Chapter 19

I woke a little before six and quickly started coffee, showered, and dressed. When I walked onto the patio there were two detectives and three uniforms out there, all having coffee.

"Wow, is this a convention or does it take this many guys to take down a crippled up welder?" I said joking.

"We'd need the f'ing SWAT team if we had to bring you in. No, we're here to give you a heads up of what all went down last night. You noticed we had a little extra security around. They'll be around for a day or two, but I think you're all right. The feds raided two compounds or biker clubhouses last night. They confiscated enough dope and illegal firearms that none of the people arrested will be out for a few years. The feds have them all up for organized crime as well. We got the man that you were after and the rifle that was used on your friend. I'm sure there are stragglers out there, but we put a big dent in them."

Another guy showed me his FDLE badge and said, "Your friend Hap let us in his place the other night and we checked it out real good. He was clean. Do you think you could get your other friend to let us in his place? If we come up clean on both of those two places, I think we'll be able to stay off everyone's back for a while. As long as they act civil, we'll let them alone. What do you think?"

"I'll go ask. I know you can get warrants, but I appreciate that you're asking. Bear will recognize that and appreciate it as well. Why don't you give me your cell number so you guys can get out of here. There are people wanting coffee this morning and you're scaring them away. I'll call you in a little while."

As soon as the last car pulled away, the patio was full of the regulars. I had to give them a sanitized version of what was said. I told them to tell Sue that I had to go see Bear real fast, but would be back shortly. I quickly drove to the hospital and went up to his room. The uniform recognized me and let me in.

Bear and I had the conversation and he said, "Get me something to write with. The nurse's station gave me a yellow pad and a pen that I gave to Bear. He wrote the note and folded it up. "Give this to the gate guys. They're going to be busy for about fifteen minutes to a half hour. Wait for them to get back to the gate. Make sure you get this note back and destroy it after you have it back. Get it done and then call that guy and tell them go check us out. Thanks, this'll work."

On the way up to New Port Richey, I stopped by the house and picked up a breakfast sandwich, explaining to Sue that I had some travel to do yet. She wanted to come with me and I thought that wouldn't be bad, so she grabbed her big purse and we were gone.

Nelda was having a great time, drinking tea and having breakfast with all of the folks. A truck was pulling the trailer out of the slot where Nelda would live. This made her happy knowing our promises were being kept.

When I pulled up to Bear's clubhouse gate, I pulled sideways blocking the entrance and got out holding the note. One of the guards appeared and read the note. He waved at the other guard and he read the note. He sighed real big and said, "Wait here, this will take a bit."

Sue and I waited about twenty minutes before the two guards came back up the road. The one read the note again and handed it to me asking, "How long till the cops get here?"

I told them I didn't know whether they were staged, waiting for me to call or whether they would have to put a team together. I warned them that the cops would have dogs, but the guards said that was all right as Bear was nuts about anyone with dope on them. There might be some smoke, but nothing else.

Sue and I left, driving down the road, watching to make sure no one was at the barn that I pointed out to Sue, checking again once we were out on US19.

Once we were on the road, I asked Sue if she had her little scissors. I had her cut the note up into tiny pieces and put the pieces into the ash tray. I had her use the truck lighter to start the paper on fire and we watched the note disintegrate. Everything I had promised was done, so we pulled to the side of the road. I called the FDLE guy on my cell and told him that he was cleared to go into the club compound. He thanked me, and I just said, "Be nice, be gentle, show respect. It's all about respect."

He chuckled and said, "We will, I promise."

At home, Glenda said both Sue and I had several calls to return. Ben wanted to talk to both of us, so we called him first. "Good move. You're helping the great aunt of one of the commissioners, and he happens to sit on the zoning board. I'm not sure what all you've done, but it looks like I'll be able to make a deal on the front strip of property you wanted. Since the owner can't steal the old lady's property now, his isn't worth as much. I'll get it bought under the appraisal now. We have all the numbers, so you can begin presenting the numbers to the lady. This is going to be a great deal, I hope you let Beth and me in on it. This is really big."

I called the Major and found that he wasn't happy that we had kicked his daughter out when I thought there was danger. He said she was capable of taking care of herself. I calmed him down saying, "She didn't have her piece with her, and I've never seen her under fire. I like Mickey and would prefer she stayed in one piece while she's getting to know Sue and me." He agreed, but said she was driving today and to expect her later this afternoon.

