Chapter 14

We left the county seat at 8PM on our drive south. Our first stop for gas and a bathroom break came in South Carolina. I had dinner before we left and it was the middle of the night, so I opted for just coffee and an old fashioned cinnamon role. One of those that wasn't too sweet nor with too much cinnamon on it. In other words a slightly flavored dinner roll.

Simpson on the other hand visited their burrito bar. I am sure you can imagine what a burrito bar in a convenience store on the interstate highway is like. Words could never describe it. Let me just say, I planned to ride with the windows open.

"You sure you don't want me to drive?" I asked as we headed to the car. "I have had more sleep, more recently, than you."

"No thanks," he said. "I'll just take it easy."

"If you take it any easier we won't get to Florida till tomorrow night," I suggested.

"I am driving the speed limit. I have the caddy on cruise control." Simpson said.

I didn't reply. I just shook my head. Not even cops set their cars on cruise control at the speed limit on the open road. Never mind, I said to myself and just got back into the car. It was still a long ride to Florida.

Simpson looked dopey within an hour. "You sure you are feeling okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine just talk to me." There was a further lull in the conversation then he ask. "Did you ever kill anyone?"

"You ever been in the military?" I asked him in return.

"Not in combat," he replied.

"Then the easy answer is I don't really know. At the time I wanted to kill someone badly, now I kind of hope I didn't," I said.

"How do you not know?" he asked.

"Say there are are four trucks in a convoy. Each truck has an armed guard to keep the villagers from stealing everything, before it gets to the outpost. Then there is a Humvee with a machine gunner.

As you pass by a mud hut a little back from the road, you take fire. Everybody with so much as a slingshot returns fire. You do that while you are getting the hell out of there. After you have been at the outpost for a few hours, a patrol comes in to tell you they found two bodies in the hut.

So you know that somebody killed somebody. You also know that you were throwing rounds downrange, but did you kill anyone? That is hard to say. If you want to be a hero, then sure you killed them all by yourself. If you want to sleep nights, then no you didn't shoot anyone."

"Oh I get it," Simpson said. "How many times did that happen?"

"One is way too many Simpson," I explained. "Now it's your turn."

"Middle of the night guy coming out of a grocery store after a burglary silent alarm. He pulled a piece of shit South American pistol on me. I shot him." Simpson paused a few minutes the asked. "Did you ever see what a 12guage with buck shot does to a human being?"

"No, but I can imagine that it isn't pretty," I said.

"You are right it isn't. I went home and just shut down. I found myself in the hospital, when I woke up. My neighbor found me passed out with the door open," he explained.

"That happens more than you think, Like you, it is after the noise stops and you are all alone with it, I'm told." I replied.

"I think I will let you drive at the next rest stop," he said.

It took almost another hour but at 1:45AM, more or less, I took over the wheel. I let the big heavy caddy get used to me before I added some speed to it. I set the cruise control at 80MPH and rolled on into Florida.

It was mid morning when we pulled into Fort Meyers Florida. The town isn't all that big, but it is much bigger than the county seat of Warren county. I drove the Caddy to the police station, where Simpson presented our paperwork to the desk sergeant.

"We have been expecting you two. Your Sheriff called the DA and said you were on the way. The DA said fine but she wasn't going to rush the paperwork and screw it up." the desk sergeant said.

"That doesn't sound good," Simpson replied.

"No it doesn't and our DA is a flaming liberal on top of it all. She looks for excuses to put them back out on the street." the local cop said.

"Wonderful," I said under my breath.

"Why don't you two let me make a call to her office, just to see where we are. I'll let her know you are coming." he said.

"That would be great," Simpson said. Then to me he added, "Damn it Porter play nice. Didn't you ever hear you can catch more flies with honey than sarcasm"

"Really, I use flying insect spray, because I don't want to catch them and be a fly rancher. I want to kill them. Same is sometimes true for Lawyers," I said.

"Oh does fly spray work for that?" he asked just as sarcastic as me.

"Have you two had breakfast yet?" the desk sergeant asked.

"Not yet, we kind of thought we would eat before we picked up Gypsy Allen," Simpson said.

"You may be eating more than one meal. Go on to breakfast and check with the DA in an hour or so," He suggested.

"Anywhere you recommend?" I asked. "To eat that is."

"Try Edison's Lunch box on Widman Way," he suggested.

"Good, I'll tell them you sent us over," Simpson suggested. The sergeant just nodded his head as we turned to leave.

"You got to love GPS," I said as I entered the address into the gizmo, It directed us right to the parking lot. It just didn't tell me what to order.