CHAPTER 16
Norm considered if he even wanted to bother but, in the end, he decided he thought it might be fun. Of course there were the humanitarian grounds involved here. Cal might actually fall out of the chair and break his neck. Then Barbara would kill Norm, and Darcy would murder Barbara. That had to be against the law somewhere. Norm poked the guy in the arm and the snoring stopped. Calvin sat up in the chair and said, “I never did that!”
“I'm not going to ask what,” Norm told him. It did not even appear as if Calvin realized he had said anything so Norm just went on, “what? Did Harvey give you a refresher course yesterday?”
Now Calvin stood up as he rubbed his head and tried to wake up proper as he told Norm, “you know what Norm. You really need to talk to Barbara about this hiring thing. We can't keep doing this.”
“I already talked to Barbara about that,” Norm said in his usual gruff manner as he walked over to the print outs for City book in. As he thumbed through them he said, “and she said no. Sides that, nobody told you to stay up all day yesterday. We had this covered.”
“Really?” Cal grumbled, “and who's supposed to be up here today? I only ask because it's not going to be me.”
“Why not,” Norm said with a shrug, “looks to me like you got plenty of sleep.”
Idhirti came walking up the stairs with some folders, a magazine, and a bagged lunch. Calvin was not only a little surprised to see her but, what she was wearing as well. Every time he'd seen her since she got back, she was always wearing those business suits and now, with the cut off jeans on, he remember that she had a great pair of legs on her. Calvin slapped himself.
Idhirti sat her things down on the console and began dusting off a chair that she planned on using, as she told Calvin, “do not worry Cal. I'm handling comwatch today. Dad wanted to come again but, I did not think it was such a good idea.”
Again, all Norm had to say on the subject was, “not gonna ask.” Of course, he did have a few questions for Tony who was stumbling up the stairs, yawning, with a cup of coffee in his hand. After Tony finished an exchange with Idhirti, Norm asked the boy, “you sleep here last night?”
Tony woke completely up, “um, yeah? Is that a problem?”
“I just figured,” Norm told the boy as he sat down the print outs, “since your Uncle Blake gave you ride back from the explosion, you might just should have stayed at his place.”
Calvin was now fully awake too, “explosion?”
Idhiriti was fully engrossed, “again?”
Tony defended himself to Idhirti, “no, that's not fair. The first time was just a bomb threat. There was no bomb.”
The little dark girl turned around, sat down at her seat, opened her magazine, and announced, “I don't want to know.”
Calvin had to add, “well there was that comic book store Tony.”
“That was not my fault,” Tony protested, “and.. and that was not a bomb ether. That was a fire which, by the way, I didn't start.” Then he looked at Norm and said, “and last night was not ether.”
Again, it was Calvin who asked, “not what? A bomb or a fire?”
“My fault,” Tony made clear. Then he mumbled, “and it was a bomb and a fire.”
Calvin crossed his arms, “and I supposed you didn't start ether one?”
“No,” Tony reluctantly admitted, “I kind of started the fire but...” He was quite adamant when he told Norm, “but they were shooting at us, ok. I didn't have a choice.”
“What the hell you expect,” Norm told him, “you walk into a chop shop in the middle of the night, waving your badge around, what you think they gonna do?”
“We were not,” Tony's jaw dropped and then he had to ask, “how did you know that was a chop shop?”
Norm almost exploded, “cause everybody knows what that goddamn place is, genius. What the fuck were you two doing there in the first place. I sent you to take care of some missing jewelry and, the last time I checked, those guys don't deal in that kind of stuff. Oh, and don't get me started on the goddamn car, or Darcy.”
Calvin winced, “what's Darcy have to do with this?”
“Blake woke her up when he called,” replied Norm. “She's got classes today and I was already in the dog house cause I forgot to take the trash out yesterday.”
“Classes,” Calvin winced, “I thought school was out for the wet season.”
Norm's nostrils flared at Calvin this time, “she's not teaching them, she's taking them. Don't ask me why, I don't know what the hell teachers do.”
Now Idhirti did look away from her magazine, “Norm, how can you not know? You're married to one.”
“Not important!” Norm looked back to Tony, “I'm going to let Barbara handle the damn car. I just want an answer to my question. What were you two doing there?”
It was a bit curious, to Norm, that Tony was not that defensive. It gave Norm the impression that the kid really didn't think any of this was his fault He was huffy, he was short, he was in deep thought, but he was doing anything but feeling guilt at the moment. Then he asked the oddest thing, “can I go get my phone?”
“I hope you gonna call an ambulance,” Norm told him, “cause when Barbara gets back this afternoon, you gonna need one.” When the boy got all twisted up, Norm snapped at him, “go get the damn thing then.” By the time that Tony got back with the phone, Norm was by the window and looking out at the sandy parking area where Leslie had just arrived. For some reason, and Norm kind of guessed it, she was staying out by her car. Then Norm took the phone he was given, scanned over a little of the email on it's screen, and then handed it off to Calvin, “hold this for me Cal.”
“You want me to read it or something?” Calvin asked.
“I don't care,” Norm replied in a very stoic fashion, “it's just I think Tony has been doing some funky shit with his phone and I don't want to touch it no more.”
