Chapter 14 #4
She managed to hold it back and stumbled toward the open door.
Just as she got close to it, he gave her another shove.
She went through the open doorway, with him right behind her.
He stepped outside and ran straight into a fist. She spun and ducked, even as she turned to help, although she didn’t have a clue what she was supposed to do.
She saw someone here with Sterling, and Charlie had walked right into Sterling’s clenched fist.
Charlie was down on the ground, being held by the detective, who announced who he was, reading Charlie his rights. Sterling reached out to her and asked, “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I was being taken down to the parking lot,” she replied, “so he could shoot me down there, to avoid making so much noise up here.”
He glared down at the gunman, now sitting up and staring at him.
“Who the fuck are you?” Charlie asked.
Lindsey explained to Sterling, with a grin, “He knows about you, but you two haven’t met yet.”
Sterling frowned down at Charlie and announced, “I’m the one who owns the property. Consider yourself evicted.”
Charlie’s eyes widened. “Shit.” Then he turned to Lindsey and asked her, “Did you know about this? That they were out there?”
“No, of course not,” she snapped. “How was I supposed to know anything? I only just woke up after you knocked me in the head.”
He started to swear heavily. “And that bloody Chelsea is involved in this bullshit too, isn’t she?”
“What bullshit?” Lindsey asked in confusion.
“The plot to take the land back.”
“There is no plot to take the land back,” she cried out in frustration. “How is it that you can’t understand the simplest of things?”
At that, he made a move to go after her but came up against the detective, who shoved him onto his stomach and cuffed him.
Richard snorted. “I see you like your women compliant and very obedient,” he pointed out. “I’ll keep you the same way.”
Charlie swore at that. “Did you hear her insult me? I’ll never put up with that shit,” he snapped.
“You were trying to kill her. What do you expect her to do?” asked the detective, staring at him. “You think she’ll walk right out to her death on her own without kicking up a fuss and trying to fight for her life?”
“What the hell though? I don’t like being talked to like that.”
“Good to know,” Richard quipped. “I’ll be sure to share that with the judge.”
“He’s got a record too,” Lindsey added. “He’s done time.”
Richard grinned broadly. “Oh, has he now? That is definitely something we’ll want to take a good look at.”
When Charlie turned and glared at her, she smiled back.
“You’ve already told me how stupid I am,” she began, “so now we’ll just see how stupid you are.
” He shot daggers at her, and she added, “That land isn’t to be fought over.
It’s already been determined who owns it,” she told him, “and it’s not Penny. ”
“She knows,” Charlie muttered, with a shake of his head.
“That’s why I was trying to get out of town.
I could see the writing on the wall, even if she wasn’t willing to tell me.
” Charlie turned to Sterling. “I don’t know what the hell she did to you, or what you did to her, but she is spitting mad,” he shared.
“I’m just trying to get away.” He tested the cuffs on his hands behind his back and glared.
“You picked an interesting way to do it,” Sterling noted.
“I needed money, and Chelsea has student loan money.”
The detective frowned at him and shook his head. “Student loans are not paid out in cash, you idiot.”
Charlie’s shoulders slumped, and he nodded. “Apparently I was misled. That’s what she said too,” he replied, with a nod toward Lindsey.
“Yeah, and there’s a reason for that,” Richard declared. “So people like you can’t just take the money. That’s not how it’s done.”
“Apparently not.” Still, he glared at her and snapped, “You probably have money stashed somewhere though, don’t you?”
“No,” she snapped right back, as she stared at him. Even if she did, no way she could afford to let this guy know. “I’m sure I’m the type of person you probably really hate,” she added. “I support charities and help animals in need.”
He stared at her in shock. “Good Christ.”
“Yeah, not your style at all,” she murmured, “but somebody has to help them and has to get them away from assholes like you.”
“I don’t hurt animals,” he snapped. “They never did anything to me. And, even if they did, they wouldn’t survive long enough to need anybody’s help.”
She winced at that. “Yeah, guess I was right the first time.”
“Whatever.”
Richard led him away, just as two uniformed officers arrived to take Charlie. Sterling placed an arm around her shoulder.
“Where is Chelsea?” she asked, turning to him.
He held her close and whispered against her hair, “She’s fine. She’s at the Haven.”
She closed her eyes, buried her face against his chest, and whispered right back, “Oh, thank God.”
He grabbed both her shoulders and asked, “How the heck did you end up in trouble like this?”
She looked up at him, tears in her eyes, and whispered, “I’d called Chelsea to check on her.
We were both awkward and lonely in school, and, now knowing what a hideous mother she has, I thought I would reach out.
It seems maybe there’s a reason we came in contact again.
Anyway she invited me over for a chat when she got off work, so I came.
I walked up to the door, which was open.
I stepped inside just in time to get hit on the head. ”
“It’s a good thing she knew you were coming because she’s the one who sent in the cavalry,” he explained. “She is worried about you but is at the Haven and is doing just fine.”
“Thank God for that,” she whispered, shaking her head. “Seriously, that Charlie guy is not all there.”
“Not likely.” He closed the door and took her downstairs and outside.
With Charlie safely in a police vehicle, Richard then met them out in the parking lot. “I’ll need a statement.”
“Of course you do,” she muttered, staring up at him. “I really don’t want to even think about it.”
“No, I’m sure you don’t,” he acknowledged, “but it’s always better to get it while it’s fresh.”
She groaned.
“Let’s get you to the station and get your statement since you’re in town. Tomorrow we’ll go to the Haven and get Chelsea’s.”
