CRIMINAL CHRISTMAS: A Set of 8 Holiday Suspense Stories, page 81
“Where are you taking him?” Jones asked.
“I think our boy here just needs to chill out. A cold shower should do the trick,” DiMaggio said.
“The showers are the other way,” Jones pointed out.
“Naw, I think we’ll let him have a little fresh air. I’m gonna take him outside and hose him down. If he’s good I’ll even let him spend the night out there. It’ll be a treat.”
“Hose him down? This is December! He’ll freeze to death!” I screeched. The stress on my aching throat caused me to bring my fingers up to my neck protectively. Then DiMaggio chuckled and I snapped.
I closed the distance between us, taking a swing at him with my right fist, which he deflected effortlessly. “Fucker!” I screamed in exasperation. Then he slapped me hard across the face. Suddenly, I felt a set of powerful arms wrap around me from behind, and my body was yanked back away from DiMaggio. I swung my head around to see who had grabbed me and was greeted with Jones’s fiery glare.
“Jesus, Rick, not again!” Avery snapped. “You didn’t need to hit her.”
I turned back to DiMaggio and shouted, “What have you done to Tom? Why is he bleeding?”
DiMaggio stared me down, noting that my face was wet with tears, his voice even. “You’re welcome for me saving your life, you ungrateful bitch. And just for the record, it’s pathetic to see you snivel about this piece of shit.” He shook his head, his contempt evident.
“Don’t hurt him,” I pled.
DiMaggio broke into a grin. He and Avery dragged Tom’s insentient body up the hallway and around a corner. Once they were out of our sight Jones let go of me.
I turned to Lutz. My voice trembled as I asked him, “What’s going on? Where are they taking him?”
Lutz put his hand on my shoulder and I took some comfort in his attempt to quell my panic. “Hold still. Let me have a look,” he said, his voice still shaky. He moved my hair back and inspected my neck, resting his hands on my shoulders. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Christ, Andy, what about Tom?”
“They’re taking him to a secure enclosure outside.”
“Are they going to hurt him?” I asked. I knew Lutz could see the anxiety in me.
I saw several different expressions flit across his face as he pondered this. He finally settled on what I believe was the honest answer. “Yeah, they are.” Lutz shrugged apologetically. “It’s clear, so he should be able to see some stars tonight. Tom’s always telling me how much he misses being able to gaze at the stars.”
“Jeez, if there’s any bright side, you’re the guy that can find it,” I said with obvious sarcasm. “DiMaggio isn’t really going to leave him out there all night in wet clothes, is he?”
“No. I’m pretty sure they’re going to take his clothes,” he told me. I cringed. I didn’t know what would be worse, being outside at night with wet clothes or no clothes at all. Either of those scenarios was untenable during the winter. Lutz saw my discomfort and added, “Don’t worry, Rebecca. Tom’s a lot tougher than you think. It’s going to be all right.” I didn’t think that was true. I covered my mouth, stifling a moan.
Jones said. “I’m surprised you feel so bad for him, considering that he just tried to snuff you out.”
“He wasn’t trying to kill me!” I said.
“What the hell do you call that, foreplay?” Jones retorted.
“Rebecca…” Lutz started and then shook his head.
“Look, I don’t know what he meant to do,” I admitted. I was frightened for Tom, and angry with him, and I missed him already. “We need to stop this. Who can I report this to?”
“No way,” Jones snapped. “Lady, there’s not a soul in this place that would intervene on his behalf right now.”
“Why?” I demanded.
“Because Eisenbrey deserves it,” Jones said.
“That’s not fair,” I said.
Jones’s eyes narrowed into slits. “I agree. If the world was fair we would have tortured the son-of-a-bitch and slit his throat the day he arrived.”
“This is bullshit. I’m going to talk with Barnett.”
“I’d rethink that if I were you. Barnett isn’t going to help you. In fact, who do you think he’s likely to blame for this incident? Eisenbrey probably wouldn’t have flipped out if you weren’t here stirring him up.”
