Jeff,
finds himself in Atlanta Magic
Town
Chapter 25 of Magic Town ...
Monday, 12:57 PM: Choice to Make
They lead Perkins back to Magic Town
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- Chris Lamela
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Magic Town, Chapter 25
Monday, 12:57 PM: Choice to Make
They managed to tie up Perkins, he came to in a few minutes. He had a
mountainous lump starting to show on the top of his head, blood flowing through
his hair onto his shirt. They went around to the doors in the warehouse, all
chained shut from the outside.
“Well, back through the tunnel!” Shonna signaled Perkins to stand up as
she held a gun in each hand. She looked over at Jennifer still laying on the
floor. “Can you carry her?” Jeff nodded. “Good, she’s what, maybe a hundred
fifteen pounds? Can you carry her and hold a gun on our friend here so we can
get back to the club?”
“I’ll give it a try!” She handed Jeff the Colt Cobra. He walked over to Jennifer wrestling her across his
left shoulder standing upright. “How about a hundred pounds!” they both giggled.
They went down the stairs carefully, Shonna walking backward with her
gun on Perkins who followed still rubbing the top of his head, bloody hands, Jeff
following up with his little slut thrown over his shoulder, gun in his right
hand, back through the tunnel, walking with slow purpose, the four of them
making their way back to Magic Town.
They soon made their way around the outer hallway toward the front
entrance finally seeing daylight from the club’s front door standing open. Jeff
saw an Atlanta Falcons baseball cap pass by the door, he called out to Arnie.
Arnie came back toward the door turning to come down the hallway to meet
them, turned to whistle, waving toward the door. Two policemen came into the
corridor. After an exchange of words they took Perkins away.
“I’ve got to set this one down,” Jeff said nodding to his left shoulder
at Jennifer, half out of breath, turning back toward Antonio’s office. He
walked into the room, bent over laying Jennifer down on the overstuffed chair
that he had sat in just yesterday pointing his gun at the door.
As he sat down to get his breath He turned, saw Jennifer’s eyes flutter open
as she looked around her slowly. She saw Jeff sitting next to her, “Oh, it’s
you!” She rubbed the top of her head seeing blood on her hand. “Oh, ouch, what
happened? He hit me!”
“Yeah, you got quite a knock on the head.”
“That other woman, she was in the hotel room. She was the one who was
yelling at me, made me leave.”
“Yep, that’s our Shonna!”
“So what’s going to happen, what’s going to happen to me, can I leave?”
He shook his head, “No, I don’t think they want you to leave. My guess
is they will probably want to have a little talk with your about your
enterprising ways.”
She gave him a frightened look that he hadn’t seen on her confident face
before.
“You know,” he said, “I could use a beer, how about you?” She grinned
nodding.
He reached for Antonio’s little refrigerator just as Shonna and Arnie
came back into the room.
Shonna motioned to Jennifer, “That’s our little blackmailing slut that I
told you about there Arnie.” He nodded peering at her in the dim lights of
Antonio’s office. “I think we need to have a little talk with our girl here,
Arnie, what do you think?”
Jeff reached into the refrigerator as they sat down, pulling out beer
bottles, passing them around with a smiling frown, “Okay, yeah, that sounds
like fun, but can we just have a moment here first?”
There were nods, they all put bottles to mouths quietly, even Jennifer
took a long drink.
Shonna finished her bottle, motioning to Jeff for another, he complied.
She twisted the top off turning to Jennifer.
Shonna set her bottle down. “So I hear that you have quite a going business
that involves certain married men.”
Jennifer looked down, answering softly, “I guess.”
“Do you know who I work for?” Jennifer shook her head in a no. “I work
for the FBI. You know about the FBI?” Jennifer nodded. “Well, just so you know,
your extorting money from your little five-minute sex blackmailing scheme across
state lines like you’ve been doing is a Federal crime.” She leaned toward Jennifer
to make her look up, to get eye contact. “Federal crimes always lead to time in
Federal prisons, make sense?” Jennifer stared at Shonna, petrified. “You won’t
even see your husband. He’s in Washington Clallam
Bay , not that far from Seattle
Jeff remembered her saying that she had relatives, sort of in Washington
Jennifer didn’t respond, frightened. Jeff was amazed at this given the
confident little slut that stood naked in his hotel room a couple days ago.
“So Arnie, what should we do here with a little blackmailing slut?”
Jeff couldn’t believe what he was watching, it was like sitting in front
of the TV. He took a long drink from his beer in rapt attention.
“Well,” Arnie replied thoughtfully, “We could handcuff her right now and
she’d see light in what,” he put his finger to his chin, “maybe ten to twenty
years with good behavior.”
He took a drink, “If she was lucky, don’t you think? Judges look on this
kind of thing very harshly,” He was almost talking to Shonna, giving Jennifer a
harsh sideways glance. Arnie went on, obviously enjoying this, “Hell, she might
have even done it to a couple judges. Word like that gets around among the
judges club and we could be talking life!”
Arnie took a reflective last drink from his bottle. “But,” Arnie set his
empty bottle down, signaling to bartender-of-the-moment Jeff for another, it
appeared in his hand, “we could always convince Jeff’s little slut here that a
new voluntary career move is in her future and she could find another way of
making ends meet.”
