8.
Margaret sat the folder between them so that the two women, as well as Brody, could look at it. “This is Mel Rostkincowski, he was pulled over for a DUI a week ago, looking at his record it doesn’t look like it’s this guy first rodeo. He’s been arrested in the past for drunk driving, a domestic dispute with a woman by the name of Ellen Brows –she bailed him out and dropped the charges it looks like, also there is the fellow who came in and paid his bond. Ezekiel Chambers.” Margaret explained as she went over the file with Tiffany. “We haven’t been able to get a hold of Mel, and his court appearance was yesterday, which he didn’t show up for, which means our office is now out fifty-thousand-dollars if we can’t bring him in.”
“Wow, that’s a lot of money,” Tiffany replied, looking at the mug shot. “So, because he didn’t show up for court, that means he jumped bail, right? When someone comes into a bondsman’s office, how does it all work? Does a friend or family member give you money to bail them out or you sign a contract with them that they will pay you this amount of money? How does it all work?” Tiffany asked, hoping to get a clear idea of how being a bondsman went down. Theoretically, Tiffany understood the concept, but there were some gray areas that she didn’t understand –yet.
“Have you ever heard of legal guardianship?” Margaret asked her, her penciled in brows rose up somewhat with the question, she was searching for the best way to explain this to a newcomer.
“Yeah, I’ve heard of that,” Tiffany replied, nodding her understanding.
“Okay, it’s sort of like that. Mel’s total bond was fifty-thousand-dollars. Not a lot of people are running around with that amount of money in their bank account, shit. In these little towns like this? People are lucky they make that in a year. Anyway, what happens is, your bond is set, but you don’t have the money to pay it, so you come to me. I then, legally become like a legal guardian of sorts, it’s my job to make sure that you are where you are supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there. You pay me a fee, our fee is ten percent of the total bond, which makes it five-thousand-dollars. I, then, go to the court and vouch for them that if this person doesn’t show up in court, the bond will be paid in full. I’ve seen mothers use their houses as collateral on a bond, their cars, jewelry, anything valuable to get a loved one out of jail and then that kid or relative or friend screws them over and they lose their house, because they signed a document, co-signing the bond. In this case, it looks like,” Margaret paused for a moment, looking over the bond agreement. “Yeah, Mr. Chambers co-signed the bond and his business, is up for collateral. If we don’t find Mr. Rostkincowski and bring him in, Mr. Chambers will lose his business and I won’t make any profit off this bond, which is the five-thousand-dollars that was our fee. Usually, if someone misses their court date, we’ll go in and see if we can arrange another date for them, but there are some situations where that person is gone, nowhere to be found and we just have to sit back and basically eat it.”
Tiffany’s eyes grew as big as saucers as she listened.
“Unfortunately, we’re not in the charity business, nine out of ten people arrested who are out on bond, will run and they don’t give a rat’s ass if their mama, grandmama, daddy, brother, sister, whatever lose their house. If they aren’t sitting in jail, they don’t care.” Margaret said. “At least, that has been my experience. First-time offenders, yeah, they are scared shitless and they’ll show up for court. But, actual criminals? They aren’t like you and me who’ve never really been in trouble in our lives, but some people who’ve lived in this life style all their lives –they just don’t care. If they aren’t sitting behind bars, they don’t care whose life they ruin in the process.”
“So, if you don’t find this guy Mel, will you also have to give your fee to the court? Along with the man who put his business up for collateral?” Tiffany asked.
“Yep, we’ll make no profit off the bond, and Mr. Chambers will lose his business too,” Margaret said with a small nod and a smirk.
“Well, shit, let’s go find him so you get to keep your five thousand dollars and Mr. Chambers doesn’t have to give up his business!” Tiffany said, determination sizzling in her voice.
“That’s my girl. I knew I had a good vibe from you. High five.” Margaret held her palm up as Tiffany quickly slapped it, and Brody have a little bark-like, ‘Hey don’t forget about me!’
