Chapter 24
Five days later, Paul stood on the porch as he watched Petra leave for work and sighed as he looked at all the chairs leaning against the porch.
Petra had talked with the chief of the local fire department and learned they had just gotten some new chairs and wanted to get rid of the old ones.
There were at least seventy of them, and they had unloaded them from Petra’s vehicle before she left for work.
Now he had the task of taking them to the shop.
He paused when he heard a vehicle approach, and watched as the big brown delivery van pulled in.
“Rankin?”
“That’s me.”
“Several packages for you.” The driver nodded as he carried two of them out of his truck and Paul met him halfway. By the time the packages had been delivered, there were ten in all. All the same size, and once the driver left, Paul looked at the return address and grinned.
“Thank you, Kessler and Flynn.” He left the boxes on the porch, went to the garage, and hooked up the lawn wagon to the lawn tractor.
It took three trips, but he was able to get all the chairs Petra had brought home to the shop and unloaded.
He would make sure to stop off and make a donation, even though Petra had already said she’d made one, but didn’t tell him how much.
He figured another five hundred should do it.
Once the chairs were stored, he returned the lawn equipment to the proper shed, and walked back to the house.
Since all the boxes had the exact same markings, and were the same size, he found the one with an envelope taped to the top.
He removed the envelope and found a sheet of paper with a single line of written words.
“As requested, Kessler and Flynn.”
“Short but sweet,” he said to the wind, and shook his head. He opened one box, nodded at the contents, then took them to his truck. Once they were loaded, he made sure the shop and barn were locked up, then pulled his phone to make a call.
“Mott,” Warren answered gruffly.
“It’s Rankin, you busy?”
“Oh, hey, not unless you call overhauling my back room at the bar busy. I took a page out of Petra’s book and started cleaning to clear my head.”
Paul couldn’t help it, he laughed. “How’s that working out for you?”
“It fucking sucks, but it’s also productive. I’ve finally thrown out things that I’ve been meaning to for years.”
“For example?”
“A light that used to hang over the pool table once, but some over zealous patrons took a pool cue to it. I stuck it in the storage room, thinking I would get it repaired, but then forgot about it. Shit like that I’m tossing.”
“Ah, I understand.”
“Did you need something?”
“Are you at the bar?”
“I am, I just said that.”
“Right. Anyway, I received a package today and thought I’d bring it by to deliver it.”
“I’m here. I’ll put on a fresh pot of coffee.”
“Perfect, I should be there in forty minutes.”
“Got it.”
Paul double checked that everything was locked up, and at the last minute, he went back into his shop to grab his tool bag.
The same one he used to install his own security system when he and Petra had arrived months earlier.
He headed out, and in thirty-eight minutes, he pulled into the parking lot of The Last Chance.
Warren must have been watching for him, because he was on the porch before Paul even exited his truck.
“Come help me,” Paul called as he got out of his truck, and went to the back. As he pulled three boxes forward, he turned and handed them to Warren. He grabbed two more to join him.
“What about the others?”
“Don’t quote me on this, but I believe the others are for Sally. There are a total of ten boxes, I only took the envelope off of one. We’ll probably have to open them all to find out what’s in them.”
“Why?”
“Because I received the same shipment when I arrived here. There were enough cameras to put on the house, in the trees leading up to the house, on the outside of the shop, and each box had its own monitor.”
“Sweet,” Warren said with a laugh. Paul waited for his eyes to adjust and looked around.
“Holy shit, what did you do?”
“Cleaned.” Warren laughed. “I got rid of some decorations that have been literally hanging around for years. I washed all the shelves, and the bottles. Scrubbed the tables, floors, and walls.” He looked at Paul with a grin.
“I was even able to scour the spilled beer from the floor and walls in the walk-in cooler. After the storage rooms get finished being hauled out, I’ll start in on the kitchen. ”
“Why all of a sudden are you doing this? If it’s been like this for years, why change?”
“Remember the last time I saw you? I said I was going to go out on my bike? Well, I had some time from work coming to me, like three weeks, and I took a couple of days off, packed up, and took off. I cleared my head. I did a lot, and I mean a lot of thinking.” He looked at Paul with a grin.
“I’m surprised I didn’t start a forest fire with all the thoughts going through my head.
Anyway, I got to thinking about how you and Petra want to use me, but not in a bad way.
” He crooked his finger, and had Paul follow him.
“I know you’ve never been back here, and I totally forgot about this little gem.”
“What’s that?” Paul asked as he looked around at the giant but empty room.
“Remember when we first met, I told you grandpa opened this bar?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“He didn’t build it. It was built over a hundred years ago, and it was open during prohibition.”
“Are you telling me there’s a secret room here?”
“Rooms,” Warren said with a grin, and went over to the wall, reached up, and ended up pulling on a piece of the molding. Paul heard a faint click, and watched as a door opened. Warren invited him over to look, after he flipped a switch.
“I had to install the lights. I know I just told you I took a couple of days off, but when I returned, I learned of a new policy that was put in place while I was out. I only took three days before I returned and learned of this new hiccup.”
“Okay, what policy was that?”
“Use it or lose it. I have until the end of September to use all my vacation I’m due, or I lose it.
I can’t roll it over anymore. When my anniversary starts on October first, I get four weeks.
That’s due to my years of service. I have to use it between the first of October and the thirtieth of September.