The Major continued saying, "The FDLE had taken down some pretty heavy hitters, and you were correct to not trust the Pasco department. Several of their deputies were arrested in the raid. There will be more to this, but it looks like the bulk of it is off the street. And just think, you didn't have to shoot anyone this time."

All I could think of was, "Whew!"

I called the mobile home dealer and told him to deliver and set up the new trailer. He said it would be on its way. Martin was over at the site, cleaning up and mowing the weeds from around where the old trailer had been. There was a long pad there with a little patio pad outside. We would have to get an awning for Nelda.

A courier came to the patio with a bunch of documents. It was the copy of the appraisal and the tax liens. Nelda was watching and asked if this was about her place. I showed her the papers and she asked for a pencil and paper. There is always a big pad on the counter, so I got it and a couple of pencils and gave them to Nelda.

She carefully wrote down the appraisal amount then subtracted the amount of the liens. She looked up at me and asked, "Do you know how much lot rent is for that space?"

"You won't have any rent, Nelda. You can live here for as long as you want, at no cost," I said.

"I figured you were doing something like that, but how do I know it will last?"

I smiled, "Easy, I'll give it to you in writing, along with the title to the trailer."

"Oh yes, Steve, how much is that trailer?"

"It's my gift to you, Nelda, it's my way of apologizing to a citizen that has been badly treated. You'll be helping me far more than I will you."

Nelda nodded, looking over her numbers a while and said, "Do you know how to invest money so I get a regular amount every month?"

"I know someone who does. Sue's uncle does that for a living. We'll let him set you up. You shouldn't need much more than Social Security, I wouldn't think?" I said.

"I don't get Social Security. My husband, did but I only worked for a few years during the war," Nelda said as she looked back at her pad.

I became a little peeved, "Nelda, didn't anyone ever take you up to the Social Security office to find out about your widow benefits, and about any pension you might be eligible for?"

"No, all my close relatives are dead or they don't care. I haven't seen anyone out at the house for over a year. A man comes from the church to take me to the store with my food stamps and the little money I get from eggs."

"Hold it, Nelda did you say you make a little money from eggs?" I asked, thinking an injustice was being done.

"I sure do and I report it on my income tax form every year. Last year, I made almost forty-five hundred dollars. I'm going to have to get those chickens a new home but they have fed me for a long time."

I called Ben and said, "I want you to go down to the tax assessor's office and kick some butt. This lady is a farmer and she can prove it. She pays taxes every year for her egg income and has lived off of it exclusively for several years. I think this lady may be paid up on her taxes after all. Get it done Ben, you can do it, right now."

I looked over at Nelda and said, "Let's go to your house and get a copy of your income taxes for the last few years. While you're at it get a copy of your husbands death certificate and make sure you have your Social Security card. You and I are going to correct some things."

Nelda was almost weeping, "Does this mean that I can't move over here? Do you still want to buy my ground?"

"The deal is still good, Nelda, I just want to get you some honor and a few dollars." I said this wondering at how no one will help old people.

I called my other lawyer and asked him to meet me at the Social Security office. I asked Sue if she would follow me, and take the income tax forms down to Ben at the tax assessor's office. We took off and got Nelda's papers. Sue left for downtown, and I took Nelda to the Social Security office. I introduced her to the lawyer and told her he was going to get her a pension and some back money. I explained that she had her husbands SS card, as well as hers, and that he should investigate how much she was eligible for, since she had worked during the war, plus she had been paying taxes every year. I was sure she had been paying a minimum amount into the Social Security and Medicare fund annually.

Leaving Nelda with the attorney, who was going to bring her to my house when he was done, I went back to the park and found the new home being parked on the pad.

The team leader that had brought my house was there, so I asked him the magic question in my mind. "Can you take off the axle so you can set the house lower? This is for an old lady and the fewer steps she has to climb, the better. Could you do that?"

"Sure, we can do that. It'll cost you a couple of hundred, but we'll do it right now and level it up so she only has one small step. That's a good idea for older folks."

I pulled my wallet out and gave the leader a couple of hundreds and asked, "Even?"

"Sure thing," he said grinning and pocketing the two bills. "I'll even give you a nice little porch for her. It's a good deal."

Sue drove up with a big smile on her face. She said that Ben had been all over the assessor, as there was even a note in Nelda's file about the chickens. "The assessor said that four thousand a year off of six hundred acres didn't make much of a farm, but Ben had argued that it was a homestead farm and that it was the only farm income the lady could generate. He won and the assessor gave me this paid up tax receipt. The land is free and clear."

