Chapter 116: Meeting New People

Mike went out to lead Gwen back to the house. It was just like her to arrive after the place was warm and had some small amount of comfort. I sure hoped that Mike had explained that we were living operational, not at all like we would have lived in a motel. Since it was such a small town, she couldn't just slip in and out unnoticed as she might have in Boston. She had to be worked into the cover story.

We had too large air beds on the floor. I had swept the cheap carpet in the bedrooms several times to be sure there was nothing sharp to puncture them. If they went south, it would be foam mats on the floor. Neither the air beds, nor the foam was even close to a real bed. That was a good thing. It was an even bigger incentive to finish this mess and get home quickly.

Martin slept in his underwear and I slept in a tee shirt and panties. It wasn't a perfect arrangement, but it had worked so far. Gwen was a new dynamic.

"I would prefer to sleep alone," Gwen said after the situation was explained to her. "But since that isn't an option, I guess my choice is Mike. At least I do know and trust him."

"You have no idea how relieved I feel," I whispered to Martin.

"Good morning," I whispered into Martin's ear. Let's get this show on the road."

"Not this morning please, I have a headache," he said with a grin.

"Good idea, but this is not the time. I'm going to start the coffee. You go shower." I demanded. "Try not to wake the TV crew."

"Good luck with that," Martin said. "You know I sing in the shower."

I don't know if he sang or not, but they woke up anyway. I had plenty of coffee ready. It took an hour to get everybody in and out of the shower. By that time I was hungry.

We took two cars, but we all had breakfast together. Me and Martin at one table in the interstate McDonalds, and Mike and Gwen at another with their cameras going. Who was in the show, and who wasn't, would depend on the editing. The TV show would have little to do with the reality of the work.

"So we are going to find a site for the church today?" Martin asked.

"No, we are going to look for a site today. We still don't have a bad guy cover yet. Somewhere along the line we are most likely going to need a criminal enterprise." I said.

"Well I can't help you there. I have never been a cop. All my experience is in field ops." he admitted.

"That's fine, just listen to me in these matters and I'll listen to you in those," I suggested.

"That's what the boss said to do," he replied.

"We need to get stated," I suggested after we quickly ate our breakfast. We had both been in situations where eating quickly was necessary, if we were to eat at all. We were finished and out the door while Mike and Gwen were trying to stuff food in their mouths so as not to lose us.

Since it was 9AM, I had no problem with using the burn phone to call the number on the windows of the empty stores. Haymarket had a high percentage of empty downtown storefronts, as does almost every downtown these days.

We called for a closer look at three of them. Since two were owned by the same person, it didn't take all that long. We did waste the time until noon with the project. We left it with both owners that we would make a decision soon, and left it at that.

I wondered which, if any, of the businesses in Haymarket were honestly what they seemed. It was hard to tell, all of them could be fronts for something else or they could all be honestly what they appeared to be. We couldn't ask the rape victim, since she had gone missing. Most likely she had moved away, I know I would have, but only after I killed the son of bitch who raped me. I had to stop thinking like that. This was hopefully going to end in the arrest of the brothers, not their murders. I wasn't ruling it out. I was just hoping it didn't go down that way.

Thanks to cards produced on Mike's mini Ink Jet printer, we were able to leave my burn phone number with each of the store owners. I expected to be hearing back from them soon. Any interest in those buildings would surely warrant a follow up call from the owner.

We drove Martin's SUV to the farmer exchange store. Those things always have a bulletin board with items for sale. We weren't looking for anything. I just wanted to be seen in each and every store in town. I was all part of our no plan, plan.

Somewhere we were going to bump heads with the Atwood brothers, or someone would call them. Either way a meeting with Thomas and Blain Atwood was bound to happen.

We found our talkative informant at the local daycare. I saw the sign and I stopped in to do a pastoral visitation. "Hello." I said to the grossly overweight woman who came to the door with a baby in her arms. "I'm Pastor Stone, how are you?"

"I'm busy as I can be right now," she said.

"Then maybe we can help." I said it opening her door. "It's cold why don't we come in and talk and I'll help out. Martin here might not be much good with kids, but I have had a little experience."

I pretty much forced my way inside. "The town looks like it is having some growth issues," I commented after all the usual small talk. It would be a natural question for someone thinking of settling in the town.

"Yes, we have a bunch of thugs here. They are scaring everyone off." she said.

"Oh my, maybe I can show them the true path," I suggested. "Maybe if we get them into church, they will become part of the community."

"I don't think so Reverend. These men are very, very bad." she said.

"The Lord can soften any heart, when the time is right," I suggested. "How bad can these men be?"