Now and Forever 5, Love's Journey (35 page)

Rebecca explained about the invitation
Marcia agreed to but never honored. “She stood up the kids.”
Rebecca couldn’t keep a tinge of annoyance from her voice.

“Not Marcia. If she say she coming, she
comes.”

“Not today, Dad,” Johnny said.

Jakub’s brow creased.

“I’m going to her house. Maybe she
sick.”

“I’ll come with you, Pop.” Johnny took his
coat down off the wall hook.

The house was dark when the men arrived and
there was no car in the driveway.

“Where’s her car?” Jakub asked.

Johnny used his key to let the men inside.
Jakub felt himself grow more panicky with each empty room he
visited. Johnny saw the message light blinking on the answering
machine. He hit the button. The first one was from Rebecca, the
second was from the hospital, looking for Jakub.

“Oh my God!” Jakub exclaimed, sinking into a
chair at the kitchen table. Tears clouded his eyes, “Marcia, my
love…”

“Come on, Dad. I’ll drive,” Johnny said,
shepherding his father out the door and into the car.

At the hospital, Johnny spoke to the person
in charge, then relayed the information to his father.

“She’s in surgery, Dad. We might as well go
home and wait for their call.”

“You go. I wait here. This should not have
happened. I should never leave. Stubborn, stupid old man.” Jakub
rubbed his forehead.

Johnny waited for another hour, then he went
home to his family. Jakub waited in the waiting room, praying
silently. He had been blind to his good fortune. Now he may lose
her for good.
Stupid, proud old man.
He finally fell asleep
in the chair.

Three hours later, Dr. Cho came out.

“Mr. Novacek?”

Jakub looked up.

“You are Marcia Wilton’s next of kin?”

“Yes, yes.” He got up, looking nervous.

“Ms. Wilton is out of surgery.”

“How is she?”

“She has a concussion…”

“What is that?”

“It’s a head injury, but it’s not serious.
Her knee was broken but we operated on it and it should heal fine.
She’s banged up with some bruises and abrasions, but she’ll be
okay,” Dr. Cho explained.

“Can I see her?”

“Sure. She’s a little woozy from the
anesthetic, so only stay a few minutes. She’s in room 105, right
down the hall and the second right.” He pointed the way.

“Thank you so much, Doctor.” Jakub shook Dr.
Cho’s hand.

Jakub hurried down the hall, but stopped at
the door. He was not very nice to Marcia the last time they met,
yelling and swearing, pleading and threatening to get her to relent
about the baby, to no avail. He had regretted it almost
immediately.

He opened the door carefully. Marcia was
asleep in the bed with her knee bandaged, her head was stitched up
and she had two black eyes. Jakub started to cry. His beloved was
hurt and in pain. He walked over to the bed, picked up her hand
gently, kissed it, and held it. She opened her eyes and looked up
at him.

“My love, so sorry. I never should have left
you. Blind, stupid old man.”

“This wasn’t your fault, Jake,” she
whispered.

“I love you, so much.” A few tears escaped
down his cheeks.

Marcia graced him with a small, stiff
smile.

“Marry me and we have a baby. Please,
please.”

Marcia nodded a little. Jakub leaned over
and kissed her gently.

“Ah, my love. Thank you,” he murmured.

A nurse came in and told Jakub he’d have to
come back in the morning.

Johnny was waiting for him when he came out
of Marcia’s room.

“Is she going to be okay?”

“She has broken knee, something with her
head, black eyes, bruises, aye! But Dr. Cho said she be okay. Thank
God.”

“That’s good news.”

“We get married and have a baby. She
agree.”

“It’s about time, old man.” Johnny clapped
his father on the back.

“Yah. Blind, stupid old man not blind and
stupid anymore.”

* * * *

Within a few weeks, Marcia was well enough
to walk into city hall on crutches and get married. She and Jakub
brought Johnny and Rebecca as witnesses on Jakub’s lunch hour. They
were married in a simple, quick ceremony. Marcia and Jakub had
matching gold bands. He was reluctant to wear his, but Marcia
insisted.

“I want everyone to know you belong to me,
Jake.” She kissed him.

He couldn’t argue with her possessiveness,
in fact he rather liked it. He insisted she change her name. They
went to a local resort for the weekend for their honeymoon, where
they spent most of the time making love. Now Jakub felt totally at
ease. She was his wife and there was no reason to be ashamed of
anything.

