Jeff,
finds himself in Atlanta Magic
Town
Chapter 9 of Magic Town ...
Saturday, 12:04 PM: Wanted Visitor
Back
at the Sheraton, Shonna tells Jeff to get some sleep while she attends to a meeting
up in Norcross. Jeff strips naked and climbs into bed, awakes a couple hours
later. When he comes out of the bathroom he finds Jennifer, the beautiful store
clerk from Ann Tallot’s yesterday, sitting in his room. A minute later they are laying naked together when the unexpected happens!
If you enjoy this, please take time to LIKE this on Facebook!
Thanks for taking time, and enjoy!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Author contact: Chris Lamela,
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Magic Town, Chapter 9
Saturday,
12:04 PM: Wanted Visitor
“What are you talking about?” he looked confused.
“Time for a nap,” she smiled. Jeff
looked at his watch, it was nearly ten o’clock. “You’ve got six full hours to
look like you slept all night, you need to look sharp. We’ve got a hell of a day
ahead of us, you need some sleep.”
Jeff was too tired to protest too much, giving it his best, “I need to
know what’s going on.”
“Sleep. I’ve got to go. I will be back at four. Make sure you’ve showered
and are in your best shape, okay? When I come back I will tell you.”
Shonna pulled everything from the bed, carefully arranging them on a
side table, pulled off the gloves, walked to the window to look down to the
parking lot. “By the way,” she said glancing over her shoulder to Jeff, “you
won’t be having that little talk with that someone like I told you earlier.
That talk has been postponed.” She glanced at the clock. “Actually, there’s a
good chance it’ll be canceled.”
Jeff looked at her with furrowed brow trying to take this all in when there
were four rapid knocks at the door. She stepped across the room to open the
door. Jeff heard a man’s murmur, Shonna say something to him.
She closed the door turning to him. “Look, lay down, we’ve got a busy
afternoon and evening ahead of us, you need to be rested.” She glanced at her
watch. “I’ll be back at four. You heard that knock?” He nodded. “Don’t open
that door for anybody unless you hear that knock, okay? Don’t answer it for
nobody without that knock.” She stepped forward surprising Jeff with a hug and
a quick kiss on the cheek, she turned to the door, was gone.
Jeff fell onto the bed, falling asleep instantly.
He woke with a start, sitting straight up. The clock said eleven fifty.
He suddenly got a whiff of himself, rolled over to get out of bed, walking to
the shower. As he had his face in the water he thought he heard the room door
open, “Shonna? Shonna?” There was no answer.
Turning off the water, Jeff reached for a towel, dried himself off,
combed his hair, brushed his teeth, walked into the room naked to grab clean
clothes so he could climb back into bed until Shonna got back.
When he came out of the bathroom there sat a woman in the big stuffed corner
chair, he was too tired, too confused to react, stood looking at this pretty
face in front of him. She sat there, light blue sweater, short black skirt,
black boots, legs crossed. Jeff stood facing her trying to place the face. She
looked at his confused expression as he said, “The store yesterday. Right? I’m
sorry I forgot your name.”
“Jennifer.” She looked up and down his naked body smiling. “Jennifer from
Ann Tallot’s.” She pointed to the box laying on the table next to her.
“Remember me? I said that I would drop this coat to you at noon.” She pointed
to the clock, “See? Noon! Remember, I told you noon. To deliver the coat? I got
the bellman to let me in, showed him the box and my card, he let me in, just
like that! Didn’t even have to tip him!”
Jeff looked down at himself standing naked in front of her, looked back,
smiled bashfully. “Uh, well, I guess I should, uh,––”
Jennifer jumped up, “No, no, really, you’re fine!” She gave him a
determined smile, “I mean, why not?” Reaching down to her right side she pulled
the skirt zipper down. Her skirt fell to her feet. She stepped out of it.
Jeff crinkled his brow looking at this woman in front of him, naked from
her sweater to the tops of her boots. He stood in awe looking at her thin curvy
shape, her dark pubic hairs neatly shaved into a very crisp “V” shape. His
expression must have been inviting though for the life of him he had no idea
what was going on. She crossed her arms pulling her sweater off, reached her
hands around her back, in a second her bra fell to the floor.
