Chuck
Monday began beautifully. I was still groggy and dizzy when I first sat up after being in bed, but that was already getting better. After a shower and shave, I was feeling pretty good. I looked into the mirror and thought about using my clippers on my head real quick. I have kept the top and back of my head in a real short buzz cut and whitewalls on the sides and neck. A real jarhead haircut. It was easy and made me look like me, or at least that's what I thought I should look like.
This time, even though my hair was getting long and had grown out on the sides and neck, I thought I might wait to see what the scar on the side of my head was going to look like. I might let my hair grow. That would be a first as I have had really short hair all my life. I thought of Steve and his longer hair that always looked good. He kept his hairline on his neck clean and straight all the time and I could do that too.
John Scott had a little longer hair, but had whitewalls from years and years as a Marine. I'll just change my style and still be me; I don't have to look like anyone else, just me.
When I walked out into the kitchen, Taiying came to me and hugged me, "I'm glad you are alright. When I saw how close we were to losing you, I was very sad. Please be careful." The little girl hugged me again and looked up at me. "Kiss me please; I want to feel you are with me, ah us."
I kissed her on the forehead. I think she wanted the lips but she got a kiss my way. She went to the counter and poured me a mug of coffee as Sing and Maria came into the kitchen and family room area.
Both came to me and hugged me tightly. Maria looked up at me and said, "You have lost a leg already, please don't let us lose you. We all worry about you. You even have Lisa hurt, too. You must learn to stay away from trouble."
Lisa came out of the bedroom in a long T-shirt and said, "How about forming a few minutes this morning to keep your strength up. Stretching will help your muscles stay in shape. It's not strenuous, so it should be the perfect exercise to help you get over a concussion by helping you focus."
I followed Lisa out to the grassy area on the side of the pool cage. We went through our forms as I focused on each stance to stretch a muscle group. As I was finishing, I felt my head flooding with visions of Lisa smiling at me. When I bowed and raised my head, Lisa was standing in front of me smiling. She held out her hand and said, "Come, let's get dressed and have some breakfast. The girls should be about dressed and should eat too."
Our kitchen was getting busy with people having a cup of coffee before leaving for the patio. When Lisa and I came back from the busy bedroom area, Tina was just coming in the door after her twelve hour shift. She came to me for a hug and said, "I know you are going to Costa Rica this weekend, can I go with you and whoever else is going?"
I held her to me and said, "I would love that, Tina. It's been a while since we had any time together."
Lisa came and hugged Tina. She said, "That will really be nice, Tina. You and I can have Chuck all to ourselves if we can fight off the condo and boat girls. We might have to share him a little, but we will have a great time."
I said, "Sure wish you could come on our sailing trip or at least come over for some of the sightseeing."
Tina said, "Me too, but I'm learning so much right now. Every day that I learn more, I know it will make me a better doctor when the time comes. One of these days, I'll have time to luxuriate in all of your arms. But right now, I'm fulfilling a dream that I've had since I was a little girl. But this weekend, I'm going to fulfill some dreams I've had lately."
Taiying asked, "Do you want to eat here before you go to bed or will you go to the patio with the others?"
Tina said, "I'll go over to visit a little with everyone. I've missed everyone over there, and want to see mom and dad and all the rest of the people."
That meant the rest of my household was leaving at the same time to join the patio crowd for breakfast. We loaded up into multiple big carts and arrived at the patio amidst the rest of the folks coming for the breakfast fellowship.
While eating a breakfast sandwich, Steve asked me, "So what are you up to this week. Are you going to get ready to go sailing or are you ready now."
I said, "I think I'm ready, Steve. I need to go down to the warehouse and get a tux, but other than that, I'm ready."
Steve said, "I tried the tux on that Brandy and Mercy had made for me over there the last time, and it still fits great. I'm ready too. What else are you going to do this week?"
Looking at Steve I said, "Just some office work, but do I hear a question as in 'do I want to do something else'?"
Steve grinned, "Yeah, I would like you to go up to Anchorage with me real quick to see the property that Dewey found for us. Tiny and Abe need to come along and we'll stop by Friday Harbor to pick up Dewey. We'll run up there, check out the property, sign a contractor and head back the next morning. Just two days, think you're up for it?"
