by AJ Newman
Mike started to speak, but Beth spoke over him. “We’ll train you how to manage the operation, and then you’ll watch over it for ten to fifteen days. It’s actually a straightforward operation. It could be longer.”
“I’ll need a company car.”
Mike laughed and pointed north. “You can take your itty bitty sailboat or ride your bike. It’s only about twenty-five miles or so north of here at Brookley. Oh, I’ll pay twenty dollars an hour for an assistant, but no more than a hundred hours. Oh, I won’t pay for a dog sitter.”
“Whoa, are you talking about Doctor Brunner’s laboratory? I don’t have a dog.”
“Yeah, do you know, Brunner?”
“No, just read about his work, and one of my ex-students is supposed to work with him this summer. Hey, I don’t have a dog and won’t need a dog sitter, but I’ll need thirty an hour to cover taxes and worker’s comp for the assistant.”
I still needed to wrangle a free car. Mike was a cheap bastard, but then all rich people had a cheap streak. “Make that thirty an hour for the lab assistant, and I’ll rent a Jeep from Avis on your dime. I’ll use my company credit card. I forgot to ask, what’s the per diem? I need to eat and put gas in the Jeep.”
Again, Beth jumped in before Mike. “You get fifty per day. Take it or leave it and no car. I told Mike we could find a dozen chemistry professors who need to work over the summer. Make up your mind.”
“Beth, as my old granny said, “You’re fuller of shit than a Christmas turkey.” I know you two need someone you trust who can find out if the process is being sabotaged. I’ll take a hundred cash per diem since I’ll have to practically live at the customer’s building.”
Mike stuck out his hand, and we shook on the deal. Beth grinned. “I told Mike we could get you to do the job, and bet him I could get you for less than two grand a day.”
“Bitch.”
“Thrifty bitch to you.”
“Cheap bitch!” Beth got under my skin. I didn’t see what Mike saw in her.
Mike walked between Beth and me. “We have a meeting with Brunner the day after tomorrow. Could you take an hour or two and attend the meeting to get the lay of the land? It’s early. Eight in the morning.”
“That’s not early for me. Where do we meet?”
“Let’s have breakfast at Joe’s at around six-forty-five and then go over to the lab.”
I turned to go into the house and saw the Golden Retriever. “Hey, girl. What are you doing here?”
Punk looked up at me with her big hazel eyes and pawed at the door. She begged to be fed, so I cut up a ribeye and placed it on a plate on the floor. This girl could eat. “Punk.” She looked up at me, almost as though she could speak. “Look, Punk, I’m not a dog person. I’ll find your family and get you back to the ones who love you.” I thought for a minute. “Maybe I’ll find you a new owner.”
I’d better before the damned dog eats me out of house and home.
Vlad left the lab with the body in the SUV on the way to dump it in the Chickasabogue River. The small river was deep and infested with alligators, where he usually dropped the bodies.
This trip was different because he received a call from a friend for urgent help. Since the friend with the ten thousand dollars was in Prichard, Vlad stopped on the way and planned to dump the body in the Mobile River just off the State Docks Road. He dragged the body to the edge of the water, and returned to the car to retrieve the cinder blocks and rope. He returned just in time to see the body slide into the water being towed by a gator with the body’s foot clamped in its jaws.
Vlad knew taking shortcuts would eventually get him in trouble, but after all, ten thousand dollars to make an annoying Health Department inspector go away was easy money. The inspector would also feed the alligators tonight.
Vlad had rushed the job, and the knot holding the cinder blocks came untied. The body floated downstream toward the ocean. An alligator poked it but didn’t like the metallic smell. A dozen crabs latched on to the body as it made its way to the Gulf in the moonlight.
Chapter 6
Dauphin Island, Alabama
Punk lay beside me while I thought about my new assignment and what to do with Cindy for the summer. I absentmindedly scratched Punk’s back as she ate the remains of the steak. I thought about having my daughter work as my assistant over at Brookley.
