seldom used. I was tempted to carry our horsey trailer along as well, but I didn’t trust the whole outfit on the long back road drive.

It took a second trip to remove her bike and push trailer, from the group home. The house mother Mrs Everhart didn’t approve of Lillian moving out. I’m not sure she believed that I was just her employer. The rules required that Lillian make a final payment to the group home to cover the painting and cleaning. Since Lillian was more than a little OCD, Mrs Everhart waived that requirement. She gave Lillian a big hug, and we were off for Siler City.

Lillian moved fast once the chains of slavery were broken. Her slate was filled with background checks from me and Bitsy. She also agreed to do some difficult coding for the tech people in the Research Triangle Park. She was so good that my old friend Martin even came through now and then. It seems that Bitsy stayed in touch with Lucy2. That is how the rumor mill got it all wrong. The rumors were based it on my previous behavior, not my relationship with Lillian herself.

I did my interviews without Lillian. My ‘follow the cheater’ jobs were a little more out of box, which tended to drive Lilly up the wall. Most of all she hated the under cover work which I did occasionally for the state cops. That was work which kept me out of town, sometimes for days. She did have Tiger to keep her company, so I didn’t worry about either of them. She also had the alarm system. The local cops expected it to go off once in a while, but it didn’t stop them from showing up to make sure she was okay.

She also brought a can of pepper spray, and I provided her with a stun gun. One that gave a non lethal jolt to the bad guy. Well it wasn’t totally non lethal. If the bozo had a bad heart, or some other medical issues, he might bite the big one, but I really didn’t care. I pointedly didn’t explain the danger to Lilly. I did not figure she needed to know. It might make her afraid to use it.

Life continued as it always had in Siler City. Lillian had me remove the trailer from her folder bike, so that she could ride around town easier. The push trailer, I stored inside the horsey trailer. We barely had enough storage space, but I didn’t want another building on the property, at least not at that time. There might come a time soon, when I changed my mind, but not just yet, I thought. Lillian and I made it work. For a while things ran just fine. We didn’t have a lot of business, but we didn’t need much to get by. Over Christmas, I worked some, and I enjoyed myself some. The only consistent thing was I rode my bike dressed like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

The extra clothing in the morning made riding less enjoyable. Then again two hours of freezing my balls off, would not have been more enjoyable. I had to remind myself that I wasn’t doing it for fun. I was doing it to keep my ass, less of a fat ass

I worked enough to pay Lillian, so that she didn’t have to worry about work. Not only that my bank account kept on growing. I needed more expenses, I just couldn’t think of any. I knew I could buy expensive cars, and other stuff, but big expensive cars stand out, and that never was my style.

My style was just being able to do whatever I wanted to do. I couldn’t help it if I didn’t want to buy expensive shit, or go on a vacation to the Bahamas. I liked just being me.

January ended with no word on the FBI investigations. They looked into my finances, but I had my books audited first thing after Addie’s call. The accountant assured me that there was nothing shady to find. I paid my taxes on every penny of traceable income.

It was on the first Monday in February, when a strange car pulled into the driveway. I walked to the door with my hand close to the waist band of my cargo slacks which held the .22 mag revolver. I didn’t pull it but I was nanoseconds from breaking it out, when Addie got out of the car. She walked toward me smiling.

“You seem to be in a good mood,” I said.

“I am. The FBI informed me that I am no longer a person of interest, however they will be calling me as a witness. I do believe they will want to call you as well. I get the sense that Mason is going down for most of the fraud and money laundering. The Chairman is going to get a fine for having a non profit who gave the board of directors huge bonuses. It doesn’t look good, so they are finished.”

“If you are out of work, why are you smiling?” I asked.

“Because I’m finally going to open my own office,” she said.

“That’s great have you found an office in Raleigh,” Lillian asked.

“Yes and no sweetie. I found an office, but it isn’t in Raleigh,” Addie said.

My heart sank, but I kept my cool and asked. “Oh so go ahead and drop the other shoe.”

“I’m your new neighbor,” she smiled.

“You are moving the office to Siler City?” I asked.

“I certainly am. As a matter of fact, I’m moving next door. Bitsy told me the name of the owner and a few phone calls later, I put the deposit down. All I have to do now is sign the deed, then sell the condo.”

“Addie did Martin tell you what that building was used for,” I asked.

“Sure, I think it is cool. I’ll have a great story to tell my clients,” she said still smiling. “I was hoping Lillian and I could work out something.”

“Work out what,” Lillian asked.

“I thought maybe I could workout some office space for you. In exchange you could answer my phones,” Addie suggested.

“Lillian, take time to think about this,” I said.

“Of course dear, talk it over with your friend the Sarge,” Addie said it in a tone making me sound like the heavy in Lillian’s life.

“I really do like your friend Martin. Why did I never meet him?” she asked.