Copyright © 2021 James Russell Stoakes
All rights reserved.
http://JamesStoakes.com
“Did you know?” Sarah asked quietly. She was looking out the window as they drove; it was the first time she had spoken since leaving the hospital.
“Know what?” Robbie answered, not knowing to what Sarah was referring.
Sarah turned to face him. She watched him intently as she asked again. “Did you know that Mary was pregnant?”
Robbie looked shocked. “How would I know that and what makes you think she is?”
It was clear he didn’t know, and that he hadn’t put the clues together, Sarah decided. “Was pregnant,” she said. “Remember the woman we heard when we exited the elevator?”
“Yeah?” Robbie answered cautiously. He suddenly realized, “That was Mary’s mom?” he shouted, “Are you sure?”
“That’s my theory,” Sarah said. “Her shoes made the same sound as the woman that walked away from the nurse’s station.”
Robbie sat quietly for a few seconds. “I didn’t notice until now,” he said. “She sounds so different when calm.”
Sarah stared at him again before asking, “Is there any chance it was yours?”
Clearly taken aback by the question, Robbie thought about it before answering. “It’s possible,” he responded.
Now Sarah was shocked. She had hoped for a different answer. “How possible?” she asked quietly and lowered her head.
“What you really want to know is if I had sex with Mary, right?” Robbie asked. “One time. We had sex one time during our short relationship.”
Sarah was not sure how she felt about this new information. She was relieved that he wasn’t holding anything back. “You will have to set things right with her. I think she was trying to tell you at the dance but couldn’t with me and the others around.”
“Maybe,” Robbie said. “First chance I get,” he concluded.
“Promise,” Sarah insisted.
“Promise,” Robbie agreed. “Why is it so important to you?” he asked, starting to get perturbed.
“It just is!” Sarah said firmly, ending the discussion.
It was getting dark out, it was snowing like a son-of-a-bitch, and Jason was sitting in the clubhouse having a beer. Jake sat across from him with a beer in his hand, staring at him. Two long-time members were playing pool not far away, and a few other members were scattered about the room drinking. The woman who ran the place, Lizzie, was making the rounds and taking orders.
“You want another one?” Lizzie asked Jason with her cigarette hanging out of the corner of her cracked and weathered lips.
“I should be at work,” Jason said and started to get up.
“Sit. Down,” Jake said menacingly.
Lizzie raised an eyebrow. “I’ll get you another one,” she said.
Jason sat back down and laughed. “Might as well. When the hell do we expect Tom to get back?” he asked.
The headlights of a car entering the lot cut across the room as it turned in and parked. “That’s probably him now,” Jake said with a grin.
A large shadow passed by the front windows, and the floorboards creaked. The two men playing pool paused and turned towards the door expectantly. A gust of wind swirled snow from the storm across the floor as it opened, and Tom entered, followed by Eric. Eric closed the door, and the two men began shaking the snow off of themselves.
“Shit driving conditions out there,” Tom said. “Don’t they plow anymore?” He looked over to see Jason was seated and waiting. “Oh, good. You’re here.”
Unable to control his urges, Jason blurted out, “Why am I here, Tom?”
Tom ignored him as he removed his outer layer and revealed his club jacket underneath. Jason looked around and realized that everyone around him was wearing their club attire. He broke out in a sweat.
“I was talking to Jake,” Tom said. “How’s your brother doing up-state? Are we keeping him as comfortable as possible?”
Jake smiled. “He’s doing great,” Jake said. “He’s got quite a network under him now. He wondered if you had any contracts coming up.”
“Maybe,” Tom said. “Nothing urgent at the moment.”
“Now you. How’s your ear,” Tom asked as he turned and faced Jason. He approached slowly, but to Jason, it felt like he was running across the room. Eric was already behind him. He looked to the side, “When did Jake get up?” he asked himself.
“It’s fine,” Jason said. “All bandaged up by Dr. Ord. He gave me a shot to fight off infection too.”
Tom reached out and gently took Jason’s chin in his hand and guided his head sideways so he could see. Jason tried not to wince. “He did a nice job. How did you injure it?”
“It was a bar fight in Oak Grove,” Jason said. Elaborating, he added, “Someone got me with a razor or a knife. I didn’t see it, so I’m not sure which.”
