Chapter 33

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Jake was washing up after lunch when the phone rang. It was Julie.

“Jake, someone from Child Protective Services is at the front door. She’s talking about taking us away from Mom.”

“Crap! I’ll be right over. Stall her. Ask every question you can about what procedure she is supposed to follow. Ask about appeals rights. Ask about her qualifications. Ask anything you can to keep her there. Tell your mom and Kara to do the same. I’m coming right over.”

Carol was screaming out an orgasm as he ran out the door.

It was a five-minute drive to the DeRizzos. Jake ran to the front door and knocked. Julie let him in. He followed her into the sitting room where a chubby, middle-aged woman was arguing with Kara. Leanne was sitting in her chair, looking at her feet. She was drunk. Brian was standing near her.

Kara looked up at him when he walked into the room.

“Jake, this is Mrs. Parsnip from CPS.”

“Parsons. My name is Mrs. Parsons, and I’m sure that this is none of your concern, young man.”

“Nonetheless, until they ask me to leave, I think I’ll stay.”

“Mrs. Parsnip says she is going to take us away from Mom,” Kara said. “She won’t listen to reason.”

“I’ve already told you. Mrs. DeRizzo is facing a serious felony charge. The risk to you children is too grave for you to remain. There is no reason why you cannot live with your father until this matter is cleared up.”

“So you would take them away from a good woman and a good mother and put them in the clutches of an evil, controlling sociopath?” Jake asked.

“He is their father. We try to place children with family when we have to remove them from their homes.”

Kara, keep her talking while I see what I can do.

As Kara talked, Jake read Mrs. Parsons’ thoughts. Molly Parsons had been with CPS for fifteen years. She resented that she had not been promoted from caseworker to supervisor. She had lasted much longer than most caseworkers, an occupation with a high turnover, and she figured that recognition was long overdue.

Jake marveled at Parsons’ devotion to the CPS regulations, but he was underwhelmed by her concern for the children she uprooted regularly. There were children in great danger that she had removed, but she was just as proud of the children who were removed for no reason except that she found a way to make their circumstances fit within the appropriate section of the caseworker’s manual. Her attitude made him feel nauseous.

Mrs. Parsons had no opinion of Leanne’s fitness as a mother or her guilt or innocence of the criminal charges. She had decided that an allegation of sexual contact with a child was sufficient to pose a risk of harm to the kids, so she would remove them.

Jake could not make himself care enough about Mrs. Parson’s welfare to minimize the disruption he was about to cause. He made her hate her job. That was easy enough. She was mostly there already. Jake just magnified those feelings. Then Jake made her scared of disobeying him.

“You have the wrong job. Go back to the office and turn in your resignation. You will report that Mrs. DeRizzo is an excellent mother, and there is no reason to remove the children from the home. You will tell no one about me. Get out of here. You make me sick.”

Molly Parsons hurried out of the sitting room and out the front door.

Leanne watched her go and then turned to Jake.

“My daughters tell me that I have failed to show due gratitude for the good things you have done for us,” she said. Her words were slow and distinct as though she were trying hard not to slur them. “It appears that I owe you my thanks, again.”

Jake knelt at her feet

“I know you’re in a lot of pain after yesterday and after this morning. I can make you feel better, Leanne. I won’t change you at all. Your personality will still be the same. Your pride and dignity will be unchanged. You’ll still be mad at me for putting you in this position. Your values will be unchanged. The only thing I’ll do is help you to find the same perspective that you would have had anyway with a month of distance from the events. I love you, Leanne. It hurts me to see you like this. Please, let me help.”

Leanne stood slowly and walked with careful steps to the stairs. She climbed them without saying a word.

Jake collapsed into the chair. Kara came and sat at his feet.

“Give her some time, Jake. She’s been humiliated repeatedly, publicly and in front of her children.”

“I suppose you’re right, but I miss my Leanne a lot. She’s someone I could talk to about what is going on. I hate not being able to help her or have her around to help me.”

Jake pulled Kara into his lap and laid his head against her chest. He put his hand on her lower belly.

“I don’t sense a baby, yet.”

“It takes a week for it to implant. It’s too soon. Come back on Sunday,” Kara said, but Jake could feel her pleasure at the thought of being pregnant and at Jake’s interest.

“What are you talking about now? What baby?” Brian said dangerously.

“Jake and my baby,” Kara said. “The egg was fertilized on Monday. It will implant in my uterus next week.”

“What kind of fucked up shit is this? He’s thirteen.”

