Chapter 65

I woke up groggy on Wednesday morning, disoriented, and did not remember going to bed. The clock said five fifty, so it was nearing my regular time to get up. I rolled to the side of the bed to get up and reached for my peg. It wasn't there. I had to focus now, because things were not in order, not where they normally were.

Spying the peg on the chair by the foot of the bed, I hopped over and sat to slip it on. In the bathroom, I relieved myself and quickly brushed my teeth, as my mouth felt gross from not brushing before going to bed.

Thinking that I needed exercise, I went into the big closet, located my sport leg and strapped it on. In the gym room, I stretched for a few minutes and began walking on the treadmill. I gradually increased the speed until I was running at a decent six miles an hour, with a four percent incline. I was still a little unsteady on the new leg, but the treadmill had some nice handrails to help me keep my balance.

Wanda came in and decided the bike was her best way to wake up. Little Marie got on the other treadmill and was building up speed fast. The three of us continued until we were very sweaty. I slowed to a stop and suggested we rinse the sweat off and try the pool. After hurrying into the bedroom to exchange the sport leg for my peg, I stripped, walked out to the outdoor shower, rinsed off, and joined my friends in the pool. We didn't sprint to exhaust ourselves, but swam moderately hard to get some good cardio exercise.

While I was sitting on the wide steps on the side of the pool, Wanda asked, "Do you think you want to come in today? I do have a few things you need to look at, and you are going to be busy with prep for a possible trial against the county. Frank reinstated the Sheriff at the jail so life could get back to normal out there. The Sheriff would like to speak with you about your stay as well."

"I think a day in the office would be nice. I have several things to follow up on, and I want to use the range to see if Cap has that new combat course done yet. Have you heard?"

Wanda smiled, "Cap called last week to say he was waiting for you and Jan to set some standards for time and proficiency before he began grading regular users. You should get Jan and try it out together."

Continuing, Wanda reminded me, "Remember to stay out of the limelight like John asked you to. So far no one has asked for you other than that process server, but someone can always show up at our door."

We all had a quick breakfast, and it was while eating that Angie and Jimmy hit me with some news. Angie said, "Will you be mad if I move out to Jimmy's trailer? We want to be together and the trailer park is so much closer to the air park for him. He works some long hours sometimes and I want to be home when he gets there. The folks out at the park have assured me I was welcome to eat with them, so the only thing I have to do is to buy a car. Dennis says he knows a lady who has a good car she wants to sell, so Jimmy and I are going to go look at it."

Jimmy then asked, "Do you think I could use your B200 this weekend? I want Angie to meet my dad. I'd also like him to see how your plane turned out."

I answered, "If the charter service doesn't need it this weekend, you're welcome to use it. That would be the best way to get up there and back real quick. I'll bet your dad will be happy to see you, and even happier to meet Angie."

Angie was blushing, "I hope so. Jimmy says his dad is very open-minded, so we will see."

At the office, Wanda went over several remote office problems that were easily remedied, but still required a decision. Wanda already had the answers, but was concerned about making decisions for me when it was supposed to be done by me.

The Sheriff dropped by the building to talk to Frank and inspect our holding cell area. We had room to hold up to fifty inmates if necessary, and had facilities for food preparation, but we had a contract with the hotel restaurant across the street when the population was small. The Sheriff liked the idea of our prisoners being in leg and waist chains even in their cells. He made the comment that it would be difficult to escape when prisoners were secured in that manner.

The Sheriff and Frank came up to my office and we discussed my brief stay in his facility. He apologized that the situation had occurred and said, "The men cleaned out the locker of the jailer who you helped into a coma and is still there. I brought what we found with me and it's outside with your girls. One of the things we found was your leg. In light of what happened, we have written some new SOPs for handling amputees. Thank goodness you were able to defend yourself or I would probably be in jail as an accessory to your murder."

I was excited by the news, "Hey, great, now I don't have to buy a new leg. The boot on that leg is nearly new and was my primary prosthesis. The one I have on is my emergency spare. It is nice to have my collection back to full strength again."

The Sheriff asked, "My jailers and I are interested in how you defended yourself against three cellmates, then against the jailer who attacked you. What kind of weapon did you use, where did you get it?

"Sheriff, I used my hands and foot. I had no weapon, nor could I make one in the cell. Your cells are very good in that they do not have any loose items in them."

"It's so unbelievable that you could do that."

