Mending Wounded Hearts

Not long after we had left Espen's room, Ally walked up. 

"Hey guys, what’s going on?"

"A nurse is checking Espen so we have to wait out here," explained Brandon.

"Mind if I hang out with you, I’d like to see him before I head out. He’ll probably be home by the time my next rotation starts."

"So what are you doing with your afternoon since your shift ended early?" I asked.

"Well, I thought I’d get the chores out of the way first. You know, like shopping, cleaning and laundry. Then I’ll have the rest of the time free for fun stuff."

We chatted for a while and the nurse opened the door and gave the all clear.

"Hi Ally! How are you today?" Espen grinned at her.

"I’m just fine sweetie, how are you feeling?"

"Really good, I’m getting out of here Thursday if everything goes really good."

"That’s wonderful; I’ll bet it will be nice to be home again."

 "Yeah, Mom said I could have friends come over and help me with stuff she can’t or I won’t let her."

"Well, your mom has seen everything you’ve got before more than a few times."

"I know, but it doesn’t make it any less weird for me and probably for her; besides, her back is messed up and she really can’t help me get up or walk. If I fell in the shower she would have to call the neighbors; that’s all I need."

"Okay, I see your point. Maybe Brandon would consider a little in home care." Ally winked at Brandon who blushed heavily. 

"I wouldn’t mind, and we live close to each other."

"Yeah, and I’m Rob’s problem now, he’ll have to drop me off. Or is there a bus?"

"I don’t have your number Brandon; I could call you and tell you how to get there."

Oh um, my phone is out of minutes and I haven’t been anywhere I could reload it," Brandon reported.

"Tell you what Espen, call my phone and I’ll give it to Brandon. Then he can call you from his phone later today. Here’s my card,” I offered.

My phone rang and I put Espen’s name in my list.

Ally’s phone rang and she didn’t like what the caller had to say.

"Rob, there’s been a fire at my place. Carter is staying with a friend. They’re okay but they had to evacuate the building."

"Well, let’s get your bag and I’ll take you; my truck will get you through the roadblock and then we’ll see what’s going on, okay?"

"Thanks, Rob, where are you parked, I’ll meet you?"

"I’m by the ER; my truck is too tall for the garage."

I gave the boys the option of staying with Espen or coming along. Kelly decided he would come but Brandon opted to hang out. I gave Espen a kiss and told him we’d see him later and did the same with Brandon. Kelly and I hit the elevator and I gave him a kiss just to keep things even.”

"Thanks Rob, you didn’t have to you know."

"I know, but I like doing that, so get used to it."

He beamed a wonderful smile up at me and gave me a hug.

It didn’t take long to get to Ally’s building; I realized that it was a building of which I owned the majority. I turned on my overheads a block away and the barricades were moved. Some of the fire apparatus was leaving, so I snatched a clear piece of curb and told Kelly to amuse himself while we sorted out the facts. I asked him if he would be okay on his own and he said he’d be fine. I was still worried about his lack of a grief response.

Ally and I went in search of her friend who had been evacuated to the coffee shop on the corner.

It was easy to spot Carter, he was every bit as adorable as his photo. He nearly tackled his mother who scooped him up in her arms and held him tight. His bright eyes took their measure of me.

"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously.

"My name is Rob, I’m a friend of your mom."

"Why do you have a gun?"

"I’m with the Sheriff’s office."

"Can I see your badge please?"

I pulled out my wallet and showed him my flat badge and I.D. card.

"Thank you,” Carter breathed, “Mom says there are fake cops who do bad things to kids like me, so I have to be careful."

"That’s fine Carter, you should be careful and you went about it the right way."

Carter looked at his mom, "You told him my name?"

"Yes I did, honey, he’s a very nice man. He’s the man that rescued that boy on the cliff; do you remember?"

"Oh, I didn’t recognize him without the mud."

"Wait, you took a picture of me covered in mud?"

"Well it was actually a picture of Espen, you just happened to be in the shot."

"Fair enough."

I was introduced to Laney, an attractive young lady who had been kind enough to pick Carter up from his activity center. She was in the process of giving directions to her boyfriend for a meeting place.

"I grabbed my Bug Out Bag when they told us to get out, so I’m going to meet Doyle at a different restaurant away from the traffic." She hugged Ally and Carter and said her goodbyes.

"Well, she sure has her thing together, I like that." I told Ally.

"Yeah, she’s pretty sharp for someone her age and as pretty as she is. She’s a force of nature for sure."

"Man, Doyle better watch his butt, whoever he is."

That got Ally laughing.

