Chapter 4

Alison kept making comments like those she made when we were leaving The Haven. She knew I wasn’t comfortable with that kind of talk and she enjoyed that. She had a sadistic streak. I knew she wasn’t serious in spite of all her brave talk. However I was no position to call her bluff. I think she knew that, and so felt safe enough to flex her muscles.

We walked a little faster because I was pissed. We finished in just over an hour.

“Meet you back here at nine thirty for breakfast. It’s my turn to buy. It’s too cold for a picnic table, and neither of us has a stretch limo, so I can’t invite the others,” She said.

“Too bad maybe we should buy an old van,” I suggested.

“You know that isn’t a bad idea,” she suggested.

“It’s a terrible idea,” I interjected.

“Okay, but I don’t think so,” she said pouting a little. “Its a good thing our plan for the community center visit isn’t until 4PM. Judge Burke and I plan to do some shopping today. There are about ten places on our list, but we will make it to the community center on time,” she promised.

“That is fine, we don’t have a schedule,” I replied. I admit I was sort of surprised that she wasn’t as consumed with the investigation as me. We looked at the water and talked about our families. Her daughter was living in New York in some kind of brownstone that she and her husband were converting to a duplex loft. I wasn’t really listening. I had Feral Cat on my mind.

Louise and I were planning to visit his neighborhood after lunch. The time was suggested by Louise. It appeared that people like her were another reason for the no breakfast policy in The Haven’s restaurant. Almost nobody seemed to get out of bed in time for a traditional breakfast. Well I did, and Alison seemed to do so as well.

Since The Judge and Louise both had late mornings, I wondered if they were sharing the same bed. If that were the case, it was my supposition that Louise had some resources hidden away. Burke appeared to be a bit of a con man. I didn’t know that. I just sensed it, but I wasn’t often wrong. Like the non existent gang rape theory, the one I missed completely. It was not my finest hour. That mistake bothered me more than I admitted, even to myself.

I was sipping my coffee with the crumbs from my biscuit still on my lap. Allison kept looking at those crumbs. I finally opened the door and slipped out as carefully as possible. I brushed away the remaining crumbs which gravity had missed.

“I don’t think I got any crumbs on your seat,” I suggested thinking that we would bring my car from now on.

“That wasn’t what I was looking at,” Alison replied.

“Alison what has gotten into you?” I asked.

“I get like this once in a while. It’s called hormonal,” she replied.

“Gee, I thought it was just my irresistible body,” I said.

“No, anything with a penis would do today. Don’t worry I won’t rape you. I know you aren’t ready yet,” she added.

“Good thing for me The Judge is riding with you today. I have no idea how much longer I could hold out,” I explained.

“I will be better tomorrow I promise,” she said. “It really is something I have no control over.”

I nodded my agreement, even though it sounded like a convenient excuse to me. I mean it would have been funny and more than a little appealing if my wife hadn’t died just over a year ago. I just wasn’t ready for any involvements.

When we arrived back at The Haven, I went directly up stairs. I had a couple of hours at least until I met with Louise. I read the world news for two hours, then called.

“Are you ready to take a look at the neighborhood?” I asked.

“Just about, come on down and I won’t be but a jiffy,” she insisted.

“I’ll be down in a second. I was wearing my one pair of old police fatigues. I had them only because I wore them the night Ray, Thia, and Jon took me to dinner. I had covered as a sitter for a couple of weeks while things got straightened out with Ray’s mother. She planned to be their sitter while Cynthia worked at the hospital. At least for the hours Jon would be alone at the house.

That was the night that the mental case set fire to my house. First I heard of it the fire chief was on the line. He advise me the house was in ruins. The roof had collapsed because the fire was so intense. When I got there the place was mostly soaking wet rubble. Even my wife’s car was a total loss, since the fire ignited the gas tank. I was left with the Rio to drive.

“Dad you are going to stay with us,” Thia demanded.

“No honey, I plan to find a place tomorrow,” I replied. “Hell it’s already tomorrow.”

“You are not going to rush into a cheap motel with a bunch of felons. You are going to stay here until we can find you a safe place to live.” Thia insisted. The fire had shook her up some.

The safe place we agreed upon was The Haven. It was just a temporary situation. I told myself from day one and continued to believe it until that very day. Which was less than a month later.

I knocked on Louise’s door. She let me in wearing what I can describe only as a men’s undershirt. One of the ones like gym rats wear. She was no gym rat I was sure. For one thing her breasts were too large even for her curvy body. They also stood up way too well for a woman her age. She obviously had a good boob job at some time recently. Since they sagged very little, they had to be a recent addition.

All that did not mean she was very attractive. Still I didn’t know what to make of it. Two reasonably attractive women flirting with me on the same day, was unheard of.

Louise pulled on a black sweat shirt large enough to disguise her very large breasts. Of course I would never be able to look at her in the same way again.

I drove us to the street address where Feral Cat lived. It was a small neighborhood grocery store. There was a second story obviously. It could have been a storeroom which had been converted to an apartment like mine, or the address could be fake.

“So, how do we find out if he really lives here?” I asked.

Louise practiced saying his name till she had it right. Then she went inside the neighborhood grocery. I went inside first, and just stood in the corner to make sure she was safe.

“I’m Sara Edwards postal inspector for this zip code. This was the address given for this man. She said his name which was more than I could have done. It doesn’t say on his form that he owns a grocery store. It is supposed to be an apartment.,” she informed the clerk.

His response was in terrible English. “He lives up,” he said pointing to the ceiling.

“Oh really, who owns the building? Are you the owner?” she asked.

Louise was on a roll, so I stood back and let her question the Arab grocery store manager. When it was time to go, I nodded to her imperceptibly, so she wound it up.

