Chapter 6: The investigation

     After the boys observed the inactivity at the bushes they left and went up to the street level. As they emerged, they walked towards Joske’s to catch the bus. Joe looked up and saw the guy in the gray suit walking towards them. As he got closer, he started jogging. Joe alerted everyone, “That’s the guy. He’s coming towards us!” They all turned and ran. They were at Joske’s front door. They ran in with the gray suit in pursuit. They went up to the fourth floor. As they went around to the down escalator, they saw the gray suit emerge on the floor from the up escalator. Each boy jumped on the down escalator slide and went. There were no observers, they just went, one after another. All three were on the first floor in a matter of seconds. The boys ran out of the store and headed for the bus stop. The gray suit had no idea what happened. He completely lost them.

     The boys jumped on the bus out of breath. It was an old bus, but they didn’t care, they just wanted to get out of there. On the bus the boys just stared at each other for a few minutes. Dave said, “So, he is after us.”

     Mike had the bug eyes, “I told you. What are we going to do?”

     “Well, we can’t come downtown for a while,” Joe said.

     Mike said, “What about the girls, what should we do? They wouldn’t leave the bushes voluntarily.”

     Joe was getting flustered, “Mike’s right. We need to find out what’s going on.”

     Dave was thinking, “There’s a guy that lives next door to me. He’s an old guy. I mean grandpa old. He used to be a cop, but he retired. We could tell him about it and see what he thinks. He just sits on his front porch all day. He’s really nice. Yeah, let’s talk to him. For now, let’s split.”

     The boys agreed as they arrived at their home stop. They were baked from the heat of the old bus and now they get to head to their unairconditioned homes.

     The next day the boys met at the corner and went back towards Dave’s house. On the porch next door to his house was an old guy. No, this guy was ancient. He looked to be maybe sixty five, seventy years old. He was sitting on a porch swing as the boys walked up. Dave said, “Hi Vince. Are feeling good today?”

     The old man looked at the boys and smiled, “Yeah buddy. I’m doing alright. Who’s the new guy?”

     Dave introduced Joe. Vince was familiar with Dave and Mike. Dave continued, “Hey Vince, weren’t you a policeman in San Antonio?”

     Vince nodded in the affirmative, “Yeah, I worked there for thirty five years. I ended up in the detective office, specifically homicide for many years.”

     All three boys’ mouths dropped open at the same time. They needed to hear those words so they could comfortably tell him their story. Joe started off, “Vince, we had something happen a few days ago and we’re scared.” Joe proceeded to tell the story of their watching Debbie get stabbed. They wanted to know what they could do about it.

     Vince was understanding. He said, “Y’all give me the information about what you saw. I’ll call my buddies and see what they know. I won’t mention any of y’all’s names. That sound okay?

     The boys nodded in agreement as Dave gave him details. Dave described Debbie and the two shady looking guys. He also told Vince about the run in with the gray suit at Joske’s yesterday. The boys all concurred on Dave’s details.

      Vince said, “Give me a few days to find something out and I’ll let you know.”

     The boys told Vince thank you and went back towards the vacant lot to talk. The boys came to a corner and Dave looked at his watch, “Hey! Mike, look what time it is.”

     Mike looked at the watch then at Dave, and at the same time they both said, “Rhonda!”

     Dave and Mike motioned to Joe to follow them. They went around the corner to an alley. The whole time Joe was asking, “What’s going on? Who’s Rhonda? What are we doing?”

     Dave said, “just follow us. We’ll show you.” Dave and Mike had a determined look on their faces as Joe followed. They walked down the alley a short distance and stopped at a house. The three boys stood at the back fence for a moment. There was a small, quaint, white framed house facing the street. Everything was in good shape including the lawn. Behind the house where the boys were was a garage with an apartment overhead. The garage and apartment looked homey like the house.

     Dave explained, “The people in the main house are old and never come outside. You’ll notice the detached garage with an apartment over it. That’s where Rhonda lives. It’s about time for her to come home. She’s so beautiful. She goes up to her apartment and changes clothes in front of the side window there. You can see everything.”

     Joe looked at Dave, “You’re peeping Toms?”

     Mike said, “Believe me, you won’t want to miss this.”

     Joe looked at the guys, “So basically you two have turned me into a criminal. How many laws have we broken in the last few months? I mean Hemisfair, the river, Debbie, and now this?”

      Dave said, “You’re not a criminal until you get caught. We’ve never been caught. We’ve never hurt anybody. We’re not going to hurt anybody now. She’ll never know we’re looking at her. She’ll finish changing and we’ll leave, and no one will know anything.”

     Mike continued, “We’re fixin to go over this fence and climb the tree in front of the window. Now that it’s about summer all the leaves will hide us, and we can watch her.”

     The boys climbed the fence and made their way to the tree. All three climbed up the tree to a lower branch and took a seat. They were lined up on the limb like three birds on a wire. Mike was right, the leaves covered them completely and she would never see them. The boys were up there for several minutes before Rhonda pulled up in the driveway. She got out of the car and walked upstairs to her apartment. Joe was seeing Rhonda for the first time. She had a beautiful face, blonde hair, and she was round. She was round in a good way. She bounced as she walked, and the boys were in awe. She had on a tight white flowered blouse and a short red skirt. The boys couldn’t help but notice her make up. The bright red lipstick just topped everything off.

     Rhonda disappeared for a moment as she entered the apartment. Sure enough, she came into the bedroom and stood in front of the window. There must’ve been a mirror there because she kept staring at something. She must’ve been looking at herself. The boys were mesmerized. They stared as Rhonda started to unbutton the blouse. In seconds the blouse was off, and she was undoing her bra. The boys have a front row seat to the show.

     All the boys were getting worked up. She had an amazingly large, perfect chest. Mike had it the worst. He started fidgeting as certain bodily functions were making him uncomfortable. The fidgeting progressed to the point where Mike was losing his balance on the limb. Nobody was watching Mike; all eyes were fixed on Rhonda as she took her bra off. There was Rhonda, in all her glory. She stood there admiring herself, and she had every right too. It was fantastic. She turned slightly towards the window giving the boys a wonderful show.

     Now all the boys were fidgeting, but Mike was losing it. He suddenly came to a tipping point and started to make some noise. Dave and Joe’s attention went to Mike. Dave whispered loudly, “Mike! Stop it!”

     It’s too late. Mike fell from the tree. As he hit the ground it made a loud thud. Dave and Joe looked back up at Rhonda, and she grabbed her blouse to cover her chest. They were busted. Dave looked at Joe as he did a real quick, quiet in trouble zua and said, “Time to beat feet.”

     Now Dave and Joe jumped from the tree making more noise. Rhonda stuck her head out the window and screamed, “You little perverts! I’m calling your parents and the police.”

     As the boys hit the fence Dave yelled, “Tally ho, tally ho.”

     That was code for split up and meet at the Laxon house vacant lot.