“Two, three years ago”
“Was it two or three.” Danny quizzed.
“Two. Yes. Two.”
“May I?” Henry asked. “Rev. Bob, why would she approach you about working for George when George was still a trusted resident of Beginnings?”
“Things were going to happen. She was a part of them.”
Danny took another turn. “Did Andrea supposedly know everything?”
“Oh yes,” Rev. Bob said. “She was behind a lot of things. A lot. Which . . .” He shook his head with a chuckle. “It surprises me that you people have given her freedom around here.”
Henry held up his pencil. “How do we know you aren’t blaming Andrea to cover up for someone else working in Beginnings?”
Rev. Bob lifted his hands. “She’s the one. That’s what I can tell you. She shouldn’t be running around.”
“So you think she’s dangerous?” Danny asked.
“Dangerous?” Rev. Bob sat back. “Andrea is not directly dangerous. No. She has masterminded a lot of things. She is a smart, smart woman. Taking lives? No. But I wouldn’t put it past her to ruin lives while she is on her borrowed free time.”
On those words, Henry’s mind drifted off.
New Bowman, Montana
“Calm down,” Joe whispered to Dean as they sat in the courtroom waiting on Grace. “Her assistant said she’ll talk to you.”
“This is ridiculous, Joe. We’ve had a judicial system for one week and already this is happening.”
“But it’s not the same.”
“Joe.” Dean slid his copy of the order to him. “It says I will be arrested if I go near my children.”
“Dean.” Joe held up a calming hand. “We’ll handle this. If not, you present your point to Joint Council. At least they’re all men.”
“All rise.” Carol, Grace’s assistant, walked into the court room.
Grace came out from the back. “Please be seated. We’ll try to keep these emergency proceedings as informal as possible. Carol, you’ll record this.”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
Holding a copy of the order, Grace spoke. “October sixteen, Hayes versus Hayes. Dr. Dean Michael Hayes is appearing before this court. Dr. Hayes, how can I help you?”
Dean let out a soft chuckle and stood up. “You can rescind this stupid order.”
“Dean,” Joe called his name.
“Stupid?” Grace tilted her head.
“I want to see my kids.” Dean tossed down the order.
“I’m sure you do, but for now, you can’t. It is a temporary order, Dr. Hayes. If you read, in ten days you can appear before this court and we will review what . . .”
“I will not wait ten days,” Dean argued. “To see my kids? This is bullshit.”
Grace remained calm. “The decision was made in the best interest of the children.”
“How can keeping them from me be in their best interest? Better yet, how can a decision be made without me being here.”
“Evidence was given and . . .”
“What evidence!” Dean yelled. “What? A stupid tape recording?”
“Dr. Hayes.” Grace slammed her hand. “May I finish a sentence please? Thank you. Now that tape played no part in my decision. It was obvious that your words were taken out of context when you listen to the whole thing. My decision was made, in whole, on other circumstances. As for you not being here, we are following old world guidelines. A temporary order can be issued if the court feels that the children are in danger.”
“Danger?” Dean laughed. “From me?”
“Certainly not from your wife.”
“Oh my God.” Dean tossed up his hand.
“Have you not been upset lately?” Grace asked.
“A lot has happened.”
“Will you disagree that your temperament and attitude have been far short?”
“Yes, I’ll disagree.,” Dean nodded.
“Shall I play back the recording we have so far of these proceedings Dr. Hayes? You have not been calm yet.”
“You’re taking my kids from me!”
“For ten days then you will come . . .”
“I want them now.”
Grace grabbed and slammed her gavel. “You will stop this tone in my courtroom. Your temper and violent behavior, past and present . . .”
“What?!”
Again, Grace slammed her gavel. “You will stop interrupting me. These angry outbursts only reiterate my decision.”
Dean took a second and calmed down. “I’m sorry. I’m emotional. I would never hurt my kids.”
