Beer, Bait, and Ammo

by Harper, Chap

  Spider took out a notebook and started asking him questions about his recovery. He answered them as best he could. She looked at his nose where the tube was inserted to operate on his brain.

  “Lester, do you have a shower or a tub?”

  “I have both, but don’t use the tub much.”

  “I’m required to give you a bath. Now, I hope you aren’t the modest type,” Angel said with a stern facial expression.

  “I think I can bathe myself.”

  “One slip—one dizzy episode—and wham! You hit your head and your brain could bleed and swell—erasing all the work the doctor has done, maybe even killing you.” She sounded so serious and easily sold the idea to Lester.

  “Now, Lester, I’m going to draw the bath and make sure you don’t slip getting in and out.”

  “Okay.” Lester was fairly bored hanging around his apartment by himself, and this was a nice diversion.

  “You know it would be more fun if you took a bath with me,” he said, only half-joking.

  “Lester, you’re such a flirt. What would you think of me if I took a bath with you?”

  “I’d say you’re a nurse that really cares about her patients.”

  “Let’s get you in the tub first, and I’ll think about joining you,” Angel said. Lester assumed she was just saying it to please him.

  Lester watched as she adjusted the water and laid towels on the floor so that he wouldn’t slip. Once it had filled to an acceptable level, Lester got undressed and with Angel’s help he stepped carefully into the bathtub. After he was seated, he looked up at Angel.

  “I won’t tell your boss if you get in with me.”

  “Are you sure? I could lose my license.”

  “Promise not to turn you in,” Lester said. He couldn’t believe she was considering it.

  He watched closely as Angel began to undress. After removing her fashionable slacks and sexy underwear, she stood facing Lester. She was gorgeous. Her breasts were tanned without a bra line, an obvious result of owning a tanning bed, and she was trimmed in the modern landing strip fashion right below a tight hard stomach with an elongated navel. She was a ten, and as she stepped into the bathtub Lester’s mind was whirling. How did he get this lucky? Maybe he should get operated on more often. An image of Debi flashed briefly through his mind. He focused back on the creature that had just sat down directly in front of him. Angel was facing him while making eye contact and talking quietly with him. She asked about his police work and cases he was working on. He didn’t remember much. He wanted to talk about her. She talked about a son in New York that she missed a great deal. Spider stood up and moved behind Lester and wrapped her long legs around him. He smiled and placed her soapy hands between his legs where he was ready for her touch. It wasn’t long before Lester was spent and relaxed.

  The water was beginning to cool so Angel got out first and helped Lester step out on the towels so he didn’t slip. He helped her dry off and pressed up against her nude body, kissing her passionately for quite a while. Again there were flashes of Debi going through his mind. Suddenly he had a picture of Debi naked with him in the shower. He realized at that moment an intimate relationship had occurred with Debi.

  After Angel dressed, she asked if Lester needed her to stop by tomorrow. Lester gave her his number and asked that she call first. As much as he would have loved for her to come back every day, he was sensing some other things were in conflict with his memory and emotions. He kissed the nurse and thanked her for coming.

  She didn’t call back, and the next day the real nurse showed up. Dorothy Cummings introduced herself as she stood outside Lester’s door. She weighed in at defensive-line status and had a face with a masculine structure. Her mustache had not been properly trimmed and her hair style was somewhere between bedhead and wind-ravaged. Unattractive would be a compliment.

  “I’m sorry, but I had a nurse here yesterday. Give me your number, and I’ll call you if I need you,” Lester said, knowing that time would never come.

  Dorothy looked perplexed, but gave Lester a card and left.

  Debi had called the night before, but he didn’t mention the nurse. He wasn’t so dumb not to recognize that if he had been in the shower with Debi, a relationship existed that would be shaken to its core by bathing with a pretty blond nurse. He didn’t know when or if he would tell her, but it certainly wouldn’t be on the phone.

  The phone rang later in the day after the real nurse had been there.

  “Lester. Just called to tell you they are slowly taking Ray out of the coma.”

