“You're very welcome,” he said, as they headed for the back garage stairs with Genghis leading the way. “We’ll also pick you up a nice new piece of glass for that.”
“Ahh, Jeff!”
“Come on,” he said, half-way up the stairs. “I’ll put some coffee on.”
“Boy! You sure do drink a lot of coffee.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Jennifer woke and for a few seconds wasn’t sure where she was. Then, she remembered. She was in the bedroom across the hall from Jeff’s bedroom. She lay there and stretched her arms out, thinking how she slept really well. She was still wearing the hospital scrubs that were given to her when she left Saint Mary’s. Her hands and feet were no longer sore, just a little red, like a mild sunburn. She got up and walked to the door which was ajar and opened it farther and stepped into the hall. She could hear the Cartoon Network on the television and saw Jeff at the stove in the kitchen, his back toward her. As she ventured toward the living room she saw Genghis. He was sitting on the couch as if he was really watching SpongeBob. His left ear rotated in her direction, followed by his head. As he looked at her, he gave a muffled woof.
Trent turned and said, “Well, good morning, Twinkie. Did you sleep well?”
“Morning,” she said, as she walked into the small living room. “I did, thank you.” She saw an unusual-looking computer on the coffee table in front of Genghis with what looked like a recipe for scrambled eggs on the screen. “That’s a weird-looking computer. What is it? A Mac?”
Trent and Genghis had completely forgotten that their IPF-issued computer was on the coffee table. He stared at it for a second and said, “Yup!” not really knowing what a Mac was. Then, quickly changing the subject, “I made some breakfast food. Look, scrambled eggs, enough for all of us.”
“Cool!” She walked over and took a seat on the stool in front of the bar overlooking the kitchen. Jeff put some eggs on a plate, got some silverware out and placed them in front of her. “Toast will be ready in a second,” Jeff said, loading up another plate. He brought it out for Genghis, placing it on the coffee table and strategically turning off the computer so that screen and touch-screen keyboard both went black. Genghis hopped off the couch, sat on his haunches, and started eating.
“It’s funny the way he does that, sitting on the couch,” Twinkie said while turning back to her plate.
Jeff got a red NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneer coffee mug from the cabinet and poured her some coffee, then took his plate and sat next to her at the bar and started to eat. “Twinkie, if you don’t mind and if you're feeling okay, Genghis and I would like to do a little investigating this morning. Will you be comfortable here by yourself for a couple of hours?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine, thanks.” She looked at the television. “You have basic cable, I’m good. Just do me a favor.”
“What’s that?” Jeff asked.
“If you find that bastard who torched my building, pop a cap in his ass for me, will yah?”
Jeff had no clue as to what she meant, but laughed anyway and said, “Will do. And then, when we get back, we will all go shopping.”
Jennifer was at the living room window. From this high advantage she could look right into the car as Jeff backed the Thunderbird out of the garage. Genghis was sitting in the passenger seat, and Trent had his back twisted with his right arm on the back of Genghis’s seat as he looked behind while backing onto the street. He swung around and put the Thunderbird in gear and started driving down the road. But before they were completely out of sight, Jennifer thought she saw a blue light flash in front of Genghis. She dismissed it as just a reflection.
Jennifer walked back into the kitchen, poured herself another cup of coffee, and looked around the small apartment. She liked it, it was comfortable. The television was still on The Cartoon Network so she sat on the couch and started watching. She thought back to how she’d been in similar situations like this before on many occasions, but mostly in hotel rooms. While her client was asleep or in the bathroom, she would just steal what she could easily pawn at Ted’s, leave, and never look back. She always made it a point never to take any money; she always got paid up front, and taking extra could get her hurt. She always took something that would not be noticed for several days, something that could be written off by the client as just being lost or misplaced. She took a sip of coffee and to herself. But this was different.
Yes, Jeff was a cop, and she had had her run-ins with them before, but there was something about Jeff that she really liked. He could be kind and generous, but he could obviously be tough when he needed to be. She knew that first hand the first time they met that night off of 15th Ave. But, there was something else about him, a childlike innocence in the way he saw the world which, along with the big dog, made her feel safe. Something she hadn’t felt in a long time.
