Psycher Chronicles: Chapter 21 Repair Costs (Patreon)

Chapter 21

Repair Costs

(Frank Grimes)

Frank grew pale as he looked over and saw all the parts that were broken. There was no magic, no deception, just this Phil guy, going through and showing each component that his assistant had pointed out.

The head gasket had a crack right down the center, which of course caused it to leak coolant. After seeing that and realizing that he had apparently been leaking coolant for a while, Frank attributed the smell of burning coolant to be why the girl was able to diagnose the problem so effectively.

Still, he couldn’t help but feel that he would be taken advantage of here. Especially with how vulnerable he felt out in the middle of nowhere.

“Look, I tell you what, it’s late. Why don’t I get my daughter to drive you to a hotel in town. We will give you a list of parts that need to be fixed, along with a quote from us on what it would cost us to fix the issues. Then you can compare our cost with that of our competitors.” Phil replied.

“Your daughter?” Frank asked, pointing to the girl that was already under the car with a light inspecting the vehicle for possibly more problems.

“No, that’s my assistant.” Phil said with a chuckle, “no, sadly I am far too old to have a daughter that young.”

Then before Frank had a second to process that statement, he raised his fingers to his lips and let out a sharp piercing whistle.

WOLF-WHISTLE!

Even with Phil’s head facing away from Frank, the recoil of that whistle was piercing.

“Gah!” Frank said, as he covered his ears.

“Oh, sorry about that.” Phil said, but before too much else could happen two women came out of the nearby house. It was clear that this was one of those old Ma and Pop type establishments, but Frank didn’t realize just how true that was until now. Then taking another look at the garage, it was clear that this was a converted barn that had been fully automated into a vehicle repair shop.

Giving a quick look around the yard, Frank saw a few vehicles parked, along with one or two restoration projects.

“Is that a Shelby GT on the rack?” Frank asked, clearly seeing the vehicle frame that had captivated him as a kid.

“Yeah, that’s my Elenore alright.” Phil said proudly, taking a moment to relax and look at the sight. “Since my partner here stole my last project car. I decided to start over with a bigger and better model.”

As he spoke, he pointed to his assistant, who was still working under Frank’s vehicle.

Then before he could inquire more about this bit of byplay between the two, the two women from the house made their trip out to the garage.

Looking at the two, they looked to be almost mirror images of each other, though one was clearly older, maybe an older sister.

“Andrea, my dear. Would you be so kind as to provide this man a ride to town so he can get a motel room for the night?” Phil said, with a slight sparkle in his eye.

Hearing the name caused Frank’s ears to perk up. Though for the moment he was just too tired and exhausted from the day’s events to realize why the name was important.

The woman looked hesitant at first, taking in Frank’s tall and slender build.

“Oh, I fully understand driving a stranger into town. Though if it makes you feel any better, I was a cop for twenty years.”

“Twenty?” The mother asked, suddenly barging into the conversation.

“Yeah, in fact I just retired and started on a road trip, something I’ve always wanted to do.” Frank admitted.

With that, the mother turned to Phil, and they exchanged something in that gaze. Something that only people who have been married to each other, or close friends for a long time can tell. At that gaze, Phil nodded, apparently answering some unspoken question.

Turning away from the old man, the older female, the wife of Phil, Frank supposed, began speaking.

“Well, I guess there is nothing more to it, than for my single daughter here to give you a ride into town.” The mother said, placing her hands conspiratorially on her daughter’s shoulders and giving her a slight push forward.

Seeing the gesture, Frank couldn’t help but laugh, as this was not the first time that someone had tried to hook him up with their daughter. Frank had been a catch, particularly after word spread of his ex-wife absconding with a delinquent. That was years ago, and while Frank promised he would never marry again while on the force, as that would be too much pressure on any relationship, he suddenly realized that he didn’t have that same problem right now.

The girl, well woman really, looked to be a few years his junior, but still quite the catch. Which made him wonder if there were other things at play with why someone like her was still single.

With a timid bob of her head and flicking of her hair behind her ear, Frank felt his heart flutter slightly. Particularly with the way she was now blushing at him.

