Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine
Lincoln was bouncing on top of me like a trampoline before my alarm went off. He was more reliable than any alarm clock but I got up and checked my phone to see if there were any messages from Jill. No messages were recorded from Jill. I thought about the incident a lot since leaving the hospital parking lot.

The fact that John and his friend or friends would attack an older woman showed me they didn’t care about anyone. I needed to feed Lincoln and then decide whether to take him to daycare or not. I didn’t want to call in but it might be necessary if I had no one to pick Lincoln up from daycare. 

I made some breakfast for Lincoln and while he was eating I called Jill to check on her and her mom. Jill picked up her phone.

Jill said, “Hello, Susan, is that you?”

I said, “It’s me. How is your mom and how are you?”

Jill replied, “She is sore. They didn’t do any permanent damage but she will be in the hospital a few days until she stabilizes.”

I replied, “I guess that is good news that there is no permanent damage. I am going to take Lincoln to mom’s house for a few days until your mom gets out of the hospital.”

Jill said, “I was just worried about leaving mom alone but the police department is posting a guard by mom’s room in case her attacker comes back.”

I said, “That sounds like she will be well protected.”

Jill said, “I am still going to stay close by, just in case.”

I hung up the phone and packed Lincoln a bag and explained that he needed to stay with Nana for a few days. That didn’t bother him at all, in fact he seemed to look forward to it. I didn’t like leaving him there but it was the best answer for my current situation. I wouldn’t have to worry about him and I would be able to go to work without any issues.

I got Lincoln loaded in the car and fastened in his child seat. I had his travel bag beside him full of clothes and his stuffed “babies”. When I left I drove carefully watching for anyone behind me. I even made some unusual turns and backtracked a few times to help make it harder for anyone tracking us. 

I made a call to mom before we left and explained everything to her. I told her about Jill’s mom being attacked and asked her to be very careful about whom she opened the door for. She assured me she would be. 

She answered the door when I knocked but when the door was completely opened, I was looking down the barrel of a forty-five revolver. I knew she had a gun, my warning was more to make her aware but I didn’t think about her owning a gun with bullets big enough to blow a king size hole into the intruder. 

Mom was pretty tough and she was skeptical enough she had been able to avoid scammers all of her life. She told a scammer on the phone once that he could come by and pick up some money and gave him the address to the closest police station. 

With Lincoln in the safety of a crazy old lady with a gun, I felt good enough to go to the hospital to check on Jill. I still had to work the night shift at the store but I had enough time to see Jill and her mom before getting ready for work. With all of the things going on in my personal life lately, I had little time to devote to figuring out what was in that room John kept secure. 

When I left my mother’s I drove to the hospital to check on Jill and her mom. I already called Jill and told her I would be coming by for a visit before I went to work. Jill had asked me what about attackers coming after my mom, since I was convinced the attackers had something to do with John and his friends. I told her my mom answered the door by putting a forty-five revolver in my face. 

I found a parking spot at the hospital fairly quickly and ran in to find the room. I hadn’t been to the room since Jill met me in the lobby to pick up Lincoln and I never went beyond that point. I had the room number and I could get to the correct floor. I would follow the signs to find the right wing where the room was. 

I found the room and Jill and I exchanged hugs out in front of the police guard. Jill told him I was a good friend of the family and was okay to visit. I could see her mom lying in bed covered with bruises and could imagine how sore she was. It was tough seeing an old woman beaten like that.

Jill asked, “How is Lincoln doing? He was asking a lot of questions about why we were at the hospital. I told him we were seeing mom and that made him upset until I explained it was my mom and not his that was in the hospital. I guess I could have explained that better from the start because it really freaked him out until I clarified things.”

I replied, “I can imagine it would have since he had already lost his dad, even though he doesn’t remember Charles. Thank you so much for taking good care of Lincoln under some very trying conditions. You are the best friend I could ever hope for and I can’t even find the words to express my gratitude for what you did.”

I saw this little old lady in bed with bruises and couldn’t imagine how anybody could have beat her the way they did. I just couldn’t understand what kind of thinking would make you do that to such an innocent individual. 

I asked, “What did the police say about what happened to her?”

Jill replied, “They told me it would be hard to find out who did it unless someone came forward with more information. It would take a witness who could give them details on what kind of vehicle they had and what they looked like.”

I asked Jill what her mother’s address was. I thought I might investigate the area myself. I had a photo of John’s friend and the car he drove when I followed him from John’s house. I could show that photo around and see if anyone had seen it. If they had I could tell Jill that we knew who beat her mother up. 

