by Bill H Myers
Still looking at Erin, he asked, “Did you get your money back?”
“Not in cash but in a painting worth a lot more than he owed me.”
“A painting? You sure it's valuable? Not a fake?”
“It’s not a fake. We took it to the appraiser at the Lost Art Gallery and she said it was real and thought it might sell for three grand. Since I didn't have a place to keep it, I put it on consignment in her gallery.”
Raif nodded. “Hope you didn't take advantage of poor Waldo. If he gave you a painting worth three thousand to cover the nine hundred dollars he owed you, it sounds like you might have.”
Erin shook her head. “Nope, not at all. He'd already taken one to Night Shade and they told him it was a fake worth around a hundred. He was more than happy to give me one and sell the rest to Walker for the same price, a hundred each.
“Waldo is pretty much broke except for the money we gave him. He hasn't paid his loan shark and he took on another loan from the owner of the motel.
“The guys who are looking for him are still in town and they want their money. We tried to warn him that they would be coming after him, but he didn't seem too worried. He thinks he can get an extension.”
Raif turned to me. “What do you think? Any chance the guy who loaned him the money is willing to renegotiate the terms?”
I'm sure Raif already knew the answer to his question. “No, I don't think he's the negotiating type. The people working for him don't negotiate either. They either collect what is owed or start breaking bones.”
Raif nodded. “So, let me guess. You're going to try to be a hero and figure out some way to get him out of the mess he's in.”
I sighed. “I don't want to be anyone's hero. But I don't want to see him get hurt too badly. Maybe I can come up with a way out for him.”
Raif shook his head. “Don’t get between him and the loan shark. If you do, he might decide to come after you when they find out he can't pay.”
He turned to Erin. “You're done with this, right? You got what you wanted from Waldo. There’s no need for you to see him again. Right?”
Erin nodded. “Yeah, I'm mostly through with him. I’m going to see him one more time this afternoon, and after that, it’s over.”
“You're going to see him? Why?”
Erin smiled. “You're not going to believe this. The county agreed to fix up the Die Inn. They’re going to replace all the carpets, furniture and bedding. Even repaint the rooms. And they're not going to charge Waldo anything.
“All he had to do was to agree to rent all the rooms to the county to house single mothers.
“The only reason I want to go back is to see if there are any paintings we missed. If there are, I'll buy them from him.”
Raif shook his head again and turned to me. “You're going with her, right? You're going to make sure she stays safe. Right?”
I nodded. “Yes, I'm going with her. And I'll do my best to keep her safe.”
He turned back to her. “You find a place to live yet? If not, your old room is still available. You can move back any time. I kind of wish you would, I miss having you around.”
Erin smiled. “I miss you too. But I have a plan. Waldo's lease is up next door and since I already know the neighborhood, I'm thinking about renting his place for a month or two while I look for something more permanent.
She looked at me and winked. I'm not sure why but maybe because she hadn't bothered to tell me she'd be moving out of my RV that soon.
I thanked Raif for letting me use his car and we left with Erin driving hers. I didn't bother asking where we were going. I was pretty sure we were heading back to the Die Inn.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Twelve minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot of the Paradise Inn, the motel that Waldo had bought. The place was humming with activity. A large dumpster had been brought in and workers were there ready to strip the rooms down to the bare walls.
We found a place to park in front of the office, next to a Cool Today air conditioning truck. Erin got out and headed to the open guest rooms, in search of wall art we may have missed. I went into the office to talk to Waldo, who was sitting behind the check-in desk with his feet up on the counter.
He saw me coming but didn't bother to get up. I walked over and said, “You look pretty comfortable. Does that mean you're not worried about Madicof's guys finding you?”
He shook his head. “No need to worry. I called him and told him I was broke. Told him I couldn't pay. I said I'd be making a little money starting next month, and I'd be willing to pay him some then.”
“So you called him? What did he say after you told him you couldn't pay?”
Waldo smiled. “He was real nice about it. He said he'd be happy to talk to me. Said he'd be in town tomorrow and we could get together.”
“And you're not worried about meeting with him?”
“No, why should I be? I'm willing to pay him what I owe; I just can't do it on his schedule. After I tell him my situation, I'm sure he'll understand.”
I couldn't believe Waldo was so naive. He owed Madicof a lot of money and hadn't made any payments. Madicof was coming all the way from Key West to Saint Augustine to meet with him. No way that was a good thing.
I only had one question. “Did you tell him where you live?”
Waldo shook his head. “He asked, but I told him I was moving around and didn't know where I'd be when he got into town. I told him to call and we'd get together.”
I nodded. “You still staying in that motel you talked about? The one with the drug dealer living next door?”
“Yes, I'll be there until they get my apartment fixed up here. They're going to pull the carpet and furniture out today. They’re supposed to paint it tomorrow.
“It should be ready for me to move into by the middle of next week.”
I should have asked him the name of the motel, but I didn't. I really didn't care where he was staying.
I wished him good luck and headed outside to see if Erin had found anything of value. She wasn't in the parking lot, but her car was still there. She hadn't driven off and left me behind.
