Mysterywriter's Final Spring

After dinner I ordered a second cup of coffee. I removed the delta cup from the black bag which I had brought into the restaurant. The waitress was kind enough to fill it for me. I sipped the coffee slow while I organized my mind.

"Okay, tell me what you know about June, and don't sugar coat it please."

"June's mother married the Governor before he was. She was a widow and he a widower. They met in some kind of support group. They fell in something, then married. June was already grown so she decided to move out. She got pregnant and didn't bother to get married or ask for child support, so nobody knows who the father really is. There is a lot of speculation as you might think. The governor made a big deal out of it during is second campaign. You know family values, and his daughter who chose not to abort her baby but to raise it.

"I see lots of political hay to be made from a child who gets pregnant out of wedlock."

"Got to give it to him, turn a tragedy into a campaign slogan. So how did the kid come to live here, why isn't she up in the state capitol with dear old step daddy?"

"His wife is from here, so June returned to the family home place after the kid was old enough."

"I've had about all the facts I can stand, what are the rumors?"

"There is no proof of course, but I hear June still likes her men."

"Why no proof that should be easy to prove?" I asked it as I measured the patrons in the restaurant. They were for the most part young couples on dates I expected, or maybe youngish adult yuppies just about Dee's age. Dee was in for a cultural shock if she hung around with me for the summer.

"Personally, I think." She saw me grin at the statement. "What?" she asked.

"Personally can only mean you, so 'personally I think' is redundant. I would have expected more from such a high powered reporter as you." I grinned at her and she turned red.

"Trust me old man, I don't write like I speak. I am a hick okay, but I know all the nice grammar rules."

"Old man is it, I actually like that."

"Does anything bother you?"

"Not much these days," I replied honestly. "Now back to the question at hand, why isn't it easy to prove that June Silver is still er er active?"

"Her step dad is intent on keeping it quiet. You know his campaign is pretty much based on my little girl made a mistake and she is paying. We have a wonderful grandson regardless of how he was conceived. All that falls to hell if she is just shall we say a loose woman."

"If she is still sleeping around, and he is hiding it, I expect it is more than just the occasional lover. Since Clinton lowered the bar, not too much shocks the electorate. Besides she is just a step daughter. No I expect there is more to it than just a man now and then."

"What do you mean?" Dee asked.

"I don't know exactly what I mean, Yet, but we will."

"Oh, so it is we now?" she was smiling just a little to much.

"Look Dee, I am not sure how smart you are, but I can't go everywhere, and I can't ask questions that will get real answers. At least not from some people, but you can. So sweetie you just lost your passenger status on this train. Like it or not, you are a partner as long as you decide to stay. If it gets too rough for you, just meld into the forest."

"Nice illusion there old man."

"It's my stock and trade sweetie." I finished the coffee dropped a five on the table as a tip, then handed Dee the bill." I grinned my best grin as I stumbled to my feet. While she paid the bill, I took the blue delta coffee cup to the waitress station. I didn't bother waiting for a waitress, I just filled the cup from one of the pots on the burner. I figured a ten cent refill wasn't much of an expense when they had just gouged the hell out of Dee for that meal.

She waited until we were in the van before she began. I let her drive because it was dark and I didn't know the roads at all. It was also not a good feeling to have my hands busy while in the darkness with a stranger. Better she have her hands occupied, I thought. Before we could drive off into the night, I had to get out in the parking lot filled with BMW type cars. I had to again clear the fuel line. I should have been embarrassed but I grinned like an idiot at the yuppie couple who was parked next to me.

"So Old Man, what do you think about our little rape?" Dee asked it when I returned to the idling van.

"I don't know what to think yet."

"Come on Old Man, you know it isn't for real. Her story stinks."

"Let me tell you something, when a real cop jumps to a conclusion he begins trying to make the fact fit his belief. Invariably it catches up with him. What you have to do is just let it unfold and collect information. It is like a mosaic. Eventually you see the picture, but not till you have lots of pieces. Now back this van out carefully and lets find that campground again."

We were out of the parking lot headed back to the small town when I remembered. "Stop at the next convenience store, I need ice."

