He groaned. “You are going to be the death of me. Better now?”
“Yes, thank you.” I smiled and kissed him. He pulled me close and I curled into him. I enjoyed cuddling with him. We talked for a little before we fell asleep.
I woke up to the sun streaming through the blinds. Walker was sound asleep next to me. I watched him for a few moments; he looked peaceful. I needed to get up and use the bathroom. Being quiet as I could, I grabbed one of our T-shirts from the floor and my pants. After using the bathroom and getting dressed, I decided to make us breakfast. I always made a pound of bacon on Sunday mornings along with biscuits. I fed Tabby-Girl and cleaned up the kitchen. The bacon and biscuits were cooling on racks.
“That shirt has never looked better,” Walker said.
I turned to him and smiled. He came to me and kissed me. “You hungry?”
“What did you make?”
“Biscuits and bacon. The biscuits will be different from what you are used to, but I think you’ll find they are okay.” I used a high-fiber recipe that I’d perfected over the years.
I took a plate and put a few pieces of bacon and a biscuit on it. I went to the table to eat it. I made a sandwich out of it.
I went back for my coffee. I had a single-serve coffee maker and made myself one cup. Walker had taken enough to make two sandwiches and waited for my coffee to finish. He made his and we sat down to eat. I did more watching of him than I did eating. Since I was wearing his shirt, he had not bothered to pull another one out of his bag.
He was smiling at me. “Val, are you enjoying the show?” he asked.
I turned red. “Sorry, I can’t help myself.” I smiled and worked on eating more of my breakfast.
“What do you normally do after breakfast?”
“My joint exercises, to keep the joints from getting stiff and painful. What do you normally do?”
“Shower, dress, or workout in the gym at Forces and then shower and dress. Do you need help?” he paused. “I should say, would you like help?”
“Thank you for offering, but no, I like doing them on my own. It allows me self-assess if something has changed. Does that make sense?”
“Sure does. I am going to hop in the shower then.” He got up and kissed me. I took care of my exercises and then got dressed. We talked for a little while before we headed over to Domino’s, deciding what days we could spend some time together.
Walker opened the door to the kitchen for me and I greeted Domino, Charlotte, the girls, Dean, Eve, Gena, Hack, and Josie. I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I quickly checked it; it was Tony. What could he want? “Hey, Tony, everything okay?”
“No, Valerie. I am so sorry, but you need to come in and bring a plumber with you. Every toilet has backed up. The carpet in the lobby is soaked and everything needs to be cleaned. I had to shut down the theaters. A few regulars are helping, but I need you.”
“I will be there ASAP.” I pocketed my phone.
“Walker, I need to go to the theater. The bathrooms have backed up. The carpets have to be cleaned. I need a plumber. Oh, this is going to cost me. I need to go.” I started for the door.
“Stop,” Domino said.
I turned. What could he possibly want? I needed to go. “What?”
“Gena, call your dad and Ape. Dean and Eve, go with Gena. Binary, go with Walker and Valerie. Hack, the command center. Charlotte, take me and the girls over. Let’s find out who did this and clean it up. Now you may go,” Domino said.
Everyone did what Domino said. Josie grabbed a bag and followed Walker and me out to his Jeep. He put me in, and we headed over. “Josie, who are Gena’s dad and Ape?”
“Gena’s dad runs a disaster recovery service. He will have carpet cleaners, vacuums, fans. Ape comes from a family of plumbers. So, you will get equipment and bodies to tackle this mess. Hack and I are going to go over your video footage together. We will figure this out, Valerie, I promise.” Josie said.
We got into the lobby and was assaulted with the sewer smell right away. I was glad Tony had shut down; this was awful. I saw Ron, Jimmy, and Harry, three of my regulars, vacuuming up the disgusting water with their shop vacs. Ron was my top-floor renter. I went to them first. “Guys, thank you. Really, you don’t have to do this.”
“Valerie, this may be your theater, but this is our home away from home. We’ve got to make sure it’s taken care of,” Ron said. The three of them had been coming on Sundays since my grandparents had opened. They were great friends, and I appreciated them helping me.
I saw Tony. “Hey.” I rolled up to him.
“As soon as I noticed I shut off the main water. I called you, and this is where we are. They came in with their vacuums and I tried to pick up any solid waste I could find. It’s been crazy,” Tony said.
I felt my phone vibrating, but I ignored it. Domino was on the phone doing who knew what. Charlotte and her girls were helping the guys vacuum. I saw Gena, Dean, and Eve coming in carrying cleaning supplies. Next, two men walked in behind them wheeling in big industrial fans.
“All right, my dad sent these two. They are going to start cleaning the carpets. We stopped and picked up sanitizing solutions and cleaners to clean up once Ape and his family arrive. They should be here in twenty minutes. You sit tight; we got this,” she said. I sat and watched as everyone was working together.
