Out Of The Frying Pan…
Chapter 14
XIV
Judge Lewis locked the door to his office, checked the locks on his window, and drew the shades, then he poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at his desk to go through some papers. He wasn't accustomed to taking such draconian measures, but the last thing he wanted was to be surprised again by the Special Unit "creeps" in his own office. This way he could at least expect some measure of peace and comfort in knowing that he was safe from unwanted intrusions.
In the past week or so, a lot of paperwork had piled up on the judge's desk. He had had more pressing matters on his mind. But now he had time to clear up some of the backlog. Quickly reviewing a couple of liens and a divorce decree, Judge Lewis turned around and opened his file cabinet. He dropped the papers into a file labeled, "completed business" then turned around to his desk again. It wasn't there. Judge Lewis paled, as his eyes rose slowly, following the black pants legs then the black suit coats, up to the stern, rock-hard faces looking down at him in his chair.
"How… how the… how the hell did you get in here? My door was locked. My window's locked."
The agents didn't answer. Judge Lewis glanced at the door and windows. They were still locked. The shades were still pulled. He tried to swallow, but his throat was too dry. They had moved his desk, and they were standing right in front of him… all without him even being aware that they were there. The thought crossed Judge Lewis' mind that they must have already been in his office before he locked it up, hiding somewhere… but he couldn't imagine where anyone, much less three of them, could have hidden without him seeing them. It scared him. Seriously.
"Horace, haven't we been paying you enough? What can we do to get your attention?" one of the agents finally said in a voice that sounded more like a threat than a question.
"I'm… I'm fine. I mean… you've paid me plenty…"
"Well, see, Judge, that's what we were thinking, too, but we don't seem to be getting anything back from you."
"I've tried. Believe me, guys, I've tried to get rid of the girl for you. Sheriff Valenti is always in the way. You know I'm no fan of Jim Valenti… and what you do with the Parker girl… Hey, that's your business. She's only trouble for me… and for this town."
"I'm glad you feel that way, Judge," the second agent said, "because you have another chance coming up… Oh yeah, I'm supposed to tell you, it's your last one."
Judge Lewis tried again to swallow, but his throat muscles would not cooperate. Other muscles seemed more obliging, however…
"Do I hear water running?" the first agent asked.
The third agent nodded toward Judge Lewis and stepped back a couple of steps. The first agent looked at Judge Lewis' pants leg and right shoe, which appeared to be filling up with water, and wrinkled his nose but said nothing.
"Judge," the second agent said, picking up the conversation, "The Parker girl and that boy that's with her are going to be leaving the hospital today."
"Well, I'll stop them," Judge Lewis replied. "I'll keep them there. You can have your guy at the hospital do whatever he's going to do… I don't want to know anything. Just make sure it looks… natural… that I'm not implicated."
"Now Judge, what makes you think anything is going to happen to them? We didn't say that."
"I… I didn't mean that anything bad was going to… I just meant… I just… I meant that I trust you. I'll do whatever you want to keep them there."
The agent shook his head. "Too late for that. Our guy at Roswell General was… let's say, compromised."
"Deceased," the first agent added.
Judge Lewis tried again to swallow, but his throat was still too dry. All the moisture seemed to have already gone elsewhere, following the path of gravity.
"No, Judge, we don't want you to keep them there. We have another plan for you. Don't screw it up."
**********
After successfully hacking into General Hawkins' computer and reading the notes he had on Liz, Jim Valenti rushed back from his office to the hospital. He wanted to be there when Liz and Alex were released, and he already knew that was going to be after the doctor saw them at 6 PM. It was 5:45 now. Jim parked his official vehicle outside the entrance and met Deputy Hansen, then he and Amy went inside with Hansen, walking quickly down the hall to Liz's room. The doctor was just finishing his checkup, and Jeff and Nancy Parker were with them.
"You look… perfectly healthy, Liz. I don't know why you and Alex were in a coma."
"I told you, Doc, we were just asleep. We were studying for midterm exams… well, Alex was. I was helping him study for his exams… and we… I guess we just went to sleep. We were very tired. You know how we teenagers push our limits, Doc. I guess that's what we did. We just exhausted ourselves and went to sleep."
"Well, Liz, I've never seen anyone just go to sleep and nobody be able to wake them up for three days before. But all my tests have found nothing that would explain it, so I have to put down that you passed out due to… sleep deprivation. I'm not sure I believe that, but it's the only answer I have for now. We've tested both of you exhaustively, and…"
"And we're both fine, right?"
The doctor shrugged. "It looks like it. I'm releasing you both. I checked Alex out right before I checked you."
Liz smiled.
"Hello, Jeff… Nancy," Jim said. "I guess you get to take Liz home now."
Jeff smiled. "Yeah. I'll feel a lot better when she's back home, Jim. Hi, Amy."
