The Pastor's Daughter: Episode III

From my personal experience with women, I had come to conclude that a relationship with a woman like Brittany  is like food in a microwave: it can turn from lukewarm to scalding hot in a matter of a few days. That is how I feel now. The following days I busied myself preparing for my trip to Atlantic  City. But I was facing a little problem: Even though I had a lot to do before leaving for Atlantic City, I was having great difficulty concentrating in what I was doing. Sometimes, I even felt nervous each time I remember that I will spend two weeks alone with this exciting girl. Who knows, she might decide to come with me to Las Vegas after that. I felt like a young boy looking forward to his first date. The good voice on my mind kept telling me that I was crazy to go ahead with this plan. But like most men, I was hooked:  Brittany’s beauty really got me going. She told me she was careful when she was making the plan. Nobody will recognize us there, she said. And to tell you the truth, I believed her. She was offering me herself and I would be a fool if I didn’t grab this chance. What about Reverend Waters? Again, Who cares? After all he’s having a time of his life in Paris. He won’t know what Brittany and I are doing down here.  Paris is almost 3,800 miles from Atlantic City. I don’t know anyone who can see that far.

            Now, before leaving for my vacation, I had to smoothen the ground for Phorbus Taylor who will take over the office in my absence. He was a sound newspaper man - I guess I can give him that. I had worked alongside him way back in 1971, when I was freelancing for this newspaper house. While he was good in gathering news stories for publication, I don’t think he had much talent for anything else. You may call me a jealous man if you like, but I think he was too good looking and too well – dressed for my liking. And I don’t think he liked me either. But we must be professional with each other. So I decided to give him a big welcome when he arrived. I suggested we should have a dinner together after we had spent a couple of hours in the office going over future writing projects.

“That will be great Harry,” he said. “I will like to know what this sleepy town  has to offer. I must warn you though, I eat a lot and I may burn a hole in your pocket.”

            I took him to Idle Hour  which is one of the best restaurants in Middle River at the time, and gave him two large Clubhouse Grille sandwiches, which is warm ham, thick-cut turkey breast,  melted cheddar and jack cheese with bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and a drizzle of their signature honey barbeque sauce on toasted  Tuscan bread. From the expression on his face, I was convinced that he enjoyed the meal.

            After we had eaten and had got on to the third jugs of coffee, he became very friendly and talkative at the same time.

“You know Harry,” he said, “I envy you sometimes. Everybody in this firm likes you. You are in Shabray’s good book. He seems to like every story you publish here. Now, this is off the record: you didn’t hear this from me, okay? In a couple of months, he’s going to give you a bump. His plan is for me to replace you here and you will be in charge of our new office in Trenton.

“Are you sure about this,” I said, staring at him. “I know you are just cracking jokes.”

“No, I’m not. It doesn’t make any sense to joke about something like that.”

            Actually I was surprised and  excited to hear this good news from him, but I tried very hard not to show it. To be in charge of our operation in Trenton City was the top of my ambition because it means a fat salary and  being in that position  can catapult me into almost a celebrity status. It was also a plum job of all the jobs on the Trenton Tribune, which is the holding company of Middle River Times at the time.

“If you don’t believe me now, you will in a couple of weeks when it will be official,” Phorbus told me. “If I were you, I will buy a bottle of champagne for Reverend Waters. He gave you a very strong recommendation, and Shabray swallowed it hook, line and sinker. To him any word from that Reverend is gospel truth. You don’t know how lucky you are my good friend.”

I said that if what he is telling me now is true, then I am definitely the luckiest man in the world.

“I know you are very attached to Middle River,” he said. “I mean, it seems to be a nice place. Will you mind moving to Trenton City?”

“For a job like that, I won’t mind moving,” I replied. “I will eventually get used to living in the city, you know.”

He shrugged.

“That kind of job is not for me – too much responsibility,” he said. “You go ahead and take it Harry. I will be good at Middle River Times.”

“I’m sure you will have a good time here.”

He sank lower in his chair, and then said, “May I ask you  a personal question?”

I nodded.

“Yes, sure,” I said.

“How are you managing with Brittany?”

I was surprised he asked me that question. He was the last person I expect to ask me about her.

“Who?”

“Brittany Waters. I learnt you are her ‘chaperone’, right or wrong?”

