Shock and Awe

The meeting was run in a military manner. They prepared an Operations Order, brainstormed plans for the operation and determined equipment necessary for the operation. Some of the equipment needed was available to them from the Guard, and they planned to make use of it. Of course, they would be using it in an unauthorized manner, but considering their ranks, position in the unit and time in service they were confident, unless it was lost or damaged, they could safely get by with "borrowing" the equipment.

All of the surveillance would be supervised by the three men Slim recruited from his Military Police unit. Two of them actually worked as law enforcement officers in their civilian jobs. One was a deputy sheriff in their county, the other, a city policeman. These two men brought extra expertise to the operation and even had access to some quality surveillance gear. The icing on the cake was that if they could get the goods on Shirley and Slick Willie, they could use the legally obtained part of the evidence to prosecute them. Assuming they were involved in prostitution, they might even be able to bring in other law enforcement agencies.

Thirteen days after the first planning session in the Armory, they were ready to execute their plan. All the citizen soldiers were aware of their role in the operation and trained to accomplish the mission, a mission that for all intents and purposes was a military one, not withstanding its occurring in a civilian venue. At the onset of the operation, as with any military operation, the gathering of intelligence began. Programs were downloaded on both Shirley and Wilson's cell phones. Landlines were tapped and cameras and recorders placed in both houses and vehicles. The players were covered in order to identify additional players.

It took them two weeks to find where Shirley stashed her "earnings". Not too surprisingly, she didn't have a local bank account for the money. Somewhat more of a surprise was that it didn't go into a safe deposit box, either. She was keeping the money in a nice safe inside an old junk combine parked behind the machine shed. At some point, the safe had been welded inside the grain separation area of the combine in front of the straw walker. She actually had to crawl up into the machine to access the safe. She accessed it often enough there was a pretty well defined patch under the rear of the combine where she crawled into and out of the machine to hide her money. After they found the safe, the crew installed a low light camera in the machine where it would get a clear picture of the dial so they could ascertain the combination and remove the money when the operation went to completion.

On the twentieth day of surveillance, a Thursday, Mona got a phone call from Slim, the "NCOIC" of the surveillance. He said, "Top, we got a major problem here. Terry is going ape shit and wants to drop everything. We need a command decision on this one and probably a hell of a lot more pull than any of us have."

"What's crawled up your ass, Slim? Calm down. Crap, you sound more excited than when we were taking mortars over there."

"Willie and Shirley are working today, ya know? We were on them and the game just got a whole lot more dangerous here. They were waiting in a motel room for their noon customers. After Willie finished getting his piece Shirley asked for her cut of the afternoons take. He said, 'Ain't no take this afternoon, Shirl. This's a freebie, sorta an insurance policy for us'.

"Shirley just looked at Willie and said, 'Bullshit. No one rides this pussy for free, and I damn sure ain't gonna put out no unlimited gang bang for four assholes for free. I'm outta here'. Willie grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the room then onto the bed. He looked real scared and said, 'Shirl, we got no choice here. Your customers today are the Sheriff and Police Chief and two of their friends. The sheriff or chief, one, got the goods on us somehow, and the sheriff came to me with a deal. They get to ride free once a month and get ten percent of the take or we get a trip to the big house. We don't have any choice here Shirl'.

"Well, Terry got really scared when he heard that and wanted to take off, but we talked him into staying until we talked to you. Hell, now we don't know where to go with this, Top. We got no idea how deep the rot is in the county or city law enforcement. Hell, who the hell do we call in on this one, or do we just drop everything? I mean, he's upset over this damn illegal unauthorized surveillance in the first place. Said he didn't sign on for this shit. He only wanted to help out a friend. Now he's afraid he'll get in trouble for the unauthorized investigation and for spying on the sheriff. I don't know how long I can keep him here or how long I can keep him quiet."

"Awww crap. Gimme a minit. I need to talk to Don. We'll get back to ya. Stay on top of this for now, Slim."

