Chuck
The weekend had been good for me. Staying at the hotel with the kids had been good for me as well. Lisa, Frieda, Nancy, Judy, and I had a ball playing with the kids. We played cards, or rather a multiple deck version of "War." It's funny to have so many in the game. It took a long time to get completely around the table to everyone. It also took forever for someone to win.
We also played with about ten sets of checker games. Some of the older kids organized a game of monopoly with Frieda and Nancy, while Lisa and Judy were playing some video games with some others. As it got later, we had a snack and put in a Disney movie.
The kids all settled down on the floor with pillows and blankets. Glenda and Martin went to bed while the ladies pulled out one of couches and laid on that while watching the movie. I sat on the couch over a bunch of the kids and watched them all drift off to sleep. That had been fun.
Anyway, that had been a lot of fun, as was the nice hot sun. While I was down there, I called Rosie to see how she was doing. She said the house was ready for visitors again any time. I asked if she needed anything and she said no. She told me, "I get to spend a least a couple of hours sunbathing every day. You should come by to see, you know I sunbathe in the nude."
"You don't say. Hmm, I'll have to come by to see that. I might bring along one of my ladies, they like nude young ladies."
"Oh, Mr. Johnson, you are a devil."
"Not any more than your proposal, Rosie. But it's just to look, right?"
She giggled before hanging up on me. People do that to me all the time.
I was planning on making a quick trip to Miami this morning to see a man about a black bag I had. Out at the airpark, I took the Phenom and was quickly in Miami. My appointment was for ten thirty, so I was about twenty minutes early.
When I met with the jeweler at his store I said, "I wish to turn these stones into cash for an investment fund. I understand you buy bulk diamonds."
Mr. Cohen said, "Let me look at them. I'll have to evaluate each one and make sure they are all real."
"Yes sir, you will. If you don't mind, I'll stay with you and you can get this done quickly."
The man looked up at me quickly as I spread the diamonds on the tray the man set out for me, "There are a lot of diamonds here."
"I know. I'm sure you can have one of your other people test them for authenticity while you grade them. I've seen people grade diamonds quickly before. I'm sure you do it all the time."
"But I should weigh each one and that will take some time."
I suggested, "How about doing a hundred today and I'll come back for another appointment in the future. Or, you could weigh all of them after they are tested and graded. That way you can pay me on weight and grade just like you do at the market."
The man's face fell, "No, I can do this. You have a good suggestion. I don't want you to leave. You could go to someone else and they may make a good deal instead of me."
"Good, let me help."
"Oh no, you sit and watch. Here's a loupe to check what I grade."
Another man came with a bunch of tiny discs and tweezers. They sorted them first by physical size, then began using the discs to see if the diamonds were real.
The jeweler spent an exorbitant amount of time looking at the first diamond, then did the same on the second. He kept looking and looking at each diamond until he handed one to his helper and said, "You grade this one for me to see if you see what I see."
The helper took a long time examining the diamond then said, "I don't know what you think, but it is in the VVS-1 category."
The helper picked up one of the other diamonds the jeweler had looked at already and did the same examination. "Yes, definitely VVS-1."
The jeweler said, "This is going to be expensive, let's continue." It took three hours to look at all of the diamonds, and when they finished he had three piles. He pointed at each and said, "VVS-1 blue, then these are all VVS-1 white, and these five are VVS-2 white."
Next they weighed each pile first with a digital scale, then with a balance beam scale. The man noted the weight of each group and went for a sheet of paper that he had printed out from his computer. He calculated the amounts for the diamonds then subtracted ten percent from the total. He said, "I get ten percent for appraising them and reselling them. I will make more than that on these, but this is my final offer. If you want to wait to sell them, you still owe me the appraisal fee."
The amount was much more than I would have possibly thought. I gave him the bank transfer number and he went into his office to make the transaction. The helper said, "You know he's checking to make sure there wasn't this amount of diamonds stolen somewhere in the world, don't you?"
I said, "I think that would be smart, but I'm surprised he didn't do that first."
The helper said, "If I tell you and you get nervous and leave quickly, you might leave us some diamonds."
"As you can see, I'm not leaving. I am going to call my person who watches my account to make sure the money is transferred."
The helper laughed and went to the door of the office. "He's calling to make sure we transfer the money."