“Ew!” Calvin held the phone with two fingers as he quickly set it down on the counter.
Tony protested, “no! That's what we were doing yesterday!”
“Boy,” Norm huffed, “ain't you got enough women trouble without adding another one to the foal.”
Now Tony got defensive but, it was not about what Norm would have supposed when he made it clear, “I am not that sick.” Then he added, “and I have access to a real video screen. I don't need my... Never mind!”
Everyone's eyes drifted to Idhirti when they all realized she was looking at Tony with some piercing eyes. With complete confidence she smiled and said, “no really, I want to hear this part.”
Norm huffed, told Tony to get his phone and then nodded for him to follow. They stopped at Leslie's car where she was busy with some little black box and a few other electronic items. Tony tried explaining what he could, on the way to the car but, was not really sure if Norm was paying him any attention at all. When they arrived Norm accusingly told Leslie, “you was supposed to keep him out of trouble. Not blow up half a city block.”
Leslie did not bother with explanations nor was she particularly impressed with the antics. On the other side of the coin, Tony was now even more jumpy, “what do you mean keep me....?”
“Shut up Tony,” Leslie told him in a calm enough voice, “sounds like you've already done enough this morning. Look guys, we've got bigger problems than that.” She saw the confused looks she was getting and Leslie had to ask Tony, “you did tell him about the email, right?”
“He tried,” Norm said with scorn. “Something about Betsy. Did it ever occur to ether one of you that she might have sent that email to herself?”
Tony was now more confused, “why would she do that?” Then Tony's eyes opened wide and he looked right at Norm, “you were actually listening to me?”
“Yeah I did Norm,” Leslie confidently told Norm while being dismissive of his theory, “and she didn't do this. In fact, I don't think that email was as much about her as it was about us.”
Norm crossed his arms and nodded, “ok, why would you think that?”
Leslie reached into the car and tossed a flat, silver, slab of medal to Tony and then told Norm, “your standard battery for most electronics. That one's only got about a four day life if you run it continuously, and that one was.” When he was unimpressed Leslie showed him the black box, “this is the router we pulled out of the drop box last night. That battery is what was powering it.” When she got blank looks, she rolled her eyes at them, “guys, whoever put that in the drop box knew it had a limited life. In other words they did it specifically for this. This wasn't some random moron in his basement.” The looks were still blank and Leslie almost exploded on them, “guys, we were set up. Somebody wanted us to go that Thrift Store.”
Tony shook it off, “if this was a trail of bread crumbs, how could anybody even know, before hand that we'd follow it? I mean, they'd have to know that Betsy would give that to us and... That doesn't make any sense.”
“I don't know Tony,” Leslie said in a firm manner, “maybe they were just trying to cover to their tracks with a lethal trap. Maybe, they had it in for us or, maybe it was for those bald headed assholes and their little bomb factory. Just possibly, it could have been that they wanted to get rid of both of us. What I do know is that Betsy Ross got an email and we got bullets.”
Tony remained unconvinced but, at the moment, he was a bit disturbed by the fact that Norm was unusually silent and obviously deep in thought. When Tony tried to prompt a response, Norm suddenly came to life and asked Leslie, “you gonna take care of the jewelry store?”
Again, Leslie rolled her eyes and then gestured to the thin pattered blouse, and short skirt she had on, “why do you think I'm dressed like this?”
Tony turned to leave and told them, “let me get dressed and I'll be with you in...”
Norm was already stomping back to the station and he yelled at Tony, “no hell you ain't. Call Chuck and tell him to get your bird ready. We got some place to be.”
Tony remained at the car and yelled out to the departing Norm, “you know you can't dump my body at sea if I'm the pilot, right?” When Norm did not answer, Tony deflated and told Leslie, “he's never going to trust me again.”
“Oh I see,” Leslie replied, “like he did to begin with? Better question Tony, why do you trust him?” Tony stumbled with that one, so, Leslie put her hand on his chest and told him, “never mind. Look, I have to go take care of this and you watch your ass, closely, today.”
“I don't know Leslie,” Tony was obviously still stuck in getting ass chewed mode, “we should have done what we were supposed too, yesterday. Maybe...”
Leslie slapped her forehead, “Tony, what was yesterday?”
“It was,” a light went off behind his eyes, “the jewelers were closed?”
“I know I'm new at this investigation stuff,” Leslie told him, “but on the street we have these rules and one of them is, always check first, to see if a business is open or closed, depending on your needs.”
Tony acted unimpressed, “you act like that is all open and shut. The guys jewels vanished into thin air, with nobody there to take it. The guy turns one second, and then looks back and poof, they're gone. The only witness confirms it. You act like this is going to take five seconds to close.”
“Oh brother,” Leslie said with an exhale, “yes it will. In fact, I would have already taken care of it but, I had to interview a suspect before going down there.”
“Suspect?” Tony went back to being confused, “what suspect? About what?”
“Oh you know,” Leslie up to the station and said, “this angry little man named Norman Scoggins.”
Days as a Schizophrenic (Poem)
Decant
It's Hurting Again
