It Was One of Those Days – Part 26
Although my first reaction was to go back outside, Kelly grabbed my arm and whisked me on into the restaurant.
“You’ve got enough time to eat, don’t you Hon? He’ll still be there when we’re done, I’m sure. If those other guys tell him about the Buick, I have no doubt that he might come in to find YOU! Ha-ha-ha!”
She was right – as she usually is. And, like me, she had to be staring too so I was glad we went on in. It WAS time to eat…
Just after our salads were delivered I happened to notice out of the corner of my eye that some people were standing up near the Hostess’s podium and seemed to be looking our way. I turned to look directly at them and saw that it was indeed 4 guys – three of which were the ones from the parking lot. For some uneasy reason, the bigger guy next to them seemed to be familiar but I just couldn’t place him…
But, they were all grinning and waving at us, trying to get our attention. So, I waved them to come on over to our table figuring that if I didn’t they would just continue to make fools of themselves at the podium. OF course, Kelly just rolled her eyes as she began digging into her raspberry/walnut salad but I knew that she understood. She watched them walk on over to our table as she buttered a fresh-cut slice of brown bread, the first of which she gave to me.
“So, what’s up guys? More questions about the black car?”
“Man, we never got your name but this guy here is the one with the ‘Cuda we were tellin’ you about… This is Shawn…”
The big guy stepped forward and offered his hand to shake. Just then, I recognized him as I stood up to shake his hand...
It was the guy from the pictures I had seen in Jim’s office not that long ago and that had been sitting in the 300C in one of the pics. He was the driver in that photo…
Hmm… now the comment earlier out in the parking lot about a guy with a white Trans Am seemed to set off a light bulb in my head too. Could this guy be connected in some way to Teak? To the investigation Jim talked to me about? IF that was the case, me showing up with the white TTA and running into this guy might be a HUGE issue… I needed to talk to Jim before Saturday but now wasn’t the time – Shawn was shaking my hand and smiling like he was my old buddy.
“Nice to meet you, Shawn – I’m Steve and this is my wife Kelly.”
I noticed that Kelly had stopped eating and was looking at the group near our table with an odd look on her face but she stood up to shake Shawn’s hand as well since he had extended it towards her.
“Nice to meet you too, Steve. These clowns here are Morty, Billy, and the quiet one is Cy – but really, he’s the brains of the bunch. They like those little rice-mobiles but not me – nor you obviously! I’m into muscle – real, honest-to-god American muscle. And when Cy started telling me that I had to see your car RIGHT NOW before I could even get out of mine, I knew it must be something… well, it is. How about you meeting us outside after dinner? I would love to know more about your car…”
He grinned just then and it reminded me of how a shark would look IF it could grin. My comfort level with this guy was dropping faster than Bill Clinton’s trousers.
“No prob, Shawn. Kelly and I will meet you out there. If we had more room at this table I would invite you to join – “
He waved a big meaty hand in the air and shook his head vigorously, while the three Amigos did the same.
“Nah, Steve! We don’t want to interrupt. Go ahead and finish your meal and we’ll be out there. And if you need to scoot on out after eating, that’s cool too. I’ll be around and I’m sure I’ll run into you sometime so don’t sweat it, ok? If we’re still here when you come out, fine – we’ll talk cars then. See ya later!”
And with that, they spun on their collective heels and headed back out. Kelly leaned over towards me…
“Do you have any idea who that guy is, Steve?”
“Well, other than who he says he is, no. But – I’ve also seen his picture and I’m pretty sure he’s tied in with the guy who had the TTA as well as with the Reynolds bunch but I’m not sure. Why? Do you know him from somewhere?”
“I sure do. And his name isn’t Shawn – at far as I know….”
Kelly placed her fork on her dinner plate and looked at me with a serious expression.
“He was in my office before with a guy who was supposed to be his brother.”
“Brother? Who are you talking about?”
“Steve – that guy’s name is Jonah. Jonah Reynolds. And his brother is Jeremiah. Remember? They were in my office months ago and I never forget a face. And now that I think about, I think they are in the crowd in that one pic you’ve got inside a warehouse somewhere – it just came to me!”
