Bikini Baristas: Ted Higuera Series Book 4

by Pendelton Wallace

  “The world still has a long way to go when it comes to chauvinism.” Allison put her arm around Mama’s shoulder. “Come with me, I want to introduce you to some people who’ll be important customers for you.” She waved to a mousy looking middle aged man in wire-framed glasses talking to a heavy-set, pale-looking man next to the windows. “Bill, Paul, I want to introduce you to Mama.”

  Ted wandered out onto the deck, set his Corona down on a table and looked out over the lake. The early September evening was cool and clear. A fleet of small sailboats vied for the lead in a race.

  Maria would like this. He couldn’t get her out of his mind. There was something about her that just clicked with him. Why had she disappeared? Was she running from him? He would have sworn that she felt the same attraction he did. So why had she run away?

  Chris felt warm hands wrap around his waist. He looked over his shoulder and saw the top of a black head.

  “Your party looks like a success.”

  “Mmmm...” Hope nestled her head into Chris’s shoulder blades. “Everybody who is anybody in Seattle is here. How did your dad manage to get them all here?”

  Chris took Hope’s hands in his and pulled her around in front of him. “He has connections. He’s been an important man in Seattle for a long time and has a lot of markers out. When he calls, people come running.”

  “I saw the food critic from the Seattle Times a minute ago,” Hope said, “but I was too embarrassed to talk to her.”

  “C’mon. Let me introduce you.” Chris led her by the hand towards the outdoor deck.

  “Pru,” Chris called across the deck. “I want to introduce you to our hostess, Esperaza Higuera.”

  The dark haired woman reached for Hope’s hand. “Very nice, Ms. Higuera. I’m really impressed.”

  “Thank you. It took a lot of hard work from everybody. And call me Hope, everyone does.”

  “Okay, Hope.” Prudence Kilgore picked up a menu from the table in front of her. “I’m surprised at how young you are, to be running a nice establishment like this.”

  “My father was a cook for twenty years for a restaurant in LA. When he won the lottery, he bought the restaurant. My brother, Ted, helped transform it into one of LA’s top spots. I just happened to inherit the family business.” Hope sipped delicately at her sangria. Sweet and refreshing; it was easy forget what a kick it packed. No sense in getting soused at her own party. This was business.

  “Chris told me about your father. I’m really sorry. I’m glad to have you here in Seattle though. Your menu is really innovative.”

  “Thank you. I wanted to bring a touch of authentic Mexican cuisine to the northwest. Most of what we have here in America is California-style Mexican food. I wanted to introduce Seattleites to what they’d find if they went to Mexico City.”

  Chris stood and watched the two women talk. The tall food critic was about as different from the short Mexican-American girl as you could get. Prudence came from a good family and went to the best schools. Hope had come up through the school of hard knocks in the barrios of East LA.

  “How do you know Chris?” Hope asked.

  “We go way back,” Prudence said. “I used to baby-sit for him when I was a teenager.”

  ****

  September can be a glorious month in Seattle. After a week of rain, the sun reappeared and the leaves turned brilliant reds and yellows. The days were short, the nights cool and Ted could feel football in the air.

  After several horrible seasons, his Huskies had a new head coach and things were turning around. He was looking forward to seeing the team in a bowl game come December.

  And the Seahawks; man, oh, man, the Seahawks! After their Super Bowl season, they were on top of the world.

  As Ted put the finishing touches on a bowl of guacamole, he reflected back on the last couple of months. Mexico can be damned hot in the summer and he’d spent the better part of two months combing the blazing deserts and coastal resort towns looking for Maria. She disappeared without a trace. He was glad to be back in the coolness of the Northwest, but he mourned his fruitless search.

  Maria, Maria.

  A young girl that Ted at first mistook for an American intern, she held a PhD in anthropology and was the curator of the Pre-Columbian exhibit at the world-famous National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. How could someone so young have accomplished so much?

