Riven - Jerry B. Jenkins [89]
“We just want to talk to you. You got something to hide?”
“No! No! Come on in.”
“You alone?”
“My little brother’s in the back.”
“But you’re leaving?”
“My ma’s gonna be home any minute.”
The three of them sat awkwardly in the cramped living room.
“You know a man named Tatlock?” Big Cop said.
“Sure. Used to work for him. Is this about my debt? He didn’t get my last payment? I dropped it off at the Laundromat.”
“You can stop the bull anytime you want,” the officer said. “Now, he doesn’t want to embarrass you or mess up your holiday, so if you’ll be honest and convince us you’re prepared to work something out and really get this taken care of, he won’t press charges.”
32
Adamsville
Pastor Will Kessler stood shivering in the doorway, shaking hands as the congregation filed out. “My closing was a little long, wasn’t it?” he said.
“Oh, it was fine,” Thomas said, but Grace squeezed his elbow.
“I think he wants you to be honest, Thomas.”
“I do, sir! Please!”
“All right; I do feel you made your point long before you finished. And the point had been made throughout the program anyway. All you needed was to make certain it was clear. . . .”
“And get out of the way.”
“You said it; I didn’t.”
“I really want your counsel, Reverend Carey. I want to get better.”
Thomas and Grace chatted the whole way home about what a wonderful man Pastor Kessler was.
“Strange though,” Grace said. “It’s different to have a pastor so much younger. I mean, he’s supposed to be our shepherd, not you his. And would you feel comfortable going to him with our heartache?”
“No, I wouldn’t, but that’s just pride. I’m ashamed to say we’ve lost our own daughter.”
“We haven’t lost her, Thomas. Don’t say that. I’ll never concede her to the enemy.”
A few minutes later Grace was puttering in the kitchen as Thomas was changing in the bedroom. Noticing something sticking out of one of Grace’s bureau drawers, he opened it to tidy the contents and found a packet of pamphlets—all about natural treatments for leukemia symptoms.
Thomas stopped breathing, stepped back, and slumped onto the bed. He felt violated, betrayed, almost as if he’d discovered she was seeing another man. What kind of a husband did she take him for if she did not feel free to confide her deepest fears?
She seemed better lately, so maybe these natural treatments, whatever they were, were working. But Thomas couldn’t shake the feeling that his beloved had left him out of the most dire season of her life.
Addison
“We’re happy to hear your side, Darby,” the cop said. “But it’s only fair to tell you that we know Tatlock. He teaches self-defense at the police academy. He was an Eagle Scout, then a marine, then an Olympian. Not so much as a parking ticket on his rap sheet. He’s told us the whole story, and your pretending the check somehow didn’t get to him isn’t going to fly. Now, you owe him; you threatened him; you vandalized his door. Yet he’d rather ask us to talk you into making it right than hurt you. And he could hurt you. He could rough you up or press charges, and he wants to do neither. So, is he lying?”
Brady suddenly felt a lot younger than sixteen. “He’s not lying. I’ll make it right.”
“How? And when?”
“How much is it for the door?”
“Fifty on top of your balance.” The cop checked his notebook. “Which he says was down to eighty bucks before he quit hearing from you altogether.”
“So a hundred and thirty?”
“You’re better at math than I am, kid.”
Brady pulled out a wad of twenties. “I can take care of that right now and be done with it.”
The cops both eyed him without smiling. “You got a good job?”
“Two of ’em. I’m a supervisor at one and a foreman at the other.”
“Uh-huh. And you take your pay in cash?”
“Nah, not usually. I just cashed my checks this week because of Christmas. I gave my ma several hundred and my brother a hundred for gifts.”
“Nice. And now you’re gonna take care of this with Tatlock?”
“Sure. Can you give it to him for me?”
“You ought to do it yourself.”
“I’d rather not. I’m kind of embarrassed, you know.”
“I understand.