9.
It was midafternoon and Josh finally found the spare key to his cousin’s apartment. Pushing the door open, the place was trashed, which Josh knew that Mel had never been much of a tidy man. Beer cans were littering the coffee table, the little twenty-five-inch television set was still on, reruns of Jeopardy were playing, and Josh had a hard time finding the remote. He finally did find it between two couch cushions in what looked like a disintegrating fast-food wrapper. Yep, Mel was off the wagon.
“Mel! You here man?” Josh called through the little apartment, from where he stood in the living room, he could see straight into the kitchen and there was no Mel, plus the AC had been turned off. Why would Mel turn the air conditioner off and not the television? He only ever did that when he knew he wasn’t going to be home for a while and was trying to make would be burglars think someone was inside the apartment. This was bad. This was so, so bad. Zeke was going to kill him.
Even at twenty-nine, Josh felt hot, angry tears bubble up in his eyes as he went back to the bedroom to give it one more look around. This room wasn’t any better than the last, and he could see that what little clothes Mel had, were gone. “Son of a bitch,” the closet door hanging open, empty hangers left on the hook. “Man, fuck you, Mel,” Josh said shaking his head. Josh didn’t know where to go or what to do. He knew a couple of Mel’s old partying buddies, but he didn’t know if he would get anywhere with them but maybe one of them would know something about where his cousin went. It wasn’t like he could just go to the cops and give them the license number of the truck being used for transport. It was full of product, but the truck and Mel were both missing. So, by the great divining powers of deduction, Mel had to be in that truck. Again, “Fuck you, Mel.”
That stupid shit probably thought he could get a better deal somewhere else, sell all the product, get out of town, go live on a beach somewhere. Yeah, that might have been an option, but it was only twenty-five-thousand-dollars! That wasn’t going to last forever.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” Josh said, kicking the post of the raunchy looking bed. He couldn’t believe anyone could live like this, but he knew his cousin could. Josh had been around to see Mel at his lowest and this wasn’t even close, yet still absolutely disgusting.
Moving into the hall, Josh stopped dead in his tracks as he heard a knock at the door. Who the hell was that? Whoever it was, Josh wasn’t answering, there couldn’t have been anything good on the other side of that door. Quickly, and as quietly as possible, he went back to the bedroom and lifted the window as the voices grew louder. They were coming from the living room, sounded like women. Two of them. Probably a couple of the bitches that Mel was screwing around with come to tell him they found out about each other or that one of them was pregnant, or both!
Climbing out of the window, he eased it back down in the hopes that maybe it wouldn’t look like anyone had even been there. Sneaking through the bushes, Josh hurried back out to his truck and climbed in, slumping down in the seat. He wanted to see who these chicks were. Maybe they were part of the pack –Josh wouldn’t have put it past Zeke to send someone else out to look for Mel. Obviously, the man had no reason to trust him anymore. Panic continued to fill him as he sat in his truck, waiting to see two hoochies come walking back from the direction of Mel’s apartment.
10.
“This place is a pigsty,” Tiffany remarked as they stepped inside the apartment, the door wasn’t locked, though she wasn’t entirely sure if what they were doing was legal, she wasn’t going to say anything.
“Smells like stale beer and…women,” Margaret said as she
went into the kitchen, looking around at some things that were held on the refrigerator by magnets, but it didn’t look like anything of any importance that would help their cause. Tiffany tried to stay close by, feeling a little creeped out to be going through someone’s apartment, what if the guy was hiding somewhere and suddenly jumped out and decided to attack them? Yeah, that made Tiffany reconsider their approach, but at least Brody was with them. Tiffany had never put the theory to test, but she was pretty sure that if anyone ever tried to attack her, that little Chug would lose his shit and attack without fear.
Hearing a little bark from down the hall, Tiffany looked up from the address book that was sitting on the kitchen table.
