I Bought The Sun For A Dollar Read online

  “I appreciate your candidness, Mr. Hayes. Honestly, it’s rare when I know what you’re thinking.”

  Hayes frowned at her. “And it should remain that way.” He remained ensconced in silence for a long moment. “I am sort of having a problem with a comment you made.”

  Kate was well aware Hayes was privy to every word she uttered on the date thanks to a monitor on her phone that also was listening in.

  “You said your bosses are tough to please. Just what do you mean by that? Is this some form of insubordination?”

  “It was just Lou Ann’s character emoting and nothing more.”

  “Are you certain, Ms. Sizemore?”

  “Quite,” Kate lied. And screw Hayes, he was lucky to have an investigator like her in his employ. She wasn’t going to keep this fact silent. “Don’t pull me off this assignment. I promise you won’t be sorry.” Kate enjoyed Hayes’s silence. Had she just been cryptic?

  *

  “We can’t talk about this over the phone.” Sarah’s tone was sharp.

  “I know. I know.” Lori was flummoxed. She just wanted to leave the botched robbery attempt in the past. She hung up the phone and began to prepare for a dreaded rendezvous.

  The women met on a park bench as mid-afternoon clouds rolled over them.

  “Is this undercover enough for you?” Lori wisecracked.

  Sarah peered at the sky. “You laugh. You’re the one who probably screwed up our score; sitting in the kitchen distracted by cereal of all things. Don’t you want more? Don’t you want a good summer?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t want one where I have to wear a parka.” The girls locked eyes for a few seconds. Lori began to speak but Sarah sighed.

  “Save it.” Sarah barricaded herself from Lori with an outstretched arm. “Okay, maybe we both came upon bad luck. I mean, this dawg can’t be the only one with no cheese in his drawers.”

  Lori hated when Sarah talked gangster. “He probably is, Sarah. You’re too stupid to see it. There’s an economic collapse already in progress. We’re not the only ones being affected.”

  “I didn’t come here for your negativity, your…opinions.” Sarah shot her a look of disdain with furrowed brows and shaking head.

  “You’re going to have to do your heists solo because I’m smart enough to walk away when given a message. So, I’m not being negative. I’m just exploring a chance to right my path. This house was meant to have nothing in it.” Lori stared straight ahead.

  “What is this holier than thou attitude?” Sarah shook her head in disbelief and stared at the ominous grey clouds forming overhead.

  “I don’t have to tell you everything. I have my reasons.” Her arms were folded across her chest, defiant.

  “You better reconsider. You better come to your senses and realise that you’re going to be roaming the streets like some stray cat unless you do what’s necessary in life. People put us in this predicament in the first place because they weren’t very nice. You have to fight fire with fire.”

  Lori nodded to appease Sarah.

  “We’ll meet again here tomorrow and we’ll talk about a new neighbourhood, Capish? For now, I suggest you take cover from the storm.”

  Lori sat on the bench accepting the fact that the storm would descend on her. She was keeping a secret from Sarah, a secret which made home invasion seem petty and insignificant.

  Chapter Six

  Kate Sizemore was playing Lou Ann again, index finger twirling strands of hair, conversing in a southern drawl.

  “My, it’s so nice to see you again, Timothy. How long has it been?” She glanced at her watch and laughed at her own playful joke. “Not very long but I guess it depends on how you perceive time. Although, the darkness of the night really did make me feel separated from you.” The pair had skipped meeting the previous night because Timothy said yesterday morning’s events had drained him. Kate marvelled at the man’s reaction to a sunrise. Honestly, she hadn’t felt a tremor of emotion during the event but Kate did like Timothy. She felt he was worthy of a better date than her alter ego - ditzy Lou Ann.

  Kate took note of Timothy blushing. She didn’t have to pretend it was endearing to her or Lou Ann.

  “I know. I just couldn’t wait until tonight.” Timothy glanced around the restaurant. “Besides, I can take a long lunch because I’m about to be terminated anyway. But what about you, Lou Ann, am I keeping you too long?”

