I woke up groggy on Wednesday morning, disoriented, and did not remember going to bed. The clock said five fifty, so it was nearing my regular time to get up. I rolled to the side of the bed to get up and reached for my peg. It wasn't there. I had to focus now, because things were not in order, not where they normally were.
Spying the peg on the chair by the foot of the bed, I hopped over and sat to slip it on. In the bathroom, I relieved myself and quickly brushed my teeth, as my mouth felt gross from not brushing before going to bed.
Thinking that I needed exercise, I went into the big closet, located my sport leg and strapped it on. In the gym room, I stretched for a few minutes and began walking on the treadmill. I gradually increased the speed until I was running at a decent six miles an hour, with a four percent incline. I was still a little unsteady on the new leg, but the treadmill had some nice handrails to help me keep my balance.
Wanda came in and decided the bike was her best way to wake up. Little Marie got on the other treadmill and was building up speed fast. The three of us continued until we were very sweaty. I slowed to a stop and suggested we rinse the sweat off and try the pool. After hurrying into the bedroom to exchange the sport leg for my peg, I stripped, walked out to the outdoor shower, rinsed off, and joined my friends in the pool. We didn't sprint to exhaust ourselves, but swam moderately hard to get some good cardio exercise.
While I was sitting on the wide steps on the side of the pool, Wanda asked, "Do you think you want to come in today? I do have a few things you need to look at, and you are going to be busy with prep for a possible trial against the county. Frank reinstated the Sheriff at the jail so life could get back to normal out there. The Sheriff would like to speak with you about your stay as well."
"I think a day in the office would be nice. I have several things to follow up on, and I want to use the range to see if Cap has that new combat course done yet. Have you heard?"
Wanda smiled, "Cap called last week to say he was waiting for you and Jan to set some standards for time and proficiency before he began grading regular users. You should get Jan and try it out together."
Continuing, Wanda reminded me, "Remember to stay out of the limelight like John asked you to. So far no one has asked for you other than that process server, but someone can always show up at our door."
We all had a quick breakfast, and it was while eating that Angie and Jimmy hit me with some news. Angie said, "Will you be mad if I move out to Jimmy's trailer? We want to be together and the trailer park is so much closer to the air park for him. He works some long hours sometimes and I want to be home when he gets there. The folks out at the park have assured me I was welcome to eat with them, so the only thing I have to do is to buy a car. Dennis says he knows a lady who has a good car she wants to sell, so Jimmy and I are going to go look at it."
Jimmy then asked, "Do you think I could use your B200 this weekend? I want Angie to meet my dad. I'd also like him to see how your plane turned out."
I answered, "If the charter service doesn't need it this weekend, you're welcome to use it. That would be the best way to get up there and back real quick. I'll bet your dad will be happy to see you, and even happier to meet Angie."
Angie was blushing, "I hope so. Jimmy says his dad is very open-minded, so we will see."
At the office, Wanda went over several remote office problems that were easily remedied, but still required a decision. Wanda already had the answers, but was concerned about making decisions for me when it was supposed to be done by me.
The Sheriff dropped by the building to talk to Frank and inspect our holding cell area. We had room to hold up to fifty inmates if necessary, and had facilities for food preparation, but we had a contract with the hotel restaurant across the street when the population was small. The Sheriff liked the idea of our prisoners being in leg and waist chains even in their cells. He made the comment that it would be difficult to escape when prisoners were secured in that manner.
The Sheriff and Frank came up to my office and we discussed my brief stay in his facility. He apologized that the situation had occurred and said, "The men cleaned out the locker of the jailer who you helped into a coma and is still there. I brought what we found with me and it's outside with your girls. One of the things we found was your leg. In light of what happened, we have written some new SOPs for handling amputees. Thank goodness you were able to defend yourself or I would probably be in jail as an accessory to your murder."
I was excited by the news, "Hey, great, now I don't have to buy a new leg. The boot on that leg is nearly new and was my primary prosthesis. The one I have on is my emergency spare. It is nice to have my collection back to full strength again."
The Sheriff asked, "My jailers and I are interested in how you defended yourself against three cellmates, then against the jailer who attacked you. What kind of weapon did you use, where did you get it?
"Sheriff, I used my hands and foot. I had no weapon, nor could I make one in the cell. Your cells are very good in that they do not have any loose items in them."
