CHAPTER 44 - KFC, MAKING DIRTY AND JUDGEMENT HELP
EMS’S COTTAGE - TWO HOURS LATER
KITCHEN
LINDSAY
“You’re not going to tell them, are you?” I turn around at their silence; not even the dogs look at me. “Oh! Please don’t! It’s humiliating enough to have gone through it!”
“Then why were you laughing?” Slick pours me more wine. “The walls are thin. You were laughing whilst describing what happened...to whom?”
“Edna.”
“Ah.” Slick smiles as she returns to the table. “You know what she did to you in prison right?”
“Yes.” Subconsciously I rub my butt.
“Not that.” Slick sniggers. “I meant with your vitamins etc.” I frown. “She had them crushed up into your food. No, she didn't know it was Annabee in there, she just wanted you to take care of yourself.”
“Oh.” I make a mental note to call her again later. “Anyway, when she finished laughing, she gave me the recipe for the chicken.” I over-swipe my iPad and am faced with the dinner for the boys. “Slick, has he ever had you do that?” She rejoins me at the stove.
“Oh hell no!” She scoffs. “And that’s exactly what you should say!”
“But it’s their dinner, however for tonight do you think we can give them chicken and we keep that to ourselves?” I plead as my stomach rolls at the thought of cutting up the turkey necks and scraping out bone marrow...cooked or not.
Slick grunts. “Okay, that’s enough. Nobody but…”
“I’m trying to make things right.” I sigh. “I know he says they’ve forgiven me but…”
“But he's still an asshole.” Slick gently turns me around. “Look, they’re, as you found out, a combined weight of 675 pounds. Who love their food; especially that. This is a treat, not dinner, which only Brian and Justin feed them. He would’ve had you prepare that for nothing.” She goes back to the chicken recipe.
“That...oooh wait till I get hold of him!” Just as I reach for my phone, it rings. I jab him on speaker. “You utter total and complete asshole!”
“Hello, Lindz, how goes it?” Brian drawls. “Anything happen today?”
I’m about to combust when Slick shakes her head, then mouths ‘less WASP’, so I take a deep breath. “I got bested by your mastodons! They pissed on my hands twice, then they pooped on me before the arrival of the manure trucks spooked them into flattening me into the ground.. Whereupon, I was covered in manure and a monsoon of water.”
“That doesn’t sound like fun, want us to come back?” He doesn’t even try not to snicker.
“No, it’s okay. I’ve had a bath, they’ve settled down, and…”
“Lindz, our home is worth over five mil. That’s just the property, so we get a live feed of any unusual activity. It’s a good job she hauls cars, be…” He snorts before howling with laughter along with Justin, who suggests it should be a ‘How not to train your Mastodon’ video in the background over Christmas lunch, which I can talk them throughit!
“Will you two control yourself? Come on!”
“It was like Back to Future!” Brian hoots. “Except without you spitting out the balls!”
“Brian, stop it!” I chuckle as the pure absurdity of the day hits me again. Soon, the laughter recedes, but we are each waiting for the other to speak
“Lindz, go stay in the house, okay? Take the room next to Gus.” Justin states. “Their proper food is in the mud room, which they get at seven, Gus and Jenny can deal with them. After everyone’s been fed, you two can VC, would you like that?”
“Okay, and yes I would. Thank you.” I hang up, still smiling and resume cooking.
“Lindsay.”
“Yes Slick.”
“Did you hear what he said?”
“That I could stay in the house and VC with Brian? Yes, of course I did.”
“Apart from that. Reinstate your waspiness, get the inference. Justin said Christmas lunch…”
“So…”
“It’s summer. He said you can talk us through it over Christmas lunch. Justin’s saying, ‘welcome to our home’.”
Within seconds I’m a snivelling wreck, but this time it’s my children that comfort me.
EOHOPS HOUSE - TWENTY MINUTES LATER
KITCHEN
EDNA
Carlton and I exchange surreptitious looks. For all his toughness, he’s a delicate thing, although he has admitted that this is all kinds of mucked up, I’ve heard of things not looking like the picture but this resembles roadkill. “Maybe it will look better than it tastes.” I’m all about encouragement, after all!
“Taste better than it looks is what she meant!” Carlton swiftly corrects.. “So let’s try it, shall we?”
“On three.” Hiram surveys his creation before picking up a knife and fork; we follow his lead.
Ten minutes later, two pairs of eyes are locked onto my plate. They still have that ‘finish it quick’ mentality, but I have always savoured my food, and this is really good! “You know, they are looking for someone for the diner. It’s closed for now, until after the Fundraiser. I mean, look what happened to…” I add more hot sauce to the fries, knowing the wimps won’t touch them. “...Claire. She’s in...oh, I‘ve got a great idea. First, instead of looking at my plate, why not make more burgers? And…”
Carlton starts snickering, yeah okay, I pulled the elderly mother card! “Do you think you can manage another one, Mom, and what’s the ‘and’?”
“Absolutely not... as for the and; Hiram, what do you think about moving out of Pittsburgh?”
“Where would I go though?”
“Oh, I think your sponsor could find you a place.” I nibble on another fry and smile.
BLUE-GREEN COTTAGE - LATE NIGHT
BEDROOM
BRIAN
My head is on one pair of our hands he is taking his sweet delicious time. “Mean.” He licks the word into my ear. “Very mean.”
“Yep.” I groan before arching my neck. His ‘especially glossed’ lips leave tingles in their wake. “Hmmmm.” I groan. He enters me whilst taking my cock at the same time before starting to stroke and thrust in tandem. My eyes swap sides, then settle behind my brain. All I can feel is utter bliss!
