Mary's Guardian Angel Ch. 01

"She does, however that's Dana's problem. We'll tackle that problem together and win if they persist to be stupid and obtuse."

"What happens now, sweetheart?" Mary asked.

"Your interview with the FBI is a formality. They will however be very interested to question Toody and Muldoon and will make them disclose all the evidence they've gathered to date."

"Do you mean the two detectives sweetheart? She asked laughing. "Car 54 where are you? I do so enjoy those wholesome television shows from the fifties and sixties."

"Yes very good and so do I." He chuckled. "I'll get my bail money returned and Joseph will work on getting a portion of your joint bank accounts unfrozen, assuming that there's any money left in them. That'll be the tough part as the Art Gallery is suing you in the biscuit eater's absence. This is compounded by the fact your insurance company is refusing to pay for the arson fire. Things may be tied in court for years. Do have any money stashed away for a rainy day?"

"Yes! I almost forgot. I put it in a safety deposit box in my home town Credit Union when Mom went to an adult care home. My Mom is very forgetful these days. She has her good days and bad."

"That's wonderful, baby, how much money?"

"Well it actually isn't all money. There's maybe five-thousand in cash and one-hundred thousand in mostly matured savings bonds. Dad purchased savings bonds for me and rolled over from the day I was born until he passed away two years ago. They've stayed in the safety deposit box since."

"Does the biscuit eater know about that?"

"No, Dad made me swear before God and not to tell anybody about it. He said it was for emergencies only God can foresee. Dad referred to it as my King Solomon's Mine and now I can pay for my attorney."

"Joseph has taken you as a client for a case of Bailey's and his old dented galvanized minnow pail full of pike minnows. I suppose it's an out dated concept these days. Call it a silent debt of understanding for something left unsaid for good reasons. Yours is his final case before he retires this month and he will see everything to the end regardless.

I attended college with his son Bobby. We chummed around together because Bobby was charming and funny and had the gift of gab with the college girls. I spent many weekends at his family cottage on the Saint Lawrence River on Wellesley Island. Joseph and I went out fishing early in morning on his boat at 4:30 AM sharp while Bobby slept in until nine in the morning.

Joseph's lovingly cared for classic wood boat is a 28 foot Chris-Craft Sea Skiff. Fiberglass and aluminum boats have their place for some. However they're soulless and stiff compared to the natural feel of a wood boat's deck under ones feet. Perhaps it's also the romance of wood sailing ships that attracts me to them given how many times I've read Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin Series, or C.S Forester's Horatio Hornblower.

Bobby and I were in a night club one Saturday night in Alexandria Bay during Pirates Weekend. He liked to drink and gamble a little too much. I hardly drink at all and there was a live band playing."

"You were there for the young ladies, sweetheart." Mary said knowingly.

"OK, I admit it that too, my love, but now I only have eyes for you." and she squeezed his hand and said. "And I you sweetheart" Mary replied.

"Bobby lost two c-notes playing 8-ball with a local tough. His name is Ron something or other. I was surprised because Bobby is an excellent pool player. His opponent was better. It was as simple as that and Bobby didn't see the hustle. I was busy making time with...my distraction doesn't matter. What matters is he didn't have the cash to cover his bet. I offered to cover the bet and Ron wouldn't take my money.

He called Bobby every profane name in the urban dictionary or any other known dictionary or thesaurus for that matter. Ron then started on Bobby's family and their alleged perverted sexual proclivities not limited to and including incest. Bobby did nothing but stand there and look at his feet. Ron slapped him in the face and Bobby just stood there. I got in between them and threw the money at Ron's feet and said. "Come on, Bobby, your bets paid, let's go."

At that point, Ron's friend, and I didn't catch his name, dumped the bleached blonde barfly who was sitting on his lap unceremoniously to the floor when he stood up. Wow what a mouth she had as she cussed him out. She must use the same reference books as Ron. I learned some new words that would damage your hearing let alone make you blush.

That big ugly brute was massive and hairy. He reminded me of a gorilla wearing clothes. Let me tell you my love, things turned from bad to worse fast when Ron broke Bobby's wrist with a pool cue shocking him out of his cowardly trance. Bobby panicked and screamed like a little girl and ran out of there pushing people down or out of the way including the bleached blonde barfly who ended up butt first on the floor a second time."

"What did you do?" she asked.

"I improvised, pretty lady."

"How did you improvise?" Mary asked enthralled with the story, "Tell me what you did?"

"Maybe later." he said teasing her.

"Aaron Gabriel!" she exclaimed.

"Mary Susan" He teased, "I'll tell you later in the swan. Don't make me use your hairbrush on you..."

LATER THAT EVENING Mary filled the tub and added one of the scented bath oils and lit the candles she purchased on their shopping excursion. She also bought a special surprise for him when they were shopping that was perfect for the tub.

Aaron was in charge of the tea and while waiting for the water to boil telephoned Frank and Marie to tell them the good news. Mary didn't wait to tell Myra. She spoke with her on Aaron's cell-phone while Aaron and Joseph talked with the assistant district attorney and the bumblers in the courthouse.

She was waiting for him, excited about her little gift at the opposite end of the tub when he walked in with their tea on the tray. "No tricks, sweetheart. Put the tea down and join me. Get on your usual end of the tub. I bought you something so please close your eyes."

Aaron did and she reached on the floor to get his gift from underneath the pile of towels, wound it up, and sent it on its way. It bumped against the side of the tub a few times on its way to him and came to rest against his chest. He was absolutely delighted and surprised, make that touched because it was a precious little gift from the heart and he loved her for it. He wound up and sent it back to her.

