Maxine's New Life Ch. 09

Yes, I was suicidal on Sunday. But then I always am after that kind of Saturday night. By Monday I was myself again. The only difference was that I had done some good with my ill gotten gains, so I felt a lot better about myself, a lot sooner than usual.

I also had lost the death wish by the time I woke up on Monday. Since I no longer wanted to meet with Ivan in the middle of the night, I checked my security system. The wide angle camera I had installed on the post at the entrance to my drive was still working. I hadn't used it for months. It didn't do the job I really needed, but it was still working. I knew that my motion sensor flood lights, the ones hidden in the trees surrounding the cabin, worked as well. I knew it because they lit the small yard like daylight, whenever I came home at night.

I decided that it was time, at the very least, to install a gate at the entrance to my place. I also wanted to put more security camera in place. I had seen the boy wonder's security camera system at the office. He could check them from his laptop anywhere he happened to be. I wanted to be able to check the whole compound, before I went through the non existent gate. If Ivan came, I wanted a chance to at least do some serious damage.

Once I got to the office, I set Lucas the task of adding a gate and cameras. "I do not want the gate to be a bank vault, just something to keep the average guy out. If they come at it with a blow torch, let them in, but let me know they are there. However if a guy comes to pick me up for a date, I want it to look like a cattle gate."

"Nobody is going to pick you up for a date, because you better not be telling anyone where you live," Ed said from across the room.

Also that Monday shortly after noon I finally realized that I didn't get my answer about the Reverend's past. Lucas had the security plan drawn up by 1PM, so I put him on the Reverend's trail. I had given the man a thousand dollars, now I wanted to know exactly who it was that profited from my mouth and ass.

"You might not like this Boss," Lucas said. ten minutes later.

"Why not Luke?" I asked.

"Because he doesn't exist," Lucas said to me.

"Sure he does, I was at his church yesterday," I knew what he meant, but my reaction was that of a normal person, not some kind of jaded bitch.

"Jason Archer just appeared here last year. He set up that ministry, but his ordainment must be from the back of penthouse or something akin to it."

Shit, I have been conned, I thought. "So what's his scam?"

"I can't find one. He isn't putting money in the bank anywhere. His income from the church will barely cover his expenses. He actually seems to be dead broke."

"Well, let me do some checking," I suggested.

Lucas went back our real work. He got ready to serve papers, while I put in a call to Anya Bostic. "I need some information," I suggested to her.

"Me first," she demanded.

"My ass Bostic, you don't have the high ground here. I'm not some terrified CI. We trade or you go fuck yourself."

"I'm a cop," she said. "You can't talk to me like that. I'll come over and jack your ass up." she insisted.

"Well then you might want to expect a visit from internal affairs about ten minutes later." I hung up on her.

Two minutes later the phone rang. "You can't prove anything," she said.

"Want to listen to my amateur recordings? They aren't RCA quality, but you can recognize the voices."

"You recorded me?"

"I might have been born yesterday bitch, but it was early in the morning."

"Alright, what do you want to know?" she asked

"I want the full background on Reverend Jason Archer. I want to know what his scam is."

"That could take a while."

"Nothing I learned Saturday night requires immediate action," I suggested. We left it at that.

Lucas had taken the time to get the work for the afternoon scheduled. We served papers most of the afternoon. After we finished all the court orders we we traveled to the house of one Tyrone Marshall. We didn't want to see Tyrone. We wanted to see Tyrone's girl friend. Tyrone's girlfriend was a fellow named Everette. Everette aka Eve was known to write checks without any money in the bank. Most of the time he/she caught the kite before it fell to the ground. He/she had missed a few kites three months before. She was out on bail thanks to a bondsman in Tryon. He called us earlier that Monday morning with the information download.

"Tyrone Marshall, my name is Maxine Stone. I'm looking for your friend Everette Thomas." I really should have done the delivery scam but I doubted that it would work. Mostly because I felt like a confrontation. I could never have pulled off the subdued delivery person that day.

"I ain't seen him," was the reply from Tyrone.

"Then you won't mind, if I come in and look around?"

"You got a warrant?"

