by Mike Faricy
The look of fear on his face was palpable and he half nodded then gave a whispered, “Yes sir.”
I stood up, got in my car, and drove off leaving the two of them lying in the street. I spotted the Mercury Mountaineer on a side street about a block away from The Spot. I pulled over, got out, and jammed a screwdriver into all four tires then drove home.
Chapter Thirty
I was in the process of checking out the women gathered at the bus stop, then moving the binoculars back to the girls across the street in the apartment. One of the apartment girls was wrapped in some dreadful looking brown bathrobe thing and sipping from what looked like a can of Seven-Up. She looked an awful lot like the drunk blonde throwing darts in The Spot the night before. Unfortunately for me, her roommate was dressed and in the process of waving good-bye.
“Anything shaking?” Louie asked as he came through the door and tossed his laptop on the picnic table.
“Nothing worthwhile.”
“I trust you made it home okay.”
“Me? Yeah sure, no problems.”
“Someone rear end your car? Trunk has a bunch of dents.”
“Tree branch from the storm a while back.”
Morton was happily attacking the new chew toy we picked up on the way into the office. His reward for trying to alert me last night. Louie gave him a good rub behind the ears, but Morton was too engaged to pay him much attention.
“He really likes those things,” Louie said then winced as he tasted the coffee.
“Yeah, I guess we left it on overnight, again. I didn’t have the courage to try some this morning.”
“Nor the brains to make a fresh pot.”
“That too.” My phone rang at just that moment. “Haskell investigations.”
“Hi, Dev, AJ.”
“Hey, how’s it going? You recovered?”
“Yeah, back to normal, whatever that is,” she said then chuckled. “Just wanted to let you know I’d survived our last encounter.”
There was a long pause before I picked up the slack. “Good, good. You feel like risking one more get together?”
“I suppose. I will if you will.” I wasn’t sure, but I thought I sensed a degree of hesitation in her voice.
“AJ, you almost make it sound like a dare, like we’re jumping off a cliff or something.”
“Maybe not far from the truth.”
“Would you be up for another try at dinner? I’ll let you order for me so I won’t contaminate you?” I said.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“You busy tonight?”
“Well, actually no, now that you mention it. Would that work for you? I mean, I wasn’t calling just so you’d ask me out. It was more of a funny…”
“Hey, if you can make it tonight I’ll pick you up at seven. Your job is to pick the restaurant. Anywhere you like, it doesn’t matter to me. I’ll have fun just being with you.”
“Oh, thank you.”
“See you at seven?”
“Well yeah, I’m looking forward to it, Dev, honest.” I wasn’t quite sure how promising that was, but I’d take it.
“She’s going out with you again, AJ?” Louie asked.
“Yeah, you heard it. Dinner tonight, she picks the restaurant.”
“Poor woman seems to be a glutton for punishment.”
“What can go wrong?”
“Don’t even go there,” Louie said.
“Check this out… talk about covering all the bases,” I said then dialed the phone. “Clarence, please. Hi, Clarence, this is Dev Haskell. I met you at the Subway that night you were… Yeah right. Listen I was hoping I could hire one of your limos for the evening. No, nothing like that, just trying to impress a woman. Just pick us up for dinner and drive us home. Well, I was planning on picking her up at seven. No, I don’t know, she’s picking the place. It’ll be somewhere in town. Great, about a quarter to seven? Let me give you my address.” I hung up the phone and looked across at Louie. “There, satisfied? I’m not taking any chances this time.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“That’s sort of always been the question, hasn’t it?”
I placed three more phone calls to Heidi over the course of the day, one to her home, one to her office and one to her cell. If she was anywhere near a phone, there was no way she could say she missed all three calls. I still didn’t hear from her. I left the office at five and begged off stopping for a quick one at The Spot with Louie, knowing how that was bound to turn out.
I took Morton for a nice long walk, got him settled in for the night, then proceeded to get ready. I figured if AJ was choosing the restaurant it was going to be someplace fairly fancy. So I got out a suit and a white shirt just back from the dry cleaners. I had a half dozen ties, but four of them were Christmas ties that you could squeeze and they lit up, except for one that played jingle bells. Of the other two, one was adult oriented, the male organ if that translates, that was out and then a pink tie that sort of went with my grey suit. Maybe. Anyway, that was it, a grey suit, white shirt and a pink tie. The limo driver rang my doorbell about five minutes early.
“Mr. Haskell,” he said when I opened the door.
“Yeah, please call me Dev. Nice to meet you.”
“Richie DeVon,” he said, extending a hand. He was dressed the way Clarence had been the other night, a dark suit coat with epaulets on the shoulders and a black cap with a shiny, patent leather visor. “Please, just call me Richie. Clarence said I’m supposed to give you the deluxe treatment.”
“You just get me to and from this dinner without me screwing it up and that’ll be deluxe enough for me.”
“I think I can do that. I’m a few minutes early. We can leave if you’d like or if you want to wait that’s fine, too. It’s all up to you.”
“Tell you what, let’s go. We can stop at the flower store, there’s one just up the block. I want to grab some flowers and hopefully fool this woman into thinking I’m a genuinely nice guy.”
