by Cheri Lewis
I’m at a loss about what to do. I don’t want to call Heath back right now. I can’t focus on his problem when I’m not satisfied that my problem isn’t solved. I dial Chief Mason’s number and leave him a voicemail with all the information I have and what I witnessed. Also that I already called DHR but they didn’t have the sense of urgency that I needed to hear so I’m not satisfied. I know he will look into it and follow up. I’m right. Not ten minutes later I receive a text from the chief – In a meeting. I will make sure this has the attention it deserves. Thank you Willow for the information.
I pull into to the grocery store and pick up everything needed to make sausage dogs and a couple bags of chips. I run back by my house picking up Joe, and two six packs of beer that I’m sure Heath will devour all by himself. While I’m at my house I glance around and am pleasantly surprised Joe hasn’t destroyed another pillow… shoe… couch cushion… or toilet paper.
On the drive over to Heath’s I have some time to think and have a little “oh shit” freak out before I see him. That way I can be there for him when he has his “oh fuck” freak out. I can’t believe he is possibly going to be a daddy now. Is he going to marry her? He of all people can’t do that to a child. He wouldn’t. I know he wouldn’t. He’s going to make a great daddy and I get to be an aunt. Do I want to be an aunt? I have no choice. I can’t believe he got Stacey pregnant. He’s going to have to move. Will he buy them a house? There are a few houses in my neighborhood that are for sale. I can’t believe Heath is going to be a daddy.
I try to not let it get to me but it’s hard. I mean, after everything we’ve been through… after his sister’s death. I don’t know why I always thought it was going to be him and me against the world forever but I could never see it any different. I guess I have to now…
Joe’s whining brings me out of my thoughts. I look over at him and smile then back to the road. He’s such a smart dog recognizing we’re on the street where Heath lives. He rents an apartment above an abandoned shop that used to repair small engines. It really resembles a two story garage if you look at it just with a passing glance. It was owned by a man who ran the business and lived in a colonial style home next door with his family. He passed away in an automobile accident a about nine months ago and now his wife rents it really cheap to Heath. Peace of mind having a police officer next door when you live alone with two kids.
I grab the bags of food and beer from my truck. Joe is doing circles as he waits for me begging me to hurry up so he can get inside.
We climb the stairs and I open the door yelling out, “Heath, it’s me!” Joe barks letting Heath know he’s here, too. “Heath?”
I place the groceries and beer on the kitchen counter then begin a search for Heath. It doesn’t take long to find him. He’s lying on the couch in the living room with his right arm covering his eyes. Joe is doing everything in his power to get Heath’s attention and he finally reaches up with his hand and pets Joe so he’ll quit licking him. I sigh and sit down in the matching recliner next to the couch.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“I brought over stuff to make sausage dogs.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I brought over beer too.”
“I’ll take one of them.”
I get up and go get him a beer using the edge of the counter to pop the lid off. I open his fridge to see if he has a bottled water or soda for me. One of us needs to be sober tonight. I grab a Coke and shut the door taking the beer back to him. He’s now sitting up on the couch. It looks like he’s been crying so I immediately look away.
I look back to him as he says, “There’s a good chance it isn’t mine.” I sit back down in the recliner and stare at him confused. “She said it’s between me and two other guys.” I try not to grimace but it’s hard. He lets out a muffled laugh. “I guess I’m not as good as I thought I was.”
“It’s not your fault she slept around. I mean… you said it yourself that she could see who she wanted to see and so could you.”
“Yeah, but not half the damn town, Willow.”
“Heath, it’s not half the town. It’s two other guys and that’s actually good for you unless you want a child right now.”
He takes a long pull off his beer. “I’m not ready for a baby. Are you ready for a baby?”
I hold up my arm pointing to my birth control implant. I still make whoever I’m with use a condom too. No baby for Willow. “Uh. No. I’m covered, besides the guy still has to use a condom, too. I don’t trust anybody now days and this here is another reason why. Do you know who the other two guys are?”
