Chapter Thirty-Two

Charlotte

Jesse was back to sleep, having been given another dose of pain meds, as most of us settled in for lunch. Logan brought in food from the station, which mostly consisted of various styles of wings, but at least it was something, and they were cooked well. Normally, I wasn’t one for wings, but Logan was pretty darn good as the firehouse cook, so I managed.

Tamara arrived not long after Logan left and pulled me aside as I finished up my wings.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Mom just called,” she said. “Someone is apparently there to see you.”

“Oh God, it’s not Graham, is it? He didn’t change his mind, did he?”

Tamara shrugged. “I don’t know. But Mom sounded weird. I think we should both head over there and find out what’s happening.”

I looked back to Jesse and grimaced. I didn’t want to leave him.

“How long has he been out this time?” Tamara asked.

“Not long,” I said. “But Amber said that he will be out for a while. Probably a couple of hours. I don’t want to leave him, but I don’t like how you said Mom sounded.”

“It could be nothing,” Tamara said. “It might be some salesperson or something. You know Mom; she just lets anyone in to talk. As long as they will eat her food, she will talk to anyone.”

“Yeah, well, we need to work on that. The world is a bit more dangerous than Mom likes to believe it is.”

“So you want to head out now?”

“Let me tell Collin.”

“Wait, Collin’s here?”

The excitement on her face was palpable, and it made me chuckle. I nodded and pointed into the next room, where the bed had been empty so long that the head doctor had given us permission to use it as a temporary sleeping unit.

“Do you want to tell him?” I asked.

“Yes, please,” she said, turning on her heel and heading to the room without further instruction.

I rolled my eyes and headed back to Jesse. Kissing him on his head, I whispered that I would be back soon and headed out. A few moments later, Tamara came out, her face flushed.

“You good?” I asked.

“Mmm-hmm.”

“You look like the cat that swallowed a canary,” I said.

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Oh God, what happened?”

“Nothing.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Nothing happened,” she protested. “Nothing. Even though it could have.”

“What in the world are you talking about, Tamara?”

“Did you know that Collin…. sleeps… in the nude?”

I closed my eyes and shook my head tightly once. “I did not know that, nor did I need to know that.”

“Yeah, well, I know that now,” she said, beaming. “I know alllllll about that.”

“Let’s go,” I said, desperate to change the subject. “Mom’s waiting on us, I’m sure.”

“Oh, I’m good to go now,” Tamara said, tagging along. “I’m good for a while.”

As we pulled up to the house, anger flooded my system once more. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Not only had they done what they’d done, and bothered the Millers, the Galloway, and me, but now one of the damn Andersons’ cop cars was in my parents’ driveway.

I slammed the car door shut as I stomped up to the front door, not bothering to ring a bell or knock. Why should I? It was my childhood home. I had every right to just waltz right on in. Tamara came along after me, struggling to keep up with my power walk.

When I opened the door, I wasn’t as surprised as I was blindingly angry. Standing in my mother’s living room were Eugene and Trish Anderson.

“What the hell are you two doing here?” I demanded.

“Now before you get worked up,” Eugene started.

“Before I get worked up ?” I shouted, clearly well past that line. “Your brother tried to kill Jesse Galloway, and you are standing here telling me not to get worked up?”

“Charlotte, for real, calm down,” Trish said.

My eyes turned to her, and I must have had one hell of an expression, because for the first time I could remember, Trish Anderson took a step back. She had always been the type of girl who prided herself on being able to say and do whatever she wanted because of her brothers. But not even Eugene standing beside her gave her any indication she was safe when she was within my reach.

“We just dropped by to update you on the case,” Eugene said, trying hard to put on some kind of diplomatic voice.

It was usually Eugene’s job to try to calm things down after his brothers caused a mess. Eugene was the calmer of the three, though in my experience, the more calculating. Smarter than his brothers, he tended to hang out in the background and let Oland and Arnold do most of the fighting.

“Well, don’t you think that’s a bit of a compromised situation there, Eugene?”

“You tell me,” he shot back.

“Excuse me?”

Eugene stared for a long moment at me and then seemed to decide to move past it.

