by Cheri Lewis
“Hello.”
“He got ‘em, Willow.”
“He got who?”
“Wade got that sick pervert.”
I sit up so fast I my head is woozy. “What?”
“I don’t know much… shit, I gotta go. I’ll call you back.”
I hold the phone to my ear for several seconds even though I know he’s no longer there. Wade got Thomas? How’d he do that? I’m supposed to do that. I get up from my bed and begin pacing the floor, my mind going a thousand miles a minute. I wish now I had my police scanner that I took to the office. I don’t know why. It won’t tell me anything but maybe I can get a little insight to what and where they are and if it’s still going on. I go to the kitchen to get a drink as my phone rings in the bedroom. Damn it. I race back to answer it, hook sliding around the corner and jumping back on my bed. “Okay, what happened?”
“I just gave a guy a warning for doing thirty-five over the speed limit so I could call you back.”
“Not with that, with Wade!”
“I told you I don’t know much. All I know is something was going down when I saw S.W.A.T. gearing up this evening.”
“They called in S.W.A.T. for Thomas?”
“I. Don’t. Know.”
“Heath, how in the hell do you know they arrested him then?”
I hear his police radio in the background beep then Heath call his patrol number on the radio, “2569.”
“Go ahead, 2569.”
“I’m 10-200 at the Shell on Pilmer.”
“10-4.”
I roll my eyes when I hear him use the code 10-200. There isn’t really an official code of 10-200. 10-100 means bathroom break. 10-200 means he needs to take a shit.
“Okay, I’m back.”
“Call me back when you get done and I need answers.”
“I told them I had to use the bathroom where I could have ten minutes to talk to you uninterrupted. You would think it was a full moon out tonight with everything going on. I’ve already stopped six people and dealt with a prostitute so high she didn’t realize she was offering me her goods for twenty dollars.”
“Her name wasn’t Stacey was it?”
“Very funny. Now, back to what went down. The last three days I haven’t really been following too much as to what’s been going on around town because, well, I was babysitting your ass.” I huff and he laughs then continues, “My point is, when I got off I came straight to check on you and then when I went to work my mind was on you and trying to keep you alive. Anyway when I got to work tonight the guys were talking about Wade has been working non-stop to get the guy after he arrested you.” I lean back against my headboard, my mouth open in shock. “He had to do some hustling because he had to get warrants, evidence, probable cause—”
“Heath I know how the system works. What I want to know is how, when, on what charges.”
“As soon as I know, you’ll know.”
I sigh and feel relief that Thomas is now off the streets but I don’t feel very satisfied. I mean I wanted to take him down, publically. I wanted him to feel some shame.
“Willow, are you here?”
“Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking.”
“You don’t sound very happy.”
“I am… It’s just. I’ll be happier when I know he has a good size knot on his head where he was accidently dropped on it when they arrested him.”
“Son of a…. I gotta go. I just watched a woman walk face first into the side of a moving car. What the fuck is going—”
The line goes dead. I sit Indian style on my bed at a complete loss of what to do or how to feel. I stare at the cell phone in my hand and for the first time in a long, long time I know how shut off from people I am. I have people I can call in my phone but nobody I want to call. Heath’s busy and other than him my choices are business associates or people I’ve screwed or have screwed me in one way or another. I scroll though the phone and stop when I see his name. My heart beats faster as I contemplate what to do. I said I was going to delete it and I meant it when I said it but deep down I know why I didn’t. I hit his name on the screen and he answers on the second ring.
“This is quite a surprise,” his raspy voice floods my mind with memories of nights we’ve shared together.
“Can you meet?”
“Same place as usual?”
“In an hour?”
“I’ll see you there.”
I slide off the bed and make Joe get up and go outside to use the bathroom. As I stand in the dark on my back porch I force myself not to think about what I’m about to do. Instead I think about Wade, Thomas, Heath and those little boys at the park wishing now more than ever I had a cigarette. Fuck, I haven’t wanted a cigarette in years. I call Joe inside then jump in the shower. After I’m done I go to my dresser and dig to the back of the bottom drawer finding my matching set of black lace panties and bra. He’s never told me outright but I can tell by his reaction they’re his favorite.
I leave Joe asleep on my bed and drive to the hotel. I know what I’m doing is toying with the devil I swore I’d left behind but tonight with the way I feel he’s exactly what I need…
I take the elevator to the fourth floor and go to room four twenty. I’ve never asked him how he’s always managed to get the same room. I guess it doesn’t matter. Small talk isn’t what either of us are here for. I use the key he left for me at the front desk and enter the room. It’s completely dark. I prop the door against my hip feeling around for the light switch on the wall when suddenly a hand wraps around my wrist yanking me inside and slamming me up against the wall. My left cheek takes a good whop in the process. His body envelops mine. The heat of his breath tickles my ear as he begins whispering with a growl, “Two fucking years. You call me after two fucking years and expect me just to show up at your beck and call like a little bitch?”
“You came and paid for the room,” I say with a smile.
