KENNY
               Chapter 8

Barb looked back and saw that they were out of sight of the
doors.

“Let’s go ahead and get you taken care of Mr. Jacobs. It will
take them quite a while to get the shit back there cleared up. By
the time they get to looking for us we may be done. X-ray is down
this way.”

Barb then noticed that she and Ken were not alone. “Pardon me
miss, may I help you?”

“I’m staying with Ken; every time I let him get away bad shit
happens.”

Barb looked over at Ken with raised eyebrows, “I thought you said
that you didn’t have a girlfriend?”

“I don’t, Connie is a friend and co-worker at the lodge.”

Connie was behind him looking at the nurse with a serious
expression slowly shaking her head back and forth.

“Oookaayy.” Barb turned and led the way to the X-ray room.

Back in the waiting room things were more than a little tense.

Three police officers were standing in the doorway pointing their
guns at Marcia. Into this setting strode the Public Safety
Director for the city of Carmel-by-the-sea; Elizabeth Turrington.


“Marcia Friedman, what the hell are you doing?”

“Hello Beth, I wondered if you would show up. I’m keeping control
of these hoodlums; they broke in
here and shot one of your people. I’m not going to put this gun
down until they are restrained so you had best get your people
over there.”

“What about the man on the floor? He doesn’t look like he would
be much of a threat.”

“He’s the one who shot Officer Billy, Beth.”

Chief Turrington waved two officers over to secure the men under
discussion. “Now would you like to tell me what is going on?”

“Don’t say anything else Mrs. Friedman, and where is Mr. Jacobs?”
The lawyer from Marta’s firm had arrived. He was a tall reedy
type with glasses dressed flawlessly in a pinstripe grey suit
with a bright blue tie and carrying a briefcase.

“Hello Wilbur, I am glad to see you. Ken is getting his arm
x-rayed. Are you aware of what happened out at the lodge?”

“Yes ma’am, I am. My brother Wilbur is out there keeping Mrs.
Horne out of trouble. Walter Neilson at your service Ma’am.”

“My apologies Walter. Are you and Wilbur twins?”

“Yes ma’am, don’t worry about it; happens all the time. Now I
need to talk to you for a minute in private before you answer any
more questions from the police. I’m sure you understand Chief.”

“Yes, I do. If Marcia will just hand me that gun you two can step
outside and talk for a minute. I’ve got a bunch of people in here
who can tell me the events of the last few minutes.”

“Be sure you ask those crooks what they have to do with Donny
Drake, Beth. While they were robbing us they said something about
taking off to Mexico with him.”

“Thanks Marcia, I will.”

Marcia handed the gun to Beth, “This belongs to the man on the
ground, he used it to shoot your officer.”  Marcia then led
Walter outside and off to a private little alcove.

Inside The hospital Beth started her questioning of the suspects;
she pulled one of the men off to the side and spoke to one of her
officers. “Hey John, see if you can get someone to look after
that guy on the floor, he doesn’t look too good right now.”
Turning to the man she held, “You, on the other hand, don’t seem
to have any problems other than participation in the commission
of a felony. You want to tell me what this is all about and what
connection you have with Donny Drake?”

“I’m Eddie Cullen, Donny and David Drake are guys I hang out with
sometimes. David is Donny’s brother; he’s in the red shirt over
there. If I tell you what I know, can you do anything for me?”

“That depends on what you tell me. I can guarantee that if you
talk to me it will go easier on you than it will on the others.”

“Okay, I’ll give it a try. Here’s what happened. We were down at
the Ranch Club drinking and this dark skinned Mexican gal comes
in. Donny said that she wasn’t getting away from him tonight; he
was going to get some from the half-breed. He tried dancing with
her and she told him off; so then he stopped every one else from
going over to ask her to dance. When she saw what he was doing
she just packed up and left. Donny told us to hang loose and then
he followed her out.