"It's so unbelievable that you could do that."
"If the three prisoners had rushed me together, I probably would have failed, but they felt they could handle me one on one. The results are regrettable, but I had no choice. The jailer was the one who scared me the most. He came at me with a baton and was trying to use it. Luckily, he wasn't very quick."
The Sheriff asked, "Should we be trying to train our men to combat a person with your skills?"
"You could, but you probably won't ever run into the need. You won't know when you have someone with the skills, and for the most part, those with the skills usually won't end up in your facility. If you ever suspect someone of having those skills, put them in a single person cell with leg and waist chains. That will resolve any potential problems."
"You're right, it will. The reason you were in the cell where you were, was to harm you, not to put you in a secure place."
When the Sheriff and Frank left, I dug into my e-mails and finished up right at lunchtime. I asked, "Wanda, do you want to go to lunch at the executive club or would you prefer to have Subways."
"I would enjoy having lunch with you, Mr. Johnson. That would be a pleasant respite."
We walked over to the executive building and were standing at the Maitre D's desk when Tom, Zena, Burt, and Veronica Highsmith came up to the desk. Burt was very magnanimous in wanting us to join them for lunch at his treat. We couldn't be rude, so we accepted and were soon seated with them.
Surprisingly, lunch was a total no pressure event, with neither Burt nor Veronica pushing for anything. Tom did mention that the buildout for the new offices should be completed by the end of the month. He was looking forward to our managers inspecting the properties.
When it was time for us to leave Tom and Zena gave Wanda and me a hug and a handshake. Zena said softly, "Call us, come visit."
On the way back to the office, Wanda said, "You would be a lot more comfortable out there if they weren't swingers, wouldn't you? I think they know that as well. Before, you went along with everything because of Bobby, and now you feel you may have lost her by some of that activity. I don't think so, but you are correct to act on how you feel. That place is fun, but nudism isn't necessarily a swinging lifestyle. Those people just get involved with each other differently than others do."
About two, I called down to Jan and asked if she wanted to try out the new combat course. She enthusiastically said, "I'll meet you."
Down at the range, Cap happily gave us some magazines so we could warm up a little. Jan and I fired forty five rounds each and brought the empty magazines back to Cap. He gave each of us three magazines, with ten rounds apiece, and showed us where to begin. He walked us through the course with the lights on and with the targets popping up randomly as we went.
Cap wanted us to go head to head instead of competing on a timed basis. Jan and I got ready and the bell rang. We went quickly through the course, firing thirty rounds in a minute and a half. The targets were impact and noise activated, so the next one would pop up when a round was fired, the faster we fired, the faster the next target popped up.
When we were done, Cap brought us a computer printout that had our times, hits, and decisions listed. As he showed us, he said, "Chuck was a little faster, but Jan, you beat him by one hit. You had two bad decisions, and Chuck had one. So there is no clear winner. I want you both to go through the course again, but do it more methodically, with zero misses, and with all good decisions. I'll use that time as our benchmark."
Jan and I got ready, and instead of going through the course slowly, we ended up rushing through it in less time than before, but we both knew we had all hits and all good decisions.
Cap said, "I can't use that time. That's so much faster than anyone can do it. Chuck, you beat Jan by less than a half second. Both of you had a hundred percent hits and hundred percent good decisions. I even had you guys on video for both of your rounds. You're too much. Go away; send me some normal people so we can have a real benchmark."
While Jan and I were cleaning our weapons, I commented, "When did you get a model twenty-two?"
Jan said, "When Wanda fired yours so easily, I decided that I wanted one like that. If I ever have to use a gun, I think I'd like the fifteen rounds instead of nine or thirteen. The gun has a better balance, and since you've made me an exercise queen, I'm strong enough to handle the extra weight."
Upstairs, my work was taken care of, so I walked over to the garage to see Hank.
"What's up, Boss? Have some new toys for me to play with?"
"Naw, just checking to make sure everything is okay with you. I'm sort of concerned about keeping the Escalade and not using it."
Hank smiled, "We've used it twice for transports over to Orlando. It's a great ride for that, much nicer than the Suburban."
"Good, I've almost come to swap it for the weekend a few times as it holds more people, but I didn't want to be using it and have people think that I'm showing off."