Thinking I had heard of some other plans, I asked, "I thought Tiny and Abe were going to Hawaii to handle a problem over there?"
Steve answered, "They're not going until next week. They have too much going on this week. They'll take off after we sail. What do you say, will you go up with me?"
I said, "I'll just take my personal pilot along to make sure my head's screwed on right. I'm still having a little dizziness in the morning. When do you want to go?"
Steve said, "How about this morning. If you want to wait and go earlier tomorrow, we can do that, but if we do it today, we can get it done today and tomorrow. If we have to stay over a day, it won't put you late for your weekend trip."
I looked at Lisa and she just shrugged her shoulders. She said, "Sure, why not. I will enjoy seeing Alaska."
Steve said, "Get your warm clothes together as there is still snow on the ground up there. It's been pretty cold up there this winter and that place doesn't warm up yet this time of year."
I took a few minutes to advise my family that I was going up to Alaska overnight and would be back tomorrow night. They were so used to me leaving constantly they all just gave me hugs and kisses. Taiying, Sing, and Maria said they would help Lisa and me get a bag together and went home with us to get ready.
Knowing how Steve dressed, I pulled out some jeans and a couple heavy flannel shirts that were hanging in the closet. Along with a set of longjohns, a couple of sweaters, and my heavy coat and boots, that should be all that I would need to look at property up there. Taiying and Maria were fussing over me like I was going to be gone for a week.
I thought about grabbing my special equipment case, but I wasn't going to be doing anything for anyone this trip. No fooling around with bad guys, no danger, no way. From force of habit, I did throw a couple of extra Glock magazines into my duffel bag pocket along with my vest, but that is from habit, nothing else.
As I wheeled my duffel out to the kitchen, Lisa was coming out of her personal closet/room. She had the same type of small duffel, smiling that we were equipped the same. I called out to the airpark and asked them to get the Citation ready as Steve, Tiny, Abe, Lisa, and I were going to Alaska.
We went by the patio to find that Steve, Tiny, and Abe had already left for the airpark. Lisa and I drove out to the airpark and parked by the charter office. The other three men had already put their bags into the luggage compartment and were standing by the stairs, watching Jimmy go over the aircraft.
Jimmy said, "Everything looks good. Make sure you pay attention to your time on fuel. I'm told there is one hell of a headwind going west. See you tomorrow or Wednesday."
I put Lisa in the left seat, and using the checklist, talked her through the preflight and spool up. While we were coming up to power, Lisa called in a flight plan using just our aircraft number with no federal security number. How nice, a regular flight with no overtones or being anxious of what may await us.
The trip out west was without incident. I spent some time talking with Steve, Tiny, and Abe in the back, but made sure Lisa had coffee and was comfortable flying the neat Citation. It was a little bumpy sometimes because of the heavy headwind, but we were able to get above the jetstream in order to save some fuel.
We got bumped around quite a bit on our descent into Friday Harbor, but we were fine once we got down to five thousand feet. It was drizzling with an overcast, but the ceiling was above five thousand feet, making it easy to get in.
Dewey was waiting for us, and we quickly loaded him and his bag while I watched the refueling. Lisa filed to Anchorage and we were off. This time I took the bird up to give Lisa a break and to see how it was to fly the Citation from the right seat.
This trip was longer than I thought. We left before nine this morning, and didn't get to Friday Harbor until almost two. By the time we were parked near the private aircraft operations building in Anchorage, it was already after five, east coast time. It was only one in the afternoon in Alaska, so we did have time to conduct some business.
Dewey had a big chauffeur driven SUV waiting for us that drove us across the city to an industrial area. There, we met a group of people that represented a realtor and a couple of building contractors.
We walked over the property and I made the comment, "Aren't there any buildings that you might assume, Steve? If you were to find a decent building for this project, you could save a lot of time by just refitting an existing structure."
Steve said, "That's what I would like to do, but these folks are pushing to build out here." Steve turned to the realtor and said, "Do you mean that in this economy that there are no buildings that can be bought or leased cheap?"
