Chapter 10: A Goat Rope

The next major uproar at the MacKenzie house happened the following Tuesday night. Lauren had been back long enough Monday night to give her children the souvenir t-shirts she had bought them and join them for dinner and a couple of quick TV shows. They seemed none the worse for wear even though her mother-in-law seemed pleasantly frazzled, and she promised Jimmy and Holly that next weekend they would all stay home. Tuesday at work went quietly, and the family had another quiet evening at home.

The trouble started just after eleven that evening. Lauren was in her living room reading a book and getting ready to go upstairs when she heard a car pull up at Heather’s house. The car parked, and Heather and Robby got out. They kissed briefly and then Heather ran up to the door, Robby waiting until she had gone inside and then leaving. Immediately thereafter it seemed as if all hell broke loose in the MacKenzie household. Even across the yard and through the walls she could hear Heather’s mother screeching and her father roaring. Across the street the Thomkins’ lights went on. She saw old Mrs. Thomkins look out the front door and go inside, and five minutes later a pair of sheriff’s patrol cars drove up with their lights flashing but no sirens.

It was at that point Lauren began to get concerned. The two deputies went inside, and Lauren stood and grabbed a sweater, then went out herself. She knew she should mind her own business, but she also knew Heather was involved somehow. She noticed several other people coming out onto their front lawns to watch the evening’s festivities, and secretly felt relieved that she wasn’t the only onlooker. Noticing her wide-eyed children looking down from Jimmy’s bedroom, she motioned them to go back to bed, uselessly, as they stayed rooted at the window, and crept in the open front door.

Heather was seated on the living room couch, tears pouring down her pretty face. Her parents were in the center of the living room facing each other, yelling at each other, with the two deputies between them, trying to separate them and quiet them down. Despite intervals of incoherence, it sounded as if Heather’s mom was yelling that her daughter had been raped and that her father was telling her to shut up. Lauren could see a half-empty bottle of Scotch on the floor, next to a turned over end table.

Just then, one of the deputies noticed the intruder and said loudly, “You’ll have to leave, ma’am.”

Heather’s head whipped around, and she saw her friend standing in the open doorway. She bolted to Lauren, who wrapped her arms around the girl and tried to soothe her, rubbing her back and murmuring quietly to her.

“You’ll have to leave, ma’am,” the deputy repeated more forcefully.

The other deputy looked over and smiled, then moved to the doorway. “It’s all right, Tom, I’ll handle it.” He faced Lauren and smiled down at her. He was a very tall black man, large and imposing. “How’s it going Lauren? I almost forgot you lived around here.”

Lauren stared briefly at the man, then glanced at his name badge and her eyes widened. “Oh my God! Jack Coulter, how are you? I haven’t seen you in years!”

The deputy gave a sheepish look at this and shrugged helplessly. He had been Gary Graham’s training partner once and hadn’t stayed close to the family after the funeral.

Lauren let him off the hook gracefully. “I live next door and Heather is a friend. What in the world is going on?” she asked.

Coulter rolled his eyes. “We rolled in on the disturbance call and got into I don’t know what. Momma claims the girl’s been raped but the victim says no, and her old man is going after Mom and who knows...”

Lauren looked down at Heather. “Rape!”

Heather started crying anew. “I wasn’t raped! I keep telling everybody and nobody believes me! I wasn’t raped! We’ve never even done anything like that.” She whirled to face her parents across the room, now separated by the single officer, and screamed, “I WASN’T RAPED!”

This did nothing to help the situation. Her mother dragged out a large silver cross and held it in front of her husband, crying out, “Spawn of the Christ killers! Spawn of the Christ killers!” Heather’s father had enough. Rearing back, he lashed out with his fist, missing his wife and catching the deputy on the nose. The deputy gave a surprised look and fell backwards, landing on his butt. Above him, Heather’s parents went after each other.

“Oh, shit!” said Coulter loudly and he jumped into the fray. Within minutes, as Lauren sheltered Heather, the two deputies had managed to handcuff both parents. Breathing rapidly, he stepped back and surveyed the scene, then reached up and activated his collar-mounted radio. “Dispatch, this is Coulter in Unit Fourteen at the scene of the domestic disturbance. We got us a goat rope going on here. I’m going to need a sergeant, a female officer, and an ambulance. Jerry managed to get a busted nose.”

Jerry flipped his partner the bird, then went back to holding his bloody nose. Coulter turned back to Heather. “You’re going to have to come with us, Miss. Your parents are spending the night with us, and I can’t leave you here.”

Heather immediately started crying loudly, and Lauren spoke up. “Why can’t she stay with me?” Heather looked up wildly at this and nodded fiercely. “She baby-sits my kids and she’s there half the time already.”

The deputy looked interested in the idea. “Uh, maybe, but I’ll need to talk it over with the sergeant when he shows up. No promises.”

The sergeant turned out to be another officer that Lauren knew, and it was agreed that Heather would spend the night there, but that she would have to come down to the courthouse tomorrow morning for her parent’s arraignments, and that a judge would have to agree to her staying with Lauren. Lauren got the details and bundled Heather over to her house, then watched over the girl as she fell into an exhausted sleep. Lauren called in to her office and left the manager a voice mail saying she needed a personal day, then went to bed herself.

The next morning proved as stressful as the previous night. Heather ran back to her house to change clothes while Lauren explained to her horrified mother what was happening, then the two women drove to the county courthouse. Fortunately, it had been a quiet night otherwise, and the MacKenzies were shortly standing before Judge Ira Bernstein. This proved to be an unfortunate choice, since Heather’s mother immediately began protesting about being judged by a ‘Christ killer.’ Judge Bernstein stared at her briefly before roaring out for her to be quiet, then asked her Public Defender what the plea was.

“Got me, your honor. All I’ve gotten out of her is that she wants to talk to the Pope,” he replied.

The judge simply shook his head. “She’s as nutty as a fruitcake. I want her taken over to County General for a psych workup, see if she’s even competent.” Heather’s mother immediately began crying out for justice, that men were raping her daughter, and that she herself was in danger, and the judge looked up sharply. “What’s this about rape?”

Heather looked up from where she had been sitting, crying as she slumped against Lauren, and jumped up. “I wasn’t raped! Why won’t anybody believe me?”