"My own little wind up tin can tug boat...what a great gift!" he exclaimed enthusiastically and meaning it. "If this keeps up, pretty soon I'll have my own wind up tin can Navy. Come here, baby."

"Will you tell me what you mean by improvised, Sir?" she asked snuggling up close to him in the hot scented bath water with her cup of green tea. The lights from the many scented candles strategically placed, the only illumination in the room.

"Yes, a cue ball in a bandana is almost as good as a blackjack."

"I still don't understand. Where did you get a bandana?"

"Shiver mi timbers, mi comely wench. It was Pirates weekend and I was wearing one." he teased doing his best imitation of a pirate.

"Were you wearing an earring, sweetheart?" she teased him back.

"Maybe, but let me show you about the bandana." and Aaron put a bar of soap in a washcloth. "This will have to do. You put it in like this and twist...now hold it like this and slap your palm hard."

"Ouch!" she exclaimed. "I get it now you knocked them out, right?"

"Exactly; a bandana is larger than a washcloth, while a cue ball is harder than their heads. I conked Ron in the head first and down he went. I had to conk the gorilla three times though."

"Why three times?" Mary asked.

"He blinked and rubbed his head the first time I hit him. He then flipped over the pool table as if it was a flimsy folding card table to get to me. The bouncers tried to grab him and he knocked them both down for the count. I hit him two more times much harder and he went down like a ton of bricks. I then made a hasty retreat out the door looking for Bobby.

It was dark outside and the main street was cordoned off for most vehicle traffic aside from the usual rows of motorcycles from the bikers. I'm talking about the genuine fringe of society outlaw bikers, plus the pretend weekend warrior bikers attending the Pirates Weekend. The streets and sidewalks were crowded with tourists and locals coming and going dressed like Hollywood pirates. Bobby had only one logical avenue of escape. He fled to the upper James Street Dock where his Dad's boat was moored."

"Did he leave without you?"

"No, I had the keys and I'm more competent with boats than he is. Bobby was cowering in pain in the hold and had thrown up all over himself. Will you refresh my tea please? Thank you. I love you Mary. Did I tell you how sexy and sophisticated you look naked with your hair swept up in a French twist?"

"I love you too sweetheart and stop changing the subject. What happened next?"

"I started the boat" and he wound up his toy tug boat with a big smile on his face and sent it chugging through the bathwater as he continued his story "I was untying her when to my surprise I saw the hairy gorilla and his mate, the bleached blonde barfly, running down the docks to thwart our escape.

That was comical in itself because King Conked had a bar towel with ice in it pressed to his forehead as he ran down the dock intending to choke the life out of me. I fully expected him to jump into the river and swim after us as we were pulling away."

"Did King Conked, swim after you?" Mary asked laughing softly and still delighted how much he appreciated her little gift because it showed in his face and she loved him all the more for it.

"No, but you have to admire his tenacity. I took Bobby home without further incident and his mom and dad drove him to the hospital in Watertown without me. Joseph didn't want to chance having him recognized in the hospital in the Bay."

"Were the police involved, sweetheart? Did those men seek revenge?" Did you tell Joseph what happened?"

"The Alexander Bay Police generally have a good handle on things and it is a tourist town for much of the year. No doubt one or both of those toughs had an appearance ticket or warrant pending for something. Theirs is a rough sort of Justice and when you lose a fight, you lose a fight and take your lumps without complaining."

"What happened to Bobby, Aaron? Are you still friends? Who told Joseph?"

"I didn't tell Joseph. I left that up to Bobby. How do you tell a father and an older man you respect, his son is a coward? Bobby didn't speak up to defend his family or fight back. I was gone before they returned from the hospital. Bobby and I avoided each other after that and I haven't been back to the 1000 Islands since.

"Say no more I know what happened. Bobby lied to his parents, didn't he?"

"Yes he did, Mary, and his mother believed him. In her eyes Bobby can do no wrong and no doubt he made himself the hero who saved me."

"Joseph knew better, though." Mary continued. "I have no doubt he found out exactly what happened."

"Yes, you are correct, my love, although I didn't know that until much later.

Joseph showed up here a few days after I bought my house and of course I invited him in. I gave him the grand tour and told him my plans for it. We walked down to the beach and he repeated much of what I just told you. He knew most if not all of the story. There was a long pause and Joseph asked me if we needed to talk?

We're talking now I said to him. So we are he agreed. I miss our mornings on the River, he said. I miss them too, Joseph, I agreed. I particularly miss the quiet before the tour boats are out and the thermos of hot coffee with a light touch of Baileys when fishing pike minnows off the shoals of Heart Island and looking at Bolt Castle at sunrise."

"I thought you never drink, sweetheart?"

"I'm not a social drinker and seldom isn't never, pretty lady. The coffee was strong black coffee with a splash of Baileys and getting back to Joseph. He confided that he appreciated I respected his Isabelle Grace. Joseph said I treated her as if she were a living thing. That's why he gave me the keys and not his son."

"Is Isabelle Grace the name of his boat, sweetheart?"

"Yes the boat is named after his first love, Isabelle. Isabelle Grace was an ER Nurse and they were engaged to be married. She was brutally murdered late at night in a Trauma Center's parking lot by a career criminal out on parole.

Joseph was devastated by it and became a man with a mission to seek justice for the victims of crimes. He was a New York City beat cop; one of New York's finest when his soul mate was murdered.

That was not enough for him so he attended college nights to study law. Soon after he passed the bar he became an assistant district attorney and from there retired from the Justice Department. He set up a private practice a few years back.

I have a surprise for you, baby. Frank and Marie are coming here for a visit in two weeks to meet you. Until then, how do feel about driving to Pennsylvania. We can visit with Myra and her husband John and I'll show you our little log cabin in the Blue Mountains..."