by J. C. Phelps
I poured myself into the bucket seat and buckled myself up. “You know where I live?” I asked.
“Yep.”
*****
Chapter Four
I woke up in my bed still in my clothes from the night before. I don’t know how Mr. White got me in here, but he did. I sat up and then fell right back down onto the bed from the pain. I had a monster headache and I didn’t think I could move my arm. I looked at the time on my alarm clock. It was 7:00 AM on a Sunday and I was awake. What the heck was wrong with me? I must have gotten home fairly early.
I made myself get out of bed to take some ibuprofen. Then I managed to get my clothes off. I put on a t-shirt and went back to bed.
The phone woke me up at 11:00 AM. I got out of bed and the hangover was gone, but my whole left side hurt, not just my shoulder or arm, I hurt to my toes.
I picked up the phone. “Hello?”
“Good morning.” It was Mr. White.
My heart skipped a beat and I got that giddy feeling again. “Good morning.” Chief Slade had taught me to keep an even voice through most anything. Never let your voice give you away.
“How are you feeling?” he asked. It seems Chief Slade had taught White the same tactics.
“Better,” I said. “How did you get me into the house?” I asked.
“I found the keys in your pants. It was a challenge to get them out though.”
I blushed. “I’m sorry about falling asleep in your car,” I said.
“Not a big deal. Do you drink often?” He asked.
“No. It gets me into trouble. If I had been sober I could have avoided that fight all together.”
“I see. Put some ice on that shoulder and be at the office by 6:00 tomorrow morning.” And he hung up. Great. I was too tired to even think about getting up at 6:00 in the morning.
I grabbed an ice pack out of my freezer and pushed it to my shoulder. I winced and hoped he hadn't broken anything. Other than the time Anthony hit me I had never been hit before in a fight and I hoped I was never hit again. I was only a little stronger than the average woman of my size but I was quick. That was my greatest asset, my quickness. It gave me an advantage because I could get out of the way before I got hit.
Well, at least I didn’t have a black eye. When I came home with the black eye that Anthony so graciously bestowed upon me, my mother flipped. She was furious. When I walked in the door she drew in a deep breath and in that Motherly concerned voice said, “What happened? Are you okay? Did you get into an accident? Where’s your car?”
“Anthony hit me.” That was all I was able to get out before she was out the door. I guess she drove to his dorm and when he opened the door she clocked him in the nose. Then she told him, “There, now that aught to teach you to hit a girl.” And with that she turned and walked away. I heard all of this whispered behind my back everywhere I went. Mom never told me about it and neither did Anthony.
By the time she got home I had explained it to my dad. I wouldn’t have told him but he caught me leaving and asked what happened to my face. After I explained what happened he said, “Well, I’m glad you broke his arm. A man that would hit a woman unprovoked should be put down.” And by put down he didn’t mean down to the ground he meant put down like when you have to shoot your horse because it broke it’s leg.
I sat on my couch flipping through pages of the latest book that I had been reading but I just couldn’t concentrate on it. I was dying to get over to the main house to talk to Dad. If Colin knew Mr. White maybe my dad did too. Also, I wanted to grill my Dad about his “job.”
I got to thinking about that, I didn’t even know where it was my dad went to when he went to work. He didn’t hold a regular job with nine to five hours, Monday through Friday either. He came and went on whatever day of the week it happened to be. He spent most of his time in his office at home though. There were times he was gone for a few weeks, but that happened less frequently now.
I collected myself up off the couch and walked to the main house. I walked through the back yard to the back door. The main house was a good distance from the guesthouse. I could be having a rave at my place and the main house would be oblivious to any goings on.
I went in through the back door into the kitchen/dining room. The house was mostly open and I could see through the kitchen and the living room to the front door. There were rooms to my right. The laundry room connected to the kitchen, then under the staircase, leading to the second floor, was the main bathroom. The second floor was nothing but bedrooms and bathrooms. There was a hallway between the laundry room and main bathroom, which lead to the other half of the house where I would find the library and my dad’s office.
My parents were nowhere to be seen. Mom was probably working in her shop outside. She had recently gotten herself some power tools and was currently into woodworking. Dad was more than likely in his office.
I walked through the hall toward the second half of the house. The library was as large as the living room and about a third of the kitchen. My dad’s office was nestled into the remaining part of the house.
I knocked on the door and Dad said, “Yes?”
I walked into his office. He was sitting at his computer in his overstuffed chair. I sat down on the couch at one end of the room and took it all in. It was a dark room but not uncomfortable. The floor was a dark wood that matched the walls. The two large windows that looked out onto the back yard had heavy, maroon curtains that were drawn shut. The walls were lined with bookshelves that were full with books of all shapes and sizes.
“What’s on your mind?” my dad asked looking up from his screen. He looked at me through his glasses, but over his reading glasses. Instead of going in to get a new pair of glasses that he could read with and see day-to-day with, he wore reading glasses over his regular glasses. It made him look comical.