Before he felt his body locked up on him, he relied on instincts, striking out his hand and going for a quick introduction.

“I’m Frank, Frank Grimes.”

The woman, this Andrea, seemed to hesitate at first, but then sent out her own delicate hand that seemed to dance gracefully into his outstretched palm.

“Andrea Tulley.” The woman said, and like that the recognition of why the name sounded familiar came to him. As he attributed this name to the person, well people he had been searching for all this time. Then just as quickly, it was dismissed as he had found nothing relating to a Tulley in his searches. There was a Foxworth, Heath, Miller, and even a Combs, but no Tulley.

“A pleasure to meet you,” she continued.

During this time Phil, the owner of the garage, went off to talk to his assistant. Not that Frank noticed, as his eyes were firmly locked on the woman before him.

“Oh, I assure you, the pleasure is all mine.” Frank said, making sure to add a deep baritone to his voice.

Quiver.

Everything but her hand in his palm suddenly shook, and like that Frank could already feel himself falling for this woman. If he didn’t stop himself now, he would likely do something stupid here in the next few days of searching.

“So, what brings you to town?” The mother asked.

At that, Frank felt himself blushing, but then tried to answer with as honest of an answer as he could. “Funny that you say that. There was this cold case that I got right at the midpoint of my career, and well it never went solved. Two people went missing, there was a cover up, and I never had the time, nor resources to try and solve it, until now.”

Gasp.

At that both the Mother and Andrea both raised their hands in nearly similar ways. The only difference being that Andrea rose her left hand to cover her mouth, as her right hand was still firmly implanted within Frank’s own right hand.

“That is so tragic.”

“Yeah, so now that I’m retired, I can go around trying to solve that cold case, and hopefully give myself some closure.” Frank said.

“That is admirable.” The mother began.

Before the mother and daughter had time to ask more questions, their conversation was abruptly cut off by the reemergence of Phil.

“Tell you what,” Phil began saying, as he cleaned his grease covered fingers with an old rag. As he spoke, there was no pause, no hesitation, he just spoke and gave everyone enough time to look back at him, before he continued to speak. “I’ve spoken it over with management,” he said, gesturing back to the young girl who was now actively working on the car, not just searching for broken parts.

“We have decided that we will fix your car free of charge, so long as you spend the money you would have on this repair on taking this young lady out to dinner.” Phil stated.

“What?” Andrea and the mother both spat out at once. The mother looking indignant, the daughter, did she blush at the statement? No, the daughter was embarrassed.

“Hey, I tried to talk her out of it, but you know how stubborn she can be.” Phil said, once again gesturing towards the girl who was now actively taking parts away from the underside of the vehicle in order to get deeper into the engine.

Frank almost wondered what she was doing, but then asked the question that was the most pressing on his mind. “You have a new head gasket?”

“No, the boss thinks she can weld it back together.” Phil said.

“Weld it?” Frank asked, wondering if he was crazy.

“Look, it will be free and at most cost you a dinner out with a pretty girl. Worse comes to worse, we will even tow you to another shop that will fix it the way you want.” Phil said.

Hearing all of this, Phil looked from the old man, back to his apparent daughter, then back to the old man.

After hearing all of this, he was certain that the woman, and likely the whole family had a few screws loose. Still, she seemed mostly harmless, and apparently, he had received the seal of approval from the dad. Not that such a state was tough for Frank, but the thought still counted. Realizing that at the very least he would be out an evening of his life for a relatively free repair job, and given that they had his vehicle effectively locked up. There was not much he could do.

At the very least he could have his own story of why you never got to Jackson West Virginia.

“If you wouldn’t mind, would you save me from a huge repair bill and allow me to take you out to get something to eat?” Frank asked.

“All right,” Andrea replied, blushing brightly and like that Frank knew he was in for trouble as he could already feel his heart strings pulling at him. “Just let me get my things and I can show you around town.”

Then before he knew it, Frank was in a well maintained, light blue Buick Regal that seemed to purr as it went down the street.

