"Somewhat."
She looked shocked. "Whew, this is unusual."
"You could say that. But, it's like people with psychological problems going into the field of psychology. I'm a telepath and so are you. We both went into paranormal psych."
"Why didn't I know this about you?"
"I hid it." He smiled that quirky little smile she loved.
She grinned at him. "Your place or mine tonight?"
*****
Willie walked home from school on the highway as he always did. He usually walked on the right side, with traffic. His brain was full of Susie, and she text him a few times while he walked. They'd held hands after school and she invited him to a party that Saturday.
He was so enmeshed with Susie he didn't hear the sixty-nine Mustang pull up behind him.
He turned around, hearing car doors. Tom and Joe got out of the car.
Joe caught Willie first with an unexpected upper-cut to the chin. Tom followed, and Willie was on the ground. They kicked his shoulders, his stomach and his ribcage. Willie heard popping noises as his ribs broke. They wore hard boots and the pain of every kick was incredibly bad. They went at him so quickly, he didn't even have time to fight back. Finally, they seemed to run out of steam.
"You show some respect to me and my people at school," Tom said breathlessly.
Willie tried to sit up but couldn't do it. "You gotta earn respect, dick-head," he gasped.
Joe kicked Willie square in the eye.
"That's enough," Tom said, "you're going to kill him."
Joe spit in the dust. "I should kill him after he did this to me." He pointed to his own face.
"Let's go. Deputy Dog will be around here pretty soon on his patrol. Don't want to get caught."
Willie smelled and tasted the road dust as he heard the Mustang's huge engine start up. The boys left and he lay there, face down, unable to move from the pain.
After a few minutes, he heard the whooping noise of a siren, then crunching of boots on the road rocks.
"Willie?" Sheriff Davey bent down to check on him. "Can you hear me, son?"
Although Willie's jaw was swelling, he said a muffled, "Yeah."
"Who did this to you?" Davey turned him over and Willie moaned.
"Don't remember."
"Was it Joe again?"
"Don't remember."
"The hell you don't," Davey muttered. "Can you stand on your own? Otherwise, I'll have to call an ambulance. Don't know how bad they got you."
Willie sat up with Davey's help.
"We'll take you over to Doc Marshall's place. I'll call your mom and let her know."
"Can you call Spence instead?"
"Sure. Long as someone knows. Just rest your arm around my shoulder, that's right. Up, then."
Willie gasped at the pain, but managed to hunch over and walk to the patrol car.
Meg was working at the animal shelter when Spence got the call about Willie.
When he arrived at the doctor's urgent care, he was directed to the bed where Willie lay. The boy's eyes were closed with the left eye being tremendously swollen. His breaths were even.
Doctor Marshall came in a few minutes later, and worked on a bandage for Willie's eye. "I've seen worse," he said, "but he does have a few broken ribs and they re-broke the collar bone. The thing that worries me is his eye. He could lose it if he doesn't get absolute rest for the next two days at least. I mean, in bed. Then I'd like to send him to a specialist in Rushburg."
Spence was furious now. "He didn't say who did this?"
"Nope. Not to Sheriff Davey either. Otherwise, he could press charges."
"I ain't no squealer," Willie slurred.
"Ain't ain't a word," Spence said as he smoothed back Willie's hair.
"'Tis," Willie said softly.
"Okay," Spence said, "help me load him into the car, will you doc?"
After Spence got Willie's pain pills and eye-drops from Doc Marshall, they took off.
Willie was really out of it, and slept almost all the way home.
Meg was there to meet them with a worried look on her face. She ran up to the car. "What happened?"
"He won't say," Spence told her, while they both helped Willie up the stairs to his room, "he's too damn stubborn to say who beat him up. My money's on that Joe kid but without proof what can we do?" They lowered him onto the bed and took off his shoes.
"He needs to work through this thing, Meg, in his own way."
"Why, so they can kill him next time?"
Spence sighed. "It's just teens, Meg. I don't know how many fights Chad and I were in."