Arnie turned to Jennifer, “Whadda ya’ say? Prison?”
Jennifer shook her head vigorously with a terrified expression feeling
the top of her head.
“Or new career?” Arnie took a reflective sip of his beer. “You have a
choice to make.” He stared into her eyes. “New career?”
Jennifer nodded enthusiastically.
“Good, because we will be watching.” He looked at Shonna, she nodded
once, he turned back to Jennifer. “So here’s how it goes. First, your
employment at Tallot’s is ended and you are to return your former boss’s special
goods to him, which we assume will include eight millimeter video tapes and
other artifacts, in private as you beg for his forgiveness, but you are not to
have sex with him.” He looked at Jeff who smiled shaking his head in no, no, no,
“Unless of course your former boss wants to have sex with you, in which case
you are to offer it gratefully with no strings attached.” He glanced at Shonna
who gave a smiling nod as in go on!
“No, you are to have sex with him.
Grateful sex to thank him for this wonderful capitalistic opportunity you have
done such a fine job of taking advantage of. After that, you will never again
have contact with him. Do you understand me so far?” Jennifer nodded, furrowed
brow.
“We know how much money you have, we know that you are a very
resourceful woman, and we believe that you will do fine until you find new
employment. However, under no circumstance will you even think about conducting yourself as you have while you were at
Tallot’s, is that clear?” She nodded earnestly. “Last, consider yourself under
a kind of informal probation, parole really, for let’s say,” glancing over to
Jeff, “five years. Will that work?”
Jennifer’s voice squeaked in her answer, “Yes, thank you, thank you, yes
five years, make it ten years!”
“Five years,” Arnie continued. “If you so much as look sideways at a
married man,” he glanced at Jeff smiling, “at least after one more thankful
time with your former Tallot’s boss, or if we hear so much as a peep about you
stiffing people, you will be a very old woman before you ever see daylight
again. Agreed?”
“Yes, thank you thank you thank you thank you––”
Arnie put up is left hand, getting up he stepped to the door, “Excuse me
a minute,” walking into the hallway. He signaled down the hall, two men
approached him, each pulling out a notebook. Arnie spoke with them for about
three minutes, pointing back to Jennifer occasionally. One man went back down
the hallway toward the front door, the other followed Arnie into the room.
Arnie stood in front of Jennifer as she looked up at him. “This is Agent
Smythe who is going to accompany you to the hospital to get you checked out, then
he is going to drive you to your house. That other agent you just saw will meet
you two at your house with a search warrant, and you will do everything in your
power to make sure they find all the video tapes, letters, whatever you have
regarding your, shall we call them, dates.
Is that clear? And I mean everything. If
I find out one thing was not turned over…well we know what will happen, don’t
we?” She nodded her head in panic.
Agent Smythe stepped forward, Jennifer stood to follow him out the door.
She turned back to Jeff with apologetically, “I’m so sorry,” all Jeff could do
was see her standing in front of him, imagining her naked, knowing it will
never happen again, “I wasn’t going to do that with you.” Tears filled her eyes
as a drop tricked down her cheek, “You are really special. I just wanted you to
know that I wasn’t going to do that to you.” He nodded with a weak smile, she
disappeared around the corner, was gone.
Jeff looked at Shonna as she rolled her eyes, “RIGHT!” the three of them laughed together, Jeff pretty certain
that his former little slut could hear their laughter down the hallway.
They spent the next two hours drinking beers, Arnie smoking more than one
of Antonio’s prized Cohiba Habana cigars, swapping stories from each end. Arnie
said that Antonio was finally able to talk this afternoon and ID’d the shooter.
“But of course you two already found that out the hard way!” They laughed, Jeff
kept laughing until his eyes watered thinking, Oh god if only you knew how hard!
“So how is our good Antonio?” Shonna asked casually.
“Three broken ribs one that damn near pierced his heart. They had him
under the knife for three hours.” Arnie laughed, “Lucky, lucky, lucky, even
with a vest. Damned lucky.”
“And what about in the bar here today?” Jeff asked.
“Of the thirty-odd people in the bar, seven were killed, even a couple
of their drivers came around and got into the mix! Too bad for them. Yeah
seven, probably more as the day goes on, lots of bullets in there. Only one came
out without any holes in him,” Arnie smiled.
Arnie took a long puff of his cigar, “You know, the Sherlock Plan said
we would arrest them, we had the building totally surrounded, we were just
about to come in,” he puffed, “but those idiots solved the problem for us!” He
gave a chuckle.
“Wow, I would’ve thought more got killed, all those guns in there.” Jeff
looked at Shonna, “Do you suppose Perkins deliberately didn’t take guns?”
She laughed, “It’s amazing what a hundred dollar bill will get you when
you would rather not part with your beloved Smith
and Wesson.” He remembered seeing Perkins shoving money into his pockets
when he was supposed to be taking guns. He shook his head in wonder at the
rules of enterprise.
Arnie took a long drag from his cigar smiling, “Yep, only one came out
with no holes in him.”
