Elmore's Corner...Round Two.

Billy and Elmore were doing a final walkthrough of the new place before taking possession. I had been instructed to stay home and start setting up Elmore's new computer. I wasn't getting very far. The phone kept ringing.

Deb:  Yes...Casa Strannix?

Voice1:  Strannix there?

Deb:  Do you hear him?

Voice1:  No, I'm gettin' some smartmouth woman needs a little...

I hung up abruptly.  Whoever this was, he was bigtime bad.  The phone
rang instantly.

Voice1:  Not a good idea, Flash.

Deb:  Who the hell is this?

Voice1:  Tell 'im George called.

The phone went dead in my hands.  I took a yellow pad that I was using 
for scribbling, and wrote down the name.  I worked at installing and setting
up Elmore's QuickBooks a while longer.  The phone rang again.

Voice2:  Would it be possible to speak to Bill Strannix?

Deb:  I'm afraid he's not in right now.  Could I take a message?

Voice2:  Yes, please.  Would you let him know that Angelo would like to
speak to him.

Deb:  Is there a number where he can reach you?

Angelo gave a phone number that sounded like inner city.  I wrote it 
down on the scratchpad beside the name and went back to work.  Half an hour
passed, then it rang again.

George:  He there yet?

Deb:  Let me check.  No.  You have a number, George, so I can tell him not 
to bother?

George gave me a number, and after I wrote it down I noticed it was the
same number as Angelo had given me.  What the hell was this?  I got the
QuickBooks installed and went on to the Duke Nukem3 and Wolfenstein Elmore
had asked for.  The phone rang again.

Deb:  Grand Central.  All trains are on time.  How may I direct your call?

Angelo:  Is Bill in?

Deb:  No, Angelo, not yet.  

Angelo:  Is there another number where I might reach him?

Deb:  No, there's no phone where they're at.  Sorry.  You want him to call?

Angelo:  Yes.  As soon as he gets in.

The next time I looked at the yellow pad, I had a list of at least twenty
entries.  George, Angelo, George, Angelo, Angelo, Angelo, George, George,
Angelo, Angelo, George, Angelo, George, George, George...It was getting
nerveracking, especially since the two of them were so insistent and Billy
showed no signs of getting in any time before hell froze over.

Deb:  Hello!  What?  He's still not in, dammit!

Beth:  Who, Bill?  I know that.  He just called me, asked me to call here
and see if you were on the phone.  He says he's been trying all afternoon 
and can't get through.

Deb:  Crap, the phone's been ringing off the wall, couple of clowns looking 
for Billy.  First George, then Angelo, then George again...dammit!  I
can't get anything done!  I've got a list of people to email a yard long and
I can never get connected!

Beth's voice was cautious and nervous.

Beth:  George?  He leave a last name?

Deb:  No.  Keeps calling me Flash and handing me cheap threats.

Beth:  Oh, Christ...not him!

Deb:  Him who?

Beth:  If this is the George I'm thinking of, things could get mighty ugly
mighty quick.  What's he sound like?

Deb:  Hard...crude...bad tempered.  Why?

Beth:  I met this guy once, a long time ago.  Bill was with me and I was
scared to death just the same.  He's bad news...did he give a last name?

Deb:  No.  He says Billy will know him and if he doesn't call back he'll
kick his ass for him...bunch of shit like that.  Says I need a man to get 
me in line and he's just the one to do it...the other one is a whiny little
shit, but I'd rather deal with him.  He's polite at least.

Beth:  That's gotta be George Cole.  What about the other one?

Deb:  Angelo something.  Very smooth, even complimentary.  They alternate.

Beth:  When I hang up, you call Bill's cellphone and tell him what's going
on.  I'm telling Sam.  If George Cole is mixed up in this somewhere, it's
not going to go too well for Elmore.

Deb:  You sure this is necessary?

Beth:  Positive.  You haven't given his cell number out, have you?

Deb:  It's verboten, no, I wouldn't.  They're very busy.

Beth:  Good.  You call right away.

Beth hung up, and I took a minute to think about the fear I had heard
in her voice.  Beth had never struck me as the type to be easily rattled,
and I had always admired the way she could keep up with Sam.  Whoever this
Cole was, my impressions of him were only being confirmed and amplified
by Beth's reaction.  The phone rang again, before I could call Billy.

Billy:  Whatchu been up to, woman?  Talkin' to your mama?

Deb:  No, Billy.  I was just about to call you.  I've been answering the
phone all day...the same two guys callin', asking for you.  I haven't been
able to email Bully or Hank Marshall or anybody you asked me to get in
touch with.