Hmmm… so if this WAS Jonah, why the bogus name? And what was his connection to Teak? To the warehouse? Obviously, this whole Reynolds thing was getting deeper by the day…
“I don’t know hon but let’s play this out and see what we learn tonight. I’m going to call Jim tomorrow and tell him about this – it’s possible that we may have to change something quickly and he needs to know that this guy has ID’d me already. If ‘Shawn’ is into something deep, I can’t show up with Teak’s car and think he won’t be incredibly suspicious…”
Kelly’s face looked more than just a little worried. We continued to nibble at our food, our minds now severely distracted…
“I don’t know Steve. This is getting weirder by the day. Maybe you better just back away?”
I thought for a moment before I answered. Did I want to fold now, knowing what I know? What would happen if I did? I mean, after all – I could just give the TTA back to Jim, turn over the stolen SRT-8 and walk away. Nothing would change in my life. But then again, I had the sneaking suspicion that I was already in too far to walk away. This whole thing was connected in some way; I just knew it. And, I knew that Kelly did too…
“I can’t back out now, Kel… I’ll talk to Jim tomorrow and see what he thinks we should do but really, the first thing we need is some information for ourselves…”
“And how do we get that, Mr. Holmes?” Her eyes sparkled just bit – that’s another thing about my girl; she loves a good mystery.
“Why, we simply ask!”
She laughed at that one.
“Now, Steve – how can you ask this Shawn guy if he’s Jonah?”
“I don’t plan to nor do I need to; you said he’s Jonah, that’s enough for me. We really just need to know what HE knows. And who knows? Maybe he’s got some loose lips… let’s go on out there and see where the bench-racing starts and where the B/S stops… we just might get lucky since this guy doesn’t know what I know.”
She nodded her head.
“I knew I married you for the right reasons. Ok, Captain America – let’s go see what we see…”
“Check, please?”
***********________________*************
As we walked out the restaurant’s door, we could see ‘Shawn’ and several other men as well as a couple of young women standing in a crowd near the “Cuda.
“Looks like the ranks have grown, Steve. Should be interesting…”
Just then, Shawn spied us and waved for us to come on over which we did. After all, he WAS driving an orange Cuda that obviously was a serious player and with us being car-people, we couldn’t help ourselves but to go give it a good look-see.
As we needed the gang, we could hear some heavy music playing from one of the car’s sound systems. Since the ‘Cuda was parked near the ricer’s (a Honda Civic Si, an Eclipse with no badging, and an STi), it was hard to tell who’s car was playing the tunes. But as the crowd sort of ‘parted’ to let us get closer to the ‘Cuda, it was obvious that the Honda had the killer CD player – it was almost bouncing with each thump of the subwoofer.
Shawn swept his arm over the hood of the Mopar.
“This here is my current ride, Steve. She’s just a little more than stock…”
There was that Great White grin again… so, it was clear ol’ Shawn liked to bluff….
“Nice, Shawn. Is that Vitamin C Orange?” I do know a thing or two about Mopars…
“Yep. It’s a ’70 and it originally had a 440 in it. I took that out and put THIS into it…”
He had walked around to the front of the car and was lifting the hood… As the mill came into view, I knew it clearly was NOT a 440. The distinctive black valve covers with “Mopar Performance” upon them was the first clue – the second one was the ENORMOUS size of the motor. Here is what it looked like (but imagine it in the car)…
“That’s a 528 Hemi, isn’t it Shawn?” I had to fight the urge to call him Jonah…
“Well, it USED to be a 528, Steve. I think it’s a little bigger now, but I guess I’m just not sure. Ha-ha-ha-ha!!!”
“So – how does it run, Shawn? Should be killer, I’m guessing…”
Kelly was leaning over the fender admiring the huge elephant nestled in the bay….
“Steve, I haven’t had it to a track actually. But I will say this – I haven’t been beaten on the street yet. I did run into a nasty black Road Runner a while back that gave me a good race but I did beat him by a half a car length….”