She reached for the remote which was lying next to the computer. “Hey! That’s not a Mac,” she said out loud. She leaned forward looking at it, then slid the computer toward her. It was very light and shaped like a laptop that couldn’t close shut. The screen and keyboard were of a shiny black glass and she could not discern any letters on the keyboard. She ran her fingers over the shiny keyboard and felt no letters, not indented or embossed. A touch-screen keyboard, she thought. Then her hand ran over the power button which was activated by the body heat of her finger. Screen and keyboard lit up. “Oh!” She jerked her hand away as if it would bite her.
The image in front of her was something she had never seen before. The “desktop” had the official Interstellar Police Force insignia on it. The same that was on Trent’s badge. Jennifer stared at the logo. It appeared to her to be three planets orbiting a distant sun. The text above and below it was in a script she could not read. She glanced down at the keyboard. It was indeed a touch-screen keyboard, and the keys were now brightly lit, but not configured like any computer keyboard she had ever seen. “What the hell is this?” she said, while looking at the letters on the keys which were in the same text as the script on the desktop. “Hieroglyphics?” She stared at it for a few minutes more, then thought out loud, “Oh, I get it. It’s some kind of police encryption program.” She decided that she was not going to mess with it any longer. She slid the computer back to where it had been, picked up the TV remote, and started channel surfing. The computer automatically shut down after five minutes of inactivity.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Jeff and Genghis spent all day parked on the corner of 10th St. and 13th Ave in the heart of the Compton Square district of Old Town. The cameras were all out in this area, but they didn’t see Colus Valda anywhere. At one point they both got out and walked several blocks, but to no avail. After about three pm they decided to go back to the apartment and pick Jennifer up.
Colus Valda spent the day in Chloe’s duplex. She was at work so he had the place to himself. He didn’t like to venture out unless he absolutely had to, especially now. But today he would have to. So, he kept himself busy by sleeping, raiding the refrigerator, and watching television. When he found the local news on the TV still reporting on the Compton Square apartment fire he relived every exhilarating moment of his best work ever – or at least his best work since the munitions factory fire on Tarket. His heart started racing and blood coursed through his veins when he saw the video replays of the building collapsing to the ground in a black billowing cloud of smoke, dust, and flame. Part of the building landed on a police car, crushing it, which made him laugh hysterically.
Colus looked up at the clock and decided it was time to go and meet up with Bollar. He grabbed his things and went out the door, stood for a few minutes, and looked up and down the street. He didn’t see the IPF, so he started walking over to Ray’s. When he got to the bar, Bollar was sitting at a table. He gave Valda an indignant look and glanced at his watch.
“Yes, yes, I know,” Valda said to Bollar as he sat down. “I’m late, but I couldn’t turn away from the entertainment box.”
“I s
aw,” Bollar said, while taking a drink of his beer. “Actually, Colus, I was pretty impressed.” He held out his hand.
“Hmm?” Colus didn’t understand at first, then, “Oh! yeah, yeah. The Interrupter.” He reached into his pocket and removed the device that kept his location masked from the IPF agent and hesitantly handed it over to Bollar. “I’ll be staying with the human female Chloe so I should be fine for a couple of days. And I’ll walk the streets that don’t have any cameras monitoring them. But I ah . . . would like it back soon.”
Bollar just stared at Valda for a few seconds. He never liked Colus Valda. He was the type who would get them both caught with his stupidity and carelessness, and his . . .
“What?” Bollar looked at the Interrupter. “What is this? Why is it sticky?” He looked up at Colus. “What did you do to my Interrupter?”
“Oh, that’s something called peanut butter,” Colus said, quite pleased. He reached into his other pocket and produced a small jar of Skippy peanut butter. “It’s very tasty.” Then he took a spoon from his shirt pocket. “Want some?” The spoon had dry streaks of peanut butter on it.
“Ah, no . . . no, thank you.”
