Timeline: Late Evening Thursday, 19th April 2007. Forces for good and bad are marshalling.
Greg’s discovery of Honora’s night life style had taken the gloss off the evening for him. Jess noticed that Greg had become quiet and withdrawn after they left the Padilla home, but did not let that diminish his own excitement. He skipped past Greg into the chalet once it was unlocked patting the aircon unit affectionately on his way past and quipped, 'you’re the first of many.’ Greg found the boy’s high spirits infectious, evaporating his own gloomy frame of mind. ‘Yes. Let’s do it,’ he spoke quietly to himself as he sat Jess down at the computer and showed him how to connect his system to the Internet and E-bay through the satellite server. He gave the boy a notebook to write down the passwords and got him working on a search for more aircon units.
After twenty minutes he said to Jess, ‘Now you do it on your own, without me here to help you.’
‘What am I looking for? Anything in particular?’ Jess listened concentrating hard. ‘You’re looking for aircon units and anything we can trade at a profit without going too far from Bamptonville. Once you find something that looks good you can look for product information and read reviews posted on the forums and message boards. You’ll need to find out about models, prices and any defects and good points about them - just enough to be confident enough to believe in your product when you come to sell it on.’
Jess moistened his lips with the tip of his tongue while he nodded his acknowledgement without taking his eyes off the screen. Greg put his hand on the boy’s shoulder as he went on; ‘You’ll also get an idea of what’s selling in town by keeping your eyes and ears open, listening to people talking about what they want and looking to see what’s selling in the shops as you walk around town. Make sure you note the prices they are charging at Mafferty’s and MacKendrick’s. Pick something out you fancy and come back here and open the internet browser on the screen.’
Greg paused. Jess looked up at him, and asked, ‘Then what do I have to do?’
‘You go to Ebay and other online auction and recycling sites to find the thing you’re looking for. That’s whatever it is you have decided could sell well around here. Note the prices and descriptions. Make sure you have the right models. Make a list in your notebook. If you’re not sure about the product, check out the information and reviews like I said. Make sure you get to know the market price for new and used models depending on their condition. Check back at the auction site and note the price they are asking or you can bid for. If you think you can make a decent profit click on "watch this item." Got that?’’
‘Yeah, I think so. Once I find an item that I think will go for a profit. I pull up the information and if it’s still a go I make a bid and click on "watch this item."
‘ No!’ Greg yelled in horror. ‘You don’t make a bid. Not yet. You note when the auction ends and click on ‘watch the item’ to warn you when the deal will end. You make your bid in the last 5 seconds to make sure you place the lowest bid to win the auction as it closes and rob any other bidders of a last chance to outbid you. Have a small range of higher offbeat bids ready in case somebody does pip you to the deal.’
‘Offbeat bids,’ Jess screwed up his nose in confusion.
‘That’s right; don’t ever bid even money like whole tens or fives. If you want to bid $80, bid $82 it will beat anybody bidding a straight $80 and the clever punters who bid $81 for the same reason you are bidding $82- to seal the deal at the lowest price to them when the auction times out. Have a few deals running, but keep track of them. You won’t win every time and you’ll come up against sellers that post reserves.’
Greg slapped Jess’s shoulder lightly to emphasise his next words. ‘Never, never, never forget transport costs. They’re the killer to trading. You have to pay to get goods from where they are to here and that can be expensive and eat into your profits. I’ve known people make losses from forgetting about transport costs. OK?’ Jess nodded his understanding and began searching Ebay.
Greg watched for a while and then said ‘ I’ll get the compresses iced up to fix your leg. While I’m doing that I want you to find one good trade that you think will turn a profit and then justify it to me. If you persuade me it’s a good prospect, we’ll buy it.’
Jess whooped with delight and busied himself with his search. Greg took his time soaking two small towels in ice water and getting the cream, ointment and lint ready to dress Jess’s leg. When finished he watched Jess working feeling a growing sense of pride. The boy worked away with an earnest intensity to source the next trade.
