Chapter 4: Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

“She’s already awake?” Jake asked.

“She’s almost always the first up,” Harris said with a yawn. “I usually sleep until seven. Then I release them one at a time to use the bathroom.”

“How are they enjoying their stay?”

“What do you think? Except for bathroom breaks they spend all their time lying on their mattresses, paralyzed. They hate their lives. The only reason they don’t hate me, too, is because conversation with me gives them a break from staring at the inside of their eyelids.”

“How is their health?”

“No issues at the moment. Ms. Cox seems to be getting weaker. I don’t know if it’s the lack of exercise, if she’s coming down with something, or if she just stopped caring. The broken arm has healed up pretty well. I removed the splint. She doesn’t do anything to stress it anyway.”

“Are they cooperating with you?”

“Giving me their story? Of course. They are desperate for my attention.”

“How about you? This is the longest you’ve been on your own since you checked into Chez Farmhouse.”

Harris shrugged. “My existence is boring most any way you look at it. Your visits give me a little diversion but it’s still 15 hours a day of entertaining myself. At least I have my projects. I’m writing or interviewing the Coxes about eight hours a day. After that, I’m too stale to be productive, so I sit by the front door or entertain myself with my computer game.”

Jake pulled out a thumb drive and handed it to him. Harris woke up his laptop, inserted the drive, and copied over his files.

“Thanks for the backup service,” Harris said. “I suppose this sounds pathetic, but if my disk crashed and I lost my work, I’d be devastated.”

“Tell me about your progress.”

“I’m up to about two hundred tips. I remembered the names of three more victims from the last couple of years, but I only remember the approximate address of one of them. The first draft of my autobiography is almost done. I’ve taken as many notes from Tommy as I can stand.”

“Oh?”

“There’s a lot more of his life for me to wade through, but it’s just so tedious. He’s pitiful. He was fine when he had money and power, and advice from his mother on how to bully people. Now he’s just weepy and resentful.”

“What about Mrs. Cox?”

“She’s cagier. Ever since she realized that I’m writing her biography she’s been slanting her account to present a more sympathetic picture.”

Jake raised his eyebrows. “Why bother? You know when she’s lying.”

“But she doesn’t know that. All she knows is that I can converse with her, and paralyze and unparalyze her. It’s occurred to her that I might be able to do more, but until she knows for sure, she’s doing her best to control what I learn.” He looked over at Jake. “I never would have believed it could happen, but I’ve grown fond of her. She’s sharp as a tack, witty, educated, and subtle.”

“To say nothing of being ruthless, selfish, and quite evil.”

“That’s not such a blot to my way of thinking. It just means we have similar ways of looking at things. If we were just disembodied minds encountering each other in the ether, I do believe I would have fallen in love with her. Fortunately she’s a shriveled-up old prune. That helps me keep things in perspective.”

“When will you start writing their biographies?”

“It will probably take at least another month to finish interviewing them. Rose has had tons of interesting experiences. She’s been running the show from the sidelines for decades, and she remembers everything. Tommy doesn’t remember nearly as many details, but he’s had his hands in so much that the sheer volume is amazing. Sometimes I sort through his memories to fill in the gaps. I search Rose’s memories, too, but that’s just to learn what she left out to make herself look better.”

Harris stood. “It’s time for her to go to the bathroom. I’m going to unparalyze her.”

“Go ahead.”

Jake followed him into the bedroom where the Coxes were laying. Harris smiled down at her fondly.

Mrs. Cox stirred, threw off her sheet, rolled over, and stiffly got to her feet. She shuffled off to the bathroom naked, finding her way with her hands. She closed the door after her.

“She sleeps naked?”

“I let her bathe in the evenings. She’s taken to washing her clothes with the bath soap several times a week. When she does, she sleeps naked while her clothes dry. I wish Tommy would do the same thing. He gets pretty gamey until I nag him to wash.”

Mrs. Cox returned from the bathroom. She started to dress, but then stopped, her head swiveling sightlessly back and forth.

Something’s different today, she sent.

We have a visitor, Harris sent. Our jailor is here.

Mrs. Cox said nothing. She finished dressing and lay down. Harris re-paralyzed her.

