Chapter 144

I used the first couple of hours back to catch up with the film crew. None of my customers knew how to find me, so there were no messages about that part of my life. Without those contacts, all I could do was just make hootch and move it.

The film crew wanted to tell me some good news. Because I was exhausted I had them come by the next morning at 9AM.

I took a long hot soak and washed my hair twice to remove any blood that might have gotten on me when I cut the guards throat. I left the box opener because I knew I would never be able to remove every trace of blood from it. I had also knew that if two men had come through the door, of the family suite, I would have died. That was too sobering a thought for a bathtub, but it had to be admitted, I just got damn lucky. Maybe I should be content running moonshine, or run for Sheriff, and forget all about Swamp Thing,

But I never felt alive till I was putting it all on the line. I had been afraid out of my mind, but I had also been thinking a mile a minute. It was exhilarating beyond words. I knew for better or worse Swamp Thing had what was left of my soul, and the money wasn't bad. Laundering money was how most people Got caught. It was always follow the money. I could live my simple life on the pension I received from the state.

I used the liquor money to buy more liquor and other supplies. I also had a plastic shoe box full of cash. I kept it in a the bottom of a plastic tool box. It wasn't much of a place to hide it, but it had to do for a short term hiding place. I still had ten thousand in bug out money hidden in the car. My problem was the same as every other person selling an illegal product. I had way too much cash for the lifestyle I could afford on paper. Fortunately, I did it for the thrills not the cash. I still lived the same as I always had. Even so it still accumulated.

I put a wad of cash in the sink and covered it with Dawn dish washing soap and half a cup of bleach. Then when it dried, I put it in a new envelops that was never handled by me without gloves. I did some thing not to many people in the liquor business ever though of doing. I dropped the envelop in the collection box of the Salvation Army. Another time, I bought several cases of corn beef hash and put them in a collection box for a food pantry for Warren County's homeless. Even so I still made liquor runs, and the money still accumulated.

It was the beginning of winter way to soon. We were forced to shut down the shine business, because no one would be making it again until late summer and into the early fall. I had not had any work from Swamp Thing either. Even though I had done everything right, I figured that were pissed at me for some reason. So fuck them, I thought.

By November their was no more shine to buy. The leaves were off the trees, so stills were easy to spot from the air. And the weather was cold, making it uncomfortable to work in the open. Also the supply of corn had pretty much been exhausted, There were people who operated sill year round, but I didn't know any, and I was ready for a break by the end of November anyway. I had been mixing and selling shine for since July and I knew that I had been damn lucky.

The buyers told me how much they hated to see me shutdown, when I saw them that last time. I explained it all and they knew what it was all about. My shit was real shine, not the crap they would be getting from now till we opened again. What they got in the winter would be weak sugar liquor and it would have a different taste.

I decided I had money I couldn't spend, and money I could get to if I had to bug out in a hurry. I needed to concentrate on the money I couldn't spend. I watched those god awful reality shows. One of them sort of interested me. It was one of the storage locker shows. I became fascinated with it and realized I could use it to laundry money.

I still had my state buy out money in addition to my pension. I had received a lump sum form the state and had not invested it at all. Because I hadn't there was almost no gains for me to pay tax on.

The reason I had never considered doing anything with the money, was I had no idea what I would do if if I lost it. I would have no seed money at all in that case. I was getting money from all over I could use for seed money, but I couldn't really use it because is was gray market money.

I had lived in the apartment long enough. I wanted to own a house but the pension wasn't enough income to buy a house. There just wasn't enough money for large enough down payment. What I needed was enough money to make a large down payment, while still leaving some seed money in the bank. To do that and keep the feds off my ass, I needed to clean the money I had.

As thing usually do for us all, it kind of all came together at one time. I could take money out of my illegal stash and buy some coins. Say I bought $1.000 worth of gold coins with stash money. Then I went to an auction for abandoned storage lockers. I could buy one piece of shit locker for under a thousand bucks. I could salt it with those coins. Then I could sell them on the open market and bank that money legitimately. The first one would be coins, after that it could be anything of value. I could lose a little money and still make money on paper because it would be legal and I wouldn't have any real overhead.