Jeff stammered, “What are you doing here? What are you doing?”
“Silly, what does it look like I’m doing here?”
“But I’m married.”
“So what, so am I!” she frowned a second. “Well, kind of married.
Separated.” She smiled at him, looking down his body she smiled broader seeing
the effect she was having on Jeff. He glanced down seeing what she was smiling
at.
“But I’m…I’m…”
“You’re what? Busy? You don’t look very busy to me.”
“Well, no, but I didn’t get much sleep last night and, well, I’m pretty
tired.”
“Then we’ll take a nap together!” She nearly jumped onto the bed laying
on her back, with her legs slightly spread toward Jeff, her boots pointing toward
him in some kind of salute.
Jeff was numb. He stood, looked down at himself seeing the very
commanding effect this was having on him, stepping to the bed with a what-the-hell expression, “I’m sorry,
but not with your boots on!” Kneeling on the bed he started unlacing her boots,
she giggled. “Sorry,” he smiled, “if we’re going to do this I just can’t do the
Eva Braun look.” She smiled watching as he carefully unlaced her boots, with a
tug he pulled them off one at a time. He reached up to lay next to her on his
back.
They lay there in nervous silence for a couple minutes.
“Now what?” he whispered.
“Let’s just lay here until you’re ready,” she whispered.
They lay like that for a few more minutes. Jeff rolled onto his left side,
planted his elbow, head on his hand. “This is quite a delivery service your
store has. I really should shop there more often.”
She reached her face to his kissing him. He lay looking into her bright
eyes. Her face was even more beautiful close up than he remembered in the
store, that same soft floral aroma arose from her skin. He leaned to her, kissed
her, she wrapped her arms around him pulling him to her. He loved her kisses,
wide mouth sucking him into her, his mind spun as they touched skin. He lowered
his mouth to take her right nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue around
the soft flesh, giving just a little nibble, she made a soft squeak running her
fingers through his hair. He drew a line across her chest with his tongue to
her left nipple, swirled his tongue again, a little nip with his teeth as she
squeaked again.
“Come here,” she said starting to pull him over on top her as her legs
parted.
They kissed deep, he rolled over laying on top of her. He could just
feel her soft hairs on his hardness when suddenly there were four rapid loud
knocks on the door, the door burst open slamming against the wall.
Shonna stormed in.
“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!”
Jeff rolled over sitting up, “You tell me, what the hell is going on
here!”
Jennifer sat up, “What the hell is going on here!”
Jeff stood up, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! What the hell is going on here? Why
are you here!”
Shonna stopped for fully ten seconds
looking Jeff up and down with an expression screaming either Come here now and screw me! or Prepare to die! She turned to someone
standing at the door that he hadn’t noticed, “Agent, please take out this
trash!”
A man in an overcoat stepped
into the room toward Jennifer commanding her bruskly, “Ma’am, please go into
the bathroom.”
Jennifer looked at Jeff in a terrified pleading voice, “Jeff, what’s all
this, who are these people?”
Jeff glanced at Shonna’s determined expression, “I’m sorry Jennifer,
these guys are pretty serious, you better do as they say.”
Jennifer got up as Jeff felt enormous regret––so close to getting inside
this lithe beautiful body! He watched that naked body that was laying beneath
him just a few seconds ago glide silently into the bathroom as the man stepped
to the big chair, leaning over to the floor gathering her clothing and boots holding
out his hand so she couldn’t close the door, tossing her clothing and boots
into the bathroom telling her to hurry up and get dressed.
Shonna sat down in the big corner chair without a word to Jeff as the
agent stood with arms crossed at the front door closed behind him. Soon Jennifer
emerged dressed, her hair still tousled.
Jeff stood up, stepped to Jennifer with a hug, apologizing. She hugged
him, gave him a quick peck on the lips, pushed him away with an angry scowl
looking over at Shonna as the agent opened the door, she started toward the
hall.