Greg deliberately took more time than his own task needed in order to give Jess plenty of time to familiarise himself with the search process. He did not really believe that his new protégé would actually find anything suitable tonight, but Jess was rapidly flicking through information screens and scribbling notes in his notebook. Greg realised he was possibly onto something and when the boy pushed the notebook away Greg was unable to restrain himself any longer. He rested his hands on the boy’s shoulders to stop them quivering and asked.
‘What have you found then?’
Jess jumped around on his chair. His eyes blazed with exhilaration. ‘It’s a steal Greg and it’s only two years old. It costs $1275 new and they really hold they’re value. We gotta go for this one.’ He was almost jumping up and down on the chair. Greg remained deadpan. ‘That’s good, sounds about right, how much is it and what do you think we can sell it for?
‘It’s got an ask price of $350. I reckon we can sell it easy for $550. That model and age sells for up to $650. I just checked it out’
Greg pursed his lips and kept the deadpan face. ‘We don’t want stuff hanging around, so we don’t want to put too much on the cost price, do we.’
‘But I know we can sell it real easy. I can sell it at the College. There’s a big club there and I’ve heard ‘em talking. I know there are four, maybe five saving up for something like this. Please Greg, it’s a real steal?’
Jess could hardly contain himself. Greg fought down his own emotion generated by Jess’s excitement. The boy was hooked onto trading and it pleased him that they would be working together doing deals. Greg maintained a front and voice totally lacking in emotion as he said. ‘I don’t know. I’ve got a doubt about this.’
Jess jumped up from his seat and pushed his face directly into Greg’s. ‘It’s a great deal, we’ll never get another one like it again. Not like this. What’s there to doubt?’
Greg sucked air through his lips to keep Jess waiting on tenterhooks for his question. ‘I’d just like to know … what is it?’
Jess looked unbelieving at Greg thinking he was being put on before his face split in a huge grin. He looked sheepish realising he hadn’t told Greg what “it” was yet.
‘It’s an Escape RX-0 Sport and performance cycle.’ Jess murmured in sepulchral tones, then they both hugged and burst out laughing.
They broke away and Greg rubbed his lips between his finger and thumb. He remained non-committal and wagged a warning finger at Jess.
‘There’s always another deal. There’s never only one deal. That’s your heart that’s been talking and you need to listen to your head.’ Jess looked dismayed.
‘Ahh come on Greg, we can make $200 plus on this deal. It’s a real good deal. They can’t come better’n this.’ Greg was amused by the intensity of the boy’s plea, but didn’t show it or allow himself to be moved by it and continued to rubbish his idea; wanting to see if Jess could really justify the purchase.
‘But what if you don’t sell it? What if none of your cycling club wants the machine or they don’t have the money to buy it from you. What then? What’s your contingency plan?’
Jess wrinkled his nose while he thought this through for few seconds and then slowly held up a hand and quietly began ticking off options against his fingers as he thought of them.
‘First, we could get somebody to sell it for us. It’s a popular bike. Second, we could put it back on Ebay. Third, we can still get our money out of the Community College. I just know we can, even if I have to make it a first prize item in a prize draw.’
Jess did not lack confidence and was bouncing on the balls of his feet, unable to stand still. Greg moved over to the computer and asked. ‘Aren’t you forgetting something, before you start counting your profits?’
‘What?’
‘Transport, that’s what! How much will it cost to get it here from where it is now?’
Jess clapped his hands together and grinned. ‘It won’t cost anything at all.’
‘Why’s that.’ Greg shot back, ‘Is it here already in Bamptonville? If it’s a known item it won’t sell. Everybody’ll know what you paid for it.’
‘It’s not here. It’s in Lincoln. You’re going there tomorrow and could pick it up. That’s if it’s not sold already. It’s on a ‘Buy It Now’ tag, not in an auction.’
Greg roared with laughter, slapped his sides and conceded defeat . ‘Let’s do it then.’
Jess made the trade on Greg’s account with Ebay. He moved over on the chair so that Greg could enter his PayPal payment details and it was done. The deal was confirmed. They had bought a bike. They whooped and hugged a while then Greg said. ‘We can talk about sales details tomorrow. By the way you’ll have to get the clerk to let you in as I’ll be late coming back from Lincoln with Wayne Fisher and … your bike.’
