"As soon as Mrs. Blankenship realized something was going on, she had me contact the police. Wherever the chips fall, she will not be covering for her husband. He has made some very bad decisions in his life. A DUI is nothing to ignore. She is trying to get on with her life and make sure the dealership succeeds. It was an inheritance from her grandmother that allowed them to purchase the dealership in the first place. It has become a successful and dependable place to purchase and service automobiles and would like to continue to be that for the people of Austin," Dusty said quickly to the TV news people when he came out of the courthouse. The video Renee had been watching somehow made it to the press. Now everyone wants to know what happened.
"Mr. Malone could you tell us how many charges Martin Blankenship is facing," a reporter asked.
"No, he is being charged right now for a DUI and failure to appear. That will keep him in Nevada for a while. Keep in mind, he did the bad, not the dealership," Dusty offered and caught sight of the FBI guy he had been speaking with before the case was called. He was fighting extradition to Nevada bringing the media into the case.
Dusty didn't need to be in court, but he wanted to see this stupid man. He wanted to see if he wanted to self-destruct or was, he was so sure of himself and stumbled. He decides to be cheap and screwed up is what Dusty took from him. Whatever the situation he hoped he could smooth this over with the locals. They should expect some downturn in sales, but he hopes the people won't retaliate against the dealership when all the crap Martin was involved in came to light. Because it is going to be a lot and people will question how his wife couldn't have known. Right now, the only charge is drunk driving, but the FBI is now in charge. With all the questions they asked him they aren't playing around, and this case is growing.
*
"I was wrapping up fish guts from the catfish Joe caught and noticed Martin Blankenship's name on page six section A of the newspaper. Why didn't you call and tell me?"
"Right Monica and you call me every time your husband does something stupid. No, I don't think so. He is in jail and that is all that matters," Renee told her rather snippy.
"Excuse me for being concerned for you."
"Right, oh look Martin is not perfect let's rub Renee's nose in it. I know how you think."
"No, but it tells me what you think of me. How about we start this over, Renee I'm sorry to see your husband has gotten himself in trouble. Can I help or do anything for you?"
"No, I have it handled. I'm getting a divorce and taking everything."
"Why for a DUI," Monica asked. It seemed extreme to her.
"No, because," she said and told her what she found when she made it home from the horrible retreat, she dragged her to. The trouble she had finding a lawyer and all the information she found out about her wonderful loser of a husband.
"I'm sorry Renee no matter what I thought of your husband, I wanted the best for you."
"I know it's just that you all were right, I was naive. He saw me coming. But no more he has screwed this up big time and I'm taking it all and he will die in prison hopefully soon."
"You think so?" Her head spinning with all this information being dumped on her in the last few minutes.
"According to my lawyer, he should get thirty years and once they find everything, he was involved in it should go up to a life sentence. You know me once I cut ties with you it is over, and it is over for us. I'm out for blood and his balls.
My attorney is ruthless, and I plan to let him crawl all over his ass. What the police can't find he will. The Police wouldn't even check him out until we handed them the proof that he was a pervert," Renee complained angry that her sister found out. What did she expect this couldn't stay hidden behind her closed doors? Martin ruined that when he brought that girl into her house.
Renee could hear her sister breathing on the other end of the phone. She knew she was just waiting for another tidbit to throw in her face. 'See I told you he was no good,' she was just waiting for the opportune time to say it.
"Monica keep this information to yourself, please. I need to let you go someone is at my door." Renee lied it was better than telling her to go fuck herself. She was done for the day.
*
She spent hours at the dealership being friendly, talking to people, and most of all looking pretty. Looking pretty was the easiest part of the job. The main question asked was where Martin was and if he coming back. All she told them was she didn't think he would be. She knew the authorities had him here and the police in Nevada planned to come and get him once they could find out how Jamie Lynn AKA Angelia was able to come to Austin. If he was involved, he would be going back to Nevada for good. They just need to find out how her plane ticket was purchased. Meanwhile Dusty is working on keeping their money from being used in his defense. Renee will be damned if she is losing any more money on him.
For now, Bradley was doing a good job running the place. He gave her a quick rundown of the sales and apologized for not bringing his concerns about Martin and his missing time, and the girl working here to her earlier.
"But I work for the man, and I knew something was screwy, but nothing that sick," Bradley bemoaned the situation to her in the quiet of the office.
"Next time if you think at any time something is as you say screwy, is going on you call me on any employee. I want to know immediately. Never again will we hire young girls or boys as employees. We are going to be known as the old age dealership," Renee teased the group who encircled her as she spoke to Bradley.
