Starting Over V, Chapter 1.
This is the fifth section of the continuing saga "Starting Over". In Part I, LTC (Retired) John Jackson had moved to Seattle after being widowed. He ran into some trouble and some decent people (okay, and a few strippers), while working towards getting his private investigator license. That took place between Sep and Dec 2012.
In Part II, he got involved in a ring trafficking in young women. The main perpetrators were captured, but the hired gun/enforcer slipped away. That took place in Apr and May 2013.
In Part III, which took place in 2013 and 2014, John managed to find the enforcer in Key West and was planning to kill him, but changed his mind. He really didn't know if he could kill someone in cold blood, but the man was living with a woman and had decided that he was retiring. John let him go with a promise to do intelligence work for him and returned to Seattle, where Maggie gave indications that she wanted a serious relationship. Then he used that enforcer from Key West to assist in capturing an assassin. The assassin had been hired to kill him and the detective who helped him break up a leg of a human trafficking chain.
In Part IV, it's 2019. John and Maggie couldn't work things out and now John was working on a case that, at first, involved someone who had assaulted Luke's wife Maria. John then had two men try to break into his apartment to attack him. The authorities caught the two men by tracking them to a strip club, but John got beat up by them before the police got there. When he woke, he found that Vanessa, his waitress at the strip club, was an undercover officer. There were several events that were taking place and it was being done by an anarchist group. However, funding for these events was tracked to someone in human trafficking in Singapore by a hacker that John found through Bob in Key West. He returned to Seattle with the information on a thumb drive, and the FBI and others started tracking him. Finally, the master of the human trafficking ring had his son try to soft sell John's daughter into visiting Asia with him, primarily to kidnap her. John found out, he and his buddies stopped it, and then John, feeling the rage, flew to Singapore and, with the backdoor assistance of a government person, was armed and killed both the leader and his son of this trafficking ring.
Recurring Characters
LTC (Retired) John Jackson, 5'11", 180, 55 years old.
Marie Jackson, John's dead wife, 5'8", 140, 44 years old, died 15 Jan 2012
Angelica Jackson (Angel), John and Marie's daughter, 5'5", 125, 28 years old.
Mary Bradford, bartender, 5'5", 120, 48 years old.
Margaret (Maggie) Bradford, Mary's sister, 5'6", 115, 46 years old, and John's love interest.
Madeleine (Maddie) Bradford, Maggie's daughter, 16 years old.
Juliet Margolin, waitress, 5'4", 145, 24 years old, Mary's cousin.
Samantha (Sam) Walker, 5'6", 130 pounds, 48 years old, John's neighbor.
Joyce Walker, Sam's daughter, 5'4", 120 pounds, 28 years old, and now an exotic dancer using the name Lily
Marion Walker, Sam's daughter, 5'4", 115 pounds, 26 years old.
SFC (Retired) Craig Smithson, 6', 190, 55 years old, NCO from John's Army unit.
Captain Jeff Smithson, 5'11', 185, 53 years old, SFC Smithson's brother and a captain in the Seattle Police Department.
George Watkins, 6'4", 280, 45 years old, bouncer.
Jeanne (aka Jasmine) Welch, 5'5", 110, 23 years old, exotic dancer.
Olivia, 5'4", 120 pounds, 30 years old, called Livy, exotic dancer.
Luke Cole, 5'10", 180, detective in the Seattle Police Department.
Maria Cole, 5'6", 135, Luke's wife.
Marcus Candiotti, strip club manager.
Max Meridian (real name Harold Johnson), Mark's lead kidnapper and enforcer. Now changed his name to Bob Thomas and is married to Susan. They own and operate a bar in Key West.
Susan Thomas, Bob's new wife.
George Watson, a new member of the detective agency.
Vanessa Williams, 5'6", 130, detective in the Seattle Police Department.
Yvonne, 5'2", 105, illegal hacker who helped find the human trafficker who had funded the anarchists in Seattle.
---------------------------- Saturday, 6 June, 2020, John's apartment, Seattle, WA
John sat and watched the TV as the coverage about COVID continued non-stop. It was hitting everywhere now, and appeared to be spreading in many ways. John thought about the significance of the date. June 6, 1944 was D-Day in Europe. Now the remembrance of that seemed lost in the affect of this global pandemic. It was killing thousands. He went online and ordered dinner -- again. He was almost completely housebound. The only time he went out was for a bike ride or to drive to the grocery store, where he pre-ordered and just had it put into the back of his car.
---------------------------- Wednesday, 30 Dec, 2020, John's apartment, Seattle, WA
John was binge-watching the first six seasons of Bosch when the Ring doorbell went off. He had taken to binge-watching all his favorite shows to pass the time. Being alone was really hard during the pandemic.
John looked at his phone to see who was at his door. He hadn't ordered anything lately because he had been trying to cook better food to prevent his middle from spreading. But he was still getting bike rides in to help with his metabolism and burning calories.
When John saw a small person with a hoodie, carrying a backpack and a computer case, who looked feminine, he immediately hoped that it was Yvonne, the hacker who helped on the last project. She was also alone, a very good hacker, and had a good appetite for sex.
John put on his mask and opened the door. It was definitely Yvonne. He could tell despite the mask and hoodie.
"Hello, Yvonne."
"Hey. Can I come in?"
"Sure. You don't have any symptoms of COVID, right?"