In the Nick of Time (54 page)

“Please! I’ll do just about
anything
!”

Nick stopped and stared at Oliver, hating himself for even venturing to entertain what the deviant pervert may have to say.

“You have five minutes to tell me the truth. If you lie to me, that’s the end of you, do you understand?”

The man emphatically nodded.

“Can we go back inside the gym and talk?” He pointed towards the glass doors Nick had just exited. Brushing past him, he opened the damn things, moving within the small room crammed with exercise equipment and a small television mounted in the corner. They both sat down on a thick yoga mat laid atop of a bench.

“Talk,” Nick blurted as seconds passed with the guy just sitting there, looking down, foolish and sheepish all rolled into one.

“Nick, I know you don’t like me. Something really fucked up is going on though, and I hate to admit it, but you are my only hope.”

He said nothing, simply listened.

“I have been in drug rehabilitation several times, okay? This isn’t the first time, that’s for sure. I don’t speak a lot in group because I have to protect other people. It has little to do with me thinkin’ I’m too good, or anything like that. You see, I’m the black sheep of my family.” He swiped at his bulbous nose, almost as if he were being choked up by his admissions. “I’m a Yale graduate. I come from a long line of men and women who were known to be intellectually superior, in some regard.” He shrugged.

Nick slowly raised his head and looked at the man, his interest definitely piqued and his exasperation growing for the fucker all at the same time.

“Superior?” Nick raised a brow.

“I guess that wasn’t the best choice of words… We just, well, we are intellectuals.”

Nick twisted about, trying to get comfortable.

“Regardless of me being quite bright in school, I had some problems. For instance, I’ve always had a hard time getting along with others. Socialization issues, you could say. It’s still a daily struggle.”

“You don’t say?” Nick grimaced.

Fuckin’ feral asshole…

“Yes, it was hard. While my father, brothers, and sisters were refined, I was self-conscious. My parents, mainly my father found me embarrassing; so much so, they placed me in private schools that were far away.” He swallowed, toying with his shoestring as his jaw twitched every now and again. “That’s why I’m here, actually. You see, I started to use crack cocaine to help push away the desires… It worked just fine, but in some ways it also made things worse. My father is famous, Nick, and if it got out that I’d done these things… Well, let’s just say it would bring the whole family to its knees! I love my mother; I don’t want her roped into this… I’ve shamed her enough as is.”

“…If
what
got out?”

The man played with his shoestrings a bit more, turning them this way and that.

“If
what
got out, Oliver!”

“That I touched a boy in an inappropriate manner…”

“That you molest children!
Say
it!” Nick yanked the man up by his collar, shaking him to and fro like a ripe berry on a branch. “Say it, goddamn it! You’re a child molester! A damn pervert! Own it!”

The man’s eyes welled with tears as he nodded in agreement. “Yes! Yes, I did it!”

Nick reined himself in and released the man, letting him fall like rubbish on the floor. He knew the bastard only admitted the truth because he was in a tight jam, and what a jam it must’ve been to let such a confession seep out of from between his lips.

“I… I did it.” Oliver covered his face, seemingly ashamed, taking it all in.

Nick wasn’t moved—all he could focus on were the man’s victims. No, he’d never seen their faces, but he didn’t have to. The eyes of a child did something to him, and he knew this man he sat beside had taken the light out of a few…

“My parents paid a lot of money for me to be here, and for my treatment to be discreet. They knew no one would no who I was way out here. Oliver isn’t even my real name. It’s…it’s Don.” A few moments of silence passed between them.

“I’m in over my head, Nick…over my head. The problem is, I can’t leave. If I leave, courts will get involved due to a deal that was made and then it will be plastered all over the place. I can’t let that happen. My family means everything to me, Nick, everything…” The man’s voice trailed.

“How many, Oliver?”

“How many what?”

“We
both
know it was more than one child. How many children have you molested?”

The man hesitated, then looked at Nick, his bottom lip shaking ever so slightly. At that moment, he looked like a child himself, helpless and hopeless. Small, insecure, and troubled…

“If I get into all of this with you, it will just—”

“How many?”

“…Three. It was three, Nick.”

“And who was the first one?”

“…A relative.”

“And the second?”

“A boy I taught piano lessons to…”

“And the third?”

“Another boy I taught piano lessons to. That’s when everything fell apart. He told his parents. I denied it. I then began using, because—”

“No, I want the
whole
damn story, you nasty ass fucker. You denied it and
then
what happened? They just let it go?”

“Well, he was a troubled youth and I came from a family of means.”

He hated the way the bastard said it, for despite his grotesque confessions, he still managed to sound arrogant, superior.

“My father believed it was a shake down, and I played along with that, so he took over matters.”

Nick’s insides twisted and turned like the inside of a cement mixer. Flashes of himself at that age, being at the mercy of a man like Don, fed his already mountain high hatred for the man.

