Chapter 38
Can Max Help with the SLA Connection?
It was already morning when the two-vehicle – Land Yacht & Rover – caravan rolled into St. Petersburg, Florida, hoping to get to Sarasota by early afternoon. In Sarasota, Steve knew a lawyer friend, retired in a spacious condo near the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, who, with his wife, had been planning on our arrival for over a week now.
Earlier in the day, an absolutely gorgeous, perfect Florida Sunshine Day, we had stopped for a coffee break and re-visited the list of people on our list to visit – maybe more than we had time to visit, so we considered jettisoning the few who had no idea we were coming – – – to make sure we got to New York in time for the New Year’s Eve party that Huck was working-up with some of his musician friends.
“Where’s everybody planning to stay tonight?” Sally asked, knowing she and Jack had a back-up plan.
“You’re right,” Steve said, “I told George and his wife, Hazel, we only needed three bedrooms, so maybe we need to scout out an RV park.”
“Maybe we should get a hold of Huck and see where he’s at,” someone said.
“Really? Let’s not,” Patty said. “Let him find us and hope it’s not with Sunshine and Peaches.”
After the coffee stop, Jack and Steve got in the Rover to drive ahead and scout up a good RV park near Sarasota, while the Land Yacht headed to Treasure Island. “Glory Days,” the bar Rocky remembered from some 9-Ball pool tournament, was on our list of places, not people to visit. It was a great bar with the deck facing the Gulf and it was still there, right where Rocky said we’d find it. Rocky shot some pool. Most of us enjoyed the perfectly white tiny-granule sandy beach and swimming in the Gulf.
About four o’clock, Max called and said they were parking the Rover at his buddy’s condo, and we should pick them up to go to this RV park they found called the Sun & Surf RV Park. That night Max and Steve shared one of Hazel and George’s extra rooms, Rocky and Skip another, and Patty had dibs on the third but said she’d give it up to Jack & Sally, and she’d stay in the Land Yacht at the Sun & Surf.
Next morning, we were all poolside at the condo home of this retired couple Steve knew from Minnesota, with lush surroundings in every direction – quite the nice place adjoining the Botanical Garden. We had told Patty we would be at the RV park by noon. Thanksgiving was just two days away. George and Hazel invited us to join them at some fancy downtown restaurant if we wanted. “But for sure,” George said, “come over to our place for some of Hazel’s homemade pies.”
Arriving at the Sun & Surf, Patty was pool-side, “A pool with a diving board!” Steve exclaimed. Wanting to be the first one to show off his diving skills, Steve dashed into the Land Yacht, came out wearing a Speed-O bathing suit showing a bit of a bulge below the waist, but none above, and shouted, “Watch this, ladies! Get it on film, Patty.” Steve then ran head-long off the low board, tucked, and somersaulted feet first into the water. This started a diving contest, which Patty said would definitely make the cut, because she explained, “Watch this. What a spectacular diver you are, Sally! Let me show you this one . . . ” as she played the tape back with Sally delicately balancing both feet inward at the end of the high board, not teetering a bit, not looking down, and suddenly leaping backwards, heels-over-head, doing a back flip into the water.”
Steve interrupted, “Nahh, I know why this is going to make the movie. Same reason you wanted to film that strip poker game. You just love showing off my bod!”
“No, Steve, us judges were giving you 2’s and 3’s,” Patty came back with. “You never once sliced into the water. Big splash every time.”
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Meanwhile, Skip and Max went strolling down by the gulf – a three-block walk from the Sun & Surf. Skip knew Max was a precise sort of guy, always wanting for things to be certain, rather skeptical about a Rump Legislature ever working. Max had wrapped up a successful medical practice just this past summer, everything done by the book. The summer before that, Skip knew he had also been very exacting in the divorce terms with his now ex-Lisa, but even more than that, also being very exacting about making sure it was fair to Lisa. Thus, the friendly divorce. It was that combination, divorce and retirement, that got Max thinking about a cross-country trip catching up with old Peace Corps friends again, calling it a “fishing expedition.”
With the sun blazing down on Max’s bald head and bulbous nose, Skip gave Max his baseball cap and asked if he’d heard much from his ex-brother-in-law Ken. “No, just that he misses us and there’s still a buzz about us in L.A. – and lots of folks following us. Apparently, people found that stuff Patty shot in Hot Springs to be really funny.”
“Listen Max,” Skip pressed on, lowering his voice, “I haven’t shared this with anyone else, so I’d appreciate you keeping this between us for at least a while, but that guy your ex-brother-in-law Ken put me up with back in Sacramento, Gordy? Well, he’s a former felon who did time for being a member of the SLA, and I’m worried that he might be up to his old tricks. You’re still on good terms with Lisa, right? How well does Lisa know her brother these days? I’m worried Ken might be in on it.”
“What do you mean ‘up to his old tricks’? Ken or Gordy? Lisa and Ken are brother-sister tight – best friends since grade school. They’re only a year-and-a-half apart. Been through a lot of stuff together – a total trust between them. If Ken’s up to something, Lisa would know.”
“Okay. That’s good. Next time you talk to Lisa, see if she thinks Ken is up to anything more than just organizing and escorting these days. Try to ask in an offhand way so she isn’t alarmed or goes running to her brother right away. Here’s what I know: I suspect Gordy has ties with a criminal enterprise up in Vancouver. See if Ken has anything to do with Vancouver.”
“Got you. I’ll give Lisa a call on Thanksgiving. Anything else I should know?”