Chapter 19

After Claire had dropped them off at the entrance, Kelly, Ling, and Ed walked into the Maria’s Cantina located in Phoenix. They did not expect to find Maria there since she had retired from the day to day operation of the restaurants. She continued to manage what had become a growing chain, but had left inspections and quality control to her sister Rosa.

The reason they were at the restaurant was a mystery to everyone. Ed had a feeling that something important was going to happen and asked Claire to turn into the restaurant at the last minute. It was almost as if William had shouted, “Go there, now!”

As the door clanged to a close behind her, Ling asked, “What are we doing here?”

“I don’t know,” Ed answered as he looked over the restaurant with narrowed eyes. Two coarse looking Hispanic men in their early twenties were crowded together in front of the register. The woman at the register looked frightened, but he couldn’t see why until one of the men turned such that a gun was visible. Shaking his head, he said, “Robbery.”

Ling spun around to see what he meant and saw the activity at the cash register. She was ready to move when one of the holdup men saw them and shouted, “Oh shit!”

The other holdup man looked over at Ed and Kelly standing at the door in their robes. He frowned for a second without saying a word and studied the Druids at the door with dead eyes. He raised his gun and aimed directly at Ed. Ed had no doubts the young man was going to fire and, from five feet away, there wasn’t any chance he would miss. Before the holdup man had a chance to pull the trigger, he was thrown against the counter before falling to the ground. A young man had plowed into him with a football tackle and taken him out. The young man followed the gunman to the floor pounding on him with his fist.

Quick to protect the family, Ling leapt into the fight. She took out the second gunman with a single blow to the neck before he could shoot their rescuer or Ed. Never one to use a subtle approach, she made sure the man would never be able to fire his pistol. A pair of pistols lay on the floor where the gunmen had dropped them. She kicked the loose pistols away from the area of the action.

Even as Ling was taking care of the second gunman, Ed moved to protect the woman behind the counter. Despite the fact she was on the verge of hysteria, it didn’t take long for him to get her well away from the register area. Once in the kitchen, Ed shouted to get through her emotional state. “It’s okay. You’re safe now.”

The typical noise of a restaurant kitchen died as the cooks and dishwasher noticed what was going on. Curious cooks crowded around the pair hoping to discover why the cashier was in the kitchen crying her eyes out. Outside of whispered comments to each other, all other noise disappeared.

The cashier clung to Ed for dear life, sobbing emotionally. Her entire life had passed before her eyes and, considering what little of it there had been, she was underwhelmed. Putting his arms around her, he hugged and comforted her as best he could without knowing what was actually going through her mind. Shaking his head, Ed thought to himself that it had been a long time since he had rescued a damsel. He knew the wives would give him lots of grief over this.

“It’s about time you rescued another woman. I was beginning to get worried about you,” Kelly said from behind Ed in a voice that was highly amused. She had a hard time suppressing a laugh at the look he gave her.

Without releasing the woman, Ed said, “I knew you were going to say something about this.”

“Claire is out there having a fit about this little episode,” Kelly said looking over her shoulder and through the window of the service door. She could see Claire gesturing angrily at Ling.

The woman finally collected herself and pulled away from Ed. Smiling down at her, he pulled his ever-present handkerchief from his pocket and presented it to her. She accepted it and dabbed her eyes to remove her tears. In a calm comforting voice, Ed asked, “Are you feeling better now?”

“Yes, I am,” she replied before blowing her nose into the hankie. She blushed at the noise she made.

Looking around for some place for her to sit, Ed noticed the manager’s office. Opening the door, he said, “Why don’t you wait in here until you’ve collected yourself?”

Unaware that anything had happened in the store, the manager rose out of her chair curious as to why her cashier was being led into the office by a stranger. She asked, “What’s going on here?”

The woman, having someone she knew at hand, rushed over to the manager and hugged her. Upset once again, she cried out, “We were almost robbed and he stopped it.”

Looking past the woman, the manager saw enough of Ed to make out his attire. Her eyes got big upon catching sight of the black robe. Swallowing heavily, she asked, “Ed Biggers?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll call Maria and let her know what has happened. I’m sure that she’ll want to talk to you,” the manager said. Everyone who worked for Maria or Rosa knew about the black robed Druid who was a friend of the pair. It was half a second later when she noticed Kelly standing behind Ed wearing her Green robe.