I was sitting by the lake in the dark with the bottle of Jack Daniels by my side and glass of ice in hand when she asked, "So where do we begin?"

"Hell, I haven't a clue. Can you get me a decent picture of June. One that doesn't show her looking like hell."

"I might why?"

"If we find anybody who might know something, I want a positive ID on her. Besides we might look in places they don't know her by name. Lots of people use a different name when they are trying to hide something."

"What do you think she is trying to hide?" Dee was all excited. I hated to burst her bubble but what the hell, I was running in a vicious mood. For one thing nothing was going to impress her, for another I didn't give a crap if I pissed her off. If she left to might be a good thing.

"I don't have a clue, but I still need that picture."

"Let me think," she replied. With that she grew quiet while I drank my bourbon and smoked the cigar. The strong tobacco smell hid the smell of burning carpet pretty well. Before Dee spoke to me again she opened her cell phone.

"Hi Mike is Lois there," she paused before going on. "Mike, I know what you think of me but I need to talk to Lois it is business." She waited a minute with an angry look on her face. She avoided my eyes so I dropped it.

"Lois honey, tell your husband to get over it will you..... I know sweetie but hell that was before you met him.....Has your boss ever made a portrait of June Silver and her Kid?...... Okay check for me tomorrow do you still have my cell number? Okay and thanks sweetie I still miss you."

I looked at her curiously. She shrugged then said, "Evelyn owns the only portrait studio for at least fifty miles. I expect she has a negative with June Silver somewhere. If she does, Lois will swipe it and we can have a print made."

"Okay you have till Wednesday night. Thursday morning I am leaving for Harrisburg and the next show. Of we don't have a definite course by then I am not coming back. You might want to figure out how you are going to get home from Harrisburg."

"And if we have a clue?"

"It is only a half day drive back from Harrisburg. Now I am going to bed."

"I thought you were a hard drinking writer?"

"I was once, these days I am a hard sleeping writer. Since you didn't bring a bedroll, you are going to have a pretty miserable night. In the morning, if you want to stay, we can stop by to let you buy something. In the meantime you have a choice."

"Oh what is the choice?"

"You can sleep in the van or in the tent, which we still to setup in the dark. You can have the comforter and half the ground pad for one night. It is supposed to be warm anyway."

"I think I will stay in the van. Sounds like it would be safer, since this is the site of the horrific rape." her voice dripped sarcasm.

"Let's get that tent up then." She did an adequate job of holding the lantern for me while I drove the stakes into the ground. The plastic bag that passed itself off as a tent was up in minutes. I loaded the boxes from the van into it. To be honest Dee helped once she noticed how badly I stumbled around in the dark. I wasn't all that impressed since they weren't very heavy anyway.

I slipped into the sleeping bag on half the amount of foam I usually used. Still I drifted off to sleep. I awoke cold sometime in then night. Not long afterward I felt Dee tugging at my sweat shirt sleeve. "Deke, I'm too cold to sleep."

"Get your bedroll," I demanded. I put her half of the foam pad beside mine. I unzipped the sleeping bag to make a double blanket of it, then I spread the comforter over it. She slipped into the makeshift bed beside me. It was much warmer for me and for her too I expect.

I was almost asleep again when she pushed against me for the body heat. I ignored her as I drifted off into the darkness. For the first night in months I looked forward to waking up.

"Wake up old man, I have to go to the bathroom, and I am not going up there alone."

"Why not, you said June's story stank?" I asked ready to roll back over.

"You are the one who told me not to jump to conclusions, so get you old ass up and lets go to the bathroom."

When I looked out I noted that the sky was light but the sun had not risen. "It is light out there you can make it to the bathroom without any danger."

"Get your ass up or I am gonna pee in the bed." That did it, I woke up. I found my pants on the floor of the tent just where I had left them.

I was wide awake when I returned. I also had clean teeth,so I was pretty much ready to start the day. I wouldn't be in the shower until the sun was much higher in the sky. Starting the charcoal was a chore I really did enjoy. It had to do with the whole macho thing I expect. From one of the boxes in the tent, I removed the grill. It went onto the picnic table provided by every campground I ever used.

