Chapter 3: Chapter 3

3

I opened the door.

Out in the corridor, Gordon was leaning on his crutch by the doorway of the hospital room, a bag of fruit in his hand.

"Hey, man, I came to check on your mom."

My mother waved a hand.

"Gordon, go on home."

Gordon nodded and started away on his crutch.

I followed him out of the room.

"I'm going to pay the bill. You can go."

"Sure."

Gordon hobbled toward the elevator, leaning on the crutch.

Three minutes later, I came back from paying.

I was halfway into my jacket when I saw Gordon hurrying toward me on his crutch, two police officers behind him.

"That's him!" Gordon pointed at me, his voice loud. "Officers, I think he stole my ring!"

"Who stole your ring?!"

"Whether you stole it isn't up to you," Gordon said with a cold smile.

An officer stepped forward and reached into my jacket pocket.

He felt around twice, then pulled out a small box. Inside was a diamond ring.

Gordon shouted right then and there: "That's the ring!"

I looked at the ring, then at the look on Gordon's face, and it all came clear.

"Officers, I think he planted that ring in my pocket himself."

"Bullshit!" Gordon roared. "Graham, you broke dog, short on cash so you just steal?"

Then, as if he despaired of me, he sighed and turned his back.

One officer frowned. "Sir, you're a suspect in a theft. Please come with us to the station and cooperate with the investigation."

I glanced into the hospital room.

My mother lay in the bed, wanting to say something and not saying it.

Before she could get a word out, the two officers took me by each arm and walked me out.

At the police station.

"Come clean and it'll go easier. Fight us and it'll go hard," the tall officer said. "Why did you steal the ring?"

"Officer, I really didn't steal it..."

I was about to ask them to pull the hospital security footage.

The door of the mediation room burst open and someone rushed in.

Sophia's eyes were red, and the moment she was through the door she screamed: "Graham! Have you no shame?"

She charged up to me and slapped me across the face.

Crack.

The sound was sharp, and the whole mediation room went quiet.

"Fine, you have no money." Sophia's voice shook. "But you steal the keepsake his mother left him too? Are you even human?"

"Sophia, listen to me. I didn't steal it!"

I thought back to five years ago.

Five years ago, when Sophia and I had just gotten together.

"Graham, you're the person I trust most. Even if the whole world blamed you, I'd still only believe you."

She used to lean into my arms all the time, patting my back, telling me I was the best.

"What are you looking at me for?" Sophia glared at him. "You're just a loser! Gordon is a hundred times the man you are!"

I turned my head away, not wanting to argue with her.

The mediation room door opened again.

A nurse wheeled my mother in.

She was in a hospital gown, her face deathly pale, an IV line still taped to the back of her hand.

"Mom."

I saw the look in my mother's eyes.

That look was all disappointment, all heartbreak.

"Graham..." My mother caught her breath. "Sophia has been good to you with all her heart. How could you do something like this?"

"Mom... I..."

My mother's voice trembled. "Calling off the engagement, stealing. You've shamed me completely!"

Afraid it would worsen her condition, I dropped to my knees at once. "Mom, I swear to God, I did not steal it!"

She sighed, turned her head, and said to the officers: "Officer, this is mediation, isn't it? I'll vouch for him. I'll apologize to Gordon myself in a moment."

"All right, you work it out. If you settle privately, have Mr. Farley come in tomorrow to withdraw the case."

After we left the police station.

I took my mother back to the hospital.

Sophia and Gordon followed me there.

Sophia pulled me into an empty room at the far end of the hall and slapped the notarized deed down on the cabinet.

"Sign it. Once you do, I'll put in a good word for Gordon, tell the police it was all a misunderstanding."

She sat with her legs crossed, her tone like she was doing me a favor.

"We were together five years, after all. I don't want to see you go to prison."

I knew they were working together to corner me. Even if they didn't drop the case, without evidence they couldn't touch me.

"Sophia, get this straight. My apartment will never have his name on it."

"Graham, you're in no position to bargain with me."

"But that's marital—"

Gordon came limping around on his crutch and cut me off.

"Maybe Graham just hasn't thought it through yet."

He turned his face toward me, his tone like he was looking out for me.

"Graham, that illness of your mother's, the worst thing for her is stress. If you don't sign, Sophia's going to be upset, and then she goes and talks to your mom about all this... You okay with that?"

Something roared in my head, and I fixed my eyes on him.

If a look could kill, he'd have been ground to pulp right then.

"Farley, what the hell are you getting at?"

The faintest curve touched the corner of his mouth. He turned to Sophia.

"Sophia, step outside for a bit. Men talk better on their own."

Pleased with herself, Sophia stood up, walked out, and shut the door.

Two seconds of quiet.

Then a sudden whoosh by my ear.

Gordon's crutch cracked against the back of my skull with a dull thud.

The metal handle came down and my whole body pitched sideways to the floor, my cheek grinding into the wood.

Then a foot pressed down on the back of my neck, crushing my windpipe until it made a choked, rattling sound.

Gordon's voice was flat. "Graham, you think you've got a choice? You want to take us to court?"

"Your finances, your mother's health. Can they hold out that long?"

He crouched down, grabbed my hair and yanked my head back, and pulled a stun baton from inside his coat.

A crackle, and a blue arc burst between the contacts, less than four inches from my eyes.

"My legs are already ruined. I've got nothing to lose. Your mom's still in a hospital bed, and after liver cancer surgery the last thing she needs is a shock. If she finds out her son got carried out of here, you think she makes it to next year?"

I could feel how deranged Gordon really was.

And I couldn't make sense of it.

His family had money, he had his overseas polish, a life that good. Why was he so set on squeezing this one apartment out of me?

I had no time to think it through, no time to answer.

The arc crackled again.

My body arched against my will, my mouth full of the taste of iron.

My vision dissolved into white static.

My mother's face when she was young flashed up all at once.

She stood behind the counter of the hardware store, loose change in her apron pocket, smiling and waving me over.

That day she said, eat while it's hot, I'm not hungry.

My hand twitched, fumbling in my pocket for my phone.

I dragged every last bit of strength into my index finger and pressed the phone's volume-up button three times fast.

Then I passed out.

Everything around me went cloud-white.

My parents' voices drifted in and out of my ears.

Was this what dying felt like?

I'd lost count of how many times Gordon had raised the stun baton.

Then, all at once.

Crash!!!

The door flew open under a single kick.

The security lock ripped off the frame, splinters scattering into the hallway.

Sophia tumbled in from outside with a shriek.

Then.

A figure in a gray suit stood backlit in the doorway, holding up a phone that was recording everything.

"Move one more time. That's another charge."