"Your buddy John from D.C. was trying to get me to get you a Jaguar that was in the system. He said you needed a fancy car like that, or a Mercedes like Frank has. I told him that you were pretty plain Jane when it came to cars and liked your Impala. He kept saying that the second in line for the whole service should be driving something fancy."
"Hank, check on what John drives. I know it's in the system. I'll bet he drives something like a box with four wheels. Either that or the D.C. boys have him riding with a driver. That will give me some ammo when he's bitching."
Hank said, "I'll do that, but you know all the wheels are driving the fancy stuff because it was confiscated. I've heard most of the big guys are being driven to work in Rolls or Bentleys. If you don't want the Jag, I'll drive it. I get off on those cars."
"I'll bet my Impala is faster and out performs the Jag. I'd love to take it out on the county track one of these days."
Hank said he would check on open dates and also gave me a set of keys for the Escalade, saying, "Keep these in your desk. If you need the car over the weekend, just come get it. Sign it out of course, but come get it."
Back in the office, I was going over some of the new procedures that had come down recently when Lisa called. She said, "I heard your boys up here just confiscated a Lear 60 similar to what S&S has. They said the plane is a real rat. Why don't you check on it? That would be neat to have another Lear. You could become a member of the real jet set crowd."
"I'll check, Lisa, but I don't need a Lear. Those things are expensive to keep up and even more expensive to operate. I would have to really steal it to make a good deal."
Lisa teased, "Oh, Chuck, you know how much you like flying the Lear. Just think, you could fly your own Learjet somewhere just for fun. You could fly it for business too. That would make it worthwhile, and you know the charter company would have it rented out most of the time."
"I'll check, I'll check. My goodness, what do you want me to do, open my own charter company?"
"No way, you would be in competition with S&S. I want you to be so deep in S&S that I've got a permanent hold on you. Your two planes are in the air almost every day. You're getting top maintenance with Jimmy looking after your stuff. The kid thinks you walk on water as it is. Get a Lear and watch him go nuts."
"I'll check, Lisa, I promise."
When she hung up, I checked in on the equipment for sale and didn't see any Lear 60s. There was a 45 that was estimated to be in fair condition, and a Falcon that I didn't know anything about. I called up to Detroit to talk to the Station Chief.
"This is Chuck Johnson in Tampa, I'm calling to find out about a plane you confiscated recently, possibly today."
Brian Tolan, the Station Chief said, "Hey, nice to talk to the boss. Yep, we did take one in yesterday, but we've taken all of the value off it."
"What do you mean?"
Brain answered, "We pulled right at seventy-six million off the plane. It was on its way to South America with some U.S. Currency. We've been watching these guys for about two months and knew their schedule real well. The plane was due to be junked when they got it back to South America, as it needs just about everything except engines. A local pilot up here said we had a flying deputy that would be interested in the plane. Are you interested?"
"I don't know, I said I would check on it and I'd want someone to look at it to give me an opinion. Can it be seen?"
"Sure, come up and take a look. The thing might have some miles left in it, but I'd want a good mechanic to look at it first."
I thought for a second then said, "I'll make some calls and see if I can get someone to come look."
"Hey, while you're up here, we have a 182 that's been through a war. If you want that, I know you can steal it. Let me know, I'll get you a giveaway deal on it."
"Thanks, I might do that. The guy that I want to look at the Lear wants his own plane. The 182 would be a good plane for him."
I told Wanda, "I'm going out to the air park and might fly up to Detroit real quick. I'll talk to you later. I might be late, obviously, real late."
When I drove up to the air park charter office, Jimmy was going in. I joined him as he was turning in some paperwork on work in progress. I asked him and DeDe, "Do you guys think you could rent out another Lear if you had it?"
"Dede said, "Sure could. A lot of people want the speed and think the prestige of flying in a Learjet is worth it."
"DeDe, I want to use our, or rather your, Lear to fly up to Detroit real quick. The kicker is that I want to take Jimmy with me to look at a plane. Can you rent me the Lear, and can I steal Jimmy?"
DeDe was grinning and said, "You're as bad as Steve, always coming up with something. Get out of here so you can get back at a reasonable hour."
