Chapter 7

One of the nice things about becoming friends with Norma and Charlie was that it made Jennifer’s life a little more social. In the not too far distant past her life had consisted of working at Lambdatron or taking off for a weekend at the Redlite Ranch to unwind. Once in a while she might have dinner with Jon and Tanisha, but up until the prospect of having Barbie came on the scene they’d been about as busy as she was, and all too often an evening with them turned into a work session anyway.

Jennifer had long conceded to being a workaholic, and she realized it would have been a bleak existence indeed if it hadn’t been for her recreational weekends as Learjet Jenn. But those days were now in the past and there hadn’t been much to replace them. She had hoped that Norma’s project would fill in some of her slack time until Will returned, but it just hadn’t done it yet. Even when he got back, he would still be in Mississippi, and although Skyhook could get her from Phoenix to Biloxi and back quickly it was more than a little expensive, so couldn’t be done every night.

For relaxation and unwinding she did have an alternative other than knitting, which she had considered at one time, and that was her flying and her planes. For years she’d found a way to relieve stress by going down to the Skyhook Aviation hanger and bringing the polish job on one of her planes up to snuff, and that helped. But she liked to get out and fly even more.

In the past, if she wasn’t flying up to the Redlite for the weekend, she had been known to get in one of them and fly somewhere for the sake of flying there, maybe just having a cup of coffee and flying back as an excuse. She hadn’t done it all that much in recent years, at least partly because the expense of such excursions in Skyhook seemed – and were – ridiculously expensive. It wasn’t quite as bad in Songbird, but it still seemed like a lot of money to spend to kill a little time.

It hadn’t been that way several years before when she’d had her old Cessna 150, which some previous owner had named Magic Carpet. The little Cessna had been her introduction to the world of flying and aircraft ownership. She’d often flown it from Phoenix or Los Angles to her work in Nevada, and it had given her the first reputation she’d had in the trade. She’d traded off Magic Carpet when she’d bought a Mooney Mark 21 years before, a much faster and more capable plane, and it had been her gateway to starting Skyhook Aviation. But after the Mooney had some engine problems she’d traded it away in turn for Songbird. The Cessna 310 was a nice airplane in its way, but it really wasn’t an airplane to go out and mess around mindlessly in.

One of the good things that had come in the wake of The Fast World of Learjet Jenn was the discovery of Magic Carpet sitting again at an aircraft dealer’s place in Colorado. Her little plane that had been just about her only true friend for years had endured some hard times since she’d owned it; it was faded, tattered, and in need of serious mechanical attention. It only took her seconds to decide to buy it back and start treating it again like it should have been treated all along.

It wasn’t until the emotional peak of discovering her old friend had passed that she realized that she didn’t have much use for the little plane. It was small and it was slow, although that didn’t hurt if she wanted to fly to someplace like Flagstaff or Tucson for a cup of coffee. But to actually go somewhere in it was a different thing entirely since she could get there much more quickly in either of her other two planes. It was almost a four-hour haul up to the Redlite Ranch aboard Magic Carpet, and the fuel range was awkward, demanding two fuel stops for a round trip. But she’d done it for years and enjoyed every minute of it, she realized.

It was thinking about the little cabin Will had given her that brought some revision to her thinking. There was no airstrip there, but a dry lake bed that was flat and level and hard most of the year sufficed. It was good enough that she had flown Songbird in there several times, and even had taken Skyhook in there once although it was a bit on the iffy side. The problem was that the dry lake was on the soft and muddy side in the spring, which made for several months each year that the cabin was inaccessible to the bigger planes. But, when talking it over with Will, she had realized that even if things were a little on the soft side it would still be usable by Magic Carpet, especially if it were fitted with oversized tires. She’d been able to think of a few other modifications that she had long considered but had been too expensive to implement when she’d first owned the plane. They were not too expensive for her now.

The performance of Magic Carpet had been anemic when Jennifer and Will literally staggered into Phoenix with it after its repurchase – the engine was just about shot and needed a major rebuild. One of the things about Magic Carpet was that it was slow, especially slow to climb, but there was a solution to that problem. When the plane emerged from the shop at Hernando Aviation in Phoenix, where she’d had all her aircraft work done for years, instead of the 100-horsepower Continental engine it had originally been equipped with, now it had a 150-horsepower Lycoming under the cowling. Not only did Magic Carpet now climb faster, it flew faster, and could get off the ground faster, especially on soft fields. Its instrument panel had been upgraded considerably and long-range fuel tanks added. What with everything, flying it up to the cabin from Phoenix was now a reasonable option so long as she was in no huge rush to get there.

