T
he five thirty meeting started at five o’clock again, because six of the local golf courses had gotten together and were hosting a happy hour behind the hotel. Everyone was in a hurry to get to the happy hour, so the meeting only lasted twenty minutes. It was our night to have the meeting in our room. After the meeting, Tom and I lingered a while after everyone left in order to rearrange the furniture in the room.
“I’m surprised my run in with the gator didn’t come up during the meeting despite most everyone knowing about it by now.”
“I wondered about that, too, but I think it might have been a touchy subject. The guys didn’t want it to spiral into a divisive shouting match. There are a few guys very upset about what Bill and James did.”
“And some others who thought it was just a joke, no big deal,” I said.
“Surprisingly so. I received a few texts about it before the meeting. Let’s head down before the free beer disappears. Probably half the people in this hotel are golfers.”
As we walked down the short hallway, I glanced into my room and saw a folded sheet of paper on my bedroom floor.
“Hold on,” I said. Tom opened the door to go outside but stopped.
I picked up the paper, a plain white sheet of bond paper. Unfolding it, I saw a handwritten note saying, “You may want to leave now. Tomorrow the alligator may be faster.”
I handed it to Tom. He read it. “Damn, this is just getting worse.” He handed it back to me. “Are you going to show this to Louise?”
“I guess we shouldn’t have touched it, but this could be from anyone. Doesn’t prove anything. Still, I’ll give it to her,” I said and folded the paper, sticking it in a back pocket.
“You probably wish you didn’t come this year,” Tom said.
“An understatement,” I said.
“Sorry, man. First, you get bashed in the head and then attacked by an alligator. Have you been telling Rose all about this?”
Tom knew about Rose, my partner, as we had discussed her a couple times. “No, she would tell me to go home, too. I don’t want to leave until the week is over. If I left early, it would feel like I was running away. Besides, I don’t like being pushed around.”
It seemed like the entire hotel had emptied and come to the happy hour. The line for the free beer had at least thirty people in it. Still, it was free, and the bartenders were pouring beer into the cups from pitchers as fast as they could, so Tom and I got in line.
I saw Streelman, Sanchez, and Larry Brown at a table. They looked at us but didn’t smile. Tom noticed them, too.
“It’s like you did something to them, rather than the other way around,” he said.
“I think they’re worried now about me telling the police what they did.”
“You should.”
“Not tonight, I just got a text from Louise cancelling our date.”
“It’s a date now,” Tom’s face lit up. “Way to go.”
Edward White and Vince Flores joined the other three. “I think what you have there is that part of our group who thought sending you into the briar patch was a good joke,” Tom said.
I didn’t have the heart to tell Tom that the briar patch worked the other way around, but I knew what he meant.
We finally got our beer and a free hot dog and headed over to join a number of the guys crowded around a table. Pete stood next to the table and was explaining something to three women.
“Oh, God, I can tell you right now what Pete is saying.” The three women feigned laughing and walked away.
“What’s that?”
“He’s wearing his Young Academy tee shirt. You can special order those from some novelty shops. He loves to explain to anyone that the Young Academy is a very progressive institute of higher learning where all bad girls get a free ride.”
“I take it there is no real Young Academy,” I said.
“Right on. His pitch is that he’s the professor, and he’s always on the search for bad girls.”
“He’s single, right?”
“Yes. Been married twice. I think his jokes drove them both away.” Tom shook his head. “But we love him.”
As if he heard us, Pete walked around the table to greet us.
“Hey guys, you just missed them.”
“The three women?” Tom asked.
“Yes, they’re part of that group of women that come down from Canada every year.”
“I thought so,” Tom said.
The three of us moved to the short concrete wall that served as the boundary of the patio. We sat on it and spent the next thirty minutes watching the crowd and discussing what we thought about a few professional golfers.
I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and saw that it was a short text from Louise. “Can you please come to 1824 Myrtle St. It’s important and will only take a minute. Can’t talk right now.”
I glanced up and saw Tom watching me. “Are we back on?”
