A Mitchell Carmichael Adventure,
Guest-Starring Sharon Crowley and “Rickey”
It seemed so much more straightforward. Where before I had been industriously engaged in redacted, now I was living in the big city doing work as a specialist and consultant for Umbra Security. John Ponzero was a typical real-estate mogul: all ego and mouth, and me with no painkillers for the two-hour drive to central Georgia where he was planning to make his next killing.
We made it into town before lunch. He had talked non-stop about his favorite subjects (himself, his hot wife, his hotter mistress, and money), I needed a drink, and to cap it off I was immediately put on edge. Something just didn’t seem right, and it wasn’t just the 103 degrees at 11:30 in early July. Town square (yes, they still have those in picturesque little towns off of I-16) contained a number of pine-pollen-covered vehicles, but in the steamy heat no-one was to be seen moving about on the sidewalks. We got out at City Hall, where John planned to investigate the finer, non-computerized details of some of the local property ownership, and we had made it nearly to the building when it hit me.
Pollen season was months ago.