“You need to start eating better, Samuel. I told you that the last time I saw you. Your blood pressure is a little high today, higher than I’d like it, and you still need to shed those forty pounds.” Brody looked around the room. “Which one of you brought him the cheeseburger and fries with a milk shake chaser for lunch?”
When someone raised their hand, Brody did the same to the man. No one told Brody that he was certainly overstepping his bounds, but they listened when he said what the judge was going to have to start eating daily, as well as following the exercise program that he’d suggested.
“It’s no longer suggested to you that you should exercise or eat better, Samuel. You will do it, or the next time I’m kneeling over you, you’ll be a dead man that I’ve just pronounced. Got it?” Samuel said that he did, and they loaded him up on the gurney. “I’m talking to your wife too. I warned you I would if you didn’t do it.”
“She’s going to be none too happy with me. You know that, don’t you?” Brody just crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, all right. I know I have to do it, and from now on, these people here will help me. Won’t you?”
Everyone agreed as their boss and good friend was being taken away. His wife showed up just as he was being put in the ambulance, and Brody with him. Whatever was going to happen, Jake would bet anything that it would be done—
The ambulance stopped and Jake was asked to come forward. He stepped up to the opening at the back end of it and asked what he needed. Samuel’s secretary came to stand next to him, with the attorney for Rachel on the other side.
“The doc here is telling me that I have to take some time off. A week at the least.” Jake told Samuel that he thought that was a good idea. “I’m glad you agree, young man. I hereby pass my duties on to you as of this moment. Judge Winslow, thank you for your help.”
Jake was still standing there when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He wasn’t sure what had just happened. Looking at Peter Goff, the secretary to the judge asked him to come inside, there were papers he had to sign.
After putting his name to three of the documents that named him as sitting judge, Jake stopped in the middle of writing his name and looked at Peter. The man was grinning like a loon.
“What’s just happened?” He told him. “Oh no. No, I’m not his replacement. I have trials that I have— No, and hell no.”
“I’m afraid that you’ve already signed off on taking the job, Judge Winslow. And I have to tell you, sir. Your grandma, she’d have been tickled pink over this.” Jake was still shaking his head when he was fitted for a robe and told what the next three cases were, one of which was his. “I’ve called Forrest. He’s coming in to see to the trial with Rachel. I’m sure that he knows as much about it as you do.”
“He does. But I can’t be judge. I’m an attorney.” Peter told him that was the way it worked out most times. And all the way up until he was sitting at the big boys’ dais, he kept saying that he wasn’t going to do it.
“Hello, Your Honor.” Jake wanted to get up and punch Forrest in the face. “Your Honor, the next case is....”
As Forrest told him about the case, Jake tried to tell himself that he was only helping out. But he had a feeling, a dreadful feeling, that this wasn’t going to be temporary. He was going to be stuck here for the rest of his unnatural life.
There wasn’t a jury for this against Rachel. She planned to plead guilty, and they were all hoping that stuck. But almost as soon as he was briefed, on his own case, Rachel was saying how she wasn’t going to do anything of the kind, as she was being railroaded. Then she saw him up at the dais.
“What the holy fuck are you doing there?” Jake told her to behave or he’d find her in contempt of court. “I don’t give two shits about being held at all. Let me go, and I won’t tell everyone in here about you and that man of yours.”
Most of the town knew that he and Forrest were lovers. And they all knew that he and Forrest had adopted his little sister. So he just leaned back in his seat and told her to have at it. For some reason, she just stared at him, confused looking.
“You don’t care?” Jake told her that the only people that were upset about him being with another man were her and his father. “I know your dad. He was railroaded as well. I want to be set free.”
“All right.” She asked him if he was serious. “Yes, completely. When you can pay what you owe for the damage you did to the hospital walls and the equipment that had to be replaced. And from what I remember from the briefs, Dr. Downs is suing you for mental anguish over how you’ve been stalking him.”
“It doesn’t count as stalking unless you can prove it. I was very careful about how I searched for him. Besides, if he’d just given me what I wanted, then I’d have not had to resort to other means.” Jake waited about half a breath before he asked her what those other means might be. “I was going to take my kid. If you remember from this morning, that other judge said that he wasn’t Brody’s. But I was going to hold him until Brody paid me money that I needed, or he wasn’t going to ever find him again. And don’t tell me that’s kidnapping, because I never found where Brody was hiding him. And he’s my son, not his. I don’t care what that guy said.”
“Not any more, he’s not yours. Brody has been granted full custody of Jordan. And as of this morning, you are no longer married to him.” She just waved him off. “Ms. Sharp, do you have any idea that just telling me about you trying to kidnap your son to hold for ransom is against the law?”
“I don’t think I should have to remind you that I didn’t actually go through with it. I was only planning it. All he had to do was give me some money. A lot of it. And that would have been easy for him since he has billions of it.” Jake looked at Forrest, who was leaning against the table with Rachel’s attorney. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and I decided that I have to know more than some homo does. Isn’t that right?”