"Well, excuse me if I don't buy into your macho man crap. I want to go get the boy who beat up my son."
"No more than I do. But let him sleep for now. Then we can talk to him when he's feeling better."
She sighed and followed him out of the room.
That night, after they'd eaten and given Willie his pain pills; saw that he was asleep, the skies opened up with a torrential rain storm. Roads flooded, people were trapped in their cars and homes, and animals drowned in big waves of water.
Davey and Lee Cobb drove their sheriff jeeps and rescued stranded travelers.
Meg heard the pounding of rain on her windows and she was afraid; frightened to go to sleep, and scared of what was happening to Willie and Spence. Nothing was right and nothing was as it should be in the house and their lives.
She crept quietly down the hall to Spence's room. He was already asleep.
She very carefully lay in bed next to him, so as not to wake him. But, after a few minutes, she realized she couldn't sleep, and went to get out of the bed.
"Not so fast," he murmured, as he pulled her against him. His chest was hard against her back and his hands came around to slide along her breasts.
"Mmmm," he said, "what a way to wake up. Your fine little body next to mine, and I'm able to reach every part of you."
As if to demonstrate, his hand ran slowly over her buttocks then sliding through and over her mound.
He whispered against her ear, "I love this nightgown on you. It's so feminine. So much like you." His tongue shot out and stroked her ear on her pleasure spot.
She gasped and he tightened his hold on her. "Did we ever do this?" he whispered.
She shook her head.
He laughed softly, while his hands came around to make circles on her breasts.
Then against her ear, he whispered, "You have the nicest breasts, just the right size for me."
She whimpered at the sensations.
He'd pulled up her gown and almost entered her now. He stayed right at her opening while still playing with her breasts.
"Come in me," she whispered urgently.
He laughed. "That's what I need," he said softly as his finger gently explored her wetness. "You're hot. You ready for me? You ready for Spence?"
"Yes," she whispered.
He entered her from behind, and she gasped as his hand still felt her wetness. He rolled her onto her stomach, still feeling her. "Can you come for me?" he asked, before he stopped thrusting.
"Yes," she said quickly, "don't stop."
He began again, slowly thrusting, whispering against her neck, her cheek, kissing against her hair. The rhythm in him increased. "Tell me," he urged, "tell me."
"I love you, Spence," she said softly.
"Christ, you're beautiful," he said. He put all of himself into her now, and she lifted her hips up for him.
"Come for Spence, baby. Come for me."
She shuddered as her release was complete and he finished a few seconds later.
He lay on his side and drew her close. "Beautiful baby of mine," he whispered.
They lay in each other's arms, as the wind pelted rain against the window pane; while the streets flooded again in downtown Lacene.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Tammy sat with her father before her daily teaching and school regimen began. "You going out again tonight?" he asked.
/> "Thought I would," she said, as she stared out the window.
"Where?" He frowned.
"What's it to you?"
"You've been mooning around after that Moorehouse kid for almost a week now. Get a clue. He only has eyes for the Cowell girl."
She sighed. "First of all, Spence is certainly not a boy, and second Meg is not a girl." Then she smiled slightly. "They're consenting adults."
"Who knows what goes on in that house."
"Oh, I know what goes on, father. I'd just like to know how to stop it."
"Well, if he's convicted of the murders, that'll put an end to it. He'll be where he belongs."
"Haven't you heard? Mark's back in town. He's going to testify on Spence's behalf. You ever notice Mark? Dark hair, dark eyes. Hmmm."
"What?"
"Good looking is all I'm saying."
"You think everyone is good looking."
"Well, I'm seeing Simon tonight. Does that meet with your approval?"
Bryce sniffed. "He's a damn sight better than either of those Moorehouse boys. Simon has real potential."
She was silent, then suddenly laughed. She had to agree with him. Simon was so infinitely pliable.