The color drains from his face. He’s now a very pale color and looks to be on the verge of puking. “Tom and Dodger.”
“From your work!”
He slaps himself in the face. “How could I have been so stupid?”
I take a big breath. “Okay. Did you use protection?”
“Most of the time. Hell, I don’t know. We would… Willow, I’ve been going over it and over it in my head a thousand times and I can’t remember each and every time.”
“How long do you have to wait for a paternity test? Until the baby is born?”
“You haven’t heard the worst of it yet.” I lean back in the recliner bracing myself. “She said she told Dodger and he’s going to marry her.”
I shoot straight up. “He’s going to marry her even if it’s somebody else’s baby?”
“I don’t think she’s told him that part.”
“Holy fuck, Heath.”
“Now, I have to go to work and see them day in and day out. What if it is my kid, Willow? Can she do that? Can she take it from me before I even have a chance to try to be a good dad? I mean do I do that to the kid? Force it to have two daddies? If he marries her, that is.”
“Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. You’re getting the cart before the horse here. Okay, first off do you know for a fact that she’s pregnant?” He looks up at me and it takes him too long to answer so I know he took her completely at her word. I can now see the wheels turning. “Like have you seen the picture of the baby in her stomach? I can’t remember what’s it’s called.” He shakes his head. So I ask another question. “Have you seen the positive pregnancy test?”
“No. None of that… she called me earlier to tell me she was pregnant and that it was either mine, Tom’s or Dodgers and that she was going to marry Dodger because he asked her.”
“Tell her you want proof she’s pregnant.”
“I can’t do that…. Can I?”
“Why not? You don’t have to act like you’re accusing her of anything. Hell, don’t worry about it. I’ll do it.”
“No. I will. You and her aren’t the best of friends and you’ve already been arrested once this year.”
“How many tests has she taken? How far along is she?”
“For crying out loud, Willow, I don’t know!”
“Don’t you yell at me! I’m here to help. You called me remember? You would think being a police officer you would be asking all these questions.”
He takes a quick sip of his beer. “What if she’s not pregnant, Willow?” I shrug and cross my arms pretending not to care. “What if this is a ploy to get me to marry her?” I roll my eyes. Why didn’t you think of this when she first told you? She’s not the most honest and obviously an unfaithful person. “What if she hasn’t slept with Dodger or Tom?”
“I wouldn’t go that far. She gets around and she always has. You knew that going into this.”
He sits the now empty beer bottle on his coffee table. “Yeah. I guess you’re right. So it might not even be true.” He looks toward the floor with his elbows on his knees and his fingers interlocked. “I know it’s wrong that I really hope it’s not true.”
“It’s not wrong, Heath. She’s not the right person for you. She really wants to get married. Nowadays people have watched one too many TV shows and think they can scheme to get their way. Maybe she’s trying to make you jealous with D
odger or thought you’d be so overjoyed you’d marry her right on the spot. Don’t overreact if you haven’t already. It will all work out, however it’s supposed to. But I’m telling you, I have a feeling deep in my gut that this isn’t anything but a ploy.”
He leans back. I watch him as he stares off into space with his lips firmly pressed together then he looks back to me. “You really have a gut feeling she’s lying?”
I nod. “I do. You know I’ve never really liked or trusted her.” I uncross my arms and look at him. “Heath when this is over and you find out she’s not pregnant, or the baby isn’t yours. Don’t fool around with her anymore. Find a good girl, so if she happened to get pregnant this wouldn’t be a fiasco. It would be scary but not the end of the world doom. I mean find somebody that if you are stuck with them for the next eighteen years it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.”
“I’m never having sex again.”
I roll my eyes because I know tomorrow when it turns out to be a lie or she’s not pregnant he’ll be a coon dog on the hunt again. “Heath, I think at our age we’re supposed to be thinking about getting married and having a family.”
“I’m not. Are you?” I give him an eat-shit grin and he smiles. “If I never settle down, get married or have kids. I’ll be okay. You’re all the family I need.”
