Chapter 1 - After the wedding
Thankfully, the wedding and reception went off without a hitch! The clubwhores didn’t act up and embarrass anyone. There were no drunken fights but most importantly, the rescue phone stayed quiet!
Not long after dinner, Clara had begun to complain that she was in pain and wanted to go home but Doc, at Amos’ request, gave her a heavy dose of pain medication mixed with a sedative so she had fallen asleep and had slept through the night in one of the spare rooms near the infirmary.
Amos didn’t feel even slightly guilty that he had conspired to drug his wife because he and his kids deserved to be able to enjoy the reception and had a great time! Patty had even danced with Diego and had really come out of her shell. Diego was very aware that he could die on the spot if he didn’t keep his hands respectful, so he was very careful about the way he held her while they danced.
Everyone ate, drank, danced and had a wonderful time. All three brides chickened out to do the dance they had been planning but saved their outfits for private dances on their honeymoons.
Of course all three couples slept in the next morning and when they came downstairs the house had mostly been returned to order, the chairs from outside had all been folded up, the tents taken down and the only thing left in the gazebo were the fairy lights which would be left in place since they had looked so nice at night.
Apollo and Tori wouldn’t be leaving on their honeymoon until after Sarge, Katie, Crash and Evelyn got back from their honeymoon cruise in about a week. The two couples would be leaving the next day. They had made their arrangements to allow the extra day in case everyone woke up hung over the day after the wedding.
Clara was still rather dopey the next morning but as soon as it wore off, she got mad as a wet cat when she realized she had been tricked into staying at the clubhouse overnight. She demanded to go home and frankly, Doc and Autumn were glad to see her go, no matter how much Amos wanted to leave her there under their care.
She raised a fuss at first until Amos put his foot down to her again. Everyone had been rather shocked but no one dared to say a word and everyone was glad to see her go!
Nita and her crew had put a sign on the diner door that they would be closed for breakfast the next morning but were gone right after they had eaten breakfast at the clubhouse.
Trapper felt bad about asking to meet with the executive staff but he wanted some resolution about his missing money and cell phone before Apollo went on his honeymoon. He had talked to Monitor about tracking his phone and was told “All we have to do is have one man standing outside their doors when we see your phone is on, which I show it is, and make it ring. I can see it’s in the house but can’t tell which room it’s in but we’ll be able to hear it ring unless she puts it on silent.” Monitor told them.
“Come on. Let’s go take care of this right now! I’m so sick of these bitches pulling their shit! I say that when we find out who it is, we search her room before we allow her to pack out. I’ll almost bet we find more than just Trapper’s money. We’re going to have to find another way to have the household chores taken care of because having them in the house all the time is just more trouble than they are worth!” Apollo said.
They all stood up and left his office. Sarge called for prospects as they walked down to the area where the clubwhores rooms were located and each man stood outside a door. Steven, Cliff and David joined them as Monitor made Trappers’ phone ring and just as they had all suspected it was ringing inside of Della’s room.
Apollo knocked on her door and when Della opened it and saw them all standing there, she knew she was in trouble. Apollo was tempted to call Rachel and have her kick Della’s ass but hurting women was against the rules. He did decide that if they found more than Trapper’s money in here, Della was going to jail!
“Della, you’ve been here longer than any of the other women in the club, whores and ole’ladies. You know the rules. What made you think you could just help yourself to Trapper’s money and phone?”
Apollo asked, not that he really cared to hear her excuses.
“I’ve known you were going to be kicking me out of here from when Tori and the others first started arriving. It was just a matter of time. It’s not like this job comes with a retirement plan and being a good fuck is not something you can list on a job resume. There is no way I could afford such a nice phone on what this job pays so I took it when I found his door open. I’ll just pack my stuff and be out before dinner.” Della said and started to close her door.
“Not so fast. Sarge, take her down to the cells until we finish our search.” Apollo said, putting out his hand to stop her from closing the door.
“What? You can’t just search my room. I’ve lived in this room for years. I bought everything in here but the furniture!” Della said as Sarge took her by the arm and she immediately began to fight back.
“Yeah, and paid for it all with club members money! If we find more than just what you took out of Trapper’s wallet, you are going to jail!” Apollo told her.
