The Vigilante (36 page)

A small female form slipped into the room and squatted in front of her. “Are you all right?” “You’re not shot?” She looked Martha steadily in the eyes. “I’m Officer Carla Martino. I’ve been keeping an eye on you for the past several days.” She glanced around. “Say, nice looking shack here, huh? Don’t worry about those other two thugs. I took them out a while back. I’ve checked around pretty good. I think we’ve gotten most of them” She assisted Martha to move enough to ascertain she had no wounds or other debilitating injuries.

At the sounds of scuffling feet, Martha looked up and saw Bob entering with another man. He looked vaguely familiar to her, too, but she felt too sick and fuzzy to care. In the foggy distance, she heard sirens blaring and noticed the room filling with the voices of men. Bob reached her side.

Looking at his dear face once again, tears formed in her eyes. “Oh Bob, I thought I’d never lay eyes on you again.” The sight of his face faded away and she knew no more.

Bob slid close and held her. “Martha, come on, it’s all over. You’re safe now.” He nudged her and felt no response. “Martha, you okay?” He searched about for medical help. “Hey, she’s passed out. Get a medic here, hurry, she’s been shot!”

“No she’s not, Carla put in. She told me she wasn’t. They cracked her over the head and she’s passed out from that. She’ll need to be checked out, though.” She pointed to Imperato. “He may need some medical attention, looks real bad.” She took a closer look. “My God, I think he’s dead!” Then she sighed. “Oh well, good riddance, that’s what I say.”

Ryan took a look. Finding no pulse, no signs of respirations, and seeing the grayish pallor with tinges of waxy yellowing creeping over his face, he concurred with Carla’s reading. “Yeah, he is.” He shrugged. “What a helluva night this has been.”

He studied Carla. “Two more lying out in the hall. You get them?” When she nodded, he patted her on the shoulder. “The SWAT guys got a few more out in the shrubbery. All in all, this has worked out damned good. In fact, it’s a whole hell of a lot like stomping on a nest of cockroaches!” Ryan felt good right now. A lot of unexpected things got put right tonight, except the mystery of Martha Lavery. He hadn’t sorted that one out, yet. And right now, he didn’t care.

The ambulance came, and after careful examination, took Martha away. Bob never left her side. They made room in the ambulance for his big frame.

They called the coroner’s wagon for the dead. Two other wounded suspects went in a separate police ambulance. Neither Ryan nor Bob wanted Martha in the same vehicle with any of the Imperato bunch. She’d had enough of those people. But Ryan held out hope for a chat with the woman as soon as possible. There were so many issues he needed to discuss with Martha Lavery.

At Mercy, Martha underwent extensive testing and was admitted to ICU for close observation. “She’s had a rather severe head trauma, said the doctor, a neurologist called in for this case. “We’ll need to keep her for a few days.” He wrote extensive orders and followed her to the unit, excited at having a staff member involved in such a newsworthy trauma.

Bob was strung out and worried about Martha. He stayed at her side as much as they’d allow. She regained consciousness and smiled up at him before lapsing back into a deep slumber, if that’s what it was. Jeannie and Martin were there, as well as Lizzie.

Martin took Bob out of the room. “Listen Bob, let’s go get a coffee. She’s in good hands now, and we’ve got a long wait ahead of us. No need killing yourself here. She’s a tough lady, she’ll make it.” He put an arm over Bob’s shoulder as they walked along the corridor, looking for the elevators.

“It’s been kinda tough for her the past several days,” Bob told him. “She’s told me a lot of things, but what I don’t know is how much she’s told you folks.” He didn’t plan to tell the things Martha had told him. He couldn’t.

“We know she’d been seeing a psychiatrist,” Martin replied. “But she hasn’t told us everything. We’ve been waiting on that until she’s ready to let us in.” They entered the elevators and pressed the button for the basement cafeteria. “I guess she’ll tell us everything when she’s ready.”

“That’ll be her call. I love that woman, and I’ll stand behind her in every way. I want you and Jeannie to know that.”

“Man, you’re making it sound kind of serious—is it?”

“We’ll be getting married, one day soon,” Bob admitted.

They walked into the coffee area, took cups, and filled them. Martin looked at Bob. “Anything else going on between you two besides getting married?” He laughed. “Jeannie’s been all excited about that.”