  He thought back to the museum where he first met her. A shining modern structure centered around a giant courtyard. In the center of the courtyard a giant, upside down, mushroom was balanced on a single column. The mushroom must have been a hundred feet across and a steady stream of water dripped down from all edges, creating a water curtain.

  Ted often thought of what could have been. In his melancholy, he could picture Bogey saying, “We’ll always have Mexico City.”

  Ah, Mexico City. Ted was always impressed by the world’s largest city. A very Mexican mix of old and new, with a host of world-class museums, parks, galleries and theaters next to colonial churches and government buildings. Pre-Columbian ruins stood side-by-side with Spanish-colonial hotels and sleek modern sky-scrapers in fanciful shapes and a variety of colors like yellows, pinks and purples. Wide boulevards, reminiscent of Paris with plazas topped with golden statues, filled the downtown area while a few blocks away narrow cobblestone streets designed for ox-carts still wound around highly decorated buildings.

  Ted shook his head. Hey, amigo, he thought, you’re beginning to sound like a love-sick puppy. He turned and pulled a tray of nachos from the oven.

  “Kick off in five minutes,” Chris yelled from the living room.

  “How’s your beer?” Ted asked.

  He looked through the pass through to see his sister snuggled up on the sofa with his best friend. How did he feel about that? What would Papa think? Chris was his other half. He would put his life on the line for him, but his sister? They would definitely need to work out some ground rules.

  He heard a deep, loud bark from the hallway. What the hell?

  Oscar, Ted’s somewhat grumpy Burmese cat, who had been cuddled up on the breakfast bar supervising Ted’s cooking, sprang from his comfy spot and flew through the apartment. He bounded off the recliner, ricocheted off of Hope’s head and flew to the top shelf of the book case.

  “EEEEE,” Hope screamed, grabbing for her hair.

  The door bell rang.

  Ted took the three steps to the door and cautiously opened it.

  A black and white monster awaited. As Ted opened the door, it rose up on its hind legs and put two giant bear-sized paws on Ted’s shoulders, practically knocking him over. Ted stared up into the biggest mouth he had ever seen.

  The giant creature emitted a happy bark and drool slopped down onto Ted’s face.

  “What the hell?”

  “Where’d the Great Dane come from?” Hope asked, coming up behind Ted.

  Ted’s heart rate rapidly approached escape velocity.

  “Popo, down.”

  He heard the familiar voice. He couldn’t believe it.

  “I see you’ve met Teddy.”

  Ted pulled the paws off of his shoulders and the giant dog dropped back down on all fours. Ted was amazed at how calm the big beast was.

  “Mr. Popo likes to do that,” the voice said. “He loves to greet strangers that way.”

  “What the hell…?” Ted froze as he checked out the tall redhead. He was in some kind of surrealistic Bergman movie. He’d spent the whole summer looking for her, and now here she was on his door-step.

  “Maria.” Ted couldn’t think of anything else to say. He’d been searching for her for so long he was shocked to see her.

  “How? What are you doing here?” His mind finally started to turn over. He came out of his trance. He grabbed her off her feet and swung her around the hallway.

  Popo nudged his nose between them and emitted a sharp bark.

  Maria hung on for all she was worth. “It’s okay, Popo. He’s a friend
.” She pulled Ted close and buried her face in his neck.

  Ted pulled her head free and planted a huge kiss on her lips.

  “How...how did you find me?” Had she been looking for him too?

  “Señor Higuera, you’re an easy man to track down. All I had to do was go to Catrina’s Web site. I gave her a call and she gave me your address.”

  “She knew? And she didn’t tell me.” Ted lowered Maria back to the floor. “That gal can sure keep a secret. But, what are you doing here?”

  “I’m in Seattle now,” she managed to whisper, coming up for air. “I didn’t know how you’d feel about it. I mean, I didn’t know if we had a relationship or not. I really needed to tell you this in person, to see how you felt. I got an exchange professorship at the University of Washington. I’m going to be teaching Spanish and Anthropology for a year.”

  “You’re here? For a year?”

