Chapter 111: Assault and Battery

Friday, April 13, 1984 (continued)

Five minutes later, I was in the parking lot, getting in my car after grabbing a couple of things from the trunk.

After that, I just hit the road. Either I went just slow enough to avoid looking like a ticket magnet or the Houston Police were simply not in the right place at the right time. Probably both — no one really expects a giant land yacht to be blasting along as fast as I was, and I didn’t see any police. In any case, it was undoubtedly my best time from Memorial to the Rice area, and would likely remain so forever.

I parked in a check-in space and headed in. Worst case they’d tow the car. If they did, the time saved might be worth the cost. Most likely they’d never even notice, since there were five other check-in spaces sitting empty.

When I got in, I immediately heard a somewhat familiar voice shout, “I know she’s here! You’re breaking the law! Get me someone in charge now!”

That made my next step obvious. I headed towards the yelling, which turned out to be at the front desk. Cammie’s parents were toward one end, yelling at a hapless clerk.

As I got closer, Cammie’s mother looked over.

“Joseph! It’s that boy!”

“Be quiet, Magnolia!”

“Joseph! It’s her Debate partner!”

Her father’s head swiveled towards me so fast that I was worried about neck injuries.

As he did, the Hilton clerk made a dash for the door behind the counter, mumbling something about getting a manager.

“You!” Cammie’s father thundered. “Where is she? I swear I’m going to sue...”

“Sir, with all due respect, no you’re not!”

He blinked, looking like he was actually having trouble parsing that.

“I think you were involved in this whole thing!” he said, taking a few steps toward me.

I stepped well back and moved into a casual-looking stance that really wasn’t. It’d been a while since karate (and I wanted to get back to it) but I still tried to practice my kata, and my movement skills were really pretty good. I could move quickly to dodge — or lunge, if I needed to. Hopefully, I’d need neither, but he certainly looked belligerent.

“You’re not going to sue me, and if you try, I’m going to counter-sue. And I’m going to win.”

“Why you...!” he said, advancing a few steps.

I stepped back, carefully.

“Keep your distance. I have no interest in fighting you,” I said.

“Yeah! You’d lose! Badly!” he said. “If you don’t tell me where she is, I’ll beat it out of you! Someone definitely spared the rod with you when they shouldn’t have!”

“If you lay a finger on me, that lawsuit gets a lot bigger.”

He took a couple of steps. As he did, a heavyset man in a uniform came around the corner.

“Look, you two, break it up!” he said.

I nodded to him, while Cammie’s dad glanced back and glared.

He puffed his way over. “Are you the one that’s been yelling?” he said, looking at Cammie’s dad. “Harassing the clerk?”

“My teenage daughter is in this hotel and your clerk won’t tell me where she is. I’m going to sue the pants off you!” he said.

The guard looked taken aback. “If that’s true...”

“It is true!”

“I need to check on this ... we do have a ‘do not admit’ on...”

Before he could continue, I broke in, saying, “The reason you have that ‘do not admit’ is that there’s a court order barring anyone from removing the person in question.”

Admittedly, that was a lie, but I wasn’t under oath, and it’d buy us some time.

He took a step back and pulled out a walkie-talkie. “This is Kent. Need a manager to the lobby! Hurry!”

As he was radioing, Cammie’s dad glared at me and took another step. “Court can’t block me from taking my own daughter home!”

“Sir, with all due respect...”

“Respect!” he chuffed. “You’re a dyke-lover! Knew it from last year! Should’ve banned Camellia from having anything to do with you!”

“Sir!” I said, more sharply. “You need to stop!”

“Or what? You are gonna do what to me? I’ll rip you apart, you wimpy little dyke-lover!”

“Or you’re going to wind up with a publicly accessible police record showing that you’re guilty of child endangerment and had your child taken away after a restraining order was issued against you.”

“For what? We’re excellent parents!” Cammie’s mom said indignantly.

“For leaving your teenager daughter alone in a strange city at one in the morning,” I said.

“That was her choice! She went out the window!” her dad yelled.