Two and a half hours later Jimmy and I were setting the plane down in Detroit. I had called to have the Station Chief meet us at the airport. He drove us to the hangar where the newly confiscated Lear was being held. We towed it outside and Jimmy did an inspection, then fired it up and tested the engines. He looked the plane over thoroughly, and then came to me. "The aircraft isn't in bad shape, it just has a lot of hours. You can probably put it back together for around a hundred fifty. That's on the cheap side. The interior is real decent, and both engines could use an overhaul and the hydraulics should be gone over. I'd say if you can steal it, get it. S&S can use it.
I nodded, and asked the Chief, "Show me the 182 you have. Jimmy here is looking."
"You could see Jimmy's eyes dilate at the thought of a cheap airplane. We looked at it and Jimmy said, "I think with a little effort I could get this to fly down to Florida. It is in poor condition, but appears almost airworthy."
I told the Chief, "Sell me the little plane and just put it through D.C. I'll make sure to get it out of here quickly. Now, let me steal the Lear and we'll get out of your hair."
"If I give you a ridiculous deal on the Lear can you get it out of here in two days?"
"If the deal is ridiculous enough, we'll take it back with us right now."
The Chief's eyes narrowed and he called someone on his cell phone and had a fairly long conversation. When he was done, he said to me, "Get the thing out of here right now. I'll get you the papers on it, and have it fueled if you think it's airworthy enough to fly to Tampa."
I looked at Jimmy and he was smiling, I said, "Call the fuel truck. Jimmy, we can come up this weekend and get the 182 airworthy and get it home."
Jimmy said, "No sweat, I'll call dad. Mom and he want to come visit me, so instead of me flying up to see him, I'll have him drive his truck down. They can stop by here, take the wings off, put the plane on the truck, and haul it to Tampa. He'll go nuts if he knows I've bought a plane."
"Think you'll be all right to fly the junker home. I'm willing to fly it."
"I've had more experience flying junk than you have, let me. I think the aircraft's in decent shape, it just needs maintenance is all. Like I said, you spend about a hundred on repairs and engines and it'll be like new again. Let crazy Shawna and Hank paint it up and it'll be done. Let me use your cell phone, I'll call dad right now."
I supervised fueling the Lear and did a preflight on it for my own satisfaction. The tires were decent and there were no obvious problems with the gear, so it looked like it was ready to fly.
Jimmy was smiling. He told the Station Chief, "My dad will be by here tomorrow. He'll take the wings off the 182, but he'll need one of the maintenance cranes to lift it onto the back of his truck."
The Chief said, "I'll make sure the storage hangar people do it for him. Thanks, Chuck, you're getting that albatross out of here and you're making the Lear get out of here fast."
Jimmy and I agreed on a frequency to talk between us and prepared to take off. We received clearance one after the other, and were soon on our way home. We kept up a constant chatter as Jimmy kept evaluating the instrumentation and the airplane. We were flying a little under cruise speed, just to be on the safe side, but not much slower than what we came up at.
We set down at seven o'clock and taxied to the hangars. The night maintenance guys were all over the new Learjet, giving it the once over. They came to the conclusion that if the blades all looked good on the turbines, they felt the engines could be rebuilt which would save a lot of money. Jimmy promised not to try to save something that should be replaced.
He used my cell phone again and called Angie, who was at his trailer. She said she had a surprise for him, and he said he had a surprise for her. Jimmy made sure the night crew was set, jumped in his Jeep and started for home.
I went through the inside of the Lear very thoroughly. I was sitting in the left seat of the cockpit with my right hand on the back of the right seat. I felt something lumpy under the fabric at the rear of the seat.
I looked at the seat and saw that the zipper that is used to put the seat cover on the seat was partially pulled apart. I kept pulling on the zipper until I had the back of the seat open. I was already excited, as there were bundles of money in the seat. There were ten bundles of five hundred, hundred dollar bills. That made me nervous. Someone missed a half million dollars of currency.
Looking at the pilot's seat showed the same bulging, but it was flat instead of lumpy, like someone may have taken more time to stash the money in it.
The zipper easily came apart and there were another ten bundles.
I looked at the cabin seats and decided they needed to be checked out. I found that they didn't have zippers on the back, but the seats lifted out for flotation devices. Between the seat cushion and seat pan were ten neatly arranged bundles of cash. I quickly ripped off the other seven cushions to find the same under every seat. Holy shit. Okay, that's five million so far, I wonder what else I'll find. The galley area had been searched thoroughly as had the potty area. I began looking at paneling on the bulkhead and could see where some of the screws had been left loose. I went out to borrow a cordless screwdriver and came back in and unscrewed the paneling on the lower bulkhead between the window and the floor.
