Chapter 8 Following Sea Over Deep Reefs
Musical Theme; Yes I Am by Melissa Etheridge
Will got up pretty early, perhaps awoken by Marie fussing around in the kitchen. Alan was gone. “Did something go wrong last night?”
“No. I wonder how you got any sleep with the rabbits in the next room.”
“We didn’t hear you. Maybe our part of the hutch was shaking a little.”
“Today is the day.”
“I’m not worrying. Whatever the voters choose to do.”
“Clara Hart says you will get two thirds of the vote.”
“That might make some people stay home. I would like everyone to vote, and let us know.”
“They’re going to let you know.”
Will went to the office. Sharon was getting a lot of work done, but Will kept being distracted. Everyone wanted him to speculate. Reporters called from all over. He understood that the election might be news in Maine, but he was pretty surprised to be called from the Philippines, Guam and Moscow. The Russian reporter spoke lovely English, with a light accent. She knew everything already. Almost all the reporters wanted the catalog. Poster requests went to Phillipa’s web site. You could have one for $5 or three for $10, about cost. You could download pics, or the whole catalog free. In the first week, the catalog was downloaded 180,453 times. Marcie was charging $5 for an autographed one, donating the proceeds to a different charity each day. Marcie was signing posters in limousines, on the airplane, and at every other opportunity. She had two assistants who put them in front of her and told her what to write. She complained of writer’s cramp, poor girl. When she saw a doctor he cut her down to a thousand a day, Pauli Nathan Phillipa raised the autograph price to $50. He got some pens specially made. They wrote in black ink with tiny gold glitter in them. Real gold. You could have one Marcie had used for another $50, but you could take the $50 off a $500 order. The pens said Marcie Della on them, and they were not subtle.
* * *
The election returns started coming in. Doug conceded. He met with Will at a little restaurant that had a back porch. It was closed, but the cook and waitress were working. They had coffee, looking at the river.
“Will you help me transition?”
“Of course. Will, you ran a very honorable campaign. I did some things I should not have done, but you never called me on them. The P.I. That was not right. I’m sorry about that.”
“I accept your apology. Please destroy all copies of those pix.”
“I have done that.”
“Marcie didn’t do anything. It could be a tremendous injury to her career.”
“If he shows up with copies, Will, it will be the fucking end for him. I’ll nail him to a tree and give Marcie a box cutter.”
“The Osama bin Laden autograph model? You know she likes designer stuff.”
“Yeah. Well, she is flying high.”
“Uh huh. About 40,000 feet.”
“You seen her Lear?”
“No, but she says it is lavishly appointed.”
“When she says lavishly…”
“It means something a Saudi prince would envy.”
They looked at the river. Leaves floated along in lazy curves. Trout quietly took insects from the surface. On the other side, fir trees with moss on them stood up the steep hillside.
“The natural world has us beat all to hell. I pursued success and forgot honor. You pursued honor and received success. The trees just did what they do, and there they are.”
“Aristotle does not promise the virtuous man success, and it seldom happens.”
“It did.”
“I’ve been lucky. In the sandbox, once, my spotter had to clock to help someone. I came out the back door of the house we’d been in, and didn’t have him to back me with the SAW. Two bad guys were there with the usual AKs, and I just had a sniper rifle. At 800 yards, it would have been a shut out, but this was 10 yards.”
“And you with nothing but a Whitworth Express in .357 H&H.”
“It amazes me how much people find out about me. I don’t even know what you carry, although I’m sure you do.”
“A Sig in .40 S&W.”
“Nice piece.”
“So how come you are here and they are not?”
“I had a round in the chamber, so I dropped the safety and shot from the hip, center punched one of them. I worked the bolt, and the other one pointed his rifle right in my face. It went click, and I let him have it.”
“What happened to the guy your spotter went to help?”
“He didn’t make it. But we tried. If we hadn’t…”
“You would have let the Corps down. You would never have stopped wondering if you could have saved him.”
“Right.”
“So now you are going to say what?”
“A good office. I will make it a great one. Doug is going to help me get going, and I need his help. Steve the Mouse will continue to be Chief Deputy if he will be willing. Chrissie will work for him, and I will not discuss her work with either of them. Doug brought together a great crew, and I intend to keep them all from the Janitor to the Chief Deputy. If someone has done something bad, that would change, but so far as I know, they have not.”
