The Last Police Chief
Chapter 8

Copyright© 2018 by MysteryWriter

I had spent the previous week taking my urban hikes, and watching the lobby plants in The Haven grow. It was obvious that there was too much heat in the place. If they weren’t watered every single day the green plants turned brown. It seemed that the old people did better, than the green plants, in the heated atmosphere. Probably why the majority of people over fifty welcomed global warming. I know I laughed at it.

The only constructive thing I did all day, every day, was to ride around on my scooter. I was learning my way around my new hometown. I also mentally cataloged any unusual houses.

Then I looked on line for the latest in budget renovation ideas. It was a totally boring week in other words. While I goofed off, Alison continued to work on her book the ‘Murder of Eve’. Since she didn’t ask me, and I was no longer giving her advice, I tried paying her no attention at all.

Alison continued to ask me questions daily, it was hard to ignore her completely. It was always Little things like what caused me to zero in on this or that. It was on the third day after the big blow up that I realized I had been her adviser longer than I realized. I was more involved in her murder mystery than I had realized. It was also the day that I confronted her.

“Alison how long have you been taping our conversations?” I asked as we walked early in the morning chill.

“To be honest from the beginning. I felt like it was my payment for helping you rub your son in laws nose in it,” she said. “So are you going to stop our morning walks?”

“I definitely should, but as long as I live in The Haven, and you want to walk with me, you are welcome to come along and tape whatever I say,” I agreed.

“Thank you, your dialogue is so much better than mine,” she suggested.

It was how so much of my dialogue wound up in the story. That was also the point at which we formed our new relationship. I no longer confided in her, but I did answer her questions honestly. Okay not all her questions, and not exactly honestly. I tried to shade everything that I told her, so that it did the least amount of damage. In other words, I began to think about how I wanted things told. It dawned on me that it was as open and honest as I was with anyone.

I also still saw Louise and The Judge around the facility, so I interacted with them as much as I had before. Which on reflection wasn’t that much. I knew that they were not a romantic couple, but were a couple none the less.

It was eight calendar day from the blow up, that the Realtor called and advised that I could close on the car wash the next day, if I wished. I did wish of course. The Realtor read off a long list of expenses. Then he finally got to the amount of money I needed to bring along. The amount of cash I needed to pay off everyone on my end was “$38,432. It wasn’t a huge amount, but to me it was still a lot of money. So on the ninth calendar day, I showed up with my debit card in hand. I had done some movement of funds the night before, so that the closing day’s transfer would be good. I actually made sure that I had enough money to cover the total projected expenses including all the renovations as well.

The closing went off as planned. It was unusual, when you got two men and a woman, all in business suits together and there were no surprises. That day the planets aligned or something because there weren’t any hiccups. I went in at 1PM and at 2PM I was drinking coffee at the waffle house with Tom Jones the builder.

“So what do you want to do first?” he asked me.

I want to close in those bays so the rain and winds won’t damage it further. It will also allow the trades to work in a more secure environment.

“That makes sense,” he agreed. “I guess you want an estimate of the costs for doing that?”

“Of course I do,” I replied. “Why don’t we do this. You meet me at Lowe’s Home Improvement store. Bring a list of materials to do the job. You can give me a preliminary labor cost for the things I mentioned. We can call that a deposit on the total labor coste. I will of course pay for all the material.”

He wanted two hundred a day for his son and himself. He figured it was a three day job so far. So I told him I’d stop at the bank on the way to Lowe’s and have the cash ready for him.

“Unless you have some reason not to want to go there, why don’t you pick out the two doors and your six windows. I’ll do a rough list of framing and siding materials. Then you can order it all and have it delivered,” Tom suggested.

He specified that I order pre-hung doors, and windows. He also specified a certain brand of vinyl siding. I went home to order the materials. I had them delivered to my car wash on Saturday afternoon. I dressed in an extra layer of warm clothing and rode the scooter to meet the truck. I drank coffee from my thermos while I waited. By the end of day or Saturday everything was on site for work to begin on Monday. I had it stored in one of the interior bays and covered with plastic sheeting material. The day was pretty much shot, so it was a good thing that Monday was the planned start of work.

First thing Sunday morning Alison and I walked by the car wash. Everything looked the same as it had Saturday afternoon. I felt pretty good about that. I made the decision to invite Alison, Thia, Ray, and Jon to have lunch with me in the dining room at The Haven. I figured Thia deserved to see the face which one day might turn her world upside down. I was pretty sure she had the wrong idea about the lunch, but she always did. She probably thought Alison was my new love interest. The earth shaking I had in mind was when ‘Murdering Eve’ became widely available in some format. I was pretty sure that it would be published, even if it were a vanity publishing company who picked it up. It would at least get a wide local audience.

Of course if that were the case, there would be no royalties to share. I would be good with that, as I had never profited from anyone’s death. That wasn’t strictly true, but I didn’t count insurance payouts as profiting. They were really delayed returns on investments.

I was as nervous as a wino without a bottle, when I got the call from Thia around noon. She said that she was pulling into the guest parking area. I went down to meet her outside the front door. I noticed that when she left the car it was empty. It was obvious that Ray and Jon had opted out of the invitation. I couldn’t say that I blamed them.

“Good morning,” I said as I hugged her.

 
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