“Ah,’ Hal exhaled. “Menstrual man. Anyhow . . . back to what I was saying. You two wanted me to blurt out he is an insider. To me, that would have been traumatic considering the fact that my dear sister vaguely remembers a dispute with Johnny. That wasn’t as bad as the fact that she didn’t recall being married to Dean. Today must have thrown her through a loop. I’ll tell you, speaking to her, or rather trying to, was like dealing with . . .” Hal stopped cold.
Elliott waited. “Captain? Dealing with what?”
Hal grinned. “Richie. That’s it.”
“What’s it?” Elliott asked.
“Richie.” Hal snapped his fingers. “What happened to Richie? That could explain Ellen’s behavior.”
“You think he nailed her with something?” Elliott questioned.
“Most definitely. The calm Ellen running around Beginnings is not the woman everyone is accusing of drug abuse.”
“It couldn’t have been something as strong,” John suggested.
“No, obviously,” Hal said. “I mean, she’s not twitching, rolling her chin, or patting her head. Which wouldn’t bode well for you, Elliott, because that could possibly thwart any romantic intentions. This actually could work in our favor. Ellen is calm now and Johnny should leave her alone. All we have to do is wait for her memory to come back and we ask her.”
“There lies the problem,” Elliott spoke up. “When will that be?”
“I doubt it will be long,” Hal said assuredly. “Until then . . .” He let out a breath. “You, Elliot, can take full advantage of the fact that she doesn’t know she’s married to Dean.” He moved to the kitchen. “I need a drink. Anyone?”
Almost apologetic, Elliott looked to John. “He doesn’t quite think and work like normal people.”
“No, he doesn’t. How could he ?” John said. “He’s a Slagel.”
^^^^
“We should be fuckin Mormons, You know that, Dean?” Frank said with disgust as he stood at the living room door of Dean’s house.
“What are you talking about?” Dean asked. “I was asking . . .”
“For me to do the dirty work again. Man.” Frank reached into his back pocket, pulled out a notepad, and wrote in it.
Dean watched Frank do that. “What was that?”
“Don’t think I’m not keeping track.”
“Of what?”
“All this shit you have me do. Do you realize you shuck your husband duties off on me all the time and then get pissed because I’m the one getting laid.”
“Frank, I . . .”
“It’s probably because I’m better,” Frank sniffed.
“Do I need to hear this? No,” Dean said. “I don’t shuck things off on you.”
“You do too and you know it. I yell at her. Find her. Deal with her. Now I have to find out what the hell happened to Nick. Why can’t you do that?” Frank held up a finger, silencing Dean. “Because you fear Ellen did something with him. Quit being so scared of our wife, Dean.”
“Why do you do that?”
“Do what?
“Call her our wife.”
“She is,” Frank stated.
“She’s my wife, Frank. You only have the understanding.”
“But I do all the shit work. Then again, I am the one getting . . .”
“Don’t say it.”
“Laid.” Frank dropped his voice to a mumble, “Haven’t in a while, though. All right . . .” He reached for the door. “You heard of Dirty Fuckin Harry? Meet Dirty Fuckin Frank.” He exhaled in his exit. “A hero’s work is never done.”
Shaking his head, perturbed at Frank, Dean turned around to see Billy giving a scolding look. “What?”
“He’s right, you know,” Billy said smugly. “The next time Mom shuns any and all affection you try to give her, ask yourself why.” He turned and walked away. “And you wonder why I keep erasing things off of Frank’s list.”
“Where . . . where . . . is this coming from . . . Billy!” Dean attempted to call out, but stopped himself. “O.K. it’s been a while but how many could he have erased? He had a ton.” He walked over to the cabinet in the dining area. “Where is it?” He opened the one drawer. “Here. Reasons not to worship . . .” A small shriek came from Dean when he looked at the paper and saw that the list was completely erased.
^^^^
“Hey, Frank.” Henry was surprised when he opened the door. “What’s up?”
Frank held up a finger, stepped inside, looked around, saw nothing, and then yelled. “Nick!”
