LOVING HER SOUL MATE (26 page)

“My parents were here.”

“I know, sweetheart, I know.”

“You spoke to them?”

“Yes.
 
They’re wonderful people.”

“Yeah.
 
A little overbearing, but they mean well.”

“Overbearing?” John asked.
 

“You know.
 
They want what they want for me.
 
And no matter what I do, they figure I can do better.
 
They want to help me in every way they can.”

“But you prefer to go your own way and do your own
thing?”

“Right.”

“Yes, your father told me.”

Shay smiled.
 
“They’re both school teachers, they can barely pay their own bills, but
Dad’s always attempting to help me.
 
I
always turn him down.
 
And always
will.
 
I won’t burden them in any way, shape,
or form.
 
Not ever.
 
He’s too good a man to be burdened by his
grown daughter.”
 
Then she paused.
 
“Lonnie was here, too.
 
Wasn’t he?”

John nodded his head.
 
“Yes.
 
Your father got rid of him.”

“Good.”
 
Then
she looked at John again.
 
“How did you and
Dad hit it off?”

“Very well.
 
I told him you were my girlfriend and he
accepted it.
 
Your mother too, I think.”

Shay smiled.
 
“She likes Lonnie, but she’ll get over him.”
 

John smiled.

“But what about you?”
Shay went
on.
 
“Have they fired you yet?”

John laughed.
 
“Not yet. I’m still performing a function for the mayor, and he’s still
searching for the perfect replacement for McNamara.”

“So you’re certain McNamara’s out for good?”

“Oh, yes.
 
In this election year?
 
There’s no way the mayor’s bringing him back on board.”

“Good,” Shay said.
 
“And after you go through all the books for them, and give them the info
they need, what then?”

“Then I suspect I’ll be fired too.”

Shay’s face took on a worrisome glow.

“It’ll be only right, Shay.
 
I was distracted too long and wasn’t paying
attention to what McNamara and his flunkies were up to.
 
So this isn’t about him or me or any top
brass anymore.
 
This is about those dead
girls and preventing another death.”

She agreed.
 
And nodded her head.
 

“Shay,” John decided to ask, “was
Ronnie.
. . did
 
Ronnie. . . Did Ronnie rape you, Shay?”

Shay shook her head.
 
“No,” she said firmly.
 
“But he . . .”

“Beat the crap out of you, I know.”

“And he ejaculated on my face after doing it.”

John shook his head.
 
“Sick fucker,” he said beneath his breath.

“I think he planned to do something like that to me
but I think I passed out.
 
When I came to
he was gone.
 
And I called 911.”
 

Tears began to drain down her cheeks.
 
“It was so scary, John,” she said.
 
“And you know the only thing I could think
about while he was brutalizing me?”

“No, sweetie, what?”

Shay hesitated.
 
“You,” she said, and John’s heart sank.
 
“I wished you were there to help me.
 
Because I knew if you were there, you would beat Ronnie’s ass better
than I could.”

John smiled.
 
“Don’t worry,” he said.
 
“He got
his.”

Shay paused.
 
Looked at him.
 
“You beat him?” she asked.

“I beat him, kicked him, stomped him, did
everything I was big enough to do to that asshole, yes.”

Shay paused again, as if she wasn’t sure she could
ever condone such violence.
 
Then she
nodded her head. “Good,” she said.

Over the next several weeks, Shay remained in the
hospital with a slow but steady recovery.
 
The Tribune continued to expose McNamara’s corruption with front page
headlines.
 
Although John Malone was
hailed as a hero for exposing the truth, and the media was playing up his hero
status for
all the
town to see, he didn’t feel heroic
at all, and stayed out of the glare of the media.
 

He, instead, spent every chance he got in the glare
of Shay Turner.

Every morning before he went to work and every
evening after he knocked off, he was over to the Brady Medical Center visiting
with Shay.
 
Sometimes they’d talk on and
on about the community, his latest case, what was going on at the Tribune.
 
They hold hands and talk for hours.
 
And then other times they would just sit
there, still holding hands, quietly enjoying each other’s company.
 
Often John would be so exhausted that he
would fall asleep.
 
And Shay would sit on
his lap and hold him.

By the time Shay was cleared for release from the
hospital, nearly six weeks after her attack, two monumental events occurred
that captivated the entire town.
 
The
first one, Chief McNamara’s official resignation, she knew about.
 
The second happened on the day of her
release, and she knew nothing about it.

 
The mayor of
Brady, in an attempt to quell the growing distrust of the police department by
the entire community, but especially the black community in light of the Dodge
murder cover up, appointed John Malone as the new chief of police.
 
Shay, at the time the story broke, was
signing her release papers.
 
It was
already after six that evening, but she didn’t care.
 
She was ready to go.
 
More than ready.

She was also a little dismayed.
 
