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Barkley needed to get some things from the shop in town.Dad wanted them to spend some time in the area, buy locally and to be friendly.He’d never had an issue with that, so he was happy that he needed to get out and get some things for his still coming together home.Carrie asked if she could hang out with him.
“I don’t care.I love to walk, is that going to be all right with you?”She said she’d love that so long as he realized that her legs were shorter than his.“I think I can handle that.I was also going to pick up some lunch and take it back to my place.Would you like to join me?”
They were headed into the first shop when she told him what she wanted from the deli that had only recently opened up.After ordering what they were both going to have, he pulled a cart from the line and began pulling things off the shelf he’d come to get.Mostly it was staples of food, but he did need things like napkins and ice trays too.
“Don’t you have one of those fancy refrigerators that spits out ice every ten seconds?”He said that he did, but with an ice tray, he could freeze some of his tea so that when it melted, he didn’t have diluted tea.“That’s a good idea.I might have to try that when I get home.”
He finished up his grocery shopping and had the kid that worked there take them to his house.Barkley could have taken them himself in his car, but he was trying to help out the Morris family by giving Toby, their oldest son, some work to do.
“That was nice of you.”Barkley explained to Carrie that he knew that the family was struggling and not working at the moment.This was the only way that he’d figured out how to get him the much-needed money.“Try a shopping card.I did that once for one of my workers.They were really struggling—they had a child with disabilities, and the government wasn’t helping them at first.Anyway, I made it so that they won a gift card for being the hundredth in line that week or some bullshit.It worked out well for them because they could get all the groceries they needed for the week.Eating every day helped not just their child but themselves too.”
“I’ll have to do that sometime.However, they don’t shop all that often.Lack of funds.I’ve even tried to find the two adults jobs, but it hasn’t worked out for them.”She said that he shouldn’t be helping them then.Not if they were not willing to work.“That’s what my mom and dad said.And the reason that I give the money to Toby.He uses it for school supplies as well as fees that he has.If he does well in school, which he is on the honor roll each term, I’ll help him get to college.”
“You are a nice guy, aren’t you?And not nearly as dumb as I thought you were.”They teased and kidded around as they made their way to the next shop.Barkley stopped suddenly and turned to Carrie, holding her still.“What is it?”
“I know that you can take care of yourself.I’m also aware that you can do whatever you want and that I would support you.But right now, I want you to stay behind me and keep your mouth closed.I’m not being macho or mean, but please?Do as I ask.”She nodded and looked around him just enough that he knew that she could see the two people coming toward them.“That is your brother-in-law and his dad.I don’t want them to know that you’re in town.For any reason.All right?”
“Yes.All right.”When he turned toward the two men, he felt Carrie put her hands at his sides.Feeling better, knowing that she’d stay put, he spoke to the two men.They’d know him because he’d been at the mall when the women had been shot.
“Mr.Strong.I’ve been looking for you.”He asked him what he wanted.“How about you get rid of that woman there, and we can talk man to man.”Her fingers dug deeply into his sides, but he didn’t so much as wince at the pain.“You and I need to get things straight about how my wife supposedly killed off Mattie.Now, I believe you got things all turned around.I want you to remember that you saw a gun in Mattie’s hands too.That my wife, my dear wife, was defending herself.”
“But that’s not what I saw.Your wife pulled out a gun and shot Mattie.They both fell down, but it was Mattie that wasn’t able to get back up.They were fighting over dresses for your granddaughters.”Michael told him that part was fine to remember, but the rest of it was just wrong.“No.Even the videos that were taken by the police show that your wife pulled a gun first.And shot Mattie while she was arguing with her with her over the sale of them.”
“Like I said, you can remember that part if you want, but you’re going to remember too that there was a second gun.”Barkley asked him where that gun was supposed to have come from and where was it now.“You just remember like I tell you to, and I’ll take care of the rest.I’m a man that gets shit done, and you’re going to be doing that for me.I might even be able to slip you some money, too, if you do a good job.”
“I don’t need nor want your money.”Michael laughed.“Did you know that your granddaughters had been beaten the morning that the shooting had gone on?That when the doctor on site examined them, they were in a bad way?They’re just infants.Why would anyone do that to them?”
“None of your business, young man.Not one bit of what happens with my family is shit to you.Do you hear me?Now.We’re going to go over what you remembered once more, then I’m going to go to the police station with you.You know, just in case you forget something.You want to get this right the first time, Strong.If you don’t, there is no telling what might happen to you.I don’t want to be bogged down with a trial when I’m going to have to help my son here raise them girls to be good citizens around here.”Barkley asked if he was threatening him.“No.Goodness no.That’s against the law.I was just trying to help you out so that you don’t end up on a slab like my wife and favorite daughter-in-law did.I bet your family wouldn’t like that any more than I did.”