The guy looked nervous and said, "There really isn't a good selection to choose from right now. We haven't been hit hard by the recession like you have in the lower forty eight."
Tiny looked at the guy like he had two heads, "What do you mean? I talked to our accounting firm and they told me there has been a mass of bigger businesses go under up here. According to your state report, there is as much unemployment here as anywhere. Let us make the decision of what we do. Can you show us some other properties?"
The realtor was really getting anxious, and one of the men I assumed was a contractor, pushed the guy forward, toward us, so the realtor said, "I'm sorry, I don't have any listings for you anywhere else."
Tiny said, "We'll just have to get someone else to show us some property."
As one of the big guys behind the realtor was moving up to us, Dewey said, "George, you and I have done business for a lot of years. When do you not have a half dozen pieces of property for me to look at?"
The big guy behind George pushed the realtor aside and confronted Dewey face to face. "I'm going to let you in on a secret. If you want to do business up here, you'll do it the way I want you to. If you want to get a building permit, you have to go through me or my people. You will do as I say, and as the other men of my group up here say."
With that, the large man reached out with his big fist, grabbed Dewey by his coat, and almost lifted him off the ground, "Now you will do business the way I tell you, understood?"
I was moving toward the big man and Dewey as he put Dewey down. The other guy I thought was a contractor was unzipping his coat. When the big guy that had hold of Dewey took his hand away and began stepping back, I pushed him at the other guy and watched as they both fell to the ground.
"Gentlemen, you need to learn to have better manners when you deal with other businessmen," I said, as I too had unzipped my coat, ready if something stupid happened. "How in the world do you get investors up here if you act like that?"
The big guy rolled onto his knees in preparation to standing up, but I put my prosthesis foot on his back and pushed down. He sprawled with his face in the snow.
The other guy was reaching into his coat when Lisa put her magically appearing Glock to his head, and said, "I think you should probably take your hand away from your coat. This is not the time or place to have to get rid of a body. The ground is too hard to dig and we're not far enough out for the scavengers to take care of you quickly."
I told the man under my foot, "I'm going to let you up. I expect you to get up slowly and be nice when you get to your feet."
Lisa said to the two men, "You know there's nothing meaner than a woman on the rag. I'd just love to shoot someone today."
You could see both of the men wrinkle their brow as they began standing. Lisa stripped both of the men of sidearms, then pulled the biggest guy's wallet. She said to me, "Do you remember your station's telephone number? Why don't you call them to come get these guys and take them out a ways and just shoot them? I've always heard Alaska is sort of like the old wild west. No one should miss a couple of nasty guys like this."
I was almost laughing at Lisa. She had always been so laid back and quiet, but now she was being a pushy, nasty, female that was acting like a pissed off black widow.
I did get hold of the station and gave them the big guy's name. The Deputy told me to hold on and then came back on and said, "Where are you? There's a federal warrant on that guy. I'm not sure why he's still free, but we'll be glad to come pick him up."
I punched up my GPS on my phone and gave him the numbers. I told him, "I have another guy that is with him, so you need to find a warrant on him too. If you can't, you know how far out of town you have to take him. I'm just up here visiting."
The big guy began to plead, "You don't want to turn me in. I've been influential in these parts for years and years. I'm sorry to be so pushy, but we do business like that up here. If you don't push, you get pushed. I push and get paid for it. Come on, we'll get out of your hair and leave you alone. I promise."
I pulled my Deputy Marshal badge from my pocket and flipped the case open. I tucked the open badge case into my breast pocket and said, "I'm a law officer and this is what I do for a living. You Sir, will remain in custody until you resolve the warrant or you obtain bail. That's the law, and that's the way it will be."
The two men were shaking their head as I watched another SUV come up to us. I put the two men between the SUV and myself with Lisa behind me and watched as three men got out of the car.
I recognized the Anchorage Station Chief and said, "Hey, Don, glad to see you."
He came up to me with his hand out and asked, "Hey, how come they're not cuffed?"
"I'm on recovery leave. See this bandage? I was in that Detroit mess."