"I don't need a warrant hon," I said handing him a copy of the supreme court ruling. The one that authorized a bond agents to break and enter to take a fleeing fugitive into custody.

"Eve ain't here," he said.

"Tyrone, you seem like a nice enough guy. Everette has been declared a fugitive by the court. Aiding a fugitive is a criminal offense. You could well be doing his time, if you are indeed hiding him. So do you want to rethink that?" I gave him a couple of minutes to think. "Will your boss hold your job for a month, while you are at the farm?"

"Come on in," he finally said.

I put the plastic wire tie on Eve's hands. Since Everette was dressed as a woman, Lucas and I called him Eve. It just made things easier.

It was after seven when we got through getting Everette into the county lockup. Like using the bathroom, we had to get the paper work done before we were finished with the job. I hadn't had dinner, so I was short tempered by the time we got to the parking lot.

"Maxine," the loud voice behind me shouted.

I turned to see Bostic headed my way. "What you got for me?"

"The reason you and Lucas couldn't find Archer is that his name isn't Archer. His real name is Jacob Ashford."

I was a little surprised, but not much really shocked me even in those days. "So why the name change." I expected the worst and I got it.

"How about a voluntary manslaughter beef."

"You mean he is on the run?" I didn't want to think I had put the cops onto his ass.

"Not from us. He is on parole. Went into the system at 18 for killing another gangbanger. It seems he found God in the joint. Everybody thought it was a gag to make parole, but on him it took."

"So why manslaughter and not murder?"

"He acted more or less in self defense, but he did have a gun, so they plead it down. He got ten to twenty and did 12 years."

"So how long has he been out?"

"Three years and before you ask, he hasn't been in any trouble. He changed his name last year when he opened the mission and church. As for his parole officer's opinion, he is the perfect client. The parole officer says he has a drug abuse outreach program as well as the mission."

"Sounds to me like he is the one in a thousand who really is rehabilitated."

"Yeah but no telling how he would react to red meat."

"What?" I asked.

"He has become a grass eater now, but what would the predator do, if someone were to drag red meat in front of him."

"Good point, but the drug intervention program sounds like he has already come in contact with temptation."

"Who knows, what I'm saying is be careful." She paused to let that sink in. Then she asked, "So what about Saturday night."

"How much do you really know about Marge, and don't bullshit me Bostic."

"Her main income is from those parties. I don't want to know the details to be honest."

"I personally don't care what your involvement with her is, but watch yourself. Most people in the south would care. She is going down one of these days be careful you aren't with her at the time."

"Thanks for the advice, but that isn't an answer."

"They were Russians. Three couples, but only one body guard. That tells me they are all in bed together, so to speak. Also the bodyguard was more to protect their privacy than their asses. I think they are more or less legit, but into some sensitive shit. If they were big time mobsters, there would have been ten bodyguards not one."

"Marge tells me the one they had wasn't very good," Bostic suggested.

"Why because some hooker took his gun away? Don't underestimate your working girl," I said. I still hadn't decided where Bostic fit in the world. She might be good, bad, or most likely somewhere in between. My ace in the hole was that Blevins still hated her.

"So you don't think they are criminals?"

"Oh, I'm sure they are, I just don't think they are big time criminals. At least not mobster type criminals."

"What did she want?" Lucas asked, when I was safely back in the van.

"Just to tell me who our Reverend Archer used to be."

"You gonna' tell me?"

"Maybe later, right now I'm going to drop you at the office, and then I'm going home."

"Okay, but be very careful. Something has you spooked and I can't get the new security up for a week at least.

"Not to worry Luke, it is probably all a waste of time and money." In the parking lot while Lucas removed his paperwork from the van, I checked my messages. I had turned the phone off in the jail.

Voice mail said, "This is Jen, you really need to call me to set up an appointment."

I punched the button to speed dial Jen at home. "What is it you want? More sex already?" I asked it with a grin in my voice.

"Always, but no it's business this time. Besides Bob has been a lot better, since you showed him how to do it."

"See, I am good for something," I suggested.

"Oh hell Maxine, you are good for a lot of things. One of them is making money without trying."

"Oh how so?"

"Marty wants to settle for 75 big ones. It's a good deal for you both. I recommend that you take it."