“Did you plan out the killing of Mattie, Michael?”The flash of pure rage came over his face nearly too quickly for him to see.But it was there, and Barkley had seen it.“You’d better be careful, Michael.Someone might be upset if you go around telling people what they should be remembering as opposed to what they actually saw.I know that I saw, and that’s what I’m going to keep telling the police when asked.And when this goes to trial, I see no reason to believe that it won’t—two people were murdered, then I’ll keep saying the same thing.That your wife and only your wife had a gun and that she shot the other woman.Then when your wife wouldn’t put her gun down, the police killed her when she fired at an officer.”
“That’s not going to be told either, young man.I’m working on that now.”Mick whispered to his father.“My wife was shot by Mattie because she had a gun.You remember that, right?Then my wife, in defending herself, shot back.”
“Really?That’s the story that you’re going to stick with?Then how do you suppose your wife ended up with thirty-one bullet holes in her body?Mattie—who didn’t have a gun at all would have had to have over five revolvers in order to have pulled that off.And the police didn’t even find one?How the hell do you think that is going to go over when you bring that up?”He told him he was a big man around here.“So I’ve heard.Wasn’t it you that broke the lawn chairs that the ice cream place puts out for paying customers?Not that you have ever paid for much in your life, but I heard that about you.”Michael lunged at him, and he felt Carrie pull him back.
“Listen here, you little fucker.You’ll do what you’re told, or I’m going to pop you so full of holes that your momma won’t even know who you are.You’re going to do what I said, you hear me?”Barkley said that he heard him as Carrie was pushing him into the shop next to where they were standing.“You’d better do the right thing, Strong, or so help me, you’ll regret it.”
Barkley was breathing hard when Carrie turned him around and slapped him across the face.Just as he was going to ask her what the hell that was for, she hit him again.This time with her fist doubled up and all her anger directed at him.
When he fell back, trying his best to grab onto anything that would keep him from hitting his head, he felt the floor hit him there twice before he just succumbed to the blinding pain that he was suddenly in.The last thing he heard when he was going out was Carrie calling him a fucking moron.He thought that his family would agree with her.
Chapter 4
Carrie was so angry that she could have easily taken out a contract on the man lying on the hospital gurney next to her.The idiot had actually got into an argument with a man who they all knew was a murderer.Not only that, but when threatened by him, the lummox had kept telling him that he wasn’t going to cooperate with him.Lie.That’s all he had to do was to fucking lie to him and say, ‘Why yes, I’ll remember it your way.’But no, he had to—
“You’re grumbling again.”She glared at Barton.“You’re wasting your time in glaring at me.Have you met my mom?I mean, even my grandma is better at glaring than you are.”
“Are all you Strong men stupid?”Barton nodded and told her that they were.Especially when protecting a woman.“Just like that?You’re going to agree with me?What is wrong with you guys?He threatened him?Not just with that, either.He actually told him that he was going to kill him off.What the fuck?Does Barkley have a death wish?And he wasn’t protecting me.He was keeping me out of harm’s way.”
“How is that not protecting?”This time she stood up.“You’re very cute when you’re trying to be all huffy.I’m sure that you have a meaner streak in you, but right now, since I know that you’re both just fine, I think you’re adorable.”
“No woman who is pissed off wants to be called cute or adorable.Damn it all to fuck and back.You’re all certifiable.”She stared pacing the little cubby they were in.The hospital was going out of its way to make sure that Barkley was all right.She and Barton too, but she was too pissed off to be thankful that he wasn’t hurt more.“I know that I shouldn’t have hit him, but he wasn’t taking Cartwright seriously.”
“Yes, I was.”Barkley started to sit up on the gurney he was on, but she pushed him back down.“You’re very bossy, aren’t you?And as for what I was doing, you might well have missed that we were standing right next to a camera in the store we went in.That—you hit me.”
“I shouldn’t have hit you twice.Once was enough.But I was so—what does that camera have to do with the way you were acting?”He told her.That deflated her anger a bit.“I didn’t know that it had sound too.You egged him on so that he’d confess to something.What exactly did he confess to?Nothing.That’s what.”
“Yes, he did.He threatened me.Not only with bodily harm, but he offered me money too if I were to change my story to the one that he wanted me to say.”She said that he’d bribed him.“Bingo.It’s all recorded too.Not only will Michael be arrested, but since his son spoke to him at one point, feeding him information, I’ve no doubt, then he’ll be arrested as well.I don’t know about you, but knowing that he’s not out roaming around to do what he wants makes me feel a good deal better.”
