The Boy and the Bookstore

Pete and Sam pulled up to a small house in a community neighborhood. There were some plants in the front yard. There was a lady two houses down that was out in her front yard working on her flowers.

“This is the only lead I got so don’t ruin it. It is kind of interesting though” Pete said.

“What do you mean? Summarize it for me.” Sam sat looking at the lady who hadn’t realized them.

“I looked into Henry Wellmeyer. There is no Henry Wellmeyer. At least not anywhere around here.”

“He used a fake name for the media… interesting. You figure out his real name?”

“I’m not positive but I found a guy with the name John Henry Hohmer. I had to look through some divorce papers and I found this name with a Carly Hohmer on the day you said he turned in his divorce papers. So I looked into her records. She has a ten year old son. From everything you’ve told me this is the only lead I got. I couldn’t really find much on the name John Henry Hohmer in such a short time. I got some internet clips about some amateur racing stuff. I didn’t meet him so I don’t know if he fits the profile or not.”

“Huh… well he’s a 41 year old overweight guy. Not that you have to be an athlete to be a driver I guess. You run a credit history on him?” Sam asked.

“Are you really that interested in this guy?”

“You’ll look through divorce records but not run a credit check on him?”

“Everything I did was public record. That other stuff takes time. You know I’ve been busy with Cam. That’s a higher priority right now. I’m actually getting some cash from that. You haven’t paid me for anything.”

“Oh shut up. Just wait here.” Sam said getting out of the car and walking down towards the lady that he assumed was Carly Hohmer. He took a few steps into her grass and said hello to gain her attention. She stopped watering her flowers and turned around and looked at Sam. He was wearing grey sweatpants and a light zip up navy blue sweater over a plain white shirt. She was wearing short jean shorts and a white graphic tee shirt that was too big for her. She looked him up and down first.

“Well you don’t look like a salesman. What can I help you with?” She asked.

“I don’t mean to bother you but I’m looking for a man I met the other night. He left his credit card at the bar and I wanted to return it to him. He told me to call him Henry but his card says John Hohmer. I looked him up and this is the only address I could find.”

“Yeah John used to live here. We’ve been separated for a while now.”

“Oh I’m sorry to hear that.” Sam said pretending as if he didn’t already know. “Well do you know how I might be able to find him?”

“Yeah he is over at his brother’s house on the weekends a lot. I’ll get you the address.” The lady walked inside and came out with a piece of paper a few minutes later. “If he’s not there his brother will probably know where to find him better than I will.”

“Thanks. You’ve been a big help.” Sam said walking away.

“Just out of curiosity” the lady yelled after Sam. He stopped and listened. “Why didn’t you just mail it to the address you found?”

“Because he actually told me he had gotten a divorce and I didn’t want to give a crazy ex-wife his credit card. I don’t think anyone deserves that. That and if I was wrong about the address who knows what somebody might do with a credit card.” Sam said and walked back to the car. He got in and handed Pete the piece of paper with the address on it.

They pulled up to a small white house in not the best neighborhood. The siding was peeling away. A garage building had been added onto the property behind the house. Sam got out and walked up to the front door and knocked. After a few minutes of waiting outside a man who looked like he was in his late 20’s answer the door and popped his head outside. He had short black hair and an unkempt beard.

“What’s up?” The man said.

“Hey, I’m looking for Henry. I was told he might be here.” The man laughed slightly.

“And who are you?” He asked.

“I’m Jacob.”

“Okay Jacob well I’ve never heard of a guy named Henry so somebody must have given you the wrong address. Sorry.” The man said shutting the door in Sam’s face. Sam heard some noise from the garage area. He walked back to the car and hopped in.

“Drive around the block and park behind this house.”

“Why? You think he’s hiding in there?”

“I think he’s working in that new garage. But they’re up to something they shouldn’t be. If he’s back there I’m going to approach him. If he’s not I’m going to write it off as a lost cause.”

“Alright.” Pete said driving around to the block behind the house they were just at. Pete parked in a spot where they could see the back of the house and some of the garage. Sam pulled out the binoculars to get a better look. He saw the man he had just talked walk out the back of the house towards the garage. A few minutes later the man and what appeared to be this John Henry Hohmer character walked inside the house and stayed there for the next ten minutes.

Sam felt into his pocket. He had a few of his pick lock tools with him. “I’m going to sneak into that garage and see if I come a crossed anything different.” Sam used his cell phone and called the one Pete was holding. You say something if they come back outside.” Sam got out of the car and walked down the street a little bit before cutting alongside a house. Pete couldn’t see Sam so he picked up the binoculars and watched the inside of the house for movement.

Sam rushed alongside the house and then hopped a fence and found himself in the backyard. He peaked towards the house and didn’t see anything. He quickly moved alongside the garage to where the door was. He tried the door knob and it was unlocked. He quickly opened it and shut it. The garage looked normal. They must have been working on a car. There was a newer black Saturn car with the hood propped open. Sam saw normal tools that any man would see. He looked over the car’s engine. Sam wasn’t an expert on cars but had been around the mechanic shop enough to know that this car had been illegally modified for the streets. Sam wondered what they were up to.

“We got some movement in the house. You might want to get out of there fast. Run if you have to.”

