CHAPTER 14


   “Are you sure about that?”
The guy in the white beanie and the shirt that might have matched in color, had it not been stained in grease, gave Bob the evil eye, “that’s what I told you, wasn’t it?”
Bob always wondered about this guy. He was big and burly, had a gruff voice and did he ever stand anywhere but this service window? It was like the window was a poster and this guy was the picture. He was such a permanent fixture that Bob often wondered why they didn’t change this locations name from the Foo King Dinner to Mel’s Dinner.
After the bombing, Bob was really surprised that they didn’t just shut this place down but, then again, there was no Foo King like this, anywhere else. All the other ones were just your typical drive thru and fast food eat in. Here, you could park your car under a little awning with menu’s at the window. The waitresses came right out to you. It was a different kind of Foo King that sort of made it special.
Bob figured he’d wasted enough time at this particular Foo King. He nodded to Mel and with a smile he told him, “thank you sir, you’ve been of absolutely no help, whatsoever.”
Mel smiled and nodded back, “and I am so proud to have done my civic duty.” He then went back to his normal scowl, “VERA! Get your ass out here! Your order is up!”
Bob walked back to his car and just stood by the door, surveying the parking area one last time. All he knew was that if Amy and Garcia had ever gotten here, in the first place, then they were no longer. Neither of the station’s vehicles were here ether. What the hell had happened? Did Amy and Garcia pick up the other car? If they did, then why weren’t they already back at the station? Why didn’t they answer their phones?
Bob tried calling both Garcia and Amy, one more time. There was still no answer so he called the station and Leslie picked up. She had not heard from anybody either. He asked her, “what about Calvin?”
Leslie sounded insanely bored as she answered, “he hasn’t ether. Look, Johnson, have you ever thought about calling a cop?”
“What?” Bob was not particularly thrilled with the idea, “call the city? Are you crazy? Those guys hate us, um, I mean when they even know who we are. Besides, us being law enforcement, we can’t just go make this some official…”
Leslie interrupted, “who said anything about official champ. Stay away from official. Just talk to the guy who’s working the zone. They usually know everything going on in their area. Course they usually don’t do much about it but, that can be helpful too.”
Bob just blew it off, “they’re not going to tell me squat Leslie, you don’t know those guys like we do.”
“I beg to differ big boy,” Leslie shot back. “You just got to know how to ask.”
“Wait a minute,” Bob said as his eye caught sight of a familiar looking object that was slowly moving in front of the strip mall that the restaurant was located by. It was a white, four wheel drive, vehicle and it was definitely the right make and model. After a more careful look, Bob could see a round logo on the door as it parked right in front of this gym. Was that a colonial seal he was looking at? He told Leslie, “I think I found them. Let me call you back.”
Bob could still hear Leslie saying something in protest as he hung up. He was not that worried about it ether. He was about to get in his car when he stopped and took a second look at the white vehicle. Bob closed his door and figured he had better walk. The parking area for the dinner and the mall were closed off from each other to keep people form cutting through to avoid the nearby traffic light. It took forever to change since it also handled the traffic for the L-5 on ramp. That was also the same reason Bob decided to walk.
As near as Bob could tell, there was still somebody sitting in that vehicle. If he tried to drive over there it would take forever and, more important, he’d loose sight of it. Fortunately, it did look like the driver was on the phone. The guy even appeared to be looking his way. That was all good news because the closer he got the more certain he was that the logo on the side belonged to the CG. That had to be their vehicle. He even started picking out little details, the closer he got, and by the time a random woman got his attention, he was positive that it was the car he was looking for.
The random woman actually tugged on his sleeve to make sure she got his attention. She had apparently just come out of the mall’s grocery store and still had a half cart full of food and children. She pointed back towards the Foo King and asked, “hey mister, didn’t I just see you walk away from that car?”
At first, Bob had no idea what she was talking about but, then he looked back to the Foo King. Another car had pulled up in front of his. A guy had gotten out of the passenger side and was now opening his car door so fast that the guy had to have a key! He proved it a second later as he cranked the vehicle up with ease and then, both vehicles drove away!
Bob went running in the direction of his vanishing car while screaming, “you sons of bitch’s! Come back here!!!” He stopped running after only a few seconds. As he stomped back past the lady she made a snide comment about car thieves and Bob grumbled back, “that was the insurance company!”
The woman got back to packing groceries and she did state for the record, “there’s a difference?”
The only good news was that the station car was not only still parked in front of the gym but, the driver had gotten out and was going inside. Bob figured it had to be Garcia. He could not really tell from this distance but, whoever it was kind of dressed like Gar or, at least, Bob could never picture Amy wearing a trench coat and ball cap. The only real questions that Bob had was, why would either of them be going into a place called Jim Buddies? This looked more like Chuck’s kind of hang out. In the end, it really did not matter because, as Bob walked up to the front counter he noticed the sign in book. Thankfully, the last person who signed in was Garcia Alvarez.
Some little brown haired girl, in a leotard, and with pig tails was working the counter. She was smiling so hard that her freckles looked like they were about to pop off her face. She even winked at Bob as he flashed his badge and then pointed to the back room where all of the weights were, “I got some business here miss. One of our officers is back there and I need to get him.”
It was almost like this girl had a switch that put her head on permanent rocking. Her head never stopped tilting from side to side just like her smile seemed almost chiseled on. She told Bob, “sure, it’s twenty.”
“What?” Bob was shocked, “look I just want to walk back there and get him is all. I promise I won’t grow any biceps.”
“I don’t make the rules,” the girl with the bobbing head replied. Bob began grumbling as he fished out his plastic but, as he tried to hand it to the girl the she pointed to a sign behind the counter. It read, “Deutschemarks Only.” Bob went right back to searching his pockets till he was pretty cleaned out of hard currency. There was one last surprise.
The girl pointed to another sign that was over the door to the weight room. It clearly stated, “Gym Clothes Only.” Bob was horrified, “I don’t have any!”
The girl was ready for that. She had already slapped a couple of sealed plastic bags on the counter, along with a pair of shoes that Bob figured came right out of a bowling alley. They were sneakers of a sort but, they were also ugly. She was still smiling as she patted them, “oh don’t worry. Your fee covers all that.” She then pointed to a row of makeshift changing rooms that Bob questioned the privacy of. He even bent over and realized that you could see pretty good under the doors that were, at best, only a collection of slats that missed the floor by a good two feet.
Bob started to feel pretty self conscious and he said, “look, you guys don’t like have a bathroom. I’m a little self conscious about, you know, changing in public.” The girl pointed to another sign that Bob read aloud, “bathrooms in the back.” He then looked at the smiling girl and said, “don’t tell me…”
The girl had a twinkle in her eye, “you have to be changed to go in the back.”
Bob gulped as he gathered the bag of clothes and shoes, “how do I know this stuff fits?”
Why was this girl always so damn happy? It was really starting piss Bob off. She told him, “it all stretches.”
With a nasty sneer on his face, Bob entered the dressing room, dumped his shoes, pants, and shirt as he started the bothersome task of getting the sealed bag open. He constantly kept worrying about somebody looking in on him and, only then, did a more horrifying thought cross his mind. “Where the hell did my clothes go?”
Bob began to panic as he twirled around in the dressing room that had barely enough room to stand in, let alone do anything else. He was hoping that somehow his clothing would just magically reappear but, predictably, they did not. It took him a second to decide what to do. He had the gym clothes and, right now, clothing was high on his priority list of needs. Bob finished tearing into the bag and was quite thankful that they really did have clothing inside. His relief was short lived when he discovered that everything he had was two sizes too small.
Meekly Bob whispered, “help?”