My dad had been slowly adding to his middle area for the past few years. His hair was becoming salt and peppered and he had begun to get that papery old-people skin. But to me, my dad would never be old. He was the smartest person I knew and I had a lot of respect for the man.
“I want to know exactly what you do,” I said nodding toward the computer on his desk.
“You know what I do,” he said and looked back to his work.
“Dad,” I said in that singsong little-kid way.
“Well, honey, I do so many different things I couldn’t begin to explain. Is this really important? I have things to do.”
“I know you are an Admiral, but are you still in the service?” I asked.
“Yes and no. I work for the government, but I’m not quite in the military,” he said. I could tell he was trying to find the right words to satiate my curiosity, but not really tell me the full truth. “Let me put it this way, if there were a war tomorrow, I would be working for the military and the government, but I wouldn’t go to fight. At my age I couldn’t anyway, but even if I were a young man they wouldn’t send me. I’m too important.” This last sentence was said with a hint of humor and an eye roll. I was sure it was true, but he found it funny somehow.
“When you leave, where do you go?” I asked.
“Why all these questions?” he asked back.
“I want to know. I was asked yesterday what it was you did and I couldn’t explain it and it bothers me,” I replied.
“Who was asking?”
I told him about the newspaper ad and how I had gone downtown to be interviewed. I didn’t go into complete detail about Mr. White and the interview itself.
“What’s the name of the company?” he asked.
“White and Associates.”
“Do you know what they do?”
“I’m not exactly sure. I was told they’re kind of like a private investigation outfit,” I explained.
“Well, kind of,” my father replied.
This made me sit up straighter. “You know who they are?” I asked.
“Yes, I hire them from time to time. I’m not so sure I want
you working for them,” he said.
“Why, what do they do?”
“A little of this and a little of that.” Back to the same old explanations but not for himself this time. “It’s a dangerous job, honey. I like you doing data processing.”
“Well, I quit,” I said with a bit of defiance in my voice. “I’m tired of sitting in front of the computer all day and not having any excitement.” My dad brought out the child in me.
“Alright. If that’s the way you want it,” he said turning his head to the side and lifting his hands in an “I give up” type of gesture. “Just make sure you are prepared to do the job.”
“I’m trying to. Mr. White had me followed yesterday,” I said, thinking I would get a rise out of him.
“I suppose he did. I imagine you are under surveillance right now.” He sat back in his chair and put his hands behind his head so it looked as if his ears had somehow sprouted elbows. “Don’t get undressed anywhere but the bathroom. I imagine they have installed video and audio into the guesthouse. I know Mr. White, as you call him, and I’m sure he’d be a gentleman and leave the bathroom private. Probably the bedroom too, but you never can tell.” He said all this like it was normal conversation.
“What!!!” I was on my feet and my face was hot.
“Honey, sit down. If you want this kind of job you’ve got to live with some sacrifices at first,” Daddy said.
“It doesn’t upset you that someone came onto your property and messed around with your stuff?” I said, still standing.
“It’s not the first time. You said you wanted to know what I do for a living and you are about to find out.” I sat down to listen to the rest of my father’s words of wisdom. “When you were younger I had hopes for you to follow in my footsteps, but as I get older I find that all I really want is grandchildren. I had hoped you had gotten over wanting adventure and were ready to settle down. Now I can see you were trying to become domesticated but are unhappy with it. I had always hoped you would be more like me but you are just like your mother. She was impossible until I got her pregnant.”
This was all news to me but it still didn’t give me a full picture of anything.
“Who is Mr. White? Colin told me he knew his name isn’t White.”
“Mr. White. He is a Navy man. Right now he’s out on his own, but he still has ties. His real name is classified.”
I gave him my exasperated look and said, “How can you joke around right now? I’m involved in something and I don’t have a clue and I’m asking for your help.”
“You take things too seriously. If they know you are my daughter you’ll be safe,” he said.
“Fine, so what’s his real name?” I asked.
“Rick Malone. He’s from this area; in fact I think you two have probably met before. I had him and his father over when you were about twelve. That would have made him… let me see…” He typed for a second on his computer. “He’s twenty-nine right now so he would have been seventeen then.”
I remembered that day! I had a few guys that I fantasized about late at night when I was all alone. Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, the guy from “A Knights Tale” and the guy who was in my backyard for one afternoon. I remembered him. I couldn’t believe this. I KNEW him. Well, not really, but in my dreams. Now the feelings made more sense. He had affected me in a similar way back then. I spent the whole day sitting in the garden watching him. His father, my dad, Colin’s father and the two boys were all there talking shop. That was just a year or two before Colin joined up and I think that’s what they were talking about that day. Until that very day I had always thought I would marry Colin, but after seeing this guy, Colin was no longer in the running for forever.
