“Hurts, you son of a bitch? Well, how about this?”
He was trying to hold his right back and punch with his left, but I went under and threw my weight and my body behind a punch to his side and what felt like the snapping of bone bent him over. He fell back and I followed with two more rights to the side, trying to hit a rib if I’d managed to break it already.
He tried to swing at me with his left, but he was a natural right hander and the punch lacked authority. I followed with a right to his jaw that might have broken some teeth and sent him ass backwards over his desk. He wound up with the desk between him and me.
I stood on the other side of the desk and watched him try to get his body under him as he slid into the chair behind his desk. He sat there as I tried not to pass out from the stabbing pain that ran through the left side of my face.
There was blood running out of his mouth. It might have been from his nose, but I hoped I’d done some internal damage. He tried to touch his nose again but winced. Finally he looked up at me.
“Took you long enough, you fucking asshole. I wondered if you’d ever get the balls to come after me. I’ve been fucking your wife for four months and it took you this long to do something about it. You’re pathetic.”
“You think I give a shit about that bitch. You need to get yourself checked, if you live through this. She’s probably been banging half the staff here. No telling what kind of bugs you’re carrying around.”
His secretary’s terrified face appeared at the door.
“Professor Baker....are you alright....I’ll call security...get away from me you bastards.”
She was pushing Carlos and Ernesto away.
“No!”
Doug screamed at her.
“Don’t call anyone, Carly. Don’t say anything to anybody. Dammit. Keep your mouth shut and don’t do anything. Don’t worry about this asshole. I’m getting ready to send him to critical care.”
She let Carlos and Ernesto lead her away.
He took a deep breath.
“You only put me down at the awards ceremony because I was trying to be a nice guy.... and impress Debbie. I could have killed you. And the only reason you’re still breathing is.... because you used those brass knuckles. But they’re not going to save you now. I’m going to kick your ass, old man.”
I beckoned to him with my index finger.
“Why don’t you come over here and show this old man how bad you are?”
He pushed himself up and almost bent over. I could tell I’d hurt his ribs and he had a hard time straightening out. Somehow he did and came around the desk.
He was like a human buzz saw. I blocked about a third of his shots. The only reason he didn’t kill me was that he couldn’t use his right fist effectively and winced as if it hurt him more when he hit me than it hurt me. Still he bounced me off the wall and busted my lip and a second shot to my left eye made me scream.
I thanked God for those sessions with Ernesto because even as he was hurting me, I was able to keep thinking. I leaned a little and he reached with his left and I caught him in the pit of the stomach, once, twice and three times and felt him shudder with each punch. Then as he was almost leaning over me, I came up with the top of my head and smashed his face with my skull.
He was trying not to but he was crying tears in pain as he tried to touch his nose and he fell backwards again over his desk. This time he wound up on his ass on the floor behind the desk.
I had to lean over the desk to see him but I waited until he looked up at me and beat up as I was, I smiled and said, “You never learn, do you, moron? How many times am I going to be able to pull that trick on you. Our country must have been in really shitty shape if a loser like you almost made it to the Olympics.”
He grimaced and tried to push himself up against using his chair, but gave it up and slumped to the floor.
He took a deep breath and then exhaled. He looked up at me and just shook his head.
“I didn’t think you had it in you, you old bastard. I just..... don’t know why you bothered to do this yourself. My uncle is a DA up north. You could....make one phone call and I’d be dead sooner or later. You guys are just Mafia....with law degrees. You were really pissed off enough to come after me yourself, knowing I was likely to kill you? Why?”
“Yeah, I could make you vanished. I still might. But I wanted the pleasure of kicking your ass myself, first.”
He took a deep breath and winced. I’d definitely done damage. But on the other hand, I was having a hard time staying on my feet.
“Not that it makes any difference now, asshole.... but why the hell are you pissed off?”
I looked at him and wondered if he was even human.
“Why am I pissed?”
“Yeah. You don’t have any reason to be pissed at me.... You threw Debbie away. She swore she didn’t think you were screwing around on her at your office, but if.... you weren’t getting some somewhere you have to be the wimpiest..... asshole that ever walked the earth. She was ripe, and that meant you weren’t taking care of things at home. You got..... nobody to blame but yourself. A woman like that, she needs a LOT of sex, and....she wasn’t getting it from you.”
“You think I’m here because of Debbie?”
“Why else?”
“You fucking asshole....I’m going to kill you for what you did to Kelly.”
“Kelly? What I did to Kelly?”
“Don’t act more stupid than you are. Debbie wasn’t enough for you? The hottest damned woman at UNF. You were screwing her in MY bed and you had to take my 17-year-old daughter, too. She’s a kid...just a kid...”
“I...oh shit...”
He looked like he was trying to come up with a convincing lie.
“I don’t know how you heard about it, but.... nothing happened. Not really. Debbie can tell you?”
“Debbie can tell me? She was in the room while you were having sex with our daughter?”
For some reason, that hurt. I had decided that any love I still had for her was going to disappear. But to think that she would give this bastard our daughter....