I picked up a nice bouquet of a half dozen yellow roses, fragrant ones at that. As I climbed back in the limo, Richie said, “You aren’t taking any chances are you? Either that or you’re really in the dog house.”
“Actually both those statements are pretty accurate. I’d tell you, but I’m not even sure I believe everything that’s happened trying to date this girl. She lives over on Collette Place, just off Dorothea. You know where that is?”
“I do indeed. Now you just sit back and smell the roses Dev, I’ll have you there in about ten minutes.”
Chapter Thirty-One
You know, it’s amazing. I’ve lived in this town pretty much all my life except for some time in the Army. But the things you see when you’re not driving, when you actually have time to look and stare. Houses and shrubs and well, just everything. The trip to AJ’s passed almost too quickly.
“That’s it right down there, the brick front with the hedge,” I said.
Richie pulled over right in front of AJ’s and stopped. “Okay, now Dev, do you know if you’re going to hang here for a drink or take off right away?”
“Actually I don’t know. It’s kind of up to her, I guess.”
“No problem. I’ll just keep my eye on the door. When you leave if you could just linger by her front door for a few seconds to give me enough time to jump out and hold the limo door open for the two of you.”
“Done. I like the way you’re thinking, Richie,” I said then patted him on the shoulder before I stepped out of the limo.
I rang her doorbell and sort of hid the roses behind my back. AJ answered the door a moment later. She was wearing sparkling sandals, tight fitting jeans, and bursting out of a pink tube top that looked like it was a couple of sizes too small. I wanted to keep her all to myself and ravage her.
“Dev?” she said then got this weird sort of smirk on her face. “Oh my God! Look at you, you’re all dressed up.”
I pulled the bouquet of roses from behind my b
ack and handed them to her.
“Oh Jesus, you’re kidding? I haven’t gotten flowers from anyone for, well since forever. That’s so nice of you. Oh sorry, come on in. It’s going to take me a while to change, but if you can just be patient I’ll slip into something…”
“No, don’t please, I mean you look beautiful. I love the outfit, really I’d love to just lock the door and keep you to myself, to be honest.”
“Here, come on in. Let me put these in some water,” she said then hurried through her living room and into the kitchen.
I gave Richie the thumbs up, stepped inside, closed the door, then hurried back to the kitchen. Lady Godiva was lying in a basket. Her tail started wagging and thumping against the ceramic tile floor as soon as I entered the kitchen, but she stayed where she was.
“Give her a little rub behind the ears, will you Dev? Just so she knows she’s loved,” AJ said then opened a cabinet door, pulled out a vase, and set it on the granite counter top. The kitchen cabinets were white with brass handles and offset by the shiny black granite countertop. The windows along the back wall overlooked a rose garden edged with a neatly trimmed boxwood hedge. There wasn’t a weed in sight.
“There,” she said trimming the last of the rose stems and then setting the bouquet into the cut glass vase. “Gorgeous, and oh the scent. Dev, how did you know I was partial to roses?”
“Guys like me just know these sorts of things.”
She either accepted that comment or dismissed it, I wasn’t sure which. “Here, let me slip into something a little more in keeping with your outfit.”
“No please, don’t AJ. You look beautiful.”
“Oh, thank you. But you’re all dressed up and well, I’ve got my come fuck me sandals on, and…”
“They’re perfect. Where did you decide we’d go?”
“Well to tell you the truth, I was thinking Shamrock’s. After the last couple of disasters, I kind of figured you were more of a cheeseburger and beer sort of guy so I thought we’d just keep it simple.”
“Sounds perfect to me. I want to ditch this tie anyway and I can leave my suit coat in the car.”
“You sure? I mean it’ll just take a second to change.”
No woman has ever changed in just a second. At the mere mention of cheeseburgers and beer my stomach had started growling, and besides, AJ was really gorgeous and there was always the hope she’d sort of follow the intent of those sparkly sandals she was wearing.
“Just stay exactly the way you are and let’s go have a fun night, okay?”
“You talked me into it,” she said.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I started undoing my tie the moment I stepped out of the front door. I sort of fiddled with it on the front stoop for a moment while AJ locked the door, giving Richie just enough time to run around the front of the limo and open the door for us. AJ seemed oblivious. “Where did you park?”
“Your carriage awaits, madam.”
“Huh? A limo, you got a limo? You’re kidding? I, I don’t know what to say.”
“Maybe just hop in and we can talk on the way,” I said.
“Oh this is going to be so special, I can’t believe I’m…Oh. My. God! Richie? Richie DeVon, is that really you? I don’t believe it; it can’t be! Dev how did you know?” she screamed then jumped up into Richie’s arms, wrapped her legs around his waist and gave him a big hug. She unwrapped herself, stepped back, grabbed his face in both her hands and planted a big long kiss right on his lips. “Oh, it’s been so long.”
Richie had now gotten more action than I had with AJ. He looked just as shocked as me. “AJ, what the…I thought you were out east somewhere. Maryland or someplace?”
