Chapter 1

The view from my parking space was of a four story tan stucco building. The view included the ground level double sliding front doors. The entry was into the lobby where residents and guests were greeted by security guards. It was designed to give everyone a sense of confidence. That it was a secure environment for their loved ones.

I knew more than most about security. I knew that it was all just a veneer, but if it made them feel better, that was fine. I just knew that it was more about public relations, than about real security. They could save a lot of money by hiring teenagers with clipboards. They would get the same amount of protection for half the expense. I swore to myself that I would never make that comment to any of the residents of ‘The Haven’.

At 10:30 AM, that morning I had been inside my new residence on the second floor of the newly renovated sixty year old stucco building. I was there to meet my furniture. The security desk informed me on my cellphone when they arrived at 11AM.

“You guys need to bring the deliveries in the back door, then wheel them down to the elevator. From there you should have an easy walk to the apartment,” I informed them of that when I arrived in the lobby to meet them.

Even though everything had been purchased from Walmart. It was all the furnishings for my new home, there wasn’t really that much to it. The thing which prompted me to move into the retirement community was the complete environment package.

Everyone who applied for a unit had to be over fifty five years old. The unit’s rent, square foot for square foot, was more than anywhere else in town. The studio apartment I rented was only six hundred and sixty square feet of living space, but it rented for almost a grand a month.

The delivery van brought the furniture from where it had been stored in Thia’s garage to my apartment. The items included a daybed, a card table sized dining room table, four light in the ass dining chairs, a small desk, a rolling office chair, one larger sitting room chair, a TV stand, and a new thirty five inch digital TV.

After the guys left I began assembling everything. After I finished assembling everything I placed the tiny dining table into the tiny kitchen and dining area which occupied the complete right hand side of the apartment. Then I set up the day bed, TV cabinet, desk and rolling chair in the larger living area which took up the center of the studio apartment. Finally I hung the two new towels in the tiny bathroom. The bathroom and much larger storage closet occupied the left side of the apartment. Since the New York style lofts hadn’t been popular in the 1950’s, this studio was kind of a compromise for it’s day. It was a little odd, but then so was I.

I had been ordered by Thia to call her when everything was in place. She planned to come by to make sure I wasn’t living in a slum. She had already ordered the sheets and coverlet for the daybed. Not to mention the car full of throw pillows she was also bringing. She had allowed me to buy the towels only because I might need those before she made it to the new place.

Thia was trying her best to make my move into ‘The Haven’ as easy as possible. If she was successful, it would be the only thing that had been easy during the last year. The first bad thing that happened that year had been the most devastating. My wife of thirty five years had died. It was not an easy death, but no death is easy for anyone in the family.

The second thing that happened was I was pretty much fired from my job as chief of police from the small southern town. That happened because three closely linked small towns merged. Since I was the oldest chief, I got the boot. The fact that I left a job with a larger city police department to take the job ten years earlier counted for nothing. The third thing was my home of twenty five years got firebombed. The fact that the state police found the man who did it, and we had no connection made the settlement of the case go easier.

Thia had demanded I stay with her. I really didn’t want to stay with my daughter and her husband, but I just wasn’t up to an argument at the time of the fire ... When the apartment became available in The Haven, I jumped on it. I felt like it was the best thing for all of us. For her marriage and my peace of mind. Ray her husband was a cop in the newly merged town.

He had never worked for me, and I thanked god for that. He was part of the new Junior College trained cops, so our approach to the job had been very different. Whenever the two of us were forced together, we had nothing to talk about. It was obvious how uncomfortable he was. I admit that I was as well.

The Haven was located in the larger of the merged cities. I knew a couple of downtown spots, but none of them appealed to me, so I ended up that first afternoon having dinner at McDonalds. My cell phone rang just after I sat down. “Where the hell are you?” Thia asked.

“The rainbow steakhouse why?” I asked.

“Because I’m in my driveway headed to your apartment,” she said.

“Well I was heading back to your place to pick up my clothes,” I said.

You guessed it, the fire devoured all my clothes. I hadn’t bothered to replace all of them. Mostly what I had to move were a couple of sweat shirts and a ten pack of briefs and undershirts. Oh yes there was my extra pair of jeans.

“I can go back inside and throw everything in a trash bag. I’ll bring them and meet you at the apartment,” she suggested.

“Okay Cynthia, but you don’t have to do that,” I admitted.

“It’s no problem. I am going to park around back though. I am not dragging all this through the lobby with the security people hanging out checking for bombs,” she said.

“Yes I know. We are such a high priority target. I’ll park in the visitor spaces and you can park in my assigned space.” I said.

The first thing Thia did was to throw open the drapes, left by the last tenant. That did allow for a lot of light to enter the room. I didn’t say anything. The second thing she did was hand me the black trash bag full of my clothes. I went into the giant wall of drawers by the bathroom, then I placed the clothes inside a couple of them.

“When are you going to buy more clothes. You need more than two pair of jeans and a couple of sweat shirts from the thrift store.” she argued.

“I was waiting on the insurance settlement,” I explained.

“That came two weeks ago,” she stated.

“Yes, but I’ve been busy with this,” I said.

“Horse hockey,” Thia said.

“Okay, I’ll buy some clothes while I’m at Walmart buying groceries,” I said. Since she was walking out the door, I said it to her back. Thia and I didn’t have a warm and fuzzy relationship.

I wanted some cookies, you know those cheap cream sandwich versions of Oreo cookies. I went back out to the car and drove to Walmart. Not only did I buy the cookies, I also got a couple of two liter bottles of their own brand of diet cola. I stopped by the men’s wear department and picked up two more sweat shirts, and pair of carpenter’s mustard colored jeans. I drove straight to The Haven, then took the elevator to the second floor.

