by Patrick Lee
She smiled in her favorite sexy way as David sidled up to the barstool at the Dew Drop. Jackie set him up with the usual. She inhaled the scent of his Old Spice aftershave. “So, you lookin’ to get yourself screwed tonight or something?”
He tossed back the shot of Jim Beam and shook his head as the taste burned his throat. David moved closer to her and whispered, “I might be. You offerin’?”
She leaned her large chest forward, raised her eyebrows, and whispered back, “Bet your sweet ass I am, honey. I’m off in about fifteen minutes. You interested?”
Thoughts of his prior commitment with Ted Hughes shot to the front of his brain. The back of his right hand felt the weight of her soft chest as she pressed against the surface of the bar. “Oh ya. I’m very interested. Fifteen minutes ya say.”
Jackie stood up, winked and mouthed the words, “Fifteen minutes.”
“He’s not going to show, Ted. You said 6:00 and it’s 7:15. Something’s wrong. I hope we’re not too late. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Ted Hughes looked at his wristwatch, “Let’s give him twenty more minutes. Maybe he just forgot about it.”
“Hey, you reminded him at work today.”
The two agents stretched in the front seat of the blue 1951 Ford sedan like they had done many times before in waiting for one person or another. Both men drifted away in their own thoughts. Ted Hughes stole a quick memory where he sat in his own living room and enjoyed a pleasant conversation with his wife. She found a way to switch his attention away from work. Her peaceful view of life allowed him to drift away to pleasant topics of discussion. Somehow she managed to take him away from criminals and sadness to places where he thrived. More than once she allowed him to become his real self. With her, his sense of humor came out of the closet. He craved her and the security blanket she wrapped around him in their small little home with the great view of the Highlands south of Butte.
Twenty minutes later his partner dropped him off in front of his trailer. “Well, Ted. How about calling me around noon tomorrow after you talk to Sednick? We can set up something again. I have to return to the Butte office in two days. So we’re under the gun a little bit here.
“Okay. I’ll find out what happened and call you at noon.” He hurried into his trailer and called his wife.
She rolled over in bed and crossed her right leg over his middle. He woke from a restless sleep. David grumbled something and moved her bare leg from his thigh. He realized he had to pee. After he hustled into the bathroom, he closed the door and flipped on the light switch. He cast a blurry look into her sink mirror. The bags under his eyes forced him to blink. He looked again. “Who was this worn out drunk looking back at him?” He finished peeing, put the toilet seat back down, and stepped over to the sink. After he splashed some cold water on his face, the thought of the missed meeting with his friend Ted popped into his sluggish mind. “Hell with it,” he thought and returned to bed. Jackie welcomed him back to her bed and snuggled him close. Before falling back to sleep, he told himself, “I’ll deal with Ted tomorrow. Can’t be that important anyway.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
As Mikhail steered the loaded van into downtown Columbia Falls, he savored the goodbye events as he prepared to leave McQueen five hours earlier. His neighbors showed up and quietly helped him load the items needed to begin his family’s new life in Columbia Falls. He planned to return to McQueen in October to pick up the remainder of personal items stored in George Maletta’s garage. The last person to say goodbye was Maletta. He handed Mikhail a new thermos full of his best coffee for the trip. They didn’t exchange any words. The gesture, handshake, and brief eye contact said it all. One neighbor at a time kissed and hugged Anna and Katya. They shook hands with Mikhail and wished him well. As he glanced in the side view mirror of the panel van, he saw Frank Micholotti move his first box of belongings into the only home Mikhail had ever known. The neighbors joined the young doctor and his wife as they moved into a spotless house with freshly painted walls. Life moved on in McQueen. The Anaconda Company needed to wait awhile for the Anzich home.
Mikhail rounded the corner and entered Columbia Drive. He drove the two blocks to their new home. Immediately he noticed the small gathering of people in his driveway. As he neared his new house, he spotted Hannah and a few other women talking and laughing with John Nolan and Tomas. He drew the van to a stop. Nolan sauntered toward him. As usual he cupped a can of beer. “Did you carry the goddamn thing on your back? I could’ve pushed that van here faster than you drove. I knew I should’ve gone. You’d queer trade in a post office.” Nolan looked around and appreciated the laughter that followed his verbal punishment of his favorite target.