Jeff leaned forward, “Let me guess, Joel right?”
Arnie frowned. “No, our boy had many, many holes in him.” He smiled,
“Guess again.”
“It’s gotta be one of the big ones. Let’s see.” Jeff rolled his eyes
toward the ceiling, turned back to Arnie. “I know, the mayor.”
“Bingo!” All three laughed together. Arnie said, “Of course, his honor
is right this moment about to get a tour of his own jail!” they laughed again.
Jeff took a long drink from his beer, “All I can say is that I hope
never to have another gun pointed at me for the rest of my life,” which was met
with two hallelujahs followed by toasts with three clinking beer bottles.
Shonna held up her bottle, “And not shot at too, I suppose, you’re
pretty demanding!” They clinked bottles laughing again.
She turned to Jeff reaching for his head turning it around, looking at
the hair missing from the back of his head smiling, “You know, there are better
ways to get hair cuts!” She and Arnie laughed as he got a hurt expression
feeling the bald spot realizing that it could not have gotten any closer,
laughing with them but more from relief.
The three sat in silence when Jeff mused, “So we got it all wrong.” He
looked up at the ceiling in thought. “Yeah, I think we had a perfect score of wrong!”
They laughed, Arnie smiled, “Fighting crime is imperfect business my
friend. But you’ve got to go out with a hypothesis, otherwise you go out there
and just flail around.” He took a sip of his beer. “But I was really impressed
with the leadership you showed.” He shook his head thoughtfully, “Too bad all
that leadership didn’t help us figure out the perps.”
“Too bad I was wrong about Snake Arm!” Jeff laughed.
Arnie paused with his bottle in front of his lips, “But none of that
matters really, we got the job done!” followed by another round of clinking
beer bottles.
Jeff started to stand up, Arnie signaled him to sit down again. “Listen,
we can’t let you go home tonight. You need to make calls or whatever, we have
made special transportation arrangements for you tomorrow. Call your work and
wife, tell them you need to stay over, tell them you’re on the Delta flight
that gets into Seattle tomorrow, we’ll give you the flight number and times
when we get back.”
“I am done, right?”
“Yeah, we have a lot of loose ends to tie up still.” He took a puff.
“Lots of them. The poor unfortunate congressman and his staff members died
tragically in a car wreck tonight as planned. They say it’s not going to snow
tonight after all, but hey, who needs snow to get killed in a car wreck these
days? But the last thing we need is this congressman guy’s twin brother walking
around Atlanta
Jeff pointed to the phone, “Well, I guess I better make a couple calls,
okay? Flu right?” They nodded. “Yeah, it’s pretty miserable to travel with the
flu. Okay, give me a minute.” Shonna and Arnie stood, walked from the room.
After a few minutes Jeff came out into the
hallway. Shonna took him by the arm, “Come on, congressman, I’m hungry. My
treat.”
“Where are we going to eat?”
“Well, your stuff is all moved to the Hilton in Norcross. They’re
tearing down our ops at the house in Roswell
“Tearing it down?”
“Yep.”
They walked down the outer hallway and outside to rounds of
congratulations. Finally Jeff found himself back in the Mustang heading north
again.
As they drove Jeff contemplated all that happened, turning to Shonna,
“So Pick.”
She glanced at him, “Pick, yes?”
“He had to tell them about Jennifer. He’s the only one who knew. I
showed him the Ann Tallot’s scarf in the Underground, he must have told them.”
“That’s probably true. I am pretty sure they didn’t see her come and go
at the Sheraton. So you’re probably right.”
“What will you do about that?”
“Oh, probably nothing.”
“Nothing? Doesn’t that mean that he was involved in the gang?”
“I’m pretty sure he passed the information along to somebody, but who
knows how or why. Maybe to Perkins when he was at the club, maybe to Antonio,
there’s probably no real way to know. What we do know is that his name never
came up among all the others. I really doubt he was involved, but he probably knew
about it.” She looked into her mirror, signaling to change lanes. “There is
tons of work to do in the investigation. You wouldn’t believe it, the hard part
of the investigation is just beginning. What with phone records, bank accounts,
property records, lots and lots of places to find information, then we’ve got
to connect all the dots so we can take it to prosecution. We’ll keep an eye out
for Pick, but given all the big fish we have to fry my guess is that if he did
anything minor that he will probably walk. If we can, we would rather use him
for information, that would be a hell of a lot more valuable than throwing him
in prison.”
“And why did you let Jennifer go?”
“The prosecution of those cases is always so messy. The victims can be
victimized again with publicity. Then there’s ruined marriages and all, too
much collateral damage. This was the best solution. I’m pretty sure she’ll fly
straight at least for a while––we definitely put the fear of god into her!”
Jeff nodded, leaning his head back. He looked up to see a couple fluffy
clouds being moved across the sky on invisible rails. Marta in the sky, he smiled to himself, going who knows where. Probably
not to a rabbit hat place.
It was time to get back in the here and now.
He glanced over to Shonna feeling that warm flush in his chest again.
Yes, the here and now. He made an instant decision that whatever happened here
he was just going to give in.
He wouldn’t fight it.
He would give in.
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