Chapter 23

"What?" I blurted.

Tina's eyes were pained as she repeated, "She said two guys tried to get to 'er in their trailer. Said Dan shot one in the trailer an' one outside, but the first guy hit Dan and the second one got her. Dan's in the hospital. Cindy got treated and released. She's with her foster mom now."

"What about Dan?" I asked. I thought I was the adventurous one.

"He's in the hospital, but he's gonna be okay..." She paused. "I'll talk to 'er after school and find out more."

"Okay, sweetie. I'll be at work," I said. "Not much else we can do..."

Tina sighed. "If Cindy says they're okay, then they're probably okay. Still..."

"Still, kiss me, cutie. I need to go." I got my kiss and left with a little more than the usual reluctance.

It was Thursday. Usually Thursday is the day you want to do BIG things on the project, so you'll have Friday to recover if things go bad. I walked into the office to find Jason at his desk.

"You don't, like, keep in touch with Dan Richards, do you?" I asked him.

"Email every now and then," he said. "Why?"

"Cindy called Tina this morning. Couple of guys shot up their trailer. Hit him and Cindy. He killed 'em, but he's in the hospital."

"No SHIT!" he exclaimed. "That's the second time..."

"SECOND time? There was ANOTHER time?"

"Oops," Jason popped. "I thought you knew..."

"Knew what?"

"Guy broke in on Cindy while Dan was working late. She blew 'is ass out the door with a twelve-gauge."

"I didn't know that," I said.

"Uh, maybe I shouldn't've said anything ... everybody down there knows about it, though."

"Interesting," I said. "She and Dan never said anything about it."

Jason snorted. "Pretty much all of us that knew about it thought, 'Way to go, Cindy!' Guy was a convicted felon, mental case, the works. Dated Cindy's mom, according to the story. She dumped 'im an' left town, and he came to see Cindy..."

"Apparently not the best of moves," I said.

"I hope they don't get mad at me for tellin'," he sighed. "I thought everybody knew..."

"I didn't," I replied. "Wonder if Tina does?" I glanced at the clock. Time to go to work. "We ready to energize that little motor control center?"

"I've checked, looked at the reports, last thing yesterday was the 'crowbar check'. And MY lock's on the door to the building. We're ready."

"Let's see if we can find one of client engineers and show 'im this thing..." We walked out into the new plant. "Cindy and a TWELVE-gauge?!?!?"

"'S what I thought," he laughed.

The new equipment went on line without a hitch, and from that point we started energizing a bunch of smaller equipment, life getting a bit easier for some people, a bit more exciting for others. By lunchtime I was about ready to strangle the safety coordinator over some equipment isolation issues.

"Dammit!" I said, "You've had the stinkin' procedure in your hands for a MONTH! And NOW you want to change it?!?!?"

He wouldn't back down on his position, so we ended up in the project manager's office. I won. Didn't gloat, not ONE bit. No matter how much I wanted to.

After lunch, a sandwich and an apple, courtesy of the love of my life, I went back to work. Picked up the phone, dialed up the safety coordinator. "Hey," I said, "Wanna get together and see if there's a way we can do this a little better on the next one?" Sometimes I'm just too nice for my own good.

At the end of the day, Jason came in. "You an' the safety asshole were getting pretty loud," he said.

"HE was loud. I was calm."

"Yeah, you're right. Guy's kind of excitable. What's the deal?"

I sighed. "More than one way to skin a cat," I said. "I published a work plan, EVERYBODY signed off, including safety, and then this morning, halfway through it, he decided that he wanted something different."

"Don't'cha just love it..."

"Yeah. That's one word you can use. There are several others."

Jason chuckled. "So, what's for dinner? My treat!"

"What? You and me? Leave Tina at home?"

"Yeah, like THAT'S gonna happen ... both of you, of course..."

"Lemme see if she's got other plans." I picked up the phone and dialed Tina. "Hey, baby," I said.

"Hi, guy! You're not working late, are you?" I loved hearing her voice.

"No, but what's the plan for dinner? Have you started dinner yet?"

"Nuh-uh," she said. "Susan and I are working on our term papers. We kinda thought you'd come bring us out to eat..."

"You and Susan..." When I said the name, I thought I saw Jason's face light up. "Just second, baby," I said, "Jason was offering to take the two of us out..."

"I can do three," Jason quickly said. "You're paying me pretty good..."

"Okay," I told Tina. "He's gonna feed you and Susan too." I hung up and turned to Jason. "Uh, Jason ... about Susan ... I kind of feel responsible for her..."

"Alan, what makes you even say anything?"

"The look on your face when you heard her name."

"Uh, Alan, I would NEVER ... It's just the idea that I don't feel like the odd man out..."

"Susan's ... Tina says that Susan's kind of naïve ... And she's my wife's friend, and MY friend, and her parents..."

"I get the picture, Alan. But I'm not like that..."

"Okay ... sorry if I ascribed a motive..."

"No, you're a good guy, Alan. Just being careful. I would be, too, you know ... If I was in your shoes."

"Thanks, Jace, ' I said. "So where and what time?"

"That Italian place? Six?"

"We'll be there..."

He shouldered his computer bag and made his way out the door. Left me thinking.

I shut my own computer down and went to my truck. Inside the truck and on the highway, I flipped my phone open. "Dan Richards," I said. Was rewarded with ringing.

"Hello, Alan," Dan said. "How's YOUR week?"

"Better'n yours, from what I heard," I said. "You okay?"

"Relatively," he answered. "Punched a hole through my calf. Dug a divot out of my ass. A furrow over my left shoulderblade. I saw worse in the Sandbox."

"Yeah, but not in an RV park, ' I said. "How's Cindy?"

"Trooper. She was getting ready to nail the guy but I was in the way."