The last thing in the world Mikhail wanted was a big scene when they moved in. He wasn’t going to be allowed to quietly move in his daughter and Anna. He pushed open the heavy door and walked around the back to help unload Anna and her equipment.
Tomas beat him to the back of the van and opened the twin doors. Anna smiled as Tomas gently lifted her from her cocoon formed from pillows and blankets. “Hi, Butterfly. Welcome to your new house.”
“Where’s my room, Uncle?”
Tomas carried her up the sidewalk and talked as they neared the front door. “I’ll show you. I decorated it special for you. You wanted snakes and bugs on the wall didn’t you?”
She prepared to scream and noticed the broad smile break over his unshaven face. “Uncle, I’m scared of snakes.”
After he entered the living room, he set her down and softly reached for her tiny hand. With the use of her walker, they walked into her room. Wallpaper with yellow butterflies covered one wall of her bedroom. “What do you think?”
Her smile answered his question. She pushed her walker over to the wall and touched one of the butterflies. Tomas knelt down near the door and watched her slowly examine her new bed, dresser, table and lamp, and a red box for her dolls. Thoughts of leaving to go to the Navy tugged hard at him as he saw her place her tiny fingers on the new record player. She looked back at him and giggled. How could he ever leave her? How would he leave this new life they all were about to begin?
Nolan broke his painful line of thought. “I painted them butterflies on the wall for you, little girl.”
Tomas rolled his eyes and pointed up at Nolan. She laughed before she said, “Uncle did it.”
“The only thing he can paint is his toe nails. Did he show em’ to ya?”
She gasped and looked toward Tomas before she asked, “You painted your toenails?”
Tomas smirked, “No. But I did paint his toenails before he put on his dress last night.”
“I’m rubbin’ off on you Kid. Too bad you ain’t as goodlookin’ as me. That Bohunk nose is gonna grow with all them lies.”
They heard Katya noisily take the tour of their new home. “Oh this kitchen is so big! Look at the room in the cabinets! And the counter tops. I’ve died and gone to heaven.” Mikhail followed and proudly pointed out the new stove and sink. He snuck a glace at Hannah as she hovered in the background. She and her friends cleaned the house before Mikhail arrived.
Bud and Sara Reynolds joined them in the kitchen and announced that dinner was ready across the street. Mikhail nodded his approval even though he and Katya finished the last of the McQueen prepared food about an hour earlier.
Across town, Roy Devers checked into the Glacier Inn. He looked at the Burma Shave calendar behind the clerk’s desk. September 22nd. The next day, Hansen planned to point out David Sednick. They scheduled their meeting for 11:00 at the Club Café in Martin City. He’d get there early and order his lunch before Slick Hansen and Sednick sat down at their table. Devers unloaded his suitcase and rifle in the motel room and moved his car across from the parking spaces. No sense in taking any chances of somebody opening their door against his car. From his motel window he’d watch his car and keep nosy kids from poking around. He checked his gold watch and noted the sun sunk below the mountain
s. Later he’d walk to the Paul Bunyon and eat a steak. The waitress bragged a few weeks ago about their steaks. I’d rather be sitting down to a decent meal in Seattle. These people don’t know anything about good food.
Before they went to sleep that night, Mikhail and Katya made plans to go into Kalispell the next day to shop for more furniture and beds. The borrowed bed from Bud barely held Mikhail’s weight. Somehow he knew it wouldn’t matter. He and his daughter worked nonstop for six days getting ready to move. Countless trips to the dump and the Salvation Army stripped him of his energy. He’d sleep regardless.
