Chapter 44

"Aren't they so sweet?"

"Look how Brandy's almost laying on him."

"Do you think they did it last night?"

"Why don't you guys leave for a few minutes? I have a special way to wake him up."

"We might have a special way to wake him up too."

"I'm scared to death of him, but I just love him to pieces. I'll just have to think of what could have been. My big one-legged white man that got away."

I opened my eyes to find Jan and Angie accompanied by Tiani, Frieda, Judy, and Nancy all standing around the bed. "Good morning, girls. To what do I owe this morning's welcoming committee? Is there a reason for you girls to come visiting at six in the morning?"

Brandy woke up and said, "Oh, you guys. You're here to make sure he wasn't mean to me. I know the way you guys are. He was a perfect gentleman."

Nancy said, "Too bad, we all know how good he is between the sheets. You should have at least shown him what you're good at."

Frieda said, "Chuck, if she doesn't treat you right, call me. I can be the house pet since I like to take care of all of the household pets."

Wanda asked, sleepily, "So you know all these girls very well?"

Judy replied, "Not well enough. We took him out one time and he stayed overnight. We all had a shot at him that one time, but he didn't come back for seconds. We all wanted him too, but he was gone from the employment office so fast that we didn't get a chance to chain him down."

Frieda offered, "Little Tiani wanted him so bad, but when she found out he had been in all those shootings, she became afraid of him. Brandy was the lovesick one. She wouldn't try to get next to him as long as Tiani wanted him, but as soon as Tiani said no way, Brandy was on her way over here."

"Um, girls, I'm going to get up, use the bathroom, and go out to the pool. If any of you want to swim some laps, you're welcome to join me. Now if you will excuse me, I need to get up."

They all stood there waiting, watching. Wanda sat up and stood so I could slide out of bed on that side to put my peg on. I had an audience as I sat, then stood, naked before going into the bathroom. I even checked behind me, thinking they were going to follow me in.

When I came out of the bathroom, the bedroom was empty, as was the kitchen, but the coffee pot was dripping. All those women were standing naked out on the patio, waiting for me to come out.

As I walked out of the house toward the pool, the array of beauty was too much. My little Johnson was rising to greet the ladies. There were a lot of "ohs" and "ahs" and "that thing is so fat."

I dropped the peg at the side of the pool and dove into the water. I heard several splashes as I was swimming toward the other end of the pool. As my tempo picked up, Wanda came up beside me and Jan was next to her. A surprise was that both Brandy and Frieda kept up and didn't seem to be laboring as hard as the other girls. Finally, it was down to just Wanda, Brandy, Frieda, and me until I stopped and drifted to the side of the pool. Frieda and Brandy came up to me and said, "You almost got us. I don't think we could have made another lap."

Wanda said, "You were lucky. He really didn't push as hard as he can. He's death on us when he really goes all out."

Brandy gave me a full body hug and kissed me. "You know I'm not going to leave you alone now. I'm going to be closer to you than your boxers. Get used to it, because I have to get my fill of you before you get tired of me hanging on."

The girls all thought the outdoor shower was a great place to play, so I went into the bedroom to take a shower there. I had just adjusted the water when the door slid open and Brandy stepped in. "Like I said, I am going to stick closer to you than your undies. You've fascinated me from the beginning, so I'm going to love you up every chance I get."

Brandy hugged me and was going to play some, but I began washing her hair to relax her and get her mind off her playfulness. She was smiling and said, "That's very special. You don't have to quit so soon, do you?"

We washed each other and then she said, "I have to go home to dress. I'm going to miss you all day now, so I want to make sure I see you as soon after work as I can. Will you call me?"

I handed her my cell phone, "Put your number in for me. I have a flying lesson this afternoon and might be late."

"You're learning to fly?"

"Well, I actually have my license, but I'm in instrument school right now."

Brandy was grinning, "I was worried about how my dad was going to handle you being a deputy type of guy, but if you fly, you two will be bosom buddies. I have my license but I'm not instrument rated. We have a couple of planes. I get to fly our Cessna 172, but I don't get to ever fly our twin or Dad's Lear. He doesn't fly it that often either. He rents and charters it out most of the time."

As Brandy was dressing, she said, "I'll get Dad to let us use his plane and we'll go somewhere."

"I have an airplane, a Cessna 206. It's a six place airplane."

Brandy said, "I know what those airplanes are. Dad thinks they are perfect for most people. How did you get an airplane? Do you have money?"

"We'll talk about it another time, Brandy, you have to get ready for work and I have to go in early."