“Mean boys need to be quiet, remember?” I nod, before the combination of our oil and his kisses send me over the edge. He follows seconds later.
ALLEGHANY COUNTY JAIL - NEXT DAY, LATE MORNING
VISITOR’S ROOM
MICHAEL
I really hope my visitor is Brian, just him. I mean that way I can explain. He always listens best when there’s no background chatter; especially head and heart turning blondes! But at least I’m in my own cell. I have a ‘nodding as we pass’ relationship with a few prisoners, so that quells the loneliness a bit.
I think about my predicament, yes I admit to some blame but Brian has to share some. He didn’t have to let his ‘husband’ feed him all that food!
“Michael Novotny?” I look up, the owner of that deep voice is gorgeous!
“Yes, that’s me. And you are?”
“Josiah Momtanlinga.” He extends his hand, which I shake, he is all heat. “Don’t you think we should go to a private room?” I blink then signal a guard.
MEETING ROOM 6 - TEN MINUTES LATER
JOSIAH
“Please call me Michael.” He gestures to the seat opposite; I sit down. “Do we still need the guard?”
“Of course, this is an attorney interview after all. Shall we begin?” His smile disintegrates. “I’m representing the prosecution in the case of the State vs David Cameron. Where is your attorney?”
“I didn’t think I needed her. They said that I had a visitor, I thought…”
“We can postpone this then. It would be best if…”
“No, let’s get it over with.”
“Fine.” I signal for the recording to begin. “As I said, I am the prosecuting attorney. Now Dr Cameron has claimed that it was because of your behaviour that he took the course of action he did. So, care to explain?”
“Explain what? I only met him when I got out of jail! In fact, you need to speak to Lindsay Peterson, she…”
“Has been spoken to and produced a statement. She has detailed everything, including both your plans to cause problems for Slick Phoenix.” His disdain as the mention of her name makes my ‘guilt’ evaporate. “It’s called extortion, remember, and you should be grateful!”
“I’ll send her a fruit basket.” He snaps; losing some of his bravado when the guard puts his hand on his shoulder. “Why should I be grateful?”
“Because she’s not pressing charges for it. Also, your mother has dropped the ones for stealing her ring, since it has been returned. But back to the matter of Dr Cameron’s statement...”
“I didn’t steal, it fell into my bag! If she had come to visit or called me, then I would’ve told her that I found it, but she didn’t.”
“You raise a valid point, but then you also didn’t call her. And when you visited her residence, you did not mention it. But tell me, was it because of your sudden incontinence and the Peterson connection that you were able to register with Dr Cameron?”
I lean back to regard him properly. He reminds me of the Aye-Aye, in that he has an ugliness that only comes out when his mind is in its darkest depths.
MICHAEL
“Yes. She at least did something right for me. And...wait a minute!” I’m furious as I realise what must’ve happened, Matthias found the money in the pads and kept it! Whilst I keep that to myself, I will say it in court! When I scratch my head, to buy some time, using my middle finger whilst looking at him; he sits up. “It was him who told me to use pull-ups, Cameron I mean when he examined me.”
“Gesture, duly noted.” My embarrassment almost warms the room. “So, back to the statement of Dr Cameron. He says that it was because of you that he was angry and took it out on his victim.”
“What victim? I know nothing about that.”
“After you had him thrown out for insulting you, he went onto another club, where he met...”
“I would never go to Meathook ever! I’m much more of a Babylon guy, wish I had taken my chance to visit when I was first released.”
“You would never have got into Babylon, they banned you for life.” I gape at him. “What did you expect when you tried to sabotage their wedding? Now moving on, he said that your caterwauling at the bar lowered the tone; your dancing resembled a scooting dog; and if the way you drank that beer was anything to go by, you don’t get many ‘requests’. Do you…”
“That was him?! Man, he’s gone to seed!” I cross my arms and recall the night. He was so fucking snooty and smug, him and his prissy friends, making everyone laugh at my expense. Well, I wasn’t going to let them do that. Then I realise what I’ve said. “What I mean is that I felt he, Dr Cameron, looked vaguely familiar but I don’t recall anybody saying anything like that about me. Why would they?”
“Hmm. Then Mr Novotny, how do you know where Dr Cameron went if you never met him before your release?”
“I know Casper. The poor guy, he told me what happened to him and where, but not who.” I feel relief at my quick thinking. “I put two and two together just now.”
“Mr Novotny, with regards to the pull-ups, why would you bring them up? Then there’s the matter of you saying, less than five minutes ago, that you knew nothing about the attack. I never said who the victim was. So how do you know who it was and where it took place?”
INSIDE OF JOSIAH’S CAR - AN HOUR LATER
JOSIAH
Okay, it was a bit duplicitous, but I never made him tell me! I had been waiting for a call back from either Fremlick or Cameron’s attorney; the former got there first. It turns out that being a judge in jail makes your jaw swing, in more ways than one! I was sorting through the evidence when Fremlick looked surprised. His attorney asked him if he was okay, he said he wondered why an attorney of my calibre would’ve any dealings with Novotny. Since the only thing he could think of him doing against humanity was whine and have people thrown out of clubs. And that was when I found out that Fremlick was there that night and heard what Cameron said!
Korean fried chicken: https://www.kitchensanctuary.com/korean-fried-chicken/
Hiram’s Dirty burger: https://shaws1889.com/recipes/ultimate-dirty-burger/
Aye-aye - only click if brave enough - seriously this is no-ugly-but-cute: