Chapter 38

Beep, beep, beep, beep

My cell phone was making the alarm noise so I looked at the time, eleven-thirty. I stretched, scratched, and headed to the bathroom. The room had one of those miniature coffee makers, so I made a packet of coffee to drink while I did my triple S and dressed. I put my vest back on, even though I didn't think I would need it, before packing my stuff to leave if I could get out later.

I was downstairs in the lobby at five till noon, greeted by a smiling, refreshed, Hal. "Morning, Hal. It is still morning isn't it?"

He nodded and smiled, "We can eat here or how about a little place just up the street. They'll serve me breakfast anytime. You'll like it."

As soon as we walked into the little restaurant, a round, smiling, Mexican woman quickly came to hug Hal. "How's my Hal this beautiful day? You make me smile to have you with us. And who have you brought with you, a man for mi nina?"

Hal said, "She means her baby girl. That's her over by the back counter. No baby anymore."

A dark-eyed beauty with black hair came from the back counter to give Hal a hug, "Tio, you don't come see me enough. Since Tia is gone, you stay away too much." She looked at me and asked Hal, "Did you bring me a man Tio? Is he the one like you? Can I have him?"

"The man may have someone, Maria. He's here to help us with some pandillero that have caused us trouble. He comes to us from Florida."

Maria smiled at me and offered her hand. "Pleased to meet you,,,,, "

"Chuck Johnson, Ma'am."

"Pleased to meet you, Chuck Johnson. Mi Tio Hal keeps telling me he will bring me my man, but he doesn't. You're not my man, are you?"

"I could only wish, Maria. I do have a wonderful woman in Florida."

Maria's eyes flashed, "I could be your wonderful woman in California. You could visit me often and give me babies. I'm going to be old and ugly before Mi Tio brings me my man."

Hal was embarrassed for me, as I'm sure he didn't expect the two ladies would be so aggressive. He announced, "Please chica lindas we are two hungry men who worked all night and have just woken up. Bring some food for us. Do you want to feed us in the kitchen so you have tables for your lunch people?"

The older woman hugged Hal again and took him by the arm, glancing at me and nodding for me to follow. We went through the kitchen doors to a large table at one end of the kitchen. She sat us down and kissed Hal, "You must think of me now, my Hal. Mi hermana has been gone over two years. I am the perfect woman for you and will make you happy for the rest of your life. Please Hal, do think of me. I am a young woman and still need a man."

When she left, Hal said, "Sorry about the rush from those two. I don't come in as often as I should because of it, but I do love them both dearly. Juanita is my wife's sister. My wife passed away almost two years ago and Juanita thinks she should be my wife now. The two women were very close and even look so much alike that it's scary, but I don't know whether that would be the right thing. Poor Maria really is waiting for me to find the right man for her. I guess I do need to start the interview process for her. She is a beauty, isn't she?"

We ate some excellent concoction of rice, cornmeal, eggs, some kind of meat, and lots of coffee. Juanita and Maria checked on us every couple of minutes, but were kept busy with their midday meal customers. When we were done, I was going to offer to pay, but Hal said, "They would be offended. I will take them out some evening soon. Looking at Juanita does get my juices going. I guess I should make an effort to see her more often. Are you sure you're taken? Maria is a beautiful woman and as pure as snow."

"I'm sure, Hal. Let's go to the station and check in. I'm interested in what the local intelligence may have."

On our way out, Hal let himself be surrounded by Juanita and kissed well enough they were both a little dizzy. Maria came up to me as they were kissing and said, "See, they are going to be lovers. Don't you want to join them? I'm a good chica."

I smiled and gave her a one armed hug before following the dazed Hal through the door.

At the station, several deputies were changing clothes getting ready to relieve Bureau men guarding the Federal building. They were dressing with a vest and a combat vest complete with both law enforcement tools and weapons.

I called the Bureau office to see if the Chief was in, and he was. I asked, "Did you go home for some rest?"

"I did, I live in the same condo as Hal does. It's a half a block away."

I asked the Chief, "Can you call that intelligence group to find out if they've heard anything?"

He answered, "Already did. The only thing they have is that some big shots from Cuevo cartel are now locked up and there are no other leaders available right now to do anything about it. I think we should transport every one of the players from this fiasco to Florence as quick as possible. The lawyers won't get in easily and when these men are confronted with more than twenty years, they may begin talking."

I counseled, "That call is up to you and the Deputy Station Chief. You two talk it over and decide. If you're going to transport, do it quickly and with some heavy guard. When you get it done, spread the word on the street."

I handed the phone to the Marshal's Station Chief and headed for the coffee pot. Hal pointed at some semi-stale donuts, but I passed. "After the meal I just had, I don't think an old donut would go very well."

