Chapter 17: A Visit To The Authorities

September 1, 1991 - Saturday

The shower turned on, allowing the warm and inviting water to cascade over Ellie's face. She stayed still for quite a while, letting the water massage her body, slowly waking her up. As she began to shampoo her hair, she was reminded of her injury from the previous night. Moving her arms over her head really aggravated her bruised shoulder, but she toughened it out. The shower turned off and she hurried out of the bathroom, knowing that she was running a little bit late and Rob was going to be there at any second. She walked back into the bedroom to get dressed and to take a peek at Alan. After tossing and turning for most of the night, he had finally fallen asleep. He looked very peaceful, relaxed, comfy, and warm, under the covers. She almost gave in and jumped back in bed to snuggle with him, but she pushed that thought away and put her work boots on.

It was 7:30 in morning and at that time of the morning it was a bit cold outside, so she went back to the bathroom to blow dry her hair. Just as she finished, she heard Rob's truck horn. He only beeped twice, which made her happy, since he hadn't woken up Alan at all. Grabbing her coat, she made her way to the front door and walked out on the porch. She tried to grab Rob's attention, but he was moving, rather unrhythmically Ellie noticed, to some loud rock music playing in his truck. She motioned with her arms, moving them up and down and sideways, until he finally happened to look her way. When he did, she held up a finger, letting him know it would be just a minute. He nodded and continued to tap the steering wheel, singing to the music.

She went back inside and hurried to the kitchen and grabbed a piece of scrap paper. After scribbling a little note, she taped it to the refrigerator, right next to the Triceratops magnet. It was short and sweet. It read:

Alan, I'll be back by three. Try and be ready. We have an appointment with the police at 4:30pm.

Love you,

Ellie

She grabbed her keys and backpack and headed for the door. When she got outside, she got into Rob's truck, shaking her head as she did so. "Love Stinks" by the J. Geils Band was just ending, and Rob was playing the air guitar. The song ended and he turned the radio down, looking at her questionably.

"What?"

"It's 7:30 in the morning. Do you think that everyone is awake just because you are?" she asked.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. What happened? Alan wasn't feeling well enough for those extracurricular activities?"

Ellie almost answered him, forgetting the immature idiot that she was speaking to. Explanations would do no good. In fact, it would probably make the teasing worse.

"On second thought, why don't you turn that thing back up. It sure beats talking to you," she teased.

He was about to offer a comeback, when one of his favorite songs came on the radio. He turned it very loud.

"Oh yes! Bob Seger!" he said, looking at Ellie, "Come on, sing with me now . . . "

Ellie just shook her head, as Rob did his best Bob Seger imitation, which wasn't all that great. He was singing loudly and off-key.

"Just take those old records off the shelf! I'll sit and listen to 'em by myself!"

He kept taking his eyes off the road to sing to her, and it was making her somewhat nervous. She was starting to realize why Alan had always insisted on driving whenever he and Rob would go anywhere. She would keep pointing to the road, when he would look at her, hoping that he would get the hint to watch where he was going. He continued to sing along, as he was banging his hands on the steering wheel, as if it were his own little drum set.

"I reminisce about the days of old! With that old time rock n' roll!"

Ellie sat quietly, hoping and praying that they didn't get into an accident, as she grabbed onto whatever she could for support. The song finally ended and he turned the radio down for a second.

"So, how's Alan doing?"

"Better. I talked him into making a police report finally."

"That's good. You talked some sense into him then?"

"Yeah. I'm only working a half a day. Then, I'm going to pick him up and go to the police station."

Rob nodded, and Ellie breathed a sigh of relief, as she noticed he was actually watching the road.

They walked inside the small police station. Ellie walked up to the counter, while Alan chose to sit down in a nearby chair. When he had woken up, his leg was bothering him. But more than that, was the constant pain in his back and right side, where Raymond and company had continuously beaten him.

Ellie looked around the station. The desk was small, as well, and it was held up with milk crates. It looked like they were going through some renovations. At least, she hoped so. She reached the counter.

"We have an appointment," she said, wondering to herself why she had bothered to make an appointment in the first place.

The station was empty, with the exception of two policemen sitting near the back, talking. After a brief conversation with an elderly man helming the counter, Ellie came back to sit next to Alan. Only a few minutes went by, before the elderly man motioned for them to go down the short hallway. They were instructed to go to the second door on the right. Ellie was shaking her head, as they walked through the hall.