About ten minutes after Sue and I were having coffee, the attorney and Nelda came back. I invited the attorney to stay for lunch and went in to tell Glenda that we had an extra, besides Nelda.

The attorney said Nelda had past due payments since she had turned sixty-five herself as regular benefits, as well as her survivor's benefit from her husband since she was about seventy. She should start receiving a regular check for about a thousand dollars a month, plus a lump sum of near twenty thousand.

You could tell Nelda was pleased. "Did they bring my house yet?"

I answered, "They are setting it up right now. It has all the stuff you guys picked out. What you need now is to decorate it, and I know a lady that just loves to do that."

Glenda was coming out of the house with some bowls of soup. She put one down in front of Nelda and another in front of the attorney. Sue and I jumped up and helped carry everything else out. I went over to the new trailer to get Martin for lunch. When he came back he said, "Steve is so smart. He has the man out there taking off the axle to the trailer so it will set down lower. Only one step. I'm going to have him do that to ours if he thinks he can. That would be nice, especially when it's raining."

With a quick correction I said to Martin, "There is a downside, Martin. If you needed to move the trailer, you would have to mount the axle onto the rails and that could be difficult and expensive."

"You're right, it would be harder. It just seems like such a good idea though. Nelda, you're lucky to have this guy on your side."

The attorney raised his head from his soup, "You sure are, Nelda. I've never felt like more of a real lawyer, an advocate for people than I did this morning. I used my knowledge to help someone. Thanks, Steve, this was a great morning."

Nelda was excited, "Well, all you young people are just wonderful to me. Thank you for helping me. Now I have to decorate, get my stuff over here and find a home for my chickens."

"I have an idea, Nelda," having a thought about a remote clubhouse that I knew of. "I have some friends up in New Port Richey that would probably like to have your chickens and chicken house. I'll find out, and get them to move both right away."

The day was going well; why not make it even better? I called Hap and told him my idea. He said it sounded good to him. I told him to have Bear's second get a pickup and meet me at my place with at least two more strong guys. He said it would be done.

I told Nelda the chickens would be moved this afternoon. This made her happy knowing another problem had been taken care of.

Tiny called and asked me, "Are you ready to give your presentation? The zoning commission is calling a special meeting to clear up something for the airport. We can get our request in for tonight if you'll do it."

"Not a problem, we can do it," I said confidently. "Perhaps even Nelda will come along. Do you have those drawings and overhead photos? I want to use the drawing with the traffic light for the cross street to the restaurant. That will convince them that we have considered the whole project. I think that drawing even shows a fire hydrant. It'll be perfect."

Sue and the attorney picked up on what was happening and asked if he should draw up some kind of agreement while he was there so Nelda could sell us the property, pending the completion of the title search. Sue said, "I have the title search document."

The attorney took the lead then, "Well then, since the appraisal and survey have been completed, all we have to do is write up an agreement and give Nelda a check and the deal is done." He turned to the lady. "Nelda, can I write up a sales agreement for your property so they can pay you for it?"

Nelda answered happily, "Write it up young man, we'll go to the bank, and put the money away."

Sue called Ben to see if he had put the money that she had requested into her account. He had, so Sue went inside the house to get her checkbook. The lawyer went inside to use one of Sue's computers to type up a simple contract. Fifteen minutes later, Sue was handing Nelda a check and we all had signed the document. Martin and Glenda witnessed our signatures and the land deal was done. Nelda looked at her check with tears in her eyes.

Nelda looked up at me and said, "In two days I went from being so scared I wouldn't have any place to live or money to eat, to this, sitting with friends, with a check for an unheard of amount of money. Everything so far is exactly as you've said it would be. You have really been a friend, thank you."

We cleaned up the lunch stuff, and I asked Glenda if she would help Nelda decorate. She said she would call Alice and let her drive them around later. First though, Nelda was going to show me what she wanted brought to her new house from the old place.

We waited till some scruffy looking guys pulled up in a pickup truck. I told them to follow me. With Nelda and Sue, we drove over to Nelda's, and, first things first, Nelda had the guys chase the chickens into the house while she gathered what eggs were inside.

What a sight. Three burly biker types chasing chickens around in circles until the chickens were all in the chicken house. I laughed out loud and received some dirty looks. I just told them that if they could see the action from my point of view, they would laugh too.

