Chapter 13

Susan pulled up in front of the station just as Sullivan and Bronson were leaving. She sat in her car and whistled while she watched them exit the building and get in the unmarked police cruiser. Smiling, she entered the radio station and made her way back to where Cat was printing off news stories for her top of the hour broadcast. Her show was starting in a few minutes, and she was still putting the first hour’s news and weather together.

“Who were the two delicious specimens that just left?” Susan asked as she pointed back over her shoulder.

“That was the detective I told you about and his side-kick.”

“Wow, which one was which?” Susan smiled.

“The tall one in the blue jacket was Tom Sullivan. The other guy I can’t remember his first name, but his last name was Branson something or another.”

“Are they single? Which one do you have your eye on?”

Cat frowned and shrugged her shoulders. “I couldn’t tell you about their status, and I couldn’t care less,” Cat responded with a cross look on her face. To which Susan started laughing, full belly laughing. She laughed so hard she had to hold her belly with both of her hands.

“What is wrong with you, Susan? I’m serious. Quit laughing and get out of the way. I have work to do.” Cat piled CD’s in a tray, copies of news stories and walked past Susan into the sound booth to set up.

Rick was already in the control room and tapped on the Plexiglas. He motioned to his wrist watch as she walked in.

“I know, I know. I’m ready…take it easy.”

He frowned at her and took another sip of his second drink of the day. He put his headset on and began preparing for the telephone calls by placing call sheets on a clipboard and placing a marker next to it. Part of Cat’s shift was dedicated to listener requests and comments. The sheer volume of incoming calls required assistance. Without someone to screen the callers, the show couldn’t be sold to advertisers as live radio. There were just too many weirdoes that called in to live radio shows for Cat to put them directly on the air. There had to be a controller or screener who could be blamed when a caller got disconnected. Anyone could do it, but the network’s station manager had made Rick perform that function since a lunatic slipped by a young disk jockey named Ted Holcomb two months ago. The station had received nasty letters from the FCC, and one listener even threatened litigation. So on top of everything else Rick was responsible for, he had to babysit Cat and her precious radio program.

Rick fantasized daily about tightening his fingers around Cat’s throat until she quit thrashing around. It wasn’t bad enough to have to do this, now Cat had a little friend over to play, Rick thought, as he glared at Susan through the plexiglas. Susan had followed Cat into the sound booth and was just about to leave to head back to work when she caught a glimpse of Rick staring at her.

“What is his problem?” Susan asked Cat. Cat glanced at Rick then back to her stack of papers.

“Same one as usual. I told you, he hates me, hates being made to produce the show and obviously hates you because you are my friend.”

“Nice working environment,” Susan chimed in.

“I tried to tell you. The guy is a ticking time bomb.”

Susan hadn’t been to the station since Rick had taken over Ted’s position. She thought Cat had been exaggerating about how Rick treated her.

“Believe it or not, I am actually getting used to his hatefulness,” Cat sighed as she placed a CD in the player. She had cue cards for live promotional ads lined up and neatly stacked in front of her for easy access during the show. She tapped them on the desk as Susan sat on an extra seat in the booth and slid quietly to the edge of the desk.

“Back to our conversation,” Susan said, but was hushed by a slap from Cat.

Without saying anything, Cat picked up a pen and some scrap paper and quickly scribbled out a note of warning. “He can hear everything we say in here!”

“Oh, sorry. I forgot,” Susan scribbled back.

“We’ll talk about it later, okay?” Cat wrote.

“Bet your sweet bee-hind we will. The tall one, huh?” Susan wrote and pushed the pad toward Cat.

“What?” Cat asked with scribbled question marks.

“The tall detective, Tom.” Susan smiled knowingly.

“Who? Sullivan?” Cat broke her rules and said aloud. “I call him Sullivan.”

Susan lifted her finger to her lips and drew one word on the note pad, “Why?”

“Cause he wants me to call him Tom,” Cat wrote and then drew a big smiley face beside it.

“Whatever!” Susan wrote. Then she leaned closer and whispered, “I’m getting out of here before you start. I love you. Call me after work.”

She darted out the door while the lead-in music began playing for the beginning of Cat’s daily show. The show went remarkably well, and the night passed quickly. There weren’t any occasions where Rick said something hateful, and Cat thought he actually appeared calm and almost lethargic at times. She didn’t give it much thought. She was just grateful for the reprieve.