“When a person loses his temper, goes through a emotional time, they can’t always control what they do. Your actions, like I said, past and present prove that.”
“I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about. I’m not a violent person.”
“Really?” Grace opened a folder. “Did you not strike a Jess Boyens last night? Did you not instigate a fight?”
“He was with my . . .”
“Answer my question.”
“Yes,” Dean said. “But I was angry because he was with Ellen.”
Grace raised an eyebrow. “Point taken. And your anger has caused you to strike out against your wife.”
“I have never touched my wife.”
“You have never struck your wife?” Grace asked him hard.
“Never.”
“You will stand before me in my court and lie to me when I have words, written by your own hand, to contradict those words?” Grace held up a piece of paper and extended it over the bench. “Read this.”
Dean stepped forward and took the paper.
“Is that your writing?”
“Yes.”
“Read the second sentence out loud.” Grace grew more hostile.
“El . . .” Dean’s voice cracked. “I am so sorry I . . . I hit you.” Dean’s eyes closed and he murmured. “Oh God, the Ripple.” He handed the letter back to Grace. “I swear I am a different man now.”
“Try again.”
“What?”
“In a fit of anger, in a pursuit of your wife, did you grab her yesterday and spin her around to face you?”
“Yes, but I just grabbed hold of her arm.”
“Just grabbed hold?” Grace said. “Your wife showed me deep bruises on her arm, Dr. Hayes, from your so-called hold. You wanna try this nonviolent speech again? You have showed as recent as yesterday that you cannot control your actions when things get rough. Things are rough for you. Until you calm down, until you show this court that you are under control, then you, Dr. Hayes, will not see those children for fear of their safety. If you go near them, you will be thrown in our Holding Center here in New Bowman. That will be all.” Grace slammed her gavel and stood up. “Good day.” She turned with a flap of her robe and stepped from her bench.
Dean was silent, lost. He clenched his fist in his defeat and, with his semi-lowered head, he turned to face a standing Joe. “Joe. My kids.”
“I’m sorry, Dean,” Joe sounded cold. “I am. Maybe you should just wait out the ten days.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry you can’t see them, Dean, but right now, I can’t condone your actions with my daughter.” Joe stepped to him “You struck her. Struck her. That’s my family. That’s where my obligation lies.” Joe slowly turned around and started to walk from the court room.
“Joe.” Dean hurried to him. “Where are you going? We have to head back.”
“You go on.” Joe kept walking. “I’ll ride back with my son.”
Dean felt it when Joe walked away from him and there was nothing he could do, no argument. If defeat had a physical weight, Dean would have been crushed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Beginnings, Montana
Jess was tired. All he wanted to do was turn in his perimeter reports and go home to sleep. He not only worked extra to cover his lateness of the night before, but he worked extra . . . just to help cover. Reports, home, bed.
He knocked once on Frank’s office door and was surprised by Robbie’s ‘Come in’. “Hey.” Jess walked in, holding up the reports.
Robbie was reading from a clipboard. He lifted his eyes briefly then returned to his reading. “Jess,” he said his name. “What’s up?”
“I’m turning these in.” He dropped the reports on the desk.
Blindly Robbie slid some papers to him. “Feel like filing?”
Jess reviewed how many were there. “Sure, why not.” He took them and walked to the filing cabinet. “Where’s Frank? He’s not sleeping yet?”
“Nope. He’s out in the UD. One of guys spotted a problem.”
“What’s that?”
“Dean,” Robbie answered. “They said he was just sitting there.” He shrugged. “I don’t know what’s up with that.”
Jess snickered. “So they sent his worst enemy.”
“Actually, no.” Robbie flipped a page. “Frank volunteered to go. Seems he wants to find out what is going on. Ellen’s not telling him.”
“I wonder why.” Jess kept his back to Robbie while he filed. “She and Frank are, well, closer than close. She should have gone to him with it.”
“With what? Jess? What do you know?”
“Shit.” Jess placed the report in the file.