“I can go on as I like. I could go in practice here.”
“That’s up to you.”
“Press conference?”
“We could. I’d just talk with Clara Hart from Channel 2 if that was cool with you.”
“You do that if it is what you want to do.”
“I’m not going to say anything bad about you, Doug. You’ve already said all those things to yourself, and it’s not anybody else’s business.”
“Can I apologize?”
“Sure.”
“Not that I was wrong with you, but I feel bad about how I treated Chrissie.”
“She can probably write it off. Doug, you put a lot of evil people right where they deserved to be. You did a few little bad things, but for the most part you were good.”
“Thank you, Will.”
Will called Clara, and they met at the studio.
“Will, an exclusive interview?”
“Don’t think we don’t want something. But it won’t be for me or Doug. For the disadvantaged. One of us might ask you to do a little story for St. Vincent de Paul or something. In fact, would you call Teresa and offer her a little spot?”
“I will.”
He pulled two catalogs from his briefcase. He signed one of them “To my distinguished colleague, Doug. Will Ames.” He handed it to Doug. He signed the other “To a nice lady and a fine reporter, Clara Hart. Will Ames.” And handed it to her.
He gestured to the camera man. The camera and the lights came on. “May I use your phone?”
She nodded, and he put it on speaker and dialed Marcie. “Marcie Della’s office. This is Lucinda Cox”
“Lucy, Will. I am on camera with Clara Hart from Channel 2. Is Marcie available?”
“Marcie. Are you live?”
“No. Taping. I won the election, and we are going to interview with my predecessor. Clara Hart from Channel 2 wants some of your posters.”
“36x48 for her office?”
Clara nodded.
“I am signing them. ‘To Clara Hart from Marcie Della with love and kisses.’?”
Clara nodded.
“Her secretary will give Lucy the mailing address.”
“Put in the good word for me with those archangels and such. I’m going to be a good girl at least today. I’m in Jerusalem.”
“Can Clara run this on TV?”
“She can run whatever the, uh, whatever she likes.”
“Liking Jerusalem?”
“Oh, Will, the Old City. The Wailing Wall. I’m going simply everywhere. I have a whole entourage. Bodyguards with automatic rifles. They stamped my passport on a separate sheet of paper, so when I go to Syria tomorrow they won’t see I was in Israel. Of course everyone knows I was.”
“You’re going to Syria?”
“I’m going everywhere. You should be here to take pictures. Phillipa wants you to. You could have someone else do all that lawyer stuff. Bring your girl and marry her in Jerusalem. I know the church for you. It’s awesome, and it’s really old. If you guys don’t come real soon, we will have to come back here, but I can go anywhere I want, and I just take a nap, and I’m there. Will, come with me. I need you. Phillipa will pay you and the scenes here are great.”
“I take office in a month, unless my predecessor will hold the fort for me.”
“Another month, Will.”
“Now you’re covered. Get your fiancée and get over here. I will send my little birdie for you.”
“The Lear?”
“No, darling. Not the itty bitty birdie. Well, you can come in it if you want, but simply everyone wants to ride around with me, and as much as I love my itty bitty birdie, I’d have tell people there is no space.”
“You need a seven three.”
“Oh, I do. But you get one of those, get the interior done nice, put a couple of new JT8D’s on it, and it can put a dent in the piggy bank.”
“I’ll talk to you next time someone wants a poster. Clara needs to get ready for the news.”
“Seeya!”
Clara laughed.
Well, the real business here is the DA election. Will Ames has been elected, and he is here with his predecessor to talk a little bit about that. Will, what’s going to change in the office?”
“We hope to make a good office into a great office. We have a good staff, and unless I find out someone has been doing wrong, they will all be staying.”
“What’s going to happen with your fiancée working at the office?”
“She will not receive preferential treatment. If Steve the Mouse will continue to be Chief Deputy, as I think he will, he will continue to supervise her. I will avoid comment about her, and she will take orders from him as if she did not know me. That’s a break for her, because Steve is much more reasonable than I am.”
“How will the transition go?”
“Very well, I think. Doug has offered to help, and that will make a lot of difference.”
“Will your experience as a trial lawyer be important?”
