Chapter 17
Happy landings there, Buddy!
Note: The descriptions and accounts in these stories are fictional and do not portray any actual people or events.
Suzanne almost fell off the roof herself when she looked down and saw Pavel point the gun at Robbie, and then something landed on Pavel, making a sound sort of like a big watermelon dropped from the second floor. Some guys in dark grey suits held guns on the other caterers, put plastic cable ties around their wrists and ankles, cloth hoods over their heads, and then shoved them in the back seat of their black Tahoe. An ambulance arrived almost immediately, and the attendants put Pavel, who was unconscious, on a back board, and then she realized that the guy that had fallen off the roof must have jumped on Pavel deliberately. He looked familiar. They strapped him to backboard too, and then loaded both of them in the ambulance and took off in less than two minutes. She suddenly placed him: that was the guy who had followed her to Waco. She saw Robbie stand up, but he looked a little woozy. Her phone buzzed with a text from her father. It had a photo of a red headed guy in his thirties and one line of text "Find Agent Smith and ask him how you can help".
She looked up and saw the guy in the photo talking with Erminia and Brujo, and hurried down the stairs. She first checked on Robbie, getting there right after Lara did, and Robbie didn't have a scratch on him, he was just having an adrenalin reaction. Agent Smith hustled over and asked her to sit with Robbie, give him some water, and watch for signs of shock. He told her a drunken guy had fallen off the roof, but he was the only one hurt, and that was all she had seen.
Suanne said, "What about Pav..."
Agent Smith was adamant. "A drunk guy fell off the roof and that's all you saw, right!" as he looked her right in the eyes. "Tell Robbie to say the same thing."
By this time the two other guys in suits were talking to all the other people that had seen the guy fall. This early in the morning, there really weren't that many people here yet. A big white Cintas step van showed up, and two guys in funny looking rubber suits with gloves and plastic bags on their feet and plastic hair nets ran to pick up Pavel's gun, and Robbie's racket, and everything the bogus caterers had put out for snacks, and all the stuff that had fallen off the roof with the guy who fell. Agent Smith got in one of the black Tahoes and then he and the white van took off, disappearing down a road that was marked 'no outlet' and about two minutes later two city police black and whites rolled up from the other direction, followed by an EMS unit. Her phone buzzed again, her father texted again, "stick to that story, will call you later, and do not turn your phone off." She saw a bunch of characters flash on her screen, and then it showed only a jumble of nonsensical symbols.
The EMS guys went over to look at Robbie, shining lights in his eyes and asking him questions. He kept saying "I did not fall off the roof" and then, "the guy who did almost hit me" and then "they took him away in an ambulance", then "a regular ambulance, just like yours". The cops were talking to everyone around the court and taking notes.
When they got to Suzanne, she opened her mouth to speak but they said "I think I already know, Miss. Some drunken guy fell off the roof and that's all you saw, right!"
"Actually officer, I didn't see anyone fall, I just heard a big thump. I came down the stairs from the roof to look and the ambulance was already driving away. You guys sure are good!" She gave him her best breathless coed look, but he did not respond. He must be gay, or maybe really married.
The cops came over and said they were confiscating her phone, but when they tried to page through it, they saw it was trashed. "This one is fried, too, Sarge. What the heck is going on?"
The EMS guys wanted to take Robbie to the hospital, but he absolutely refused, saying, "I didn't get hurt, just surprised!"
The police radio crackled, and the speaker/mics on the cop's shoulders all announced "Unit 1311, 10-61" The sergeant stepped away from Suzanne and Robbie, and dialed his cell phone, and spoke into it for a moment.
He then motioned to the other cops and said "10-24, 10-22, and you are all 10-8! Roll out a here forthwith!" The radio crackled again with another set of ten signals and some addresses.
The cop that had been talking to Suzanne said "What's the deal Sarge? We are told to disregard, back in service, and then we get immediately sent to routine burglary calls we don't normally roll on!"
"Stow it, Stowkowski! Talk to Sergeant Vincent if you think you have a problem. Do you read me?"
All the cops and the EMS guys were gone in thirty seconds, but with no squealing of tires. Suzanne's phone rang; she listened for second, and then handed it to Robbie. He listened, with an increasingly serious expression, for several minutes.
"Yes, sir, I understand. No sir. My pleasure sir, uh, I think," and then handed it back to Suzanne.
She smiled. "Well, I guess you have now met my father, at least telephonically!"
Robbie still looked tired and pale, as he was still coming back from the deep crash right after the adrenalin rush. "He talks as fast as you do, perfect grammar, never pauses, never repeats himself, and he sure sounds like he knows what to do! Let me rest for a few minutes, get some water and a little food, and then I want to play the tennis match."
The tournament director started the match that was scheduled after Lara and Robbie's first, and then they would play theirs, and in just a few minutes, it was like the incident never happened. More people began arriving to fill the available seats, and Lara went and got Robbie a plate of food from what the real caterers had put out, and then she and Suzanne sat on either side of him, kissing him, touching him, feeding him, and making sure he was okay. He was looking better with every bite and every kiss, and soon got up and asked Lara to go warm up with him. They found a racquet for him to use, and then hit for a while until their match was called, and they stepped onto the court to play doubles against an older couple from Italy, who were equipped with complete matching sets of Ferrari logo tennis gear. Where was Theo the clotheshorse when you needed him?
Suzanne watched, remembering the way Lara talked about her first tennis date with Robbie. Thinking that she was going to beat him, like she usually trounced all her tennis opponents, and make him her submissive 'spanky' like all those other loser boys that tried to date her. Then the incredible rush of excitement when she realized Robbie might be good enough to beat her, and the last few points of their match were like her sexual fantasies, suddenly admitting that what she really wanted was somebody strong like Robbie to make her submit to him. As Suzanne watched the two of them move in those short and tight tennis clothes, she recalled she had never been much for tennis, but coupled with a sexual submission wager against either of these two, she might get more interested, win or lose. But then again, why waste time on the tennis part?
She could tell that Robbie and Lara were much better tennis players than the Italians, but they also understood the social graces of charity tennis tournaments, and kept each point close, until the Italians made enough unforced errors to lose, without making them feel that they had been pounded by better players. There were hearty congratulations across the net, and then they joined Brujo and Erminia for brunch. Robbie again ate very heartily, and drank a lot of Perrier water, while everyone else talked.
.....
I figured after the tennis match and lunch I would catch a nap, but I discovered we were all scheduled for one of several 'work parties' to get ready for the 'addicted to' after party. My older sister had organized her senior prom, and I followed her trials and tribulations as they were explained in laborious detail across the dinner table every night, but that was nothing compared to this event. There were multiple work parties, a walkthrough, and a dress rehearsal to go, all in the next two days. Lara, Suzanne and I started over to Spear's place early, but most of the other folks would not arrive until after their normal work days ended.