The other two deputies cuffed the two men and began shaking them down. The other big guy that was with the mouthy one gave the Deputies a surprise. He had a pretty good sized baggy of what looked like rock cocaine in his pocket. I gave the deputies the two guns we had taken from them and one of the deputies said, "That's nice. Both of these guys are convicted felons. These firearms will mean at least ten years, and since they were threatening a federal officer, that should be worth a few more."
The big guy was trying to negotiate, "Come on, guys, you know I'll take care of you. What'll it take; a couple of hundred grand for each of you? Come on, how about it? Don't hold me up, but my group can go as high as a mil each. Come on, how about it? How about a mil just to forget this ever happened?"
Don said, "Boys, you might want to gag them if you're tempted. Just remember that they would probably just turn around and kill you to get their million back."
Don turned to me, "Glad you weren't hurt bad in Detroit. We haven't had anymore trouble from any terrorists since you helped us out up here. I think the problem is cured for a while. Thanks for these two, it'll make our pick up sheet look good. Get out of the cold, Man, this is no place to stand around shooting the shit."
As they left, I noticed that Steve, Tiny, and Abe were talking to the realtor. When Lisa and I went over to them, the realtor said, "I hope you don't get any reprisals for what you did. Those guys are just part of the political bad guys up here that run the area. I'll show you a couple of great buildings that you should be able to buy cheap. Have your driver follow me and we'll go just a little ways to where they are."
We all got in the car to follow the realtor. Dewey said to me, "Thanks for watching out for me, Chuck. You surprised the hell of me and that guy with the way you just pushed him over. How did you do that?"
"He was off balance when he was stepping back from you, Dewey. All I did was push him back into his buddy and watch them both go down. Thank Lisa, she was the one who saw the guy reaching for something and stopped him."
Steve said, "I've never heard you talk rough to anyone before, Lisa. What's with that?"
Lisa smiled, "Well, let's see, Steve, in the last week, I've been in multiple bad situations and have even been shot for my trouble. I've met people that are now dead by bad guys, and I am just not going to take that shit from anyone anymore."
Tiny laughed, "And I thought you were tough, Steve. We'll have to tell Shawna to look out, that she has competition in being the toughest babe on the block."
Abe laughed, but didn't say anything. Tiny said to Lisa, "A long time ago, Steve and Shawna were in a couple of gunfights out at the trailer park. There wasn't any security back then, and it got a little hairy a couple of times. Get Shawna a little tipsy sometime and she'll tell you all about it."
We went to a big building and entered through a door near a loading dock. A guard was inside and the realtor talked to him a minute before showing us through the building. The main, wide-open, manufacturing floor was huge. This building could house more than just a showroom and sales area. The place could house a major factory.
Tiny was talking rapidly to the realtor and the realtor went off to the side using his cell phone. Tiny came back to us and said, "I just offered him what I think is about twenty-five percent of what I think this building is worth. Let's see what the counteroffer is. If we get this building, we can divide it up and lease out some of the space. If we can't find anyone to lease some space, we'll just close off some of it until we want to do more up here. I really like the building."
Abe said, "Yeah, this place would be great for rebuilding and maintenance. There's plenty of room up front for a showroom and lots of office space. For the right price, this place would work out nicely."
Dewey wasn't very optimistic, but said, "There are probably offers on this building. Tiny's lowball might make the owners jump at a higher offer."
Tiny said, "If someone else gets the building, it wasn't meant to be and we'll go look at another one. Upkeep on a building this size is going to have an impact too. Let's see what George comes back with."
The realtor had been on the phone for an extended period of time, finally folded his phone, and looked at the five of us. He walked over to us and acted as if he was bewildered. "They said that if you can come up with a cash payment, the building is yours. They are strapped for cash and this will not only help with their cash situation, it will rid them of the upkeep."
I watched as Tiny, Abe, and Steve high-fived each other, and then Steve and Dewey gave each other the same salute. Steve turned to me and said, "That's why you're along for the ride. You bring me luck every time we do business. Damn, this is a great building and Tiny has stolen it. Can you get them the cash, Tiny?"
Tiny smiled, "We can handle it. Come on, George, let's go to your office, or Dewey's lawyer's office, and get some money in escrow."
And just like that Lisa and I were witnesses of Steve and company getting started up in Alaska.
