399 Inside Harvey

399

 

Harvey wasn’t all that bad looking once he got cleaned up and that greasy gray hair was washed and combed.  He was concentration camp thin, but that was about the only thing that made him look a little homeless.

 

“So Harvey what can you eat?” I asked.

 

“I can find something on most restaurant’s menu.  I can’t do the full vegan thing, but I can managed most of it.” he said.

 

“So you are just a vegetarian?’ I asked. “And part time vegan.”

 

“A little more than that, but I don’t insist that the things I eat, be a 100% vegan.  For instance, I eat bread sticks with my vegetable soup.  Bread sticks have butter and eggs inside them.  A true vegans will only eat special breads.  I can’t take it to that extreme.” he informed me.  “I don’t have that kind of money.”

 

“Well it’s too late for Helen’s, but she has good soup.  How about pizza will you eat a pizza?” I asked.

 

“That’s pushing it, but yes I will eat a frozen pizza now and then,” he said.

 

“Good, because that’s what I’m having.  I suppose I can find you a salad and bread sticks,” I admitted.

 

“That would be really nice of you,” he suggested.  “Could I have two if we are doing carry out?” he asked.

 

“No, we are going to eat in, and I am quite sure that you can have all the salad you want,” I said smiling.

 

The engine in the truck still ticked like a bad alarm clock reminding me I needed to get it into a shop before long.  The truck did make it to the Pizza and Pasta Pit without any trouble.  I had eaten inside the place once before.  I was with the gunny then,  It was a much better memory, than Harvey the whore was going to make for sure.

 

I had forgotten that on Saturday night the Pizza and Pasta Pit had a family buffet.  Pay the lady seven bucks a head and graze as long as you wanted.  I could have eaten everything on the table with trips to the bathroom every twenty minutes, but I figured once was enough.

 

I ate a huge pile of pizza, while Harvey filled and emptied his salad bowl twice.  He seemed to enjoy that grassy looking stuff.  He also piled a plate full of pasta with and oil and vinegar dressing .  I watched as he obviously enjoyed the meal.

 

Since I had the urge for pizza, I knew it must be one of the better fuels for my new power converter.  The explanation of the power converter explained a lot of things that were going on inside my mechanical brain.  Back when I was me, I loved Ice Cream, but now I really had no desire for it.  On the other hand, all things carbohydrate were high up on my list of foods to hunt down.  They were obviously easier to process or gave more bang for the buck.  Either way I didn’t mind at all.

 

Since kids under 12 got to eat free with two paying adults, there were plenty of families.  Some with really cute kids and some with kids just running wild.  I was thinking Tazers and handcuffs, but only grinned at them.

 

I finished long before Harvey the whore.  I had no idea where he was putting all that food in his skinny ass body, but I was good with it.  I passed on the ice cream for desert, but I did go with the coffee and cinnamon pizza dough sticks.  They were delicious.  I even got a bag of them to go, along with the white dipping sauce.  I had a new downtown desert place.

 

After having gotten a better feel for Harvey, I pretty much ruled out anyone from his past wanting to off him.  He just didn’t strike me as that big a scandal monger.  He was more the idealist, who wouldn’t back down, but didn’t really want to ruffle anyone’s feathers either.

 

What I did not discount was someone making an attempt on his life, to hang my ass out to dry with the local cops.  The cops were not my friends at that moment.  Blevins was gone, Thompson had no use for me, and they seemed to love Timmons.  It was not a recipe for a long term relationship.

 

It would be entirely possible for someone with a good imagination to at least make a fake attempt on Harvey, the whore’s life to get my ass involved with the cops, while they offed Lydia.  If they were willing to kill Lydia, they were willing to make an attempt to kill Harvey, or at least make it look as though someone was, namely me.  A fake attempt would be easier to pull off and would keep me tied up with the cops and not with Lydia.

 

I certainly would prefer that they understand Anya and Vlad were just as dangerous and capable as me.  If they did, they might just decide it was too risky and pass on the job.  Real pros at least would know that it was no walk in the park.

 

I was a magnet for bad guys, so they would follow me to Lydia.  They probably weren’t looking all that hard for Harvey and wouldn’t pay him any mind hanging out with me.  At least that was the plan at the moment.  I might send him with Jerrod and the pretty boys just for kicks.

 

When we got home I found Harvey a network cable and allowed him to plug into my router.  I did not give  him the wireless password.  He was going to have to sit at the dining table to attach his computer to my network.  Since we were downtown, there were a couple of other wireless networks which probably didn’t have passwords.  He could piggyback onto one of those maybe.  But the cable was there just in case.  That was why I had a cable, it was my backup, in case the wireless on my computer died and that had happened to other people I knew.

 

I know that I can hook into the wireless router myself, since I am one big ass computer with tits.  It doesn’t look all that good for me to be spitting out information to Sylvia or Peter without a computer in front of me.  That’s why I needed a long network cable just in case.

 

I let Harvey play on his old laptop for a while as I ate the cinnamon sticks and drank my bitter black coffee.  He finally finish his journal update around 10PM.

