Family Secrets

by Ronnie Ashmore

  “That’s Parks’ decision.”

  Mike didn’t like that answer at all.

  “Mike, there’s got to be a back door on the other side of the house. Go cover it. Amy, go to the side of the house and cover the pickup.”

  The two made their way to their positions. Mike ran back toward the clothesline where he had first talked to Lydia he moved between two pecan trees, trying not to make noise by stepping on the fallen twigs and branches, he made his way through them, he walked past a little flower bed that had been long abandoned, finally, he reached the back yard. He took cover behind a tree.

  The back door was accessed by a patio that was made of lumber, that was rotting now, and stood three or four feet off the ground. The steps leading up to the patio had been removed and were sitting off to the side in pieces. The entire patio looked as if it would collapse if you attempted to stand on it.

  Mike heard cars pulling into the driveway. Backup had arrived. He had left his cellphone with the chief so he could monitor the situation inside the house. Standing behind the pecan tree looking at the backdoor Mike wanted to do something. He felt hamstrung just waiting for Parks to do whatever he had in mind to do.

  He wiped sweat from his face. The sun was beating down on him where he stood. The tree didn’t offer much shade and sweat was rolling off his face and his shirt was soaked. At least he was in his clothes, the others were in their uniforms. They had to be baking in this heat he thought. He made his decision to do something.

  He left his place of cover at the tree walking slowly to the patio and took the giant step up to get on the patio itself. He tested the wood in places. Seemed strong enough. He eased up to the metal door, the whole time expecting a face to appear in the squares of glass in the center of the door.

  He stopped in front of the door, there was no sign of a deadbolt lock, so he gently turned the doorknob. It turned in his hand. Figures, nobody locks anything around here, he thought. He returned the knob to its original position and stood to the side of the door where he couldn’t be seen.

  Mike was breathing hard and could feel his heart beating fast as adrenaline rushed through him. He sorted his thoughts. There was a lot to consider. If he opened the door, would it make a noise? Did it squeak? Would the bottom of the door scrape against the floor? Could you hear it open in another part of the house? He wiped sweat from his face.

  If he went in there without orders, he would be reprimanded, maybe even suspended. Only if I live, he thought. The chief would be pissed at him for violating orders to stay outside. Mike silently cussed himself. He had never gone against orders before. He didn’t consider himself that kind of cop, but Christine was a hostage inside this house. She needed to know someone was coming to help her.

  The crack of a tree branch from one of the pecan trees to his right broke his thoughts. Someone was coming from the same side of the house as he had. Mike aimed his gun in that direction and waited. The footsteps getting closer as a shadow appeared and grew longer. Jimmy Williams peaked his head around the corner and ducked back. Mike recognized him and lowered his gun. Williams looked back around the corner and motioned for Mike to come to him.

  Mike carefully jumped off the patio and went around to talk to Jimmy. He was glad Williams had interrupted what he thought of doing. Williams motioned for Mike to follow him and they made their way as fast as they could back to the patrol cars where everyone was waiting. Mike saw that Roberts was already there. He joined the rest of them.

  29

  There was a force of six now. Sergeant Marten, Captain Morgan, Lieutenant Williams, Amy Roberts, Chief Tolliver, and Mike.

  Marten was supposed to be watching Lydia and Max. For a moment Mike wondered where they were.

  The chief’s words broke his thoughts.

  “Things are going downhill fast, boys.”

  The cellphone was still connected, they could hear Parks talking while Christine was crying loud. It took a few seconds for Mike to understand what was being said. Parks voice was clear, like he was standing in the same room as Christine and yelling at her.

  “I want you to know, you ruined this family. If you had kept your mouth shut, your sister wouldn’t be in jail, and I wouldn’t be going away forever.”

  “I didn’t do anything! Elizabeth told first.” Christine yelled,

  “You’re a liar! She would never do that. I’ll tell you what though.” The sound of a something heavy moving on the floor created a noise that drowned out part of Parks’ voice, then it cleared up and the voice was saying. “No. I ain’t goin’ down without one more run on you. You were my favorite, you know that? Much better than the others. Get to the bedroom and if you try and run, I will shoot you.”

  Mike could only imagine the terror Christine was feeling right now. Her dad was completely out of control. How could one man be so warped? Mike put that thought out of mind. He wanted to get into the house before Parks’ could even touch, much less hurt, Christine anymore.

  Tolliver looked around and said, “Go now!”

