The Final Shortcut (22 page)

“Man I’m ready for a beer!” Tree barked from his spot in line. “It had better be cold too!” Cochise tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to a large tent with benches inside.

“Why don’t we get a couple pitchers and grab a table? It’s almost four o’clock.”

“No, you guys start drinking beer you won’t wanna walk any more.” Mary crossed her arms angrily. Tree reached for his wallet and pulled a couple bills out.

“We got all weekend to shop, I’m tired and I want to rest before we meet up with Drago and Fudd, all right?” He handed her the money and watched her expression change. “Why don’t you go get that stuffed bear you saw and we’ll wait for you here.” She kissed him on the nose and trotted off smiling.

Reverend shook his head at Tree. “Why do you indulge her so much? You know she’ll just run off and party with another man on a whim.”

“But that’s the best kind. I don’t have to plan for the future.” Tree laughed and moved two steps closer to the wagon. Ray was so close he could smell the marijuana on Reverend’s clothes, and close to hear every word loud and clear. His luck may actually be changing for the better. If he couldn’t find any evidence on his case, he could at least get a description of the elusive Fudd. The market was turning out to be the perfect place for tailing suspects. Knowing that they would be in the beer tent for a while meant that he could search some more. Over the next hour and a half he criss-crossed the area keeping an eye on his quarry and when they finally moved he was not far behind. He followed them for what seemed like a mile before seeing any relief. Mary was the first to show any reaction as she jumped up and down several times trying to look over the crowd. “There they are.” She pointed excitedly and took off through the crowd.

Ray could see her clearly as she hugged a large tattooed man and another man with blond hair standing at a vendor’s table. Standing next to them was Drago and Dolly. All of them crowded around a display of computer products. He worked his way around until he was across the corner of the table from Mary, close enough for a clear view.

“Tai is just like a little kid when it comes to computers.”

“Oh! Quit changing the subject, why haven’t you called me?” Mary shoved herself in front of Fudd demanding an answer.

“I have been very busy, but I didn’t forget about you. I have a present for you later.”

“What is it?” She grabbed him around the neck for another hug.

“I’ll give it to you later at the meet.” His reply managed to satisfy her for the moment. “Ok Fudd, but don’t think you’re gonna get away from me.”

From across the table Ray’s ears perked up at the mention of the name. He had already made a mental picture of the two new faces, and now he had a name for one of them.

“Tai, why don’t you just buy the thing?” Fudd leaned up resting his hands on the table. Ray almost sat a joystick down on his hand and they both nodded at the brief interchange. He chuckled out loud and Fudd cut him a curious glance.

“Your tattoo, that’s really cool.” Ray said.

“Thanks.” He stood back up and turned away from the table. Ray watched as he walked away, the bigger man waved at the vendor and began haggling over a cherry red laptop.

As the group started to wander off, he lagged a bit further behind, knowing that they were headed for the parties after the swap meet. It was time to examine his clues. He fished out a notebook and wrote down everything he had seen of the two men. One called Tie, about three hundred pounds and six three, mid to late thirties covered up to the neck in oriental tattoos. Paid three hundred fifty dollars for a cherry red laptop from InTroniKa, looked brand new. The other one known as Fudd, about two forty, five nine or ten, thirty-ish, teeth and hair guy with a single four inch square tattoo on the left shoulder of Elmer Fudd riding a chopped Harley. The caption read, “Live to Wide, Wide to Live”.

It was already almost six o’clock and the sun was setting fast. And with the coming darkness, came the cool night breezes that reminded everyone that it was still October. The closer Ray got to the swap meet, the more he realized that he needed another disguise. Most of the crowd was clad in leather and denim. His slacks and hush puppies were already getting some long stares. He knew it was mostly just posturing among the party crowd and he wasn’t in any danger. But he knew that he stuck out like a sore thumb, and that made him nervous. Quickly making a U-turn, he found his way to the road and waited for a shuttle tractor. He decided to call it a night and try again tomorrow.