"Uh, Dan, I didn't know about Cindy before..." I said.

"Ooo-oohhhh," he said. "She didn't tell Tina and Susan?"

"No. So Jason's version..."

"What'd Jason say?"

"You working late, guy broke in, Cindy blew 'im out the door with a twelve-gauge..."

"Pretty good synopsis," he said. "I don't bring it up. I let her do it. You can imagine it might be an area of sensitivity."

"But her shoulder..."

"Oh, hers, shoulder, a tear. Another on her ribs. She got lucky. Both of 'em are scratches, kinda like my shoulder blade."

"How about your trailer?"

"Was thinking about totaling it, but Cindy said if there's any way it makes sense, she wants to keep it. Little hardhead said we ain't getting run out of OUR house by a couple of drunk rednecks." He sighed over the phone. "I agree with her. It's OUR home."

"You got a place to stay in the meantime?" I asked.

"Guest room at her foster mom and dad's. More than you and I ever dreamed of."

"Got one more question," I said. "Changing the subject. Jason Ellerbee. Is he a decent person? Not about his technical abilities. Is he good people?"

"I think so, Alan. He's kind of nerdy. We talked about Heinlein and Niven and Pournelle and other sci-fi. I never heard any of the horn-dog stories from anybody about him. Why are you asking?"

"We've run into him a few times when we had Susan with us, and SHE gets giggly, and today when we were making dinner arrangements and I mentioned her name, HIS face lit up."

"Susan's eighteen, Alan..." Dan said.

"Yeah, but she's ... you've seen her. Talked to her. You know..."

"She's a young jewel," he said. "I can understand you're worrying. Tell you what: let's use our best tools on this one. I'll talk to Cindy. You talk to Tina. They'll BOTH talk to Susan."

"Good idea," I said. "In the meantime?"

"I think that if she threw her arms around his neck and kissed 'im, he'd pass out..."

I mulled that idea. "He was married," I countered.

"Yeah ... we talked about his and mine. He was used and abused ... Don't think he's one to dish out the kind of crap he was given..." Dan said.

"You've eased my mind," I said. "So when are we gonna be able to get the bunch together again?"

"Oh, gimme a week before I can use my ass to its fullest potential," he said.

"Oh yeah," I laughed. "Lost a cheek. 50% capacity."

"Nice," he said. "Tell Tina I said 'Hi' and that I'm sorry she married an asshole."

"Gotcha, buddy," I said. "Take care!" I closed my phone. How was it that, for the second time in the last few months, I felt like the dad of a teen-aged daughter?

A few minutes later I pulled alongside our little home. I sat in the truck for a minute, thinking of how Dan and Cindy must've felt. Sat too long, because the door swung open and an auburn-covered head peeped out. I smiled at my wife and got out of the truck.

"You okay? You looked like you were a thousand miles away, Alan..." she said.

"Nope, about three hundred south, actually," I said.

"Dan an' Cindy," she said, immediately making the cognitive leap.

I stepped up onto the trailer's step and she turned her face down to kiss me, then she let me inside. Susan was seated at the dinette, her laptop open.

"Hi, Mister Alan," she said. "We're doing our final drafts. When we're done, YOU need to critique 'em."

"I can do that, Susan, but I'm not the best guy for grammar and spelling and editing. I read too fast."

"I do the same thing, you know..." she said. "I overlook all my mistakes. But still, you can do it for content. I can get Mom to do grammar an' punctuation." She giggled. "It'll make her feel good. I've kinda neglected 'er help with my homework since I started studyin' with Tina, you know..."

Tina smiled. "We talked to Cindy while ago," she said. "Dan's out of the hospital. They're both sore, but they're okay."

"I just talked to Dan," I said. "I got the same story. Did you know about Cindy having trouble before? Shooting a guy?"

Both girls looked at me, shocked. "Cindy? Fourteen year old, little redheaded Cindy?" Tina squealed.

"I guess you didn't know, then..."

Tina said, "She was starting to say something about some trouble, but we got on another thing..." She picked up her phone.

"Wait, baby," I said. "Maybe she doesn't want to talk about it..."

"Alan, she's OUR sister. We get to ask." Tina looked determined, and Susan looked just about as determined.

"Our sister," Susan reinforced.

"Where'd YOU hear about it?" Tina asked.

I deliberately looked at Susan when I said "Jason." Yep! Definite twinkle. "He and I were talking today."

"I need to call 'er, then," Tina said. "If Jason knows..." she dialed the phone, punched the 'speaker' button, then put it in the center of the table.

"Hi, Sis," came Cindy's chirp.

"Hi, back at ya, Cin," Tina said. "I gotcha on speaker. Me an' Susan an' Alan are here. You doin' okay?"

"Mmm-hmmm," Cindy said. "Got my Dan back! What's up?"

"Alan was talkin' with Jason today and he said this wasn't the first time y'all had trouble at your trailer."

"Uh ... I know ... I was startin' to tell you about that on our last weekend, but the subject changed. I'm over it," Cindy said. "The brother of one of the guys from the other night, he tried to break in."

"Jason said..." Tina started.

"I shot 'im when he got in the trailer." Cindy's tone was matter of fact.

Tina looked at me, then Susan. "You..."

"Killed 'im. Sis, he BROKE my door to get in ... It was him or me..."

"Oh, gosh, little sister, I don't mean that I disapprove ... I just don't know if I could've thought that fast. Besides, MY husband hasn't taught me how to shoot anything..." She looked right at me and gave me her squinty look.

I knew I was in trouble.

Susan asked, "What did the law say?"

"Well, my step-mom's husband is a judge and his son is the district attorney and the guy broke into my house. They mostly said 'Way to go, Cindy!' Seriously, he BROKE in. That makes the use of deadly force in self-defense an option."