“We’ve talked about this. He’s more mature than anyone I ever dated in high school. He’s probably more mature than anyone I would have met in college. As long as you keep seeing him as the boy he looks like, you’ll keep making messes that he’ll have to clean up. And you’ll keep hurting our family in the process. You need to start thinking about the consequences of your actions. For example, what do you think would happen if you pick a fight with the father of my child? Do you think any good would come of it?”

Brian stomped off.

“That was very nicely done. I wish I could help your mother like that,” Jake said, standing up. “I’m going to go sit with her for a while.”

“She doesn’t want to see you, Jake.”

“I know, but I don’t like her state of mind. I’m going to sit with her.”

Kara looked doubtful.

“That’s all,” Jake said. “I won’t say a word to her if she doesn’t initiate it. You could come, too.” He looked over at Julie. “You, too, if you want.”

Jake got up and trudged up the stairs. He knocked on Leanne’s door and after waiting a moment he went in. Leanne was sitting up in her bed pouring herself a drink from a bottle. Bourbon, Jake noted. She saw him, finished pouring the drink, and put the bottle back in the top drawer of her bedside table. She took a drink and then lay on the bed facing away from Jake. He took a seat in a straight-backed chair in her line of sight. Leanne turned over and faced the opposite wall.

Jake sat quietly and watched her. She cried for a while and then stopped. She did not drink any more of the whiskey. An hour passed.

“Why won’t you leave me alone?”

“If Brian wanted you to abandon him, would you?”

“It’s not the same thing.”

“It’s exactly the same thing.”

She began to cry again.

“Don’t you have something more important to do,” she said after another half hour.

“No. This is the most important thing in the world to me.”

She lapsed into silence. He sat and waited.

“You don’t fit into my life,” she said later.

“You’re being silly. We fit together like a hand and glove. I’ve never seen any two people who were better matched than we are.”

“I can’t have a boy in my life, not as my lover.”

“Why not?”

“It’s not done. It’s indecent.”

“You can have any life you want. If I make you happy, why can’t I be in your life?”

“We don’t get the life we want. We get the life we have.”

“Would you tell me about your life?” he asked.

“I was the only child of a college professor. That explains everything there is to know about me.”

“Tell me more. I want to understand.”

“My father teaches French literature. My mother is a housewife. They met when he was finishing his Ph.D. at Duke. He taught a class that she needed for her degree in French. They married when he was offered a professorship at Vanderbilt. She finished her degree there. I was born a year later. A college professor doesn’t make much money. Still, they managed to scrape by.

“They are both children of the South, steeped in its culture. They took pride in my father’s position. Momma did her part. Junior League and charity work. They live scrupulously proper lives. They are educated and cultured. They are looked up to. I was to be educated and cultured, too.

“Then I met Gus DeRizzo the summer I graduated from high school. He was several years older and he was going places. He was charming, and I enjoyed the attention he showed me. We were married against my parent’s wishes. I became pregnant almost immediately.

“Since then I have striven to show my parents that my decision to marry Gus was right. The proof was my lovely house and fine children.”

“And you are mortified by what your parents would have thought if they had seen you paraded into that courtroom today in handcuffs and leg irons, accused of a sex crime that you are unquestionably guilty of.”

She nodded her head.

“Do you love me, Leanne?”

She nodded again.

“Like a woman loves a man?”

“Yes,” she said, her voice breaking.

“I can’t give you respectability. I know that’s important to you, but I don’t have it to offer you. I can’t even do it by marrying you. Not with the difference in our ages. Nonetheless, I would marry you this afternoon, Leanne, if it were legal.

“There is nothing in my life that I’d rather have than the chance to be with you every day, to be your companion and friend, to provide for your needs and the needs of your children, to wake up and see you sleeping next to me, to dance with you in the kitchen every day like we do when we set the table. Don’t you see what we have? In every way that’s important, we already share the best parts of a good marriage.”

“No, not in every way.”

“No, you’re right. There is something that we’re missing. But we can have that, too.”

She turned and looked at him.

“Speak plainly, Jake. This is not the kind of thing you talk about through allusions.”

“Okay, plainly then. I want you to be the mother of my child. I want our child to tie us together inseparably. I want us bound together in a way that is more important to you than your reputation. I want you to redefine what makes you proud. I want you to lift your head in pride because you are the loving mother of our child. Of our children. You have enough time left to give me two or three or four children before you can’t bear children anymore.”

“But I won’t be your wife. And there will be other women.”

“You won’t be my only wife. There will always be Ellen and Kara. Probably Julie. Maybe Carol and Jan. There will be others. Some permanent, some who come and go. There will be relationships that are unconventional because I’m strong enough to help women who have unconventional needs. But I will always have enough love for you to keep you first in my heart.”

“How many women will be first in your heart?”

