The Chronicles of Benjamin Jamison: Call Sign Reaper Read Online Free Page B

arrival.”
     
    On Anubis, there was no defined time for any business to open or close. You could keep the doors open all day and night if you wanted. But Gus didn’t want anything to do with being open around the clock. He opened at nine and closed at two in the morning. He was sweeping around all the tables when a beautiful woman in a sundress walked in and sat in the last booth along the wall facing the door. The kitchen was directly behind her. Gus was wondering what was going to happen today in his quiet little bar. First a brawl last night, and now this. He had never seen her before and he would have remembered a woman like her.
    “Good morning Ms. Can I get you anything?” he asked.
    “Is your coffee any good?” She figured that was an easy enough question.
    “My coffee is the best on the planet,” Gus said, puffing out his chest a little.
    “Well sir, in that case please bring me a cup please. Is it okay if I sit and read?”
    “It is no problem at all. If you want I will make that your personal table from now on,” Gus joked.
    The major could not help but laugh a hearty, friendly laugh and touch Gus lightly on the arm as she did. Gus thought it was the sweetest sound he ever heard. He walked away and got her a cup with some cream and sugar on the side. He started his sweeping again, thinking how he wished he were 30 years younger.
    The local patrons started drifting in for coffee. Andrea sat there sipping hers, which seemed to magically stay filled. She noticed the bruising on Cindy’s arm and neck. You wouldn’t know by her attitude and good humor that someone had tried to strangle her the night before. Some of the locals were talking about the excitement from last night. Two men sitting close by were recounting the events. Although Andrea had heard a lot of it, she did not get to see any of it.
    “Did you see how fast old Gus wrapped his towel around that man’s neck?” one man commented. “He was choking the shit out of him. It was great.”
    “But that young man Ben, he moved like the wind. He punched the big man in the ear and broke his leg. He had him down in seconds, and that was a big son of a bitch,” the man added. “I’m glad there were six of those assholes.”
    His friend looked at him, confused.
    “If there had been just a couple it would have been over so quick, it would have been no fun to watch,” the man explained with a chuckle.
    “What you smiling at, missy?” Gus asked Andrea as he approached her.
    “It sounds like you had some excitement in here last night,” she commented, nodding in the direction of the men she’d been listening to.
    “Aww, it was no trouble,” Gus said. “Some trash blew in the door off the street. A friend and I had to clean it up and take it out.”
    She remembered seeing some men dragging the spacers out in front of the bar by their feet and arms for the sheriff to pick up. “Do you think there will be any excitement like that again today?” she asked innocently.
    “No,” Gus said. “This is a quiet little establishment. That was the first trouble I have had in years. I don’t expect there will be any more.”
    About that time, Ben was coming down the back steps. He walked in the back door and through the kitchen, past the booth Andrea was sitting in, and sat down at the farthest end of the bar. He didn’t see her. She messaged for Matt and Bill to come in, telling them he had arrived. They said they were a couple blocks away and would be there in a few minutes.
    Cindy was behind the bar. He asked about Gus and she said he was in his office doing paperwork.  He looked at the clock — it was 1030. He had slept like the dead. His lip was a little swollen and his cheekbone hurt to the touch. He had no idea what he would tell the Vander Hoyts when he got home. Ma would be all over him like a mother hen and Pa would give him a lecture — at least in front of Ma. Later he would want all the good details of the fight.
    He asks Cindy for