Chapter 13: Good deed gone bad

On Saturday night I slept alone for the first time in weeks. I had brought it upon myself.

The first thing I noticed as I walked into the apartment was the answering machine flashing. I sat down next to the machine and listened to the messages.

Six thirty-three pm, Tammy's voice, "Sammy, are you there? Pick up if you are."

The next three date stamps, six forty-seven, six fifty-nine and seven-twelve were hang-ups with no message left.

Seven forty-four pm, Tammy's voice again, "Sammy, call me as soon as you get there."

After three more hang-ups Tammy left another message at eight twenty-seven pm, "Stop fooling around. I know you're there, Sammy. If something has happened I'm sorry." I heard Shirley's voice in the background, telling Tammy to stop leaving messages.

It was now ten-forty but I dialed the number for Tammy's dorm room anyway.

"Hello, Sammy is that you? We've been so worried. Please tell me you're all right."

I laughed. "I'm all right, just getting here a little later than I planned. Let me talk to Shirley."

"Are you sure you're okay? I can't tell you how worried we've..."

"Let me speak to Shirley, please."

"She doesn't want to. She won't talk to you, Sammy. It's my fault. I'm sorry but I told her where you went. I had to."

"It's not your fault, Tammy. I sort of expected you would tell her but now that I'm back I want to talk to her. Please tell her that."

"She won't come to the phone, Sammy. What kept you? Are you sure you're... are you sure nothing bad happened to you?"

"I'm positive. I missed the flight and had to wait for another one, that's all."

"Have you eaten?"

"No, but I'll find something."

"Shirley says there are some sandwich makings in the refrigerator, middle shelf in back of the roast we got today. Charlie took us shopping."

"Where's Charlie?"

"He's here. He gave us a ride over to the dorm."

"Are you sure Shirley doesn't want to talk to me? Is she really that angry?"

"She's very upset, Sammy. I'm sorry. Do you want to talk to Charlie?"

"No," I laughed. It struck me funny that she was trying to substitute Charlie for my girlfriend.

Charlie arrived at the apartment thirty minutes later, just as I was finishing a thick sandwich and a beer. He sat down at the kitchen table before saying anything.

"What are you doing in the dark, Sammy?"

"Just sitting here feeling sorry for myself I guess. Didn't feel like turning a light on."

"Does this have anything to do with Shirley moving to the dorm?"

"She didn't move out?" I asked with alarm, getting up and running from room to room, turning the lights on as I went. Her toothbrush was missing from the bathroom; bad sign.

I don't know what made me think to check her underwear drawer. It was empty except for her jewelry box. With trembling fingers I managed to open the box. She didn't have very much jewelry but nothing seemed to be missing, not even the locket. The burr that Daniel Olsen had given her was also in the jewelry box.

She hadn't taken the locket. This was serious. It had become a part of her, as important as her eyebrows. She prized the burr or so I thought. Many of her clothes were missing from the closet, but not all.

I went back to the kitchen, got each of us a beer and sat down at the table. "I fucked up, Charlie."

I guess I needed to talk to someone. As I began telling him about the letters from Darien, I became aware that Charlie didn't know why Shirley was angry at me, but he soon picked up on the things she and Tammy had said and was able to fill in some of the blanks.

"Shirley was hurt and angry at you but she was doubly angry at Tammy, first for letting you know about the letters and secondly because she helped you with your plan."

"We would have pulled it off too, if I hadn't missed my flight and gotten back so late. But Shirley had to find out what I had done. I'm just sorry I wasn't the one to tell her."

"What happened today, Sammy? Do you want to talk about it?"

I studied his face to see if I could detect Charlie's motive; was he being a busybody or was it concern for me that I saw in his eyes? We had known each other for over five years and had never been really close. During our freshman year at Cromwell we were always in competition. He scored higher than me scholastically but I outplayed him on the football field. When I returned to Cromwell for my junior year, we were in different rooms and saw very little of each other. That was the year I passed him in every respect. In addition to ranking at the top of the junior class I was a one-man wrecking crew on the football field and I got by better socially. Cindy was my steady girlfriend that year; Charlie was still a virgin.

As officers we worked closely our senior year at Cromwell but we weren't what you would call close friends. I spent two weekends at his house and when his mother asked me to get Charlie laid, I complied with her request. I guess this small act endeared me to Sheila, and when we found ourselves alone during my second visit to her home she asked me to tell her how Charlie had lost his cherry.

"I'll tell you and I'll show you," I said and saw excited fear in Sheila's eyes as I crawled to the couch where she was lying. She whispered 'we shouldn't' as I licked her thigh but she didn't object when moved the crotch of her panties to the side. It took the rest of the weekend to tell her and show her how Charlie and I picked up two girls at a party, went home with them and seduced them.

I had oral sex with Charlie's mother and fucked her in the den, in her bedroom and the next morning we started over in her kitchen. By the time Charlie came home from a camping trip with his father I knew Sheila better than I would ever know Charlie. I believe the bond we formed that weekend was the reason she wanted her son to attend Pontiac College with me. She felt that I would look out for him.

I would never tell Charlie about his mother and me. Hell, I hadn't even told Shirley about it for fear that she would, accidentally or otherwise, divulge the truth about what I had done with his mother, to Charlie.

"Charlie, if there is anyone in this world I can trust, it's you. I'm going to start from the beginning."

From the way he nodded I knew he understood that what I was about to say would remain between the two of us. I looked at the clock on the stove; it was eleven thirty-three.

"Tammy told me about the letters because this asshole, Darien, was not only writing letters to Shirley, he was calling their dorm room and she was frantic, not knowing what to tell him.

