Chapter 12: There Is An After

Shortly after breakfast, a Mrs. Hawkins - ‘Mizzus not Miz, thank you very much’ - arrived and attempted to take charge of Bobby and Susan, demanding all paperwork relating to their treatment. Said Mrs. Hawkins swung her social services position like a broadsword. Nancy had come off shift and had stopped off to visit the siblings. When she heard Hawkins at the nurses’ station, she strode out and yelled, “Get that bitch outta here. She has no authority and no jurisdiction. If she doesn’t move her ass out pronto, I’ll call the sheriff and have a deputy remove her.” She turned and stuck her head in the room and told the siblings, “Uncle Pete told me he was to be your guardian. I’m going to go scratch that harpy’s eyes out if she makes the wrong move!”

Bobby went to the door to watch with her. “What’s got y’all so stirred up?” he asked.

“She’s a predator. If she thinks kids have money, she latches on and fosters them herself. By the time the kids reach their majorities, the money’s gone - supposedly spent on their care, but really on herself.” Nancy snorted, “She gets away with it because her aunt is a bigwig in state-level social services, and her cousin is a family services administrative judge near Savannah.” She whispered, “I think they’re all on the take.” She frowned and continued, “Another of her strategies is to separate siblings and parse them out to cronies. The kids can’t support each other and are easier to manipulate and strip of resources.”

“There’s been a suspicious number of runaways from her ‘care,’ and this is rumor, mind you, but some think the kids were sold or killed. Not one has ever been found.” She looked hard at Bobby and whispered, “That guy you called ‘Jake’ is ... was her brother. His real name was Oscar. I think if she got her claws into you, you’d be two of them disappeared - one to each type destiny.”

“I heard all that,” Susan told them approaching from behind and hugging herself to Bobby’s back. “I think the rumors are true. Jake said something about selling me to a guy in New York.”

“Nancy, I know that my house is still cordoned off as a crime scene. I know you’re tired, but is it possible for you to get some clothes packed up for me and Susan - enough wear until the scene is cleared and we can get it cleaned? My wallet with cash, ID, and credit cards is in my top left desk drawer.” He dropped his voice to a very quiet whisper. “In the shed, over the door, is a cigar box with another .45 and three loaded magazines. Can y’all smuggle the box to me at Uncle Pete’s? I’m afraid that I might need it to protect Susan.”

Nancy winked, nodded, and also whispered, “Nothing, I heard nothing!” Then she was gone, and the real morning began.

Uncle Pete and Sheriff Peterson knocked and entered the room together. “I need to take your statements separately,” he told the pair. “Are y’all okay with going first?” he asked Susan. She nodded, and Bobby walked down to the nurses’ station to hang out.

“Does that loudmouth pull that stunt very often?” Bobby asked the pair of nurses there.

“She’s usually not that loud,” one looked up and told him, “but she’s here far too often.”

The other, keeping her voice low, added, “But it’s not every day she’s here to make off with the hero who offed her rapist brother. Good job kiddo!”

Nurse number one chimed back in, “Just so you know, I’d have put a scalpel through her bellybutton before I’d let her past this station. Well, maybe not that, but I’d have yanked her baldheaded.” She paused, “I’m pretty sure Doctor is going to release you sometime after the Sheriff is done and he gets a chance to check you over one more time.”

“The next while isn’t going to be easy for you two. Doctor will prescribe a morning after pill for Susan if she wants it and recommend counseling for both of y’all. Y’all should follow that advice.” She handed Bobby a slip of paper, “This has mine and Betty’s phone numbers. Susan will almost certainly need a friendly ear - you, too for that matter. When y’all do, call us.”

Shortly, Uncle Pete and Sheriff Peterson called softly down the hall that they were ready for Bobby. He turned to the two friendly nurses and asked, “Can one of y’all get Susan showered and help with her makeup? I expect Nancy back with something for us to change into.”

His interview with Sheriff Joe Bob Peterson was relatively straight forward, though the sheriff gave him a heartfelt lecture about looking for the kidnappers on his own - and for not answering his phone. “Whatever in the devil were y’all thinking? Y’all ever pull something like that again, I’ll personally knock y’all crank shaped! Understand me?” When Bobby finished giving him his ‘yes sirs’, the sheriff told him, “But y’all brought justice and saved the county some real money. I just wish I could have put the screws to one of them to find out what was really going on.”