A huge lump forms in my throat. “Ditto.”
I spend the rest of my day with him even though I have other stuff to do. It’s what we do. It’s what we’ve always done over the years. After a few beers he seems to loosen up and the problem weighing on him doesn’t seem so heavy. We eventually get around to eating sausage dogs and I even have a beer or two before the night is over. But I know it’s still on the back of his mind because it’s on the back of mine. Heath might be a daddy.
CHAPTER FIVE
The next morning I’m neck deep in paperwork when my cell phone rings. I glance at the name scrolling across my screen and it causes me to frown. Brandy – Do not answer. I disobey my own warning and answer. “Hello.”
“Hey girl, how are you?”
I set my pen down on top of the paperwork I was filling out, curious at the nice, sweet, caring voice on the other end of the phone and I know this isn’t going to be good. “I’m okay and you?”
I can hear it in her voice and I draw my butt up waiting for the favor she’s about to ask. “James asked me to call you.”
“Okay.”
“Hear me out please before you say no—”
I already know I’m not going to hear her out if she wants me to help them again. “I’m not hunting anybody right now. I’m behind on paperwork and have a list of things to handle for my own company right now. So if it’s going after a skip, I’m out.”
“It’s not that. The police are staked out in front of Tiny’s. His mother is worried sick. She can’t get him to answer the phone. I have to pick the kids up at two-thirty and little James has a doctor’s appointment at four.”
I fill my cheeks with air and look like a blow fish before I release it to speak. “What do you need me to do?”
“Can you go by there and check on him?”
“Why are the police there?”
“I swear I don’t know. But his momma says there has been a car out there since the middle of the night or that’s the first time she realized it was there.”
“The last time I did a favor for you I got arrested, my seat got destroyed and Tiny almost killed Jimmy.”
“We made it right, didn’t we? I told James I didn’t want to call you. Look don’t worry about it. James will be home late tonight. He’ll do it then.”
I sag back in my seat. “She looked pretty bad the other night.”
“Who, Sheila?”
“Yeah. You would think he would try to do right with his mother so sick.”
“The cancer has eaten her up. She can’t walk four or five steps without almost collapsing. She said she was going to try to go over there on her own but I told her I would come do it or call you. Then she said she was going to send her home health nurse over there but I told her do not do that. I’m afraid Tiny would show his ass. I made her promise me she wouldn’t and I hope she doesn’t. That’s all we need is Tiny attacking a nurse. She said the police knocked on her door this morning and asked if Tiny was there. One of the assholes asked if she had a key to his house and if she could go over there, and her sitting in a damn wheelchair, gonna ask something that stupid. It’s obvious she’s sick. Then they suggested calling him to tell him the police wanted to talk to him. Of course, that just upset her more.”
“You know sometimes I don’t think they think. I’ll go and if he acts like a fool again, Brandy, I’m liable to kill this time.”
“I thought James was the other day when he got home and I told him what happened. I don’t think he fully believed me until he saw him with his own eyes, tied up in the garage floor.”
“All right, I need a break from this paperwork anyway. I’ll run on over there and let you know what I find.”
“Thank you, Willow. I’ll call Sheila now and tell her you’re coming. He may not be there but she said she saw him come in late last night and his truck is still there. He might be passed out.”
“He may have had one of his new asshole friends pick him up and she didn’t see that.”
“Yeah that’s a good possibility.”
“Okay, I’ll let you know what I find out.”
Joe and I load up and go over to Tiny’s. When I turn into his driveway I notice the police SUV parked by the curb in front of his house but it’s not enough to keep my attention away from Sheila sitting in her wheelchair at the screen door across the street. I roll the windows down enough to let plenty of air circulate for Joe but keep them high enough where he doesn’t escape. I get out and tell Joe, “Stay here a minute. I won’t be long.”
