It wasn’t long before Frank was huffing, puffing and uttering what sounded like words. Somewhere behind him but not far enough he could still hear “wait I just want to warn you”.

“I’ve got, pant pant, to get, pant pant, into better shape,” gasped Frank.

As shapes go Frank was heading to that of a donut, if the baker forgot the hole and the donut had chain smoked for 20 years before quitting. Somewhere in the middle of panting and moving his legs, albeit slowly, he had a thought that made him suddenly stop.

Perhaps, gasp, my soon, gasp, to be assailant, gasp, will just put me out, gasp, of my misery. Wait, warn me?Even his thoughts had to catch their breath and the “warn me” part arrived at a slower pace. Bent over and gasping for breath, Frank spied an ant going about the business of effortlessly dragging a relatively huge grain of rice. Show off,he thought.

The sound of footsteps were now much closer and Frank rose and turned around to meet his nemesis and then perhaps his maker with the “warn me” phrase still lingering. His vision came in to focus and just a few feet away was Trustafarian Thad, er, Sticks.

“I’m glad I caught up to you Mr. Bronski”

Frank noticed Sticks wasn’t breathing very hard and thought, he is a bit younger and thinner.

He also assumed that Stick’s herb smoking had not reached “chain” status. Frank took a minute or ten and caught up with his breathing.

“Not too tough to do kid, Usain Bolt I am not.”

“Who? Oh that running dude.”

“Yea, that running dude,” gasped Frank.

After catching up to his breath Frank continued.

“What is so important that you had to force me to exercise?”

“Those guys that forced you to relocate were around asking about you.”

“That’s not good.”
“Yea I thought you’d like to know.”

“Thanks Sticks I appreciate that.”

Sticks stood there patiently and Frank read the situation correctly.”

“Sticks I could use your help digging up any information you can find on the underpass mural. I am finding plenty of information online, all of it sketchy. If I could get some information from anyone you know on the street I might be able to sort through some of it quicker. I would appreciate it.” Franks appreciation came in the form of a twenty, albeit not so crisp, dollar bill. He still had some money left over from his first case. Sticks took the bill, gave a smile, said “Thanks man. I’ll ask around,”and was gone.

Frank decided to wander around for a while to make sure Sticks hadn’t picked up a tail before heading back to the utility bunker. His circuitous route verified that no one was following him and he returned to his humble man cave.

It really hadn’t achieved official man cave status. He was going to have to figure out how to get TV reception in what amounted to a concrete bunker. If he figured that out he would have to see if he could come up with a small battery powered TV. He interpreted “come up with” in as loose and cheep manner as possible. He might know a guy who knew a guy who could find items that had fallen off a truck. At this point he was going to chill and figure out what his next move was but he was slowly coming to the conclusion his past was going to have to be reconciled with and sooner rather than later.