My phone chirped with a message from Kelly. "I need to pee, where can I go?"

I instructed him to come to the coffee shop and went out to watch for him. I spoke to an officer manning the traffic barricade while I waited.

"Is this your grandson, Rob?"

"No Mike, I just bought this one at the Costco."

I led Kelly inside and pointed him toward the restroom. 

"I need to go too, Mommy," Carter said.

"Hi, I’m Kelly, you can come with me if you want. Is that okay, Ally?"

"Yes Kelly, it’s fine."

"You know my mom too?" Carter asked as they walked away.

When they returned Carter was grinning. "Kelly is really strong; all the urinals were too far off the floor, so he held me up so I could pee."

"It was easy and the stall was busy."

"Thank you Kelly, that was nice of you," Ally said.

Kelly’s ears flashed red but recovered. 

"Is anyone hungry?" I asked.

The boys were fine and so was Ally, so I thought we’d make some room and head outside.

Before I left, I talked to a very frazzled looking server. 

"I bet you’re losing a lot of income right now, do you all pool your tips?"

"Yes, but not much of that happening now."

"I understand, I’d like to do something about that. Is your manager available?"

"Sure." She turned and called out to an older man who walked over."

"Hi, I’m Rick, I own the restaurant."

"Hi Rick, I’m Rob, Mandy was telling me that you have a lot of people but not much business. I’d like to help with that. What’s your average revenue on a Tuesday?"

"Well, it’s not great, about seventy-five hundred on a good day. But I’ve had days where we barely broke even."

"Okay, I’m part owner of the problem that’s clogging all your tables; I’m going to send you a check to cover your losses and another to go into the tip pool. How does that sound?"

"It sounds like I’m on a prank show or something."

"Nope, I’m completely on the level. Take my card; you should see the checks in a couple of days."

"For real?"

"Absolutely, it seems fair."

"Well jeez, thank you. What more can I say."

"Thank you is fine. I hope this is resolved soon and your regulars can get their dinner."

"Well thanks Rob, it’s really kind of you to do that."

"Your welcome, I hope your day gets better.

I scooped Ally and the boys up and headed out the door.

I waved at Mike and we walked back to my truck.

We deposited the boys in the truck and went to see what was up. I found a Battalion Chief who told me the problem was a fire in the machinery room for the north elevator. Once they determined the elevator was empty they let the engineer override the system and run the exhaust fans at the top of the shaft. You can’t do that if someone is in the elevator, it sucks all the air out of the car. Not a good thing if you’re stuck between floors.

"Have you canceled the evac. order?" I queried.

"Yup, I just told the VPD incident commander that there is no danger but they’ll have to use the other two elevators. 

"Excellent, we’re in the south end," Ally said.

As she said that, the commander walked up, verified that that access had been closed off to the north elevator lobby, and told his people to make announcements in the shelter locations.

"So I can go on up then?"

"Yes, ma’am, if you live here. Oh, Hi Rob, what brings you out here?"

 "Well, mostly her; and then I have an interest in the place, too. How have you been, Frank?”

"Just great, I’m back out in the field again and loving life."

"I’m glad your back healed up so quickly, I hope you’ll be more careful around Samoan women in the future."

Frank laughed, "You bet. I gotta get back on it so I’ll see you later." And off he went.

"So, do you want to get Carter and go on up or do you have other plans."

"Do you think I could bum a ride to my cousin’s house?" Ally asked.

"Sure, you might want to call. They said something about an event but I didn’t get details. You guys are welcome with us if you like."

"Either one will work for me, this place will be a zoo for hours once the TV trucks get here."

"Well, get yourself sorted and I’ll go down and talk to the building engineer and see what he’s up against."

To get to the elevator machinery room at the north end meant going through the parking garage. I wasn’t surprised to encounter a guard but when he tried to send me back, I pulled out my I.D. and badge. The problem was he didn’t understand me.

"Tu habla Ingles?" I asked in cop Spanish.

"No sabes Ingles." He replied.

"Tu tienes credenciales"

"No Senor." 

"Por que llevas un pistola."

He explained that his brother-in-law got him the job, but didn’t tell him that he was supposed to have a license and a gun permit.

I told him to give me the revolver which he did without hesitation.

He explained that he didn’t like carrying it and didn’t know how to shoot it anyway.

I unloaded the revolver and instructed Gabriel to come with me. I found the manager and the engineer looking at the equipment.

"Oh hi, Rob, I was just about to call you now that I know something."

"That’s great, but since when do we need armed security here?"

"The new company included it in the contract."

