February 5, 2010

Elmo was driving out to the convenience store to pick up some smokes. Suddenly the car jumped and took off. It was like it was demon possessed or something. Elmo noticed that the pedal was all the way on the floor, like someone had their foot on the gas. He tried the brakes, but the car kept speeding forward. He tried honking his horn and weaving in and out of traffic to avoid a collision. Suddenly a large semi hauling a trailer appeared in front of him. He opened the door and dove out of the car and the car buried itself into the trailer. Elmo was hurt there was no doubt about it. He probably broke a wrist and perhaps a few ribs. Elmo then saw another truck bearing down on him and despite the pain, he managed to lung out of the way. The police and EMS personnel arrived within minutes and Elmo was rushed to the local hospital. The police impounded the vehicle and gathered the pieces of the car off the road to see if Elmo was hot rodding or if as he said the car just took off on him.

Jack, Jr. got a call that Elmo had been in accident. Since he saw his father talking to a customer at the dealership, he knew that his latest attempt had been unsuccessful and he just shook his head. He informed Jack, Sr. and the two of them headed off to the hospital to see Elmo and let the workman’s compensation carrier know that Elmo had been injured on the job.

When they arrived at the hospital, Elmo was livid. “They wanted to give me a ticket for reckless driving, the damn car just took off, it wasn’t my fault.” Jack, Sr., thought for a moment, and looked at Jack, Jr., “sounds like bad motor mounts”, Senior said. Junior just nodded. “Son, don’t worry, sounds like the car had a problem and I’ve seen you drive, you drive like an old woman, if I had been driving, it would be a different story. In the future, if that ever happens to you again, just slide the car into neutral and let it just roll to a stop. Other than that, how are you feeling, I heard you jumped out of the car?” Jack, Sr. asked. “Pretty bruised up and sore, but I’m alive”, Elmo smiled. “Well rest up and get better and we’ll see you in a week or so. You’re being paid for this week”, and Jack, Sr. patted the young man on the head and headed out of the room. Jack, Jr. saw that his dad was the consummate people person. As they left the hospital, Jack, Sr. looked at Jack, Jr. Motor mounts don’t go bad very often and that car is at the crime lab, if they was messed with, we’ll know it.”

February 1, 2010

Later that night, Jack, Jr. followed Elmo’s path and saw the motor mounts and bolts laying on the side of the road. He picked them up and put them in a dumpster behind a restaurant a few miles away.

February 6, 2010.

“Where are the motor mounts and the bolts?”, the technician asked the officer. “We picked up everything at the scene”, the officer said. “The motor mounts would have been several miles back, could you go back and look for them?”, the tech replied. “Sure” said the officer. After calling Elmo and retracing the route, he found no motor mounts, no bolts, no nothing. Somebody probably saw them as used parts to sell on ebay, he thought. He called the technician, they’re gone. “Thanks”, the tech replied. He looked at the bottom and it was clear that a rusty motor mount had been installed on the bottom of this car, must older than the rest of the body and it left an impression.

January 31, 2010

“Hello is Mr. Jenkins, Sr. there, this is Joanne Bo”, Sally said into the prepaid cell phone that Jack, Sr. gave her. “No trails for her husband if he came into the dealership snooping around”, she thought. It was the code name the two of them had agreed upon. “Hello, this is Jack Jenkins”, came a familiar voice into the headset. How are you today darlin’?” “Not so good”, she answered. “Beau saw me leaving the bar and saw you there, and he is jealous as hell. He already suspects something, but so far he’s not there yet”, she continued. “Hmmm, we’d better take a few days off and see what old Beau is up to. He can’t take too much time off from work to follow you around, or he’ll be unemployed. I know the ole coot that runs that Service station he works at, and he’d fire his daughter if he was mad. Let’s change our meeting place to that diner on 5th Avenue at about 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. Drive a circuitous route and not be make you paranoid, see if any car appears to be following you. He’ll be hard at work and that’s on the other side of town from his garage, so he’s not likely to go there for lunch and stumble on us. But if you see someone following you, just stop at the nearest grocery store, buy some groceries and go home. Then we’ll head out from there. You know your going to have to leave that SOB sooner or later, or you’ll end up dead, he’ll be in prison and your kids will be in foster care”, Jack added caringly. “I know, but I don’t want to leave into the arms of another man as attractive as that man might be”, she said in a sad tone of voice. “I understand”, Jack said. “Well I see you tomorrow then at the diner”.

That night, at the garage in the car dealership, Jack, Jr. had the pully system employed in the garage to hold up the engine while he swapped the good motor mount brackets for the old worn ones. He used latex gloves.

