Second That Emotion
by
Latikia
Copyright © 2006
Chapter 38
As we followed Charlie thru the entryway I checked out the décor. It wasn’t so much Hammer Horror chic` as it was Sunset Boulevard noir. The huge sweeping staircase before us reminded me of a tongue sticking obscenely out of a widely grinning maw. Neither Christopher Lee nor Gloria Swanson would have looked out of place sweeping down that elevated expanse of crimson carpet.
“Jeez, Charlie…where’s the butler and all the maids?” Peggy asked.
Charlie grinned. “Probably hiding from Mama, if they know what’s good for them.”
“Charlene!” a booming, cold, harsh voice echoed thru the large room, seeming to come from all directions at the same time.
From out of the shadows at the top of the stairs emerged a tall, iron gray haired woman, her pinched features set in an expression of extreme displeasure. I could see shades of the beauty that had once been hers and which she had passed on to her daughters, but that beauty had long since faded into harsh lines, wrinkles and a sallow complexion. She moved along with a slow, stately grace that reminded me of a float in the Rose Parade, not so much walking as gliding or rolling along. And she did sweep down the stairs like Gloria Swanson.
“Hello, Mama.” Charlie said, no hint of warmth or affection in her voice. “I’ve invited some friends of mine over for dinner.”
The woman stopped on the third step from the bottom and cast a lemony eye over the four of us, coming to rest on me last of all.
Her face went from displeasure to outright hatred in the blink of an eye.
“How dare you bring this…this creature into my home!” she demanded. “I told the Sheriff to lock you up!”
I let a soft smile form on my lips, never allowing it to reach my eyes.
Charlie watched us stare at one another, and the lovely grin she’d shown Peggy got even bigger.
“The Sheriff decided that it wasn’t in his best interest to try and arrest a Federal Marshall.” she told her mother.
Mrs. Van Luten glared daggers at me then snapped her scornful gaze back to her daughter.
“You have no right to bring this man here. You knew I would not approve.”
“Of course I knew. That’s why I insisted they come with me. I wanted you and Daddy to meet your son-in-law.”
“Get them out now!” she demanded.
“No. They are my guests, and this is still my home, so I’ll invite whomever I like. Where’s Daddy?”
“In the dining room.” she said gratingly and swept past us.
Charlie smirked and waved her hand indicating we should follow along. We all trailed along in the wake of her mother into the bowels of their home. We emerged from the dim hall into a badly lit room filled by an enormous wooden dining table surrounded by tall straight backed chairs. On the table were four multi armed candelabras, the five candles in each one were lit and filled the room with smoke and the scent of bee’s wax. At the far end of the table sat a hunched man in a wheelchair.
He looked to be in his early fifties, and from the width of his shoulders he’d once been a powerful physical specimen. His full head of dark brown hair was white at the temples and the full mustache on his upper lip was shot thru with white hairs.
Mrs. Van Luten floated down along the wall and took up a position next to the man.
Charlie led us down the length of the table until we were only a few feet from the pair.
“Hello, Daddy. How are you feeling this evening?” she asked. There was much more feeling in her words to her father.
The man lifted his head and looked towards her; his eyes were damp and cloudy.
“Charlie? Where have you been all day?” His voice was deep and strong.
“I went to visit Carlie and I ran into some people there that I’d like you to meet.”
Squinting slightly, he looked past Charlie and took notice of the four of us standing behind his daughter.
Charlie stepped to one side. “My parents, Gustav and Margaret Van Luten.” she said. “Mama, Daddy…this is Peggy, and Lilly, Izzy…and this, this is Ike Blacktower.”
“Ike Blacktower?” Mr. Van Luten muttered. “I know that name, don’t I?”
“Yes Daddy. Ike was Carlie’s husband.”
His features quickly changed from confused to angry. His big gnarled hands gripped the arms of the wheelchair and the large shoulder muscles bunched as he shoved himself up out of the device and stood upright.
The man was stooped and hunched, but he was still taller than I was by a couple of inches. In his prime he’d have been a monster, probably six seven or eight and would have easily weighed close to three hundred pounds.
“You killed my little girl, you sonofabitch!” he growled and clenched his hands into fists.
“No, Mr. Van Luten. I was with her when she died, but I didn’t kill her.” I said, speaking for the first time.
“You were supposed to protect her!”
“Mr. Van Luten, you know better than that. Carlie was a strong willed, independent woman. You and your wife couldn’t make her do what you wanted, what makes you think I could have made her do anything she didn’t want to? Carlie shared her life with me…she didn’t give it to me.”
The fire in his eyes dimmed slightly and his posture relaxed.
