Nothing Better To Do - a novel in stories - Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

It was supposed to be a warning to anyone who would use his motor vehicle in the commission of a crime, especially a drug related crime. The first time Harry saw it was in the parking lot of police headquarters, which is right next to the Serena branch of the Greene County Public Library. It was a late model Camaro painted up in patriotic red, white and blue like a NASCAR racer, only the lettering spelled out POLICE. In the shaded area at the top portion of the windshield there was this message: This vehicle seized in drug arrest! Around Serena that's pronounced vee-hick-ell, with equal emphasis given to each syllable.

To Harry's way of thinking this was a warning to all Americans that the government of the People, by the People and for the People could walk off with their private property without any prior notice and the burden of proof would be on the citizen to prove that he was entitled to get it back. Next to the proliferation of capital punishment, this was the most disheartening legal development of the '90s.

The moment he set eyes on that vehicle, with its supercharger air scoop and its adjustable rear spoiler, he recalled the story of the client whose two-week-old five liter Mustang was seized when her daughter's boyfriend was arrested for smoking a joint in the front passenger seat. In New York they didn't paint them up and advertise them like this. The liberal citizenry would have been up in arms. Instead, they used them in undercover operations Around here, in the land of the Tafts, this was a trophy of the triumph of good over evil.

Not only that, it was displayed in public at every opportunity, including fairs and parades. So Harry wasn't surprised to see it creeping down the street behind the Four-H float and just ahead of the antique tractors as he stood on the sidelines with Billy at the Founders Day Parade. He was surprised, however, to see who was behind the wheel. It was none other than the infamous Orel Paige, waiving as if he were running for public office.

Harry followed the official police hot-rod with his eyes. When it was about a quarter mile down Main Street, too far for him to make out the details, there was some kind of disturbance. It looked like a man had tried to run out into the road in front of the car and was tackled by people from the crowd. As this was going on, the news helicopter from Channel Seven in Dayton happened to be passing over. It swooped down over the incident. News at eleven, Harry thought to himself. He made a mental note to be sure to watch it.

***

Monday afternoons in the Blue Moon were busier than one might expect. After a morning of writing, Harry liked to drop in for a little camaraderie before the kids came home from school. A couple of cool ones would keep him from blowing his stack when the ritalin started to wear off Jenny's ten-year-old.

This afternoon, Harry found Phil, Hank and Morely down at the end of the bar opposite the television. The midday news was on and they were re-running some of the coverage from Saturday's parade. Around here a fender bender was considered big news. Harry joined them and ordered a draft and a tuna sandwich from Freddie Edwards.

"They show the part where the guy tried to run out in the street?" Harry addressed no one in particular.

"Frankie Adderholdt, Snake's brother..." Morely laughed.

Harry thought he was pulling his leg. "Get outta here!"

"He's not kidding." Phil chimed in.

"It's been almost a year since they took his car and he still ain't over it." Morely was shaking his head.

Maybe there's some justice in the seizure laws after all, Harry thought. "What happened?"

Frankie Adderholdt, his kid brother and a couple of their friends had been to the Saturday night drag races at the Serena Speedway. They'd had a couple beers, but they weren't really drunk. When they piled into Frankie's souped up car out in the parking lot, after having seen all those fast cars, they were pretty fired up. Frankie was in the mood to strut his stuff and the other three were urging him on. When they got to Fairgrounds Road it looked pretty deserted, so Frankie put it to the floor on a straight stretch just to show the boys what it could do. Officer Paige was setting in the Fairgrounds parking lot with his lights out when he spotted headlights coming down the road, changing from a pair of dimes to quarters to silver dollars, faster than he could switch his own on and fire up the siren.

Frankie pulled over as soon as he saw the blue light flashing in his rear view mirror, didn't give Paige any trouble at all. But Paige smelled the beer on his breath and took him in for a breathalyzer. The kid blew a point one-one, barely over the legal limit. Paige drew up the seizure papers and took the car on the spot.

They'd been laying for that car since the first time the Police Chief set eyes on it, even though Frankie'd never run one light or gone one mile over the speed limit. The rumble of the racing cam, the headers, the dual exhaust, though all legal, had gotten the chief's blood boiling. Now the car was his. Paige's reward was to pick his own assignment. He chose to cruise the internet instead of the back roads.

Harry told them the story of how he had run into Audrey Adderholdt and how Paige had been the responding officer.

"It wouldn't surprise me to find out that Frankie beats his old lady," Morely said. "He's a piece of shit, there's no doubt about that. But he still didn't deserve what they done to him. And it's just made him meaner. It's a shame about his wife. She's a purty little thing. I remember when she was a cheerleader over to the high school. Doesn't seem that long ago."

Kresge was thinking: First I write a letter to the editor and mention this Officer Paige by name; a few weeks later, he writes Jenny a speeding ticket; then this Adderholdt woman needs my help and it's Paige who responds to the 911 call; then I see him driving that police hot rod in the parade and now this.

Harry muttered something.

"What's that Ole Hoss?" Phil asked.

"Oh I was just talking to myself... You go your whole life thinking there is no plan, then you see how things work out and you have to wonder."