"Are you sure this is ethical. You representing us both."

"Oh no hon, I'm Marty's legal whore. You will have to get someone else, if you want a lawyer. But if you do that, you will be giving them 30% for nothing. I did not tell you that."

"Get it ready for me to sign," I suggested. "By the way, when do the shops start springing up?"

"Oh Marty sold a franchise deal to the custom bicycle shops everywhere. He has a group of builders already working on those things."

"If anyone can make it work, it's our boy Marty," I agreed.

"Yeah, I think he is going to sell them through Walmart once the big factory is going. He already has s deal with the Chinese supplier."

"The man is a dynamo," I suggested. "And not too shabby in bed."

"True on both of those statements," Jen replied. "So call tomorrow and set up a time with the receptionist to come in and sign your rights away. I think there will be an offer on the table from Marty as well."

"Our time has gone," I said.

"No it's business. You two are still an Internet phenomena. Marty manages to keep the hype going. Every time you do something in real life, he gets it posted to one of the fake news sites he has up there."

"Jen, I don't even want to know about that. I promise I will call your cute little receptionist."

"You keep your hands off the hired help. Bye hon." she was laughing when she hung up on me.

Tuesday morning found me carefully leaving my cabin in the woods after a quick shower. Yes I had time for coffee, a cup at the tool bench and a cup in big ole plastic Delta coffee cup. You know the delta cup is shaped like a Mercury space capsule. It's the only kind of cup I can walk across the room with. Well the only kind I can walk with while expecting to have all the coffee remain in the cup. It is also the kind of cup, which allows me to drive, drink, and still arrive without coffee stains.

All that to say I left really early in the morning on Tuesday. I had to take my trash to the county dumpster on the way to work. I found that some critter had gone through it again. What ever it was had to be pretty hungry, since I seldom threw away anything but empty boxes. I had to spend time cleaning the yard when I really wanted to get to work.

I wanted to do some research on the Reverend, since I finally knew his real name. I wanted to get that done before Lucas or Ed arrived. I made my deposit at the county dumpster site, then a pickup at Hardee's drive thru before I got to the office. I didn't have as much time as I expected, but I did manage to pull up the old, old newspaper articles. Some of the old articles made it into the digital files of the Tryon paper and some didn't. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it.

It was pretty much as Anya had said. At eighteen the young Jacob came from a single parent home. He and his mother lived in the one housing project in Aster. The Rollers were a middle class gang with it's roots in skateboards and weed. The Dog Soldiers' roots were in poverty.

Like Anya said, Jacob had a .22 pistol. When the Roller kid hassled him for being in the park, they had heated words. The pistol in Jacob's pocket gave him false courage. As the saying goes, the Roller pulled a knife in the middle of a fun fight and died for it. Jacob was young and stupid so he went to prison. Whether he found God. or just a Jim Baker type scam, remained to be seen.

I finished my coffee, my biscuit, and my research before Ed arrived. "Mornin' Miss Maxine, where is Luke?" he asked. I wondered how long it would take for Lucas to become Luke. It had taken a while for sure, but at least half the time we thought of him as luke.

"I have no idea, he is probably out pricing gates. It's too early to be out buying cameras," I had to laugh as I spoke. Ed and I had no idea what was needed to make a video surveillance system. It was all duck quacks to me, when Lucas tried to explain it. He always made the futile attempt to make us understand what he was doing.

"You going to let him in on where you live?" Ed asked.

"Hell, I'm going to let him live there too." I said grinning. "Or at least pretend to live there while the men install his toys."

"That's a good plan, I hate when you make me go out there. The kid can do it from now on."

"That was what I thought. If I get lucky, I want have to screw him for the help either."

"You mean, I could have gotten laid if I had gone about it right?"

"Hell Ed, that would be like screwing my dad. You still might get laid." I said with a laugh.

