Maxine's New Life Ch. 01

I spent the evening on my computer. My old laptop had nothing of any real value on the hard drive, but even so I made it onto ebay to pick up some thumb drives as a place to move my personal files. The hard drive was about to be a thing of the past. While on ebay I bought a hard drive that would fit in my old computer. The hard drive was an older, smaller model. The older versions of Windows were not being recognized any longer for updating, and it would never hold the larger newer versions, so I had to rethink my options. I had always wanted to use Linux, one of those small versions would work, I thought. It looked like the perfect time to try one out.

I slept well that night since I had a plan. It was the being without a plan that kept me up nights. Having a plan made it much easier to sleep. That and a quick masturbation session with my personal vibrator. The orgasm wasn't meant to be mind blowing. It was meant to help me sleep and it worked just fine.

For a week I worked exactly like I had before all the crap came down. I went into the office at nine. I waited for a call to come in giving me something to do. Since the clinic thing and the the driveby shooting, I had been getting more work. A lot of it was odds and ends work. It was not my staple, process serving. I expected the extra work to end after the notoriety died down, so I enjoyed it while I had it.

I played dead until Wednesday of the next week. My one exception was a 4AM driveby on Monday night. Just to get the lay of the land. If anyone was on watch, it was from inside the house. Not likely they would know what was happening until it was too late. I also looked for any signs of police surveillance, but I didn't notice anything.

I took a nap Wednesday after work. I even went to the Cop Out and stayed until they closed at 1AM. Jerry was still upset about his friend Sarah. I tried to be no more than concerned. Sure I would have screwed his brains out any other time, but that night I just had too much on my mined. After the Cop Out closed I went to breakfast with Blevins and Jerry, It was 3 AM when I left them in the restaurant parking lot. They surely presumed I was headed home. Since there was a pall over all of them, I didn't have to make a decision about getting laid. Until Sarah's death there had always been a chance, but lately everyone was just too sad to think about such things.

It was early in the morning on Thursday when we left the diner. It was early for us but it was possible that the Mendez family was still working, so I waited at home until 4AM. It seemed to me that by that time even the thugs would be sleeping. I loaded the van while wearing rubber surgical gloves. under the brown cloth work gloves. The bicycle with the metal egg basket from the dollar store attached to the handle bars went in first. Then the box containing three quart beer bottles filled with gasoline and liquid soap. The soap was just to make it adhere to the hard surfaces better. Each bottle was capped with the twist top originally used to keep the beer in place. Finally the gauze strips meant to be inserted into the bottles after the caps had been removed. I could have used tampons but I didn't want anything that even vaguely might point to me. The gauze would get soaked with gasoline from the bottle. I knew I needed to be careful after they were primed. There would be gasoline on my gloves and probably the plaid shirt as well. It was eminently possible to set myself ablaze. The reward could be a life free of the Mendez brothers. The risk seemed justified to me at the time.

Inside the house I removed all my clothes except my panties. I put on a tight fitting jogging suit first. I put on the over sized jeans, then the brown plaid shirt over the running suit. I pushed my hair into the orange knit cap then I checked my pocket to be sure I had the dollar store glasses. I felt as though everything was right so I was ready to go.

I drove the van to the small neighborhood park four and a half blocks from the Mendez house. There I unloaded the bike and then removed the three bottles from the box. Those went into the basket attached to the handle bars. It was a tight fit, but I managed them.

The four block ride to the site of my sapper attack was a nightmare. Bottles of homemade napalm rattled around in the homemade basket not two feet from my face. The glasses were so weak that even when I put them on it made very little difference in my vision. I primed the bottle at the corner of their street, then rode quickly to the house.

The first of the Molotov Cocktails went onto the trunk of the older, but beautifully restored muscle car in the drive. The next two went onto the porch of the house. I did not wait to see what the damages were. Instead, I pedaled the small bicycle as hard as I could back to my van. I had no idea whether anyone would try to follow or not. My mind was focused on getting out of any area that most certainly be quickly sealed off.