Amy smiled at Jeff and took Nancy's hand. "Hi, Jeff."
"I know. I will, too," Jim said. "The Whitman's are with Alex. Hansen and I are going to accompany you home. I'll escort you, and Hansen will escort the Whitman's. I figure an official presence may help to discourage any… problems along the way… not that there should be any, but just to be safe."
"Thanks, Sheriff." Jeff patted Jim on the arm.
"You ready to go, Liz," Jeff asked. Liz nodded.
A nurse walked into the room pushing a wheelchair. "I'll take you out to the car, honey."
Jeff picked Liz up and put her into the chair, and the nurse pushed it out into the hall and then down toward the lobby. As they passed Alex's room, they heard him complaining.
"I'm fine. I don't need to sit in a wheelchair."
"I know," the nurse said, "but it's hospital policy. We wouldn't want you to go to sleep again and fall over and hit your head before you got outside the hospital."
"Is that medical sarcasm," Alex asked.
The nurse smiled.
"Come on, Alex," Liz said. "Sit in the chair. Let's get out of here."
Alex grinned and nodded slowly. "Alright… if it'll get me out of here any sooner, I'll sit in your chair and let you push me."
Alex's nurse pushed him out into the hall beside Liz.
Alex looked at Liz and grinned. "You want to race?"
"Young man!" his nurse said sternly. The nurse pushing Liz's chair tightened her grip on Liz's chair intuitively, just in case Liz decided to accept Alex's challenge.
"Just a little wheelchair drag race down to the lobby?" Alex asked the nurse, winking at Liz.
The nurse raised her eyebrows and gave him a mortified look. Liz giggled.
"I'd win," Liz said quietly, with a smile. "I've had more practice."
"Young lady!" Alex's nurse said, with a bit of exasperation. "Please do not encourage him."
Liz winked back at Alex and sighed dramatically. "I'll be so glad to get back home. This place is no fun at all."
"None at all," Alex agreed.
The nurses pushed the two chairs out of the hospital and left them momentarily with Jim, Amy, and Hansen, while they waited for Jeff and Nancy and the Whitman's to bring their cars around.
Jim smiled at Alex and Liz. "You two should be ashamed of yourselves."
Jeff pulled up with Nancy, and the Whitman's pulled up right behind them. Jeff got out and opened the door then picked Liz up to put her in, but before he could, somebody shut the door.
"Sorry, can't let you do that," a voice said.
Jeff looked up to see Judge Lewis standing there. Jim grabbed Judge Lewis brusquely by both arms and forcibly moved him aside. Already angry with Judge Lewis for so rudely closing the car door as he was putting Liz in, Jeff glared at the judge.
"Judge! What the hell do you think you're doing? I'm putting Liz in the car! Open that door back!"
"No you're not," Judge Lewis said. "I've got a court order… Read it yourself."
Jeff placed Liz back into her chair and swiped the paper out of Judge Lewis's hand. His face turned red, then pale, then red again.
"You're crazy," Jeff said. "You think I'm going to allow you to do this?"
Jim took the paper and read it.
"Horace, you have no authority. I'm the sheriff here. You're a judge. You're not the sheriff… you're not a deputy… you're a judge. You're out of your jurisdiction here.
"Well, see, that's why I brought these guys with me," Judge Lewis said, snapping his fingers. Immediately, six burly state troopers stepped up, and two of them took hold of the two wheelchairs.
"Dad?" Liz said, her voice shaking slightly with genuine fear. "Sheriff? …What's going on?"
Alex was already out of his chair, but one of the troopers shoved him back into it. "Sit down, son. Don't try that again."
"Try what?" Alex asked. "I just stood up!"
"Well, stay sitting down."
"Horace, I'm still the law here," Jim said sternly. "Unless you can show me something that says I've been removed from that job, I cannot let you do this." Jim took Liz's chair back from the state trooper forcibly.
"I thought you'd say that, Jim. I couldn't get the council to go along with removing you again… after the last time. Don't think I didn't try. But I got the next best thing… an order placing these two children's welfare in the hands of the state court. It's out of your jurisdiction, Jim. The order states that they are to be delivered to the mental health facility in Long Junction… today."
"That's 300 miles from here," Hansen said.
Judge Lewis nodded. "Jim, you are hereby barred from having any further contact with either Miss Elizabeth Parker or Mr. Alex Whitman."
"I'm staying with my daughter," Jeff said.
"Me, too," Nancy nodded in agreement.
"Sorry," Judge Lewis said, shaking his head. "The order bars you or the Whitman's from having any further contact with your children pending further review and/or until they've been rehabilitated."
"REHABILITATED?" Amy said loudly, her voice mirroring her feelings. "What do they have to be rehabilitated from? Judge, you need to be rehabilitated, not these kids! They haven't done anything wrong. I've got a feeling you couldn't say as much for yourself."
