Cries in the Night (28 page)

After calling in her notification that she was finished, Julie was trying to find a fast food restaurant that was open so she could eat lunch when the dispatcher called with an address that was all too familiar. As she wrote 238 W. Maple Ave. on her incident sheet, her heart sank. It was Gloria’s address.

Of course, there was a chance that there were new residents in the house and that Gloria had kept her son, Danny and the new baby safe at her relative’s. As much as she wished she was wrong, as Julie parked in front of the house, behind a cop car, she had a bad feeling that this was the same family she had visited three times before.

This was one of those frustrating cases because no matter how much he hurt her or how terrified she had been, the wife continued to take the husband back. He had probably cried and begged and said he would never do it again. They always promised. They rarely kept those promises. But the women were hopeful … or gullible … and they believed what they wanted to believe. Everyone wanted that fairy tale ending. In the fairy tales, the prince used his sword to slay dragons, not his fists to punish the princess. Julie never had met any princes on her calls.

In her mind, the men who came the closest to being heroes were the ones who came to help. The cops, the firefighters, the paramedics who arrived in the middle of the turmoil and tried to fix things. They, too, had their dark sides. Some of them took their jobs home. Some of them hit their wives or abused their children. Some of them were alcoholics and drug addicts. They just knew how to hide it better. And they had the brotherhood to protect them.

Julie looked at the small stucco house with its freshly painted shutters and strings of colorful lights hung around the porch and she thought how happy it looked. The wreath hid the anger and hurt that was behind the front door. The Christmas tree visible through the large front window masked the fragile family inside.

She noticed Danny was sitting on the top step, his thin body hunched over with his chin on his knees and his arms wrapped around his legs. Julie took a minute to sit next to him before going in.

“How have you been?” she asked him.

He shrugged.

“Are you doing well in school?”

Again he shrugged.

“Did Santa bring you something good?”

His lower lip quivered. “Dad told me Santa wasn’t real. Then he smashed all the presents.”

Julie swallowed back her disgust. What kind of dickhead would ruin Christmas? She decided it would be safer to change the subject. “Are you going to play Little League next year?”

“Probably not.”

“That would be too bad. Your mom told me you’re an excellent first baseman.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty good,” he agreed, lifting his head. “I’ve done some pitching, too.”

“The Rockies always need good pitching. Maybe someday you’ll play for them.”

His expression brightened. “That would be epic. I saw a game last summer with my scout troop. We got to walk on the field.”

“Wow, that’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah, maybe I’ll get to play.”

“I’ll see if there’s anything I can do to help,” Julie promised. “I’ve got to go inside to talk with your mom. Could you stay out here a little longer?” She wanted to be able to speak freely with Gloria, and she had no idea how bad things were inside, so she was glad Danny was wearing his coat and the day was not too cold. Julie didn’t want him to overhear something he shouldn’t … not that his young ears hadn’t already heard too much.

“I’m okay,” he said, looking anything but.

Julie stood and walked inside. Gloria was curled into a corner of the couch. Her lip was split and her face was bruised and swollen. Blood was dried in streaks from the cuts on her arms that had probably been made by the shattered lamp on the floor. She was still wearing a long flannel nightgown, showing that the fight had probably been going on since early that morning. The cop stood across the room, taking photos of a pile of destroyed presents and the baseball bat that had probably been used in a fit of rage. Julie suspected there were some bruises on Gloria’s body that matched the size and shape of the bat.

As soon as Gloria saw her, a mixture of relief and embarrassment crossed her face. “Julie, I’m so sorry …”

Julie sat on the couch next to the shaking woman. “I’ve told you before that you have nothing to be sorry about. Where’s Carlos?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. He ran out the back door when he heard the cops arrive.”

“Is your baby okay?”

Her expression softened. “She’s in the bedroom. She slept through the whole thing.”

“You need to go to the hospital and be checked out,” Julie said to Gloria, then turned to the cop. “Have you called for an ambulance?”

“They’ve already come and gone,” he replied. “She refused treatment.”

“Why?” Julie looked back at Gloria. “You might have broken ribs.”

Gloria shook her head adamantly. “I can’t. Carlos told me …” She didn’t finish the sentence, but Julie could guess that he had threatened the children. That was a classic way abusive spouses controlled their victims.

“What happened?” she asked Gloria.

“I got up early and made pancakes, but Carlos said we had to open the presents before we ate breakfast.” She hesitated.

“And …?”

“I told him the pancakes would get cold,” she continued in a small voice. “I shouldn’t have said that. He was right.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yes, I did. I should have waited. Carlos threw the pancakes against the wall, then took a bat to the presents. “He said I shouldn’t talk back and that he was the one who paid for everything.” She buried her face in her hands.

Julie rested a comforting hand on the woman’s shoulders. “Gloria, none of this was your fault. Making pancakes was very thoughtful. Carlos has anger issues and needs to learn how to control his temper.”

“He’s been much better since …” She hesitated, not wanting to admit that she had let him come back even though it was obvious that she had.

“I thought you were going to move out of state.”

“I tried, but Carlos found me and talked me into coming back with him. He can be really charming when he wants to.”

Yeah, when he’s not pummeling you within an inch of your life
, Julie thought ruefully. Where had she heard that before?

“And look how nice our landlord fixed the house up.” Gloria waved her hand to indicate the new paint and carpet. “You can’t even tell there was a fire.”

“What are you going to …?” Julie started to ask but was interrupted by the dispatcher’s voice over the cop’s radio.

