Page 5 of Demitrius

“I’ve got you something coming to your house today. Since we didn’t get you a coffee maker, I got one sent to you.” She told Jack that she’d spent enough money; she could get herself a coffee machine. “I know that. But we all had so much fun helping you out yesterday that we’ve been looking around for other things like that we can do. You know, help people out.”

“Well, I know that the washer and dryer are the handiest tools you could have gotten me. The boys have had to change into something cleaner at least twice a day; they get so muddy. I don’t know what I’m going to do when they get bigger and their clothing doesn’t fit in one load.” They all laughed with her. “I do love being able to do laundry at home rather than lug it all over town to do it at a laundry mat. Are there any of those in town?”

“There used to be one called Browns, but it went out of business about ten years ago.” Alex told her that the place just wasn’t doing any business. “It was in the center where McDonalds is now. At the complete other end of the parking lot.”

“If it was where you said it was, it’s no wonder. That place is really off the beaten path, as the saying goes.” She lived on the main street of town, about three doors down from the pizza place, as well as Demi’s restaurant called theCrockery Pot. “Demi told me that he’s closed up for a week to rest. I don’t know how much rest he’s going to be getting if he hangs out with my nephews too much. They had him lifting and toting things all night last night.”

She expected them to say something about the argument that the two of them had gotten into, but they didn’t. Nor did they ask her if she forgave Demi. She had, several times as a matter of fact, but they were talking about the programs that they wanted to teach, and she was glad for it. It was no one’s business but hers and Demi’s what went on between them.

As the day progressed, she didn’t feel so tired. Mandy knew that by the time bedtime rolled around at their home, she was going to be hard-pressed into helping the boys with their own bedtime. School started back up in a few weeks, and both of them had been tested in the grades they were in, and she was proud of them. They were in second for Teddy and first for Martin. And since they livedright in town, she’d be able to walk them to school and then herself off to work. It was a good plan, she thought.

~*~

Samuel was sick of being told he was in jail for a long time. He wanted dates to go by, not something like weeks and days. Also, he had the boys to take care of, too. The little piss ants were going to pay for telling on him about beating their momma. She weren’t worth spit if someone was to ask him about it, but he’d not meant to kill her.

His temper was usually at its worst when he was drinking. Not that he was sober all that much, but he was easy to rile up when he was into his fifth beer or so. She should have known better than to harp on him about a job when he was drinking. It just pissed him off that she had wanted him to get a job when she was getting all that welfare shit that she was getting. It was more than enough to get him some good beer and some money on the side, too.

After she’d go to the grocery store, he’d take the rest of the card money and turn it in for cash. There would be a lot of it, too. They were getting about nine hundred a month on the card, and that would mean that he’d be getting about half of it for himself. Christ, she’d pitch a bitch about not having any card left at the end of the month but he told her that she needed to spend it better. He’d asked her all the time, did he have to go with her to get things so she’d do it up right? Now she was gone.

With her being gone, he knew that he was going to have to figure out a few things from now on. One of them being the kids. He’d have to make sure that they got what they had coming, and that made him laugh. But he knew too that the house needed to stay in good condition or he’d lose out on that too. That was something that Besty told him all the time. The inspections could be at any time, with only a few hours to a couple of days’ notice.

Not that he was supposed to be living in the house. He’d divorced Besty when she’d been big with the youngest. He didn’t know if she knew it or not, he’d just tell her to sign off on the paperwork and then he’d go and file it for himself. It was why he wasn’t supposed to be living in the house. She got a nicer one on account of him not being around all that much.

Because Besty was so good at the system stuff, he’d allowed her to get one of them cash cards too. It was to pay for babysitting and for transportation, since neither of them drove back and forth to the grocery or doctors’ appointments. He took that from her, too.

Samuel would take the card with the promises of watching over the kids when she had something to do or had to go to her doctor’s appointment. But he’d just send them in the yard and hope nobody stole them. Then again, he’d not lose all that much sleep over them being gone; they were a pest, always wanting something from him like food or water.

The one time that he’d put them in the back yard with a bowl of water and a package of crackers, she got powerful mad at him. She’d called the police on him for abusing his kids. She never did that again, and neither had he, but Samuel didn’t understand why it was such a big deal. It got them fed and watered, didn’t it?

“Your attorney is here. Do you want to speak to them here or in a room?” Samuel told him a room, anything to get out of the stuffy jail cell. He’d asked for a fan, but they didn’t have any. He’d even offered to pay for one if they’d wait for the next check to come in from his wife. Even though she was dead, there were things that he needed, and he figured that since he was going to be responsible for his kids, then they’d just give him something. “Back against the wall, inmate, or you’re not going anywhere.”

