Mysterywriter's Final Spring

"Trust me, I don't want to be in any of your sleazy novels."

"Ah but if I decide to write it, I'm not sure you have a choice. Not if I disguise you properly." I grinned just because I had her going for a moment."

The last customer came in about four. I waited on her because it was a her. She was looking for a gift for her husband. I helped her decide on a book, then took her money. The silence between Dee and myself wasn't oppressive at all. I was reviewing the day and I hope she was as well. I would hate to think that I bored her.

Since she hadn't been pounding on her laptop, I hoped that she was using the down time to compose her article. Finally, people began packing up. I joined them in the chore. I had the posters down when Dee approached me. She handed me the cash box with a grin.

"How much do you think we made?"

"I don't know a hundred bucks?" It was just a guess and I knew it was on the low side. I knew that she had talked to a lot of people, but I didn't really pay much attention to the outcome of her pitch.

"Almost five hundred," she said with a proud look.

"Damn, that deserves something as a reward. I don't know what though." I said it with a leer.

"Well, what that look suggests would not be a reward at all. Come on you can take me out to a real restaurant." She said it slipping back into the disputed sweatshirt.

"Come on it isn't cold leave the baggy sweat in the van." I had an inkling of a plan. She removed it with a nod. During the drive to the convenience store I explained my little plan. She refused for about a minute then agreed. The way men at the show had looked at her seemed to have given her a lot more confidence.

I filled the van from the pumps. Instead of swiping the credit card, I walked with Dee into the station.

"Hi, you the manager?" Dee asked it of the young man who had been staring at her body. Most likely he had been even while we pumped the gas. Even I noticed that when she walked to the station, she moved more gracefully than she had earlier that day. Dee seemed to be changing rapidly before my eyes. Couldn't happen in so short of time, I told myself.

"Owner," he said proudly.

"Even better, how would you like to make some money and help a girl in distress at the same time.

"You a hooker?" he asked cautiously.

"Lord no," Dee said giggling. "I am a representative of this publishing company." With that she removed one of my CD novels from the large black bag. "I have a little display box that goes on the counter. I would like to have you put it on the counter here." With that she pushed a box of candy aside.

"Are those things any good?" he asked.

"I got letter from readers here." She said it as she removed a handful of crumpled letters from the bag. She looked up at me obviously not happy with the condition of the letters. The clerk waved them away.

"So what does this money making opportunity cost me?" He still had the suspicious look on his face.

"How about we give you the first assortment of five novels?" He looked a little more interested at that point. "For that tank of gas we just pumped and a coke." She grinned at him. I noticed that she had been standing very straight with her chest out. She had obviously noted how he had been gazing at her cleavage. I found that amusing in itself.

"How about we open one and see how it sounds?" he suggested.

She looked at me, we both knew she had him. "The box has my number on it. If you get any complaints or they just don't sell, I will come back and pay for the gas and coke."

Suddenly from out of nowhere a young man appeared. The owner had lifted his eyes from Dee's breasts once in a while, it must have been to check him out. The young man elbowed Dee aside while he grabbed the store owner by the shirt. He then demanded that the owner open the register and deliver the contents to him. The young man did as most young people do. He ignored me. Since I wasn't the one looking the man with a knife in the eye, I had time to think. The plan I came up with sucked but it was the only one I had.

The kid headed for the door on a dead run. He obviously planned to push it open on his way out. He gave me a glimpse of the knife as he headed by on the run. I gave him a glimpse of the cane as I tried to hook his leg with the horse's head. He blew on by me since the cane didn't hook his leg. It did cause him to lose his balance and he went down hard. The knife flew from his hand. I move much more quickly than either of us expected me capable of. I had my foot on his knife and the horses head against his throat.

He pushed it away, then attempted to rise. I lifted the heavy brass head, then struck him on the adams apple with it. I wasn't sure how hard to strike him, but I was in no mood to fight a much younger man. That being the case I probably hit him too hard. The began to gasp for air.