  The six police officers took off like an invading army attacking an enemy camp. Mike in the lead. They rushed through the yard. Mike lost a step to Jimmy Williams as he ran past Mike going up the front steps. Williams lowered a shoulder crashing through the front door. The door and doorjamb separated, and the door split and fell into the house, broken glass and splintered wood flying inside. Jimmy became entangled losing his balance in the debris of the door allowing Marten to take the lead. There was a danger of being bottlenecked in the hallway if they were to keep going.

  Mike was third through the door, but he stopped in the path between kitchen and dining room as Christine’s head became visible in the doorway of the bedroom on the right. Parks came out behind her. He held his left arm around her neck squeezing so hard it caused her face to turn red. In his right-hand Parks held a silver revolver pistol. Christine was crying. Her shirt had been ripped down the front showing her black bra underneath. The gauze bandages on her wrists from the hospital began to unravel as her hands clawed and scratched trying to loosen the vice like arm that held her neck.

  Mike could see the fear in her eyes as she looked at him not breaking eye contact. He brought his pistol up and aimed through the sites, he did not have a clear target to shoot Parks. The old man was using Christine as a shield between him and the police.

  “Y’all get outta my house! I’ll kill her and you.” Parks yelled, squeezing Christine’s neck tighter.

  Mike watched George Parks’ forearm flex as he squeezed Christine’s throat tighter causing her to gasp for air.

  “You ain’t getting out of here, George. Give it up.” Tolliver said.

  Mike was trying to focus his sights on Parks, he kept Christine between him and any clear shot. Mike stepped to his right moving further into the dining room which caused Parks to look his way. At the same time Roberts stepped to the left inside the kitchen, trying to aim her gun. Parks looked that way as well.

  Mike still had no clear sight picture of Parks from this new position. Mikes’ arm started shaking from holding his pistol up in front of him, he did not want to lower the gun. He was waiting for a better chance to see Parks.

  Mike gave a quick glance at the others to see what they were doing. Tolliver stood with his pistol low by his side, Jimmy Williams and Marten were behind him, Morgan was standing beside Tolliver with his gun aimed at Parks. Mike could see his gun shaking as well from strain. Roberts made eye contact when he looked her way, she gave a slight shake of her head. She had no decent shot either.

  “I’m getting out of here. I ain’t spending the rest of my life in prison.”

  “You hurt your family, George. All of them. You hid your wife’s dead body in the basement so you could collect her checks. You got a lot to answer for.” Tolliver said.

  “I needed that money to take care of Lydia and the child. Life has been tough on me, Chief.”

  “You mean Lydia and your child. Like Lydia is your kid, too.”


  Mike seen Parks’ face change expressions from anger to rage. He pulled back on Christine’s neck so hard she was forced to stand on her tip toes to avoid her windpipe being crushed. She let out a gagging sound.

  “If they had just kept their mouths shut. I would have died in a few years and no one would ever know.”

  “They would know, George. Toby, Elizabeth, and Christine here has lived with all the horrors you done to them. And what about Lydia? You think that’s okay?”

  “I ain’t ashamed, Chief. I did what I did. They were my family.”

  Parks relaxed his grip a little while he was talking. Christine made her move. Christine feeling the pressure lighten on her neck stepped on Parks’ right foot hard at the same time jerking to her right. She was able to break his hold on her as she crashed into the wall of the hallway knocking old family photos down. She fell to the floor gasping for air. Her action took Parks by surprise. He took a step back then realized what was happening. He tried to recover the advantage he had but he realized his advantage was gone. Parks stared wide eyed at the group of police officers that were in front of him, he yelled something Mike couldn’t understand and started to raise his gun.

  Mike was watching all the commotion through his own sights. It seemed to be happening in slow motion to his mind’s eye. He knew it was real time with little room for error. Mike seen Parks look at them as he raised his pistol. Mike saw Parks wasn’t going to shoot at the police. George Parks yell was incoherent as he was raising the pistol to shoot Christine. She saw what he was doing and the danger she was in. Christine buried her head in her arms and screamed.

  30

  Mike felt his gun recoil in his hands twice. The gunshots were loud in the house. George Parks spun around and fell against the door of the back bedroom at the end of the hall. The bedroom door swung open causing Parks to lose his balance. He dropped his revolver then fell to the floor.

  Roberts rushed to Christine half pulling, half dragging her out of the danger zone into the kitchen. Tolliver and Morgan rushed Parks to make sure the threat was over.

