Chapter 8 #2
“Not going to happen, I’m afraid. I told you before that I’m not giving you any of our money.
I like being a wealthy man, and sharing with someone like you doesn’t make me feel good about myself.
” He asked why he should care how he feels.
“Because I’m the one who has all the money that you want.
You should have just asked for it. I wouldn’t have given you any, but I would have gone about getting you out of my hair a lot easier on you.
” He asked him if he meant prison. “Oh no, you’d have gone to prison or died, either one would have been good with me, but I might not have put you away for so long.
You’re going to be gone for a long time, thanks wholly to all the guns you had in your apartment.
That was just stupid of you. From what I’ve gathered, you get years added onto your sentence for every gun and weapon you have.
That’s going to be about a thousand years, I’m thinking. ”
Robocop told him it was time to go talk to his lawyer.
He didn’t know what he’d say to the man, he was going to prison for a long time, and he didn’t even have any deals he’d like to cut with them.
As soon as he was seated across from a man he’d never met before, he broke down.
This wasn’t the way things were supposed to go for him.
Richard was supposed to have everything that he wanted and all the money in the world.
Now he was going back to prison, and they might not let him out until he was too old to care about money.
He was told to plead guilty to all charges and hope that he didn’t get life without parole.
Since this was his third time going to prison, they could throw the book at him, and there was very little that he could do about it.
His life sucked right now, and he blamed it squarely on his daughter’s head.
“She did this to me.” The lawyer, he didn’t even ask his name, asked him who he was talking about. “My daughter. She has all the money and won’t even share it with her own father.”
“You didn’t ask, you demanded, correct?” He asked him how he knew that. “I’ve seen your kind before. You want what she has, and you don’t care how you were going to get it. Is that about right?”
“She should have wanted to share with me.” The man just nodded like he’d heard it all before.
“What do you know? She’s worth millions of dollars, and I only wanted my fair share of it.
She didn’t have to give it all to me.” Which was another lie he told himself.
He wanted it all and for her to keep paying until she was as broke as he was most of the time.
He didn’t even know how he was supposed to have taken it from her.
It wasn’t like he could have forced her to turn it over.
He didn’t have any special power to make her do it.
He just wanted it and expected her to turn it right over to him without a word.
Like that was going to happen, he told himself.
“Someone should have pointed that out to me before. How was I supposed to make her turn over the money when she had lawyers and shit doing what she wanted.” He asked if he’d spoken to a lawyer.
“Just you. And I’m sure you would have told me to leave her alone, wouldn’t you have?
Like that would have stopped me. I told her that I was going to kill her when I couldn’t even get close enough to her to see what color eyes she had. I should have been told.”
“Like you said, it wouldn’t have done you any good.
You were hell bent for leather on trying to get her money, and no one would have been able to convince you otherwise.
You had to learn that lesson on your own.
” He told him he was still going to try to get something from her.
“I doubt that it would work. People get rich because they’re smart enough to keep it.
You wouldn’t have been able to get past them to get a quarter.
And you trying would have gotten you killed.
No, you’re better off not getting the money.
You might well live longer in jail had you just given up.
Who was that, anyway, that you tried to rob? ”
“The Valley men.” The lawyer whistled and shook his head. “I guess you might have heard about them being from around here.”
“You bet we’ve all heard about them. And they’re not worth millions but billions upon billions of dollars.
They own more stock and gems in one state than most people do all over the world.
You were right in not getting money from them.
People have been trying for decades to get a piece of them.
To no avail.” He said that his daughter was married to one of them.
“If you’ve gotten on their bad side, then I’d say even that wouldn’t get you into their realm of family money.
They hold family dear to them unless you screw up.
And I’m assuming that you have. Screwed up, I mean. ”
“I guess I did.” He was more depressed than he’d ever been, and now he knew that his plans of being king of the mountain weren’t going to happen either. “I don’t suppose you’d ask them for bail money for me, would you?”
“I can ask, but I’d not count on it.” No, he wouldn’t either. Richard was going back to prison, and there was little to nothing he could do about it. “I tell you what, I’ll ask and see what happens. What do you say?”
“I’d say he’s going to laugh in my face.” He reached out to the man he’d been talking to earlier and asked for bail money. The laughter was all the answer he needed to tell the young man with him to forget it. He was getting no help from that quarter.
~*~
Kendrick felt good about himself. He’d done what he’d set out to do and got Dick out of their lives. The very fact that it had cost him nothing was an unexpected bonus that he’d not counted on. He looked at Sharon when she said his name.
“Are you still talking to him?” He told her he’d asked for bail money. “I hope you turned him down. Like I want him out and about terrorizing us until he gets back to his place. I’m to understand that he’s going back today.”
“Yes. I don’t know all the charges, but the gun stipulation is going to get him the most time.
I didn’t know that once you were an ex-con, you were forever one.
I mean, about the guns that he had. He had a lot of them, too.
They were stashed all over the house and garage.
” Sharon asked about Helena. “I don’t know much about her at all.
I tried to pay attention to the charges, but she has a lot going against her, too.
I don’t know the law as well as Conri does, and he said that he doesn’t have the charges all down pat anyway.
I’m just hoping for life. With that, he’ll serve at least twenty years, I’m hoping.
I did hear one of the officers say that this is his third time in prison, so I’m not entirely sure what’s going to happen with that.
I was only an attorney for a short time, and I didn’t care for it. That’s why I became a doctor.”
For the rest of the morning, he monitored Dick.
He was told to plead guilty to all charges in order to get a reduced sentence, but he didn’t know by how much.
The cop who was in charge wanted him to go for several life sentences, but he didn’t know how that was going to work.
He’d only been running a successful prostitution ring and not killed anyone.
That he knew of anyway. The man in charge had been watching the place for a month before he’d called in a tip and was happy that things were going as well for him as they could.
The entire complex was going to be arrested before things were over.
It was all over the local newspaper and his hometown paper on how he’d been caught with the goods.
Kendrick was at work when he heard from Dick again.
He wanted to know if Sharon would fill his bank for him at the prison.
He didn’t know what she’d want to do and told him that.
Dick said that otherwise, he was going to have to get a job.
Kendrick told him that he should apply for the job; he wasn’t going to be lazy while he was in the prison.
It sounded like he was ready to go to prison if he was making arrangements for his bank for snacks and such.
It was going to be hard on him this time, as he was much older and didn’t get around as well as he used to.
Kendrick had noticed, too, that his knees seemed to be hurting him, but never said anything.
The few times he’d seen him around town, he’d also noticed how gray the man was.
Even his beard, a short, taken care of one, was white gray colored.
“You won. The least you can do is provide me with a few snacks to have when I’m back in prison.
” Kendrick told him he was never in a position to lose.
“I thought you’d say that. I don’t know how I was going to make this work with you two.
I had high hopes that you’d just turn the money over to me and be done with me. ”
“I’m smarter than that. I’ve been around a good long time and don’t mess with people who think that I’m a sap and will give my money away.
I never had any intentions of giving you anything.
I would have ended up killing you for sure, so you should count yourself lucky that it didn’t come to that.
I would have made you suffer.” He pointed out that he was suffering now.
“Not nearly as badly as I would have played with you as my wolf. I would have killed you after I got bored with you, but not before. You’re lucky that you ended up where you are and not dying by my hand. ”