Colus opened the jar and scooped out a spoonful. “Okay, but you don’t know what you're missing.”
Bollar watched as Valda disgustingly licked the spoon. He never liked Colus Valda. Bollar thought how his life on this planet would be a lot simpler if Colus wasn’t always asking for his help, constantly asking for currency, and hanging on to the Interrupter for as long as he had. Bollar knew that the IPF agent was tracking Colus’s every move. But Bollar was fairly certain that the agent was not tracking him. Maybe he didn’t even know he was in the area. Bollar started to think how Colus knew nothing of him. Not where he lived, not what he did during the day and definitely not what his next robbery would be. Nothing! And if the agent did catch Colus, all Colus could provide was a description of what he looked like. He looked around the bar at the other patrons, and reassured himself that there must be many human males in the area that fit his description.
Bollar was a violent person, and had done horrible things in his past, but didn’t want to go through the trouble of killing Valda. That would be too dangerous for him. One mistake and he could very easily get caught doing something like that. Colus might think that the local police force was inept, but Bollar wouldn’t underestimate them. He liked this planet. The jobs here were easy to pull off, and he was not about to screw that up. And besides, where would he dump the body? Hell! How could he even transport that rotund mass of flesh anyway? Colus was too heavy for just Bollar himself to hoist into the trunk of his vehicle. Yes, what if Colus Valda got caught?
Jeff Trent, Jennifer Winkles, and Genghis Khan walked through the main entrance of the Riverside Mall and into the large vestibule that was a small museum. Items of the shipping warehouse’s past were under glass, along with framed photographs displaying its forty-plus years of service to the community. They walked through the museum and into the mall.
During the building's renovation, the owners wanted to keep as much of the original architecture as possible. The walls were the same brownish-red masonry bricks that were first laid in early 1923. The double-hung picture windows were still in their original casings. Large steel load-bearing I beams from floor to roof were painted a glossy white. Great sections of the first floor's ceiling were open, giving visitors who entered a view of the second floor’s shops, restaurants, club, and movie theater. Looking further up, past the second floor, one could see the thick wooden trusses supporting the roof.
Jeff and Genghis were amazed. It was brightly lit with shiny white-and-black marble floors. Shops lined both sides of the long wide structure. In the center was a large fountain and on the very far end were two escalators, one up, one down, for all those who didn’t feel like trekking the original grand staircase or using the modern elevators.
“Com’on,” Jennifer said excitingly, while leading the way. “It’s at the other end. It’s one of my favorite stores. They have the cutest clothes, and I hear they have a fifty-percent-off sale going on!”
Genghis could smell the aromas from all the restaurants. Jeff stopped occasionally to look through the large picture windows of the retail shops. There were electronic stores, athletic stores, and shoe stores. Jeff tried his best to keep up, but could not help himself from stopping every few steps. Then he saw Victoria's Secret and stood and stared with his mouth open. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the scantily clad mannequins. Genghis realized Jeff had stopped, calmly walked to his side, and looked in the same direction. Then quietly uttered, “What the hell!”
Jennifer had stopped almost twenty feet away from them, turned, and called out. “Ah! Hello? Haven’t you ever seen lingerie before? Put your tongue back in your face and come on!”
Genghis and Jeff caught up with her, and they all continued to walk through the mall. When they got to the centerpiece fountain they found Trisha and Pimples sitting on the small fountain wall. Trisha had her hand in the water and when she pulled it out, she watched as the water dripped off her fingers and back into the fountain. Pimples had his head down looking at the floor. Then slowly looked up and saw them approaching. Jennifer waved to them. “Hey, Trisha. Hey, Pimples. How yah guys doing?”
Trisha turned and blankly looked at her, and then they both said in unison, “Hey, Twink.”
Pimples looked past Jennifer and stared for a few seconds at Jeff and Genghis before turning back to Jennifer. “Hey, Twinkie . . . glad you're not dead.”