After all of the business had been transacted, Dewey had our driver take us to one of the hotels we three men had invested in. Dewey said, "Now that the remodeling is complete here, this place rivals any hotel in Anchorage. It's close to the airport and convenient to all major roads and is doing a very decent business. Come on, let's get our rooms and have supper. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I'm ready for a drink."
Once all of us had dropped off our bags in our rooms, we went to the bar and restaurant. I didn't think a drink would be the best for me until I was sure my head was right, but I did enjoy a beer with the others. We had a good meal and agreed to meet at five, local time, so we could get an early start for home.
As we were walking back to the elevator, a couple of very big guys, in what looked like lumberjack clothing, joined us. When we entered the elevator, the two followed us in and stood at the door facing out.
When the elevator began moving up one of the men reached over and pushed the emergency stop button. This caused bells to go off, but my interest was in one of the guys turning toward us while flicking out a long blade on a knife.
As the guy was raising the knife, I speared him in the Adam's apple, while my other hand slashed the wrist of the hand that was holding the knife. I was aware of Lisa doing something next to me, but was focused on disabling the man with the knife.
The blow to his wrist and neck had him gasping and he dropped the knife. When his hands went to his neck, I hit him on the side of the head as hard as I could with side of my fist. As he crumpled, I turned to see what Lisa was doing and saw her fist slam into the other man's face as he lay curled in a ball at her feet.
As soon as Lisa hit the man, his nose began spurting blood. Lisa grabbed the guy's shirt and pulled it up over his face saying, "Damn, don't get your slimy blood all over the new carpet."
I pointed at the stop button and said, "Push that button and let's get back to the lobby. I want to know what's going on with these two."
When the doors finally opened in the lobby, a front desk clerk and a hotel security man were there to meet us. They were shocked to see Lisa and me holding the two men at gunpoint while I was holding the two knives we had taken away from the men in my free hand.
I said, "Can you guys call the police? These two men attacked us in the elevator with these knives. I'm not sure why, but it may have to do with an earlier incident."
The security man said, "You know you can't just flash guns around, even in Alaska."
I said, "I'm a U.S. Deputy Marshal. That should account for my weapon."
The guy asked, "What about her?" pointing at Lisa who was holding her Glock on the two guys.
"Meet a genuine special operations Secret Service agent. She's meaner than a wet cat, so be nice when you address her."
Lisa laughed and said, "If you keep telling me that, I'm going to become what you're describing." She looked at the security guy and asked, "Are you going to call the cops, or what?"
The security guy was startled out of his fog and said, "We called the cops as soon as the elevator indicator told us someone had pulled the emergency stop button. I suppose we should call 911 back to have them send a paramedic along with the law."
Lisa said, "I didn't hit him hard enough to kill him, but I guess it was hard enough to cause some damage."
I said, "What happened, I was busy and didn't see what was going on?"
Steve said, "When you were taking care of the one guy, the other one was trying to bring a knife from his back pocket. Lisa kneed the guy so hard in the balls, the three of us guys cringed into the corner. As soon as the guy crumpled to the floor, she kicked him in the head, then you saw her get him square in the nose with her fist. That was a perfectly executed jab too."
I smiled at Lisa and said, "We're good together, aren't we?"
"You bet we are, Chuck. But this is getting to be old. What the hell is going on here?"
Pushing the guy around so I could look him in the eyes, I asked, "What were you doing or going to do in there. Who sent you, because I sure as hell don't know you?"
The guy wouldn't look at me, and the other man was still nursing his nose. I said, "You should probably start talking or you're going to go to jail for a long time for assaulting a federal officer." That brought the guys head up, but he still didn't say anything.
The cops and paramedic showed up, so we were busy with statements from each of us and watched as the two toughs were babied by being put on stretchers and wheeled out of the hotel lobby. They were in cuffs, but both should have just been shipped off to jail.
The one paramedic said, "I think you damaged that guy's larynx when you hit him. You might have given him a concussion too. I know you were defending yourself, but you could have been a little less damaging."
