External Repercussions
By: CNJ
PG-13
3:
Raymond:
I just could not believe I just spent the night sitting in a jail cell. I waited for Kathleen or Grieb to come with the bail, but so far as of eight this morning, neither one of them has shown. I blew out my breath in disgust and sit on the hard, narrow cot. A fat Asian guy turns and glares at me. I glare back. That guy's been seriously annoying me all night. First, he snored like a mack truck, keeping me awake all night, then when he woke up, he just sat and gave me dirty looks.
"No daddy to give you your bail, weasel?" The guy taunts in a gravelly. I don't dignify the fat jerk with an answer and just stare straight ahead. If only they had a TV in this stinking place, but of course they don't. I snort ironically at the situation I'm in...I made my career out of nailing criminals like that creep Peck and that stupid idiot Van Stretch and now because of the fricking, incompetent LAPD, I'm the one who got nailed and am now sitting in the can. Where the hell was Grieb? Or Kathleen? Oh, don't tell me they decided to leave me hanging here.
I got up and kicked the bench a few times. "If you're gonna throw a fucking tantrum, don't do it on this bench...take it elsewhere," the guy snarled. I fought back an urge to slug him and paced back and forth, slamming my fist into my hand and growing more and more frustrated. I can't believe my idiot of a wife refused to stand by my, so partly because of her, I'm in jail.
Kathleen:
"Mom...Dad...it looks like I'll have to stay here a while," I told them straight out the next morning as I sat down to breakfast with them.
"How long is a while?" Dad asked.
"Couple of weeks or so...maybe a month," I told them, running a hand through my curly brownish blond hair. As usual, this stupid hair's all over the place. "My husband's really been a jerk lately and I got word that he's in jail for killing that other cop and I'm thinking of leaving him."
"If you split from Ray, it looks like you may be here more than 'just a few weeks,'" Mom put in as she forked her bacon. "Are you going to afford your own place again after a month or two? And what about divorce court costs? How will you pay for them?"
"I don't know," I confessed. "But I'll think of something." I had a job at an art gallery as a tour guide, but it really didn't pay too much. It wasn't poverty wages, but it wasn't a high salary either; I wasn't sure if I'd be able to afford my own place any time soon.
The doorbells chimed then. Mom got up to get it. It was Ray's parents. "Hello, Kathleen...hello...," they greeted.
"I'm Mrs. Ellen Marks and this is my husband John Marks," my mother introduced herself. We're Kathleen's parents. Nice to meet you."
"We're Juan and Carlotta Avila and are Raymond's parents," Ray's mother told us. "We're here regarding our son, especially the unfortunate fix he seems to have gotten himself into."
We all got up and sat in the living room and I sighed and told them all about Raymond's stupidity and the embarrassing scene he made in the restaurant, but left out my sleeping with Dennis. I just put that Raymond thought I was flirting with Peck and that's what made him fly into a jealous snit and kill Peck and land himself in jail. I also told him about Amy's injury also.
"Poor souls..." Carlotta shook her head, over the cops that had been killed or injured. "And our son thought he'd fix things by adding more killing."
"I think he just wanted a quick ass-nailing," I snorted. They gave me a long look a minute. "Well, if you're still interested in bailing your son out..." I told them which jail his butt was in. I guess it satisfied them because they left, I guess to bail Raymond out.
Raymond:
"What I don't get is how could you sink so low to Peck's level!" My dad exclaimed over lunch. My parents had been the one to come and finally bail me out of that dump. But they'd taken me out to lunch to lecture me on how stupid I'd allegedly been.
"Easy..." I snapped back. "The slime was sleeping with my wife and loved getting me riled up! He threw her underwear in my face, for crying out loud, all right?" I figured I'd get a grilling from my staid folks, but I'd hoped they'd try to understand a little bit. "And that lousy excuse of an LAPD was dragging its feet. Was I supposed to just stand there and grin while that jerk Peck seduced my wife?"
