Chapter 15 #2
“Of course, and again, if there’s anything I can do to help, I’m in.”
He smiled. “Come on, Jaxon. You’re already working for free,” he reminded him. “So I’m not sure anything else can be done.”
Jaxon shrugged. “If free isn’t cutting it, then maybe we need to get some jobs to help pay for this too.”
Timber stared at him in shock and then shook his head.
“No, that’s not necessary. In theory, I’m fine moneywise for now.
It’s just that sometimes, when I think about the future, I cringe.
We’ve already put out so much money on all these buildings and the treatment center.
” He cast a glance at Tiffany, who shrugged.
“It’ll just take a little bit of time to recoup some of that from the contributions,” she replied. “I haven’t checked the GoFundMe page in a while, but that’s a good reminder.”
“I don’t want to take out any more loans, for now at least,” Timber said, with a laugh. “So, it might have to be beans and rice for a while.”
“I’m good with that,” Jaxon confirmed cheerfully. “As long as I’m not sleeping in the bunkhouse.”
At that, some of the other men nearby groaned. “Eating beans, sleeping in the bunkhouse? No way,” they cried out.
Jaxon laughed at them. Keisha smiled, enjoying seeing him happy.
Timber shrugged. “Better than not having anything to eat.”
“Yeah, it is, but beans for dinner and sharing a bunkhouse? No, no, no.”
Dwight and Toby stood on the front porch, listening in, thinking about what Timber had just said.
Dwight interjected, “I am not trying to be thick here, but I don’t think things will be that bad.
We’ve got a good store of foodstuffs. By the way, one of the feed distributors is looking to talk to you. ”
“What do they want?” he asked him.
“They’re asking what kind of center you’re setting up and wondering if they can help. I told them that we would appreciate all the help that we could get.”
Timber smiled and nodded. “I’m not much of a people person, but these are definitely times when I can put on a smile and act gracious.”
“Yep. This would be one of them. He wants you to give him a call.”
“That’s even better. I won’t even have to get dressed up,” Timber quipped. He took his leave and headed inside, and everyone else headed into the main part of the kitchen, looking for coffee.
Burke patted Jaxon on the back and said, “We can go over the work schedule tomorrow morning. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off?” And, with a glance toward Keisha, he whispered, “Looks as if you might need a little bit of time.”
“I was hoping to talk to Gregory, so Tommy first.”
“Gregory?” Burke did a double-take. “Why do you need to talk to the whiz kid?”
Jaxon filled him in about the whole lot of it, since Burke had been away for the last few days.
Burke listened patiently to Jaxon’s and Keisha’s newest set of problems, then asked a few questions of his own.
He added, “Gregory is a good one. With all the BS I dealt with from my ex, … he’s been a godsend.
” And he launched into his story involving his ex-girlfriend, Silvia—who also happened to be the sister of Shirley, Burke’s current girlfriend.
Silvia stole his identity via his three credit card accounts, living on his credit with her con-artist boyfriend, Frankie.
Gregory helped them compile the data, file the reports, and eventually proved that Burke had done nothing to max out his credit lines.
Burke frowned at Jaxon and asked, “So where did Gregory get to in your particular case?”
“I haven’t heard anything yet, so don’t know how far he’s gotten. He’s a busy guy though, I hear. I didn’t want to bother him yet.”
“I hear you,” Burke noted, “but you may want to sort it out before it gets out of hand.”
Jaxon nodded. “Keisha and I are both getting some pretty ugly phone calls now.”
At that, everybody turned to face him, staring between Keisha and him. “What do you mean by ugly phone calls?” Burke asked, as he turned to Keisha.
Keisha explained about the one she got in the middle of the night. “This is the first one that felt like a direct threat,” she noted, “but the whole thing is out of hand.”
“Of course it is,” Burke agreed.
*
Everybody started to talk, and, by the end of it, Jaxon walked over to Timber, who had just come back inside and stood at the kitchen counter, shoving cookies in his mouth. “I need a favor,” Jaxon said in a low tone.
“Ask away,” Timber replied, sliding the cookie jar over in front of Jaxon.
“Do you know anybody who could pull up some information on an accident?”
Timber froze and frowned at him. “What’s going on, Jaxon?”
He told him about the car accident that killed Keisha’s parents and injured her sister. “I just wondered if these calls could be related to that.”
“It seems to be a good avenue to check out at least,” Timber agreed.
“It does, but I’m not exactly sure where to start.”
“We’ve got a friendly detective in town,” Timber pointed out. “He’s bailed us out a couple times already. Give Richard Martin a call. He should be able to give you the details.”
“He won’t have any issues handing out confidential information?”
“It shouldn’t be a problem, particularly since it involved Keisha’s family. Besides, Richard is ex-military too, so he’s one of us,” Timber explained and left it at that.
“Right, Keisha is one of the surviving family members, so maybe it wouldn’t be a problem anyway.”
“Did you ask her about it?”
“I did, and she doesn’t remember a whole lot of the details.
She never even requested a copy of the accident report or anything else.
Part of the problem is that, in her mind, it was just a terrible accident.
I don’t know if fault was determined or not, but the driver of the other vehicle—deemed to have hit her family head-on—was also killed. ”
“Ah.” Timber nodded, with an understanding look. “In that case, that would be a potential avenue for finding people who are unhappy.”
“Exactly. I just thought maybe it was a line to tug.”
With that, Timber nodded, then pulled out his phone and wrote down Richard’s number. “I highly suggest you go give that particular line a hard pull.”