After she discussed the problem with Don, Mona called Slim back. "Slim, see if you can keep a lid on this and control Terry today. Be damn sure you get good recordings and get them back to me as soon as the action ends. We need safe backups and a good hiding place for these recordings, for sure. We'll have a meeting Monday night at the Armory to go over this with the crew. We can either do it before or after our training meeting."

The group stopped following Shirley and Wilson but continued collecting the electronic intel from phone intercepts and the houses and vehicles. Much of that was interesting, very interesting. Not only was the sheriff and police chief involved but they caught the local prosecuting attorney's name being bandied about.

In one of the intercepted phone calls Wilson said, "Shirley, you got another insurance payment due tomorrow morning at 10."

"Bullshit," she said. I've already gave those fuckers their month's payment. We all agreed one day a month free and that's it."

"Uh, Shirl, it aint them. Somehow the Prosecuting Attorney found out about us. Now ya gotta give him the same deal, and tomorrow's his first payment. The sheriff says we're earning his protection just fine, but you need to provide some pussy for the prosecutor or his protection won't be enough. The Prosecutor also gets another 5% cut outta us, too."

"God damnit, Willie. Where's this gonna end? Huh? Now ya got me working free two days a month and we've lost 15% of our income. How the hell did you let this happen anyway, asshole?"

"Hell it wasn't me, Shirl. I don't like this any better than you do, ya know. I been thinking about just leaving, ya know, but I guess tha sheriff thought about that. He said if we took off he'd put out an APB on our asses for prostitution and a bunch of other shit. That asshole owns us now, Shirl. Just be glad he's letting us keep what we're making now, okay?

"You son of a bitch. I don't know why I ever let you talk me into doing this. Do it for a while, you said. We'll get rich and be able to blow this hick town, you said. We'll be rich and live the good life like we've always dreamed, you said. Now look at us. I'm trapped being a damn whore and..."

"Whoa there, Shirl. You love the work and you know it. Hell, you're the one that came to me about being your protection when we were over there. It made us a lot of money there, and its making us more now. We'll get away somehow and live it up. You'll see."

"Yeah, right. You damn well better be right or I'll find some way to make you pay for this. Have you thought about what'll happen if they find out about your other business, asshole? Will you have the same protection for that?"

Wilson almost whispered, "Damn it, Shirl be quiet! They don't know about that and we need to make damn sure they never do. Even if they let me pay them off on that, too, it could make some very bad people angry. Man, maybe I better cool it a while on that or maybe just stop selling around here. Yeah, that's it. I'll just keep my other business out of the county; maybe just work it when we're away from here. Or, maybe I can find someone to work it here for me and just supply them the product... Yeah. That's what I'll do. Might not make quite as much, but it might be a lot safer and they can't squeeze a cut out of me if I'm not selling, can they?"

Shirley muttered, "Fucking stupid asshole." She said louder, "Okay, you win again. Shit. Another damn wasted day." Once again, Shirley was forced to provide the pussy for free.

The group discussed their intel so far and decided they were in way over their heads. The initial plan was to get the goods on Shirley and Wilson, then out them to the community before Randy filed for divorce. Then they planned to provide it to the prosecuting attorney. This, of course, would benefit Randy, because if Shirley was convicted of a crime the divorce would be more favorable to him. Now, with the entire senior law enforcement arm of the county involved in the mess, they had to rethink their plans. They were even worried about Wilson's other business. All any of them could think of was drugs, and if he was involved in that they damn sure wanted to get some serious law enforcement involved.

Mid-way through the meeting, Mona said, "Look. We're in way over our head here. We need to pass this up the chain, pronto. I think we need to either get with the FBI or the Highway Patrol on this one. I don't know who would have the jurisdiction."

When he heard Mona say that, Randy slurred, "Dammit thish jush innt righ. I wanna hurt tha bish an bassard. Howm I gonna do that if we calla FBI?"

Mona looked back at the angry drunken Randy and glared at him for a moment as only a First Sergeant and career wife could do, even if she WASN'T his wife. She glanced at a slightly more sober Don, and then said, "Look, Randy, I think we all want you to be able to lay some hurt on them, but we can't just do something to hurt them and let our county officials walk. Hell, if they're unethical enough to do the bitch and let Slick Willie buy them off with pussy, what are they doing for other criminals? We have to get them, too. You know as well as I do they would never prosecute Slick and Shirl if we gave them the evidence we have. It would be like cutting their own throats. Besides, if we let them know we have the goods on them, they can make our lives hell also. No, we have to go for them, too, and maybe take a chance of you having to take less revenge than you want."

