Part Ninety-Three
A/N: I regret the length of time between posts. Please accept my sincere apologies. The book is very involved, with a multiplicity of characters exercising their influences on the plot. A reader can easily become lost. For that reason I have written a short (?) summary. This chapter will be split into Wattpad sized sub-chapters, the next following on directly from the one before. I hope you will enjoy the story and do please let me know your thoughts. Thank You!
The story so far:
On Friday 20th April 2007 Jess woke in his dorm full of beans following his success placing the air-con unit for sale with McKendrick’s stores. He was also basking in the center of attention with his peers over the sports bicycle he was buying to sell with Greg.
However, all this fell foul when he went down to breakfast where he walked in on Melissa stirring up the cafeteria against Greg and himself because of the foul rumour started by Wes Chandler that Jess and Greg had been in bed together: a false rumour given wider publicity by Felix Gleitner’s machinations.
College Principal Armstrong is running scared of possible adverse publicity and grounds Jess; forbidding him to have anything to do with Greg on pain of expulsion. Jess has now no alternative source of income other than working for Gleitner and he agrees to do the Sunday Photo Shoot.
Gleitner is in Lincoln fixing up details for the Sunday Shoot with the film crew when he’s told of Jess having agreed to the shoot and meets the boy later to hear it for himself. He feeds Jess a story that this is the start of a show business career- if he’s good enough and arranges to meet next day (Saturday), for ‘training.’
Ali and Thomas from the condo have overcome their reluctance to work for Greg and turned up to start fitting out the old stable Mayor Denton has given them to use as a waste oil processing plant.
They are seen working by Chad Grozier who hurries off to Harry’s bar to report to his fellow rednecks that the jobs promised them in Greg’s oil plant by Mayor Denton have been given to the ethnics- causing considerable resentment against Denton and the waste oil project.
Mitt Fawley is having a bad day. He needs to get ownership of the condo and sent his GM(Walt) down to persuade the owners to leave. Walt has had it with Fawley and will not lie to the condo dwellers, they sit tight and Fawley fires Walt who moves out of the company house where he was living and into the motel.
Fawley needs that condo for him to demolish and build a road through the cleared space to link his plant with the I-80 junction at the Truck Stop service area, enabling him to build the new chicken processing plant he’s planning. He has an amorous fancy for his book-keeper Trish, who verbally plays around with her boss, but that’s as far as she’ll go. Fawley promised her Walt’s job if she’d spend the weekend with him in Tahoe. She had no intention of going but encouraged Fawley in thinking she might; never thinking he’d fire Walt, but he did just that and booked a double room in a cosy retreat in Tahoe for next weekend.
Fawley stops off in Harry’s, joining in with and encouraging the rednecks in their dissatisfaction with Mayor Denton by declaring an open bar with the drinks on him. The mayor is a stumbling block in his plans to get the permission he needs to build a road through the condo. Fawley gets carried away and announces he’s running for mayor, which is greeted with enormous, alcohol fuelled enthusiasm by the bar flies.
Now the real mayor’s running scared after he hears of Fawley’s frolics. He’s up for re-election soon and only carried the last vote on a tiny majority. He knows if the rednecks, and the crew who don’t normally turn out to vote decided to do so and voted for Fawley, he’d be out of a job.
Armstrong, meanwhile, is further worried by a call from the sheriff telling him he went too far with the restrictions he put on Jess following that rumour and by doing so has violated Greg’s civil rights; and that Greg is in a financial position to employ Hollywood fee lawyers to sue. Armstrong panicked and sent a message on to Jess by Leon- one of Gleitner’s boys- who reported first to Gleitner and was told not to pass the message on to Jess. Armstrong is now waiting for a call from the sheriff after he’s spoken to Gleitner about a further rumour of the man running a vice ring with high school kids.
Wes Chandler had called the sheriff’s office with the story of what he said he saw Greg and Jess were up to and spoke with clerk Tod Mecklen, who was in the pay of Gleitner to whom he passed on the story. Mecklen did not tell the sheriff. When Sheriff Donovan found out he set up an elaborate trap for Mecklen with a phone tap warrant issued by Judge Denman and a rogue FBI agent- proving Mecklen’s infidelity. The man bolted to Canada.