  “Yes, I managed to find a little house in the U. District. It has a nice fenced yard and a doggie door. It’s perfect for Popo. He can sit around the house all day while I’m at school. When I get home, we can go to the dog park; it’s only a few blocks away.”

  The thought of the giant dog brought Ted’s mind back to reality. How could she manage to control such a huge beast?

  “He must weigh what? At least a hundred and twenty pounds,” Ted said.

  Maria laughed. “Closer to one-ninety.” She reached down and patted Popo’s head. “Ted, I’d like you to meet my best friend and soul-mate, Popocatépetl.” Popo stretched over and sniffed at Ted.

  The dog was so big its back was even with the Ted’s hip and its massive head came up to his rib cage. The dog was white with black patches all over him. His tall, spiky ears moved constantly like some alien’s antennae.

  Hijo de dios, Ted thought, I sure wouldn’t want to get on his bad side. Then he thought about The Hound of the Baskervilles. This dog could kill you without a second thought.

  “He’s a creampuff,” Maria said. “I named him after a Mexican legend.”

  “Ah...yeah, I remember Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl.”

  “Who?” Hope asked.

  “Popocatépetl was an Aztec warrior,” Maria said. “Word came back to his fiancée, Iztaccíhuatl, that he’d been killed in battle. She refused to eat or drink and eventually fell into a deep sleep.”

  Ted took Maria’s hand and pulled her into his apartment. The big dog followed.

  “When Popo returned to Tenochtitlan, he carried her up to the mountains to ask the gods to wake her. They took pity on the couple and transformed them into two mountains so that they could be together for eternity. Those mountains can still be seen from Mexico City.”

  “I can think of better ways to be together for eternity than by being a mountain,” Hope said.

  “Hope.” Maria rushed to Ted’s sister and took her in her arms. “It’s so good to see you again.”

  Chris was still transfixed by the football game. The Golden Bears kicked off and the Huskies return man darted in and out of defenders for a fifty-yard return.

  Then a giant snout poked itself into Chris’s field of vision.

  “What???” Chris jumped and nearly dropped his beer.

  A huge black and white head was inches from his face. He could hear the sniffing as the dog checked him out. The dog’s big black nose crossed Chris’s face from left to right and his eyes followed. Chris held his breath

  Was this a threat? Would the big dog attack?

  Popo made up his mind. He walked casually past Chris and backed up onto the couch next to him, with his hind end on the couch and his feet on the floor.

  “Holly crap,” Chris said, patting the black and white monster. “What in the hell are you doing with such a giant dog?”

  “He’s my protector.”

  “Protector?” Hope echoed.

  “When I was a teenager, my parents hired body-guards to accompany me everywhere. When I graduated from college and got a job in Mexico City, I was tired of constant chaperones. I made a compromise with my father. If I got Popo, then the body-guards could go.”

  “Body-guards?” Chris turned from the ball game. “Why did you need body-guards?”

  “Kidnapping is the national sport in Mexico. All the time people are kidnapped by the drug cartels and held for ransom. Two of my parents’ friends were kidnapped. When the grandmother paid the ransom, the couple was returned. In pieces.”

  “Oh…” Hoped gasped.

  “This big push-over is a body-guard?” Ted asked.

  “He’s well-trained. You wouldn’t believe it. Watch.”

  She took a couple of steps away from Ted and whispered. “Popo, guard.”

  The giant dog was off the sofa in an instant, standing in front of his mistress with front legs splayed apart, his head up and ears pointing to the ceiling.

  “Grrr …” came the deep-throated growl. Drool dripped from Popo’s jowls as he spread his lips exposing enormous teeth.

  “Whoa,” Ted said. “Down, boy.”

  Popo let out a bark that shook the furniture.

  “Good boy, Popo, sit. “ Maria reached in her pocket for a dog cookie.

  The menacing beast disappeared. Popo took the cookie from Maria’s hand and nuzzled against her leg. She bent down to give him a big hug.

  “There’s a good boy.” She petted his neck. “You take good care of your Mama, don’t you?”

