Chapter 46

When we got back to McDonalds, Mikah and I left the Lincoln for the Hyundai. It wasn’t as cool, but I liked the Accent fine. It had a story. As was her training, Mikah took up the whole back seat, which was fine with me. After five miles I heard her snoring. It was so peaceful I almost forgot to watch my six. I saw the NC highway patrol car following me. I was in violation of only one traffic law. I hadn’t registered, or bought tags for the Accent as of yet. I couldn’t believe he was following me to give me a ticket for an out of date dealer tag.

I kept waiting, but the lights never began to flash. He did follow me all the way to Triboro. I pulled into the car wash before he rode past. It made no sense at all. Why would he follow me twenty five miles, just to do a drive by. I had no idea why anyone with the state highway patrol would want to send me a message. You know one of those, ‘we know who your are, and where to find you’, messages. The bad guys, maybe even the local cops, but why the highway patrol. I never had any dealing with them.

We got home in time for our walk before dinner. We might miss our after dinner walk. Mikah was happy for some different scenery. Hell so was I for that matter.

For dinner, I fixed a frozen dinner of mystery meet and instant potatoes. I shouldn’t have the gravy, but it was weight watchers. What the hell, I thought as covered my potatoes with it. I poured the last of the gravy over Mikah’s dinner. She liked weight watcher’s gravy, I decided. “No accounting for taste,” I mumbled as she licked her bowl clean.

It had only been two hours since our last walk, but I wanted to go out again. I put both revolvers in my cargo pants, and walked out the front door with Mikah beside me. I turned a corner and she got antsy. Like I told Gray, if she gets like that pay attention to her. Her hair was standing on end and she was at high alert. The car which followed me earlier pulled up beside me.

“How is your dog,” He asked. I could tell Mikah wanted to run to him. She was fighting herself to say still.

“If you want to pet her, I think it will be alright,” I said.

Officer Alvarez stepped out of his highway patrol cruiser. “Thanks Rogers, I owe you. I know Michelob must have turned your world upside down.”

“Not as much as you might think. Were you her partner?” I asked already to lose my cool.

“No my wife was. The same asshole who injured Michelob killed her. She wasn’t as lucky as our girl here. It happened almost a year ago. I was going to fight the boss for letting her go, but Cindy is one tough gal,” he said.

“Don’t I know it,” I said.

“I hope Michelob is helping you?” he asked.

“We are kind of helping each other. I like to think I have given her a purpose,” I said.

“I just wanted to meet you, and say thanks,” he said.

“Come back anytime,” I said.

“Now that I know she is aright. That’s all I wanted. Seeing her is too painful,” he said. Then he shook my hand and left. The man was going and I didn’t even get his name. Mikah knew him and that was enough. I didn’t need to know his name, in order to know him. The name I should have gotten was his wife’s killer. Whoever that was man, woman, or child had debt to pay. I was sure if I kept my ears open, I could fine out without anyone taking notice.

“Someday,” I promised Mikah before she fell asleep on my sofa.

While we walked the next day, I learned that if I kept tension on Mikah’s leash she could walk much better. Her leash was attached to harness not her collar. That could have been a rehab trick that no one bothered to teach me. It meant that I had to walk on her left side. Sometimes it meant I walked in the street so I could be on her left side. She was able to swing on the harness rather than hop along. Almost a month had gone by before I figured that one out.

After I walked, I checked to see if my super secret email set up by the geek had a message. There was none. The geek kept his own time. So Mikah and I were planning a trip to Durham. We got there in time to have lunch with Tonya. I called her first before I left home. It was to give her a head up just in case she had plans. It was a good thing I did because she had a project meeting.

“Hold a second,” she said putting me on hold. I almost shut the connection. “Okay I can’t get away, but I have someone else who is willing to sit down with you over lunch at McDonalds,” she said. “Then the boss wants to see you on the sound stage. He wants your take on the cheap motel set.”

“You have stayed in enough of them to describe one,” I said to Tonya.

“I know, but it doesn’t seem right,” she said. “If we fix anything it needs to be now.”

“Sure lunch at McDonalds, then check out the set. Is this just a way to keep me off the shooting set? I really won’t be offended it it is?” I suggested.

“Of course not, we all know that we can say anything we want to you. We just feel we have to maximize the time we have you. Everyone here respects you opinion. We also respect that we have to ask for it. You don’t walk around pontificating.” she said. She saw the blank look on me face. Then added, “You aren’t all full of yourself.”

“Actually, I probably am,” I said. “You just don’t notice because I’m not around so much. So who am I having lunch with today.”

“Don’t worry. It’s someone who will recognize you, even if you don’t recognize them,” Tonya said.

I didn’t even guess, I just hung up.

When we arrived at the Durham McDonalds, where we arranged most all our lunch meetings, I parked the even more noisy Accent. Then I walked Mikah over to a grassy area where she would hop along and to do her things. The clean up tool was in the car. But it wasn’t needed.