In my fantasies I had run into him on the street and he immediately fell in love with me. Now I had run into him and didn’t even know who he had been. I wondered if he remembered that day? I hoped not. I had changed considerably since then. I didn’t get boobies and a figure until I was sixteen. I’m sure he had seen me as nothing but a little girl back then and I hoped he didn’t see me that way now.
“So what exactly do you hire him to do?” I asked.
“Lots of things. Sometimes I need someone to be relocated and I enlist White and Associates to get the job done. I am not going to get into the details with you. That would be a breach of ethics.”
“Fine. If you were Malone would you hire me?” I asked.
“That’s not fair. I know you better and differently than he does. I can’t answer that question.” Sometimes talking to my dad irritated me. He was so technical with his answers; you had better word it just right to get a decent answer out of him. He was the master of avoiding questions.
“Dad, try to put yourself in his shoes and if you can’t, would YOU hire me to do the jobs that Malone hires out for?” I asked.
He thought for a second. “I can’t imagine you not being my daughter, but as my daughter I would hire you. But I would have to make sure you got proper training. Does that satisfy your question?”
“I guess so. I’ll let you get back to your work. Thanks, Dad,” I said and turned to walk out of the room.
“Don’t forget about the surveillance devices I told you about. If you find them, don’t take them down either. They will just come back and re-install and you won’t know where they are.”
I walked out of the room to go back to the guesthouse. These past two days had been more hectic than I had ever experienced before. I thought I was pretty cool and knew a lot before yesterday. Now I was beginning to question everything.
One thing that bothered me was the way my dad took this in stride. He had always been my protector and now he didn’t even care that I was being spied on. He seemed to think it was funny. Maybe he was getting senile. I didn’t really think that. My dad could lose the use of every part of his body but his brain would still continue to work, and work well.
I got to my place and hesitated before I went in. I knew quite a lot about computer technology and had done some research into spy technology so I figured, if they had money the devices were probably pretty small, otherwise they would be easy to find. The things would have to have some way to get power and the easiest way was to use battery-operated devices. The only problem is the batteries die and you have to replace them. It’s not a big deal if you plan to do surveillance for a short period, but I didn’t have any idea how long they planned to spy on me.
I walked around the outside of the building searching for unexplained wires. I found some wires coming out of the house and went in to find they were kosher. I looked around and found a little black device attached to the lamp on the end table in the living room. I put it back where I found it and continued my search. I spent the rest of the day ferreting out six audio bugs and five cameras strewn throughout the kitchen and living room.
The guesthouse was not tiny, but it was only big enough for one person or maybe a couple. There weren’t that many places to hide things. The floor plan was open like the main house except for the one bedroom and bathroom.
Dad had been right about not finding any in the bathroom or the bedroom. For that, I was thankful. I would have had to move out. There are certain things I don’t want people to know about me unless I choose to share them. What my body looks like under my clothes is one of those things.
Most of the devices I found were wired into the main electrical lines in the house, so that was not at all reassuring. A person could do surveillance indefinitely that way. From what I could tell by the angles of the cameras there wasn’t a spot in the whole house they couldn’t see, including the bedroom and bathroom if I happened to leave the doors open.
I cleaned up the mess I had made while conducting my search and flopped down on the couch. I sat there for a while pretending to read, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. I got up off the couch with my book, put some shoes on and left for Sal’s to get supper.
After I had eaten my sandwich I went to the coffee shop to h
ave some privacy. I stayed there long after I finished my book. I finally made myself head for home. I immediately scanned the area for vehicles that seemed out of place. I saw several that I wasn’t sure about, but nothing popped out at me. I was continuously looking over my shoulder all the way home. When I got there I couldn’t bring myself to go inside. I sat outside in my car for a long time. I woke up with a terrible pain in my shoulder and neck and decided to go inside.
I went straight to my room and shut the door and set the alarm clock for 5:00 AM. I slept in my clothes for the second night in a row.
*****
Chapter Five
The alarm was going off but I couldn’t seem to pull myself out of bed. I laid there for a long time listening to the constant beeping. Finally I got mad enough at the sound to roll over and turn it off. I looked at the time. It was 5:09 AM.
I suppose I should get up, I thought. I went to the bedroom door to make sure it was shut tight. I took off my clothes and inspected my shoulder. I had put off looking at it because I was afraid of what I might see. The bone could be showing and then I’d have to go get it taken care of. It was swollen and the bruise looked like the fist that hit me. I was satisfied I wasn’t going to die so I started to get dressed.
My shoulder ached. My neck ached. My mind ached. Getting dressed was a chore but I managed to get on jeans and a t-shirt. Putting on my socks and shoes was a bit harder.
I had lain in bed awake for a long time last night thinking. I couldn’t seem to get things straightened out.
I wanted to be excited for today. I wanted my normal cockiness to return. I just wanted to be able to walk around holding the world in my fist again. Invading the privacy of my home really put a crimp in my style. The events of the past couple days had me whirling. The world was not at all what it had been. I had been queen of the roost before, but now I was just a person being spied on, followed and left in the dark about everything.