Injustice
Page 18
Against Charlie’s wishes, I went into the room to get a closer look. It smelled horrible, or maybe he smelled horrible. I wasn’t sure. There was no light or recognition in his eyes. He just wanted a fix. I wanted to tell him so many things, but he was gone, and in his place, I had created a junkie. I handed him the kit, and he shot up. I didn’t even have to actively participate in the process anymore. Tommy was blissfully enjoying the immediate high, the needle still hanging out of his arm. What he didn’t know, or probably care about, was that today was a little different. I’d given Tommy his final fix. I stood there as his breathing became more shallow, eventually stopping altogether. I had become indifferent to his plight; but now, looking at what I’d done, I felt a slight twinge of remorse.
Charlie walked in behind me, breaking my trancelike state. “I’ll take care of it tonight. You did the right thing, putting him out of his misery.”
“I did the right thing? When was the last time I did the right thing?”
He didn’t answer, knowing that there was nothing he could say about what had transpired; instead, he changed the subject. “Did you put the other things in play, so that this will go down as we planned?”
I nodded. “Everything should follow nicely. They’re all going to pay the price for the things they’ve done.”
Charlie dropped me off at my front door, and I didn’t look back. I returned to my life and focused on Ali and finals. I tried to put the image of Tommy out of my mind, but his face just kept popping into my head. As Tommy had deteriorated, Oliver had improved, which lifted everyone’s spirits considerably. I told myself that I was never cut out to be a fixer. There was never a win-win situation involved. Someone always had to lose. The toll it took on me was more than I could manage at times.
Chapter 66
The sun shone brightly through the windows, almost blinding me as I looked over at a still sleeping Ali. We had survived a lot of things, the least of which was the first semester of law school. Ali hadn’t asked about Tommy for some weeks, and I didn’t bring up the subject.
I padded into the living room, trying not to wake Ali, and turned on the TV, keeping the volume low. There was a story running, showing that a body had been found near downtown on the banks of the Confluence river and tentatively identified as Tommy. The area was well known for transients and the reporter relayed that he had apparently been dead for several weeks. After a brief history of Tommy’s drug-related problems at work and the downward spiral his life had taken, the reporter concluded he had fallen victim to a fatal overdose.
The story went on to show Chris, in handcuffs, her prints found on the drugs that were found near Tommy’s body. The reporter showed footage of Chris’s house burning and details of her prior arrests, and even her affiliation with Immortal and some evidence that had come to light linking her and the other two, also now on camera, to the beating of Oliver, who had recovered from his injuries. I sighed, so relieved that we could finally put all of it behind us.
I picked up my phone, not taking my eyes off the screen. “Charlie. Nice work.”
I heard a noise behind me and looked back to see Ali, tears silently running down her face. “What did you do?”
Kathy A. Kron, author of Don’t Tell and Shades of Gray, is an attorney who lives in Pennsylvania, with her dog, Nikki.
Brenda L. Leffler is a law enforcement officer who lives in Colorado. She shares her life with her wife, Elisa, their two dogs, Lilly and Cinder, and the resident cat-in-charge, Kona. Injustice is her first novel.