Maxine's New Life Ch. 06

I was impatient when Lucas finally arrived. "Sorry, I'm late, I had to drop a project off at school."

"How about this, Luke, if you are going to be here after nine, you give me a call. You don't have office hours, so come in anytime you want, just let me know when it is that you want."

"Yes Ma'am, I can do that," he replied.

"And about the Ma'am and Ms Stone thing, let's find something you would be comfortable calling me that isn't going to make me feel like your grandmother."

"Er, okay," he agreed.

"I have been called, Maxine, Max, and Stone, either will do. Why don't you give them a try and see if one works for you."

"Could we add Boss?" he asked.

"Yes, I think that would be okay."

"Then I can find one or more that will work for us both," he agreed.

"So do you need coffee, or can we go to work?" I asked.

"I'm ready to work, Boss," he said smiling.

"Then you drive. You do know how to work the GPS?"

"Yes, Boss, everybody has one of those now," he informed me.

"Not everyone, but I'm glad you are familiar with it."

"Wow, I love the van," he said, at first glance. I took a good look and had to agree with him. Michael Burke had done an excellent job. It was obvious from the stick figure man that it was a delivery van, without ever saying it.

"Yes, I think he did a beautiful job. Now let's go see how smart we are." As is usually the case, the two hard to find deliveries were anti-climactic. Both of them were thrilled at the prospect of something for nothing, so the legend of the mooch continued. 'You can lead a mooch to water, and he will drown in it'.

I was surprised that even the new ones seemingly went easier. We didn't have to convince any of the new ones to admit to their real identity. Luke just looked on his clipboard, read off the name and said please. Everyone one of them fessed up to their identity right away. I was so very pleased by the change that I could hardly contain myself.

Lucas and I served five papers in three hours. It was just after lunch when we pulled away from the last service. Lucas had the rest of the day free, so after I bought his lunch, we went shopping. I drove the van to the Army and Navy surplus store in Tryon twenty odd miles away. There is a lot more new stuff than surplus in those stores these days.

Since there was hell of a good salesman working at the store, I ended up buying everything there, including a shotgun for Lucas and a box of beanbag rounds. It cost me $2200 bucks, but I was glad to skip the run all over hell looking for stuff at other places. In the price were half a dozen ID card holders on chains to be worn around the neck. I saw them and on an impulse I bought them.

Even the radios were first class. The relay controllers were small enough to fit in a man's shirt pocket or my jeans pocket. The Bluetooth headset was wireless, so it was really a nice piece of equipment. If I hadn't thought we would be more than ten feet apart, I wouldn't have needed the pocket radio units. It was more of a repeater, than a standalone unit. A digital recorder came with the base unit that went in the van. I had not anticipated buying either the recorder or a base unit, but the set came with all the pieces and it was on budget, so why not.

The salesman assured me that the mini stun guns would stop a pissed off bull on PCP. I hoped that was true. The model he sold me could be laid on a victim's body and held there without firing, or fired instantly with a the trigger mechanism. It would allow us to threaten a subject. "Stand right were you are asshole or I'm gonna Taser you." It might or might not be necessary to really fire the damn thing.

"So we are really going to chase bail jumpers?" Lucas asked, when we were in the van headed back to Aster.

"It looks as though we are. I guess our first one is going to be Lori the lush. The first thing we need to do when we get back to the office is find her."

"I know, check the police report and find out who might know where she is?" Lucas half asked, and half informed me.

"Right, if she isn't really in the wind, we have a shot. She isn't worth enough to chase her outside the area."

"I am so going to love this job," the kid said.

18 toys that go bang

Ed walked in with his designer coffee just a little before 9 AM that next morning. "That was quite a load of toys you brought in yesterday. I should have stayed to take inventory," he suggested.

"Not toys, Ed, those are tools. Blevins warned me that if I got Lucas killed, the cops would not be happy."

"They still hold the nurse against you?"

"Not the cops so much, but those nurses do, and the cops hold the nurses against them. So to keep peace, they say snarky things about me."

"So what did you get to keep the kid safe?" Ed asked.

"A bulletproof vest, radios, pepper spray, stun guns, and best of all, a 12 gauge shotguns that shoots beanbags."