The rumbling of wheels accompanied the squeal of delight. Out from the dining room, with arms waving fanatically, came Nick.
Frank nodded. “There he . . . ow. . . . is.” He grunted when the walker rammed into his shin. He looked down to a smiling Nick who reached up for him. “Hey, you.” Frank bent down and picked him up. “Scared, huh? Poor thing.”
Hector came from the kitchen with a bottle. “Hi, Frank.”
Henry was curious. “What’s going on?”
“All right,” Frank said. “Remain calm here. I’m gonna try to explain something. You two may not know, because there isn’t a woman in this relationship, but . . . it’s really not a good idea to steal a child. If you ask, you can borrow him, but to take him? No. Understand?”
Henry chuckled. “Take him? I didn’t steal him, Frank. He lives here now.”
“No. He lives with Dean. You can’t just take someone’s kid.”
“My kid,” Henry corrected. “I just didn’t take him. Ellen gave him to me.”
Frank looked confused. “Ellen gave him to you? As in she walked up to you and said you can have Nick.”
Hector bobbed his head. “That’s pretty much that’s how it went down.”
“Ellen gave you, Nick?”
“Yes,” Henry answered.
“To be clear . . .” Frank lifted his hand. “Ellen gave you Nick . . . . for good?”
“Um, yes, Frank,” Henry replied.
Widening his eyes, Frank handed Nick to Henry. “O.K. then. That explains it. Sorry to have bothered you.” He walked to the door. “Once more . . .”
“She gave him to me,” Henry said.
“Ellen. My Ellen. Dean’s Ellen. Whoever’s Ellen, gave you . . .”
“Frank,” Henry stopped him with a chuckle. “Yes. You should have gone to Dean first. He knows.”
Thinking, ‘oh, right, Dean knows. he sent me here.’ Frank smiled. “I should have done that. Night then.” Keeping his projection of calm, Frank walked out the door, pulled it closed, and stood on the porch, totally baffled. “Ok,” he spoke softly to himself. “She’s giving away her children now.”
^^^^
The cryo-lab was so demented. It was a virtual blanket of secrets down there. Things were hidden from the community and Robbie knew Ellen’s radical behavior had something to do with the fact she was hiding something. But what? Was it literally being hid or was it only in her.
As he looked around at the deformed animals, the growing skin, and former life in jars of liquid, Robbie had to wonder was there possibly anything Dean and Ellen would have to hide. Everything was pretty much out in the open unless they made a mistake somewhere. In order for a mistake of Dean’s or Ellen’s to be covered up, it would have had to been deadly enough to kill someone and if they did that, hiding the fact would explain Ellen’s behavior. She would not want to let it out and would be wracked with guilt over her and Dean’s diabolical experiment on some poor unsuspecting soul who ended up dying. Lifting his views, Robbie began to peer around the lab. He dismissed the accidental biological death because off hand, he couldn’t think of anyone in Beginnings who was missing and there couldn’t be a murder without a body. Robbie stopped cold. His eyes first caught glimpse of his reflection in the glass and then he saw the room beyond it.
It was the room where Frank worked on Bev’s murder investigation. In viewing that room, Robbie realized not only was there a murder, but a body as well. The body of a woman both Dean
and Ellen hated. A woman who turned their lives upside down, and was still doing so, because every time they had to work in the cryo lab, a remembrance of Bev was right there. In a room beyond a glass wall. Robbie could see how living and working with that would cause tension. A constant reminder of what Bev did to their lives. But would that tension be enough to warrant Ellen’s behavior? Robbie had to answer ‘no’. Stepping toward that room to look, Robbie looked further into Ellen’s actions. And he kept going back to one thing. She was hiding something. She knew something. It was tormenting her, and driving her insane. It was something she couldn’t let out for fear of repercussion. In Robbie’s mind there was only one repercussion that was big enough to fear, having to leave Beginnings or watching someone she loved leave Beginnings for good. Robbie knew only one action could cause the consequences of excommunication from Beginnings. Murder.
