Page 10 of Bastain

He didn’t say anything for some time, but when he did, it didn’t sound as if it was going to bode well for Tilly. The other man said that he’d meet Trinity at the hospital, and he’d bring Tilly if he could find her. Bastain didn’t care if he brought his wife or not, but as soon as she was arrested, he’d feel better. That was when he noticed that the mailbox on Trinity’s home was bashed up as well. Taking a picture with his phone, he sent it to his office by email. There was something he could do about destroying mailboxes, and he was going to do that as soon as he got back to his office.

“I have that appointment with the Social Security office in an hour.” He told her that she wasn’t going to make it. “What am I supposed to do about it? Cancel? What if this was the one time that I was going to get someone to listen to me?”

“You’ll be fine. You’ll have proof of why you didn’t make it, and I’ll vouch for you. It’ll be just fine.” She told him she hoped so, and he did as well. You never knew about the government, and it was better to just do as they wanted. But in this case, he was going to hope for the best even if it turned out to be the worst. Bastain was used to hearing bad news, and this time was no different.

By the time they were at the hospital, he’d followed behind in his car, and the police had located Tilly and had arrested her. He said that he’d come to the stationhouse and fill out the paperwork as soon as he made sure that Trinity was all right. He didn’t expect them to have any trouble, as one of the officers had been at the house when he’d been there with the young woman.

The hospital took her right back to a room. They’d given her something at the scene, and she wasn’t crying so hard right now. Almost as soon as the doctor saw her, he had them give her something more for pain, and she was out. Bastain took that opportunity to call his mom and let her know what was going on.

“I’ll be right there.” He said that she might be in surgery before she gets here, as her leg was broken. “That poor girl. I’m so glad she called you. It was good too that you had her call an ambulance for herself. I just can’t imagine someone beating up someone else for money that belongs to neither of them.”

“I’ve had her arrested. She’s not going to be getting out with just a fine now.” He saw a man at the desk talking to the nurses when he remembered that Mark Shafer was going to be coming in to see his niece. “I have to go. I think that Tilly’s husband just walked in, and he’s going to need answers, I’m sure.”

“I think he’s an attorney too. Just to give you a heads up.” He said that he’d keep that in mind if he got out of hand. “You think he will? I hope not. I never cared for Tilly myself, but her husband is a good man. He works hard, and they have a nice home.”

“I’ll go talk to him.” After closing the connection with his mom, he went to the nurse’s desk to talk to the stranger. “I’m Bastain Smith. I’m here with Trinity Layton.”

“I’m Mark Shafer, her uncle. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Tilly just called me to tell me she’s been arrested again. I didn’t act like I knew anything, but she said that Trin attacked her in the parking lot and that she didn’t know what it was about. I don’t believe her, of course, there have been times of late that she’s been telling me falsehoods about everything. But I’d like to see my niece once before I go and see to my wife.”

Since he didn’t know anything other than the few things that Trinity had told him, he kept his mouth shut. It wasn’t until they went to the cubicle that Trinity was in that he realized how bad the young woman looked. She had so many cuts on her face that it looked to him like she’d been dragged over rocks. Her hands had defensive marks on them, as did her legs. But the broken one was wrapped up and elevated, so he told him that it looked to him like it had been broken. Mark was shaking his head when he lifted the cover off his niece to see the damage from before.

“She’s still healing from the last beating that Tilly supposedly gave her. She told me that she’d come to visit her and that they’d got into a fight. I didn’t believe that, of course, Trin is one of the most calm laid back people I know, and I don’t believe that Tilly didn’t touch her. Now I can see why she was arrested. Do you know how many broken bones she had from before?” He told him. “Ribs seem to take forever to heal. I didn’t know about any of this.”

“I’m going to be pressing charges on Trinity’s behalf as soon as I leave here. Do you know what the fight was about?” He said that he assumed it was about money that Trin owed his wife. “It’s a bit more complicated than that. Your wife wanted Trin to turn over the checks from Social Security that her mom is still getting so that she could cash them. She mentioned needing the money.”

“Her business isn’t doing so well. Not that that’s an excuse for her behavior, but I’m just putting that out there. I didn’t know about the checks either.” He laughed a little, and it sounded forced. “I seem to be in the dark about a lot of things going on around here. I just don’t know what to believe.” He looked at Trinity again and sighed heavily. “She’s been beaten to shit, and I know on some level that my wife did it.”