“That’s the stupidest rule ever, you know that, don’t you? Why do I have to walk all the way back there only to walk all the way back to leave? What? You afraid of me or something?”

“You stink.” Well, that was just rude, but he was out of his cell right now, so let it go. “Turn around with your hands out so that I can cuff you. Either that or you can go on sitting in here while there is nice air conditioning in one of the rooms.”

Samuel kept his mouth shut with the officers. They’re the ones that brought him his food, and he didn’t want anyone spitting in it or, worse yet, not bringing him anything at all. He’d learned the hardway being in jail as much as he’d been that you don’t fuck with the hands that feed you. They could be a mite on the stingy side, too, when it came to getting extras on your tray if you wanted them too.

The man sitting in the chair when he’d been brought looked like he’d just gotten out of grade school. Again, he didn’t bring that up. He had learned that lesson, too. If they didn’t like you for whatever reason, they’d not help you get out of jail sooner rather than letting you rot there. He sat back when he was chained to the table.

“My name is Richard McGee. No, I’m not going to be getting you a cell phone. I’m not going to be bringing you in dirty magazines or pictures for you to look at. I’m here to represent you, and that’s all.” He asked him about his food card money. “I’ll check on that for you, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up about getting one. You’re in here because you murdered your ex-wife, and they tend not to give out food cards to convicted felons.”

“I’m not convicted yet.” He showed him his record, where he’d been caught stealing a car. “I thought that got wiped off your record when you did your jail time. Like a freebie or something.”

“No, they don’t do that. It’s on your record for life. What do you have to tell me about Besty Jameson and the night that you killed her?” He said that he had allegedly killed her. “No, you confessed to the police when you were picked up. You even asked them if they’d turn their back so that you could finish the job and kill your sons, Theodore and Martin Jameson, minor children of yourself and your ex-wife.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that now. No, I didn’t mean that. You’ll have to get them to not bring that up at the court thingy. I don’t want to go back to prison. I have me two kids to watch over. That’s why I’ll be needing that stuff my wife got from the system. She was getting a right good amount too. About five grand a month when you count the house we was in.” He made notes but didn’t tell him he’d work on that. “What would it take for me to get myself a car to drive around? I have those two boys that I’m going to have to take to school.”

“Get a job. When you get out of prison. I’m not saying that you’ll get life, but I’d not count on you getting out anytime soon. You murdered someone, and that’s not going to get you out of prison for a long time.” He asked about his kids. “A Mandy Wilson is caring for them. She’s been granted permission by the state so long as she has a job and a place for them to live.”

“She ain’t gonna take my kids no place. They’re mine.” He said that he’d murdered someone, and the courts more than likely wouldn’t allow him near them, especially after saying that he wanted to kill them as well. “I was just joking around. You tell them that so that I don’t have to spend extra time in here. You know as well as I do that they’re better off with their parents than with some stranger. And she’s not fit to have them around either.”

“Do you know something about Ms. Wilson? From what I’ve been told, she’s passed a background check and has had the Ericksons vouch for her. That’s a good family. Also, she was your ex-wife’s sister, wasn’t she?” He said he didn’t care about them. “Well then, tell me what you know about Ms. Wilson so that I can look into it. It can’t be something that you make up, either. Whatever she’s done, it has to be factual, not something that you’ve made up to get back at her.”

“I’ll think on that then.” He hadn’t even known that his wife had a sister until she showed up one day. And that was about the time that his wife had started getting uppity about things. Telling him that he needed to get a job so that she could get off of so much welfare. Didn’t make any sense to him. Why wouldn’t a person want to get all the freebie stuff she’d been getting? That was all on account of her sister putting her nose in where it didn’t belong.

His attorney wasn’t giving him the information that he wanted. According to him, he should plead guilty to get a lesser sentence than life without parole. He didn’t want to be in jail at all, but he said that wasn’t going to happen. Not with this. As it was now, if he would plead a deal, say he’d done it, then he’d get life and a parole hearing in about fifty years. Christ, he’d be too old to do anything if they did that to him.

“Look here. I want you to make it so I only have time served. I don’t care how you do it, but you will or I’m going to do to you what I did to my wife. But I’ll make you suffer more.” He startedgathering up his things and shoving them into his briefcase. “We ain’t done here. You never did tell me what you were going to do to keep me from going to prison, and you will by god or I’m going to get out and take care of you.”

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