Jan hauled Brandy and the other girls around the block to get ready to go to work. Wanda came to me and said, "Now, that was an unusual way to wake up in the morning. I don't think I would have believed they were all in our bedroom waking us up. Brandy didn't seem that upset, so I guess they are pretty open over there."

Angie and Marie rode in with Wanda this morning and I stopped to get some breakfast sandwiches since we didn't fix anything to eat at home. I stepped into the station to make sure Marie and Sarah had the duty rosters ready. Sarah said, "Come back in about seven fifty-five and I'll have them ready for the briefing."

I passed out sandwiches to Angie and Wanda, but Conish was afraid of hurting her figure. We ate, having some coffee and just chatting among ourselves.

At the station, I told the men that Bobby was all right but probably influenced by her new friend. I did tell them that I hoped she would be safe and happy, and that I personally was not filing charges, but the federal prosecutor had the last word. These guys are all lawmen, they understood.

When Sarg was introduced as their new leader, all of them to a man applauded, hooted, and hollered their approval. This was going to be better than I thought. I handed the roster to Sarg and said, "No time like the present, send your men out. You all be safe, okay. We'll plan a party soon."

Back in my office, Wanda said I was to call John in D.C. Damn, he's heard about the crap that went on already.

"Hey, John, what's up. Gonna send me on another wild one. You did call just in time for the weekend."

"You know what I want. What the fuck is going on down there?"

"I know you couldn't have gotten the incident report yet as I just made it out last night. Let me get it to you while we are talking." I put John on hold and called Wanda to have her fax John Sarah's and my reports.

"Wanda's sending them to you as we speak. How did you hear about it so fast?"

"Bobby called me. She said you put a restraining order on her and her new friend so she couldn't talk to you. She also said you might be filing charges against her."

"Tell you what, John, read what we're faxing you and call me back. I'll be glad to clarify anything to you. Take your time when you read it so you can read it all."

I was finishing answering a bunch of e-mails when John called back. "You sure you didn't hurt that guy?"

"No Sir, I hit him in the groin so I could cuff him. He swung at me first."

John chuckled, "I'm glad you didn't shoot him. That would have been bad. But you broke Bobby's wrist? She didn't tell me that. Sarah's and your report both say she was pulling her service weapon. Sarah already faxed me her station report saying that Bobby refused to give up her sidearm and her vehicle."

"I chopped her wrist when she pulled her gun. I hit her too hard and broke her wrist. Those bones aren't that big, so you know they're easy to break. I was busy trying to cuff her monster boyfriend when she pulled the damn thing, so I did it as smoothly as possible so I could finish cuffing him."

John spoke up, "You're withholding judgment? The federal prosecutor or judge won't withhold judgment. Have you heard when the arraignments are?"

"No Sir, but I'll find out and let you know what happens. I need to know if this Rocky person is out. I don't think he's going to pay attention to any court restraining orders. He's supposed to be on some TV wrestling match this weekend, so if he does get out, hopefully he'll just pay attention to that.""

John said, "I don't want to get into your personal matters, but do you owe Bobby anything on the house? Do you have any co-mingled finances?"

"No, I bought the house. It's in my name and I've been paying for it. I pay all the expenses and the people who stay with me pay me rent. To my knowledge, Bobby has a pretty big savings account. She has enough to buy a car on her own and if she doesn't have her big boyfriend, she has enough to live on until she finds work."

"So you don't recommend we take her back if she wants to come back?"

"That's going to be up to the prosecutor and the judge he presents the information to. If she is charged with a felony, she's done. We'll have to see."

"You're right, Chuck, she got herself into this, she'll have to get herself out. Are you okay with all this?"

"I miss the crazy lady, but if you love 'em, you gotta set 'em free. I'm not going to worry myself over it. I had to think it through to get right with it, and I'm okay now. I don't like it, but I don't have to like it."

"You're a good guy, Chuck. Most would get nuts over it. Just don't shoot the guy. Try to keep your distance. Do you want a mission? There's always something."

"Let me hang out this weekend, unless you need me. I'm going to try to get some flying in and have some fun."

John left me with, "Be careful, when you have one of those roid rage type clowns, they don't think clearly. Watch yourself."

I asked Wanda to check on Rocky's status for me. She found out he had been arraigned and released on bond, but cautioned that he was under a restraining order to not get within five hundred feet of me.

"Wanda, would it be reasonable for me to investigate this guy from a distance? He attacked me once and made threats; perhaps I should check him out."

