"A Cold Breed, chap 6" by oldmanshan

1. Synopsis:

2.  DJ owns her own one-employee business.  She installs high end, hi-tech security systems using the latest and most sophisticated gadgetry.  She sees into a lot of people’s inner lives.

3. In this tale, DJ tells us of her encounter with Travis Bitter when she installs a system for him.  He’s a horror-show-quality creep, as are his two equally maniacal teenage boys.  As a security expert, she can’t help but discover the cruelest, most despicable circumstance she has seen in her life: their puppy mill.  She manages to free the suffering “breeding stock” and their adorable, but oftentimes sick “product.” 

4. Unfortunately and contrary to expectations, the raid on the Bitters’ mill isn’t the happy ending everyone planned for; the Bitters enact retribution on DJ.  She relies on detective Max Swan to rescue her from their torturous grip.

5.  

6. End of Chap 5:

7. “I’ll tell you what, Auntie, what says you give me a call in twenty minutes.  If need be, I can use you as an excuse to get outta’ here.  We’ll say that, um, that your dishwasher is leaking water all over your kitchen.  Okay?”

8. “Sure Deej, that’ll work.  Give me his address and phone number in case I have trouble reaching you.  The police’ll need it.”

9. “Okay…”  There was a loud knock on my passenger window.  “OH M’GOSH!” I shouted with a stomach gyrating startle.  It was Travis Bitter leaning sideways with his blackhead encrusted nose nearly touching the glass.

10. “Miss DJ?  Welcome! C’mon down!”

11.  

12. Chapter Six

13. Pursuaded

14.

15. He turned on his heels and quickly maneuvered past the many potholes as he led the way down the two hundred foot double rut driveway. Many a weed had the impudence to rebel against their landowner, growing tall in effort to separate the upcoming sights from the rest of the world. What must have totaled thousands of stubborn dandelions besieged the land that he kept mowed between the house and the road; cotton topped seeds awaited the next strong breeze so that they might play their role reproducing the useless plant. An impressive oak, probably seven foot in diameter, could have claimed sovereignty over the front quarter of the “yard” save for a deforming ninety degree wedge of missing limbs; utility workers cut them out to protect the near-at-hand electrical wires from assault and ruin.

16. His virtual command to “C’mon down.” left me little civil choice but to idle along behind him, accelerating only to climb out of two of the larger holes. As pleasant as his greeting was, it didn’t deter me from relaying vital information to Auntie along the way. “Stay alert,” she told me as I closed my phone and severed my connection with her.

17. Horses and their relatives, donkeys, mules, and jackasses, are often depicted moving forward as they chase the carrot dangling on a string just out of their reach. By no stretch of the meaning could I see Bitter as such a reward, though I did follow with a sort of anticipation. Bitter’s story was believable; how could this job be anything other than legitimate?

18.

19. I stopped my beat-up white Ford pick-up one car length behind his larger beat-up white Ford pick-up. “It’s good t’see you’re not a chevy girl,” he said. “My F150 has done me right, Mr. Bitter, that’s for sure.” Never talk religion or politics with customers; throw Nascar on that list, too. I segued: “It looks like you have a lot of property here.”

20. “Been in the family for generations, ‘spect it’ll continue on that way s’more, too.”

21. He was my height, five foot seven, and lanky. He’d cut the sleeves of his flannel shirt off at the shoulders and tucked the bottom into his jeans. His belt was synched tight with a length of five or six notches dangling down in front of his zipper—Freud would have had fun analyzing that one. Bitter was shaped like a pencil; I can only imagine that the belt crushed the waist of his jeans against his boney hips in order to keep them from dropping to his ankles on a regular basis.

22. The tattered, never-been-washed baseball cap on his head covered what looked like a full head of clean, well groomed, raven black hair. That bit of tidiness seemed out of place with the rest of him. The lips and tongue logo of Rolling Stone fame adorned the front of his cap.

23. “’Brown Sugar,’’Little Red Rooster,’ Paint it Black’”—I see you like the Stones”

24. “Pardon, Miss DJ?”

25. “Your cap. That’s the Rolling Stones’ logo.”

26. “Or so I’ve been told. I like the picture for other reasons. Not really fond of that Rock-n-Roll. Gimme’ Dolly Parton; now her I can do.”

27.

28. He seldom endowed his face with expression. His eyes were mute, adding nothing to what his lips were saying. His head and face seemed on the small side. He had three days of black and gray growth on his face. He wore wrinkles, but the deep crow’s feet around his eyes were what captured my focus; they were more like ravines than mere creases. His lack of gray hair was throwing me off. It forced me to guess his age in the late fifties rather than early- to mid-sixties. No matter how many they were, they must’ve been some rough years. He looked as though he’d been farming all his life while under the shelter of an umbrella. He was full of sinew, but lacked the sun’s leathering.