After her shift ended, the overnight DJ came in and began setting up. Cat put her music away, logged her cd’s in, filed her news reports and picked up her things to leave.

“What’s your rush, Cat?” Rick said from behind her as she was making her way to the door. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as she slowly turned to look at him.

Something was different in the way he said her name. It made her skin crawl. He stood in the doorway to his office with one arm draped against the door frame and the other casually on his hip. He was trying really hard to look like a male model, Cat thought. Granted he was good looking, but he was such a jerk that his looks did not compensate for his personality. It almost seemed like he was coming on to her. Cat wondered if he could be hitting on her.

“No rush, just ready to get out of here,” Cat replied as she moved her purse nervously from one shoulder to the other.

“You are forgetting something,” Rick said as he moved from the doorway and slid closer to her.

She held her purse in front of her now with both arms, like a shield. “I am?” she asked curiously.

“Yes, you are.” He took a step beside her and slid his hand down her back. Resting it in the small of her back, he used it to guide her towards his office.

She didn’t want to go, but for some reason her legs refused to comply and continued carrying her towards his open office door.

“You have forgotten that I need to visit with you. Since you missed work yesterday without notice, I had to write you up. I need you to sign the disciplinary form. It should only take a moment.”

“But I called you, and I explained what happened and…” Cat fumbled with words as Rick pushed her the last few feet and closed his office door behind them.

Cat smelled the alcohol on Rick’s breath as the door closed behind them, and she heard the click of the lock as Rick turned it. Her panic didn’t set in though until Rick pushed her down into a chair across from his desk and began rubbing her shoulders. His hands brushed her hair off her shoulders and he leaned down and sniffed her blonde hair and whispered in her ear that she had been a bad girl and needed to be disciplined.

“Listen, Rick, I need to go.” She started to stand up, but he held her in place.

“Like I said, this won’t take long. You just keep your pants on…or don’t.” He began laughing at his own joke and continued rubbing Cat’s shoulders as he moved to her neck. His clammy fingers circled her neck and began caressing her skin. She stiffened beneath his touch and began to shift in the chair as she attempted to stand up again. His grip tightened around her neck and held her tightly in place.

“I am meeting someone. I have to go.”

It thrilled him to hear the fear in her voice. Cat’s mind was racing as she wracked her brain for a non-violent solution. Finally she asked, “Where is this discipline form you were talking about?” Her voice quivered.

He laughed and said, “It’s there on the desk, under the crystal paper weight.”

Since he didn’t move to get the single sheet of paper that was face down on the desk and held securely in place by the paper weight, Cat did. She quickly lunged forward, stood, then spun around and readied herself for combat. She took a fighting stance and braced for the worst. Rick’s only response was to laugh. He hadn’t tried to keep her from escaping his grasp. He put his hands on his hips and just laughed at her. He grabbed the paper and turned it over slapping it down on the desk with a thud.

Cat didn’t move. Her stomach was still queasy from the physical contact. She didn’t dare approach Rick. She never wanted to feel his hands on any part of her body again. She remained in her combat stance looking like a ninja ready for sparring. Rick finally walked around the desk and sat down. He leaned back in his chair, threw his feet up on the desk and crossed his ankles. He laced his fingers together behind his head and finally said, “Go on, sign the damn form and get out. I have places to be, too.”

His sudden change of personality was frightening. Cat took a short step towards the desk and reached out her hand to grab the sheet while she kept her eye on Rick. She imagined him lunging across the desk towards her.

“I’ll need to read this before I sign it.”

“Get after it, then,” he said with a grunt.

Cat briefly scanned the document. She wasn’t pleased, but she desperately wanted out of there. She would follow this up with Mr. Davidson tomorrow, she vowed to herself. She signed the form and without another word turned and rushed towards the door.

Rick was upon her before the lock surrendered in her hand.

“What is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?” Cat screamed.

Rick had encircled Cat with his arms and had pressed his body hard against her back as she struggled with the lock. Her anger was only surpassed by her fear and just as she pictured herself crumbling to the floor in a heap, someone knocked on the door. She and Rick looked up at the same time to see Tom Sullivan glaring back at them through the window of the door.

“Help me!” she screamed. “Help!”