“She always was a feisty little thing. Fought against my authority…against me every single day of her life.” he murmured fondly.
“She was an ungrateful little trollop is what she was!” Mrs. Van Luten spat out angrily.
“I’d suggest you watch your tongue, lady.” I growled at her, menace spilled out of me and began filling the room.
Her already pinched and pale face went even paler and she clamped her mouth shut and moved behind her husband. He was watching me carefully, but his large fists opened and I thought I saw a flash of admiration cross his face.
“You loved my little girl?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Why did she die? The police never would give us anything resembling a straight answer. Can you tell me?”
I blinked slowly and then nodded my head. “Yes, I can tell you. The answer won’t make your pain go away; in fact it might make things worse.”
“I’d like to know anyway.” he said. “Please, sit down, all of you.”
I pulled out a chair and waited for the girls to take their seats before sitting. Mr. Van Luten eased himself back into his wheelchair and Mrs. Van Luten pushed him closer to the table and then took a seat on his right.
I explained what had happened that day, from the time Carlie had left the house until I blacked out on the roadside, leaving out my having linked with her. I didn’t figure they needed to know.
“The police had this Lattimor person in custody and they let him go?” he gasped.
I told him what the cop on the phone had told me, that a rookie had screwed up the booking and Harve had been released due to a technicality.
“They never told me this.
I was told the man had vanished and couldn’t be found…that he’d probably
fled into
“Oh, he vanished alright. How do you think I found out what happened? Harve told me. I just had to ask several times and use a little force to get the story from him. He didn’t really want to talk.”
“And what did he tell you?” Mrs. Van Luten demanded.
I told her what Harve had told me. Tears formed in her eyes and she turned her head away. Mr. Van Luten was livid, his hands clutching the arm rests of his wheelchair. Charlie’s face was ashen. Even my girls, who’d already heard the story before, were upset.
Mr. Van Luten glared across the space between us. “And then…?”
I shrugged. “I killed him.”
“That’s it? You killed him?”
I fixed my eyes on his and matched his glare with one of my own. “How strong is your stomach, Mr. Van Luten? Do you want your wife and daughter to have those images burned into their memories? I don’t want my girls hearing the details. Suffice it to say that he suffered. Not as much as he should have, or as much as he deserved, but as much as I could manage under the circumstances.”
He nodded his acceptance. “I think we may have badly misjudged you, young man.”
“Mr. Van Luten, you judged and convicted without ever getting to know me. You automatically assumed from the start that I wasn’t good enough for your daughter. I have no idea what you would consider ‘good enough’, but you assumed that whoever she picked would be chosen solely to piss you off. You misjudged Carlie and dismissed me out of hand.”
“We thought you married our daughter for her money.” Mrs. Van Luten said, a tad defensively I thought.
“I’m aware of that. Carlie knew it too. She didn’t appreciate that her parents had so little regard for her ability to make her own decisions. You shut her out because she insisted on living her life her way and not yours. And when she died you brought her back here and turned her memory into some kind of shrine to assuage your guilt. Then, to top it all off, you went and started treating Charlie like an afterthought. So she grows up hating the sister she’d once loved and admired, resenting the way you belittle, degrade and ignore her to the point where just the mention of her sister’s name causes her to break out into hysterical laughter. You owe your apologies to her, not me. All you ever did to me was threaten to have me killed.”
“You’re a hard nosed, blunt speaking, opinionated bastard, aren’t you?” Van Luten said crossly.
“I’ve had a few lousy years. There always seems to be some shit-head who wants to arrest, kidnap, stab, shoot or kill me or someone I love. Those sorts of things aren’t likely to make a fella mellow or easygoing.”
“No, I suppose not. But that doesn’t give you any right to come into my house and criticize how I live my life or raise my children.”
“As much right as you or your wife had to threaten my life back then or try to have the local sheriff arrest me today on some trumped up charge. You figured you had the power and that was all the right you needed. You shouldn’t be surprised when other folks take the same view of things.”
“I can still bring him back here and have you hauled away…Federal Marshall or not.”
I stood up and removed my coat, letting Van Luten and his wife see the twin pistols hanging under my arms before sitting back down.
“Bring him back.
Bring the entire
“Where did you get forged Federal ID?”
“The CIA made them for me a few days ago.”
Mr. Van Luten gave me an appraising look. “And just why would they do that?”
I gave him a grim smile. “I’ve been working for the Director of Internal Security for the past month, hunting for security leaks and espionage agents. In the course of my work I discovered a conspiracy between a Senator, a Congressman and the Director of the CIA. They learned about my investigation and tried to kidnap and kill me. In order to present my findings and elicit confessions from the two members of Congress I had to pose as a Federal Marshall.”
