Chapter 18

Ed walked in with his designer coffee just a little before 9 AM that next morning. "That was quite a load of toys you brought in yesterday. I should have stayed to take inventory," he suggested.

"Not toys, Ed, those are tools. Blevins warned me that if I got Lucas killed, the cops would not be happy."

"They still hold the nurse against you?"

"Not the cops so much, but those nurses do, and the cops hold the nurses against them. So to keep peace, they say snarky things about me."

"So what did you get to keep the kid safe?" Ed asked.

"A bulletproof vest, radios, pepper spray, stun guns, and best of all, a 12 gauge shotguns that shoots beanbags."

"So many non-lethal weapons; what if the bad guys don't want to stand still for being shot with a beanbag."

"Then I guess, I'll have to kill them," I said, with a little laugh.

"That's what I thought. Lucas is going to shout into the radio. 'Quick, Ms Stone, come shoot this bastard.'"

"Yeah, that's kind of what I thought too." I waited a reasonable amount of time then said, "Give me everything you have on Lori the lush."

"Ah, so I'm going to be the one to get your cherry?" Ed suggested.

"Only if you have a time machine," I advised him.

Since Lori had been a FTA, failure to appear, Ed's file had a lot of paperwork. He had tried to track her down, but had no success. I took delivery of the file, but I didn't open it. I decided to hold it for Lucas.

I had the file on my desk about ten minutes when Lucas came into the room. "Morning, Lucas," I said.

"Good morning, Boss and Ed," Lucas answered, "So what's the plan for today?"

"I have one process to serve, and we have to find Lori the lush. If you can't find Lori quickly, I can serve the paper while you continue to look for her. First let's go through the file and decide on a plan of action."

"Good, because I don't know if I can figure out what to do by myself," he admitted.

"Good for you, the first thing to do is to admit that you don't know what to do first. With that I pushed the file over to him. "Get yourself some coffee and let's brainstorm."

I gave him a few minutes to read the file while I pretended to check out the order for service on my first mooch of the day. I expected more to be phoned in as the day moved forward.

"Make notes and we will tape them to the wall. First write 'Who else wants Lori?"' I watched until he was finished. Then I used a bit of masking tape to attach it to the rear wall of the office. "So figure that out," I demanded.

"Do they have to want to put her in jail, or just have a general interest in her?"

"Good question, let's go general interest and jail her drunken ass."

"Family then," Lucas said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because it's what families do?"

"Okay, but if you look, you will probably find that one or more of them is a co-signer on the bail bond." Ed stepped over to show him where in the file to look.

"The brother co-signed a personal note with Ed."

"When he signed that note, I doubt that he understood he could lose his house. We might need to point that out to him. Ed tells me you are a computer whiz?" It was a question.

"I can get around on one." Lucas agreed.

"Then find out what kind of car is registered to her brother. Not a lease, but an owned vehicle. Also look through the file again to see if there is a boyfriend listed for Lori. Her next of kin might not be the brother, so run that down and get an address for the next of kin and the brother. When you get them, put that on the wall. Anything else you notice that might help us, put it up there too."

We went over and over the file until lunch. While we worked the file, two more papers came in to be delivered. I picked those up while Lucas continued to pour through the file. It was 2 PM when I got back to the office. There were several notes on the wall. They appeared to hold valuable information, but I knew most of it would turn into dead ends.

"Okay, Lucas, let's go see the brother. You do know where to find him?"

"Yes, he owns a small neighborhood convenience store."

"Very good, before we go, let's crank out a court order. You can fake one, can't you?"

"I don't know if that is legal," Lucas suggested.

"Of course, it's not moral, who knows if is it is legal or not. Do it anyway. You will find the blue cover sheets in my desk drawer. I have them in case I damage one of the lawyer's papers, I can repair it. Of course, they are going to come in handy now."

I explained exactly what I wanted the court order to say. Lucas looked skeptical, but Ed grinned. If he didn't know the exact plan, he had a damn good idea." When Lucas finished, we took the van and hit the road. The drive to the Red Dot Market took about fifteen minutes.

Once inside, I hung around the coffee machine until the place was empty. "Are you Dale Thompson?" I asked.

"That's me, what can I do for you?"

"You can accept service of this court order." I handed him the fake court order.

"What is this all about?" he asked. Like most people he was too lazy to just read the damn thing.

"It is an order from the District Court forbidding you to sell your 2009 Chevy pickup truck."

"Why would I want to sell my truck?"

"In the filing you will see that Ed Martin has put a lien on it. You signed a note with him for a bail he posted for one Lori Evans. I believe she is a relative."

"Hold on now, I have nothing to do with that."

"You can explain it to the judge on Monday at the hearing. In the meantime don't sell the truck."

"Can you at least explain why are you doing this?"

"Because Lori didn't appear for her court date and her lawyer can't find her. She has been declared a fugitive. You are signatory on the note guaranteeing her bond, so it's up to you to make the whole bond good." You can take $10K to the clerk of court on Monday, or Ed Martin will have to. If he does that, he will force the sheriff to seize your property, i.e., the truck." I had no idea how much of what I told him was true, and I didn't care. I wanted information, not the truck.