The red light on my mind went up. Like I said earlier, I had worked alongside Phorbus way back in 1971 and I know he had a nose for scandal. If he got the faintest suspicion that Brittany and I have something going on, I will be in serious trouble because he will work at it until he got the full story. So I must be very careful here, I told myself.

“Well,” I said, “I was her ‘chaperone’ just for one day. That’s all. I’ve scarcely seen her since then.  Reverend Waters asked me to pick her up from BWI Airport and take her to their house at Victory Villa. She might be studying or doing some part-time job, I believe.”

He raised   his eyebrows.

“She’s doing what?”

“Doing some part-time job, or studying,” I said. “Why are you surprised?”

“Brittany doing some part-time job and studying?” He leaned forward, stared at me in disbelief, and then burst out laughing aloud. The people in the restaurant turned around to stare at us. I felt a little bit embarrassed.

“What?” I said.

When he got over laughing, he waved an apologetic hand probably because he saw I wasn’t at all amused. He made an effort to control himself and then said, “Sorry Harry. If you know Brittany the way I do, you will do the same yourself. Brittany working…” He broke off and started laughing again.

I was mad this time.

“Look my good friend,” I said. “I think it will be fair to both of us if you can tell me what everybody but me seems to know about this girl. This is really not funny.”

“It is actually funny Harry,” he said. “Just wait till I finish my story. Frankly, I’m surprised that she hasn’t taken you in too. As a matter of fact, it seems that the only guy who knows her family connections with this company and who isn’t on to her yet  is you. You must really be a strong-willed person if you haven’t got her tapped yet.”

“Can you be more specific because I’m not really following this,” I said.

“Well, obviously you haven’t seen much of her,” he said. “Because I can bet that she will definitely fall for a big, husky man like you. She always fall for your type. Don’t tell me she showed up at the BWI airport in her usual horn-rimmed glasses, washed out blue jeans, a T-shirt  and flat-heeled shoes?”

“Listen Phorbus, either you give me her story or you change the subject,” I said. “There’s no point in keeping me hanging here.”

He grinned, and said, “You are really luckier than I thought possible, or simply unlucky, depending on how you see it. Everybody in Trenton knows about Brittany, especially since she is Reverend Waters daughter. Reverend Waters, as you know, is also well connected to the powers-that-be in Trenton, and he practically owns and controls  this company after his brother’s death. Anyway, Brittany was notorious in Trenton. When rumors had it that she is heading for Middle River and the Reverend wanted you to keep an eye on her, we all thought that sooner or latter she will get you hooked to her. I tell you Harry, Brittany will make a play at anything in trousers so long as he has your physique, believe me. So you mean she hasn’t made even a pass at you? I’m really surprised!”

I started to sweat.

“This is really an interesting news for me,” I said.

“Harry, Brittany’s mission in life is money and this makes her a menace to men,” he began. “And that’s the part I couldn’t understand because her father is a millionaire with high level political connections. I mean he can get her any high-level job if she wants. As you know, she has everything that can make a man’s head spin: she has good looks, seductive come-on eyes and a shape that can make even a priest to misbehave. But the trouble she can get a guy into? Oh Madonna! To tell you the truth, minus Reverend Waters’ strong connection with the press, she would have been in the headlines of every newspaper in Trenton, at least once a week. It seems that, for some reasons,  most newspaper chiefs in the city felt that they owe something to the Reverend Waters. And she escapes publicity because no newspaper in the city wants to upset the old man. And I’m not exaggerating.”

“Wow!” I said. “This information is too much to process. Lets take it one after the other.”

“Isn’t it?” he continued. “Do you know that she was cleared out of Trenton and sent down here because she was involved in the Aquiles Gomez’s  murder?”

By now, I was really alarmed by what I’m hearing. Almost everybody in America knows Aquiles. He had  been a notorious mobster in Trenton. He was very wealthy, very powerful and had been a one-time killer. That Brittany was affiliated with this gangster who was hooked up with the Union and vice rackets is really a bad news to me.

“She was involved in Aquiles’ murder? Are you sure about this?”

“I’m so sure that I can bet on it,” he said. “The word on the street is that she was his girl. Rumor had it he was knocked off in her apartment in Trenton.”

I sat very still, staring at him in disbelief.

According to newspaper reports, Aquiles was brutally murdered in a two-room apartment he was  using as his love nest. The police could not trace the woman he was visiting who mysteriously disappeared. They could not trace his killer either. It was generally thought that it was Vito Roselli, a rival Italian gangster, who gave the order to slay Aquiles. Vito himself had been deported to Italy on drug trafficking charges.