  Ted picked up his Corona and took a deep sip. Maybe God does answer your prayers.

  Chapter 4

  Business was good. Dick Randall stood at the counter that served as a desk in his Evergreen Way coffee stand and counted out the money.

  Mostly cash. Rarely did any of his customers use a credit or debit card. They didn’t want their wives to know where they were buying their coffee. Hah! Buying coffee. That was a joke. They could get coffee anywhere and a lot cheaper.

  They were buying a chance to ogle scantily-clad good-looking women, maybe make a little time with them. He was careful in his hiring practices. He hired only attractive girls. Let the ugly ones work somewhere else.

  “Hi, handsome,” Tammy said to the man in the black Ford Victoria. “What can I get for you?”

  “What’re you offering?” the man asked.

  “Here’s the menu.” Tammy leaned out the window, making sure to show him her cleavage, to point to the sign.

  “I heard you had a special menu,” the man said.

  Tammy smiled. She gave that oh-so-innocent look. “You must mean this one.” She pulled her hand-lettered sign from below the counter.

  “What do I get for the hot buttered bun?”

  Tammy lifted her tiny plaid skirt and slid her hand down her panties. “Gee, mister, you order the hot buttered bun and I’ll have to find some special seasoning for your latte.” She quickly removed her hand.

  The man pulled two twenty dollar bills and a ten out of his wallet. “I’ll have one please.”

  Tammy took the bills then slid her panties down. She climbed up on the counter and spread her legs, exposing herself at eye level to the man in the car.

  “Everett PD.” The man flashed a badge. “You’re all under arrest.”

  Marked police cars with lights flashing swarmed into the parking lot.

  “Wait, what do you mean?” Tammy asked.

  “You’re under arrest for performing lewd acts in public and for prostitution.” The man was out of the car. Uniformed officers came through the door at the back of the stand.

  “What the hell?” Dick looked up from his work.

  “Put your hands behind your back.” An officer spun him around. “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in court of law… ”

  “What’s the meaning of this? We weren’t breaking any laws.”

  “Been gettin’ a lot of complaints from the community,” the officer said.

  “They’re just a bunch of church ladies. They don’t know what we do here. We don’t bre
ak any laws. I have rules. I make the girls sign a form expressly prohibiting any lewd acts.”

  The plain clothes detective was cuffing Tammy. “Do you have any ID?”

  “In my bag.” Tammy pulled away from him, rummaged around in her purse and produced a wallet. “There.” She shoved the wallet in the detective’s face.

  “Remove it from your wallet, please,” the detective asked.

  She handed her driver’s license to the cop.

  “Twenty-three huh? And I’m the Shaw of Iran. You don’t really think we’d accept this ID do you? It’s faker than a three dollar bill.”

  Tammy just smirked at him.

  “How old are you?” the detective asked.

  Tammy hemmed and hawed for a moment then decided to answer. “Sixteen.”

  “Sixteen? Charlie, add to the charges. Sexually exploiting a minor. Mr. Randall is going away for a long time.”

  “Wait a minute,” Dick protested. “I didn’t know she was sixteen. She showed me her ID; she said she was twenty-three.”

  “Yeah, sure,” the cop said. “Tell it to the judge.”

  “You can’t arrest me. I don’t condone lewd acts. It’s right in our rules. All the girls have to sign them. If they did anything illegal, I had nothing to do with it.”

  “Take ‘em all in,” the detective said as he pushed Tammy towards his car.

  ****

  Business was good for Catrina too. Ted spent most of the day Monday hooking up his computers then making an inventory of all the equipment in Catrina’s network. It really hadn’t changed since he left five years ago. It was dreadfully out of date then, it was positively ancient now.

  But Catrina’s business was prospering. Since adding Millennium Systems as a client, her background check department had become a cash cow. Alison Clarke had steered several other major accounts Catrina’s way. Now, her staff of wounded, broken women searched all fifty states for criminal records and financial data as well as doing credit reports for hundreds of requests a week.