“No, she just wants me to come see her. Said it would only take a minute.”
“Oh, so she has had sex with you,” Tom said.
Pete laughed.
“No, no such luck. Said she can’t talk right now. I should be back before this thing breaks up,” I said.
“Doubt that. They just ran out of free beer,” Tom said.
“You going to see that blond cop?” Pete said.
“Yes.” I stood up.
“Want us to ride along?”
“No thanks, Pete, she said it would just be for a minute.” I could see Tom wanted to repeat his joke, so I didn’t look back as I left.
I put the address in my phone, and using a navigation app, I reached the location in ten minutes. The small, blue house sat in the middle of the block with several other similar houses on both sides of the street. I parked on the street and saw an older couple walking a very small dog away from me on the sidewalk across the street. Otherwise, the street showed no signs of life.
A light shown through the front window of the house. The blinds were open, but I didn’t see anyone inside. I wondered if this was Louise’ house and called her phone number. After getting no answer, I approached the front door. A small crack of light filled a space where the door was ajar. The small hairs on the back of my neck began dancing as I sensed something was not right.
A quick debate in my mind resulted with me calling out to her. Announcing myself to someone waiting to spring a trap on me or an intruder could be foolish, but getting shot by Louise, thinking I was someone breaking in wouldn’t be too smart either.
“Louise! Louise, it’s me, Jim.” I called out loud enough for her to hear me in the back of the house.
No one answered, but I heard a noise like something falling off a desk or table onto the wooden floor. The noise came from the room to my right. I could see the door to the room a few steps in front of me.
“Louise,” I said again and walked toward the door.
It’s funny how the mind works. In those few steps, my brain ran through hundreds of scenarios with most telling me this wasn’t right. If this was a movie, the background music would be building up to the point where the audience would all be thinking “don’t go in there.” In real life, there is no background music, and my mind kept arguing with itself.
Reaching the doorway, I took a step into the room to look around. I saw a toy car, one of those remote-control-kind, on the floor. I started to call out again when I sensed more than heard someone coming at me from behind. Instinctively, I looked back and my body tensed. A man I didn’t recognize swung a wooden, kitchen rolling pin at my head.
“Wait!” I said, not able to get more out before blocking the blow with my left forearm. I wanted to tell him it was a mistake, but he either had no desire to hear me or worse. His left hand streaked for my throat, and I swatted it away with my right. He tried hitting me again with the rolling pin, but I was able to grab it and yank it down and away from him.
Any thoughts I may have had at the moment that once I got the rolling pin away from him that he might calm down were short lived. He snarled and leapt on me. I realized at that point that this was all a setup, and for whatever reason, this man was out to hurt me if not kill me. His eyes displayed anger if not outright hatred. I knew I had to stop trying to figure out why this was happening and focus on keeping myself alive.
The realization that his intent now was to get me into a choke hold further erased any hesitation I had to end this in a peaceful compromise. If I hadn’t tossed the rolling pin away, I would’ve used it on his head. Instead, I twisted and stepped away to give me enough space to hit him on the nose with a left jab. As his head popped backwards, I immediately struck at his throat with the knuckles on my flat right hand bent under. Unfortunately, he moved sideways enough to limit the impact.
Snarling, he leapt at me again. This time he succeeded in knocking me back against the table, and we both fell to the floor. I tried to back away from him, but he crawled after me, grabbing the collar of my shirt. It’s hard to fight anyone in a tangled mess, rolling around on the ground or, in our case, the floor. It’s extremely tiring, and it’s where the fighting can get very dirty.
The first chance I could, I got my leg into position to push myself up and away from him. He didn’t want to let go and made the mistake of looking up at me. His face gave me a good opportunity to slam a short right jab into his already bruised nose.
He squealed and jerked his head back. Blood began to flow from his nose, but rather than stop, he growled and charged into me.
By now, though, the surprise of the attack and the confusion in my mind were gone. I finally felt in control, and as his body started to slam against me, I twisted, grabbed him, and used his own momentum to throw him into the wall. He collapsed onto the floor, but immediately struggled to get back up.