For days the thought had been on her mind of rolling out Magic Carpet and flying up to the cabin for a day or two, if for no more reason to sweep out the dead flies and stock it up so it would be ready for Will’s eventual return. Besides, even without him there it would be good to get away, just to kick back and relax, letting the peace of the place calm her down. She hadn’t actually gotten around to deciding to do it yet, but it was under strong consideration, and she figured she’d do it as soon as she could string together two or three free days back to back.

She was looking at her calendar with that in mind when her cell phone rang. Hoping that it wouldn’t be something that would keep her from making the trip, she answered it to discover it was George Bush, the owner of the Redlite Ranch and an old friend besides. “So, my friend,” he said once the preliminaries were out of the way, “what are you up to these days?”

“Work and more work,” she replied. “And no, I’m not planning on coming to work up there again.”

“I didn’t think you were,” George laughed. “I don’t blame you a bit, either. You had a good run, but when the time came to hang it up, I figured you were going to make it stick.” He probably had good reason to think that, since they’d had a long discussion about it the previous fall during the Fast World shooting. “How’s that part of it going?” he went on.

“I’m managing that part of it just fine,” she told him. “There are some other hassles, but I think I have that one under control.”

“Got a question for you,” he replied. “Is there any chance you’re going to be in the neighborhood sometime? It doesn’t have to be real soon, but there are some things I want to talk to you about, and I’d rather do it over a desk rather than over a phone.”

“There might be a chance. I was just sitting here thinking about flying up to the ranch sometime in the next few days. The Redlite is out of the way but it’s not that far out of the way. What do you have in mind?”

“I don’t want to get into the details yet, but there are some things I have on my mind that you might be part of the answer to. I mean from a business side. Well, not the business we do here, at least not directly. Long-range things.”

That didn’t tell her a lot; in fact, she was a little bit suspicious. George was a nice guy, and she owed him a great deal. But she was aware that he was a promoter at heart, and getting the word out about the Redlite was always one of his big concerns. Nevada brothels were all barred by law from normal advertising, which was fine with her since she really didn’t want to see ads for them on TV – at least if she watched TV, which she only did rarely. The only reason she had the little portable in her condo living room was to check the weather occasionally, and recently to keep up on the progress of the war in the Persian Gulf.

She knew that her reputation as Learjet Jenn, especially from Fast World, had brought a great deal of business into the Redlite Ranch; in fact, it had probably been the best promotion the place had ever had. Was George looking to capitalize on her Learjet Jenn reputation some more? Much as she liked the guy, she didn’t want to get involved with something like that. Despite what Norma had said, she was still trying to put that reputation behind her, or at least in its place.

On the other hand, Norma had managed to convince her that if carefully used in the right places her Learjet Jenn reputation might be used for some good. That made her think that she ought to at least see what George had in mind. “Something to do with my being Learjet Jenn?” she asked.

“Not necessarily, although it might enter the picture if you wanted it to. But it would have to be your decision and I know how you are about these things. Like I said, the background is a little too complicated to get into over the phone, but the next time you’re up this way why don’t you stop in for a cup of coffee?”

“All right, George. Like I said, I was thinking about going up to the ranch anyway. I don’t know for sure when, but it ought to be in the next few days. Are you going to be around?”

“I will be unless something unexpected comes up. I don’t even plan on going into Lost Wages until I have to.”

“I try to avoid the place myself when I can.”

It was a couple of days before she was able make the time for the trip, but at least the weather was gorgeous if warming up a bit like it often did in the summer months in Phoenix. It was still fairly early when she drove the Monza to the Skyhook Aviation hanger, to discover that Magic Carpet was parked in its normal position behind the two bigger planes, which were both there. That meant she had to spend half an hour moving planes around before she could throw her luggage into the little Cessna and get on the way.