"Well, I doan like it. I want those assholes to hurt like I do. They deserve the pain."

Don looked around the table before he leaned back in his chair once again. He said, "Look, Randy, none of us is an attorney. Hell, none of us has more than a two-year degree from college. We have no way of knowing exactly what the whole outcome of this is, but I think I remember hearing convicted criminals have a lot poorer chance of getting a good divorce settlement than someone who is squeaky clean. I think we, you, need to visit with an attorney before we go too much farther. I also think, no matter what else goes on, that we need to empty that safe pretty soon. At first I thought we needed to just use the combination and empty it, but now I think we need to do something even worse to throw her off the scent."

"Well 'course we haveta take tha money! I'll be damn if she can cheat on me then walk off with a buncha cash and halfa my farm n stuff."

"Yeah, but if we do things right we can get you the money and make it look as if someone else got it. I might be overly cautious, but I think I have an idea that will give you some legitimate cash to report on your tax return and a way to hide some of her whorin' money."

Randy looked at Don curiously and said, "Howm I gonna do that?"

"Well, look. The price of scrap iron is pretty high right now. All of us have a bunch of old scrap machinery around the farm. We all need to get together and haul the scrap to a recycling yard. The larger pieces will need to be cut up for us to be able to haul them. We can start on my place, then do Slims before we get to yours. We all have large trucks, trailers and torches to cut the larger machinery into smaller pieces. We can load the scrap with our tractors. When we get to your place the first piece we cut up will be the combine. We'll be sure we cut the combine up so the safe is still pretty well hidden inside. Before we begin cutting, we'll open the safe and take almost all the money from it. We'll leave oh, say a couple hundred dollars inside in case it pops open when they crush the scrap, if they crush it locally. If they don't crush it—and I don't think they will because the recyclers don't have a crusher on site—you don't lose much. Normally, they use a magnet and load the scrap into rail cars then ship it to the smelter. Anyway, that is a plausible way for you to get most of the money and no one will be the wiser. We just have to make sure we have a day or two to do the work before Shirley discovers the combine is either being cut up or is gone. When she misses the combine, she'll be royally pissed but she can't tell you why. She may even suspect you found the safe, but she can't prove anything. We'll hide the money somewhere else until this all blows over, then get it back to you."

Randy looked around the table at his friends. His face broke out in a wide grin and he said, "Now thass whut I'm talkin' 'bout. We get tha money and she gets fucked." He giggled and said, "Hey, that's right innit? She gets fucked alla time anyway and I done it ta her agin. I like it. Now, how we gonna make er n Willie pay? Still wannum ta hurt."

Mona broke into the conversation once again saying, "Don, I like your idea for several reasons. We all get rid of some of the clutter around our places and heck knows I like that. I've been tired of all the scrap machinery around for quite a while, but haven't said anything about it because we were so damn busy. We all also get some extra income, but most of all, Randy gets a bunch of the skank's money free and clear.

"Now, does anyone know a good divorce attorney, preferable one that can advise Randy on this other mess also?"

Slim spoke up then. "Yeah, I might know someone that can help, anyway. Y'all remember Paulette from school?" He got several nods and a few yeses before he continued. He grinned at Randy and said, "Don't give us that look, Randy. I KNOW you remember her. You ever get over that beatin' her ole man gave ya when he caught you two in the barn?"

Randy's face took on a deep red hue and he glared at Slim before he muttered, "Fuck you and tha horse ya rode in on, asshole."

Everyone around the table broke up in laughter after that short exchange. Mona, like the good First Sergeant she was, brought the meeting back on topic. She looked at Slim and said, "Okay, Slim. Stop fucking with Randy and tell us about the attorney."