I started checking the rooms and it wasn't until I got to room twelve that I found her. She was in the back, standing on a rickety chair, trying to pry a small painting off the wall. It looked like she could fall any second.
I walked over, wrapped my arms around her waist, lifted her out of the chair and set her safely on the floor. Before she turned around, she said, “You better not let my boyfriend see you do that. He's the jealous type.”
She turned and laughed. “I found three more paintings. They’re smaller than the others but looked to be the same kind. Florida scenes painted on board.
“I was able to get the first two down, but not the one in here. I think it might be nailed to the wall. You want to see if you can get it down for me?”
It didn't look like the chair she had been standing on would hold my weight, so I didn't bother to use it. Instead, I grabbed the painting from the bottom and, rather than trying to pull it off the wall, I pushed it up toward the ceiling. I figured it was hung by a wire over a screw and if I pushed up, it would likely come loose. It did.
Erin was surprised to see how quickly I was able to get it down. She looked up at me and said, “My hero,” then she took the painting out of my hands and headed for the door.
I followed her to the car where she put the painting in the back seat with the other two she'd found. When she was done, she said, “I'm taking them to the storage building. Whenever you're ready, we're leaving.”
We had just pulled back on the street when Erin's phone chimed with an incoming call. She answered and after a few moments, the call ended. “That was one of the new people working at the Taco Palace. He said an inspector from the health department was there and had a question that none of them could answer. Something about the taco oven.
“He said the inspector was going to shut the place down if he didn't get an
answer right away, so I agreed to go over and help them out.
“It might take a while, so I'm thinking I can drop you off at the RV before I go. That way you won't have to wait around for however long it takes me to explain things to the inspector. Is that okay?”
There were a few things I needed to do back at the motorhome, including dumping the tanks. I was pretty sure Erin didn't want to be around when I did that. “Yeah, drop me off. Call me when you get done.”
Fifteen minutes later, I was alone in the motorhome. Not the first time and certainly not the last.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
While Erin was talking with the health inspector at the Taco Palace, I kept busy in the RV. I washed a few dishes, made the bed and in general cleaned the place up.
Going outside, I unhooked from shore power, stored the power cord and locked up the lower compartment. Back inside, I looked for Bob and found him in the back bedroom taking his afternoon nap.
While he was safely on the bed, I went up front and pressed the button to bring the two front slide rooms in. Then I checked on Bob again. He was still sleeping on the bed. Not wanting to disturb him, I watched to make sure he didn’t move as I brought the bedroom slide in. It didn't seem to bother him, he slept right through it.
With the slides in and everything else taken care of, I fired up the engine and let it warm up for a couple of minutes. Then, after rechecking the campground map, I headed for the dump station. It was less than a quarter-mile from my site and easy to find.
When I got there, I was happy to see there wasn't a line; no one else was dumping their tanks ahead of me. Dumping can be messy, especially when newbies are involved. If they don’t know what they are doing, all kinds of bad things can happen.
Trying to drain forty gallons of poop water from a holding tank using a flimsy plastic hose isn't that difficult and doesn't have to be messy. But if the hose leaks or if the tank connections aren't secure, you could end up with a lot of poopy water on the ground around you.
It doesn't happen often, but when it does, the person responsible is supposed to clean it up. But a lot of times, they don't. They just drive away leaving a nasty surprise for the next person who shows up.
Most communal dump stations at state and national parks have wash down hoses readily available to clean up spills. These hoses usually hang on a spring-loaded hook above and off to the side of the dump hole. They usually have a high-pressure nozzle making it easy to clean away any mess and make it nice for the next person.
Of course, it doesn't always work that way. Sometimes the mess isn't cleaned up. That's why I always stop before I pull up to a dump station. I want to get out and take a look before I commit. If there’s a mess, I don't want to be walking through it while I dump my tanks. I'll clean it up first.
Being mid-afternoon, well past checkout time, the RV'ers who’d left early and dumped their tanks before they pulled out were long gone. The park's maintenance workers had cleaned up the area, and it was safe for me to use it.
I pulled up to the sewer hole and got ready to empty the tanks. The first step was to unlock the compartment where I stored the dump hose and put on a pair of rubber gloves. Then it was just a matter of connecting one end of the hose to the RV and the other into the dump station's sewer hole.
When everything was connected, I pulled the handle on the black tank and let it rip. When the sound of rushing lumpy water inside the hose subsided, I closed the black tank handle and pulled the one for the grey tank.
The grey tank contained mostly shower and sink water, which meant it flowed faster than the black tank's contents and would tend to flush the sewer hose on its way out. When the grey tank was empty, I closed the tank handle and double-checked to make sure both were secure. I then disconnected the sewer hose at the RV end and used the station's water hose to wash it out.
When it was clean, I put it away and pulled off my rubber gloves. After locking the storage compartment, the only thing left to do was to wash my hands and go back inside.
It had taken me less than thirty minutes to get to the dump station, dump the tanks, and get back to my site. I backed in, hooked up to shore power and ran the slide rooms back out.