“Shots fired. Shooter unknown. 288 W. Maple Ave.”

The cop looked at Julie. “That’s only a few houses down the street.” He paced restlessly, then leaned down so only she could hear, “I know this is still a hot scene, but the perp here is probably long gone. I’m going to run down there and see what’s going on.”

Julie wasn’t really concerned. In the past Carlos had always disappeared for several days after an incident. However, after all of her and Rusty’s cross-checking
her files, Carlos was at the top of her list. If a man would threaten to hurt or kill his own children, he wouldn’t hesitate to harm the woman he viewed as having ruined into his life. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she told him.

The cop went to the door and glanced down the street. He was clearly anxious to trade this quiet scene for one that promised to be more active. Cops and firefighters shared many interests, one of which was that they didn’t like to be on the sidelines. They weren’t born to be spectators. “I won’t be far away. I’ll come back as soon as backup arrives.”

“This is Renfro and I’m less than a block away. I’ll check it out, but I need backup,” he spoke into the radio as he ran out the front door.

Julie looked at Gloria and tried not to act worried. “Have you called your mother?”

Gloria avoided eye contact. “No. She hasn’t spoken to me since I moved back in with Carlos.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want to see you dead. You know that’s how this could end, don’t you?”

“Oh, he wouldn’t do that.”

“Really? Would you have believed he would beat the crap out of you like he has … over and over? Would you have believed he would try to kill your baby or threaten your son? Don’t you know that the longer you stay with him, the higher the odds are that you won’t make it out alive?”

“Maybe he’s just trying to keep his family together,” a strange, masculine voice commented. Both women jerked around to look at the man. Neither had heard him enter through the back door, and now he stood in the living room doorway, a large, imposing figure.

Gloria’s expression showed her confusion.

Julie’s face had gone pale.

“Who are you?” Gloria demanded.

The man stepped forward until he was directly in front of the couch. His eyes never left Julie’s. He nodded toward her. “Ask her. She knows me.”

Gloria looked back at Julie. “Do you know this man?”

Julie had been struck dumb. All the saliva had disappeared from her mouth, and she couldn’t have spoken if her life depended on it. She was terribly afraid that it did.

The man reached down, grabbed Julie’s ponytail and yanked her to her feet. “Tell her,
Julie
.”

Old habits die hard and Julie felt that same old fear that had paralyzed her in the past sweep over her. Cold sweat bathed her body and her knees went weak.

The man looked directly at Gloria for the first time. “I don’t know who the fuck you are, but this bitch …,” he shook Julie like a rag doll, “is my wife.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Dinner’s ready,” Pat called as she found a spot on the crowded table for a gravy boat. Sara filled the water glasses while Kate got the bread out of the oven. In the family room, the men were still focused on a football game on TV, but the delicious smells of roasted turkey, marshmallow-topped yams and fresh bread got their attention, and they all joined the women in the dining room.

Jack and Pat took their places at the head and foot of the long table while the younger family members jostled for their favorite chair. When everyone was finally seated, they all bowed their heads and said grace. It was the last quiet moment for the next thirty minutes.

Bowls and plates filled with food passed from one to the other until the plates were filled and they all settled into the act of devouring the meal.

“Where’s Julie today?” Chris asked. “The way you two have been all over each other, I would have thought she’d be here.”

Rusty looked at his brothers. This was the first Christmas Sam had known Kate, so she was new at the table. Sara had come with Chris, but theirs was a platonic relationship. She had grown up with all the boys, even though she was several years younger than Rusty and Sam, they were accustomed to having her around as if she was a member of the family. For the first time, Rusty felt like the odd man out. And yet he had never been tempted to invite any of his girlfriends … before now. He realized the day was kind of flat without Julie here with him.

“She had to work today,” Rusty explained, keeping it simple.

“You can take her a plate,” Pat offered.

“I’m sure she’d enjoy that.”

“So, are you two getting serious?” Sara asked, apparently not realizing what a sensitive subject she had breached.

All eyes turned on Rusty as they waited.

He wished he could answer definitively, but he didn’t know.

“Oh my God! He’s been bitten!” Sam exclaimed. “Romeo has been taken off the market.”

“I never thought I’d see the day,” Sara chimed in. “You always claimed you’d be a bachelor for life.”

“Hey, I didn’t say a word,” Rusty said defensively. “What made you think that?”

“It’s that look in your eyes when you talk about her,” Pat added her opinion.

“You act differently around her,” Sam pointed out. “I’ve seen you around a lot of women, and you never held their hands or kept them close like you thought someone was going to steal them.”

Rusty opened his mouth to protest, but snapped it shut. He couldn’t deny any of it. The truth was that, as much as he loved his family and all the excitement of Christmas with them, he would rather be with Julie. He felt bad that she was out working, dealing with drama and tragedy without even a special dinner or a present to open.

The doorbell rang. “Now who could that be?” Jack asked. He went to the front door and came back a few minutes later holding a small cardboard box. “Does this belong to anyone?”

Almost everyone stared blankly, but when a tiny, but demanding meow came from the box, Rusty jumped up.

“That’s mine.” He took the box from his dad and opened it. From within he took out a ball of black-and-white fur with two crystal blue eyes.

“A kitten! It’s so cute,” Kate gushed, unable to resist petting it.

“I assume that’s not for you,” Sam guessed.

“You assume correctly,” Rusty confirmed. “And right now I’ve got to take it to its new owner.”