Six months after his arrest, Mel Ott was being escorted out of the courthouse by sheriff's deputies after his sentencing hearing. He hated jail, but he was getting by. The judge gave him an eighteen month sentence, which meant that, with credit for time served, and time off for good behavior, Mel would probably be up for parole in about a year. He knew it wouldn't be easy, but he figured he could make it through a year in jail.
When Mel, accompanied by one of the sheriff's deputies who transported prisoners for the court, came out of the courthouse, he saw Captain Alex Martin, the cop who busted him, talking to one of the other transport deputies. "What the fuck is he doing here?" Mel wondered. As he watched, the detective clapped the deputy on the shoulder, then started toward where Mel was standing.
"Mind if I have a few words with Mel in private before you take him away?" Alex asked.
"Take all the time you want, Cap," the deputy escorting Mel said. "We got two more guys in there waiting to be sentenced. We'll be here a while yet."
"What the fuck do you want?" Mel muttered to Alex. "I'm goin' to jail. You happy now?"
Alex smiled and nodded. "Melvin, do you know a girl named Donna Wells?" he asked.
"What if I do?" Mel replied. He didn't understand this, not one bit. What the fuck was this cop up to? Why was he asking about Donna? Had the bitch ratted him out? If she had, how come he hadn't been charged?"
"I know what you did to her, Melvin, and what you made her do with those men," Alex said.
"Yeah, so?" Mel asked.
"I know you'll probably be getting out of jail in a year or so," Alex said. "When you do, you stay away from Donna, you hear?" He leaned closer to Mel. "If you ever come within a hundred miles of her, Melvin, you're going to wish you were never born."
"OK, OK," Mel said. He looked into Alex's eyes, saw the intense anger there, and knew he better listen. This fucking cop was crazy!
"I'm glad you understand," Alex said. He turned and looked as if he was going to walk away. Then, smiling broadly, he turned back to Mel. "Oh, Melvin," he said, "I almost forgot. You know how much guys in the joint like stoolies?"
Mel stared at him. He knew stoolies had a hard time in jail. That much he'd learned during his stay in the county jail. Nobody in the joint like stoolies. The guys who ratted other guys out were beat on and messed with all the time. He looked around and realized that the other prisoners in the sheriff's van were watching him attentively, and he began to get scared.
"I wanted you to know that I put the word out through a couple of guys I sent up to the joint that you can't keep your mouth shut, Melvin," Alex continued. "They know how helpful you've been to us in a whole bunch of cases."
"Hey, man! What the fuck did you do that for?" Mel whined. "Jesus! It the other guys in the pen think I'm a stoolie, do you know what's gonna happen to me?"
Alex's smile got colder. "I do know, Mel. And that isn't all I told them," he said. "If I was you, I'd see about getting a commercial-sized tube of K-Y Jelly." He grabbed Mel's hand and shook it, then he clapped him on the shoulder. "Take care, Mel," he said, loud enough for the prisoners in the van to hear. "I really do appreciate all the help you've given me." He lowered his voice so the men in the van couldn't hear him, and said, "Have a good life, you slime."
Mel stood there trembling while Alex turned and walked away. He turned and looked at the van and saw the prisoners were glancing at him and talking to each other.
"Come on, Mel, get in van," one of the deputies said. He opened the door. "Make yourself comfortable. They're all done inside, we'll be going in a couple minutes."
Mel, his face ashen, trembling so hard he could barely move, climbed into the van. His movements were already hampered by the handcuffs, waist chain, and leg irons he was wearing, and the fact that he was shaking like a leaf made getting in the van even harder. Once he was in the vehicle, he settled himself on one of the hard vinyl seats and heard the deputy close the door behind him. The three other prisoners in the van glared at him.
A half-hour after his conversation with Mel Ott, Alex drove up in front of his house, got out of his car, and walked up the steps to the house.
"Hi, honey," Jennifer said when Alex walked into the house. She was holding what looked like a card and envelope in her hand. "Look what I got," she said. She handed the card to Alex.
"Mr. and Mrs. William P. Atherton, Jr., joyfully invite you to join them in celebrating the marriage of their son, William Percival Atherton, III to Arlene Williams Ott," Alex read. A broad smile formed on his face.
"Do you believe that?" Jennifer asked. "The Athertons are actually putting on the whole thing. I talked to William's mother on the phone a little while ago and she didn't sound at all like the woman I thought I knew. I really believe she and William's father are excited and happy."
"One thing I've learned being a cop is that you really never know what people are like," Alex said, pulling her into his arms. "Just when you think you have them figured out, they turn around and surprise you." He kissed her, then grinned. "When are we going to send out invitations of our own?" he asked.
Jennifer leaned back in his arms and looked at him carefully. "Do you mean...is that a..." She pressed against him, and hugged him fiercely. "Yes, Alex, I'll marry you," she said. Then she turned her head up and their lips joined in a passionate kiss.
"We're done," Tommy Singleton told Donna after they finished the last of the work his father had given them to do. "Dad said if we finished early, we could take the afternoon off."
"What are you going to do the rest of the afternoon?" Donna asked. She liked Tommy a lot. In the months since he and his family moved to the farm, she and he had become close. She'd seen the way he got all moony-eyed when he looked at her sometimes, and had a feeling he liked her, maybe even more than that. But it puzzled her that he'd never made a move on her, or asked her to go out with him, even to the movies.
"I don't know," Tommy said. He did like Donna. He thought she was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen and, on top of that, she was a lot of fun to be with. He dreamed about her at night, and had wanted to ask her out for a long time. The problem was, he was painfully shy and was afraid Donna wouldn't go with him if he did ask her.
"We could take Bosco and Bonnie for a ride," Donna suggested. "Jennifer said Bosco needs more exercise than she's been able to give him since she's been spending so much time at Alex's place."
"That sounds like fun," Tommy agreed. "Why don't we do that, then?"
Donna smiled. "I'll get some stuff together and we can have a picnic," she said. "What do you think?"
"I think that would be a neat," Tommy said. "Why don't I saddle the horses while you get the food?"
When Donna came back to the barn, Tommy noticed that she'd changed her clothes. Instead of the old jeans and sleeveless sweatshirt she was wearing while they worked, she had on a pair of tan wide-wale corduroy jeans and green popcorn stitch cotton sweater with a mock turtleneck. Tommy looked at her and got a funny feeling in his stomach. She really was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, even prettier than his mom and Mrs. McIntyre, who he also thought were gorgeous!
