Chapter 12
The sun was bright, so she started a pot of coffee and pulled out her favorite mug. She couldn’t spend a lot of time dawdling, though. If she was going to see Nate, she’d have to hurry up to shower and dress. He’d be expecting her, and she didn’t want to disappoint her boy.
As she waited for the coffee to brew, she thought about that slut and that guy she was screwing.
How dare Gina bring someone else into their home around her grandkids!
God only knew what he might be doing. Was he beating Briley?
Sexually assaulting Hadley? He was probably a really vile person.
He had a little girl too. What kind of mess was she with him as a dad?
She didn’t know anything about him, and she didn’t need to.
If he was hanging around with that whore of an ex-daughter-in-law, he had to be trash.
She crossed the front of her robe and tied the belt, then poured a cupful and headed for the back porch.
Her yard was nothing great, but it was quiet out there, and she liked to sit in her rocking chair on the little deck and plot ways she could make Gina’s life miserable.
Her plan to have Hadley snatched and brought to stay with her had failed.
She knew the girl wanted to live there with her, away from her slutty mother and that guy.
It was only a matter of time before the police showed up at her door over that, and she’d just have to straighten them out!
They should be investigating Gina and that bastard screwing her instead of a grandmother who wanted to protect her grandkids!
The key for the back door was on a nail up at the top corner of the door facing, so she took it down and put it in the lock, turned it to unlock the door, pulled it out, hung it back on the nail, and turned the knob.
And nothing happened.
She tried again. Nothing. The door didn’t open. She bent down slightly to look at the striker on the doorknob and when she turned the knob, it disappeared into the body of the door. The lock was working properly. Why wouldn’t the door open?
There had to be something jamming it. She set her cup of coffee down and went straight to the front door to try it.
Same thing. “What the hell is going on?” she asked aloud as she tried again and again to open the door.
She finally grasped the doorknob with both hands and threw all her weight into pulling it, but the knob flew off in her hand and her butt smacked the living room floor as she went down.
“Okay, what the fuck is going on here?” she mumbled. It was hard to climb up from the floor, but she managed, and she went back to the back door and did the same thing. After a considerable amount of tugging and pulling, she gave up and went to the window.
It wouldn’t open either. Margie went from window to window in the house, trying every one of them, but none would open, not even the one in the bathroom.
She stood there, fuming, and thought about her wheels and tires as they’d been chained out there on the fence.
“That asshole!” she screamed to no one. “I’m calling the cops on you, you sumbitch! ”
Then she realized … If she called the police, they’d start questioning her about the thing with Hadley, and she didn’t know what she’d say.
And yet she needed to get out! How would she go to see Nate?
“What the hell do I do now?” she whispered to herself.
Every tool she had was in the garage out back—the detached garage. She couldn’t get to that stuff either.
So she did what any self-respecting woman would do—she grabbed a butter knife and the little hammer she kept in a kitchen drawer for putting picture hangers in the wall, and she went to work on the back door.
It took her almost an hour, but she finally got it open.
One look at the mess on the edge of the door and on the frame told her all she needed to know.
The storm door was sealed shut too, and it took her another forty-five minutes to get it open.
It was metal, and that was a little trickier than the wood.
After two hours, she finally had the back door open and the storm door too.
But she still had to take a shower and get ready to go.
Damn that asshole! Margie hurried to get showered and dressed, then tore out of the driveway and headed toward the penitentiary.
By the time she got there, she wouldn’t get to stay long, but the visits were just ten minutes anyway.
At least she wouldn’t disappoint Nate. That was the important thing.
When she pulled up, she already knew the drill. She went through the whole thing and when the guard looked down at her driver’s license, he smiled. “Ma’am, just as a courtesy, you do realize your driver’s license is expiring next month, right?”
“Oh! I hadn’t noticed that! Thank you so much!
” she crooned and gave him her sexiest smile.
It paid to be nice to those guys. When she’d parked and checked in at the desk, she let the guard escort her to the visitation area.
A glance around told her Nate wasn’t there yet, but it was less than a minute before a guard escorted him into one of the booths, and she headed that way and took a seat.