Despite cruising faster and having more range than before, Magic Carpet still had the same weight and speed limitations it had always had, so with a full load of fuel and a little bit of luggage she was right around the weight limit. It took her a while to get out of the Phoenix metro area before she could settle back and let the little plane take her northward. It seemed to take a long time, and it did – despite the extra power, her little airborne hot rod was still considerably slower than the bigger planes. But that was fine; she was flying, and that was what mattered.

She didn’t really solve anything in the time it took her to get to the Redlite, but at least she felt like some of her issues could be solved, which wasn’t always the case in Phoenix. With the heavy operations of the war now over with, it seemed likely that Will would be back in the states sooner rather than later. She was as anxious as ever to see him, even though it would probably involve trips to Biloxi to see much of him. Having him back would cure a lot of her problems, at least for the short term.

Of course, she spent a fair amount of time wondering what George had in mind. It might not be all that bad, whatever it was, and might even be something she would be interested in. Besides, it would be good to see Shirley, and maybe she might know some of the girls who would be around.

Norma wouldn’t be, she knew: she hadn’t given up on the idea of going back up there to work sometime but she hadn’t been there since February either. The two of them had gotten together every week or two to work on plans for the rescue project – they still hadn’t come up with a better name for it – but it was clear that there was still a lot of preparation that needed to be done.

A couple of times she’d gotten together with Norma to have dinner with her family; Charlie had proved to be a nice guy, an executive in a plumbing supply company with a fund of stories, most of which didn’t have much to do with sex. Jeff was a pretty good kid; he still had some high school kid to him, but in a nice way. She hadn’t met Stephanie yet, but it didn’t appear that she was going to turn out at the Redlite soon, at least not this summer. Charlie had found her a job as a stock runner in his business, so at least the kid was going to have some idea of what it was like to hold a real job.

Eventually the countryside below her became the familiar one south of the Redlite, and she could see the old bomber runway left over from World War II in the distance. In the past, the sight had seemed a little bit like she was coming home, but that was in the past and it seemed to be just a little bit strange to her now.

Once again, she taxied up to the building, but this time she parked in the “Reserved for Learjet Jenn” spot that had once frequently been occupied by Skyhook. She tied Magic Carpet down, unlocked the back gate, and walked inside the employee lounge where she was greeted by Shirley, who had known she was coming from the radio call she had made a few miles out. “It’s good to see you again,” her old friend told her. “But it seems different for you to have your old plane up here. I can never see that without thinking of the time we rescued Will.”

Jennifer explained that she was heading up to the cabin for a couple of days; Shirley said she wouldn’t mind doing it herself again sometime, but right now wasn’t a good time. They chit-chatted for a while, until Jennifer said that she had actually stopped by because George wanted to see her.

“I know what that’s all about,” Shirley smiled. “I suspect he’ll want me to sit in on it, too. I’ll tell you what, he surprised me with it, but now that I’ve had a chance to think about it I realized he’s dead right.”

“What’s this all about?”

“It’s complicated, and he can tell it better than I can. You’ve come this far, you can wait a few more minutes.”

It seemed to Jennifer that there had to be some kind of conspiracy to keep her in the dark about whatever it was that George had in mind, but in a few minutes they were in George’s office in the “no customers allowed” area of the building. Of course there was more coffee served and some “how have you been” type of discussion before Jennifer got down to brass tacks: “All right, George,” she said. “What’s this mystery all about?”

“It’s complicated, like I told you,” he replied, leaning back in his desk chair. “Think back to your first days up outside of Carson City. I met you there the first time, a long, long time ago. How did you like the place?”

“I thought it was all right, but I didn’t have anything else to compare it to at the time.”

“I would have to say that in those days it was probably better than most of the Nevada houses, but compared to what we have here today, it wasn’t all that great, right?”

“Right. It was a while getting this place open, but once we did I never wanted to go back to what I had there. Even while we were pulling things together, this was a whole lot better.”

“I think so too. I don’t remember how much you were a part of the discussions I had back then, but I talked to a lot of girls about what they would like to see in a house. What’s more, I spent a lot of time talking to Shirley, who knows more about the business than anyone else I know.”

“I remember being a part of a long discussion about it one night when you were there at Bettye’s Ranch.”

“Now that you mention it, I think I remember that one too. I won’t go into all the ins and outs of it, since you probably know a lot of them anyway. The upshot of it was that when I decided to get involved in the business rather than just being a customer, I wanted to set up the gold standard of Nevada bordellos. I mean I wanted to set this place up as a model of how the business could and should be run, and for the most part I think we’ve accomplished it.”

