Stan

“Carl, it’s been a while. What’s going on? How’s Scott?”

“I’m good, he’s good. What have you been up to?”

He had a strain to his voice and though I hadn’t heard from him in a while, I knew that something was wrong. The very fact that he was calling me after all this time was proof enough. He wasn’t calling to see how I was, so I didn’t really answer. I preferred to just be straight and get to the heart of the matter.

“Not much, what’s up?”

“I think I need your help.”

I knew that. “Like I said, what’s up Carl. You don’t have to beat around the bush.”

“It’s my sister.”

“Linsey?”

“No, the other one, my oldest sister Eve.”

“How is she? I haven’t seen her since graduation.”

“She’s good. Works at a paper now, but that’s not what I’m calling about. She’s on vacation right now and I just got a disturbing call from her from jail.”

“I didn’t know Eve got in trouble. She always seemed so straight and narrow before.”

“She is. I don’t really know what happened. She was hiking with a friend and they somehow ended up in Cambodia with an ancient artifact that is considered a cultural artifact and apparently, it’s a big deal. She said that they have been there a week now and she just now found out what she was charged with. Can they do that?”

I sighed out loud as I tried to remember what I knew of their laws. It wasn’t much, and they were sweeping.

“It’s not America. They aren’t going to have the same rights as they would here. A cultural artifact?”

“Eve says it was a vase that she bought at a small village for a hundred bucks. I don’t know. She only had a few minutes, and no one can contact her except her lawyer.”

Now it was making sense and I looked at my schedule. It was full, but for Carl I was going to have to free it. I spent many summers with Carl and Scott. We’d been the three musketeers, but I’d went off to college and started a different path. We saw each other occasionally, caught up, but I hadn’t been able to really be there for them. I knew that this was a time that I needed to be.

“So, you want me to find out what I can?”

“Ah man, please. Would you mind? I know that you’re a fancy lawyer now with butlers and such. I would appreciate it.”

It was a dig. “I don’t have a butler. I have maids. They have much nicer asses to look at while they clean.”

He chuckled, but it was short lived. I could tell that he was worried, and, in my opinion, he ought to be. There were many laws in countries like that and when they started throwing around words like cultural artifacts, it sounded like it could get serious.

I told Carl that I would make some phone calls and I would get back to him as soon as I could. I didn’t know what I was going to find out, but I knew that I had to try, for old times sake.

***

“It’s not looking too good Carl. I’m not going to lie. It’s a mess and your sister is there at one of the worst times. There is an election going on, so the penalty could be stiffer to send a message of toughness on tourists that go there to do illegal activity. I’m afraid that Eve has been pulled into this and that isn’t a good thing.”

“Give me some good news Stan.”

“I’m going to go down there and see what I can do. I have some pro-bono time that I’m going to take off but right now I can’t make any promises.”

“Really? I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how I’m going to pay your rate Stan, but we will figure something out. The shop is doing better, and I can’t let anything happen to Eve.”

At the rate that shop was making money, he would never pay me off. So, I told him not to worry about it. He could buy me a beer when it was all done.

It was a bigger problem than I was letting on. Not only was Eve in a country that she wasn’t supposed to be in, but she also had an artifact that it looked like she was trying to smuggle out. I hadn’t really been able to talk to her much and the only way that I was really going to be able to make a difference in this case was to go down there myself and see what I could come up with. I still wasn’t sure if it was going to come up with anything, but I had to try. That’s what I kept telling myself. I had to figure something out or Eve could truly be in big trouble. They could lock her away for years if something wasn’t done. I was going to make sure that it all worked out. I owed her brother that much because he was always there for me when we were kids. I was the new kid at one point and Carl and Scott had brought me into their little group. I was always grateful for that kindness.

Now I had to return it and when I got off the phone with Carl, I was worried what I was even going to be able to do. I had money to help grease some wheels and I knew their laws a little better now that I’d studied it. I hoped that a little luck would all be enough to get her out of there. I don’t remember Eve all that much because she was never home, but it didn’t matter. It was Carl that I was trying to help in the end.

I told my assistant to cancel the next week for me and she looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had or maybe I’d been looking for an excuse to get out of here for a while. Debbie was on me about marriage again and a few days without her nagging the issue would be perfect for me.

“Denise, just call everyone and reschedule. Tell them I am going to be out of the country for the next week and I’ll be back as soon as I can. A woman’s life is in the balance.”

“Do you want me to add the last part?”

She knew me well. “No, skip that part. Just do what you can and if they start getting angry, send them through to my cell. I don’t mind fielding calls at the airport.”

“Okay Stan, whatever you say. So, what do you want me to do for the week?”

“Take one off on me. Field calls on your cell phone and do what you want. You don’t even have to answer the calls if you don’t want to.”

“The partners are not going to be happy.”

“They never are, are they? You’re my assistant so don’t let them tell you any different. They have no say in what you do.”

Denise didn’t like confrontation and that’s why I didn’t even want her to come in. One of the others would put her to work and I didn’t want that. She was a good assistant and she made my life easier, so if I could make hers easier as well with no cost to me, of course I was going to do that. It would go a long way later.

I left the office and got in my car to go home and pack. I was Cambodia bound and I still wasn’t sure what to expect. Either way, I needed some time away and I wanted to help. That’s all that mattered. That and getting the hell out of here for a while. I needed a break from my own problems and jumping into someone else’s always helped.