  “Not at all, I can stay later tonight if my boss has issues.” She shook her head from side to side and then laughed. “Yeah, here’s to letting him have his issues.” She raised a glass of water and it clinked with Timothy’s.

  “I wanted to tell you some momentous news. I finally named my new roommate.”

  “Should I do a drum roll on the table?”

  “Okay, I can see I’m being an idiot.” Timothy pursed his lips in a failed attempt to conceal a smile. “She’s going to be Helena. She was a sun goddess who lived thousands of years ago, supposedly, I mean, according to history, mythology…” His brows furrowed. “Is mythology history or just plain fantasy?”

  “I’m not sure but either way I bet your little pussy is tickled pink.”

  Lou Ann enjoyed the way Timothy squirmed, obviously considering the double entendre.

  “Well, I do have some odd news. I refuse to call it bad because the old Timothy is not to be unleashed from his dark and very restrictive closet anytime soon. Anyway, that video we made on the Internet is acting kind of strange, disappearing and reappearing at will. I wonder if someone is tampering with it.” He drummed fingers on the table and nodded with eyes fixated on his plate. “I know that sounds like crazy talk, unfounded paranoia. But the number of hits it received is kind of staggering.” He returned his eyes to Lou Ann. “I’m seriously thinking of bringing as many people as I can into the experience. I think the video’s way of winking in and out is another sign.”

  Lou Ann stabbed her fish with her fork. “Oh, and what would that sign be, dear?” Her eyes widened.

  “Wow. You’re amazing. I love that accent. Can you say, dear, again?”

  “Not until you tell me what your grand plan is.” She attempted to be as provocative as possible, angling the piece of fish into her mouth with care.

  “I’ve already got it under way. I’m posting invitations for people to attend live sessions of Organized Dissonance. It might be the only way for people to see and feel what I have. I mean, didn’t you feel a tingle, a sensation when you experienced the rising sun?”

  “I experienced a few things.” Lou Ann giggled.

  Timothy ploughed ahead as if Lou Ann hadn’t answered. “I just hope I’m not going to be taken advantage of. I had an incident at my home just prior to my experience, right before I met you in fact.”

  Lou Ann could almost feel her ears pricking up like a cat’s. “Tell me what happened. You can’t very well leave a girl in suspense.”

  “I had a break in. Nothing much was taken because I didn’t have much to take thanks to my ex. Anyway, the robbers got away. The police really didn’t seem to care about catching them. In fact, I think in some twisted way they thought I staged it of all things. But I didn’t of course and that’s when things began to get weird for me. I heard giggling coming from the wooded area, right near the spot I took you to.”

  “I can’t say what that means, Timothy. I just remember you taking my hand in yours. It was so magical.”

  “Yes! That’s it. It was like magic and so was that giggling. It led me to that spot. I still don’t know what it signifies or if I imagined it but I felt it put me on my new life path.”

  “I will walk that path with you. But not in my best shoes.” She flashed a grin.

  Behind the grin, Kate pondered the robbery. She bet Ron Hayes would love to know all about it and she also suspected he had the means to investigate it even if the police didn’t.

  *

  Chao-Zing Zheng tapped at her keyboard while restless undergrads whispered among themselv
es in the auditorium. She was having trouble with the slide show – again. She knew visuals were a very important means to connect with students and the astronomy teacher didn’t need another reprimand from Washington University heads about how ‘ineffectively’ she was teaching her courses. Over the years, they had been adamant that Zheng preclude astrology from her lectures. Perhaps failing to operate a Power Point presentation might be the straw to break their collective, unseeing backs.

  George Rainey was waving his hand wildly. Chao-Zing could see it from the peripheral of her left eye. She was attempting to hide how flustered she was feeling. Accepting assistance from George might dissipate the last shred of respect her students might feel for her. It seemed many of the students also grumbled when she talked of the mystical or metaphysical. They were trained to dismiss such notions as nonsense as all Westerners were. She fantasized about balling her fist in rage and railing at them for their close-minded upbringings. Eastern astrology was a serious subject of education for Chinese students and not superstitious dribble as it was made to appear in the astrology forecasts printed next to the comics section of newspapers. Well, these kids probably never leafed through a printed paper anyway, at least not in recent years. Another part of her felt silly trying to change the paradigm of the western world; students must be willing to accept new ideas and knowledge by their own volition because that too was part of eastern education.

