Max Stone, the sign read. It was being held by my best friend, Jennifer. Well, she used to be my best friend. She was about to have a real problem. Jennifer hugged me tight and asked, “How are you? Are you still mad at Marty?”
“Who me? I’m not mad. I’m just going to sue his ass off. You are going to have to pick your side on this one.”
“Marty has been my client since I started practicing,” Jennifer said.
“I have been your friend since grade school. You still have to choose.” I was not about to let her off easy. After all, she had gotten me into it in the first place.
“Tell me what your position is and I’ll pass it along. Maybe there won’t be any need for a court fight.”
“I want the son of a bitch taken out and shot. That’s my bottom line position.”
“Come on, Max, what damage do you think he did to you?”
“He lied to me and he used me to promote his stupid bike business. Then, when I fought back, he put those pictures of me on the net.”
“Now don’t get pissed, just listen, then if you still feel the same, I’ll deliver your comments. If you two can’t come together, I’ll recommend good lawyers for you both. I won’t represent one of you against the other.”
“Okay, that’s fair. What is it you have to say in his defense?” I asked.
“For one thing, he told you he was out to demonstrate that the bike was a dependable means of transportation. Okay, he didn’t tell you he was setting up a business, but a trial judge is going to split hairs.”
“He took pictures of me without my permission and posted them on the net.”
“Yes, and some of those are in bad taste, but they haven’t been doctored. You were dressed or undressed just like the images show. The pornographic ones you might not have posed for, but you knew you weren’t alone with the person whose body parts are also in the pictures.”
“Okay, so I’m complicit, but we both know he didn’t have a release for those images. You are supposed to have a release, if you use someone’s image in advertising, aren’t you?”
“Yes and Marty has some culpability for those images used in promoting his business. But, Max, it’s going to cost you a ton to sue. Marty can stall this till hell freezes over and your lawyer is going to want to be paid. If the best you can do is ten grand, nobody is going to want to touch your case.”
“Well, my big plan was to sue him for reckless endangerment. He sent me out on a bike that he knew was overpowered and poorly balanced. He didn’t even bother to warn me. I swerved to avoid a collision with a coyote and the bike threw me off.”
“Yes and what are the permanent damages?”
“A couple of scars are about all I can come up with now, but you never know what will show up next year.”
“Max, you can do that to Marty and ruin his new business venture. That’s what you really want to do. You want to castrate him because he didn’t tell you everything. Then again his lawyer is going to ask you about the pictures. Just to be sure you aren’t doing the woman scorned thing to him. You aren’t are you?”
“Not scorned, Jen, lied to and used.”
“Okay, what do you think that is worth?”
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“I do. See what he really did was make a half dozen commercials using your image. If he had hired a professional model to make those images, it would have cost him about 75K. He sent you out on that bike, and yes, he knew it was dangerous. It will be up for debate how much you knew, but he had another 25K worth of liability there. He did pay you for everything else, except that sex, and you really don’t want to sue for that do you?
“Of course not.”
“Then ask the dirty old man for 100K and walk away from it. That’s my advice.”
The conversation took place in her BMW as she drove me to Marty’s shop for my minivan. “I’ll give it some thought,” I replied. We were still five minutes out, so I just shut up for the rest of the ride.
“So, was the trip fun otherwise?” she asked.
“It actually was a blast, even the parts that weren’t,” I suggested with a small smile.
“Good, so what are your plans now?” Jen asked.
“I’m going to get the van and then go to the office to see what is left of my business.”
“Well, speaking of that, Lucas has called me a dozen times in forty days. I think that is pretty damn good.”
“Yes, if that’s all it took to keep the place going, it is damn good. Of course, if it’s because he didn’t do shit, then it isn’t so good.”
“Good point, Max, I don’t know which it is.” She paused a long moment, then went on. “Ted is going to meet us to open the door so you can get your car. I called ahead and Ted said his dad ordered him to give you the car and write you a check for the balance of the account. That isn’t going to include the 100K.”
“Of course not, it’s just five grand.”
“Good, then that won’t be a problem. I’ll start working on the other, but Marty probably won’t decide for a while. His case will be stronger if the trip didn’t light a fire in the public. Your case will be stronger if it did. So both of you should wait to see what the reaction of the public is.”
“Perfectly logical advice, but I want to hang him by his balls, no matter what it is,” I replied.
“Guess what, Max? He wants to do the same to you since you ruined his press conference. You called his bike a death trap.”
“Duh, yeah,” I replied laughing.
Ted met us at the door to his dad’s shop. “Hello, Max,” he said, handing me an envelope.
Inside was a check for five thousand dollars. “That covers the balance on your contract.” He paused a moment, then went on. “Yes, I know there are other issues, but that’s between the two of you. I am sorry about those pictures he put up last night. He should not have done that.”