“You have this thing supercharged?” Frank found himself asking, wondering about the smooth gliding nature, even over the seemingly rough gravel road out.

“No, honestly I don’t know how my daughter did it, but she is a wiz with cars. Well all things mechanical really.”

“Your daughter?”

“Yeah, she was the one who was under your vehicle.” Andrea replied.

“Ah, at first I thought she was some type of charlatan, stating things that were wrong without even looking at the motor.” Frank said.

“Oh, I don’t know how she does it, she has Savant Syndrome, and her passion in life is all things mechanical.”

“Savant Syndrome?”

“Yeah, it is a diagnosis that means that your kid will be far smarter than you could ever hope to be, and that your claim to fame in life might be that you had an exceptional child.” The woman said.

With that, there was an oppressive air that seemed to fall over the car. Suddenly Frank understood how such an attractive woman could have gone unclaimed for all these years. She had no self-confidence and she apparently spent most of her time trying to take care of her child. That was when he decided to speak up.

“Savant or otherwise, you did a great job raising her. Still, I’d like to learn more about you.”

“Me? Well, there isn’t really much to say…”

And like that, the oppressive atmosphere of the car ride went away as Frank found himself actually liking the idea of talking to this complete stranger. At first Frank felt odd about the whole situation, especially with the father seemingly pimping his daughter on him, but seeing her, it was clear that she was someone worth learning more about.

Also, he did kind of need a ride around town for a while.

***

(Phil Tulley)

Once his daughter and the retired trooper left, Phil found himself going over and talking to Misha, who was diligently taking apart a motor right now.

“So tell me, what do you really think about him?” Phil asked.

“He is one of the good ones. The old time characters that you spoke about missing from back in your day.” Misha said.

“So you already looked him up?” Phil asked.

With that, Misha just slid herself out from under the car on their personal rolling cart. That one look of cold silence was enough for Phil to realize he had messed up.

“Yeah, dumb question,” Phil agreed. At that Misha slid back under the engine and continued to work. He still wondered how she always managed to look things up when she was never on her phone. She would often claim it was via her smart watch, but from what he understood, the smart watch wasn’t as capable as she made it out to be. Yet, she always had the answers she wanted, even when her watch was a simple Timex. Honestly, the whole internet and technology thing confused Phil, so he tended to take everyone else’s opinions on the matter as fact. Especially when it came to things his granddaughter would say.

“So what is he like?” Phil asked, suddenly wondering whether this was a good idea of setting up his daughter with a random stranger. Though truth be told, she was getting old and needed to leave the house, again. Misha could stay, but his daughter needed to get her confidence back and get her stuff out of his secondary shop.

“He has an 84% case closure rating, no complaints or allegations of abuse. He was married, but the wife divorced him upon finding a soul mate. No kids, and a bachelor’s degree in criminal psychology.” Misha stated succinctly.

“You got all that from your watch?” Phil asked, still trying to wrap his mind around the ability of his daughter.

“Yes.” Was the short one word answer she gave back.

Shaking his head, he didn’t believe it, but then again everything about his granddaughter was unbelievable. Sometimes he found himself wondering if she was like that. You know, gifted with the ESP stuff. The way she just knew things, that always got to him. Yes, he read up on Savant Syndrome, which is what she was accredited with, but that didn’t seem to confirm the way she knew everything.

Also, with Misha around paperwork seemed to go smoothly. Their taxes were never audited, even paperwork that had been going on to litigation about selling off part of the old farmstead had finally been resolved somehow.

Honestly, after a certain point Phil just assumed that Misha was his good luck charm, and was content to keep it at that. Still there were times like these, when she suggested things about people that she just met that made him nervous. But to be fair his granddaughter had both given her word about the man, even before he came, and despite his initial hesitations around the complete stranger, he felt Misha might be onto something.

Thinking back, he remembered the exact words she spoke.

“I bet you the next man that comes will be perfect for mom. So long as she doesn’t blow it.” Misha said, making sure to add that last qualifier.

“Perfect for your mother?” Phil asked, at first he felt it would be sometime over the weekend, but somehow at that moment he got a ping on his tablet.

Bzz.