I heard the jeweler laugh while he was still in the office.
"Chuck Johnson for Ben Phillips."
"Just a second, Mr. Johnson."
"Hi, Chuck, what are you up to?"
"I need for you to make sure a good chunk of money is deposited into the fund as we're speaking. Can you do that?"
"Sure, hang on while I log into the account. Let's see, okay there is a transaction in progress and the amount is, wow, seven million, four hundred fifty six thousand? Where did that come from?"
"Some loose jewelry that I had from one of the boxes. Buy some houses for some single moms out there."
"We'll talk about it okay? The fund is looking good."
I said, "Thanks Ben, I'll talk to you later this week."
The jeweler had come back in with me and the diamonds and began putting them into trays. I said, "I have some miscellaneous jewelry that could have been stolen at one time or another. The pieces look expensive enough that it will take you some time to evaluate them and to check them out. I would appreciate it if you would do that. I will pay for your appraisal and if you want to buy any of the good jewelry, that would be even better. I'll bring it around later today. Do you make rings?"
The jeweler said, "Yes, we will make anything you want."
"Good, I may have a bunch of rings to be made and I want them all to be nice and to be alike."
"I can do that, Mr. Johnson. Please, bring your other jewelry by for me to appraise. If it is stolen, I can get it to the rightful owner, and if it is all good, I will buy it at wholesale market value less ten percent."
"Fair enough, Mr. Cohen. It was nice to do business with you. I'll see you later this afternoon."
I drove to the Magellan Company, where I was treated like a king. They wanted to feed me, give me champagne, a drink, anything. I told them that I needed to get something from the office on the boat.
They took me out to the dock and I boarded. I went down to the second deck below the main and went to the desk in the office. There, I used the key to open the door then keyed "chuck" on the safe's keypad and opened the door. I pulled out one of the bundles of cash, split it up to different pockets, then took the two big boxes of jewelry.
To make it look like I was after more than the box, I took a couple of file folders from the small cabinet then locked up everything. Topside, I thanked the Magellan people and complimented them on the work they had completed. The owner said that they should finish by Friday and for me to plan on coming down to get the boat then.
I drove back to the jeweler and handed him the two boxes. I said, "This should be all of the miscellaneous jewelry I want to get rid of. Hopefully, it is all good as the source was rich enough to have paid a fair price for it."
Mr. Cohen was happy to accept the jewelry and he and his helper made a quick inventory and gave me a copy of the list. It looked like a lot of glitter to me, but what do I know.
I was touching down in Tampa at four thirty. As I taxied to the big jet hangar, both of the little helicopters came back to their pads and took some time to get centered and set down on the rolling pads. Lisa and Sue got out of the helicopters. Lisa came over to me and said, "I like those things. The man said I was like you, a natural at handling them. You and me, Buddy, we're right for this stuff."
I told Lisa, "I'm on my way to the patio for a drink. Am I going to meet you there?"
"No, Chuck, I have to take some men to Atlanta. We're leaving at five thirty."
"Are you alone or do you have a right seat?"
Lisa said, "No one else is available. There are six passengers and we should have a right seat."
I said, "Let me call and tell Brandy that I'm doing the charter with you."
"Oh goody, we'll go see my mom while we're there. I'll call her right now, while you call Brandy."
We made our calls before I went in to tell DeDe that I was going with Lisa. She said, "Good, you don't even have to worry about a uniform. I'll get your name tag and these guys will be cool with it. Besides, you have a thousand dollar sport coat over a pair of slacks that has to be at least two hundred bucks. Man, you sure to do buy some good clothes."
"I'll take you down to the warehouse, DeDe. This coat was probably a hundred and the pants were probably thirty or so. The knit shirt was as much as the pants."
DeDe said, "You do have to take me there. I'll be out of this wheelchair soon. I want some of those good threads for that kind of money."
Lisa and I did the preflight on the Learjet with Jimmy watching over our shoulder. As we finished, he wandered off nodding his head. We must have passed, as he didn't say anything.
As soon as the six men showed up, I seated them as Lisa began the startup procedure. I pulled the door shut then settled into the right seat after punching the coffee pot button.
We were soon at altitude, so I got up and made sure that the pilot had coffee, and the passengers had what they wanted to drink. All six were straight bourbon drinkers. I showed them where the bottle was and went back to the cockpit as some of our Atlanta music came over the speakers.
