He didn’t even know how he was supposed to have taken it from her.It wasn’t like he could have forced her to turn it over.He didn’t have any special power to make her do it.He just wanted it and expected her to turn it right over to him without a word.Like that was going to happen, he told himself.
“Someone should have pointed that out to me before.How was I supposed to make her turn over the money when she had lawyers and shit doing what she wanted.”He asked if he’d spoken to a lawyer.“Just you.And I’m sure you would have told me to leave her alone, wouldn’t you have?Like that would have stopped me.I told her that I was going to kill her when I couldn’t even get close enough to her to see what color eyes she had.I should have been told.”
“Like you said, it wouldn’t have done you any good.You were hell bent for leather on trying to get her money, and no one would have been able to convince you otherwise.You had to learn that lesson on your own.”He told him he was still going to try to get something from her.“I doubt that it would work.People get rich because they’re smart enough to keep it.You wouldn’t have been able to get past them to get a quarter.And you trying would have gotten you killed.No, you’re better off not getting the money.You might well live longer in jail had you just given up.Who was that, anyway, that you tried to rob?”
“The Valley men.”The lawyer whistled and shook his head.“I guess you might have heard about them being from around here.”
“You bet we’ve all heard about them.And they’re not worth millions but billions upon billions of dollars.They own more stock and gems in one state than most people do all over the world.You were right in not getting money from them.People have been trying for decades to get a piece of them.To no avail.”He said that his daughter was married to one of them.“If you’ve gotten on their bad side, then I’d say even that wouldn’t get you into their realm of family money.They hold family dear to them unless you screw up.And I’m assuming that you have.Screwed up, I mean.”
“I guess I did.”He was more depressed than he’d ever been, and now he knew that his plans of being king of the mountain weren’t going to happen either.“I don’t suppose you’d ask them for bail money for me, would you?”
“I can ask, but I’d not count on it.”No, he wouldn’t either.Richard was going back to prison, and there was little to nothing he could do about it.“I tell you what, I’ll ask and see what happens.What do you say?”
“I’d say he’s going to laugh in my face.”He reached out to the man he’d been talking to earlier and asked for bail money.The laughter was all the answer he needed to tell the young man with him to forget it.He was getting no help from that quarter.
~*~
Kendrick felt good about himself.He’d done what he’d set out to do and got Dick out of their lives.The very fact that it had cost him nothing was an unexpected bonus that he’d not counted on.He looked at Sharon when she said his name.
“Are you still talking to him?”He told her he’d asked for bail money.“I hope you turned him down.Like I want him out and about terrorizing us until he gets back to his place.I’m to understand that he’s going back today.”
“Yes.I don’t know all the charges, but the gun stipulation is going to get him the most time.I didn’t know that once you were an ex-con, you were forever one.I mean, about the guns that he had.He had a lot of them, too.They were stashed all over the house and garage.”Sharon asked about Helena.“I don’t know much about her at all.I tried to pay attention to the charges, but she has a lot going against her, too.I don’t know the law as well as Conri does, and he said that he doesn’t have the charges all down pat anyway.I’m just hoping for life.With that, he’ll serve at least twenty years, I’m hoping.I did hear one of the officers say that this is his third time in prison, so I’m not entirely sure what’s going to happen with that.I was only an attorney for a short time, and I didn’t care for it.That’s why I became a doctor.”
For the rest of the morning, he monitored Dick.He was told to plead guilty to all charges in order to get a reduced sentence, but he didn’t know by how much.The cop who was in charge wanted him to go for several life sentences, but he didn’t know how that was going to work.He’d only been running a successful prostitution ring and not killed anyone.That he knew of anyway.The man in charge had been watching the place for a month before he’d called in a tip and was happy that things were going as well for him as they could.The entire complex was going to be arrested before things were over.It was all over the local newspaper and his hometown paper on how he’d been caught with the goods.
Kendrick was at work when he heard from Dick again.He wanted to know if Sharon would fill his bank for him at the prison.He didn’t know what she’d want to do and told him that.Dick said that otherwise, he was going to have to get a job.Kendrick told him that he should apply for the job; he wasn’t going to be lazy while he was in the prison.
It sounded like he was ready to go to prison if he was making arrangements for his bank for snacks and such.It was going to be hard on him this time, as he was much older and didn’t get around as well as he used to.Kendrick had noticed, too, that his knees seemed to be hurting him, but never said anything.The few times he’d seen him around town, he’d also noticed how gray the man was.Even his beard, a short, taken care of one, was white gray colored.
