of my stocks out of his companies. But I need it done slowly and quietly so he doesn't know that I am quitting. How long do you think it will take?'
“How much money are you willing to lose in the deal?'
“As little as possible.'
“Give me four months. To make this work you will need to make sure he doesn't suspect you are leaving.'
“He won't.'
Chapter 9
Eyes
I finished an article on the affect of deforestation on local water tables. I encrypted the story and emailed it to the home office. Move-over was watching me from the top of the computer case. Since he had to have his head on the computer's cooling fan and the fan was in back of the case, he was trying a new method of lying on the computer. He was on his back with his head coming out from under his shoulder. I scratched his chin. The cat's rumbling was three times louder than the old muffin fan on the computer. Just audible over the purring was the thrashing of the computer's hard drive.
I wondered if Blythe had someone trying to hack into my files. What about my work on gravity? The best way to protect something is not to protect it. I decided to send copies of my equations to every college and lab that I had email addresses to. If everyone had it with my name on it, no one could steal the information.
The sending of the emails took the rest of the morning. I needed to get away from the computers. I had work to do on the Contraption. I bought a new reflector dish. The dish was the only thing that seemed to be broken beyond repair. To protect the dish during the next test, I was welding steel straps to the Dodge transmission case. The straps were long enough to reach the dish. I would bend each strap to form a harness around the outside edge of the dish. I lost myself in the blue arch of the electric welder. Tomorrow I would start assembling a frame to mount the electromagnetic transmitters on. I was going to use inch and a quarter galvanized steel water pipes. The pipes were overkill for the frame but my dad had a stack of them left from the waterlines we had for the stock tanks.
All the work I was doing didn't stop the worries about Tabitha. Would she be alright?
* * * *
It took all week but Tabitha finally got Sue alone. “Suzie, I noticed something strange when you ran into me. You did it on purpose. I want to know why.'
“You're paranoid. I never meant to hurt you. Let me go!'
Tabitha walked Suzie into the corner of the dead end hallway. “Talk to me.'
“Get away. You're crazy.'
“Maybe, but you are going to tell me what happened.'
“Please. Please let me go.'
“Talk.'
Tabitha pressed into Suzie holding her against the wall. Afer a few minutes something broke within and Suzie's shoulders dropped, tears came. “So much money. I needed the money. I didn't think. I didn't ... not until I felt your leg break. God, why did I do it?'
“Who gave you the money?'
“Some guy. I don't know. He seemed to know I was broke. He gave me five hundred dollars in cash. A week later he came with another five hundred and said he wanted you hurt, bad enough so you would be out for the season. A thousand dollars. More than enough money to finish the year. But then he said he wanted it done during a meet. I said no way. But he showed me another five hundred. He left. He said he would come back in a week.
“When he came back, he told me the plan. How you would be knocked down and I would fall on top. It didn't seem real. I didn't want it to be real. He was willing to give me a thousand dollars more. I wanted that money...'
Tabitha left Suzie standing at the end of the hall.
* * * *
Ever since Jones got back from New York, he felt peoples’ eyes on him. The older waitress at the dinner seemed to glare as she filled his coffee cup. Two sheriffs deputies came in and took a corner booth. Between sips of coffee, they would look across the dinner at him. Fred from the bank came in and sat at a table near the cops. Jones overheard the waitress say to Fred, “Leena would be proud of you standing up to them.'
Jones had to protect himself. He had to do Blythe's bidding until he got as much of his money as he could out of Blythe's companies. But he had to also keep up the dirty tricks on Czeminski and Karpinen. How was he going to do both with everyone watching?
“Excuse me. Mr. Jones.'
“What? Sorry, I was thinking about some work back at the office. What can I do for you officer?'
“Oh nothing, I saw you studying your coffee so intently. I thought that something might be bothering you. Something you might want to tell me. But if it is just office work, I will leave you to it. You can't believe how much paperwork we have to do every day.'
The waitress came and topped off his coffee. “Tom. Say hi to Oggie for me.'
“I will. Good coffee today Fran.'
“Mr. Jones, do you want anything else?'
“No. Just coffee. Thanks.'
* * * *
Late Friday afternoon, I put out the automatic feeder and water bowl for Move-over, made sure his litter
box was clean, and put the lights and radio on timers so anyone looking in would think someone was home. I got into my pickup and drove to Tabitha's college. It was already dark when I got there. She met me at the lounge next to the main entrance to her dorm.
I pulled her in and held her. The relief of seeing her okay was so great. I don't know how long we stood there in each others arms but everyone was staring by the time we moved apart.
“We need to talk. Private. Let's go up to my room.'
She swung around. Using the single crutch she needed to walk and with her cast as a prod, she pushed through the students in the lobby to the elevators. She already had the doors closing on the elevator car when I got there.
“Slow poke.'
“If I had a stick I could use for crowd control, I would have gotten here at the same time you did.” We just held hands until we got inside her room. I wanted to hold her again but she pushed me away and told me about what she found out from Suzie. She insisted on me telling her everything I had done during the week before she let me pull her to the bed.
I was struggling with her bra straps before I thought to ask, “Where is your roommate?'
“She went home for the weekend.'
We stopped talking for the rest of the night. I woke up in the morning to the metallic sound of claws on a window screen. It was something I was very familiar with, after all my family always had cats. I have expected a cat hanging from the window even if we were four stories up but it turned out to be a little nuthatch hanging upside down and watching.
“Ever since I got back to school, those birds have been hanging on that screen. I don't know why. There is no food out there and the trees are on the other side of the dorm.'
“Tabby, I need to tell you the story that my Uncle Ben told be about Vietnam...
“I don't know how it fits but I somehow feel that we are now point men. Ever since the day those punks tried to take you, I have felt the danger building. Every day I feel myself become more attuned to what is around me. I wish I knew what those, those ... Yosie are thinking...'
