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“THAT...OOH!” DEE PUNCHED the dashboard of Winston’s brand new Ford Mustang. “I could kill him. I’ll kill him!”
“Whoa, whoa.” Winston sped through the expressway. “Can you please not take out your frustrations on my new car, babe?”
“How could they deny the protective order?” She slapped the window. “That judge is an idiot saying there wasn’t sufficient cause for an order. The man drugged and kidnapped me! Is everyone around here mad?”
“I tell you.” Winston’s cinnamon-brown curls blew in the passing breeze. “It’s getting harder and harder to work for the law when we’re getting no justice.” He switched lanes. “Did you see how smug Jonathan looked? I wanted to rip his head off. I’m sick of him getting away with everything, Dee.”
She turned, catching the disdain in his passionate blue eyes.
“That’s it.” He curled his fingers around the steering wheel. “He’s not getting away with this shit. I’ll handle it.”
“Winston.” She touched his arm.
“No, this is enough. We’ve been doing it your way and nothing’s getting done. We’re meeting roadblocks at every turn. It ends today.”
“Stop.” She pushed her fingers in his silky curls and dragged her hand to his naked chin. “Just when I got used to that goatee you hack it off.” She chuckled, trying to lighten his mood. “We need to stick to the plan.”
“What plan?” He increased speed. “You say let the law handle it but what good has that done so far?”
“If we don’t do this the right way, then it’s all for nothing.” She sat up, the black leather squeaking underneath her. “I want Jonathan to go to prison, which means we have to follow protocol.”
“Fuck protocol.” He blew out his cheeks. “This man kidnapped and raped you, Dee.” He looked at her. “He raped you.”
She watched the cars ahead of them, gripping the door.
“Hard to hear, isn’t it?” He turned on his signal and swerved onto another street. “Well, it’s hard for me to sit back while Jonathan does whatever the hell he wants. No more.”
“I can get him on the rape.”
“With Rena?” He laughed. “She’s never gonna go against Jonathan.”
“If that were true she wouldn’t have told me Jonathan kidnapped and drugged me. She wants to do the right thing in her heart but she’s afraid.”
“I don’t trust her and you shouldn’t either.”
“I have no choice.” She lay on the door. “Promise me you won’t do anything to Jonathan.”
Winston held a close-lipped smile.
“Winston, I mean it. Do you promise to stay away from Jonathan?”
His mouth rose in the corner as he turned the wheel. “Trust me the way you do Rena.”
****
“I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE’S gone.” Robin Glover paced in the interrogation room while Dee, Connie, and his parents watched him from the table. “It’s like a bad dream you know?” He stopped in the middle of the floor, the tight T-shirt enhancing the muscles of his upper body. “How can this be real?” He stroked his large hands, tears escaping his grayish-blue eyes. “How can she be dead?”
Dee grabbed a tissue from her pocket and handed it to him. “You cared about her a lot, didn’t you?”
He wiped his nose, his peach skin turning red. “She was a wonderful person. Gave me confidence with learning the piano.” He straightened his 6’3 body, loosening his long arms. “With track, I have all the confidence in the world. It’s a part of me. I was born to be a track star.”
His mother Gisele grabbed her husband Edward’s hand, smiling.
“But, I’ve always had passion for music.” Robin stood wide-legged in gray Reebok tennis shoes. “Music awakened me in a way even track doesn’t.”
“He can play many instruments.” Gisele smiled, the wrinkles around her mouth making her look much older than forty-four. “But, he always wanted to learn piano.”
“I like pushing myself,” Robin said. “The bigger the challenge, the more I want to do it.”
“Did you consider Lang a challenge?” Dee asked.
Robin’s jaw went slack and his hairline rose underneath his sable crewcut.
“If you want to help us find out what happened to Lang,” Connie commented. “You’ll be honest with us.”
“Wait, a minute.” Edward’s rectangular forehead crinkled. “Are you accusing Robin of something?”
