Shelby Nichols Consulting

As most of you know, I work for a mob boss. He summons me quite regularly to help him with various tasks, most of which are a little on the shady side.

Of course, he pays me for my trouble and, I’m ashamed to tell you, it’s another reason I help him out. What can I say? He knows how to make me an offer I can’t refuse. As long as it’s not too far on the illegal side, I can’t turn him down.

Yesterday, I met him at Thrasher Development. He wanted me to go with him to a bid for a construction job at the airport. Uncle Joey’s company is big in construction, and he’s made some friends as well as some enemies in the business.

Lately, he’s been the recipient of a few nasty letters, all from the same person. The letters are threatening Uncle Joey to stay away from bidding on the airport construction job or he might end up dead.

It sounds like something a mob boss would threaten instead of the other way around.

That’s where I come in. I’m his secret weapon, because I can read minds. This poor sap won’t stand a chance around me, and I feel a little sorry for him. But just a little. I mean, what kind of a person threatens a mob boss?

Thrasher Development is in the running with four other companies for the job. The airport planners invited the companies to a presentation where they will outline the job in full detail. This will give each company the opportunity to submit a reliable bid from which the winner will be chosen.

So, not only will I help Uncle Joey find out who is sending the threatening letters, but I’ll also have the inside track of what the competing companies are bidding. That part might not be quite as legal, but it’s not like I’m getting hard insider information, right?

We drove to the meeting in Uncle Joey’s new Tesla. He’s really proud of that car and it’s self-driving ability. I had to admit, it was pretty cool. I asked him if I could drive it sometime. He wasn’t sure he wanted to let me drive, but then he shrugged and said maybe I could drive it home.

Looking forward to that made this whole trip worth it.

I spent the next hour and a half doodling in my notebook since I found out who was sending the threatening letters within the first ten minutes. I wrote down the person’s name and which company he worked for, and showed it to Uncle Joey.

From his thoughts I picked up his surprise before everything he knew about them clicked into place. Since I didn’t want to know what he was going to do about it, I switched my attention to the estimators.

It was their job to come up with a bid. No one wanted to come in highest, or be the lowest, since those bids were usually thrown out. I picked up that Uncle Joey’s bid was usually on the high side, but he sweetened the deal by throwing in a few things without charge which seemed to work well for him.

By the end of the meeting I had written down all of the bids from the other companies, including Uncle Joey’s. Since he’s really good at bidding, I don’t feel too bad about cheating, since he’d probably get the bid anyway.

After the meeting, I showed him the estimates, and he knew exactly what to bid to get the job.

“I think you’ve earned the right to drive the Tesla home,” he said.

“Saweet!”

We got out to the parking lot, and Uncle Joey stopped on the sidewalk. “Want to see something cool?” At my nod, he continued, “I can summon the car, and it will come and pick us up.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. Watch.” He took out his phone and opened the Tesla app, then opened to the summons button. He held it down, and, sure enough, the black car backed out of its parking space, executed a perfect three-point turn, and headed our way, all by itself.

The only hitch came when it went through the stop sign in the parking lot. Since there wasn’t another car around, I didn’t see the problem. But what neither of us had noticed, was the police car parked next to the stop sign.

He pulled out and turned on his lights to chase down the driverless car. Uncle Joey swore, but kept pushing the summon button until the car pulled up in front of us.

The police officer got out of his car and came to the driver’s side window, only to realize the seat was empty. Uncle Joey smiled, but motioned at me to explain, since he didn’t want to get involved with the cops, and my pretty face might help with the outcome.

I shook my head and hurried to the officer’s side, explaining that I was just summoning my car, and I had no idea it was against the law. He said it wasn’t, but the car ran the stop sign. At my sad expression, he said it wasn’t a real traffic violation, so he’d just give me a warning.

I thanked him profusely, and he asked me several questions about the Tesla. With Uncle Joey feeding the answers to me from his mind, I did all right. In fact, the cop was impressed that a women knew so much about the car. Of course, he didn’t say that, but it made me mad. In the end, he didn’t give me a warning ticket, so I let it go.

When it was time to leave, Uncle Joey got in the passenger side, and I got to drive home. I had a blast. Merging onto the freeway was the best part. Zero to sixty in a few seconds was like taking off in a jet.

Now I want a Tesla. Only I want a red one. After Uncle Joey cuts me a check, along with selling my car, I should have enough to pay for it.

So next time Uncle Joey summons me to his office, I’ll just focus on how exciting it will be to get my own Tesla. In fact, I think I’ll go online today and see about ordering one. See what I mean about working for a mob boss?