The smiling hostess led Cathy to her seat at Toojays restaurant. Cathy had made plans to meet an old friend from her hometown for lunch. She slid into the booth at the spacious deli and pulled open her purse. She reached inside and found her cell phone. She flipped it open and checked the screen for messages-there were none. It had been two days since her conversation with Dirk and she still hadn’t heard from him. She was starting to get impatient and wanted desperately to know what kind of plan he had come up with. She set the small phone on the table next to the salt and pepper shakers and dropped her purse on the seat next to her. Under normal circumstances, she would never dream of taking a call during a luncheon date, but in this case, she would make an exception. She needed to talk with Dirk in the worst way.
As usual, TooJays restaurant was very busy with the many waitresses scurrying about to serve the steadily growing army of customers. Cathy glanced toward the front door and saw her old friend step inside. She quickly stood and motioned her smiling friend over to her table. The two shared a warm embrace and then they both scooted into either side of the booth.
“My! My! You look marvelous, Cathy. Looks like The Villages have been good to you.”
“Oh, you’re much too kind, Joan, and you look wonderful also. Why, you haven’t aged a bit! Thanks for the invite and thanks for suggesting TooJays, I love this place.”
“My pleasure, and I can’t get over how great you look.”
Cathy fluffed her hair and smiled, “Oh thank you. I play a lot of tennis and work out quite a bit.”
“I guess I’ll have to take up tennis.”
Cathy giggled and then continued their conversation. “Well, tell me about your new place. I’ll bet you’re so excited!”
“We found a place in Mira Mesa and we just love it! We just can’t get over The Villages! It’s just so busy down here. I’m already in a Canasta group, a sewing club, and two golfing groups. This place is just unbelievable!”
“Yes, it is, and Mira Mesa is very nice village. I have a good friend who lives there and she wouldn’t change for the world. They go to the town square at Spanish Springs almost every night.
The waitress arrived and banged two glasses of water on the table and handed each of them a menu. “I’ll be right back to take your orders,” she announced and then hurried off.
“How is my favorite banker, Ed, doing these days?”
Cathy’s smile faded at the mention of her husband. “Oh, he’s doing just fine. He’s back in Indiana for a board meeting, something about a merger. He should be back sometime this evening. How about Howie, how’s he doing? Is he adjusting to retirement okay?” Cathy added quickly, wanting to move the subject away from Ed.
“Oh, you know Howie. Give that man a table saw and a bowling ball and he’s in seventh heaven.”
Cathy giggled, “Sounds like he hasn’t changed. Has he joined a bowling league yet?”
“Yes, he’s signed up for three leagues already. He went over to the bowling alley yesterday and rolled a 286 game. He was really thrilled about that.”
“I’ll bet!”
Suddenly Cathy’s phone lit up and began ringing. She lifted the phone and flipped it open. The screen showed Dirks’ cell number. She looked over at Joan. “Sorry, I need to take this, it’s very important.”
“Go right ahead, dearie.”
“Thank you. Hello, this is Cathy Roberts.”
“Cut the crap, Cathy, you know my cell number when you see it. You must be having lunch with your boyfriend or something.” Dirk belched up a raspy laugh.
Cathy was annoyed by the boyfriend remark from the insensitive lout. She took a deep breath and continued. “Excuse me for a second, I’m having lunch with a good friend and I need to step outside.” She moved the phone to her side and stood to leave, “This will just take a minute, Joan. If the waitress comes, would you order me the chicken salad cold plate and an ice tea, please? I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“No problem, Cathy, I’ll put our orders in. Take your time.”
Cathy smiled warmly and then hurried out to the front porch at TooJays and sat down on the edge of a wooden bench. “Hello, Dirk.”
“Yo, I’m still here.”
“Good, we can talk now.”
“That’s great, lady, because we have plenty to talk about.”
“Oh, I know, we need to talk about your plan.”
“We’ve got more than my plan to talk about.”
Cathy’s throat felt dry, she felt anxious. “Oh, is that right?” This creep is changing the rules again.
“Yes, something has come up, a family emergency. I’m going to need more money.”
Cathy stood and began pacing back and forth. “What the hell are you talking about, more money? We had a deal, Mr. Harrison, or did you forget?”
“Show me the contract, lady, know what I mean?”
Fuming, Cathy stood at the end of the porch and stared at the golf carts whizzing past on the busy street outside the restaurant. “I don’t have more money, sir.”
“Don’t give me that BS! You offered me one twenty the other night if I did it your way. So you got the money and I need one forty now with forty up front.”
“What? Why you low…” Cathy caught herself before completing the insulting remark.
“You need me a lot more than I need you, Mrs. Roberts. It’s one forty or the deal’s off.”
Cathy was beside herself, she only had slightly more than one hundred forty thousand in her personal account. His request would literally clean her out, but he was right; she needed him a lot more than he needed her. This thing was too far along. She had said too many things to Dirk and Eric. At this point, she felt that she had no other options but to go ahead with it. “I guess you know when you have someone over the barrel, Mr. Harrison, I’ll do one forty and not a dime more.”
“That’s my girl. Now I have some questions for you.”
“Questions? You’re supposed to have a plan.”
Cathy could hear him turning the pages on a notebook or tablet. “I do, but if I’m going to do this job right, I need some information from you.”
Cathy sighed.
“Tell me about your husband, his habits, his likes and dislikes.”
“He’s boring as hell!”
