College Jobs Concluded

This is the final posting in the story “College Jobs”. To read the beginning of the story please click on the link on the right side of this page. Thanks for reading!

My heart sank when I heard Efrain’s voice. It had been a long and trying day, and I just wanted to be done for the night. Efrain didn’t have much to say. He wanted to know what I had seen, where she had gone, and who she had been with. I didn’t have the names of the coworkers the woman had gone out to eat with; how could I? Efrain seemed pleased with my efforts. Of course I neglected to mention the incident on the porch.

He didn’t seem to be concerned with the woman spending time with coworkers. It sounded like there was someone else he was waiting for. I had no way of knowing who this person was, but Efrain had asked me to contact him as soon as I saw a new face. I saved the number Efrain had called on into the prepaid phone and put into the bag with my other equipment.

That night I got online and did a quick search of the address where the woman lived. I was dying to know her name and who she was. The address came up on a number of real estate sites, but there was no name attached. One site offered to find the name of the owner for a modest fee of $150. Despite an intense desire to know her name, I wasn’t willing to spend 10 percent of my earnings for that one bit of information. I figured I could do some of my own detective work and figure it out.

The next morning was a Tuesday. I went through the same routine on Tuesday that I had on Monday. Once again nothing particularly exciting happened. The woman and her coworker mixed it up and went to a salad and soup restaurant, but other than where they ate there was no significant variation from the previous day. I sweated it out in the shade of the trees once again then followed the woman home. This job was extremely easy, but the boredom was making me think that it wasn’t worth the money.

Once again there was no mail in the box, so I still didn’t know her name. I wrote down the license plate number on her Malibu and thought that maybe I could somehow use that information to solve my little mystery. Of course, other than typing it into Google and seeing what comes up I had no idea what to do with a license plate number.

Efrain called that night for a brief chat, but there wasn’t much to report. His voice revealed a little more impatience than the first night. It was as if he was expecting something to happen soon and he needed to be ready for it. I assured him that I would let him know as soon as something happened.

“Don’t wait for me to call tomorrow night.” He said. “If you see something, call right away. This is important that you call me. Understand?”

I nodded my head up and down as though he could see me. It wasn’t too much to imagine that he probably could see me. He had probably been in my apartment while I was gone. He probably knew who all of my friends and family were. There was something about Efrain that was making me more and more concerned. He came across as uneducated and a little slow, but he made moves that were indicative of someone who understood organized crime. I began to wonder what Efrain would do when I let him know something “important” was happening.

Wednesday brought a change of schedule for the woman. She had left work an hour early and hurried home, only to reappear in a new outfit a short while later. She had obviously showered and made herself up. She wore a light colored skirt and a dark purple top. Once again she looked dynamite, but the thing that stood out to me was the hand bag in she carried. It was an oversized, brown leather bag that looked almost out of place. It was bulky and looked as though she was carrying something large inside of it. She hurried to her car and took off down the road.

I followed closely behind her car. She left her neighborhood and made her way to the freeway. We traveled north for 20 minutes and she exited the freeway. As soon as the off ramp light turned green she made a quick left and reentered the freeway in the direction we had just come. This was the first time I realized that she might be aware of my presence, and now she was trying to lose me.

My tires screamed as I also made the turn as quickly as possible and followed her back down the freeway. She exited near a large shopping center. We were in a part of town that was obviously built with the intent of attracting people with money. The street was made of small bricks laid in a fashion that created an intricate pattern. By this time the sun had began to set. The street lights were antiquated and cast a dim light over the shoppers who walked from window to window.

The woman parked and walked toward a restaurant on the north-east corner of a small intersection. I was lucky to find a parking spot directly across the street; it wasn’t as crowded as it would have been on a weekend. I watched the woman as she approached the restaurant. She looked around as though she was trying to find someone, or maybe she was trying to make sure nobody was following her. Under her arm she carried the leather hand bag with its bulging content.

From my car I could see the woman approach a table near the window. A man sat at the table and he stood as she approached. They embraced shortly and he kissed her on the cheek. I noticed that on the chair next to the man sat a large, black brief case. To anyone else in the restaurant it would have appeared as though a young couple was just sitting down to a nice dinner date, but all I saw was the brown, leather bag and the large, black briefcase.

I fumbled in my jacket pocket for the prepaid phone that Efrain had given me. I knew that this was the moment he had been paying me to observe, and I knew he would want to know every detail of what was happening. I pushed the send button and waited as the phone rang. Efrain answered and I quickly updated him on the situation. He wanted to know my exact location, so I gave him directions to the restaurant and told him where my car was parked. He cursed me for not calling him sooner, told me not to lose them, and hung up the phone.

I sat in my car and observed the man and woman as they ordered drinks and food. My stomach growled as I watched them receive their salad and bread sticks and proceed to eat. They talked back and forth and occasionally laughed. It would be impossible for me to determine the content of their conversation, but I was dying to know.