I throw up my hand and wave at Tiny’s mother. She manages a slight wave in return. I start toward his front porch as I see the door open to the SUV. I huff and swear to myself, I will never ever in a million billion years help Brandy and James again.
I stop and face the asshole when I hear my name. “Willow.”
“Hello, Officer Roscoe. It’s been a while.”
His eat shit grin lets me know I’ve gotten to him and I feel a small victory has been won. “It’s detective and are you ever going to forgive me or call me by my right name?”
“Can I help you with something? Or am I just lucky enough to run into you where you found a nice spot to stop and eat your donut this morning?”
He shakes his head. “Are you going in there?”
“Maybe?”
“May I go in with you?”
“That would be a big fat hell no.”
“I need to talk to him.”
“Well, when I go in, I’ll let him know.”
“He could be in danger. I got a call that his situation has elevated and he needs to be made aware of that.”
I look down at the tall grass under my feet and think back to Heath’s words the morning after I got out jail. If he ends up dead I won’t be surprised. “Let me go in and see what’s going on. His mother is worried sick.”
He looks back across the street. “Yes, I tried to get her to call him this morning while I was there or to give me a key so I could check on him.”
“You’re the asshole? You know what that doesn’t surprise me.”
“You have a very limited vocabulary when it comes to me.” I roll my eyes and turn back to the front of Tiny’s house. “Willow, I’m serious he’s in danger. Do you have a gun or anything to protect you?”
I respond without stopping. “I’m never without a gun.”
“You didn’t have one the night I arrested you.” His smug reply pisses me off.
I turn back and raise my eyebrows as I pat the inside of my upper thigh. “You didn’t search thorough enough.” Another small victory when I can see that bothers him. He can’t remember if he searched me properly. I know I didn�
�t have a gun but he sure as hell doesn’t.
I move the flower pot holding nothing but dirt on the front porch and pick up Tiny’s spare key from underneath. I unlock and open the front door and before I step inside I hear a loud, Bam! The noise startles me so I push the door with my hand and call out, “Tiny, it’s me Willow.”
I can feel Wade close behind me. “What was that?”
I look up and over my shoulder. If he moves an inch closer we’ll be touching. “I don’t know and do you mind?”
“I’m now concerned about this citizen’s welfare. If you’ll let me get by.”
I spin around and look up. “I most certainly will not. He could have dropped a jar of pickles, for all we know when he heard me opening the door because he was standing naked in the kitchen.”
“You have quite an imagination also. I’m learning a lot about you today. Now, if you’ll please step aside. He could have fallen and knocked himself unconscious in the shower.” He looks back over my head into Tiny’s house. “Albert Smith, this is Detective Wade Parker I’m going to come inside to make sure you’re okay.” He begins to step forward and I have no choice to but to step backward into the house or out of the way and I’m not getting out of the way.
I step back and turn around taking in the surroundings. I step over the underwear lying in the living room floor and notice a foul odor of rotting food. I use one finger to lift the lid on the pizza box sitting on the coffee table then drop it closed when hundreds of roaches run for new cover and the aroma of molded pizza radiates through the air.
I yell out again. “Tiny, if you’re home let us know, please!” I look to my left and Wade is breaking off in the direction of the kitchen. I walk slowly around the couch to the hallway leading to the bedrooms. “Tiny, it’s me, Willow.” I get to the first bedroom and try to open the door. I haven’t been in this house in years but it used to be a junk room. I have to lean my weight on the door to get it to open. It’s still piled high with junk. I look down at the floor and I see a giant sports foam finger stuck under the door. That explains why it was so hard to open. I pull the door back closed and walk across the hall to the bathroom. The door is open but I flip the light switch anyway and make sure he wasn’t dead sitting on the toilet. Nobody is in the bathroom but it’s just as disgusting as the rest of his house. I leave the light on not wanting to touch the light switch again and make my way to the room that I’m assuming is still his bedroom. The door is closed so I knock on it. Wade yells from the kitchen, “The back door was standing wide open he may have run when you tried to come inside—”
