Chapter 27: Fixtures and Fixings

Home is where the heart is. Devi greeted Bess with open arms when she opened the door. The door closed and so did Devi's arms around Bess in a vigorous hug.

We gave no specifics of our return still shell shocked from recent events. Things seemed safe. We vacationed in Barcelona without incident. Julie actually had a friend who brought us to Dali's crazy beautiful house. We played tourist for almost a week there and loved it. But Bess craved America and I needed to make my date with my new boss. So we headed home.

Amy felt like a fourth wheel. Devi insisted she stay. Her Queen sized bed filled with naked flesh. Exhausted I still managed to feed semen to Devi's hungry cunt after she tasted Bess's cunt for the first time. I waited for their reunion sex to peak, pleasuring Amy while they made love until Devi needed my cock.

The next morning while my son and his girlfriend joined us at the small packed dining room table a knock sounded on the door. Cautious I peeped through the blinds when Devi approached the door. Old habits die hard for the King. A limo sat at the curb.

"King!" exclaimed Devi. A gun in his hand came through the door first. Once his head entered the doorway I slammed the door as hard as possible. Two bodyguards behind him began to rush forward when two loud pops sounded and they fell, their heads exploding with blood and grey matter.

Dazed, the King staggered but didn't fall. I used Jujitsu to disarm him and had him face down in the patch of grass that fronted Devi's small house.

"Any duct tape?" asked Amy. A minute later she had a roll and wrapped his hands. She and Benjamin and I carried him inside.

Outside an older man, threads of gray in his dark hair, wearing black leather and jeans, not much taller than me but thick and robust, a paunch pushing against his black buttoned shirt, with eyes as intelligent and confident as any I'd seen, commanded two others to bring the bodies to the limousine which sat trapped between a van and a pickup truck. The limo driver at gunpoint climbed into the trunk. The dead bodies got tossed into the large back seat.

"Soap and bleach and a bucket and a scrub brush and a hose please," said the older man with a quiet demanding tone. My wife and son and Melissa quickly provided.

Being early Sunday morning I wondered if anyone noticed figuring someone must have. The middle class neighborhood boasted low crime. However it happened in seconds, and the vehicles except for the pick up truck vanished.

"Hell's Angels?" I asked the older man.

"They offered, but we had it under control," he answered.

"Hi Irving," said Bess.

"Hi babe," said Irving. "Give me a minute."

The stoop had probably never been cleaner. The blood in the grass spread out until barely noticeable after careful hosing.

"Done," he smiled handing the bucket full of bleached and soapy water and the cleaning bottles to Melissa and Benjamin. Devi handed him a towel and once his hands dried he entered the house and embraced Bess. "Beautiful as ever," he said.

"You seem to get handsomer as you get older," said Bess.

"Bullshit, but thanks anyway. You must be Joe." He shook my hand with a firmness that bordered on pain. "Keep him here. Call the police. A cab dropped him off and took off when he saw the gun."

"What if he'd gotten in?" asked Amy.

"And you are?"

"Amy Madison," she said and shook his hand.

"Of course. Your scumbag ex-husband by the way won't be bothering any defenseless women anytime soon."

"Why's that?" asked Amy.

"We've been keeping an eye on him. He started on another girl. Let's say he got a taste of his own medicine."

"Not Francis?" asked Bess.

"Afraid so. He cried a bit, the big pussy, but knew it needed doing. Anyway as far as this scumbag goes," he pointed at a struggling gagged King, "the taxi took off. You realized the threat and subdued him. Well done by the way. Jujitsu?"

I nodded. "What if I hadn't... ?" I began to ask.

"We'd have taken him out. That would have been harder to hide, but he'd simply disappear."

"And the driver?" I asked.

"It never happened okay?"

We all nodded.

"Thanks Irving," said Bess. "As usual you're a miracle worker."

"That's why you pay me the big bucks," he said.

"I hope..." began Bess.

"Me too. But if you need me..."

"Of course."

"I should go." Bess hugged him again. "It's worth it just for this," he said. After the hug ended he shook my hand again. I risked it. "You're a lucky man Joseph Solomon."

"Yes I am. Thanks."

We'd arrived in town a couple days before and stayed in a hotel while I met with my boss. Pleased with my shaping of the evidence and my agreement that the case against the King would hold, she generated warrants for the King and his henchmen, two of whom ended up bleeding all over the interior of the King's limo. The King disappeared, reappearing angry and threatening at Devi's door.

The King argued at his arrest for attempted murder and illegal entry and everything else we could throw at him. He never mentioned the bodyguards as they didn't exist legitimately. He used them in the past to press for agreements from companies resisting takeover. However he mentioned the limo driver who claimed he'd been in Long Island at the time cleaning the King's stable of cars including the limo. I wondered how much that cost.

"Probably not as much as you think," said Bess. "He tended to treat his servants poorly."

"All this must have cost you a fortune," I said.

"I keep a stash of cash in an account I only use for such needs," explained Bess. "I made enough not to touch it."

"Did it tap you out?"

"There's still enough to pad your account," she said and wrote down a number beginning with a 5 followed by five zeros and no decimal points. "I lived off men," she explained. "They paid me well. I lived frugally or with the King for free. Except wardrobe I spent little."

The conversation occurred while travelling from the Baltimore courthouse where we witnessed the King's arraignment. Because of his disappearance and resulting criminal actions when pursued to serve a warrant, bail had been denied. His lawyers had done their best. The DA and I were better. His lawyers no longer worked for him.

We drove to a real estate office in Silver Spring. The intelligent energetic petite lady nearing forty like us took care of our needs. She drove us to three houses. We desired four bedrooms at least--a master, a guest room and two for my other two ladies, Devi and Amy. A large basement also was required. Nothing else seemed necessary to me, but Amy and Bess reminded me closets and a substantial kitchen should be essential. Occupants needed to be leaving soon or gone already.

Wanting to be closer to Baltimore to make the swiftest visit, Bethesda hadn't been the ideal location but Bess insisted one of the listings be there. Lo and behold the house in Bethesda, the last Maggie, the realtor showed us ended up perfect. A true fixer-upper, the former owners had done little to encourage buyers. Bess insisted condition, at least outer condition, needn't be a problem. "I always wanted to do carpentry and house improvement," she said. "What else am I going to do while waiting for you to come home?" Maggie hated showing the place. It embarrassed her. Its small yard of weeds and bare spots, its three car detached garage, its homely architecture and its ugly interior kept the price down—it had been lowered twice since put on the market—fighting against the appeal of a large living room, an immense albeit unfinished basement and five bedrooms: one on the first floor and four upstairs with three bathrooms, two walk-in closets, the other three not too shabby, a kitchen needing new appliances but large enough to appeal to Bess and best of all a creek behind houses across the street. The previous occupants seemed to have needed a quick exit, so we could move in immediately.

"We'll take it," said Bess.

She paid a quarter of the cost outright—"A wedding present Joseph," she said—so our mortgage kept it within my government salary budget.