“Oh, there are some things we could do better,” Shirley put in. “I still miss the intimate way we were with the customers the way it was at Bettye’s, but that’s hard to do with as big a business as we have here.”

“Right, and that’s part of the reason we have a couple of separate lobbies, to separate the hard-core whoring and the more gentle girlfriend experience,” George agreed. “For the most part, I think we’ve done pretty well at it, but I agree, it’s not Bettye’s and it can’t be, not as large as this place is. But in the main, I think we accomplished what we set out to do.”

“Once upon a time Will and I talked about it,” Jennifer said. “We kicked around the idea of starting up something that was more like Bettye’s than this place is, shooting for more of a resort with hookers than a bordello, keeping it small and cozy and friendly. We even kicked around calling it ‘Learjet Jenn’s Fantasy Ranch,’ but with me wrapped up in Phoenix with Lambdatron and Will in the Air Force, it was a pipe dream, and we’ve never really explored the idea. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to do it now.”

“Pipe dreams are nice and sometimes they can lead to reality, which is part of why the Redlite got built in the first place. We – Shirley and me – and you’ve been a part of it, have managed to create something special here. I could list all the ways the place is special, but you already know them anyway. In the last few months, I’ve started to realize that we have a long-range problem in keeping it special. I hadn’t realized it until recently, but we’re going to be facing a challenge if we’re going to do that.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“Let me preface this by saying that I intend to stay with this business as long as I am able. I like what I’m doing, and I enjoy watching people have fun, especially when it’s fun I’ve been able to provide for them. I don’t want to say the money isn’t nice because it is, but I was rich enough when I started this place and I still am rich enough to provide everything I want.

“But I’ve slowly started to come to the realization that I’m not going to last forever,” he continued. “I’m sure you know that I was involved in housing developments in the Houston area before I set this place up, and I still am involved to some extent, at least financially. I don’t provide any of the management any longer, and that’s fine with me since I’d really rather be here than in Houston. But back last fall an old colleague of mine dropped dead of a heart attack right out of the clear blue sky, and that got my attention. I’ve been running back and forth to Houston for months in an attempt to clean up the mess that got left behind with his death, although I think I’ve got most of the loose ends that concern me taken care of now.”

Jennifer shook her head. “I still don’t see the problem.”

“The problem is that if I were to drop over dead right now, this place would be left in a hell of a mess. I gave Shirley a third of the business way back when we started, but the other two thirds of it is still mine. Under the way things are now, my estate would get spread out among several relatives, none of whom have any interest in this business, and that’s an extreme understatement. Most of them are disgusted that I’m involved with it at all.”

“That’s not surprising, I guess.”

“No it isn’t, and you would have to know some of those people to know just how strong it is. Now, I could set up my will to leave my share of the business to someone else, Shirley maybe, but she has an even worse age problem than I have, and there would be a hell of a legal battle if we did that, one that she probably wouldn’t win.”

“I have to go along with him on that,” Shirley sighed. “I’m like George in that I want to stay involved as long as I can, but I’m ten years older than he is, and that means I’m that much closer to having to give it up. I don’t like it, but there it is.”

“What makes it worse,” George went on, “is that I have one nephew who is going around to other potential heirs looking to buy up their interest in this place when it comes to them. We’re talking pennies on the dollar, too, but some of the damn fools are taking him up on it. I’m just as sure as the sunrise that if he gets his fingers on a majority of the stock I leave behind he’ll sell it to that joker up north, or maybe to someone from the mob, and he’ll make out like a bandit in the deal.”

Jennifer nodded her head. “And if someone who doesn’t respect what’s been done here takes over, they’ll turn it into another place that’s run the way it used to be up at Carson City. I mean, less of a cut for the girls, charging through the nose for their food and everything else, turning it into a full lockdown, ten-dollar drinks for the customers, and I can think of a lot more.”

“Oh, I can add to that list real easily,” George said, “and it would ruin the place in the changeover. I don’t want that to happen.”

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“The best answer I’ve been able to come up with is to sell out enough of my interest so I’m no longer the majority shareholder, and not by a small margin, either. I can block that young idiot if I can sell out to people I know who will respect the vision and understand the business, people who Shirley and I can trust. People like you.”

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