“Not only alone,” I said, “but naked!”

“She did that, too!” he yelled.

“And you denied her clothing or shelter unless she went back into your motel room, where you were keeping her, tied to the bed, naked!”

“She needed to be restrained! You can see that, from her climbing out the window!”

“Teenager. Alone. Naked. One in the morning. Child endangerment!” I said.

“We had no choice!” her mom said, crying suddenly. “She had to go!”

“For her soul!” her dad said. “And ... she’d have come back if someone hadn’t helped her, which is illegal!”

“You asked why you’re going to lose custody. That’s why.”

“You’ll never prove it!” her dad said.

A guy, probably a hotel manager, came out of the door at the desk and started on his way over. He’d have to go to one end of the desk or the other to get here, so it’d take him a minute.

I reached into my pocket, producing a little microcassette recorder. “Oh, I think I’ll be able to. Texas is a one-party consent state.”

This time her dad actually tried to hit me. I made what was likely a poor decision, in retrospect, and let him make light contact with my face as I spun away.

Oh, it worked — he barely managed a light slap, and then landed on his face — but it could’ve failed terribly. Dumb, but it worked.

“I’ve seen enough!” Kent said, moving to pin Cammie’s dad on the ground and pulling his arms behind him, cuffing him.

“You can’t do this! Let me go!” Cammie’s dad hollered.

“What’s happening here?” the manager said.

“This man,” Kent said, pointing to Cammie’s dad, “assaulted him —”

Kent pointed to me.

“So I cuffed him. We need to call the police.”

“Oh, dear! No!” Cammie’s mom said.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Elizabeth come around the corner. I quickly gave her a little shake of my head. She took in the situation, nodded, and waited.

“Sir,” I said, as Cammie’s dad continued to yell.

I paused a second, then hollered, “Sir!”

“What? I have nothing to say to you!” Cammie’s dad said.

“I have something to say to you. You have two options...”

“I have a lot of options! When I get loose...!”

“You have two options. You can either back down, apologize, sign an agreement concerning Cammie...”

“What agreement? I’m not signing anything!”

“Or you can have her taken away, which will make it a matter of public record that you...”

I looked at her mom, who was turning red.

“ ... and you...”

I looked back at him.

“ ... left your teenage daughter on the street, in a city where she’d never been, naked, at one in the morning!”

“We ... couldn’t...” her mom said.

“And I am going to do my level best to make sure that this public record is known to everyone you know,” I said. “Maybe the ‘Leader’ will run a story on it. Heck, maybe the Chronicle.”

“Now you just wait a minute...” he said.

“I know a couple of reporters at the Chronicle,” I said, which was technically true.

“Joseph ... we can’t...” Cammie’s mom said. “The neighbors...”

“Magnolia!” he hollered. “He’s lying!”

Elizabeth picked this moment to enter the conversation, which was probably a sign of a good sense of timing.

“He’s not lying,” she said. “A removal order would go on your record and would be public. So would a restraining order. Oh, normally you’d be able to fight them at a hearing within two weeks, but you only have a week, so they’ll stay in force until they’re terminated by circumstances.”

Cammie’s mom moaned.

“I’ll sue for ... for defamation!” Cammie’s dad said.

“Defamation requires a false statement,” Elizabeth said. “What statement would you claim is false?”

“We didn’t ... I mean... Camellia put herself out the window. We tried to catch her!”

“Did either of you offer to give her clothes when it was clear she wouldn’t come back?”

“No, but ... it...” he said, then stalled out.

Cammie’s mom moaned louder and started to cry.

“Look, you have a choice,” I said. “You can bow to the inevitable, or you can fight this. If you fight this, you’re going to find yourself booked, because I’ll press charges for assault and battery, and I’ve got plenty of witnesses. Meanwhile, Ms. Crawford is going to place a few calls and Cammie’s going to be a ward of the state — and out of your reach — for about a week, after which she’s going to be an adult, and also out of your reach. In addition, I’d most likely sue you, too. All of this is going to cost you a small fortune in lawyers, and, as Mrs. Clarke has mentioned, your neighbors aren’t going to like it very much, either.”

