And before he could return to the motel room where Rebecca waited patiently, a Latino woman wearing a surgeon’s smock stepped in front of him with a syringe in one hand and a plastic cup in the other.
Chapter 21
Baby Huey grabbed the fox by the neck, said, “You’re the fox and I think you’re trying to kill me!” and proceeded to stomp it unmercifully. To Derrick this cartoon was hilarious. To Tasha…well, she wasn’t even aware the television was on.
When she’d come home not an hour ago, she’d hugged Derrick, saying nothing whatsoever, for a long time.
Derrick sensed something was wrong; not a precocious leap considering Tasha’s eyes were puffy and bloodshot red, hair frizzled with sweat.
“Daddy came by,” Derrick said as Baby Huey was hoisting the fox’s mangled body up a flagpole.
“When?” Tasha said dreamily.
“Today…with…” He paused, not sure if he should continue.
“With who?” Tasha said, and he noted the rising panic in her voice.
“So-some woman.”
Tasha sat up straight. “What did she want? What she say? Did she come inside?” Before he could respond, Tasha fired more questions. “What did she say? Did you talk to her?”
She grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. “Do you hear me talking to you? What did she say?”
She was hurting him, and he decided to hurt back. “She said Daddy is living with her, and she wanted to know where were you.” Her grip loosen. “Asked me if I wanted to visit her big house.”
Through his mother’s hands, Derrick could feel her entire body shake. He regretted what he’d said and wished he could take it all back. She released him.
“I’m going to lie down,” she said, her voice hoarse.
Derrick watched her stagger to her room, her legs struggling with each step.
Derrick wasn’t certain but thought he heard screaming. He turned the television volume down and listened. Nothing. He turned up the volume louder than before, and for the first time in years, he stuck his thumb into his mouth and sucked noisily.
* * * * *
The following morning Tasha awoke to a white man standing at the foot of her bed. “Jesus!” she said, startled.
“Not hardly,” Bob said. Tasha reached for a sheet before realizing she was fully clothed. “Want some breakfast?” he asked. “I’ve got coffee and doughnuts.”
She sat up. “No, thanks. I just want you to tell me I was dreaming, a nightmare, and I’m not suspended from my job, and a succubus hasn’t married my ex-husband.”
“You want me to lie?”
“Yes. Please.”
“Go wash your face, okay. Then come have breakfast with me.”
She stood and stretched. “Did Derrick let you in?”
“No, I entered through a window. How’s he holding up?”
“I haven’t told him anything. Perry and Neal came by yesterday and Perry invited him to the hell house.”
“While you were here?”
“No, I wasn’t here.”
Bob sighed. “Thank God.”
A few minutes later, Bob sipped coffee at the kitchen table while Tasha leaned on the stove drinking Slim-Fast.
“I didn’t know you were on a diet.”
Tasha yawned. “Sort of.”
“Hey, we can diet together. They say dieting works best when you team up.”
“Lay it on me, Bob.”
“Pardon?”
“The bad news you come to tell me. It’s written all over your face.”
“Is it? Damn!” He got up, poured his coffee into the sink, got a beer out the fridge and drank it half empty.
“Craps! Is it that bad? Should I break out the scotch?”
“No, Tash.”
She covered her face with both hands. “Neal, he’s not dead, is he?”
“Uh-uh. Perry filed assault charges and a restraining order against you yesterday.”
He reached behind his back and tossed a newspaper onto the table. Tasha picked it up. Bob had highlighted an article with yellow Magic Marker.
OFFICER CHARGED WITH ASSAULT
She looked at Bob. “You’re here to arrest me?”
“Please, Tash. Captain Franklin asked Judge Ackers not to officially charge you until Internal Affairs complete their investigation. That’ll give us time for this thing to cool.”
“Guess I’ll need a lawyer.”
“That’s already been taken care of. Peter Rosenburg. The best defense lawyer in the state.”