“Did Ellen tell you not to tell me?” Robbie asked.
“No.”
“Then tell me.”
Jess stared out. “You didn’t hear it from me and I’m telling you because . . . it’ll be out soon anyhow.”
“How do you know about it?” Robbie asked.
“Ellen. She was drunk last night and that’s why I was late for my shift. We started talking.”
“What happened?” Robbie laid down the clipboard.
Jess shut the filing cabinet. “Did you know Dean is out of the house?” He turned around.
“No, I . . . shit. What happened to your mouth?”
“Long story.” Jess walked over to the desk. “Anyhow, Dean’s gone. Seems . . . seems Bev’s pregnant and it seems . . . it seems tests proved already that . . .”
“It’s Dean’s?”
“Yep.”
“Shit.” Robbie’s eyes widened. “What’s the scoop on that?”
“It looks like he’s been seeing Bev for a while. That’s what’s being said. El is pretty upset. No wait, really upset.”
“Oh my God.” Robbie was shocked. “I have to go talk to her.”
“That might not be a bad idea,” Jess told him.
“So what happened to your lip? Did El do that in her drunken fit?” Robbie joked and leaned back in his chair.
“No.” Jess touched the bruised corner of his mouth. “Dean decked me.”
“Dean decked you? Why?”
Jess raised his eyes. “I was . . . I was innocently in bed with Ellen.”
Robbie’s chair snapped forward and all seriousness hit him. “How can you be innocently in bed with anyone? Were you sleeping?”
“No.”
“Then how?”
“I was helping her into bed and we tripped.” Jess tossed his hands up. “Dean walked in at the moment I was just getting up.”
“Oh.” Robbie let out his sigh of relief. “So nothing happened between you two.”
“Robbie, please, I’m gay.”
“Good.” Robbie relaxed.
“I mean, really. After the initial foreplay and getting naked part, the gay thing came into play and . . .”
“Jess, it’s not funny.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thank God you are gay or I’d be really jealous.” Robbie stood up. “I have that meeting soon but I want to stop and see Ellen.”
“I’ll walk with you.”
“Sounds good.” Robbie moved to the door. “You know, Jess, I can’t believe you let Dean get the best of you.”
“It was one punch and I wasn’t going to hit him back.” He followed Robbie out of the door.
^^^^
Dean didn’t mind the cold. In fact he didn’t feel it. His mind was so far off elsewhere. He no sooner got back to Beginnings when he started to walk. He walked and thought until he wandered out into the UD section behind the homes. He stayed there, sitting with his legs bent up, his arms draped across his knees, his head down, and the crumbled court order in his hand.
That was the way Frank found him.
Letting out a long, loud grunt, Frank sat down. “Ah, the perfect place to take a cigarette break.” He pulled one from his pocket. “Great place, Dean.” Frank lit it. “I got a radio call from one of my men saying they seen this speck of a pest. They thought it was human but they couldn’t tell. It was too small. So I came out. I found you.”
“What did you do, Frank? Come here to gloat?” Dean didn’t lift his head.
“I wished I was. Unfortunately, I don’t know what to gloat over.”
“Yeah, right, Frank. Ellen didn’t tell you?”
“No. I even tried that ‘I know’ routine. She didn’t buy it.”
“And I don’t buy you not knowing,” Dean said.
“Dean. I’m serious. Here, let me give you the Frank perception of what I see going on so broaden your horizons for a minute O.K.? From the Frank point of view, you got pissed off because of your inability to have perfect timing and you gave me your wife, your kids and, not to mention, a nice house.”
Dean lifted his head. “And you’re taking them.”
“If you giving them.”
“Frank! God! See.” Dean’s hand cut through the air. “You’re such an asshole. You would. You would take it. Things are bad, Frank. Things are so bad. And you . . .”
“Whoa. Calm down. I’m kidding here. Talk.”
“No.”