With the tanks empty, the slides out, and the place cleaned up, there wasn't much for me to do except wait for Erin to return. I figured she'd be gone at least an hour, maybe more.
I decided as a reward for cleaning the place and dumping the tanks, a nap was in order. I joined Bob in the back bedroom and dozed off.
Three hours later, I woke and was surprised to see that Erin hadn’t returned. I figured maybe after answering the health inspector's questions about the taco oven she decided to stay until the full inspection was over, just in case other questions came up.
An hour later, it was nearly six, dinner time, and she was still gone. I was starting to get worried. Maybe her car had broken down or for some reason she wasn’t able to get through the park’s gate. I decided to call and see if there was a problem or if there was any way I could help.
I punched in her number and made the call. After ten rings, it went to voice mail.
I left a message. “Call me when you get the time.”
A few minutes later, my phone chimed with an incoming call. It looked to be from Erin, but when I answered, the voice on the other end wasn't hers. It was instead a man's. He said, “Mr. Walker. We need to talk.”
Chapter Fifty-Eight
“Is Erin okay?”
“Yes, I can assure you she is. She's here with me right now. Would you like to speak to her?”
“Yes, put her on the line.”
I could hear someone whisper something then I heard Erin say, “Walker, Mr. Madicof is here with me, and he's trying to find Waldo. He hasn't hurt me in any way, but he wants me to stay with him until Waldo shows up. So if you could find him and arrange a meeting this evening, it would make both of us happy.”
When she paused, I asked, “Where are you? Where is he holding you?”
She didn't get a chance to answer. The man who I had spoken to earlier was back on the line. He said, “Mr. Walker, we haven't had the pleasure of meeting, but I hope to get together with you soon. My name's Madicof and I came up here from Key West to meet with a friend of yours.
“He borrowed a bit of money from me and, for some reason, hasn’t been able to make his payments on time. He called me today and said he would meet with me, but now that I’m in town, he’s not answering his phone.
“Before I made the loan, he told me he was going to use it to purchase the taco truck business from Ms. Donnely. Since we are unable to find Mr. Raines, we thought that maybe she knew how to reach him. So we arranged to meet up with her this afternoon and we’ve since had an interesting conversation.
“She says she doesn't know where Waldo is and doesn't know how to reach him. She claims he also owes her money and he's been avoiding her as well.
“She suggested that perhaps you might know where he is and might be able to arrange a meeting. If you were able to do that, I would appreciate it. I'm sure Ms. Donnely would as well.
“Mr. Walker, I assure you that no harm will come to her. We are not in the business of hurting women and will not hurt her in any way. But as she said in her brief talk with you, she will be staying with us until we are able to meet with Waldo, face-to-face.
“I'm hoping you can make that happen. And soon.”
He paused, and I said, “Madicof, I know about your business. And I know about your associates, but you don't know me or what I might do to get Erin back. My suggestion is you let her go before this thing gets out of hand.”
There was silence on the other end, then, “Mr. Walker, we do not wish this to as you say, get out of hand. We simply need you to set up a face-to-face meeting with Waldo. After that, you and Ms. Donnely can go free.”
I thought about what he was saying. He wanted me to give him Waldo in return for Erin. It was an easy decision. I would do it. But first, I needed to see if I cou
ld strike a deal.
“Madicof, I'll try to find Waldo and set up a meeting. It may be difficult as he hasn’t told me where he’s staying. But I will look for him and do my best to find him.
“You should know that he is broke. He owes us all money and the chances of any of us getting paid back in full anytime soon are slim to none.
“But there might be a way for you to recover your investment. I have gained possession of an asset with a cash value somewhere in excess of fifty thousand dollars. I might be able to make it available to you for the immediate return of Ms. Donnely, regardless of whether I find Waldo or not.
“Are you interested?”
While waiting for his reply. I could hear voices whispering in the background, then, “Mr. Walker, what is this asset you speak of, the one that you say is worth more than fifty thousand dollars?”
I didn't answer right away. I wanted him to think that I might have changed my mind about the trade. So I said nothing, I knew that in negotiations when the question of price comes up, he who speaks first often loses.
Finally, Madicof asked, “Mr. Walker, are you still there?”
I smiled. It sounded like he was interested in maybe doing a trade.
“Yes, I'm here. I was just thinking that maybe I'd rather keep these things for myself. I wouldn't need to offer them to you if I could find Waldo. In fact, I think that's the better plan.
“I'll find him and turn him over to you. He doesn't have any money and you won't get anything out of him. I'll keep the asset and walk away free and clear with Ms. Donnely.”
I knew this wouldn't sit well with him; I'd teased him with the lure of something worth fifty thousand dollars and knew the hook was set. I waited to see what he'd say next. I was pretty sure how it would go.
He didn't disappoint. “Mr. Walker, tell me more about this asset that you think is worth fifty grand.”
I smiled, he was interested. “Paintings. I have ten of them. Each worth at least five thousand. Originals signed by well-known Florida artists. Perhaps you've heard of them. Highwaymen?”