She pulled out a fairly thick folder and handed it to me. It was full of freshly printed information describing Rocky Mountain. His real name had been Jerry Dunlap, but he had changed it several years ago. The man was popular enough that he had made a lot of money and had kept a great deal of it. He had a beach house in Belle-Air Beach on the inter-coastal island worth several million and didn't have any major obligations. He had had a run in with the IRS a few years back, but that action had been dropped. It looked like Rocky was an okay guy. I hope he treats Bobby right.

Pete Serano, the federal prosecutor called. "Do you want to put this babe in jail, or do you really mean it that you're going to withhold judgment?"

"I'd rather wait to see if this goes away, Pete. I don't have any hard feelings that she left our relationship. She's a grown woman and is free to do what she wants. I'm leery of her guy though. That's my biggest problem right now."

"Tell you what, get a local attorney and sue his ass. I'd bet he has a pile of money and that's the only way you can make clowns like that leave you alone. When they find out you can get their money, they get quiet very quick. If you want, I'll hunt up an attorney for you."

"I think I know just the one. She mostly does divorces, but I think she would do this one. Thanks for the advice. Run the whole thing in front of the judge like you're supposed to, and do what he says. The lady was in the wrong, but the couple will have enough problems without putting her in jail if you don't have to. Do what you're supposed to do, do what's right."

I called Frank, the Bureau Chief, "Hey, Frank, can you give me Sarah Perkins telephone number?'

"Sure, getting a divorce?"

"No, I might have something she'll enjoy, though."

He gave me the number and I called. A receptionist answered so I identified myself and asked for Ms. Perkins.

"Sarah Perkins."

"Ms. Perkins, this is Charles, Chuck Johnson, the deputy marshal you met with Frank and Conish."

"What can I do for you, Chuck? You want to get married so I can take you to the cleaners later? You'd have a great ride while it lasted."

"Not my idea of fun, Ms. Perkins."

"Call me Sarah."

"Okay, Sarah, like I said not my idea of fun but I have a possible lawsuit that you might enjoy. A wealthy professional wrestler attacked me yesterday. Since it didn't have anything to do with my professional responsibilities, I would like to keep this guy off my back by him donating to my welfare. Would you like to help with this?"

"Are you in your office?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"I'll be right there." She hung up.

Wanda was standing in the doorway listening. "Good idea, Mr. Johnson. The pocketbook is the one way to get to these guys."

Sarah came in the door, made over Conish a minute before being ushered into see me. "Shit, now I really do want to marry you. Christ, we'll make a bundle on this guy or get a bundle out of him real quick. He can't handle a lawsuit like this as it will keep him from getting legitimate contracts and endorsements."

She plopped into a chair and took out a pad to write on, "Now who is it that attacked you?"

"Rocky Mountain."

"No shit. He's going to love you. I handled his ex's divorce. I separated him from all she wanted. She wasn't nearly greedy enough. She didn't realize he has so many offshore accounts. What kind of proof do you have?"

I gave her a copy of the police report, and the two incident reports. Sarah read them over real quick and asked, "Do you have any other witnesses?"

"He told the policeman that he was going to kill me several times, and there is the witness who saw the incident and reported it to the cops."

"Will she testify?"

"Let me find out, Sarah."

I called Brandy and asked her, "Did anyone else see what happened yesterday?"

"Yeah, three or four others did. I was pointing you out when it happened. Charlene saw it, and so did Monica. Why, do you need a witness? I want to be one."

"Brandy, can you give me Charlene's and Monica's full names and contact information so my attorney can talk to them?"

"Hang on, give me your fax number and I'll send them to you."

"Thank you, Brandy. I'll talk to you later."

"Sarah," I said, "Brandy is going to fax me a list of people who witnessed the altercation. Brandy may not be that great of a witness as she and I are trying to be special friends. We're not yet, but it would look funny to a jury. She was pointing me out to her friends when the problem occurred."

"That's great, Chuck, I'll file something real quick to get their attention and I'll bet we'll get an attorney on the line within twenty-four hours."

Wanda came in with a sheet of paper and two copies. She handed the copies to Sarah and said, "You should know that Mr. Johnson was carrying a gun, as he always does, yesterday and did not use it. He only disabled the attacker in order to handcuff him."

"That's good, it shows that you wouldn't hurt someone for no reason. The guy's arrest and the arresting officer's statement will be enough to win a settlement. Everything else just adds zeroes to the number. I'll call you, I gotta get this thing filed. Love ya, Chuck, think about it, I'm available."

I was laughing as she left. Wanda said, "I'll bet she would be fun for an hour or so. Perhaps even a full day or a week, but then she would be back chasing that buck."

"You're probably right, Wanda. I don't need any other females right now. I'm very happy with the friends that I have, even the fab five from next door."