Sarge and Cliff had to practically drag Della, kicking and screaming, down the hall and down to the cells in the basement. All of the men in the basement gym knew that one of the whores had ripped Trapper off and they weren’t surprised that it was Della.
Apollo and the others searched Della’s room and no one was really surprised to find not only a stash of money that added up to several thousand dollars that she had hidden in a large shoe box in her closet but a stash of jewelry and other personal items that had gone missing over the years.
“Pack it all up. She’s not going to be needing any of this where she’s going.” Apollo told the prospects. He was so mad he was fit to be tied as he called Lee Anderson, his contact at the police station. He had actually been invited to the wedding last night, in an off duty capacity, of course.
“Lee, it’s Apollo. I need you to come pick up a lying sneaky thief of a clubwhore. She ripped off the wrong brother and got caught. I want her out of here and I’m going to press charges. We found over 5 grand in her room that she ripped off over time from the members of my club.” Apollo told him.
“Got any left overs of that lasagna from yesterday?” Lee asked. He had been a guest at the wedding last night and had made two trips to the buffet table for the best lasagna he had ever had.
“There might be but I can’t promise anything. That’s a favorite dish around here but if not, I’m sure we can find something for you to eat.” Apollo smiled into the phone.
“On my way.” Lee said then hung up.
Apollo walked back down to his office and found Chase, Navigator and Cripler waiting outside of his office for him. “Come on in.” Apollo welcomed them into his office.
“Can you send for Sarge and Crash please? I think they should hear this too.” Chase said.
“Oh lord, please tell me it’s not bad news? They are due to leave on their honeymoon tomorrow morning.” Apollo said then called for another prospect. When Devon showed up, he told him to go find Sarge and Crash.
The men all gathered around the conference table and soon were joined by Sarge and Crash. “Is Della secure?” Apollo asked as soon as they were seated.
“Yeah. Crying and carrying on but she’s locked in. What’s up?” Sarge asked.
“Just wanted to give you an extra wedding present. We found out just before we left Philly that Damien’s body was found three days before we left, under the same bridge where his uncle’s body was found. He had been shot execution style, just like his uncle. Word on the street is that Don Campioni himself beat the shit out of him before he watched him be executed. There won’t be a big funeral or any publicity either.
We’ve also heard that at least two other women were warming Damien’s bed and being abused by Damien and Giovanni. Don Campioni paid them each $1,000,000 to compensate them for the scars Damien and Giovanni left on their bodies but warned them not to come back for more. His generosity is limited and he is ashamed of what his son did but won’t be blackmailed by them.” Chase told them.
“Wow! That’s good news, I guess. I know it will put our women’s minds at ease knowing he’s off the street now.” Sarge said.
“Well, we’re going to be heading to the airport first thing in the morning but I’d kind of like to take Linda up to see Haven this afternoon. She spent quite a bit of time with Anita McCandles yesterday and wants to go up and see her and her diner before we have to leave. Think you could spare someone to show us the way up there?” Chase asked.
“Sure! I can take you. We can even have lunch up there if you like. Aunt Nita is an awesome cook! I’m sure she’d like to have you come sample some of her cooking.” Sarge said. Then said “Well speak of the devil. This is her.” Sarge said when his phone began to ring.
“Hello?” Sarge smiled into the phone but then his face changed when he heard how upset she was.
“OH Mason! Someone broke into the diner last night while we were down there and trashed my diner! Almost all of my tables are broken, they poured paint all over my grill and into my fryers! I’m going to be out of business for months!” Nita cried into the phone.
“We’re on our way Aunty. Tell Joe to stay close and tell Billy to watch over Nicole! We’ll be there as fast as we can.” Sarge hung up and pushed back his chair as he told them, “Someone trashed the diner. Aunt Nita needs us!”
Apollo and Crash stood up and told Chase “Sorry but maybe next time?”
“Go! We’ll watch out over things here.” Chase told him.
They all rushed out of Apollo’s office and Apollo sent Evan to find Rocky, Riggs and Logger. Tori, Katie and Evelyn were in the living room with Rachel and Linda as the men headed for the door. Sarge explained what was going on but he was anxious to get going.
All of the women wanted to go, to be there for Aunt Nita but Rachel told them “You need to stay here and out of the way. They can ride faster without you and will more than likely bring her back here.”