Letting go of Jason’s chin, Tom asked, “No cuts on your cheek?”
“No, I got lucky,” Jason said, trying to sound convincing.
“Hmmm, no bruises on your face either,” Tom said and waved to Lizzie. He held up a finger to her and nodded his head to indicate he wanted his usual. “I’m going to have to see that ear,” he informed Jason.
“But, why?” Jason objected.
“I hope that I’m wrong,” Tom said. “I need to know if what you have told me is true. We should be able to tell if someone cut your ear off or if somebody bit your ear off.”
Jason tried to stand, but Eric and Jake soundly reseated him with a thump and held him in place. Lizzie arrived. She handed a beer to Tom and removed the bottles from the table.
Tom took a long swig off of the new bottle and smacked his lips when he was done. “It’s like this, Jason. For reasons I don’t want to get into with you, I hate crimes against women, and I do not want to be associated with people who commit those crimes. That’s not to say I’m against breaking the law.” He held his hands out as if to say, look at this place, and everyone chuckled. “There are a few lines I won’t cross, and I won’t allow the people under me to cross them.” He turned and stared at Jason, “Now, take the god-damned bandage off.”
Jason reached up to remove the bandage but surged forward out of Eric and Jake’s grasp. He almost made it past Tom but instead landed in a pile on the floor as the beer bottle in Tom’s hand crashed across the back of his head.
Jason felt Tom’s knee on his back and heard him say, “Let’s take a look at that ear now,” before he roughly removed the bandages causing Jason to scream. “What does it look like to you, Eric?”
Eric leaned in and observed that the ear was jagged and torn. There were three distinct compression bruises. “Bitten,” he stated succinctly.
“Jake?” Tom asked, looking for a verdict.
Jake knelt and took a look. “Bitten.”
The two pool players took turns looking the wound over. “Bitten,” they both said.
Tom stood. He grabbed the scruff of Jason’s jacket and lifted him to his feet. He guided him back to his chair, where Jake and Eric again clamped their hands to his shoulder for a few moments. “There was a rape in Oak Grove last night,” Tom said matter of factly. “A high-school girl.”
Eric and Jake both removed their hands and stepped back just a little.
Lizzie gasped, suddenly grasping the clues and putting it all together.
“Did you do it?” Tom asked bluntly.
Laughing nervously, Jason immediately answered, “No.”
Tom walked a few feet away and indicated to Lizzie that he needed another beer. “Why don’t we take a drive back to Oak Grove and talk to the police there?” Tom said as he took the beer she handed to him.
Seeing his chance to run, Jason bolted for the door again. He reached it before anyone could react and yanked on the doorknob. The door would not budge. He turned in time to see the fat end of a pool cue approaching his head rapidly.
Thunk, the pool cue echoed. “Fuck him up, tie him up, and deliver him to Oak Grove,” Tom said. Tom leaned down to the barely conscious Jason. “Don’t be a rat,” he warned. “Jake’s brother loves killing vermin.”
Mary was unable to expound on the details that Detective Nico had already collected. There was certainly plenty of DNA evidence if they could just come up with a suspect, however unlikely that seemed.
Tears continued to well up uncontrollably, and Mary tried to absorb them with the tissue in her good hand as fast as she could. Thinking of the scene her mother made after Detective Nico had departed was more than she could bear. Mary had not confided in her mother about her pregnancy, and her mother was furious. She got even angrier when Mary would not say who the father was.
“It was Robbie, wasn’t it,” she kept saying. “He looked guilty about something when he arrived. It had to be Robbie unless you’ve been sleeping around,” Her father had sat silently while her mother railed and hurled accusations.
“You will never know for sure,” Mary yelled at her, as best she could, having lost her temper finally. Mrs. Jordan stepped forward with her hand raised but stopped when Mary met her gaze and raised her bandaged chin for the blow. Instead, she turned and stormed from the room. “You might as well go with her for as much help as you were,” Mary growled before emotion washed over her. She watched through her tears as her ever-submissive father slunk from the room.
She turned her head towards the window. The storm obscured the parking lot lights outside, and ice pellets pounded on the window in waves. She closed her eyes and listened in an attempt to calm herself.
The relative silence was interrupted by an exclamation from one of the nurses down the hall, followed by shushing.