“No. I don’t know how you found out but Debbie was late for a meeting. She left me asleep...in your bedroom. I wake up and someone is sucking my dick and.... I assume it was Debbie. When I wake up I see it’s Kelly. I nearly had a heart attack.... She sneaked in the house sometime during the night.
“When I realized what was happening I pushed her away. I’m not an idiot. Having sex with.....the underage daughter of a prosecutor...for Christ’s sake...I can get pussy anytime I want it. I’m not risking my life for an underage girl.”
“You’re a lying sack of shit, trying to save your ass.”
“Talk to Debbie. She forgot something and was getting ready to walk.... back into the bedroom when she heard everything.”
“That’s a nice story, but BJ was home too. He heard the arguing and he heard her throw you out. Why would she do that if you weren’t doing something with Kelly?”
He just sighed.
“She was right. Kelly has a crush on me. If I’d stuck around, she probably would have wound up in bed with me.... I mean, I’m only human.”
“She’s a little girl....”
“Oh get real, daddy. She’s a hot piece of ass and I’ll bet you she’s getting banged by some of her teenaged boyfriends right now..... Have you looked at her tits lately? Or that ass?”
I swallowed blood and beckoned to him again.
“Come on out from behind that desk and let’s play again.”
He just shook his head.
“I think not. I think what we have here.... used to be called a Mexican standoff. I get up and you’ll kill me. You come back here after me and I’ll knock your head off. Why don’t you just leave..... before someone shows up and calls security.”
“Why should you care? I’m the one who’ll go down for assault.”
“Because I’m out of here. I had a job.... on the string in Chicago for a month, but
I couldn’t pull the trigger and accept it because I didn’t want to leave Debbie. But since we’re done, I took the job. You already shot my job down once at the awards ceremony. If word gets out about this fight.... you could screw me up before I even start on my new job. I just want to get out of here without any more problems.”
I would talk to Debbie. If he was lying, I’d find him again. But something about what he’d said stuck in my head.
“You’re getting out of town. You don’t need to impress anybody. You’re a pussyhound and you went after my wife and took her away from me, fucked her and now you’re moving on. Why bother to pretend you care anything for her?”
“I do feel sorry for you, Maitland. I really do. Yeah... I wanted her and I seduced her and I’ve been fucking the shit out of her for four months and I..... loved every minute of it. If she had been willing to move with me to Chicago, I would have taken her. She knows that. I’d...... even have taken your brats if they had to be part of the package.
“You really don’t deserve her, you know that? She’s beautiful.... and hot and intelligent and all she ever needed was a guy that cared enough for her..... to keep himself in shape and spend some time with her away from work. You can blame me and blame her if it makes you feel any better, but..... you’re sleeping alone because you walked away from her.
“And you know why she wouldn’t go with me? She gave me that crap about I’m too young for her and it wouldn’t work, but that....wasn’t it. She’s still in love with you. You’re a stupid clueless bastard, and she still loves you. There’s no justice.... man, no justice.”
I wondered how he could be a professor in a state university, and be that incredibly stupid.
“She loves me so much that she takes you into my bed the night of our little tussle and she fucks your brains out for four months? Tell me, professor, what would she do to me if she hated me?”
He just shook his head again.
“It’s hopeless. You two deserve each other.”
“What’s going on here?”
The dark haired man stood in the doorway, staring at both of us. I could understand his curiosity. The office was a disaster. I was a disaster. Doug was a disaster.
“Hey man, move on.”
“Who are you?” the dark haired man told Ernesto as the big Latino approached him.
“None of your fucking business. Get out of here.”
Ernesto stretched out one big paw and grabbed the smaller man’s shoulder. The dark haired man, dressed in a suit and tie, looked like a professor. But in one swift movement, he did something and before I could move, Ernesto was on his knees, his wrist caught in one of the smaller man’s hands.
“Jesus Christ,” Ernesto almost screamed as he tried to pull his arm free. The dark haired man looked at him blankly and then looked up and into the room again and I caught his eye.
As it had on the Bonne Chance, a tingle ran through my spine and the hair on the back of my head began to rise. But this wasn’t exactly like that. This was more like the time I’d faced that deadly canine by myself. But this was no animal.
As I looked into his blank eyes I saw something I’d only seen one time before in my life. Seven years ago I’d prosecuted Bernard Van Dilloon, the Welaka Cannibal. Dilloon had, in the small Putnam County town not far from Palatka, murdered 11 people. He had skinned them while still alive and cut off various body parts and ate them while, it appeared, while they were still alive.
When the jury returned a guilty verdict of murder in the first degree with aggravating circumstances, he had stood up in chains and shackles and gestured to me to approach him. I’d walked across the courtroom and while everyone stood around us, he told me that one day he would get out and I’d watch him tear my heart out while I was still alive.
The words were chilling, but it was the look in his eyes that really made me shiver inside. It was as if the mask of a human being had been ripped away and something darker and inhuman was peeking out. I wondered if this was the Van Dilloon his victims had seen in their last moments.
And for just that fraction of a second, with one good eye, I had seen a flash of...something...dark and dangerous in the eyes of this mild-mannered college type. And without seeming to even strain, he held a strong young man down to his knees and by this time Ernesto was whimpering.
