Leaning over the counter and grabbing a few keys from the side wall, Tara grinned and looked at Larry as he stepped out from the manager’s office. “Can I use any room I want?” she said.
“You sure can, Sweetpea,” Larry said. “Which room would you like this evening?”
Tara looked closely at the set of keys she took. Each one had a number emblazoned on its plastic tab which attached to the keychain. “I think I’ll take room twenty-one, sir.”
Larry smirked. “Well, you’ve already got the keys so enjoy your evening, lady. Don’t forget to checkout by noon tomorrow.”
Tara took the keys, went out and headed to her room. The dog noticed and quickly followed as she unlocked her room door and went in after turning on the lights. It was a stereotypical lodge style interior, with brown wood paneling, two single beds side by side and the door leading to the bathroom at the opposite end. Tara closed and locked the door behind her, then threw her backpack on the other bed before throwing herself on top of the nearest one. It was her first time ever in a motel room. She felt a certain sense of accomplishment that she had at least experienced this in her short life. Her dog just jumped up on top of the other bed and started to get comfortable on it.
After resting for bit, she got up and walked into the bathroom. Tara noticed some small plastic packets of soap and shampoo, as well as some fresh white towels that had been left hanging on the racks. Grinning with excitement, she turned the tap on the sink and was immediately rewarded with gushing wet steam; Larry’s generator trick was able to get some hot water too. Within minutes, Tara took the first hot shower she had in a week and then stopped the drain on the tub as she let it rise, then doubled down with a bubble bath that wrinkled her fingertips and toes as she relaxed in the warm, sudsy water. She felt like she could just stay in the nice, clean bathtub all night.
As she wrapped a towel over her wet hair, Tara noticed that the dog walked into the bathroom and stared at her.
“Whatchu looking at?” she said playfully.
The dog lay down and began to rub its back on the bathroom mat.
“You want a bath too?” she said.
“No,” the dog said. “Just came to warn you.”
Tara’s brow furrowed. “Warn me? About what?”
“Something’s going to happen.”
Tara quickly stood up from the tub, grabbed another towel and began drying herself. “What’s gonna happen?”
“The future is cloudy, but I can sense possible danger.”
“Now you’re scaring me,” Tara said as she wrapped the long white towel around her body and opened the bathroom door.
Just as she walked back into the room, Tara gasped. Larry was standing in the middle of the place, staring at her intently, the door to the outside slightly open. Taken aback, she instantly retreated into the bathroom again. “Larry, what are you doing in here?” she demanded.
Larry had a blank look in his eyes as he twisted his head sideways as if to check if anyone was looking at them. “I let myself in since I’ve got the master keys to this place. Who were you talking to back there?”
“Nobody,” Tara said as she poked her head out of the door. “I was just talking to myself okay? Can you please leave?”
“Not just yet,” he said. “I wanted to talk. About us.”
Tara sighed. This was getting irritating. “Can’t it wait till dinner? I just got out of the bath and I’m half naked. Come on, Larry, this isn’t funny anymore.”
“Come out here, I wanna talk to you.”
“Larry, I told you…”
“Come out of there! Right now!”
His angry shout had startled her. When he was mad, he sounded like her father. Tara meekly stepped out of the bathroom and sat at the bottom edge of the nearest bed and looked down on the floor, knees firmly locked together. Tears welled in her eyes, but she fought to contain her own hurt feelings and to keep them from falling down.
Larry stood over her. “Look, we’ve been together for a few days now and we’ve gotten to know each other. I think I’m now starting to like you. As in really like you.”
She didn’t say anything.
“I’ve done a lot for you,” Larry said. “I’ve driven you around and I’ve saved your life. Many times over. So I think it’s only fair that I get a little bit of love back.”
She looked up at him in confusion. “I-I don’t get what you mean….”
Larry placed his right hand on her bare shoulder. She shuddered as his calloused hand touched her moist skin. “Just a little love is all I need, Sweetpea.”
“No!” Tara said as she shifted her shoulders so his hand fell off as she moved away from him and stood up. “I-I’m not ready for this, I’m only fifteen.”
This time Larry’s left hand grasped her arm and held it somewhat tightly. “The world’s changed, Sweetpea. Laws don’t matter anymore. Now it’s all about survival. I’m not a bad man, I just want a little thing in return. Consider it payment for my services.”
“No!” Tara shouted as she tried to twist away again. “Leave me alone!”
His backhanded slap caught her square in the jaw as she fell sideways, her head bouncing off the side of the mattress until she was down on her back, lying on the carpeted floor. Larry started to pull down his pants. As he knelt on top of her, his large hands pinned her arms to the ground while there was a slight air current near where the main door was.
Tara screamed. “No, please don’t do this!”
“Shut the hell up,” Larry said softly as his left hand started to pull away the towel that was wrapped around her body. She tried to twist away from his arm, but he was too strong for her. Tara grimaced and shrieked as Larry used his own forehead to keep her head down on the floor.