  Mike lowered his gun and moved closer to Parks. Morgan bent over Parks checking his wounds. Tolliver picked up Parks’ gun from the floor, watching. Parks was moaning and crying from the pain of the two wounds, one in the right forearm, one in left shoulder.

  Mike was surprised he was alive. He saw the wounds and cussed himself, he had been aiming for a head shot or at least center mass in the torso area. He had missed, but he had saved Christine’s life.

  Mike looked toward the kitchen and saw her hugging and holding onto Roberts crying hard. He looked back at Parks on the ground. Sirens were sounding in the background, EMS no doubt, as someone had called for them.

  “Wish you had killed me.” Parks said to Mike as Morgan was handcuffing him and standing him up.

  The wound didn’t seem to be life threatening. That was good Mike thought.

  “You deserve to die in a prison cell for what you have done. I look forward to testifying against you.” Mike said, he walked off.

  Outside in the yard a few minutes later Mike was gathering his thoughts. Doctor Sawyer during the psych evaluation had asked if he could pull the trigger again on another human if he felt threatened or someone was in danger. Mike felt confident that he could do his job just as well now as before.

  He stood watching as the EMTs brought Parks out on a stretcher, his hands cuffed to the rail on each side. He would be okay they said. Parks was the second person in the same family he had shot in a week. It had been a roller coaster seven days, Mike thought shaking his head. Tolliver walked up to him and patted him on the back.

  “Good job in there, son.”

  “Thanks Chief. I was just thinking about me shooting two people in the same family in a week. I gotta go through this whole process again.” Mike said, frustrated.

  “Well, Ranger Murphy is still in town. I already had the boys call him he’s getting the crime scene unit down here. Look at this way, you get another week-long vacation.”

  Mike snorted. He unholstered his gun and handed it Tolliver so he could give it to Ranger Murphy. Christine came out of the house slowly walking to where they were standing. Tolliver watched her approach.

  She no longer wore her torn shirt. She now had on an old T-shirt she had found somewhere inside.

  “You okay?” Mike asked.

  “Someday, maybe.” She smiled at both them. There seemed to be a lot of sadness in that smile, Mike thought.

  “Listen, I know we probably got off on the wrong foot, but if you need anything…”

  She interrupted Mike, “You saved my life. All of y’all did. I don’t know if I was worth saving prior to this. But from here on, I’m going to do something positive with my life. I allowed my daughter’s life to be ruined just like mine was. I won’t allow it to stay ruined. I promise you that.”

  Tolliver patted her on the back and walked away. She looked around taking in the house she grew up in. The house that contained so many horrible memories now had a new one to add to it. She shivered a little, even though it was a hot day.

  Mike could see the storm in her eyes, he could almost see her thinking of some of the nightmares she had endured in this house as a child.

  “What happens to Elizabeth and Dad?”

  “Elizabeth is in a lot of trouble. The judge may go easy on her in some aspect since she’s a victim. Your dad is going to die in prison.”

  “Victim! I hate that word. I’m going to start thinking of myself as a survivor, I like that word better. It’s used a lot on the internet in forums for people who were sexually abused. What do you think?”

  “Survivor.” He said, repeating the word a couple of times. If a word could describe Christine Parks that would be the last word he would choose. He looked at her and continued, “I think what you been living this whole time is called existing, not surviving. How you going to change that?”

  “One day at a time. More than that I don’t know. I made a promise to Lydia in that room at the police station that things were going to be different. I intend to see to it.”

  “You know, it may help to talk to someone.” Mike said.

  “I don’t know about that. Talking to strangers about family.”

  “I didn’t like it either, but I had to this past week after shooting..Um.. It helped me. I’m not ashamed to tell you I think I’ll be going back when I need to talk about things no one else would understand. I got his name and number I can give you.”

  Morgan yelled at them from beside his pickup and motioned for her to come to him. She accepted Mikes’ offer and gave him a hug. He watched as she walked off to give her statement to Captain Morgan. He hoped she would make good on her promise to do something positive with her life. Lord knows there was a lot to fix with her.

  About the Author

  Ronnie Ashmore is a two-time chief of police who started his law enforcement career as a jailer working his way up through the ranks. He is an instructor and lecturer who enjoys hearing from others about their lives.

  When he is not working or writing and has some spare time, he enjoys playing golf, fishing, and traveling with his wife and kids.

  You can contact him at ronnieashmore@mail.com

  Thanks for reading! Please add a short review on Amazon and let me know what you thought!