“Dean, come on. What’s going on? Is it big?”
“To me it is. It’s taken over my world.”
Frank listened to the drop in Dean’s voice. “What happened?”
“I guess you’ll find out. Why Ellen didn’t run to you, I don’t know. Bev . . . Bev is pregnant. She’s claiming we are having an affair and Frank . . .” Dean’s voice peeped. “DNA testing showed the baby is mine. I don’t know how that can be. I don’t.” He ran his hand down his own face. “I’m confused.”
Frank stared for a moment at Dean. “No wonder El didn’t come to me. She probably was embarrassed.”
“Thanks.” Dean tossed his hand up. “Thanks a lot. Of course this shouldn’t come as a surprise and I can’t blame you or anyone over this. Things look really bad for me and there’s nothing I can do. No one believes me.”
“I’m gonna ask you something and I want an honest answer. I’m not judging you, all right? It’s a vague fuckin question and you’ll know what I mean, so no pulling a Bill Clinton on me.”
Dean had a sad chuckle to him. “Go on.”
“Have you ever been with Bev?”
“Absolutely not. I’ve never touched her nor wanted to. That’s where I’m lost. How can I have fathered a child when I have never even been with her?”
Frank saw in Dean’s eyes he was getting no less than the truth. “O.K., then you have a problem. Someone is setting you up. Come on Dean, look how simple it would be. What’s that called? Artificial insemination. I mean, let’s face it. You’re always down in that lab jerkin off for science sake. How hard would it be for someone to take some? A little from here, a little from there . . .”
“My first thoughts exactly, but . . .” Dean raised his hand. “None of the samples were touched. None. I’m screwed.”
“So tell me something. What did you ever do to this girl to make her do this to you?”
“I don’t know. She’s ruining my life. No, she’s ruined my life. Everything I built, everything I have worked for, is gone. I’ve lost it. My house, my kids . . .”
“Wait. Wait.” Frank stopped him. “Even if you did sleep with her, how did you lose your kids over this? It makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense with our new judicial sy
stem. The things Rev. Bob used to handle . . .” He handed Frank the crumbled court order. “. . . Judge Grace Hawthorn now handles. They took my kids, Frank. I have ten days until I go back and it’s still no guarantee.”
Frank felt how flushed his face got when he read the court order. “What the hell is the matter with Ellen seeking this?”
Dean quickly looked at Frank. “What . . . what did you just say?”
“I said what the hell is the matter with El? They can’t take your kids, Dean.”
“They did.”
“Fight it.”
“I tried.”
“This is stupid.” Frank’s voice raised a little as he handed the order back. “You’re a good father.”
“Thank you. But according to the court, I’m not in control of my faculties right now with all that’s going on. I lose my temper and . . . I’m violent.”
“You?” Frank chuckled. “Yeah, maybe with a lab experiment, or a deadly toxin, but your kids? What would make them think that?”
“They have proof.”
“What proof?”
“I hit Jess last night.”
“Jess?” Frank asked. “Jess Boyens, the nacho man?”
“The one and only.”
“Can I ask why?”
“He was in bed with Ellen . . .”
“What!” Frank blasted. “I’ll fuckin kill him.”
“See.” Dean pointed. “But it wasn’t what I thought. I took it the wrong way. But in my defense, it didn’t look good and I lost my cool.”
“Yeah, but so would I. So eliminate that. I can’t believe they took the kids because you hit another man.”
Dean looked panicked for a second. “That’s not all. They said I hit Ellen.”
“You wouldn’t hit Ellen.”
“That’s what I thought.” Dean shook his head. “But they gave me a letter I wrote to Ellen years ago, apologizing . . . for hitting her. Only I don’t remember. I swear I don’t. I’m thinking it had to have happened in the history we screwed up.”
“Easy enough to get out of. You should have said you’re a different man now. That’s not lying.” Frank nodded.
“Frank, I said those exact words. Those exact words. But . . .”
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