‘What do you want me to do while I’m waiting?’
‘Just source more trade items, don’t buy anything, just get used to the systems and sourcing information on stuff that folks buy around here. Watch how some people trade. You’ll see some get themselves into a competition that they MUST win, regardless of the price. The winning becomes more important to them than the thing they are buying. That’s stupid and they always pay more in the end. Don’t ever let yourself get trapped like that. Know when to back off. There’s always another trade coming along a little later.’
Jess nodded his agreement.
‘Ok,’ now let’s fix that leg Mr. White.’
* * *
Jess had no qualms or misgivings about undressing. He stripped himself naked from the waist down and dived onto the bed chattering about the potential of his bike purchase. Jess called out to Greg as he brought in the compresses and medical paraphernalia.
‘You know Greg, I reckon we could sell a few of those bikes if we can find more of them at that price.’
Greg pulled over the chair from the computer to use as a table and laid down the treatments.
‘See how this first one goes and don’t get tied into any one thing. Keep looking for other things, it’s ordinary, everyday things like washing machines, vacuum cleaners, power tools- ordinary household items that sell well. They’re not very exciting, but they bring in good regular money and sell quickly.’
Jess rolled onto his side to look at Greg and asked. ‘Does everything sell then?’
Greg chuckled and flicked cold water from his finger tips on the boy’s buttocks. ‘What a silly question. Of course everything can be sold. The best profits are often made from the most unlikely objects. When I was a boy, an old trader once asked me how would I go about selling an elderly donkey that was all skin and bones? I didn’t know and he told me. ‘You put it in a nice green field with a pretty horse jacket over it. Make it look special.’
Jess screwed up his nose. ‘I don’t get it. What’s a coat got to do with a donkey.’
Greg chuckled again, ‘ Because it’s all in the presentation. That’s how you sell anything. You check where there’s a market and you dress up your item to present it to that market in the best possible light.’
Jess began rolling around on the bed as the truth of what Greg had said went home. Greg put his hand on the boy’s waist.
‘Hold still, let’s have a look at that leg now.’ Greg examined the leg and its multi-coloured bruises and sniggered. ‘It might look like an impressionist oil painting, but it’s looking much better than before. I think you’ll be as right as rain in a couple of days time. Does it still hurt.’ Greg prodded the leg and Jess grimaced
‘Some, but only when I roll onto it or knock it against something.’
Greg felt Jess’s muscles stiffen in shock as he laid the first cold towel over the leg and he began gently pressing down on the towel. He felt the same buzz as before when he touched the boy’s leg and forced himself to concentrate on what he was doing. After the second towel had warmed up on the leg, Greg removed them, dried the leg gently with another towel and opened the tub of ointment. He stuck his fingers into the glutinous mass and stood still, cocking his head to one side as if listening intently for something.
‘What’s up,’ Jess asked, a worry frown creased his brow?
Greg pulled out a large globule of ointment on his fingers and flicked it onto Jess’s leg and carefully spread it over the damaged areas, working it gently into the skin with his fingertips. ‘Nothing,’ he said,’ I just thought I heard a noise outside, that’s all.’
‘What sort of a noise?’ Jess asked looking over his shoulder at Greg.
‘Sounded like the squeak of a wheel on a supermarket trolley. I must be hearing things.’ Greg tapped the boy’s buttock.’ Let’s get at the bits underneath, roll over on your good side a bit.’
Jess did so this time without feeling the necessity this time to place his hands over his private areas.
* * *
Wes Chandler, the motel clerk was making a telephone call and sidestepping the middle aged woman in housekeeper uniform who was mopping the floor in the reception area.
‘Not much happening here either’ he said into the mouthpiece, ‘ UPS brought in a box marked fragile for Mitchell today. It’s here waiting for him to come back ... it’s from Florida … No, I don’t know what’s in it. It just says fragile with a chemical label on it. It weighs 37 pounds.’ Chandler moved smartly to the front of the desk to avoid the woman’s mop that she pushed towards him with a vigour that said ‘I’m not waiting for you to get out of the way’.