“I know a good trial lawyer when I see her. I’m not going to do court myself. The office is full of good trial lawyers who want to move up. If they have the merits, I will move them up. I’m not a micromanager. If I give you the machine gun, you can ask me for advice if you want, but I gave you the machine gun. It’s your job.”
“Do you think of lawyers like soldiers?”
“The Marine Corps is where I learned to be a leader, so maybe so.”
“Is there a war on crime?”
“I think not.”
“Why do we have so much?
“Well, first, we maybe have less than we think, but still, the root causes are hard to dig up. Societal injustice is one reason. There are a few genuine sociopaths who need to spend their lives locked up.”
“Do you believe in the death penalty”
“I’m lukewarm on it. It’s awfully expensive. Doug knows.”
“It is. The death penalty is the problem child of the prosecutor’s office. People expect the office to seek it, but nobody wants the bill. It’s a tremendous burden on the courts. It’s an enormously expensive way to get rid of one violent criminal in a world that has so very many of them.”
“Will, would you personally be willing to use it?”
“I would be willing, but not enthusiastic.”
“Fact or fiction, you killed a terrorist in Iraq with your bare hands.”
“You can document that?”
“Certainly.”
“Well, then, why should I confirm or deny it?”
“The people…”
“Already elected me.”
“Cut.” The lights went off.
Clara took Will by the hair. She whispered in his ear. “If she loses her nerve, I don’t think I would.”
“Noted, ma’am.”
* * *
Will went to the house, and set Chrissie to calling everyone for dinner. Alan was in Idaho. On Chrissie’s request, Mel went to get Katie. They all headed to the Chinese place. Will looked at Marie. “You’re not so cheerful tonight.”
“He went to Idaho.”
“Did he kiss you and tell you he loved you first?”
“Not exactly.”
“Well, you have two possibilities. The bad one is, he had his fun and he is gone. I’d evict his truck from the lot if I were you, and he acted like that.”
“Most likely, he’s delivering his cars. I’d resist calling him. The road is lonely. If he cares for you, he will be missing you real bad when the sun goes down and the truck is parked. You try too hard, and look desperate, and you’ll break your line. Let your fish run a little. An expert fisherman is never in a hurry. Set the drag light and take it easy. If he doesn’t call you two hours after sunset, then you call just to see that he is all right. You were a little worried is all.”
Chrissie laughed. “If I’d known then.”
“She would have caught her fish in law school.”
They fiddled with pot stickers and prawns. The waitress brought the dinners. Mel was putting food in Katie’s mouth. A fish headed for the aquarium.
Marie’s phone rang.
“Give it a few seconds, and then answer with your business name.”
“Marie’s used cars, this is Marie. Oh, Alan. Did you get to the receiver? Well, don’t take chances on the ice over there. Are you coming back to Oregon? I do, and I don’t care that you don’t know how to dance. Well, I want you to have safe tires. I know there are dumb chicks out there who will run into you. Well, my uncle thinks you’re good enough for me. You do that, and I will have Marcie Della hit you with a framing hammer. Oh, we know her. I’ll get them autographed. 22x28? We have big ones, too. To Alan Lawrence with love and kisses, Marcie Della? She will also autograph the special catalog. That’s going to be a collector’s item. I’ll call right now.”
“Hi Tommie. Marie. I want a set of 22x28 for my boyfriend. ‘To Alan Lawrence with love and kisses, Marcie Della.’ The Ukraine? Why are you there? And then Lithuania and back to Japan. If it makes sense to you. Thank you, Tommie.”
She hung up. “She’s doing the Balkans and then back to Japan.”
Will looked to Katie. “She is the point chick for Phillipa.”
“You don’t call women ‘chicks’ any more.”
“We are very politically incorrect. We’re so uncool that we think politically correct is a term from the Gulag Archipelago.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah it is. That Marcie, she got a Lear jet from Phillipa, but she likes the corporate Gulfstream better, because it can jump the pond without her having to wait for her plane to be refueled.”
Chrissie put a catalog on the table. She had to move the pot stickers out of the way, and Will took one while she did. Will opened the catalog. “Do you have one of her glitter pens?”
Chrissie handed him one, and he autographed the catalog next to his picture. It showed Will in a pair of jeans and a T shirt, holding a camera, with a nude Marcie behind him, wrapping a leg around him, her foot between his thighs, in a strappy sandal. Her critical points were, of course, not visible.