Cindy took after her mother. She had brown hair, hazel eyes, and looked great. The main difference between them was that Cindy was a good person. Her mom was conniving, backstabbing, and untrustworthy.
The phone rang, and I heard, “Toes in the water,” and knew it was Cindy. “Dad, can I spend the summer at your cabin?”
Sally had warned me about Cindy’s desire to stay with me over the summer. I knew it really meant Sally wanted Cindy out of her way. “You know I’d love to have you spend time with me.” I played dumb.
“Could I work for you at the restaurant or maybe with your cleaning service?”
“Honey, I sorta thought you’d work as an intern at one of the local chemical companies for the summer.”
“Dad, I thought I had a job with Monsanto or New Wave Labs, but I struck out. New Wave has some exciting nanotechnology projects, and that’s the field I’ve been preparing to enter after I get my doctorate.”
Darn, she was making it hard for me to not use her for my assistant. Mike and Beth had filled my head with buckyballs, carbon nanotubes, and a novel way to use nanoparticles of gold as a catalyst to make new polymers. They told me Buckyballs and nanotubes were some of the earliest nanoparticles found by scientists.
According to Mike, this Brunner at New Wave had been able to make nanomachines that made smaller machines to make even smaller molecules. I only had a basic knowledge of nanotechnology, but wouldn’t need to be an expert to find the problem at New Wave. The problem I was to explore was with a polymer manufacturing process that they wanted to take into mass production. Well, that is according to Mike and Beth. I had my doubts.
I could almost see my daughter crossing her fingers. “If I stay with you, I can make some money and catch some sun and fun. I should be able to make some good tips at the bar and grill.”
No way would Meagan want a hot chick like my daughter competing for tips. “Yes, you can stay with me, and we’ll work out something so you can earn some cash for college. Can you be here tomorrow afternoon? I have some last minute meetings in the morning. I might have something much more challenging than being a waitress and also pay more.”
“Sure, I’ll be down there after lunch.”
“You still have your key?”
“Yep.”
“Before you hang up, give me a ten-minute update on the latest developments in nanotechnology.”
She did, and my head swam with information that I barely understood, but told me I probably needed some knowledgeable help for this project.
I knew I had to think quickly and find a job for my daughter, or Meagan would grow stone cold if Cindy showed up as a waitress at Long John’s Bar and Grill. Maybe I should take the time to inform you about my businesses on the island. You already know about the senior community. I have a lady who manages that business and does a great job. She kept bugging me about our residents bitching about the need for someone to clean their homes. Ann, my manager, started doing some housework for them as a side job but couldn’t keep up, and found the administration and legal crap too much to start her own company and hire people.
I made a deal with her for me to start a company and have her manage it along with the senior community. I paid her more, and she didn’t have to clean homes to earn some serious cash. She had three ladies cleaning the seniors’ homes and another eight cleaning condominiums and rental homes on the island. The business was up and profitable within a few months, and all I had to do was to deposit the cleaning fees into my bank account. Yeah me!
Ann also started a daycare center for her maids, which grew into another business that gave me a small income. I p
rovided the legal help with licenses, found training for the ladies watching the children, and kept the fees low, so the service was affordable. There were three full-time workers, and we used a couple of substitute teachers to help with the child development crap that was beyond me.
One day, Mike and I were sitting on my deck in dire need of some good food and a bar last year. Mike lived about a mile west of me in a charming home on the beach. He’d said, “We need a better restaurant with a decent bar on the island. We have sandwich shops and the gas station for food.”
I’d replied, “We have Davey Jones Sea Food.”
“I want a friggen steak smothered in mushrooms, sweet potato, and one of them fried onion thingamabobs plus a great cocktail. John, you should start a restaurant or maybe a fancy bar and grill. It will be packed during the season and a great place to hang out in the winter to play pool.”
“It could be called ‘John’s Place,’ or John’s Hole,” Beth had said.