"If the three prisoners had rushed me together, I probably would have failed, but they felt they could handle me one on one. The results are regrettable, but I had no choice. The jailer was the one who scared me the most. He came at me with a baton and was trying to use it. Luckily, he wasn't very quick."

The Sheriff asked, "Should we be trying to train our men to combat a person with your skills?"

"You could, but you probably won't ever run into the need. You won't know when you have someone with the skills, and for the most part, those with the skills usually won't end up in your facility. If you ever suspect someone of having those skills, put them in a single person cell with leg and waist chains. That will resolve any potential problems."

"You're right, it will. The reason you were in the cell where you were, was to harm you, not to put you in a secure place."

When the Sheriff and Frank left, I dug into my e-mails and finished up right at lunchtime. I asked, "Wanda, do you want to go to lunch at the executive club or would you prefer to have Subways."

"I would enjoy having lunch with you, Mr. Johnson. That would be a pleasant respite."

We walked over to the executive building and were standing at the Maitre D's desk when Tom, Zena, Burt, and Veronica Highsmith came up to the desk. Burt was very magnanimous in wanting us to join them for lunch at his treat. We couldn't be rude, so we accepted and were soon seated with them.

Surprisingly, lunch was a total no pressure event, with neither Burt nor Veronica pushing for anything. Tom did mention that the buildout for the new offices should be completed by the end of the month. He was looking forward to our managers inspecting the properties.

When it was time for us to leave Tom and Zena gave Wanda and me a hug and a handshake. Zena said softly, "Call us, come visit."

On the way back to the office, Wanda said, "You would be a lot more comfortable out there if they weren't swingers, wouldn't you? I think they know that as well. Before, you went along with everything because of Bobby, and now you feel you may have lost her by some of that activity. I don't think so, but you are correct to act on how you feel. That place is fun, but nudism isn't necessarily a swinging lifestyle. Those people just get involved with each other differently than others do."

About two, I called down to Jan and asked if she wanted to try out the new combat course. She enthusiastically said, "I'll meet you."

Down at the range, Cap happily gave us some magazines so we could warm up a little. Jan and I fired forty five rounds each and brought the empty magazines back to Cap. He gave each of us three magazines, with ten rounds apiece, and showed us where to begin. He walked us through the course with the lights on and with the targets popping up randomly as we went.

Cap wanted us to go head to head instead of competing on a timed basis. Jan and I got ready and the bell rang. We went quickly through the course, firing thirty rounds in a minute and a half. The targets were impact and noise activated, so the next one would pop up when a round was fired, the faster we fired, the faster the next target popped up.

When we were done, Cap brought us a computer printout that had our times, hits, and decisions listed. As he showed us, he said, "Chuck was a little faster, but Jan, you beat him by one hit. You had two bad decisions, and Chuck had one. So there is no clear winner. I want you both to go through the course again, but do it more methodically, with zero misses, and with all good decisions. I'll use that time as our benchmark."

Jan and I got ready, and instead of going through the course slowly, we ended up rushing through it in less time than before, but we both knew we had all hits and all good decisions.

Cap said, "I can't use that time. That's so much faster than anyone can do it. Chuck, you beat Jan by less than a half second. Both of you had a hundred percent hits and hundred percent good decisions. I even had you guys on video for both of your rounds. You're too much. Go away; send me some normal people so we can have a real benchmark."

While Jan and I were cleaning our weapons, I commented, "When did you get a model twenty-two?"

Jan said, "When Wanda fired yours so easily, I decided that I wanted one like that. If I ever have to use a gun, I think I'd like the fifteen rounds instead of nine or thirteen. The gun has a better balance, and since you've made me an exercise queen, I'm strong enough to handle the extra weight."

Upstairs, my work was taken care of, so I walked over to the garage to see Hank.

"What's up, Boss? Have some new toys for me to play with?"

"Naw, just checking to make sure everything is okay with you. I'm sort of concerned about keeping the Escalade and not using it."

Hank smiled, "We've used it twice for transports over to Orlando. It's a great ride for that, much nicer than the Suburban."

"Good, I've almost come to swap it for the weekend a few times as it holds more people, but I didn't want to be using it and have people think that I'm showing off."

"Your buddy John from D.C. was trying to get me to get you a Jaguar that was in the system. He said you needed a fancy car like that, or a Mercedes like Frank has. I told him that you were pretty plain Jane when it came to cars and liked your Impala. He kept saying that the second in line for the whole service should be driving something fancy."