Lisa spoke up, "The next time someone's trying to kill you, remember to not hurt him so bad. Both of them are lucky we let them live. What's the matter with people? Don't they know you can't go around picking on other people? Just because we're not from Alaska, does that mean we're fair game?"
One of the cops said, "Some of the toughs around here think so. A lot of the pseudo politicos think they can rule what's going on. They like to collect from any newcomer trying to do business. If you resist, they try to play tough. In your case, you must have pissed them off to come after you like that. Until you get out of here, you had best watch your back. As you can see, some of these guys don't play nice."
I said to the cop, "Perhaps this is a case for the local office of the FBI. I think I can convince them to look into this. It's going to be either that, or I'll have to go looking for whoever is making these bad decisions myself."
The cop said, "Hey, you can't just come up here and start pushing your weight around either. You can't just start breaking heads or shooting whomever you want. There are laws you know."
With a smile I said, "Trust me, anything I do will be in self-defense and well within the law. It's just going to be inconvenient to the bad guys that I'm a cop too."
The other policeman looked at me funny, then said, "You are, aren't you? You are a cop, a lawman. Let me know, I'll help you. Those guys can't just go around trying to hurt lawmen."
Steve was near laughing at the turnaround the cop had upon his realization that he and I were in the same boat. When we were finally finished with the investigation, I said to Steve, Dewey, Tiny, and Abe, "I guess we'll have to sleep in a little in the morning. We have to go to the police station, and I want to stop by the Bureau office. This was stupid and all of us could have been hurt. Dewey, can we get hotel security to watch our rooms tonight so we can get some sleep?"
Dewey said, "I've already told the manager to have a private security company supply some guards on our floor. I'm with you, Chuck, I want to get a good night's sleep."
It was then that I said to Lisa, "How about we go to the bar and have a drink. We're not flying anywhere early and I would like something."
Lisa said, "If you don't think that will hurt your possible concussion, that would be good. Come on, Dewey, buy us a drink."
The five of us went to the bar and we all had some good scotch. When we finished the drink, we went to the elevators again but were very aware of our surroundings. We rode up to our floor and were greeted by three armed security people. They made us show them our hotel room cards and watched as we went into our rooms.
Lisa and I stripped, but she left her panties on. She said, "I wasn't kidding, I am having my period. All the excitement up in Detroit brought it on early. I don't usually get flustered like that, but that was one scary situation. This was too, but it was something we've both been taught how to handle. I'm sure glad I spent all that time in those martial arts classes in DC. It's coming in handy."
As we lay in bed cuddling, I said, "Thank you for being by my side today. We handled ourselves very well together, twice. I'll get the Bureau to work on the corruption that's going on here and that should take some of the pressure off Steve and his people trying to open up shop up here."
Lisa said, "I hope so. Sometimes the rottenness of people goes deep and you can't cut it out. Eliminating only a few of them doesn't keep the rest from coming after you."
"Well," I said, "Let them come. I haven't shot anyone for a few days, so if it comes to that, so be it. I'm damned tired of terrorists, corrupt government people, and crooks, and I'm willing to take them on if they threaten me and mine."
Lisa just hugged me and pulled my face to hers for a nice kiss. We fell asleep with our lips touching.
Lisa and I were up, showered, and dressed by four, local time. That would be eight, eastern time, so were actually sleeping late. I told Lisa, "You call the others in their rooms at five to get them going. I'm going to take a walk around the outside of the hotel to see if there is anything I need to be aware of. Make sure your cell phone is on in case I need to call you."
"Be careful out there, Chuck," Lisa said, as she gave me a hug. "I know you are good at recon, but you don't know these people and what they are capable of."
"I'll be careful and stay out of sight. That's why I want you to keep your cell phone on."
The guards were still on the floor when I came from the room. I was wearing jeans, a heavy shirt, boots, and my heavy jacket. I rode down in the elevator, and stayed back in the shadows to check out the lobby area. There didn't appear to be anyone around that didn't belong, so I walked to the gift shop and bought a ball cap. They only had one type of black or brown cap. It had an embroidered moose on the front.