Meagan had jumped into the conversation. “I like Long John Silver’s Bar and Grill.”
I saw trademark lawsuits and shortened the name to ‘Long Johns.”
The next day, I had cut a deal for the Island Gift Shop and Sammy’s BBQ. Sammy’s had closed last winter, and he’d put the place up for sale. The old gift shop had been empty for a couple of years. I took a chunk of my 401K out and was able to secure a loan to buy both properties. Then I took out a mortgage on my senior community business to gain operating cash to remodel and start Long John’s Bar & Grill. We’d had a grand opening the week of spring break, and business had been great ever since.
I think you get the picture now. I loved to wheel and deal with buying properties and starting small businesses. Mike and I made a small fortune in college with patents on three chemical processes that made a game display more vivid, and a kid’s toy change color by verbal command through voice recognition.
Our main success was developing a novel chemical that enabled the development of powerful miniature batteries. It was a considerable improvement over the old Lithium Polyvinyl (LiPo) batteries that were loved by many amateur drone operators. Several companies had used our technology to manufacture batteries as small as a pinhead. We used that money to start and sell a half dozen other businesses before we started J&M Chemical Innovations.
I’d barely ended the call with my daughter and opened a beer when I heard footsteps on the stairs to the deck. I listened and knew it was a small blonde about five-foot-five with perky breasts and a toothy smile. I called out, “Meagan, what are you doing away from the restaurant? You do know Doc deducts from your pay when you aren’t working.”
Doc was my Bar & Grill manager. He didn’t like the boss’s girlfriend working for him. “He’s mean to me. He stays on my ass to get me to clean up and work when we’re not busy. Did you get me a dog? He’s so cute.”
Go Doc, go! “Don’t worry. I’ll have a talk with him, but until then, please do what he says. No, the dog followed me home.”
She’d dropped her short skirt and unbuttoned her blouse as she stood in front of me. It was just before sunset. “Doll, you know people can see you from the street.”
“Yes.”
About a half-hour later, she jumped in the pool to freshen up before going back to work. “Doll, have Doc put a steak on, and I’ll have some French fries and mushrooms on the side. I’ll be over in ten minutes.”
“John, have you thought about our future together?”
Oh, Lord, not the marriage crap again. Meagan and I were friends with benefits besides being boss and worker. Well, she did perform some work. I wasn’t ready for marriage. “Doll, let’s take the time to give the topic the time it deserves. How about breakfast here at around nine o’clock?”
Yes, I knew I was going to be gone when she woke up. There would be a sweet note explaining that I had a surprise meeting and had to rush out for the morning. I really liked Meagan, but she was trying to change our deal, and I liked our current understanding. After Sally divorced me, I’d sworn off women for a year and then dated a series of a dozen or so women my age who had kids and wanted a man at home. I wasn’t that guy. I ran into Meagan on Dauphin Island Parkway with a flat tire on her 1966 VW Bug. I took her to my home and called a wrecker to take the Bug to the gas station. She’d been with me ever since.
Meagan rubbed Punk’s ears. “This is a nice dog. Can we keep her if you can’t find the owner?”
“No! I don’t have time for a dog, and you wouldn’t clean up after her. Before I forget, Cindy will be spending the summer with us. Do you have any thoughts about where I could put her to work to earn some school money?”
Meagan ran her hand up and down my thigh. “She could work for Ann cleaning apartments. We definitely don’t need help at the restaurant. I want the dog.”
“No, on the dog, and thanks for the advice on where to place Cindy.”
“You’re mean. I should have stayed at work instead of giving you an afternoon delight.”
It was evening but very delightful. “Babe, I like you slipping over here when you can.”
Damn, I felt terrible. I was playing her to keep her happy and being able to enjoy delightful afternoons. Then I remembered she didn’t have a dime to her name and used me to get a place to live on the beach and a job to barely work at when she actually showed up for work. This relationship stuff was hard work.