“Didn’t the CIA Director die of natural causes recently?”
“He didn’t die, he was killed…by me. You might also have heard about a Senator and Congressman behaving in a less than dignified manner a few days ago. That was also my doing. I deal rather harshly with people who piss me off.”
“Is that supposed to be a threat, boy?”
I leaned forward, putting my forearms heavily on the table top. “Old man, I don’t make threats, I make promises and you’d do well to remember that. I get the impression that you aren’t used to dealing with equals or superiors, only folks you presume to be inferior. Well, I am not one of those folks. Nothing I’ve seen here today leads me to believe that you are my better, or in any way, shape or form superior. So knock off the patronizing attitude and don’t ever call me boy.”
“Why are you here, Mister Blacktower?” he growled.
“Your daughter invited us. And I have to confess to a mild case of curiosity about the family and environment that produced my ex-wife. I was wondering if you were as bad as Carlie and Charlie have led me to believe. I’m forced to admit that you are. I understand why Charlie wants to leave here so badly. We’ve been sitting here talking about Carlie for close to forty minutes now and neither one of you have noticed that Charlie isn’t laughing her head off. Now, either you’re oblivious to her condition, which I find hard to imagine, or the two of you are so self centered that you just don’t care…which frankly I find somewhat less hard to imagine.”
Both Van Lutens turned their eyes towards Charlie, who’d been sitting quietly watching the verbal duel between me and her father. She grinned…more an act of barring her teeth at them than an expression of happiness or amusement.
“Hi, remember me? I’m your daughter too.” she said with a smoky hint of anger in her voice.
“Of course you’re our daughter.” her mother snapped.
“I thought you might have forgotten. The only time you notice me is when you’re yelling at me for something I’ve done or failed to do, or when you want to talk about how I’m not Carlie.” Charlie shot back. “You’ve turned me into a nervous wreck, and I want out!”
“What do you mean ‘out’?” her father demanded.
“I mean, Daddy that I’m leaving home. Tonight. I’ve had all I can take from you and Mama.”
“And going where? With him? You can’t be serious.”
“Can’t I? You seem to think the only reason I’ve stayed here is because you threatened to disinherit me. I don’t need your damn money! And why not go with them? They’ve been nicer to me in the few hours we’ve known each other than either of you have in my whole life.”
Mrs. Van Luten put a hand up over her mouth, as if horror-struck by her daughter’s accusations.
“We have plenty of room at the ranch.” I said, trying to insert a bit of calm. “Charlie can stay with us as long as she needs to. We’ll look after her and she’ll be safe.”
“Like Carlie was safe?” her mother snapped at me.
“Lady, I’m not the naïve kid who married Carlie. I have resources you can’t even begin to imagine and I’m quite willing to kill in order to keep her safe.”
“You’ve never seen anything as scary as our sweet boy when he’s mad and protecting.” Peggy said, her eyes bright and a smile on her lips. “He came to get me, when I’d been taken by kidnappers. He found us in the middle of a snow storm and started killing them before they even knew he was there. I saw him stick his fingers in the eyes of one man to make him tell where I was. Ike got shot in the stomach and had a knife stuck in his chest, but he killed them all, brought me and Anya home and called for helicopters to fly us to a hospital.”
“More to the point,” I said “she won’t have to compete with a memory for affection and approval. She’s smart, tough, funny and friendly. We like Charlie.”
“And she looks like her sister…” Mrs. Van Luten said ominously.
I cocked my head to one side. “Only superficially. Her overall appearance is different, her manner, bearing, voice…all different. She is not her sister and she shouldn’t have to live her life being compared to Carlie. They both have a fiery, independent spirit and they are both lovely…but that, I think, is where the similarity ends.”
I turned towards Charlie.
“I don’t like this place very much…it makes my skin crawl.” I got to my feet and put my coat back
on. “Our offer stands. We’ll be going back to
I bent down, pushed her hair back behind her ear on one side and kissed her on the forehead. “It was really nice to meet you after all this time. If they try to keep you here against your will, call me.” I whispered in her ear. I stood up straight and narrowed my eyes. “I can’t say I’ve enjoyed meeting either of you. It has, however, been highly educational. We’ll see ourselves out.” I turned and started to leave the dining room. Stopping suddenly, I turned around and Lilly nearly ran into me. “By the way, if you’re thinking about sending the Sheriff over to visit, now that you know I’m not really a Federal Marshall, you should know that after I’ve finished with him I’ll come back here and do for you what I did for Senator Mortenson and Congressman Bustamante. Fair warning is all you get from me. Good night.”