With the cap on, I walked out the back of the hotel, through a courtyard, through a parking lot, and across a street. When I was out of sight of the hotel at the corner of a building across the street, I paused and began looking back and all around, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary. I couldn't see anything from this angle, so I walked around the block and came to the other corner of that building. Staying back in the shadows, I could see two cars that were idling at the two corners of the hotel front parking lot. The cold helped mark them, as the steam from the cars' exhaust let me know to look closer.
Keeping other cars between me and the cars I wanted to check out, I was able to get within about twenty feet of the car nearest me. There were two men in that car who were just watching the front of the hotel. I copied the license plate number, then slid down to hide and called the Deputy Marshal Station.
When the night man answered, I identified myself and told him I was following up on the case that I had initiated yesterday with the apprehension of the guy who had a warrant on him. I asked if he could run the tag on a suspect car and he worked on it immediately. He said, "The car is owned by the Larson Construction company. That won't mean anything to you, but the company has some well known underworld ties. They can be a mean bunch and have been implicated in a number of killings. What do you have going?"
I explained what had happened last night and that I had decided to do a little recon this morning. What I had asked him was the result of the recon. He said, "Let me get Don, the Station Chief up and let him talk to you. The guy should be up already anyway. Sounds like you need a couple of teams to come out and check out some visitors."
"That would be good," I said. "But apologize to Don if we get him up."
The deputy said, "He'll be fine with it. Is the number on my caller ID your cell?"
"It is," I answered.
"I'll have Don give you a call."
When that guy hung up, I called Lisa. "Lisa, I think we have visitors out in front of the hotel on each side of the parking lot. I called for assistance from the Marshal Station and should hear from Don, the Station Chief, right away. Stay in the hotel and don't let any of the others out yet. If they want to go to breakfast, you go with them and keep your eyes open. You know the drill; you trained for number one duty."
"Got ya, be careful out there, Chuck. You're not a hundred percent and I need you. Don't get messed up."
Almost as soon as I pushed "End" to the call, my phone buzzed. It was Don, "Hey, Chuck, out early this morning, huh?"
"Not early if you're from the east coast," I said.
Don told me, "I've already dispatched three teams to your hotel. We heard about your incident last night but haven't been involved in any of it. Just stay where you are and I'll have two of my teams take the two vehicles and have the third team stay back to watch to see if someone else is watching out there. If there is another person or duo watching the other two, they will probably leave as soon as we take down the two in the parking lot. What's the make, model, and color of the two vehicles?"
"Both are dark blue Mercury four doors. You'll be able to see them as they are parked at the curb in the roadway on each end of the parking lot."
"Got it." Don said. I heard him using his radio, telling the advancing teams what to look for.
Don said, "Don't show yourself. Go back into the hotel for now and let my guys do their thing. I'll give you a call when they have the job done. I'm going to call the Bureau and ask if they will open an investigation on this bullshit. I'm sure that's what you're thinking."
"Exactly, Don. The Bureau may be slow right now and this will give them something to do."
"Hardly, Chuck. They've been really busy lately checking out oil companies for the DC administration. The pols in DC have a real hardon over the oil companies making money up here. They've had Bureau agents checking out every flinch any of the companies go through, trying to make a corruption charge against them. The companies are keeping their noses clean and that's putting more pressure on the Bureau since they can't come up with anything. DC has even sent a few special investigators up here to try to dig something out. Those guys ignore the real bad guys and only focus on someone hiring people and making money."
I said, "This might give the Bureau something to really work on. They can find out who the politicians are who are on the take and clean the gangsters out of local business."
"That's wishful thinking, Chuck. As soon as we run one bunch out, another surfaces. If we keep the old ones in, at least we know who and what we are dealing with." Don laughed, "I really don't mean that, but it seems as if that would almost be the smart way to go."
We hung up and I began making my way to the back of the hotel with a swivel head, looking for anything, and anyone, else that would or should be checked out.
Inside the hotel, I went to the restaurant where I found the four I was with. I told them, "If Lisa didn't tell you, we have a couple of guys watching the hotel. I've got the Marshals' Service coming to check them out and watch to see what else may be going on. The Bureau has also been notified to begin an investigation on local corruption. That should keep these guys busy while you guys get started doing business."
