Chapter 4
William didn’t know why his daughter was too haughty all the time.
He’d raised her just like he had the boys, and she had to turn out to be the one rotten apple in the bunch.
Of course, all she’d been good for was cooking and cleaning.
And when she’d gotten out of high school, she up and joined the Army.
She was out of reach for him for five long years, and when she returned, she was more uppity than before.
“Your lawyer is here. Do you want to talk to him here or in the conference room? Just so you know, you’re going to be recorded no matter where you go.
” He said he’d not given anyone any permission to record him.
“It’s part of you being arrested. When you came in here, you were told.
You even signed off on the paperwork that said you understood that it would happen.
Here or in the conference room? It’s entirely up to you. ”
“In the conference room. Is this one of those free lawyers? I don’t have the money for a fancy one.
Just pull someone off the street to have them with me.
I’m going to win this anyway. There is no way that she should have been able to press charges on me when she’s the one who put me in the hospital.
” He asked if she was defending herself.
“I don’t care what she was doing. She hit on her father, and that ain’t right.
I want to have her arrested for this shit. ”
“Watch your language. And you started it when you slapped her around. Then you used a hockey stick on her.” He smiled at the memory, then remembered that she’d turned it on him. That wasn’t right. “Get back against the wall.”
After he’d been put in cuffs to walk down the hallway, he saw his sons.
They were a sorry lot, the two of them. Sprawling around in their cells like they didn’t have shit to do.
They should be planning their next job, not acting like they didn’t have anything to do. He looked at Seth when he told him hi.
“What are you doing? You should be planning a way out of here. Or the next job we gotta do. Money don’t grow on leaves, you know?
If you want something, you’d better be figuring out a way to make it happen, not sitting around on your asses and acting like it’s the end of the world.
” He said he didn’t have his phone to plan with.
“Damn it, boy, don’t you have a brain? What’s this world coming to when a man needs his phone to get a job done? ”
“I just want out of here. I thought you said that Molly was going to come through for us? I’ve not seen hide nor hair of her since I was put in here.
The least she could do was come and see us.
Give us someone to talk to. But no, she’s too busy doing army shit to bother with us.
” He’d forgotten about her going back to the service.
That did put a damper on things. “You getting out? Where are you going?”
“To see my lawyer. Do you idiots have one yet? You might need them. I’m going to see about getting out by blaming this whole thing on Molly.
She had no right to knock me around like I’m not her daddy.
” He said that he knocked her around first. “I know that, but it won’t mean a hill of beans when I get her back here.
Do you suppose she’ll be back in the States soon? Dad usually knows that.”
He didn’t know what to think about his dad being in a nursing home.
He’d be getting better care, which means that he’d live longer.
He wanted to get into the house so he’d have someplace to lay his head at night.
Then there were his checks. They’d be taking all of it for themselves and not leaving a thin dime for him to use.
People were selfish like that, he thought.
Taking a man’s money when he was down. He’d have to get what he needed from Molly, and she’d better be paying up, too. No more of this shit telling him no.
The lawyer looked like he wasn’t even shaving yet. As soon as he sat down, he told him the rules as to what he was going to be doing for him. He didn’t care for rules, but he was sure that the man had said them before. He didn’t even look like he cared when he asked him about a cell phone.
“You’re not to have one when you’re incarcerated.
You have phone privileges once a day, so make that count.
” He asked how he was supposed to get in touch with him.
“I’ll be here when I have time and right before your court hearing.
Your hearing is set for ten days from today.
That should give you time to go over any notes you might have on what happened the day that you beat the young woman up. ”
“She’s my daughter, not just some random girl I seen on the streets.
That should count for something.” He said it made it worse that he was beating on his own child, as far as he was concerned.
“Well, it’s a good thing you’re supposed to be on my side, then ain’t it?
I want to know how I can be released on my own?
They had work programs for that, don’t they?
Not that I plan on working, but I have shit to do, and being behind these bars isn’t getting anything done. ”
“You’ll have ten days to figure out a job for yourself. I’ll be bringing you a newspaper so that you can look for one.” He said again that he didn’t want to work. “Then you’ll be in jail for that much longer. You’ll have to have employment, or you won’t be released. That’s the way things go.”
“You don’t have much in the way of good news for me, now do you?” He said his job was to try to keep him out of jail. Beyond that, he just didn’t care. “Are you going to help me all that much? You don’t seem old enough to even be out of high school, much less the colleging that you had to do.”
“I’m a board-certified attorney, which should be enough for you.
” He didn’t like him and told the man that.
“I don’t care. It’s not like we’re going to be pen pals when this is over.
You just figure out a job that you can go to when you get out, or not.
Whatever you do won’t reflect on me whatsoever.
But we have court in ten days, and you’d better have a good reason why you beat your daughter nearly to death, from what I’ve heard. ”
“She lived more to my shame.” The lawyer was making notes, but he didn’t care.
It wasn’t right that Molly had more rights than he did.
“Do you think you can sue her for me? She beat me so badly that I had to stay in the hospital for five days before I could get around. Somebody taught her how to fight dirty, too. That ain’t right. ”
“She’s in the service, I heard. They more than likely taught her how to do hand-to-hand combat to defend herself.
” He asked if they really taught her how to fight hand-to-hand like that.
“I would imagine. She would have all kinds of training to make sure that someone didn’t get the better of her.
She more than likely can carry a gun now, too, to defend herself.
You might want to keep that in mind the next time you encounter her.
She’s going to be dangerous to be around. ”
“There’s no way that she’d shoot her dad.
” He told him that he would if he had to defend himself against someone bigger than him.
“She’s a little bitty thing, my daughter, but like I said, she fights dirty.
Like she knew just where to punch me when I was down.
” The man didn’t say anything but continued to make notes on shit.
William thought of something that he needed.
“How do I get me a pencil and paper to use while I’m waiting for my day in court? I could use it to find me a job, too.”
“I have a newspaper for you now that you can look in. And a pencil that you can borrow right now, but I’m going to get it back from you before I leave.
” He handed him the smallest pencil he’d ever seen and the newspaper section that was devoted to jobs.
“You need to at least make it known that you’re job hunting and have an interview with a place of employment before the court date. ”
“I’ll look, but I’m not going to find nothing.
Who is going to hire someone in jail? Nobody.
That’s why I don’t have me a job in the first place.
” It was a lie. He’d never worked a day in his life and wasn’t planning on getting a job either if he could help it.
“What does it mean here that they’ll hire most anyone that has a driver’s license?
I have one, but it’s been expired longer than I think I knew how to drive. ”
“How have you been getting around?” He told him he had a car, didn’t he? “I have no idea what you have or don’t have, but if you’re driving on an expired license, then that’s going to be more trouble than just beating up your daughter.”
“We won’t tell him that part then. I’ll just have to make do like I usually do.
My dad has some checks coming to me. When can I expect them to get to me?
” He asked what kind of money that his father owed him.
“His monthly check. Usually, I just go over and get them, but he’s in a nursing home now, and I didn’t give them permission to take them from me.
He’s all right to be in there; my daughter can pay for that.
But I have plans for his check every month, and that don’t mean he gets to spend it on himself. ”
“You take your father’s Social Security check each month?
” He said only when he can get to the mailbox before he does.
“You steal it right out of his mailbox? Do you have any idea how bad that is? You can go to prison just for that. And please don’t tell me that you knock him around for it when he gets to it before you do. ”