April's Story Ch. 28

Note: This story is the twenty-eighth episode in a series entitled "April's Story". If you have not read the previous twenty-seven episodes of this series, I encourage you do so before beginning this chapter.

This is a dominant wife humiliates submissive husband story. That is the kind of story I write. If you do not enjoy these types of stories, I strongly recommend that you look for something else to read.

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The noise wouldn't stop. I tried to ignore it, but it refused to go away. I rolled over and opened my eyes. Ponce wasn't in bed next to me. Apparently he'd never made it home last night.

The banging continued. Someone was pounding on the door. I looked at my alarm clock. It was 6:30 in the morning. I got up, found my robe and walked into the living room. Someone was still pounding on the door.

"Hold on, I'm coming."

I looked through the peephole. There were two uniformed police officers in the hallway.

Suddenly I was frightened. I opened the door a crack and peered out. "How can I help you officers?"

"May we come in?"

"What's this about?"

"Do you know Marion Poncley and Daniel Gerard?'

"Yes, are they in some kind of trouble?"

"Ma'am, please let us come in."

I opened the door. Both officers stepped into the living room.

One of the officers was a young man. The other was middle aged.

The older officer looked at me. "Please let me introduce myself, I'm Sergeant Ed Mathews."

I smiled at him. "I'm April Hansen."

"April, how do you know Mr. Poncley and Mr. Gerard?"

"Ponce is my boyfriend, Danny is our closest friend. We all live together in this apartment." I stopped and looked at Sergeant Mathews. "Are they alright?"

He took a deep breath. "April, have you ever heard of a Community Center on the north side of the city called the Tomb?"

A chill went through me as everything suddenly became clear. The quiet conference with Mr. Ballantine and the pretend card game at George Thomas's house now made sense. My boys entered the Tuesday night two on two basketball tournament at the Tomb. Jamal said they'd won it before. I'm sure they saw it as an easy way to get the rest of the money for the down payment on the house.

I looked at Sergeant Mathews. "Yes, I'm very familiar with the Tomb. I've played basketball there."

Sergeant Mathews raised his eyebrows. "Indeed."

I was starting to get very nervous. I raised my voice. "Sergeant Mathews are my boys all right?"

He took a deep breath. "April, Marion Poncley and Daniel Gerard were both shot to death outside the Tomb at about 2:30 this morning."

I stared at him.

"Our sources tell us that they won a lot of money at a late night basketball tournament. It was a robbery. From what we can gather from the few witnesses that will say anything, it appears that they were accosted as soon as they walked out of the community center. They refused to give up their winnings. A fight broke out. Shots were fired. Both men were killed instantly.

I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. I just kept staring at him.

"Ms. Hansen we need to have you come downtown with us. In a crime like this one, we need to make sure that we actually have the correct identities for the victims." He paused. "Would you please get dressed."

At that point I was only capable of responding. I went to the bedroom and put on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. As soon as I was dressed I came back to the living room, grabbed my purse and said, "I'm ready, let's go."

The trip downtown was done in complete silence. I don't think Sergeant Mathews had any idea about what to say to me. When we got to the morgue, the younger office stayed with the car while Sergeant Mathews and I went inside.

We were met at the front desk by a bald headed man in his mid forties. He introduced himself as John Folker. I really didn't care what his name was.

He told us to follow him. We passed through a set of double doors. I glanced around; we were in a room that looked like a hospital surgery center. There was medical equipment everywhere. In the center of the room there were three tables that looked like operating tables. I assumed that they were for autopsies.

He brought us through another door into a refrigerated room. All four walls were covered with drawers. He took us to a drawer on the left wall and pulled it open. Danny's body was lying in the drawer. There were three bullet holes in his upper chest. As I stood there and looked at him tears started to run down my cheeks.

Sergeant Mathews asked very quietly, "April can you identify this man?"

It took every bit of control that I could muster to say, "Yes, this is Danny Gerard."