“The next thing we know is about an hour or so later Donny calls
Jerry and says that he had to knock out a doctor, and he’ll pay
us good if we can get him out of the ER. He said that there was a
cop in the waiting room; we’d have to take care of him. We piled
into Jerry’s car and came over here. As soon as we walked in
Jerry pulled a gun and shot the cop.

“I swear I had no idea that he was going to do something like
that. Donny has a lot of money and he pays good, but I would
never have signed on for something like that. Anyway, David took
the cop’s gun and headed down the hall to find his brother. We
started taking wallets and purses from the folks in the waiting
room for something to do. The next thing we hear a crash from
down the hall, then a few minutes later Jerry falls and there is
this fucking barbarian standing over him holding Jerry’s gun
telling us to go stand in the corner.

“We do what he says and then he gives the gun to this woman and
tells her only to shoot us if we fuck up. Conan took off with a
nurse and the babe Donny was after, then you came in. Is that
good enough to help? That’s all I know.”

“Yeah Eddie, I’ll do what I can for you. Now go outside with this
officer and wait for us in the car while I check what you said
with the others.”

Outside Walter was being brought up to date by Marcia.

“Okay Mrs. Friedman, I don’t see where you are going to have any
problems from this. You haven’t done anything anyone would have a
problem with or try to sue you for. Mr. Jacobs, on the other
hand, is in serious need of assistance. The altercation out at
the lodge shouldn’t cause much trouble because he stopped as soon
as the assailant was no longer a threat. His actions here seem to
be more in the line of a vigilante than pure self protection
though. The legal ramifications of that can be quite extensive. I
need to get together with him and be present whenever he talks to
the authorities. You do realize ma’am that this is going to take
time and money to do. Defending Mr. Jacobs is not your or Mrs.
Horne’s responsibility.”

“I don’t like the sound of that Walter. Ken has saved our lives
and tonight I am sure that he saved at least Consuela’s and
probably several more. There is no way that Marta or I are going
to drop him on a public defender. You and the whole law firm if
necessary are going to keep our employee from suffering for his
actions in our defense, do I make myself clear, Walter?”

“Completely Mrs. Friedman, and I am pleased that you have. I was
hoping you would say that, but I had to give you the option. Now,
do you think that you could distract Mrs. Turrington while I
locate and brief Mr. Jacobs?”

“Yes, Walter, I think I can. Please call me Marcia, Walter; I
believe that I would like to get to know you a little better. Are
you or your brother married?”

“I think I would like that Marcia; and no, neither of us is
married. We both were right after college, but the girls were not
able to deal with Wilbur and I being so close. They seemed to
think that just because we married them that my brother and I
should not spend as much time together as we liked to do. It is
hard to explain Marcia, but Wilbur is a part of me, I can no more
take actions without considering how they will affect him than I
could walk over hot coals without considering what it could do to
my feet. Finding women who would see that and be able to deal
with it is hardly easy. We have been going to twin conventions to
try to find a matched pair.”

“Ooh, that’s kinky. Is Wilbur giving the same line to my sister?”

“He will probably try, but Wilbur is constrained by the fact that
Mrs. Horne owns the firm we work for. Hitting on the boss is
frowned upon. I however, have no such problem.”

“We’ll talk more about this later Walter; right now let’s get
back inside before we have more problems. You remember what I
said though; Ken means a lot to us and we don’t want anything bad
to happen to him. Take care of him for us please.”

Inside the x-ray room tension was mounting. Barb decided to cut
it back a bit. “Tell me about yourself Ken. How did you find
yourself in this situation and what are your plans for the
future?”

Connie was still looking daggers at Barb, but she was interested
in the last part of the question as well, so she contented
herself with being close to Ken and touching his bare chest and
arms as much as she could without looking too forward.

Ken didn’t want to get too personal with someone he had just met,
and besides that Connie already knew most of his past, so he was
just going to gloss over the facts. “Well I got married while I
was in trade school and I had to drop out to support her and the
baby on the way. After she left me I was working at the mall as a
security guard when Mrs. Horne gave me a job at her lodge. I want
to go back to school so I can have a regular job and maybe get my
little girl back. Do you want to see her?” He was trying to get
to his wallet in his left back pocket with his right arm when
Connie took pity on him and pulled it out.