"If you gonna be a bad guy son, you have to learn to watch the most dangerous man in the place. He is always the one you ignore. No matter who it is." I wasn't smiling as I watch him gasping for air. I knew there was a possibility that he might die but I couldn't help the smart ass remark. Especially since Dee was standing there. I smiled at her. At that moment I discovered that Dee had brass balls.

She turned back to the owner of the store and asked, "So we got a deal or what?"

It took half an hour to clear the scene of the debacle. I was driving the van which had to be rocked to start. In front of the cops it was not my best effort. "Gonna be a boring trip huh?" Dee made that comment as I pulled from the parking lot.

"A Fluke, I assure you." I said it not so secretly proud of myself.

"Okay, I just hate to do this." I glanced over to see her looking out the windshield of the van. "You were right about the clothes. The guys at the show were very impressed with my skinny ass, and that clerk couldn't take his eyes off me."

"I know that is the only reason I got involved in the robbery. If he told the cops how it went down, it would look like we were part of it all. I'm no hero, but I sure as hell can't afford a couple of months in jail while they try to get the mess straight."

"Oh hell old man, you may not be much of a hero, but you are the only one I got." She broke into uncontrollable giggles.

"Kill the giggle machine, it sounds like a slumber party for thirteen year olds in here." I smiled to let her know that it was just a one liner destined for a book someday. She as a reply, then broke into another nervous giggle. It was all a delayed release of tension.

I had promised her that we would leave directly from the show to begin her investigation, but I didn't relish the idea of arriving in Charlotte after dark. The traffic down there never really eased up. It was a compromise that dumped us into a small city run campground half way to Charlotte. The spots were built along the city reservoir of a middle sized North Carolina town .

Dee and I slept only after erecting the tent in the failing light. I did find time for a drink and a cigar before I turned it. We were on the foam pads when she said off handedly, "The smell of those cigars is awful, but somehow familiar."

"As Freud said, 'Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar'" I tried to misdirect her without telling a bald faced lie. I slept with my arms around her as I had at some point every night. I usually woke up that way, but that night she pushed against me before I drifted off. Okay it was colder than the night before, but she still pushed back against me.

In spite of needing to replaced my CDs, I drove her into Charlotte. I was pretty sure that it was way to early to be looking at the club where June spent her weekends. At least the weekends when she hired a babysitter. By that time I had convinced myself that she was paying her friend for the sleep overs.

I was probably more surprised than Dee when we pulled up in front of the strip mall. The address led us to a video rental store. "What the hell?" Dee asked.

"Well slim, unless I miss my guess this is some kind of front."

"Front for what?" Dee didn't seem to have a clue so I didn't want to say too much.

"Whatever it is that June is doing over the weekends."

"She must be a hooker," Dee suggested.

"Honey this is the largest city for five hundred miles in either direction. They have plenty of hookers here, they don't need to drive a hundred miles to get one."

"So what is it?"

"I told you before, I don't have a crystal ball."

"So what do we do? Rent videos we don't need?"

"We could do that, or we could ask the people in the french bakery next door." That bakery was pretty much out of place in the south, but even more so in the strip mall. The youngish, at least to me anyway, woman behind the counter had that wild fly away hair that women love to hate.

"What can I get for you?" she asked.

"Well if you have coffee, I will let you ruin my health with a pastry of some kind.

"I do have coffee, so what kind?"

"Ma'am I know nothing about French Pastry, except he ones who wear the little maids uniforms." I smiled judging her reaction. She didn't seem amused and I took that as a good sign. I took the coffee in the paper cup toward the stand up counter by the door. I got there with most of it still in the cup. I felt bad that I had left a trail of drops along the way. At least I could find my way back to the counter.

"So now what?" Dee asked.

"Now you go back and ask her about the video store. If you have to show her your press credentials.

"My what?" she asked.

"Show here your visa card I don't care just get here talking about the video store."

"What if I mess it up?"

"You wont." I sounded pretty sure of her when I said it, but I truly expected her to screw it up.

Dee had the woman talking like mad as long as she didn't have to deal with me. I don't think the woman did it because she was smitten with Dee, I think it was because she was straight laced and would be glad to see the Video store people get their just deserts. I know that was awful but it is what I thought.