Everyone except Tree walked with the rest of the group, Fudd and Taipei followed a few steps behind. Mary was flirting shamelessly with Fudd as they walked. Which was the reason Tree walked alone. He didn’t want anyone to know that he was more than a little jealous. As he walked, he wandered from side to side exchanging hellos with familiar faces. Among them was a somewhat familiar Junior. Tree saw him standing at a knife display and walked over to greet him.

“Hey there, good to see you. You remember me?” Junior stared blankly at him trying to remember where he had seen him before. “You know.” Tree leaned closer and lowered his voice, “From Mom’s Place. I helped you to your truck.” Junior did feel that he recognized the man but his memories of that night were faded. Tree pumped his hand and patted him on the shoulder, “You remember, if you need something special, just call me. You still got my number?” Junior nodded and Tree winked at him before returning to his tour. He watched the big scruff walk away and a brief memory flashed before his eyes. He did have a number tucked in his wallet, but that was all he remembered.

From across the walkway, Fudd and Taipei had been observing Tree very closely. His newfound interest in politicking was the reason for their scrutiny. Taipei gave Fudd a nudge and curled his eyebrow in response. “Yeh, I saw that.”

“Saw what Fudd?” Mary picked up on their signal and it immediately peaked her attention.

“Oh, nothing.”

“Oh, something, what is it.” She wouldn’t let him off that easily. In her mind she was calculating and intelligent, but to everyone else she was slow and forgetful. And Fudd knew that she was the best source of information in town, one that never realized she was telling anything

“Well, Tai just pointed out a strange look from Tree. It might have been a jealous look.”

“Jealous? Tree? He only cares about himself.” Mary put her hands on her hips and scoffed at the idea.

“I thought you and he were dating?” Fudd started to work, leading the conversation.

“We been hanging out a lot lately, but he ain’t said nothing ‘bout being,” She raised two fingers on each hand making the parenthesis mark in the air. “An item.”

“That’s funny. He sure gave us a strange look.”

“He ain’t interested in nothing but gettin’ laid and paid. He keeps sayin’ he’s gonna move to Bermuda after his next big deal. Alone.” Mary looked away. A hurt feeling crept across her face.

“Shoot, he could never put away enough money to move, you know how he is.” Fudd used her emotions against her and turned up the pressure. “He isn’t bright enough to fool you.”

“That’s right, and he don’t think I know it but he’s got some money stashed. He’s been wheelin’ and dealin’ on the side, talkin’ like Mr. Big.” Her face flushed red. The hurt had turned to anger. “He said he’s tired of working for the man. He’s going to be the man.”

Taipei and Fudd exchanged another glance. This was all the information they needed for now. It was time to let Mary off the hook. Fudd grabbed around the shoulders and pulled her under his right arm. He held his left hand up to her face and she saw a small glass vial. She stuck her head to his chest in a feigned hug while she took a few healthy snorts of cocaine from the vial. “Thanks, I needed that.” Fudd just smiled at her.

“Now why don’t you go and see what Dolly thinks, she knows Tree better then anyone.” A light went on in her head and she took off toward the other group a few yards ahead.

The two men swapped another knowing glance. “Isn’t that interesting.” Fudd clasped his hands behind his back. “Our old friend grows tired of working and dreams of retiring to Bermuda. Ambition makes stupid people do stupid things. That could embarrass us.” Taipei just nodded and Fudd continued. “We should watch things closely, if he does any thing stupid…”  Taipei nodded. “I’ll call in some favors around town. A few extra eyes and ears will help out. I’d like to find out what dealing he’s been doing, it’s not the product, Drago would know it.” Taipei just nodded again. He didn’t need a word to know what to do. If Tree turned out to be a liability, it would fall on him to eliminate the risk. They continued on in silence, still pretending to shop as they walked.

After dark the parties began and music could be heard blasting from several directions. The Reverend spotted some stage lights and pointed out that there was a live band tonight, exactly where they wanted to go. Drago waved his hands and the Wanderers began to come back together as a group, each gravitating toward their party partner. Fudd moved up taking Mary by the hand while Taipei put his arm around Tree.