“Wait!” everyone turned to Shonna who walked to the desk chair that had
been pulled out sideways from the desk, “you forgot your purse.” She pulled the
purse from the chair, reached into the purse pulling out an eight millimeter
video camera. She held it looking into the lens, turned it toward Jeff who
could see the little red recording light on, “Smile there congressman!”
“Congressman!” Jennifer gasped looking to Jeff.
Shonna examined the controls, flicked a switch to turn it off, she
pushed a button. With a soft whirring sound a door popped open on the camera. Shonna
pulled the tape out laying it on the table, put the camera back into the purse,
handed it to the agent. “More garbage.” She glanced at Jennifer waving her away,
“Make sure she finds her way out of here, and do all the ID checks. I’d like to
get that from you later. She’s not under arrest but I don’t want to see her
around this hotel anymore.” He nodded turning back to the door brusquely dragging
Jennifer out by the elbow, the door closing behind them.
Instead of getting dressed, Jeff decided that he wanted to make some
form of protest about what just happened, so instead he climbed under the
covers still naked, propping his head on his elbow looking at Shonna who finally
turned to face him.
“Nice job, there congressman. True to form. Do you go around picking up
every little slut store clerk you can get your hands on?”
“What was this all about?”
“Well sorry to break up your little tryst with your little slut, but you
disobeyed instructions. You were not to open that door to anyone except for the
code. The four knocks.”
“I didn’t let her in, the bellman did.”
“Oh, and I can tell how you objected to her being here.”
His face dawned a slight smile, “She was very nice to me yesterday. I
was very attracted to her.”
“You don’t even know who she is!”
“Name’s Jennifer, separated from her husband, thirty three years-old.”
Shonna pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. “Jennifer Lowe, age
twenty eight.”
Jeff got a big dreamy smile, “Twenty eight. Wow.”
“Yes, separated from her husband so it seems that she does know how to
tell the truth. But then it’s easy to be separated when your husband is in
prison.” Jeff’s jaw dropped.
“Yes prison. Any guesses what for?” He shook his head slowly as though
in shock. “Extortion.” She gave him a hard look, looked down at her paper, “She
has worked for Tallot's for three years, it seems she has a good little side
business blackmailing married men who happen to come into her store and she
does her little free delivery service to their hotel rooms.”
“Blackmail, that means she was going to screw me and try to hit me up
for money?”
“That wasn’t a makeup mirror I pulled out of her purse, Jeff! Of course
she was going to blackmail you!”
Jeff lay quiet feeling a chill run up his spine thinking that he was
literally one inch away from having sex with Jennifer. “What kind of blackmail
are we talking about? How big?”
“Oh, she was pretty smart. All we know is that she was shameless about
putting the money into her bank account, some of these guys were stupid enough
to actually write her checks so we know who some of her victims are.”
“You can do that?”
“Yep. She would only hit them up for a few thousand dollars, though, not
so much that the guy would think it was just easier to tell his wife. She was
pretty smart.”
“How much money did she take?”
“Best we can tell it was way over a hundred thousand in the last year.
Closer to two hundred thousand.”
Jeff’s eyes widened, “A hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? Jesus, that’s
a hell of a lot of money!”
“Well, do the arithmetic. Twice a week––”
“Jesus! Twice a week?”
“Sometimes three times a week, say at three thousand a pop, that’s up to
six or nine thousand a week times fifty two.”
“How do you know this?”
“Bank records. Like I said, she was shameless!”
He lay back with his hands behind his head in thought, glancing around
him imagining that beautiful twenty eight year-old body laying there what felt
like just seconds ago.
“How do you know all this? How did you know I even shopped there?”
She laughed, “Like that’s hard!
You use your credit card all over the place!”
“How did you know about her little blackmail thing?”
“The store franchise owner told us.”
“Why doesn’t he just fire her?”
“One guess there, congressman, and this should sound familiar.”
“What?”
“He’s married. You do the math why he doesn’t fire her.” She gave him a
sly grin, “Plus, she sells more three hundred dollar women’s coats than
everyone else combined!”