“I’ll give them a breakfast bar when Tommy awakes. Then we start the daily grind all over again.”

Harris shuffled to the kitchen and got himself a glass of water.

“Would it be too much to ask for a coffee maker? Don’t view it as an extravagance for the condemned. Think of it as a way to increase the output of your slave.”

“I’ll have to think about it. I’m worried that your confinement is getting too luxurious and you’re starting to like it.”

Harris laughed sardonically. “If that’s your concern then let me reassure you that it’s misplaced.” He looked over at Jake. “You’re going to have to decide what to do about me and the Coxes.”

“True. Tommy’s estate has been wrapped up. The only reason to keep him around is to document his bad deeds.”

“Read ‘keep him alive’ for ‘keep him around, ‘“ Harris said.

“Yes, you’re right. The ugly truth is that it is a significant risk having him here. And there’s no compelling humanitarian reason to keep him alive.”

“It hurts you to say that, doesn’t it?”

“It doesn’t matter how it makes me feel. When his usefulness has ended I will cut his throat myself.”

“And you’ll execute Rose, too?”

“She’s worse than Tommy. I expect to hear today that the sale of the Cox ranch is final. According to the attorney, the rest of her property will probably have been sold by the end of this week.”

“And then there is me. I flatter myself that it will be harder for you to execute me than these two.”

Jake didn’t say anything. He just looked at him levelly.

“Go ahead and give me your best steely glare, but I can read you some even without telepathy. For instance, when you don’t hate me, you like me. You also don’t hold a grudge very well.”

“I guess we won’t know for sure as long as you continue to be useful.”

“How did Ellen like Paris?”

“She loved it. Before we started out, she had all these crazy expectations about how romantic it would be, but by the time we left, she was pleased. It didn’t hurt that we spent a boatload of money.”

“There’s some justice to that. I’m glad my modest resources were able to give her a good time.”

“I, uh, did something while I was there.”

Harris raised an eyebrow at him. “You had two weeks. It would have been hard to do nothing.”

“You know what I mean. I did one thing in particular. I found myself in the same room as the President of France. I put a control in him.”

“That’s a chip off the old block. Of course, that could also prove to be a dicey move. It can be very conspicuous to make a head of state dance to your tune. It might also piss off the mind readers of France to find their prominent politicians sporting compulsions from abroad.”

“It was a spur of the moment thing. I remembered how I wished I had taken control of Tommy when I had him close, so I went ahead and did the president when I had the chance.”

“I hope you at least did a workmanlike job.”

“I found a strong desire to kick Jacque Chirac’s ass. I removed the restraints that kept him from actually doing it and linked it to a compulsion to obey me and Ellen.”

“What triggers it?”

“I dug up a childhood memory that is deeply buried. I linked the desire to that memory. I can activate the control by either triggering the memory recall indexes or by describing it in enough detail that he brings it up himself.”

“That’s a more complicated trigger than I’ve ever used.”

“I modeled it on what you did to my friend Jan. But I wanted better control of what would actually invoke the trigger.”

“Have you tried one like this before?”

“Yes, I tried it on Ellen first. It worked as designed.”

“He’s an important man and you can’t get close to him without a good reason. How will you trigger it if you decide to use it?”

“He was very taken with Ellen. She might be able to get through to him and trigger it over the phone. If not, I would have to get close enough to him to trigger it myself. It’s not like I really expect to use it.”

“Politicians are wasting assets anyway. How much longer is he likely to hold an important office, much less one that you can exploit to your own ends? You should probably concentrate on taking control of dictators.”

“If you’re joking, that’s pretty funny. If you’re not, that is probably the most cynical thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I’ll let you keep wondering. I do, however, congratulate you on your innovation. You’ve given yourself considerable flexibility without having to worry about the control fading from his consciousness.”

“Thanks,” Jake said. It irritated him that he was pleased by his father’s praise. He stood up. “I’ve got some supplies for you.”

Jake walked out of the front door and returned with groceries and MREs. He put them in the kitchen. He walked back into the living room in time to see Tommy Cox groping his way down the hall and into the bathroom.