Just as he started running his tongue along her throat, Larry’s head jerked back all of a sudden, as a hand that was gloved in black leather appeared to be grasping the back of his throat. Larry started to choke as he got up, but was instantly thrown backwards and he smashed into a side table before lying in a heap on the floor. Tara opened her eyes, turned and saw a tall man with a grey crew cut. He was dressed in slacks and wore a hunting vest over a yellow-striped polo shirt as he stood over them. The man had a pistol belt with a holstered Glock 21 and several spare magazines dangled along its sides. The little dog had run out of the bathroom and was staring at all of them.
“Will you look at that,” the man said, laughing a little. “That’s the little dog I was looking for.”
Tara didn’t say anything as she sat up on the floor and faced them. Larry started to get up but stopped and quickly stayed back down. The man had pivoted to face him and had placed his hand on the holstered Glock pistol, ready to draw and fire.
“Stay down,” the man said to him as he moved closer to where the dog was, picked it up and examined its collar. “Yup, this is the little dog, alright. This must be some sort of miracle. I not only find the pet I’m looking for, but I run into an old acquaintance as well.”
Larry rubbed the back of his bruised head. “Who are you?”
The man put down the dog and stood over Larry. “You don’t remember do you? I’m one of the guys in the task force that helped put you away for a few years, if I recall.”
Larry pointed up at him. “I do remember now, Officer Haggard.”
“Detective Joshua Haggard,” Josh said. “Funny you just showed up this evening. I thought you were still in prison, Larry.”
Tara gasped.
Josh looked at her and chuckled. “Oh, he didn’t tell you, did he? I bet you don’t even know his last name, or else he just gave you a false one, right?”
Tara nodded meekly.
“It’s okay, girl. Go ahead and sit on the bed. I want you to see this,” Josh said as Tara got up from the floor, sat at the base of the bed and wrapped herself with the quilted blanket.
“Look, Detective, I didn’t know you were here,” Larry protested.
“Shut up, Larry,” Josh said. “E
ven if you did know, would that had stopped you from raping this girl?”
Larry bit his lip.
Josh looked back at Tara. “Let me give you both a proper introduction, this here, lying on the ground is Larry Hanley, two-time burglar, convicted rapist, occasional drug dealer, and three time scumbag loser.” Then he turned to Larry again. “So when did you get out of prison, Larry? Did they let you go or are you a fugitive? Don’t lie to me now.”
“They let me out just over a week ago,” Larry said softly. “Just before the world went to hell.”
Josh nodded contemptuously. “Gone to hell is right. So where did you get the van?”
“I found it.”
“Where?”
“In a parking lot by one of the malls in Mesa, the keys were still inside,” Larry said.
“And like the petty thief that you are, you just took it,” Josh said as he pointed to Tara. “What about her?”
“She was hitching a ride, that’s all,” Larry said.
Josh looked at her. “Is that true?”
Tara nodded meekly. “Y-yes.”
Josh turned his attention back to Larry again. “What about the dog? Where’d you find it?”
“That’s her dog,” Larry said.
“Is that true?” Josh said to her. “Where did you find it?”
The dog ran over to Tara and sat by her feet. “I just found it on the street, sir,” she said.
Josh smiled as he shook his head in amazement. “And here I was, going to Kansas now that my wife is gone so I hold up in one of the rooms here for the night, and then all of a sudden the lights come on! I thought this must be a sign from our Lord, and I think now that it’s a true miracle indeed, yessiree. After my wife’s best friend shot her to death, she ranted about some demonic dog they were trying to kill and how it was all an accident. She gave a description of course, and the type of collar he wore as well as its breed and fur color. I thought she was nuts but seeing this little dog right here, right now, just spells out fate in my books, don’t you both agree?”
Tara and Larry said nothing.
Josh wagged a finger at the dog. “Ah, Bibsy, there’s a claim you caused the death of my wife, but I find that hard to believe, at all. But with all that’s happening now, I dunno what to believe, but I guess I’ll just have to place my trust in the Lord.”
“You can have the dog and you can have her, for crissakes,” Larry said. “Just let me go, I’ll take the van and be outta here and you’ll never see me again, Detective Haggard, I swear to the almighty.”
Josh smiled as he picked up a wooden table leg that Larry had broken off as he fell down. “Why in the hell would I let you go, Larry? You just burglarized this motel here and you attempted a rape on a minor. You’ll be going back to prison for a long, long time, now.”
“Okay, look, just take the van then, it’s all yours. There’s food in there and tools and such. Just let me go, please,” Larry said.
“I don’t let criminals go, it’s not in my nature,” Josh said to him.
Larry saw the table leg in his right hand. He was sweating all over now. “Please, the whole world has changed! You can let me go, there aren’t any laws anymore! How can I be committing a crime if there’s no order?”
“Why, you’re wrong, Larry,” Josh said as he hefted the table leg. “I’m the law and order now.”
Larry held up an open palm to him, both as a gesture of peace and submission. “Okay, okay! You’re the law now, you’re everything! If you want to put me back in jail, then fine! Just don’t hurt me, please!”
Josh chuckled as he shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t put you in jail either. You see, I don’t think there are a whole lotta law enforcement personnel still doing their jobs anymore. So that means even if I do haul your ass to the nearest jail, nobody will be able to prosecute you, much less book you in.”
