Chapter 5 #2
If she hadn’t been looking right at Janice when she said that, she would have missed her face turning an angry shade of red.
Blustering about how she was on a fixed income and could barely afford her own house payment, much less one on a house that she was renting, Lisa decided that she’d had enough.
She told her that she knew she owned the house and shouldn’t have been charging so much, as she was related to her.
“You’re not related to me at all since you asked.
Davy is my grandson, and that’s as far as I’m going to allow you around me.
All this intrigue is for the birds. Tell me where you live, or I’ll have to call the police on you.
You’ve taken my grandson away from me, and I’m not going to tolerate it.
” She snorted, thinking that was the craziest thing she’d ever heard.
Instead of getting into it with her, she went to the tables to make sure they were ready for the afternoon crowd.
Or whoever might come in needing a good meal.
Ignoring the two of them for things to keep her mind occupied, Lisa made sure that the tables were set that were usually used for dinner when five o’clock rolled around.
It wasn’t until Shanda grabbed her arm and jerked her around that she got pissed off.
“What do you think you’re doing? Unhand me.” Shanda did let her go, but she laughed while she was at it. “The two of you are insane. I’m not going to tell you where I live now even if you did call the police.”
The slap to her face was unexpected and painful. Janice had hit her and was drawing back to no doubt hit her again when Mr. Weaver, the owner of the restaurant, stepped in. He asked what was going on and if Lisa needed help. She said that she’d been hurt by Janice and that she didn’t know why.
“I’ve called the police. See what they have to say about this.
” Tasting blood on her lip, she let it go.
If she had to, she’d press charges against Janice so that she’d be arrested.
Assault wasn’t something that she had hoped would happen, but she was glad that she wasn’t healing right away.
“You’ll have to give me your address now. ”
The look on her face was priceless. She looked as if she’d won.
Lisa didn’t know how it was going to work with the police coming by, but she was willing to bet that they’d tell her that she didn’t need to give up her address.
It was personal, not something that everyone needed.
She waited on a table when a couple came in just to prove that she wasn’t upset about it.
“Hello, Lisa.” She turned around when she heard Brenin behind her and was freaked out a little that he wasn’t around.
“It’s Brenin. I should have explained earlier that we could talk to one another like this, but I forgot.
Just think of what you want to say, and I’ll hear you.
No one else needs to know that we’re talking. ”
“This is so cool.” She could feel his humor, and that made her smile. After taking her table their drinks, she told him what was going on at work. “I don’t know what the police are going to say, but I’m waiting for them to come here.”
“They won’t do anything other than arrest them both if you press charges for assault.
That’s entirely up to you. But I’d do it so that the next time she thinks hitting you is all right, she’ll think about the consequences.
” She told him that had been her plan, but she was worried about pissing her off more.
“It’s been known that pissed-off people make big mistakes.
You just do what you want, and I’ll be behind you one hundred percent.
So will the department. They’re good friends of mine and will do it for you just because they know me. But as I said, you do what you want.”
“I’m pressing charges. I don’t need to be beaten up, even for a little bit, because she doesn’t know where I live.” He said it would be easy enough for her to follow her home. “That’s what I thought too. Maybe she’s beneath that sort of thing.”
She told him about what she’d said about the house, and he laughed again.
When the police arrived, she waited until Janice and Shanda told their side of the story before Mr. Weaver said he’d seen the whole thing.
Asking if she wanted to press charges, Janice said no, but she said yes, she wanted to.
The two of them were arrested on assault charges and taken away.
She felt so good that she said that she could work until closing for Shanda, who was going to miss her shift.
Mr. Weaver said they’d be all right and laughed with her.
It was good that she’d made friends with him when she’d been hired.
~*~
Janice couldn’t believe that she’d been arrested.
She was an upstanding person of the community and didn’t care for being treated like a common criminal.
The worst part was that she still didn’t know where Lisa was living, and that burned her toast. She had to know where she was living so that she could serve her with papers about her being a bad parent.
Who moved into someone else’s home when she’d had a perfectly good one living with her? It just wasn’t right.
No matter what she did to the woman, she would always bounce back on her feet like nothing happened.
She was tired of all this shit going on and was going to have to take steps to get the boy from her.
Davy should have been with her from birth, and she nearly had her son convinced when he’d gotten himself killed.
For as much as she wanted to blame that on Lisa, too, there was no way to do it.
David had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, they’d told her, and had been killed.
She was never going to get over his death, and she didn’t understand why Lisa had.
It wasn’t right that she was moving on with her life when she was still grieving about her only child.
Davy living with her would help; she just knew that.
He was upset with her now, not wanting to cuddle any time she wanted, but he’d get over that soon enough.
A couple of little swats to his ass would have him doing as he was told.
Lisa never spanked Davy, and she didn’t understand that either.
If they had moved in with her when she wanted, he’d be trained to be her grandson the way that she wanted, and that would have been perfect.
As it was now, he was a spoiled little brat who thought that hugging her was too mushy.
Whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.
“You’re going to be in here until Thursday.
That’s when the judge comes through to see about pretrials.
” She said that she wanted out now to set her bail.
“There is no bail until you see the judge. Then, after that, you’ll have to have someone bring you the money. We don’t take credit cards, only cash.”
“That’s ridiculous. Even the library takes credit cards for late fees.
” He told her that they weren’t the library.
“No, I doubt very much you even know what that is. Have you even graduated from high school? Good lord, it’s like talking to a wall with all of you around here.
I’m glad that I’ve had no use for you before now.
It’s your fault that my son was killed, I’m betting. ”
“I knew David. He was a good man. And a better friend to all those who knew him.” She wanted to lash out at him, thinking that her son would lower himself to be friends with the likes of him.
Instead of saying anything, she went to sit on the cot.
“You have one phone call to make, and then they’ll ask you if you have an attorney.
If so, you’d best be calling him instead of anyone else.
We won’t be making phone calls on your behalf. ”
“You’ll do as you’re told, and I won’t have it any other way.
I pay my taxes, and I know that I pay your salary too.
When I want something, you’re to jump to get it.
” He simply walked away from her, and she wasn’t going to lower herself to calling him back.
“Damned police. I have no idea to this day why my son thought that it would be good for him to be a lowlife cop.”
It was a good hour before they came to tell her she could make a phone call.
Something about having a payphone was all she was able to use, and she asked them how she was supposed to make that work when she had a perfectly good cell phone that had all her numbers stored in it.
They, in the end, let her use her phone, but they didn’t leave her alone with it.
She could make one phone call, and then she’d get it taken from her again.
Damn it all to hell. She shouldn’t have been arrested in the first place, and now here she was in jail for no other reason than she had a stupid daughter-in-law.
It had occurred to her over the last several months that she should just have Lisa killed.
It would solve all her problems, and she’d have her grandson, too.
It was beginning to look like she was going to have to do something like that before it was all over, and she didn’t care for it.
Getting caught was her biggest fear. Or having Davy find out that she’d done it was something else.
He’d never forgive her for having his stupid mother killed, so she wasn’t thinking about that too much right now.
It wasn’t that she didn’t think about it, but she knew that if it came down to it, she could afford the best there was to do the job.
No more pussyfooting around, either. But not just yet.