"What's wrong?" Alan asked.

"Second door to the right," she commented.

"What do you mean?"

"It's not like there are any doors on the left. And there are only two doors, on the right."

"So, he's a little bit more navigational than he needs to be," Alan offered.

"It's just annoying."

He stopped Ellie in the hall.

"Relax, will you? You're so angry. You need to calm down before we get in there," Alan said.

She nodded and began to walk again. Her mood relaxed some, when she noticed him limping. She had been so high strung with anger, that she hadn't noticed the obvious difficulty he was having.

"Having trouble?" she asked.

"No, I'm fine."

At that instant, a door straight ahead of them opened and three men walked out. Two of the men were officers, escorting one lone male prisoner. They had just exited the station's only interrogation room and they were taking the prisoner back to his cell. Alan moved to one side, allowing the men to pass and was about to knock on the door, where they were supposed to go. He didn't notice who the prisoner was. But Ellie did. When Alan realized that she had stopped in the hallway, he directed his attention to whatever it was that she was looking at. It was Greg Diamond and he was right beside Ellie now, smiling at her in a maniacal way. Alan's first gut reaction was to pummel the kid in the face, but he refrained from doing so, as he reached out and grabbed Ellie's hand.

Ellie had momentarily forgotten why they were there, as she stared back at the man. Anger was building, as she replayed Alan's attack in her head, while looking at Greg. There would have been a physical confrontation, if it hadn't been for the presence of Alan's hand gripping hers. She was drawn back into the reality of being at the police station, as she looked away from Greg and focused on Alan.

"It's okay. Let's just get inside," he said, gesturing to the door on the right.

Ellie nodded, and Alan was able to gently pull her toward the door. They were almost there, when Greg couldn't leave well enough alone.

"Looks like the two of you are more than just student and teacher."

They both turned to look at him, as Greg smiled from ear to ear. He had a bandage across his nose, where Ellie had hit him with the steel pipe, making him look somewhat ridiculous.

"Shame on you, Dr. Grant, for making intimacy a part of the curriculum. Now I know why you approve of women in the paleontological field. Good thinking. Us hard-working men need a way to relieve the stress of a long day."

Alan couldn't believe what he had just heard, but he was going to take the high road and simply be happy with being able to put Greg in jail. Assaulting a man in a police station wasn't such a good idea, so he forced himself to look away from the kid. Ellie had a different outlook, as her anger was now at its boiling point. Like an award winning prize fighter, sensing victory, she ran over to the prisoner and began to punch him hard and fast.

Alan turned around and grabbed her, while the two policemen tried to restrain their prisoner, who was trying to grab Ellie. His hands were handcuffed in front of him, but he still managed to wrestle himself away from his guards for a second. In her rage, Ellie managed to score a direct blow right into Greg's nose, causing him to stop struggling for a second. Alan was behind her with his arms around her waist, trying to pull her away from Greg, before the outraged ex-student tried breaking free from the guards again.

Finally, she came back to her senses and stopped her assault. The officers struggled with Greg for a second, as it looked like she re-injured his nose.

"I want to press charges!" he kept repeating.

The officers ignored his pleas. In their eyes, the attack was definitely the prisoner's fault. Plus, there was an additional factor involved. The fact that they didn't care for the prisoner. They weren't able to get anything out of him during the interrogation, besides a very bad attitude. It was nice to see that someone was able to put the smart ass in his place.

Ellie was standing still, breathing heavily, with a very mean looking scowl on her face. Just seconds earlier, Alan had gently let her go, and now he just stood in the hallway, looking at her. He didn't think she had even noticed him looking at her, as she was watching the officers struggle with Greg. He was yelling profanities at her, as he was dragged down the hall and pulled to the right, disappearing. Several minutes later, she seemed to calm down some.

"Ellie?" Alan finally whispered.

She had still been staring down the hallway, in the direction they had taken Greg. She looked at him, her eyes piercing with anger. They looked at each other for a while, until a broad smile crept upon Alan's face, causing her to smile as well.

"Remind me to never get you that angry at me," he said, "That was truly scary."

"Sorry about that. I just lost control for a second. I hate that guy so much."

"And he's going to pay," Alan said, looking at the door in front of them, "Are you ready to go in there?"

"Yeah."