Carlos was standing in front of him, his hands held out in a placating manner.
“Señor, por favor...please...I apologize for my friend...he is young and stupid. He meant no harm. Accept my apology.”
“Paul...let it go, please.”
The man looked up from Ernesto and at Doug’s battered face.
“It looks like World War III broke out here, Doug. Are you sure you don’t want me to call security?”
Doug pushed himself out from behind his desk and stepped by me.
“Look Paul, I know you’ve heard the gossip about what happened three months ago. About the fight...and my...relationship with Debbie Maitland. Even at Duval, I know... they’d be talking about it.
“My head’s been on the chopping block ever since. I just.... got a new position at Roosevelt University. I’m going to be on the staff of the Commerce and Enterprise section. It’s a good job.
“If this gets reported, and this asshole—that’s William Maitland—gets arrested, he’ll lose his...... job but all the shit that got me in hot water is just going to be stirred up again. I can’t afford the publicity, Please.....just walk away.”
Paul stared at him and then at me.
“You’re Debbie Maitland’s husband? Why would you be so stupid? She walked out on you and you’re risking your career to beat Doug Baker up. That makes no sense.”
His voice was even and calm and there wasn’t the slightest hint of the animal that lurked inside him.
“Sometimes you have to do stupid things, because you have no choice.”
For a moment something crept into his voice.
“You always have a choice Mr. Maitland. It’s the thing that makes us more than animals.”
He looked back at Doug and at the same time let Ernesto go. Ernesto groaned and would have fallen to the floor if Carlos hadn’t caught him.
“You need to have somebody get you to a hospital, Doug. And Mr. Maitland, you’re a mess, too. It’s a good thing I didn’t see anything and don’t have to report anything.”
And then he walked away.
Carly was standing behind us crying.
“Do you want me to call an ambulance?”
“No,” I told her. “My friends and I will take care of him.”
Doug shot me a glance.
“You want to explain this? That going to help you in your new job? Carlos is a boxing coach and teacher and cut man and he’s handled more boxing injuries than most doctors. You’ll be in good hands.”
Finally Doug looked at Carly and said, “I’ll be fine, Carly. We just had a little....disagreement. Could you....clean up the office as best you could. Keep the door closed.”
I had slipped the brass knuckles into a pocket and walked out leaning a little on Carlos, while Doug walked gingerly with Ernesto at his side. He kept rubbing his wrist where Paul had grabbed him.
“God, Papa, I never felt anything like that in my life. I might have a broken bone. I’ll need to get an x-ray myself. Who the hell was that guy?”
“Paul Donnally,” Doug answered. “He’s head of PR at Duval University. He’s over here a lot on conferences with our people on projects. I’ve met him and his wife at a few parties. Jesus Christ, you talk about hot. His wife is the only woman I’ve ever met that could give Debbie a run for the money as far as looks.”
He looked back at me.
“The only difference is that Debbie isn’t a slut. I had to work on her. Paul’s wife screws around on him so much it’s a major mystery why he’s never stumbled onto it. He’s the most clueless husband in the western world. Makes you seem like a very perceptive man. But he just walks around calm and quiet while his wife i
s banging every male around.”
Carlos leaned over to me and whispered, “You saw it too?”
“Yeah. Paul Donnally is a very dangerous man. Married to a very cheating wife. I’m going to remember that name, because I have a feeling he’ll cross paths with me again.”
“For his wife’s sake, I hope not. Ernesto is a young, strong bull of a man. And this man could have snapped his arm. That’s freakish strength. It’s not something you develop. You’re either born with it, or you’re not. “
I said to myself, “Yeah, Paul Donnally, I’ll remember your name.”
CHAPTER 13: FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES
Thursday, July 21, 2005 -- 2 P.M.
My name is Bill Maitland. I am the second most powerful man in the State Attorney’s office in Jacksonville. The most powerful if you consider that my boss’ eye and attention and heart is really centered on the Governor’s chair in Tallahassee. Day to day, I run the place.
I was also, at this particular moment in time, looking and feeling like a survivor of World War III. My face looked like one of those mutants in 1950s-Atomic Bomb horror movies My left eye had been a spreading pool of red, brown and yellow before Doctor Gary Wells in the Shands Emergency Room had examined it and covered it with a patch before administering several medications into the eye.
“You say you hurt your eye when you got hit by a doorknob? That was an amazing doorknob. It seems to have possessed knuckles.”
“That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
He just shook his head. I had put the three thugs who had raped and murdered his wife eight years before as they caught her leaving Shands early on a Saturday morning on death row in Raiford and Wells had never forgotten. He had remarried, but he still checked with me every few months to see how close they were to dying in the Death Chamber.
“Amazing things they’re doing with doorknobs nowadays,” he said dryly. “Anyway, I don’t think that...doorknob… shattered the bone around the eye, although there might be some hairline fractures that should heal on their own. I’m also pretty sure that the cornea and eye itself haven’t sustained any real damage. You need to come in here in about a week and let me check it again.”
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