She was looking at Forrest and the other man—Jake thought his name was Dogwood or something like it. The other man just waved at Rachel, telling her to go ahead, she seemed to be on a roll now.
“See, he agrees with me that I’m smarter than him.”
Jake didn’t know what to do and reached out to Forrest.
Let her go. She’s hanging herself all by herself. Just keep asking her about things that are crimes like you are. Sheesh, how the hell did he spend ten years with this nutball? Jake said he had no idea. By the way, we are so celebrating this promotion tonight. The is a great feather in your hat. Grandma Jenna is right behind you cheering you on.
It suddenly hit him how much he missed her. Not only did he miss her, but he wanted her to hold Jenna and see that she was crawling now, trying to pull herself up on things. And eating with her fingers. He watched Rachel without hearing her for several minutes until he could gather himself. Then he asked her to repeat herself.
“I said that when Ralph and I get the money back that was in the house before Brody locked me out, then we’ll just mosey on down the road and find us a better place. That way Brody can’t say shit about us having Jordan. Then he will pay me support. The way I want to be living.”
“Rachel, there are laws against everything you’re telling me. You can’t kidnap a child that isn’t yours. You most certainly can’t mosey down the road and expect Brody to be happy with you having Jordan. As I have said to you several times now, you are no longer the parent of Jordan. Brody—”
“Brody. Brody. Brody. When does someone say that Rachel has it? The money or the kid? Christ, the way you keep repeating yourself, you’d think you had some rocks loose. I guess that’s what being a homo gets you. Nuts.” Jake told her that would be enough. “No, I don’t think it is. I’m not paying for shit. I’m going to get my son, and I’m going to get money. You aren’t going to be able to do anything to me, because I know the rules too, dumbass. You can’t have me arrested because I just said that
to you.”
“I’m not a priest. You can’t confess all your misdeeds to me and expect for them to just be ignored.” She said that she could because she’d just done it. “Rachel, what is wrong with you?”
She sat down at the other table, then got up and crawled onto the top of it and laid down. No one moved to remove her, but they were all watching her closely. There was something wrong with her, and he’d bet anything that it had been catching up with her all this time and was showing itself today.
“My head hurts really bad.” Jake asked Peter to call an ambulance for her. “I don’t think that things are right in my head. And my nose is bleeding again.”
Jake cautioned everyone to steer clear of Rachel until the ambulance got there. He was worried about a lot of things with her, mostly because he knew that she wasn’t the same woman he’d met with a few weeks ago. There was something wrong with her.
As soon as the ambulance arrived, Rachel started throwing up. They were strapping her onto the gurney when she started bolting up from it. Her back was ramrod stiff and her face was contorted, as if in pain. Rachel Sharp Downs was dead before she made it to the hospital.
~*~
Brody was sitting in the living room, all the lights off and the shades drawn. The solitary light in the room was the fireplace that was only on because he’d felt stupid just sitting there without doing anything. He wasn’t sure what he was to think or do right now.
His mom sat down next to him and didn’t say a word for a long time. “I just got a call from the hospital. Rachel had a tumor in the back of her head.” Brody said he knew that. “I’m sorry, son. I don’t know what you’re feeling, but I do hurt for you. No one seemed to have any idea that she’d been that ill. I mean, we knew she was a little odd, but not like this. Also, Jordan, he’s with his Grandda Henderson right now.”
“He said that he’d like to just sit with him. I didn’t see any harm in it. I know that they’re not related in any way, but Jordan has taken a liking to both Willy and Ann.” Mom nodded. “It had been there for some time, they said. The tumor. It wasn’t until she was under all this stress from what was going on that it started to move and grow. Doctor Fleming, he did the autopsy and called me a bit ago. He told me that there wouldn’t have been anything anyone could have done for her even if she’d been on the operating table. The tumor caused a blood clot that broke off and entered her heart. No one could have foreseen it. The only pain she had was the headache. He assured me that the shaking was her body reacting to a foreign object. He said he thought it was trying to take care of it. She didn’t feel a thing.”
“Did Cam see it? When he was looking for evidence, did he happen to see it there? Or do you know?” Brody had wondered the same thing until he’d heard from Cam. He said that he’d not looked for it because he’d had no idea. Brody told his mom that. “I believe him, do you?”
“Absolutely. He felt horrible about not looking for it. But who would have known to ask him to do that? Like you just said, Mom. She was a little off, but nothing that would have led us to believe that she had a tumor in her brain.” Mom told him again how sorry she was. “I don’t know how I feel. I’m sorry that she’s gone, I truly am. But I’m also relieved that she isn’t going to be able to hurt Jordan anymore. I think that he feels the same way, if you want to know the truth. Some of the things that Rachel told Jake, they were scary.”
Jake had wondered if the tumor that had been there was responsible for her telling the truth when he met him at the hospital after she had been brought in. He told him how she’d been just babbling about what she was going to do. Quincy said that he’d done that, made her tell everything she had in her head. He’d visited her while she’d been in the jail cell. And no, he’d not seen the tumor either. It seemed that they were all unaware of it, as he’d been.