Was it guilt that caused Ellen’s behavior or knowledge? Whatever it was, Robbie had to know. Hoping he could see something Frank or his dad missed, Robbie went into the back room. To him it seemed that if Ellen didn’t kill Bev then she was tormented by the fact that she knew who did.
The statements both Dean and Ellen wrote out were exactly the same. In Robbie’s mind, it was the biggest clue of all in the murder investigation. How did Frank and his father miss it? There was only one reason for the replica statements. One of them killed Bev and the other one knew. But which one did what? The statements were all there were. He looked at his father’s notes on Ellen’s that a guard saw her that evening. Henry and Hector spoke with her. Robbie did too, but that was long before the murder time.
No one but Henry and Hector saw Dean until the next morning when he checked into the clinic at seven. It was so evident that his finger pointing was going toward Ellen and that bothered him. He didn’t want it to be her. Tossing the statement in irritation, Robbie lifted it back up when he spotted his father’s notation. It was wrong. Robbie remembered. It wasn’t entirely true that no one saw Dean until seven in the morning. Robbie did. He didn’t think much of it at the time but thinking back with a reflection of guilt toward Dean, it made perfect sense.
‘I’ll check over this way,” Robbie recalled himself saying that morning.
“Get close to the fence! I’m not seeing any fuckin killer babies so check for holes!” Frank yelled from the distance.
In the thin and shallow wooded area, near what had been dubbed the killer baby region, Robbie began his search. The killer babies had been throwing things at the fence and in Frank’s theory, they were creating a diversion. It was a diversion they didn’t need when a couple hours earlier they had found Bev Hadley dead.
Hearing the ‘snap’, Robbie lifted his revolver and spun to the location of the noise came. “Dean?”
Dean stood up. “Robbie.”
“What are doing here?”
“El and I lost our experimental rabbit.” Dean shrugged. “Last time that happened, we found him up here.”
“Well, he may very well be an early breakfast. We might have killer babies in this region.”
“I’ll go then. If you see him, let me know.” Dean dusted off his hands and walked away.
He dusted off his hand. Robbie didn’t think anything about it when it occurred. Dean was calm, cool, and it wasn’t unusual for him or Ellen to have lost some sort of experiment. That very well could have been the true and legitimate reason why Dean was in that area at six in the morning. Robbie could stand in the cryo-lab and question all night, but there really was only one way to find out.
^^^^
Dean backed up from peeking out of the window. “She’s out there with Joe, Frank. She’ll be here in a second.”
“Dean, remember. Approach.” Frank winked with a nod.
“Approach,” he agreed. “Will it work?” He headed back to the window.
“It has to. Obviously if double teaming Ellen . . .” Frank smirked. “Hey, Dean.”
Dean looked over his shoulder. “No.”
Frank shrugged. “It sounded cool.”
Returning his views to the window, Dean had to give a slight debating shrug of his own. “Here she comes.”
“Approach.”
“Approach,” Dean repeated and darted to the dining room table with Frank.
The second the front door opened, Frank and Dean burst into laughter as if something hysterically funny was shared between them.
Frank lifted his eyes. “Oh, look who’s home. Hey, El.”
“Hey, El.” Dean smiled.
Ellen looked oddly at them both. “Is everything all right?”
Frank stood up. “Oh, sure. Here . . .” He pulled out a chair. “Sit down. Do you want coffee?”
“Um . . . sure,” Ellen reluctantly answered and sat at the table while Frank went into the kitchen.
Dean smiled at her.
Ellen returned the smile.
“How was your evening with Joe?” Dean asked.
“Very nice. I remembered being your wife.” She gave a smiling look to Frank when he set down her coffee.
“How about that, Dean.” Frank joined them. “She remembered being your wife.”
“As in . . . you forgot?” Dean questioned.
“Yeah, but it was a temporary thing, you know,” Ellen nodded.
“Oh, sure.” Dean shifted his eyes to Frank, watched him mouth the word, ‘approach’, and then returned to Ellen. “You seem better.”
“I am. This is good coffee.” She took a sip. “What, uh, are you two doing hanging out?”