“We thought you wanted to ask him some questions.” Gisele’s black eyebrow lifted.
“We are asking questions,” Connie said. “Robin, you’re a minor but you can talk to us alone if your parents agree.”
“Hello no.” Edward flinched. “We’re not leaving him alone with you.”
Giselle stuffed her hand in between her husband’s arm. “What in the world are you getting at, Detectives?”
Robin rocked with sweat sprouting across his forehead.
Dee made note of his apprehension. “You and Lang were having an inappropriate relationship, weren’t you, Robin?”
“What?” Edward snarled.
Robin’s stare dropped to the floor.
Gisele sat erect. “Robin, what is she talking about?”
He blushed, covering his face with his hands.
“Robin?” Edward got up, his thin, straight body reaching 6’5. “Answer your mother. This can’t be true.”
Robin lifted his head, sniffling. “It is true.”
Gisele covered her mouth.
“Ms. Latimer and I were having an affair.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Edward charged his son. “What do you mean having an affair?”
“We were fucking, Dad.” Robin walked to the table. “You want all the details?”
“How could she do this?” Gisele shrieked. “You’re a child and we trusted her.”
“Don’t blame Lang,” Robin said. “I’m old enough to make my own decisions and she didn’t force me into anything.”
“You’re a child, damn it.” Edward swung his son around to face him. “She took advantage of you. She was an adult seducing a sixteen-year-old boy.”
“Fifteen.” Robin swallowed. “It started before my birthday.”
Gisele stroked her throat, groaning.
“Lang didn’t seduce me. I came onto her.”
“We paid her to teach you piano lessons.” Edward flung his arm. “Not to rape you and that’s what she did. Lang Latimer was a sexual predator, and she deserved what happened to her.”
“Shut up!” Robin threw Edward against the wall.
“Robin,” Gisele screamed.
“Robin?” Dee and Connie ran to him and tried to pull him off but neither had the strength. “Let him go.”
“I loved her.” He banged his father against the wall. “I loved her, Dad!”
“Let him go,” Connie said. “Now, Robin.”
He turned his father loose.
“What the hell’s gotten into you?” Edward straightened his shirt, panting. “You’ve changed because of Latimer’s wickedness.”
Gisele leaned forward, shaking her head.
“I don’t even recognize you, Robin.” Edward reclaimed his seat by his wife.
“It started about six months ago,” Robin said. “Ever since I first met her, I wanted her. We knew it was wrong but didn’t care.”
His parents avoided eye contact with him.
“We loved each other.”
“She had a boyfriend,” Gisele said. “That rich guy. Did you believe she’d actually be with a sixteen-year-old?”
“That’s what you get for thinking with your dick,” Edward snapped. “Let me guess. She used you until she got bored and dumped you, didn’t she?”
Robin grimaced.
“Robin, how could you do this?” Gisele’s face twisted. “We raised you to be smarter than this.”
“I fell in love.”
“It wasn’t love.” Gisele’s lips curled. “It was fornication and sin.”
“Don’t say that, Ma.”
“Then why did you hide it?” she asked. “If it was something to be proud of?”
“I didn’t want to get her into trouble. I knew you’d have her arrested.”
“You damn right we would’ve,” Edward said. “And to think we felt sorry for what had happened to her but now it’s good riddance.”
“You bastard!” Robin lunged for him but the detectives held him back.
“Cool it.” Dee touched Robin’s chest. “These are your parents and they have every right to be upset about this.”
“I bet it hurt you that Lang broke things off, didn’t it, Robin?” Connie asked.
“I didn’t kill her.” His lips trembled. “I told you I was out with my girlfriend that night.”
Connie and Dee let him go.
“I loved Lang Latimer,” Robin said. “I would’ve given her anything she wanted.”
Edward scoffed, shaking his head.
“I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life.” Robin sat at the table with glassy eyes. “I don’t know how I’m gonna go on without her.”