Seeing Rick standing in the back Renee pointed at him. "I know for a fact you knew something was going on. Your wife was poor-mouthing me at the retreat she went to two weeks ago. If she knew I should have been told. If the next man I bring around here is doing something wrong, I expect you to tell me. The wife should know," Renee lectured them all. Rick stood in the background red-faced as the others stared at him. After that conversation, she left telling Bradley she would be back in the morning.
*
Renee pondered life sitting in her kitchen with her second glass of wine, worrying about becoming an alcoholic just like her mother. She expected Dusty to call at any moment, if for nothing else than to check on her. She knows he worries about her almost as much as she does herself. Just because she cut Martin out of her life doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. Everywhere she looks she sees him. This conversation there the sex they had here, and he was sitting in his favorite chair being sucked off by a baby. "What the hell is wrong with him?" She yelled as her doorbell rang.
Sliding off her bar stool she took her glass with her expecting it to be a kid selling candy bars for a choir trip as it was last week. She knows these kids see a fancy house and think they have money, and she does. That is why she has seven bars sitting on her credenza enticing her to eat them.
Two men in black suits one a lot taller than the other stood on her porch. She could see them, but the glass on the front door was distorted so people couldn't see in well, but she couldn't see out either.
"Well, it's not the kids," she mumbled, but didn't want to open the door either. Two men in black in her world equaled trouble. No way did they have good news. They may be reporters and she had nothing to say to them.
"She doesn't look like she wants to open the door," The taller figure said, and she heard.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Renee called out loudly wine glass sloshing in her hand as she used them to talk. For sure they aren't selling candy.
"Ah yes Ma'am, I'm Agent Parker and he is Agent White we need to ask you a few questions."
"Why?" Renee asks, taking another sip of her wine.
"Ma'am we were called in because we believe your husband was involved in the disappearance of several young girls. We would prefer to discuss this inside your home," the taller man was doing the talking. Renee could tell he was a hand talker too and the shorter man was just standing still the whole time.
"How do I know you're not press they have been calling all day," Renee yelled she had about had it with the news people. At home or at the dealership they had been bugging her. What the hell does the disappearance of young girls mean? She wanted to go sit down; this was all getting to be too much. Shifting in place she was looking for a place to hide when the same man called out,
"Mrs. Blankenship, we won't take long, could we talk to you inside."
"I don't know anything this is all news to me. I can't help you," Renee told them and turned to walk away.
"We can either talk here or at our office. I think you would be more comfortable here than downtown Ma'am."
Renee jerked the door open standing her ground and complained,
"Don't call me, ma'am, I'm not old," she stopped cold when she took in the man standing in front of her. He was gorgeous where the hell did, he come from she wondered and watched him give her a slow sexy smile. She knew it; they sent him to throw the women off their game. They do this on purpose the cops and now him just to throw her for a loop.
"Like I said I knew nothing about his dalliances until I came home and saw him with some young girl servicing his dick," she said turning away to let them in.
"We understand, but Ma' sorry Mrs. Blankenship you may know more than you think. We are trying to establish a timeline and were hoping for your help."
With a long-suffering sigh, Renee stood back and allowed them entrance. Noting the glass of wine, she had in her hand, Agent White wondered if they should wait to ask questions later.
Agent Parker noticed how pretty she was, how little she was, and how frustrated she was. Following her into the living room, she had them sit in matching chairs over to the side and plopped down on the floor as if she had given up on life.
"I'm sorry if we have added to your frustration, but we need to find out how long this has been going on," Agent Parker told her, as he introduced them to her.
"What, this? I told you I knew nothing. I was the stupid hapless wife going about her day ignorant and so sure her husband was satisfied at home. Stupid me, I didn't know he wanted twelve-year-olds," she whined out as she sat her glass down and lay back on her cherry wood floor. She was back to the tees and yoga pants.
Seeing her discomfort Agent Parker offered, "Would you like me to bring another chair over?"
Twisting to her side as she looked around the room, her squirming around sent a shot to Agent Parker's groin and he had to cross his legs to hide the evidence of his lust for this woman.
"Which chair, the one that girl was giving him a blow job in? I think not. I would rather sit on tacks," Renee said and moved around until she was sitting Indian-style in front of them. "Like I said I was a fool. He started going on overnight trips about ten months ago. He told me he would be in San Antonio or Midland not one time did he say he was going out of the state. Just little short trips honey to help the other dealerships. Acting so smug that our dealership was doing so well he was going to help others."
"This is the information we are looking for. So about ten months ago he started going out of town?"