His hand winds tightly in my hair pulling it back. The pain escalates along with the pleasure. “Why are you here, Willow?”
“You know why.”
“Has anything changed?”
“No.”
“Then our meeting here is done.”
I elbow him as hard as I can in the ribs. He grunts as he releases my hair freeing me. I spin around to face him even though I can’t see him in pitch black room. I reach up to run my hand across his now bearded face.
“This is new.” My thumb strokes his bottom lip and I feel his lips kiss my thumb. “Jake—”
His hand covers my mouth and he leans his weight against me. I run my hand up his side and the material feels like a t-shirt, also new. It’s normally a suit and tie. Actually always a suit and tie. I lightly trace my fingers over the fabric of his shirt until I reach his pants. When I feel the cloth of jogging pants my hand freezes. Something’s happened to him. Things have changed. Big things. I shake my head hard trying to remove his hand from my mouth.
“Not another word,” he commands and I know this is a warning. I shouldn’t have called him. I shouldn’t have come. This game we play of who controls whom is dangerous. It was fun at first but neither of us will bow to the other. We know that. We’ve pushed the limits far past sexual gratification before and it turns dangerous. He moves his hand and I take a deep breath before I push up trying to connect my mouth to his. When I find his lips he doesn’t hesitate to kiss me back. His mouth tastes of tobacco and whisky. He had to drink before he met me. I reach down and rub the hardness waiting for me except as soon as I rub it he knocks my hand away. I reach for it again. He grabs both my hands and raises them up pinning them to the wall. He pulls his mouth away from me then leans his forehead against mine.
“Jake—,” my breathing is haggard.
He releases one of my arms and grabs my chin with his hand. His thumb hurts me he’s gripping so hard. “I told you not another word.” He leans forward kissing me and my lips are misshapen because of the way he’s holding my chin. My body is alive a
nd I want him now more than anything. I want him so badly I’m willing to allow him to do as he pleases with me tonight. I try to tell him but he begins speaking first. “Don’t call me again, Willow… not ‘til you’re ready to give me what I want. I won’t play these games with you anymore. You walked away two years ago…not me.”
He releases me and steps away. I’m shocked and cold. I miss the warmth of this body. I don’t know what to do or what to say. It doesn’t matter though because he doesn’t give me any time to say anything. He opens the door and the light of the hallway blinds me. All I see is the back of a man leaving. The only man I came very close to allowing myself to love. The door shuts and I’m back in the dark room, alone. I rub my wrist and lick my fevered lips. I smile as I open the door to leave. The motherfucker thinks he’s won because he walked away first. I’ll show him.
I climb into my truck. I’m not sure how I feel besides really horny and conflicted once again. I know he waited to see if I left after him. I watch as he drives by in his black Aston Martin. That’s still the same but it is a newer model. I push the start button on my truck and pull up behind him at the stop sign to exit the parking lot. I can only see the top of his car since my truck sits so high in the air. I wait for him to go and he just sits there. Now who’s playing the games? I pull my phone out and see a missed call from Heath. I decide to wait to call him back until I know I’m done with Jake who’s still sitting at the stop sign. Heath doesn’t like Jake at all and in a way I can’t blame him but I never liked most of his love interests either so we can’t really allow that to be a good reason.
He finally pulls away turning left instead of right which would take him back to his place. Unless that’s changed too. He may have moved from where he was… no, I doubt that. He’s not going to move far from his source of income. That’s one thing I’ve always found attractive about him. He’s always in control and he’s always successful in everything he puts his mark on even if some of it is illegal. I follow him for two more stop lights before he turns off to the right and I keep going straight. I drive a few more blocks before I call Heath only to find that he still doesn’t know anything. I go home and crawl into bed next to Joe. I’m glad he’s seems at least happy to see me. He doesn’t raise his head but I see the sheet wiggle when he wags his tail.
I’m not sure how or when I eventually fall asleep but apparently I did because I’m jolted awake when I feel the bed shake back and forth. I yell, “What the hell, Heath,” as he continues to bounce the end of the bed with his foot.
“I brought breakfast. Come on, I got all the details that’s why I’m so late getting here but you wouldn’t know that since you’re still asleep at nine-thirty in the morning. How are you asleep anyway? You did nothing but sleep for the last three days.” His voice fades as he leaves the room going back toward the front of the house. “Oh, Joe pissed next to the back door and I’m not cleaning it up. That’s your fault. You didn’t get up.”
I sling the sheet back and sit up on the side of the bed. I rub my eyes and look at my cell phone. He’s right. It is nine thirty. As soon as everything he just said registers I’m up and after him. I get half way down the hallway then turn back to run to my bathroom to pee quickly. I don’t want any interruptions when he’s filling me in on what went down.