“Nothing I can discuss with you. It’s her call,” Bob replied. Walking around the cafeteria, he grabbed a hero sandwich, wilted around the edges, but edible enough for hospital chow. “Let’s sit here,” he said, laying his stuff on the table.

“Say, what’s happening around here?” Jake walked up to their table and waited to be asked to join them. “Wasn’t that Martha they brought in a few hours ago? Know what’s going on with her?”

“Yeah, she’s had a bit of trouble. Didn’t make it in to work this afternoon, but you already knew that.” Bob didn’t plan to enlighten this blabber-mouth any further. “We’ll be heading back up in just a minute.” He figured that would pass for a ‘get lost’ request.

Jake got the hint and left the table saying, “Well, best get back. Got an old geezer dying up there tonight, they were going to call a code just before I left, but I think the doc said to make him a ‘no code.’”

“So who’s dying up there?” Bob asked. “I thought we had ’em all stabilized. As if we ever could,” he added.

“It’s that scrawny old guy, Sykes. He’s been working on it for a while. It’ll be a mercy if he does die. He’s had a ton of pain these past few days, extra bad, they said. Nothing seems to relieve it, either. Oh well, as they say.” Jake tossed the info off with no more feeling than usual. He quickly turned his attention toward a couple of young nurses.

He walked away and Bob saw him cozying up to a young ICU nurse who’d come for her supper break. He knew that most of the details about Martha would be spread far and wide in short order, and with the death of Sykes, another chapter of Martha’s past would be put to rest. He was glad about that.

CHAPTER 37

Martha stayed in the unit for three days until cleared of a serious head injury. As she ambulated about the unit on one of her first days allowed out of bed, she saw Jean M.’s cubicle and asked her nurse, “How’s that patient doing? I know her.”

“She’s so brain damaged, she’ll spend the rest of her life being fed by a naso-gastric tube or better yet, a PEG tube. They’ll transfer her to long term in a few more days,” the nurse, Shelly, replied. “Sad case, the police questioned her husband. He said she’d fallen down the stairs.”

“I wonder, do they even have stairs at their home?” Martha said then she added, “She’s been in here before, and severely battered.” She said nothing more. Both nurses knew the score, and the helplessness of ever changing things.

***

When Martha went home from the hospital, Bob remained in constant attention. Loving and attentive, he cared for her in every way. He never demanded or even hinted at physical intimacies. Lurking in the shadows of their minds, unspoken questions haunted them both. Under it all, she knew he carried lingering doubts. Why did she not tell him about her dangerous entanglement with Imperato? Did she not fully trust him? She knew that he felt the pain and hurt of her lack of trust, yet she never doubted he loved her.

Does he love me enough to overcome this last hurdle
? She had to speak finally. “Bob, we must talk. I know what question lies between us, and we have to have it out in the open. I can’t stand this tension any more. I just can’t.”

“I’m ready, love,” was all he said as he sat against her cradling her in his arms. “Say it, Martha, go ahead and tell me about it.”

“Okay. I know I should have said something about Imperato. After all the rest that had happened, I was afraid I’d lose you all over again, and I couldn’t find the courage. Those were the worst days of my life, when you never called me and I knew I’d lost your love.”

She nestled against him. “And then, when we came together again, I still couldn’t believe it, but I had hope. In fact, quite a bit of hope, the way you are with me.”

She giggled, shrugged helplessly, and continued. “One night when I was Serena, Imperato saw me in there and made me dance with him. I didn’t want to get out on the dance floor because Jake was in there. He’d seen me in there before and it made me nervous that he might think he knew me. I waited until I was near the door, decked Imperato, and ran away.

“Later, Jake went on about the man who was in the Paradisio several times looking for the woman who decked him. That’s when I realized what I’d done and what a dangerous man he was.” She gulped. “Later on, when he saw me there with Lizzie, he asked me if I was her. I denied ever knowing him, but he believed I was that woman anyway.”

“I’d never heard of Imperato, or his reputation. What happened was done as another part of me, you know that. But when I realized the situation I’d gotten into, it was too much to ask any man to live with. How could I tell you something as sleazy as that?”

