What a Pain! – Chapter Fourteen
To say Mike was surprised to see Frank Belton was an understatement. "Wonder what he wants," he thought. He released his grip on the drapes and hobbled over to open the door.
"Hi, F-frank. What can I do for y-you?"
The police officer nodded, barely noticing the fading stutter that Mike still struggled with. "Mike. Nice to see you up and around again. What's with the crutch, did you hurt your leg too?"
"Nah," Mike replied, "I'm still a l-little shaky on m-my feet from the head injury. It just helps m-me keeep my bal-ance."
"I see," Belton said, "Hey, um, can I come in for a minute?"
"Sure, sure y-you can." Mike stepped carefully out of the way and let Belton enter. "H-have a seat."
Mike motioned toward the chair in the living room and followed Belton. He gingerly let himself down on the sofa with a grunt, mindful of his still-braced shoulder.
"So, th-this doesn't sound l-like a soc-social call. Some-thing wrong?" Mike inquired of the officer.
"Mike, I have some news for you that I'm pretty sure you don't want to hear," Frank said soberly, "and it has to do with the fire."
Stoker's eyes widened in surprise. "Yeah? What's g-going on?"
"Well, first I should ask you, have you recalled anything else from the fire before you fell down the stairs? I should say, do you have any more recollection of the men who pushed you?"
Mike shook his head as his mind began to wander back to the day he was injured. His short-term memory hadn't been affected by the head injury as much as it could have been, but try as he might, no further details came to him...yet.
"No. It a-all happened prrretty fast. One m-minute I was heading up the stairs and the next, two g-guys came charg-ing down at me and sh-shoved me out of their way." He frowned, "I th-think one of them e-even stepped on me after I fell." He sucked in a short breath, "Wait..." Mike squinted as he concentrated, then placed his head in his hand. "Th-they were wearing shorts and um, one haaad on a green shirt." He looked up again, and sighed, "That's all I can re-memm-ber, I'm sorry."
Belton made a disappointed face, "Okay. Well, in that case, I'll proceed. After the fire was extinguished and the crew was doing clean-up, a body was discovered in the closet in the upstairs bedroom. It was a man, about thirty-five or so, wrapped in a tarp. He'd been shot in the head...murdered. We've been chasing leads ever since the fire and last night, we found one of the guys involved. He's admitted to being there, but swears the other guy pulled the trigger. Problem is, he says he doesn't know where the other guy is, and he told us that his buddy's been hiding out because he thinks you can identify him."
"Aw, sh-shit, Frank. What are you saying; that th-this dude mmmight be looking for me?" Stoker let out a breath as he tentatively ran a hand over the bandage on the side of his head.
"Well, yeah, maybe. We haven't located him yet, and the other guy said he thinks his pal skipped town, but he's not for sure. Therefore, we aren't sure either, ya' know?"
Mike whispered, "So...the fire w-was in-tention-al? To hide the b-body? That must have b-been the popping sound I heard." He was startled by the memory of that sound and his eyes met Belton's.
"Yeah, that was probably it." Belton agreed.
"Yeah...I just...I r-remem-ber hearing a sssound before I went in the house. I, uh, already s-saw the smoke, but I figured the pop was some-thing catching fire."
"Yeah, well, I wish that was all there was to it. There's more, Mike. It seems this guy, Eddie Jordan is his name, is a suspect in more than one of these incidents. In fact, we think he's killed four other people, and one of them was a cop. He's got some gun running thing going on and he's determined to not get caught," Belton grimly reported. "I'll tell you, this Jordan guy's a real bad one."
Sir Pain strolled in and hopped up on the sofa and head-butted his way into Mike's lap. Mike leaned back against the sofa and allowed the cat to have his spot. He stroked the cat's head absently, as he thought about what the police officer had just told him. As if he didn't have enough to worry about! His head swam with the thought of some creep "out there" looking for him, more than likely wanting to kill him. His heart started to race and he was beginning to feel nauseated. "F-frank?" Mike gasped, "Uh, c-could you hel-p me up?"
