Chapter 187: Abra Kadabrah and the wall

I had people sleeping everywhere. We were using Lois's apartment, the TV guys apartment and my apartment and still barely had room to be comfortable, even with them all in full use.

Lucas was first up and out the door. I was in the shower when he left. I was still in a tee shirt and panties drying my hair when I heard a knock on the door. Without Lucas monitoring the cameras, I had to stop and be sure the knock was a friendly. The knock was from one of my shadow crew for the day.

"We are going to ride with Earl, I just wanted to let you know," the girl said.

"Would you like a cup of coffee?" I asked.

"If you are having one and it wouldn't be any trouble," she replied.

"No trouble at all," I said. "Opening the door wider. You can even take a cup back to your partner if you like."

"I think, I will let him get his own coffee," she said with a smile.

"I couldn't help notice you have a slight middle eastern accent, Isreali?"

"Iraqi," she answered.

"Wow, a female Muslim soldier," I said.

"I never said that I was Muslim," she replied smiling at me.

"Fair enough, I stand corrected. You are still a rare breed of cat." I said.

"It get's worse," she said smiling. "We should save that bit of confession for another day."

"Yes, I have to finish dressing, so that we can go. You stay and finish your coffee." I said as I turned back to my bedroom.

I was dressed in just a few minutes. "I want to stop for breakfast on the way to the Home Depot," I said to the young Iraqi woman.

"Good, breakfast is the most important meal of the day," she said in a really good, but accented, English.

"So they say," I replied. She left for Lois's apartment to pick up her partner and I headed for the Cruiser. Of course, I did check the area before I went to the cruiser. I'm sure Earl and the two Swamp Thing operatives had to hustle to catch up.

I sat at a table of cops and nurses when I arrived at Helen's Sit Down. "So Maxine did you hear the news about our cop killer?" one of the sergeants asked after I was seated.

"No, I didn't hear anything since yesterday. Is he talking?" I asked more than a little concerned.

"He won't be talking for a while. Somebody shanked him in the hall of the county jail. Damn guy was picked up a couple of hours after your man."

"So what about the doer is he talking?" I asked.

"No idea," the sergeant replied. "I think there was talk about the cops getting together and having a steak and a beer delivered to the jail for him."

"Sounds like a plan. Put me down for a couple of bucks," I said. I didn't want them to know that I was just as concerned about the man's killer, as I was about him. If someone led the cops to the Harvard Chink before I could get to him, I would be on the kill list as long as he was in the court system, which could be years.

I ate quickly so that I was outside of the home depot before they opened. Once I pulled onto the parking lot my phone rang. It sounded as a phone should sound. "Hello," I said.

"Bad news Max, the mason can't make it till Monday. All his men are busy. He probably told Ed he could make it, just to have a shot at the job. I'm sure he planned to stall us." Lucas did not sound happy.

"I'm going to call the Preacher. He might not have a masonry crew but he will have some men who can do something even if it looks like crap." I said.

"Yeah, I agree." Lucas said.

I did not say, 'I don't give crap if you agree or not.' What I did say was, "I'll make a call and get back with you."

"His laboring few Slocum," the voice said.

"Slocum this is Maxine Stone, do you know who I am or do I need to call the preacher?" I asked.

"Everybody here knows you Ms. Stone. What can I do for you?"

"Do you have a crew available to build a wall?" I asked.

"What kind of wall?" he asked.

"I have a four foot high wall in mind. I need it to run around the office at 303 Chestnut street." I said.

"Ain't that Ed's bail bond office?" Slocum asked.

"Yeah that's it." I replied. "I was thinking concrete blocks," I said.

"I don't have a crew that can do good block work. How about fake adobe. We have had some luck with a method of building designed for unskilled laborers in third world countries." he suggested.

"Oh how does that work?" I asked.

"We have a big cement mixer. We mix cement pour it into burlap bags like they use for sand bags. then we just pile them up and spikes to each other till they set." he said.

"I need to get that wall up today," I said.

"Is it urgent or just a whim?" he asked.

"You said you had heard of me, what the fuck do you think?" I asked.

"I can have ten men and two mixers out there by 10AM. You get me a pallet of cement mix and a truck load of sand on site by then and we will have it done before we leave the site today," he declared.

"I'm going to trust you on this," I said.

"You want a price on it?" he asked.

"Get the men on the way, we can fight about price later," I had no choice and I knew it.

"Done," he said.

I called Lucas and gave him the news. "It's going to look like crap for a while, but we can get it fixed," I suggested.

"I trust you Max. I am going to get them started, then I'm going to Tryon for camera's and repeaters." Lucas informed me.

"You be damn careful, but stay where you are for at least an hour," I demanded.