“Bob, you know I can’t afford him. He’s too expensive.”
“Me and a few of the guys chipped in and hired him. He’ll probably call you today.”
“I can’t let you guys do that. I can’t, Bob. Thanks but no thanks.”
“It’s a done deal. Besides…” He paused, drank the last of his beer. “There’s more to it?”
“More?”
“Jill Boxer called me this morning. You know her, don’t you?”
Tasha shook her head.
“Tall, exceptionally attractive brunette. Her husband, Brad, works undercover in narcotics. She drives a Honda Accord like yours, same color and everything, except hers a newer model. You gotta know her. She knows you.”
“Bob, I don’t know her. Tell me before I go crazy.”
“Okay. Jill’s the Circuit Court Clerk over in Maumelle.” He went and got another beer out of the fridge.
“And?”
He emptied the can in one drink, burped, and tossed it into the trash container near the fridge. “Your ex and his new wife filed an emergency custody order this morning.”
“For Derrick?”
Bob nodded.
Tasha stared at him. She then seized a large bottle of maple syrup from the table and flung it toward the wall. It shattered, leaving an ugly brown stain.
“Nooooooo!” she screamed. “Nooooo!“ She grabbed a pot from the stove and prepared to throw it when Bob caught her.
“Calm down, Tash. Okay? Just calm down.”
“Momma?” Derrick said, appearing in the doorway. “Momma, what’s the matter?”
Tasha turned her face into Bob’s shoulder and whispered, “Get him out of here, please. I don’t want him to see me like this. Please get him out!”
“Son,” Bob said, “give your uncle Bob a minute with your mother.”
“You ain’t my uncle! You just work with my momma! You need to let her go before I call my daddy and he come bust your head!”
“Derrick,” Tasha said softly, “go to your room. Please.”
“Momma, why is he holding you like that?”
“Five…four…three…” Tasha counted. At two, Derrick disappeared.
Bob released her. “You okay?”
“Derrick and I, we’ve got to get out of here! We need to leave today! Right now!”
“Tash, you’re panicking.”
“For Pete’s sake, Bob, she’s after my son! She’s trying to take my son away from me!”
“Doesn’t mean she’ll get him. Jill said she would drag the case out as long as she could. Tash, you do have people on your side. You and I need to think of something. The hayseed from Dawson, does he have anything on Perry?”
Tasha slumped into a chair. “Not really. He suspects Perry of an assault, but he’s having trouble with the witnesses. She is not taking my son, Bob!”
“Your ex, what’s he like?”
“Neal. He’s not a bad person. He’s…”
“Weak?”
“Not exactly what I was thinking. I guess you could say that.”
“What if you got someone, an uncle or a brother, to lean on him a little, you know what I’m saying?”
“Who? All my family are out of state and his won’t do that for me.”
“Well, think of someone. A friend, somebody. Neal’s the one holding the trump card here. Perry can’t do anything custody-wise without his consent.”
“He might listen to me.”
“Whoa!” raising both hands. “That’s definitely a bad idea. You should regard Neal and Perry both as Anthrax. If Neal slips and falls, Perry will somehow blame it on you.”
Tasha slapped the table with both hands. “Craps, Bob, that’s it! Don’t you see? That’s it in a nutshell!”
“What?”
“That conniving…! Don’t you see it?” Bob shook his head. “Bob, she’s planning to kill Neal and frame me. How? I don’t know. But that’s exactly what she’s planning to do.”
Bob rubbed his chin. “Geez! If you think about it…you might be right.”
“No doubt in my mind. She mentioned Derrick to goad me into a fight, and I fell for it.”
Bob groaned. “Can you imagine a woman that damn devious?”
“She is. I gotta talk to Neal!”
“Uh-uh, Tash. Promise me you won’t confront him. You’ll only play further into her hands. Promise me you won’t. It’ll only make things worse.”
Tasha crossed her fingers underneath the table. “Okay, Bob, I promise.”