I hefted the bicycle into the rear of the van and quickly headed out. Once inside the van, I removed the shirt and jeans. I put them into a black plastic garbage bag. The gloves would stay in place until I dumped everything. The first siren I heard came from a different direction. I slipped easily out of town. I dumped the clothes at a county dump site. The jeans, plaid shirt and orange cap along with the cheap glasses made it into the dumpster. I entered the site a mad bomber and left it as a sweet little process server. I knew the police would be looking at me as well as any others who might have a reason to do in the Mendez clan, so I drove to Aster for an early breakfast I even made sure I was noticed by a waitress there. Doing that was pretty simple, I spoke to her more than just to order.

"God I wish I had your body. Enjoy it while you are young. Middle-age might have you out in the middle of the night getting ready for a morning walk."

"You don't look as though you need to lose weight," she replied.

"I need to lose twenty pounds according to one of those perfect height to weight charts."

"So where do you walk?"

"Sometimes at the park, but it's getting chilly and frankly I'm not sure walking in the park this early is a good idea. They say it is closed until sunup, but I know better. I'm hanging out waiting for the mall to open. God I do love your body." I said. Yes I was flirting with her, but a woman flirting with a straight woman would be remembered.

It was 6AM by the time I finished eating. I dawdled intentionally. After I dropped the bike at the Salvation Army pick up site, I drove to the mall parking lot. I was standing at the door when they opened at 7AM. I stood with several other mall walkers until the security chief opened the doors. I made sure I was noticed by him as well. A forty year old, reasonably attractive woman, stood out among all the retired people, who usually walked at the mall. It didn't hurt that I had walked there a few morning previously. I really was trying to lose the twenty pounds.

"You are early this morning Max?" The security man suggested.

"Just an hour or so. I couldn't sleep."

"Yeah, I heard about all the trouble you have been in. Anything I can do."

"Well you could come over and keep watch over me at night," I said that with a big wink. Might as well make sure he remembered me that morning.

After my three mile hike around the mall, I went home to shower. After my shower I had time for a nap. I did that, since I didn't have a boss. Even with the sleepless night I was in the office by ten, and in reasonably good condition.

"Good morning Ed," I said walking into the office.

"Good morning Max, did you see the morning news on TV?"

"No I didn't. Is there anything interesting?"

"Yeah there was a suspicious fire at the Mendez brother's grandmother's house. It's a good thing she was in Mexico visiting her brother, or she might have died." He seemed a little upset at the thought of an innocent dying."

"You mean like Sarah at the Cop Out."

"Yeah, like that I guess," he replied.

"So were any members of the family visiting?"

"Yeah her two grandsons and a great nephew. The whole family was visiting. No word yet on their conditions. Most likely minor, if any injuries at all."

"Ah oh well," I really hadn't expected to do any more than flush them out. "I guess, I need to take some things from the safe room. And you need to be very, very careful."

"Sweetie if those thugs hit me, you won't have to worry about them. There are about a thousand guys worse than them that I have bailed out. Just go through my files and call them all and offer them a grand to off the brothers and it is done."

"Well let's hope it doesn't come to that. You really need a vacation."

"Let's see how this plays out."

"Okay, I'll be operating from the van till you decide to leave." I said it with a smile. "Spread the word that I'm not in the office till further notice." I removed the riot length Winchester 1920's style pump shotgun from the safe room. It was the kind with the hammer exposed. It had been used in the federal prison system back in the day. My story was that it was retired at the same time as Alcatraz, but I didn't know that for sure. From the room I also removed the 10mm very modern Glock. I filled a small plastic bag with shells for both as well as the .38 five shot Colt which I wore in a shoulder holster under my jacket that day. When I left Ed's officer for possibly the last time, I felt as though I was going off to war again.

I drove the minivan to the closest McDonald's parking lot. I went through the drive through for a large coffee, then sat in the parking lot to drink it and crank up my computer. Every half hour I finished the coffee went inside to pee. While inside I got another cup, then went back to the car. Since the sun was shining the car was warm. The warm car and the comfortable captains chair soon had me nodding off.

I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before. I was on the nod when the cell phone rang. I looked at the dash clock before I answer it. The clock told me that I had spent the whole morning doing nothing but avoiding everyone. It was 2PM when I said, "Hello," into the phone.