“That little dudes got a squirrel treed,” Margaret said with a faint chuckle before she moved down the hallway with her Taser gun at the ready, flipping the light in the room on and taking a quick look around. Brody was sitting on his hind legs at the window, his tail wagging as he bounced and gave another quick bark.
“Someone out there, Brody?” Tiffany asked from the doorway, going over to the window she looked out, she didn’t see anyone, but he was right. Someone else had been here and very recently. There was another scent here besides Mel’s. “I think someone was here, look.” She said pointing at the window seal. It was smudged, the thick layer of dust that was on it had been disturbed and the curtains had been pushed aside strangely.
“You’re right. We can’t be sure, but I believe it. Either he was here and slipped out the window or someone else is looking for him.” Margaret said, noticing that Tiffany had the address book in her hand. “What did you find?” Margaret asked her.
“It was on the kitchen table, I thought maybe we could check out some of Mel’s contacts, maybe they’ll know where he is. He could be hiding out with a friend maybe. Is that something that criminals really do? I’ve only ever watched like; movies and cop shows about this kind of thing.” She said a little sheepishly as she passed the address book over to Margaret.
“No, this is a good find.” She said looking at Tiffany with a broad smile. “Come on, we’ll take a walk around the complex, if we spot him, we’ll nab him, but we can also knock on some doors and see when was the last time one of his neighbors saw him.”
Of the three people who opened their doors for them, no one had seen Mel for at least the last three to four days, which meant that he’d split before his court date. At this point, his bond had already been revoked and if they did find him, Mel would be sitting in jail until he got a new court date. Walking back to Margaret’s car, Brody urinated on all the bushes, determined to make this place as his own.
“So, what do we do now?” Tiffany asked, not realizing how much time they had spent talking to people around the apartment complex.
“Now? We head back to the office, if you’re up for it, come by tomorrow and we can start going through that address book. I’ll start getting in contact with Mr. Chambers and see if this cousin on his papers knows anything about where Mel might have run off to.” Margaret stated, climbing into the driver’s seat of the car. “Most of the time, the person who co-signed the bond will want to find them just as badly as we do, they know what’s at stake.” She added as she turned the air conditioning on, and Tiffany pulled on her seat belt looking around at the late afternoon sky. To say the least, she’d had a lot of fun today, even if she had been just a little scared a couple of times going through Mel’s apartment.
“What time does the office open?” Tiffany asked, “I’m off work tomorrow too, so I can come in as soon as you’re open.” She smiled, feeling a strange sense of excitement for the next day, which normally didn’t occur in her life very often. She went to work, she came home. It wasn’t a boring life, but Tiffany had a solid routine and she was eager to break out of it.
“We open at eight o’clock, but sometimes Gene and I are there earlier just going over paperwork and trying to organize our day,” Margaret said as she drove back to the bondsman’s office.
“Great, I will be there at eight o’clock. I’m so excited. Thank you so much for letting me come along with you today. I had a lot of fun; I hope that I didn’t slow you down with all of my questions.” Tiffany said as they turned onto the main street.
“Of course not, how are you supposed to learn if you don’t ask?” Margaret asked her as she pulled into an empty spot a few businesses down from the office. “I also enjoyed having Brody along, too.” Grinning, she gave him a pat on the head.
“Good, because I was hoping I was being helpful and not slowing you down. I know a lot is at stake to find Mel.” Tiffany told her as she took off her seat belt and cracked the door of the car open. It was late afternoon, but she felt like she hadn’t eaten all day. Maybe before she went home, she would run into Eddie’s and grab some dinner –because she was not going to be making the same mistake of gorging herself so late.
“Again, not at all. I’ll grab some donuts from Howie’s in the morning for us. Gene has always functioned better in the morning when there are donuts.” Margaret said with a little laugh as the two women said their goodbyes and parted ways for the day.
11.
