Southern Comfort

by ANDREA SMITH

  “Then you’re still technically available,” Avery had whispered, lowering himself next to her on the bed. “At least give me a kiss, and then I promise, I’ll leave you to your nap.”

  She moved hesitantly closer, and his lips captured hers in a passionate kiss. There was no denying she wanted him. Most women wanted him and he knew this one had the heart of a whore.

  His hands moved to her breasts, squeezing them roughly as his tongue ravaged her mouth.

  “No, stop!” she screeched, trying to push him away. Avery wasn’t about to stop at this point. She had wanted it, she had given him all the signs up to this point. If she thought for one second he was going to allow her to back out now, she had a lot to learn about men.

  Avery had pulled her skirt up past her waist. He had quickly moved her panties aside, and plunged his throbbing dick into her.

  “I said no!” she shrieked, struggling against him with minimal strength.

  “Shut up,” he growled, ramming himself back into her again and again. “You wanted this and you’re going to let me finish.”

  She whimpered against him and then stopped struggling. She’d passed out, and Avery had felt grateful that she no longer fought against him. Several thrusts later, he emptied his climax inside of her. Once finished, he withdrew from her, and tucked himself back into his pants. He zipped up and peered down at her. The room was quiet, but he could hear her even breathing. “Happy New Year,” he mumbled, leaving her sprawled on the bed to sleep it off.

  The following day, it was past noon before Gary came into his room and woke him up. “Hey man,” he said. “You need to get the hell out of here, and I mean fast.”

  Avery had sat up in his bed, noticing he was still wearing his clothes from the night before. His head was pounding, his mouth felt like sand. “Why, what’s the matter?” he asked, rubbing his face.

  “Harlan Miller called just now. Some woman filed a police report. She accused you of raping her…well, not by name. She said the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ raped her last night. Since we all know that was you,” he continued, nodding toward the mask and top hat laying on the floor next to his bed, “it’s time for you to leave. I can’t afford having the club shut down over this kind of shit, Avery.”

  “It wasn’t rape,” Avery snapped. “She wanted it.”

  “Well, she’s saying different. I don’t need the trouble. And you don’t have much time before the cops are going to be crawling all over this place. You need to go. Now.”

  Avery had hastily thrown his clothes into a suitcase, and took off in his ‘55 Chevy having no clue as to where he was headed. But as he drove away from Montgomery, he knew that it was time for him to change the path he had been taking. It was time he found the Lord again, and started living his life by the Bible. That had been his wake-up call.

  As Avery finished polishing his shoes, he shuddered at the bitter memories of his past. He quickly pushed them from his mind because, after all, he had used that experience to propel him back to his faith. And in the years that had followed, he finished his schooling and started his ministry. He had started from scratch, preaching on street corners, in homeless shelters, and in grocery store parking lots. He had paid his dues.

  And he eventually had been rewarded when he was hired two years ago as the pastor of his own congregation. He had certainly come a long way since that night in Montgomery. That was why he had been so motivated to help those married couples that struggled with intimacy. His methods might be construed as unconventional, but Avery knew that the end justified the means. Marriages had been strengthened.

  He figured even Gloria Margolis-Sanders was now benefiting from his counseling, even though she had been enraged with his handling of Stella Martin. He had given her a lesson she hadn’t appreciated, but it hopefully had shown her that the path of honesty was always the best road to take.

  He was looking forward to these next couple of days at the convention. It was a great opportunity to hear ministers from all over the South share their stories and tips on bringing more members into their congregations. Avery had every intention of growing his flock. He had much to offer and his success spoke volumes about his expertise in counseling and therapy for troubled marriages.

  Chapter 30

  “You don’t have to help me with this,” I said to Gina as she followed me up the concrete walk to the side door, which led to the church offices.

  “I don’t intend to,” she replied as I pulled the key Mama had given me out of the pocket of my jeans. “But I do intend to nose around a bit. No arguments. Two sets of eyes are better than one.”

