The Fugitive Grandma

Chapter 29 - The Squeaky Wheel

The Marlon Brando movie ended and the eleven-o’clock news began, with reporter Brenda Sugarland giving the local business update.

“Great American Superstore, the nation’s largest grocery and pharmacy retailer, is continuing its rapid expansion here in Southern California. Since acquiring the three dozen stores in the Santa Ramona area from the bankrupt Caruso’s supermarket chain, Great American now is announcing plans to open stores in neighboring San Diego, San Bernardino, and Imperial counties. The company also has a one-hundred-thousand-square-foot warehouse in Norco that will become its central distribution hub for the western United States.”

Channel Nine ran footage from the store on Magnolia Street, with a scene of Lowry, Marco, and Tiffany servicing customers.

“Regional manager Nick Lowry said that Great American is adding pharmacy sections to all its stores here in California. The retailer intends to become the leading provider of medicine in Southern California, dominating health care the way it currently rules the grocery business.”

The news then turned to weather updates. A record-breaking heat wave would continue for the next several days in Santa Ramona.

“It’s going to be a hot one again tomorrow.” Stella shook her head in despair. “When the heck are they going to repair my air conditioner?”

“I went down to Mr. Gibraltar’s office yesterday and complained. Maybe I should do it again until he gets the message.”

“That’s not a bad idea, Johnny. Harry’s probably still down there wrapping up after the bingo game. We’re paying good money to live here. We got to keep making noise and push him to fix this. The squeaky  wheel gets the grease.”

Johnny headed downstairs and found the door to Harry Gibraltar’s office wide open. He knew that Harry was careless and often ducked in and out of his office without locking the door. Johnny had always wanted to look around in there, and now was his chance.

Quietly, he moved through the room and ducked behind Harry’s desk, where the door in the rear wall led to the room full of bingo supplies. Johnny rattled the doorknob, but it wouldn’t budge.

He again checked the hallway outside the office. Seeing no trace of Harry, he started rummaging through the desk drawers. In the bottom drawer he found a ring of keys, labeled for various parts of the building, including the front entrance, rear exit, main office, cafeteria, supply room, and the back office.

There was also a white wig and pair of thick glasses. Johnny knew these belonged to Coke Bottle, the strange man who won the bingo coverall that night. Here was proof that Coke Bottle was a cheat, all the time working for Harry in this disguise.

At that moment, Johnny heard someone enter the office and he quickly crawled under the desk.

“I am telling you, Les, the money from these here bingo games is getting better and better each month,” Harry said. “We are packing over two hundred people in here every Saturday night. The past few months, I’ve been driving around to some of the other retirement communities in the city, like Saint Anthony’s and the Evergreen. They let me pass out flyers in the lobby and that generates the buzz. They’re setting up buses to bring folks here for the games.”

“That’s beautiful.” Lester Cummings let out a hearty laugh.

“Like you suggested, I raised the minimum entry fee to twenty dollars for two cards,” Harry said. “And most of the players buy more than two cards. Before the night is through, they are spending between fifty dollars and a hundred dollars on cards to make sure they get a shot at the coverall. Last weekend we cleared close to twenty thousand dollars. With the extra games on the weekdays, it comes out to a hundred thousand dollars a month.”