Passion In James County IV: Hell Hath No Fury
Chapter 16
Milt Bingham greeted Heidi the minute she came in the front door of the school the next morning. "Are you all right, Heidi?" he asked. "I heard about what happened at your house on the radio when I was getting ready to come to school this morning. And it was in the papers, too!"
Heidi was embarrassed. She wondered why the kids had been looking at her so funny as she walked toward the building. It hadn't occurred to her that what happened might make the news. "I'm fine, Milt," she said. "But what about you? I'm so sorry about what happened to your parents."
"I'm getting used to it," he said.
"Did...did they arrest the man who caused the crash?" she asked.
Milt, his face stern, nodded. "They did, but the judge released him on bail the next morning," he said bitterly. "This was the guy's fifth drunk driving arrest, and the third crash he's been involved in while driving drunk."
"My God!" Heidi said. "Do you think they'll at least send him to jail once he's convicted?"
A strange grin formed on Milt's face. "They won't have to," he said. "He's dead."
"My word! What happened to him?" Heidi asked.
"Maybe he felt guilty about what he did," Milt said, his eyes harder than Heidi had ever seen them. There was a kind of far-away look in them, too. "He was arrested at the scene, arraigned the next day, and released with no bail. Do you believe that? The man killed two of the most wonderful people who ever lived and the judge just let him walk out of the courtroom as if...as if he'd been arrested for jaywalking."
"But you said he's dead," Heidi said.
Milt nodded. "He was found in his office a few days later," he said. "The day after my parents' funerals, in fact. He shot himself in the head."
"God!" Heidi said.
"I'm not in the least sorry," Milt continued. "That animal deserved to die. People like him don't deserve to live. When, when I knew he was dead, I felt good. Maybe...maybe I...I shouldn't have, but I did."
"I...I can't blame you," Heidi said. "I'm not sure I'd feel any different if I'd been in your place."
"But what about you?" he asked. "Obscene phone calls, people shooting at you, trying to break into your house. You must be horribly frightened."
Heidi nodded. "It's been awful," she said. "The police think I should find another place to stay."
"Have you?" Milt asked. "Found another place, I mean."
Heidi shook her head. "Not...not yet," she said. "I...to be honest with you, Milt, I haven't had time to give it much thought. Maybe I'll take a leave of absence and go stay with my sister in Oklahoma for a while."
"I hope you take this the way I mean it," Milt said, "but you could stay with me. You'd be safe at my place. I can promise you that."
"It's sweet of you to offer, Milt," Heidi said, touched by his offer. "But I can't. If...if this animal found out I was there, then you'd be in danger, too. I couldn't stand it if I were responsible for anyone else getting hurt. My God! A policeman was almost shot at my house last night!"
"I understand," Milt said. "Do what you have to. But the offer stands."
"Thanks, Milt," Heidi said, laying her hand softly on his arm. "I do appreciate it."
She walked down the hallway to her office, unlocked the door, and went inside. She hung up her coat, turned around, and almost fainted. Spray-painted all over the walls of her office in red paint were the words, "WICKED, EVIL WOMAN!!!" "SLUT!" "BITCH!" "YOU WILL PAY!" "YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME!"
Sobbing, Heidi turned and bolted from her office. She almost knocked down a group of students walking down the hallway as she ran toward the office.
Tim, who was sitting in his truck near the school, was startled when the two officers sitting in the cruiser in front of the school jumped out and ran into the building. "What the hell is going on?" he wondered. Then he heard the sound of sirens and more police cars, including a detective unit, rolled up in front of the school, the officers jumped out, and ran inside. "Heidi!" he thought, jumping out of his truck and starting toward the school. "Has something happened to Heidi?"
"Jackman, what are you doing here?" Lou Dewey, a portly patrolman Tim knew, asked when the young officer walked up to his cruiser in front of the school.
"I was driving by, saw the lights, and wondered what all the excitement was about," Tim replied.
"You know that lady up on Johnson who's got somebody after her?" Dewey said. "Yeah, you do, don't you. You damn near took a slug up there last night, didn't you?"
"Yeah," Tim responded, impatient. "What about her?"
"The asshole who's after her got into her office here at school," Dewey replied.
"She OK?" Tim asked, finding it a bit difficult to breathe.
"Yeah, she's fine," Dewey said. "The psycho just spray-painted a bunch of crap on her office walls."
"Oh," Tim said, relaxing.
"We have to find someplace where you'll be safe," detective sergeant Linda Tyler, who Heidi had spoken with the night before, told her. They were in the principal's office, and Heidi had just started to get over the shock of what she'd discovered in her office.
"But...but if I stay with someone," Heidi said, "won't I be placing them in danger, too?" She shuddered. "I mean, the animal who's doing this seems to know everything about me. He...he even followed me to work. If...if I stay with someone and he finds out, isn't it possible he'd hurt them, too?"
"I hadn't thought of that," Sergeant Tyler admitted. "Look, I'll talk to my chief. Maybe we can figure something out."
Tim went back to his truck. "Might as well go home and get some rest," he thought. "With all the cops around here, Heidi should be safe for now." He fired up his truck and headed for his apartment.
Carol Ann showed up at Tim's apartment shortly after he arrived home. In other circumstances, he'd have been glad to see her but, given what had been happening, all he wanted was to get in bed and get some sleep.
