A Wet Cat In The Rain

The Cardinal And The Jack Coffee And Bakery - Cambridge, Massachusetts

She hummed something by Taylor Swift while she kept an eye on her operation.  

The busboy was there when a table needed a turn, and Eve was lucky she found the right guy for that job. 

Eduardo, a statistician graduate student, took the boss aside one day and explained an excellent table busser sets the whole mood for any food establishment and can cause tables to turn over faster.  

She monitored him for a few days and decided he was correct.

His pace in the room is infectious, and people seemed to linger less when he worked. The register revealed the truth when she had a few weeks of comparisons. Sales were higher when Eddie worked. Amazing!

Still, the Chief Baker, Eve, did her best to raise her assistant Melinda to the next level and take over the position. Eve had studied bakeries in France, Italy, and Japan to learn what they were doing right. She made many friends and arranged for Melinda to spend a month learning at a Patisserie and a Boulangerie in Paris.

She stopped humming Anti-Hero to laugh a little as she thought about how Marco and Roberto would work, her assistant ragged and keep her laughing at the same time.

Mel would receive a compressed world-class education in one month between both locations.

The trip would cost Crowder thousands, but she considered it an investment. At some point, Mel would want her own shop, but if things worked out, maybe she and Allston would first try for a kid or two. Leaving the shop in good hands would be a luxury. Eve thought of that private plan as she viewed customers come in, sit down, and be delighted by coffee and fancy baked goods.

Because of a slight drizzle outside, the customers came in wet. Eduardo laid an extra mat near the door, and customers soon began pounding the slush off their boots.

Jan Carew was working the register and taking phone orders. 

She placed a call on hold, walked over to Eve, and said, "A woman on the phone would like to speak to the manager. She swears she is not selling anything, and I believe her."

Eve looked at Jan and asked, "Is she angry about something?" "I don't think so," Jan said.

She walked over to the counter, picked up the phone, and punched a button. "This is Eve Crowder; I own the Cardinal and The Jack. How can I help you?"

"Hello, Eve. My name is Natalie Leuze. I'm the actress that got treated like a pin cushion in Maine."

Eve believed this was Leuze.

"Oh, hi Natalie, how is your recovery coming along?" "Everyone is rooting for you!"

"I'll tell you all about it if you let me in the back door, please?"

 "I'm standing out back, starving, and I hope you have a private little table where I can sit."

"I hear great things from all the nurses about The Cardinal And The Jack, and I can't wait to have a cup of real coffee."

Eve signaled to Eduardo, who came over.

"Eddie, can you please grab a two-top table and two side chairs and put them just outside the office?"

"I'll meet you at the back door, Natalie."

She grabbed two twenty-dollar bills out of the register to give to Eduardo. "For your service and your silence," she explained as she put the bills in his palm.

Eve went to the back door, opened it,  and saw Natalie "Freaking Idiot" Leuze looking like a wet cat in the rain.

"Come on in, Natalie; I'll be your server," Eve said.

Northern New Hampshire 

Tango and I won't accept defeat. We are heading back to the woods around the U.S. Government-Controlled compound. I need to analyze those cameras someone took from my house. I think whoever guarded the place would be concerned with all sides of the compound. 

I parked far from where the "Do Not Trespass" signs started and entered the woods. I planned to come in from the opposite side of where I had entered earlier. It would be a long hike, but I may see a woodpecker or two.

I have a new pack, a new multi-tool, and a new attitude. I'm angry.

TXT EVE: If I find you a case, do I get a commission? TXT ALLSTON:Did someone steal a muffin?

Tango and I went through what had to be well-traveled hunter trails in the past. The walking isn't as bad as I imagined it would be. I left my phone in the truck, so I wouldn't leave a digital trail on government property. Being a two-time trespasser may get me on the FBI's wrong side.

The ground is wet, and there is a slight mist.

I don't hear any wood pecking.

After about an hour of going in, I started backtracking. I came to an area outside the compound, far away from the highway. I started looking in the trees, and it was not long before I spotted a camera in a tree. The camera is the same make as the others, but this time, the lens did not move to focus on me. It must be disabled, I thought.

I went up the trunk, not as smooth as a guy in a movie but serviceable. I removed the camera with my multi-tool and then looked for the ground sensors that would cause the camera to pan toward them. It's the same setup. Two ground sensors guarded the camera.

The location of the next camera is easy to estimate, so I removed the second one and two more ground sensors.

Now Tango and I had to go slow and take the long way back to my truck.

Later, as I rode back down 101 going east, I thought this successful operation made me even with whoever broke into our house.

I still don't know who they are, but I sent them a fresh F.U. and a finger out the truck window while Johnny Rivers sang "Summer Rain."

Eve would have enjoyed this trip.

I reached over and gave Tango a one-armed hug, and he licked my ear. I love that puppy.

Aspen, Colorado

Charlie Lopez sat at her dining room table, reviewing a script the Fed Ex guy had left her yesterday. She read it, trying to decide whether this part was "the one" that would get her career back on track. 

 She played one of Stanley's daughters, older than Natalie's character. Lopez played Jillian, the level-headed daughter who steered clear of trouble and held the house together for her father, Stanley.

She played the level-headed daughter until season six, when in "A Very Special Episode," she had to tell her father that she was pregnant and that the baby's father was " away in The Navy." Could she "keep her baby at home until he came back?"

The show's writers were having fun figuring out how Stanley (Comedian Rollie Archer) would be as a grandfather and Jillian as a single mother. You never saw the baby's father, and the whole family realized he would not be back except for Jillian, who kept the faith.

One of the giant streaming networks will start making a cast reunion show in three months. In it, everyone will appear and discuss favorite episodes and bits. Each actor would receive 3 million dollars to participate.

Charlie Lopez needed the money and the exposure. She was on the brink of losing everything, and short of burning her house down for the insurance money, it was the only potential income on the books.

After Stanley's Girls was canceled, she got a few product endorsements, a couple of bad straight-to-DVD movies, and then a much-heralded soft porn movie that wasn't that soft. After that, she was not marketable for anything except that app that allows a person to show it all to subscribers.

Lopez was desperate for that reunion to occur and then burn her house down.

She brought her coffee cup to her lips when the doorbell rang.

Lopez had not had a housekeeper in three years, so she had to answer the door herself.

Maybe it was another script, she thought as she hurried to the door while thinking about the possibility.

Brad Falter stood at the entrance, thinking he would charm his way into the house when the housekeeper opened the door.

He knew that Charlie Lopez was home.

He was shocked when Charlie herself opened the door!

This time, Brad was not fooling around; he just began stabbing.

He was controlled in his movements and his aim as he stabbed Lopez at least twenty times.

As he walked away from her bleeding on the marble floor, there was no doubt in his mind that she was dead.