I went back to the same box for a plastic bag containing seven charcoal briquettes, a handful of shredded paper from my security shredder at home, several pieces of scrap wood from my scrap pile also found in the rear of my house. I had pretty much cleaned out both before I left, even so it wouldn't be enough for the whole summer. I didn't expect any of the ingredients would be hard to replace. The fire in the miniature grill took a few minutes to catch but it was inevitable that it would, so I sat patiently looking at the lake.

I was intentionally ignoring Dee. It might have been fun to watch her trying to get ready for the day under the primitive conditions, but it also might have been dangerous. Somewhere in the night I found the sweet little Dee traveled with a very small revolver tucked away. She had laid it by the makeshift bed on the floor of the tent. I certainly hoped it wasn't for protection from me. If it was, she was wasting space in her bag. Unlike June's attacker, I knew how to accept no.

"So what is on for today," she asked.

"You are going to find the negative and make me a picture. I am going to sit on my fat ass and make replacement CDs. I will give the problem some thought while I do it." I went to breakfast with her before I drove her to her car. She had things to do that would be difficult enough without the van breaking down on her.

Over our eggs, I gave her some other chores. I remembered when I was first married to the Ex. We would pack her brat off to a friend or relatives house. Then we would go out for the evening or stay home and have wild sex. "Find out where June goes when she has a night off from being mom."

"What do you mean?"

"When she goes out, find out what club or restaurant she frequents. Ask her neighbors, if there are any strange things happening around her place."

"You want me to go around talking to a rape victims neighbors?"

"Sure, what did you think? Surely you didn't think that I was going to look in a crystal ball for you. Hell, this is your mystery not mine. I am here to sell books."

"So what are you going to be, my consultant."

"Exactly, and if you solve this, you don't even have to give me any credit. I'll Just write about it." That remark didn't strike me funny for a full five minutes. When it did, I laughed out of place. Dee just looked at me as if I were insane, I probably was at least on the edge of insanity.

"So what should I ask the neighbors."

"Come on you are a reporter you know what to ask." She suddenly had me curious about what kind of reporter she was.

"Listen Deke, we don't have any hard news in a town this size. I have never really done more than rewrite police reports. I am a little out of my depth here."

"Okay probe gently till you find a neighbor who has an axe to grind. Then prod them for all the info they can give you about her personal life. If you can find the babysitter, then you might be able to get the phone number at least of where she could be reached in an emergency."

"What do I tell them if they ask why I am investigating the victim of the rape?"

"Why honey, you are helping the police. We all want to get to the bottom of this thing. Dee you are the local, you have to get us a place to start."

"And you are gonna sit here and make CDs?"

"I am here on a book tour of sorts, so yes that is exactly what I am gonna do. I can make three copies of a book in thirty minutes so I am gonna be all this day and maybe tomorrow to. I am going to replace all I sold before I do anything else. You are going to have to do most of the leg work or go on home." I actually hoped that she would stay, since the customers loved her skimpy outfit the day before. With a little convincing, I could have her shilling for me. I have no idea why I cared, since I was no longer in it for the money. It was an ego thing by that time.

"Okay old man, how about I get a city directory and we use my cell phone to talk to these people. You could listen to my end at least and help me out some."

"Let me see your phone." When she handed it to me, I found what I had hoped to find. "While you are in town go by radio shack. Tell them you want a power speaker with the end to fit this phone. Get it and I can listen in the conversations. If the power speaker has the wrong end tell them to look for an adapter. I know they make one for it."

Dee left anxious to get started since I had saved her from any face to face interviews. I expected that she would be better on the phone anyway. At first most of the work was canvassing so it wouldn't matter. If it got real, I would go with her to help with the face to face.

After she left, I cranked up the old, off lease computer that I had rebuilt into a three copy burner. With the set of master CDs in hand I began making copies of the MP3 files. Even with the three in one copier it was slow going. I made three copies at once but I was usually forced to burn four CDs for each novel. I did have enough time to print the labels on the label maker while it worked The labels were self sticking paper but I had the little machine to make them independently of the computer.