“Shut up and move out of the way.” Rick said as he shoved her away and unlocked the door. Then he retreated a few steps into the office. Cat rushed out the door and into Sullivan’s arms. She began crying and pointing at Rick.

“He wouldn’t let me out. He’s crazy. He assaulted me.”

“You wish, sweetheart. I was trying to unlock the door. Besides, you didn’t have a problem with it last time.” Rick stepped towards Cat as he spoke. He pumped his pointed finger at her with each word.

Sullivan could feel Cat shaking with terror. With every word and step closer to them Rick came, Sullivan could feel Cat shrinking behind him. Sullivan blocked Cat with his muscled arm and intercepted Rick with a one-handed closed fist over Rick’s pointed finger, making Rick squeal in pain.

“Ouch, let go! You’re hurting me. You are hurting me!”

Sullivan got as close to Rick’s face as he could and breathed a threat that Rick wouldn’t forget. “Don’t you ever touch her again. Do you hear me?” Sullivan demanded and tightened his grip around Rick’s fingers. He wanted to break the weasel-like fingers that had danced on the skin of this petrified woman who hid behind him now.

When Sullivan finally let go of Rick, he did so with a shove. He gathered Cat and her things, and they made their way outside the station. Sullivan unlocked his patrol car and ushered Cat into the front passenger seat. He helped her buckle her seatbelt and pulled a couple of tissues out of the box he stored in his passenger side door pocket and handed them to her. He was still frowning as he shut the door and walked around the car to get in. Once inside the car he took a deep breath and let it out as if he was expelling all the anger he felt along with it.

“Are you okay?” He asked slowly as he looked over at Cat. He didn’t dare touch her again, but he wanted to. He wanted to brush the stray hair back away from her flushed face and tuck it behind her pretty little ear. He wanted to see her face, her eyes. Those hazel eyes that appeared bluer tonight. When he first saw them through the window tonight and saw the fear and panic in them, he wanted to beat the door down and kill Rick with his bare hands.

Cat said nothing, but blew her nose and nodded her head at his question. They sat there in silence for a few moments. Sullivan gripped the steering wheel with both hands to keep them occupied. Without turning towards her, he finally said.

“You need to tell me everything he said and did. I think you need to press charges against him.”

Cat sighed and leaned her head against the headrest. “Oh please, Detective. I’ll lose my job. I can’t.” Sullivan stared hard at her and didn’t even try to hide the disgust in his voice.

“You will not lose your job. He is in a supervisory position. He will lose his job. Trust me. Besides, he might spend some time in jail depending on how many laws he just broke in there.”

When Cat didn’t respond, he let go of the steering wheel and turned in his seat to face her. She refused to look at him. The longer they sat like that the angrier and more uncomfortable Sullivan got.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Silence.

“Well?” More silence. “Cat, I am here to help you. What would have happened if I hadn’t planned to meet you here tonight?”

Still she said nothing. By now Sullivan was furious, tired and sick of games. This gal was acting like a kid and he didn’t have the time, or the inclination, to play along.

“Fine, don’t tell me. Hell, you probably enjoy men treating you like that. I am sorry I interrupted your fun.”

She spun on him then, venom in her words and in her eyes. “You jerk! Don’t you dare talk to me that way. I don’t have to sit here and listen to you or your crap.”

She unsnapped her seatbelt, pushed open the door and slammed it hard as she strode around the building towards her car in the back lot. Sullivan jumped out of the car and raced after her. Why had he said that? What had gotten in to him? He jogged to catch up to the quickly moving female figure.

“I’m sorry, Cat. Please wait.”

Without so much as an acknowledgement, she unlocked her car and got in, slamming her own door. Sullivan began asking loudly through the glass for her to stop and then finally banging on the window with his hand as she started the engine.

“Please stop. Cat. Please!”

She was crying again, she wouldn’t look at him at all as she put the car in gear and jammed on the gas. Sullivan had to jump back from the car to keep his toes intact as she sped out of the parking lot. He yelled at her to stop as she drove away and then suddenly he remembered who he was. He was a law enforcement officer. He could make her stop. He ran full speed across the lot and around the building to his car. He could see her tail lights ahead and mashed on the accelerator to catch up to her.

