Chapter 19

The place was closed down and that was actually something of a surprise to Barbara. She could remember when there was only one of those Foo King places, out at the west end of the L-5. From that day forward, it seemed like Foo King was all the rage. Then came the Foo King Junior and from that day on, it seemed like, every where you turned there was another one. The only thing that Barbara could never remember was actually seeing one shut down.

“Now I’ve seen everything,” she mumbled to herself as she got back to concentrating on work. As far as Barbara was concerned, one of them needed to be. Since they parked in the empty lot of the abandoned fast foot place, Jake had been doing nothing but texting. That was something else that Barbara had never seen before but, at least in this case, she had an excuse. She tried to ignore most things that Barton did, let alone, think about the things he didn’t.

When She finally asked him who he was chatting with, Barbara did not believe his answer. Then he actually showed her a text and, sure enough, the screen said it had come from Danni. Barbara read the words on the screen with no small amount of horror, “Hey Sugar, didn’t know you played with your fonts too. Love Danni.” When Barbara handed the phone back to Jake she was very stern, serious, and not the least bit hostile, “Barton, I hope I don’t have to tell you that if you so much as lay a finger on that girl I’m going to cut your balls off, right?”

Jake shrugged it off, “she’s just being a kid. I’m also more interested in the documents on your phone. Found anything? After all, we did waste a couple of hours at the palace to get those. Still don’t think we need them.”

Barbara grumbled in agitation, “I got an address didn’t I? You need to be driving in that direction, by the way.”
Instead of doing as she said, Jake just sat there and replied, “I didn’t know you and the governor were all buddy, buddy, anyway. In fact, if I had any words to describe your feelings about that woman, I don’t think anything positive would be added too the list.”
Still scanning the documents, Barbara replied as if he were distracting her, “I didn’t get these from Helen. I do have friends at the palace, you know.”

“And that’s another thing,” Jake said with a lot more frustration than Barbara was showing, “you hate that woman and you can still manage to call her by her first name. How come you can’t manage to do that with me.”

Now Barbara sounded happy, “oh I don’t know Barton. Maybe that should tell you something.”

If he took it as an insult he did not show it. Jake stayed on topic, “what is it with you and her anyway, Barbara? It obviously happened a long time ago, whatever it was.”

“It’s none of your damn business,” Barbara said in a matter of fact kind of way, “why would you care anyway?”
The question was rhetorical but, Jake answered it, “when you’re dealing with people it helps to know the context. What do you think we’re going over all these documents for?”

“I thought I was doing that,” Barbara told him. “You’re just sitting there not driving.”

“Well since you know how I’m wasting time,” Jake came back with, “why don’t you convince me that you’re not either?”

With a snort, Barbara dropped her phone in her lap. She looked at Barton and said, “fine. If you must know.”

“Let’s say I must,” Jake replied.

“They’re waivers,” Barbara announced in frustration, “every last one them. Sheila thought I might find them interesting and I do. It would seem that Helen has opened the door on real estate sales and purchases. She’s authorized hundreds of them in just the past couple of weeks. That’s why my friends at the palace thought it was odd. That’s ten times the number they usually get.”

Jake raised a brow to that, “waivers for what exactly?”

“All kinds of things,” Barbara replied with a shrug, “but, to bottom line it, basically, without Helen’s signature on all these documents then a lot of these real estate sales couldn’t go through.”

Jake considered that and mumbled to himself, “kickbacks?”

“I don’t know,” Barbara replied even if Jake wasn’t looking for one. She went on, “there’s nothing here to really indicate that. These documents don’t have anything to do with money. They’re just waivers to get around all kinds of conditions required for legal transfer of land.”

“In other words,” Jake came back with in a matter of fact kind of way, “the government is selling the one and only product that it has. The power of the veto. So what kind of waivers did our dear Governor Crass sign for that Austin Street thing?”

Now Barbara backed off of her edge and answered, “that’s the funny part. So far, that’s the only one I’ve seen that she actually denied.”
That got Jake’s interest, “sounds like a motive for murder too me.” He gestured for her phone and Barbara actually handed it over so he could see the documents. As she watched him scroll through the pages she told him the part that did not come as easy as the phone, “how do you figure that? OK, PBS did apply for that waiver but, just because April worked there doesn’t mean she was involved with it. From what she said, she only does residential and that’s a commercial property.”

“Are you admitting,” Jake relished the words, “my dear Barbara, that this is all a wild good chase?”

Barbara caught the amused tone he had and she snatched her phone back. With a smug look and a little amusement of her own she shot back with, “are you admitting, Mister Barton, that it isn’t?”

“When you’re combing through piles of bureaucrat droppings you’re always looking for two things,” Jake told her. To Barbara’s surprise he actually sounded serious, “you’re looking for both ends of the extreme. That means, in layman’s terms, you find what is the most common and then what isn’t.”

Barbara looked completely unimpressed, “and did you?”

“Oh yeah,” Jake winked and started the car, “more than that actually. I found two things that stand out as the exceptions to the rule there. It might also tell us if my theory about what is most common is right.”

“All from five seconds of browsing,” Barbara replied, unconvinced.

Jake began to drive for the exit, “no you found most of it for me but, this one you didn’t think about.”

Now Barbara looked down at the last document that Jake had examined on her phone. It was a waiver like all the rest. Like nearly sixty percent of all the waivers, it had been submitted by PBS. She still did not see the significance of the document. It was like so many others on her screen so why did it catch Jake’s interest? Then, Barbara realized, that it did not matter if she thought that Jake’s way of examining government forms was valid or not. It was still an insight into his brain and it would tell her why he stopped at this particular form.

What was so different about this government form? Barbara reexamined it with a different eye this time. It took her a second but, then she realized, “this is a private residence? All the rest were commercial properties.”

As he turned the car onto the street, Jake replied, “near as I could tell. I mean, I saw a few more residences in there but, they were for other companies. PBS seems to have a hard on from commercial and industrial.”

Barbara asked herself quietly, “so why would they buy a house?” She thought about the street address and then whistled when she realized, “that’s a pretty swanky neighborhood.” Then Barbara realized something else. Her head snapped around and she asked Jake, “how do you know where this street is? You get lost trying to get to Foo King.”

“Cause,” Jake said as he began paying more attention to the rear view mirror, “I seen that street name before. The US Ambassador lives on that street too.”

Barbara became very interested, “this is Whitman’s house?”

“I don’t think so,” Jake told her as he readjusted his rear view mirror, “the numbers look wrong but, that’s definitely the street.”
Barbara became reflective, “a commercial company buying a private residence. I wonder who lives here.”

“I’m figuring,” Jake told her even if she did not want to hear it, “we need to find out. Sides that, I can think of a couple of more reasons we need to drive in that neighborhood.”

Unbelieving, Barbara crossed her arms and looked at Jake, “and those couple of reasons are?”

Jake said calmly, “sitting in the car that’s trying to follow us.”