A Glimpse Of Decay (Book 1): Red Storm) (9 page)

Of course there was no way that she would have ever told Trent what Gibbie was involved in.  Trent’s father had been a police officer in California, and when Trent was twelve years old, his father had been gunned down in the line of duty.  Naturally, Trent was a law-abiding citizen and he was very anti-drug.  If he had known that Gibbie was as dirty as he was, he would have forced Jennifer to quit the firm immediately.  Actually, Jennifer wouldn’t have minded having some other type of career.  She often regretted not taking life too seriously when she was young, but with her natural beauty—along with the encouragement from a couple of local modeling agencies—she had chosen to get involved with the modeling industry right out of high school.

Looking back now, she realized that making that choice had limited her future options for a career.  Quickly, Jennifer had become caught up in all of the wonder of the local fashion world, and because she was doing so financially well at that time, she never furthered her education nor gave much thought to her future.

Eventually, with her reluctance to get too involved into the drug scene, along with her inability to break into the national and international scene, she decided to leave the modeling world behind.  She was left feeling bitter and unfulfilled, and she was definitely burnt out.  She found herself lamenting some of the decisions she had made in her younger life, and so she set out to make something of herself.

She felt that she was already too old to invest four years at a university, so she had decided to go to a career school instead.  After getting her paralegal license, she went to apply at the Olivarez Law Firm.  She had seen numerous commercials for the firm and she figured that it would be a worthwhile shot to put in an application with them.  While being interviewed by one of the office managers, Gibbie himself had barged into the room and asked her if she had ever been a model.  Jennifer blushed as she was embarrassed.  Gibbie relayed to her that he had attended a fashion show several years back and that he thought that he had remembered her from the show.  When Jennifer told him that it was indeed her that had been in the show, Gibbie turned to his office manager and simply said, “She’s hired.”

Although Gibbie really wasn’t that demanding as a boss, he did make it known that he wanted Jennifer to portray a certain “image” for the firm.  Gibbie was very visual, and without being too obvious about it, he suggested to Jennifer what attire she needed to wear for work.  Her heels were never to be lower than four inches, and the skirts to her business suits were always to be short, yet classy.  Although she felt a little uncomfortable in some of the revealing outfits she wore, it was nice to be making enough money to buy those expensive clothes.

As Jennifer walked into the downtown office, she was greeted by the receptionist.  A young law intern at St. Mary’s, the studious young woman always had a bright smile on her face when she wasn’t nose down into her text books.  Although she was friendly enough to Jennifer, she always came away with a feeling that the intern looked down on her somehow.

After a cordial greeting between Jennifer and the intern, Jennifer walked into her office and sat down behind her computer.  A yellow sticky note was attached to her monitor.  It read: “Make sure you get the Hackamore file ready for today”.

Larry Hackamore.  What a scum bag.  The guy made a living brokering drug shipments between the Mexican drug lords in Nuevo Laredo and the black street gangs on the east side of San Antonio.  Six months ago he had been arrested by some hot shot police gang unit and he was now facing a hefty prison sentence in the federal system.

Gibbie knew right away that Larry was as good as done, but he made his easy money on guys like Larry.  With Gibbie’s initial retainer starting at thirty grand upfront, he was able to cash in on guys who were trying to get their incarceration reduced to a more palatable sentence.  Gibbie knew the federal system well enough to know that when the feds usually brought a case against you, the only thing left to do was to plead out for a shorter sentence.  With the money in hand, the only thing Gibbie really had to do was negotiate with the federal attorney for a favorable plea.  It was easy money made on hard-luck guys.

Jennifer switched on her computer and brought up Larry’s case file.  As she printed it out, she again found herself thinking about the strange news report on the outbreak and her brief conversation at the grocery store.  She couldn’t stop thinking about any of it.  Staring off into space, she was startled by the ringing of her desk phone.  She saw on the caller ID that it was Trent.  Seeing his number, she was able to shake off her distracting thoughts.