“I heard that there’s a baby oil wrestling pit on down.” He winked at Tree and showed him a hand full of joints. “Let’s you and I go watch the girls get greasy.” Both Tree and Taipei waved as they walked off in a different direction. Mary was only mildly upset because now she had Fudd to herself, and he had her. By tomorrow he would know everything she knew about everyone she knew. Her weakness was amphetamines, cocaine, or any other good speed. Fudd had some of the best, and he knew she would talk her head off until dawn. Or as long as he could stand to feed her beer and powder. And Taipei would have Tree singing before midnight, one way or the other they would know what he was into.

Chapter 15

On the sun porch of the Hampton House, amid a flourish of rattan furniture sat Agent Ramone Hitchcock. Normally a busy spot for lunch, he found that he was one of only three guests today. The whole of the resident population was busy cleaning up after the weekend long deluge of people. Most of the vendors had left early Monday morning leaving only a few scattered visitors like Ray. He motioned for another cup of coffee and reluctantly reached for his cell phone.

“Jenkins.”

“Good morning Conrad.”

“Ray! How the hell are you? Do you have any good news to report or did you spend the weekend playing bad boy biker?” The usual monotone voice through the phone was very relaxed and friendly today.

“I’m just fine, and no bike. I’m doing the old man bit these days.” Ray slurped his coffee and relaxed into the chair. The need for subterfuge had passed and he felt certain that it was the end of his assignment.

“Oh, you didn’t get any souvenirs from the swap meet?” Jenkins poked fun at his friend a bit more than usual because he knew he was safe. “You said you would get me something made out of leather.”

“Oh well, I guess I forgot. But seriously, I spent most of the time shopping the tables. I really didn’t get to the other side much. My current look kept from getting to close to any of the bad guys, but it was mostly a party. The real dealing was in the market. We could do a separate investigation of that by itself.” Ray slurped some coffee and reached for the last bite of blackberry cobbler.

“Really! What did you see?”

“Nothing that we were looking for but I’d bet big money that a third of this stuff was stolen, probably fenced from cities far away. I saw a lot of very expensive clothing and furniture, the kind of stuff that you never see at a flea market.” Ray’s excitement showed in his voice.

“We’ll have to look into that….later. How about your current case?”

“Ok ok, none of the goods I looked at had the right numbers or the numbers were gone. Most of the stuff on the lists would be nearly impossible to identify. All the clothes and house wares are too easy to disperse. I did manage to get a description on Fudd and his accomplice, sounds like Tie.”

“Well that’s a start, fax me a full report and a detailed list of your expenses, I don’t want to find any Cuban cigars on it either.” Jenkins chuckled but it quickly faded, he knew it was time to call him in. It was always sad to terminate an assignment, but without any hard evidence he would have to.

“No problem, but…..the hotel was a necessary evil. I had to maintain a safe distance from the wrong element.”

“Yeh, right. It’s the best place in town I‘m sure.” Jenkins paused debating his decision. “Here’s something that just came in this morning. There was another missing persons report filed last Friday. A driver named Mike Davis was taking a load of super high tech computers and prototypes to a trade show. He last called his wife from a diner in Bontonville about lunchtime. The truck was a small cube van bearing the name InTroniKa. Apparently this stuff is very cutting edge and expensive. The owners are putting a lot of heat behind this one.”

Ray nearly choked on his coffee when he heard it “Can you spell that name, I think we might have a clue.” When Jenkins described the unusual lettering he knew he had seen it. “I saw a table full of that stuff, joysticks, laptops and all kind of accessories, and they were selling like mad.”

“Can you track it down? This could be a break. Do you remember who was selling it?” Jenkins also got excited at the chance of a fresh clue. Usually the only trails that lead anywhere were fresh.

“I’ll have to get with the city planners to see who had that booth and see if I can track it from there. I’ve been thinking that our hijacker is a loner, not a gang. And I’ll bet you it went missing somewhere between Bontonville and Brayton.” Ray waved at the waiter and mouthed the words ‘check please’ before continuing. “I would like to stay and poke around some more, I know we‘re getting close.”

“Who knows, we certainly haven’t got much so far and the Senator is looking for blood. Send me as much as you can find out, the seller was probably a second or third hand man in the deal anyway.” Jenkins was already typing away on his computer. “We can track that end of it from here. You stay where you are and follow your instincts, and if at all possible, find a cheaper hotel. James Bond you ain’t.”