It’s two am and I can’t sleep. These characters are busy and making me restless. If I don’t write this down I will just lie in bed looking up at the ceiling and forget what I’m thinking. Then it will be lost, perhaps forever.

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Susan made a three point turn at the mouth of Sam Cornel’s street and parked next to the block wall that was the boundary of the complex. The vast and endless desert lay on the other side. She parked facing back in the direction of the gate, just in case.

She had no idea when Sam or Loretta, his wife, would return. She knew where Loretta had gone, so she thought that she had at least thirty minutes to snoop through their home. Maybe. She felt the panties in her right jacket pocket and her small bag of tools in the left one. It was a full moon and she was glad that she had on dark slacks and a dark jacket.

She had the garage remote and the taser in the other pocket with the panties. She had been watching the house for fifteen minutes. The lights were all out and no one seemed to be moving.

She walked up the driveway and pressed the button on the remote while it was still in her pocket and she was still walking up the driveway. She entered the garage before the door was all the way up. The garage was clean and neat. The floor was tiled. She closed the door with the button on the wall as she tested the knob on the door into the house. It was unlocked. She opened the door into the house and listened intently before she entered “No one ever seemed to lock these garage entry doors anymore.” It made her life easier when she was working for the Army, years ago.

She pulled her taser out and walked down the dark hall. The first room held the snoring nanny. It was a small room with doilies covering the furniture. “Someone’s grandmother, no doubt,” Susan thought. The second room had three little girls sleeping in it. The room was pink and filled with dolls of all shapes and sizes. The third room held Sam’s son. It was a boys room with blue walls and posters of baseball players pinned to the walls.

As she walked past the boy’s room she heard a soft snarl and saw white teeth and large eyes glowing down at the end of the hallway leading to the living room. “Shit, it’s a dog,” Susan thought, “and a big one.” She clutched her taser but then thought better of it. “Too much noise if I light the dog up.” She raised her arms over her head and hissed a soft slow hiss back at the dog and moved slowly forward. The dog yelped and ran down the hall. Susan followed. It was a black Labrador, Retriever, not a pit bull, thank goodness.

She soon saw the dog sitting on his large bed in the living room in the bright moon light. He seemed unwilling to move toward her. She saw the kitchen to her left and went to the refrigerator and found an open pack of hot dogs. “Small kids usually mean hotdogs in the fridge.” She learned that in military intelligence. She didn’t know how important that would turn out until now.

She tossed two hot dogs at the dog. He caught one in his mouth and ate it in one bite. He didn’t catch the second one in his mouth. It lay at his feet when he found it, he nearly swallowed in one bite. They were friends now, no doubt.

She found Sam’s office and looked around in the dark. It was a nice room with dark paneling on the walls. There was a large desk. The top center drawer was locked which meant that all of the drawers were locked.

She took the little black bag out of her pocket and took the smallest pick out. She laid the little back bag on the desk and was about to go to work when she realized she needed a flash light. She found a very small small flashlight in her little bag and turned it on as she placed it in her mouth. She always had her tool bag filled with just what she needed for the nights activities. She was well known for being prepared. It didn’t take long to open the lock. It wasn’t a safe in an embassy like she had opened so many times before in her interesting and dangerous past.

She opened the drawer and went through it. She saw lots of crap. Papers, rubber bands, pens and pencils and an unused eraser. “Oh, Sam never makes mistakes. Good to know.” Susan had no idea what she might find or what she was looking for. She had just needed to unlock the drawers so she could put the panties in the desk.

The purpose of the break in was to place more undies in the bottom of Sam’s desk drawer. Loretta would find them sooner than later and that was going to make things happen quicker and happen big. Loretta was already pissed beyond measure. Susan’s phone calls had helped with that.

Then Susan found something. It was a small black book, of course. She opened it up and noticed that it was written in some type of code. “This could be important,” she thought. Susan reached into her ample bosom with her long pink nails and pulled out her small Leica camera. She never left home without it.

She held the flashlight in her mouth once more and took photos of every page with her small spy camera. When she was finished she placed the book back in the exact spot where she had found it.

She couldn’t understand any of the writing but it looked familiar. “Perhaps it was a simple substitution code,” but that would have to be worked out later. If she couldn’t break it, she had friends who could. Loretta put the panties in the bottom drawer of the large desk and checked that all of her tools were in her little black bag before she put it back in her pocket. “Never leave anything behind, Susan,” she thought.

She left the office and retraced her steps back down the hall. The dog didn’t stir. She went back into the garage and left by the side door and through the gate. No need to risk more noise and light now,” she thought as she raced to her car.

She reached her car, took a deep breath and started it up. No one was in sight and she was on her way back to Oscar’s in a second.

New Chapter- Which one, I have no idea.

Sam now sat in a heavy oak chair like his teacher had, back in elementary school. The office door was to his right. Cheeto stood behind Sam who sat across from Jay on the other side of a table.

“So how might I help you Guy?” “Perhaps we can help each other Mr. Cornell. I have a problem with my supply of materials coming up from the south. I can’t sell product that I can’t get. I would like to do business with you. I’m a small wholesaler. I won’t interfer with your business. I sell farther north in the mid west.” “I see, what might you be buying from me if I were to ask?” ‘Oh, farm produce, light machinery and baking products. Cornmeal and flour.” “I see.” Sam reached into his rear pocket and pulled out another pack of fifty dollar bills. There were probably thirty or so in the pack. “This is a sample of my payment method. You can add that to my standing account if you like.”

Loretta parked her car in the lot and walked to the back of Oscar’s. The guard was down on the ground in a heap. She kicked him and he snored as he changed position. The drug that Susan had spiked the Southern Comfort with had finally had done its job.

Loretta Cornel opened her purse and found her keys. She found the one for the rear door of Oscar’s and used it. There was a light directly over the door.

Loretta entered the door and saw Sam’s office door on her left. She had been there a million times before. She heard two men talking inside. She didn’t care. Loretta pulled her gun from her purse and opened the door quickly.

Jay saw the movement to his right instantly and flung the chair next to him through the air at a dark figure. He couldn’t tell who it was. The back of the chair hit the arm holding the gun as it went off. “Maybe the chair made the gun go off,” Jay thought for a mlli second.

Sam had put his arms up in front of his face. “That was a futile move,” but Jay understood the instant reflex was natural. Cheeto screamed and then went down as the bullet hit the hard ceiling and then the concrete wall and then his back side. Jay could smell the gun smoke. He loved that smell, but not when someone was shooting at him. He saw the shooter collapse on the floor as the seat of the chair hit them in the chin.

Sam was frozen in panic. Jay went to check on Cheeto. He rolled him over as Cheeto screamed. Sam saw that there was no blood and was surprised. There was a small hole in Cheeto’s pocket but the cash Jay had given Cheeto had stopped the errant bullet with two hundred dollars left to pass through. Jay was beyond surprised. “You’ll be fine Cheeto. No damage except to your pride. You’ll have a bruised butt in the morning though.”

Jay stood up and walked back to the shooter lying on the floor. “It was a woman.” The first thing he noticed were her legs. Her skirt as high up on her thighs from falling. They were great legs. Then he saw her face. He pretended not to know who she was. “Who is this woman Sam? She’s beautiful. Why did she try to kill you?” “Its a long story Guy, she’s my wife.” “Does she have any sisters?” “Yes, six of them and they’re all crazy and jealous,” just like her. “I might like to meet one of them. I like girls with a little spunk.”

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It’s 3:35 am and I’m off to bed. I volunteer at a hospital tomorrow and every Tuesday with my wife. We start early, darn it.