Walker came up to me. “Domino and I have decided that we need to replace all the locks and add more cameras. I found evidence that someone picked a lock on the north side of the building. We called the police to come fingerprint it. I am going to wait for them.” He looked at me, “Val, get some water for yourself and pass out water to everyone else. You will be okay.” He kissed the top of my head and left.
I went to the concessions and started pulling out bottles of water and passing them out like he said. I happened to look up and saw three Bonelli Plumbing vans pull up. A man and a woman got out of one, an older man out of another, and a younger man out of the last. There was no question this was Ape, his dad, and brother; they were carbon copies of each other, with dad having some gray hair and more laugh lines than the other two. The woman stayed close to Ape. They started to unload equipment.
They came in dragging machines, tools, and some round, coiled bundles. “Hello, you must be Valerie. I’m Ape. These are my dad Angelo, my brother Donny, and my fiancé Greta.”
“Hello, thank you all for coming. The bathrooms are at the corners of the hallways. Let me know if you need anything.” I was getting worried how much this was going to cost me. They disappeared into the bathrooms. I felt my phone going off again. I pulled it out and saw I had all kinds of missed text messages.
“It’s Mary. Ben, Nessa, and I are tied up today. I hope you are okay. Don’t worry. Everything will be taken care of. Keep us updated.”
“Nessa here. Don’t freak out—it’s just shitty water; it will wash out. Just keep breathing. We can hash this out later if you need to.” I laughed at Nessa; it felt good to know she cared.
“Gena’s mom here. I, Concelia, and Anna are cooking at Lance’s. Gena said you have food restrictions, no dairy? Let me know what to make you.” That was so nice. Who were Concelia and Anna?
There were a few more from people I didn’t know. I wanted to find Josie; I hoped she knew. I found her in my office, on my computer and hers. “Hey, do you know about all these texts?”
“Yeah, I added you to the Ladies of Forces texting tree. Make sure you answer Gena’s mom so she can make something for you.” Josie smiled and went back to the computers.
I sat in the doorway of my office. There were people working everywhere. “Ms. Greer?”
I turned to see who needed me. It was Ape’s dad, Angelo. “Hello, Angelo. What can I help you with?” He had a metal box clipboard in his hands. Great. I was going to sign my life away. I noticed Walker, Domino, Ape with Greta, his brother, and Dean had all come up behind him.
“Ms. Geer, this is my agreement to work, and all the fi
ne print. I have assessed the situation here.” He looked behind him, then back at me. “All the toilets need to be rodded then the main line. If I break anything, I will replace it. If it is too old, I will have to add it to your bill. Your estimate right now is one thousand dollars. If you sign here and here, we will start.” He pointed to where he wanted me to sign. I had no idea what had happened, but one thousand dollars for three plumbers, on a Sunday, to work on eight toilets and the mainline … I could not pass that up. This was a steal. I signed. He turned towards the guys.
“I believe I will find things that have no business being flushed,” he said. “Let’s get to work.” He headed to the men’s room with Donny. Ape and Greta went to the women’s.
I was left facing Walker, Domino, and Dean. They were in my office doorway.
“So, Val, can you think of anyone else who would do this?” Walker asked.
I chewed on my bottom lip. I was mad, and I had no idea.
Chapter 17
Walker
Her blue eyes were sparkling. I knew she was angry this had happened. That this was happing to her, that she could offer no names to me. She had on a pair of leggings and a pink- colored sweater. She was slim. I knew she had lost the muscles she had in her legs, but her arms, upper body, and her abs were muscular and well-toned from getting herself around. I knew women would kill to have her upper body. Her long hair was loose and flowing down her back. She looked so fucking sexy that if there had been no one in her office, I would have made good use of her desk.
“Okay, I have the footage. They tried to cover it again with that jammer thing they think works,” Binary said from behind her. Val turned and went to see the footage. I followed her. Domino and Dean took the space at the door. Binary played it for us. This time it was two people, dressed in black or dark clothes. Hats, sunglasses, hoodies, gloves, and they had backpacks. They were average height, weight, build; could have been two men or two women or a man and a woman. Nothing stood out to distinguish them.
“Just like last time, I don’t recognize them. This is the same one as last time, but no idea who it is,” Val said, sitting back. She was so frustrated. “Josie, the middle drawer behind you in the filing cabinet is my employee records. Have at it. I don’t know where else to look in my life.”
“What about the family of the guy that hit you?” Domino said.
She whipped her head around. I think if she had had anything in her hand, she would have thrown it at him. “He blew the light, not us. Why come after me all this time?”
“I don’t know. Why do people do half the shit they do?” Domino said.
“Look up the police report. I am going to go see the progress of Ape and his dad. Now move.” Domino and Dean got out of her way.
After she left, Domino asked Binary to bring up the report. She sent it off to Hack to do the research on. “She said she had to ban three people from the theater. Could it be one of them?” I asked.