She hadn’t heard from John at all that day,
which was highly unusual for him, and whenever she called his cell phone it
went straight to voice mail.
 
She even
called his office once but was told that he was busy, could they take a
message.
 
Of course she wasn’t about to
leave any message, so she said no and hung up.
 
And then hated
herself
for being so needy.
 
But it seemed to be a fact.
 
She needed John right now.
 

But she couldn’t let that worry her, either.
 
She therefore showered and changed and waited
an hour longer before she was finally escorted out of the hospital in that
dreaded, and unnecessary wheelchair.
 
She
had phoned a cab, since she had no other way to get home, and she assumed, when
the hospital aide came to transport her, that the cab had arrived.
 
But, as if on cue, John slung his Porsche up
to the curb just outside of the hospital’s revolving doors, right there to pick
her up.
 

“You’re going to be riding home in style, Miss
Turner,” the aide said smilingly as John drove up.

“How could he have possibly known that I was being
released at this very moment?” Shay wanted to know.

“Because he called and told them to keep you here
until he got here,” the aide answered with a smile, as if what she said
shouldn’t possibly upset Shay.
 
“We could
have released you hours ago.
 
But they
waited until the time he said he’d be here.
 
They didn’t want to disappoint the boss.”

 
Shay found
the aide’s comment odd, but she let it slide.
 
She, instead, stood up from the wheelchair and walked over to John’s
car.
 
John moved to assist her, but she
waved him off.
 
“I got this,” she said
with a smile.
 

John laughed.
 
All of the swelling and bruising were completely gone from her gorgeous
face, and but for still walking gingerly, she was none the worse for wear.
 
“All right now,” he said as he took her suit
case from the aide, “I’m going to be like Aunt Rae: don’t get ahead of
yourself, young lady.”
 
Shay laughed.

When he pulled out of the circular driveway of the
hospital’s patient pickup zone, she looked at him.
 
He was dressed in his usual tailored,
double-breasted suit, this one a light tan, but he also sported a pair of dark
shades that made him look simply irresistible to her.
  
She was really beginning to like this dude.

“What did she mean?” she asked him.

“What did who mean, love?” John responded.
 
He started calling her that endearment around
week two of her hospital stay.
 
And it
warmed her heart every time he said it.

“That aide back there.
 
She said they didn’t release me for hours
because you told them to keep me here until you got here.
 
Is that true?”

John knew Shay wouldn’t like that one.
 
“It’s true.”

But, actually, Shay did like it.
 
She liked it because it showed that he hadn’t
abandoned her as her irrational mind was beginning to think.
 
“She also said they kept me there because
they didn’t want to disappoint the boss.
 
What boss?
 
What did she mean by
that?”

John smiled.
 
“For a news reporter, you don’t keep up with the news.”

“What did she mean, John?”

“You know Chief McNamara resigned.”

“As so he should, yes.”

“Well, our scared to death mayor decided this
morning to call a news conference where he announced his decision to appoint me
as the new chief of the Brady, Alabama police department.”

Shay stared at him, her heart soaring.
 
“Are you serious?”

John smiled.
 
“I’m the new chief.”

“That’s great, John!” she said with a grand smile,
hitting him on his muscular arm.
 
“Why
didn’t you call and tell me?”

“Because I wanted to see you when I told you.
 
Because I suspected you would be the happiest
person in this town for me.
 
Maybe even
this world.”

Shay couldn’t agree with him more.
 
“You deserve it.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but I’m pleased.”
 
Then he looked down, from her eyes and
luscious lips, to her hefty breasts.
 
“Just as I’m sure you’re pleased to be out of that hospital.”

“Oh, yes,” Shay said as she leaned back against the
leather headrest.
 
“Very
pleased.”

But her joy was cut short when John pulled his
Porsche into the driveway of her small rented house on Bluestone Road.
 
The calm and easiness that cloaked her
suddenly disappeared.
 
Her face was now a
mask of anguish.

“What’s the matter?” he asked when he looked over
and saw she was no longer that carefree spirit he had picked up from the
hospital.

Shay exhaled.
 
“It flooded back,” she said.

“The memories?”
John asked,
and she nodded.

John touched her on her hand.
 
“It’s okay,” he said as tears began to appear
in her big eyes.
 
“Shay, it’s okay.”

“There has to be a lot of blood after what he did.”

“There was,” John admitted.
 
“I hired a cleaning crew to get in there and
take care of it.
 
It’s spotless now.”

Shay shook her head.
 
The pain of that day was like
a tightness
in her chest.
 
She looked at John.
   

John’s heart dropped.
 
“
It’s
okay, Shay,”
he said as he reached over and completely took her hand in his.
 
“It’s just that it’s still too soon.
 
Why don’t you come over to my place?”

Shay stared at him.
 
The vulnerability he saw in her eyes broke his heart.
 
That bastard Ronnie Burk was going to pay
dearly for what he’d done to her.