“I’m traveling overnight,” Jake called down the hallway to Harris. “I’ll see you the day after tomorrow.”

“Don’t forget the coffee.”

“We’ll see,” Jake said.

“The O’Connors still won’t settle for anything less than a public apology,” Jerry Amos said.

“Tommy is more than glad to apologize. He just can’t come out into public to deliver it. Won’t a written statement be enough? I can promise that it will be eloquent.”

“They said no.”

“How about a videotaped apology? Surely you can sell that. A public apology is fleeting. They could play the video whenever they want. I’ll make sure that he cries for the camera.”

“I’m not sure you’re taking this seriously.”

“I’ve got 41 million dollars of Tommy Cox’s money,” Jake said. “I want for the O’Connor’s to get a big chunk of it, but Tommy is radioactive. If they insist that he go out into public, I can’t give them any money.”

“You know that for them, this isn’t about the money.”

“Can’t you make them realize that Tommy can never again appear in public? Hint that his enemies have intervened and ensured that justice is done. They just can’t give Tommy up without cutting off their own legs. That’s accurate enough.”

“I’ll have another meeting with them.”

“Can we wrap up Nina?”

Jerry slid him a document.

“This is a settlement with the terms you asked for. Four million for pain and suffering. Four hundred thousand for past and future medical. Get her to sign the original and the copies and have them notarized.”

“What about Donna?” Jake asked.

“She’ll accept four million plus three-hundred-thousand for the medical.”

“Done. Ryan Caldwell’s family?”

“They have life insurance of two million dollars.”

“How many kids?”

“Two. One’s already through college and the other is a junior at Baylor.”

“Sounds like they’ll be okay,” Jake said.

“The widow will tone down her lifestyle a little if she’s smart. But she should have a decent life.”

“Any other claimants?”

“Of course, but nothing credible. Without having money lying around, what little interest there is will fall away.”

“What about Cox’s family members?”

“No wife or kids. No one relies on Tommy, or Mrs. Cox, either, as far as I can tell.”

“Will the niece be okay?”

“Annie Cox? Funny you should take a particular interest in her.” He chuckled for a second. “No, Jake, Annie has a full-ride scholarship. She’s a smart girl, it turns out. Besides her branch of the family is doing just fine.”

“What about the city council member that got raped?”

“Tina James? She’s still got her seat on the council until her term expires in 2012 unless she gets indicted before then. She doesn’t exactly have clean hands, Jake.”

“Okay. Let’s wrap up O’Connor and Donna Glenn. Then we can say good riddance to this whole mess. I’ll have someone deliver Nina’s settlement papers this afternoon.”

“I’ll get them to Tommy’s attorneys. I assume you’ll make sure that Tommy signs them.”

“Yes, and I’ll transfer the settlement money to his lawyer’s bank account.”

“I suppose you’re going to want a quarter of my fee, still, even though you are actually paying the settlement.”

“A deal’s a deal. You’re not hinting that you want to fire me, are you, boss?”

Jerry laughed. “I don’t know that I want to go back to the revenue levels I had before you joined the team. With the fees from O’Connor and Glenn, this will be my best year ever, and it’s only the start of August.”

“About that,” Jake said, “you can only take five percent from Donna and Nina.”

“Five percent? My standard fee for a contingency contract is one-third.”

“All you’ve done on these cases was a little negotiation. I don’t care if I do get a quarter of it, one-third is too much. Besides, there was never anything contingent about it. You knew all along that these cases were both going to settle and do so quickly.”

“Okay. If you insist. The truth is that the state bar might very well have seen it just like you do. Two point nine million in fees would have been a lot of money for a sure thing. Are you still on for the deposition Thursday afternoon?”

“Yes, I’ll be here. What is it?”

“A product liability lawsuit. We represent an injured cotton gin worker. He stuck his hand into a machine to clear a jam and it grabbed his arm, severing it between the elbow and wrist.”

“Yuck. Why didn’t he turn off the machine before sticking his arm in?”

“He did, actually. The gears shifted even though the power was off. It was gruesome. The law says that a manufacturer is liable if its machine is inherently dangerous and they failed to warn their users, or if the technology exists to make the machine less dangerous and they failed to use it. We’ll be deposing the vice-president of engineering of the company that designed and built it.”