“Joseph!” Cammie’s mom hissed.

“You can’t do this!” Cammie’s dad said, but it was muted.

“Again,” Elizabeth said, “we can, and will. You’ve already got one judge quite peeved with you, and this is hardly going to help.”

“What ... what do we need to do?” Cammie’s mom said.

“Magnolia! No!” Cammie’s dad said. It wasn’t a bellow; if anything, it was more like a plea.

“We have no choice!” Cammie’s mom said. “I told you this whole thing was a bad idea!”

“But her soul...!” Cammie’s dad said.

“Her soul is hers, ” I said. “The Bible doesn’t say to force people to believe something — indeed, it frowns on that. You’re not saving her soul. After going to places like the one you were trying to send her to, people commit suicide at a rate much higher than average. You might have been damning her.”

“That’s not true!” Cammie’s dad said.

“Look it up. It’s true,” I said.

“What ... what do we need to do?” Cammie’s mom said again.

I nodded to Elizabeth, who said. “We’ve prepared an agreement. You agree that any adult acceptable to Cammie may host her for the next week, and act as interim guardian; that I’m ratified as her legal counsel; that you will not interfere with her schooling, scholarships, extra-curricular activities, or anything else; that you will not only not attempt to remove her from anywhere she wants to be, but that you will indemnify everyone for the cost of finding her if she is removed by anyone; that you will make no contact with her until she’s eighteen and can determine for herself what contact she’ll allow; that she can take any of her personal effects from your house as she wishes, and that you’ll remain away while she does so; and a few other minor concessions. In return, we’ll hold in abeyance any and all action against either of you or your family and hold all of this confidential.”

“We ... we can ... we can agree to that,” Cammie’s mother said.

“Magnolia!” her father said.

“It’s a week, Joseph!” she said. “Even if we got her back, they know where she’ll be, and it’ll just blow up. Besides ... our neighbors! And they’re going to sue! We don’t have that kind of money!”

“He’s a kid!” he said. “How does he...?”

“I’ve got plenty of resources,” I said.

“Camellia told us about that auto accident...” her mother said.

“Fine!” her father said.

Elizabeth got out the agreement, and her mother signed.

It took a bit of persuading to get Kent to let Cammie’s father loose — that, and an agreement from Joseph to hold the Hilton harmless about everything — but eventually he was freed and also signed. Elizabeth signed as Cammie’s representative, and Kent and the clerk both signed as witnesses. It turned out that the Hilton’s manager was a notary and offered to notarize the whole thing for free (rather gleefully, too, I thought).

Just as we were wrapping up, a middle-aged woman came scurrying over from the elevator.

When she got here, she said, “Joseph! Magnolia! What’s happening? Where have you been? I think I’ve found her!”

“It’s over, Ruth,” Cammie’s mom said, sighing.

“Over? What do you mean? I found her!”

“We signed an agreement. She’s gone,” Cammie’s dad said, sighing even more deeply.

The other woman — Ruth, I suppose — looked around, then said, “Who are all these people?”

“Long story,” Cammie’s mom said, sighing and starting to cry again.

Elizabeth got the Hilton staff to make several copies while Cammie’s parents and aunt left the building, and called Cammie’s room from the house phone while they were making the copies. I found a payphone, called home, and told Mom the good news. I might have neglected to mention the mark on my cheek.

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” she said. “Do you know where she’ll stay?”

“For the short term, at least, either our house or Jasmine’s. That might only last a day, though. We’re thinking Curtis and Marsha Richardson might let her stay in their house. She’ll be eighteen in a week, so they would only need to provide even nominal oversight for that week, then she’ll just be a house guest, pretty much. Gene checked, and all signs were good, but Marsha won’t be back here tonight, at least.”

Mom hesitated. “You and Jasmine were going to stay somewhere tonight, I think...”

“We can put that off,” I said.