Now you know how my daughter ended up being my assistant over at New Wave. The plot thickens.
I also gave a lot of thought that night to breaking it off with Meagan. She needed someone who cared for her, and I needed to get a waitress who actually worked. Maybe the new had worn off the novelty of having a girlfriend half my age. In the back of my mind, there was the thought that it would be nice to carry on a meaningful conversation or be able to take my date out to a nice restaurant without the waiter asking if my daughter was old enough for the margarita.
Chapter 7
After a quick shower, I decided I wanted a couple of good margaritas before bed. Meagan would bother me again at Long John’s, so I decided to drive up to Joe’s. I called Doc, told him to cancel the steaks, and then opened the back door to leave. Punk ran out the door and jumped into the Ghia. It was cool, and I could leave Punk in the car and hope she ran off back to her home. Punk watched me drive as though she disapproved of everything I did. “What ya looking at? I’ve been driving since before your great grand dog was a pup.”
She yawned and lay down in the seat. I pulled into the parking lot. “Punk. Stay! I’m going in for a drink.”
This dog was the most laid-back animal I’d ever seen. I sincerely doubted Punk would bite a biscuit unless the biscuit bit her first. I felt terrible leaving her, but the sun was down, and the temperature had dropped to the low 70’s.
I sat at the bar flirting with the barmaid and drinking a huge margarita when I heard a loud discussion. A rough-looking character with a scar on his cheek was arguing with the bouncer. The next thing I knew, the bouncer was on the floor. The man had his wrist bent backward and appeared to be taunting the poor bouncer. No one moved, and I usually don’t get involved in other people’s business, but the bouncer was a cousin of Joe’s, and Joe was an old friend.
“Hey. Mac. Let the kid up. You’ve made your point.”
The man sneered. “When I break his arm, he’ll get my point.”
I reached into my pocket, placed my fingers around the butt of my Ruger LCP, and started to draw when I heard the sound of Joe racking his 12-gauge pump.
“Let him up, or my double aught buckshot will splatter your damned brains across the wall. The police will be here in a minute.” Joe meant business, and I had Joe’s back.
The thug said something in Russian to Joe and let the bouncer’s hand drop. Then the man said, “Tell fat ass that I’ll come back for my dog. You can’t guard him all the time.”
That statement hit home. I wondered if he meant Punk.
Joe said, “Keep your hands where I can see
them. This shotgun and me have a lot to say about what you do. If I see your sorry ass again, I’ll shoot you and pitch you to the gators north of Mobile.”
Joe looked at me, standing behind the Russian with my pistol aimed at the fellow. “John, tell Bubba to be on the lookout for this prick. He works over at Brookley.”
I said, “Buddy, you’d better forget this place and these people. Bubba and his officers can make you disappear in a heartbeat.”
The man’s head snapped around. “Mind your own business before I ram that popgun down your throat.”
Joe rammed the shotgun against the man’s back and pushed him out of the bar. I’d pulled a gun on some criminals before but always turned them over to the police. My hands shook while I placed my pistol back into my pocket, and I was glad the man couldn’t see my face in the dark. Joe and the bouncer got him outside, and two cruisers pulled up. The four cops had guns drawn.
Joe kept his shotgun stuck against the man’s back and handed the Russian’s gun to one of the officers. “This man came into the bar and attacked my nephew for no reason. I don’t ever want to see him again.”
“Don’t worry, Joe; we’ll take him for a ride. When we get done with him, he won’t bother anyone again.”
The officers walked the belligerent man past my car, and Punk went berserk, trying to bite the asshole. Punk sank her teeth into the man’s forearm before the cops could get him past my car. I yelled. “Punk, stop!” Punk released her grip and gave me a dirty look.
The cops laughed at the man when they banged his head on the roof of the police car before shoving him into the backseat. I watched the police leave and stood there with Joe for a few minutes. “John, thanks for having my back.”
“Not a big deal. You’d do the same for me.”