Alan knocked on the door, waited for a response and then opened it, letting Ellie in first. The room was bigger than either of them thought it would be. The detective in the room was on the phone, screaming at someone. He looked up and briefly smiled at them, gesturing toward the chairs in front of his desk. They sat down and waited.

A few minutes later, the detective hung the phone up and looked up at them.

"What was that commotion in the hallway?"

"Just a little run in with Greg Diamond," Alan answered, adjusting his chair.

"He was in the hallway?"

"Yes," Alan answered, as he looked around the room uncomfortably.

"With the knowledge that you were coming in to press charges, I took the liberty of picking up Mr. Diamond and bringing him in. He was being interrogated. I had told them to transfer him to the back, before you two got here."

Ellie hadn't said a word yet, but she was already getting impatient with this guy.

"Can we get to the point of our visit, sir?" she said, interrupting.

The detective smiled, while Alan shook his head.

"Absolutely," he said, looking down at a file folder on his desk.

He opened the folder and began to shift through some of the papers at the top. Looking at the papers, he began to speak, not even looking up at them.

"Apparently, Mr. Diamond had met Mr. Knox in a neighborhood bar."

"Mr. Knox? Is that Raymond?" Ellie asked.

The detective looked up from his paperwork, sighing. He hated it when people would interrupt him, but he tried not to show that he was getting peeved.

"Oh, yes. Sorry about that. Mr. Diamond was sitting in the bar, apparently stewing about you," the detective gestured toward Alan, "when Mr. Kn . . . uh, Raymond, and some others walked in. He had heard Raymond complaining about Dr. Grant and had invited himself into the conversation."

"When was that? Do you know?" Ellie asked.

"Weeks ago. Raymond and Mr. Diamond had devised a plan to attack Dr. Grant at his trailer. But then, he had that accident. Since he was no longer in his trailer, they decided to wait a bit longer."

Ellie was sitting there listening . . . and getting more and more angry. Suddenly, she wished she could beat the living hell out of that kid again. She looked at Alan and couldn't understand why he didn't look just as angry, but she kept that to herself, as the detective continued.

"They had heard that you returned back to work yesterday, and that's when they planned the attack."

Alan sat there, still uncomfortable, as he listened to the details. He had only one question for the time being.

"How did you find all of this out?"

"From one of the other perpetrators. I offered him freedom for knowledge, and he complied very easily actually."

Alan nodded and the appointment continued. After about a half an hour of questions and answers, and some picture-taking of the injuries in question, the detective cleared his throat.

"So, I think we're all finished here. I'll get this filed and be in contact with you," the detective said, jotting down one more note on a piece of paper, before sliding it back into the file folder.

Ellie had more questions.

"So, is Raymond Knox in custody, too?"

The detective shifted uneasily in his chair, before answering. This young lady had done nothing but interrupt him, and now she was threatening to make him look incompetent, as well. He dismissed his urge to let her have it verbally, though.

"Well, uh, no . . . no, not yet. His whereabouts are unknown at the moment, but we've got top men looking for him, as we speak," he said. He noticed that the young lady wasn't buying his speech, so he added, "We'll find Mr. Knox. He can't hide forever."

Alan wanted nothing more, than to get out of there. He had been cooped up long enough in a place he didn't want to be, so he began to stand up slowly, with Ellie assisting him. It was then, when the detective noticed just how bad off Alan seemed to be. He hadn't noticed on the way in, since he had been on the phone. Alan shook the man's hand.

"You know, Dr. Grant. Raymond was planning on crippling you, maybe more. Mr. Diamond was only trying to assault you, but Mr. Knox was attempting much more, possibly even murder. You are very lucky that the situation ended the way it did, sir."

Ellie had been quiet almost long enough. She was about to say something, when she felt Alan's grip on her hand grow tighter. She remained silent.

"Well, sir, with all due respect. At this moment in time, I'm not feeling so lucky," he said.

With that statement, Alan turned around and slowly walked out of the police department. Ellie was still being quiet, which was starting to make Alan wonder what she was thinking. As they got outside, she began to express those feelings.

"Can you believe that guy?" she shouted, as they made it to her car.

"He's kind of right, if you think about, Ellie."

"He wasn't there, Alan. We were. He didn't see the angry faces of those men, as they beat the hell out of you. I did, damn it! He has no right at all to say that you were lucky. What? Lucky to get beat senseless? That guy's an asshole."