“I wasn’t stirring him up.”
“I don’t imagine that Barnett or Warden Hale will see it that way. Andy, you should walk her out to her car before Barnett hears about this. We don’t need him to get hold of her for an interview. That’s not in anyone’s best interest.”
I looked at Lutz who seemed uncertain, but he said, “He might be right, Rebecca.”
“Of course I’m right. You don’t want to have to explain yourself to Barnett when he’s breathing fire. You want to wait until he’s had some time to calm down. He’s a hundred times more likely to terminate your visits permanently if you see him now. Give him a couple of days to mull this over and he’ll probably just put Eisenbrey on level one for a few weeks. Then everything can go back to the way it was before.”
Jones was suggesting that I run away and I didn’t like it. I also didn’t believe his assessment that things would be back to normal in a few weeks. I checked Lutz’s expression again. “What do you think?” I asked him.
He seemed sure of himself now. “Jones is right. Let’s get you out of here.”
Lutz and I left the IMU immediately and crossed the grounds on one of the paved walkways. “Do you really think Barnett is going to blame me?” I asked him.
“Yes, I do. I have a bad feeling about how Jones and DiMaggio are going to spin this. I’ll do my best to help out, but I’ve only worked here six months and those two have several years under their belts. Barnett’s likely to listen to them.”
We continued to the parking lot. When we reached my car Lutz asked, “How does your neck feel now?”
I ran my fingers over the area. “Sore,” I admitted. “How do I look?”
He shook his head. “It looks like some bruises are starting to form. I feel like I shouldn’t send you off without having medical staff examine you. Look, I know you might not want the nurse here to see your injury…”
“Yes. That’s precisely what I don’t want,” I interrupted. “Tom’s in enough trouble. If we can play that whole incident down a little, make it sound like it wasn’t too bad, then I’ll have a better chance of seeing him again.” My eyes started to water.
“Hmm.” Lutz’s gaze was sympathetic. It seemed as though he was going to say something, but then he stopped himself. He rubbed my shoulder.
“Ow, that’s sore too,” I complained.
“Are you okay to drive?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just being a baby. It doesn’t hurt much.”
“I think you should have your doctor check you out when you get home. Will you do that?”
“Sure.”
He seemed wary. “Promise?”
“Yeah, I will. But, listen, don’t mention that to anyone here, okay? I don’t want them to know there might be a medical record out there somewhere. All they need to know is that I’m fine.”
“I want you to call me if you have any trouble on your way home. Put my number in your cellphone.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said. I added Lutz as a contact in my directory and handed him my phone. He punched his number in. Then he gave me a hug. Lutz was such a sweet kid—far too sweet to work at the prison.
“Take care,” he said as he released me.
“Thanks, Andy. You too.” Then I got in my car and he watched as I drove away. Those were the last words we would ever speak to each other.
Chapter 33
About two hours into my drive home I saw Captain Barnett’s number appear on my cellphone’s caller ID. I scrambled to get my headset in place as I continued down the freeway. “Hello?”
“Mrs. Eisenbrey?”
“Oh, hello Captain Barnett. Actually, I didn’t change my name to Eisenbrey. I still go by Reis.”
I heard a snort on the other end of the line. “I’ve been told there was a very serious incident this morning with your husband. What the hell happened? And why did you leave the facility without coming to see me?” he barked. Not a happy captain.
“What do you mean? He just got a little agitated with me so I ended the visit.”
“That’s bullshit and we both know it. I saw the security footage. He was well beyond agitated. He attacked you.”
“Yeah, he reached through the bars and grabbed me, but I got loose.”
“Don’t play cute with me. My officers got you loose. They had to taser the motherfucker to get him off of you. Do you have any injuries?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Now why don’t I believe that either? You should have allowed the nurse here at the prison to examine you before you left. You also should have reported to my office. I have a shitload of paperwork to do over this and I was supposed to interview you immediately after the incident.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“That’s crap too. Jones said he made it very clear you were not to leave the facility without first seeing me, but you left anyway.”