Steve said, "Maybe we shouldn't do business up here. This might not be the smartest thing we've done if we're going to be running into problems from the start."
"I would almost agree," Dewey said, "But I've done well up here with my hotels. Chuck, you and Steve are both co-owners in this place, as well as a couple more, and you know what your returns have been."
I said, "Actually, I don't. I let Ben handle everything. Tiny has kind of acted as my go between for stuff with you and Steve, so I have to depend on all you guys and I just forget about it."
Dewey laughed, "You are too much. You are a major owner in our holding company and you don't have a clue as to what's going on. Steve is going to have to have some meetings with you."
Steve said, "Shoot, I'm the same way for most of this out of town non-S&S stuff. I can't tell you from month to month what's going on unless Tiny or Ben brings it to my attention. Chuck's not the only one."
Dewey just shook his head. "I guess I am the only one who only has this type of business as my major holdings. The airport in Hawaii was far out to me, so I guess the hospitality industry is far out to you guys."
Don and another distinguished looking man came into the restaurant. I stood as he approached me and said, "This is Dan Berkshire, the Bureau Station Chief. I brought him along so you can brief him as to what's happened so far. He's excited to have something real to work on for a change."
We all shook hands then I told Don and Dan what had happened the day before and last night. While we were talking, Don's cell phone went off, he had a few words, then hung up. Dan said, "This is a good start. With a couple of ex-cons with guns in the slammer and with pending warrants, that will give us a place to start."
Don said, "Not to interrupt, but my men have taken both of the cars with two men each into custody. All are ex-cons and all were armed. They found a big bag of pot in one of the cars too. While they were being taken into custody, another car tried to leave the back of the parking lot but was stopped by my other team. Again, the same MO, two ex-cons with guns. Since all six were in Larson Construction vehicles and all six have Larson Construction Company IDs, we have a case. Dan here has six men to interrogate and I think you guys can exit here safely."
Dan said, "That's great news. We should be able to turn this city upside down for a while with these guys in custody. Ex-cons up here think it's okay to carry, but if they get a few years in the pen when they get caught they might realize they are ex-cons and don't have any rights. I will have some men watch out here until you leave. Did you fly up here in a private aircraft or regular commercial transportation?"
Steve said, "Private jet. We'll do a thorough preflight before we leave. It's parked right in front of the operations building out at the airport, so it shouldn't have been messed with."
Don said, "The way these guys work, don't bet on it. Make sure you do a thorough check."
Steve said, "Let's get out of here and out to the airport and get that plane checked out. Come on, since it snowed last night, we'll have to sweep the snow off it anyway."
I asked Don, "Talk to the local police and have them use the statements we made at the scene yesterday. Those should be enough for right now. If I have to, I'll come up to testify. I doubt either of those guys will pass up a plea bargain."
We paid our bill, gathered our baggage, and headed to airport in our chartered SUV. I had the SUV driver drive up toward the aircraft, but to not get too close. I wanted to see if there were tracks around the plane before I approached it.
The snow was undisturbed, no footprints anywhere near the aircraft. I got out and unlocked the main door and stairway then opened the ground electrical connection panel. After getting the external power plugged in, I had Lisa turn on the ground heater and fans so the interior would warm up.
I then began a meticulous examination of the engines, gear, wings, and every exposed component. A deicing truck came out and used their blower to dust the plane off then sprayed some deicer on the wings.
I felt confident enough of my inspection and after disconnecting my ground connections, we spooled up, getting ready for takeoff. We had refueled when we arrived yesterday, so I knew the fuel was good and topped off so we were ready. Lisa was going through the instrument and radio checks, then filed a flight plan for Seattle as that was where Dewey wanted to be dropped off.
Surprise, everything worked, no problems, all the way to Seattle, and all the way home. The tailwind on the way back was welcome, as we picked up a few miles an hour, but it was still a long day in the air.
We didn't get home until very late Tuesday night. None of us felt much like partying and said we would see each other in the morning. Lisa and I crawled into bed with our sleeping family and snuggled ourselves to sleep.
Primary editing by Pepere
Proofing by Sagacious
Additional Helicopter Knowledge by Rotorhead
Last one through - Deenara2000