Brush Creek Charlie by D. B. Reynolds (which ebook reader .txt) 📖

exactly,” Derrick said. “If Lisa was black, I’d be willing to betcha all the salt in the sea that Dr. Bonnet and a lotta others around here wouldn’t do anything to remember her.”
Kathy put a grimace on her face. “Derrick, don’t turn this whole thing into a race issue.”
“If it was a race issue, then I wouldn’t be with Mitchell. He’s the best thing that ever happened to me. So what he’s white, it was his heart that hooked me in.”
“Let’s listen to the rest of what Dr. Bonnet has to say.”
Derrick arrested his militant tirades about Dr. Bonnet being a closet racist to hear the rest of her speech.
“Lisa gave of her tireless dedication to the IRS,” Dr. Bonnet praised once again. “As a section chief within the data conversion branch, Lisa helped meet the Kansas City Processing Center’s timely and efficient deposit timeliness, refund timeliness, refund error rate, correspondence error rate, and productivity. As the section chief, her deposit error rates met one to one-point-two percent. Her refund timeliness met ninety-nine-point-two to ninety-nine-point-six percent. Her refund error rate only reached zero-point-two to zero-point-five percent. Let’s take a look at her productivity throughout the entire branch. Lisa met a target goal of sixty-thousand processed documents on a weekly basis, which occurred on a rolling twelve month basis. People, this is the work of a dedicated IRS soldier, a lady who made us look good not only in Kansas City, but the treasury headquarters in Washington, DC.”
Those powerful words of praise resonated strongly with the crowd. Everyone erupted into more rowdy applauses. Derrick couldn’t help but stare at Dr. Bonnet with piercing eyes of discontent. Yes, it was true he was happily involved with a gay white man, his lover and friend for life as far as he was concerned. No one could ignor the deep seeded racism which existed within the confines of the IRS. Dr. Bonnet held the ringleader title in Derrick’s mind. She took a couple of swallows of water and wiped her forehead. More employees stood outside the door to hear the moving speech of their service director.
“Alright, let’s look more at the dedicated professional Lisa was,” Dr. Bonnet spoke further, working the muscles in her uncharacteristic face. “She worked long hours to make the changes necessary to accommodate the millions of taxpayers. Though not directly responsible, Lisa was indirectly responsible for the one-hundred million taxpayers who received nearly one-hundred billion dollars to help them weather the economic downturn.”
With those last few words spoken, the sea of curious faces turned to stare at one another. Was one woman at one IRS processing center really responsible for one-hundred million taxpayers receiving almost one-hundred billion dollars? Was it the heavyhitters in Washington, D.C. who set examples for other Treasury Department employees around the country?
Dr. Bonnet moved closer to ending her moving speech. “It is with great admiration that we thank Lisa Wallace for her professionalism and hard work with implementing the Alternative Minimum Tax legislation, also better known as ‘AMT’, and the Economic Stimulus Payment program. Three years ago, over 900 million dollars in false refunds were claimed on tax returns. Over 70 million dollars worth were actually issued among those who filed. Lisa Wallace helped implement a lookout plan for patterns which seemed unusual. Through her sole efforts, we saw a decreased volume in fraudulent returns.”
One side of the conference room applauded with aggression. The other side applauded with lower morale. How could one woman be the savior for the entire IRS agency?
Derrick pulled Kathy closer and emptied his thoughts into her head. “Dr. Bonnet is definitely full of shit, and most of the shit she’s talking about is a buncha lies. Lisa was one hellavu an employee, but she’s making her out to be the ‘Superwoman of the IRS’.”
The nosy bunch tried moving in on the conversation between Derrick and Kathy.
Kathy relayed her thoughts back to him. “Derrick, why can’t you let it go? Fact or fiction, we’re here to pay our respects to a woman who was beaten and mutilated and then dumped into Brush Creek.”
“Since when did Lisa implement the AMT legislation? Since when did her lookout plan decrease fraudulent tax returns? Why do you think the people on our side of the room hardly clapped?”
“Derrick, do I see that little green-eyed monster of envy coming out?”
“Not at all.”
“Then, just go along with the program.”
“Oh, I forgot that Dr. Bonnet was a liar. Oh yeah, and a racist, too, might I add.”
Kathy grinded her teeth and hissed. “God rest the soul of Lisa Wallace. Like yourself, I hardly care for any of these people in here. These bigoted bastards around the IRS are nothing but the scum of the Earth. As I stand here talking to you, the only thing on my mind is my old man fucking the living shit out of me with that long piece of juicy black meat.”
