Page 8 of Wild Justice

“Sorry,” he quickly said. “That was more about me than you.”

“Got some baggage from LA?”

“Kind of.”

“Relax, I didn’t take offense. No, I don’t want to be a failure. I want to succeed. This job means something to me.”

“Because of your dad?”

“Sure, because of my dad.”

They’d pulled up in front of a two-story home outside of town. The whole neighborhood looked almost the same, with only a few differences between the houses. This one had a Winnie the Pooh flag hanging from the front porch along with some begonias in window boxes.

“Your answer didn’t sound very convincing,” he observed. “Is that what you want me to print?”

“You can print whatever you want, Kai,” Lulu said as she exited the vehicle.

“You don’t care what I print?”

She stopped and turned to look at him. She wasn’t upset or mad. If anything, she looked…amused.

“Is my level of caring going to change what you write?”

“Probably not.”

“Then I’m not going to waste any energy on it then. You seem like a reasonable person. From what I’ve heard you’re well-liked in town and people think you do a good job. Do I need to be worried? Are you planning a hit piece on me?”

“That’s not my sort of journalism.”

“Then we’re fine. Okay, let’s see what the problem here is.”

The problem was two neighbors who had several cars between them, and sometimes one of them would park his car across the bottom of the other person’s driveway. Perry Jenkins and Stan Walters had started out as buddies but recently the relationship had gone downhill. They were now hissing and being nasty whenever they’d see each other.

“It’s illegal,” Lulu told Stan. “You can’t park at the end of his driveway and block it. Even if it wasn’t illegal, it’s rude. C’mon, Stan. You know that. What’s going on here?”

The arguing between the two men had been going on for a good fifteen minutes, and Lulu had let them have their say. Each of them had made their arguments while calling each other a few not-so-nice names as they were doing it.

“He’s got too many cars,” Perry said in a heated tone. “That’s what’s going on here. And now he’s trying to make it my problem. I’ve got problems of my own, Lulu. Your dad knew that. Seth told him to stop, and he hasn’t.”

“You don’t know what problems are,” Stan shot back. “My daughter and that no-good son-in-law live with me now along with the baby, and there’s nothing but crying and yelling all day and all night. I’m about ready to grab my camping gear and go live in the woods to get away from it all.”

Perry and Stan went back and forth for a while more while Lulu mostly listened, only interjecting a few words here and there. Eventually, both of them went quiet. They seemed to have exhausted themselves, complaining about each other and the issues in their lives. Lulu had nodded at the appropriate moments as if she understood.

“Sounds look you guys have your hands full. Things are a bit out of control, and you’re not sure what to do. Amiright?”

Stan shook his head wearily.

“Lulu, you have no idea.”

“Damn, Stan. I didn’t know it was like that,” Perry said, clapping his neighbor on the back. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I dunno. Didn’t want anyone to know it was that bad,” Stan replied, his head hanging. “I’m at the point I don’t know what to do. I’m ready to kick them out, but Willa would kill me.”

There was more silence as the men seemed to have come to some sort of crossroads. Eventually, Perry nodded, rubbing his hands together.

“I’ll tell you what. You can park your car next to mine in the driveway. That way you can get in and out to go to work easily. In the meantime, I can put a bug in Gail’s ear about it. She and Willa talk every day, so maybe she can drop a few hints.”

“You’d do that?” Stan said, a smile beginning to bloom on his face. “Damn, Willa just might listen to Gail. She sure as hell isn’t listening to me.”

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