Chapter 9

We were up and working out early. I was thinking that I would like a little more of a workout like last night's, but kept right on walking on that damn treadmill. It was a pleasure to get back to lifting some weights, followed by demonstrating how to skip rope with a fake leg. I still need a real peg leg for sports and some fun things.

We swam hard for almost thirty minutes, until Bobby caught my good ankle and said, "Will you stop, for crying our loud. Jesus, we quit ten minutes ago." It took me five minutes to breathe regularly, but I had finally outlasted Bobby.

We took showers and I was the only one to get ready to go to work. Both girls were getting an incident day. The duty guys ate with us, teasing me about how I now had women doing my captures. Yada, yada, yada. The Magnum was fine in morning traffic, but I wish it had wings so I wouldn't have to fight all the other cars.

I stopped for donuts, thinking that Sarah wouldn't have time since Dave was back. Well, what do you know? Sarah had donuts, the new girl, Marie, bought donuts thinking the same thing about Dave that I did, and I bought donuts too, so we invited the entire building to come help eat up our extras this morning. I made sure Marie got her money returned from petty cash.

The briefing was pretty loose this morning. After the air guys were gone, I held up two jobs. One was a prisoner transport that should be textbook, and the other was an escapee who was probably sleeping at his mother's house right under our noses. Three guys took the transport and three guys took the capture. I assigned the others to help Sarah do the detective work that she was so deeply involved in.

John called about nine, telling me, "The politicos have heard about the mess we have and want some heads. I keep telling them that they have to wait until we find all the connections. They don't want to wait. How about inviting the D.C. bunch down for some fun in Tampa? Take them out to the reservation to that casino you have. Find them some whores, anything, but keep them out of my hair for a bit."

I thought for a few minutes, then said, "Send them all to St. Louis for a meeting down in Branson. I'll try to arrange a charter bus for them. Go take a poll and see if it would be better if they bring their wives or if they came down on their own."

John was back with me within fifteen minutes. "Man, you hit a nerve. They all think bringing their wives would be a good thing. Can you get reservations and everything that fast?"

"Do I have a budget or can I just make it happen?"

John said, "Make it happen."

I did the calling, and whenever I heard a hesitation, I said, "There is no reason to ever say no to your federal government when they say price is not an object."

They all kept agreeing. I reserved all the rooms and called John back. "Do you want to invite some of the Bureau because we've found a bunch in their group too? I'd bet they are sweating bullets the same as we are."

"Damn good idea, Chuck. Let me find out how many."

I added, "Don't send them, I'll have the charter service come get them. Call me back with the final number."

I needed twelve more rooms and when I called back, I told them straight up, that if we have to displace patrons, we will pick up the tab of their rooms wherever you place them. This is important, as I need these guys together in one place. I'm going to beat them up during the day and you need to loosen them up at night. I don't want a minute of their time to be free. Every wife, or whoever they bring, needs to get a make over every day while they are there."

"The manager/owner of the resort asked, don't you have a budget?"

"Whatever I can't scrape up from drug busts, I'll do some more down in Texas and bring you what it takes. I just need these guys to enjoy their time there, and that means their ladies have to be happy too."

The man said, "Tell you what, I think I get the drift of what you're doin' here. How about I give you two hours in the morning to brief these guys and two hours in the afternoon to do some more. I'll keep them either drunk or well-fucked, but happy one way or the other, during the other twenty hours a day. You give me this figure and you got yourself a deal."

"Done," I said.

He replied, "Done."

I called S&S Air Charter to have them pick everyone up and get them to Branson, Missouri. The lady from S&S said, "No problem, we'll have to use a couple of other G5s, but we'll get it done."

I asked the Bureau chief if I could borrow Jan for some high level schmoozing and he said I could borrow his entire staff to keep D.C. off his back.

Before I left the office, Sarah told me to take my laptop and printer, and that she would keep me posted on what kind of shit we kept finding.

To get the ball rolling, I drove home where I told Bobby to get ready, that we were going on a butt kissing mission. When I told her that Jan was coming, she licked her lips. I smacked her on the butt, and she gave me a kiss instead of being mad. Jan was still hanging with Bobby so I told her she was detailed to me for a couple of days. She would need some dressy clothes and some normal work clothes but plan on five days.

I wanted to be there early, so I asked S&S if they could fly three of us up there right away, and all you ever hear from these folks was as soon as you get here to the air park, we'll be in the air. As soon as Bobby was packed and Jan had gone home to return with her bag, we flew in some kind of a turboprop plane that must have been fast, as it seems we just took off and we were landing in Branson. Perhaps it was the full bar they had that made the trip so short.