Hmmm… I wondered if he was talking about the black R/R we saw at Tri-County… Didn’t matter – this 528+ ‘Cuda was interesting.
“Enough about my little Mopar, Steve – show me that black Buick you’re driving. Mort tells me that he thinks it would take me – do you?”
Yet another toothy grin… it was obvious that, while MORT might think the Buick would take the ‘Cuda, Shawn/Jonah did NOT.
“Oh, I don’t know Shawn… I’m sure it would be a good race…”
We were near the GSX at this point. I unlocked the doors and then opened the hood. Immediately, the throng was pressing close, trying to get a look into the gargantuan engine bay that held a one-off mountain nail-head that most likely NONE of them knew a thing about…
Shawn and the three Amigos just looked the 455 in silence…
“Steve – that intake is a piece of art. What IS this thing? I noticed that the hood is fiberglass and it has a scoop on it – Stage GS’s didn’t come like that that I’ve seen…. What IS this thing?”
No matter what kind of person Shawn may prove out to be, it was clear he DID know a thing or two about old Muscle. But I wasn’t going to tip my hand, just yet anyways…
“Actually Shawn, this is a project a buddy of mine started and I just picked up. It’s an assortment of parts like most of our toys are, that’s all…”
But Cy wasn’t going to keep quiet.
“Shawn – he said he raced Irv earlier and he beat him. You know Irv’s car; it ain’t no slouch. IF this Buick took that SS, this car is more than it appears…”
Shawn looked at me, his grin gone.
“Is that right, Steve? You beat Wallace tonight?”
A voice came from out of the crowd.
“He sure did. He killed me easily…”
We all turned to look – it was a tall, older black guy. Irvin Wallace was in the flesh and was walking towards us.
“Irv! Where’s the Camaro? Did this guy really beat you or did you just let off, trying to bait him for some serious moolah?”
Irv’s serious look said it all.
“Shawn? This black car left me like I was in Park – and I even jumped the light a bit out of excitement. Sorry about that, dude…” He nodded his head at me… “Anyways; YES. He beat me. And I ain’t askin’ for rematch… there’s no need to… and I’ve parked the SS for the night – I just ran down here to get some takeout and saw the crowd…”
A few people murmured something about it being hard to believe. So – Irv’s SS was a good baptism of fire after all…
“Da-yum, Irv. That’s amazing…”
Shawn turned towards me.
“Steve, how would you feel about a little street racing sometime?”
Kelly stepped closer to me. Irv was looking Frankenstein over…
“Ah, Shawn… I don’t know. I just happened to run up against Irv here by chance. I gotta tell you that I’m not usually into that as much as I used to be…” Ok, SOME of that was true… I wanted to see where he would go with it.
“Well, Steve, I’m not talking about out on public roads. Every so often, I check into an organized street racing event that goes on in rolling locations around here, late at night. You know – just to keep the cops wondering when and where we are. I don’t usually get over this way that often but it just so happens there’s one coming up this Saturday night. Would you be interested?”
“This Saturday?“
Ok, this was getting interesting. How could I bring the GSX to the same place I was supposed to bring the TTA??? Then – another light went on…
“Shawn – do you know anything about a white Trans Am that supposedly went to some street races around here a while back?”
I saw a funny look on his face just as I said ‘white T/A’…
“I knew a guy who had one – a TTA, maybe? - but supposedly he sold it. It was pretty quick I heard but I never got to race him. Well, I don’t think he raced much anyways – but people said it was built. Why?”
Ok – my path was clear so far…
“Oh, nothing really. But I did just pick up a TTA that sounds like the one you’re talking about. What was the owner’s name of the one you’re describing?”
He scratched his chin as he thought for a moment…
“Teak? I’m not sure… I never met the guy and like I said, I heard he got in some trouble so he had to sell the car… why?”
His mouth was saying one thing but his eyes and face were saying something else. I wasn’t buying all he was selling because it seemed that he might know more than he was letting on…
“Because I just picked up a TTA from a guy who said he got it from some guy named Teak but he couldn’t keep it for some reason…” Ok, I wasn’t exactly lying….