The woman irritated him and he snapped into the phone. “I’ll take it down to him when he gets back from wherever he’s been ... Yeah, the boy’s with him. I watched ‘em drive out together in that new truck he’s picked up today.’
The shrill soprano voice of the cleaner cut across the conversation. “He’s back now. I can see the truck outside 196.’ She had pulled back the blind of the small window that looked out from the office area onto the decking outside the chalets.
‘I’d better get it done then, I’ll call you later,’ The clerk rang off and walked out the back emitting a tuneless whistle. He returned a few moments later pushing a sack barrow. The woman stood back and watched as he manipulated the large cardboard box onto the barrow and wheeled it outside onto the decking and towards room 196.
‘Darn it,’ he muttered when one of the barrow’s wheels caught its edge into a gap in the decking and threatened to tip the load over. Chandler heaved the load upright and extricated the barrow that squeaked in protest as he pushed it forwards. ‘Must get some oil on that wheel,’ he grumbled.
He stopped outside the window to 196. The blinds were pulled closed, but one was caught over the upper blind and left a gap. He saw the lights were on in the room and could not resist peeking inside through the crack between the leaves of the blinds. What he saw made him catch his breath. Greg Mitchell was stood on the other side of the bed from the window and was using two fingers to lever out a large globule of what looked like jelly from a tub. He wore a silly grin on his face and was looking down at Jess White who lay face down on the bed; the boy was naked from the waist down.
‘Oh my good God!’ Chandler said under his breath. He stood galvanized to the spot for a moment. He looked once again to see Mitchell rubbing the jelly onto the boy with a slow circular motion. From where he stood it looked to the clerk like he was rubbing the grease inside the boy’s thighs. The clerk deftly and quietly extricated the barrow from the package, leaving it on the decking, and hurried back to the office in a rare state of excitement. He rushed to pick up the phone and had not noticed that the cleaner had gone. Chandler’s fingers trembled as they punched in the number for the Sherriff’s office.
‘Come on, come on, pick up,’ he moaned while it rang at the other end. It was answered on the fourth ring, but before anybody could speak Chandler shrieked,
‘It’s Wes at the motel. You ain’t ever going to believe what I just saw. I wouldn’t ‘ave believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes and it’s going on right now this minute as we talk, right there in 196.’
The story erupted from the clerk in a series of phrases clipped by his excitement and suitably embellished for maximum effect in its telling. He finished by asking. “You want me to do something, I could maybe take a picture through the window?’
There was a pause and the voice on the other end said ‘Don’t do nothing and don’t say nothing neither to nobody about this. Just act normal and leave it all to me.’
‘Sure thing,’ Wes replied, ‘You’re the law.’ They rang off.
Moments later a call went out from the Sherriff’s office. Felix answered and listened. ‘Tell me that again,’ Felix said. He listened and asked, ‘you absolutely sure about this?’
* * *
The sky was clouding over to add to the gloom in the town as the shadows deepened to replace the last of the daylight. Harry’s was busy and high spirited shouts and catcalls spilled out into the street through the door and windows together with the bright lights and music from the jukebox.
Merv sweated behind the bar as he rushed to satisfy the demand for drinks. His voice carried over the hubbub as a shrill cry for help.
‘I’ve only got one pair of hands.. Yes .. you’re next. What’s keeping Dolcie she should be here by now.’
Felix Gleitner was huddled close to Kyler, Billie-Joe and Leon in a far corner away from the mainstream of evening revellers congregated around the juke box and bar areas. They stood around a table with their heads together in the manner of a football team discussing strategy during a game. Felix gritted his teeth in a snarl. His hand held a plastic cup of coffee so hard it was hour-glassing in the middle.
‘What do you mean I should get someone else. I want Jess to do it. You know that!
So why tell me I should line up somebody else for the shoot’?
‘For Chrissake Felix, Jess’ll be no good to you for pics the way he is. I’ve seen his leg it’s got more colours than a Neapolitan ice cone.’
They stepped back hurriedly from the table as coffee ejected from the plastic cup that now sat crushed in Felix’s hand.
‘I told you I want him. I don’t care about his damn leg. That ain’t the point…’
‘But Felix,’ Kyler pleaded with open hands, ‘ he don’t want to do it. You know he don’t.’