The resort owner thought I must be his long lost brother as he damn near kissed me. His place was first class, and he was preparing all his people to do a hell of a job for me. I dumped a suitcase full of drug money on his desk and left him counting it as the three of us were checked into a very nice executive suite. We were hungry, so we called for room service. A bellhop brought us some roast beef sandwiches with the juice to dip them in, and wouldn't accept a tip. He said the owner/manager said he had it covered. There must have been more than I thought in that suitcase.

We toured Branson that night, checking out the bull rides and the girls that danced on the bars. When we got bored, we went back to the room to do some more exploring about what this nutty relationship was becoming.

As soon as we were awake, with coffee and functioning, we began putting together several presentations about the different problems that we had run into, and the actions that were being taken by the various offices and the justice department.

We did an after discovery evaluation of what damage may have been done to both the marshal's service and the Bureau, then listed some actions we could take to make things right.

We did six complete presentations that were going to be hosted by both Bobby and Jan. Each would talk about their respective entities, then jointly work out the details of what we were going to do.

John called me on my cell phone, asking, "What the fuck are you doing? All the politicos are flying out on some private jets for Branson, Missouri. I know that almost all of the brass over at the Bureau is going too. What's up? What are you really up to?"

First I had to remind him that this was all his suggestion and I was only fulfilling what he asked for. I gave him a brief summary of what we were doing and that it was being done to distract the bigwigs while those that did the work could and would get the rest of the job done.

"How are you paying for this?"

"You gave me a nice office budget."

"No way, this is costing a bundle. Tell me, give."

"I'm using a suitcase full of drug money that we never figured out what to do with."

"Oh no, what if someone asks about it?"

"Asks about what?"

"Can I come down and see what's going on?"

"Sure, John, I was planning on you being there, do you want me to send my Lear for you?"

"Your Lear? Where did you get a Lear?"

"Actually, it belongs to an air charter service that I'm working with."

"Will it cost me?"

"Only favors."

"Send it, I owe you anyway."

With a smile in my voice, "I told you my idea and you said to make it happen. It's happening."

John groaned.

I called S&S and told them to go to D.C. and pick up a VIP and fly him to Branson. They gave me the time and I called John back.

"Call your wife and tell her to have you both packed and ready to leave at two this afternoon. Tell her to be ready to be pampered like she's never been pampered in her life. Oh yeah, the Lear has a nice bar. See you this evening."

"Hey, the other guys aren't leaving till tomorrow, why am I coming before them?"

"So we can party a little before we have to kiss so many asses. Just do what I tell you, and act like you're my boss."

"Fuck you." He hung up on me.

I was grinning when Jan asked, "Do you always talk to your superiors like that?"

"Depends on whether they're worth talking to. You'll like John. I've never met his wife, but I'll bet she's a treat. Let's work on these presentations a little more and get them perfect. We have to make sure they have a projector too. We need to write a script in case we get tongue tied."

We had the hotel get an executive suite ready for John and his wife, then begged a limo to go get him. The owner/manager said, "Do want some of that money back? Christ, you gave more than twice what we agreed on."

"It's yours. Tip your staff so they know the guys that are here are worth taking care of. Make sure the women are taken care of. Make sure everyone has a good time. Feed us good, give them lots to drink, slip all the women some Spanish fly so those guys will get some and we're even. Oh yeah, we need a good projector in the meeting room that I can hookup to my laptop. We need one of those viewers too that you lay the page down and it projects on the screen."

"I figured on all that. It's up and tested. We'll have a tech with you the whole time. We have some snacks for a break. Decide whether you want to break more often than an hour at a time. That's usually all the information they can take. The morning sessions can be shorter between breaks as everyone has been drinking a lot of coffee. Your heart patients are all taking Lasix or some other diuretic so they are in need of pissing every fifteen minutes anyway. So let's figure a break at thirty minutes, an hour, and at an hour and a half in the morning. The afternoon will be just one break after an hour."

"Super, guy, I like the way you think. Okay, girls, lets go get John."

The Lear landed and pulled up next to a block long limo the resort gave us. John came out, leading a most striking very dark skinned lady that looked like she had a hint of oriental in her. He introduced her as Kenisha, giving her a loving look. She gave us a dazzling smile and said she was pleased to meet us.

In the limo, we chatted and Kenisha asked which of my ladies was my number one wife. Bobby and Jan almost burst out laughing. John was blushing, unable to speak. Bobby began, "We are not married yet, but it is a possibility. I don't think there is a number one or number two, but I met Chuck first. Jan would definitely make a great number two wife."

Jan was blushing now, and I was ready to crawl under the seat. Kenisha said, "I've tried to find John a number two wife for three years, but he is so picky that he keeps turning them away. You are lucky to have such an accommodating husband."