A Fellow of Infinite Jest by T. B. Smith

Author:T. B. Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hellgate Press
Published: 2013-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

32

ALTHOUGH PLENTY BUSY, THE ONE-FIVE-THREE CLUB wasn’t crowded like it sometimes was shortly after second watch wrapped up at 11:30 at night. Bob Fiedler waited in the booth for Luke who’d detoured to the restroom before stopping at the bar for their second round of beers.

Luke soon pushed the beers onto the table and settled into the booth to pick at the remains of the rolled tacos and guacamole. He sipped from his Corona. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to hear more about your winning your job back through the civil service commission,” he said.

“Why so curious?” Fiedler responded.

Luke tried to put an innocuous expression on his face.

“It doesn’t matter,” Fiedler said. “I think every cop should know my story to deter Browner and some of the brass from screwing with the foot soldiers. A couple years ago, I started managing some apartments to get the free rent and supplement my income a little bit. “Laura was riding with me…” He looked up from his beer. “You haven’t met my girlfriend yet, have you?”

Luke shook his head.

“We’ll all have to get together soon,” Fiedler said. “We managed twenty-seven apartments in El Cajon, along with a few units on 48th Street, and some others on Marlborough a few buildings north of University Avenue. Dispatch advised me about a phone call from one of the tenants in the Marlborough complex.

“I was in the process of evicting a couple in an upstairs unit for failure to pay rent. They’d called me earlier that day to say they were done with their move, which, I might add, was a big relief to me since I didn’t have to go over and check the property until I got off work the following morning.

“Dispatch told me to call the people living beneath the vacated apartment. It turned out they’d tried to reach me at home, but got no answer since I was either asleep or at work when they called.

“When I called the guy back, he told me that water was flowing into his place from upstairs and that he was worried his ceiling might collapse. I drove over and crawled through a window into the upstairs apartment. Once in, I discovered the people I evicted had turned the water on in the bathroom, stuffed the sink with a towel and left the water running. It took about five minutes for me to temporarily fix the situation and Laura and I left right away. I was available for calls the whole time.

“There was significant damage inside the building, so I sued the evicted tenants in Small Claims Court. I testified about what had happened and so did the tenant in the downstairs unit. The evicted tenants countered with testimony that there was no water running when they left the apartment and they even produced sworn affidavits from a couple of friends who swore they’d helped with the move and that everything was fine when they all left the apartment earlier that day.

“That totally pissed me

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