"Well, I don't know any lawyers m'self but I heard Paulette was workin' for a buncha them up in Centerton. She got a job with them when she got outta college and been with 'em ever since. I heard they done her proud when she had to divorce that cheatin' city dude she got hitched to in college. I 'spect if we called her she could find us a good-un."

"Well, I don't have any better idea. Does anyone else? Okay, who knows her best?" Once again loud laughter suffused the room as the men looked at Randy. Mona glared at the men and said, "Okay, assholes. You know what I meant. Anybody?"

No one said anything, then finally Don said, "I think we all know her, Honey, but I don't think any of us have seen her since her Daddy died what, seven or eight years ago?"

"Okay, that leaves it to either Randy or me. Does anyone at least know where she works or what her phone number is?" Again there were no answers. "Well, crap. What do I do just start calling attorneys and ask if Paulette works there?"

Randy looked at Mona and said, "Mos of 'er family lives in Steelville. Doan 'member who 'er where. Her aunt was married to one of the Fieldings and they 'bout own that town. Ya might call over there or go to the store. They might know."

"Great. Well it beats nothing. Okay, I'll get on that tomorrow. Anything else we need to talk about tonight?"

Don looked around the table and then said, "Yeah, Honey. I think we need to lay low for a while and just keep on passive surveillance only while we take care of the other business. Let's see what the attorney says before we get with the FBI or Patrol."

Everyone thought that idea was a good one, and it was accepted. The meeting finally broke up after they did a small amount of work for the Guard to cover their tracks and make it seem as if the use of the Armory was totally legitimate.

The next day, Mona drove over to Steelville and went to the Feed and Farm Store. There was only one woman working the front counter ringing up purchases so Mona stood to the side waiting on a chance to talk. Soon, a woman came out of the office and asked if she could help Mona.

"I hope so. I'm Mona Terwilliger, from over by Wilson's Mill. I have a strange request. I used to go to school with Paulette Chambers. A bunch of friends and I were talking about people we used to know last week, and her name came up. We remembered some of the Fieldings were related to her and I came over to see if I could talk to one of them and get her address or phone number."

The woman smiled and said, "I'm Jennifer Fielding Scott. Why don't you come into the office so we can talk? I'm watching the phones for Mom while she's running errands."

After they were seated in the cluttered office, Jennifer leaned back in the desk chair and frowned at Mona. She said, "Now, just why exactly are you looking for Paulette? I'm not about to give out information on her to someone just because they want it."

Mona sat looking at Jennifer for a moment. There was something about her. She was so sure of herself and her eyes had that look. She could stare into your soul and had the long seeing look as if she had seen hell and came back. She carried herself with authority and confidence. Mona knew better than try to BS her. Finally, she decided on a portion of the truth and hoped she wouldn't get in too deep. Why the hell did she have to stumble into this woman?

"I may have misled you slightly out there," she said. "We were talking about old friends last week and Paulette's name did come up. We were having a training meeting at the Armory and discussing one of my soldiers personal problems during a break when..."

Jennifer leaned forward somewhat. Her eyes bored into Mona like lazers as she snapped, "You were discussing my cousin in a training meeting with YOUR soldiers? Just who the hell are you, missy? I'm a Commander, USN, Retired so you can take this as an order if you want. Now I want to see some identification and I mean now. If you don't convince me you mean no harm to Paulette you'll get nothing from me."

Oh, fuck, Mona thought. She looked at Jennifer once again and could see it. The 'I will be obeyed look, the deep seated confidence that came with command and to senior military officers. She never considered whether Jennifer could legally give her an order or not. Her immediate reaction was to obey a senior officer so she dug into her purse and found her ID card. She leaned forward and handed the ID to Jennifer.

Jennifer looked at the ID and handed it back. She said, "First Sergeant, huh? Well I suppose you're not some kind of stalker or axe-murderer anyway. Now, First Sergeant, just why do you want to find Paulette?"

"Like I said, Ma'am we were in a meeting and her name came up. One of my men is having some problems with a cheating wife. Some of us were helping him get the goods on her when we found something out that is way, way above our pay grade. We heard several years ago that Paulette worked for an attorney, so we wanted to talk to her about a divorce attorney and about one that might be able to help with the other matter, too."