"Max it's Blevins. We need to talk where are you?"

"On the move Blevins. After Cop Out and then Ed telling me about the Mendez brother's house last night, I felt like I needed to get away from him before he became another Sarah."

"Yeah, I have been looking over my shoulder as well. Honest Max, I didn't even know where they lived."

"Neither did I, but they just might not know that. So if you didn't do it, and I didn't do it, who did?"

"Probably some other dope gang. They have made plenty of enemies. Hell half the cops in two different cities would be happy to hit them. Then there is all the people they have been strong arming as well as the other dopers."

Well maybe the dopers are ready to cut the Mendez brothers loose. Someone should suggest that if they give them up, the temperature would go down for a while at least." I said that just to plant an idea.

"We have a more immediate problem. Me, you, and Jerry are going to be suspects. I figure we can change the times of our after hours adventure last night and alibi each other."

"So what time was the firebombing?" I asked.

"Around 4AM," he replied.

"So what were we doing till sunup? having a threesome?"

"Actually that's about the best alibi we could come up with."

"There goes my reputation," I replied. "Tell them I left about six. I was out having breakfast then. They might find the waitress so make it possible for me to have been there. After that I was at the mall walking."

"Good, then we just alibi each other all three of us doing the dirty till sunup. I'll get with Jerry."

"Blevins, what if Jerry did it? We will be giving him an alibi for a crime he committed."

"You think I'm going to lose any sleep over those assholes?"

"I guess not," I answered. So Blevins wouldn't care. He would alibi me, even if he thought that I had done it "I wonder who the rollers think did it?" "My guess, they think it was you. I mean they did try to kill you, and it didn't work. They know you are capable of killing people, since their two cousins are dead."

"Ah so I'm going to need that alibi," I replied.

"Well, it could have been me or Jerry and neither of us has an alibi either. This will just wrap up the loose ends. Besides no one died, so as far as I'm concerned, it's a no harm, no foul situation."

"You know they aren't going to see it that way."

"Then when they come, kill them all this time, I sure as hell plan to."

After the Blevin's call, I dialed up Jennifer on her direct line. We had been keeping touch again since the shooting outside the Cop Out club. She had set the tone with the first call by completely ignoring the fact that I knew both her and her husband in the biblical sense. For that I was very grateful. I suspected that she just had enough class and guile to wait for a better time to discuss it with me. She did end every call with come see us, you are always welcome. To her credit, it always sounded just as it had before the incident.

"Hey Jen it's me Maxine, how would you like to be my mouth piece?"

"God, you know I love when you talk gangsta'," she suggested. "So what fun thing are you up to now."

"From a friend at the police department I heard that it looks as though the Tryon cops my want to question me about the Mendez brother's fire thing."

"Let them ask who you are then, invoke your right to counsel. Do not go to Tryon until you call me."

"Yes mother," I replied.

"If you had listened to your mother I probably wouldn't need to be acting like one. So where the hell are you?"

"Sitting in your van outside a McDonald's hijacking their WiFi signal."

"Hell Max, that's probably a felony,"

"Hey, I bought a cup of coffee. I'm just drinking it in the van."

"So anything else right now? I'm headed into a deposition about a bank account, not near as much fun as defending you will be."

"Just one thing, I don't want to tell the cops where I live. It isn't the search, it's having the info out there while Granny Mendez's little boys are looking for me."

"Tell the cops to fuck off till they get a warrant, then we will take them to your hide out Ms Barker." With that we both broke into laughter. I was surprised she even knew who Ma Barker had been. "You be damn careful Max, you are my only fun client." Thank god she didn't mention our personal relationship.

I continued to work at my little business. That same night I found the hard drive in my mail box. I switched out the computer drives immediately, then tossed my old one in the lake behind the cabin. I also loaded the Puppy Linux live CD into the computer's new hard drive. It was a little hinky but it did everything I expected and more.

The day after I spoke to Jennifer Ed called to tell me someone had stopped by his office looking for me. The supposed client didn't leave a number. Ed agreed with me that the Mendez brothers were looking for me.