The judge has since had second thoughts about giving Sheriff Donovan a free hand in this investigation. Should the rumour get out that a vice ring is operating out of the Community College, all hell and Oprah Winfrey will be let loose on Bamptonville. He is also waiting for a call from the sheriff following the questioning of Gleitner.
But Gleitner was in Lincoln until late. Donovan was called away to a domestic dispute at the Drubacher’s farm and by ten pm had not yet tracked down Gleitner to question the man.
Greg started the day with Ali and Tomas at the stable and had to leave for Lincoln at noon to pick up the bike Jess had bought on Ebay for trade and collect Wayne Fisher, who has come to help them set up the waste oil plant.
All does not go well between Wayne and Greg, their friendship is on hold for now and they are working with each other on a purely business basis. After considerable discussions and with calls to Greg’s lawyer Halburton in Boston they are together, at last, but with reservations in Wayne’s major project. Greg suspects Wayne has his own agenda that he’s keeping to himself. They are about to go down to Harry’s for a late dinner. The party is high in Harry’s on Fawley’s booze,
Principal Armstrong and Judge Denman are nibbling their fingernails waiting for a call from the sheriff, who is still searching for Gleitner before he calls them. Mayor Denton is also worried about Fawley running for mayor against him with the support of the fringe voting elements. Jess is in bed in the schoolhouse after involuntarily dropping Tom Silvers with a head butt. Gleitner had posted Silvers as Jess’s close chaperone until after the shoot on Sunday. Jess wants to bug off home and forget all about Bamptonville.
Now read on:
* * *
CHAPTER NINETY-THREE
(Alpha)
Largesse and Lies!
The weather had closed in and the first heavy drops of rain fell on Wes Chandler as he locked the motel office from the sidewalk on Main. He didn’t notice the rain as he turned to hurry along the walkway, doubled forwards, moaning with self-pitying angst and smarting from the effects of Greg’s insinuations; further aggravated by the contempt with which he had uttered them.
Goddamn cock suckin’ Limey, who the hell does he think he is? Still! Wouldn’t expect a man with his habits to have decent manners. Must be from all that tea they drink over there.
Involuntarily he pulled the collar of his coat closer around his neck as he crossed Greener in haste to get to Harry’s Place. He’d heard on the motel grapevine that Mitt Fawley was holding a party tonight and the drinks were all on him. Wes Chandler, shuffling along at a half-jog, intended having some of that largesse before it ran dry.
The noise of the crowd singing, shouting and catcalling rose above the nasal twang of Mark Chesnutt crooning from the jukebox. A capacity crowd filled the bar, spilling over into the foyer and beyond. It was standing room only tonight. The increasing problem for new arrivals was finding somewhere to stand.
Lines of drinks were passed overhead to serve merry makers at the back of the saloon; freeloaders who had no chance of reaching the bar through the crowd. Empty glasses travelled in the return direction, like glinting vehicles on an overhead dual carriageway.
Wes elbowed his way a yard into the foyer and quickly took stock of what was going on. The air was thick with the reek of stale booze, unwashed bodies and prohibited nicotine. In a lull in the noise he heard Fawley calling from the bar counter for more cocktails. He decided to make his way over there to be near the big man.
Unable to ease his way through the throng in an upright position, he got down on the floor to make his way by crawling forwards on his hands and knees around the feet of the intervening drinkers. More than one person kicked him as he pushed past, but he was able to move slowly towards the bar and the air was fresher at floor level, affording some compensation for his discomfort.
In the gloomy blackness of the floor area Wes could see only the feet around him. He had a vague idea of the direction in which to crawl from the passionate dialogues of those at the bar. Fortunately for Wes, the almost constant sound of Fawley’s voice mouthing exaggerated and contrived faults with Mayor Denton guided him unerringly towards his goal.
A mild cheer from the throng around him greeted each one of Fawley’s utterances; louder cheers were raised when he ordered yet another round of drinks. Fawley had just been handed a fresh whisky sour and was about to make another pronouncement when Wes popped up at his elbow; surprising the party giver and throwing him off track. The crowd jeered and catcalled the interloper, taking their attention away from Fawley – which he resented.