29. “Shall we commence, Mr. Bitter? How would you like to go about this? Talk as we walk?”

30. “First, Miss DJ, it was a long trip. Did you make your stop along the way okay? May I get you some cold lemon-aide—we just bought some yesterday—or maybe some home made dandelion wine? It’s cold.” Evidently I was wrong, the weeds weren’t poor landscaping, they were a crop.

31. “My stop went fine. Thanks for asking. I stopped by to see a small piece of land that my daddy, shall we say, inherited. I appreciate it, but I’ll pass on your kind offer for beverages. Would you like to share half of my Almond Joy?” I pulled one from the compartment that runs beneath my clipboard.

32. “’Preciate it. Always been fond of coconut.”

33. He let loose with a yawn while I opened one end of the candy bar. He opened his mouth so wide that I wondered if he was going to unhinge his jaw. I imagined holding a protractor to his mouth and measuring one hundred and ninety degrees. He didn’t cover, so he left little to wonder about regarding his past dental care. He had two silver fillings on the right, bottom teeth and three more on the other side. A bridge put two teeth behind his right incisor back in place to aid chewing. People from all walks of life have the same fetid habit; raising a hand to cover the obscene view is just too much trouble for them. From the color of Bitter’s teeth, I figured he was a smoker, a coffee drinker, and that he took an occasional chaw. “Sorry,” he said, “was up the better part of last night keepin’ watch over my barn.”

34. “Let’s walk around your place, Mr. Bitter, so that I can catch an eyeful while you tell me why you want a security system.”

35. “Let’s not,” he said while lighting an unfiltered Camel cigarette. “I mean, I’d feel more at ease if we could separate the two; I’m not a good what’cha call multi-tasker. Work best with a topic at a time.” He was mindful enough to turn his head away from me and blow his smoke downwind.

36. “I understand, I sometimes wonder if I’m the only one like that.”

37. “The sun’s creepin’ down, so there’s some good shade on the porch. Take a seat on the sofa.”

38. He had a way of ordering me around. That scrappy couch looked to have soaked up many a season’s humidity and rain. I just knew mold and hungry bugs had cities established within the fabrics. Choices: sit on that living eyesore or verbally scuffle with him for a seat in the house, which was likely just as foul. “Let’s enjoy the evening’s breeze.”

39.

40. I stepped up two-feet onto the porch directly in front of the couch; there were no railings restricting my boarding it, nor were there any stairs. I tentatively seated just part of my rump on the forward edge of the cushion; I did not intend to sit back. Again controlling a part of our encounter, he straddled the arm of the couch and sat above me, leaving me in a position of inferiority.

41. Seeming an appropriate moment, I offered him half of my Almond Joy, which he took, sliding it through the end I had opened while back in the driveway. He took in the whole piece all at once and carelessly chewed with open mouth. The mixture of chocolate and coconut turned tan.

42. “Miss DJ, I’m real worried. My income comes from inside that barn. My social security don’t kick in for another three years and I got two teen boys under the roof with me. I do alright by my cars, they do alright by me. And they’re my cars, ain’t nobody else gonna’ get ‘em. Hell, t’other night I scared ‘em off and they left their ladder leaning up next to the second story window. I can’t have nobody messin’ around with my livelihood.”

43. The wind changed direction, pulling a full one-eighty. Now it came from the back instead of the street. I closed off my nose and breathed through my nose as soon as I caught my first whiff. “Whew…what’s that smell?”

44. “Oh, that’s just the farmer down the road a piece. He’s fertilizing his lettuce field, getting’ it ready for his second crop this fall. You get used to the smell of manure after a while.”

45.

46. My phone rang. It was Auntie. I answered her call. “Hi Auntie, I’m in the middle of providing an estimate for a customer…Yes, I’m doing just fine…Okay, I’ll call you once I’m on my way…Love you, too.” She’s dependable, a magnificent piece of trustworthiness.

47. The breeze blew a couple of houseflies near us. They seemed to like me better than they did Bitter. “You say you have expensive restored cars in the barn. Do you sell them?”

48. “Yes, but I don’t do the restorin’. Not that talented. I’ll sell one, take most of that cash and buy another one with it. I put it up on blocks with the others and start ‘er up every week. Keep ‘em all covered y’know? I sell it a couple, three years down the line for bigger dollars than I paid—an investor, if you will.”

49. “I see. Do you have any security on the barn now?”