I had been watching the two eat dinner for half an hour when I heard a knock on my passenger window. My heart sank as I pictured a police officer asking me why I had been watching the couple for the last 30 minutes. I looked to my right and saw Efrain scowling at me through the window. He motioned to the door and I unlocked it. Efrain slid in beside me and asked what he had missed.

“Nothing” I said. “They are just eating and talking, but I can’t tell what they are saying.”

“Ok, you have done well, Wal-Mart man” Efrain replied. That was the first time anyone had ever called me Wal-Mart man.

“Look at those bags they have. I think they are carrying something. They might even be exchanging something” I said, as I pointed to the bags. Efrain looked at me out of the corner of his eye as though I was some kind of idiot. Maybe he was just trying to say, “Slow down, rookie.”

Efrain had a large black bag and began to filter through it. He pulled a large cone shaped object from the bag that had a pair of head phones attached. Efrain slipped the head phones on and pointed the cone at the man and woman.

“What is that?” I yelled.

“It’s a listening device, so I can hear their conversation.”

“What are they saying?”

“Shut up! Just shut up”

I sat quietly as Efrain listened to the conversation. The more of the conversation he heard the more visibly upset he became. Efrain had listened for only five minutes or so, when he took the head phones off. He turned to me and said, “I’m going in there. I need you to come with me.”

“No, I’m not going in there” I argued.

“I need back up. I need some muscle.”

“I’m not back up, and I’m not muscle. I don’t know what’s going on, and I’m not going in there.”

“Look, I need you in there, in case things get crazy.”

“If things get crazy that’s the last place I want to be.”

“Fine! Screw you! Stay out here and wait for me. Don’t do you dare leave.”

The intensity that Efrain spoke with scared me. It gave me a sense that I was in actual danger if I didn’t do as he said. I nodded my head affirmatively, and Efrain put the listening devise on the floor of the car. He got out of the car and began to walk across the street. As he entered the restaurant I could see him reach behind his back and fumble with something in his belt. I thought to myself, “There is no way he is carrying a gun, right?”

From inside the restaurant I could see Efrain approaching the table where the man and woman were sitting.  I quickly grabbed the listening device and pointed it towards the table. The first person I heard speak was Efrain.

“So, who is this then? You think Efrain has no feelings? This is how you treat your man, Efrain?” He was speaking to the woman but gesturing to the man.

“Efrain, what are you doing here? You aren’t allowed to be here!” the woman screamed.

“Love allows me to go anywhere I choose!” Efrain shouted.  

“Efrain I have a restraining order against you. You can’t be within 150 yards of me at anytime ever!”

My heart sank as the woman spoke. At that moment I realized that the entire time I had been aiding a man who was infatuated with this woman, and who had been told by a court of law that he could not be in her presence. Their relationship was romantic, at least from Efrain’s point of view.

“The man stood up and pointed at Efrain. “You need to get out of here, man” he said. “I have no problem removing you from the premises.”

Efrain reached into the belt behind his back, and I feared the worst. I could not believe what was happening, and I could not believe my involvement in it. From behind his back Efrain pulled a small necklace box and slammed it down on the table.

“I came here to give you this, to prove my love is deeper than this morons.” Again Efrain spoke to the woman and gestured to the man.

“That’s it, Efrain. It’s time for you to go” the man said.

“Don’t touch me!” Efrain screamed. “You wouldn’t want me to get my homeboys in here. They are waiting outside in the car, just for the chance to mess you up. They are as pissed as I am that you would come in here trying to take my girl. They are right out there.”

As Efrain spoke he pointed out the restaurant window and directly at me. I quickly ducked behind the dashboard so the couple wouldn’t see me.

“I’ll go outside, but I’m coming back with them” Efrain said.

“That’s it Efrain, I’m calling the police” the woman exclaimed.

That was my cue to get going. I started the car and headed for the freeway. Before I got home I pulled behind a grocery store and dropped Efrain’s listening device and bag into a large dumpster. I threw out the prepaid cell phone and my private investigator kit. I drove home not knowing what was next. Would the police come knocking on my door? Would Efrain ever show back up? Would the woman end up pressing charges against me?

I slid the key into my door and went inside. I sat on the couch and tried to control my breathing. I couldn’t believe I had been stupid enough to get involved in something so crazy. I decided that since I had the rest of the week off of work I would just get out of town for a few days. I packed some things up as quickly as I could and took off for some higher elevation.

I spent the rest of the week and the weekend camping in the mountains and trying to forget what I had experienced that week. On Monday I went back to work at Wal-Mart. I lived in fear for a long time. I looked over my shoulder constantly, but eventually the fear faded and I stopped worrying. I never saw Efrain or the woman again.