"So many non-lethal weapons; what if the bad guys don't want to stand still for being shot with a beanbag."

"Then I guess, I'll have to kill them," I said, with a little laugh.

"That's what I thought. Lucas is going to shout into the radio. 'Quick, Ms Stone, come shoot this bastard.'"

"Yeah, that's kind of what I thought too." I waited a reasonable amount of time then said, "Give me everything you have on Lori the lush."

"Ah, so I'm going to be the one to get your cherry?" Ed suggested.

"Only if you have a time machine," I advised him.

Since Lori had been a FTA, failure to appear, Ed's file had a lot of paperwork. He had tried to track her down, but had no success. I took delivery of the file, but I didn't open it. I decided to hold it for Lucas.

I had the file on my desk about ten minutes when Lucas came into the room. "Morning, Lucas," I said.

"Good morning, Boss and Ed," Lucas answered, "So what's the plan for today?"

"I have one process to serve, and we have to find Lori the lush. If you can't find Lori quickly, I can serve the paper while you continue to look for her. First let's go through the file and decide on a plan of action."

"Good, because I don't know if I can figure out what to do by myself," he admitted.

"Good for you, the first thing to do is to admit that you don't know what to do first. With that I pushed the file over to him. "Get yourself some coffee and let's brainstorm."

I gave him a few minutes to read the file while I pretended to check out the order for service on my first mooch of the day. I expected more to be phoned in as the day moved forward.

"Make notes and we will tape them to the wall. First write 'Who else wants Lori?"' I watched until he was finished. Then I used a bit of masking tape to attach it to the rear wall of the office. "So figure that out," I demanded.

"Do they have to want to put her in jail, or just have a general interest in her?"

"Good question, let's go general interest and jail her drunken ass."

"Family then," Lucas said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because it's what families do?"

"Okay, but if you look, you will probably find that one or more of them is a co-signer on the bail bond." Ed stepped over to show him where in the file to look.

"The brother co-signed a personal note with Ed."

"When he signed that note, I doubt that he understood he could lose his house. We might need to point that out to him. Ed tells me you are a computer whiz?" It was a question.

"I can get around on one." Lucas agreed.

"Then find out what kind of car is registered to her brother. Not a lease, but an owned vehicle. Also look through the file again to see if there is a boyfriend listed for Lori. Her next of kin might not be the brother, so run that down and get an address for the next of kin and the brother. When you get them, put that on the wall. Anything else you notice that might help us, put it up there too."

We went over and over the file until lunch. While we worked the file, two more papers came in to be delivered. I picked those up while Lucas continued to pour through the file. It was 2 PM when I got back to the office. There were several notes on the wall. They appeared to hold valuable information, but I knew most of it would turn into dead ends.

"Okay, Lucas, let's go see the brother. You do know where to find him?"

"Yes, he owns a small neighborhood convenience store."

"Very good, before we go, let's crank out a court order. You can fake one, can't you?"

"I don't know if that is legal," Lucas suggested.

"Of course, it's not moral, who knows if is it is legal or not. Do it anyway. You will find the blue cover sheets in my desk drawer. I have them in case I damage one of the lawyer's papers, I can repair it. Of course, they are going to come in handy now."

I explained exactly what I wanted the court order to say. Lucas looked skeptical, but Ed grinned. If he didn't know the exact plan, he had a damn good idea." When Lucas finished, we took the van and hit the road. The drive to the Red Dot Market took about fifteen minutes. Once inside, I hung around the coffee machine until the place was empty. "Are you Dale Thompson?" I asked.

"That's me, what can I do for you?"

"You can accept service of this court order." I handed him the fake court order.

"What is this all about?" he asked. Like most people he was too lazy to just read the damn thing.

"It is an order from the District Court forbidding you to sell your 2009 Chevy pickup truck."

"Why would I want to sell my truck?"

"In the filing you will see that Ed Martin has put a lien on it. You signed a note with him for a bail he posted for one Lori Evans. I believe she is a relative."

"Hold on now, I have nothing to do with that."

"You can explain it to the judge on Monday at the hearing. In the meantime don't sell the truck."

"Can you at least explain why are you doing this?"