Hal said, "The way Juanita would feed me would probably make me fat within a couple of months. If we were to get together, I would bet she would sell the restaurant. She started it when her man was killed in the drug wars of the early nineties. She raised three kids and now only has Maria left. She is a good woman."

Hal and I watched as the Chief began organizing the transport of the prisoners at the Federal building. He was pulling ten men and the Bureau was pulling ten. They were planing on two cars, one to lead and one to chase using only two prisoner transport buses with eight guards on each.

The men were staging to leave, so I walked out and told them, "Remember friends of these people have already tried twice to free them. You are directed to protect our property and to maintain custody of your prisoners at all costs. You are not bound by any restrictions on firing your weapons. Be careful and be safe."

After watching them leave, I went to a desk and called John in D.C. He said, "I've been briefed on the confrontation you had last night. The Pentagon is having a cow about us using a bunch of bloodthirsty Marines to help, but overall, I think you pulled another inter-service win out of your hat. Your Marines are off on a mobile transport training mission and your other Marines are receiving a civilian homeland protection citation for their training mission. Good job. Are you going to send the rest of the prisoners to Florence?"

"The group transporting them is staging right now over at the Federal building. This should take the danger out of the local situation quickly."

John said, "As soon as the prisoners are out of the city, go home. Considering your lack of sleep, you might want to take a day off if you want. Hopefully, there won't be another crisis that I have to send you on right away."

"Thanks, John, I'll alert my pilot so he can be ready in an hour or so. That company has really been good to us and has answered our needs very well."

John laughed, "Better than our own plane. Every time I need it, it's gone somewhere for some bullshit flight. That thing used to be for my exclusive use, but when you didn't claim it, the whole service feels as if they can use it to go to lunch. I wish we had a charter as good as yours. If we did, I'd sell the plane and just use the charter."

I advised John, "I'll call you tomorrow to see what you have working. Oh, did you get those budget numbers? They are about ten percent under your forecast, and if my estimations are correct, we should be able to lop off another eight to ten percent."

"Your numbers are perfect, Chuck. If you really think we can live with those numbers, I'll lock them in and you can use the other eight to ten percent for bonuses or incremental funds if you need them. Just don't declare excess budget funding or they'll audit you to hunt for more to cut."

I hung up and called John, the pilot. He said the plane was ready to go, so all I had to do was to tell him to meet me at the airport.

Wanda said that the day had been very quiet so far with very little correspondence or e-mails. I told her it looked like I would be home around midnight eastern time, depending on how soon I could leave.

At two o'clock, we got the word the transport had left. I called John, the pilot, and had Hal take me out to the airport.

Before I left the station, I chatted with the Station Chief about Hal. The Chief thought he was doing Hal a favor by giving him the nothing jobs. I convinced him that Hal was a real deputy and enjoyed doing his job. He was in good health and would be an asset to any duty. He promised to give Hal some of the prisoner transports and put him on some escapee teams.

We had to stop at the hotel to get my bag and check out. When I noted that I was going to be charged for the night, I asked if the room was going to be rented tonight. The smart ass desk jockey said, "Of course it will. We'll get double for it now that you're gone."

I asked for the manager, and an older gentleman came out to see me. I introduced myself and asked, "Do you get much Federal business?"

"Oh yes Sir, perhaps twenty percent of our total revenues are from the government."

"Would it hurt your hotel if you didn't get that business any longer?"

"That twenty percent is important to our profitability. Of course it would hurt."

I motioned him over to me, "I feel you are overcharging for your services and will be looking for other places to stay. Your desk person indicated that my stay inconvenienced the hotel a great deal, and now he had the chance to double book the room. Since you will be booking the room again and not having to clean it the second time, as you haven't cleaned it the first time yet. I don't think I should have to pay for tonight. Since it is within my overall budget responsibility, I'm going to recommend we find other lodging. Can you change my mind?"

The man was surprised and couldn't say anything then he half closed his eyes and fished around in his pocket, he spoke in almost a whisper, "How much do you want? How much to let this thing go and not cause any trouble?"

"Easy," I answered aloud. "Don't charge me for tonight and negotiate a better rate for lodging."

"No, I mean how much do you want personally to just forget this?"

"Okay," again I was loud, "I do not want, nor would I accept, a kickback or bribe. You will credit my room for tonight and you will negotiate a better price for lodging. Any less, and I will make sure we change facilities. Don't offer government employees money for a bribe or kickback ever again. If I find out, I can make it happen that you will go to prison."

I turned and walked out, very pissed at how people just assumed you were holding them up for personal benefit.