He passed the catalog to Katie.
“Pretty racy for a DA.”
“I’m the racy kind of DA. But I do racy, not pornography. Just a personal and professional decision, not a judgment on others. My friend Marc does nudes, but he doesn’t do crude stuff. Marc will rub a model’s nipples to get them erect for a shot, but he would never cheat on his wife. If the model puts her finger in her warm wet place, he will shoot it. But he keeps his pants zipped up. Photographers take pix. That is what you can say about us. We have our lines.”
“I have the impression that your lines are drawn very dark and hard.”
Mel leaned forward.
“Leave it, Mel. I am not offended.”
Mel nodded.
“My lines are very dark and hard. I try to live according to the virtues. I do not claim to always be inside the lines, but I take them extremely seriously.”
Marie picked up a pot sticker. “Uncle Will is an extremely serious man, Katie.”
“I kind of thought so.”
“Katie, meet Gibraltar. Don’t run into him.”
“Can I run into you, Mel?”
“You can. Just you.”
She hugged him.
The waitress came and took some stuff away. “You guys are having a lot of fun.”
Chrissie smiled. “We are.”
“I wish I did. Once in a while.”
“What’s your name?”
“Carol. I’m the only one here without a Chinese name.”
Will pushed his food around, and picked out a shrimp. “Invite her over, Chrissie.”
Mel finished off his plate, and pushed it to the edge of the table. He held out his badge. “We’re a family of nut cases, but we’re not dangerous to you.”
She looked at Will. “William fucking Ames.”
“Close. Wrong middle name.”
Katie spoke up. “When do you get off, Carol?”
“Never. Oh, tonight? Soon as the boss is done with me. He doesn’t need me tonight because he has Michelle.”
“Find out if you can come over to our house and have a drink.”
She left, and came back. “I can.” She put the dinners into take out boxes.
Marie giggled. “Didn’t we just do this”
“Unfortunately, I don’t have a spare man tonight. I’ll have to work on that.”
“I’m not getting much of this.”
“Don’t sweat it, Carol. Inside jokes. Hang around with us a while and you’ll know.”
They went back to the house. Marie called Marcie’s office number, and got Peaches. They had an email address nobody but Will should use, and they would put the caption, the pic number and size and the mailing address in the message. Will could give away as many posters as he liked. Did he want the one with the Elle cover? This was the one where she was sitting on the floor in black lacy bra and panties, and she had her ankles crossed over a pair of really nice strappy sandals in black with gold on the insoles. Peaches had one in 16 x 20. Marie got Carol’s mailing address.
“So, Carol, in our playhouse, This is my Aunt Chrissie and Uncle Will and, and I am Marie. My other Aunt and Uncle, Katie and Mel. That’s my gramps, Hank. We are not biologically related, we just say this for fun, and we’re kind of a family. I would like to offer you a title and a beer. You would be my Aunt Carol. We just say it, and nobody believes it, but we would sort of think of you as family. It’s not, like, kinky sex or some crap. We just, well, most of us were alone in the world, so.”
“I am also alone in the world, and I would be pleased to be your Aunt, Marie.”
Marie got a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and a bunch of glasses. She fussed with the ice, and distributed them. A bartender, she was not made to be. She poured some whisky.
Carol took a drink. “It kind of feels like people are a little nervous here in my new family. Mel, you’re my brother in law, right?”
There were some giggles.
“I feel like there is some tension here, like something might happen.”
“You never know, but I think things are all right.”
“You’re a cop. So you have a gun.”
“Sure.”
“If I just have a funny feeling, you can take care of whatever it would be?”
“I’m sure you’re safe, Carol.”
“If something happened?”
“I could take care of it. If I couldn’t I would ask Will or Hank to help me. Hank is the real hard guy in our family. He fought in Korea.” Carol ran around behind Hank, and pretended to hide behind him, holding him. “Stay back. I have a soldier here!”
“A Marine, ma’am.”
“Would you protect me, Hank?”
“You’re Fore and Aft right I would.”
She put her arms around him from behind. She held him tight. “Nobody cares about me, Hank.”
“Someone should.” He sat in his chair, which had big arms. Carol sat on one of the arms, fiddling with Hank’s hair.