Billy:  You got names?  Who's been callin'?

Deb:  George somebody and Angelo somebody.  Beth seems to think George is
George Cole, whoever that is.  She sounds scared of him.

Billy:  Not surprised...he backed her into a corner and grabbed her...
never mind what he grabbed.  I busted a hand on his face and he ain't
been in my fanclub since.  What's he want?

Deb:  To talk to you.  That's all he says, have Strannix call me or it's
his ass.

Billy:  Bastard leave a number?

I repeated the number back to him, now deeply uneasy if not actually 
scared.  I didn't know enough about Cole to be scared.  Yet.

Billy:  Shit, that's right here in town.  He mention any other names?  Cole
ain't smart enough to raise hell all by himself, he generally makes sure
somebody else's trouble goes off on schedule.

Deb:  Not directly...but once when he was talking to me he turned away from
the phone to talk to somebody...he mentioned a name...Cosmo, I think it was.
Yeah...Mr. Cosmo.

Billy:  Oh, hell...Frank Cosmo.  He must have been the guy we beat out to
buy this place.  He ain't gonna be too happy about that.  Okay, baby...
I'm on the way home.  Lock up, don't answer the door for anybody.  Got that?

Deb:  Why?

Billy:  Because I said so.  Understand?

The following day was a red letter occasion for me...I was set to have
the metal cast removed from my leg.  Billy's strictures about my going out
alone were fierce and in force until further notice.  I had mentioned to 
him the fact that I would need him later to go to the doctor, but he was
out with Elmore and not available when I needed to go.  So I clanked on 
out to the Expedition, drove to the bone doctor, and within an hour I was
relieved of what Ryan's Jade had once called the Iron Maiden.  I spent a
half an hour or so enduring x-rays and range of motion tests, then I was
released on an unsuspecting world.  Unfortunately, I was the unsuspecting
one.  I saw a big man seated behind the driver's seat of my Expedition.  I
stopped cold before I got anywhere near the truck...and ran like hell after
a minute or two more.

George:  Goin' someplace, Flash?  Take your truck.

Deb:  How'd you get in there?

George:  Helps if you lock up, Flash.

Damn!  I had forgotten to lock the truck, Billy's biggest peeve.  Now I
was faced with...what?  I looked up, to see just what I was faced with.  It
had to be George of George and Angelo - mainly because Angelo had never 
called me Flash and George had never called me anything else.  The man was
huge and...hard.  Hard looking, hard sounding, hard acting.  His dark hair 
was scraped back from his forehead - there was nothing to detract from the 
flat, cold stare he was laying on me.  He was watching me with faint 
amusement, as though he expected me to start crying at any second.  If this
was how he was used to controlling his women, he was going to find out I
was different.  All he was doing was making me mad.

Deb:  Won't matter, Tonto.  You're not going anyplace in that truck.  So 
why don't you go play tag with a bus and leave me be.

Cole yanked on my arm, dragging me back in the direction of the
Expedition.  The following day there would be huge bruises on my upper arm
that corresponded exactly with where Cole's fingers had gripped, and the
arm would be so sore I couldn't use it, but that was for later.

Cole:  Get your cracked ass in there.  Gimme the key.

Deb:  Go fuck yourself.

That was a mistake.  Cole swung into the driver's seat and with what
seemed to me to be simply a continuation of the motion he made with his
arms as he climbed in, he slugged me in the head.  The heel of his hand
landed neatly in my eyesocket and my head bounced off the safety glass 
behind it hard enough to star the glass.  The pain was enormous, tears
began to pour from the affected eye and I ground a fist into it, reverse
pressure being the easiest way to relieve the numbness.

Deb:  Somebody's gonna take that one outa your ass, Tonto.

Cole was fishing nonchalantly in my purse for my keys.  I snatched at it,
but it was one of the little cheapies I carried around to rest the good ones
and the strap broke in my hands.  Cole found my keyring and slammed the
purse into my midsection.  The wind was knocked out of me and I bent over,
gasping.

George:  Whozat, Flash?  Strannix?  Don't make me laugh.

Deb:  You'll be laughin' outa the other side of your damn ugly face when he
gets hold of you.

Cole laughed, seemingly delighted with my sense of humor.  He had started
the truck and put it in gear.  Now we were heading into the downtown area.

Deb:  Where you takin' me, long, tall and ugly?

Cole:  T'meet a friend of mine.  And maybe...we'll get t'be friends too,
before this is over.

He smiled at me.  My skin crawled.  I huddled in the passenger seat,
trying to be ready for Cole's next move, and trying to think of a way to
get hold of Billy.

TO BE CONTINUED...