“Have you found leverage?"
“No, but I have arranged for a fire to take place at Czeminski's laundromat this weekend."
“Why haven't you got something on Karpinen?"
“The company he works for is too big and he is too important to their operations for an attack on that front. He spends most of his time at home and with this being winter I can't get someone close to the farm he lives on without the possibility of being seen. You told me you wanted whatever happened to him to occur without someone tracing it back to us. To do that in the winter, we would have to go out-of-house and hire a professional fixer. You said you wanted to keep things in-house for now.
“Sir, the 3000 meters is about to start. The dark hair girl running next to Czeminski is the one I hired from her school. To play it safe, I also hired the blonde two lanes over. They were told to take her out on the
second lap on the curve right in front of us."
They watched in silence as the race started. Czeminski was third through the first lap. On the backstretch of the second lap, the blond pulled along side her. The corner came. The blonde stumbled and fell into Czeminski. They both fell on the track with the blonde's legs tangled with Czeminski's. The brunette was running right behind the two. She clumsily tried to jump the tangle but landed on Czeminski's legs. They could hear the crack of the bone breaking from the stands.
“Good. You finally did something right, Jones."
The two men left the meet and got into the waiting limo for the drive to the airport for the flight back.
Chapter 8
Pop
I was making the finishing touches to the contraption under Move-over's watchful eyes. The cat had climbed up into the rafters of the garage. Every so often, I would hear soft feet rustling the junk stored between the rafters or see dust dropping to the garage floor. I would look up to see Move-over's eyes glowing from overhead. The cat seemed to have a way of dropping dust so it would get into my nose. Other than the old boombox, the most noticeable change I made to the contraption was writing CONTRAPTION on the side of the transmission using a can of Alice Chalmers orange spray paint.
I heard the door open behind me.
“I see you decided to name it."
“Tabitha! What are you doing here? I was going to drive up and see you this weekend."
She stepped into the garage. I could see the split trouser leg and the walking cast that went up to her knee. “I had a little accident and took the rest of the week off."
“What happened?"
“Not much. During the 3,000 meter invitational a runner from St. Cloud State tripped into me on a corner and a teammate ran into both of us."
“Sit down ... Does it hurt ... Do you need anything ... What can I do?"
The laughter came. Gasp. “Yes.” Gasp. “Stop making meee laugh."
She was okay. And even with the cast she was sexy. She knew immediately what I was thinking. It could have been the memory of what happened the first time we laughed together or the bulge in my pants.
“You just hold it there buddy. I want to see this contraption work before I let you scratch under my cast or anyplace else."
It only took a few more minutes to finish checking the circuits. I lifted Tabby on the workbench and climbed up to sit beside her. We had a little countdown before flipping the switch. At first, nothing happened except for giggles, but then I saw a slight ripple near the focus of the reflector dish.
“Did you see that?"
“It looks sort of like the ripples from a stove burner. I wonder if it is hot."
Meow. There was Move-over walking along the two by six rafter. A large dust bunny fell from his feet.
Slowly it drifted to the Contraption.
Pop.
The circuit breakers blew. The garage plunged to dark with the only light coming from a small north window. I ran to the electrical box and flipped the lights back on. The contraption was in pieces. The bolts holding the transmitters in place were pulled loose. The dish was pulled off the Dodge transmission. Most of the pieces were dangling from their wires. The rest were lying on the garage floor.
“I'll be damned. It worked."
The only incident to mar the day happened much later. Tabitha was lying naked on my bed afer having me scratch her toes and the flesh around the top of the cast. I, of course, took the opportunity to scratch the rest of her body numerous times. After scratching for the tenth time the skin under the top edge of the cast, I was running my fingers up the inside of her thigh.
“That tickles.” She jerked her leg up. Since my head was between her knees at the time, the cast connected with my nose.
Later, I was in the bathroom pulling dried red toilet paper from my nose watching my eyes raccoon up from the bruises when I started to laugh.
“Dan, what's so funny?"
“Tabby, do you remember me telling you about when I figured out the equations?"
“Yes. You said that you had been working ten hours straight so you ran to the bathroom. You started laughing because if a reporter asked...” She hit me. “You are not going to tell anyone about what happened."
* * * *
Jones yawned. It was 3:00 am. He couldn't leave his office until he knew everything happened as planned. He jerked spilling the cold cup of coffee he had in his hands. His office was only three blocks from the fire station. The fire siren was loud enough to wake sleeping volunteers at the outskirts of town.
It was nearly deafening at three blocks. Walking to the window, he saw the orange glow from the location of the laundromat. Satisfied he left for home and bed.
Tuesday morning and things were not well. The fire gutted the laundromat but Jones wasn't able to get suspicion for the arson to be placed on Earl Czeminski. On Monday, He had tried a little pressure on the DA to look into the fire but the DA came back with the news that the police were sure that Czeminski wasn't involved and that they had suspects that they were looking into. When Jones asked the DA who the suspect was, the DA refused to tell him.
The investment drain in Blythe's companies had gained the notice of at least two Wall Street take-over specialists and the work to keep control of the companies had turned into a free-for-all. It was time to go outside for help. He had contacted a shady investigating firm known for their dirty tricks. He had to convince Blythe to go with the firm. Jones needed deniability if things went wrong and professional help in finding out who was raiding their companies.
Jones left his office. Walked down the hall to Blythe's.
“Sherry, I need to speak to the boss."
“Sorry, Mr. Jones but he said not to let anyone in until he finished this call."
Tll wait."
Ten minutes later. “He is off the phone.” Sherry picked up the phone and pressed the intercom. “Mr. Jones is here ... Okay sir. Wait one more minute and then go in."
“Mr. Blythe. I need help. I'm a lawyer. I know how to handle things after they happened. It is this setting up of things before that is giving me problems. We have this detective firm looking into Karpinen. I would like to expand their duties to include Czeminski and the other work."
“We can't control an outside firm."
“Sir, I thought of that. I can funnel everything through a third party. I will hire a lawyer friend and use attorney/client privilege to block the connection between us and the detective firm."
“Don't you mean you and the detective firm?"
“Yes, me. This will also help with our financial problems. I haven't had the time to really look into stopping these corporate raiders while working on Czeminski and Karpinen."
“How much..."
Jones made it through with his job still intact. It was the toughest sell job he had with Blythe. He decided that it was time to start looking for a new job. He was flying out to New York tomorrow. He would just float his resume while he worked on saving Blythe's companies. People were always looking for good corporate lawyers who didn't mind getting their hands a little dirty. The only problem was that you didn't have job security. But Jones decided that all he needed was another five more years in the trenches and he would have enough in his Swiss bank accounts to retire and live off the interest.