  “Okay, Mr. Rainey. Will you kindly address my technical issue?”

  Chao-Zing blushed while students snickered.

  “You just need to do this and this?” George said in a soft voice so the class couldn’t hear.

  Chao-Zing nodded in appreciation for his discretion.

  “Okay, let’s get on with the show. Life in the universe is of course our field of study for today. I want to speak of the analemma, the positioning of the sun from north to south and east to west over the course of a year from the earth’s perspective. The sun’s course often resembles a figure eight. It was imperative for the ancients to understand its movement because their survival depended upon it. The sun not only symbolized death and rebirth with its setting and rising, but it was a key for crop survival. Great stone circles as you can see on this slide were built some 13,000 years ago to track the sun’s positioning. I believe the sun’s positioning not only affected crop output but also changed the way the ancient’s might have felt about their day-to-day existence.” Chao-Zing exhaled knowing she was about to cross the line again. It was obvious to her the heavenly bodies had a significant impact on humans no matter how distant each might be from the other. But this understanding smacked of astrological nonsense to westerners who believed so-called dead floating objects in a faraway corner of the universe couldn’t possibly have any impact on their beings. Western science was only beginning to admit a conscious energy might impact the entire universe at every moment in time, in theory.

  She continued her slide show and explained how the analemma might be tracked today using computers, a far cry from using monoliths, she quipped. “Keep an eye to the sky and be aware you are living in the moment.” She always ended her lectures with this phrase which probably sounded cryptic to her students. It certainly wouldn’t be odd to the ancients whose very existence depended upon keeping an eye toward the heavens. Would her students go on to become professors, robotically teaching another generation how heavenly bodies moved but not how they connected with us on a constant basis?

  George waited until the students filed out of the auditorium and approached her podium with catlike stealth. “I think I found something you might want to see. Apparently, this guy is keeping a watch on the skies. According to Lifestream, he’s even getting a following.”

  George’s iPad revealed Timothy Ray’s invitation to Organized Dissonance: ‘An informal meetup to intentionally reconnect humans with their life source, the sun.’ The ad suggested bringing your own refreshments and a means to record video and pictures. This man sounded as technologically challenged as she did.

  “I guess he’s kind of a nut.” George said, without hesitation. He quickly added. “But a good kind of a nut, I suppose.” He smiled sheepishly.

  “I suppose he’s seen the light. But I don’t want to influence my students in any manner regarding my personal viewpoints.” She adjusted her glasses. “Got that, Mr. Rainey?”

  “Crystal clear, Professor Zheng.”

  *

  Helena bristled when Timothy popped through the door with arm around his date.

  “I can only stay a minute. My long lunch can’t last too long. But we can see each other tonight if you like.”

  “I would like that.” Timothy lip locked with Lou Ann for a long moment. “I just wanted you to see that I have a roof over my head. That I’m not wandering the woods day and night.”

  “I bet Helena appreciates that.” Lou Ann bent over to extend her hand to Helena but the cat arched its back and hissed at the woman who pretended to be someone else.

  Chapter Seven

  The pressure was bearing down on her, she could almost hear the ticking of an invisible clock in her mind. If Lori had what she thought she had, time was indeed limited. What should she do with her remaining time?

  Lori dismissed Sarah’s threats as desperation. Her flaky partner in crime was co-dependent upon her and had no interest in her welfare or well-being. Certain that dark path was not a correct course to pursue, Lori ignored Sarah’s phone calls and texts. There would be no other meetings to discuss home invasions.

  Nagging guilt over the break in competed with worry for her health. Lori struggled to recall the victim’s name. It was clearly marked on his mailbox. What was it? When she had seen it, it reminded her of something that shined and the name of a blind blues singer from the 50’s. Ray. Yes, that was it. Only Ray wasn’t his first name. It was his surname.