“Hey, Babe,” Jennifer said as she answered the phone.

“Hey honey, how’s it going?”

“It’s going good.  Just here getting Larry Hackamore’s file together.  I think Gibbie is going to meet with the A.U.S.A. today to see what kind of deal he can cut.”

“Ah, they shouldn’t make any deals for assholes like that.”  Trent was well aware of Larry’s reputation because Jennifer had told him about what a low-life he was and how she despised him so.

“I know… he deserves to be thrown into prison for life.”  Jennifer held the receiver between her shoulder and cheek as she scrolled through her files with the mouse.  “They say he was responsible for that D.E.A. agent getting shot last year.  Anyway, how was your meeting?”

“Uh, it was kind of weird.”

“Weird?  As in how?”

“Well, apparently there is something going on over in Europe and its affecting prices world-wide.  I mean like prices are sky-rocketing and it’s a huge concern for the board of directors.  So…naturally…they want us to try and maintain profits by reducing expenditures.  It sounds like they’re getting ready to lay off a bunch of people.”  He paused and recollected the tone of concern from the regional director.  “Yeah, you can say the meeting was kind of weird.”

A sudden wave of dread washed over Jennifer, almost taking her breath away.

***

Trent sat impatiently in his car as he waited for the traffic to start moving again.  It was just after five in the afternoon and Interstate 35 had turned into a parking lot.  He was heading north and he was on the upper level that curved around the west end of downtown.  His air conditioner was blowing full blast, but he could still feel the scorching heat coming in through the windows.  He glanced over to his right, looking at the city skyline.  He always marveled at how small and short the skyline was, especially when the city was touted as being one of the largest cities in Texas.  When he and Jennifer would travel to Houston to visit her parents, he would always make comparisons with the skyline of San Antonio to that of Houston.

He scanned the radio stations, as he often did, changing them when he bored with the format of each station.  He had a habit of listening to one format for a short amount of time, then changing to a different station: one moment listening to rock, and the next moment listening to R and B.  When Jennifer was in the car with him, she would grow frustrated with his station surfing and she would force him to leave the radio on one station.

As he flipped through the different stations, he thought about how pissed Jennifer would have been had she been in the car with him, so he picked up his cell phone and called her.  On the third ring she answered.

“Hey, babe, what are you doing?”

“Me and Diego are at the store right now.  I need to get him a few more shirts for summer.  After this we are going to meet Dolores and Michael over at the park.  What are you doing?”

“Uh, I’m just here stuck in traffic.  I had to go over to one of our stores on the south side, so I’m just now heading back to the office.  Oh, guess what I’m doing?”  A small compact car unexpectedly swerved into his lane as it was attempting to make its way to an exit ramp.  Trent was forced to brake hard to avoid a collision.  “Way to go, idiot!  Don’t mind that I’m right in your way!”

“Sounds like someone is having a bad day,” Jennifer said.

“It’s just that some people don’t care if you have right of way or not.  Some little crappy car is forcing his way through this traffic jam right now, and he’s being rude about it.”

“Well, I guess I can say that right now, you’re playing bumper cars?”

“No, I’m not playing bumper cars.  I’m doing what you hate the most when we get into the car…I’m station surfing.”

“Trent, you know you’re not supposed to be doing that,” Jennifer sighed.  “You’re going to cause yourself to have an accident.”

“Naw, traffic is moving like one mile per hour.  So, you and Diego are going to the park, huh?”

“Yeah, Dolores called and said that she wanted to talk, so I told her that I was taking Diego over to the park.”

“Just watch out for that little shit Michael.  I saw how he was bullying some of the other kids at that last birthday party.”

“Come on, Trent, he isn’t that bad.”

“Yes he is.  He acts just like his dad.  I can’t believe that guy…always in and out of jail.  That dude needs to grow up and stop acting like some gangster.  I can’t believe Dolores is still with that loser.  She needs to wake up and stop being stupid and helpless.  What she needs to do is—”

“Hello…you’re talking about my friend here,” Jennifer said in an agitated tone.