He got quiet, looking sideways at Shonna watching him. Suddenly Pick’s
words echoed in his head, how he talked about the enterprising young lady that worked at Tallot’s, the words I’m sure you’ll see her again as Jeff
pictured that young naked body as freshly in his mind as if she was laying next
to him right now.
Jeff shook his head looking back at Shonna wondering what was going on, how
did he keep finding himself in all these situations, he looked at the clock
doing the math, in the last eighteen hours? Not even eighteen hours!
Shonna looked around the room, reached down to take her shoes off, stepped
over to the bed to lay next to Jeff on top of the covers. She glanced at the
clock, “So seeing as we have to be somewhere in four hours, I suggest we get
some sleep.”
She rolled over, fidgeted with a watch, saying in a sleepy voice, “What
would your wife think if she found out you were naked with two different women
in the same hour?” She turned to him, “And I mean sleep with this woman,”
as she rolled over on her right side facing away from him.
The next thing he remembered was hearing the soft tweet of an alarm. He
sat up, looked at the clock next to the bed saying three forty-five. Shonna was
standing at the ironing board with her back to him, he could see his favorite
blue shirt on the ironing board in front of her.
He stretched and yawned, “Man I was knocked out.” He studied Shonna bent
over the ironing board. “What are you doing?”
“Hey sleepy head, how you feeling?” her voice sounded cheerful. There
was absolutely no indication in her voice that she was upset at what happened
earlier with Jennifer. He was surprised at this as he sat up watching Shonna
with her back turned to him holding the iron. He found himself wondering at the
events since she barged into the room, found him about to have the only sex
he’s ever had with another woman since he was married all those years ago. He
found himself trying to sort out the scene with him standing there naked in front
of Shonna with Jennifer laying naked on the bed, the agent standing there, and what
the heck was that expression on Shonna’s face? Was it jealousy? Or was she just
there doing her job? He scratched his stomach standing up, groggy.
Jeff stretched, looked around the room. “I’m feeling pretty good, I
guess. How about you? Just that little bit of sleep felt good. But what are you
doing?”
“Getting you ready for show time,” she glanced at him. “You need to go
throw some water on your face, you need to look sharp. And hurry, we need to
leave in a half-hour.”
“I need some food.”
“No, you need to get a shower then get dressed,” pointing to the Khakis
laying on the bed, her turning to him with the ironed shirt.
Without a word he reached for the shirt as she looked his naked body up
and down closely. “You have a nice body.” He flushed. “No, I mean it, that was
a lucky little blackmailing slut that was about to get you.” He heard a tone in
her voice that wasn’t registering, there was a softness, like he was somehow
being caressed by her voice in a playful way. It occurred to him that in her
mind she felt like she had saved him from a mistake, that would explain the
gentle tone of her voice, almost nurturing.
He had learned a long time ago that women communicate in two languages,
almost like two separate beams of light, one white, the other colored in some kind
of mysterious tone that he had never been able to place on a color chart.
Elusive.
Two beams of light communicating from a woman to a man: words that, you
know, even a man can understand. That was the beam of white light, a color
everyone can see, even a dumb man. Then there’s the second beam of light in
that mysterious color. Woman-speak. A cryptic combination of tone, expression,
tilt of the head, the words that were just said, the words that were to follow,
position of the body along with a hundred other tiny signs, all too subtle for
the male consciousness, all conspiring into a stream of language in which the
words themselves are nearly meaningless.
He had first begun to learn woman-speak from his mother, though
mother-speak is definitely a different dialect. Woman-speak is a woman’s way of
communicating to a man that on the one hand attempts to give a man at least the
tiniest hope of understanding what is
being communicated while at the same time offered by her in the almost disdainful
knowledge that it will not be perceived. Or at best misinterpreted. Now he was
having woman-speak directed at him when he had a night and day of sleep snacks, was in a house with murdered
people, was a millimeter from having sex with a beautiful blackmailing slut.
And now standing naked in front of a woman even more beautiful than his little
slut.
Far more beautiful.