 

“So Harvey how old are you?” I asked.

 

“Sixty,” he said smiling.  “How about you?”

 

“Forty-two,” I replied.  I guess I was going to be forty two forever.  Like a vampire.  Instead of blood, I would be sucking up sugar and carbohydrates.

 

“Shit you look thirty,” he said smiling.

 

“You aren’t a very good lier, but thanks,” I replied.

 

“How long have you been a tabloid whore?” I asked.

 

“Actually I’m a blogger, the tabloids pick up my stuff now and then,” he explained.  “They have really gotten into that, since it saves them so much money.  I get ripped off now and then, but not as much as some of the others.  They want to use my stuff again, so they pay me,” he said.

 

“How much gossip can you write about in this state?  Nobody newsworthy lives here<” I suggested

 

“Actually they do.  There is a group of Mercenaries down east.  They are into all kinds of stuff.  Once in a while, I get wind of something.” he said.

 

I tried to stay calm.  He was talking about swamp thing of course.  “Then why don’t you move down there?” I asked.

 

“Because I also do the Political thing in capitol city, and the crime beat all over the state.  I write about things like your present job.  I have written about other things you have done as well.”

 

“Oh really?” I asked.

 

“Yes, I wrote about a drug dealer who left town unexpectedly after being involved with your auto mechanic,” he said it smiling.  “You know those grocery store rags get their information and photos from someone.  If it comes out of this area it’s usually me.”

 

“I saw one of those rags with my picture on a corner of the cover and it was a shitty picture.”  I stopped to gauge his reaction before I went on.  “So you didn’t always do this.  What did you do before?”

 

“I worked as a fireman till a building fell on me.” He said with the kind of finality that ends a line of questioning, unless you are a cop.

 

“So you are living on your pension, and doing this to try to make a buck on the side?” I asked.

 

“Pretty much, it fills the time and cost me nothing.  The copyright brings me a buck now and then.  I sold a couple of stories about the Mercs down east. and a couple about local police abuse in Capitol City.  Of course I sold a couple about you as well.  A college professor or two from the university down there like to spout off.  Now and then one of them gets picked up.  This thing with the Judge has potential.  I already sold the TV thing and a bit about her being  in your care.” he said

 

“Oh i definitely want to thank you for that last bit,” I said sarcastically.

 

“Maxine, it is the truth, you can’t fault me for telling the truth.” he said.

 

“Okay, then before you take your clothes off, go outside and take that tracker device off my truck.” I said.

 

“Yeah, that wasn’t nice, but it does work good for no more than it cost me on Ebay,” he said with a smile.

 

Harvey did seem a lot more human and a lot less like a tabloid troll after our talk.  I had to admit that a grass eating troll wasn’t as bad as a meat eating troll.  A grass eater took advantage of the opportunities that came his way. even it if was a little sleazy.  Whereas, a meat eater went out and made thing happen.  Then he spun it anyway he needed to, in order to make the maximum amount of money from it.  Meat eaters were dangerous and would get you killed, but the grass eaters were a pain in the ass and you had to be on your guard constantly, but they weren’t as likely to try to get you killed, just because it was a better story that way.

 

While Harvey was outside, I found the old army blanket.  I had bought it to wrap rifles with, while I transporting them in the back seat of the cruiser.  It kept them separated without having to be in cases.  I stored my rifles and shotgun out in plan view, so I tended to just wrap them in a blanket, rather than a gun case, if I had to move them at all.  The blanket had a slight aroma of gun oil, but I figured the ex fireman could handle it.

 

“Maxine I appreciate you letting me sleep on your sofa,” he said when he returned.

 

“So you are going to spin it that way are you.  I am keeping  you here to be sure nobody hangs my ass out for trying to pop your skinny ass.” I said seriously.

 

“Okay anything you say.  Which sofa do I get?” he asked.

 

“You get the one at the foot of my bed on the second floor.  I want you close in case there is trouble, but don’t get any Ideas,” I said seriously.

 

“Don’t worry, I’m not very aggressive these days.  I’m extremely safe since the accident.  I need at least an hour’s notice before I am of any use to anyone.” he said.

 

“Harvey that is a hell of a lot more information than I need,” I said.

 

“I’m just saying,” he said letting it trail off.

 

I removed the Glock from the back holster before I stripped off my heavy jeans.  The jeans  had a wide leather belt with the high riding mid back holster for the Glock attached.  It was a pain in the ass to get to the weapon but it did hide the thing pretty well under a loose sweat shirt.

 

After the jeans my socks came off then I was in the bed and ready for shutdown.  It was an early night for me.  I took a look at my power band and found it only a little below full operational.  Full operational wasn’t full charge, but it was all I needed to go for hours wide open.  I could still use an hour on the MP3 player/charger.  That being the case, I removed the one from the night stand, then put the headphones on.

 

Harvey didn’t comment so I felt okay with it.  I lay in bed with my eyes closed not thinking or computing anything until the sun came up on Sunday.