"Because Lori didn't appear for her court date and her lawyer can't find her. She has been declared a fugitive. You are signatory on the note guaranteeing her bond, so it's up to you to make the whole bond good." You can take $10K to the clerk of court on Monday, or Ed Martin will have to. If he does that, he will force the sheriff to seize your property, i.e., the truck." I had no idea how much of what I told him was true, and I didn't care. I wanted information, not the truck.

"I can't believe Lori would do this to me?"

"Yes, you can. People who drink and drive will do just about anything. They have very little regard for anyone else."

"Yeah, I guess you are right. Can I make a deal with someone?"

"Well, if we can find Lori and serve her with an arrest warrant, you would come out clean, but like I said, no one can find her."

"You hold on one minute while I call my mom."

"Your mom is not going to want to give her up," I suggested.

"Mom will tell me where she is, if I ask her just right," he suggested. I just shrugged. When Dale left Lucas said, "Damn that was slick. I almost believed you myself."

"I do believe it. You have to believe it to make the mooches believe it, Hon." I finished the coffee before he came back.

"She is staying with her boyfriend. This is his address. Now does this square us?"

"Not till I serve her. She can still skip, you can swear you did your part, but Mr. Martin winds up in the quicksand. No, when I have her signature on the paper, you are off the hook."

"Be careful," Dale said. "Her boyfriend is one mean son of a bitch."

"What now?" Lucas asked.

"Now we go sit on the house. I want to see her ass before I crash into the house and get shot. I would rather take her on the street, or in a shopping mall, anywhere would be better than breaking into somebody's house to do it. We are going to remember what Dale said about the boyfriend."

We sat on the address Dale gave us until the light went on inside. Over three hours and no one came out of the house. I saw her go to the car just before dark, but she didn't leave, she just removed a sweater from the driver's seat.

"Now what?" Lucas asked. He was getting antsy and I didn't blame him.

"Let's go make a delivery and a pickup," I suggested.

"Cool, what do I do?"

"You just hang back but keep that stun gun by your leg ready to use. If the boyfriend moves toward me, do not wait for him to reach me before you hit him with that thing."

"Got you," he said.

"Lucas, remember, we are just there to deliver an envelope nothing more, nice and friendly. When we get her separated from the boyfriend, I'll grab her and you watch my back. Right?"

"Right," he replied.

We pulled the van into the drive and went to the door. I had the white envelope, with lots of labels and stuff on it, in my hand. The boyfriend looked over the van real good even before he asked. "What Ya'll want?"

"Got an envelope for a Lori Evans."

"I'll take it," he said.

"Sorry, she has to sign, if she isn't available, I can come back tomorrow. I made is seem important that I get a signature, but not that it be that moment. I hoped it take some of the pressure off.

"Hold on," he said, as he disappeared back into the house. He returned a few minutes later, but following behind Lori.

"What you go for me?" she asked smiling.

I pushed the clipboard to her. She opened the storm door to reach out. I grabbed her arm and pulled, since she was off balance, she stumbled onto the porch. "Bail agents, Lori Evans, you are under arrest for failing to appear." I turned her quickly before she regained her balance enough to struggle. She ended facing the storm door and in effect blocking out the much larger boyfriend, at least temporarily. It was a classic move to use the prisoner as a shield. Even as I did it, I put the flex cuffs on her. Okay, I admit it was not very honorable, it was sort of a sucker punch, but who gives a fuck. Staying alive and healthy is more important. Just ask anyone who has ever been in a truly dangerous situation it comes down to keeping as safe as possible.

The door block worked for about a minute. That's how long it took for the boyfriend to realize he needed to go out the back door. I knew what he was going to do because it's what I would have done. I said quietly to Lucas, "Hold onto her." I managed to make it to the corner of the house at the same time the boyfriend came around the corner. First, I tripped him, then I hit him with the stun gun. Yes, it was yet another cheap shot.

"Get her into the van," I said to Lucas, "And get it running." I stayed with the boyfriend just long enough to be sure he wasn't going to die instantly. In twenty minutes it might happen, but at least I could swear that he was alive when I left.

"You're a real bitch," Lori said to me, when I entered the car.