Dirk paused for a second, “I know you don’t like your husband, so cut the sarcastic remarks and tell me about him!”
She walked over and looked through the window at her friend who was talking to the waitress and pointing to the menu. “He likes to play golf and he’s a pretty social person. He enjoys having a beer with the guys after golf. He also has a private side to him.”
“Is there something he does on a regular basis that gets him alone? I need to get him out of your house if possible.”
“Hmm… good point.” She began pacing again nervously. “Oh yes, I can’t believe I forgot this. Very early, every Friday morning, he sends a letter to each of our grandkids-he never misses. He walks the three or four blocks to the Bridgeport mail station to mail the letters and then he sits awhile on a nearby bench and drinks coffee from a thermos he takes with him. He likes to sit and watch the sun rise over Arnold Palmer’s golf course just across the street. He says there’s no one around and it gives him time to reflect on things. Then he walks home and gets his cart and meets the guys for breakfast at Arnie’s place before their golf league starts.”
“I know where Bridgeport and Lake Miona are. Believe it or not, I have delivered a couple of Harleys there, and I have gone back a few times to service them. I remember the mailbox area. It’s across from the swimming pool near the front gate. That’s a ritzy place you live in.”
“It’s alright.”
“Anything else you can think of that I need to know about your husband?”
“No, but I need to give you the pass card so you can get through the gate at our village.”
“Not necessary, I’ll go around the gate like I did the night I followed you and lover boy to the Village of Duval.”
Cathy didn’t reply immediately. She took a deep breath and mumbled, “Okay.”
“Another thing, lady.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t know what your husband looks like. I’ve never seen him.”
Cathy nervously rubbed her forehead with the tips of her fingers, “Oh my, that’s right. Maybe I can get you a picture of him.”
“You can’t tell enough from a picture, I need to see the guy.”
“Hmm… not sure how we can do that.”
Dirk spoke up, “I’ve got an idea.”
“Okay, what is it?”
“This Thursday I want you to talk your husband into taking you to the same Burger King we met at the other day over at Lady Lake. You have to get him there at six o’clock sharp. You think you can do that?”
“I think I can. He’ll be home tonight from Indiana. He doesn’t like Burger King that well, but he knows that I like their chicken salad, so he’ll go.”
“Good, I will come in just after six and find a table near yours where I have a good view of him. He doesn’t know me from Adam, so he won’t be suspicious.”
“Oh…Thursday. I forgot, I have bridge club Thursday at 6:30.”
Dirk’s anger flared, “Cancel it, lady! Cancel the stupid bridge game and get your ass to Burger King at six o’clock sharp on Thursday!” There was a short pause followed by an angry, “Damn it!”
“Okay, I’ll..uh, get a sub. Yes, that will work.”
Dirk mumbled, “Stupid bitch!” under his breath.
“I must be going. Is there anything else?” she asked.
“Yeah, one small thing, the money!”
“What about it?”
“I need you to meet me at two o’clock at that flea market place tomorrow with a check made out to me for forty grand.”
Cathy suddenly felt warm; a bolt of fear shot up her spine. “I can’t do that. I can’t make the check out to you. If I come under suspicion and they find out I wrote two large checks to you out of my money market account, we would both go to jail.”
She could hear Dirk mumbling a long list of profanities on the other end of the line. “You’re smarter than me, lady! You figure it out!”
“I…uh, really don’t know what to do.”
The phone fell silent for several seconds, she could here Dirk exhale heavily. “Here’s what we do, lady, listen carefully.”
“Go ahead.”
“You said your husband rides a Harley, right?”
“Right.”
“If the cops ever check you out, you will just say that your husband was getting a little bored with you being gone all the time with all of your tennis and so forth. So to relieve his boredom he decided to become part owner in a Harley shop in Lady Lake. Then, most unfortunately, before you and your husband were able to sign the docs, he gets rubbed out. I’ll print out some phony docs from my word processor that I used with my partners and have them here at the shop waiting to be signed.”
“Oh, my, how creative. You surprise me sometimes.”
“You can sign the docs to make it look good. Eventually when all the smoke clears I’ll throw them away.
“Great plan, but I still think it will be a little suspicious if the checks are drawn on my money market account. The money should come from a joint account”
“Do you have such an account?”
Cathy pondered the question for a second, “Yes, yes we do. We have an equity line of credit in both of our names. I could write the check out of our equity line. That would be very understandable since most of Ed’s money is tied up in mutual funds and other stocks.” Cathy glanced through the window at her friend again. She was now on her cell laughing and talking to someone.
“Okay, we got a deal. See you tomorrow afternoon,” Dirk replied.
Cathy started feeling very anxious, her heart was palpitating. “Okay, but what’s your plan and when are you going to do it?”
“That’s my problem, lady.”
“No, DIRK, it’s both our problems and I want to know. Now!”
“Tough shit! He’ll be dead soon enough, so relax!” Dirk closed his phone.
“Why you….” Cathy angrily snapped her phone shut, tossed it in her purse and hurried across the long porch to rejoin her lunch companion. Suddenly her legs felt weak, she felt nauseated. The ‘dead soon enough’ comment raced through her mind. The enormity of what she was about to do had hit home with her for the first time. Her lust for Eric and the sense of freedom of being rid of Ed had overwhelmed her rational thinking up to this point. She paused by the front entrance to the restaurant, took several deep breaths, composed herself and stepped inside to rejoin her lunch companion.