Nothing much changed in the Novacek senior
home, except Marcia threw her birth control pills out and Johnny
and Rebecca often came over for Sunday dinner or Jake and Marcia
went to their house. The two families were reunited. Joey and
Annabeth visited frequently and were happy to have Grandpa back in
their lives.

At the end of April, Marcia found out she
was pregnant. Despite all his reservations about having a baby,
Jakub was proud he impregnated her and excited about the baby. He
strutted around like a peacock, making Marcia laugh.

Jake and Marcia bought their own house, a
fixer-upper with a big backyard for the children.

“Maybe we should get a dog for Annabeth and
Joey…and the baby?” Marcia touched his rough cheek.

“Dog? No dog. I’m too old for a dog.”

“We’ll see.” Marcia smiled.

C
hapter Twenty-three

Mac ushered Dave Williams and Eliza into his
office. Jonesy brought Dave a cup of coffee and closed the door on
her way out.

“Any news?” Mac sat back in his chair and
crossed his long legs.

“We know who killed Deena but we can’t prove
it. The investigation is stalled because we haven’t been able to
break our number one suspect’s alibi.” Dave blew on his cup of hot
coffee.

“Huh, and I think my life is frustrating
dealing with college kids,” Mac replied.

“What about Jenna Walker?” Eliza asked.

“We’ve finished combing her room. No
evidence of a crime.”

“So I can tell her dad he can pack up her
stuff?” Eliza took a sip from her mug.

Dave nodded.

“Seems like a simple suicide…over-achieving
kid breaks and ends it.”

“Think so, Dave? I knew Jenna. She didn’t
seem the type,” Mac responded.

“I agree with Mac. Jenna and I finished
finalizing her schedule for next semester only last week,” Eliza
added.

“Without evidence, there’s nothing I can
do.” Dave gulped down the last of his coffee and stood up.

“Thanks, Dave.” Mac stood and shook the
police chief’s hand.

Dave nodded to Eliza and left the office,
shutting the door behind him.

“I hate these situations.” Mac returned to
his chair.

“I’ll deal with Mr. Walker, Mac.”

“I’m not happy with the police walking away
from this. Let’s take a look at her transcript again.”

“I’ve got it up on my computer.” Eliza stood
up.

“Let’s go.”

Mac pushed to his feet and joined her as
they walked across the hall. Jonesy was in Eliza’s office watering
her plants when the two deans joined her.

Mac stared at the screen. After studying it
for a few minutes, he noticed something.

“Did you see this?” Mac asked, pointing to
the screen.

“I haven’t had a chance to look it over
yet,” Eliza responded, sitting down at her desk.

“It looks like her grade was changed after
the grades were posted. Maybe even after she died. This isn’t the
same as the paper transcript found in her room.”

Jonesy peered at the screen over Eliza’s
shoulder.

“Looks like it. Jonesy, can you get the date
and the person who changed it?”

“I can try.”

Jonesy went out to her computer and punched
in some information. She had been at it for about an hour when she
came to Mac with a piece of paper.

“Mac, this is the person who changed that
grade,” Jonesy said.

Mac looked at the name and then at Jonesy in
surprise.

“I’m going over to talk to him. There must
be some mistake here,” Mac said.

Jonesy nodded. After Mac left, she picked up
the phone and called Callie’s cell.

Callie was on her way to the English
department with a basket of food to meet Danny and his little son,
Casey, for lunch. She hurried so she’d arrive before Mac. She
showed up only moments before he did, went into Danny’s office and
closed the door.

“Mac is coming to meet with Professor
Littleton on something important. Can we listen in?”

Danny’s office was down the hall from
Alan’s. They listened until they heard Mac’s footsteps, then they
cracked the door open quietly. Little Casey was asleep.

Mac knocked on Alan’s door then went in.

“Hi, Mac. What are you doing in the English
department?”

“Hey, Alan. I want to ask you about this
late grade change. You changed Jenna Walker’s grade recently. Why?”
Mac slipped into the chair across from Alan’s desk.

“I don’t like to admit this, but I made a
mistake. You know with the rush to get grades out on time and all,
I gave her the wrong grade.”

“What was her old grade?” Mac sat up
straight.