“Like I said; formally, I never met Teak, Steve. But I know some people who saw him at the races a lot but I never seemed to cross paths with him… so… you’ve got his old car, huh?”
I hoped that the limb I was climbing further and further out on wouldn’t suddenly break off.
“Yeah. It’s pretty quick but I don’t’ think it’s quite as fast as this GSX. But who knows…?”
“Well – why don’t you bring one of them Saturday? We’ll be out at the abandoned airport this weekend, usually meeting around midnight. I would like to see you bring the GSX myself because I would love to race it. But then again, there might be some people who would like to see the TTA. Well, see it race, of course…”
Ok. That last comment said something for sure…
“Tell you what, Shawn. I’ve got a buddy that I might be able to talk into coming with me. Maybe I’ll bring both cars. Is this out at the airport on Baty road, you’re talking about?”
“Both cars, huh? Cool… Uh... yeah… Baty road… on the east side just south of the Christian TV station’s land… yeah… bring both of them. That would be fun…”
With that, Shawn shoved his hand out to shake hands again.
“Nice meeting you Steve, Kelly. Hope to see you Saturday… let’s go guys. I’ve got to head back home…”
As quickly as they walked over, they left. Kelly and I stood there and listened to the cars start up after the doors slammed. Most of them sounded pretty good but when Shawn started up the ‘Cuda, the rest sounded like they were shut off. I hated to admit it but the 528 sounded good.
“Man, Kel… this is thick…”
“Yeah, I think so too. Talk to Jim tomorrow and go from there… I’m tired… can we go home now?”
I gave her a quick hug as I pulled her close. The sky was dark now and the stars were gorgeous. The sounds of the night traffic were picking up but still we could hear Shawn’s Cuda running through the gears as he left…
“Sure, Kel. Let’s head home…”
We got into the car and after I started it, letting Frankie smooth a bit, I wondered what Jim would think about the night’s events, about this ‘Shawn’ guy, and more. And the TTA thing – how would that play out?
I snicked the tranny into “D” and we began to pull out of the lot…
It should be an interesting call to Jim… very interesting indeed…
To be continued…
Although my first reaction was to go back outside, Kelly grabbed my arm and whisked me on into the restaurant.
“You’ve got enough time to eat, don’t you Hon? He’ll still be there when we’re done, I’m sure. If those other guys tell him about the Buick, I have no doubt that he might come in to find YOU! Ha-ha-ha!”
She was right – as she usually is. And, like me, she had to be staring too so I was glad we went on in. It WAS time to eat…
Just after our salads were delivered I happened to notice out of the corner of my eye that some people were standing up near the Hostess’s podium and seemed to be looking our way. I turned to look directly at them and saw that it was indeed 4 guys – three of which were the ones from the parking lot. For some uneasy reason, the bigger guy next to them seemed to be familiar but I just couldn’t place him…
But, they were all grinning and waving at us, trying to get our attention. So, I waved them to come on over to our table figuring that if I didn’t they would just continue to make fools of themselves at the podium. OF course, Kelly just rolled her eyes as she began digging into her raspberry/walnut salad but I knew that she understood. She watched them walk on over to our table as she buttered a fresh-cut slice of brown bread, the first of which she gave to me.
“So, what’s up guys? More questions about the black car?”
“Man, we never got your name but this guy here is the one with the ‘Cuda we were tellin’ you about… This is Shawn…”
The big guy stepped forward and offered his hand to shake. Just then, I recognized him as I stood up to shake his hand...
It was the guy from the pictures I had seen in Jim’s office not that long ago and that had been sitting in the 300C in one of the pics. He was the driver in that photo…
Hmm… now the comment earlier out in the parking lot about a guy with a white Trans Am seemed to set off a light bulb in my head too. Could this guy be connected in some way to Teak? To the investigation Jim talked to me about? IF that was the case, me showing up with the white TTA and running into this guy might be a HUGE issue… I needed to talk to Jim before Saturday but now wasn’t the time – Shawn was shaking my hand and smiling like he was my old buddy.
“Nice to meet you, Shawn – I’m Steve and this is my wife Kelly.”