I began removing stacks of hundreds. After taking all of the paneling off, I found an additional sixty four bundles of money. A quick calculation said that was an additional thirty-two mil. I ended up unscrewing panels everywhere inside the plane, then in the baggage storage area. I think that was all.
There was thirty-six point five million so far and that had to be about it. That was so much money that I needed a duffle bag or something like it to put it all in. I found a heavy duty garbage bag in the hangar that would work. After bagging the cash, I screwed everything back together and made sure the seats were all in place, as well as checking that the cockpit seats were zipped up tight. I needed to call in and put this cash somewhere secure. The best place would be the station or my office, so I drove to the office, and for once, I used the private elevators to go upstairs. I stashed the bag of money in the cabinet below the TV. Then I sat at my desk and thought, "No one knows about that cash. I could keep it and live on it for the rest of my life."
"Duh, dummy, you have money coming out your ears. You just held up the idiot wrestler for another bundle. You sure don't need this stuff."
I shook my head in wonder and called John. He answered, "What do you want? Don't you know I have a home life?"
"You know the big bunch of money they found on the Learjet up in Detroit?"
"You mean the Learjet you just stole from the Marshal Service?"
"That would be the one, yes."
"What about it, Johnson?"
"I just found another thirty-six and a half million dollars stashed in it. I had to dismantle the bulkheads and seats, but one thing led to another, and voila, a big bunch of money."
John asked, "Who knows about this money?"
"You and me."
"Really, no one else?"
"Since I don't have a night deposit key for a bank, I've stashed it in a safe place."
"You idiot."
"What? What'd I do?"
"You idiot, you could have kept the money and no one would have been the wiser."
"I would have known," I said defensively.
"I know, tell me you did at least think about keeping it? Please tell me you're human."
"I did think about it, John, but,,,, "
John said, "Yeah, I know, your conscience wouldn't let you keep it. You friggin' idiot. I might have kept it. I really might have, but then I wouldn't have just bought a Learjet. Tell you what, instead of the ridiculously low price I was going to get that plane to you for, I'm going to charge you thirty-six and a half million dollars for a four million dollar aircraft on a really good day. See, you're a sucker. Now it's the Marshal Service that's taking advantage of you instead of you kicking back on an island somewhere."
"Maybe I should reconsider keeping the money. I could buy a couple more airplanes with all those millions."
"Yep, you could, but your conscience wouldn't let you do it. That's why you get the plane for being a good citizen. We'll even pick up the tab of getting it in good shape. You'll have to fly us around a little, but that's the deal."
"Sounds good, I was afraid of the cost of fixing the plane up. You know the thing may need new engines. They are expensive."
John said, "I have thirty-six point five million to play with. Make a deposit in the morning in your petty cash account. That should make a teller's day. I'll let accounting know of all the other arrangements and you'll get another gold star. You don't need any more stars. Are you all right after night before last?"
"I'm fine. I'm surprised how quiet everything has been kept. That has to get out. There is no way you can keep shit like that completely covered up."
"You would be surprised," John said. "If you have the D.C. muscle behind you, you can get away with a lot. Let me go back to my lovely lady. She's talking about another trip to Hawaii. She says there were a lot of possibilities for another wife for me. Say, you don't have a woman right now. She has a sister that's of marrying age. That beauty would make a wonderful wife for you. She would never leave you, she would cook for you, clean for you, take care of you like a king, and I can say that if she's half as attentive as my lady, she'll fuck you till you can't move, more often than you will want to. Then she'll go out looking for a second wife for you."
"Don't promise anyone anything, John. Women are not on my list of things to keep right now. I might have reached a point where I think I might enjoy doing without women for a while."
"That'll only last till you get horny again. I know all about it. I don't know how I lucked into my lovely lady, but I'm a king in my home."
"See you later, King, thanks for answering my question."
"I still think you're an idiot for telling me about the cash. See you later."
Sitting in my big chair, I did feel good about telling John about the money. It really was the Service's. I'm getting a good deal on the plane, or rather they are giving me the plane in good shape, so I'm happy. I should have asked for the 182 to be thrown in.