50. “Got four big dogs inside. Two German Sheppards and two Great Danes. Don’t feed ‘em too much, to keep ‘em mean. They’re pretty quick to bark. Got me a twelve-gauge inside, too. Been all I needed up ‘till now.”

51. I noted that he hadn’t made eye contact with me since he finished chewing. He held his unyielding gaze on my bosom, a well covered sight that interested all too many men, and some women. I’ll catch them looking. They avert their eyes and focus on an object beyond me as if they were just scanning the scenery in my general direction. It’s humorous. But I keep my cleavage covered. Flaunting flesh speaks of an open invitation for other unsavories in my book. “That’s my company logo I’m wearing on my chest, Mr. Bitter. It’s seems to have caught your eye.” I took advantage of the swing in power and stood up.

52. “There’s a whole lot I like about you Miss DJ. You’re a straight shooter with a soft delivery. You good at your job?”

53. “I can supply you with a phone book full of refs.”

54. “Don’t care about references, care to hear what you have to say about y’self.”

55. “You’re a pretty straight shooter yourself, Mr. Bitter. Actions speak louder than any words you or I could come up with. Let’s try some walking and talking, after all.”

56. We walked to the barn first. It was definitely vintage. It was two stories tall, with doublewide swinging doors on the front. Ill-kept, the once red, now brownish paint was flaking off in quarter-sized flecks; the roof looked worn and ripe for replacement. He had taped waxed paper over all the windows to prevent curious eyes from getting a clear view. A single combination lock from the country store was on the doors to thwart burglars from setting up a face-to-face meeting with his dogs.

57. “Who do you want the alarm to go to?”

58. “Can you send some sort of signal to the Sheriff? Don’t want any monthly monitoring charges. I wanna’ know when they’re around and blast ‘em with an alarm so loud it’ll even wake you clear back in Richmond.”

59. “Can do. You’re not going to shoot anyone with your shotgun, are you Mr. Bitter?

60. “Only if they pull on me first.”

61.

62. “’Live a long life’ rule number twelve says to stay inside and wait for the police to arrive.”

63. “What’re the first eleven rules?”

64. “Most have to do with not crossing women.”

65. “Gotcha’ there, Miss DJ—I guess I already know those rules.”

66. “Listen, Mr. Bitter, enough light and noise will send them running. If they still try to go ahead with the theft, they’ll find the sheriff pulling up to close down the party. If that doesn’t work, we’ll have plenty of high resolution pictures for the state police. The system has worked for others, it’ll work here, for you too. Do you have a budget?”

67. “I was waitin’ on you for that.

68. “Then I’ll start my recommendations. We’ll go wireless, because you don’t want anyone snipping any power lines. I’ll use solar powered everything; even just one good day of sunshine’ll get you forty eight hours of outside recording and monitoring; I’ve never had one run out of juice. I’ll install a trilogy with a motion detector, a three-hundred-pixel camera, and four hundred watt spots on each of the four walls of both your barn and house. I’ll install post-mounted, motion triggered spots between here and your tree line where I can see there’s a road. I suggest we put a card-access box at the foot of your driveway; we can use that to disengage spotlights that I'll otherwise have go on when someone drives up from the main road.”

69. “And I want card entry on the barn doors, too.”

70. “Yes, sir, I was planning on it. Do you want monitoring inside either your home or the barn?”

71. “No, and no”

72. “I understand. I’ll also set you up with an in-home computer system that’s designed specifically for what you want to do. Does it sound like what you had in mind?”

73. “Even more. Those cars of mine are way too valuable for me to go scrimping on the costs. Remember, I told you I’d double up on the price.”

74. “I’ve installed this exact configuration before. It’ll take me three days and normally runs just short of four thousand. But, no and yes. No, I’m not going to charge you twice for one set of equipment—then I’d be the one robbing you. Yes, however, this is a great inconvenience, so I’m not opposed to your offer as long as you simply let me double my normal profits on the job. That’ll bring your total estimate to fifty five hundred. I’ll stand by the number and put it in writing for you. I'll expect fifty percent on the day I start. What’s your time frame?”

75. “Yesterday. I told you they even had a ladder last time. Yesterday, for sure.”

76. Here I was, the consummate salesperson going after the close. I didn’t have any real time at my disposal. The equipment was all standard; I’d pull it all from stock and place a quick order with my rep to replace it all. I still had Vale’s job to prep for, but I could do that when I got up in the morning and still have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday free to work on Bitter before my next job scheduled for Monday. No days off for me, especially with all this driving. I guessed I should earn the money while I could. Besides, I liked the grungy codger. He was joyous of the news. We celebrated the deal over my last Almond Joy.

77. I was prepared to start his job on Friday. I was by no means prepared to start unraveling his lies.

78.

79.

80.