"Sure, Mike, lemme give you a hand." Mike gently shoved Sir Pain off his lap as Belton assisted Stoker to his feet. He watched as Mike made his way quickly to the bathroom, his crutch thumping on the floor. The door closed and shortly after, the sounds of retching were heard. Belton hung his head sadly; this was not going well. He heard the doorbell ring and turned in time to see Captain Stanley let himself in.
"Stoker? I'm here for the night," Hank called out. He was surprised to see Officer Belton standing in the hall. "Hello, Frank, why are you here? Everything okay?"
Belton shook his head 'no' and rehashed the whole sordid tale to Mike's captain.
Hank whooshed out a breath. "Aw, geez. He sure as hell doesn't need this." I'll go check on him.
Stanley walked with some trepidation toward the bathroom, and knocked lightly on the oak door. "Mike? It's Hank. You okay in there?"
Inside, Mike was sitting on the floor, his head in his hands. He was sweaty and nauseous and...scared. "Ugh, oh, C-cap. I, uh, I'm o-okay. I'll...be out in a mmminute."
Sir Pain sauntered up behind Captain Stanley and sat regally beside the door. He neither purred nor even seemed to acknowledge Hank whatsoever. Sir Pain knew where his favorite human was, and would simply sit and wait for him to exit that room.
Cap wiggled the doorknob and realized it wasn't locked. "Michael? I'm going to come in."
Upon entering, he knelt down at Mike's side. "Mike? Hey, you okay? How about we get you into the living room, eh?" he said, gently.
Mike nodded. "Y-yeah, thanks Cap." He weakly held up his hand and Hank pulled him to his feet. Pausing long enough to rinse his mouth of the foul taste, Mike then grabbed his crutch and hobbled slowly to the living room with Hank on his other side, assisting.
Once he was back resting on the sofa, Hank asked, "Mike, should I call Dr. Early?"
"Nnno, Cap, I'll b-be okay, don't c-call Dr. Ear-early," he pleaded. "I...I just got a li-little shook up."
"Okay, but let me take your pulse and BP. I was going to do it anyway, let's just take it now," Hank reasoned.
Mike complied, and Hank took the BP cuff and began. "Looks okay, Mike. A little high maybe, but considering the circumstances, I don't think we need to worry," he said calmly. He proceeded to write everything down on the paper that was used to log Mike's readings each day. "Why don't you lie down Mike, and I'll get you something to drink."
"Y-yeah, okay Cap, thanks," Mike whispered. He wasn't in the mood for any more chat and closed his eyes. The headache that was in the background all day was moving to the forefront and he needed to sleep.
"Listen, Mike," Belton told him, "I'm going back to the police station and see if we can arrange a watch for your house. Obviously, we don't want this to cause any more strain than absolutely necessary. I'll make sure a car drives past several times a night. If I hear any word that Jordan's back in town, we'll have a car posted in front of the house 24/7."
Mike nodded numbly and closed his eyes. "Thanks, Frank," he mumbled.
"I'll see you out," Cap told Belton and got up to walk him to the door.
When he returned, it appeared to Cap that Stoker was sleeping, a grimace on his face. As Hank sat down in the chair, Mike stirred a little, opened his eyes halfway and looked wearily at his captain.
"At least Mom and J-Jeannie are g-gone."
"Yeah," Hank agreed quietly. He couldn't imagine how Mike was feeling right then. It was incredibly unfair that Mike would have done what he did thinking he would be helping someone, only to have one of those people try to hurt Mike in return. At least he wouldn't have to worry about his mother and sister being nearby should something actually happen.
He pulled the blanket up to Mike's chest, patted him on the shoulder and allowed him to rest. He watched as Sir Pain crept slowly across the back of the sofa and stepped down to rest on the top of the pillows behind Mike's head. The man sighed, reached up to pet the cat, and smiled as he fell asleep.
The fire captain sat and watched, mulling over the newest development. "What on earth has happened? This situation has gone from the frying pan right into the fire. They have got to find this Jordan guy before something else happens; Mike shouldn't have to pay any more for doing the right thing," he thought as he watched his friend sleep.