Tea Cups & Tiger Claws by Timothy Patrick

Author:Timothy Patrick [Patrick, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Country Scribbler Publishing
Published: 2014-01-08T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

On a drizzly day in November 1970, Judith Newfield’s wayward daughter, sixteen years old, smashed her brand new Mustang into a Santa Marcela light pole. The totaling of new cars would become somewhat of a hobby for Veronica, but on this occasion, in addition to wrecking the car, she also managed to get herself arrested when she didn’t bother to conceal a bag of marijuana that had been on the passenger’s seat. The police officer saw the bag and put her in handcuffs. Fortunately, the desk sergeant at the police station recognized her name and took the cuffs right back off. He made an apologetic phone call to Judith and the matter seemed to be resolved…except Veronica still found herself at the police station in Santa Marcela without a ride home.

The accommodating sergeant offered to arrange a ride with one of the patrolmen. Judith declined. She’d had enough humiliation without putting her daughter on display in a police car as it drove the breadth of Prospect Park. Judith also had no intention of sending Abigail, her usual go-to person, because of the hell-and-damnation sermons that would quickly follow, and not the chauffeur either, who would blab it to the kitchen maids, who would then blab it to other maids from other houses, and before a person could say “stop the press” the thing would be published like a special edition. And, of course, Judith couldn’t go herself, to a place like that, where she’d have to walk a gauntlet of accusatory stares and plebian gawks. No, she’d stay at home with her well-behaved Yorkshire terrier and send someone else to fetch the darling little hand grenade, someone in particular: Walter Tubbs, the unpleasant attorney who smiled too much, the one who used to cart papers for her husband. He’d already proven himself somewhat reliable and, as an attorney, she assumed he knew the meaning of confidentiality. And since he had no social standing whatsoever, if he did happen to let something slip, the damage would be minimal. He was perfect.

~~~

Veronica didn’t expect Mother to come to the police station herself but she did expect her to at least send a human being. Instead she sent a sweaty, fat guy in a wrinkled suit who claimed to be a lawyer. She didn’t know squat about lawyers but she knew lowlife when she saw it. Then he made her sit in the front seat of his skuzz bucket Buick on the drive home. That was freaky, especially when he let loose with the body noises. He bent his big bowling ball head to the left to pop his neck, and then to the right. He popped his knuckles and his wrists, chomped his nails, and belched noxious gas out his potato nose. She clutched the armrest and prayed he didn’t lay down a gasser. Finally they got to Prospect Park, but instead of going all the way up the hill, he turned into the hotel parking lot and parked in the circular driveway by the big revolving doors.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.