There was a grace about this Shonna that thrilled him. It was rare for
him to meet a woman who so elegantly radiated her sensuous nature. He had to
keep snapping himself on his proverbial ass to make himself listen to her
words, the white light, as he basked in the other light, that mysteriously colored
beam that emanated from her. He wished he could just stand naked in front of
her, like he was on her nude beach near Savannah, get some kind of tan all over
his body from that tinted beam that radiated from her when she spoke. Bathe in
that light that streamed from her even when she was silent.
“You okay?” she interrupted his tanning session.
Jeff nodded his head, looking down realizing he was still naked. He
stepped to his luggage pulling out clean socks and underwear, mindlessly tossing
them onto the bed, walking into the bathroom.
“And make sure to shave!” he heard her voice calling after him. “You
need to look sharp!”
He leaned toward the mirror looking at his eyes. Absolutely blood shot.
He reached for his shaving kit pulling out a little bottle of eye drops, tilted
his head back, three drops into each eye. It was like pouring gasoline into his
eyes they burned so bad. He felt he really needed another shower, so soon he
was standing under the shower head, hot water pouring onto his hair and his
face. He felt just a little more alive as he scrubbed with the wash cloth
against his face and skin extra hard, shaving carefully in the shower like he
always does.
He stepped out of the shower, heard the hotel room door open, some
mumbling, the door close again. “So much mystery,” he thought. He smiled hoping
they were letting in more little sluts.
After a good scouring with his toothbrush with strong minty toothpaste he
felt almost human again. He heard the door open and close again.
He realized that he had thrown his clothes onto the bed forgetting to
bring them in, so he wrapped a towel around himself stepping back into the
room. Shonna was seated at the table studying a sheet of paper with a pen in
her hand.
She turned to him, “Okay, let’s be fair! Let’s see what you look like
when there isn’t a little naked slut in your room!” they laughed as he pulled
the towel down surprised that he wasn’t embarrassed though he was very erect.
She laughed again, “Looks about the same!” she looked down at his hardness. “Nice,”
she nodded, “very nice. We’ll need a look again later.” He squinched his
forehead thinking about her words as she smiled again, “Just doin’ my job, just
doin’ my job!”
He smiled back as her eyes met his with an almost loving look, with a
quick shy smile she turned back to the paper in front of her shooshing him with
her left hand, “Now go get dressed! And hurry!”
Going back into the bathroom he dressed. He came back out. Shonna
glanced at him telling him to go back in and dry his hair telling him to make
sure to use the blow dryer to straighten his hair because his was curlier than
the congressman’s. He protested mildly, he did as she said. In a few minutes he
was standing back in the room.
She turned her chair to face him, “Okay, now say something.”
“What?” He was wondering if she wanted an explanation for what happened
with Jennifer.
She frowned, “I don’t know. Anything. The Gettysburg
Jeff didn’t quite understand what was going on, was she yelling at him?
But not yelling?
Why did she continue raging at him for what he had done––or rather
hadn’t done––with his little slut?
But not raging?
“Gettysburg
“No, natural like.”
Jeff glanced toward the window seeing the sunny day outside which made
him feel a little better, stronger. He collected himself, starting again, “Four
score and seven years ago––“
“Wait, let me think. Yeah, I think the timbre is good, that’s lucky, but
his voice is a little lower, maybe even just a little nasally. Your mouth is
the same size as his, I think, somehow his smile is bigger. Politician’s smile,
maybe. Practice a bigger smile.”
“Nasally? Smile?”
“I can’t explain it exactly. Just think about it a bit. Can you try
that?”
Jeff looked confused for a second, “How much time did you spend with
this guy? I mean speaking of sluts, did you ever sleep with him?”
She gave a disgusted grimace, “He was always hitting on me, constantly.
Offered me money, jewelry, even his wife’s jewelry! I would rather have sex
with…god, I don’t know, but not with that sickening little pig!”
He laughed, “You know, you should be careful. If don’t start speaking
your mind you’ll end up with an ulcer!” They both laughed as she signaled him
with a sweep of her hand to continue.