“Here, this is my little Mallory. Have you seen this Connie?”

“No I haven’t Ken. Ooh she is darling. Such a little princess. I
assume that is your ex holding her?”

Barb saw the picture as well and she and Connie shared a look
behind Ken’s back.

“So you got this woman pregnant, married her, and then she left
you? What caused that?” Barb asked.

“Actually I didn’t get her pregnant; Mallory was born less than
seven months after I met Belinda. All she saw me as was a meal
ticket. I think her mother convinced her that she could get the
same money without having to live with me, so she left.”

“That’s even worse. What trade were you training for?”

“Mechanic, I have been working on cars most of my life. This job
with Marta is pretty good, but there isn’t much of a future with
it. I would like to have my own garage at some point in the
future.”

“What about your love life? Do you intend to get married again?”
Connie’s expression got a little more intense at this question.

“Oh, I don’t know. I suppose if I meet someone I would be willing
to try again. It would be nice to have a few more kids too. At
least the sisters taught me that Belinda was wrong about me.”

By this time the x-rays were done and the three were just sitting
waiting for them to develop. As Barb pulled them out she said, “I
can’t wait to hear about this. Just what did these sisters teach
you?”

Ken was getting into a full blush when Walter Neilson found them.

“There you are Mr. Jacobs and you as well Miss Gomez. Pardon me
miss,” he addressed Barb, “but I need to talk to my clients in
private. Are you done with them for now?”

“Yes, you can just stay here if you would like. I need to take
these x-rays to a doctor to read them and make some decisions as
to treatment. I’ll be back as soon as I find out.”

Barb closed the door behind her and left.

Walter listened to Ken and Consuela recount to him everything
that happened that evening and he only had a couple of comments.
“Criminy, you killed him with a bedpan, that is justice squared
man.” And the other comment was, “A spear, you made a spear out
of an IV pole? Well at least you didn’t MacGyver it up with a
scalpel or something. And Mr. Jacobs was correct Miss Gomez, you
did nothing wrong to bring this situation about, but you should
never have been going to these places alone. Please tell me that
you will not do that again.”

“I promise Mr. Neilson, besides; Ken offered to take me next
time.”

“All right, that would be best; now neither of you is going to
talk about any of this without me being present. If need be, and
it shouldn’t, I will get someone else to represent you Miss
Gomez. I will need to concentrate on helping Mr. Jacobs here.
We’ll let them question you and Mrs. Friedman first, as your
stories are pretty close and you were mostly victims, you did
very little on your own. The main advice I have for all of you is
to tell the truth, that doesn’t mean tell all of the truth, just
what they ask about. Answer their questions, but don’t volunteer
any information. If you are asked why you did something, wait for
me to interject, your motives are none of their business, just
your actions, I’ll make them restate the question.”

There was a knock on the door then and when told to enter Barb
stepped in. “Good news Ken, your arm is not broken. There is
extensive and deep bruising, and a few cracks, but no breaks. You
will need to wear a sling for a couple of weeks and then do some
physical therapy, but that is all. I told the doc about the
scalpel you had stuck into your arm, and he made out a
prescription for some antibiotics just in case. You will need to
come back in next Friday so I…he can check on your progress. Why
don’t you take me to dinner afterwards? There is a nice
restaurant on fisherman’s wharf and I am willing to go dutch.”

Ken was flustered at this. He had no idea what to do in this
situation. Connie, on the other hand, got a very calculating look
in her eye. “How about this Barb, I will be accompanying Ken
here, and he promised to take me dancing later that night; so let
me join you two for dinner, and you can join us dancing? How
about that?”

A surprised Barb answered, “Why not? Sounds good to me; it’s a
date.”

Ken was bewildered, and Walter was laughing.