Derrick displayed a familiar grin. “Girl, you’ve got a license to be a fool.”
“I’ll bet Mitchell can’t wait for some of that black meat of your’s.”
“Honey, you’ve got that right.”
“Right now, something long, fat and black will serve me just right.”
“Girl, don’t make me come back to the other side.”
“They say that once you go black that you never come back.”
“Mitchell is a witness to that.”
“Is that right?”
Derrick and Kathy had more in common than they realized.
“Yes, honey, that’s absolutely right. White boys from everywhere have tried to take Mitchell away from me. They’ve learned the hard way that Mitchell likes his meat dark and well done.”
“And seasoned with all the right spices.”
“Kathy, with a big booty like your’s, you still make me wanna creep back to the other side. Afterwards, I’ll just creep back to the right side for good.”
Kathy shoved Derrick to gesture that Dr. Bonnet wasn’t finished with her speech. “Let’s listen to the rest of what Dr. Bonnet has to say.”
“In closing, I’d like to say these words of wisdom,” Dr. Bonnet pleasurably chirped. “Lisa Wallace believed that no mountain was too high. She believed that everyone should enjoy the view and the journey too. Thank you all for coming out to enjoy the life’s celebration of Miss Lisa Wallace.”
A rumbling applause sounded off around the entire conference room. Dr. Bonnet stepped off the stage to greet some of the well wishers. Derrick rolled his eyes at her as though she’d murdered his entire family. Philosophers believed how everyone made at least one enemy in their lifetime. Employees gravitated towards Dr. Bonnet like Moses coming to lead his people into the promised land.
The hungry bunch stampeded over to the tables of food. Plates begin to fill up with mounds of spaghetti, chicken, spinach and nacho dips, potato salad, coleslaw, hotdogs, hamburgers, pasta salad and bean soup. For deserts, more plates were filled up with cakes, cookies, brownies, pies, ice cream, and cobblers. The feeding frenzy among IRS employees with large appetites began!
Derrick spewed out more harsh scrutiny about other employees. “Now you see why these people around here weeble and wobble up and down the aisles. Everyday, they eat from the time they come into this place until time for them to leave.”
“Now Derrick, you were supposed to be nice,” Kathy said. “You said that you were done talking bad about people.”
“That was until all these fat people showed up.”
“You’re cruel.”
“You know I’m telling the truth. These people are fat from eating too much. They stay away from food, then maybe they’ll lose some weight.”
“Lighten up, Derrick.”
“Food to them should be like kryptonite to Superman.”
Dr. Bonnet eased her way through the tight crowd with a plate of food. Unexpectedly, she bumped into Kathy, who happened to be standing near the conference door.
“Good afternoon, Dr. Bonnet,” Kathy spoke with respect.
“Good afternoon to you, too,” Dr. Bonnet spoke back, the respect quite equal.
“Dr. Bonnet, have you heard anymore about the murder case involving Lisa Wallace?”
“A KCPD detective by the name of Jerry Overstreet said that he’d get back with the IRS and her family as soon as they got a crack in the case.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Several months now.”
“Did you read in the paper about the dog killed and the cops attacked down in Brush Creek?”
“Sure did,” Dr. Bonnet said distastefully. “There’s a psycho on the loose out there, and for everyone’s sake, I hope they catch him real soon.”
“I keep all my doors locked and make sure that both of my German Shepards keep a close watch around my house. It’s just not safe out there anymore.”
“You’re right, the world’s just not a safe place anymore, period.”
“Anytime someone kills a big German Shepard dog with his bare hands, and then turn around and beat up two trained KCPD cops, then he’s beyond insane.”
“The write-up in the paper also talked about him crawling through dark sewer tunnels infested with big giant rats.”
“Those were some nice words that you spoke about Lisa.”
“She’s most deserving of the praise.”
“She’ll be greatly missed around here.”
“Yes, she will.”
“We lost a very valued employee.”
Kathy did the unthinkable. She pulled Derrick closer to face the woman he literally despised. “Dr. Bonnet, this is a good friend of mine’s named Derrick Thomas. Derrick heads an elite team of managers in the data conversion branch.”
Dr. Bonnet locked unfavorable eye contact with Derrick. “Good afternoon to you, Derrick.”
Against his own strong will, he reciprocated. “Good afternoon to you, too, Dr. Bonnet.”
“You’re in the data conversion branch?”
“Yes, I am.”
“What a good job you guys are doing in that department.”
“Why, thank you.”
“Data conversion plays a big part in keeping uniformity