She had gotten on Interstate 35 headed north before he got behind her vehicle and activated his emergency lights to initiate a traffic stop. At first he didn’t think she was going to pull over. She continued northbound swerving in her lane like a drunk driver. He ran her license plate through his dispatch to insure he was stopping the correct vehicle. When the tag came back to Catherine Carlyle of Guthrie, he knew for certain. He advised his dispatchers he would be out on traffic when he saw that she was finally yielding and pulling to the right of the roadway.

Sullivan approached the vehicle with caution, like every other traffic stop. He knew the state of mind of this particular driver already. An emotional driver was a dangerous driver and this emotional driver had nearly taken his feet off. He walked up along the passenger side and banged on the window. He instructed the driver to turn the car off, which she did. “Driver, roll down your window,” he instructed as he tapped on the front passenger window with a knuckle. He shone a flashlight in her face, blinding her as he instructed her to hand him her license and insurance.

“I’m sorry, Officer. I just got off work and am on my way home.”

“Uh huh, Miss. I need you to exit your vehicle.”

She still didn’t realize it was Sullivan as she opened the door and carefully looked back to ensure a car wasn’t driving by before she stepped out. Once out of the car she saw Sullivan and stood there shivering in the night air, trying to decide what to do and what to say.

“Please step over here away from the vehicles, Ma’am.”

He and Cat moved from between the vehicles and stood on the grassy shoulder. Looking serious, he glanced over her driver license and insurance form.

“Your license is expired.”

“What? When?” She acted like she was going to take it back from him when he pulled his arm away from her and shook his head no.

“Operating a motor vehicle without a valid license is a jail-able offense in Oklahoma. Did you know that, Miss…?” He looked at her license again as if he had already forgotten her name. “Carlyle.”

“You have got to be kidding, right?” Cat asked, but refrained from letting her anger show. She wasn’t sure what Sullivan would do. He was acting so official and detached.

“Do you have any weapons on you? Gun, knife, bomb …?”

“No! You know I don’t, I…”

“Come have a seat in my patrol car then.”

He walked her back to his car, opened the passenger door and had her get in. He shut the door, walked around to his side and got in. After shutting his door he cleared his throat.

“Now, where were we?” He asked her as he pulled a brown leather binder from his door pocket. He unsnapped it and opened it up as Cat watched him anxiously. She realized it was a ticket book and watched as he slid her license into place under the stapled paper headings of previous citations. He picked up a pen that had been tucked inside the ticket book and started writing on a little form.

“Are you really going to write me a ticket, Sullivan?”

Now she didn’t care if he could tell she was angry. This man was infuriating, she thought. “Stop writing and talk to me,” She demanded as she gently touched his arm.

Before jerking away he immediately felt his insides go mushy. He stopped writing and closed his ticket book. He took a few deep breaths and let them silently out. Then he reached over and opened a little hidden compartment under his cup holder. He pulled out a package of peppermint gum and gestured for her to take one. She pulled a stick of gum out for herself and began unwrapping it, never taking her eyes off his. After getting his own piece of gum, he replaced his stash in its hiding place, unwrapped his gum and popped it into his mouth.

Cat’s mind was trying to understand what this little dance they were doing meant. She was silently evaluating her feelings towards this man with the coffee-colored eyes when he finally spoke. His voice was husky.

“I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I believe you were victimized tonight. You shouldn’t have to put up with that guy, and I for one would love to slam his head into a wall. If you will sign a complaint, I will put him in jail tonight. It’s your decision though.”

He looked into her beautiful hazel eyes as he spoke. He didn’t allow himself to pressure her to talk, even though he wanted to know everything that had happened. Patiently, he sat there staring at her, trying hard not to look at her heart-shaped lips as she chewed her gum.

“Can we please just go to my place? I want you to see the letter. I’ll make coffee if you want.” The look she gave him made his heart hurt. He would do anything she asked. They both knew it.

“Okay, but your license really is expired. I can’t allow you to drive.”

“Are you kidding?” He just shook his head no again and smiled.

“Come on,” she said, “I’ll take care of it tomorrow, or today I guess. I promise, Officer.”

She gave him a big smile and clasped her hands together like she were praying or begging. She figured a little flirting wouldn’t hurt.

“Fine, I’ll let you go with a warning, this time. I was actually already writing it out.”

He retrieved his ticket book and finished the warning, he pointed to where she needed to sign and tore out her copy and handed it to her. She reached out to take it, and he pulled it back a little with a sly smile. A little flirting wouldn’t hurt, he figured.