I didn’t stay long at the hospital because I still had to work a shift at the store. I told Jill and her mom goodbye and gave Jill a hug before leaving to get ready for work. Investigation would have to wait till I had more time. I didn’t have the time available and work would have to come before snooping. 

When I left the hospital I made sure nobody followed me. I don’t think I would have to worry about that. I think Jill’s mom was put in the hospital just to keep us too busy to watch what was going on at John McKinley’s house. 

I glanced at the security screen while I got ready for work but didn’t see anything that looked any different than it had looked for days. It seemed all the same. Day in and day out an endless scene full of nothing. It just showed John, making occasional trips inside that room and otherwise keeping it locked. I wondered how policemen on a stake out kept from going insane watching someone for days. 

I left the screen to go by itself while I finished getting ready. I got my store uniform on and had my UV light to detect bogus bills so all that was left was the trip to the store. I made my way to my register and the girl from the day shift had just finished declaring out. She clocked out and I took her place. I clocked in on the register and began counting in.

I was ready and they shut the register down next to me and sent the people who were in line there to my register. It was a long line and I would be too busy to think about investigations or much of anything else. Most of the people who came to the store are regulars. We see them all the time and they live in the neighborhood. 

Some people just come in to shop specials, especially drink specials. Chip sales get a lot of people in too. They come in for milk and bread, soft drinks and beer. I spend a lot of time checking IDs. I always sold a lot of candy, beef jerky, cookies and other snacks. It looked like we sold a lot of snacks to potheads with the munchies and to be honest that was our largest group of shoppers and they were usually regulars. 

I didn’t see my suspect tonight and was quite relieved by that. The less I saw of him the better I liked it. I knew he had something sinister going on but I wasn’t sure what. I suspected some kind of kidnapping perhaps. 

It was time to go home and I was certainly ready. The job isn’t hard outside of some insincere smiling and standing on my feet for many hours at a time. That was the hardest thing and I didn’t get to drink anything for a long time because there wasn’t enough time for a bathroom break, when you had a long line of people. 

The store was ready to close and several cashiers had already gotten out of their registers. Mine would be last and I couldn’t get out until the doors were locked. The assistant manager had to login to my register to okay the “declare” before I could count everything out. It was a two part process, we had a paper form we filled out but also we entered the amounts into the register and it confirms that what we count is what should be there and tells us if we are over or under. I am never under but have been slightly over a few times because some people don’t want to wait for their change.

After getting out of the register and finishing my paperwork I made the long walk to my car in the parking lot. The security guard usually walked me to my car on late nights when I was the last to leave. I saw a lone car parked in the outer corner of the parking lot and it looked like someone was sitting in it. When I started my car and left the parking lot I saw the headlights light up on the car parked in that outer corner and it followed behind me.

It followed me with every turn I made but far enough back to try to avoid suspicion. It was too late. I already had suspicions. I made several turns to see if that car made them as well and it did. I turned right, that car turned right as well. I turned left and that car turned left also. I drove through an empty parking lot and that car also drove through the empty parking lot. I knew not to go home even though John McKinley’s friend knew where I lived. I drove to the police station and told the night sergeant that I was being followed from work. He wrote out a report and I told him about my friend’s mother in the hospital because she had been beaten up. Several officers walked me out to my car and the car that had been following me drove off.

Since they saw the car drive off the sergeant sent a patrol car to tail me home and watch for the car that had followed me. I drove feeling safer with the patrol car behind me, but I was glad they didn’t check me for weapons. I lay my pistol out in my center console as had become my habit, until I got to my parking lot. I slipped my pistol back into my purse and walked to my apartment and as soon as I shut my door, I saw the patrol car drive away. 

Jill was there and told me her mother was sleeping so she came back for a change of clothes and a shower. I told her about being followed which made her look out the window. She saw a car parked across the street with its lights out but she could make out shadowy figures inside. After she told me about it I looked out to see. It was the same car that had followed me. 

I held my pistol up from my purse and said, “Let them try to come in.”

Jill didn’t like a gun in the house but seemed to feel safer that I had it. I called my mother to check on Lincoln. He was asleep, which I was happy about. I told her goodnight and hung up. I had already changed into pajamas while I had been talking to Jill. I am always tired and ready to get out of my uniform and shoes at the end of the day. 

Jill and I sat and talked for a while after I put on pajamas. She had showered but intended to go back to the hospital and sleep in a chair beside her mother’s bed. Neither of us actually thought her mother was in any danger at the moment. Her mom was beaten as a message and I got the message.

We hadn’t sat and talked for a while and it was refreshing to have this opportunity for a change. We didn’t even worry about what was on our monitor showing John McKinley, we just talked for about an hour. Jill finally left and I went to bed.