by David Kersey
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
John whistled and Cassie and I sped from the pond to the car park. John had already lowered the top and was pulling back the rumble seat lid, which when erect formed the seat back for Cassie and me to find a huge chunk of ecstasy. We both loved the open air ride. John turned the key and Beverly responded in obedience.
As we neared the end of the drive, Marlene said. “John, can I have this car? Please. Pretty please?”
“Is this a stickup? Where’s your gun?” John hadn’t planned on raising the gun issue until later, but she offered a good spot to bring it up.
“I carry a gun, John.”
“Oh, why?”
“It was a long way to drive here and I’m a woman travelling by herself. How’s that?”
“Good enough reason for me. What kind of weapon is it?”
“It’s government issue. I now carry an HK45 semi-automatic pistol, but for most of my career carried a Sig 9 by 19. The HKs are now standard issue for my rank and for the Special Operations division. Do you know what SIT means?”
“No, other than it’s what you tell your dogs to do, or tell your boyfriend to do so you can scold him.”
“Stops in tracks, meaning one shot and the bad guy goes down permanently, and I don’t have a boyfriend.” And then she added, “Yet.”
She reached into her purse and John briefly held both hands in the air. “No, I’m getting my whistle out to show you.” She blew on it and Cassie and I just about jumped out of the car.
“I know what that is. They can hear it but I can’t.”
“Yup, we have to use it with our dogs. They know to stop what they are doing and come running when they hear it. I see you have a CD player. Could we listen to something, but not opera?”
John laughed and told her to look through the glove box. The old car had been updated with the addition of a compact disc player. She made a selection and installed a CD. Celine Dion was her choice. “When I was young, I never needed anyone, and makin’ love was just for fun, those days are gone” Miss Dion crooned. Marlene rose her arms in the air and closed her eyes. When she opened them they were wet. Celine Dion can do that to you, it had happened to me before. “John.” She strung his name out as if in song.
“Marsha.” John exaggerated the length of the name but didn’t know if the jab would be lost on her.
“I love this. I don’t get to do these kinds of things, and I’m not going to add very often. Make it never.”
“Not even with Robert back in the day?”
“He was all man. Not that you’re not. He drug me with him. It was all him if you know what I mean. Alpha with a capital A.”
John pulled in to the Park and Marlene grabbed his arm. “Can we just keep driving, I’ll pay for the gas?”
I barked once. John laughed and reached back to give me a high five.
“Ok, but we have to be careful.” John reached behind his seat and grabbed the Pinot. “There’s two glasses behind your seat, would you do the honor?”
“You sure? I see a whole bunch of letters: CEO of ACC arrested on DUI charges.”
“Just wining and dining a woman. You in?”
She laughed and said, “All in. I think you’ve been in the military yourself John.”
And so we drove until Miss Dion was exhausted and then pulled into Maria’s. “We have to sit on the porch because of the animals, so you might want to take your jacket.”
I was surprised to see Sheriff Chip, in civilian clothes, at one of the tables. After John ordered for the four of us, he said, “I will be right back, I see someone I should say hello to.”
“She’s opening up Chip, but I’m getting a little tipsy and she’s higher than me. Your guys know I hope?”
“Just keep it between the lines. Yeah, we know. Let me know how the probes go? Thanks for letting me see her. I wouldn’t resist too much on the probes, she’s a doll.” Chip laughed as John returned to our table.
Maria, bless her heart, knew to fix Cassie and me a dish in one bowl for she loved to watch us share. She would sometimes bring her staff out to watch us, and then they’d return to their jobs after saying a slew of mumbo jumbo which I took to be complementary, but I was never quite sure.
We arrived back at the house and John put Beverly to bed. “Amtrak is twenty minutes away, so we have a few minutes to spare. Would you like to go back inside?”
“Is the Park on the way to Amtrak?”
“Yes, it is half way about.”
“Then grab the rest of the Pinot and let’s use it as originally intended.”
John told us that they’d be back with Guido in a while, and that I could meet them in the car park when they arrived, but that Cassie should stay close to her cat door just in case.
Cassie and I sat in the den for a while. Then Cassie said, “I think John’s interested. He’s acting like you did before you told me you cared for me. Do you remember that?”
“Have no idea what you’re talking about.” She hissed at me. I had it coming.
John pulled the Rover into the Park’s lot and shut off the engine.
“John, do you have secrets? I mean things in your past that nobody knows, or at least you hope they don’t?”
He saw the wide open door and entered. “Of course, don’t we all? I stole a yoyo when I was ten, then later I tried to steal some shotgun shells, but was caught. My dad blistered me that night. It was the only time he lifted a hand to me.”
“I mean really big things, John, not that kind of thing.”
“Not really, no, I can’t recall a big thing, why do you ask?” He didn’t tell her about the time he was arrested for his part in a student demonstration.
Marlene filled her glass. “John, we haven’t got time for me to tell you all that’s trashing my past, there is a bunch of it.”
He debated about producing the picture of Adnan Phallah. It was one foot away from her in the glove box. He decided to wait on that, she wasn’t ready yet, and not straight enough. He checked his watch. Five minutes and they would leave.
“You decide, Marlene, but if you want to unload, I’ll keep quiet and just listen.”
“Do you think I’m attractive?”
“I do.”
“It got in my way when I was just a teenager. The boys wanted me, and I let them.” She looked out her passenger window and hesitated, then saw her reflection in the car window, the young Marlene image that she hated to visit. “It’s been that way all my life. But after I met Robert that ended for a while, a good while. Oh, John, I was unfaithful to him and I hate myself for it.” She was in tears.
“That can happen in the best of marriages.”
“You don’t understand. John, you’d have to be a woman to know what I’m talking about.”
John started the car. “Do you want to change subjects?”
“No. I want you to understand, damn it.”
“Ok.”
“I need money, John, and I’m supposed to get some by being here. It’s the same shameful thing as those awful teenage years. People used me. And I let them. Dammit John, it’s so hard to live with myself when all the bad memories get me so down.”
“Oh? I don’t understand about the money.”
“Twenty thousand measly dollars, like that would help.”
“Does it depend on the dogs learning to communicate?”
She looked at John and then decided her inebriated confessions were over. “Yeah.” She slammed her fists into her lap and stayed quiet the rest of the way to the Amtrak station.
Guido was on time. His cage was deposited on the station platform. When he saw Marlene, he let out a hellacious howl and tried to claw his way out. “Guido!” She ran to him and opened the latch. Guido jumped all over her and knocked her off of her feet, which in her present condition could have been accomplished by a kitten. Guido, a Belgian Malinois, looked much like a German shepherd in stature and size. They hugged while she was on her knees. John approached the love scene cautiously. She instruct
ed John to join her on his knees. “It’s the proper way to let him know you’re a friendly.”
Guido spent a good amount of time sniffing all around John’s kneeling body. John knew he smelled more than just a human. He knew this dog knew how to smell a thing as small as a set of car keys, but the canine was probably searching for an incendiary device, or maybe a dog biscuit. John passed the test and Guido returned to his romance with Marlene.
“Does the cage break down?”
Marlene broke it down in less than a minute and the three of them headed toward the car.