I went back downstairs on the private elevator and left from the back door. On the way home, I stopped at the grocery store for some romaine, onions, and mushrooms, and went to the house.
The house was quiet to the point that a second look told me there were no other cars here. I made myself a drink and had just begun sautéing the onions, garlic, and mushrooms, when Lisa came in the door. She looked like she had a hard day. I told her, go take a shower and we'll have some leftover steak for supper.
I made up two Caesar salads and finished the steak topping. I got out a package of chopped spinach and a couple of the baked potatoes we had leftover from the other night with the steaks.
Lisa looked refreshed when she came back into the kitchen. She said she wanted a drink like mine, so I made her one and we ate our salad. When I served the heated up steak with the mushrooms, potatoes, and spinach, I took out two beers for us to have with our food.
Lisa sat back in her chair, rubbing her stomach, and said, "You'll make some girl a good wife. That was great; now tell me a couple of things. One, did you do anything about that aircraft I told you about?"
"Didn't you see it in the hangar when you came in?"
"That's it? I didn't look at it closely, but it doesn't look that bad."
"It isn't, and it will be perfect when Jimmy gets done with it."
"Good, S&S needs another Learjet. Second, what's this shit about you getting locked up in the county jail where someone tried to kill you, but you actually killed someone? Is any of that true?"
"I was locked up as part of this Rocky Mountain and Bobby thing, and they tried to get a couple of prisoner goons to do me in, but they were dumb. I was able to handle them. A guard was involved and he tried also but I was able to disable him as well."
"Who did you kill?"
"It was an accident. One of the prisoners was going try to make me his bitch, and when he attacked me, I kicked him wrong and broke his neck."
Lisa was shaking her head back and forth. She said, "I've spent a lot of time with Brandy and her buddies lately and they've kind of let something slip. You don't have to tell me as it really doesn't affect me, but have you come into a lot of money lately?"
"Yes, I've come into some money and it is sizeable. It really isn't enough to make me change what I do right now; perhaps in the future, but not right now."
Lisa was grinning, "Good, I like you the way you are and I don't know whether I'd like you if you were some rich guy. I have a hard enough time understanding my feelings for you the way you are. You know those five are all flakes, don't you?"
I nodded.
Lisa said, "I love 'em, and love to be around them when they're in a good mood. They are great to play with, but my-oh-my, they are a bunch of flakes. They say how much they love you and want to come over and be with you one second but turn around and say they would rather be with each other. Brandy is the most confused, as I really think she cares for you a great deal, but she just can't figure out her true feelings."
I said, "I kind of figured they were that way. Come on, let's get these dishes done and play some music. You know we're going to be playing non-stop this weekend."
We did the dishes and went back to the media room to play both acoustic and electric guitars and the bass. We had a good time making everything wail. It was getting toward ten when I suggested, "How about a little hot tub time and we go to bed?"
Lisa put her guitar down, then put mine on its stand and sat in my lap. "Get me a drink and we'll sit in the tub for a few minutes. I'm more interested in the bed stuff. I'm really beat."
I went to the bedroom, brushed my teeth, put on my peg and a robe, and headed for the kitchen. I made two more drinks and took them out to the hot tub and found Lisa already immersed in the bubbles. We sat, drank, and chatted for about ten minutes, then got out, covered the tub, and headed inside, locking up and setting the alarms on the way.
I kind of figured Lisa was coming to bed with me, but she surprised me when she rolled on top of me as soon as I lay down. She sat up on my middle and said, "I've had all the women I want for a while. I think I'm ready for a little deputy, or in your case a big, fat, deputy. Would you mind if I get that thing ready?"
I had to laugh, just her cute way of sitting on my hips had me primed and ready. I picked her up and held her over my head, then put her down and began kissing her everywhere. She was a joy, as I could feel her excitement grow from the kisses. From the early gasps, to the later groans, Lisa became a very ready lady. When we finally slid together, she held my head in her hands and kissed me so intensely that I almost came. I think she did.
We thrust together while kissing, and I was getting some nipple kisses in, until our bodies meshed together and as I filled her with my elixir, we both groaned our release.
We were laying there kissing and hugging when we both just slid off to dreamland. It was a very cuddly dreamland.
Primary editing by Pepere
Proofing by Sagacious