"Blevins it looks as though the Mendez Boys are looking for me. Someone went to Ed's office, Can you get patrol to watch his place till this blows over. You might find one of them staked out watching the place."

"No problem, by the way speaking of the Mendez brother, the cousin Pablo decided that he didn't like the temperature here after all. He decided to not take his chances in out courts. He left on a bus yesterday I'm told. Too bad your friend Ed is out his bail."

"Yeah, but back to my immediate problem please. Ed said the guy who came to his office was a well dressed Caucasian male about thirty. Could that have been Simon Russell the Roller chief. Do you think he might be trying to make nice."

"I wouldn't bet on it, but I can make a couple of calls to see. Who knows, maybe the rollers are looking for new muscle. If they will drop a dime on the Mendez brothers, this could all be over by dark."

"It's a blood feud now, it won't be over till I am dead, or they are. I seen this kind of tribal shit in Afghanistan."

"Yeah, knowing you Max, my money is on Mexican funerals for all."

"From your mouth to God's ear," I said. "Please see if you can find out if Russell wants to sell out the Mendez brothers."

I served a couple of papers, enough to cover the cost of my coffee anyway, before Blevins got back to me. "The word from Tryon's gang unit, is Russell wants to distance himself from the Mendez brothers, but he is afraid of them."

"Then why the hell is he looking for me?"

"He wants to trade information for his life. He is afraid you are going to target him next."

"Next, I didn't target anyone."

"Yeah I know that, remember when that happened I had my dick in your mouth." He said it with a laugh at least.

"Yes my poor sore pussy won't let me forget." I showed him I could be just as crude as any man. "You got any idea what his information is?"

"Number one: it's that he didn't order the driveby at the Cop Out. Number two: seems to be a warning. The Mendez brother have ordered that everybody they know keep an eye out for you. They want to take you alive. They don't want any driveby this time."

"Ah, they want it up close and personal." I suggested.

"Yeah," Blevins said. "And no chance of a miss."

I spent two hours thinking about it before I called Blevins back. "Blevins, let's ambush the sons of bitches."

"I like it, how?"

"Tell them were to find me then, follow me until we can get them in the clear. Then you can arrest them for kidnapping me."

"That is way too dangerous, the Captain will never go for it."

"Blevins they ain't hunting the Captain. You be there and I'll do it myself."

"What do you need. I know a couple of cops who owe me one and a lot more who would love to bust those bastards. We haven't been able to tie them to the Cop Out yet."

"I need a tracking device they can't find, and something to tell you they snatched me."

"Max you know this could get really rough and go terribly wrong?"

"I know, but I also know I'm damn tired of McDonald's coffee." Even though the coffee at McDonald's is good coffee, everything gets old eventually."

One of the low life Roller dealers gave the information to the Mendez brothers. They had no reason to doubt it, since they put the word out themselves. Russell had turned on them, but they didn't know it.

The tip was that every Friday night I met a woman at one of those cheap Paki motels. We made it a woman to disgust the brothers even more. Also to let them know there wouldn't be much of a threat. I went to the motel alone. I checked into the motel and pretended to wait for my lady love. I was half asleep when they came. When they broke the door, I activated the call for help. The tracker was always turned on. It was just a gps sending unit The lab boys had fitted it into my ear canal. It was going to take some doing to get that thing out.

When they came I resisted, but not a lot. If they had known me better they should have been surprised that I didn't at least shoot at them. They weren't at all gentle when the dragged me from the room in the middle of the night. I took more than one punch and a couple of kicks.

I had no idea where they took me, since I had a bag over my head. I figured the bag was a waste, since they were obviously going to kill me. My only hope was that Blevins and company would get to me before they did. I had a lot riding on him.

The Mendez brother dragged me into some kind of industrial warehouse. They tied me to a chair with plastic zip ties. Then they took turns bitch slapping and punching me. I expected the cigarette burns at any minute. They loved that I screamed and cried for them. Most of that was not faked. I was in some serious pain and had long since begun to doubt my decision making ability. My clothes had been taken and searched before they tied me to that chair, so the locater in my ear proved to be a blessing. Of course had they found it, I would have had a quick, merciful death.