Lisa was smiling as she said, "I always have some of our CDs with me whenever I fly. I play them for most of our customers. Nice, isn't it?"
We were down in Atlanta by seven, and after getting services for the aircraft, I rented a car and we were on our way to Peaches.
When we walked in the door, you would think we were some kind of aristocracy, or perhaps kids that had been away for ten or more years. All of the family there came running to give us both hugs. Mom, or 'Peaches' to me, was waiting for her hug from Lisa.
Peaches was getting upset as she didn't have anything special for us to eat, so Lisa said, "How about us taking you out for something? I know you don't eat until you close, so let's close early and go out."
The big black lady was undecided until I leaned over and said, "Come on, let your daughter take you and your kids out."
She smiled real big and said, "Let me get a clean scarf for my hair."
We drove to a fancy restaurant that Peaches said she wanted to try. There, I gave the maitre d' one of the hundreds I had and was immediately given a great table in the rear that was quiet and lavish. We were immediately attended to and everyone had coffee or tea, and Peaches had a glass of wine.
The young girls were fascinated by how ornate all of the place settings were, and how fancy the dinnerware was. We ordered some spicy crawfish for an appetizer and enjoyed the hot sweet delicacy as we talked. When the crawfish were finished, and before our salads were served, Lisa said to Peaches, "Mama, I think you will have to come to Tampa for my wedding."
The lady looked at Lisa with a surprised look and big tears began running down her face. She leaned over and gave her a big hug. "Oh, bless you child, bless you. I'm so happy for you, when is it going to be."
"I don't know yet, Momma, he hasn't asked me yet."
The whole restaurant heard Peaches begin to laugh. She said "Lordy, Lisa, how can you ask me to come to a wedding that you don't know whether it will happen or not?"
Lisa said, "It will happen, Momma. Just ask Chuck."
Peaches looked at me and I said, "It will happen. I really don't know when yet, though. I suppose I've asked her in different ways and we have the approval of all of our friends. I think there is something else that goes with this though. Ask her, Lisa."
"Momma, Chuck is building a beautiful home in Tampa for us to live in. It's very big and he's building some extra houses and apartments there too. How about you come to live with us down there? The girls can go to school there and I'll make sure they go to college. You won't have to work so hard, and if you want to cook, there are people we live around that eat together. You can cook with them."
Peaches had a serious look on her face, "Lisa, Honey, this is all I'se known for over twenty years. This is how I'se raised my babies, including you, Honey. I feeds lots of people at my place. You knows that."
"Momma," Lisa said, as she held the big lady, "You told me several times lately that you're just not making enough to even buy the girls clothes lately. You told me you were going to Goodwill to get their clothes."
The big lady hung her head and I could see a big tear run down her face.
"Momma, it's time I looked after you. I want you to live in lots of luxury, I want you to enjoy your days, and I want you around when I have my own baby to raise. Please, Momma, let me take care of you?"
Peaches raised her face with the biggest smile and said, "Sure, Baby, I'll let you do that, but leavin' here is gonna be hard. What will I do without Pops around or that big lug, Rags. They don't eat here much anymore like they used to, but they's still my best friends."
Now Lisa had tears in her eyes, "I know, Momma, but you'll have lots of friends where you'll live with me."
After we ate a delicious meal and went back to the little restaurant. We were sitting, having some iced tea.
Peaches looked up at us and said, "Lisa, Honey, I have a problem that's gonna be difficult to handle. We were short the rent and utilities last month and I borrowed from Sharky. You knows what he's like. He says if I don't pay him soon, he be takin' one of the girls to work for him. I have to do something about him."
That's when I said something, "How much do you owe him, Momma. Let's call him and I'll take care of it."
Peaches looked a little shocked and also had a little fear in her eyes. "Oh no, Honey, you can't do that. He don't know you and he's mean. Besides, he thinks he's gonna get one of my girls."
"Let me worry about that, Momma. You don't know me well, but I can take care of myself."
Peaches said, "He be big, I mean really big."
"It's okay, you know what they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall."
"Oh, Lisa, Honey, what kind a man you got? Does he do everything like that?"
"He's a good man, Momma, and he's a pretty tough guy when he has to be."