Just then Lee Anderson showed up to collect Della and Apollo gave him a fast run down on what was going on and “Dude, come tomorrow for lunch? I have to go now!”
“Go! I’ll just pick up the clubwhore and come back for lunch another time. Tell Chopper to save that lasagna for me!” Lee told him as the men all left the house.
They jumped on their bikes and the roar as they started up was deafening. Twenty minutes later they were pulling up outside of Nita’s Diner. There was graffiti all over the place and the front window with the neon signs was broken.
They jumped off their bikes and Kevin unwisely put up his hand to stop them but because they respected not only his position but him, they stopped when he said, “If you contaminate the crime scene I might not be able to find out who did this. I’ve got a sneaking suspicion who it is but I need to gather evidence so that I have proof. We’re taking prints right now. Just give us a few more minutes.”
Riggs called out “NITA!”
Aunt Nita came around the side of the building with Joe and Billy.
“Billy, where’s Nicole?” Sarge asked with concern as Nita went straight to him and he gave her a comforting hug.
“I sent her home with Chuck. He’s watching over them.” Nita said.
Sarge knew without being told, this had something to do with what happened to Billy and Nicole and the guys who had chased them away from the lodge. They had seen Nita’s van and had to know that both Billy and Nicole worked there. Heck, they could have walked by the diner any day and seen them working in there. It was not a secret.
Then Kevin dropped an unexpected bomb on them. “Brad Harris escaped from juvie camp. I can’t be 100% sure but I think he may be a player in this, if not the ring leader. We do know he’s not the only one because this was done by more than one person but he’s on the loose. That’s why I sent Chuck to watch over Nicole and her family. Apparently he’s made some threats against her, Justin, Billy and Aunt Nita for pressing charges against him.”
“Kevin, how many officers do you have now?” Sarge asked.
“Besides me, 5, not including my dad.” Kevin said. He wasn’t going to lie, he needed their help but he couldn’t have them blundering into a crime scene and they would have to follow his lead otherwise, he would have to say “thanks but no thanks” to their help.
Just then, an officer named Jake Curtis stepped out of the diner to report to Kevin. “Kevin, we’ve got the impressions and fingerprints unless any of you besides the people who work here have been in here in the last 48 hours?” Jake said and everyone shook their heads.
“Kevin, can I call my insurance man now? I already know this is going to take some time and I’m losing income already so I need to set the wheels in motion to get this cleaned up so I can get repairs started.” Nita said.
Now that she was getting over being upset, she was starting to get mad that someone in Haven had done this to her diner! She had fed every person in town, many on a regular basis and it hurt that they would do this to her.
“Yeah, go ahead and get them in here. We’ve got our pictures and prints.” Kevin said.
“Aunt Nita, don’t worry about the clean up or the repairs. You know we’ve got you covered but I also want you to come back to the clubhouse with us. If they did this to the diner, I don’t want you staying alone at home.” Apollo said.
“Oh, lord! I haven’t been home since we left yesterday. Do you think they did this to my house too?” Nita said and began to get agitated again.
“Don’t get excited. We’ll check it out before we go.” Apollo said, hugging her to calm her down.
“Kevin, how long will it take to find out about the fingerprints?” Sarge asked.
“Well, if we find matches to people who have been arrested or got their driver’s license here in Haven, then not long. Maybe 24 hours but don’t hold me to that. I’ve only got one person I can dedicate to this and a whole town to take care of. Jake? How long do you think it will take?” Kevin asked the officer that would be processing the information they had gathered inside the diner.
“Well, I’m going to start with our current trouble makers and if it is any of them, it will only take a couple of hours.” Jake said. “I’m going to go get started. I’ll call you as soon as I have anything.”
After Jake left, they all went into the diner and looked around. All of the tables and chairs were damaged as well as the counter. It looked like someone had taken an ax to them. When they looked around, they realized that they had used the fire ax that was in a glass case in the kitchen.
The vandals had also taken a knife to the seats of the stools and because they were metal bases that were bolted to the floor, someone had beat on them and they were dented and some were bent over so they would need to be replaced as well.
Someone had spray painted all of the walls with some misspelled but nasty messages and it looked like they had spilled a gallon of paint on the grill and the oil in the deep fryer had paint in it.
In the bathrooms someone had taken the rags they used to wipe tables with and stuffed them down the toilets, clogging them up and water was all over the floor. They had also busted the sinks and mirrors. The stall enclosure door had been broken off and smashed in half and the stall wall had been chopped to pieces.