Katya slept on an air mattress on the floor in Anna’s room. The comforting sound of her daughter sleeping allowed peaceful thoughts to sneak into her tired brain. She dismissed earlier thoughts she had of David sleeping somewhere nearby. These upsetting thoughts fleeted in and out of her consciousness. In a few days, they’d meet and figure out the details of their upcoming divorce. She wanted custody and child support and that’s it. She worried more about custody and visits. Faces of all the old neighbors in McQueen and the new friends that helped them move in shoved thoughts of David to the back of her mind. Soon she joined Anna in restful, delicious sleep.
The next day, he arrived at the Club Café at exactly 11:00. David rose early that morning and cleaned up better than he had for weeks. He enjoyed the feeling of his new blue dress shirt and black slacks. The beautiful morning encouraged him to enjoy the fresh start to the September 23rd morning. He stayed sober the night before and got to bed early. Today promised to put the nasty business behind him. After today, he’d be free to move about the day without worrying about getting caught. He waited for the well-dressed man and held the door for him. “Morning, David. You look good today.”
As they made their way to a corner table, David responded to the unexpected compliment, “Thanks. I feel good today. Can’t beat the weather, that’s for sure.”
The waitress poured coffee and told them she’d be back shortly for their order. She sauntered across the room and stopped in front of Roy Devers. “Are you ready to order there, honey?”
Devers frowned at her and ordered the bacon and scrambled eggs. He held his cup up in front of her. She splashed some coffee as she poured, “Sorry, honey. I been up for awhile. I’ll get a dishrag.”
David sipped his lukewarm coffee and waited for the instructions from Hansen. “Now David, today is the day you withdraw all of our cleaned money from those five savings accounts. Are you ready to wrap up this venture?”
He sighed a deep breath, “I’m ready. Just tell me how I’m to do it.”
The waitress came back and took their breakfast orders. After she left, he leaned toward David and spoke in a low voice, “Here is how I need you to do this. Have each bank draft a cashier’s check made out to me. Then you go to the post office in Columbia Falls and mail the checks in this envelope. It’s all addressed and everything. So far so good?”
After he rubbed the side of his face he said, “What do I tell them about why yer name is on the checks?”
“That’s a very good question, David. I knew you were a sharp guy the first time I talked to you. Tell them that you are sending the money to Palm Springs to your investor. Tell them you are going to be a partner in a new hotel down there. I am your investor.”
“That’s all there is to it?”
He straightened his dark blue tie and checked out his appearance in the reflection of the window that faced the street, “That’s all there is to it. You have your commission in your own bank account, right?”
His stomach turned as he thought about the additional money he faked during June, July, and August, “Ya, I do. I got plans for it too.”
“Knowing you, David, I just bet you do. Stop by my office this afternoon after you’ve mailed my letter. Be sure and bring me the receipt for the certified mail.”
He knew it was close to being over. Relief from the pressure allowed David to front a real smile before he spoke, “I will. Should be around 2:00 or so. And thanks for lettin’ me in on this deal. I squirreled away lots of money.”
“That’s good, David. Keep it all to yourself. Money laundering is a pretty serious crime. We could—”
“Oh, you don’t have to tell me. I been worried for two years now. I’m leavin’ the second week of October. Nobody’ll ever see me again.”
In a feminine sort of way, the man set his paper napkin on his lap and thought, “Yes, David. You are going away. And nobody will ever see you alive again.”
Roy Devers stood at the cashier’s desk. He looked around the café and gave a very subtle head nod to his employer. Now he knew his next victim. He’d drive back to Seattle in three days with the $2,500 from Hansen locked away in his glove box. The waitress accepted his money and flashed a painted smile as he turned away. Under her breath she whispered to a waiting customer, “Cheap bastard didn’t leave me a tip.”
Across the street, the two FBI agents sat in the blue Ford sedan. They followed David from his mobile home. The café door opened and David walked out. He walked down the boardwalk to his pickup and looked at an envelope. A big smile broke over his clean-shaven face. A few seconds later, David’s breakfast partner emerged from the café and walked in the opposite direction. Hughes cursed himself for only bringing one car, “I knew we’d need both cars. One of us should follow the suit and the other stay with Sednick.”