Larry started to cry as Tara’s mouth began to open wide in dread.
“But you know, you’re right, Larry,” Josh said. “There are no more laws because nobody follows them anymore. So you know what that means?”
Larry looked up at him, tears and mucous streaming down his grizzled chin. “You’ll let me go?”
Josh looked at him intently. “No, but since Internal Affairs is pretty much gone, it means that I don’t have to hold back when I apprehend criminal scum like you anymore.”
Larry shrieked as Josh smashed him in the forehead with the table leg. His head jerked backwards as a big, bloody gash appeared. A puddle of blood began to form on the carpet as Josh hit him again and again until his entire face and head was just a bloody pulp and he finally stopped breathing.
Tara screamed once, then she covered her eyes though she could still hear the sticky sound of flesh and bone being pounded.
16. Resolve
Brooklyn
The building elevators were not working because there wasn’t any power throughout the whole city. Joe Pascorelli took the stairs all the way up to the eighth floor as he used his flashlight to guide him along. In the nearly twenty-five years he was on the force, his dark brown hair now had streaks of grey in it as it complemented his salt and pepper moustache. His paunch was beginning to tighten the NYPD lieutenant’s uniform around his waistline, and it slowed him down as he finally got to the top of the stairway, but that was the least of his worries right now. Opening the fire door that led out into a twilit corridor illuminated by a faint light coming from the open window at the far end, Joe rested his legs for a bit before walking up to the eighth door on the right and knocked a few times.
A short, brown-skinned lady with silver hair tied neatly in a ponytail answered the door. “Yes?”
Joe took his officer’s cap off. “Mrs. Mendoza, my name is Lieutenant Joseph Pascorelli of the New York Police Department. Ma’am, I would like to—”
The old woman cut him off with a wave of her hand as she smiled. “Hello, Joe, please do come in,” she said as she stood back to let him inside.
“Thank you,” Joe said as he walked into the small, three-bedroom apartment. He could see lighted candles all around. It gave everything a soft, yellow illumination as he switched off his flashlight and strapped it back on his belt. “It’s great that you still remember me, Mrs. Mendoza.”
The old woman closed the door behind them. “Please, call me Josefina. Can I get you some coffee or some water? Forgive me, but that’s all we have right now.”
“No, thank you, ma’am, I mean, Josefina.” Joe grinned. “I already drank and ate before I got here. How’s your food supply going?”
Josefina smiled and shrugged. She had a simple purple dress underneath her knitted sweater. “We can survive until the next handout. It would be nice if I could get more medicine for her, though. Please sit down,” she said, pointing to the nearby sofa.
“Thanks,” Joe said as he sat down on the sofa, placed his cap beside him and rubbed his right leg. He had injured it in the line of duty many years ago and it gave him cramps when he put too much weight on it. His wife Maria had asked him if he wanted to have an operation to fix it, but Joe always hated scalpels and needles, and so held it off until the pain gradually subsided into a dull ache when the weather would get too cold.
Josefina sat down in an easy chair beside him and placed her wrinkly hands on her lap. “How is everything out there?”
Joe sighed as he looked out the window. The rain was incessant and continued to fall day and night for weeks now. “Not good, we’ve lost about half the force already through either injuries, sickness, or just plain desertion,” he said before looking towards the small corridor to where the bedrooms were located. “Is she still willing to see me?”
Josefina smiled faintly, the wrinkles under her beady eyes gave her face even more lines. “She didn’t answer when I told her you would be coming, but she won’t ignore you. I think she’s just getting ready.”
“I didn’t really want to put her under this awkward situation and God knows she needs the rest after
what she went through, but we really need more men … or should I say more women, back in uniform right now.”
Josefina nodded. “She knows her duty, Lieutenant. She’s still a cop.”
At that moment, a door leading into a bedroom opened and Valerie walked out. She had a jogging suit on along with a sweater. She walked towards them with slippers on her feet. Valerie’s right arm was bandaged but the doctors had told her that no ligaments were severed, thank goodness, so all she needed was to rest it until the skin grew over the wound. Her face however, was another matter entirely: the knife slash made a vicious cut from in between her eyebrows, down her cheek, to just above the right side of her chin. There was a long white bandage that ran along her facial wound and was held in place by medical tape; that bothered her because the protruding binding gave her double vision every time she tried to center her field of view. With over twenty stitches still holding the cut in place, she knew she would never be beautiful when the dressings would finally be removed.
Joe stood up and held out his hand. “Val, it’s so nice to see you again, how are you?”
Valerie shook his hand but said nothing as she sat down on a wooden chair on the opposite side of her mother.
Josefina made a slight smile and stood up. “I’ll make us some coffee,” she said as she started to walk to the kitchen.
For a few minutes, Joe just sat there as he looked out of the window again. The only other sounds in the room came from the howling wind and the pounding of the rain outside. But the noises inside soon took over, as the clanking of ceramic cups and the boiling of the kettle meant that Josefina had started brewing coffee.
The Glooming (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 1) Page 18