There Must Be A Mistake Ch. 11

"Dr. Thyme, I'm going to need a deposit for $11,000 to hold the apartment until all the paperwork is ready."

Gray took out a check filled it out and handed it to her. She gave him a receipt which contained the property name and apartment number he was renting.

"Ms. Vargas, my attorney, Rod Laver will take care as everything else for you. Here is his card, call him when you are ready. I will be leaving for Houston soon, and will be back late next week. I expect everything to be done by the time I return."

"It will be Dr. Thyme, I guarantee it."

"Where is the closest upscale jewelry store?"

Vargas searched on her computer and showed Gray his choices. He wrote down the address of three jewelry stores, thanked her and left the store, with Jayden leading the way.

As they stopped for traffic light, Gray looked across the street and saw the Audi dealership.

"We may as well stop there first, and get the car Dr. Luck wants me to have."

The signal changed, they crossed the street and into the Audi showroom.

It must have been a very slow month for car sales at the dealership. Two sales representatives were ready to pounce on Gray and Jayden when they walked through the door, but they were cut off by a very pretty young woman before they could reach them.

"Hello, I'm Marcia, how my serve you?"

After taking a quick breath, Gray said, "Hello Marcia, I am Grayson Thyme, Dr. Even Luck has a car on order for me, and I was hoping it was ready."

She pointed to her office. "If you will wait in there I will take a look and verify it for you." She walked away swinging her hips graciously, and both men's eyes were riveted to her ass.

Jayden said, "How dare you Dr. Thyme! I'm going to tell that little girl of yours what you just did. I am allowed to look, because I'm not married, you can't."

"If you tell her, you will be out of a job right after you bury me."

"You two have it bad, don't you?"

"I guess you could say that. The only reason we're not married already is she wants to wait until she's 18 before she has sex. I take an awful lot of cold showers, and sometimes they are not cold enough."

"If it were me doctor, I would be sleeping in an ice bath. She is a knockout."

Marcia walked into the room and announced that his car was indeed ready. There was no paperwork for him to sign and no insurance forms for him to fill out. The SUV was registered under the name of one of Dr. Luck's corporations, and had some very interesting features added to it.

She handed Gray the list, but Jayden pulled it from his hand to look it over. He kept repeating, "very nice, very nice" as he read through the list.

When he was finished he handed the list back to Gray and said, "We have to stop at a gun shop when we are finished."

"We do?"

"We most certainly do."

"I shouldn't ask why?"

"No you shouldn't. Dr. Luck told you, don't ask questions, follow orders."

"Yes sir, I am at your disposal."

"You most certainly are, and you will stay alive that way too."

Marcia sat there listening to this conversation stunned. She had never heard anything like it in her young life. She smiled at Jayden, and he did not hesitate to smile back at her.

She started handing the keys to Gray but Jayden intercepted them grasping her hand in the process.

"Marcia, you have very smooth and delicate fingers. It's been a pleasure to meet you."

"Thank you sir, the pleasure has been mine."

"My name is Jayden, maybe we'll see each other again sometime."

She handed him one of her cards after she circled her cell phone number.

"I am normally home after 7 PM. It would be nice if we could talk."

"I couldn't agree more."

"I will escort both of you to your car."

Jayden walked outside first to look around, before he allowed Gray to leave the building.

Marcia walked up to a green Audi Q7 and waited for the two men to come with her.

"Is there something wrong with this car?"

"No, I thought I was getting a blue one."

"Dr. Luck specifically said not to give you a blue car. He wanted to give you a black one if we had it, which we didn't. We listed everything we had that met his criteria, and he selected the green one even though we had five blue ones that met his criteria."

"I love that man."

Jayden said, "I wish he had gotten you a blue one, no one would have been able to differentiate who was driving what car."

"License plates Jayden, license plates make all the difference in the world."

"Regardless of how smart you are you are still stupid in the ways of the world doctor. If you threw three sets of keys into a bowl, and you have three matching cars, you hit the remote and you go to the one that beeps. It doesn't matter what the license plate is you drive that car. The windows are all darkly tinted, the headrests are all high so you can't see the driver from behind. Unless they are watching from the road which is impossible without being seen from the house, they are not going to know who got into what car."