“Thanks, Ted, I agree about that. Well, I need to get to my office.” I turned my attention to Jen. “Call me and we will do lunch,” I suggested.
When I got to the office, Ed gave me a big hug. I barely recognized Lucas. “My God, Lucas, have you grown a foot or what?”
“Nothing like that,” he replied.
“The kid has matured, not gotten taller, Max. He jumped right in and did a hell of a job for you,” Max whispered to me. I don’t think he wanted the kid to know how impressed he was.
“So anything exciting happen since I’ve been gone?” I asked loud enough for both of them to hear, then I sat at my desk and turned on the computer. While it came to life, I listened to Ed telling me about his latest woes with the bail jumpers. “Before you ask, I do not want to run down your bail jumpers.” I said just loud enough to carry across the room.
“What about me?” Lucas asked.
“What about you?” I repeated to him.
“Now that you are back, there isn’t enough work for me even part time. I could run down bail jumpers for Ed.”
“In spite of his whining, he doesn’t have that many,” I replied, “Besides which, you don’t have any idea how to be a bounty hunter.”
“You could teach him,” Ed suggested. The look I gave him would have made Superman proud. Ed threw up his hands and said, “Just saying, you could show him the ropes.”
“You want me to open a new can of worms, then Luke here goes back to school and I am stuck working my bony ass off,” I said.
“You just loved saying that, didn’t you?” Ed said, laughing.
“Saying what? Telling you no?” I asked.
“Hell no, the bony ass thing. Ever since you got here last winter you have been bitching about those few extra pounds. The blown out gullet, and the road trip were all it took for you to get skinny.” Ed said firmly.
“Hey, I don’t mind looking good for a change,” I replied.
“You always looked good, besides you have lost too much weight now, if you ask me.”
“Don’t worry, they are still making donuts down at Krispy Kreme, it won’t take long.”
“Good, I’m buying the first dozen.” Ed was proud of himself for successfully harassing me again. The man treated me as he wished he could treat his own daughter. Her he could not speak to without it turning into WW3. She was ashamed of what he did for a living. The two of them went out of their way to avoid having any real conversations.
“Please, Ms. Stone,” Lucas begged.
“Lucas, surely you can see that I don’t want to work that hard. You know you are going to be a cop and I will be left with the work and no help. You really need two people to do bail pickups. If you don’t, eventually someone is going to get hurt. I haven’t always been the lucky one. Sometimes it me on the bloody end of the stick.”
“You know I can’t promise to never leave you, but there are lots of people who need work. You could always replace me.”
“Well, it does fit in with the process serving, in a way.”
“I can get you work from Tryon. I know all those boys over there. I know what kind of service they get from the guy over there who runs jumpers.”
“What’s he like?” I asked.
“He’s a court sanctioned thug, that’s what,” he said firmly.
“I wish you guys had given me a couple of days to settle back in before you dropped this on me.”
“So, are you doing to do it?” Ed asked.
“Lucas, do you really want to do this?” I asked. If he came up with some pie in the sky bullshit, my answer was going to be hell no.”
“Ma’am, I want to work, and this job has been good for me so far. Mr. Martin says it won’t be a huge amount of work, but he thinks that I can do it. So yes, Ma’am, I want to at least try it.”
“You do know at least one of the guys you pickup is not going to want to come along peacefully.”
“Yes Ma’am, I know.”
“You are prepared to bring down an ass whuppin’ on some guy whose only crime is like bank fraud?”
“If it’s him or me, and I can make it him, yes Ma’am, I’m willing to do that.”
“Ed next one you get that you can’t talk in, give him to me and we will try.”
“Here you go. You shouldn’t have any problem with her, I’m sure she really wants to do the right thing.”
“You been saving this for me. You just knew you two could talk me into it.”
“Not at all, Max. I just hadn’t got around to calling the thug yet,” Ed swore.
I looked at the name on the file. ‘Lori Simpson’ was handwritten in Ed’s very neat script. He told me when I asked earlier, that he had learned to print in high school drafting class. His printing was as good as any typewriter I had ever seen.
Inside were police reports and court reports. The top item in the file was a bench warrant for Lori. She didn’t appear for her DUI trial. “What kind of penny ante bullshit is this Ed, DUI?”
“If you read a little more closely, I’m in for a 100K on Lori the Lush. Third offense, and she put a kid in a wheelchair.”
“You do have all the information to find her, if she isn’t in the wind.” I said flipping pages.
“You know she is gonna be near mama or one of her boyfriends.”
“How about the boyfriend, is he dangerous?”
“Let us say you shouldn’t turn your back on him.”
“Terrific, okay, let me call and up my liability insurance and we will give it a go. But just on Lori the Lush for now.”
“Oh, welcome back, Max,” I mumbled under my breath.
Maxine's new life 