“As many as there are. But none will mean more to me than you, none that I am more committed to than you.”

“What would Kara think?”

“Kara would laugh with joy to be your sister-wife.”

“I’ve already had sex with Ellen and Jan.” She blushed. “Kara is my daughter. I couldn’t do that with her.”

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want, though I don’t think that Kara views that possibility as anything distasteful. But she will respect your decision. I never did get to hear the story about you and Ellen and Jan on Sunday night.”

“It went just fine, not that it’s any of your business.”

“I was pleased when I heard that you were there with them. I wanted you to see why I think they are as exceptional as you are.” He smiled at her. “Of course, I can find out how it went from Ellen.”

“Damn you, Jake Fielding. I have no defenses against you.”

“Will you divorce your husband and be mine?”

“Yes.”

“Will you give me children?”

“Yes.”

“I won’t share my children with Gus. You have to divorce him before I will put a bun in your oven.”

“I will call the lawyer today to get it started.”

“I don’t have a condom with me.”

“I’m not fertile. My period is about to start.”

“Will you promise not to push me away again?”

“Yes, my love. No matter what happens, I won’t push you away again.”

Jake pulled her to her feet, kissed her gently, and unbuttoned her dress. It fell to her feet. He reached behind her and unhooked her bra and pulled it off her.

“You will be a beautiful wife.”

He knelt and pulled her panties down her hips. He stepped back and undressed. He lay on the bed and pulled her down to him.

“Our child will have to share this breast with me.”

He suckled from her breast. As he did, he activated more of the neurons in the pathway that processed stimulation from her breasts, continuing the task he had started the week before.

Leanne began to moan. Jake switched to the other breast. When she was fully aroused, he rolled her onto her back, knelt between her legs, and pushed his penis into her. It felt like he was coming home.

“That’s so good, Leanne.”

“Take me, Jake. We will consummate our marriage, at least as far as we are concerned.”

Jake began to move in and out of her. He knew he would not last long so he activated her feedback circuit. She climbed even faster than he did. It was only two minutes before they both climaxed. Leanne screamed loudly. Jake fed energy to her feedback circuit for almost a minute, ensuring that her orgasm lasted an extra-long time and that she would enjoy the after-effects for several minutes.

“I wish I could linger here with you, but I’m expected at home in a few minutes,” he said as he held her. “I’ll come by in the morning for breakfast. I love you more than anything.”

She managed to smile at him as she lay there trembling.

Jake went to the kitchen. Julie and Kara smiled at him knowingly. Brian frowned but did not say anything.

“It sounded like you resolved your problems,” Kara said.

“We’ve agreed on the basis for a permanent relationship.”

“You make it sound like marriage, or maybe a treaty,” she said.

“Kara, go talk to her. Get the details from her. You, too, Julie. This will affect all of us. I’ve got that class tonight, but I’ll be here around eight in the morning for breakfast before I go into work.”

Jake kissed Kara and Julie goodbye and rushed home, getting there before Shannon or Ellen. Carol was gone. Jake found a note from her on the computer desk.

My dearest Jake,

I had a wonderful time today. Thank you.

Those other guys are fun, but you are the one that I love. I want to be with you soon.

Carol

Jake checked the drawer of his bedside table. It was time to restock the condom supply.

He went to the computer and checked his email account. There was nothing from his father. He wished he found that comforting.

Jake took a bite of his steak. It was a good piece of meat. The restaurant was a fine one, almost good enough to justify the prices.

He was sitting across from Boris Havel, the bodyguard he had arranged to meet. Jake looked him over as Havel looked Ellen over. Occasionally the New York strip on his plate would reclaim his attention for a few seconds.

“I hope that when you’re on the job that you’ll pay as much attention to the dangers as you are to my mother,” Jake said.

Ellen blushed and looked down at her plate. Shannon giggled.

Jake did not blame Havel for his reaction to Ellen, and Jake noticed that in some measure it was mutual. Havel was in his thirties. He was tall and broad of shoulder. His hair was already turning silver. He projected confidence.

“On the job, there will be no distractions. I give you my assurances.” Havel spoke with the hint of an East European accent.

Jake told him about when Ellen had been abducted as a teenager and their recent email contact with his father. Jake had explained that he wanted Havel to accompany his mother whenever she was away from him. Mostly that meant to and from work and at lunch.

“When I learned that my father was watching her at her gym, I decided precautions were needed. He’s been trying to get me to correspond with him by email. I refused unless he would assure me that my mother was safe from him. Now he has stopped trying to communicate with me. I’m concerned that he is getting ready to act.”

“Act how?”

“I think he will abduct her again.”

“How did you know he was stalking your mother?”