As the manager took care of the cashier, Ed turned to face Kelly. Curious, he asked, “Who was the hero?”

“I don’t know,” answered Kelly knowing that Ed was referring to the man who had taken out the gunman. She said, “He didn’t stop pounding on the guy until Ling asked him if she could have a turn. I think she was rather impressed.”

“What impressed her? The fact that he kept hammering on him long after it was necessary or that he stopped to give her a turn?” Ed asked wryly.

“Hard to say,” Kelly said with a chuckle.

Ed took Kelly by the hand and said, “Let’s go see what’s happening out front.”

The couple went through the service door. Where the kitchen had been quiet, the area around the cash register was absolute chaos. The authorities were already there in full force since the restaurant was only two minutes from a hospital and one minute from a police station.

A very irritated Ling was arguing with a policeman. Claire was arguing with a different policeman about his failure to follow proper crime scene procedures. Two men were loading the gunman who had tried to kill Ed onto a gurney. The other gunman had been covered and Ed shook his head at the unnecessary death. The young man who had tackled the gunman was standing to the side with his hands behind his back. It was clear that he was handcuffed.

After looking around at the chaos for several seconds, Ed shouted, “Everyone quiet!”

The two cops spun to see who had made the noise. Seeing two Druids, they immediately froze and reconsidered their reactions to outside interference. It was well known in law enforcement circles that when a Druid wanted to take over a crime scene it was best to stand out of their way. Pointing at one of the policemen, Ed said, “You, remove the handcuffs from that man and take his statement. You, come over here and take my statement.”

The two policemen moved to follow his commands. The senior policeman showed up and opened his notepad as he said, “Sorry, I didn’t realize that Druids were involved.”

Ignoring the reference to Druids being involved, Ed said, “My name is Ed Biggers -- spelled like it sounds.”

He paused as the cop busily scribbled his name down in the notepad. Once he was sure the cop had his name correct, Ed, pointing to the man on the gurney, continued, “He was about to shoot me when that man over there tackled him. I have no idea who he is, but he definitely saved my life.”

“His name is Chuck Chambers,” the cop mumbled as he wrote furiously. The last thing he wanted to do was to screw up in front of a Druid.

Making note of the name, Ed said, “The man under the sheet moved to shoot that young man and my wife took him out. I’m afraid that she took the expedient approach and made it permanent. It’s a clear case of self-defense. He was armed with a pistol and my wife was unarmed.”

“Does she have martial arts training?” asked the cop. He had seen the results of her blow to the neck and knew what it implied.

“Yes. She’s nationally ranked,” answered Ed.

“So she wasn’t exactly unarmed?”

“You know that deadly force is allowed against a man using a gun during the execution of a crime,” countered Ed.

“True,” replied the cop after a moment of thought. It wasn’t quite true if the person facing a criminal was a policeman. It was strict department policy that they were to shoot to stop rather than shoot to kill even if the criminal was shooting at him. He asked, “What’s the black woman got to do with this?”

“She’s one of our security people and a former Phoenix police officer,” answered Ed.

The cop looked over at Ed for a moment as the coins finally dropped and he realized with whom he was dealing. Looking down at his notes, he said, “I should talk to the cashier and get her version of the events.”

“She’s in the manager’s office. It’s through the service door over there,” Ed said while pointing towards the door.

“Thank you. If I have any more questions I’ll get in touch with your people,” said the cop backing away. The sooner he could get these people out of here, the happier he would be.

Smiling, Ed watched the cop head into the kitchen. The young man who had tackled the gunman came up and said, “Hey, I didn’t see you there when I went after that guy. If I had known a Druid was around, I’d have let you handle it. I hope you’re not disappointed that I charged in and stole your action. You’d have probably handled it a whole lot better than I did. I’m really sorry.”

Stunned, Ed stared at the guy incredulous at what he was saying. Shaking his head, Ed said, “Chuck...”

“Wow, you Druids are really amazing. You even know my name,” exclaimed the young man. For years he had heard about how Druids were heroes who rescued people in nearly impossible circumstances. In his mind, he had built them up into superheroes and wouldn’t have been surprised to see one leap a tall building in a single bound. Not realizing that Ling was with Ed, he turned to her and asked, “Can you believe this guy was actually able to guess my name?”