She hoped the smile she was wearing told him how glad she was to see him. “Hi, son!”
“Mama.” For some reason, he wasn’t smiling.
Margie tried out her “mom” smile. “How ya been, honey?”
“I’m fine. You?”
“I’m good! I almost didn’t get here today. That asshole your ex-wife is sleeping with glued all my doors and windows shut!”
Something passed across Nate’s face, and if she hadn’t known better, she would’ve sworn it was a grin. “Glued your doors and windows shut?”
“Yes! That sumbitch! I couldn’t believe it! Used that, what’s it called, potsy stuff?”
“Epoxy. He glued them shut?”
“Yeah. I don’t know how he did it, but he did. Took me forever to get the back door open. He glued the storm door too! I know it was him!”
“So what did you do that made him do something like that to you?”
“Nothin’!”
Nate sighed loudly and side-eyed her. “Mama, what did you do?”
Margie would’ve stomped her foot if she were standing. “I didn’t do nothin’!”
“Could you maybe have … I dunno, had somebody try to kidnap Hadley?”
Son of a bitch! Margie’s brain shouted. “Who told you that?”
“Kyle came to see me.”
“He WHAT? That piece of shit came to see you?” Margie screamed, and all the guards turned toward them. One headed their way, but Nate held up a hand, and the guard stopped and stood where he was, watching closely.
“Yes. He came to see me, Mama, and he’s not a piece of shit. He’s a nice guy. He really cares about Gina and the kids, and he’s—”
“Nice guy? He’s a perv and a piece of trash!”
Nate shook his head. “No. I don’t think so. I think you’ve drummed that up in your head.”
Margie leaned in toward the glass and hissed, “I can’t believe you think it’s okay for that slut to screw him under the same roof your precious little children are sleeping under!”
“Mama, you need to calm down. And you need to leave Gina and the kids alone. They deserve to have a good life. I didn’t give them that. It looks like they have somebody who can do that, and they should have a chance at happiness.”
“But they’re my grandchildren!”
“And you’re acting crazy because of it! You need to leave them alone! I mean it!”
Margie could feel her blood pressure going up. Her eyes narrowed into slits and her voice was venom. “If you won’t do something about this, I will.”
“What do you mean, do something about it?”
“Just what I said.”
“But, Mama—”
She didn’t wait for him to finish. “I’ll take care of it myself.” Then she wheeled on her heel and headed back to the door.
“Mama! Mama, what are you planning to do? Mama, don’t, please?
Leave them alone!” She could still hear Nate yelling at her as she stepped out the door.
From the corner of her eye, she could see the guards drag him out of the visitation room.
He just didn’t understand. She was doing it for him. She was doing it for her grandchildren.
But mostly, she was doing it for herself, and she didn’t think there was one damn thing wrong with that.
The store had been open for about ten minutes when the door opened and an officer strode in, his gray uniform impeccably pressed and his hat perched perfectly on his head. Gina turned and smiled. “Good morning, officer! Can I help you find something?”
“I’m looking for Gina Pritchard.”
“That’s me.”
The man opened an ID wallet and flashed her a badge. “I’m Trooper Brian Obermark, Kentucky State Police. You have an ex-husband who’s an inmate at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, correct? Nathaniel Ivitts?”
“Yes, sir.” A sick feeling of dread crept up in her throat.
“Ms. Pritchard, we got a call from the warden of the facility this morning. He said Mr. Ivitts begged the guards to let him talk to the warden until they finally called Warden Massey on the phone. Mr. Ivitts insists his mother, a Margie Ivitts, has intentions of committing some act against you, your children, and/or your male acquaintance that could be of harm to you in some way.”
“He told me he’d try to warn me if she went off the deep end.”
“Ma’am, it looks like that’s what he’s doing. Have you seen Mrs. Ivitts? Talked to her?”
“No, sir, not lately, although she tried to have my daughter abducted.”
The trooper stared at her, his brow furrowing downward. “How did we not know about this?”
“I guess the police department here thinks they’re handling it.”
“That’s a KSP matter. I’ll be contacting them for information. You said attempted?”