“No, actually Marietta. Marietta, Georgia. I was doing financial work, and well an opportunity developed back here and I went for it thinking I didn’t have a chance. They gave the job to someone else, but he broke a leg skiing or something, and well, here I am. Oh, my God! I just can’t believe it’s you.” She turned to look at me, eyes wide and all aglow. “Richie took me to homecoming our senior year in high school, Dev.”
“And Christmas formal and the Spring Fling,” Richie said, suddenly all smiles.
“Don’t forget the Graduation Ball, remember?” AJ said then sort of elbowed Richie and gave an evil grin.
“Oh, ahem, well yeah. Anyway we knew one another in high school,” Richie said.
AJ slinked up next to him then sort of stroked his hand with her index finger while she smiled at me.
“Great, and neither one of you knew the other was in town?” I said.
“You ever finish college?” AJ asked.
“Yep, got one more year left in law school. I’m going on the GI bill.”
“Really? Oh, I’m so proud of you. You always said you wanted to practice law, even when we were kids.”
“So, should we head down to Shamrock’s?” I said. I felt whatever passion there had been in the night had pretty much just evaporated, at least in my case.
“Oh yeah, Shamrock’s, sure, here,” Richie said and grabbed hold of the passenger door again.
“Yeah, I suppose,” AJ said, sounding a little disappointed.
“Tell you what, I’d like to just look at the scenery. If it’s okay, why doesn’t AJ ride in the front so the two of you can kind of get caught up?”
“Oh no, Dev, I couldn’t do that,” AJ said. “Well, I mean, unless you really wouldn’t mind, then I suppose we could.”
“Not a problem,” I said as AJ opened the door to the limo and quickly slid into the front passenger seat.
Richie sort of looked at me and shrugged as I climbed into the back. “Sorry, man,” he whispered.
“Actually, Richie, I should have seen it coming. Not to worry, I get it.”
“You sure, man?”
“Yeah.”
Once Richie climbed behind the wheel and started the car, I pulled out my phone and pretended to answer it. “Hello? Speaking. Now, tonight? I suppose, give me thirty minutes and I’ll be there,” I said, then put the phone back in my pocket. “Hey, guys change of plans, I’ve got an injured client. Would it be alright if you ran me home, Richie? Sorry AJ, but business calls.”
“You sure?” she said looking hopeful.
I caught Richie looking at me sort of funny in the rearview mirror.
“Yeah, sorry, but I have to attend to my client.”
“You can get to Dev’s house faster if you take 35E,” AJ said.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“So?” Louie said as he came into the office the following morning.
“Relax, I made a fresh pot and there’s still some left.”
“Not the coffee, meathead, although thanks. I could use some. I meant the star studded night, a limo, dinner, no holds barred. Hopefully your evening ended with fireworks. Yes?”
“To be specific, no, not even close. I think I was with her for a total of about eighteen minutes.”
“Eighteen minutes? What the hell did you do this time?”
“Nothing, other than hire a limo driver she apparently had a previous relationship with.” I went on to tell Louie about my night.
“So what did you end up doing?”
“Morton and I watched a movie and we were both asleep by about 10:30.”
“I’m going to have to find someone else to live through vicariously. This just isn’t working,” Louie said.
A little bell suddenly went off on my computer signaling a message arriving. I clicked the image in my tool bar for email. “Oh, here we go. Apologies from AJ coming across the line as we speak,” I said then opened her email.
“An apology? What does it say?”
I just sat and stared at the message. The image was a large black door on the front of a structure that looked about five hundred years old with an open window above the door. A ray of sunshine was streaming through the window with some sort of white dove that looked like it was about to fly in.
“Come on, what’s it say, De
v?”
“God never closes a door without opening a window.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
I thought for a long moment, then said, “It could mean a number of things. I’ll take it to mean she and Richie reconnected last night.”
“Reconnected?”
“I’m guessing they both got more action than I’ve had in the last five dates.”
“Oh, sorry, man.”
“It was doomed from the start. One of those things that probably was just never meant to happen.”
“Now don’t you be going all philosophical on me.”
“Far from it, just funny is all, you know…” my phone rang. “Haskell Investigations.”
“Is this Dev?”
“It is.”
“Hi, Dev, this is Richie DeVon, from last night.”
“Hi, Richie,” I said and looked at the image on my computer screen again. “Things work out for you and AJ?”
“Better than expected, actually. That’s kinda why I’m calling. I wanted to tell you thanks and I hope you didn’t think I was trying to cut into your plans or anything. It just sort of happened, you know?”
“Yeah, don’t worry, not a problem on this end.”
“It was just so crazy. I mean, we dated in high school, but something always sort of seemed to go wrong. I cracked up my dad’s car one time with AJ. Another time she was wearing some outfit of her sister’s and it sort of got ripped. Another time we tried to sneak some wine from her folks house and ended up spilling it on her mom’s new carpet. It was almost like things were destined to fail every time we got together.”
“I can sort of identify with that,” I said.
“Well anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for being so understanding. It’s really nice of you. I’m guessing you faked that call about the injured client last night.”
“Well, it was either that or I’d have to listen to how wonderful you were in high school and wasn’t it just funny that you met again and isn’t it a small town all the way through my dinner. I’m happy for both of you.”