*****
Ellison answered the call irritably. Things were not going well with the Moorehouse murder case. The brother had stepped in saying Spence Moorehouse didn't know about the money until 1984, and he seemed to have the bank records to prove it.
"What?" he said into the phone.
"Detective Ellison. This is Karl Cowell."
It took Ellison a few seconds to realize he was speaking to Meg's brother. Meg, the one who'd given him a black eye that, now, he was taking intense ribbing about. He never could explain the thing to anyone's satisfaction, and now the guys were calling him Ethereal Ellison. Nobody believed him but Smith. "What can I do for you?"
"Well, it's not what you can do for me, but what I can do for you at this point."
"I'm listening."
"To be very frank, I've heard what's going down with Mark Moorehouse's testimony."
"Yes."
"And I'm here to refute it."
Ellison waved to Smith who stood by the coffee maker.
Smith moved next to him and Ellison put the call on speaker phone. "What do you have for us, Mr. Cowell?"
The man paused then said, "Spence used to tell me and Meg about the money. All the time. We'd meet in the tree house out back and daydream about what we'd do with five million dollars."
Ellison looked up at Smith, who smirked at him and said softly, "Bingo. How else would he know the amount? We've got him now."
"And you'd be willing to tell the grand jury?"
"Certainly. Anything to help the police, Detective Ellison."
After Ellison took down Karl's phone number and other information, he hung up and sat back in his chair. Placing his feet up on the desk, he said to Smith, "Postpone the hearing. Call the ADA and tell her what we found. Looks like we're headed to Lacene again."
*****
Simon hung up the phone and cursed. He didn't know who would testify against Spence, Ellison wouldn't let that detail go, but this case had been a shocker from the beginning. Spence may have been lying to him and he didn't like it. With the brother involved, it smacked of conspiracy.
His sister Justine came in, a diminutive woman, fifty years old, with a limp and a sour expression. She'd been filling in as his secretary for a year now, and if that wasn't bad enough, he was forced to live in her house because of his finances, or lack of. Luckily she rarely talked back, and now Simon unloaded on her.
"What do you want now? You've been in and out of here thirty times this morning. How the hell can I get any work done?"
She was calm in the face of his outburst. "You shouldn't blaspheme, Simon. The Lord will punish you. You'll be guilty of eternal sin."
His mind wandered back to Tammy. The night before. His buttocks were sore from the pounding she'd given him with a hard brush. But, it wasn't an altogether bad sensation either. He'd ejaculated on the bed, and she'd laughed at him.
"Simon?"
"I'm busy. Whatever it is can wait."
"But it's Spence Moorehouse. Don't you want to take the call?"
"Yes, I'll take it," he replied irritably as he picked up line one.
After greeting Spence, he began. "They're postponing the hearing until next Monday. They claim to have another witness who says you knew about your parent's money back then. When you were sixteen."
Spence was silent for a moment. "Who?"
"Don't know that yet. You tell me, Spence."
Again, Spence was silent.
"Are you lying to me, Spence? You know, you need to tell me the truth. At all times. Attorney client privilege says I can't repeat what you say. Who knew back then Spence? Is your brother lying too?"
"No, he's not Simon. We're both telling the truth. You really think I'm capable of that brutal murder?"
"Not really, no." Justine came back in the room, looking for something, and Simon's irritation grew. "Listen, Spence, think about it and call me back. This is a pivotal point in the case. If you and Mark knew about the money, both of you look guilty as sin. They'll probably arrest you both, with Meg as an accessory after the fact."
He heard Spence's breath let out in a long gasp. "We didn't know, Simon. None of us knew."
"All right. They have to fill me in on what exactly they've got before Monday's hearing. I'll call you as soon as I know anything."
"Okay."
"And, Spence, think about what I said. I'm your attorney and I'm trying to believe in your innocence. Give me a reason."
He clicked off and noticed Justine was still in the room and had been listening to his conversation. "What?" He looked at her and frowned.
She sat in the wing chair. "Spence Moorehouse is innocent as the day is long. Why do you not believe him?"