"Your fab five are splintering into a one and only, along with the other four."

"We'll see. It's a maybe. I'm going out for a lesson. I'd bet John finds some wild goose chase to send me on just to get me out of town. He's too protective sometimes."

Wanda said, "If he does it will probably be up to Maine. There are some problems up there with some border agents and some escapees that may have crossed into Canada. There are two guys that walked away from a prison camp. They aren't dangerous yet, but who knows about guys having to spend another five years in jail."

"Okay, dig it out for me while I'm flying. I'd rather stay in town this weekend and do some more flying. Perhaps go to Key West or somewhere."

I left and called out to the park while driving. John was there and said he could get me my last couple of hours of hood time, or I could do a solo. I asked if my plane was in house. He had to go find out and came back, "It's out but you could fly the B200 if you wanted. You're checked out in it."

That sounds like fun but let me stick to something like the 172. Make up my destinations and I'll be there in a few minutes.

When I parked the car at the charter office and went inside, John was there. "Are you sure you don't want to use the B200? That's a hell of an airplane to do a solo in. Three hundred miles an hour! You really don't want to use it?"

"I'm flying for fun, John. Just a leisurely flight in and out of some traffic patterns up and down the coast."

"Okay, Chuck, here's a couple of hours worth. Just right for a logged solo. Do up your paperwork and let me look it over before you file."

The flight was nothing spectacular. John sent me to Jacksonville to enter and leave the pattern, a quick touch and go in Daytona, a full stop landing in Melbourne, and back home, circumventing the bombing range near Sebring. Nothing rocket science, but I had to pay attention. All of the restricted airspace up in Jacksonville and near Sebring was good to get used to. When I touched down at the air park and put the plane in front of the hangar, John came out and hooked up a laptop to the Garmin unit and brought it into the charter office.

He had me watch as he reviewed my path. He was particularly interested in the traffic pattern in Jacksonville as to where I exited in order to avoid the restricted airspace. He checked the Melbourne landing and takeoff to see that I avoided the edge of the restricted area there. When he was through, he said, "Good job, a solo like that is what your flight exam will be like. We'll get your hood time in and schedule your exam. What you need are hours. You need to fly the B200 when you can for more experience. Think of somewhere you want to go to and plan a trip. You have the plane's specs, plan it and fly it. You have enough credit to fly just about anywhere you want."

I went back to the office to find Wanda beside herself, laughing. "You really stirred up the shit. Sarah called to tell me she had filed the suit and it was being served. Fifteen minutes later, lawyers were calling to talk to you. I referred them all to Sarah like she told me. What did she file for?"

"I don't know, but the only way the word can be out is for Rocky to have been served. I don't know how she could have done that already."

I called Sarah's office and was put through to her, "So how did you serve Rocky already?"

"Easy, I filed the simple suit referencing multiple witnesses, the Tampa police report, the officer's statement, and the federal report. I sent a process server that always gets his man to see Rocky, and if he could serve him immediately, he would get a bone. He served Rocky about two hours after I left your office. The big boy's attorneys are all over the place. The network is threatening to cancel the contracted shows and a couple of sponsors that got word are threatening to pull their support"

"So Sarah, what did you sue him for?"

"I only asked for fifty million to get their attention. I think if we go to court we could get almost that. I think you and I are going to hit a home run on this one. Oh, I didn't get you to sign a contract. Will you pay me a lot of money to win this thing?"

"What's a lot of money, Sarah?"

"I'll do the first mil at thirty percent and at ten each mil thereafter. Is that agreeable?"

"If that's fair, then sure. Is that a good deal?"

"Do you know what ten percent of ten million is?"

"Oh, okay, do you really think this is worth that much money? I didn't get hurt, you know."

"Yes, you did. You had to suffer the fact that you had to defend yourself from the woman he stole from you. You had to suffer that you had to subdue him because of his anguish. You have to suffer knowing he's threatened your life. When the legal eagles started calling, I told them to pay up or we were going to the press. All the grocery store rags will pay you a mil apiece for the story. Are you sure you don't want to marry me?"

"Remind me not to piss you off. You want me to come over to sign a contract or anything like that?"

"Naw, I trust you, besides I have a recorder on the line. That would work if you became a problem. You won't, so you and me are okay. I'll talk to you later when I get a firm offer. Later, Dude."

Wanda was in the doorway, "Fifty million? Does that guy have that much?"

"I don't know, Wanda, but according to Sarah, if he pisses her off, he loses his ability to make more money. Right now if he keeps us happy, he pays out some money, but keeps right on making more.