Chapter 23

Had a restless night, but got up early, because the girls had to get to school. We'd decided – they'd decided, that they weren't gonna be beat down by this punk. I was a little uneasy about it, but they were adamant. They had a few more days of school left, and by God they were gonna graduate! So I agreed, on the condition that I would take them to school and pick them up at the end of the day. So I dropped them off, and came back home to try to concentrate on a problem that Ray had passed on to me. Phone rang.

I didn't recognise the ring tone, and the caller ID didn't help, either. I'd been working half the morning, waiting for one of the girls to call from school, but this was neither of them. Almost didn't answer, but I had a funny feeling that I should. So I hit the "record" button, picked up, and said, "Rob here."

Something told me not to crack wise when the voice on the other end said, "Mister Lister?"

"Umm, yes?"

"Mister Lister, I have a message for you from a mutual acquaintance."

"Who is this?"

"That is of no concern, Mister Lister. But I would advise you to listen closely to what I have to request from you, as it would end up being very beneficial to you if you do."

"And that is?"

"Mister Lister, a mutual acquaintance of ours is currently, shall we say, inconvenienced because of a minor legal matter over which you seem to have some degree of control. The person I represent greatly desires that you exercise that control to lessen that inconvenience. I am authorized to inform you that such action could be, as I already said, of great benefit to you."

"And am I to infer that INaction would be somewhat less beneficial?"

"You may infer anything you wish, Mister Lister. I think, however, that your inferences will most certainly fall very much short of reality. I will be in touch. Have a happy day, Mister Lister."

I can honestly say this is the first time I ever got an adrenalin rush just by listening to a phone call. Happened again when I replayed it for Mitch and George a couple of hours later. "You just happened to be all ready to record this?" asked Mitch.

"I frequently record business calls, to make sure I have voice-transmitted details transcribed accurately. Saves on call-backs to busy clients. Usually tell them up front that I'm recording the calls, and why. Didn't this time."

"George, can you make the voice? Is it Cunningham?"

"No, Mitch, I don't think so. He wouldn't be stupid enough to call himself. Gotta be one of his people, but I can't tell which one."

I remembered "Cunningham" as being Todd's last name on the protection orders we'd signed and filed. I asked, "Todd's father?" already knowing the answer.

"Yeah," said Mitch, "you've heard the name around town, I'll guess, tied to just about every crooked deal in the county. Been trying to bust him down for years now, but he's got too many people in his pocket."

George spoke up, "His one weakness is his kid. Can't control him, but doesn't want to watch him go down, either. Prides himself in being a "good dad", but Todd's getting to be an expensive commodity. Something's gotta give, because the old man loves money and power – some say even more than he loves his kid."

Mitch gave a half smile, and said, "If you're trying to make us feel sorry for the kid, it ain't working." I shook my head in agreement. Then Mitch said, "So where do we go from here? I think any judge we take this to, around here, anyway, is gonna laugh us outta his court, and probably get us busted down to walkin'. Me, anyway." He looked at me and asked, "You know where the girls are now, right?"

"So far, yes," I said. "So, I take it more protection orders are out, no?"

"Can't base an order on just this phone call, as much as I'd like to," said Mitch. "Like I said, judge would laugh us out of court." He asked again, "Where are the girls now? And do they have to be there?"

"Well," I said, "both of 'em are in class," I looked at my cell phone calendar, "for the next half hour, and both are in the same building."

George said, "Send 'em both a text message, and have 'em call you, asap. We'll figure out something." He looked at Mitch for affirmation, "They're not safe by themselves."

I did as requested, and we waited a few minutes, discussing possibilities, then my phone rang. Kaitlyn. "Hi Sweetie! Whassup?"

About that time the call waiting signal sounded, and I told her to hang on a minute, and conferenced Laurel in to the call.

"Rob? I was gonna call you anyway." Laurel sounded confused about something, and as she started to explain more, we heard Kay say "Excuse me, what? What's this? Hey!" And there was a sound like books falling onto a desk.

"Kay! Are you all right? Kay!" I started to panic, and Mitch and George looked at me, alarmed, when Kay came back on the line. I turned on the speaker phone so they could hear it.

"I'm okay, Rob," she said, "just someone shoved something into my hand, then walked away, and I dropped my books." She paused, "it's a card, or something," I heard her opening it, and she read, "And I fuck with you. What? That's all it says."

Laurel broke in, "That's like what I was gonna tell you, Rob. Someone gave me a card, too, just a few minutes ago. This one says "You fuck with me," she paused, and said "and that's all this one says."

Mitch grabbed the phone from my hand and said, "Girls, this is Mitch. I'm with Rob. Where are you right now?" They told him they were in the hallway, headed toward the snack bar, then heading to the one class they shared, in the same building. He said, "Good! By the time you're done with that class, we should be there. I don't want you by yourselves for even a minute between now and then, okay?"

"Okay," said Laurel, and Kay chimed in almost simultaneously, "we won't. We'll meet you in the snack bar then?" Kay told him which building it was.