When I learned that. I worked for the next two weeks, and I’m off for the next sixteen days.
I decided to clean this place up. When I remembered these rooms, I thought of what you said about bringing in the product for sale. ”
Paul nodded as he walked around, then turned to look at Warren. “Is there an outside entrance?”
“There is,” Warren said and walked over to the wall, where he reached up and fiddled with the molding again, and walked through a totally different room, and again, he fiddled with the wall, and it opened into a tunnel.
They walked it, clearing the cobwebs along the way, and came out in a stand of trees almost half a mile away.
“Oh, my God,” Paul said as he turned around. “What’s in that direction?”
“The main road.”
“Holy shit, you’re telling me that we can get the product in from the road, without anyone seeing us, and once the purchases are made, the buyers can bring it out through here, without the general public seeing them?”
“Yes, and if there are enough supplies, I’d like to set up some camera’s out at the road, and along the trail.”
“Since we won’t need them on every tree or bush, I’m sure we can do that. Where does the road go?”
“To town, it’s the main drag that you probably drove to get here. Do you recall seeing a wide pull off spot?”
“I did, what about it?”
“That’s the spot at the end of this path.”
Paul nodded, liking the set up. “Do you happen to have an area where you can set up the monitors so you can watch any activity on the camera’s. We’re going to want to set them up so that we can get plate numbers and descriptions of vehicles.”
“I agree with that, and there’s a secret office, off my original office.
I talked it over with Sally, and we remembered that the two rooms I showed you, and the other secret office were used during prohibition.
Like I told you, in the office, I found paperwork, and some extremely, and I mean extremely old bottles of alcohol.
I’m talking probably over a hundred years old. ”
“Are they labeled?”
“Why? What difference does it make?”
“I know you only drink socially, but if they have labels, what about selling them, and pocketing the money to make your place more secure. Something like keeping the prohibition portion away from the actual bar. You know, a security wall, or doors. Only the criminals we’re trying to set up has access to those rooms, but they won’t be able to access the rest of the bar.
You’re going to want to keep the two activities separate from one another. Or at least I would.”
“I never thought of something like that, but yeah, I know people to reach out to about the alcohol. To answer your earlier question, yes, there are labels on them, as well as dust.” He grinned as he held his thumb and fingers apart as wide as they would go.
“Let’s go see what DC sent us.” Paul nodded and they walked back to the bar. Before they got to the boxes, Warren showed him the private office, and Paul whistled at the bottles on the shelves.
“I’m not telling you what to do, but if I were you, I’d reach out to your contact now. It might take them a few days to get here. In the meantime, do you have any experience at being an electrician?”
“I can hold my own. Why?”
“This office is going to need new wiring for all the monitors, and you might want to get a new door, steel, so that no light from those monitors will leak through the cracks. You’re also going to want to get some new plugs in here. At least ones from this century.” He looked at Warren with a grin.
As Warren made calls, he pointed out to Paul what was trash and needed to be hauled out to the dumpster out back.
“What time do you open?”
“I don’t. I’m closed for the next three weeks for renovations.” He used air quotes, and turned when the ringing phone in his hand was answered.
Around ten that night, Paul sat up from his lying position on the floor and looked at Warren on the other side of the room.
After cleaning everything out, they had gone to the local hardware store for electrical supplies, and stopped into the diner for lunch, telling both Sally and Petra of their plans.
Petra said she’d see him at home when he got there, knowing he might be late.
“I think we’re done. I’m not telling you how to run your business, but I would call a licensed electrician in to inspect our work, and to beef up your panel.”
“Yeah, I thought the same thing. Last time I stepped out, I called a buddy of mine. He’ll be here around ten in the morning.”
“Perfect. Do you want me to come back to help install the cameras and monitors?”
“Please, I think we can get things done faster with the two of us.”
“I’ll bring a ladder so we can get into the trees, we’re going to want them at least ten maybe twelve feet in the air.”
“Why?”
“Eye level would be spotted too quickly. Face it, how often do you look up when you walk?”
“You don’t, you look down, or out.”
“Exactly, and we can get some across the road to get different angles.”
“How many cameras are we talking about here?”
“My shipment had two dozen per box, along with body cameras, button camera, and even cameras in some eye glasses.”
“Wow, all the spook stuff.”
“Yep.”
They cleaned up, and made sure the boxes, all of them, were stored in one of the secret rooms, and Paul helped Warren clean up.
They parted ways at the end of the parking lot, each going in a different direction.
Paul slowed as he reached the pull off point, and nodded that he liked the location.
He would check it out better in tomorrow’s daylight.
When he arrived home, there was a note from Petra that she had made a plate of food for him and left it in the microwave.
He turned it on, and smiled when he smelled the leftover lasagna cooking.
He ate, reflecting on his day, and the accomplishments he made with Warren, and by the time he climbed the stairs to the bedroom, exhaustion was setting in. He had a quick shower, and when he climbed into bed, he gathered Petra in his arms and sighed deeply.
“Good day?” She asked drowsily.
“Great day, I’m sorry I’m so late.”
“Were you working?”
“I was, we were able to wire all the private rooms, and he’s having an electrician come out tomorrow to inspect it and to update his breaker panel.”
“Good, because we’re going to want all the drugs and guns to be safe when they start arriving.”
“A woman after my own heart,” he sighed and fell asleep, failing to see Petra’s wide grin at his statement.