Then sleep overtook him, and the tumble of thoughts was put to rest until morning.
Chapter Eighteen
The gloom ofthe day reflected the mood of the four siblings as they sat in the waiting room of the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Isa twisted her purse strap over and over around her fingers, Lille fooled around with her phone, Henri kept glancing at the large wall clock, and Rock stared stone-faced at the concrete walls. Being at the prison brought back rough memories; he never thought he’d see the inside of this hellhole again. Their father’s impending death brought them together as they waited to see him at the medical department on site.
After a twenty-minute wait, a corrections officer told them to follow him. Inside the treatment center, they passed by rooms housing ill inmates, who were chained to a bed, overseen by bored prison guards idling away their time with TV and card games.
The officer stopped in front of a room on the east side of the building. Normally it would’ve received a lot of sunshine, but that day the sun was blocked by gray, dense clouds that carpeted the sky. “He’s in here. You only got thirty minutes with him.”
Rock held back and let his siblings go in front of him. Since he’d entered the medical facility, a cold clamminess had settled into his bones. For so long he’d hated his father for killing his mother, and he didn’t know how to change that.
“Pa, can you hear me? We’ve come to see you. It’s me, Lille, Henri, and Roche,” Isa said. Rock entered the room and saw her bending over their dad, who was hooked up to beeping monitors with tubes of fluid flowing into his veins.
“Roche?” his father said in a hoarse, low voice. Isa stroked their dad’s cheek and looked at Rock.
He walked over to the side of the bed. His father had aged so much since he’d last seen him: gray hair, deep wrinkles, hollow cheeks. Due to his illness, lesions dotted his face and his eyelids were swollen.Fuck, he’s lost so damn much weight.Rock’s stomach dropped. “Hey, Pa.” His dad’s bony hand reached out for his and he grasped it, surprised at how cold it was.
Lille and Henri came close to the bed, each of them rubbing their hands over their father’s arms or legs. Isa sniffled and turned to the nightstand to retrieve a tissue. Henri sighed and shook his head while Lille brushed a tear from her eye.
Pa isn’t gonna make it. This fucking sucks.Being in an outlaw club, Rock had seen his share of death, but looking at his dad dying and chained to the bed, broke his heart. For so long he’d hated this man, but now, knowing the truth, he felt sorry for him. The truth didn’t negate that his dad was a mean sonofabitch to him, his siblings, and his beloved mother, but he didn’t deserve to be punished for a crime he didn’t commit while the killers roamed free.
Rock turned to his siblings. “Say your peace with Pa and then get the fuck out. I wanna be alone with him for a few minutes.”
“To upset him?” Henri said. “I don’t think so.”
“Henri’s right,” Isa chimed in. “He’s too sick, and I don’t want you unleashing on him. This isn’t the time nor the place, Roche.”
He glared at them. “It’s Rock,” he gritted. “And I’m not going to upset him. I wouldn’t have fuckin’ come if I was going to do that. I wanna be alone with him. Fuckin’ deal with it and get the hell out.” He stood back, his arms crossed over his chest.
Henri shook his head again, then went over and whispered something Rock couldn’t hear in their pa’s ear. Isa and Lille followed suit, and then they filed out of the room.
Rock waited a few minutes before he approached the bed again. His father’s dull eyes peeked out from red, puffy lids, following Rock’s movements. He bent down low, his hand covering his dad’s, and said in a hushed voice, “I just learned you didn’t killMaman. I hated you for years thinking you took her life, took her away from me, but I know better now.” His father raised his eyebrows and a trickle of wetness leaked from his eyes. “I wanted you to know that. I wasted time hating you, and you wasted years doing time for something you never did. I’m fuckin’ sorry about that, Pa. Fuckin’ sorry.” His father squeezed his hand weakly. “I’m gonna tell the others, but not until I find out who killedMamanand set you up. I promise you one thing: When I find them, I’m going to fuckin’ kill ‘em.”
“Merci,mon fils.Merci.” His father breathed heavily as though talking had taken all his strength.
“You better wrap it up. Your time’s almost over,” the corrections officer said.
Rock stroked his father’s cheek, then went out into the hallway and said to his siblings, “I’m done. If you want to say something more to him, go on.” They shuffled back into the room.
Almost an hour later, as they drove back to Lafayette in silence, Isa received the call that their father had died. She burst into tears, Henri sucked in his breath, Lille moaned, and Rock narrowed his eyes and stared straight ahead, his stomach in hard knots.
I’m going to make good on my promise to you, Pa. I’m gonna fuckin’ destroy the bastards.
***
“I ordered anautopsy to be done,” Isa said the following morning.
“Why?”
“Because I want to see why Pa died. I saw him two weeks before and he looked great. He wasn’t that old, and I want to see what took him down.”
A few days later, Isa leaned against the kitchen counter. “Pa was poisoned.”
Rock set his beer down. “What the fuck?”
“The autopsy report came in. It said he was filled with arsenic. Someone in the prison poisoned him. The prison officials are treating it as a crime and have turned it over to the police. Who would want to murder him?”
“When you’re inside, every day is a fuckin’ battlefield. I saw inmates get killed because another guy didn’t like the way they walked on a particular day. Crazy shit happens.”The killers wanted to make sure another loose end was tied up. Motherfuckers! They paid someone on the inside to kill the old man.