* * * * *
When the phone rang, Neal was sitting on the bathroom floor, the door locked, his feet pressed against it, smoking a cigarette. A Kool Filter King.
If asked, Neal, formerly a staunch anti-tobacco advocate, could not explain why at age thirty-four he suddenly decided to smoke.
He was on his second Kool, coughing, his eyes and throat burning. The phone continued ringing. To hell with it, he thought. Probably someone for Perry. Steady ringing. Realizing that Perry would have picked up by now, he tossed the cigarette in the commode and went to get the phone.
“Yeah,” forgetting that Perry had insisted he answer: Hello, Neal and Perry Montgomery residence.
“Neal?”
“Tasha?” Neal whispered.
“Neal, we need to talk. Please, Neal, I need to talk to you!”
“I can’t--I mean, it’s not a good idea,” wondering where was Perry.
“Neal, I’m begging you. Please!”
He heard the front door open…footfalls on the stairs. “Neal,” Perry shouted, “was the phone ringing?”
He cuffed the phone. “It was,” he shouted back. He held his breath and waited. Moments later he heard the front door open and close. “Tasha, are you still there?”
“Yes, Neal. Can you talk right now?”
“Yes and no.”
“Okay. Meet me at MacArthur Park in thirty minutes.”
“I can’t do that, Tasha. I can’t.”
“Be there, Neal!” Click!
“Tasha? Tasha!” Shit!
In order to leave, he would have to confront Perry, who, for reasons known only to her, had started pocketing his keys.
He went back to the bathroom and smoked three more Kools before mustering the nerve to confront Perry.
She was in the front yard on all fours, neck brace on, gauze pad taped over her left eye, digging dirt with a small spade.
“Perry,” addressing her backside, “I need my keys.”
“For what?” continuing her work.
“I’m going somewhere.”
“Where?”
“To the store.”
“I’ll be finished with this in a few minutes. We’ll both go.”
“No. I can go by myself.”
Perry stood up and squinted at him. “You wait a damn minute! The phone rings and all a sudden you need to run off? What the hell I look like to you? A dizzy damned fool?”
“Baby, I’m only going to the store, that’s it. Just a quick run to the store in my own car with my own keys. Why you gotta keep my keys in your pocket, anyway? I don’t touch your keys, why you gotta hold mine?”
Perry fished into her pants pocket and withdrew his keys. “Here’s your fucking keys!”
He reached for them and she threw them over his head. They bounced off the roof and jingled to the ground. He snatched them up and trotted to his car.
“I’ll be right back.”
He cranked the engine and suppressed the urge to screech off. Her erratic mood swings were driving him crazy. One minute she was a sweet, doting wife, the next a vicious wildcat.
Just this morning she’d fellated him awake and then insisted he and she go to the courthouse to file custody for Derrick. Upon returning to the house she’d turned into a wildcat, snapping at him for leaving the commode seat up. Something about her made him…He couldn’t wrap his mind around it. He wasn’t frightened of her in a physical sense…Paranoid! That’s it. Very paranoid. Damn eye patch makes it even worse!
Even now as he drove, he couldn’t shake the feeling she was watching him. He checked the rearview mirror. No one trailed him.
* * * * *
When Tasha saw Neal’s dirty Hugo round the corner, she jumped out her car, ran into the middle of the street and started waving frantically. Neal stopped alongside and rolled down his window an inch.
“What’s up?” he said.
“Let me in,” Tasha said. “Craps, Neal, let me in!”
“You’re not going to start acting crazy, are you?”
“No, I’m not.”
Neal unlocked the passenger door and she jumped in. She’d sat in her car an hour thinking and rethinking what exactly she would tell him.
Be calm and convincing. And rational.
The second her butt hit the seat: “Neal, she’s planning to kill you!”
“What?”
“Perry, she’s planning to kill you!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Neal, she’s already killed three men, made em each look like an accident! She’s psychotic as they come! She’s devious, dangerously devious--and she’s sick! I mean, sick sick!” Babbling, talking too fast, but she couldn’t stop.