“Stay down!” I tried to sound forceful, but I was gasping for air.
“Darren! Stay down, or I will shoot you and feed you to the gators!”
I looked back and saw Officer Louise Strong standing behind me. She looked furious, and I thought for a second she might shoot him. Her right hand was on her weapon, but she had not drawn it.
“Jim, I’m so sorry.”
I looked at her and then back at Darren, who had slid back down the wall and was sitting on the floor, his face in his hands.
“What is all this? Why did you text me to come here?”
“I didn’t.”
That didn’t answer any of my questions. I noticed a plain wooden chair in the corner by the window. A coil of rope had been placed on the seat.
“Where’s my phone Darren?” she asked.
“On the kitchen counter,” he said.
“Would you go get it,” she asked me.
I did.
“I’m calling your mom, Darren. Okay?”
“His mom?” I asked, thinking this guy was at least thirty-five.
She raised her hand at me, “Later.”
I stepped out into the hallway. I wanted to yell at her, to tell her the guy belongs in jail.
“Darren, you feeling alright?
“No, my nose hurts.”
“I’ll get you something for it.” Rather than moving, she asked me to see if I could find some ice and a washcloth in the kitchen. She did say please, and that one word led me to realize there was a lot more to this than I realized.
While I was going through kitchen drawers looking for a washcloth, I heard her talking to someone on the phone. I could see a reflection of myself in the kitchen window. My face didn’t look any worse from the altercation, but the bandage over my eye had partially come loose. I pressed it back down against the skin. A small bowl next to the sink served as something I could put ice in, and I was returning to her when she and Darren walked into the kitchen.
“Sit at the table Darren, and I’ll help you get cleaned up. Jim, you might as well sit here, but first, could you get the washcloth wet.” I did, resisting a strong desire to walk out of the house. I didn’t need any of this, but I was curious. She motioned to the chair opposite Darren. The table was a small square one. She pulled out the chair to Darren’s left.
I put the washcloth and the ice in front of her but didn’t sit down. She immediately started working on Darren’s face.
“Darren, what were you thinking? Jim is not my boyfriend. He’s helping me out with a police investigation. Do you understand?”
Darren glanced at me, the rage gone from his face, before he turned his head and continued staring at Louise.
“Is this why you took my phone?” she asked.
“Yes, I saw you with him. I’m sorry Louise, but I went crazy again. I didn’t want him to be with you. I wasn’t going to hurt him. I was just going to tie him up until he promised me he would leave you alone.”
“Then what was the rolling pin for?” I asked, doing my best not to shout the question.
“I was just going to knock you out, so I could tie you to the chair. That’s all.”
“That would’ve been bad, Darren. Even though you wouldn’t have meant to, you might have hurt Jim.”
I wanted to shout out that of course he wanted to hurt me and to ask if they were both crazy. However, the realization that one of them might be held me back, and I didn’t need Louise criticizing me for not being politically correct with my terminology. Safer to get my head bashed in these days.
“Jim, please check the pantry for some Fig Newtons.”
I did so, and seeing that there were only three left in the package, I considered cramming them in my mouth in front of the jerk. I gave the package to Louise.
“Here you go, Darren. Now isn’t there something you should say to Jim?”
“Thank you.”
“And,” she said.
“I’m sorry. I thought you were trying to be Louise’ boyfriend.”
“That wouldn’t have mattered, Darren. You can’t hurt someone just because he might be my boyfriend. That’s still not right.”
He didn’t say anything. His mind appeared to be focused on the cookies. He broke all three cookies into two pieces before he started eating the first one.
Louise looked at me, and I saw that she had a tear trying to escape from her left eye. She dabbed at it with the back of her hand.
“Louise!” a woman called from the front door.
“In the kitchen, Emma.”
I could hear Emma talking to someone who must have been with her. A second later, a slim woman with long silver hair walked into the kitchen. She wore a short sleeve blue sweater, a pair of jeans, and pink tennis shoes. She looked at the three of us.
“Is everyone okay?”