She gave him a hopeless smile. “I never knew he had me watched, even at the hospital, but I guess he did. Later on, I believe he actually wanted a relationship with me. Not as the over-dressed hooker type, Serena, but as
me
. You wouldn’t want to know all his ideas of a great night together. And he wasn’t the kind to take no for an answer. I had no choice but to defend myself. He made me physically ill, Bob.”

Bob cracked the biggest grin she’d ever seen. “Wow! A gun moll! Martha, I can’t say I blame that man for wanting you, and it fits right in with every other crazy thing that’s happened in this saga of yours. Hey! I’m just along for the ride, and what a hell of a ride it is.” He reached for her and crushed her so tight, she gasped for breath. “I love you to death, lady!”

“Oh, Bob! I wish we’d had this out sooner. We’ve missed out on so much, and I for one am sick to death of this damned nervous tension!” Martha felt giddy and happy. She couldn’t think of another incident that could dampen things for her from now on. She melted into Bob’s arms and stayed there.

***

Ryan sat in his office contemplating his next move. He didn’t have enough evidence on Martha to arrest her, but he had inner convictions from his years of police experience. “I’ve got to know!” He frowned, trying to figure a way to get at Martha. “How in the hell can I get her to level with me? And why would she anyway?”

Making a decision, he picked up the phone and called information for her home phone number. When he had her on the line, he asked, “Mrs. Lavery, I’d like a meeting with you.”

Without hemming, hawing, or trying to avoid it, she agreed to meet him at the scene of the first crime.

***

Martha met Ryan on a sunny knoll in Leesford Park. “Yes officer, what do you want with me?” She was calm, cool, and unafraid, sitting on a bench in the shade surveying the place where her vigilante adventures had begun. The wind sent a few leaves sailing and lifted flitting birds on feathered wings. A few clouds drifted leisurely across the bright blue, high mountain skies.

“Well, my lady, you have done more for law enforcement here in our fair city than all our people combined. That is, if what we believe about you is correct. We could never prosecute your actions against those two, and I speak of Callahan and Garver. The public would lynch us if we did, but we truly believe you are, or were, The Vigilante. What I want to ask you is if you will tell me what the hell happened? I’ll go to my grave with your secrets, but if I don’t find out what in hell happened, I believe I will go to my grave much sooner.”

His imploring gaze moved her to feel safe in speaking. “Are you wearing any sort of listening device?”

“You can search me if you like,” Ryan offered.

Martha paled, but she made her decision. “Yes, I will tell you. It will be a relief to get it off me for the last time.” She took a deep breath and started. “It began after my grandson was attacked. Because of all the crazy things that kept happening after that, I sought the help of a psychiatrist. He found out some things.” Tears formed in her eyes. “As a child, I was a helpless victim of abuse from a pedophile who worked on our farm. It began from that.”

Martha’s story was long, and Ryan listened intently, occasionally whistling at some detail, shaking his head at others. She ended by saying, “You see, a child predator, or pedophile, began this story for me, and I became a helpless victim as much as the two little ones you are concerned with. I cannot ever regret my actions, though I did not consciously commit those two deeds.”

She shrugged. “Imperato was a casual incident, if you will. That just happened. I really had no part in causing that aside from shooting him to save myself.” She allowed herself a half-laugh with that statement.

“Martha, I thank you, and every parent in Colorado Springs thanks you, too,” Ryan said, his voice shaking. “As for Imperato, more men like him spring up every day, but it’s one for our side anyway. But permit me a couple more questions. Why use a sand bag, and the purple stuff? Where did you find those ideas?”

“I learned the sand bag thing in a movie called Hospital, a long time ago. It starred George C. Scott. He said it leaves no mark, but does a good job and doesn’t kill. Well, unless you hit too hard. The Gentian Violet, my father used it when he docked the male calves, pigs, and lambs.”

“Interesting. Martha, you’re a wonder, you know that?” He reached over and hugged her. “Thanks again, lady. I’m glad you were able to tell me about it. I’ll treasure having known you. And I’m sorry for what happened to you as a child.” He paused a moment then went on. “I have two small ones at home, and they are safer today because of you. Thank you.”

“I didn’t think I would actually have the courage to tell you these things, but confession really is good for the soul. I feel wonderful.” She became thoughtful. “You might like to know that I appreciate your attitude in this, and thank you for not destroying my nursing career. Oh yes, you might also remember, you haven’t read me my Miranda rights. So you can’t arrest me anyway, now can you?”