Barely able to keep from laughing, Ling answered, “The officer told him your name.”

“Oh,” replied Chuck feeling a little embarrassed.

“I’m very glad you took care of the situation. He was about to shoot me and there was nothing I could have done about it. I’d have been dead if not for you,” Ed said.

“Oh,” replied Chuck thoughtfully. He frowned when it dawned on him that Ed wasn’t a superhero. He studied Ed and Kelly with an eye that was a little more realistic in its appraisal. In a quieter voice, he said, “Then I’m glad that I acted the way that I did.”

Ed examined Chuck carefully. He appeared to be in his late twenties, although he was already showing signs of male pattern baldness. He stood nearly six feet tall and weighed 180 pounds. The tackle he had used to take out the gunman suggested the man had played high school football. The fact that he hadn’t gone to flab further suggested he still worked out to keep trim.

Claire came up and said, “I’ve got us a table over there in the corner where we can wait until the keystone cops get done.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Just a little irritated those two immediately assumed Ling and Chuck had done something wrong,” answered Claire with a hint of disgust in her voice. She shot a dirty look in the direction of one of the policemen. She was probably much better trained than either officer, but they had her writing parking tickets and that still grated on her nerves.

“Come with us, Chuck. I’d like a chance to talk with you a little more,” said Ed letting the topic of Claire’s frustration drop. He knew it was a residual consequence of her treatment while she was with the Phoenix Police Department.

Ed went back to the table Claire had indicated earlier. Chuck followed, but stopped at another table and picked up a glass of watery soda from it. Ed sat down and looked around the restaurant. Most of the guests had cleared out as a result of the excitement.

Chuck sat down and said, “I don’t know what to call you.”

“Oh, sorry. I’m Ed Biggers. The oriental dynamo over there is Ling, one of my wives. The lady in the green robe is Kelly, another one of my wives. The black woman is Claire. She’s one of our security people.”

Chuck wondered what kind of mission Ed was on that required a security detail. Rather than ask the question, he asked, “Is Ling the person who took out the other robber?”

“Yes, she did. He was about to shoot you,” answered Ed.

“I had figured another one of the customers would take care of him. Just about everyone in here was a man,” said Chuck shaking his head. Disturbed that none of the other men in the restaurant had acted, he added, “A lady shouldn’t have to get involved in a brawl like that.”

“Ling has trained her whole life to be able to act in those kinds of situations.” Ed wasn’t going to mention that Ling had a tendency to use more force than necessary. It bothered him a lot and he was going to talk with her about it later.

Looking around the restaurant, Chuck said, “Well, consider me old fashioned, but I think men should step up to these kinds of things and protect women. I’m not a chauvinist, you understand. It’s just a fact that most men are physically stronger than women are.”

Hardly surprised at the way Chuck had phrased it, Ed asked, “So you think the strong should protect the weak?”

“Well, the weak should always be protected. You don’t have a civilized society otherwise,” answered Chuck with a negligent shrug of his shoulders. He felt that he had just uttered a universal truth and didn’t need to justify it any more than stating it.

“What do you do for a living?” asked Ed as Kelly and Ling joined them at the table.

Chuck sat up straighter and answered, “I own a little networking company. We’ve been doing Metropolitan Area Networks for a lot of the towns in this state and now we’re connecting the towns. We just got the contract to expand and maintain the state highway network. In fact, I was here to celebrate the signing of the contract before heading back to the office to announce the fact to my employees.”

Ling and Kelly exchanged glances, impressed by the accomplishments of someone who was so young. Ed knew that a company capable of landing city and state contracts for networking couldn’t be little. He estimated the worth of the young man was close to hundred and twenty million and appreciated the fact that he wasn’t boasting about how rich he was. He said, “Impressive. I hope you’re an honest man. That’s a lot of responsibility.”

“You bet. I know people’s lives could depend on my network’s being up. You can’t cut corners on something so important. I mean, imagine someone having an accident in the middle of the desert and no one able to contact the authorities because the network is down. The thought gives me nightmares,” said Chuck as his body shook because of a shiver that ran down his spine.