Night Moves.

We decided it would be a fact gathering mission, no confrontation with the guilty parties, and as far as Benny was concerned he may have had his arse fired already for all we knew. As it turned out he hadn't, but there seemed to be another person, a reasonably big looking character, hovering around in the background, we suspected either the owner or the bar manager.

Because she could Ginia went into full chat up mood and found out he was the owner of the place. In a round about way Gin managed to get him to sit with us, although he wouldn't accept a drink, he was on the clock and didn't want to be impaired at this point in time, Ginia remarked, “Wow, Joe that's a bit serious, I thought you guys were laid back with your bar businesses, is it a bit stressful running something like this?”

I think Joe was a little bit pissed about Gin's comment initially until Gin held her arms up in a 'Come to Jesus' pose and a look of wonder in her eyes about the same time as she said 'this'. Good save girl.

“Yeah, it should be a walk in the park and it was there for a while, but I tell'ya if the right money came along I'd flick this place in a blink of an eye.”

I looked in Gin's direction and she had a 'Ok where do we go with this' look on her face so as she turned to reply I jumped in, “So Joe, in terms of money's what would we be looking at price-wise for your setup here?”

Maybe the over-eager buyer routine might help, and it did, it was back and forth for a while and Ginia asked questions that were so pertinent about the running of bars that we had him convinced that we were maybe interested in looking at buying it, We had me convinced of it as well.

So we had his ear, I don't know about his trust, I'd doubt it but he may be forthcoming with some information. Gin had a phone with audio recording capability and she had set it up for that purpose. Because picking it up mid-conversation might have been obvious Gin had had hold of it for a while. So I asked the question,“Joe, If I could ask, why are you so disenchanted with your bar then, why do you want to sell?”

“Ah, yeah well, It's got nothing to do with the bar, physically, at all. It's more a personnel problem, getting the right people for the job has been less than successful and we've hit a few pitfalls over the last six months, however some of those problems have been eliminated and others are at the point of being solved as we speak.”

And there it was. Ginia wouldn't of spotted it but I did in a flash. It wasn't anything but an eye movement, it was over in less than a second but it stood out because it was accompanied by a pause in Joe's speech. The eye's had opened wider than normal and then refocused on their target, sharpened and squinted and then in that split second his face showed true anger, of course the target was Benny. And then it was over and Joe continued his conversation, alleviated the moment by producing a wide smile and then he finished.

It took me a few moments to process what we were doing, what we needed to do and make a decision. Ginia kept the chat up while I finished my drink, I asked her if she wanted another - no, so I spoke first, “Joe, thank you for tonight, we will definitely think over what we've talked about and maybe get back in touch.” I held out my hand to Joe, so did Gin, all professional like, Joe offered his hand and thanks and we left, fast.

“M what's up? Why the rush?”

“We need to leave and we need to be seen that we're leaving.”

“Why, Mike why? What did I miss?”

“Honey, just don't worry about it, it's not important, do me a favour and smile and wave at the doorman.”

Actually we both did and threw in a nod, wave and a 'Good night' as well.

We were in the car and driving away when Gin asked, “Care to explain.”

“Nope!”

“Michael, what's going on? .....Mike, tell me, ....please you're starting to scare me.”

“Don't be, we're safe, don't worry we are fine, honey, ...okay we're fine.”

Yeah, I know. Wasn't gonna fly. I looked out the side glass, 'geez Gin, just please don't ask', I looked back to the windscreen and I could feel her stare, I tried to look at her apologetically and forlorn-like. She looked even angrier. FUCK IT, She can be such a fucking boy scout, girl scout, whatever.

“Michael,”she whispered, “TELL ME!” She yelled.

I took an exasperated breath, “It's Benny.”

“The barman!, this is about the barman!”

“Yep.”

“So tell me Michael, what is it about the barman? Benny, the asshole! What?”

“He's no longer a problem.”

She was thinking that one through, “What do you mean ..he's ..not.. longer? ...how do you mean..oh. ...Oh ..OH!!”