I noticed that Kelly had stopped eating and was looking at the group near our table with an odd look on her face but she stood up to shake Shawn’s hand as well since he had extended it towards her.
“Nice to meet you too, Steve. These clowns here are Morty, Billy, and the quiet one is Cy – but really, he’s the brains of the bunch. They like those little rice-mobiles but not me – nor you obviously! I’m into muscle – real, honest-to-god American muscle. And when Cy started telling me that I had to see your car RIGHT NOW before I could even get out of mine, I knew it must be something… well, it is. How about you meeting us outside after dinner? I would love to know more about your car…”
He grinned just then and it reminded me of how a shark would look IF it could grin. My comfort level with this guy was dropping faster than Bill Clinton’s trousers.
“No prob, Shawn. Kelly and I will meet you out there. If we had more room at this table I would invite you to join – “
He waved a big meaty hand in the air and shook his head vigorously, while the three Amigos did the same.
“Nah, Steve! We don’t want to interrupt. Go ahead and finish your meal and we’ll be out there. And if you need to scoot on out after eating, that’s cool too. I’ll be around and I’m sure I’ll run into you sometime so don’t sweat it, ok? If we’re still here when you come out, fine – we’ll talk cars then. See ya later!”
And with that, they spun on their collective heels and headed back out. Kelly leaned over towards me…
“Do you have any idea who that guy is, Steve?”
“Well, other than who he says he is, no. But – I’ve also seen his picture and I’m pretty sure he’s tied in with the guy who had the TTA as well as with the Reynolds bunch but I’m not sure. Why? Do you know him from somewhere?”
“I sure do. And his name isn’t Shawn – at far as I know….”
Kelly placed her fork on her dinner plate and looked at me with a serious expression.
“He was in my office before with a guy who was supposed to be his brother.”
“Brother? Who are you talking about?”
“Steve – that guy’s name is Jonah. Jonah Reynolds. And his brother is Jeremiah. Remember? They were in my office months ago and I never forget a face. And now that I think about, I think they are in the crowd in that one pic you’ve got inside a warehouse somewhere – it just came to me!”
Hmmm… so if this WAS Jonah, why the bogus name? And what was his connection to Teak? To the warehouse? Obviously, this whole Reynolds thing was getting deeper by the day…
“I don’t know hon but let’s play this out and see what we learn tonight. I’m going to call Jim tomorrow and tell him about this – it’s possible that we may have to change something quickly and he needs to know that this guy has ID’d me already. If ‘Shawn’ is into something deep, I can’t show up with Teak’s car and think he won’t be incredibly suspicious…”
Kelly’s face looked more than just a little worried. We continued to nibble at our food, our minds now severely distracted…
“I don’t know Steve. This is getting weirder by the day. Maybe you better just back away?”
I thought for a moment before I answered. Did I want to fold now, knowing what I know? What would happen if I did? I mean, after all – I could just give the TTA back to Jim, turn over the stolen SRT-8 and walk away. Nothing would change in my life. But then again, I had the sneaking suspicion that I was already in too far to walk away. This whole thing was connected in some way; I just knew it. And, I knew that Kelly did too…
“I can’t back out now, Kel… I’ll talk to Jim tomorrow and see what he thinks we should do but really, the first thing we need is some information for ourselves…”
“And how do we get that, Mr. Holmes?” Her eyes sparkled just bit – that’s another thing about my girl; she loves a good mystery.
“Why, we simply ask!”
She laughed at that one.
“Now, Steve – how can you ask this Shawn guy if he’s Jonah?”
“I don’t plan to nor do I need to; you said he’s Jonah, that’s enough for me. We really just need to know what HE knows. And who knows? Maybe he’s got some loose lips… let’s go on out there and see where the bench-racing starts and where the B/S stops… we just might get lucky since this guy doesn’t know what I know.”
She nodded her head.
“I knew I married you for the right reasons. Ok, Captain America – let’s go see what we see…”
“Check, please?”
***********________________*************
As we walked out the restaurant’s door, we could see ‘Shawn’ and several other men as well as a couple of young women standing in a crowd near the “Cuda.