“Frank?” Dean looked at him. “Would you like to answer that?”
“Absolutely. See El . . .” Frank spoke up beat. “Me and Dean were hanging out telling dirty jokes, having some coffee, and discussing the fact that you gave Nick to Henry to keep.”
“I did?” Ellen asked with surprise.
“I fuckin knew it.” Frank stood up. “They were lying to me. And I . . .”
“No.” Ellen stopped him. “I did. Wait. Yeah. I did. That’s right.”
Frank sat back down and saw Dean getting ready to blast out. “Approach, Dean.”
“El?” Dean laid his hand on hers. “Don’t you think if you gave away Nick, I should have known?”
“I meant to tell you,” Ellen said. “But on the way to do that, I blacked out.”
Frank lifted his hand. “There you have it. It’s totally understandable, Dean. She blacked out.”
“But not from the drug,” Ellen interjected. “I mean it. I’m still foggy on why, but it’s not from the drug.”
Frank shook his head calmly. “I didn’t think it was. Dean? Did you?”
“Absolutely not,” Dean replied.
“All right.” Ellen leaned back. “What is going on with you two?”
“El,” Frank explained, “we have decided that we aren’t going to come down on you anymore. It isn’t helping matters. Right, Dean?”
“Right,” Dean agreed. “If you say you aren’t taking that drug, we’re just going to look at other angles for the behavior. Not . . . not that your behavior is bad.”
“No.” Frank shook his head. “I mean, you did try to kill my son, but . . . things happen. Right, Dean?”
“Things happen,” Dean reiterated. “It could be a number of things, from simple stress to medical conditions such as early menopause . . .”
“Brain tumors,” Frank stated. “So you see, El. We just want to help.”
“We just want to help,” Dean repeated.
“We’re Mormons now.”
Ellen laughed. “You’re funny. O.K., so what’s the catch? You two are all of a sudden being the understanding guys. What do you want from me?”
“Honesty,” Dean told her. “We want you to tell us if something is bothering you or if something is going on. That’s all.”
Frank continued, “We’d like you not to give away anymore of the kids without consulting us. Plus, you know, I personally would appreciate it if you didn’t kill my son.”
“A
nd on that note,” Dean interjected, “Frank and I were discussing the possibility that there is some sort of conflict with Johnny that you aren’t talking to us about.”
“Maybe he did something, you argued,” Frank said, “and it got out of hand . . .” He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “You don’t want to tell me about it because, well, he’s my son. But you can. You have to.” Frank softened his voice. “I love you. I can’t have you and him at each other’s throats. It’ll kill me, El. I feel like I’m going to end up in the middle of you two, so you can tell me.”
Ellen lowered her head. “Frank, things aren’t that easy.”
“Yeah. Yeah they are. Did he say something, do something? Was it big, little, or what?”
Dean tried, “We can try to resolve this for you. I know you probably didn’t want to pull me or Frank into this but in a sense, we’re all family. Let’s get to the bottom of this and get it over with.”
Ellen took a deep breath. “Johnny . . . Johnny, Frank . . .” She stood up. “He’s been . . . he’s been . . .”
“What?” Frank asked. “What is it? What is he doing?”
“He’s been overbearing,” Ellen exhaled. “You know, thinking he knows more than me. It’s stupid. It’s me. I’ll solve it.”
“Maybe if I talk to him?” Frank suggested.
“No.” Ellen shook her head. “In fact, don’t say anything. I’ll resolve it.”
“You aren’t going to kill him, are you?” Frank questioned.
Ellen chuckled. “No. I think he and I need to sit down and talk. For your sake, we need to do that. We will.” She pointed to the hall. “I’m gonna go check on the kids.”
Dean waited until he saw Ellen disappear down the hall. “Frank, that was a stroke of genius on your part.”
“Didn’t I tell you?” Frank stood up. “I have to go. I’m meeting Johnny at the Hall.”
“It went well with Ellen. Thanks.” Dean smiled.
“It was so much better than us double teaming her . . .” Frank grinned as he reached for the door.
The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20 Page 211