  I laughed, “Just so you leave before Mama gets here.”

  “No worries. Plenty of time.”

  I unlocked the door and stepped inside the outer office where the reception area was located, along with Bonnie’s desk, file cabinets, and the church safe. I switched on the overhead lights.

  “You did bring the other keys, didn’t you?” Gina asked as she nodded across the room to where the door to Avery’s office was closed and presumably locked.

  “Of course I did,” I replied, rolling my eyes. I pulled them out of my jacket pocket.

  “Here, let me,” she said, grabbing them from me. “You move too slow, Sunny.”

  “Well excuse me, Gina. Breaking and entering is kind of new to me.”

  “Then watch and learn.”

  She fumbled through the keys and quickly found one, inserted it into the lock and turned it. “Voila, first one was a match.”

  She switched on the overhead light and quickly went over to Avery’s desk. “Shit,” she snarled when the desk drawer she’d tried to open didn’t budge. “It’s locked. None of these keys are Steelcraft.”

  “Steelcraft?”

  “Yeah, the brand of the desk. Crap. This sucks.”

  “Are you really surprised, Gina? He knew my mother was going to be in the office. He’s not stupid enough to leave his desk unlocked. That’s where he keeps his notes and cassette tapes. Your mom even said that.”

  “Well shit, then. What do we do now? Are there any tools around? Maybe we could jimmy it somehow.”

  “Are you freakinging nuts?” I asked, loudly. “You think he wouldn’t notice that?”

  “Let me think,” she said, sitting on the top of his desk. “These desks usually have several keys. Remember in Government class when Mr. Campbell forgot his desk key? He called the maintenance man who brought up a spare key. There has got to be a spare key around here somewhere.”

  I nodded, “Yeah, Avery is smart enough not to carry spares on the same key chain in case he lost it. I bet it’s hidden somewhere in this office. He wouldn’t trust it with his secretary. He doesn’t trust anyone but himself.”

  We immediately started looking under everything that wasn’t nailed down. Potted plants, desk lamp, hat rack, trashcan, and umbrella stand.

  “Wait,” Gina said, “he wouldn’t put it anywhere on the carpet. He knows your mom vacuums and cleans it periodically.”

  “Right,” I agreed. “Let me check the closet.”

  I opened the bi-fold doors of the closet and ran my hand along the top shelf inside. Nothing but a film of dust.

  “I found it!” Gina shrieked from the door of his office.

  I poked my head out and saw that she’d found it on the top ledge of the doorframe. She was holding it up proudly as if she’d won some major trophy.

  She hurried back over to his desk, and put the key into the lock of the lap drawer. “Bingo!”

  We both started opening the drawers on both sides of the desk. “Here are his counseling files!” I yelled, pulling out a stack of manila folders, each one labeled with the name of the person being counseled. There were about a dozen of them.

  “And here’s the case with his audio cassettes,” she growled, pulling out the plastic box with slots that held each individual tape. “I’m going through all of them,” she announced.

  “What? You’re taking them all?”


  “Hell yeah! That bastard has the means of blackmailing a lot of people by the looks of these.”

  “But he’s going to know they’re missing!”

  “Chill, Sunshine. I’ll put blank tapes back in so he won’t notice. By the time he does, his shit will already be in the wind, as they say.”

  I wasn’t feeling comfortable with this, but I knew there was no stopping Gina when she was on a mission. I had figured she’d pull her mother’s tape but, when I saw her flipping through them, I realized he had only numbered them using the stick on labels that came with each cassette. There was no way she would know which tape was her mother’s.

  “Let me see those files.” she said, grabbing the top one. “Holy shit, did you see the name on this one? Helen Adams.”

  “The mayor’s wife?” I asked, “Oh shit. We can’t expose these people, Gina. They’re the victims here.”

  “I know that, Sunny. I wouldn’t do that but isn’t there some sort of higher power that Avery answers to?”

