"You never did. But thanks for the back up." I laughed. Serious again, I said. "But watch out for Marti." I glanced at her again. Her eyebrows lifted.
"She's pissed. She could really hurt Marco. I mean, really hurt him. Not 'dead' hurt. But 'permanent' hurt." I said. She could hear the certainty in my voice.
"Yeah, you're right. Good catch." She said nodding. "We talked about it on the way over there. She could de-nut that guy real easy."
"Yeah she could." I agreed. "I wouldn't cry too much if that happened. He is such a dickweed. But Marti would never forgive herself later. She'd have nightmares. She doesn't need that. Neither does Tiffany."
Maxine nodded thoughtfully. "That's exactly what I told her."
"I tell you what." I continued. "Let's keep an eye on her. Let her get a few good licks in, then pull her off. She can help with Lydia's punishment as kind of a backup, when Saundra or Gwendolyn aren't putting her through her paces."
"That's good, James." Maxine agreed. I watched the road, but I could hear the smile in her voice. "And we'll put Cora in as backup on Marco. I think she feels almost the same way about Lydia as Marti feels about Marco."
I could feel her eyes on me again. "Cora expects men to be shits." She said. She put her hand on my shoulder to take the sting out of her words. "She's always surprised when a guy does something nice. But she hates it when a woman hurts another woman. To her, that's against the rules."
I nodded. "Yes, I've seen that in her. Here's the plan then: We'll use Marti and Cora as backup; as the heavies on those two villians. Marti on Marco. Cora on Lydia. But only under supervision. Okay?"
"Yeah 'Okay'!" Maxine enthused. "That way the girls work off their angry without any accidents."
"Now, what about you?" I asked, glancing at her again. Her eyebrows went up.
"Me?" She said startled. "Don't worry about me. I'm the safest one you've got. Oh those two assholes will get theirs. I'm gonna enjoy making them suffer. But I think, no matter what we do to them, it's nothing compared to them watching all their plans go up in smoke. Lydia in particular will be devastated. She thinks that she get through this, then everything will go back to the way it was, with her on top."
It was my turn to be startled. "'D'you think so?" I asked.
"Oh yeah. Trust me." Maxine said with conviction. "That bitch has never been in a situation she couldn't control. Even now she thinks she'll find a way to control this one. I'm almost sorry she saw my truck. But it wouldn't matter. She's seen us. She'd find us if she wanted to. Hell, you can't miss any of the three of us, can you. We're obviously dykes, and I'm not exactly unknown is this town."
"My job is to break her." Maxine mused. "I've got to find a handle. Something that will kick her feet right out from under her. She's got a dream. Something she wants so bad, she can taste it…"
I glanced at her, musing. She was staring hard through the windscreen, pondering. Then I thought, what the hell. It was time to let Maxine in on Operation Mama. I thought about it for another minute, then spotted a hole-in-the-wall diner up ahead. There were a couple of freshly painted picnic tables under the trees nearby. We were about two minutes from Gwendolyn's place. This would take longer.
I slowed abruptly and pulled into the gravel lot. Maxine looked at me questioningly, but I ignored her while I punched up Gwendolyn's number.
"Hi, it's me." I said when she answered. "Maxine and I are taking care of a couple of details. You go ahead with the prep work. We'll be along in twenty minutes. Is everything else okay? Did the packages arrive safely?"
Gwendolyn assured me that everything was fine. The truck had arrived. The packages were in storage. Lydia and Marco were under restraint in their individual cells.
"Get them down to the basics." I said. "But don't do anything more until we get there. We're going to modify the plan a bit. You'll like it. Can't tell you more until we get there."
She agreed and we signed off.
I turned to Maxine. "Two things: first, in order to break those two yo-yos, we're going to have to do to them at least some of what they did to others. You do realize that don't you?"
Maxine nodded, "Yeah, I've thought about that. Cora, Marti and I discussed it briefly. We don't see any way around it, if we're going to get justice for Summer. We could turn the whole thing over to the police, but you don't seem to want that…"
I interupted. "That's the second thing. If you can pry yourself out of that seat, I'll buy you a cup of coffee. We can sit over there. I've got something more to show you."
Maxine's eyes grew wide. "Oh shit! You maniac! I should have guessed. You've got something else planned, don't you."
I grinned. Maxine managed to work her way out of the seat, but it weren't easy. She stretched to get the kinks out while I set up the laptop and slipped another disc in the drive. She took a seat on the bench, and watched the action unfold while I went in for coffee.
Sweet little waitress. Early twenties. Nice cho-chos. Cute butt. The short-order cook gave me an ugly frown. Apparently I was poaching just by looking. Oh well.
I watched Maxine, sipping my coffee as she viewed selected cuts from the scenes with Marco and Missy, and Marco and Veronica. Those of Missy were not new. Those with Veronica definitely were.
When the first disc finished running, she looked at me still puzzled. I held up a finger and exchanged the disc for one of selected cuts from the scene between Marco and Lydia.
Maxine's expression turned from puzzlement to comprehension as the disc spun.
"Oh those assholes!" She murmured as she watched. "So that's what they were up to. I knew there had to be something more."
When the screen blanked, she looked to me with a grin. "You kept that one close to your chest, didn't you, you jerk."
"Yeah, I did." I answered with a matching grin. "This one's called 'Operation Mama'. Here's the handle you need. Lydia wants it all, and she thinks she's gonna get it. She's got to have her own videos of Marco and Veronica in action. Blackmail is on her mind. She wants to dropkick Veronica and take over the magazine. Part of our job is to get that shit away from her."