"Chronic drug use," Judge Lewis replied.
"Oh, you can't make that stick," Jeff said, incredulous, tearing the order up and throwing it on the ground. "Nobody will back up that cockamamie accusation!"
"They already have," Judge Lewis said. "We have at least a dozen witnesses who have either bought drugs from them or sold drugs to them. And we have their hospital record… unexplained comatose…"
"Not unexplained," Jeff said. "They were tired. That was the diagnosis."
Judge Lewis snorted. "Tired? And they slept for three days? What kind of diagnosis is that?"
"It's the official diagnosis," Amy said. "Read it yourself, you sleezebag."
"Who says these two ever sold or bought drugs," Jim asked.
"Witnesses," Judge Lewis replied smugly.
"Where did you find these witnesses?"
"That's not your concern, Jim. I found them. That's all you need to know."
"Judge, if there's a hell, you're going to rot in it," Amy said. "You know these two never bought or sold drugs. Any witnesses you have, you had to have paid them."
"You've got a sharp tongue, Ms. DeLuca. But I'm in a forgiving mood today. Be thankful."
"Horace," Jim said, "even if it were true that they were involved with drugs –and it's not!- you would have no reason to become involved unless they came before you in your court. You're a judge. Arresting them would be my job, not yours."
"Would you arrest them, Jim?"
"Hell no!"
"Well."
"Why are you involved in this, Judge, that's what I want to know. Why are you going to all this trouble?"
"For the benefit of our town's peace and honor, Jim. I have a responsibility to this town. I'm on the City Council. I'm a decent, law-abiding citizen, Sheriff! I want our town to be clean and free of this kind of thing."
"Don't make me gag," Amy said. "You're a crooked, conniving, thief… and that may very well not be all."
"You're pushing my good will, Ms. DeLuca!" Judge Lewis said, scowling at Amy. "I'd be more careful if I were you!"
"Judge, do you have an order to send me to jail?"
"No."
"Then suck it in! You can't touch me! Jim is the sheriff here. You'd need an order from the state court to do anything to me, and you don't have it!"
"That may have merely been an oversight, Ms. DeLuca," Judge Lewis said, his frustration with Amy mounting and his face reddening visibly.
"I'm sure it was," Amy said. "But until you've got a court order, you'll keep your distance!"
"And if I get a court order?"
"Just try laying your hands on me."
Judge Lewis swallowed. Something about Amy intimidated him, but he didn't know why.
Judge Lewis motioned to the state troopers. "Put them in the van. Take them to Crestview."
The troopers took the handles of the chairs, but Jim placed himself in front of them.
"Sorry, gentlemen… I can't let you do that."
"Jim, if you stand in the way of a legal state court order, you can be removed from office… no matter what the Council votes. It would be my duty to file charges and have you removed."
Jim's face turned uncharacteristically red, as he realized that he was over a barrel. If he stood his ground now, Judge Lewis would have him removed from his job for cause… and he would not be in a position to help Liz or Alex at all. And as much as it hurt Jim, he knew that the odds were against him here, even if he and Hansen were to shoot it out with these guys. They were seriously outnumbered. Besides, this fight was with Judge Lewis. Jim wasn't sure who these troopers were… they were probably merely doing their job. And then again… that might be the angle he needed to stall this…
"Judge," Jim said, "as the sheriff of Roswell, it is my sworn duty to defend all the citizens of this town. I don't know these men that you brought here. I would like to see some credentials, and then I will need to make some calls to verify who they are before I can allow them to take any citizen of this town out of Roswell."
"Oh, for God's sake, Jim! They're state troopers! Look at them! They're wearing trooper uniforms!"
"Anyone can get a trooper uniform if they've got connections, Judge… maybe even if they don't. I am sworn by law to protect our citizens."
"He's right," one of the troopers said. "He has that right."
"Well then show him your ID!" Judge Lewis said. The troopers all took their ID's out and showed them to Jim.
"Okay," Jim said. "I hope you guys will understand if I make some phone calls."
The troopers looked at each other and nodded. Judge Lewis huffed. "How long is this going to take, Jim?"
"A few days… maybe a week."
"No, no! You'll do it right now!"
"I have to be in my office to make official calls," Jim said.
"He's right," the first trooper said.
"Well, then… go with him!" Judge Lewis growled… "so you can take custody as soon as he gets his verification."
"We'll have to go with you," the first trooper said to Jim. Jim nodded, then he looked at Liz and Alex apologetically. The look on his face told Liz all she needed to know. Jim was out on a limb. He was holding the match till it burned down to his fingertips… but in the end, the flame was going to go out.
tbc
Coming next: Jim and Amy try to save Liz and Alex; and Max, Michael, and Rahn find the place where they can dig their way out of the tunnels.