  “That’s great. How long will he be in the hospital?” Lester asked. He wanted to find out when she would be coming home.

  “Once he’s stabilized, Dad and I will come back, and Mother will stay to help Shasha and the kids. I’d guess in a few days. The hospital staff here is wonderful, so I believe he’s getting the best care possible. By the way, did a nurse ever come to see you?”

  “Uhhhhh—yes. One came by today. I’m not sure if it was a she or a he. Nice mustache, though. I really didn’t need her, but I got her card.” Lester side-stepped the issue of the other nurse, which he still hadn’t figured out.

  “Lester, she can help you, take your vitals, check on your meds, help you bathe so you don’t fall—you know all the things that nurses do.”

  “Debi, did you happen to call any other nurses that might be a little more pleasing to the eye?”

  “Are you nuts? I wouldn’t turn a pretty nurse loose in your apartment with me not there to supervise. Why do you ask?”

  “Uh—no reason. Just to let you know, I’m doing great and looking forward to seeing the doctor on Friday. Hope he’ll let me drive. Rich said he’d give me a ride if you aren’t back by then,” Lester said, avoiding any more nurse questions.

  Where did that blond nurse come from? He decided to call Little Richard to see if it was a prank initiated from the Sheriff’s office.

  “Rich—Lester here. Hey did you guys send out a nurse to see me this week?”

  “Nope. Should be an ugly one coming. Debi said she hired one that would run a freight train onto a dirt road.”

  “Yeah, I met her. Did Debi just call and ask for the ugliest woman on earth? She had a mustache. I kid you not!”

  “Oh, your cousin called from Tennessee—gave her your number. Did she get a hold of you? Said her name was Darlene McFarlin.”

  “What? Don’t know if I have a cousin named Darlene from Tennessee, but maybe I just don’t remember. What did she sound like?”

  “If I had to place her accent I would say Cajun, or south Louisiana instead of Tennessee.”

  “That was her who came by—said her name was Sherry Jones. Really pretty. Helped me with a bath. Even got in with me.”

  “Ah, shit! You took a bath with your cousin. You pervert!”

  “Hey, my mind might be fucked up, but I think I’d know if I had a cousin that good looking, wouldn’t I?” Lester said, questioning himself.

  “You didn’t know me or who in the hell Debi was and she is damn good looking!” Rich said.

  “Listen, Rich, can you bring me all the files we’ve been working on? I know I can’t read them, but I might see something in there that might help me.”

  “Okay. I’ll be there shortly. But I’m not sure anything will help you when incest charges are filed on your ass,” Rich said, laughing.

  “Screw you, Rich!”

  The rush of emotions caused by the bath with the blonde and Rich’s revelation about a cousin calling had awakened his senses. He needed memories, and they came flowing back in torrents. First his dad, and then his mother being killed. God, how he wished he hadn’t remembered the details. Then his start as a deputy and how easy it was to solve crimes for the department. Memories of his listening to hours and hours of audio. How braille allowed him to type up his notes. Then, like a firestorm of colorful movies in his head—Debi—Debi was everything. Damn, he had been in a shootout alongside her, and he had very st
rong feelings for her. Stronger than just strong—he was in love with her! She hadn’t told him much about their relationship because she wanted his feelings for her to come back on their own. It took the shock of being with another woman and learning he had been duped for it to surface. He had to call Debi, but not until he talked to Rich and looked over the reports.

  The teacher was coming by later to start the instruction videos, and he hoped the learning process would go quickly. In about thirty minutes, Rich pulled up in a patrol car, causing a couple of teenagers by an adjacent building to move out of sight. He saw them and figured there was some weed action going on, but he didn’t have time to chase them down.

  The files Rich brought were building in girth since they first checked on the guns from the Quincy Jackson shootings. Lester was excited to see them and looked at the typed reports, noticing that the scattering filter in his brain that lined up words in a non-sequential order no longer behaved in that manner. He could see them in order but just didn’t know how to read them yet. Pictures of the S.G. Crystals building and the bait shop were there and those memories flowed back in place. Then a picture—a black and white picture of a pretty woman laid on top of the pile.