When his mom showed up, Mark hugged her and told her how sorry he was. He hadn’t realized that Mark knew his mom, but then she knew everyone. As soon as Trinity was put into a room, he left for the police station. He was seated in an office right away to talk to the responding officer.

“Is she going to be all right?” He said that when he left, they were talking about surgery on her leg. “That’s too bad. I broke my leg last winter, and I didn’t think it was ever going to heal. I hope the best for her.”

“Thank you, I’ll tell her when I see her.” Bastain filled out what he could on the paperwork and was told it was enough for now. He was told that one of the officers would be there to talk to her when she woke up, and they’d get more out of her. “How is Mrs. Shafer doing? I’m not asking you if she’s pissed, but is she hurt in any way? She told her husband that Trinity attacked her.”

“She doesn’t have so much as a scratch on her. And we took pictures of her body when she came in. Just to cover our butts.” Bastain thought that was a great idea and said as much to the young officer. “Yes, it’s protocol now when we have a person come in for being beaten up. Just so we have all the particulars down when they say that we neglected their care. That doesn’t happen much either, but it does once in a while, and we decided that it was safer to take the pictures than not to.”

Bastain headed back to the hospital when he was finished at the stationhouse. He’d heard from his mom twice. Once to tell him that her leg was indeed broken, and the second time was to tell him that they’d taken her to surgery. He was glad that he’d called his mom. He’d not realized how close she was to the younger woman. He was sitting in a chair in the waiting room when Mark approached him.

“I’m not bailing Tilly out. She’ll just have to wait her turn to see the judge. Even then, I’m not going to be paying to have her out on the streets. You’ll find out sooner rather than later that this isn’t the first or second time that she’s beaten someone up for not doing what she wanted. I’ve been cleaning up messes all over town for the last several months. Her business is hurting because people are afraid of her.” He told him he was sorry to hear that. “I am as well. It wasn’t sudden like I thought about it. But been happening gradually for the past year and a half. I’ve been covering her. Now that she’s done this to her own flesh and blood, I can’t keep doing this. Trin is a sweetheart and didn’t deserve this.”

“No one did.” After shaking hands with the man, he left. He also told Bastain that he wasn’t going to retain a lawyer for his wife; she was on her own. After he left, he told his mom what was going on, and she didn’t seem surprised. He asked her what she knew.

“That her business was failing because she knocked around a customer when they tried to haggle a price with her over a table and chairs set. I guess it was so bad that the woman was in the hospital for a month.” He said that he’d heard it was a little boy. “That was another time. She knocked him off his bike when he stopped in front of her driveway. She wasn’t going anywhere at the time, but she did make a point to him that if she’d been in her car, she would have run him down. Things like that have been cropping up all over town for a couple of years now.”

“That’s what her husband said.” Mom nodded and told him she wasn’t surprised by anything that Tilly had done anymore. “I guess you knew her when you were younger.”

“We went to school together.” Mom said that she’d been nice enough as a toddler, but as she got older, she got more dangerous. “They sent her off to boarding school when she was about ten, but that didn’t work out. She was only there for about a year when they sent her home. I know why now.”

He did as well. While they waited for Trinity to come out of surgery, he made some phone calls. They were supposed to go and see a house tonight, but of course had to cancel. He also had court in the morning and wasn’t looking forward to that. As he was getting things organized with his secretary, he kept an eye on the hallway where the doctor might be coming from. He wanted to know first-hand what sort of damage Tilly Shafer did to Trinity.

Chapter 5

Trin felt like she was waking from a deep dream. Everything was blurry, and it took her a few minutes to realize that she wasn’t home in her bed. CarolAnn was sitting in a chair next to her, but in a room she didn’t know. As she tried to set up, the pain made itself known to her, and she cried out.

“You’ve been through a great deal, so you just lie back and behave.” She told her that she would, but asked what she’d been through. “I’m not supposed to tell you anything if you don’t remember it. But you’ve been in here for five days. They’ve mostly kept you sedated because of the break to your leg, but other than that, you’ve been doing fine.”

“Five days?” She told her that she’d been waking up every couple of hours since last night, and she’d had to repeat everything she said to her each time, but she didn’t mind. “My boss must—Aunt Tilly tried to kill me.”

It all came rushing back to her when she was lying there. She closed her eyes when she thought about how she’d beat her with a bat. All her aches and pains seem to hit her at once, too. She was crying when she asked for something for pain from the nurse who came in to check on her.