"I'll kill her if she forgets to the gasoline in the tank."

"She will never get out of the car to the gasoline in it. We will, and the tank will never be less than half-full. It's part of our training Doctor, that's what we get paid for."

"The next time I start spouting off, about things I'm not supposed to know about hit me, but not as hard as she does. She may be little, but she is strong."

"She's not little for a girl. What is she, 5 foot 6, 5 foot 7, that's tall for a girl."

"So she has told me over and over again. You two are going to be good friends."

Marcia went over everything in the car with them, including how to get the spare tire off its mounts. It took her 30 minutes to do it all, and both men were impressed with her knowledge.

Jayden opened the passenger side door for Gray to get in, and he grumbled that he was not going to get to drive his new car.

Jayden told him to be quiet, as he walked over to Marcia to say goodbye.

"Would you mind if I gave you a call this evening?"

Marcia replied, with a smile on her face, "I would like that very much."

"I have just started on this assignment. I have no idea what my schedule is, or my days off are going to be. Once I do, I would like to take you out, to a place of your choosing, so we could get to know each other better."

"I feel like I know you Jayden. I can't remember from where, but I recognize you."

"You probably saw my picture in the newspaper about six or seven weeks ago standing beside a wrecked armored car."

"Oh my goodness that was you. I knew I recognized your face. How could you possibly be smiling in that picture?"

"The man that hired me for that job did everything in the world to make sure my friend and I would survive the attack. He didn't anticipate missiles being fired at us, but we had layers of protection around us that did that also. He is the man I'm working for now."

"So you were in the Marines getting shot at. Then you go to work for the armored car company, and your truck gets blown up by a missile. Now you're working as a bodyguard. Do you like getting shot at?"

"No. I enlisted in the Marines when I was 18 because I could not afford college. My grades were excellent but I was not good enough at sports to get a scholarship. After three tours in Iraq, they said they were sending my company to Afghanistan. I said no thank you, and when my enlistment was up I got out. I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid. When I came back home the highest paying jobs for former military were in security. My friend and I were able to get jobs, because of our experience, and training at Dunbar. The pay was excellent, the benefits were good, and you knew that 99% of the time your days were going to be boring. It's that 1% that you have to be vigilant for. I would love to keep talking with you Marcia, but I'm on the job, I'll call you tonight."

"Goodbye Jayden, I will be sitting by the phone, waiting for your call."

Gray didn't say a word as Jayden strapped himself in started the car and pulled into traffic. He didn't have to because he had a big grin on his face.

"Not one word Doctor, not one word."

"Who me; I haven't said a word, not one word. I can't help what I was thinking, but I was not thinking it out loud."

"Oh yes you were, and I could hear it loud and clear."

"You can't blame a man for what he's thinking. I'm stopping at a jewelry store next. I wonder if they give a discount if you buy two engagement rings at the same time."

"It would be a shame Doctor to have this new car run over you because of faulty brakes, but it could happen you know."

"You are hooked my friend. All she has to do is reel you in slowly, know how to cook and you will be married before I am."

"I am a bachelor for life Doctor. There are too many flowers out there for me to pick from and I am going to sample each one of them."

"Are you a betting man Jayden?"

"I have been known to bet a dollar and two on the football game."

"At our house we have a $100 limit on our wagering. I will bet you that within the next two months you too will be engaged. I know the symptoms only too well. I wanted to marry Delicious one minute after I met her, because I didn't want anyone else to touch her. I knew she was special in every way, I also knew it was going to be difficult to tame her."

"You are going to try to tame a woman?"

"It sounds funny doesn't it, but I'm going to do it, I've already started doing it, and she is being receptive. That's how much we love each other."

"Doctor, you are a lucky man."

"Isn't this convenient, a gun store right next to a jewelry store. I wonder if they planned it this way."

"Let's go into the jewelry store first, it's going to take them a little time to mount the stone."

"You go in first, and tell them I am carrying so they guards don't panic. I will have my ID and papers ready for them to look at."

Gray did what he was told, then Jayden walked into the store.