“I’m just so grateful she’s there,” Lindsey whispered. “It never even occurred to me that she would end up there.”
Sterling nodded. “She got home and saw there had been a break-in and called for help from her car. Timber told her to head over there, and, on the way, she realized you would walk right into trouble, so I headed your way.”
“Thank goodness. And that would be Timber’s way to offer her a place to stay,” she noted, with a nod. “He’s a good man, and he cares.”
“He does care, and he also knows an awful lot of guys like Charlie are out there, with not a whole lot of options for help for women like you, when you get into trouble with guys like Charlie.”
“I didn’t think I was getting into trouble,” she wailed, giving her face a scrub. “Honest to God, I thought I was just coming for a cup of tea and a visit.”
“You got a whole lot more than you bargained on,” Richard noted. “Let’s go get that statement from you, and then we can get you back home again.”
“Right,” she muttered. “Home. God, I probably won’t sleep a wink tonight.”
Sterling considered her and offered, “I can come stay if you like. You’ll need to get some rest. You’ve had a big adrenaline rush, and, when that dissipates, you’ll need to crash.”
She gave him a small smile. “If you don’t mind, I would really appreciate it.”
“I don’t mind in the least,” he said. “I’ll just let Timber know, and I’m sure they’ll have all kinds of things they need me to pick up in the morning as usual,” he quipped, with an eye roll.
“Do you really have to do that many orders all the time?”
“It sure seems like it,” he stated, with a smile.
“And honestly, I enjoy Dwight’s and Toby’s cooking as much as anybody out there, so I don’t mind.
It’s really just one of those ongoing jokes that we all tease each other about.
With daily runs to town for supplies, we try to give everyone a day trip here and there. ”
“I’m glad to hear that,” she said, “but it still seriously sucks.”
“Yeah, it does. We’re hoping for direct deliveries at some time in the future.”
“Charlie did say that no way will Penny give up the farm. Charlie didn’t know anything about it being yours, just mentioned that she’d been in a mood because of some court case, something she had never expected.
I played dumb but explained a little bit, suggesting Chelsea had mentioned a thing or two, but he didn’t have a clue about you and what your aunt did. ”
“That’s interesting,” he noted.
“He was looking for money to run, just wanted Chelsea’s student loan proceeds,” she shared, with an eye roll, “so he could get the hell out of here.”
“He should have gone on without it.”
“And he would have if he’d had any money, but apparently he couldn’t get his hands on any, and your aunt had suggested Chelsea had a huge payout at home, so he was just looking to cash in and go.”
“And chances are, what he was really planning on doing was just holding up the gas station or something on his way out of town,” Sterling suggested.
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” she murmured.
“He seems to be that kind of guy, doesn’t he?”
“Oh, yeah, he’s definitely that kind of guy,” Richard interjected.
“I just checked, and he’s got a record as long as your arm.
Several arrests for small robberies, breaking and entering, just enough headaches to cause people all kinds of problems,” he shared, with a sigh. “So he spent some time in prison.”
Lindsey said, “Hopefully his career of crime will be over now, at least for a while.”
“It will be over for a while,” Richard confirmed, “depending on how bad things get and what, if anything, he ends up getting charged with, which I don’t get to decide.”
“Can’t we at least get him for kidnapping or something?” she asked.
“Are you willing to stand by that?”
“I was knocked out and tied up,” she pointed out. “He wouldn’t let me go, pulled a gun on me, and planned to shoot me in the parking lot, where the noise wouldn’t be so noticeable.”
“Yeah, sounds good to me,” Richard stated. “The more details you can fill in on that, the longer he would go away for.”
“I don’t know if there’s anything further, except he was trying to get money from me and from Chelsea.”
“I’ll need to have a long talk with Chelsea then,” he noted.
“Not to mention her tires that he slashed and the fact that he broke into her apartment and trashed it.”
“Do you know that it was him who did the tires or trashed her apartment?”
“He didn’t say so,” she admitted, “but I don’t know who else it might have been. Although he also mentioned that he didn’t trash her apartment either, so I don’t know. Maybe that was all Penny.”
“It will definitely be part of the conversation we’ll have with him,” Richard promised her. “Let’s get you to the station, so you can get home soon. My guys will document the scene and will collect evidence here in the apartment.”
Sterling drove her to the station. By the time they had her statement written up and signed, she was more tired, frustrated, and confused than anything.
When she walked out, she said, “It all sounds so cold and clinical when you do it that way.”
“Yeah, it’s also why they need to do it while it’s fresh,” Sterling noted. “It’s so easy to forget once you’re back out into the real world, and some of the details fade away. I know it doesn’t seem that way right now, but it’s also good for your mental health to say it all out loud.”
“Still sucks,” she muttered.
“Big-time,” he agreed. “No easy way getting over these things.”
“And what about your aunt?” she asked. “How bad will that be?”
“I suspect it’ll be bad but maybe not. I need to meet her, talk to her, and let her know everything we have on her. Then it will be up to her how she wants to proceed.”
“Why can’t she just acknowledge that what she’s done is wrong?”
“Because it’ll leave her without any place to go.”
She turned to him and said, “Too bad there isn’t foster care for adults, huh?”
He looked at her, a slow smile building. “I’m not sure how old she is, but maybe there is a home that we can put her into.”
She started to laugh. “We do need to let your grandpa know too.”
“Yeah, we do but tomorrow. It can all wait for tomorrow.”