All of the dishes had been smashed and broken pieces were all over the place. Dry goods and canned goods had been knocked over and busted open. The back room was a disgusting mess because they had poured a whole bottle of laundry soap in the washer and turned it on. There was drying soap residue all over the floor and up the walls. Dry goods that had been spilled was soaking up the soapy water.
They had taken a knife, it looked like, to the uniforms and aprons that Nita kept stacked in the back as well as all of the towels and some table cloths she kept for special occasions and ripped them all to pieces, some was used to plug up the toilets in the bathrooms.
Thankfully, Nita kept the refrigerator and freezer locked when they weren’t open but there were major dents in the doors and the handles had been damaged. She’d had locks installed after she had been broken into one winter when they were closed and almost all of the food had been stolen.
Also, her office had a locked steel door so they hadn’t been able to get in there. But her, thankfully empty, cash register as well as the credit card processing machine, her coffee maker and soda dispensers were all broken. The hoses to the soda dispensers had been cut so that the syrup had leaked all over the place making everything a sticky mess.
Thankfully, most of the sugar that was open was stored in the fridge to keep ants and roaches away from it but the unopened stock packages had been cut open and spilled all over the place. They were going to have to get that cleaned up quickly or she was going to have issues with bugs, especially ants.
Whoever had done this may have been a good wrecking crew but they had not been very smart because they had not only left finger prints but they had spilled the paint they had poured on the grill and in the deep fryer and then stepped in it. There were clear impressions of the tread from their shoes all over the kitchen and more in the dining area where they had also stepped in spilled ketchup and mustard.
To top it all off, they had dropped the spray cans they had used in the diner with their fingerprints, in paint, on the cans in the trashcan in the kitchen. They might have been thorough in doing damage but not very bright at covering their tracks.
“Man, what a mess! But don’t worry, Aunty. I’ll get some guys up here to clean this all up. Call your insurance man and see if he can come down now and do an assessment.” Apollo told her.
“Guys, I’m going to go check on Amos and his family. Text me when you are ready to go back.” Riggs said. After seeing the damage to the diner, he was worried about Amos and his family. Whoever had done this was doing it out of vengeance!
“Okay.” Apollo said.
Billy hated to tell them his bad news on top of all of this but he knew he needed to speak up. “Prez, I need to let you know that they took my bike too. They must have hot wired it because I still have the key. (He held out his key ring with his bike key and the keys to the diner and his apartment on it.) It was parked out back when I rode down with Aunt Nita and Nicole yesterday. They trashed my apartment upstairs too. What I’ve got on is all I have besides the clothes I wore to the wedding yesterday. At least I wore my gun yesterday so they didn’t get it.” Billy said and opened his cut to show them his weapon.
“Ride back down with Aunt Nita and we’ll get you more clothes and another bike till we get this settled. There’s several to choose from at home.” Apollo said.
That confirmed that this was being done as revenge and now Apollo was worried about his prospect because this meant they were targeting him. They had destroyed his home and his job! It didn’t matter to whoever did this that Billy didn’t own either of these places. Their focus was ending his reason to stay in town. That thought made him even more concerned about Nicole and her family and Aunt Nita.
“Prez, do you think Nicole’s dad will let her come stay at the clubhouse? I’m worried about Brad going after her if he’s involved in this. She was the one that pressed charges against him.” Billy said. He had been anxious about her being protected ever since she had left with Chuck but he knew that to leave Aunt Nita unprotected would have gotten him kicked out of the club because this was directed at her specifically.
He knew her father and brothers would protect Nicole but he still didn’t trust Brad to not try to get to her too. Jeff Davis and his crew were scary as well. Nicole had been telling him about things she had heard about the older guy and his bunch of bullying buddies.
“Amos might but I doubt if Clara will allow it. She hates the club. I just hope she stops to think and will realize that both Nicole and Justin could be in real danger. If Brad’s looking for payback and if this is him and he’s got backup with some older guys, they might try to go after both Nicole and Justin too. They will both be safer at the clubhouse. Maybe if Amos sends Justin with her, it will make her see that it will be safer for her children to be away from here until whoever did this is caught.” Sarge said.