"Yes, unless we're waiting for you outside the classroom." They gave him the number. "Oh, and don't discuss what you saw, or think you saw, with anyone, and don't even talk to each other about it. Promise?"

They promised that as well, and he handed the phone back to me. "I'll see you in a few minutes, Kay, you too, Laurel. Hang in there."

"We'll be okay, Rob, just hurry!" And we hung up.

I asked Mitch about them not even discussing it between themselves. "Sounds strange, Mitch, why?"

"I want spontaneous answers to a few questions, Rob," he said. "Sometimes if two witnesses see the same thing, or experience the same thing, and they talk about it between themselves, they're likely to average out their answers when we question them. I mean, one of them might have seen or heard something, a tiny detail, differently than the other, but if those little details get scrubbed off while they're talking between themselves, then I don't get to hear them. And those details could be the difference between making a case and losing it. Not saying that's the case here, but I'm not wanting to take any chances on it, either."

"Sounds reasonable to me," I said. George was nodding in agreement. "So, do I follow you, or what?"

"Yeah, you can follow us. Matter of fact, George, why not ride along with Rob, and I'll lead the way." I noticed the look between them, and decided that was the way it was gonna be.

We hot-footed it out to the parking lot and headed down the road. George asked, "You're not carrying right now, are you?"

"No, it's in the under-seat lockbox. Why?"

"You can't carry on campus – not even supposed to have it in your vehicle, but I'm not gonna do a strip search today." He smiled, just to reduce the tension, I guess. "Probably won't need anything like that just yet, anyway."

We made it to the campus and parked in front of the building, in the "Official Vehicles Only" space, and walked on in. Got there in plenty of time, and were waiting when Kay and Laurel came out of the classroom. I noticed George had hung back a little, apparently to watch the crowd in the hallway.

Suddenly, a younger man, possibly a student, walked up to the girls and stopped in front of them. Kay's eyes got big, and she started to say something. George reached over and grabbed the guy by the collar, just as Kay said, "He's the one that gave me the card!" And just like that, the guy was on the floor, with George's knee in his back, being cuffed.

Mitch and I herded the girls up against the wall out of traffic, and he tried to calm them down. "Everything's gonna be okay." There were students milling around us, most of them not aware anything strange was going on, and up charged a campus security guy all set to take charge. Mitch stopped him, showed him his badge, and thanked him for helping out by keeping the students moving through the hall. He saw the cuffs on George's little friend, and made it his business to be happy doing just that.

We all made it out to the cars, and the guy in cuffs got shoved into the back of Mitch's plain-wrap sedan. He was howling, "What'd I do? I didn't do anything! I just handed them a note!" Mitch didn't say a word, just read him his rights, and then motioned for us to follow him, and we headed back to the station.

On the way, George asked Kay, "You know that guy?"

"Not at all, Mister George, I never saw him before."

"Before just now, or before today?"

"Before he came up to me when I was talking to Rob in the classroom. He's the one who shoved this in my hand." She read the card again and handed it to him. "And I fuck with you. What's that mean, anyway?"

George said to Laurel, "And you got one, too?" She nodded and handed a similar envelope to him, and he read the card inside, "You fuck with me." Then he held the cards next to each other, and read both messages. "You fuck with me and I fuck with you." He looked back at Kay, "Did he hand you another card in the hallway just now?"

Her voice was trembling now, "Yes, he tried to hand it to me, and I think Mitch picked it up and put it in his pocket."

We made it to the station and pulled in next to Mitch. George got out first and helped haul the guy out of the back of the car. He was still complaining. Mitch said, "When I read him his rights, he must have missed the part about "the right to remain silent". He hasn't shut up yet." He reached into his pocket and retrieved the third card, and handed it to George. "You got the other two, right?" Got a nod in return, and headed on into the station with his charge.

George opened the third card, He read the card, "Want proof I'm not fucking around?" He flipped the card over and scanned the back. Blank. Then he looked back at us, "I'm gonna have a chat with this creep. You can watch if you want."

We went in to the station, where Mitch was getting the guy processed for a simple assault charge. "Best I could do for right now, and I don't know if we can make that stick, once he gets his lawyer. Name's Jerry Rumford, no record that we can find."

George asked, "Has he called one yet? I just want to ask him a couple of questions. Off the record."

"No, not yet," said Mitch, "says he doesn't need one because he didn't do anything wrong."

"Can I have him for five minutes?"

"George, you know you can't just..."

"I only want to hear who hired him to deliver these cards. Really can't use them for evidence anyway – they've been handled too much, and we really got nothing else to hold him on. Besides, he's probably just a student himself, maybe owes somebody something, and some shilo put the arm on him, made him an offer he couldn't refuse. He's scared, and he might drop something that would help. Lemme ask him a couple questions, and then let him go, give him a meal ticket or something, and I bet he disappears."

"You're right, probably, and I still don't like it, but head for room three in ten minutes. He'll be there. And George, no pretty stuff, okay? As much as we like you around here, you ain't got an unlimited pile of markers."