Sure enough, when Lucas came in at 10AM, he was filled with the description of the gate to be installed at the end of my drive. As I said earlier it was all duck quacking to me. I did get it that I had a two button garage door opener. One button disabled the horn, which blew if the gate was opened without the opener, and the other started the motor that pulled the gate from the driveway. If I needed for some reason to open the gate without the opener, there was a crank that would go under my car seat. It was likely to get crowded in the van, since first thing Monday morning, I had moved my vest from the secure store room to the van. Once I figured out how to hide it, I planed to move one of the shotguns to the van as well. I knew that I was a little paranoid, but I had been taught for years that the Russians could not be trusted. Lately I had heard how vicious the Russian Mob could be. Even though I didn't think the visitors at Marge's were Mobsters, they were still likely to be fringe players.

"So when does the castle gate go up?" I asked.

"They can get started on it Wednesday morning, if I give them the go ahead and a deposit."

"You didn't tell them who it is for did you?"

"Of course not, I know you are trying to stay off the radar."

"Good, I want you to go to my place and be there when they install the gate. As far as they are to know, you are the resident. If they check the tax records, Eds client will come up. I don't want my name mentioned at all."

"I understood that from the start Boss." Luke said seriously.

"Good, this is going to mean that now and then you will have to go out and let people into the place. Are you up for that?"

"Sure we can work things out,"

"The convict and I share a dislike of strangers. He had it set so very few things required an outsider to enter the compound. I have even less exposure. All the utilities are in his mother's name. When she gets a bill, she calls to tell me. I just go by the utility office and pay it in cash. The fuel oil supplier goes into the compound once before the coldest weather and once in January. The cabin is small and reasonably draft free, so i use about three hundred gallons of fuel a years. Roughly one hundred and fifty gallons each time the man shows up. I dumped around five hundred dollar each time."

"I figure if I get the truck out before the gate goes in. it will save Luke having to out there one time at least." I said that just before I made the call.

The delivery company's receptionist assured me that her driver would make the delivery that same afternoon. As usual he would leave the bill in the door. The bill would have the owner's name on it. It was his account, I was just keeping his credit good for him. I explained about the locked gate. I gave her the cell phone registered in the company name as a contact after the gate went in.

My appointment with Jen was already set. She knew I could work it into my schedule so they just set it and informed me of the time. Wednesday at 3PM. I made a note after speaking with the cute receptionist, but knew that I would probably lose the note. I still used a ball point pen and paper to make notes to myself. My cell phone had a memo pad but I never used it. I didn't even want to know how.

Luke and I took to the road before lunch, so I bought giant burgers with lots of crap on them for us both. We weren't in Aster at the time, so Luke found a park on the GPS. We sat in the van to avoid the chilly wind. Even with the chill in the air the sun streaming through all that glass, made it quite comfortable.

"Boss are you interested in that preacher?" he asked.

"Yes, Luke. I'm not sure exactly what my interest is though."

"Yeah, well when you get interested in someone, it usually lasts about a week. So I won't be planning any religious awakenings from you."

"Let's get these papers delivered and get back to Aster. I'm supposed to stop by to see Ed's Son."

"Ah Ed's son the Doc? So how are you doing?"

"Luke you see me every day. Hon you would know if there was anything wrong with me. You might even know it before I do."

The paper deliveries were quite easy as they usually were. We always got a little lip, but since I had the signs installed, the standard answer was, "Ma'am we are just a delivery service. You need to take that up with your lawyer or your ex husband or business partner."

We did have to chase one man down. He knew someone was looking for him, so He wasn't where he was supposed to be. We found him at his son's soccer game at school. I hated to make the delivery there, but he made it impossible not to do it.

"You are almost as big a bitch as my ex-wife," he informed me.

"Thanks," I replied walking away.

He put his hand on arm as I turned to leave. "I'm not finished," he said.

I showed him the stun gun. "Yes you are," I informed him as I walked away. Luke watched him to make sure he remained calm.

"Well we almost got away without anyone acting pissy."

"Those are rare and wonderful days. Now get me back to the office, so I can drop you and get over to see the doc."

Ed's son Jeff and I did our little dance, and he pronounced me cured. He had done very little, but since I had insurance I let him play doctor. Besides he was cute, so I didn't mind him touching and poking me a little.

I dreaded my next stop, but I had promised myself that I would confront Marge. I didn't see any advantage in putting it off. Since the office work was all done or at least being finished by Luke, I drove to the Hazelwood.