"Hank, check on what John drives. I know it's in the system. I'll bet he drives something like a box with four wheels. Either that or the D.C. boys have him riding with a driver. That will give me some ammo when he's bitching."

Hank said, "I'll do that, but you know all the wheels are driving the fancy stuff because it was confiscated. I've heard most of the big guys are being driven to work in Rolls or Bentleys. If you don't want the Jag, I'll drive it. I get off on those cars."

"I'll bet my Impala is faster and out performs the Jag. I'd love to take it out on the county track one of these days."

Hank said he would check on open dates and also gave me a set of keys for the Escalade, saying, "Keep these in your desk. If you need the car over the weekend, just come get it. Sign it out of course, but come get it."

Back in the office, I was going over some of the new procedures that had come down recently when Lisa called. She said, "I heard your boys up here just confiscated a Lear 60 similar to what S&S has. They said the plane is a real rat. Why don't you check on it? That would be neat to have another Lear. You could become a member of the real jet set crowd."

"I'll check, Lisa, but I don't need a Lear. Those things are expensive to keep up and even more expensive to operate. I would have to really steal it to make a good deal."

Lisa teased, "Oh, Chuck, you know how much you like flying the Lear. Just think, you could fly your own Learjet somewhere just for fun. You could fly it for business too. That would make it worthwhile, and you know the charter company would have it rented out most of the time."

"I'll check, I'll check. My goodness, what do you want me to do, open my own charter company?"

"No way, you would be in competition with S&S. I want you to be so deep in S&S that I've got a permanent hold on you. Your two planes are in the air almost every day. You're getting top maintenance with Jimmy looking after your stuff. The kid thinks you walk on water as it is. Get a Lear and watch him go nuts."

"I'll check, Lisa, I promise."

When she hung up, I checked in on the equipment for sale and didn't see any Lear 60s. There was a 45 that was estimated to be in fair condition, and a Falcon that I didn't know anything about. I called up to Detroit to talk to the Station Chief.

"This is Chuck Johnson in Tampa, I'm calling to find out about a plane you confiscated recently, possibly today."

Brian Tolan, the Station Chief said, "Hey, nice to talk to the boss. Yep, we did take one in yesterday, but we've taken all of the value off it."

"What do you mean?"

Brain answered, "We pulled right at seventy-six million off the plane. It was on its way to South America with some U.S. Currency. We've been watching these guys for about two months and knew their schedule real well. The plane was due to be junked when they got it back to South America, as it needs just about everything except engines. A local pilot up here said we had a flying deputy that would be interested in the plane. Are you interested?"

"I don't know, I said I would check on it and I'd want someone to look at it to give me an opinion. Can it be seen?"

"Sure, come up and take a look. The thing might have some miles left in it, but I'd want a good mechanic to look at it first."

I thought for a second then said, "I'll make some calls and see if I can get someone to come look."

"Hey, while you're up here, we have a 182 that's been through a war. If you want that, I know you can steal it. Let me know, I'll get you a giveaway deal on it."

"Thanks, I might do that. The guy that I want to look at the Lear wants his own plane. The 182 would be a good plane for him."

I told Wanda, "I'm going out to the air park and might fly up to Detroit real quick. I'll talk to you later. I might be late, obviously, real late."

When I drove up to the air park charter office, Jimmy was going in. I joined him as he was turning in some paperwork on work in progress. I asked him and DeDe, "Do you guys think you could rent out another Lear if you had it?"

"Dede said, "Sure could. A lot of people want the speed and think the prestige of flying in a Learjet is worth it."

"DeDe, I want to use our, or rather your, Lear to fly up to Detroit real quick. The kicker is that I want to take Jimmy with me to look at a plane. Can you rent me the Lear, and can I steal Jimmy?"

DeDe was grinning and said, "You're as bad as Steve, always coming up with something. Get out of here so you can get back at a reasonable hour."

Two and a half hours later Jimmy and I were setting the plane down in Detroit. I had called to have the Station Chief meet us at the airport. He drove us to the hangar where the newly confiscated Lear was being held. We towed it outside and Jimmy did an inspection, fired it up, and tested the engines. He looked the plane over thoroughly, and came to me. "The aircraft isn't in bad shape, it just has a lot of hours. You can probably put it back together for around a hundred fifty. That's on the cheap side. The interior is real decent, and both engines could use an overhaul and the hydraulics should be gone over. I'd say if you can steal it, get it. S&S can use it.