“You won.The least you can do is provide me with a few snacks to have when I’m back in prison.”Kendrick told him he was never in a position to lose.“I thought you’d say that.I don’t know how I was going to make this work with you two.I had high hopes that you’d just turn the money over to me and be donewith me.”
“I’m smarter than that.I’ve been around a good long time and don’t mess with people who think that I’m a sap and will give my money away.I never had any intentions of giving you anything.I would have ended up killing you for sure, so you should count yourself lucky that it didn’t come to that.I would have made you suffer.”He pointed out that he was suffering now.“Not nearly as badly as I would have played with you as my wolf.I would have killed you after I got bored with you, but not before.You’re lucky that you ended up where you are and not dying by my hand.”
After a few more minutes of silence, he worked with his patients.It was a good day so far, and he thought a great deal of it had to do with Dick going away.He didn’t really care if he went to prison or not, just so long as he stayed away from his family and home.But especially Sharon.She was napping when he called her at noon.
“I feel as if a great burden has been lifted from my shoulders.”He told her he was glad that she was feeling better.“I am too.I don’t have to worry about him anymore, and it feels good.I’m glad that we were able to help the police with their case, too.”
“I am as well.There is no telling how long they would have been on the case had we not given them the information that we had.And the very fact that the entire complex is in on it sounds like the case is going to be much bigger than anyone thought.”She said she was glad that people were paying for their crimes.“Yes, me too.”
For the rest of the day, he talked to Sharon off and on through their link.Once, when she contacted him, he was in the middle of taking blood from a patient and had to have her wait.He didn’t want to lose his concentration while doing that, so she contacted him later.He loved that he could talk to her anytime he wanted, and she seemed to be happy with the arrangements as well.
At the end of the day, he was glad it was Friday.Since he wasn’t on call this weekend, they were going to hang out at the house and do some things that they’d been putting off.First and foremost was putting the books on the shelves in his office.The boxes were in the way, and he thought that once they got that finished up, he’d feel better about using his office.Just as she’d said she’d do, Sharon set up her office in the library, and it was working out well for her.She was having a good time working with his mom, too.The three of them, Cass included, seemed to be best of friends with each other, and he couldn’t have been happier for them.He was just finishing up for the day when he had a call from the hospital.They wanted him to come in and cover a shift for the doctor who had just lost his mother.
“I’ll be right in.”He couldn’t turn him down when he would have done the same thing for his own mom.Having her around all these years had made him realize how much she’d been a part of his life.“Is there anything going on right now that I have to see to?”
“Nothing so far.We just wanted to make sure you could do this shift for him and not have any trouble.Thank you for helping us out.”He said it was his pleasure to help a fellow doctor and headed into the hospital after talking to Sharon.“There are only three people in the emergency room right now, but it’s still early.I don’t expect much, but you never know with people.”
“Yes, I can understand that.”He was at the emergency department in no time and was glad that he didn’t have a lot to do.It had been a good day at the office, and he was happy that he’d been able to not have to work too hard as he was going to be at the hospital for the next several hours.
As he was seeing one of the patients, he thought about how much he loved being a doctor.But he was ready to try something else.He wasn’t bored with his job, just jaded, he thought.Maybe he needed to become something else in the medical field.He’d always wanted to be a surgeon and thought that might be the next thing that he tried.He’d had enough experience as being a doctor; he thought that this was the next step in his journey to being something that he’d never tried before.He was giving it a good amount of thought as he saw his next patient.
He was exhausted when he got home that night.Or the early morning, he wasn’t sure what to call it.As he was getting ready for bed, Sharon got up and told him that she’d leave him to his sleep.He wanted her to rest with him, but he knew that it would be selfish of him to ask her to do that.Almost as soon as he laid down, his body decided that it was daytime and he should be up and moving.Tossingand turning for a while, he finally got up and took a shower.He was ready to face the day when he heard from Yuri.
“I have all the paperwork finished up for your investments.You’ve done really well this quarter.”He thanked him for that.“You’ve had some good ideas on investments, and I’m glad that you had me go in with you.I’ve had a good quarter as well.”They both laughed.
He told him about how he’d been at the hospital all night and was just now getting up and getting going.Yuri said he’d not keep him, only wanted to tell him that his spreadsheet was ready for him to look over, and that was all.
“Thanks for doing this for me.I’m glad that you’ve been good at your job.”He told him how he was going to become a surgeon or something along those lines because of him being jaded.“I’ve got a lot of experience under my belt, so I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble going from country doctor to surgeon.I’ve been wanting to try something different for a while now, and I think this will be perfect.I’ll have to go back to school, but I don’t think I’ll mind that all that much.I love learning new things.”