Pulling out his tablet, he realized there was an alert for a 7:30 PM appointment.

“A maintenance request?” Phil asked, wondering if she somehow got the message to her watch before he did.

“Yep, looks to be a big deal.”

“A big deal?”

“Yep, the man is from out of state and searching for places open after 7 o’clock.”

“How do you know he is searching for places after 7 o'clock?”

“Because it is 7:10 now and we just got his request, ergo after 7.”

Hearing that, Phil couldn’t refute her logic, but again, the way she just knew things boggled his mind.

“I’ll fire up the outside flood lights, to let him know we are here.”

“Okay, fine, but don’t you dare fire up that sign.” Phil shouted back, not wanting everyone to know that his Granddaughter had set up his garage as a Rustbucket. When he first signed the papers, he thought they were just a joke, yet there it was on his taxes and everything.

Fortunately, Misha handled the Taxes, which meant only mail and that stupid sign were proof that she got one over on him.

“I have to pops, otherwise people won’t find us.” Misha said.

Chum. Vrrr.

Then with the flipping of a few switches the floodlights came on, as did the stupid sign stating that he either needed to learn to file papers on his own, or be less trusting of his granddaughter.

Though honestly, the name worked, and their work had been honest. It just hurt his pride more than anything, not that he would admit to such an event.

With that thought in his mind, he turned back to Misha, and wondered “how long will this take you?”

“Once I get all the fluids out, I should be able to weld the engine back together quickly, then just new fluids and everything should be good.” Misha said, speaking as if everything she said would be easy.

“Do you believe anyone will believe you can weld a head gasket together?” Phil asked.

“Doesn’t matter what people believe, it only matters what you can do.” Misha shot back.

Hearing that Phil just laughed, “hey, that’s my line.”

“I know.”

With that, Phil just smiled at the girl, then proceeded to see if he could get away with going to bed relatively early.

“Well then, if you don’t need me for anything, I will check on a few inventory items.”

“Good night granddad.” She replied, calling him out on his farse of an excuse.

Chuckle.

“Well, goodnight.”

With that, the old man went into the house, letting his granddaughter work on a complete strangers vehicle in the middle of the night. Honestly, the more he thought about things, the more he found himself voicing his thoughts out loud, “you know if it was anyone else, I wouldn’t trust them to be alone.”

“If it was anyone else, then you wouldn’t even trust them with your tools, let alone work alone in your garage.” Julie said, coming from the shadows and causing Phil to jump into the air.

Yipe.

Phil let out a manly cry, at least that is what he called it, as he reached up to touch his pounding chest. “Do you women mind not scaring me in the sanctity of my own house.”

“No, I don’t mind scaring you at all,” Julie responded.

Then the two shared a knowing look.

“You think it’s okay for her to go out with him?” Julie found herself asking.

“Misha gave it her blessing, so I figured there was nothing for me to worry about.” Phil replied.

Scoff.

“I remember when you would never accept your daughter going out with anyone, now it’s okay as long as Misha says so?” Julie said.

“Well, it is about time we got her out of the house. The little one can stay, but the older one, she needs to spread her wings and fly again.” Phil said.

Chuckle.

“She has you wrapped around her little finger as always.”

“Does not.”

Eyebrow raise.

With that Julie just raised a questioning eyebrow, and that was enough for Phil to realize he wasn’t going to win this argument.

“Well, if you are done questioning my parenting skills, I will be off.” Phil said, and with that he kicked off his shoes, before making his way up the back staircase to their bedroom.

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Phil replied back.

Julie stayed down in the kitchen as she always did, patiently waiting for Misha to be done working for the day, waiting until all the tools were replaced, and the lights were turned off, and Misha had come in and locked the door. Only then did Julie put her cup of half drunk coffee back in the sink and mutter a quick goodnight to Misha before she too made her way up to bed.

Phil hearing all of this, only smiled coyly to himself as Julie tried to creep into the room unheard. Seems like I am not the only one who is wrapped around her little finger, Phil thought to himself before he finally let go of his thoughts and let his mind fade into the darkness of sleep.