Alan hadn't realized just how upset Ellie was about the whole thing. He had been the one beaten up, and not even he was that upset about it. They got into the car. He still hadn't responded yet, as he couldn't think of anything reassuring to say to her. They got into the car and drove away from the police station. She wasn't finished being mad yet, as she continued.

"All I know, is that if Rob hadn't shown up . . . I probably wouldn't be talking to you right now," she said, trying to concentrate on the road that was in front of her now.

"You've got to let this go, Ellie. Hopefully, he and Raymond will get what's coming to them and we can move on with our lives."

"I know what I have to do," she shot back at him. Then, she calmed down again, and added in a civil voice, "I know I need to move on, Alan. And I will. When I'm ready. Not because you're ready."

"This whole thing, it happened to me. Why can't you just let it go?"

"Can we talk about this later?" she asked, driving a little faster now.

Sensing her increasing anger and her foot hitting the gas pedal a little heavier, he decided to give it a rest.

"You know, I don't really want to get into another accident," he said, looking at her, "Why don't you slow down," he added in a condescending tone.

As soon as he said it, he knew it didn't quite come out right. He closed his eyes and twisted his neck a little bit, as he waited for her response. She didn't say a word, though. Nothing out loud, that is. There was a certain small phrase floating around in her mind . . . fuck you, Alan . . . but she kept that to herself. She knew that wouldn't go over well. Besides, the hatred wasn't intended toward Alan anyway, so she just slowed down and pulled the car over, opting for a different response. Leaving the keys in the ignition, she got out, slammed the door as hard as she could, and began to walk down the shoulder of the road. He sat there, watching her for a second, and then he got out of the car.

"Where are you going?" he shouted to her back.

"I'm walking. Leave me the hell alone," she shouted in return, not even turning around.

"Ellie," he more or less shouted, as she kept walking.

"You drive the damn car home if you're just a great driver," she yelled, still not turning around.

He sighed and gave a quick look around the area. They were only about a third of the way home, so there was no way he was going to let her walk. It was getting darker earlier now, and he knew he wasn't going to let her walk in the dark alone. He limped to the driver's side of the car and got in. He hadn't driven since the accident, and it was very awkward trying to drive in the spur of the moment. After starting the car back up, he drove it to where she was and slowed down, the best he could with his left leg. He rolled down the passenger-side window.

"Ellie, please get in."

She didn't look at him. She walked faster.

"I'm not leaving without you," he said.

Suddenly, she stopped and looked in his direction. There were a few tears streaming down her cheek, but she didn't look sad in the least. She looked very angry.

"Just leave me alone. Go home."

"I'm sorry for what I said, okay?"

"It's not that. I just want to be left alone. So go," she said, starting to walk again.

"It'll be dark before you get home," he said, slowly following her in the car.

"I don't care," she said.

"You don't care?" Alan repeated.

Ellie stopped again, but this time she didn't look quite as mad.

"Just give me a second, will you? I need to collect my thoughts and be mad at the world for a minute, if that's not too much to ask, damn it."

Alan simply nodded, which was the best thing for him to do. If he would have attempted to say anything more, it would have surely gone bad. Women were a mystery to him on several levels, this being one of them. He sat in the car, watching her walk a little, and then stop, and then walk again. After about twenty minutes, she finally came back to the car and got into the passenger seat.

"Want me to drive?" she asked, not looking at him.

"I think I can do it," he answered.

She nodded and still made a point not to look in his direction. He slowly reached his hand toward her, gently touching her cheek. She didn't seem to mind that, so he moved his hand to her chin and turned her head toward him. There were a few tears streaming down her face again, but she didn't look angry now. Only sad.

"Let's go home," he whispered, as he smiled at her.

That smile of his almost always worked wonders on her mood, and right now was no exception. She slowly gave in, as a smile of her own developed.

"Oh, that's much better. I like this face a lot better," he observed.

She scooted over and got very close to him. He moved his arm, allowing her to rest against him, and then he wrapped it around her. All she could think of were two things; she didn't have a real reason for lashing out at him just a few minutes ago, and their different career choices were forcing them to go in separate directions for the foreseeable future.

"I don't want the summer to end," she sighed.

"I wish I could do something about that," he said, caressing her hair.

"You seem to fix everything else. Why can't you do this one simple thing for me?" she joked.

He laughed and continued the drive home, holding the woman he loved so dearly.