“Did he?” I shouldn’t have been surprised about Jones’s underhanded backstabbery, but it made me feel disappointed and uncomfortable because I didn’t understand why he’d done it. Was there something unsavory brewing in his caldron?
“I’ll tell you what, Ms. Reis. This looks suspicious as hell. Why were you in such a hurry to leave? What are you hiding?”
“I’m not hiding anything.”
“Then I’m sure you won’t mind returning to the prison.”
“When?”
“Now.”
“Actually, I would mind that very much.”
“Why?” he shot back at me.
“Because I’m almost to Ellensburg. I’m not driving all the way back to Walla Walla right now. That’s ridiculous.”
“Hmm. Very interesting. You managed to put a lot of distance between yourself and this facility in two hours. Are you sure you’re not running away from something?”
“Oh, for crying out loud! Why are you trying to turn this into something it’s not? Jones didn’t tell me to stay, he told me to leave.” I cringed at the way it sounded after I said it out loud.
“Now I don’t believe that for a second. Why would one of my officers tell you to do something so blatantly against protocol? What possible motivation could he have?”
“I…well, I sure wish I knew.” I let my breath out slowly and considered what would be the best way to end this conversation. “Look, apparently Officer Jones and I had a misunderstanding. I didn’t realize there would be a problem if I left. I’m feeling upset about what happened and I’m really tired. I just want to go home.”
There was silence over the line for several moments. I was tempted to ask Barnett if he was still there, but I held fast and he finally spoke. “Very well. You don’t have to cooperate. I think I have enough information from the others involved to write my report. Oh, and just in case there was any question in your mind, Ms. Reis—Eisenbrey’s visitation privileges are terminated.”
When I got to my house I went straight for the Jack Daniel’s.
I already missed Tom so much I felt an actual physical pain in my chest. I wanted to scream. I had to remind myself, he’s probably not feeling the way I feel. He’s a psychopath. They don’t feel love, or at least not what I would quantify as love. It just simply wasn’t possible. I doubted that he even felt sorry about what he’d done to me. He probably wouldn’t lose any sleep at all over us being apart, except that my visits alleviated some of the boredom he was prone to suffer.
And yet, I was going out of my mind. It wasn’t nice to be the one with the feelings. It seemed cruel and unfair to have in my mind that blurred image, never quite in focus, of what I wanted for my perfect life and to know it was absolutely unattainable: Tom, lying next to me in bed, watching me as his head rested on a pillow, a content smile on his features; Tom, cradling an infant on his chest; Tom, rolling around on the lawn with our future sons, wrestling and laughing; Tom, not choking me. My heart shouldn’t be with him, but it was. And now what was I left with? Confusion and anguish.
I opened the whiskey and filled a water glass half full with it, then filled the balance with cola—a lot of alcohol, but I didn’t give a shit. I needed to kill the staggering pain. I drank a third of it down in one gulp.
How long would it be before Tom’s visitation privileges were restored? The incident had been very serious. Would visits be allowed at all before his execution? Was it possible I would never be allowed to see him again? Common sense told me the answer was yes.
Suddenly, I felt my whole world come crashing in. The realization hit me—even the short amount of time Tom had left to live had been stolen from me because of his inability to behave like a decent human being during our last visit. I buried my face in my hands and wept.
Chapter 34
A few hours later, I worked fervently, weeding one of the flowerbeds in my front yard. It was cold, the ground wet, and the sky grew dark. Not the right time of year for this sort of task, but I’d needed a project to dive into, something I could work on furiously for a few hours. My yard had been neglected for so long it provided the perfect place to burn up some of the pissed-off energy I had pent up inside of me.
I grabbed each of the unwanted pests down low by the roots, squeezing as if choking the life out of the little bastards, and wrestling them from the soil. This was angry work. It felt good.