"I'll call Sharky, but he may not be happy not to get one of the girls."
Lisa said, "There's no way he's going to take one of my little sisters and make them into one of his girls. You told me he wanted to do that to me too, but the state took me before he could get me."
Peaches used the portable phone to make the call. She had to argue, but it was agreed that Sharky would come over right away. He didn't believe she had the money.
I asked Peaches, "How much do you owe him including his interest?"
She answered, "I had to borrow two thousand and his interest is fifty percent a month. I owe him three thousand now. I don't have that kind of money here. We barely did two hundred dollars all day."
I said, "I have it. Let me go to the bathroom, and then I'll count it out for you."
I did take a leak in the bathroom, and I counted out five thousand in hundreds and put it into my front pants pocket. Everything else was in my sport coat pockets. Back out in the restaurant, I pulled the wad of money from my pants and counted out the three thousand and looked at the rest of the money. Instead of pocketing it, I handed it to Peaches and said, "Now I'm your loan guy. You take this until you can get the restaurant sold and ready to move down to be with us."
Peaches mouth was open, holding all that money. She stuffed the two thousand into her massive cleavage and put the three thousand into her apron pocket. She was grinning as a huge very dark man came through the door.
He walked up to Momma and stuck his hand out, "You better have all of it, all three thousand, or I take this white bitch and one of your girls right now."
The man was ignoring me as were the three smaller men that had come in with him
Peaches said, "Why don't you learn to speak nice to people, Sharky? I bet you would do a lot more business if you did."
"Shut the fuck up and give me my money or I'll break in both of your girls right here on your tables. Now give it to me."
Peaches handed Sharky the wad of hundreds. His eyes got big and he counted it quickly. He said, "I think I should get a hundred percent interest if I can't have these bitches. Give me another thousand or I get the girls anyway."
Peaches had a shocked and terrified look on her face. I said, "I think you've received what was originally agreed. Why don't you take your money and let the lady be?"
The huge man looked at me and laughed, "Who're you talkin' to, Honky? You with this white bitch? I think I'll just take her with me and show her what a real man be."
I smiled, "It would be a good idea if you just left. I promise not to hurt you if you leave now. Otherwise, I will have to do something I don't want to do."
The big black man and his three helpers came to stand about four feet in front of me. The huge man said, "Now just what don't you want to do to me?"
I smiled again but this time my hand went beneath my coat and smoothly came out with my Glock. As I held it up to the big man's head I said, "Now you've pissed me off. Get on your knees, all of you with your hands on top of your head. Any false moves and you will become a sprinkler. You are all under arrest. Peaches, please call the cops. I'll just try to keep my finger from getting itchy until they come. Now get on your knees now."
The big man didn't want to do it, but his three men all knelt on the floor. As they went to the floor, one began moving his hand behind his back. "You with the red shirt. If you bring that hand out with a gun, you won't be able to say good morning tomorrow. Sharky, on your knees and all of you, hands on your head."
The big man lunged at me. From reflex, I moved to the side, tripped him and hit him in the back of neck as he was going down, crushing a table as he fell. That was enough distraction for the idiot that had tried to go after his piece, to begin bringing what looked like an old forty-five automatic from behind his back. Again, reflexes had me putting a round into the guy's shoulder. I wonder why I didn't head shoot the guy? Sharky was moaning that he was hurt, that something was sticking him.
Still holding my gun on the other two men, I used my foot to step back, then pushing, I rolled him over. One of the slats from the back of a chair that had crumbled under him was sticking out of his stomach.
"Momma, call 911 again and tell them to send two ambulances."
There were sirens coming. Two police cars slid to a stop outside the restaurant. Four policemen came running into the restaurant. I was holding up my badge so the men would see I was a police officer. The first guy in the door looked at the carnage and used his mobile radio to call for a supervisor and an ambulance. He looked around and corrected himself and asked for two ambulances.
The other cops began searching the two men on their knees and came up with two guns each. One in the waist and one in an ankle holster. They found the same on Sharky.
The one policeman said to Sharky, "I guess you finally met someone that would stand up to you, Sharky. I should probably get some help and just throw you into the dumpster. You're not going to make it anyway, big guy. Especially if I use this big knife of yours to do some operatin' on ya."