“It’s ... um ... if you agree that it’s just sleeping, and ... just sleeping ... um ... anyway, Jasmine can stay here. Same for Angie and Paige. We would ... um ... have to insist on separate beds, though, or ... sleeping bags? That would be ... that would be fine. If ... um ... if you or Angie were at Jasmine’s house, then Jasmine could use Angie’s bed, or Paige could use yours.”

I was floored.

“You’re sure, Mom?”

She sighed. “Yes, I am. I talked to Sam about it a few days ago. It’s another thing I never thought I’d say, but ... we trust you, and ... oh, heck. Maybe we’re just getting too modern! I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s fine with us.”

She paused, but I could tell she wasn’t done.

After a pause, she said, “I think about me and Sam and how I’d feel if someone said we couldn’t even sleep under the same roof, and I think ‘Okay, yes, we’re married, and that is different, but is this what I want to tell my kids? That it’s wrong for them to be close to the ones they love?’ And ... I can’t do it. I just can’t!”

“Thanks, Mom!”

“I’m going to send a note to the school to have Angie call me, and it probably makes sense for me to pick Angie up. And Jasmine, and Paige.”

“We’ll probably head to Jasmine’s house,” I said. “I’ll call if anything changes.”

“I love you!”

“I love you, too!”

Back at the desk, Elizabeth was ready, and grinning.

“Marsha Richardson is flying in on Sunday,” she said.

“Great!” I said, feeling relieved. There were plenty of people who would host Cammie, but at the Richardson house she’d have a friend to talk to but also plenty of space. She’d never be alone, but she’d never feel compelled to be social, either.

“Bet you didn’t tell Helen about that bruise!”

“It’s not that bad.”

“It’s not, but no parent likes a bruise like that. I’m sure it’ll be fine,” she said. “On the other hand, if she’s really mad, you know where to find a good lawyer!”

“Let’s hope I don’t need that. Again!”

She chuckled. “Let’s go say ‘hi’ to Cammie.”

“You don’t have to say that twice!”

When we got up there, Elizabeth knocked, while I hung back, but in plain sight of the peephole.

I heard some movement inside, and then the light through the peephole dimmed.

From inside, I heard, “Steve! Elizabeth!”

I chuckled as Cammie unlocked the door, then flew out, throwing her arms around me.

“Missed you! I’m so happy you’re here!”

I hugged her right back.

“I’m happy to be here!”

“It’s really over? Really?” she said.

Elizabeth nodded. “From a legal standpoint, it is. You’re free.”

Cammie started to bounce up and down.

Elizabeth continued, saying, “Of course, you’re also cut off...”

“Which won’t be a problem,” I said.

Elizabeth nodded. “That much has been obvious,” she said, chuckling a bit.

“Come in!”

We did. Cammie had obviously not settled in. She had her two brand-new suitcases nearly packed, and could clearly be out the door very quickly.

“Wasn’t sure if I’d have to run for it,” she said, blushing.

“Fortunately not!” I said.

Her hand went to my cheek.

“What happened?” she said.

“Your father was a bit ... agitated,” I said.

“Bastard,” she said. “I’m ... I’ll...”

“Cammie,” I said, “Just let it go. I’m fine. He’s gone. You won. You’re safe and he’s not going to mess with you anymore.”

“But he tried...” she said.

“He did, and all of us are going to help you deal with that. But you won! You can gloat a bit, but don’t go looking for more things to be angry about. You won’t do yourself any favors long-term if you do.”

“He’s right,” Elizabeth said. “I’ve seen people whose lives have been much more messed up because of how they handled a past issue rather than the issue itself.”

“You won,” I said. “That’s enough. We have other things to win. The emotional energy should go there.”

Cammie nodded, then sat down rather abruptly on the bed.

“I’m actually fucking free!” she said. “Even before we met, I’ve worried ... for so long...”

I nodded without saying something.

“Mostly it wasn’t, you know, ‘day to day.’ But it was ... there was always this... ‘Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow or maybe I’ll be sent off somewhere.’ I just never actually believed it would happen,” she said.