That little boy could have been me…

“A week or two passed after that incident and I knew I couldn’t let it happen anymore. I was afraid I was going to go out and do it to someone else. Nick, it’s a compulsion! I wanted to control it. I knew it was wrong.” He turned to Nick, looking earnest, wounded…disgusting as he was. “I ended up stealing from my own savings accounts and doing things to support my habit so that my mind could be elsewhere, not obsess about it any longer. My family stood by me, basically told the boy’s family it was my word against their son’s and found out some things about the boy’s father that could land the man in prison again. I had overwhelming guilt from all of this, so much so, I tried to make the pain stop and the memories of what I’d done go away. I wanted to apologize to the boy—”

“It wasn’t just an incident and that boy was your victim. You wanted to apologize to your
victim
.”

Don paused, took a long look at him, and nodded. “Yes…my victim. That was the first time I tried crack cocaine. But, my usage didn’t stop there. It escalated to almost everything under the sun. I was taking methamphetamines and PCP, too.”

He sighed, took a deep breath. “My drug habit got so bad, I ended up getting arrested. That was the beginning of the end. I had a court date lined up, but my father pulled some strings and told me I had to go to rehab after he spoke to some people. They told him if I went to rehab, the charges would be dropped and they’d secure the records so it never became public knowledge.”

“Your father has
that
type of clout?” Nick found himself in disbelief, not buying what the slimy fucker was telling him.

Just then, he caught the maniac smiling. “He does… If I told you who he was, you’d be in complete shock.”

They glared at one another for a while, and then he continued.

“Anyway, I told my father I would go, but kept dragging it out, making excuses. Then, one night, everything hit the fan. In one of my drug induced moments, I admitted to my father what I’d done to those boys, including my nephew, in a heated argument. I don’t recall telling him, but I must’ve.” He shrugged. “So, he immediately put me in rehab without my consent and spent a lot of money trying to bury what I’d been up to. I would always leave the facilities or get kicked out. He told me this was the final time… that if I got kicked out of Firststone and didn’t complete treatment, he’d disown me, wash his hands of me, and let the courts do whatever they wished to me.” He violently coughed into his fist, as if coming down with a cold.

“Sad story, don’t care. What you did was inexcusable. Get to the point. How do I fit into this?”

“Nick, the last boy I molested, the last one who had a father already in the system, well…his father is
here
! He was admitted a few days ago. He’s gonna kill me! I can’t try to leave; if I do, I’ll go to prison and be disowned, and you know what they do to guys like me in prison! I’m almost finished, but this final month is going to be brutal if he gets a hold of me! He vowed to kill me, and he doesn’t seem like the type that would be willing to negotiate, come to a reasonable agreement!”

“So, you want me to be some sort of bodyguard? Threaten the guy?”

“Yes, yes! That’s what I need!”

Nick jumped to his feet, so very sick and tired of the bullshit.

“Oliver, Don, whatever the hell your name is, the answer is no.”

The man gasped, his eyes growing dark as he stood too, looking up at Nick as if he’d been deeply betrayed.

“You’re a cop! You are supposed to help people!” He seethed. “I could be murdered right under your damn nose!” he shouted, the veins in his head protruding as if he were choking on his own filth.

“I’m not on the clock right now, Oliver. And…you lied to me. I can’t help someone with something like this who is a liar on top of everything else.”

“Lied to you about what?!”

“It was
more
than three! I could see it in your eyes and body language. You sat there and lied your ass off! You looked me dead in the eye, and said it!” Nick marched towards the door with the guy hot on his heels.

“Okay! Okay! I lied, but it’s because it’s hard for me to deal with, to talk about! Why do you think I’m here, huh?!”

He stopped and stared at the man, watched a tear cascade down his face. Sucking his teeth, he looked up at the wall clock and then back into Don’s eyes.

“Look, I can’t help you.” He threw up his hands and shook his head apathetically. “You did some shit I can’t co-sign on. I understand that you may be sorry, remorseful. I get it. But I just can’t wrap my head around it. You got these wheels turning; you’ve been getting off easy, never having to really answer for anything. And now here you are once again, skating away from it. I’m not saying you deserve to be dead, Don, or even beaten within an inch of your life… Well, I take that back.” He smirked, causing the man to frown and cross his arms over his body real tight.

“All I am saying is that what we do catches up to us in one way or another.”

“I
am
sorry!”

“Don’t tell it to me… Tell it those kids and the parents who trusted you.”

“I know that something is wrong with me Nick. Why do you think I’m rarely in the elective classes? Do you know where I am during those times? I’m in therapy! Besides Frieda, you’re the only one that knows about this now… Please don’t tell anyone! I’m beggin’ you!”

“I won’t. I’m not trying to get involved in all of this.”

“Nick.” The guy lowered his head and shook it, then glanced back up towards him. “I know I’m sick, disgusting, all of that… but I don’t want to die… And I will if this man gets a hold of me. He’s out for blood, and I’ll be dead. Dead dead dead!”

Nick took a deep breath, placed his hands on his hips and spun around, hating the man for putting him in this fucked up position.

“Shit. What I
will
do, is give you a number—someone you can call and alert them of the situation, okay?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. “Here, take this.” It was a business card of his colleague. “Call the guy on there and tell him that you know me and what’s been going on. Don’t leave out any details. He’ll help you. He works in witness protection, but he has some connections for situations like this. That’s the best I can do. Watch your back, Don…”

…And then, he simply walked away.