“Surveillance video at the gym.”

“That was unusually nice of them to show you their video.”

“I asked nicely. You will be armed?”

“Yes, I carry a concealed pistol.”

“Can you keep her safe?”

“It is not a difficult job. I will accompany your mother and defend her if he makes an attempt against her. Of course, he may just choose to wait. In a while, if there is no attempt then you will discharge me and she will be vulnerable again.”

“I’m especially worried about the next several days. We are addressing the immediate danger now. We’ll worry later about what’s down the road.”

“What about other times such as when she’s not at work?”

“I can protect her.”

Havel stifled a laugh.

“I’m impressed by your courage, Mr. Fielding, but you are still a boy and your father is a man and a criminal. Are you sure you are not putting Miss Fielding in unnecessary danger by not having me present at other times? And what is to prevent him from making his attempt at your apartment?”

“I have good reason to be confident that he won’t attempt to abduct her when I’m there.”

“And why not?”

“That involves some family history that I won’t talk about here at the table.”

Jake asked him about his qualifications. Havel claimed to be ex-Slovak special forces. The amazing thing was that it was true. He had been doing investigations and personal security in the local area for five years. He ran down the weapons he was “qualified” with and claimed that he was “acceptably proficient” at hand-to-hand combat. Jake believed that he really was as qualified and proficient as he claimed because Havel was convinced that he was.

Jake wrote him a check for the first week. Havel looked at the temporary check warily.

Jake laughed. “Suspicious? You better hit the bank first thing to make sure it’s good.”

Havel folded the check and put it in his pocket.

“If that’s it, I’ll be at your house tomorrow morning at 7:30.”

“No. Would you, please, walk with us to the gun range, Mr. Havel?”

“Sure, if it would make you feel more secure.”

Jake let it pass and paid the bill. On the street, he asked Ellen and Shannon to walk ahead of them.

“There are several more details I need to tell you that I can’t say in front of the women. It may change how you feel about working for us, but you will need to know them to do your job.”

Jake took Glen Harris’s rap sheet and the police report of the last arrest from his shirt pocket and gave them to Havel to read. When Havel was done, he gave them back to Jake.

“He is a prolific criminal and a cruel man. But that doesn’t change my mind about this job. If anything it makes me more motivated to protect your mother.”

“Did you notice how he has never been convicted despite all those arrests?”

“The police report suggests that his methods produce little evidence. He is very careful.”

“His victims all conveniently have amnesia.”

“That sounds like a heavy dose of a date-rape drug. It interferes with memory.”

“It sounds like it but consider the police report. There is no mention of drugs in the victim’s system. Besides, I know that’s not how he does it.”

“He can cause amnesia?”

“He can control people’s minds.”

“If one of the people I sometimes investigate said that, I would conclude that he had a mental illness.”

“Yes, I know it sounds like a delusion, though if you insist, I can prove it. But, let’s try an exercise in logic first. How else do you think he manages to abduct all these women without attracting attention? How come they can’t remember a thing from precisely the moment of their abduction until the moment of their release? Drugs wouldn’t be so precise.”

“I can’t answer all the questions, but it sounds to me like the work of a careful and meticulous criminal.”

“I have talked to people who witnessed my mother’s abduction. They say that they tried to stop her from leaving with him, but they found that they couldn’t move. My mother made no attempt to resist this man she had never met before.”

“I would expect to find reasonable explanations after a careful investigation.”

“I didn’t think I could just talk you into it.” Jake sighed. “Mr. Havel, will you keep secret what I’m about to tell you?”

“I won’t volunteer anything that I learn on the job, but if I were subpoenaed, I could be compelled to testify. There is no legal immunity.”

“Fair enough. I know a lot of what my father can do because I inherited the same abilities.”

“I renew my comment about how that sounds like mental illness.”

“Yes, I know. Mr. Havel, I’ve had this conversation before. I’ve learned several persuasive ways to prove that it is true. Here’s one technique I often use, although it’s not as much fun when there are no other people around. Think of something embarrassing that I could not possibly know.”

Jake paused.

“I guess I can see why that would embarrass you. So let me assure you that lots of people are curious about the sexual organs of animals and will secretly examine and touch their family pets that way.”

Havel stiffened.

“I can keep this up as long as you can think up things you don’t want me to know about. I think, though, that you would find the game a little nerve-racking. Instead, how about we play the guess-a-number-between-one-and-1,000,000 game?”

“Yes.”

“Nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-eight. You should do another. That’s a bit too obvious. Try to make it really random... 120,846. That’s better, but I could have guessed it if I had known your mother’s date of birth.”

Havel stood still, staring impassively down the sidewalk.