“Wait for that guy to come by. I’ll get his license plate number. Sednick doesn’t seem to be in any big hurry. You watch him, and I’ll get the plate number.” After the new green Dodge Coronet drove by, Moore jotted down his plate number. “I’ll call this in to the office later and get them to put a trace on it. Sednick just pulled out, time to go.”
From his viewpoint in the front seat of his car, Roy Devers watched the blue Ford follow Sednick. The passengers wore suits.
Devers slipped his Lincoln Capri into gear and followed a ways behind the Ford. “Everybody likes a parade,” Devers thought. “Who are those guys anyway? Suits in this hick town? I better see what’s what. If they get in my way, they’ll get it too.”
David felt giddy with relief when he walked out of the post office. He finished his work. “I’ll drop off this mail receipt and then head straight up to the Dew Drop to celebrate. Five more days on the job and then I’m headin’ out. I’ll pay off what I owe on the property and then live the good life for a long time. The realtor told me I’d be able to sell the whole works for quite a profit.” He placed his hand on his truck door handle. Agent Ted Hughes covered his hand before he opened his door. “What? What you doin’, Ted?”
“You didn’t show up for our meeting the other day. Let’s go talk for a minute.”
David shrugged free from Hughes, “I’m not goin’ anywhere with you. I got plans. What you doin’ in that suit, anyway?’
Moore joined them. “You best hear us out, Mr. Sednick.” “Who the hell are you? I don’t know you! What’s goin’ on,
Ted?”
Agent Moore put up his hands in front of his chest, “Mr. Sednick, we are FBI agents. Your life is in danger. We can protect you. But you need to cooperate with us.”
“I ain’t in no danger. What the hell you talkin’ about?”
“Let’s go someplace private. How about we follow you over to your trailer?”
David searched his brain for the right answer. He had to drop off the receipt for the certified mail. “I’ll meet you there in twenty minutes. I gotta take care of something important first. I’ll be there in twenty.”
Ted Hughes moved closer to David Sednick, “Don’t skip out on us again. Your life is in danger. We know what we’re talking about.”
The Lincoln Capri idled quietly as Roy Devers watched the encounter between the two men in suits and Sednick. He shook his head as the men argued. “They gotta be dicks. Something’s up. I better give Hansen a heads up. Maybe I hit Sednick sooner than later.” He watched his target drive away in his pickup. After a few minutes of talking it
over the men drove away in their Ford in a different direction. “Now what the hell are they doin’? Maybe they got him mixed up with somebody else. I’ll keep an eye on them. I can always find Sednick.”
After he accepted the certified mail receipt, Hansen calmly spoke to David Sednick, “You look a little rough there, David. What’s going on?”
The encounter with the two FBI agents rattled him to the core. “Oh, nothin’. I just been runnin’ around hard for a few weeks and it’s catchin’ up to me.”
“Now you’d tell me if there was something wrong, wouldn’t you David? I mean, after all we’re in this together. Be honest, what’s bothering you?”
Nothing in his life experience prepared him for this moment. He felt trapped. More trapped than any other time in his life. Maybe the man in front of him was the one the FBI talked about. “Would he really kill me?” He cracked his knuckles a couple of times and rolled his head. Another bad headache started. He knew one thing for sure; he’d have to go it alone. “Like I said. I’m all in. I’ll most likely take a couple of aspirin and take five.”
David Sednick read like a dime store novel. Something happened from the time he left him at the café until now. “Okay David. You best go lie down for a while. I’m sure you’ll feel better.” They shook hands, and David hustled down the sidewalk and jumped into his truck. He pulled things out of his glove box until he found a bottle of aspirin. Without anything to wash them down, he swallowed four aspirin and drove away.
The blue Ford waited for him outside of his mobile home. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, closed his truck door, and walked to his trailer. The car door closed. David never turned to watch them follow him in. He left the front door opened, walked to the kitchen, and drained a large glass of water. When he turned around, the two FBI agents stood in his doorway. “Come on in. I’m all ears.”