Jon Talton - The Pain Nurse

“So you’ll talk to me?”

“Sure, darlin’. But not here on the street. I can’t let my buds think I’m a snitch or something.”

A plan emerged in Will’s mind. “If the officer agrees, and you don’t cause any more trouble… One more call, and you’re going to jail. Got it?”

“Sure.” She sulked.

“Then meet me under the bridge by the Serpentine Wall in an hour. I’ll be sitting there. You’ll find me.”

“No problem.” The officer took off the cuffs and she was beaming.

“Darlene.”

“Yes sir?”

“If you stand me up, I’m going to make sure you do jail time.”

Cheryl Beth drove silently, her chin set at a pensive angle.

“I’m sorry to put you in the middle of all this,” Will said.

She shook her head. “I am in the middle. That was just a little too close for comfort.” She pulled back on Columbia and sped up. “I grew up around people like that. I could have been one.”

“I doubt that.”

“I beat the odds. My dad died young. Railroad accident. I think he had some ambitions for all of us. We ended up nearly destitute. The church pretty much took us in until my mom could find work. All she wanted was for me to be a cheerleader in high school, then settle down, get married and have kids. I was the one who wanted to be an honor student and get out of town. I had several friends who got pregnant in high school. All my brothers are still down there. Lord.”

He liked the image of her as a cheerleader, but kept that to himself. He admired the honor student part. His dad had only expected Will to do well at high school football and go to work as a cop. Going to college, much less at a fancy place like Miami University, was beyond his comprehension. And yet Will had come back home and joined the force. Maybe he hadn’t beaten the odds.

How do you want to play this? That’s what he or Dodds would say to the other as they worked up a strategy before confronting a suspect or a witness. He found himself missing his old partner in spite of everything. Now it was up to him, even though he was constantly afraid the pain might break through, even though his body was a mess of constipation and foreign sensations.

They went through a Skyline Chili drive-thru and ordered a late lunch. Damn the short winter days. As the day streamed by, the time drew closer when he would have to return to the hospital. But the two cheese Coney dogs were ambrosia. Cheryl Beth ate two as well. Fifteen minutes later, they were set up.

Will wheeled himself into the riverfront park by the contoured mass of concrete called the Serpentine Wall. In the spring and summer, the area would be full of people and boats cruising the river. Today it was deserted. Downtown was behind them and the bridges soared overhead on either side. He found a bench that was easily seen and Cheryl Beth helped him scoot onto it from the chair. He was glad to be rid of the infernal transfer board, but his legs were feeling weaker. Just hold out a little longer. Then he instructed her to take the chair back to the car and stow it. She rejoined him and they silently watched the cold, swift, concrete-brown river flow past, and, on the other side, the old brick buildings of Newport and Covington. He thought about his morphine dream of dead children and quickly banished it. The park was one of his favorite places. Overhead, the American flags snapped noisily in the breeze, and the flying pigs looked cold up on their ornate columns. It wasn’t long before he saw Darlene walking quickly toward them from the east, emerging from the shadows of an old bridge abutment.

“So what are we doin’? It’s freezing.”

“Have a seat.” Will indicated for her to sit beside him. Cheryl Beth was on his other side.

“So you have a new boyfriend? What does Bud think about that?”

Darlene held her arms around herself tightly, shivering despite wearing several layers of clothes.

“Screw Bud.” She said it like spitting. “I don’t give a damn what he thinks.”

“How come?”

“How the hell come? He’s the one got me on the meth. Fucked up my life big-time. Then he leaves me. Haven’t seen him for a year.”

“Now, Darlene, you know anything you tell me can be used against you in a court of law.”

“What? You’re a narc now, Detective Will? That baby cop told me all that stuff. I’ve heard it before. Why are we out here? Can’t we go sit in the car?”

“This won’t take long.” He fought to sit normally on the bench, so Darlene wouldn’t know he needed the wheelchair, that he wasn’t really on duty. That she wouldn’t notice how his weak left leg fell out to the side, ever so unnaturally. He wanted to shift his weight every minute or two to ease the discomfort. He stayed still.

Darlene held her face in profile as she stared at the mesmerizing river. It looked as if she had aged a decade since he had talked to her two years before. Her skin was pale and freckled, and now it was deeply creased. It bore a moonscape of small scars. She pulled out a pack of Camels and lit one, puffing on it nervously. The smoke mingled with the mist from her breath and it all came into his face.

“I just need to clear a few things up about an old case.”

She looked at him and stubbed out the cigarette. “You mean the murder.”

“Yes.”

She lit another smoke and stared at the river.

“Been a long time ago. That boy went to prison. I hear he died there.”

“That’s right.” Will watched the river and let her smoke and stew. The cold was on his side. He had never minded it. “You said Bud was with you that night.”

“He was there. He came by most nights, when he was working nights.”

“You guys never lived together?”

“No. He wouldn’t.”

“He’d moved out on his wife. Seems like he’d want to be with a pretty thing like you.”

“He said he needed his space, whatever the hell that means. Men say that. He’d come by some nights, some afternoons. We’d fuck and he’d leave. True love, huh?”

“Who knows?” He waited, let the cold stab at her. Then, “Maybe he had a girl on the side.”

She was inhaling furiously, the skin above her upper lip showing ribs of wrinkles. The river slapped noisily at the concrete and traffic droned on the interstate overhead. Quietly, he heard her say, “Son of a bitch…”

“I don’t mean to upset you,” Will said. “You know how some men are. Girl on the side here, girl on the side there, always too busy to spend much time.”

“Son of a bitch.” She said it louder this time.

“How’d you get on meth?”

“He brought it one day. Said he’d taken it off a dealer and it might be fun. It sure as hell was. Only he just drank Jack Daniels while I did it. Fuck, it wrapped around me like a snake…”

“When’d he do this?”

“Couple years ago.”

“Before or after his wife was killed?”

She thought for a moment. “Before.”

“So did you have to go out and buy it, once you got hooked?”

“No, he’d bring me some. I thought I had a real sugar daddy.”

“You can get treatment.” This was Cheryl Beth. Darlene lit another Camel and leaned forward to look at her.

“You sound like you’re south of the river, pretty eyed girl.”

“Corbin, Kentucky,” Cheryl Beth said.

“I got people down that way,” Darlene said. “Down by Bailey’s Switch?”

“I know Bailey,” Cheryl Beth said.

Will wished she hadn’t gotten Darlene off track, but then he changed his mind. He knew how they’d play it.

“Darlene, about that night, when Theresa Chambers was murdered…”

“Yeah, yeah, Detective Will, you have a one-track mind.”