They were interrupted by a loud knocking at the basement door. Mac swore under his breath, he knew she was about to tell him something important. He watched her unlock and open the door to admit an older couple carrying several items. He sighed, got up and went to offer help to the new people. Hopefully, he would have another chance to ask her what she thought was the worst.
Things got busy, fast after that. More people started coming in bringing food. He understood exactly why Marie had set up the crock-pot station in the extra room. So many people brought in crock-pots that there would have never been enough room in the kitchen. When he complimented her on her thinking she laughed, and said 'not my first rodeo'. "So when I get the turkey out of the oven think you could slice it?" Marie asked.
Mac fumbled for a second, he didn't have any clue about how to slice a turkey, but he guessed he was about to learn. "Sure?" He agreed.
The look of relief and thankfulness was plain to see on her face. "I really appreciate it. Can you smell it? I think it smells great!" She walked back into the kitchen to check on everything.
It did indeed smell incredible; he decided he would make a call to Jack in a few minutes to get some tips on how to cut a turkey. Jack was always bragging that he was the one to cut the Dalton family's Thanksgiving turkey. His cousin, Nick had messed it up so bad the first year that he was allowed the honor of cutting the turkey, that Jack had been named permanent turkey carver, a title he had coveted.
Mac shook his head and looked around the space appreciating the transformation from when he first got there. The tables were cheerfully decorated with festive orange table cloths and all had little pumpkins on them along with the turkey that the kids had made out of a toilet paper holder and half of a paper plate. People were all over, two older gentlemen were slicing cakes and pies, and another guy, who Marie had introduced as her dad was setting them on a table by themselves. Marie was directing people what to do in the busy kitchen. He looked in and she was rearranging the shelves in the warmer so the items would fit into the space that they had. He noticed that their sliced turkey was already covered and in the warmer. Marie saw him and gestured him over.
When he got to her she asked him, "So what do you want to do once we start serving? You can serve out on the line, or be a runner to exchange the pans of empty food for full ones, or you could go guard the desserts." At his incredulous look, she responded, "Yep, the desserts have to be guarded, a couple of years ago they weren't and we ran out in way too quickly!"
Mac his head," I guess I can be a runner, is there any special instructions or anything?"
Marie laughed, "Yeah, that would be a huge no. Just be listening for me or someone else to holler that we need more of whatever item we might need. Basically, just see what needs doing and hop right in!"
A thin middle- aged lady with long wavy hair approached Marie, "So what do you need for me to do?"
Marie shrugged, "What do you want to do?"
"I can roll with anything."
"Perfect!" Marie exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "You can do the rolls."
The lady nodded, "Well I can defiantly roll with that." They both chucked at the bad pun. She then set her sights on Mac, "Hi, I'm Doris, and who might you be?"
Mac shook her hand, "I'm Mac, I work with Marie."
Doris grinned what Mac categorized a creepy grin, but Marie ignored her. "So the pie needs about." She looked at her Apple watch. "Twenty more minutes longer, then you can start browning the rolls"
Doris gave both of them a look and a grin, "Okey- dokey.' With that, she walked off.
Marie sighed, "Let me go ahead and apologize for all creepy and weird behavior. Apparently, I'm not allowed to have any male friends." She was about to say more, but her sister approached.
"So they said it would be six people," Annie told them as she typed something on her phone. Marie placed her hand over the phone to make Annie look at them. She did so angrily, "I'm just replying to them. Chill."
Marie removed her hand, "Sorry, you've always got your head in that thing." That earned her a glare from her sister.
"Like you have room to talk." She then placed the phone in her back pocket. "Better? Hi, Mac how are you doing?" She grinned at him.
"Knock it off. Did they say what time? Mac's going to be a runner, so please help him, not hit on him, ok?" Marie shot her sister a glare.
"You only think your funny, and no they didn't." Annie's phone dinged. "Am I allowed to get that?"
"Go away, and do something productive," Marie ordered her sister. Annie had just turned around. "Wait! Fill Mac in on what we're talking about and he can be in charge of putting it together and giving it to them!"
Annie nodded, "So this one." She pointed at her sister. "Had the bright idea to invite the police to come by to eat. They said if they get to come it will be six officers. So what Mar wants you to do would be to make sure they have their boxes warm and ready to go whenever they might get here. Do you think you would be comfortable doing that?" Mac nodded, already having several ideas on how to keep the food warm. "Awesome. If you need me, I'll be chained to the stove cranking out mashed potatoes." With that, she walked off.
Mac thought it was busy before, but he was wrong, the place looked like a beehive with people buzzing all over the place. All the volunteers were busy putting the final touches on the food, and Mac kept on losing track of where Marie was. Every time he stuck his head out of the kitchen he noticed that the line of people waiting for the food had grown significantly. Finally, Marie called for all the volunteer's attention.