“Look,” he said, “let’s look at reality here, shall we? For a moment, let’s just look at this as it is.”

“Please, enlighten me,” I said with as much sarcasm as I could possibly muster.

“It is highly, highly unlikely that anything will happen to Oland,” he said. “I know, before you even start, I know. You are positive he did it. But the thing is, no one has any actual proof, do they? There’s no evidence at the crime scene. There’s no blood in the parking lot that he claimed there was a fight. There’s no indication anywhere that Oland was directly involved in any of it.”

“You lying son of a bitch,” Tamara began.

“Keep your mouth shut, young lady,” Eugene said.

“Don’t you threaten her,” I shouted.

“Don’t raise your voice to my brother, Charlotte,” Trish said, and I turned on her again.

“I swear to all that is holy, Trish. If you don’t keep your stupid mouth shut…”

“Enough,” my step-dad said, interrupting all of us with his deep, booming voice. “Eugene, I only know what I’ve been told about this case, but from what I understand, it’s a bit stronger than just he-said, she-said.”

“There is… a little bit of physical evidence. It doesn’t directly tie my brother to it, but it does implicate him. Which is why I am here. I can’t go talk directly to the Galloways. They won’t see me, and I don’t necessarily blame them. What happened to Jesse was beyond the line. But…”

“But?” I scoffed. “But? There is no but, Eugene. Jesse almost got killed. Oland needs to pay for what he did.”

“Oland is willing to testify that it wasn’t him,” he shot back. “That it was Lacey Banks instead.”

The room fell quiet for a moment.

“You mean to tell me that Oland is willing to flip on his girlfriend and testify that she was somehow able to beat Jesse half to death on her own?”

“Something like that,” Eugene said. “In exchange for dropping Oland from the accusation, he will testify that he witnessed Lacey attempt to murder him, then tried to convince her to turn herself in. He will take a modicum of responsibility for Jesse not receiving immediate care, though he did report that something was amiss at that spot in the woods to the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office. We sent a dispatch out there, but by the time we got there, Jesse had already escaped.”

“You mean was rescued,” Tamara said. “Not escaped. No one was holding him there. Saying escaped means you didn’t expect to find a live body. Did you?”

Eugene paused, his teeth gritted as he stared holes into my sister. He didn’t just hate that he’d gotten caught; he hated being interrupted at all.

“I misspoke,” he said. “Anyway. Oland can testify that he accompanied Lacey away, trying to convince her to turn herself in and that the call he made to the office, which is documented as happening, was a rescue and recovery call. It will absolve him of most guilt and allow him to return home with expedience.”

“Sounds like you have it all worked out,” I said.

“I do,” Eugene growled.

“Unfortunately, I think you are an absolutely disgusting piece of trash for even trying that,” I continued. “Oland will rot in jail. We will see to it. Just like Arn should be. And maybe just like you should be too. Because if it turns out you had any idea this was going to happen, or you, Trish, same thing… If either one of you knew what was about to happen, then I promise you, you will never see the sunlight again.”

“Sounds a lot like a threat, brother,” Trish said.

“Shut up, Trish,” Eugene said. “Don’t make things any fucking worse.”

“Get out of my house, please,” Dad said. “And don’t come back. Ever.”

“Just think about it,” Eugene said. “No more going after Jesse. It will be a settled issue. Just… just tell them to think about it.”

“I’ve already thought about it. The answer is, and I believe I speak for the Galloways here, get fucked.”

“You rude bitch,” Trish said, stomping past her brother and getting in my face. “How dare you talk to us like that? Don’t you know how close you are to being arrested yourself?”

“Are you an officer?” I asked.

“Well… no,” Trish said.

“Good.”

She didn’t see my fist coming. Mostly because I started it before she even spoke. It hit her directly in the nose, and she rocked back like she’d been shot.

“Dammit, Charlotte,” Eugene said. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back. You’re under arrest for assault.”

I did as I was told. As Eugene slapped the cuffs on me, I found myself eye to eye with Tamara, whose jaw was gaping like a fish.

“Worth it,” I muttered.