Billy was practically bouncing from one foot to another, wanting to get to Nicole but he had no transportation anymore. He was going to have to wait until Nita was ready to go since he would have to ride with her unless Amos let his kids go with them, then they could take Nicole’s car.
Nita contacted her insurance man and he agreed to come right away to check out what had happened. Before he arrived she told everyone, “Don’t say anything about being willing to do anything in here or he might try to not give me all it’s going to take to fix this place and I don’t expect your guys to work for free.”
Everyone agreed and Sarge said “Maybe you can remodel and expand a bit now?”
“If I could find enough reliable help, I might just consider that. I need two more like Billy and places to house them. I might consider expanding upstairs. That apartment is only half as big as the downstairs so I could add at least one more apartment, maybe two if I configure it right.” Nita said. It was an idea she had been kicking around in her mind for a while.
Since his office was only a couple of blocks away, Dave was there in about 10 minutes.
“Oh wow, Nita! When did this happen?” David Brewster asked after he parked in front of the diner and came inside and greeted everyone. He had a camera and a folder of forms that would need to be completed.
“Sometime since yesterday morning when we left to go down to my boy’s weddings. We came home this morning and when we pulled in, it was like this.” Nita said, fighting tears as the condition of her beloved diner began to really settle in.
“Have the police finished gathering information? Do they have any idea who might have done this?” Dave asked.
“Yes, they spent all morning here. Kevin gave me permission to call you.” Nita said, without answering about who they all suspected. Haven is too small a town to be pointing fingers unless you were certain about who had done this.
“It seems that we’ve been having a rash of vandalism lately. Someone broke into the high school and did some damage too but not to this level. It seems that it’s escalating and getting worse. I sure hope Kevin catches them soon.” Dave told them.
“Was it just the school?” Sarge asked.
“Mostly. Delaney’s had someone throw a brick through their front window and that’s more than likely where the paint came from. They need to do an in depth inventory on the store before we can really tell everything that is missing. The problem is, I don’t think they do regular inventories so it’s hard to determine what’s even in there and nearly impossible to tell what was actually stolen.” Dave told them.
While this news was disturbing, this was all police business and not what the AAMC gets involved in. Now if someone were to attack a person, then it would be different. While it would cost people money to repair damages done to their property, there was nothing the AAMC could do other than provide muscle to help capture the criminals and help them to repair or rebuild their buildings.
But when he stopped to think about it, there might be a plus to that because there would be an AAMC presence in Haven and the construction crews would have income. The summer had been kind of slow for the construction company this year so this would be a good thing for more reasons than one.
Sarge looked at Apollo, who seemed to know what he was thinking. They had been friends since they were kids and knew each other’s facial expressions pretty well. Apollo had picked up on small things Sarge had said since he had met Katie that he was not going to want to wait long to start his family and already knew that Katie was not wanting to raise their kids in the clubhouse.
He also knew that Sarge was as dedicated to the club as he was. Both of their fathers had been founding fathers after all and they had both grown up in the club but Tori had already made comments about not wanting to live IN the clubhouse when they start their family too, especially if they have a daughter(s).
Dave took almost an hour to do his inspection and told Nita “I’ll have to do some research to gather prices for replacement costs of the equipment and furnishings of some of this stuff but I should have a price for you by next week but you can go ahead and start with the clean up. In fact, I would definitely recommend getting the food stuff cleaned up today and getting any openings covered or you are going to have critters getting in. Try not to worry, Nita. I’ll put this on the top of my list and get you some numbers asap.” Dave told her.
“Thanks, Dave. When I’m back up and running, I’ll feed you free lunches for a month!” Nita promised and Dave smiled but groaned “OH my waistline!” He teased her, before he gave her a friendly hug, shook everyone’s hand and then climbed back in his car.
Billy was trying to be patient as he waited to leave but since they were all just standing around talking about what needed to be done, he was about to pull out his hair. Joe noticed and told him “You are worried about Nicole, aren’t you?”
Billy’s stomach had so many knots in it he didn’t feel like he could speak without being sick right now so he just nodded. Joe wanted to laugh at the expression on his face but at the same time felt sorry for him.
“I tell you what, give her a call and find out what is going on. I have a feeling that Riggs is over there “convincing” Clara to let her kids go stay at the clubhouse and then we’ll go from there. Okay?” Joe told him.