"So that’s how I came to meet a man who doesn’t speak English, carrying a loaded weapon with no credentials or licensing in the parking garage."

"I don’t have an answer for that, Sir."

"Look Dave, you’re a good manager, but this is a major fuck up. Exposing the residents to possible danger and the building to huge liability won’t fly. I need you to get their shift supervisor over here ricky-tick, and after I’m done with them you need to find a new security company. No guns needed, okay? If conditions change we’ll have to talk again, alright?"

"Yes Sir, I’ll get him here right away."

"Okay, while you do that I’ll talk to Leon about the situation."

The equipment room still smelled like an electrical fire but not so bad you couldn’t cope.

"Hi Leon, how have you been?"

"Hi Rob, I’m great, can’t say the same about the contactor; it is toast. Only half of it closed which loaded up the motor circuit and it fried itself. But that’s better than the motor getting cooked. Grainger will have another one here in the morning and everything should be working by noon."

"Okay, but make sure you get out of here and breathe clean air," I instructed.

"Yeah, I’ve been doing that and I’ve got my respirator. But I’ve gone as far as I can go without the new part, so I’m just rounding up my tools so I can get out of here."

"Okay man, I know you’re on it so I won’t worry. It certainly broke up the boredom though, didn’t it?"

"That kind of excitement I can do without."

I walked back out to David who informed me that Mr. Rosales would be here in ten minutes.  I instructed David to take him to his office and to keep Gabriel with him.

"What is this about?" demanded Rojelio Rosales.

"This is about an undocumented alien without any of the required licenses or permits or the linguistic skills to carry out his assignment. In addition he was carrying a loaded revolver supplied by you. Is that clear enough?"

"Why does he need a license to stand around in a parking garage?" asked Rojelio.

"Because it’s the law. How did you come to be in the security business anyway?" I asked, getting angrier by the second.

"It was compensation in a lawsuit. The guy owned a company so I got it in the settlement."

"And a judge okayed this?"

"We settled out of court."

"I see, okay, we will no longer require your company’s services. I was going to tell you that you may take your brother-in-law with you and have a licensed driver retrieve your patrol car within twenty-four hours. But that’s no longer up to me."

"What about the gun, I need that, it cost me $500.00?"

"It’s a shitty Chinese copy of a cheap Taurus revolver. They’re not even supposed to be in the country, I gave it to VPD."

"You can’t do that. I’ll sue you."

"That is your right, but I think you’ll be busy with other problems."

There was a knock on the door, and David opened it. Frank Morales walked in and greeted Rojelio by his full name. He held up the revolver. 

"Is this your revolver, Sir?"

"Yeah, this guy said I couldn’t have it."

"He’s right, this weapon was supposedly destroyed by the Marin County Sheriff’s department last year. I hope you have a good explanation for how you came to be in its possession."

"What, no it came with the security equipment when I bought the company."

"Didn't you just tell me that you paid $500.00 for that weapon?" I asked pointedly.

"Do you have a state license to operate a security company, Sir?"

"Well no, all that came with the company."

"Would you mind standing up, Sir."

I stood, as well.

"Rojelio Rosales, I am detaining you for investigation of criminal activities related to your business as stated by you."

Frank Mirandized Rojelio and handcuffed him. He passed him to an officer outside and then did a brief interview with Gabriel. Ultimately he told Gabriel to take a walk.

I shook Frank’s hand and reminded David to get a reliable and reputable security outfit to deal with our needs.

"I’m sorry, Sir, I’ll make sure not to do anything like that again."

"That’s all I ask, have a good evening."

I found Allison sitting on a couch in the lobby. 

"Did you have something to do with that man who left in handcuffs?"

"Yes, Ma’am, I did. I’ll explain on the way to the truck."

The explanation had her in stitches. 

"How can anybody be so clueless?"

"Well, it wouldn’t have been funny if the guard shot a resident or got shot just because he was armed. The poor guy didn’t want anything to do with the gun."

We reached the truck just in time. The first of the TV trucks was there with a reporter pestering Frank. 

As I drove toward the exit on the one way road, another TV truck tried to pull in the wrong way. I made him back out and use the correct entrance and I followed him around the block to make sure he joined the queue with the other news guys.

The sight that had greeted us when we opened the doors was adorable to the extreme. Carter was lying with his head in Kelly’s lap and Kelly had put a jacket over him. We disturbed them enough to belt them in next to each other.

"Cammie and her bunch are going to a concert with friends and their friends are staying with them. So if the offer is still open I’ll stay in your guest room."

You know it is, we just need to go by the hospital and pick up Brandon.