“Okay, okay. Four score…”
She had him practice over and over and over until she finally said that
it was close enough. She reached for the USA Today that she scooped up as they
were coming in earlier, holding it up toward Jeff. “He has a small mole, right side chin.” She reached
into her purse pulling out a woman’s eye-brow pencil. She stepped to him
looking at his chin, reaching up grabbing his chin firmly with left hand
fingers as she held his chin tightly, turned his head putting the pencil to his
chin spinning it with her finger tips. Gingerly at first, but she kept spinning
the eyebrow pencil, pushing it harder and harder into his skin.
“You’re pushing pretty hard, it kind of hurts.”
She kept spinning it pushing it harder into his chin, “So how was it
with the little slut?”
He pulled back, “Ouch! I said, that hurts! What are you jealous or
something? What the hell’s going on! I already told you I didn’t let her in.”
He glowered at her, she glared straight back at him. He looked intently into
her golden eyes with those little black flecks expecting to see, he wasn’t sure,
hatred or something. Instead he saw a look of need, ever so fast, so faint, in
a half second it disappeared. “And just so you know, we didn’t do anything, you
broke in before we could even get started!” He groaned to himself, so close! He took a half-step back.
“Your timing was really awful,” he craned to see his new mole in the mirror on
the bedroom wall, looked back at her, “or maybe it was really excellent…” His
voice trailed off.
Her face suddenly brightened, her head half-cocked, “Good!”
“Which part?”
She glanced at him reaching for the congressman’s coat, handing it to
Jeff, “The really excellent part!” smiling at him as he put the coat on.
Jeff took a sniff of the jacket, “Jesus, you’d think he could afford
better aftershave.”
“Cologne
He reached into the pocket pulling out the gun, holding it like he was
weighing it in his hand, “What about this?”
“You know how to use it, right?”
“I used to own one. Can’t hit the broad side of a barn with it. But yes,
I know how to use it.”
“Good, then keep it. You never know, right?” He put it back into the
outer coat pocket.
Jeff grimaced patting the pocket.
She stepped back reflectively, motioning for him to turn around which he
did. “You’ve got a cuter ass than him, but it’s men we’re trying to convince so
it won’t matter.” As his back was to her she said under her breath, “It was
certainly good enough to get that naked little slut in here.”
Jeff heard her, ignoring it as he laughed at the reference to women
being more observant again. She was right, he could probably walk into a room
with a Quasimoto hump and limp and men wouldn’t notice if they were expecting
to see the congressman. A woman would notice if his new little mole was moved
one millimeter!
Shonna didn’t understand the source of his laugh giving him an indignant
frown afraid he was still thinking about his little naked slut.
“So what next?” he asked sitting on the bed.
She motioned to the tray of food saying that they had three minutes to
eat, then they needed to do the real rehearsing. Within three minutes the tray
was empty except for two bottles of beer still standing opened. “What’s this
for?” he asked.
“It’ll make you a little more relaxed.” She grinned, “Plus he always
smells of alcohol.”
“Details, right?”
“It’s the details that kill you.”
“Unless it’s in front of men, right?”
“Men or not, we’re not taking any chances, details for everyone. Drink
the first one now, the other as we’re leaving. Drink up, we need to practice.”
Jeff lifted the bottle pouring it down his throat. He hadn’t realized
just how badly he could use a beer. It seemed like he got the buzz almost
instantly; he wasn’t sure if he was just still tired from the long night or his
less-than-smooth day already.
“Okay, she said, let me tell you what’s going to happen.” She held the
piece of paper that she had been studying when he came out of the bathroom
saying that they were going to a press conference downtown, “That has been
hastily called because you, the congressman, are announcing that you have been
assisting in a major corruption investigation and that next week the FBI will
be releasing the names of the suspects which you will be providing to them on
Monday afternoon.”
“Wow, I’ve never done a press conference.”
Shonna paused, “Hmmmm, we can fix that.” She reached for the phone
calling room service to order another beer. “I saw you last night and you can
hold your booze, but you have got to be in the groove. If you look too nervous
you’ll blow it. This Schedz guy is a smooth talker, you have got be him. Maybe
we should have let you get laid, maybe you would be more relaxed.” She frowned
at him, “Even by your little slut!”