“Looks like the ranks have grown, Steve. Should be interesting…”
Just then, Shawn spied us and waved for us to come on over which we did. After all, he WAS driving an orange Cuda that obviously was a serious player and with us being car-people, we couldn’t help ourselves but to go give it a good look-see.
As we needed the gang, we could hear some heavy music playing from one of the car’s sound systems. Since the ‘Cuda was parked near the ricer’s (a Honda Civic Si, an Eclipse with no badging, and an STi), it was hard to tell who’s car was playing the tunes. But as the crowd sort of ‘parted’ to let us get closer to the ‘Cuda, it was obvious that the Honda had the killer CD player – it was almost bouncing with each thump of the subwoofer.
Shawn swept his arm over the hood of the Mopar.
“This here is my current ride, Steve. She’s just a little more than stock…”
There was that Great White grin again… so, it was clear ol’ Shawn liked to bluff….
“Nice, Shawn. Is that Vitamin C Orange?” I do know a thing or two about Mopars…
“Yep. It’s a ’70 and it originally had a 440 in it. I took that out and put THIS into it…”
He had walked around to the front of the car and was lifting the hood… As the mill came into view, I knew it clearly was NOT a 440. The distinctive black valve covers with “Mopar Performance” upon them was the first clue – the second one was the ENORMOUS size of the motor. Here is what it looked like (but imagine it in the car)…
“That’s a 528 Hemi, isn’t it Shawn?” I had to fight the urge to call him Jonah…
“Well, it USED to be a 528, Steve. I think it’s a little bigger now, but I guess I’m just not sure. Ha-ha-ha-ha!!!”
“So – how does it run, Shawn? Should be killer, I’m guessing…”
Kelly was leaning over the fender admiring the huge elephant nestled in the bay….
“Steve, I haven’t had it to a track actually. But I will say this – I haven’t been beaten on the street yet. I did run into a nasty black Road Runner a while back that gave me a good race but I did beat him by a half a car length….”
Hmmm… I wondered if he was talking about the black R/R we saw at Tri-County… Didn’t matter – this 528+ ‘Cuda was interesting.
“Enough about my little Mopar, Steve – show me that black Buick you’re driving. Mort tells me that he thinks it would take me – do you?”
Yet another toothy grin… it was obvious that, while MORT might think the Buick would take the ‘Cuda, Shawn/Jonah did NOT.
“Oh, I don’t know Shawn… I’m sure it would be a good race…”
We were near the GSX at this point. I unlocked the doors and then opened the hood. Immediately, the throng was pressing close, trying to get a look into the gargantuan engine bay that held a one-off mountain nail-head that most likely NONE of them knew a thing about…
Shawn and the three Amigos just looked the 455 in silence…
“Steve – that intake is a piece of art. What IS this thing? I noticed that the hood is fiberglass and it has a scoop on it – Stage GS’s didn’t come like that that I’ve seen…. What IS this thing?”
No matter what kind of person Shawn may prove out to be, it was clear he DID know a thing or two about old Muscle. But I wasn’t going to tip my hand, just yet anyways…
“Actually Shawn, this is a project a buddy of mine started and I just picked up. It’s an assortment of parts like most of our toys are, that’s all…”
But Cy wasn’t going to keep quiet.
“Shawn – he said he raced Irv earlier and he beat him. You know Irv’s car; it ain’t no slouch. IF this Buick took that SS, this car is more than it appears…”
Shawn looked at me, his grin gone.
“Is that right, Steve? You beat Wallace tonight?”
A voice came from out of the crowd.
“He sure did. He killed me easily…”
We all turned to look – it was a tall, older black guy. Irvin Wallace was in the flesh and was walking towards us.
“Irv! Where’s the Camaro? Did this guy really beat you or did you just let off, trying to bait him for some serious moolah?”
Irv’s serious look said it all.