"As an officer of the law, it's your obligation to comport yourself with a dignity ABOVE civilians," Mom told me quietly. Maybe so, but...
"I don't know how much we can help you with this trial," Dad put in. "I'll help you with your legal bills and refer you to a lawyer, but you need to help this lawyer put together a convincing case for your acquittal." I nod, sighing at the thought of a long trial ahead for me.
The rest of the day went from bad to downhill from there. Grieb finally called, but it was to tell me that I'd been suspended from the force pending the trial. "Thanks a heap," I bit back bitterly before I hung up. I finally got back home and called for Kathleen. One look in our closet told me that she'd packed and left. Her huge wardrobe of clothes were completely gone.
"Shiiiiiiit!" I screamed, slamming the closet door and kicking over some furniture. I stormed into the kitchen and fixed myself a tequila. But I put too much salt in it and it tasted like crap, so I hurled the glass into the wall and watched with dim pleasure at it shattered like the earlier glass. I was still fuming, so I grabbed a bunch of other glasses off the rack and hurled them into the wall and watched them explode into shards. Thanks to that bastard Peck, I'd lost nearly everything. I then remembered Amy. Maybe she could get some sense into my mess. Until now, I didn't really appreciate how intelligent she truly was and a good problem solver.
Heaving to calm down, I then dialed the hospital and was connected to her room. At first, her mom answered and was a bit slow about putting her on, but finally did.
"Oh, Raymond...why?" was the first thing she said. I heard the high whimper in her voice. She'd heard...what? And was she crying?
"What have you heard?" I demanded.
"Grieb...called and told me what you did with Peck...oh, I can't believe it..." God, she was actually crying! She really was in tears. I heard her sob several times over the line.
"Amy...are you actually crying?" I asked. There was a long pause and a sniffle. I then knew that Grieb had told her everything. But I couldn't believe she was actually bawling over this mess. I was the one who'd spent the night in jail, not her!
"Of course I'm crying..." she said quietly, her voice a bit lower, but very shaky now and she sniffled again. "I really thought you were better than this, Ray...I'm so sorry...I thought..."
"You thought what?" I was totally flabbergasted at this. I'd maybe expected her to lecture me some, then start telling me about various legal routes I could take to better my chances of acquittal and maybe show some gratitude that I'd given that Peck bastard a taste of his own medicine. But I was not prepared for her to be all weepy and emotional over this and sobbing on and on about how I should have been "better" than Peck. God.
"I thought you'd...b-b-be above...P-P-Peck's...m-m-mentality..." Amy blubbered. I heaved a gusty sigh. "J-Jesus fucking...C-christ..." Amy carried on.
"Sheeeeeeshhhhhhhhh..." I muttered. Now she's going off on this psychology-mentality comparison nonsense. I actually wondered if maybe Peck's bullet had affected her brain after all. I heard her take a shaky breath as if she was trying to pull herself together. "Are you going to keep crying over this?" I said, attempting to make my voice patient and calm as to avoid making her even more upset than she is.
"I'm trying to quit..." Amy sobbed again. "C-crying...it just breaks my heart...I'm sorry, Ray...s-sorry for flooding over this way, but it's just been an upsetting few days for us...all of us."
"Yeah, I can see...my parents are here and they're all upset too," I said. We made small talk for a while, unable to talk about anything else. I was still a bit uncomfortable because although she'd quit the waterworks for now, I could still hear tears in her voice.
"Ray...I'll see what I can say for your trial..." Amy told me. "B-but...I can't condone..." Oh, Christ, here come her tears again. "I c-can't cover for you again...I'm sorry...and I'm...I'm so sorry it's come to this..." her voice broke then and I knew her waterworks had started all over again.
"Sure, bye, Amy..." I said. "Hope you recover soon." I hung up. It sounded like she needed not only to physically recover, but get herself together emotionally also...because with all that I'm dealing with, I don't need Sergeant Amy Wallace weeping all over me on top of this.
More later!