"First off I want to thank you for volunteering your Saturday to make this delicious food and to come and help serve it. It means a lot to both me and the community. We are truly showing God's love tonight. Caleb, could you say a short prayer for us please?" After the prayer, Marie said, "Ok, I'm going to go find the preacher to bless this food and then we'll start to serve, so if you are on the serving line please be getting to your spots, and remember to smile and ask if they want that particular item. Oh, and do not get a plate for yourself before the event is over. Y'all rock!"
With that, she strode out of the kitchen with several people going to take their places on the serving line. Mac could hear Marie call for everybody's attention and her welcome, then the deep voice of the preacher as he blessed the food. As the line started to move so did the pace in the back. Annie was stirring two pots, another person was washing dishes, two were serving drinks, and he was busy running things to and fro.
The night seemed to take both forever and no time at all. The line had finally died down, and the food was mostly gone when Marie called time. She walked into the kitchen and announced that if you wanted to fix a plate to go ahead. Clean up was a lot more relaxed, a couple of new ladies came in just to help with the cleanup, and before Mac knew it, it was just him and the Presson sisters. They were sitting in folding chairs beside what used to be the dessert table.
Marie frowned and looked at her sister, "I don't remember seeing coat lady. Did you see her?"
Annie furrowed her brow in concentration, "Now that I think about it, I don't remember seeing her this year. That's weird!"
Mac hesitatingly asked, "So who is coat lady."
Annie laughed, "Marie, you tell it better."
"So she is the reason that we have a strict limit of only two take out plates per person. A couple of years ago she asked for seventeen to- go plates."
Mac couldn't believe some people's audacity. "But why do you call her coat lady?"
Marie continued, "Well a couple of years ago we decided to have a coat drive. We had a large rack filled with different sized coats, nice ones even! So she is the last one as usual, so I go over to see if she needed any help. She tells me that she needed a medium jacket. I'm like 'Sure! We have several!' and I proceed to pull out the first medium that I come to and show it to her. She looks at it and I kid you not says, 'Not that one, but I'm not picky.' She does this at least five different times each time telling me that she is not picky. She leaves without getting a coat. So we've called her coat lady ever since."
"That's crazy," Mac said shaking his head.
"Yeah, stick a fork in me, I'm done," Marie announced.
Annie glanced around, "It's too far away." Marie stuck her tongue out at her sister.. "Did the officers ever come to get their food?" Annie asked.
Marie shook her head, Mac added, "I have it all boxed up and ready to go."
Marie sighed, "I'll tell you what. Annie and I'll both take one, and you can have the last four for your efforts! Let's go ya'll. I'm beyond tired, and ready to go do nothing for a little bit!"
Mac waved bye as he pulled out into the street and headed back to the house. While he never got the chance to finish talking to Marie he felt like he had done good there today, and he was bringing back food for him and the others, so that was a plus right?
The team was happy to have been brought food because they had been fighting about what to eat. Mac had walked in just as Bozer suggested that they try a plank off again. Mac had been worried for a minute that Jack would hurt himself laughing that hard.
The dressing was as good as described. Mac and Riley both agreed that they would rather have this than the stuffing that Bozer usually made.
"If y'all gonna be that way then you gonna have to make it yourself!" He challenged then crossing his arms as if he had already won.
"Done!" Mac refused to back down from a challenge. "I'll just text Marie to get the recipe, and I'll make it at Thanksgiving." He pulled at his phone but nearly dropped it when both Riley and Jack shouted, "NO" at the same time both of them just about coming off the couch in their haste.
"Mac, you remember the last time you tried to cook something, I had to put the fire out? The inside of the chicken was still raw while the outside was charred. You, my friend ,are staying away from the stove." Jack shook his head. "Either Riley or I will do the cooking."
"Oh come on Jack it's not that hard. And for your information, I helped cook the very turkey you are eating right now!"
Jack shot him a look. "This is how it would probably play out, you would forget to get it started in time, then decide that you could make the crock-pot more effective, and rewire it. After you got through fixing it up, you would rush through assembling the ingredients and inevitably leave something out. Then when it didn't turn out, you would fiddle with it until it was uneatable, or you would get so wrapped up in a project that you would forget to take it off the heat or whatever, and it would burn, again."
Mac opened his mouth to deny the allegations, but couldn't because they were true and he knew it. "Fine, I'll write down her instructions."
Jack sat back in the couch, "Thank you. Now did you learn anything useful during your day date?"
Mac shot him a look from where he was sitting in the recliner. "It was not a date. I got enough side-eyes and probing questions to last me a lifetime from members of her church. I don't need more from you." Mac sighed, realizing how rough on Jack he was being. "Sorry, it's been a long day. I'm done in, and no I didn't learn anything useful to us." He shook his head, closed the take-out container and set it on the floor. He was about to get up when his phone dinged. It was the recipe from Marie and a short thank you. He forwarded the recipe to Riley and Jack then got up. "I'm beat, I'll see you tomorrow.