The coffee is brewing and there’s a paper towel over a big spot of dog piss by the back door. I can see Heath on the back porch through the window and since I don’t see Joe anywhere I figure he’s taken him outside. I grab the lemon scented cleaner and get Joe’s mess cleaned up. I wash my hands then grab two coffee cups out of the cabinet pouring coffee into them. Heath opens the door and Joe races inside straight to me. I bend down and give him rub down. He licks my face then abruptly quits when he hears the wrinkle of the fast food bag as Heath begins pulling everything out. I wash my hands again then join him at the table.
“So…”
He breaks a sausage biscuit in two giving Joe half of it and sets the other half on the table. He looks at me and sighs, “He has been doing it for a while, unfortunately.”
“Who’s been doing what?”
“Thomas and kids.” The smell of the food no longer smells appetizing. I pick up my coffee and take a big swig. “You know he says he was there reading at the park?”
“I thought that’s what he was doing when I spotted him in the very beginning but I never got a good look at the book. Wait, what happened to that book? I remember he had it when he went into the bathroom but now that I think about it he didn’t have it when I chased him down.”
“That book is what broke the case for Wade. It was a book on birds or so we thought. The book itself was in fact about birds but underneath the cover were pictures of kids undressed and they were mostly pictures taken in bathrooms. Several at that same park.”
“What took so long to arrest him then? It took him three days.”
“Willow, do you know how many people glanced at that book and took it as a book on birds. Nobody thought to remove the cover. It was just a fancy hardback book on birds. From what I’ve heard Wade tossed the book across the room and the cover came loose when he went to pick it up that’s when he noticed something was on the other side. It wasn’t like photo paper copies. The creep had printed them out at home on regular copy paper so they were thin and hard to detect.”
I stare at Heath as he finishes telling the story and all the stuff they’d found on his computer. Some of it makes me shake my head because I don’t want to hear it. I can only hope he just took pictures and never acted out on his fantasy with kids. Heath unwraps his second biscuit and takes another bite asking with a mouth full of food, “You’re not going to eat?”
“I might in a minute. I just woke up and it’s a lot to take in.”
“What happened to your face anyway?”
My brows furrow in confusion. “My face?”
“You got a good bruise on your cheek.”
My heart races as I reach up touching my face. I know which cheek and where the bruise is located. It has to be when Jake slammed me up against the wall. “I ran into a wall. It was my fault. Poor judgement.”
He swallows and I watch as he eyes me. He knows. I know he knows by the way his jaw clinches and I know he knows when he gives the rest of his biscuit to Joe. I sag back in my chair. “Nothing happened, Heath. I called him and we met for about five minutes then we went our separate ways.”
“He managed that bruise in five minutes? What’d he do slap you around a little for old time sake?”
I frown at Heath. “No, he would be dead if he slapped me. I told you, I ran into a wall. It was my fault and it was really poor judgement to call him.”
“I knew it was him when you tensed up.”
I grab my sausage burrito off the table and tear the salsa pack open. “I don’t tell you who to date or fuck and you don’t tell me.”
“Oh, but you do Willow.” He points to himself. “No Stacey, remember.” Then he points to me. “No Jake McAllister.”
I take a big bite of my burrito and answer, “Deal.”
He watches me to make sure I’m telling the truth. I am telling the truth, at least I think I am. As he picks up his coffee to take a drink he says, “I can’t believe you called him after all this time.”
I shrug. “I was bored.”
“You need a hobby.”
I laugh. “Yeah, I know.”
After Heath leaves to go to get some sleep I decide to go to my office and do some work even though it’s Saturday. There’s no telling what I’ve missed out on work wise and after these last few crazy weeks I need to get back to my normal routine. I check my email and there are a few insurance cases floating around but none real close. It’s hard to do but I open the fraud file on Thomas and send it back in with nothing found during investigation. I wanted to tell them what I knew but maybe they won’t have to pay him while he sits in jail. Joe barks and I look up at him sitting in front of the front door with his tail wagging. He begin
s to whine and I raise a few inches out of my seat to see if I can see anything out the window that would cause him to whine. The door opens and Joe backs up dancing around. A man and a woman enter my office. They look to be in their early fifties by the way they’re dressed and his graying hair. I stand from my desk. “May I help you?”
I watch as the woman clings to the man’s arm like he’s her strength. He leads her to the chair in front of my desk and helps her sit. He extends his arm to shake my hand. “I’m Oscar and this is Patricia. We were referred to you by an officer named Jenkins at the station.” I smile and shake his hand then nod at his wife who still hasn’t spoken. “Yes sir, I know him well. What can I do for you?”
“Our son has been missing for three years… Well, not missing really I guess, since we know where he is… or the area he normally is…” He takes a deep breath before he continues. “The problem is the last time we found him he ran from us and well…”
After a few seconds of him not speaking his wife begins making a grunting noise. She pulls on his arm and grunts a few more times. I look to her only briefly to make sure I don’t stare then I look back to the man. He closes his eyes and shakes his head. When he opens his eyes they now tell a different story. He’s aggravated, sad and tired. “If it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t go to the police station to see if he’s been arrested. I wouldn’t call the hospitals to see if they have any dead John Doe’s. He’s the reason she’s the way she is today.”