I could hardly keep from running as we wound our way thru
the guts of the building. I’ve never
felt so glad to be outside in my life, or so relieved to see someplace grow
smaller in the rearview mirror as we drove back into
We went back to the restaurant where we’d had breakfast and ate dinner. We were all wrapped up in our own thoughts for most of the meal, but when the plates were cleared away and we sat drinking coffee and having desert, the girls finally started speaking their minds.
“I didn’t like them much.” Lilly said from her position on my left.
“Not much there to like. Our parents weren’t perfect, and our home life was something less than ideal, but it was miles better than what we just saw.” Izzy said.
“I hope she decides to come with us. I like Charlie.” Peggy said wistfully.
Lilly glanced at Izzy and grinned. “I think Peggy has a crush on Charlie.”
Izzy grinned back and gave Peggy a little hug and wiggled her eyebrows. “Can you blame her? Charlie is cute…and very sexy. Don’t you think she’s sexy Ike?”
I leaned back and sipped my coffee, keeping my face carefully neutral. They weren’t going to sucker me in that easily.
“Sorry, Lilly has her hand on my dick and I wasn’t paying attention. What was the question?”
Lilly blushed and quickly put her hands up on the table. “No I didn’t, I swear!” she said.
Izzy and Peggy laughed and Lilly punched my in the arm and the trap was avoided. For the time being.
We had been in bed asleep for several hours when the hotel room door burst open and armed men poured in, surrounding us with weapons drawn and aimed at our heads. The overhead lights flashed on and I saw the Sheriff and his oversized boy scout deputy standing in the doorway.
“Ike Blacktower, you are under arrest for acts of a lewd and lascivious nature with a minor. You have the right to remain silent…”
And on and on…if you’ve seen a cop or lawyer show you know how the rest of it went.
I linked with the two men in the doorway.
“Back to doing the dirty work of the rich and morally bankrupt, huh?” I snarled at the sheriff.
He shrugged theatrically and grinned. “Didn’t seem like too tough a choice, once I found out you aren’t a Fed.”
“I’m a lot worse than any Fed you ever met.” I said, shifting Peggy off me and climbing up out of the bed clothes.
Izzy reached out for my arm. “Ike, please…”
“Izzy, I warned them what would happen. I’m fuckin’ tired of people pointing guns at me and thinking I’ll forgive them ‘cause they were just doing their jobs. You dickweeds have two seconds to drop your guns. After that you start screaming. One…two…”
No one dropped a thing, so I linked with the lot and forced hours of agony down the link-lines along with all of the negative emotions I’d taken from Charlie. The girls put their hands tightly over their ears to keep out the wailing from so many throats. Guns fell from nerveless fingers, followed by bodies hitting the carpeting and thrashing around. I stepped over the fallen bodies and made my way to the door. I kicked the deputy out of the way, hooked my fingers in the collar of the Sheriff’s coat and hauled him up off his feet, holding him up so his face was level with my own, his feet dangled several inches off the floor.
His body twitched spastically in my grip and I shook him roughly, the way a terrier shakes a rat.
“Talk fast and make it good…did the Van Luten’s send you here tonight or was this your own bright idea? Lie to me and I swear you’ll burn like a match.”
“M-m-m-my idea!” he managed to get out between sobs, the tears and mucous collected on his chin and dripped down onto my wrist. I could feel the lie as he spoke it.
“You pathetic little toad.” I hissed at the man. “’Lewd and lascivious acts with a minor’? What minor? How the hell did you ever think you’d be able to make a charge like that stick? Or maybe you weren’t thinking of booking me, huh? A bit of a beating while resisting arrest, yeah? And what of my three companions Sheriff? How would you keep them quiet, huh? Maybe we were all supposed to up and disappear, so whatever happened to us wouldn’t much matter would it? Did you promise your men that they could have my girls for a little fun before we all vanished of the face of the planet?”
The man’s eyes went wide in a combination of amazement and fear. “You’re a demon.” he gasped.
I pulled him close. “Yes…I am. And you are a match.” I whispered, clamped my free hand over his face and released my rage, focusing the heat down my arm and out thru my fingers. The Sheriff was seriously well done in a matter of seconds.
I turned back to the girls on the bed. “Still feeling charitable?” I asked.
Izzy was reaching for one of my pistols. I got to them before she did and pulled her in close against my chest.
“No, sweetie, no bullets. No evidence. I’ll clean up these maggots. You and Peggy and Lilly go get dressed and we’ll get out of this lousy town. After we stop back at Morbid Manor and have a few words with the Van Luten’s…and find out if Charlie still wants to come back with us.