“The thought of chopped-off arms makes my skin crawl. I’m not going to have to look at any pictures, am I?”

“Not on Thursday. Be here at one p.m.”

Jake grabbed a Coke from the refrigerator and went to the library. It was quiet there, unlike the kitchen where there was always someone drinking coffee and talking. It was also funny how he seemed to attract company in his bedroom. When he needed a place to be alone with his thoughts, he went to the library. It was hardly ever used.

He dropped down in an easy chair, sipped at his drink, and looked out the window toward the lake. Strong emotions coming from down the hall caught his attention. He cast his mind that way.

Leanne was trying to soothe Brian’s ruffled feelings. Brian was bitter about what he perceived as Jake’s unjustified perquisites and the way he, Brian, had been relegated to insignificance.

Leanne knew how Brian felt and why, but she could not let Brian know that, at least not that she knew it of her own knowledge. Even claiming that she understood him through Jake would likely provoke a fit of resentment. Brian had been enjoying a resurgence of attention from the women while Jake was gone, especially from his mother and sisters. In the last few days that had dried up.

It had been over two months since Jake had punished Brian for hitting Carol by cranking up his fear and shame, and by making his face hurt the same way that Carol’s had.

Jake had hoped that Brian would respond by taking responsibility for his actions. Instead, Brian had shouldered the physical and emotional pain stoically and continued along as before, albeit without his usual spiritedness. Jake had even boosted the level of shame at one point, but Brian was still showing no sign of cracking.

Jake admired Brian’s strength of will, but in combination with his eagerness to take advantage of women, it was more a problem than a virtue.

To minimize the consequences of Brian’s aggression, Jake and Leanne we’re keeping him bottled up sexually. Even though he lived in a house full of women, some of whom might have enjoyed a romp with him, Brian was not getting sex from any of them. The servants also had been ordered to refuse him. He had ended up isolated from the 14 other residents of the lake house. Jake didn’t think that was a good result for a 16-year-old guy.

Practice for the fall football season was to begin the coming Monday. Brian was looking forward to letting his aggression out. Being surrounded by beautiful women that wouldn’t obey him had ruined his summer. His mother was keeping him on a short leash. Without a car of his own, he had little opportunity for socializing.

Jake delved deeper into Brian’s mind. His attitude about Jake was complex. He resented Jake because Jake was getting a lot of sex, some of which should have been coming to him, such as from that slut Carol.

Brian couldn’t bring himself to confront Jake physically. At one time, Jake had installed a control that prevented Brian from hurting him, but that had long been removed. The only remaining control prevented him from talking about Jake’s mind reading. But Brian did not doubt that if he provoked Jake enough, Brian would come out on the short end, as he had with that whole business about Carol.

Brian vacillated between bitterness and confusion about Jake’s relationship with his mother and sisters. They treated him like royalty. Brian was sure that Jake had done something to them to make them that way. Jake denied it, but Brian couldn’t believe that all three had chosen Jake over him.

Although his mind veered away from thoughts of incest, Brian believed that he should have become the man of the family when his father left. In particular, Brian didn’t understand how his mother could be sleeping with Jake. He was only 14 years-old, goddamn it.

On the other hand, Brian didn’t think that Jake was entirely a turd. Jake didn’t taunt or ride him, although Brian knew there was nothing he would have been able to do about it if he did. Brian wasn’t sure exactly what part Jake had played in getting his father out of the house, but he thought it might have been significant.

Brian had slept through the assault in Arkansas, but Julie had told him that Boris and Jake had gone out into the woods in the dark to stalk their attackers. If that was true, Brian had to admit that Jake had some balls, even for a mind reader. Those guys had had guns, and the woods is a scary place in the dark.

Jake listened to the conversation between Leanne and Brian. Brian was getting more irritated.

Jake watched as Leanne considered the question and decided that a frank answer would stir up Brian’s envy even more.

She sighed. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you think that. I guess most people in his position would have. But the truth is that he’s not.

How do you know that?

Leanne selected her words carefully. Mind reading is not just one way. Do you remember the time he let you see my thoughts?