"Yes, I have been racking my brain to figure out what the hell happened. Our lives have been going great we were talking about having a baby and then this girl is here with him."
"You didn't confront him at the time?" Agent White asked; he knew his wife would have come after him with a kitchen knife.
"No, I was in shock, I think. I couldn't believe he was doing this to me. He called me the next morning acting all innocent inquiring about what time I would be home, and I laid into him." She told them what she told her attorney last week and how her attorney found the information.
"Yes, we heard that, and we have agents in Houston speaking to him and his brother about exactly what they found."
"I gave them permission to look at our computer," Renee told them concerned, they would get in trouble for digging around in his personal affairs. Personal affairs hah what a crock, the whole world will know about them at this rate.
"So, what have you found out about these girls? Brodie indicated he found thirty-five different e-mail accounts. I only knew about two. He did spend hours in his office on his computer and would get mad when I interrupted him. "He claims he was looking for deals on used cars. He claims they make the most money on a used car. Buy low and sell high," Renee said, feeling like she was rambling on. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear what these FBI guys had to say. If she keeps talking, they can't. It seemed only reasonable to her. The problem was Agent Parker was looking at her wondering if she was going to stop talking. Taking a sip of her wine, she took his cue and stopped.
"We have found sixty-five e-mails strings most are to young girls all over the country. Yes, some are work-related and yes, he was looking for used cars; but most of his time here and at work is interacting with young girls to let him come and see them. Now our problem is that a number of these girls have been reported as runaways. Some of the girls have been gone six months without a sign. Angelia Monroe left home eight months ago. You can imagine what the families are dealing with, not knowing where these girls are. He seems to have a type and you are the epitome of what he looks for," Agent Parker told her.
"Right, they are just a whole lot younger. My attorney told me he was a pedophile when I described how we met, and he nailed it. I was just stupid, I thought I was his dream girl, and I was. I looked young, but was legal," Renee told him and batted her eyes as if she were a Southern bell.
"So now what, is he going to stay here or go back to Nevada? And have you found out how much money he spent on chasing these girls around the country? I want to know because that is coming off the top of what he gets. I'm not going to the poor farm because of him," Renee told them she took the last sip of her wine and sprawled out on the floor, she was feeling no pain but was uncomfortable sitting on that hard floor. She wanted to roll on her stomach and kick and scream for an hour. Instead, she shifted to her side and propped her head on her hand. "See I told you I didn't know anything. I'm just the clueless wife sitting at home waiting for her man," she said trying to sound like the girl on Beetlejuice. She thought she did a good job, but they didn't laugh so maybe she didn't. Sliding her foot out she ran it along Agents Parker's shoe. She expected him to move it, but he didn't he smiled, and her heart rate shot up.
What the hell was she doing, she was still a married woman, and that man was looking to keep him locked up. Whispering "Sorry," she told him once she caught his eye. That should take the strange out of it. But she would like to climb all over him. The realization she would be free to do as she pleased sent a jolt to her middle. She wondered if he was married. Soon she could climb all over him if he was not.
She rolled to her back sat up and crossed her legs. She was so uncomfortable, but she would be damn if she was going to sit in that blow job chair.
"So, when you came home did you have clean sheets on your bed," Agent White asked.
Renee looked up at the ceiling, wondering if she had. Blanca had her so spoiled she wouldn't notice the sheets.
"I didn't notice. Do you think he had her in my bed? Shit, now I have to replace that too," letting out a low groan she was tired of this. Stomping her bare feet on the floor she wondered what else had he done. The thought of burning the place down made her smile. Probably wouldn't be smart to tell them her idea.
Agent White was droning on, and Renee caught only a few words at a time. Was it because she didn't care or because she was overwhelmed with the situation? When she looked up Agent White was looking at her as if he expected an answer from her.
"What? You thought I comprehended what you said," Renee asked sarcastically. "I'm past listening my mind is running in circles. I was set to have a baby and my life was laid out before me. Now I'm the wife of a cheating pedophile and I'm stuck here having to deal with his mess," Renee said sounding exacerbated by this whole situation. What the hell was she going to do now?
"It is ok, we will let you calm down and try to catch up with you later," Agent White said Agent Parker, has stopped talking. Shifting to get up, he tapped Agent Parker on the shoulder to get him moving. They were getting nowhere with this lush.
"Just be it known my attorney did nothing wrong. He only did what I told him to do. And that was find out what my husband has been up to."
"Your Lawyer is not in trouble, he just opened a can of worms; but that is Ok, we love sorting out the worms," Agent Parker told her with a dangerous smile that got her body humming.