Mr. Folker closed that drawer and opened the one next to it.

It was my baby Ponce. There were four bullet holes in his chest and two in his neck.

Sergeant Mathews again asked in a very quiet voice, "April can you identify this man?"

I couldn't move. I couldn't respond.

He asked me a second time, "April can you identify this man?"

I just stared at Ponce's body. I could barely hear Sergeant Mathews.

He tried again. "April is this Marion Poncley?"

I looked at him and slowly nodded my head.

Sergeant Mathews and his partner drove me home.

As soon I got into the apartment I sat down on the couch. I didn't feel good, I didn't feel bad. I was numb, I didn't feel at all. I don't know how long I sat on the couch. It might have been minutes, it might have been hours.

Eventually I decided that I wanted to take a shower. I took my clothes off, turned on the water, stepped into the bath tub and closed the shower curtain.

The warm water felt good. I closed my eyes and started to relax. As I relaxed my self control weakened. I began to cry. My knees buckled and my body slowly collapsed. Eventually I was lying huddled in the bottom of the bath tub with a gentle rain of warm water pouring onto me. As I lay there my cries turned into sobs.

I don't know how long I lay sobbing in the bottom of the shower. It really didn't matter. Time was no longer relevant. Life was no longer relevant. In the space of two months my father died, my mother abandoned me and my true love and my closest friend were both ruthlessly murdered.

I was ready to give up on life. I wanted to throw in the towel. I wanted to quit. I closed my eyes. I just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up again.

As I was drifting off I felt a hand reach out and grab me. I tried to push the hand away. It was bothering me. It was a nuisance. I just wanted to be left alone.

Another hand grabbed me. I gradually realized that I was being lifted out of the tub. I didn't resist. I didn't help. At this point I was incapable of action.

The hands pulled me from the tub. As soon as I was out someone wrapped a towel around my shoulders.

I opened my eyes. Lorraine was standing there. Morris, Helen and Jessica were right behind him.

Lorraine put his arms around me. "Don't worry April, we're here. We'll take care of you."

They took me back to their house and put me to bed.

I cried all night long. Lorraine stayed with me the entire time. He held me in his arms and gently rocked me back and forth while I wept.

That night I not only wept for Ponce and Danny, I also wept for my father.

The next day Helen and Lorraine invited me to move in with them. I accepted.

That afternoon I called the Goldenrod. Mr. Ballantine told me that I could have a leave of absence for as long as I needed it. Next I called Staci at the Black Knight and told her that I wasn't sure when I would be ready to dance again. She understood.

Ponce's funeral was held on Friday in his home town in central Wisconsin. Morris rented three Lincoln Town Cars. Helen, Jessica, Morris, Lorraine, Jamal, Darb's, Adam, Jake, Tony, Mandy, Big Julius, Cynthia Parker and I all went as a group.

After Ponce's funeral was over we drove home. Early the next morning all of us went to the airport. Morris had purchased airline tickets. We all flew to Columbus, Ohio and attended Danny's funeral.

Once the funerals were over and life settled down, I feel into a period of depression. I quit my jobs at the Goldenrod and the Black Knight. I just couldn't bear to go back to either of those places.

I wanted to quit school, but Lorraine wouldn't hear of it. For the next three months he drove me to class every morning and picked me up every afternoon.

Helen and Lorraine gave me a job working in the Boutique. They didn't really need any help. I didn't actually need to work. They were more than happy to support me while I was going to school. Working at the Boutique was an easy way for them to give me spending money without embarrassing me.

I also lost all interest in sex. The guys were wonderful. Every one of them acknowledged that change and accepted me as "just a friend".

With Lorraine's help, I finished the rest of the school year.

When summer came Helen, Jessica, Lorraine and Morris took me to Europe. They hired two women to take care of the Boutique. We were gone for a month. It was a wonderful trip. For a little while I actually forgot how sad I was.