“Shawn? This black car left me like I was in Park – and I even jumped the light a bit out of excitement. Sorry about that, dude…” He nodded his head at me… “Anyways; YES. He beat me. And I ain’t askin’ for rematch… there’s no need to… and I’ve parked the SS for the night – I just ran down here to get some takeout and saw the crowd…”
A few people murmured something about it being hard to believe. So – Irv’s SS was a good baptism of fire after all…
“Da-yum, Irv. That’s amazing…”
Shawn turned towards me.
“Steve, how would you feel about a little street racing sometime?”
Kelly stepped closer to me. Irv was looking Frankenstein over…
“Ah, Shawn… I don’t know. I just happened to run up against Irv here by chance. I gotta tell you that I’m not usually into that as much as I used to be…” Ok, SOME of that was true… I wanted to see where he would go with it.
“Well, Steve, I’m not talking about out on public roads. Every so often, I check into an organized street racing event that goes on in rolling locations around here, late at night. You know – just to keep the cops wondering when and where we are. I don’t usually get over this way that often but it just so happens there’s one coming up this Saturday night. Would you be interested?”
“This Saturday?“
Ok, this was getting interesting. How could I bring the GSX to the same place I was supposed to bring the TTA??? Then – another light went on…
“Shawn – do you know anything about a white Trans Am that supposedly went to some street races around here a while back?”
I saw a funny look on his face just as I said ‘white T/A’…
“I knew a guy who had one – a TTA, maybe? - but supposedly he sold it. It was pretty quick I heard but I never got to race him. Well, I don’t think he raced much anyways – but people said it was built. Why?”
Ok – my path was clear so far…
“Oh, nothing really. But I did just pick up a TTA that sounds like the one you’re talking about. What was the owner’s name of the one you’re describing?”
He scratched his chin as he thought for a moment…
“Teak? I’m not sure… I never met the guy and like I said, I heard he got in some trouble so he had to sell the car… why?”
His mouth was saying one thing but his eyes and face were saying something else. I wasn’t buying all he was selling because it seemed that he might know more than he was letting on…
“Because I just picked up a TTA from a guy who said he got it from some guy named Teak but he couldn’t keep it for some reason…” Ok, I wasn’t exactly lying….
“Like I said; formally, I never met Teak, Steve. But I know some people who saw him at the races a lot but I never seemed to cross paths with him… so… you’ve got his old car, huh?”
I hoped that the limb I was climbing further and further out on wouldn’t suddenly break off.
“Yeah. It’s pretty quick but I don’t’ think it’s quite as fast as this GSX. But who knows…?”
“Well – why don’t you bring one of them Saturday? We’ll be out at the abandoned airport this weekend, usually meeting around midnight. I would like to see you bring the GSX myself because I would love to race it. But then again, there might be some people who would like to see the TTA. Well, see it race, of course…”
Ok. That last comment said something for sure…
“Tell you what, Shawn. I’ve got a buddy that I might be able to talk into coming with me. Maybe I’ll bring both cars. Is this out at the airport on Baty road, you’re talking about?”
“Both cars, huh? Cool… Uh... yeah… Baty road… on the east side just south of the Christian TV station’s land… yeah… bring both of them. That would be fun…”
With that, Shawn shoved his hand out to shake hands again.
“Nice meeting you Steve, Kelly. Hope to see you Saturday… let’s go guys. I’ve got to head back home…”
As quickly as they walked over, they left. Kelly and I stood there and listened to the cars start up after the doors slammed. Most of them sounded pretty good but when Shawn started up the ‘Cuda, the rest sounded like they were shut off. I hated to admit it but the 528 sounded good.
“Man, Kel… this is thick…”
“Yeah, I think so too. Talk to Jim tomorrow and go from there… I’m tired… can we go home now?”
I gave her a quick hug as I pulled her close. The sky was dark now and the stars were gorgeous. The sounds of the night traffic were picking up but still we could hear Shawn’s Cuda running through the gears as he left…
“Sure, Kel. Let’s head home…”
We got into the car and after I started it, letting Frankie smooth a bit, I wondered what Jim would think about the night’s events, about this ‘Shawn’ guy, and more. And the TTA thing – how would that play out?
I snicked the tranny into “D” and we began to pull out of the lot…
It should be an interesting call to Jim… very interesting indeed…
To be continued…
