Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
The phone rang twice before a harried sounding woman answered it.
“Hostel Water Company,” she sang.
“My water’s off,” I said to her. “I want to know why.”
“What’s your name?” I heard her shuffling some papers on her desk.
I rattled off my name and address and waited for the clicking to start, but it never did.
“I’m sorry but since it’s so close to five, I won’t be able to do anything about your water being off until the day after tomorrow.”
I narrowed my eyes, then lifted my wrist to glance at my watch.
“It’s four thirty. I have plenty of time until five.”
She murmured something, and then held her hand over the phone, before saying something more.
It took a minute for her to get back on the line, and when she did she said, “Can I have your name again?”
I gave her my name, then waited some more for her to type my information into the computer.
“I’m showing here that there was a late payment,” she lied.
Lied through her fuckin’ teeth.
“I can pull up a copy of my receipt,” I said coolly. “But I came up there and paid to get the water turned on. Paid a deposit, and then prepaid a few months, too. Trust me when I say that my payment wasn’t late. I can even tell you who I spoke to.”
Frustration and anger were clear in my tone, and that was apparently leaching through the phone line.
She didn’t reply for long moments. “I’m showing that your check bounced.”
I growled. “Lady, I didn’t pay in check form. I paid cash.”
Some other muttering, and then shuffling of more papers before, “Oh, I see. Well, then I’m not sure why your water was switched off but, unfortunately, all technicians are out on other service calls. They can’t…”
“Let me tell you something,” I said. “If you don’t come up here right now and turn it back on, I’ll come down there and file a complaint on your ass, as well as that little fucker’s ass who thought he’d perform his own personal act of justice by turning my water off after I repossessed his car because he was late on his payments. And if I have to go that far, I might as well go ahead and file harassment charges against y’all as well.”
There was a long pause on her end before she said, “I’ll see if I can get someone out there before six pm.”
I grunted at her. “You do that.”
I hung up my phone and tossed it angrily on the bed before turning around, only to stop when I saw Kennedy there, staring.
“They turned off your water?”
I grunted. “Yeah, you hear the rest?”
She nodded.
“That happen often?” she asked.
I shrugged. “People are assholes and retaliate. Most of the time, it’s not that big of a deal. The cars I repossess are sometimes for banks, sometimes for bail bondsmen who didn’t get their money back because the guy didn’t show for his court hearing. I even helped the local bondsman repossess a house before I went to jail.”
She hummed. “That seems like a pain in the ass. Why would you ever put your house up as collateral?”
I shook my head. “This case was more complex than that. Apparently, a man bailed his sister out who’d been forging checks. But what he didn’t know was that she’d been doing it for so long that he probably shouldn’t have bothered bailing her out. Chick was headed straight to jail, and the brother didn’t even know it. So he bails her out, puts his house up as collateral, and the moment she’s out, she runs. Doesn’t show up for the court appearance. Doesn’t even say thanks to the brother. Just up and leaves and never comes back.”
She moaned. “That’s so terrible.”
I agreed.
“Do you feel bad when you do this?”
The question, though innocent, was like a sour spot in my stomach.
“I don’t enjoy doing anything of that nature,” I offered. “But someone has to do it, and it pays good. I don’t enjoy being the bad guy.”
She nodded. “Do you want to take a shower at my place?”
I was about to reply with an affirmative when someone knocked on the door.
I walked that way, not stopping until I had the door open wide.
“What?” I asked.
“I just had a call from the woman at the water company saying that you were harassing her.”
I growled. “They turned my water off. You can say that is harassment, but it’s not. I called to see why, since I paid this month and next month’s payments, not to mention a fucking whack of a deposit, in cash mind you. So no, I wasn’t harassing her. I was trying to figure out why the fuck my water is off when I’m paid up.”
He stared at me, I guessed to gauge my seriousness in the matter, and then went for the mic on his shoulder.