Sometimes a Man has to Do a Thing

"Right on." Marvin quietly conceded.

"I couldn't get into my parent's accounts and I was emailing Haley and she couldn't get a new account set up for us. So my mother gave me their fix it cash out of a safe deposit box. Please tell me you grabbed it." He asked, fixing the henchman with wide desperate eyes.

"Yeah it's in the backseat." He answered with Douglas' wide dead eyes flashing through his memory. "Sure it's going to be enough, how much is it?"

"Enough to start a new life, but maybe not finish it." Richard said, with the sad reality finally pulling at him. "Guess I really did fuck everything up."

"Yeah." Marvin agreed. "But you're just a kid, and kids are stupid. Especially when they think they're in love."

"Can't go home again." Richard muttered, mostly to himself.

"Now's really not the time for second guessing. How far is Pigeon Forge anyway four, five hours? I'll run you real quick." Marvin said, steering his battered Kia down another series of side streets, careful to stay away from the interstate.

"You're not gonna kill me, I don't have to beg for my life?" He asked, genuinely surprised.

"From what I understand you're father ain't gonna be around to pay me, so fuck'im. You've gone and completely blown your old life up." Marvin said cheerfully. "You square me up out of that bag of cash what your father owed me and I'll take you to your girl."

"Really, how much?" Richard asked, reaching into the backseat and grabbing the blood stained Prada bag. "I should have enough to cover if it's reasonable, and no we don't have to go to Pigeon Forge."

"Ten thousand." Marvin announced.

"Yeah, yeah for sure." He thumbed through the still pristine stacks of banded hundreds. "But Haley emailed me this morning and said we could meet at this small coffee shop in East Nashville around noon."

"Email?"

"Yeah Haley's still weird about cell phones." Richard shrugged. "Getting tracked or something I don't really know."

Before Marvin could respond Richard's cell phone began to vibrate.

"You sent someone to kill me you motherfucker?" The young man answered, launching straight into full on tirade.

"No son, is he there, did he find you?" Donald Hughes breathlessly asked. "He was supposed to pick you up and keep you safe. Things are out of my control now..."

Richard flinched as he heard the sound of cracking wood on the other end of the call, as if someone were trying to batter a door down.

"They took your mother already champ, found a pool of blood when I got home." Donald continued, panic strangling his tone of voice. "I don't know why you did this son and I won't lie and tell you how proud I've been, but you felt this was right..."

"Dad?" Richard croaked, voice breaking with tears as he listened to the shouts and cracking door frame behind his father's terrified speech.

"This is it kiddo you're on your own now. Hope you make it farther than we did, they'll be coming for you." Donald pulled the phone away from his face but his son still heard him. "Have at it you cocksuckers!" He shouted.

Through the tears Richard smiled as he heard his father's.44 magnum roar six times, punctuated by his angry curses. His final testament that despite his flaws he was here and they would have to drag him kicking and screaming from this world.

"Dammit I love you boy!" Donald Hughes quickly confessed to his only son before the door frame gave way, and the demons descended upon him.

They stopped at a large Pilot gas station where Marvin grabbed a beer while Richard ran to vomit and weep in the men's room. Then back on the road where they rode in stunned silence for the next thirty miles.

"Got ten minutes, but I think that coffee shop is right around the corner from here." Marvin finally broke the peace. "I know you're mourning right now and believe me I get it, this weeks been a muthafucka. But to be clear you're on your own after this ya hear? I drop you off and you hand me cash then we part ways. I'm not looking after you I'm done with this bullshit."

Richard numbly nodded.

"Honestly I think you're doing the right thing getting that girl out, and I hope you two manage to get away." The henchmen admitted. "I'm going to take this money and get my own people out of town before it's too late. I really should bleed you out for putting this whole thing in motion. But like I said, sometimes a man has to do a thing."

The crudely painted sign over the small white square building simply said Magic Beans, but neither the jaded henchman nor the broken man child noticed. A blue and red light show at the park across the street caught their attention, and Richard felt his stomach clutch with apprehension. Two squad cars blocked the park's entrance while six more filled the lot. A small crowd of officers were barely visible from the shoulders up, over the hill, down by the duck pond.

"Run in and see if she's here first before you start jumping to conclusions kid." Marvin suggested.

Richard didn't hear him as he seemed to float out of the car, making his way across the street. The closer he got to the park his steps became heavier, his body hesitant to take him to the truth.

Then there she was framed by the sun, reaching it's zenith in a gloomy sky. No not Haley Luffman in a spring dress and light denim jacket, but Katrina Pearson hunched against the cold and waiting on him.

"It all fell apart." Marvin Woodall lamented, turning to look at the Prada bag an empty kid left behind.