A guard walked out of the back room with a weapon in his hand. He pointed it at Jayden and told him not to move. As he approached him, he asked where the weapon was.

Jayden responded, "It's above my left hip, but don't touch it. I'm very picky about who touches my weapon."

The guard laughed. "Is that so. Well I'm going to take it from you, so add me to your list."

Jayden repeated, "Don't touch my weapon."

A guard, cleverly concealed behind him in a closet behind the front door told Jayden not to move.

"I'm not going to move, but he better not touch my weapon, or he will be very sorry."

"Well, black boy, I'm going to take your weapon and I'm not going to give it back to you until the police come."

"You will be very sorry, I can promise you that."

The guard reached his left hand through the front of Jayden's jacket and gripped the handle of his 9 mm weapon. He started to pull it out, and it was the last thing he remembered doing.

Jayden spun around with his gun in his hand and told the guard behind him to put his weapon down.

Gray hit the ground.

The second guard was so shocked by what happened, he dropped his weapon and put his hands in the air.

"Are you all right Gray?"

"Yes, this happens to me every time I go out to buy an engagement ring."

"Asshole, are the police coming or not?"

"No, we didn't call them."

"Using your left hand take out your cell phone and call them now. Then get down on the floor and throw the phone to me."

"Hold my gun on this one, Gray, while I tie up this insolent bastard."

"How did he set off your Taser?"

"The switch is attached to my holster. If I don't depress it while I'm pulling out my gun it goes off. I told him not to touch my gun, but he didn't listen to me."

"I guess it's a learning process, and he didn't learn fast enough."

Within a few moments there were three squad cars by the front of the store. Gray met them outside, showed them his ID. He told them what happened. He said his bodyguard was still inside covering the two men who had accosted both of them when they went into the store. He would have his man put his gun away and have his identification ready for them to see it when they came in.

Jayden was standing by the front door when the police walked in. He put his gun away, handed the Sergeant his paperwork, which he looked over very carefully.

Sergeant Fowler said, "Can't you stay out of trouble, or does it just follow you around wherever you go?"

"I don't know Sarge, I guess I'm just lucky lately."

"I'm glad I was a few hundred yards behind your truck, instead of a few hundred yards in front of it; that place was a mess."

"Yes it was, but you didn't get your world rocked like mine was."

"I hope your paycheck was worth it, I know mine was and all I had to do was drive."

"It was a very worthwhile day, plus I got this new gig which is paying me a ton more money, and a lot less stress until just now."

"What the hell happened here?"

"Doctor Thyme came in here to buy an engagement ring. I sent him in here first to advise the owner that I was carrying. I am his close body protection, and wherever he is I am. I walked in and had my papers in my hand, when this asshole tells me to raise my hands and not to move. He tells me he's taking my weapon away and not giving it back to me until you people come. I warned him not to touch it several times but he didn't listen. He pulled on my gun, my Taser went off. He should be waking up soon. When he does, the person he called a black bastard will put him back to sleep."

"Make sure the cameras are turned off, and I'm looking in another direction, otherwise I have to arrest you for assault and battery on an idiot."

When the guard regained consciousness and saw a police officer looking down at him, he yelled, "Arrest that bastard, he assaulted me."

"What did he assault you with?"

"I don't know. It hit me in the chest so fast it knocked me out."

"Was he robbing the store at the time he hit you?"

"No, he was carrying a gun."

"How did you know he was carrying a gun?"

"His friend told us he was."

"Wasn't that kind of his friend. Two men walk into the store and one of them tells you that the other one is carrying a gun. Does that tell you they have the intention of robbing your store?"

"No Bla... Man comes into the store with a gun."

"I'm sorry would you repeat that."

"No one comes into the store with a gun."

"You do know this is Colorado, don't you? Half the male population and third of the female population walk around with weapons on them. Why is this man so different?

"He's black, and I don't trust them. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"That is exactly what I wanted to hear. Davey, hook this guy up and charge him with a civil rights violation. We will hand him over to the feds as soon as we get a chance to."

"How about the other guy, what did he do?"

"I think he has to clean out his shorts. While he watched his friend go down I had my gun on him before he could react. He really didn't do anything wrong, he was just watching and following the other guys lead. Leave him alone."

