The Housekeeper
By Karen Singer
Chapter 8 (Part 2 of 3)
Janice and Carol sat in Mrs. Faye’s living
room anxiously waiting on Mr. Fitch to arrive.
Mrs. Faye came back from the kitchen carrying two mugs of coffee and a
coke for Carol. She set the drinks down
on the scared coffee table and handed Janice one of the mugs. Carol grabbed her drink herself.
“So you actually managed to get a job
already?” Mrs. Faye asked. “That’s
amazing! I’m so glad for you.”
“Yes!” Janice replied. “I only spoke with Mr. Brinkley over the
phone, but thanks to Carol’s work beforehand, he’s agreed to give me a
try.” Actually, she hadn’t done anything
of the sort. In fact, as far as Janice
knew, Roger Brinkley didn’t even know about her yet.
The doorbell interrupted their
conversation and Mrs. Faye went to answer it.
A moment later, she was ushering in Mr. Fitch. Janice stood to shake his hand and exchange a
short greeting. Then Fitch sat on the
sofa with Mrs. Faye and pulled a stack of paperwork out of his briefcase.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am every
time I get to turn one of our kids back over to their parents,” Fitch said to
Janice.
“And I can’t tell you how happy I am to
have my daughter back again!”
“I have no doubt!” Fitch said with a big
smile. Thoughts of what Agent Jacobs had
asked for rang through his mind. “Um… if
you don’t mind me asking, what are your plans now? Carol is in school here and the school year
is almost over. Are you going to move
her right away?”
“No, Mr. Fitch,” Janice replied. “Carol will be able to stay in school right
here for now. I’ve been lucky enough to
take a housekeeping job in the area.”
That surprised Fitch a bit. “A housekeeping job. Good for you!
And so soon after getting out of…” he was reluctant to say the word
prison in these surroundings.
“Well, my daughter was helpful in finding
the position for me.”
“Oh.”
Fitch turned to smile at Carol.
“That was certainly good work on your part.”
Carol beamed at the compliment.
“So where will you be staying?” he asked
as he sorted through the paperwork to find the form he wanted.
“That was all part of the job
agreement. Mr. Brinkley will be
providing room and board right there in his house for both Carol and myself as
part of my payment.”
Lucky lady, Fitch thought to himself. She gets out of prison and immediately moves
into some rich guy’s house. But again,
Agent Jacob’s requests rang through his mind, along with a possible course of
action. Not to mention that he was just
plain curious! “Um… Mrs. Stokley, since
my primary concern has to be for Carol’s continued well-being, I think I should
take a quick look at where she’s going to be staying.”
Janice was shocked. There was really no reason for this. “But Mr. Fitch, I can assure you that…”
Fitch raised his hand. “It’s just a quick formality, Mrs. Stokley,
believe me. It will look much better on
my report if I can honestly put down that Carol will continue to be staying in
a suitable environment.”
“But Mr. Brinkley won’t be able to be
there,” Carol argued. “He’s working.”
“That’s alright. I just need a quick look at the house.” Before Janice could argue further, he was
gathering up all his paperwork and putting it back in his briefcase.
Having been given no choice in the matter,
Janice and Carol were again in the car heading to Roger Brinkley’s house. Fitch was following close behind. The last thing that Janice needed now was for
this… man… to see where she and Carol
would be living. Not to mention that
there were certain other problems that could all too easily present
themselves. One of which would have to
be addressed immediately. She turned to
her daughter. “Carol, as soon as we get
there, I need you to run to the bathroom.
I’ll try to stall Fitch in the kitchen.
Get rid of that chain around the toilet and hide it somewhere. Just be quick about it.”
Fitch was shocked when they pulled into
the driveway. The house was nothing like
what he expected. In fact, to him, the
place looked like a dump – and a small one at that. And this guy needed a housekeeper? He got out of the car in a state of
shock. Carol and her mother had already
gotten out of the car and Carol was hurrying toward the open garage door. “Mrs. Stokley,” he said to the waiting woman,
“this isn’t quite what I expected.”
“I’m sure it isn’t,” Janice replied, “but
this is the place. I know it doesn’t
look like much on the outside, but wait till you see the inside.”
Fitch had his doubts, but he followed
Janice toward the open garage and soon found himself in a surprisingly nice
kitchen – where everything looked brand new.
“Oh, I must say,” he started as he looked around, “this is a far cry
from the outside of the house.”
“Mr. Brinkley is rebuilding the house,
and as you can see, he’s been doing an absolutely beautiful job with it. He hasn’t had time to get to the outside of
the house yet.”
“Is Mr. Brinkley married?” Fitch asked.
“No, he’s not.”
“And he still needs a housekeeper?” Fitch
asked, somewhat surprised at the circumstances.
“That’s his business!” Janice replied
sternly. “I’m only glad for the job and
a place for Carol and I to live.”
Fitch backed down quickly. “Um… do you mind if I look around a bit? I’d like to see the room where Carol will be
staying.”
That was the last thing that Janice really
wanted. But… “There’s a small temporary problem with
that,” Janice explained, “Carol’s room isn’t quite ready for her yet. But that shouldn’t be any concern.”
A big red flag was suddenly raised in
Fitch’s head. “Not ready yet? Maybe I better see!” He himself took the lead and headed toward
the living room. “Nice floors,” he noted
as he looked around. He spotted the hallway
leading back toward the bedrooms. “I
take it her room will be back there?”
With no way to stop him, Janice followed
behind. She noticed the bathroom door
was closed at the end of the hall.