I still needed to hook up the TV and my new computer to their Internet and make a permanent connection to the WIFI. They were figured in with my rent. The basic TV offered twelve channels, and the WIFI basic wasn’t the fastest available, but it would do fine for me. I got everything working then took an allergy caplet to help me sleep.

The bed was new to me and not very comfortable, but it would do fine. Since I was exhausted when I hit the sofa bed, I fell instantly asleep. Well instantly after I threw the large cushions off the day bed and spread out a little. I found the apartment too warm even at night. The heat was included with my rent, so I decided not to complain, at least not for a while. I could always crack a window.

Since breakfast was not an option in the dining room, I had brought a half empty pack of cinnamon buns. They were too sweet, but I scraped the white icing off them and ate the roll with coffee. I made the coffee in my new Mr Coffee type machine. Thia had told me about some tubes of refrigerator cinnamon rolls, but I hadn’t tried them yet. I made a note to buy some on my next visit to Walmart.

After breakfast my hands were a sticky mess. After my shower that was gone, but I needed to get out of that apartment. I decided to go for a drive. I ended the drive outside my old police station. They were in the process of turning it into a satellite station, to be used for training. I knew it might be my last chance to walk down memory lane, so I sat and looked at the abandoned station. I tried to remember all the good times. I discovered there weren’t that many, so it didn’t take long before I was bored and ready to leave.

There were no intercoms in the apartments, so if my cell phone was off and someone arrived at the front desk, one of the security people had to accompany them to the door. It was not the best communications method, but then like most of the residents I didn’t expect many visitors. At least few who didn’t call me first.

The people on the desk evidently tried to call a resident’s cell phone before they dispatched someone to the resident’s apartment. I found that out on the second day I lived in The Haven. The desk advised me that Thia’s husband Ray was at the desk.

“Okay, tell him to take a seat, and I’ll be right down,” I said.

“So Ray, what can I do for you?” I asked once I arrived in the lobby filled with old people.

“I was wondering, if I could get you to come over to the house to sit with Jon tomorrow night?” he asked. “I want to take Thia out to a special dinner to celebrate.”

“I don’t have any other plans, so sure why not. What are you guys celebrating?” I asked.

“I made detective. I start plain clothes Monday. Thia would just feel better, if you sat with Jon and his girlfriend Harley.” he suggested.

“Well I never met Harley, but I’m sure we can get along,” I suggested.

“Good,” he said. “I think so too. Just don’t leave them completely alone.”

I entered it into my paper calendar. Yeah I was still a paper and pen kind of guy. That was the only appointment I had other than one with an Indian GP. After my wife died, he wanted to see me once a month. He decided I had an ulcer that needed monitoring. I think it was a way of milking the insurance company, but I didn’t mind.

I walked Ray out of The Haven. I knew that he recognized the security as a feel good security plan, not a real one. But like I said, most of their calls would be “Help I’ve fallen and can’t get up,” kinds of things.

I had hit the threshold for entry into The Haven, but just barely, so I was the younger guy as well as the new kid. That being the case, I got a lot of unwanted attention. I hadn’t had a meal in the dining room yet, and it was almost lunch time on day two, so I figured I would try it.

I found the menu about the same as the local Greek restaurant. The prices included a gratuity even though they were mostly served buffet style. Since it was included in the price, I could have asked for waiter service with a no harm no foul adjustment to my bill. I preferred the buffet for my first meal.

I was requested to show my identity card before the waitress took my order. After she had it she swiped the card. It was a bit complicated for a small dining room. I had determined I would go along and get along, so I didn’t give my opinion.

The man sitting at the table near mine nodded at me, and I waved my hand to him. He was dressed ten times better than me. It was a good thing Thia, with her strong need to fit in, wasn’t at my first meal. She would have me trying to dress to impress. That would start our never ending argument, since my forced retirement I just didn’t care what anyone thought of me. I didn’t mind being the odd

ball of the neighborhood. Truthfully I kind of liked the 1960 anti status, status.

After lunch, where several people stopped and introduced themselves to me, I was confused. I not only, sorta, met several people, I got snubbed by some who probably recognized me from my former life.

Ray knew a young woman in the department, who was a computer whiz. She came to his house to remove the fire damaged hard drive from my computer. I had my copies of a hell of a lot of private files on that computer. She promised to try to restore them. I told her to put them on a USB flash drive.

“Sal, I would appreciate it if you didn’t read the files,” I said. “If you have to I’d rather you not mention the contents to anyone.”

To be honest only a few were sensitive and they were encoded. I used the old book code. Without knowing what book I used they would mean nothing to a snooper. The job of Chief of Police is more of an art, than a simple craft job. Those files gave the story of some rather complicated cases. Also the passwords and account information for some very secret accounts I held in trust for Thia and my grand kids present and future.

“Chief, I retrieved almost all the files. The ones I couldn’t get to open were in a folder called Romanoff,” she said.

“That was a thirty year old family murder case I worked in Charlotte,” I explained. “If I need those notes after all this time, it would be hard to recreate them. I’m not going to lose sleep over them,” I lied.

They actually were the blackmail notes on a Man and his wife who owned a mill in the now merged town where I had been chief. Since the family had died, the notes were no longer of any use to me. The girl had worked miracles, and I was happy to pay her. She not only gave me a USB drive, she had backed the information up onto another flash drive.

“If I were you, I would trim those files to just the important ones, then back those up to the cloud,” she suggested.

“I’ll do that when I get a chance,” I suggested. “Could you give me the damaged hard drive as well. I would like to know that it is no longer recoverable.”

She handed me a plastic bag with a zipper type top. “I would recommend a blast furnace, strong acid bath, or a band saw,” she said.