“What about the others?”
“Don’t quote me on this, but I believe the others are for Sally.There are a total of ten boxes, I only took the envelope off of one.We’ll probably have to open them all to find out what’s in them.”
“Why?”
“Because I received the same shipment when I arrived here.There were enough cameras to put on the house, in the trees leading up to the house, on the outside of the shop, and each box had its own monitor.”
“Sweet,” Warren said with a laugh.Paul waited for his eyes to adjust and looked around.
“Holy shit, what did you do?”
“Cleaned.”Warren laughed.“I got rid of some decorations that have been literally hanging around for years.I washed all the shelves, and the bottles.Scrubbed the tables, floors, and walls.”He looked at Paul with a grin.“I was even able to scour the spilled beer from the floor and walls in the walk-in cooler.After the storage rooms get finished being hauled out, I’ll start in on the kitchen.”
“Why all of a sudden are you doing this?If it’s been like this for years, why change?”
“Remember the last time I saw you?I said I was going to go out on my bike?Well, I had some time from work coming to me, like three weeks, and I took a couple of days off, packed up, and took off.I cleared my head.I did a lot, and I mean a lot of thinking.”He looked at Paul with a grin.“I’m surprised I didn’t start a forest fire with all the thoughts going through my head.Anyway, I got to thinking about how you and Petra want to use me, but not in a bad way.”He crooked his finger, and had Paul follow him.
“I know you’ve never been back here, and I totally forgot about this little gem.”
“What’s that?”Paul asked as he looked around at the giant but empty room.
“Remember when we first met, I told you grandpa opened this bar?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“He didn’t build it.It was built over a hundred years ago, and it was open during prohibition.”
“Are you telling me there’s a secret room here?”
“Rooms,” Warren said with a grin, and went over to the wall, reached up, and ended up pulling on a piece of the molding.Paul heard a faint click, and watched as a door opened.Warren invited him over to look, after he flipped a switch.
“I had to install the lights.I know I just told you I took a couple of days off, but when I returned, I learned of a new policy that was put in place while I was out.I only took three days before I returned and learned of this new hiccup.”
“Okay, what policy was that?”
“Use it or lose it.I have until the end of September to use all my vacation I’m due, or I lose it.I can’t roll it over anymore.When my anniversary starts on October first, I get four weeks.That’s due to my years of service.I have to use it between the first of October and the thirtieth of September.When I learned that.I worked for the next two weeks, and I’m off for the next sixteen days.I decided to clean this place up.When I remembered these rooms, I thought of what you said about bringing in the product for sale.”
Paul nodded as he walked around, then turned to look at Warren.“Is there an outside entrance?”
“There is,” Warren said and walked over to the wall, where he reached up and fiddled with the molding again, and walked through a totally different room, and again, he fiddled with the wall, and it opened into a tunnel.They walked it, clearing the cobwebs along the way, and came out in a stand of trees almost half a mile away.
“Oh, my God,” Paul said as he turned around.“What’s in that direction?”
“The main road.”
“Holy shit, you’re telling me that we can get the product in from the road, without anyone seeing us, and once the purchases are made, the buyers can bring it out through here, without the general public seeing them?”
“Yes, and if there are enough supplies, I’d like to set up some camera’s out at the road, and along the trail.”
“Since we won’t need them on every tree or bush, I’m sure we can do that.Where does the road go?”
“To town, it’s the main drag that you probably drove to get here.Do you recall seeing a wide pull off spot?”
“I did, what about it?”
“That’s the spot at the end of this path.”
Paul nodded, liking the set up.“Do you happen to have an area where you can set up the monitors so you can watch any activity on the camera’s.We’re going to want to set them up so that we can get plate numbers and descriptions of vehicles.”