Another policeman said, "Easy, Dan, I know you don't like the asshole, but you have to treat him nice like all the other riff raff he runs with."
The first policeman looked at Peaches, "What is this lowlife in here for. You didn't do business with this sleaze bag, did you?"
Peaches just hung her head and said, "You gots to do what you gots to do."
He said, "Oh, Peaches, you should have said something and I would have had everyone in the precinct over here eating. I guess we haven't been supporting our own lately. I'm sorry, Peaches."
The second policeman was looking at my badge and asked, "What's a Deputy U.S. Marshal doing here?"
Peaches stood up and said, "That's my baby, Lisa's man. You don't be messin' with him. He took care of us just now. That Sharky was gonna renege on our deal and was gonna try to take Lisa and my girls for interest. I done paid him what was agreed."
As the other policeman was going through Sharky's pants he found the wad of bills. He asked Peaches, "I don't suppose you want to charge this guy with usury would you?"
Peaches shook her head, "No, a deal is a deal. I agreed, I paid."
Some fire department paramedics came in. Two began working on the guy with the shot up shoulder, while two more were trying to figure out what to do with Sharky. They made the guy with the bullet wound get up and walk out to the ambulance. He was being read his rights as he was being arrested for an unlawful weapon.
The policeman standing with Sharky said "You're in big trouble, my boy. You're a convicted felon, and possession of a gun is going to get you a minimum of ten years. What do you say, Sharky, how about giving this money to Peaches? She needs it to raise her kids."
Sharky growled, but said, "Give it to the bitch, I ain't gonna be needin' it."
The policeman handed the surprised Peaches the cash. He turned to me and said, "I should probably ask for your weapon, but you'd give me some crap about not being able to give it me and we'd have a pissin' contest over it. How about you give us your name, rank, and serial number for our report and you make a report as well. That should just about take care of it. You want credit for the bust?"
I said, "Naw, you guys deserve it. I'm just along for the ride tonight. This was sort of a surprise."
He said, "Well, you took down one of Atlanta's nastiest tonight. These guys never learn. There's always someone that's badder than they are. Let me take everyone's name for the report and I'll let you folks be."
They helped Sharky stand with the wood slat still sticking out of his stomach. They had him walk slowly out to the ambulance as they said he was too big to carry. Sharky was bitching the whole way out of the door.
Automatically, I pulled my spare magazine from my pocket, dropped the one in my Glock, and shoved the full one into the gun. As I pocketed the magazine with a single round missing, the policeman said, "You've done this before haven't you?"
I just smiled and began picking up pieces of the chair and table. The two girls went for a bucket and mops while Peaches said we were going to need some coffee. It didn't take long to clean the floor and straighten out the restaurant. Peaches said, "Thank goodness there weren't any customers in here."
When we were having some coffee, Peaches tried to hand me the three thousand. I said, "Use that to pay off bills and get ready to come to Tampa. I know you love this place, but see if you can sell it. The new place should be ready in about a month. I think I need to have them build you a bigger place down there so each of the girls can have their own bedroom."
The two girls looked at their mother then at me, "Do we have to? We like to be with each other. We've been in the same room all our lives. We sleep in one bed and Momma sleeps in the other. It will be nice if Momma has her own room and we can have one of our own."
Lisa said, "I figured it that way. That's why I didn't ask for a three bedroom cottage."
I said, "There's always a method to you girls' madness."
I went back into the kitchen so I could have a few private words with Peaches. I asked, "Do you have a bunch of bills that I can help with so you don't owe anyone anything when you leave?"
She smiled and said, "What are you, Boy, you rich or something like dat?"
"Peaches, I have money from a couple of things. I do gamble though and the good thing is I hardly ever lose. Just today I won enough money to have wads of hundred dollar bills in my pockets. Now, how much can I give you so you won't owe anything?"
She said, "Probably just a little over five thousand. If I stay another month, I'll have rent and utilities, but they won't be due right away. Hopefully, I'll have enough business for the food man."
I turned away and counted out ten thousand in hundreds. I turned back around and said, "Put this away and pay cash for everything so it is caught up. If the girls need clothes, go buy them. Don't be lavish, but there's money when you need it. Now, don't go telling on me, just take care of business."