John met me at the airport, already finished with the preflight inspection. After taking off my vest, I put my bags in the back, and pulled the door closed as he slid into his seat. I climbed into the right seat, took the card from John, and began the checklist. Twenty minutes later we were in the air on the way home.

The trip went by fast, with John having me mess with the navigational equipment, but never letting me change the original settings he had put in. We had a decent tailwind all the way, helping us to touch down right at eleven-fifteen. He pulled the plane up to the hangar door turning it around before shutting down.

As we were getting our bags out, John said, "Keep in mind that this place is going to be short on some aircraft later this week. We might have a turbo prop twin available, but the Lear and both G5s are committed. I can't believe we actually bought or leased anther G5 with the economy the way it is. So far so good though, as a lot of corporations are selling their airplanes. They still need to go places; it just won't be in their own equipment."

We agreed that I would call him for a schedule for my instrument training.

I was able to let myself in at the house just after midnight. The house was quiet, but as I brought my bag into the bedroom and found no one in that bed, Bobby came walking into the bedroom with a glass containing ice and liquid in it. "Brought you a Beefeater, Honey. I'll bet you could use one."

Bobby gave me the bone crunching hug I was expecting with an equally tooth shattering kiss. When she put me down, she handed me the drink and said, "Take a quick shower, Honey. Wanda and I are in her room talking. I, or we, will be in shortly."

The drink relaxed me and the shower just about finished it. I sat on the bed and lay back for a second.

I had big Bobby on one shoulder and Wanda on the other, nice. It was nice to have the two snuggled up to me, but I needed to pee. I slipped from bed to go to the bathroom, catching sight of the clock, five fifty-nine. Before using the bathroom, I pushed the off button on the alarm.

While I was peeing, another alarm in the bedroom went off. I didn't know we had, or needed, another alarm clock. When I went back into the bedroom, both ladies were sitting on the side of the bed. Bobby said, "I need another hour or two. When you're gone Wanda and I stay up too late and last night we were involved in a conversation and when we came in here, you were zoned. We moved you all over the place and you didn't even flinch."

Wanda said, "I can tell when you are really tired. You relax so well in the bed with us, as soon as we snuggle up to you, your breathing even changes."

"What's with the other alarm," I asked? "Do we need two?"

Wanda answered, "When you are gone, we end up trying to talk all night and we don't want to get up. The second alarm tells us to get going."

As I slipped on my peg leg I said, "I need to swim a couple of minutes for some exercise. Anyone coming?"

Bobby and Wanda didn't bother with clothes either and followed me out the back door to the pool. We were swimming laps at a moderate pace when Marie cannonballed in front of me, followed by Jan who stirred up the water equally. After both gave me a quick kiss, we resumed swimming until I felt worn down enough to relax outside the pool.

Bobby and Wanda carried me to the outdoor shower where we did a mutual scrubbing job. Being surrounded by Bobby and Wanda is an exciting way to start the day. Both are special looking women. It made me feel as if I was a king.

At breakfast, Marie told me that the Steve Sharp's nephew, Dennis, was taking her out to a baseball game after work. Marie was telling us confidentially, "Dennis treats me like a lady, but when I'm with him, I don't want him to. We seem to be so compatible it's scary, but I know it's silly to think that way."

Bobby told her, "That's the way I was with my first husband. We met one day and two days later I was writing my name and his last name together to see how it looked. I became close like that with Chuck, too. We were together only a couple of days and I just knew we were going to be an item. I keep telling myself, no more marriage, but Chuck is in my head constantly."

Wanda took me aside to privately tell me, "I have a contractor coming by this morning with a proposal to enlarge the garage. Last night when I found out you would be here this morning, I gave him a call. He's taken measurements and says that he has some suggestions. I'm sure you're allowed to take a few hours off this morning for a personal matter."

"Wanda, can I afford to build on to the house? The house payment isn't that big, not much more than what an apartment would be, but I'm not sure of what my total expenses are."

"Don't worry, Chuck, the rent the four of us are kicking in, easily takes care of the house expenses. With Angie here now, it will be that much more. I think all the girls will tell you that we are better off financially than we've ever been. I know I'm putting a lot into savings every check. If you want, we can have a house meeting one of these evenings to make sure everyone feels good about how we have it set up."

"That would probably be a good idea, if for nothing else, than to make me feel good about it. So is Angie moved out here now?"

"She's moved completely now, but spent last night with her mom and dad. She says she will spend a night with them every couple of weeks so they know she's still their daughter."

The only one who didn't drive this morning was Marie. Jan was driving more now since she was Assistant Station Chief and had more responsibilities and Bobby had places to go every day. Wanda drove today as I was going in later.