“Gee, I don’t remember. I got rid of it on
my computer and you know how it is, I can’t remember every
student’s grade.”

“I saw the transcript, Alan. There was a
printed copy in her dorm room. You gave her an F, then you changed
it to a B. Why?”

“No one likes to give an F, Mac. Especially
when it’s a mistake, you know.”

“I know, Alan. That’s a pretty big mistake.
Didn’t Jenna complain to you?”

“No, she didn’t.” Alan crossed his legs.

“Why not? She was a very conscientious
student one who’d question an F. Why did Jenna fail your
class?”

“Frankly, I didn’t want to say, now she’s
dead, but she did fail the class. I changed her grade to make
things a little easier on her parents, you know.”

“No, Alan, I don’t know. Did she fail or
not?”

“Yes, she failed.” A few drops of sweat
appeared on Alan’s upper lip.

“But I checked and there were no warning
emails sent to her. No notice was sent to her advisor or to our
office. Did you discuss this with her? Did you recommend her for
tutoring? Did you call her advisor?”

“No, no I didn’t.” Alan uncrossed and
recrossed his legs.

“Why not, Alan?”

“Because…because, well I forgot.” He leaned
over and opened his briefcase.

“You didn’t forget to go through channels
for Jimmy Scott or Mark Stevenson. You gave them several warnings
and called their advisors. Our office received official notice too.
I checked. They ended up passing your class. Why did you fail
Jenna, Alan?”

“I made a mistake, Mac.” Mac watched the
color slowly drain from Alan’s face.

“What kind of mistake?”

“I fell for Jenna. When she wouldn’t go out
with me, I threatened to fail her.”

“You what?” Mac shot up out of the chair,
pushing to his feet.

Mac heard the faint sound of footfalls in
the hall.

“Didn’t that ever happen to you, Mac? Didn’t
you ever fall for a co-ed?”

The footsteps got louder and Mac was
momentarily distracted by the sound of a person approaching getting
louder. Then the sound stopped. He turned his attention back to
Alan.

“No, Alan. That never happened to me. You’re
in big trouble, here.”

“What about Callie?” Alan crossed his arms
then uncrossed them.

“She was a graduate student and twenty-six
years old. We dated, I didn’t threaten her. She was not under my
jurisdiction at all. That is completely different and you know
it.”

“I guess…” Alan slipped his hand inside his
briefcase.

“I’m going to have to fire you, Alan, and
turn you over to the police. You say Jenna wouldn’t go out with
you…is that the truth?”

Alan pulled out the gun he bought after Rex
threatened him and trained it on Mac.

“No, you idiot. She wouldn’t have sex with
me. I told her if she had sex with me, she’d pass. She wouldn’t. So
I failed her.” He held the gun with both hands.

“What are you doing? Put that away.” Mac
stepped back toward the door.

“I’m holding you here until I can get away.
Go ahead and fire me, but I’m not going down for murder. I didn’t
kill her.” Alan aimed the gun at Mac’s chest.

“You did kill her, Alan. With that F on her
transcript, her chances of going to med school were finished.
You’re disgusting. It makes me sick to be here in the same room
talking to you.”

“You don’t know what it’s like to be really
lonely, Mac.” Alan tried to explain while his hand holding the gun
began to shake.

“Yes, I do, Alan. That doesn’t mean you can
force young women to have sex with you. You’re a monster.”

“I’m sorry, Mac. I didn’t want Jenna to die.
I liked her. She had a beautiful body, you know? Now get out of the
way. I’m leaving and I don’t want to hurt you,” Alan said, aimed
the unsteady gun at Mac.

“Put the gun down, Alan, before you hurt
somebody,” Mac said.

“Mac, get out of the way.” Alan waved the
gun at the dean.

“Alan, did you force Stephanie Harrison to
sleep with you?”

“Stephanie? Oh, Stephanie…she was lovely.
She did. Then she stopped. She wouldn’t cooperate. Said something
about a boyfriend. So I failed her. Her suicide was a real
tragedy.”

“You’re a pig. Put the gun down, before it
goes off accidentally and you kill me.”

“No. I’m leaving and you can’t stop me. I’ll
kill you if you get in my way. I mean it. I’ve got nothing to lose
now. Get out of my way, Mac,” Alan yelled, his control slipping,
his forehead bathed in sweat.