On Sunday everybody slept in grabbing a late brunch and eating in the comfort of the living room. Outside was dark and rainy, the kind of day where you did your best not to leave the house. They were chatting and unhurriedly eating their food when Bozer suddenly jumped up from where he was sitting. "Oh crap!"
Everybody looked at him, and Jack asked, "What's going on?"
"We're supposed to have a meeting with Matty at 1." Everybody looked at their watches or phones, it was a quarter till one. As a unit, they all gathered up all their dishes and hurried to their rooms to change into clothes instead of the lounge clothes they were wearing. Both Riley and Mac were still trying to fix their hair when the laptop rang with an incoming call. Bozer hit the accept button and Matty's picture popped up on their laptop screen.
"It's about time you answered. I'm a busy woman, be ready."
"Yes, ma'am.' They answered as a group.
"Ok, so what do you have to report?" She looked very stern. They could see a tech come in and hand Matty a report. She glanced at it then back at her agents in Tennessee. "I'm waiting."
Bozer finally spoke up, "Ummmmm, not much more boss. Jack got some video of Dawn Reeves, but nothing incriminating was on it. She is good at hiding her tracks. In fact Jack thinks someone might be training her."
Jack nodded adding, "When I was searching her office for the cat, I did find a gun stashed under her desk."
Matty eyed them, "Is that all that my best team has gathered in an entire week?" With each work, her voice had gotten louder. "When I sent you idiots in, I figured that it would take you a week at the most!" She stopped sighed and rubbed her temples. "I'm being generous and giving you one more week to complete your assignment, if you are unable to do so I will be turning this back over to the Secret Service, and you will return to LA. So if you don't have a suspect in custody by end of the school day Friday your getting your pretty little butts back here pronto! Webber out!"
Everybody seemed to let out a sigh glad to have that over with. "I know this is crazy coming from me, but we need a plan," Mac stated.
Jack nodded, "Ok, let's see what all we have and see what we need to do to finish this."
They all grabbed all the evidence they had gathered on the case in the last two weeks and reconvened in the living room. Since Jack was running the meeting he went first. "So what we do know is that there is a larger amount of counterfeit money coming into the school. That is the only thing we know for certain. We assume that Dawn Reaves is involved because of evidence we found at her house, the family has more stuff than they should, and her seeming paranoia. We also know that she is having an affair with Officer Coltrane."
Riley asked, "Should we search his house, to see if the counterfeit operation is running out of there?"
Jack shook his head, "I don't think that would be a good idea."
Bozer looked puzzled, "Why not?"
Mac answered the question, "If one of our houses was searched would we notice it?" All three nodded their heads. "The same principle would probably hold true. I say if we are still grasping for straws later in the week we take the risk, but right now I would hold off."
Jack smiled at him, Mac felt happy that he had gotten it right. "Do we have any real suspects besides the ones that we just mentioned?" Everybody remained silent. Jack sighed, "I like the missions where we swoop in save the day then leave!" Another sigh, "Anything else need to be added to this pathetically slim pile of information?"
Bozer said, "What about the cartels?
Jack frowned, "What about them?"
"We've been hearing whispers of how they might be involved." Bozer pointed out.
Mac replied, "But that's just whispers. Which cartel? How involved are they? Is it drugs, girls, or just the money they might be involved with? We have so many more questions than we have answers. I felt like Marie was about to tell me something about the drug scene here, but we got interrupted, and never got a chance to talk to her again."
Silence reigned over their meeting. Jack shook his head, "We are getting absolutely nowhere, and I haven't a clue what our next step should be." He paused running his hands over his head. "I'm going to see if we have to stuff to make my world- famous Texas chili, maybe something will come to me." With that Jack left with Bozer following right behind him. Probably to make sure that Jack didn't destroy his kitchen or their taste buds with the amount of heat Jack liked to add. Despite some good eats and more brainstorming, nobody came up with any actionable ideas. After some team games designed to get rid of all the stress, the four agents went to bed with the hope that tomorrow would bring some new ideas or answers.
Crock-Pot Dressing
6 cups cornbread
8 slices dried bread
4 eggs
½ onion minced
½ c celery
1 ½ T sage
½ t pepper
2 cans of cream of chicken
20 oz Chicken broth
¼ c butter
Sauté onion and celery (optional: I prefer to sauté my onion, but not the celery) Crumble bread and cornbread, add everything, but the butter. stir well Pour into crock-pot. Dot with butter. Cover and cook on high about two hours or low for four hours.
In the next chapter, things start cookin with gas!