By the time Dee returned, I had finished six copies of Deacon's Song. The copier was busy working on Gambler's Run. I needed only two copies but I made three just because I could. A little extra and I would be able to sell one or two copies at the next show and not even bother to redo that title.

"So what do you know?" I asked it smiling at her. I had no idea how much she would have accomplished. It could be a great deal or nothing at all. As usually was the case it fell somewhere between the two extremes.

"Well the neighbors tell me there is something strange about her comings and goings."

"How so?"

"When her son is away for the weekend a very large black car picks her up."

"You mean a Limo?" I was a little surprised by that.

"No it is town car but all blacked out. The driver wears a uniform."

"Somebody's chauffeur?" It was more a muse then a question.

"I asked that and got a kind of funny look. They all thought that it was a rental car. You know like one of those big city things."

"Now that is strange." I noted her curious look. "Small town girl getting picked up by a car and driver. Did anyone know when she came back?"

"The middle of the day on Sunday?" Dee replied thoughtfully.

"Same car?"

"No that is why they thought it might be a rental. Sometimes it is a different car and driver." She obviously read my mind.

"Not like the governors private driver."

"Ah okay, did you find the babysitter?"

"She never goes out just for an evening. She just goes out on overnight trips. So no babysitter as such. She has a girlfriend who takes the kid for sleep overs with her own kid."

"I am sure they are way to close for her to give you a number to reach the mother."

"True, but then her phone records are in this brown envelope. I also have the dates the kid was at her house."

"That has to be illegal," I said. Then added, "Good work." She looked pleased with herself.

"My thinking is that if there was a private car from the big city, she met somebody there."

"I agreed. Now lets see who she called on those weekends, if anyone at all," I suggested.

The records didn't give up anything for a long time. I was getting pretty tired of looking, since I saw two of them anyway. Looking with one eye closed was a bitch. It turned out to be Dee who found it anyway.

"She called Charlotte three times over this one twenty four hour period. The kid was at her house and I didn't see it on any of the other bills. I think this is the one Old Man."

"So let's see your cell phone. You do have free long distance don't you?"

"And a ton of unused minutes," she added. She quickly hooked up the speaker then plugged it into the power strip that I used for the computer. She dialed the number while we both waited impatiently.

I have no idea what we expected to hear but certainly not what we did. The voice whoever it was rattled off about a hundred words in Spanish. I had no idea what he was saying. Dee managed to catch a few words. Mostly it was call back later. I summarized we had gotten the cleaning crew. A cleaning crew at three P.M. on a Monday afternoon was unusual. It had to be a bar or nightclub I thought.

"What times were those calls?" I asked.

"Ten P.M., two A.M., and seven A.M.," she replied. It took her a second to connect the dots. "If that is a bar what the hell was she doing there all night. So obviously it isn't a bar." I smiled my agreement.

"Get somebody on the phone who has a crisscross and find out where that number is located." Dee was on the phone a good ten minutes some of it begging some of it threatening and some of it just generally hell raising. In the end she got an address in Charlotte.

"Well Old Man, it is a two hour drive can your van make it or should we take my car."

"The van has to make it, I am not about to leave all my worldly belongings unattended in a campground. That is unless you want to go alone."

"No way old man, you've got the devious mind here. I am just a sweet innocent girl."

"My ass," I replied.

"No thanks old man."

"So give it a week to cool off and we will check out the Charlotte connection."

"What the hell do you mean give it a week?"

"Our, or at least my, next stop is in Virginia. There is a festival on Saturday and I need to make more CDs for it. So unless you want to go alone, I am going to have to put it off until after the festival on Saturday and Sunday this week. We can leave from the festival then drive straight to Charlotte."

"Well that just sucks," she said.

"I know, life do tend to get in the way honey lamb." I smiled my most condescending smile at her. In returned she gave me the universal sign of disapproval as they say in the papers, the sign of the single digit.

"So why aren't you making CDs?"

"I got bored with it, but I will go back to it."