The snow was falling thicker and harder when I walked out of Borders. It was getting close to three, so I jumped in my cavalier and headed over to the Rock and Roll MacDonald's. The way that Punch had seemed to materialize out of nothing had shaken me a little. My main thought was that when I got home, I would be looking up locations in Kenosha or Racine. When I arrived at MacDonald's Robert was waiting for me. I walked in and there he sat, all smiles and shit. He put down his double quarter pounder with cheese and stood up to shake my hand.
He said, "Good afternoon, Jackson. How are tings?"
I shook his hand, smiled and said, "As they should be. How is business?"
"Lucrative. Couldn't be better. Sit down then."
I said, "I went to a party last night."
Picking up his burger, he replied, "So I hear tell. Was it a good one?"
I snagged one of his fries and said, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Robert swallowed some processed cow and said, "Perhaps ye could show me."
I smiled and said, "Perhaps I could."
Bobby reached into his inside breast pocket and pulled out a thick manila envelope. He said, "Will two tickle it out o' ye?"
I smiled and pulled out from my inside breast pocket, a cd case containing the edited dvd from the night before, and a cd of stills that Percy had put together from the video. When you cut out all the unnecessaries, it turned out to be a twenty minute video. This is not unusual in my line of work and will be overlooked. I put the case on the table next to the envelope, and put the envelope in it's place.
"Don't ye even want te count it?" He said.
"No. I'm cool." I replied.
"Did ye happen te read the paper this morning?"
I said that I had, and that I had seen the article that I was sure he was going to comment on.
I said, "It's always amazing to me when someone goes loony-tunes in a good way."
"Really?"
He said. "I would think that it would make you afraid of losing business."
I chortled and said, "Are you nuts? The police are gonna be calling me within a week; not to mention the seedier side of town. I'm gonna make a mint off this nut job."
Bobby squinted his eyes at the word "seedier".
He said, "Ye do work for the unsavory types, Jackson? I would have tought ye more the discerning type."
I shook my head and said, "In my line of work, Mr. Malloy, it is difficult for one to work only for upstanding people like yourself. So long as I'm being dealt with honestly, I can't complain."
He shrugged and said, "No, I suppose not."
As I got up to leave, I noticed a bit of mustard on Bobby's collar. I did the universal "You have something on your collar" hand motion. He raised his eyebrows, looked down, grabbed a napkin and wiped at his collar. Miraculously, he succeeded in removing the offending dribblet before it had the chance to stain the material. I gave him the "You got it" thumbs up and walked out the door. I decided to take a walk around the block. The snow was making everything white like Christmas. This is the reason that I stay in the Dark Kingdom rather than leave. I can think of no prettier city, when it's touched by the seasons. I walked as far as Millennium Park before thoughts of Cynthia caught up with me. At first it was just memories from the night before. Eventually it turned into thoughts of what would happen the next time that I had her alone. And then the phone rang.It was Percy on the other end. He wanted to know if everything had gone smoothly with Punch and Robert. I told him that everything had, and that I had the stack of applications so we could get started on the whole hiring business. He asked if I had called Cynthia. It was annoying to hear the question, but I knew that it was coming. I said that, no I hadn't; that I had decided to take a walk and lost track of time.
He said, "That's a shame. I was hoping maybe you would have a good reason for not checking in."
I told him what he could do with himself, then I told him he should make it quick because I would be back soon to hammer out the hiring thing. I stopped at a corner store on the way back to my car, and got myself a coffee energy drink. Thirty minutes later, I was back at Stella staring blankly at two-hundred blank employment applications stacked neatly on my office coffee table. Percy sat across from me with his knees crossed and a note-pad in one hand and pen in the other. All of the lights were on due to all the shades being drawn and the soft yellowish glow did not really do anything to motivate my mind. I looked up at Percy and said, "Do I really have to offer room and board?"
"No, you could just be a dick like you usually do."
"Oh, good. I thought I didn't have options."
Percy was not pleased by this response. He narrowed his eyes and said, "If you don't offer room and board, you're not going to keep any employees longer than one job."
"I'm looking for a down side."
"The down side is that you will quickly run out of people who want to work for you."
"Is that a threat?"
"It was a statement of fact. I don't make threats. You know that."
I knew that Percy wasn't making a threat. He would stop working for me no sooner than I would actually fire him. Even then I don't think I could really be rid of him. I took a sip of my hot coffee. I put my mug back down on the table. I stared again at the applications. I said, "I'm not even entirely certain of what I'm looking for."
Percy opened his note pad and said, "We need someone who can work with computers, preferably someone with A+ certification. We need someone who can tail people because Robert knows what you look like. We need someone with secretarial skills to help me in the office. It wouldn't hurt to have an off duty forensics officer. That's really what we're looking for right now."
"Do we really want a cop working with us on this?"
Percy closed his note book and said, "Ok, bad example. You understand what I mean though, right?"
"Yeah, I know what you mean. We need a couple of thugs and a couple of brains."
"I wouldn't put it so cavalierly but, yes that's what we're looking for." Just then the phone rang.
Percy picked it up and answered the way he always does. I didn't get much from the conversation; just that he was talking to Ashley, our former secretary. After a few moments, he hung up the phone and came back over and sat down. I asked him, "So, what did Ashley want?"
"Not her job back if that's what you're thinking. No, she said that her boyfriend's sister is having some problems and needs a place to go and maybe a job. I told her to send her up tomorrow."
Sometimes things just fall into place for you. I sipped my coffee and said, "What kind of qualifications does she have?"
"For one, she doesn't know you." Percy smiled at his own joke which I did not really find amusing and said, "We didn't talk about that. The girl's boyfriend just went to jail for reckless endangerment and public intoxication and possession of narcotics."
"I'm not gonna have to kill him, am I?"
"Let's hope not, but you never know. We'll talk to her tomorrow and see if we can do anything for her."
I'm really no good at trying to get people to work for me. I'm used to making people work for me. This whole thing of advertising positions is like calculus to me. I lean on Percy heavily in this aspect of the job. Really, I lean on Percy for everything but footwork. I said, "Where are we going to advertise?"
"I'm going to run it on Cragslist tonight, and put an ad in the Sun Times tomorrow. We should have some bites before the week is out. Now, didn't you say that Victoria gave you a black card for equipment?"
I pulled out my wallet and removed the card. I handed it over to Percy and he tentatively took it and cradled it in his hands. It was as if I had just handed him a nail from Christ's crucifixion. I said, "We have limitations on that card. We're only supposed to use it to buy equipment, and we have to prove that anything we buy is pertinent to our business. I'm going to assume that that asshole, Punch is the one who will be monitoring it's activity, so you'll be the one to deal with him if he has any questions."
"Why me?"
"Because I may end up putting him in the hospital. I don't like the fucker, and he wasn't trying to make a good impression if you know what I mean."
Percy smirked and said, "Do you think maybe Victoria told him about your attitude, and he just wanted to see how far he could push you?"
I thought about it for a second then said, "Nah, I think he's just an asshole. There was something completely off about him though."
Percy leaned in and said, "How so?"
I took another sip of my coffee and said, "Well for starters, he snuck up on me." "Are you serious? I thought you said he was some old guy."
I put my cup down and rubbed my temples saying, "Yeah, he is. I tell you though, I didn't even smell him till he was sitting right in front of me."
"That's not right."
"No, it's not. After the club and this, I'm not too sure that I'm happy to be working for Ms. Malloy."
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