Chapter 2

07:35 Tuesday, July 30^th, 1991

Naval Medical Center Oakland (Oak Knoll)

Oakland, CA

" ... And the parking brake is useless, don't pull on the hood release, and you'll have to cancel the left turn signal yourself," the Gunny said.

Laughing, Lenore shoved him out the driver's side door, and hopped over the shifter into his seat. "Don't worry, Gunny. I can drive it. I'll even love it like you do." She pulled his white shirt so that he had to bend down by the window, and she kissed him on the lips, a very wifely thing to do, in her opinion. "I'll pick you up at seventeen-thirty. I'll call Deb and see when she's free. I'll be working with the Chief for a few hours this afternoon. Bye!"

She released him and he took a step back. In the (cracked) sideview mirror, she saw him make an about-face and smartly march into the building, looking neither left nor right. She was positive there were witnesses, though no one would, in her estimation, be brave enough to tease the Gunny openly.

Quickly, she drove back to the house, and ran upstairs, her legs sore from her morning workout with the Gunny. He was pretty particular about that, she had learned, and she knew he considered her to be out of shape – even though she'd been exercising with Ben and Sandy in the mornings in the hotel before she moved out to live with the Gunny. She figured the exercise was easy enough to do, though the reminders – like now – caught up to her from time to time.

Panting, she studied the Gunny's change jar. One of the old ten-gallon milk jugs, about three feet tall, it had loop handles and a tapered neck. It was full with change to the taper, and far too heavy for Lenore to move. Casting around the house, she settled on the kitchen pots and a drawer from the Gunny's chest of drawers. Running back downstairs with the drawer, she put it on the passenger seat, and, she figured with the weight of the change in the pots, would stay.

Running back upstairs, laughing, she scooped big handfuls of change into the pots. When she'd filled the pots, the milk jug was moveable – heavy still, but moveable. Still giggling, she carried the pots and pans to the small pickup truck, and, with a great deal of protest from the rusted internals of the tailgate, managed to get the milk jug into the back of the truck.

Driving to the Bank of America branch, she made her plans.

"Miss, do you have an account with us?" Lenore had the luck of the draw, and gotten the branch manager when she'd asked about converting loose change. The man seemed to be in his late twenties, and appeared to take himself and his job very seriously.

Lenore made a small face. "Several. I have a checking account in my name, and our ranch has a few business accounts, also."

The manager nodded. "We'll deposit your change into your account. For a business, it's a three-percent charge, for an individual, it's still a free service. How much change do you have?"

Lenore smiled at him as she handed him a blank deposit slip from her checkbook. "About four hundred pounds."

Forty minutes later, she was seriously impressed by the change-counting machine's speed. The manager had asked her if there were any change stamped before 1950 in the milk jug, and she had told him she didn't think so, but anything was possible. She wondered just how long the Gunny had been collecting – and moving when he moved – his change jar. The bank manager brought her about forty coins, of which some were visibly unusual.

"These are steel pennies, ma'am. Made in the Second World War, they've got some collector value. These others, probably less so, but you may want to hang on to them for a while."

She looked up at the man with surprise. "Thank you." She gave him a small smile, and he returned it, blushing. He did something with an adding machine, and then handed her a receipt.

Lenore read the deposit amount and smiled. "Can I get you to issue me a sight draft with a 'not-to-exceed amount'?"

He nodded, but surprised her again. "You mean a used-car loan. You're young, Miss Collins. You should put some of this," he gestured at the deposit receipt, "into an account as collateral, and we'll debit the account for the payments. You'll build a very good credit rating doing this, and there'll be no issue since it's a secured loan. It'll cost you about the interest rate times the principal if you do the loan for only twenty-four months."

Twenty minutes later, Lenore having given the Gunny's address as her own, she left the bank armed with a sight draft, a new account, and some starter checks on the new account, since it had to be a checking account for the bank to automatically debit the payment.

Feeling good about life, she went to go meet Chief Kostowe.