“You seem  to be well-informed about this,” I said. “Who’s your source?”

“Groppelli broke the news to us. And we all believed him because he always knows what he is talking about. If he was wrong this time, I don’t know. But all I can tell you is that Brittany was always going around with Aquiles. She left for here soon after he was killed. Groppelli interviewed the janitor of the apartment block in which Aquiles was strangled. It was this janitor who gave him a pretty good description of the lady in this case. And the description he provided is a carbon copy of Brittany. Luckily for Reverend Waters, our people were able to close the janitor’s mouth before the police got to him, which explained why this part of the story never came out.”

“You guys did a pretty good job of it I can see,” I said.

“Well, looks like you don’t have any bad story to tell me about her while she’s here,” he said disappointingly. “You know what that tells me? She has finally had a scare and is at last behaving herself. Now this is between you and me: I thought I might have a try at her myself when I heard I was going to take your place here. She is really seductive. As you were told to look after her, I was hoping that you will smoothen the journey for me since by now you and her will be more than old friends, you know. See how disappointed I am?”

I grinned.

“You really have a low opinion of me,” I said. “Do you really imagine I will be fooling around with Reverend Waters’ daughter. Come on! He’s my benefactor for Christ’s sake!”

He looked at me  and said, “Why not? She’s worth fooling around with, just like every other sexy girl. And the good thing about her is that she’s so smart with this kind of things that she takes good care her dad will never find out. See? That girl has been messing around with men since she was fifteen, and her old man has never found out. Tell you the truth, if you haven’t seen her without her signature horn-rimmed glasses, washed out blue jeans, a yellow T-shirt  and flat-heeled shoes, then you haven’t seen anything. She is really terrific when she dresses up. And I won’t lie to you: I’m not going to stop her if she ever makes a play at me like she does to other men.”

With great difficulty, I was able to get him off the subject of Brittany so   that we can talk business. Finally, we decided it’s time to take him back to his hotel after we spent another hour talking. He thanked me for entertaining him and told me he would be in the office the following morning to tie up the loose ends.

“Now if you don’t mind me saying this again Harry,” he began as we were parting. “You are one of the luckiest guys I know. Being in charge of our Trenton Office is about the best job in this business. I know some guys who would give up their wives to have it. It’s not for the likes of me though – it’s too much hard work. But for you… if you can let a sexy girl like Brittany slip through your fingers, then you are level-headed enough to hold down the Trenton City office.”

I told him that we’ll wait and see.

“Thanks for the meal again Harry. I guess we will call it a day then” he said.

“Sure,” I replied.

We got  into my car and drove through the congested traffic until I reached his hotel. After I dropped him off at his hotel, we shook hands  and he slapped me on the back. And I  drove off, heading home.  During my drive home I did some hard thinking. I will be honest here: Phorbus really shocked me with this new information about Brittany. And I know he wasn’t lying. Groppelli is a well-respected reporter who is always accurate in any story he had to tell. So Brittany had been mixed up with Aquiles Gomez. Now who else was she mixed up with in Middle River? I know that for people like her, once they acquire that taste for dangerous racketeers in a city like Trenton, it is only natural that they would continue to cultivate the taste somewhere else. This probably explained her high style of living. I won’t be surprised if some moneybag is financing her here in Middle River.

            As I was getting ready to retire for the night, my mind was telling me that I should forget about getting on that train to Atlantic City. I kept asking myself if I really want to mix up with a girl like Brittany. If I really want that Trenton Office position, and I’m very sure Phorbus wouldn’t have broken the news unless he was certain of the facts, then  the best thing for me will be to avoid taking the slightest risk that would jeopardize that job or opportunity. Being in charge of our Trenton office was the plum job on the newspaper world. And I know very well that I will not only  lose the job but will also be out of the game for good if Reverend Waters found out that his daughter and I had become lovers.

“God forbid!” I said aloud as I turned off the light. “She can go to Atlantic City by herself. I will call her tomorrow and tell her I changed my mind. I will go to Las Vegas instead. She can find another sucker – not me!

            Of course I didn’t stuck to my decision because two days later I was on the train from Middle River to Atlantic City. Even though I was telling myself  that I was a fool and crazy in the head, I still felt that the train was not moving fast enough.

END OF EPISODE III

P.S. Episode Four will be published here next Monday.