"Yes, I really am a bitch. Now let me explain something to you. You are going to cooperate with me or I am going to hit you with that stun gun for no reason other than you pissed me off. Lucas and I can carry you into the jail and we still get paid. The only reason I haven't done it so far is that it's easier to walk you in, but not that much easier, so be a good girl. She saw the logic in my argument, but she couldn't help herself. She had to say, "Robbie is going to kill you."

"I believe Robbie is going to try to kill me." I said smiling. I was not smiling inside. I began to shake as I remembered all the other times I had been terrified during my life, and there were plenty. I am sure as hell not the heroine type. I must be a fear junkie though, because I find myself coming back for more, even when I no longer have to.

"Should I be worried?" Lucas asked.

"You should be careful. You wanted to be a cop, people are going to threaten you every day you are a cop. They may not say, "I'm gonna kill you," but someone, somewhere, is thinking it every minute. It's like being an American in Iraq.

19 Max the good shepherd

Friday morning, I arrived at the office first, as usual. I had the coffee cooking when Ed came through the front door. He was all smiles.

"I called the jail this morning and they told me my lost little Lori had found her way back to the flock."

"Does that make me the good shepherd?" I asked.

"It does indeed, my wayward child," he said grinning widely.

"Well, you can save your preaching for someone who has a little less colorful past."

"Well, regardless, I am grateful for her return." Ed replied.

"I imagine that you are, since you were on the hook for ten grand,"

"Yes, I was going to have a significant loss if she hadn't found her own way back."

"I'm not so sure that I would characterize it as finding her own way back."

"She just needed a little help. You and Lucas were her guides back to the straight and narrow."

"Ed, I hope you don't really believe that," I said, seriously.

"Let's say that I would like to believe it, but that I'm going to pay you your bounty because I'm sure there will be others. I would much rather you take my money than the thug."

"I would rather take it, than have him take it for sure," I said, with a smile.

"Hey, boss lady, did we do good or what?" Lucas asked, walking through the front door with a box of Krispy Kreme donuts.

"We did very good, but we were also very lucky," I replied.

"Better to be lucky than good," he said, quoting me.

"Yes, but better to be stinking rich than either," I added for him.

I held up my coffee cup to Lucas, and said, "Here's to us, and those like us, damn few left."

"He didn't know what to make of it and I didn't explain."

The day turned out to be so routine that it was almost boring. It would have been, had I not spotted Lori's boyfriend Robbie hanging around the park across the street from the office.

"So what do you think he wants?" I asked of both men.

"You," Ed said, reaching for the phone.

"Hold off, Ed, maybe he wants Lucas. If so, we should just deliver him up."

"Not funny, Max," Lucas said.

"Well, before we call the cops, one of us should walk over and see what he wants."

"I'll go," Lucas said.

"No, you stay here with your cell phone camera. I want whatever happens on tape, so that there is no question that I killed his ass in self-defense."

I took the Glock 10mm from the storage room. It came in a pancake butt holster with a spring clip. It was easy to push on my wide leather belt just above my ass. It was the best place to conceal it. At least, the best one that was easy to get to. I took a long sip of coffee then walked across the street.

""What the fuck you doing stalking me?" I asked, all tensed up. I was in the fight or flight mode and nothing I could do but wait.

"No, Ma'am, I'm here working up the courage to go into Mr. Martin's office."

"What you want Ed for? Your problem is with me."

"It ain't like that. I need to see about bail for Lori." I almost choked trying to swallow my laughter.

"Well, come on and get it over with. You are making us all nervous." I walked behind him as we crossed the street. I could hardly contain myself when he stammered his way through begging Ed to go Lori's bond.

"Son, you are out of your mind. Your girlfriend is a lying drunk. There is no way I will go her bond. See if you can find somebody with a house to put that up instead."

I started to lunch right after Robbie left the office. It was early, but I was bored. I was almost in the car when Lucas rushed out. "Hey, can I come along?"

"Long as you pay your own way, you are always welcome." He settled into the passenger seat, then I pulled from the parking space. "So anywhere you want to go?"

"Not really, I just wanted to have lunch with you." He smiled one of those mysterious smiles young men have. I am never sure if it's just I don't know what it means, or if it means nothing at all. I think most of the time they don't know either.

"Well, I can always use the company, but it's not usual that I have lunch with anyone. So you are going to have to come up with places to go or settle for what I usually have."