  I laughed derisively at her question. “Avery would say he only answers to the highest power,” I replied, lifting my eyes upward.

  “You know what I mean—like a Bishop or something?”

  “I have no clue about any of that. Maybe we should seek the help of another minister. Someone we totally trust with this information.”

  Gina chewed on her bottom lip as she considered my suggestion. “That’s not a bad idea,” she agreed. “Do you know any of the other ministers around here?”

  I shrugged taking a moment to think about it. “I remember Mama told me once a long time ago that I had been baptized Catholic but we changed religions after my father left her.”

  “Well, I know that Catholic priests have that whole vow of secrecy thing going.”

  “I think that’s only for confessions,” I replied. “I’m not sure it counts for reporting misconduct of a minister of a different faith.”

  “Still,” she continued, “I’m sure he would protect the identities of these women—these victims of Avery’s counseling. We have to trust someone,” she finished.

  I was the one chewing my bottom lip now. I sighed, “Okay, listen. Can you call Father Donahue at Sacred Heart and see if we can meet with him tomorrow after school?”

  “Yep,” she said nodding as she gathered up the cache of items we’d uncovered.

  “Okay. I’ll call you later tonight. You need to get going before Mama gets here and sees that I’ve done nothing on the carpet yet. And Gina? Please don’t show any of that to your mother. It’s too damn risky. We’ll clue her in once we’ve seen Father Donahue and gotten some direction, okay?”

  “No problem. I’ll run to the library right now and make copies of the papers in these files. And don’t worry, I’ll buy a box of cassette tapes to replace these after that. I’ll have everything to you when I pick you up for school in the morning. Maybe we can stop here before class and put them all back in their place? Make sure you hold on to the desk key after you lock it back up.”

  “Got it,” I said nervously. “Get going, Gina. I’m nervous as hell here. The sooner we put all this crap back in his desk, the better I’m going to feel.”

  Chapter 31

  Gina and I sat quietly in the private study in the rectory at Sacred Heart. The housekeeper had escorted us to this room and told us that Monsignor Donahue would be with us shortly.

  “What’s a Monsignor?” Gina asked, after she had left the room.

  “I think it’s like a step up from a priest,” I replied. “I think maybe we’re supposed to call him Monsignor instead of Father.”

  “I’m going to let you do the talking,” Gina whispered. “This whole thing is starting to give me the heebie-jeebies. Karma and all that shit. Oops—I meant crap,” she finished, giving herself the sign of the cross backwards. Even I knew the proper way of doing that.

  I laughed softly. “This is the right thing to do, Gina. I feel it in my gut.”

  “I…I have a confession to make,” she said slowly.

  “Well, I’m not the one to hear it. Wait until the Monsignor comes in.”

  “No, Sunny, I’m serious. This is something I need to tell you, not him.”

  “Oh for shit’s sake, what is it?” I halfway snapped at her and instantly regretted my tone. I just wasn’t sure I could take any more bad news, and this had all the ear markings of it.

  “I looked through those folders last night when I was in my room.”

  “I figured it would be too much of a temptation. You’re forgiven,” I replied with a chuckle.

  “No. There’s more. There was someone he counseled a year and a half ago. Before he was married to your mother. She’s a Catholic and the Monsignor is going to recognize her name once we turn over these copies I made of the files.”

  “Well, that’s where his vow of secrecy kicks in.”

  Gina sank her teeth into her bottom lip. “We know her too. It’s Gwen Marshall.”

  Rene and Robin’s mother. The same one that had blasted Avery for setting up Bingo at his church, claiming he had stolen it from Sacred Heart—her church. And it was at that very inopportune time I lost it. “God almighty! Is there any woman in this Bible-thumping town that Avery Dawson hasn’t screwed?” I barked loudly just as the Monsignor entered his study for our appointment.