"I guess we'll wrap up things here for today. Mister Naismith do you have anything to add to what happened today?"

"No, I was in the back when it started, I stayed there, watched and listened to it as it happened. It went exactly the way this man said it did."

"Okay, it's lunchtime. Try to stay out of trouble, at least the shooting kind for little while. I don't want to see your name in the papers, because then people may wonder if your bad luck."

"I work for Doctor Even Luck. His wife's name is Jennifer. His daughter's name is Delicious. His son is Gordon. Now I am going to become Bad. All it has to happen now is for Logan to be nicknamed Good and I think we'll have it covered."

"Doc, are all his jokes this bad?"

"That's the best one he's told yet."

"I feel sorry for you."

*************

Mister Naismith said, "I can understand if you do not wish to buy your engagement ring here after all that's happened. I can recommend another jeweler if you would like."

"No sir, you didn't cause the problem. What do you have in a perfect diamond, absolutely flawless in a 3 to 5 carat diamond ring, round, oval or princess cut."

"Let's go into the vault, all the large stones in there. I will check the index and let you know which ones are as close to perfect as I have so you will not waste your time."

As Gray was looking at the tray with over 30 diamonds on it the owner returned with six index cards. He put on white gloves, and as if he knew each diamond personally, he pushed the others aside, and picked out the six he wanted. He put these on a black tray and placed it under a huge magnifying glass. He explained the pros and cons of each gem to Gray because none of them was absolutely perfect, but the flaws were so infinitesimal no one would ever see them. Three were round, one was oval, and two were princess cut and they were all in the 4 to 6 carat range.

Gray asked, "How many of each style do you sell, which one is the most popular, which is the least popular?"

"The most popular in this carat range is the princess cut because of the amount of facets it has. The round ones are always popular because they fit into wedding sets so easily. The least popular would be the oval, that's why I carry so few of them. I don't know why, because I like them. This particular gem has a flaw so deep inside it, I can set the prong directly over it and no one will ever notice it unless they take it out of the setting and use a loop to look at it. I couldn't do that with any of the other stones because of the way they are cut."

"Do you have a microscope?"

"Of course, come with me."

Once the gem was set up properly, Gray glazed through the eyepiece and studied it with a practiced eye. He found the flaw instantly, and it looked like an air bubble had formed inside, as the coal began to crystallize. He noted the laser inscription, and a tiny scratch by one of the facets the jeweler didn't mention. He pointed it out to him on the television screen that monitored his every move.

As he stood up Gray said, "Let's look at settings for the stone, platinum only please."

After looking at two trays of settings Gray was about to give up, when one ring dropped out of the bottom of the tray. It looked like an heirloom piece, and didn't belong with these other modern styles. He was about to put it back, but his fingers wouldn't let it go. There was just something about this setting that said it belonged to Delicious. He called Mister Naismith over and said, "I'll take this ring and the diamond, how much and how long before it can be ready?"

He replied, "I've been looking for this ring for the longest time, where did you find it?"

"It fell out of the bottom of the tray while I was looking through the rings."

"I can't tell you how many people looked at it, and wanted to buy it. They would ask me to hold onto it until they got their boyfriends or parent's permission and either never returned, or I couldn't find it when they returned. This is the oddest thing I can remember happening."

"Maybe it was just meant to be this way. You still haven't told me how much I owe you."

"I have to verify the weight of the ring, call it into the security company for your insurance, and fill out the paperwork. I'll be back in less than 10 minutes."

He was true to his word.

"Doctor Thyme I have the figures for you. Under normal circumstances your bill would come out $111,840.00. However, because of the shameful way you were treated when you walked into my store today I've given you a discount. Your total including your insurance $78,030. I hope you will come back and purchase your wedding rings here."

"Mister Naismith, I think you're being overly generous with your discount, but I thank you for it. I can guarantee you I will be back from my wedding rings. The gentleman standing next to me will be back to purchase an engagement ring within 6 to 8 weeks for his lovely young lady, and their wedding rings soon thereafter. Here is your check. I am currently working for NASA, out of Houston, but I will be returning next week, to work with Doctor Even Luck."