Realizing that he had upset his wife, he said, “Sorry.  I didn’t mean to get on a soap box.  It’s just that I can’t stand guys who go around bullying people.  That’s high school crap.  That’s what Eduardo does…and I think he teaches bad habits to Michael.”

“Believe me, I try to tell her about Eduardo, but you know the way she is.  Anyway, I think Diego will have a good time at the park.”

“I’m sure he will.”  The traffic opened up slightly and Trent was able to speed up a little.  He maneuvered his way over into the fast lane.  “Alright, now we’re moving.  Hey, just be careful with Diego.  It’s hot as hell today, so don’t let him get overheated.  You know how he can play all day long.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll watch him.”

“Okay.”  Trent switched the radio station over to the local oldies format.  “I should be home around seven—if I finish with everything at the office in time.”

“Okay, drive careful and I’ll see you when you get home.  Love you.”

“Love you too.”  Trent hung up and tossed the phone over onto the passenger seat.  He knew that Jennifer wanted him to use the Blue Tooth when he was driving, but he always felt self-conscious around the other drivers.  He didn’t want to look like he was talking to himself as he was driving.  He adjusted the volume to the radio with the control on his steering wheel and he picked up more speed.  He began to weave in and out of traffic as he sang along to an old Steely Dan song.

***

Jennifer and Dolores sat on a park bench and watched as their two boys joined in with a group of yelling and screaming children.  The kids were crawling and scrambling over a play scape and Diego was trying to pull himself up a heavy braided rope that dangled from a wooden beam that ran the length of the structure.

After becoming friends in paralegal school, the two women had remained close and often had lunch together to catch up with each other.  Lately though, Dolores had been going through a tough time with the father of her son, and Jennifer could see that it was taking a toll on her friend as Dolores ran her hand through her dark hair, seeming distracted, almost in a trance.

“Hey, are you alright?” Jennifer asked.

Dolores realized that her silence had been obvious and she answered, “It’s awesome that Diego got your red hair.”  She intentionally avoided Jennifer’s question.

Noticing her friend’s evasiveness, Jennifer played along.  “I know.  You would have thought that he would have been born with Trent’s brown hair.  I think he looks good with red hair.”

“Have you noticed if he is more like you, or more like Trent?”

“Oh, he is a little Trent.  Nothing seems to bother him, unless he doesn’t get his applesauce.  I’m glad he’s like his dad.  I get too pissed too quickly.  It’s good that he’s not like me.”

“Girl, I wish Michael was like me.  He acts too much like his dad.  I’m afraid he’s going to give me trouble when he starts school.”  Dolores sighed and kicked at some of the pebbles down at her feet.

Jennifer, in an attempt to quickly change the conversation, noticed that Dolores was wearing a new pair of heels.  “Hey, got some new shoes?”

“Oh…yeah, I did.  You like them?”

“Love them!”  Jennifer leaned forward to get a better look at the shoes.  “Where did you get them?”

“Over at The Rim.  Got a great deal on them.”

“The Rim?  Whew, I knew they looked expensive.”

“No, really…they weren’t that bad.  Anyway, I figured I needed to treat myself, especially with as much as I’ve had to deal with Eduardo and all his shit.  And can you believe this…his sister blames me for all his problems.”

Jennifer realized that her attempt to distract Dolores had only partially worked.  “They don’t know what’s really going on between you and Eduardo.  Those people are all drama anyway.  Don’t worry about what they say.”

“I try not to, but sometimes it gets to me.”  She sighed and kicked at another pebble.  “Be glad you ended up with someone like Trent.”

Jennifer smiled and looked down at her wedding ring.  “Oh, I know I’m lucky.  I swear, Trent is so laid back.  Nothing seems to bother him.  If we have a disagreement, he never loses his cool.  That makes me even madder, and I try to pick at him and get him to fight back, but he won’t.”