According to Nancy, the pastry chef, she had been called by the police to turn off a false alarm once at three a. m. She asked the police officer if it was possible that someone at the video store had set off her alarm, since she was suspicious of everyone at three A.M. The officer explained that the video store was open around the clock from Friday morning until Sunday midnight.

We were in the car when Dee said, "See's some kind of call girl."

"I have my doubts about that. I still cant see any reason for them to go get a call girl."

"Maybe she is the one who hires the car and driver."

"Why would she? She could drive it in a couple of hours. But mostly why would they hire an out of town girl to work just a couple of days. No there is something else, I just cant figure it yet. Plus the fact that I am not a hundred percent sure the phone isn't just a drop."

"What do you mean a drop? You think that the real person is somewhere else?"

"Person or business," I replied.

"So how do we find out?"

"You little girl call the number now, you have been dying to so anyway." I smiled since I knew that it was true. I had seen it in her eyes from the start. I had wanted to hold off on the call until we were close enough to follow the leads. She would have had me miss the rest of my shows if I let her take the lead.

We stopped in an almost empty city park to make the call. Even in a metropolis the parks were pretty much empty on a Monday morning in the earl spring. Hooking up the gizmos took only a couple of minutes. She dialed the number while I eavesdropped.

"Hello Friend, you have reached 555 311 7110 please leave your message. Your call will be returned within five minutes."

Dee looked at me for directions. I nodded for her to hang up. Her eyes widened but she did it anyway. "Why didn't I just leave the number. I could have found out something."

"You would have found out what they wanted you to know. Lets try to get some idea of what they are before we do that. We don't want to accidentally get their defenses up. We will get them up, but it can wait until it is on our terms, at least as much as possible."

"What are you talking about?"

"We will have to talk to them eventually, but lets try to get as much information as possible before we start."

"And were do we do that?"

"I don't suppose you have any pull with the Charlotte Police Department?"

"Not a bit," she replied.

"Any with the local paper?"

"They are part of the same news group we subscribe to. We get a lot of their articles to reprint."

"Would you happen to know any of their ace reporters." That part came out as a sneer.

"Sure, lots of them by name. I have spoken with one or two about their articles."

"I don't suppose any of them were local articles."

"No, we wouldn't rerun Charlotte news unless it had a coastal connection." It was just about that time that the light in her eyes cranked up a notch. "I get it, you want to get some help from a local reporter. I don't really want to share this story."

"There is no story, and it is my guess that unless we get an in with the cops, there wont be one."

"How so, it's probably just a guy."

"Of course it is, a guy who has a video store drop and a woman answering his phone. Get with it Dee, this is more than a trist. It always had to be." Even rich people don't send executive town cars for girlfriends like June. A rich dude would have just moved her to Charlotte."

"So what do you think?"

I don't make guesses without at least some information. My guess a the moment is that June was into something in Charlotte which she wanted to keep her kid out of completely. Live far enough away and they don't call you to do small things."

"So you think it is a vice thing."

"I didn't say that, she might be knitting booties for the poor as far as I know. We just need more information before we go rushing off half cocked." I leered at her to judge her reaction. She ignored the remark. Either she didn't get it, or she got it but decided it wasn't worthy of a reply.

"Mike Willis," she suggested.

"Okay, then call this Willis."

The next ten minutes were boring, so I removed my portable word processor to work on this journal. I had fallen way behind in my writing and could do no more than make notes. My attention was split between the dreamwriter and the conversation going on beside me.

"Yes Mike it will be worth your time I am sure." I had no idea whether she was lying or not and neither did she. The point was she sounded convincing. "Okay he will meet us for a late lunch at this restaurant. She gave me the name of the place and the street address. Since we had to look it up on the map first, we were pushed for time .

Dee drove the van since I was having one of my 'swimmy headed' days. Things seemed to float around that day. The drive into Charlotte, then the drive to the video store were a nightmare. Fortunately Dee hadn't noticed a thing.