"She only let me read the one letter that Shirley had opened, but it was enough to convince me something had to be done. Darien not only wanted Shirley back, he offered to have a ring resized for her that he had gotten back from another girl. What made me go berserk was that he had made tapes of his most intimate moments with Shirley. I knew a phone call wouldn't make him release the tapes. That's the reason I had to go and confront the son of a bitch in person.

"Tammy showed me the letter before our trip home last weekend, so it's been preying on my mind over a week now. I could only imagine what the letters were doing to Shirley and I've been expecting her to tell me about them but she hasn't. I still don't know if she didn't trust me or she was trying to protect me because she knew I would take action. When she didn't say anything I knew I had to keep my trip to her home secret. Tammy was against my making the trip but she still helped me keep it from Shirley."

Charlie nodded his understanding. "You did what you had to do but Tammy put herself on the line too."

"I got myself on the wrong side of my accounting professor for taking last Friday off, so I didn't dare take more than today to make this trip. Still, I had to miss practice this morning. Our accounting class is playing a flag football game against another eight o'clock class next Saturday morning. Now that Shirley's mad at me I guess I'll have to cancel our Tee-time tomorrow."

Charlie went to the refrigerator and got us both another beer, but didn't interrupt me.

"I got up early and snuck out of the apartment without showering or having anything to eat. Tammy waved to me from her bed on the couch, but we didn't say anything for fear of waking Shirley. Tammy was going to make up some excuse for me leaving early. I still don't know what she told Shirley.

"The flight took over four hours because I had to change planes. Then I had a little trouble with the car rental people because of my age. The only way they would let me take a car was if I bought their expensive insurance. I knew it was a rip-off but I yielded to their demands so I could get the car and leave. They gave me a map and outlined the best routes to Beacon Point where the Daugherty home is located.

"I drove for over an hour and it was well after eleven am when I found Beacon Point where Darien's parents live. My stomach was growling because I hadn't had anything to eat although the flight attendant did give me a cup of coffee on the first leg of my flight.

"Well shit, wouldn't you know Beacon Point is a gated community and the guard wouldn't let me past the gate because there was no one named Oldham on the guest list? I told him I had business with Darien and the guard said he recalled seeing Mr. Daugherty drive out the gate about an hour before. I told the guard my business with Darien was urgent and he finally agreed to call the house to see if someone would authorize my coming inside the gate.

"Darien's mother was just as snooty on the telephone as Shirley had described. I begged her to tell me where her son was or when he was expected back but she wouldn't tell me anything unless I told her what my business with him was. That was something I didn't want to do. Seeing that we were at an impasse, she hung up the phone.

"I was beside myself and considering running the rental car right through the gate when the guard said he heard the unmistakable sound of Mr. Daugherty's car.

"I would have recognized him even if he were not driving the flashy sports car, which I recognized to be a Ferrari, only this one was not Silver and not as well kept as Bernard Cochran's car. This car had been black and was in need of a paint job. The blond sitting next to him was equally flashy. Darien was almost exactly as Shirley had described, except he was a little bigger than I pictured. His hair was 'slicked back' and he had a surly grin that made his lips turn up at the corners. At first the blond sitting in the passenger's seat distracted me. Aside from having much lighter hair, she was a near duplicate of Shirley."

Charlie gasped, like he was sympathizing with me.

"The roar of his car's engine forced me to shout. At first I played it coy, telling him I needed to speak with him privately about an urgent matter. That got me nowhere with him. He looked at me, somewhat amused but clearly distrustful.

"Darien told me, at the top of his voice, to move my rental car, which he referred to as a 'shit-box' out of the way so he could drive through the gate. I laughed at him and this pissed him off. He told the guard to move the car."

I grinned at Charlie and waved my car keys at him to show how I had let the guard know the keys weren't in the ignition. Charlie grinned back, but still didn't comment.

"The guard looked like a college student and I could tell he didn't want anything to do with me. He threatened to call the police and I told him to go ahead because I would love to have the police involved. Darien shouted at me, asking what I wanted. What really surprised me was that he didn't get out of his car. I decided to try another tactic to draw him out.

"I went around to the other side of the little car and spoke to the blond, asking her name and if Darien gave her the ring she was wearing. This worked, she had barely said her name was Loretta and yes, Darien had given her the ring when he ran around the car and grabbed be from my backside.

"We scuffled for a few minutes and he caught me with one jab to my left eye. Is it swelling? It feels like it is."

Charlie inspected my eye and said it looked like it might turn black. I went to the bathroom to look in the mirror and he followed me. My left eye was definitely swelling and turning blue but the skin wasn't broken. I ran cold water over a washcloth and used it to soothe the raised skin next to my eye.

"God, Sammy, you're always getting into scrapes like today. Nothing like that ever happens to me," my friend said as we walked back to the kitchen and took our seats.

"Darien had my arms pinned in a bear hug and was screaming at the guard to hit me. You're right, something like that happened to me before. Ellen's brother held me while her boyfriend, Pinky hit me in the same place as today, only Pinky was wearing a ring with a sharp diamond and it did break the skin."

"Who's Ellen," Charlie asked, making me remember that time so long ago.

"Ellen worked for us as a substitute maid and I think Ned paid her twenty bucks to give me my first blowjob. I told her I wanted to fuck her and she said okay but on three conditions; it would cost me fifty dollars, I would have to wear a condom and her boyfriend would have to say it was okay for her to fuck me. She must have gotten Pinky's approval because she came back the next weekend and took my cherry."