He looked at Mom. “Ralph contacted me. He wanted to know if I’d have her buried next to his parents. I almost told him that it wasn’t for me to decide. He told me how he’d loved her, despite them having fights all the time, and that he’d hit her. I’m not sure how I feel about that either. Then not ten minutes after I got off the phone with him, her parents called. They don’t have the funds to bury her. They asked for me to take care of it please, and somehow they’d pay me back. I’m not worried about that. I’m just happy to help them out. They want her buried next to David’s parents, where they have plots too.” Mom told him that she had heard that as well. “Like I said, I’m going to do it, if for no one else but Jordan. But I’m not going to bury her anywhere but where her parents want her. Ralph is shit out of luck, I feel. They’re the ones that need this more than a two-bit thief that had an affair with my wife.”
“Brody, I have something to ask you. And you can tell me no or not. But I do think that you should have Jordan go to the funeral. Please?” Brody didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to go either, but would. “He might not care for her right now. And for all we know, he never will. But he should be there when they put his own mother in the ground. I’ll be there with him, and so will you and Howie. Even the dead have said they’d be there for him. But she was his mom, and this is something that he can never go back and fix. Like I said, son, I don’t know that he’ll ever get over not liking her, but he might need this for some closure.”
“I’ll talk to him.” She thanked him. “Aaron is coming home tomorrow afternoon. He’s decided that he’s going to give notice for his job. He said that now that he has a family and we can’t seem to have a day without something going wrong, he’d rather be here with all of us. I don’t want him to quit for that reason, but I have to tell you, I’m so happy that he is. I have really missed him the past few days. It would have been nice to have had someone to lean on right now.”
“I have missed him too, if you want to know the truth. I love that boy like I do you. I know that sounds terrible, but he’s so good for you, and Jordan just thinks the world of him.” She looked at him with a sad smile. “I never had it in my head that you were a.... You know, son, I’m not sure what to call you that is correct. But I never knew that you were the way you are. I don’t care. I might have several months ago. Aaron made it easier, I think. Me knowing that you met someone that you can truly love and be loved back. You’re loved as I always wanted you to be, and that makes it special for me. I suppose that’s all I ever wanted for you. And just because Aaron is male too…well, I have come to the realization that love is love, no matter the form it comes to you in.”
“Thank you, Mom. You have no idea how much that means to me.” She kissed him on the cheek as she stood up. “This year Aaron and I are hosting Thanksgiving Day here. We’re going to make it an all-day event, then on the Saturday after, get the houses ready for Christmas. Jake and Forrest were going to do it, but with Jake being the interim judge and Forrest having to do all the cases they have alone, they think it might be better this way. I asked if Cam and Rick wanted to, and it seems that Rick hasn’t ever had this sort of thing—his parents weren’t into it—and neither Emmi nor Cattie want to have to deal with the cooking and clean up, so it’s coming here.”
“What makes you think I want to deal with it either, young man?” He handed her the list of caterers that could and would do it. “Why don’t you want me to cook it for us?”
“Because, my dear mother, I’d very much like for you and Howie to be able to sit at the table with us while we eat and enjoy our extended family. And I have another suggestion for you. I think you should make an honest man of poor Howie. If he was any more in love with you, I’d have to buy him a wheelbarrow to carry around the slobber he has when you’re in the room with him.”
“Brody Downs. What a thing to say to your mother.” She reached into her pocket and showed him the ring when she put it on. “Howie proposed to me last night. I was trying to work in telling you between all the crap that has been going on.”
“Yes, it has been a lot of crap over t
he last few days. And we still have to deal with the next trial. Mom, I’m so happy for you and Howie. We’ll have to get us another butler because he’ll be my stepdad—finally—and I will not have him serving me. Promise me you’ll talk to him.” Mom said he was right and that she would. “I know we don’t have to be a part of the trial for Emmi and the other women, but I’d very much like to be there if I can support them the way that they have me. All of us. I guess it’s been postponed for a day, to get things cleared away for Jake. Who would have thought that Judge Bask would do that to him?”
“I did.” Brody asked her how she knew. “The old codger knew what he was going to do. Just three days ago he was hinting around that he wanted to retire, and everyone in the diner told him that Jake should take his position. Then he asked me right out if I knew where he’d gone to college. All I had to do was mention that he was Jenna’s grandson, and he told me that he’d completely forgotten that. She’d always been Ms. Jenna to him.”
“I wondered about that. The man didn’t even say a word about it when we got to the hospital, other than to say he was glad that I was there.” Brody looked at his mom. “I was played right along with it, wasn’t I?”
“I’d say you were.” She was laughing when she stood up. “Brody, you will have a talk with Jordan, won’t you? I just worry about him. I don’t think he knows what to feel.”
Brody sat there a bit longer. He wasn’t really thinking of anything in particular, just letting his mind hit on one thing after another. What he needed to get from the grocery. That he was out of shaving cream. And when he realized that he was hungry, he could smell the bacon frying in the kitchen. Heading there, he saw Grandda and Jordan coming down the stairs.
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