“Three husbands, Neal. Three! You’re number four. Three! Count em…one, two, three! What comes after three? You! Three dead men, Neal, you hear what I’m saying? Dead, as in not coming back!”
“Will you just relax. You’re hyperventilating. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Take a deep breath and relax.”
“Okayokayokay!” She tried to calm down.
“Have you been drinking?”
“No, no! Wait right here. I want to show you something.” She jumped out, ran to her car and quickly returned with a file folder. “It’s all in here, what happened to her three husbands.”
He took it, glanced through it perfunctorily and gave it back.
“Neal, think! Three husbands, three murders! That’s how she got all she has. Killing husbands.”
Neal’s brow furrowed. “If she did all what you say she did, why isn’t she in jail?”
“For one her victims are immature black men who entertain fantasies. Neal, has she mentioned anything about life insurance?”
Neal shook his head.
“You’re lying, Neal. I can see it in your face. Please, Neal, tell me the truth! Has Perry mentioned anything about life insurance?”
“Aw hell, Tasha. So what? We took out a policy. Big whoop!”
Tasha closed her eyes. “Oh my God! Neal, you got to get out of there now, before it’s too late!”
“Will you calm down? Nobody’s doing anything to me.”
“For heaven’s sake, Neal, her other husbands thought the same thing, and before they knew what happened they were dead!”
“She told me what really happened. Accidents. Bad luck. You can’t blame her for that.”
“You believe her?”
“Why would she lie?”
Tasha sensed herself getting angry. “Tell me, how did you two meet? She didn’t just happen to bump into you, did she?”
“Yeah, she did. How you know?”
Tasha moaned. “Listen to me, Neal. I don’t want you dead, your son doesn’t want you dead. God as my witness, Neal, she will kill you graveyard dead!”
“How do I know you’re not just jealous, trying to sabotage my marriage?”
Tasha covered her face with both hands and slowly brought them do
wn. “Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m jealous--not insanely jealous. Neal, believe me, she’s a cold-blooded murderer. She’s done it before and she’ll do it again. You’re her fourth husband, Neal. Fourth! Jesus, Neal, four husbands! That alone should tell you something’s wrong.”
She paused and watched his expression. Nothing. He was willfully avoiding the truth.
“Neal, please! I wouldn’t lie to you about something like this!”
Neal popped a cigarette into his mouth and, fingers trembling, put the car lighter to it. “I just can’t believe what you’re saying.” Shaking his head: “I just can’t believe it.”
“Since when you do you smoke?”
“Helps cut down on stress.”
“What are you going to do?”
“You’re asking me to leave my wife. That’s a lot to ask. What if you’re wrong? Huh? What if, you know, in a strange way, she truly loves me?”
“Neal, please! She doesn’t love you. She’s using you!”
“How the hell you know? You can’t read people’s minds. I leave her and what do I have? Not a damn thing! I leave her I’m back in the same rut, babysitting for you day and night without so much as a thank you. In a day or two you’ll kick me out again. ‘Neal, it’s time you leave. Neal, get to stepping. Neal, don’t let the door pop you in the ass on the way out.’”
“Neal Montgomery, I never said anything about a door popping you.”
“You implied it!”
“I’m sorry. All right? I was going to apologize before all this, but I didn’t get a chance. Neal, I am really and truly sorry.”
“No big deal. Don’t worry about it. I’m rich, Tasha. Filthy rich. Right now I’m worth a million dollars.”
Tasha stomped her feet on the floorboard. “No, you’re not! Stop kidding yourself! She’s worth a million--you’re not worth…”
“Go ’head, say it.”
“Neal, I’m sorry.”
“Shit!” Neal said ruefully.
This isn’t going well at all. “What about your son, Neal?”
“What about him?”
“Can you imagine how devastated he’ll be if something happens to you? You’re his whole world.”
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