’ She nodded. ‘Okay. You’re a grown man and I don’t want to get in the way of your business. But remember what I said, you can tell me anythin... that’s on your mind. I won’t judge.’ *** PHANTOM IN YOUR FINGERS *** A few hours later. I came back to my mother’s house and things were unusually quiet. Typically she would come to the door to greet me, no matter what she was doing. I carried my things up the stairs to the main bedroom, and then I saw it: My mother was sitting on the floor with her. “That’ll work. Saturday at 2:30.”Mandie gave me an address in Pineville, which I saved in my computer. “I’ll be looking forward to meeting you, Mr... ?”I realized I’d never given her my name. “Dale,” I said. “Lou Dale.”Chapter 2Jessica was a bit aghast later that evening when I told her what I’d signed up for, but with a bit of persuasion I managed to talk her into at least going to the free consultation and seeing how it went. Saturday was only two days away, and when the time came, we drove. I knew that whatever came out of his mouth I would not like. ‘So, tell me, my dear, what do you think of my camera system now?’ he asked. I did not know what to say. I figured I’d better say something to please him or he would and could make my life hell. I said, ‘I didn’t know you could see everything like that, Mr. Ballard. I bet you even filmed us in here watching the movie, didn’t you, sir?’ Ballard said, ‘Honey, you know I did. Now the question I have for you is this: What do I do with. It was practically a mansion and we had passed it multiple times on our trips around the block. “Don’t worry,” she told me when I pointed this out. “They probably didn’t see anything and they probably wouldn’t say anything even if they did.”Which is funny, in retrospect, because I remember thinking, as I parked my piece of shit GMC into a space crowded between a BMW and a Mercedes, that we probably stuck out like a sore thumb in this neighborhood. Anxiety is a bitch people; thank god for drugs..