“I doubt I would be more relaxed after you shoved one of her boots up my
ass afterward!” He looked at himself in the mirror again, chin turned forward.
She smiled, “Yeah, we can’t have you walking funny can we?” She gave a
little laugh. “Well, maybe it was a good thing the way it worked out.” All he
could think was you got that right!
She handed him the paper asking him to read it, casually but with
purpose. He read through it mumbling to himself asking about a correction she
had made. He read it through once, she made a couple comments, he read it again
three more times.
“Stop! Good job, we don’t want to make it look rehearsed. Think you can
get through it?”
He shrugged nodding.
“Good, we need to wait one minute, then we’ll go. Here,” she reached for
the second beer, “drink up.”
Jeff sat down on the bed sipping the beer, his head swirling with
pictures of everything that happened since he climbed into that shuttle van
yesterday afternoon. He found his brain doing a kind of fast-forward movie in
his head, like little characters walking around in his brain moving quickly, talking
in high-pitched voices like an audio tape on fast speed, little mice voices in
his head starting with that fat lady trying to claw her way out of the shuttle van,
her meek little husband trying to slip the driver a couple bucks, the shuttle
driver suggesting strip clubs, Jeff’s deciding he definitely wasn’t going to a strip club, the clothing store, how
he leered at little Jennifer, how me must have looked like some dirty old man
picking up on a twenty eight year-old for god’s sake, Pick and his
smooth-talking tour guiding, Magic Town, seeing Shonna naked on the runway,
meeting her downstairs, how taken he was with her eyes, the armed guard at the
other door, the table with the people looking over at him in the house, Bernice
and the filthy little diner, the stakeout, his being this close to sticking his dick into the blackmailing little slut,
and now sitting on the bed with a mole on his chin. The way things were going,
he was sure there would be much more to come.
He felt exhausted.
He felt exhilarated.
What was coming next?
He had no clue.
Four rapid knocks at the door brought him back.
Shonna scooped up the papers putting them into a neat stack, carrying
them to the door. She barely opened the door to hand the papers out without a
word, pulling back a Budweiser with the twist-top still on. Jeff could see the
shadow of someone in the hallway, he couldn’t identify him.
“Ready?” Shonna opened the door sliding the unopened beer into her coat side
pocket. Jeff downed the last of the second beer following her out as they went
the same way down the elevator, out the back door where they had come in.
They got into her car, started to pull away Jeff looked sternly at Shonna,
“Look, you told me you would let me in on what’s going on. I feel like I’m
being kidnapped.”
Shonna frowned, thought for a second, “Okay, but I am only going to tell
you what you need to know, we don’t have time.”
Jeff leaned to her intently as she glanced at him, “You, Mister Holmes
here, figured it out pretty good. We got a crooked mayor, some city council,
the police, but most of all a very crooked congressman who has muscled his way
into their thriving little business that sells, how shall we say, very
specialized kinds of insurance policies.”
“Protection. Extortion.”
“Yes, but not just your little donut shop making sure that their
business is adequately protected from things like fire bombs. We’re talking big
fish, too. Prostitution, unions, drugs. If it has money attached these guys are
in it. All of northern Georgia ,
not just Atlanta Miami
“How long has this been going on?”
“Who knows, maybe twenty years.”
“Twenty years?”
“It all started small, probably. Just a little extortion among a small
circle of friends, but over the years it has grown bigger and bigger.” Jeff
smiled to himself wondering if Ringo Starr had any idea that his getting by with a little help from my
friends included extortion and murder. Probably not. Joe Cocker, though…
“You saw the numbers on those pages,” as she steered onto I-85 heading north
toward downtown. “Remember I told you about my loose thread I discovered three
years ago. By then the congressman was in the deal. It seemed to be going fine
for these guys, but the group just kept getting bigger and bigger. We’d have
found out about it eventually even if I hadn’t found the loose end way back
when. So evidently this congressman learns about this four years ago, figures
out that he can get into the game, threatens to call for a congressional
investigation or some damn thing. So they cut him in. His cut wasn’t big at
first, but having his name attached to it attracted more players, big players,
kind of like having a big star on a baseball team.” She grinned, “So the sorry
bastard starts getting greedy, figuring out that he is the big fish, that it
has grown so fast because he was the star attraction. When I say he got greedy,
I mean really greedy.”