“I sent that to your tablet, Hunt. You can look into that,” Binary said after a few keystrokes.
“I checked her mother after the popcorn. She is currently in California, remarried, living a life in luxury. She has not come back to the state of Illinois since she left, nor has there been any unexplained spending,” I shared.
“That’s good. She sounds horrible; Valerie doesn’t need her,” Domino said.
“I also looked into the employee she fired for stealing. He was the black sheep of the family; I think they are relieved he is no longer fighting his demons.” Even though he’d hurt Val, I did feel sorry for him. Addiction was a horrible thing to fight.
“What about you? Could this be your stalker?” Domino asked.
I sat back; I had not thought about her since the day of the install on her house. I had only known of Val for a short time before I found out Jessica was here. Could she?
“As far as the camera footage from our install and the tracker for the parole officer show, no, she has not left her area defined by the restraining order. I have been keeping an eye on her. I know when she moves,” Binary said.
“The men’s washroom is done. Everyone is cleaning and sanitizing. Whoever did this really wanted to cause problems. My dad was right; it was rags, diapers, feminine products. All things that expand when wet and clog pipes. We should be done shortly.” Ape went back to the women’s washroom and continued working. Val was talking with one of the guys from Gena’s dad’s company. It seemed they were almost finished with the carpet cleaning.
“Well, Binary, Walker go through the employee files. Hunt, keep going on the three banned patrons. I will go through the accident report with Hack.” Domino got to work. I opened the filing cabinet. There were about twenty files. I handed half to Binary.
Val came up to her office. “Josie can you get into the bottom right-hand drawer of my desk? I need my checkbook and a pen,” Val asked, handing her keys to Hunt to pass to Binary.
Once she had her checkbook and a pen, she left. I went back to the employees’ files I had. So far nothing. Just regular folks that wanted to work and did their job till something changed in their lives, sending them on the next path. Graduating high school was the biggest one. Two divorces, and one moved away. Nothing was there.
I put everything back and went to find Val. I wanted to check on her and see how the clean-up was coming. After getting out of her office, I was surprised. The lobby and areas around the bathrooms were cleaned. It smelled fresh again. The fans that had been brought in were still going and probably would be on all night to dry the carpets.
I stepped into the women’s washroom and found Ape, Greta, his dad, and brother packing up the last of their gear. Charlotte’s girls, Eve, and Gena were cleaning everything they could reach with the sanitizer. Val handed over a check to Ape’s dad and they started to take their stuff to the vans.
“How’s it going?” I asked her.
“Fine. The ladies here are cleaning very well. The guys Gena brought, the regulars, and Tony are cleaning the men’s. We should be out of here shortly. I still can’t believe who would do this. Why me? Why my theater?” She shook her head and turned to leave the bathroom. I followed her.
“It least it smells normal out here now. Those guys Gena brought are amazing. My regulars and their shop-vacs really saved the carpets. I am going to buy them each a new one. Theirs are so gross now, there is no cleaning them. Yuck. I want to go check on them.” She went to the men’s, and found the bathroom just about finished.
“This looks wonderful. Thank you all so much,” she said, looking around. It sparkled and shined. The sewer smell was gone and everything smelled like cleaning products. It was good to see everything back to normal.
“Yup, we are done. We were getting everything together to go help the ladies,” Tony said, Val rolled out of the way so they could go to help the ladies.
She was looking at me. “I still don’t know why this happened, but I feel really lucky to have all these friends to help me. Thank you, Walker.” She was holding her hand out to me. I took it, and she pulled me into hug her.
“I didn’t do much, Val.” I rubbed her back as she held me.
“Yes, you did, you were persistent. You brought Josie and I back together. You have shown me that I have found a really great man.” She was looking up at me, smiling.
I leaned down and kissed her. “Well, you are a great woman, so it only seems right that you should have a great man by your side.” I was glad to see she was not still upset by everything that had happened. “Let’s get out of the men’s room, hmm?” I opened the door for her.
She laughed. We went and checked on the progress in the ladies’ room. Binary, Domino, and Hunt had left her office and were ready to go. I had locked Val’s checkbook back up. We were all heading over to Domino’s. Gena’s mom, and Ape’s mom and sister had taken over cooking the meal for everyone.
“I think we are ready. The guys will come by and pick up the fans tomorrow. But everything is clean and ready to be open
ed for business tomorrow,” Gena said.
“All right. Let’s get back to my house and eat. I am starved. It’s not often we get Ape’s mom’s Italian cooking,” Domino said, leading everyone out. Val was the last one out, locking the door after everyone.
Chapter 18
Valerie
We got to Domino’s and the smells coming from his kitchen were making my mouth water. Some of the guys had used the showers in the locker room and borrowed clothes so we could all enjoy our meal. The meal was wonderful. Since I never answered Gena’s mom, they’d guessed. I got a plate of chicken and vegetables smothered in marina sauce. No cheese to be seen on it. It was fantastic.
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