Before they got to the first doorway leading into one of the unfinished
rooms, Carol came out of the bathroom looking fairly happy. Janice saw no sign of the chain that had been
wrapped around the toilet.
“And which room is Carol’s?” Fitch asked.
Having little choice, Janice opened the
door to the unfinished room closest to the bathroom.
Fitch was immediately assaulted by the
smell. The smell plus the sight of the
totally gutted room backed him out of there quickly. Wanting to get away from the horrible odor,
he headed straight back out to the living room.
Agent Jacob’s request was running through his head. It looked like the FBI was about to get their
wish. He turned back toward Janice. “Mrs. Stokley,” he started. “I think that in this case it will be in
Carol’s best interest to stay at Mrs. Faye’s house until such time as her room
is completely ready for her. There’s not
even a bed for her to sleep in there.”
“But she can stay in my bed with me,”
Janice argued. “And Mr. Brinkley has
assured me that it won’t be long until he can have those rooms totally
finished.”
Fitch shook his head. “I’m afraid I’m going to insist. Carol will remain with Mrs. Faye until such
time as I can verify that she has a proper place to stay. I will apprise Mrs. Faye of the situation
though and tell her that you will have complete visitation rights with Carol
anytime you want. She’ll just need to
stay there at night.”
“But Mr. Fitch,” Janice wanted to argue
further.
“No, Mrs. Stokley, that is my
decision! Call me as soon as her room is
ready. With that, he let himself out the
front door. As he walked to his car, he
knew that he didn’t have to make that particular decision, but it was still a
very good decision as far as Carol’s welfare was concerned. The fact that Agent Jacob’s request would be
satisfied as well was only secondary.
Janice was livid. The nerve of the man! If it wasn’t for having to be so careful
about the way she did everything right now, she would have strongly considered
taking “other” measures with Mr. Fitch.
But for now, everything had to look – perfect!
“Momma, does that mean I have to stay at
the foster home?”
Janice tried to smile at her
daughter. “Only at night dear, and only
for now, until we can get your room ready for you. And I promise, I’ll make sure that Mr.
Brinkley does his very best to get it ready – fast!” Once again a stupid man had done something to
come between Janice and her daughter.
And once again she had no way to do anything about it. Her mind was quickly racing ahead
though. As irritating as the situation
was though, it was only a very minor setback in a much bigger plan.
The bell had just rung signaling the end
of the school day when Janice drove into the school’s parking lot. As the kids all ran out of school, Janice and
Carol got out of the car. Together, they
waded past everyone going the opposite direction and entered the building. Janice insisted in stopping at the school office
first – things had to look exactly right!
The secretary there greeted her warmly and
Janice introduced herself as Carol’s mother and asked to see Mr. Brinkley to
see if anything else could be done to help Carol with her work – a common
enough occurrence. The secretary simply
directed her back toward his classroom.
Roger was wondering how long he was going to
have to wait for Carol when the door to his room suddenly opened and Carol
walked in with a woman he had never seen before. Closer examination revealed an obvious
resemblance between the two. He was very
surprised since Carol had been living in a foster home and he had somehow
assumed that her mother was dead.
Obviously not!
The woman approached boldly. “Hello Mr. Brinkley,” she said. “I’m Mrs. Stokley. Carol’s mother.”
Roger was still trying to get over his
shock at seeing her. Was she the
string-puller? Roger stood up to shake
her hand, but she didn’t offer her hand in return. He sat back down as she stood next to his
desk.
“Let’s be perfectly clear about
something, Mr. Brinkley,” she said. “I
own you! I own you body and soul! And there’s nothing you can do about
that! All those pictures that Carol took
of you doing… naughty things… I now have them safely put away where only I can
get to them. I have more than enough
proof to send you to prison for a very long time… and trust me, Mr. Brinkley, I
don’t think you would like prison very much.
I just got out of there today and I can tell you that much for a fact!” She could see the frightened look on his face
– exactly what she wanted to see.
Before he could make any reply, she
reached into her purse and pulled out the plastic container he had been forced
to jerk off into every night. “Do you
recognize this?” she asked. “You
should!” Roger nodded nervously. She opened the container and held it up so
that he could see that it was empty – washed clean. “I’m sure you know what was in here. All that miserable sperm of yours is now in
another container safely stored away with the pictures. What do you think would happen, Mr. Brinkley,
if I injected a bunch of that semen up inside of Carol and then took her to the
police claiming that you raped her?”
Before she could continue, Carol let out a
small scream. “Momma!”
“Don’t worry dear, it’s all dead! There’s nothing there that can possibly harm
you at all. And as long as Mr. Brinkley
does as he’s told, hopefully, we’ll never have to resort to that. But Mr. Brinkley, do you think the DNA they
would find inside of her would match yours?
What would the police do then?”
Roger’s mouth was totally dry as he tried
to swallow. He tried to answer, but
words were beyond him. All he could see
was a cell door closing in front of him and life as he knew it, ending. He had no chance at all. He never imagined that he could get set up so
thoroughly.
Janice let a hint of a smile cross her
face. “Your only hope, Mr. Brinkley, is
to do exactly what I tell you to. Then,
eventually, when this is all over, you can have your miserable life back… what
will be left of it that is.”
Was she throwing him a lifeline? Giving him hope? He wasn’t sure. And what did she mean by what would be left
of his life? He searched for something
to say, but his mind came up blank. He
still only saw the cell door closing on him.
“Come along now, Mr. Brinkley. It’s time for you to drive us home.”
1 comment:
Scary! *shivers*
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