When we were in the car, Louise was on a high. She was a bundle of excited chatter as she told me what I had been there to hear.

“We need to come back this afternoon and stake this place out to be sure we see him go into the apartment. I want to know where to find him. Just in case we get something on him. You don’t have to come with me.”

“Of course, I’m going to come with you,” she exclaimed.

“Let’s find a place where we can watch for Feral Cat,” I instructed.

“I found an old deserted restaurant. It appeared to have been closed for several years. I stopped in the pawn shop I had spotted on my urban hiking trail. I found a pair of small 55mm binoculars. I bought them for ten bucks. They were used, but they worked well enough.

The older teenage boy stared at Louise a lot during the transaction. I almost asked Louise, if she had ever thought of doing granny porn, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that.

Next I called in a favor from Mica the kiddie cop. She gave me the make, model, and registration for Feral Cat’s car. Then she informed me that I owed her another dinner, and she planned to collect.

“Anytime, shall we make if for three and you can bring your husband?” I asked.

“Prick,” she said as she laughed. Then she broke the connection.

Louise and I sat and watched the front of the grocery. We had a view of the road in front, and the entrance to both alleys from our vantage point. It was after 4PM when the car matching Mica’s description pulled into the alley on the eastern side of the grocery store. Feral Cat climbed the fire escape from the alley to the second floor. He unlocked a fire door, then went inside the building.

We had completed what we wished to accomplish. Louise seemed reluctant to leave, so I continued to sit in the car. She actually seemed lonely. I guessed that was her reason for joining the ACDC. With that in mind I said, “You know that mail inspector was a brilliant scam. Did you work for the post office before you retired?”

“Thirty two years. I found over time that people bent over backwards to help postal employees. The mail must go through you know. So when I left, I kept my Id card. It might not get me into the post office, but people never look at the expiration date on that card.”

“Yeah I know. They are too busy looking at your boobs,” I said.

“Even you?” she asked.

“Even me,” I agreed honestly.

“So are we finished here?” she asked.

“Of course,” I said.

“Then I’m going to have her arrange for them to meet us for dinner and compare notes,” Louise demanded, taking over.

I didn’t think the time was right for a confrontation so I let it slide.

“Yeah that’s fine, we have to eat anyway,” I agreed.

When we got to the parking lot, I added, “I need to go take a shower and change into something a little less grungy. I should be back downstairs in a half hour or so.”

I did take a shower and I found one of the new pairs of slacks Thia had insisted I buy. I put then on after the shower, along with new underwear, and a new plain sweat shirt, one without a logo. I was a more comfortable version of The Havens average resident.

During my dinner which consisted of a garden salad and large hamburger patty with bread, but no potatoes. It did come with sweet iced tea, a staple in the south. We spent our time between bites talking about what we had learned and how we did it. Louise did most of the talking at first. Then Alison took over with her very detailed explanation of how she found out the names of the two girls who helped beat Eve. The judge regaled us with his charm offensive on Naomi the director of the after school place for teens. He also mixed in his stories from his past.

“I did leave out the stories about my time in prison,” he said. We all probably looked shocked. “Don’t worry it was nothing serious. I just separated some rich people from a little of their surplus money. The Judge saw my teaching them a lesson about greed, as fraud. Purely a misunderstanding. Of course they never could find all the money.”

“I’ll bet you returned about half of it for a reduced sentence,” I suggested.

“I see you do know the game,” The Judge replied. “It does seem my accounting practices were rather clumsy.”

“So how much got lost,” Alison asked. I would have expected such a question from Louise not Alison.

“I could never account for all of it, until I came up for parole. Do you have any idea how much money one can make with a two million dollars investment in oil futures, say over five years?”

I laughed first then they all joined in. “I’ll bet enough to retire comfortably,” I said when I stopped laughing.

“That would depend on what you call comfortably,” The Judge said.

“Okay, plan for tomorrow, if you are all in for one more day,” I suggested.

Well I am certainly in for another day at least,” Alison said.

“As am I,” Louise admitted.

“Here, here,” The Judge said.

‘‘First thing tomorrow, I have to do the research for a short range radio communication system. I might even take a look at some other things. So, what time do we want to begin our day together?”

“You and I are going to begin the day with our urban hike. Then anytime after 9:30AM,” Alison suggested.

“Ten in the morning or later suits me best,” Louise stated bluntly.

“I don’t function well until after lunch,” The Judge admitted.

“Okay when we decide what we want to find out, we can work out the best person for the job. Starting with me, we probably can’t interrogate Feral Cat without him running. He was 80% likely to have come up with the spare the rod and spoil the future wife plan. Even if the plan had only been in his head.”

“We could kidnap him and torture him,” the sexy Louise said with a dreamy look.

“Trust me Louise, you wouldn’t like prison,” The Judge said.

“We already know the names of the girls who did the beat down,” I said. “Actually we are in a pretty good place to turn it over to the cops.”

“Let’s take it to the parents first,” Alison suggested.

“We really need to know who committed the murder,” Louise demanded, then she added. “My money is on the sister.”

“You are nuts, it’s the Feral Cat,” The Judge said.

“Before we do anything let’s take a quick look at the father,” I suggested.

“There is absolutely nothing pointing to him,” Louise demanded.

“True, but we still need to clear him,” I said.

It was nine when we finished assigning jobs for the next day to each person. Actually we were planning to work in teams again.

“I decided if there are no objections, I would like Louise to help me tomorrow.” I decided that because of the way she conned the grocery manager. It wasn’t because I enjoyed looking at her rack, though I admit that I did.

“I have no objection to riding with you again,” Louise said.