  “Rich, who is this woman?”

  “You kidding me? It’s Angel “Spider” Gambini. Don’t tell me! She’s your cousin. Not only did you get naked with your cousin but a kingpin crime boss all at the same time. This is fucking special!” Rich said, standing up and pulling on his short curly head of hair while trying to hold in his laughter but failing.

  “Okay, asshole—have fun with this. You cannot breathe a word of this to anyone. Promise me!”

  “Do you remember her now?” Rich asked.

  “Yes. We met her at the crystal warehouse, and I had seen her sometime in the past as well.

  “I’ll tell you this—she makes a hell of a nurse, and I’ll kill you if you tell Debi, but she does wash everything, and happy endings are sort of her specialty,” Lester said, laughing.

  “Not many men are alive that can say that got a hand job from Spider Gambini and lived to tell about it. You are a lucky, lucky guy. Why didn’t she kill you like the spider woman she claims to be?” Rich asked.

  “I don’t know, but I bet she’s laughing her ass off at what she pulled off on a poor man with memory loss,” Lester said.

  There was a knock on the door and Lester ushered in a middle-aged, sweet-looking lady armed with a video and a small stack of books. She was pudgy, short, and not at all sexy.

  “Lester, I’m Tammy Fortis. I teach second grade at Oaklawn Elementary. I hope I can help you. Are you ready to get started?”

  “Ma’am, you have no idea!”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chalmette, LA

  “Hey, Pops. I just got a call from Hot Springs, and that deputy sheriff, Rich Roberson, is coming down to shoot the MAC-11 next Friday,” Nicco Evola said. “We got his application approved and a note from his gun club that they will actually be the owners. He’s coming to New Orleans with some friends for a long weekend—asked about where to eat in the Quarter. I don’t like that he’s a deputy sheriff, but he seems to be clean and the gun club is one of the biggest in the area. Apparently their president wants to do one of those ‘Southern machine gun shoots,’ like the one in Alabama and Kentucky. Sold a lot of ’em to those clubs.”

  “Nicco, keep an eye on them. If you suspect anything, call Spider. She knows all the cops there. This wouldn’t be a sale for her anyway—she doesn’t sell legal guns. How are we doing on her replacement shipment?” Tony Evola asked.

  “It’s set to ship. They’re driving their UPS truck down here, and we’ll load them out probably this weekend. By Monday or Tuesday of next week, Spider will have the new concrete storage room to hold this shipment, and I suspect many more. Mama’s Automatics on the net has orders for more than we’re shipping. Angel says, ‘Let their asses stew a while, it runs the prices up,’ and she’s right,” Nicco said.

  “Son, that goddamned dark net is the creepiest fucking place I’ve even seen. It has hit men, child porn sites, drugs, slave trading—if there’s an evil that exists, it can be found there. It’s much like taking the devil’s hand and walking through hell. We use it to sell guns, but I don’t even like to click on the computer to pick up our orders. If the cops ever figure out how to get through the encryption, then we’re out of business and our asses will be planted in jail.”

  “Pops, I agree. It scares the shit out of me, too!”

  “We’ll use it only when needed. You know every FBI and NSA agent in the country is trying to break through the encryptions. Someday they will. Hopefully, we change it often enough to stay ahead of them. The real question is, who has the best computer geeks?” Tony said.

  “Lester, tell me your brain is still working,” Jim Webb said, calling on his cell.

  “Jim, good to hear from you! Yeah, it’s hungry for anything that can sneak in and stick to the brain walls. I’ve had this teacher working with me for about a week, and she thinks I might pass first grade with a C average,” Lester laughed.

  “Is Debi back from California?”

  “She came back a couple days ago—Thursday, I believe. Her brother is much better. She’s at work today doing make-up calls on a Saturday.”

  “Good! Good! I wanted to let you know where we are with Spider and the gang. The gunroom for the bait shop is functional, and the final trim work should be complete by Monday. I expect the shipment sometime around the first of the week since one of their UPS trucks left out today from S&G. We have remote cameras everywhere,” Jim said.