Sam looked through the garage door window and saw the two in the room heading towards the back door. It was a judgment call. Sam decided he was going to stay. This newly built garage was big enough for two cars. Sam saw a chair and a fridge. He quickly went over to the fridge and grabbed a beer out of it and sat in the chair. The lights flicked on and the two men walked into the garage. The smaller man jumped when he saw Sam sitting there. Henry just starred at Sam with a confused look. Sam ended the phone call he had with Pete.

“Well well well… looks like Henry is here after all.” Sam said still sitting in the chair. He took a sip of a beer.

“Get off my property or I’m calling the cops.” The younger brother yelled. Sam cocked his head to the side.

“Now why would you want to call the cops when you have an illegally modified car right here? It might raise questions.” Sam said. He was trying to judge the reaction of Henry but Henry had a good poker face.

“What are you doing here Jacob?” Henry asked calmly.

“I came looking for you. I just wanted to talk. Your brother over here told me you weren’t here and set off my suspicious alert by the way he was acting.”

“Well here I am. What did you want to talk about?” Henry asked. Sam looked at his brother. Henry muttered to his brother to go inside the house and his brother listened and left the garage. After the door shut Henry looked at Sam and was about to say something but Sam cut him off.

“What’s your real name? You told me it was Henry. Your ex-wife told me it was John Hohmer. Something just doesn’t fit.”

“My name is John Henry Hohmer. My dad’s name is also John so I like to go by Henry.” He walked over towards the fridge and grabbed a beer. He pulled up a chair and sat by Sam. Sam was eyeing his every move.

“That’s not the whole story though. If that were true your brother would have told me you were here. He would know that you like to go by Henry and not blown me off.”

“I told my brother to not let anyone know I’m here. Some lawyers had been bothering me about the divorce stuff and I owe some money to the banks.”

“That may be true but I obviously don’t look like either. There’s something you’re not telling me. It also doesn’t explain why you have a new car in here that you have supped up. That can’t be street legal. What are you planning to do?”

“What do you want from me? You trying to get me busted or something? I didn’t say anything about you to the cops for beating up that man.”

“See that was the original reason I came looking for you in the first place. I wanted to talk about that stuff but now this has me intrigued.”

“Intrigued? So you’re not trying to bust me?” Henry asked.

“Oh boy not at all, I came here to find out what kind of situation you were in to make sure you weren’t going to eventually bust me.”

“Really?” Henry questioned.

“Really. So I found some clips of you in some amateur racing. Did you switch to the illegal street races for extra cash now or what?” Sam questioned.

“No I don’t race anymore.”

“But you used to… so now what? You just fix up other people’s cars for street races and get away cars?”

“Basically. It’s more of a ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ policy I have with customers.”

“That’s kind of risky. What if they get caught and point the finger your way?”

“Small clientele base. Any street racer is usually good enough to get away or if they get caught they assume the driver does their own stuff. As for that other stuff well I’ve never had to deal with it. I can always just play dumb. I mean that’s basically what I did for you.”

“Yeah about that, what exactly did you say to the cops?”

“I just told them we were walking alongside the road and were thinking of splitting a cab home and then I thought you heard something so you took off and I followed you. I told them I saw the guy pull a knife on you and you protected yourself. That’s how he got so beat up. After we saw that he was unconscious you stated she was drugged and rushed her to the hospital.”

“You never saw him pull a knife on me though.”

“Well it was obvious he had. There was a knife on the ground and you obviously weren’t caring one. That guy wouldn’t admit it and that girl wasn’t a reliable witness. Better to just state that in case something happened. I was sure they were going to question you at the hospital.”

“Yeah I bailed. I drove her there and got her in and then I left her car and her keys in the parking lot. I got halfway home before I realized that the guy actually did cut me a little.” Sam said standing up and lifting up his shirt. He still had in some stiches.

“That looks bad. You sure it’s not infected?”

“Not yet.”

“So why did you leave? You afraid the cops would assume some wrong doings on your end?”

“You create illegal racing cars, let’s just say my stars aren’t exactly lined up in a straight arrow either. There are a few cops who I’ve made look bad and they’re out to get me. I try and stay away from them as much as possible.”

“I don’t think they would have given you much grief that night. You stopped a rape.”

“I also was intoxicated and assaulted a guy. Even though I believe the ends justify the means the law tends to look at it differently.”

“Yeah I know what you mean. You and I seem to have a lot in common. You know I actually lied to you earlier. I don’t prefer to go by Henry because my dad’s name happens to be John. His name is actually Jeff. I used Henry as sort of an alias. Henry O’Neil is a just a cover for all that car stuff. So if something happens to happen and they bring up Henry O’Neil to a cop well that guy doesn’t exist.” Sam couldn’t help but have a huge grin on his face. He was really starting to like this guy.

“So do you mind if I call you John then or do you want me to call you Henry?”

“You can call me John. I think we might become good friends someday.”

“I agree. I have a funny retort to your Henry O’Neil cover too. I doubt you’ve heard of a guy called Marcus Moreno but that is actually an alias I went by for a long time.”

“Long time? You’re in your twenties.”

“You have to constantly reinvent yourself to keep the cops off you.”

“I guess great minds think alike.”

The two of them continued to talk for a few hours like they had known each other their whole lives. Sam felt like he could trust John but he felt like it was too soon to trust a person he just met to admit that his real true identity was Sam and continued to go by Jacob. He figured there might come a day down the road where he would tell John the real story. Until that day came he planned to keep John at an arm’s length away from him like he did everyone else.