This Is For Real

Tango and I are driving to Natalie's house in Maine to confront Brad Falter when he makes his move to kill Natalie Leuze. He has a large head start, but the good news is that Natalie is not there.  I wonder if he was staking her house out while I watched his.

 It's a solid fifteen-hour drive, and it would be nice if Tango and I could split the driving, but his legs are too short to hit the gas pedal and see over the wheel.

Tango's psyched that we are rolling again, and of course, he's hanging his head out the window, staying alert for predators.

While driving, I called Natalie to give her a SITREP (Situation Report). The first order of business should cause her legal team to start producing billable hours for the firm immediately. 

That night long ago in Missouri, when Brad and Steve Falter picked up Natalie in their Rolling Champagne Room, Natalie had to use a large hunting knife to get out of the truck. She never knew for sure that she killed Steve Falter, but now we have it on the first page of Brad's confession.

​"So I stuck him in all the right places, Allston. He had it coming," She said

"After reading everything in Brad's house, I say you are lucky to be alive, and that knife and your quick thinking saved your life."

With her ever-present humor, Natalie said, " If I didn't get out of that truck, Season 3, Episode 7 of Stanley's Girls would have never happened. 

As everyone knows, in Episode 7, her character Gina suffers a bit of bikini top spillage. When you see it, the mind's eye works overtime. The episode became the most paused, rewound, and played back in television history. Natalie continues to reap the rewards every year with royalties.

I continued my report to Natalie.

"They were real deal serial killers with a body count in the double digits." Brad left details about the victims, where they are buried and he took lots of photographs."

"Holy Shit," said Natalie

"Here's something good, Nat. Your actions that night stopped the killing." "Brad Falter did not have the physical strength to hold a person down, rape her, and then kill her. If I read things right, he never killed again until he killed Charlie Lopez in Aspen."

I wonder about the symbiotic nature of the killings. Were either of the Falter's serial killers? Or did it absolutely have to have both of them?  The attack on Natalie at The Breakfast Bee and the murder of Charlie Lopez in Aspen were the only solo efforts of all of their crimes. 

I think the Falters will be studied, and there will be no shortage of shows, movies, and classroom hours dedicated to them, looking at them as standalone and unique. The "Rolling Champagne Room" will become part of today's culture. Think of the jokes we will hear.

Natalie and anyone who encountered the Falters will be sought after for interviews.

The show was beginning. 

Natalie went on, "Is this for real?" "These two podunk assholes were serial killers, and I got away?"

Tango and I will confront Brad Falter in Maine at Natalie's house.

The wheels are rolling. Johnnie Rivers is singing "Poor Side Of Town" and Eve is not here to see me sing "Shoop Shoobie Doo Shoobie Doo Wah." I miss her.

I hope the girls are having a good time back home.

I didn't tell Nat about the OG 70's edition Tupperware.

Cambridge, Massachusetts - The Apartment Of Lisa Tanaka

Ben Mason waited for Lisa to come home. He ate the delicious meal she had prepared. He had his laptop and plenty of work to do.

He understood rushing out, life interruptions, and the sudden call of duties. Lisa's duty was real and vital, and stuff like this would happen as long as she was in law enforcement.

Ben Mason made up his mind right then. This stuff will be part of our relationship, and he will handle it. She is worth the wait.

He tread lightly in her apartment, but he walked around and looked.

She is as advertised. A Stooges fan a wrestling fan, but above all, a brilliant, funny woman who carried a gun, cooked and thought faster than anyone he knew.

He would gladly wait for her.

When she got home, she went to her bedroom, where he waited; it was nearly 10:30 PM. 

They smiled and silently looked at each other as she slowly removed her clothes.

It was worth the wait for both of them.

​Boston, Massachusetts - An apartment on Commonwealth Avenue

Sophie Tanner was breezing through her classes, and she worked hard to catch up with her class after the murder of her parents in their home.

Sophie has changed and struggles with that change, separating her from her friends. She sees them, sees what they do with their lives, and now feels apart from all of that.

Things that used to be normal and fun were now frivolous and almost foreign to her. She stopped going to bars and now spent her time in the libraries at the school.

Isn't this the kind of student most parents hope their kids will be? She thought.

This was her new lifestyle—real. She was building a foundation for herself as she prepared for bigger challenges.

She was unsure of the move she would make after graduation, which was still a few years away, but she knew she would be ready for it. 

She thought of her parents, her Dad and things about him had clarified since she went to his wall of honor ceremony at the old CIA building. He was a quiet man, a spy, unlike James Bond or what people think about when they think of the CIA. 

He was funny, kind, a man who thought of the world and saw plenty of it.

He was a father who quietly and with great humor taught his daughter how he saw the world and how it operated. From all he taught her, he inferred that there was good in the world and bad. 

She wondered what those discussions would be like as she got older. What would Dad think?

Sophie was drawing simple lines about everything now starting with the basic question. Is it good, or is it bad?

She left room for all her friends' gray areas. They were good but had not yet arrived at a purpose greater than themselves.

She was sure that they would get there.

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