  “You guys are going down next Friday and plan to shoot your new automatic on Saturday. Here’s what I need: I’m going to drop off some new NSA combo video and sound devices for you to plant in the back of Tony’s store. ATF thinks they hide the illegal machine guns and crap somewhere at the back of the place near the shooting range. They will then be nearby with closed circuit receivers to monitor after you leave. You will also have cash for the transaction furnished by our friends at the ATF. We have given you a special identity as a lawyer representing Garland County for the sale of weapons found in the home of Quincy Jackson. New driver’s license, business cards, etc. Your name is Hamilton Richardson and your background information will be a part of the package. We have a dedicated line for the number on your card with an answering service recording. Even have a fake office in Little Rock. Think you can learn to be a lawyer in a week?”

  “From the ones I’ve met, it may not take that long,” Lester said, chuckling.

  “A bid sheet listing the legal automatic weapons that the county wants to sell will be sent to Tony Evola on Monday, and he’ll be told it’ll be sent to all class three gun dealers in the area. It won’t, of course. He’ll be pissed because he’ll be bidding to buy his own goddamned guns back, but you’re going to have a hell of a deal for him. Not only do you represent Garland County, but you also represent the Valley of the Vapors Sportsman’s Club for the purchase of the same guns. They want to have a big machine gun shoot twice a year and machine gun rentals almost every day. Tell him they have a shit pot full of money because they sold forty acres of land near the main road into the range. Explain to them they rent machine guns for sixty-five dollars an hour—tell them the gun club will make their money back in the first few months.

  “You’ll call him on Thursday before you leave to see if he’ll meet with you on Saturday since you are going to be there anyway with your girlfriend to watch your buddy Rich shoot. The discussion will be to purchase all the legal automatics by the gun club at the same time the county sells what they have confiscated. Paperwork will have to be made for the transfers, but it leaves a nice profit for Tony, gives the county money it never had, and lets the gun club grab a bunch of automatics at hopefully below-wholesale prices. All legal transactions, if Tony files all the right forms for the government. All this takes quite a while for the sales to take place on both sides of the transaction u
nless he gets greedy and takes a crooked shortcut that will nail him. We hope to arrest him on several other charges before all this paperwork gets done, but entrapment is something we must avoid at all costs. We really need to snag him on something totally unrelated to this deal. This deal is just to position him to screw up or let us plant bugs to catch him,” Jim said.

  Lester was impressed at the elaborate plan that was put together between the FBI and ATF. This was going to take time and a hell of a lot of police to arrest Tony and his boys, Stick, Angel, and all her employees at almost exactly the same time. New Orleans police and their ATF people would also be involved.

  “Do you want Captain Campanella informed?” Lester asked.

  “The Captain would know they’d be in town but would be asked to stand down unless needed,” Jim said. “He’d be told about your alias, however.

  “The guns that were illegal for all sales were back in Hot Springs. Those automatic weapons primarily manufactured after 1986 will be the ATF’s problem. Most likely some will be turned over to the Louisiana Army Reserve unit where a theft took place,” Jim said.

  “Jesus, what a plan. Do you think Tony will buy the idea?”

  “Bottom line, this guy is a business man, and he will be dealing with a slimy lawyer—you. The lawyer will have paperwork to sell the weapons back to the gun club, or if you will, ‘us’ in real life, with the price to be negotiated and left blank for you and Tony to fill in. The ATF pretty much knows what these automatics are sold for at market price, and you’ll have those numbers. You, of course, will lowball him. Tony will come back until you guys agree on a price. We’ll ship them, he can pick them up, or if he wants, we can personally deliver them to his store. They must go back to the gun store so Tony has them physically in his possession, according to the government laws, before they’re sold and approved. If the paperwork fails, Tony keeps the guns until they’re cleared because he’s a certified class three dealer. Remember this transaction is very legal if he takes no shortcuts on the paperwork, and I doubt if he will since he knows you also represent Garland County, Arkansas as well as the sheriff’s office,” Jim said.