  Chapter 32

  Avery was back home. The house was quiet as he came through the door, the smell of roasted chicken was a welcome aroma as he took off his jacket and hung it up in the closet off the hall.

  “Donna,” he called out, leafing through a stack of mail on the hall table.

  “In the kitchen, Avery. I’ve got a special welcome home dinner almost ready for us.”

  Avery wondered what had come over Donna in the few days that he’d been gone. She’d been fairly salty with him in the days and weeks prior to his trip.

  Initially, she’d been out of sorts with the accident she’d had on the basement steps. She had even accused him of causing it, although he denied it vehemently. He was almost positive he’d warned her about the third step from the top being loose. He even thought he’d told her to call the handyman they used from time to time to replace it.

  She had called him a liar, but Avery chalked that up to the pain meds she was given in the Emergency Room. He hadn’t held it against her. His place was to be of comfort to her. And that is exactly what he’d tried to do over the next few days, but she remained stonily silent.

  Avery wouldn’t deny the fact that although he wasn’t happy that his wife sustained the injuries she had, he wasn’t disappointed that she miscarried.

  Fathering children had never been part of his life plan. Even during his partying years, Avery had escaped the entanglements of having fathered offspring by the trollops he’d lain with, but that was more than just Divine intervention. Avery was fairly certain he was sterile. He remembered as a teen he’d come down with the mumps, and his mother had told him it was a blessing in disguise. “Won’t be bringing anymore like yourself into this world,” she’d said with a satisfied nod. “Consider that a gift from the Almighty to all mankind. You’re the reason your own daddy started preaching the Word. He knew we’d been cursed by evil the minute you were born. We heard that screech owl hoot three times the moment you crowned. Your fate was sealed. So was ours. Being sterile is a good thing for you, Avery.”

  Nevertheless, he had made sure Donna continued to take her pill. She’d been on them since her divorce, so he figured there was no reason for her to quit. Why risk a pregnancy if it turned out he wasn’t sterile?

  Even now he wondered if, in fact, she’d been laying with another man. He’d never mentioned his suspicion of being sterile to her. It wasn’t any of her business as far as he was concerned. She was almost thirty-nine. He was forty-four. Both of them were beyond their prime for dealing with a squealing baby. It was difficult enough for him to tolerate his rebellious stepdaughter, especially now that he knew a Catholic priest had sired her.r />
  Only one more year and she would be out of their lives. He planned just the ultimatum he would give her once she graduated high school next spring. He was sure it would motivate her to move out on her own.

  “What’s the special occasion?” he asked going into the kitchen where Donna had the table set with the good china and sterling.

  “Does there have to be a special occasion? Maybe I simply missed my husband and wanted to welcome him home with his favorite dinner.”

  Avery gave her a cautious smile. “It certainly pleases me that you’ve come out of your funk. Wait a minute—you forgot to clean the carpets at my office, didn’t you?”

  “Oh Avery, have some faith in me for a change. Of course I cleaned the carpets. As a matter of fact, Sunny helped me.”

  “She did? Why would she have done that?”

  “She said she did it to help me out. Is that a problem?”

  “No, I suppose not,” he replied. “It’s just a bit out of character for her, don’t you think?”

  Donna bristled a bit. “Cut her some slack, Avery. She’s a teenager for heaven’s sake. Maybe she’s growing up by bits and pieces.”

  “Speaking of which, I see the table is set for two. Where is the girl?”

  Donna set the platter of roast chicken on the table and took her seat. “She’s spending the weekend with Gina. So, it’s just the two of us. It’ll be kind of cozy, don’t you think?”

  Avery frowned. He wasn’t pleased with the way Donna disregarded his input on keeping a tighter rein on Sunny, in particular, where her friends were concerned. “Do you think that was wise?” he asked, taking a seat at the table. “You know my feelings about Gina. I believe we should encourage Sunshine to cultivate friendships with more appropriate individuals. You know, the church has that teen group that just started. Perhaps she should be persuaded to join it.”