  Lori typed the name into the search field of Lifestream. It produced more results than she cared to peruse. The third page of results produced the name ‘Timothy Ray.’ Her heart skipped a beat. She assumed this feeling was alerting her that this name was the one which matched the mailbox. For a split second, she was back in his yard, skulking around.

  His avatar was a picture of the sun. Sort of flaky, she thought, but his place did seem pretty weird. She scolded herself for judging like Sarah did to her. Besides, what would Timothy Ray say about her, especially if she copped to what she had done? She cupped her face in her hands because it was scary to think of what he might say. But he had a right to say whatever he wanted. She had wronged him, after all. Lori needed to walk a path of redemption before all was said and done. She wouldn’t necessarily classify herself as religious. Perhaps she was spiritual but wasn’t certain what that actually meant. Maybe this Timothy was a new ager and would understand what she had done.

  Lori tapped the link to his profile. It offered her a chance to request his partnership. Before she clicked on it, she read a passage about a group he was forming to put people back on their correct life track. Her head swam drowning in the surreal moment. She had sought him out to do that exact thing. Only she wasn’t sure how long a path her life track was anymore.

  *

  Ron Hayes reread Kate Sizemore’s report with a perverse gusto. It was thorough and exactly what he needed to convince him Kate was the woman for the job.

  She reported her conversations with Timothy in painstaking detail. Hayes found them alarming and distressing because it didn’t seem this Timothy Ray was going to give up his dangerous quest anytime soon. He was like a disease threatening to spread and he imagined those who contracted his firm would be distressed to find such a cancer in the populace. But Hayes would not report his findings to his employer, at least not right away. Not when he could solve the problem himself. He had an employee with an investigative background in Kate and she didn’t leave out a single detail, especially about Timothy’s complaint about a break-in.

  Surveillance equipment came in handy in these events. Hayes wasn’t s
ure the robbers played any part in Timothy’s life but he was going to be thorough. He may as well utilize everything he had at his firm’s disposal including the street lamp cams which indeed provided a recording of the two suspects Timothy alluded to. Thermal infrared imagery was the ticket. It didn’t matter if the two suspect’s faces were hiding in dark shadows or even if they were overly illuminated by a bright summer’s day. The tech would ‘see’ what they looked like.

  Hayes felt like skipping down the hallway to meet with an expert on facial recognition software. “These two geniuses actually thought clothing would hide their ID. Imagine that,” Hayes said to the techie, Jim Parsons.

  “What are the subjects suspected of?”

  Hayes’s enthusiasm dipped. “That’s a need to know as always, Jim.”

  “I was just wondering if they might be in a crime database. That’s all I was getting at, Supervisor Hayes.”

  “My gut tells me you won’t find them convicted of crimes. I think they’re amateurs and amateurs aren’t bright enough to keep their ID off social media.”

  “Understood, Supervisor Hayes. I’ll begin by matching the images on Lifestream.”

  Hayes patted Parsons on the back. “You do that. And call me Ron from now on.” Hayes felt empowered by the likes of Kate and Jim. From now on, he would pretend to treat them as equals. It was for the cause.

  *

  Lori couldn’t believe she was doing this. They always said criminals return to the scene and here she was living the stereotype.

  The sun blazed its glory all through the trees and illuminated the leaves just as Timothy had informed everyone it would. It was a different way to spend a Saturday morning. Lori usually slept in to try to avoid thinking about her financial predicament. But suspecting she had a serious health issue kicked her lethargic ass out of bed along with a true desire to make amends with Timothy.

  If he suspected she was the woman who broke into his home, he hadn’t let on. He had a cute smile. It wasn’t the type most women fell head over heels with. It was kind of crooked at times but Lori felt it was endearing the way a cute animal might affect her. He was drawing her to him. He seemed to have much more impact than the sun. She realized with guilt it was not a proper reaction. She was here to seek forgiveness.