February 1, 2010

“Hey Sally, glad you made it.” Jack said. “I ordered us some coffee. Its pretty good.”

“I wasn’t followed, I swear”, Sally said. But someone had followed Jack.

January 17, 2010

Jack, Sr. returned to Jerry’s Bar and saw Sally in the same spot. This time they didn’t stick around. Elmo drove them back to Jack’s house and they spent the day like a couple of high school kids kissing and holding hands and watching a movie on his DVD player. She memorized the directions to the house so they could go to the bar meet and then leave and meet up here so that any prying eyes would not see them leaving together. At the appointed time, Elmo returned her to the bar and she headed off.

Elmo called Jack, Jr. during Sally’s visit. “He took Sally to his house.” After he hung up, Jack, Jr. looked at the burley man in front of him. We need you to check up on a Sally Beaudine. She’s apparently caught my dad’s eye. The usual dossier please. “No problem, Jack” said the P.I. “Five Hundred bucks?”, he asked. “No problem”, said Jack, Jr. As the three hundred pound man left the room, Jack looked down at the locked file drawer in his desk where dozens of such files were kept. He knew the flaws of each and every woman Jack, Sr. had been involved with and he knew what was needed to get rid of them if need be. Luckily, his dad tired of them quickly. But this one was more worrisome.

January 30, 2010

“Here’s the file on Sally”, Marco said to Jack, Jr. “Here’s your Benjamins”, Junior responded as he eagerly tore open the large manilla envelope to see what mysteries there were about Sally. “Hmm, married, two kids, um hmm, hot headed husband, good, very good, police record for assault, owns guns, thanks Marco”, Jack said, I thought this one might be one that might be trouble for dad.

As he looked further in the file he saw the grainy photos of his dad and Sally doing things at his house that weren’t meant for family viewing. As Marco left the room, Junior locked the dossier in the file drawer. Things are looking up.

Later that day, Jack, Jr. and Jack, Sr. met at Lawyer Dobbins office to go over the drafts of the various estate planning documents. “Mr. Dobbins, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought, I need to think about this plan some more, I’ve met someone.” Dobbins looked at Jack, Sr. with an inquisitive look? “Well, all these documents are revocable and amendable”, he responded. “I know, but I just need a little time to think it through” Jack, Sr. said shaking his head. Jack, Jr.’s face twisted with the look you get when you suck a lemon at the news. He’d have to move up his plan sooner rather than later.

Bo Beaudine saw his wife leave the bar shortly after arriving. A man left shortly thereafter in another car. He knew that face from somewhere, he’d figure it out soon enough. In the meantime, he’d have reason to beat his wife around a little bit for going drinking in bars.

Bo Beaudine, well his name really was Maurice Beaudine, Jr., so he got the nickname Bo early on and it seemed to fit. Bo was a big kid who did poorly in school. Today, they might say that he had a learning disability, back when he was growing up, he was considered a daydreamer and goof off. He dropped out of high school at 16 and started to work at Quickie Taco, got fired, went to work at a local garage where he seemed to get interested enough to hold down a job. He was angry at the world for a number of unknown sins, but did his thing. While working at the garage a girl from his old high school Sally Hightower came into the garage to get the oil on her dad’s truck changed. She seemed nice enough and Bo was young. When she came back to pick up the car, she promised to buy gas there every time she needed gas and Bo told her she’d have full service even if the sign said “self service”. After a month, he got up the courage to ask her out to a movie. She accepted, he was after all a working man and she was in her senior year of high school and looking at a life of motherhood or low end jobs. After a few dates, they did the deed and Sally got in trouble. Bo did the honorable southern thing of marrying her, but he wasn’t happy about it. The last thing he wanted was two more mouths to feed. In short order another baby popped out and Bo was angry about that (as if he didn’t know how that sort of thing happened). As the years went by, Bo took out that anger on Sally and on the kids. He controlled by his fury. When he came home, if dinner wasn’t on the table, he’d get angry. After dinner if he couldn’t watch sports and drink beer, he’d get angry. After drinking for an hour or two if he didn’t fall asleep right away, he’d get mad at the kids for not going to bed fast enough, or at Sally for the house not being pristine and on most nights, he’d just scream at them and raise a hand or a fist and that ensured order. Once or twice Sally threatened to take the kids and leave, and Bo’s response was always the same he’d look at her with dispassionate eyes and say, the only way you leave is to die and he’d point to the locked gun case where he kept his hunting rifle.