The detective caught Richard under the arms as his legs finally gave out, taking that final step up onto the sidewalk. Over her shoulder his eyes betrayed his heart taking it all in, Richard Hughes screamed until his lungs were empty, Katrina just held the shattering boy tighter wiping her own tears on his jacket.

An angel from Eastern Kentucky floated out among the water lilies, naked with a wire still wrapped around her bloated neck, blue eyes staring up at a future that would never come. A ghost of a smile might have played across her cold silent lips, happy that she was finally free.

After the EMT's administered Ativan, a mild sedative, they wrapped Richard in a warm blanket before Katrina Pearson led him back to her personal vehicle.

"Still with me?" She asked while guiding him into the passenger seat and closing the door. Not waiting for an answer from the catatonic boy, she ran around the car and hopped in behind the wheel. "Cold one today." She announced, starting the car and putting the heat on.

Richard just stared straight ahead out into nothing.

"Guess you didn't kidnap Haley after all." Katrina said, brushing a few auburn curls out of the young man's face. "Also heard over the radio there was a situation at your house. But I was tied up here."

"Did you catch whoever did this?" Richard finally croaked.

"Good news is yeah, yeah we did actually." The detective boasted. "We could have gone down another road Richard, you know that right?"

"There's nothing left for me here, I'm all alone now." Richard said blankly, with no more tears to give.

"Then you're gonna need friends like me." Katrina said, placing her hand on his shoulder. "Let's start from the very beginning, huh?"

***

Detective Katrina Pearson flipped through her files one more time while seated at the cold steel table secured in the center of the stark white interrogation room. The door finally opened and a surprisingly husky homeless man everyone affectionately referred to as Flathead Frank was led in by two uniformed officers. Katrina silently watched them shackle him to the table and step back before settling in her chair and leaning toward the meek vagrant.

"Remember me don't you Franklin?" She opened with a smile.

"My mama used to call me Franklin." He brightened at the recollection.

"This won't take long, but can I get you anything? Coffee, soda?" Her pleasantries continued.

Frank shyly shook his head no.

"Okay well it's real simple actually, you were unaware of the surveillance team watching over you for your own protection. At ten O'clock this morning they reported seeing you approach a woman fitting Haley Luffman's description driving a white Nissan Altima. This was at a gas station on Dry Branch road two miles away from your sister's mobile home." She paused, creeped out by the vagrant sitting perfectly still drinking in her every word with a rot toothed smile stuck on his wrinkled face.

"Anyway." She continued, flipping the page on her report. "After a five minute conversation between you two, you were seen striking and then forcing her back into her car with you driving away. By the time we were able to assemble patrol units to pursue you, you were already gone. So we know it was you, indulge us as to why."

"Why not?" Frank asked slowly. "That bitch was teasing me damn near every night. I was gonna finally get her that one Sunday, crouched by her car damn near all night 'til her faggot boyfriend showed up and took her away. Couldn't hardly believe it when she pulled in to get gas, like the voices were finally right this time."

"Voices?" Katrina asked with the hairs standing up on the back of her neck.

"Sure, sometimes they're right but mostly they get it wrong and I gotta make changes on the fly." Frank explained. "They watch me get worked up and sometimes jerk off to these teasing bitches and right before I snap the voices calm me down and tell me where to find these sluts."

Katrina felt like she was on a plummeting elevator. "Have there been others Franklin?"

"Never kept track but sure, at least a dozen." Frank shrugged his shoulders. "Like I was saying the voices tell me where to go and find these sluts and then I can go and teach them a lesson, while having a little fun for myself of course."

"Teach them a lesson? Why?"

"Well they look over me like I'm garbage just because I won't pay for it." Frank suddenly became agitated. "Those assholes in the suits or the shiny boots ain't no better than me because they're willing to pay money and I'm not. Never understood why those oily faggots like that don't realize it's not about what you got, it's what you do with it. See I can go up to the airport and busk with my sister and scrape together enough money for a blowjob but I don't wanna do that. Treat my sister to a decent meal, sometimes ice cream after. She's a good woman and her disability checks come late sometimes and I gotta take care of her."

"That's sweet." Katrina forced a smile. "She call you Franklin too, like your mama?"

"Naw see my sister's got a mean sense of humor that's where all that Flathead Frank come from, started with her calling me that. Then before you know it the whole damn town is shouting hey Flathead Frank!" He threw his hands up to illustrate.

"Why did she call you Flathead?" Katrina confusingly asked. "Doesn't sound very flattering."

"Aw, never bothered me much." Frank shrugged again. "See when we lived back in Boise I used a screwdriver on those rotten bitches. Lost the damn thing when we moved to Nashville."

Detective Katrina Pearson put her hand under chin to keep her jaw from dropping. "But why even listen to the voices Franklin, why not ignore the women and their teasing? Why punish them at all?" She finally asked.

"Like my daddy tells me, one of the voices is my daddy you see, sometimes a man just has to do a thing."