“Yeah, me too.” She paused for a second, then said, “Well, we’re going to do some shopping. I’ll see you guys later, okay.” She waited a second, got no response, and then the three of them continued walking through the mall. Jeff looked back at the two. Trisha went back to the water in the fountain, and Pimples resumed his staring at the floor. “Ah, Twinkie, did they live in the same building with you?”
“No, they didn’t.” She stopped and paused, then said, “You know? I don’t know where they live.” She thought for a moment, then looked up at Trent, shrugged her shoulders, making a “Hmm” sound, and continued walking.
They shopped for several hours, and visited a number of stores. Trent purchased the majority of what Jennifer picked out, not listening to her protests, so she insisted on buying dinner. They proceeded up to one of the second-floor restaurants, but Genghis wasn’t allowed in. He wasn’t a service dog. So, they chose from the takeout menu and ate in the food court. Jeff asked, and Jennifer explained what a service dog was, quietly thinking to herself that shouldn’t a police officer already know that.
When they got back to the apartment, Jennifer put together a couple of outfits and modeled them for Jeff and Genghis, surprised that the big dog looked interested. She thought how intuitive he seemed to be. Much more than any other dog.
Everything she modeled was color coordinated and interchangeable. She had good taste in clothing and had pairs of jeans, t-shirts, blouses, flip flops, sneakers, and dress shoes. She had clothes for sleeping in and clothes for hanging around the house. She had a pantsuit and a little black dress for the occasions when she wanted to dress up. But not everything she selected on their shopping spree was for everyday wear. She did get a few things for “work.” She had short shorts, brightly colored t-shirts that were a size too small, leather skirts, fishnet stockings, pumps, and her favorites, black army boots. The “work” clothes she had insisted on purchasing herself.
She was in the middle of modeling work apparel, while Trent was trying to explain that maybe it was time for a career change, when there came a rhythmic thumping that grew louder. Jennifer looked around as the thumps caused the walls to vibrate and said, “What the hell is that? An earthquake?”
There were two sharp raps on the front door that made all three of them jump. Jeff got up, walked over, and opened the door, then took one involuntary step backward.
“Mister Trent,” came the rapid machine-gun voice of Mrs. R
emke.
“Well, good evening, Mrs. Remke. How can I help you?
“Mister Trent, I believe when I handed over the keys to this apartment that you and I had an understanding.”
“An understanding, Mrs. Remke?”
“Yes, an understanding that I would be notified if you were to be having overnight guests, which I’ve seen that there’s been a young girl here. Now it’s no business of mine whom you choose to be with, even though she is half your age, still I should have been notified.”
“Yes, that’s right, and forgive me, Mrs. Remke, but,” Trent stammered, “she’s . . . I mean that she’s not. Hmm, how can I explain this, she’s not my . . . she’s ah, my . . .”
Jennifer walked up beside Jeff. “Hi, it was Mrs. Remke, right?” she said, extending her hand.
With an astonished look on her face, Mrs. Remke slowly took Jennifer’s hand. “Yes.” She looked at Jennifer from head to toe. “Yes, Mrs. Charles Remke and,” another look up and down, “you are?”
Jennifer was wearing a tight red low-cut t-shirt, black leather skirt, fishnet stockings, and no shoes. “Oh, I’m . . .” She looked at Jeff, then back to Mrs. Remke. “I’m, uh, Uncle Jeff’s niece, Jennifer. Nice to meet you.” She quickly shook Mrs. Remke’s hand, then released it and absentmindedly wiped her palm on her skirt. “I’m going to be staying here with Uncle Jeff for a while, you see my folks are going through a messy divorce and Uncle Jeff was kind enough to take me in.”
“Obviously over you,” Mrs. Remke muttered under her breath, then, “Do you,” one more look up and down, “always dress like this?”
“This? Oh, no, no, I was just showing Uncle Jeff my Halloween costume.” She gave a little curtsy. “What do you think?”
“Well my dear, if you're planning on going trick-or-treating as a two-dollar whore, then you’ve succeeded.”
“Okay, then.” Jennifer turned and walked away.
The Interstellar Police Force, Book One: The Historic Mission Page 17