Chapter 47: Jen and Max

"So where do we start?" Mike asked.

"I guess we start with the person who knows her best," Gwen replied,

"That would be Jennifer the lawyer?" Mike asked.

"Jennifer is her oldest and dearest friend or so she says, so I guess we start with her."

"Can we finish this soon? So we can get out of this crappy motel?" Mike asked.

"You are just filled with questions aren't you?"

"Now you are doing it, asking questions that is," Mike replied.

"Okay, I'll set up the appointment, but who does the interview?" Gwen asked.

"I don't know, is Jennifer the buddy type, or the flirtatious type?"

"Hell, how would I know?" Gwen asked.

"Okay, I'll run the camera and you talk to her," Mike proposed.

"Unless things change, I can go along with that."

Two hours later their rental car pulled into my driveway. I met them at the door, "Hello you two. How has your stay in our little town gone?"

"Not as well as we would have liked. The cooperation we have gotten from your friend hasn't been all we hoped for," Mike replied.

"Well, the best I can tell, she did everything she agreed to do. Right up until she went into the hospital. As a matter of fact, I am releasing the check to her favorite charity tomorrow morning." I didn't tell them that Senatorial candidate Tommy Thompson would be at the ceremony as well. No sense having a throng show up, then again maybe it would be good to have the two film producers on the scene. They could help with the publicity; they had sure gotten the shootout a lot of coverage.

"We really aren't here to discuss last week's news. We came to get some background information on Maxine. Marty said you had agreed to help with that," Gwen said.

"I told Marty that I would help you guys within reason. So ask your questions and I will answer what I can. Maxine is my sometimes client, so I won't be sharing anything damaging, is that understood?" I asked.

"Yes Jennifer, it is understood and we are not here to do a hard hitting news show. Trust me this will not be a confrontational interview,"

"Good, in that case would you like a drink?" I asked.

"No thanks, but you go ahead," Mike replied.

"Okay, I think I will." It certainly wasn't my first drink of the day.

While I made the weak drink, Gwen asked, "How long have you and Maxine been friends?"

"One thing you have to learn Gwen, is when people discuss Maxine, you have to be very specific asking the questions. For instance, I have known who Maxine was since we were 10 years old. This is a small town; we haven't been friends that long though."

"Oh in this small town you must have gone to school together?" Gwen asked.

"Sure we went to school together, but weren't in the same room until 4th grade. Even then she was just another kid from the End."

"The End?" Gwen asked.

"The town had two parts back then West End and everything else. At least that's how it seemed to me. The people in West End were most likely to be poorly educated factory workers. A few people lived in that part of town for other reasons. Maxine's dad didn't work in the factories, but he couldn't keep a job of any kind. So the best they could do was live in West End."

"Was her dad a drunk?" Gwen asked. Then she realized that she had fucked up. Jennifer flinched and visually bit her tongue before she answered.

"Maxine's Dad had PTSD, but nobody knew what that was back then. We all just thought he was shiftless and lazy. Now I think, he just realized that he had killed men in Vietnam who had done nothing to him. Back home he couldn't kill the ones who really pissed him off. That would make me a little crazy, how about you?" I gave her a hard look and dared her to contradict me.

"I guess that would do it," Gwen replied.

"We didn't become friends for six more years. There was really a big class system around here back in the seventies and eighties. Actually there is still that, but now its people from Tryon vs. people from Aster. People still believe the same bullshit even now, they just have different names for it,"

"So how did you become friends?" Gwen asked.

I had forgotten that there was a camera in the room. "The same guy fucked us both," I said. I waited to judge Gwen's reaction. "He was almost the school's hero jock. I like to think he was the number 2 jock, when I think back on it now. The prick was the number one womanizer, but it was all undercover. That is until he screwed Maxine, then never called her back."

I couldn't help but laugh when I remembered Tommy back then. He was good looking and from the right side of the tracks. He was an acceptable date for a 16 year old girl from a good family. He was also a huge catch for a girl from West End. So yeah we both let him screw us.

"Why did that have an effect on you?" Gwen asked.

"Because he fucked me first," I said it laughing. I had downed more than one drink before the two of them arrived. The truth came easy, when I had enough to drink. "He screwed me twice then never called again." I stopped talking while I remember the pain.

"What did you do?" Gwen asked again.

"I cried myself to sleep, and then felt worthless for a few months." I shook my head at the memory. "Then the big time running back screwed Maxine once, and never called her back. It was a huge mistake."

"How so?" Gwen asked to keep me talking.

"Because Maxine is her dad's daughter. She walked up to the jock, in the cafeteria, and in front of everyone. He was sitting with a table full of other jocks and those cutesy girls. You know the kind who seem to always hang around jocks. Then Maxine said, 'If you girls are thinking about having sex with him, don't bother. He has a dick the size of a #2 pencil nub. And he kisses like a fucking brick."