Then Nelda directed them to just pick the whole thing up and put it into their truck. They did. Nelda got a big bag of grain out of the barn and gave it to them, telling them how much to feed every day. She thanked them for taking the chickens, and we went into the house. She told the bikers to make sure they mixed the chicken manure into the dirt for their garden real well, as it was very rich. Nelda placed a couple of dozen eggs on the porch in her gathering basket.

I received a shock when we went into the house, it was almost empty. On the floor in the living room were only eight big boxes. There were no pictures on the walls or knick knacks on the tables. Everything was bare.

Nelda saw our surprised look, "They were going to throw me out, so I've sold everything I could, and packed up everything that was important. I have a couple of unmentionables in the drawers I'll just get, and I'm out of here. Do you think you can wrestle that old swivel rocker into your truck? I'd like to have that, the little table, and the lamp. That's all I want from the place."

While I put the chair, table, lamp, and the boxes in the pickup, Sue was helping Nelda pack up the few things in her drawer and closet. I carried the last of boxes out and Nelda motioned for me to follow her to the barn. "Inside is a bunch of old equipment. There's an old tractor and all the tools my husband used to use. No one ever wanted to give me a price on it, but it's yours now."

When she opened the door, she showed me an old iron wheel tractor and several really old pieces of equipment. Several were implements that had been originally pulled by a team, but were converted so they could be pulled by a tractor. Abe would get a kick out of this stuff. He'd probably want to restore it all and give it to the county agriculture people for their museum.

I drove Nelda to her new place and hauled everything inside. Glenda already had some curtains up in the bedroom and the living room. They still needed something for the big sliding glass door. There were some throw rugs over the carpet in front of some of the furniture. The place was gaining character. I put the kitchen boxes in the kitchen and the bedroom boxes in the bedroom. There were three boxes that were her keepsakes that she would want in the living room. I left Nelda with Glenda and Alice, knowing they would become instant friends.

This move was done. I told everyone I would see them at supper and drove down to the shop. I made sure Tiny had all the drawings for the presentation for tonight, and that Ben would be there. I went back to get Abe and told him I had a nice surprise for him. He would need the big flatbed that had the hooks for the forklift. It was three PM, but I thought we could get the stuff out of there quickly. He brought a couple of his men and followed me out to Nelda's house.

When I opened the big barn doors, I thought Abe would drool. He looked over everything, and got the forklift down, and was able to maneuver the tractor out of the barn using the lift to get it up onto the truck. He then stacked all the implements on the truck and tied everything down. We spent another thirty minutes loading up my truck with old hand tools that were hanging on the walls. The place was a gold mine of historic tools. I told the two guys with us that if they wanted to look at the house that they could have anything in there. The one guy looked all over the house and asked how much I would sell him the house for.

When I figured out he meant to move it, I told him that it was his if he moved it. He asked if he could take down the barn too and I easily agreed. He said the place was perfect for his little piece of land. He said the move wouldn't cost that much, as his brother moved houses and this one would be easy to move as it was small. I told him I would write up an agreement so it would be legal.

I took the hand tools back to the house to put in my workshop for right now, and Abe took his new toys to the shop to play with in the near future. Nelda was moved and the usable buildings were being taken care of.

Nelda, Sue, and a surprise guest, Mickey, were going to go to the zoning meeting with us, so we ate early and left in Tiny's big Expedition to go downtown.

The Commission room was pretty formal, with nice seats for the spectators and applicants. The members were all sitting at a big semicircle desk with microphones in front of them, shuffling papers.

The first thing was the rezoning of a single piece of property, just east of the airport, for an air cargo related building. They rubber-stamped it. They called for applicants and Ben stood.

"We are here to make a final proposal on the rezoning of the stated land in the packages you have been given. Twice before, the two pieces of land have been in a request to be rezoned individually. This time a single developer wishes to develop the entire one thousand acres. He has just assisted the landowner on the last of the property to make her taxes current, and to provide her with a fine home that she wanted nearby. She is even here this evening to support the developer.

"I would like to introduce Steven Sharp of S&S Enterprises."

I stood up, put my drawings on the stand that was there and began, "I've been fortunate to be able to acquire this property and wish to develop it into a group of businesses that will be blended into the trees and ponds of the whole land. The front of the main land will have a Holiday Inn Express, with a Perkins restaurant across the street. I'm sure, in time, more restaurants will build in the area. All the way in the back of this property will be a truck body building facility that will produce truck bodies that are proven to save two to four miles per gallon of fuel. To date, the sales have been terrific. But I need more space to hire more people, to produce more product. This place will employ about one hundred people when complete and in full production.