As Josh sat in his truck, watching the front of the apartment complex, he noticed two women, a blonde and a brunette knocking on doors. Though the doors rarely opened for them, possibly a mother and a daughter, though they didn’t necessarily look anything alike, they were within the age range –but, he didn’t think they were the type of women who would have run with Mel’s crowd. Neither one of them appeared to be wearing very much make-up if any at all and while they were dressed for the heat, Josh couldn’t see nipples or ass cheeks hanging out of their pants. Leaning against the armrest, he watched as they walked out of the complex to where their car was parked on the street a few cars ahead of Josh’s truck. One of them was walking a little blonde dog with her. Cute little booger too.
Sitting up in his seat a bit, he noticed that as the black Dodge Charger pulled out of its parking space, there was a bumper sticker on the back of the car.
Squinting, Josh tried to make out what the sticker said. Jail-bird Bail Bonds. Oh, fucking shit. Josh sat up in his seat and immediately started the engine, waiting until the Charger was far enough away to make a U-turn out of his parking spot and head straight back to the club. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to get on the phone with Zeke while he was driving, he was already nervous enough and talking to Zeke wasn’t going to make his driving any better. No, he would go back to the Sin-Titty and call from his office, which he would most likely be seeing for the last time. But Zeke had always been a fair businessman to him, he’d screwed up once or twice in the beginning, but this was bigger than that. Maybe, if he was honest with Zeke and tipped him off that the bail bondsman was already looking for Mel –and they really needed to find Mel before they did, it could possibly turn the tides in his favor. Ah, shit he really didn’t want to die. He’d just paid off his truck.
Driving outside of town, Josh took the back roads to avoid police while he was speeding and pulling up outside of the club just as the sky was turning orange and purple. The lights of Sin-Titty were on, but the club hadn’t officially opened yet as he parked in the indoor parking garage. When Zeke hired him, Josh had talked to him about a safer place for the girls to park. Sometimes, customers could get a little rowdy, at times there were some men who even had to be escorted out because they tried to touch the girls. Having a safe place for them to go to and from their vehicles seemed like a great idea. So, everyone who worked there, parked in the parking garage. Really, it was more like a large silo type of structure, though it wasn’t at all round. It was like pulling one’s car into a big showroom, but the cars inside weren’t brand new. All he had to do was show the security guard his employee badge and the large bay doors began to lift before his headlights.
Pulling up to his assigned parking space, he saw three motorcycles parked inside the garage next to cars. That always meant that some of Zeke’s brothers were inside the club.
Anyone on a Harley was a bear, and they all worked for Zeke. Josh never rightly knew exactly if Zeke was part of a biker gang, but all the bears seemed to enjoy riding bikes and they looked to Zeke for orders. Was he the president? Was he the Alpha or did that only apply to werewolves? Josh didn’t know how the hierarchy worked with shifters.
Inhaling, he pushed the door of his truck open and stepped out. The employee entrance was directly located just off the side of the large bay doors up a set of steps, it was also patrolled by guards.
In the past, there had been one incident with one of the dancer’s husbands, it was a bad situation all around, he was an abuser and when Candy tried to leave him, security wasn’t notified about it. It wasn’t Candy’s fault –it had just slipped her mind. Anyway, Manny got into the garage and when Candy got off from her shift, he attacked her in the garage. It was just lucky that Josh insisted that there be bodyguards stationed in the garage as well as inside of the club. It probably saved Candy’s life. Josh liked to think he good for nothing, but he had come up with some good ideas that helped make things much safer for the dancers.
Straightening his plain blue button-down shirt, he pushed the sleeves up his forearms a little bit higher as he tucked the keys to his truck in his pocket, feeling around to make sure that his phone was in the back pocket of his jeans, Josh walked in the club, taking the hallway down to his office and shut himself up inside.
He really didn’t want to make this call, but if he didn’t, he was sure that Zeke would have his head on a spike before the night was over. Josh was supposed to have Mel in this office in the morning, his twenty-four hours were almost up, and he had no leads on where his good for nothing cousin had run off to with Zeke’s crop or if they would ever get it back.
Bunny and the Bear: A Shifter Romance Novella Page 4