He leaned forward on his elbows and rubbed his face. "Because the detectives keep coming up with more evidence, that's why."
"So, question it. Go after the evidence like you just questioned him. You're running in the wrong direction, Simon."
She was right, as usual. Tammy was on his mind constantly now and he couldn't concentrate on the case. He was not thinking right.
"I've been a little distracted lately. But you're right. As soon as they tell me who they've got to testify, I'll nail it."
"I'm sure you will Simon," she said with a smile. "Let me know if I can help."
*****
Willie woke up and his head and eye were pounding. He opened his other eye. "Ma?"
Meg smiled at him and brought him a breakfast tray. She set it next to him and helped him sit up in bed.
He looked at the egg over hard, toast, fruit and juice. "Don't know if I can eat. My head hurts pretty bad."
"Here, take this." She handed him a pill.
He took it with some juice and a few minutes later he started to eat. Between mouthfuls he said, "The bandage on my eye. How long does it need to stay on, Ma?"
She stroked his hair. "Until tomorrow. You need to see a doctor over in Rushburg. Something about the retina. I'm not sure I understand it. Anyway, I'll go over to the school today and get your homework."
"Aw, Ma, give me a break."
"No rest for the wicked," she laughed as she stood up. "You need to rest in bed today."
After she'd left, Willie looked at his cell phone. Four text messages since last night when he'd zonked out.
From Joe, 'Hpy Hlloween.'
Willie cursed at that, and continued with his messages. 'call me' from Susie. And from Dana, 'hrd wht hpnd. U tk care.' Then another from Susie, 'U mad?'
He called Susie, and she picked up on the second ring. "Hi Willie. What's going on? They're some rumors around school."
"Yeah, it's probably true. I have to stay home today and tomorrow. Got some broken ribs and a bum eye."
"So it's true?" She began crying softly.
"Don't cry,"
Willie told her, "I'm tough. I'll be okay."
"Can I come and see you?"
His heart leaped at that. "Sure. After school then?"
"Yeah. Short day today because of that teacher's meeting. We let out at twelve, so I'll hitch a ride with Monica. You think your mom could take me home?"
"Sure." They hung up and Willie was ecstatic. He finally had a girlfriend.
Spence came into his bedroom. "Hey, champ. How are you?" He sat on the bed next to Willie.
"Sore," Willie admitted as he tried to smile. He put his tray aside. "Can you help me to the bathroom?" Spence helped him in and when he was done they returned to Willie's bed. "It's getting up and down that's the hardest part," he told Spence.
"Yeah, I know. Had a broken rib one time when I was younger. Got stinking drunk and fell against a marble vanity."
Willie was feeling good now, as the pill took effect. "Spence, can I ask you something?"
"Shoot." He sat again, next to Willie.
"Well if I had a girlfriend, and we wanted to have sex, should I just pull out a condom or ask if she's on the pill or what?"
Spence smiled. "Put on the condom, Willie. Get the best ones money can buy. She can say she's on the pill, and maybe she's not or maybe she forgot to take one for a few days. Don't risk it. Plus, I won't even go into the STD angle. You just never know. A woman can look clean on the outside but have AIDS or any combination of STD's."
Willie nodded. "You sound like my sex education teacher."
Spence laughed at that. "At least there aren't any little Spences running around."
"You have any extras on you?"
Spence looked at him questioningly before he pulled a condom out of his wallet, and handed it to Willie. "I'll buy you a box next time I go to town...unless you need more sooner?"
Willie said quickly, "No. That's okay. One for now, just in case."
After Spence left, Willie looked at the wrapper and wondered how soon he would need to use it. He tucked it in his wallet on the bed stand and rested his head on the pillows.
*****
Renee sat across from Tim Grainger, the archaeologist she decided to consult with on the Cowell house problem. She'd seen him before, but not up close. She thought he must be in his late forties, attractive but thin. She realized something looked so familiar in his blue eyes and blond hair. She just couldn't think of what it was.
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