“Like fifty percent. That’s what it looked like on those papers.”
“We had no idea he was in it so big, it was a shock. Really.” She
frowned as they continued heading north toward downtown. “I mean a congressman.
And probably the biggest criminal corruption case involving a congressman in
the history of the whole damned world! We didn’t get it at first. He was
already wealthy, came from a rich family, didn’t live the high life best we
could tell.” She thought for a second. “Greed and arrogance. Pure and simple. He
is a total pig.”
They drove in silence for a minute. “Okay, so what happened back at that
house we staked out this morning?”
“Remember what I told you that these guys don’t play rough?” Jeff
nodded. “Well the game just changed.” Jeff’s expression turned to worried. “Let’s
just say that three people are going to die on Monday night in a car accident
in the big snow storm.”
Jeff sat silently as they came to Peach Tree Boulevard
“Somehow that damned congressman managed to take four bullets; he’s been
in surgery all day. Greed, arrogance, and bullet proof, too. One tough bastard,
that’s for sure.”
“He was wearing body armor?”
“Nope, he just was lucky. So far, at least because we’re not sure he’s
gonna make it.”
“Who were the others?”
“One of the congressman’s staff and two other men that haven’t been
identified.”
Jeff thought about this as the car wound its way through the tall
buildings of downtown Atlanta
Shonna gave a small laugh, “They won’t actually be in a car. If the
congressman dies then he will be in the same car with the woman.” She glanced
at him, “There might have to be two accidents if we can’t ID that the other two
belonged with them. Very tragic.” She leaned forward toward the right rear-view
mirror, Jeff leaned back to give her a clear view, she signaled to make a right
onto Peach Tree something-or-other street, avenue or whatever.
“You guys can do that?”
“Yep.”
“Why are you doing this now, this press conference, why so quickly after
what just happened this morning?”
“We actually know a lot about this operation now, one thing for sure is
that it’s very well organized.”
“So why this?”
“We’ve got to get them off balance. These guys have been very fat and sassy
for too long, we’ve got to find a way to shake it up.”
The Mustang wound around downtown Atlanta between buildings towering
over them as they turned right toward a big building, winding up the parking structure
to the top. She drove toward the building. Jeff looked out his window, up at
the blue sky over them. A nice crisp November day. Beautiful here, really, he
thought.
Even though it was Saturday afternoon the parking lot had many cars, most
notably there were those television vans with their dish antennas pointed all
sorts of directions with letters like NBC on them. There were people milling
around, coming in and out of the building. “Does anyone know what this press
conference is all about?”
“Of course, how else are we going to get coverage?”
There were four men standing near the entrance, two holding rifles
waiting for them, one motioning toward a parking place. Just then three other
men came out of the entrance, trench coats, hands in pockets; Jeff half-grinned
to himself thinking that the trench coats were a nice touch.
“So you have what, some kind of team of analysts that sit around all day
to plan strategy and tell you what to do?”
“Hardly. We had a meeting this morning to discuss all this, we decided
this was a good way to get things stirred up, of course I had a small slut interruption so we had to cut the
meeting short,” she gave an amused glance at Jeff, “but sometimes you just have
to go with your gut, my gut is telling me that we’ve got to stir this up as
much as we can as quickly as we can, and this is the best way to do it. If
people think their position is threatened they may expose themselves to defend
their position. We need to get in front of these clowns and the only way to do
it is if they feel like something is closing in on them.”
She looked at him as they pulled into the parking space.
“We need to
bat the beehive.”
NOW READ THE NEXT CHAPTER IN
MAGIC TOWN !
http://chrislamela.blogspot.com/2012/06/magic-town-chapter-10.html