I gave her map directions as best I could while looking at two maps. My vision went double sometime in the night. It had always been a short term thing. The doctors had warned me that one day it wouldn't come back to a single image. I wasn't sure but it looked as thought that one might be the day. When I closed my already weak right eye things looked normal and the sensation that I needed to stop the car on the side of the road went away. It was possible that a pirate patch was in my future. Lots of things were going to be changing in the next few hours, weeks or months. How long depended on which doctor I was talking to that morning.

The restaurant was almost empty at two thirty in the afternoon. The younger man rose to greet us. "You must be Deloris," she said nodding to her.

"I am and this is my friend Deacon Burke."

"I ran a google on you two."

"The last time I ran one all I got was a couple of lousy book reviews." I was shaking his hand as I spoke.

"Well that and the bio blip. If it weren't for the bio, I might have canceled this lunch."

"Why would you do that? I expect you plan to stiff me lunch anyway."

"That is true, but I could be home getting a blow job." He said it looking at Dee to judge her reaction, there was none.

Up to that point he had delivered each sentence with a sneer. His age didn't help my opinion of him, since he couldn't have been more than twenty five or so. "Oh really who is the lucky guy?" I asked it just as nasty as I could. If the kid wanted a pissing match he was gonna come up short. If he refused to help? So what, with that attitude not having him on board might make the trip more bearable. I didn't really have time for a bunch of crap anyway.

"Stop it you two. I need you both so get a grip."

"But Slim, we don't need each other. It is your little mystery not ours." I said it because I figured it would get the right reaction.

"What mystery?"

"Well kid," I enjoyed that bit. I also got it in before Dee could give it all away. "We came up with a little bit of information that might be worth a story. One that could be big enough to go national." I knew that it was every reporter's goal to advance to a larger paper. The way you did that was to write pieces which got their attention. Ones that got a national hookup were about the only ones that would get read by the big boys.

"All right old man, what you think you got."

"That ain't the way it is gonna work kid. I tell you what I need to know you get it. Then when this is over, you two write the story with a joint byline."

"I do not have partners," he said.

"Well Allah, this time you do." I was a little surprised by Dee jumping in. "Get with it Mike. You don't have an idea where to look without us."

"I see, well I don't need this." He made moves as thought to stand. I had to almost restrain Dee. Actually a touch on the arm did it.

"Well either leave, so that I can have lunch, or get rid of the attitude. You might think you are Woodward or Burnstein, but so far you seem to be just a punk kid from the largest town in a backwater state."

To his credit he smiled. "Okay old man, let's hear what you got."

"Oh no, first you find out what, I want then I talk. You see Mike sweetie, you got nothing to trade yet."

"Drop the sweetie bit." He obviously was not happy with the assault on his masculinity.

"Yeah old man," Dee seemed to agree.

"Give him the number." I was looking into Dee's eyes when I said it. I turned my attention to Mike. "If you call, you'll get a recording, if you run it back it will come to a video store. Now try to find out where the number really goes. If you know a cop or two, I would start there. My guess is vice might know but that is just a guess."

"It would help if I had some idea what it all means."

"Now Mike, that would be too easy. I am told that you are an big time reporter so lets see how good you are. I gave you the big hint."

"Hey Dee, you know we don't really need that old man. You probably know all he does, and I can do more than he can. The proof is that he came to me for answers."

"He makes a good point Dee. Just tell the snake everything and see what you get for it. I have no dog in this fight. As a matter of fact, I am foolish for even looking at it. So tell Michael here everything." I stood and left them sitting at the table to work out who was gonna screw me first. I rocked the van up and down before I got into it. No sense even bothering to take a chance. It was parked in a most embarrassing spot, beside the little sports car that obviously belonged to the effeminate snake.

The old van hit on the first try, so I drove back to the campground without any difficulties from my vision. I told myself to look on the bright side, if Dee didn't come back I had her ground pad. I smiled at the though. I also got out my map to locate the next festival. I realized that I had driven pretty far out of my way but what the hell, it wasn't like I had a schedule to keep. The KOA campground was as nice as any state park with a hell of a lot better shower facilities. I spent a long time on that Monday afternoon washing my butt and scrubbing my longish hair. Maybe that should be washing my hair and scrubbing my body, either way it was nice to stand on a floor that didn't hurt my feet.