‘That’s why we gotta make him do it. You guys been too soft on him. You gotta push him. He needs the cash...’
‘He says he can get it from the Englishman he’s teamed up with now. They’re doing trades or the like. I heard they a’ready got the first one lined up.’
‘One, dammit … one , how many does he have to do… damn that Limey. I should’ve taken care of him good before now.’
‘You gonna fix him Felix?’ Leon had asked open mouthed. Felix pushed him back roughly.
‘Get your dumb face outta here and let me think. I wouldn’t tell you what I was doing would I now?’ Felix glared at Leon with an expression of fulsome loathing. Leon paled. He felt scared and backed off in case he came in to receive the brunt of Felix’s temper. They all knew what this man was capable of doing when riled badly and it seemed like he was upset enough now. Leon moved slowly backwards with tiny steps to move out of the limelight of the moment; while Felix’s fearsome glare seemed to push him further away. The others stood around silent and still, careful not to have Felix switch his attention from Leon to them.
They heard a buzzing. Felix fumbled in his coat pocket and pulled out his cell phone and shouted into it. ‘Yeah!’
He listened and they saw his face relax and gradually a smile spread across his lips.
‘Tell me that again.’ Felix’s voice was back to normal, almost polite. ‘You’re absolutely sure of that? … Wes couldn’t be mistaken could he?’
He listened closely and the others pushed their ears closer to Felix to try to hear some of the conversation. ‘Thanks for that. ‘Preciated. I owe you.’
Felix tossed his cell phone on the table and he clapped his hands together as he gyrated awkwardly dancing a jig. His face had reddened and his grin split it into two. There was no sign of displeasure about him now.
‘We’ve got him. We’ve got him’
The boys pushed into a tight group around their capo, mouths agape with impatience. Felix rubbed his hands as he looked at them one by one, each anxious to know the news, but each of them knew better than to interrupt him before he was ready to talk; or he just might leave without saying anything. They knew it had to be something big to cause this change in him.
‘That was a contact, an important contact. Guess what?’ They pushed even closer into Felix who spoke through gritted teeth. ‘The motel clerk just saw Jess lying on the bed with his pants off and Mitchell rubbing grease into his butt.’
‘No’? ‘Go on’ ‘You’re having us on'?
Felix raised his hands and shook his head. ‘No jokes. It’s verified. They’ll be at it this very minute.’
Billie –Joe stepped away. ‘Let’s get down there and pull ‘em apart.
Felix caught hold of his sweater and became fierce again.
‘You do nothing ‘less I tell you to do it. Got it?’ The snarl was back on Felix’ face.
‘What we gonna do Felix?’ It was a sensible question that Kyler asked in a slow, deliberate manner. The other two boys looked at him.
‘I tell you what we gonna do.’ Felix almost spat out the words. They heard the tremor of excitement in the man’s voice. ‘ We take things one step at a time. No rough stuff. Nothing that can point to us. First we get Jess with us on Sunday doing the shoot. Then we get rid of Mitchell.’ Billie-Joe smashed his fist loudly into the palm of his hand and earned himself a sharp retort from Felix.
‘Not like that dummy, we use our brains.’ Felix pushed his face onto Billie-Joe’s nose and tapped the side of his head with his finger.
‘What then?’ It was Leon asking and twitching impatiently.
‘What you guys have to do is fire up that Melissa. You don’t do anything else. Make sure she gets to know what Mitchell is up to. Tell her she was right all along and the guy should be run out of town. Let Melissa spread it around. You DO NOT do the spreading … got it? She’ll get it all going in the school and around the town. You just keep her fired up and put in a word here and there to kindle her flames. Make it look to everybody like she’s the one doing it. Like it’s her idea.’
‘What you gonna be doing Felix?’ Kyler’s eyebrows were raised in question.
‘Never you mind. I’m gonna fix Jess for the Sunday shoot. I gotta go now. Gotta make a call – an important call. Now get at it. And remember easy does it. We want it so Jess gets to ask us to let him do the show for us on Sunday. Now get on to it!’