"Lordy, man, you got the gamblin' bug and makes that kind of money. You gots to be the luckiest man alive."
"Peaches, I am lucky, and I like to share my luck. I'll owe you for the rest of my life for taking care of Lisa. She loves you dearly, and if you come to live with us, she'll be happier than you can ever believe."
The big woman came to me and hugged me. As I hugged her to me, she said, "I ain't had no one to look out for me for lots of years. Thank you for taking care of me and the girls. They're not little girls anymore, but they are still my babies, just like Lisa. My man was sick for so many years, but the restaurant took care of us all that time. Now that he's gone, the restaurant isn't doing so good anymore, so maybe it's time for me to say goodbye to it."
Lisa came into the kitchen and said, "You trying to steal my man, Momma?"
"Oh no, Lisa Honey, but he does feel good to hug. I'se just borrowing him for a hug, that's all."
Momma put a bunch of food into some containers and said, "You two take this home so you can eat later. Let me close this place down tonight and get my girls upstairs. I think we've had enough excitement for one night."
Lisa hugged and kissed her Momma and we left the little restaurant as the lights were being turned off. Lisa hugged me to her and said, "Thank you for wanting to help Momma like that. You know when she said she had borrowed money from Sharky, I knew you were going to make the man hurt. I don't know why or how, but I did. He was always so mean to me and Momma, and I knew you would hurt him. I'm sorry he got stuck with a piece of wood, but I'm not sorry he's going to jail."
Back at the airport, we went through our normal procedure of the preflight inspection and the startup. When we had climbed out to our assigned altitude and I handed her a cup of coffee, Lisa asked, "Where in the world did you come up with that money? Do you always carry around that kind of cash?"
"No, not usually, but I had some extra on me today. I thought I would have to buy some stuff and needed cash to buy it. It didn't happen, so I had a lot of extra on me."
Lisa looked at me sideways, "I guess I have to believe you, but there's more to it than that. I feel it. Mercy says I can see into your head. I wish I could. There are so many things about you that are strange. I know you love me, and I know you're a good deputy, but you do some of the strangest things like you just did by giving Momma money. You just happened to have five thousand dollars lying around in your pockets. Something tells me that isn't all, either. You are really strange, Chuck."
I laughed, "At least it's a good strange. Did I tell you what happened when I was in Reno?"
"What, now you're going to tell me you won a lot of money?"
"I did, I won at blackjack, and I won at roulette. I won enough that a floor guy wanted me to leave. It was easy, you just pick a color or a number, and if you can, you pick a color and number. That's when the payoff is big."
Lisa said, "Stop, you are doing it again. You're being strange again. I'm taking you to the Hard Rock and let you show me. We'll play some blackjack or other cards and see if you win. I want to see."
"Anytime, Lisa, I think I have a gift for winning."
She said, "You are one lucky fucker, that's for sure."
I had to laugh at that. I got us some more coffee and we chatted about the new house the rest of the way home. We landed about midnight and put the plane into the hangar after refueling it. While I pumped fuel, Lisa cleaned up the inside and replaced the glasses with clean ones. We shut the hangar doors and said goodnight to the night charter clerk.
At home, the girls were still up and wanted to hear about our trip to Atlanta. Lisa let it slip that I had gotten involved in a skirmish, and after telling the whole story, Lisa said, "If you had been there, you wouldn't have been worried at all. I just knew Chuck would take care of it. I was totally calm. I think Momma was calm too, because no one screamed or cried or anything. Chuck just took care of the problem."
I got lots of kisses and hugs from the girls and was ushered toward the bedroom. I hung up my coat with the extra cash in it, as well as my pants, and washed up. When I slid into bed, my pregnant ladies wanted some loving, then the non-pregnant ones wanted some too. Lena and Tina weren't with us tonight, so it wasn't quite as crowded.
Before dropping off to sleep, I told Brandy and the girls. "We might need a couple of more of those cottages for guests. It wouldn't hurt to have a couple more and there is room in the back. Let's say something before they finish building that wall in the back so we can get some more space."
I was in a cocoon of loving ladies. The feeling of all of them near me gave me a good feeling and had me full of love for them. This was special, special enough that I drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
Primary editing by Pepere
Proofing by Sagacious
Additional Helicopter Knowledge by Rotorhead
Last one through — Deenara2000