Another plus, the work didn’t require standing. I’d consumed enough alcohol to give me a substantial buzz. Not to mention that my head still reeled from the shock of Tom attacking me and the realization that I probably wouldn’t be allowed to see him again.
I took a deep breath of the fresh Pacific Northwest air, which was infused with oxygen after a recent rain, and wondered if it might clear my head. No matter. If it did, I’d just make myself another drink when I went back inside.
I heard a car pull into my driveway and I turned around to see who had arrived, still on my knees in the grass. I saw Darryl Scanlon walking toward me.
“I’m back,” he said with a bashful expression.
“Really?” I said, not trying to mask my exasperation. I stood and tried to brush the dirt from my pants, but they were a muddy mess, including big, dark-brown blotches on my knees. “After the display you put on for me, not to mention all of my neighbors, the last time you were here?”
“I’m sorry about the way I behaved. I didn’t mean to lose it like that.”
I shrugged and decided to let it go. “That’s okay Darryl, I understand.”
“And I heard about what happened at the prison, that he attacked you. I’m not here to gloat,” he added. “I’m sorry about that too.”
“You didn’t do it,” I pointed out. “You would never treat me that way.”
“True, but I feel bad when things don’t go right for you. Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes, all things considering, I’m fine.” I glanced away from him, feeling sure he would see the lie.
“I want you to be happy.” There was nothing guarded about his expression as his eyes searched for my reaction. He was being genuine, and I was getting the vibe that if I wasn’t careful he would take me in his arms and try to make me happy right there on my front lawn.
“Thanks, Darryl. I want you to be happy too,” I said quietly.
“My family and friends…and coworkers have told me I should just walk away. You’re a grown woman. You’ve made your choice. But I can’t do that, Rebecca.” His eyes looked sad. “I care about you. I think you’re all mixed up right now and I don’t want to see you like this. It hurts.”
I knew it was unwise, but I wanted a hug from him. I wanted to be wrapped up tight in his strong, protecting arms and feel the warmth of his body against mine, so I took a step toward him and recognizing my intention he quickly closed the rest of the distance between us.
I allowed myself to feel the sheer happiness that flooded into me, although at the same time I found it confusing. I still loved Tom, but being in Scanlon’s arms just melted my pain away. I leaned on him, and he held me steady, making me feel like there was a light at the end of this tunnel.
I stayed there wrapped up in him for several minutes, and when I finally pulled free of his hug I noticed the woman that lived across the street from me watching us from her mailbox. Realizing she’d been caught staring, she turned away and headed back to her house.
Then I explained to Darryl, in the nicest and most gentle way that I could think of, that I thought it would be best if we didn’t see each other anymore.
Chapter 35
December 4th, 2012
I shot an angry glance at the clock on my nightstand, noting it was 1:33 a.m. I thought about hitting it, hard, but my grudge wasn’t with the clock, it was with whoever was outside ringing my doorbell repeatedly. The racket had jarred me out of a much needed session of deep sleep.
The events of that morning, technically yesterday morning at that point, flashed through my head again as I rolled over and felt the throbbing pain in my neck and shoulders. I pushed myself up into a sitting position. “Motherfucker,” I said softly.
Tom had strangled me. My husband. I still didn’t want to believe it. I thought about our conjugal visit after the wedding, and his assurances: I’m not going to hurt you…I’d have to be insane to do that...You’re the only nice thing I have to look forward to in this world. I won’t ruin that. I promise. What did that mean—was he insane or a liar? Possibly both.
Strange. I felt no anger toward him at the moment, just sadness. The pain in my heart was far worse than what the rest of my body had to contend with.
The noise continued until I reached the bottom of the stairs. Now clothed in a purple robe and slippers, I opened the door and was not surprised to find my late night visitor was Scanlon. I’d told him less than nine hours ago we shouldn’t see each other anymore. Why did I waste my breath? It was clear he would do whatever he wanted to regardless of what I told him I wanted. And to be honest, I did want to see him; it was just that I knew I shouldn’t. Tom wouldn’t like it.
