Jail's Bait: Parole's Victim (Book 4)

Rah-Rah pulled himself up out of the rushing waters bit by bit. “Mar, baby, I’m comin for ya,” he smiled though his grunts and groans, with each pull on the wet rope.

Just then he felt a yank on his leg, surprising him enough to let go and fall into the water again with a splash. Spluttering, he rose to the surface to find Joop's hands suddenly grabbing at his throat. They thrashed about in the churning ocean as the level continued to rise. Rah-Rah managed to splutter, “WHY WONT YOU DIE?!?!”

Joop replied with a uppercut to his jaw, stunning Rah-Rah- his head slammed against the wall, making it his turn to sink underneath the waters.

 Joop hesitated… Rah-Rah was still underneath the raging surf, and he hadn’t come up yet. He wondered whether he should look for him…

“Fuck dis,” Joop said then, turning back to grab onto the rope and begin hauling himself up with a strain, hand over hand until his feet were free of the water. Trying to steady himself against the wall was hard-pressed, with his wet bare feet slipping against the patches of moss, but slowly he continued towards the opening far above.

*******

 Up top, Joan watched as Lamar, Danny and Joe were pulling on the rope, when suddenly it went slack. “What happened,” Danny said in alarm.

 “I don’t know,” Lamar replied grimly, pushing the rope back down into the hole some, "Give them some time." After a few minutes, the rope drew taut once more.

 “There they are,” Lamar proclaimed; “PULL!!” And the three men heaved, pulling the rope up, up… in what seemed like an eternity, the top of Joop’s head appeared, climbing hand by hand up the rope.

 Joan let out a low cry and reached down to help her son pull himself out. The men gave a mighty heave- and Joop was yanked all the way out, falling into Lamar’s arms as everyone fell to the ground.

 “Thank god,” Joe said as Joan gave a loud whoop, tears of happiness splashing down her face as she flung herself onto Joop’s back, crying hysterically. Joe patted his son on the back of his neck as Lamar squeezed tightly.

 “There’s a blanket in the back seat,” Danny said as he turned and ran towards the SUV, wiping his eyes with relief.

 “What took you so long,” Lamar murmured presently, holding his lover close.

 “Sorry I’m late,” Malik replied, looking up into Lamar’s face.

 Lamar instantly noticed the change. “Where’s Joop,” he asked with one eyebrow raised.

 “I don’t need him anymore,” Malik replied wearily as Danny rushed over with the blanket, Joan grabbing it to wrap up her son as everyone got to their feet.

 “Wait a minute,” Danny said- “Where’s Robbie?”

 “He wasn’t coming up after me,” Malik replied somberly- “but something else was,” he pointed to the open crack.

 Everyone turned to look. The hole was rapidly filling with water, the level rising with surprising speed to reach its brim and spill over some onto the rocks.

 “Oh, my god,” Joan said with horror, “I thought he was right behind you…”

 “The water followed me all the way up,” Malik said, looking downward at the water sloshing around the hole. “It looks like a well, doesn’t it,” he said absently.

 “Malik..?” Danny said then, coming up to face him. “It’s Malik, right..?”

Malik looked at Danny. “It’s me, ‘Joop’ went away,” he half-smiled.

“Malik- what HAPPENED down in the cave,” Danny pressed. “Is Robbie still down there..?”

Malik looked down once more at the swirling waters. “I was down there alone,” he said in a dead voice; “Rah-Rah wasn’t there.”

Danny, Joe and Joan looked shocked, yet Lamar frowned. “Malik…” he began.

Just then the helicopter stunned them all once again by materializing out of nowhere, winds whipping up and the noise deafening as it touched down. “Let’s get out of here,” Joe yelled to the others. “I’m getting you to the hospital, Malik- no arguments, okay?”

“You got it, Dad,” Malik said a little too quickly, hoisting up the blanket and heading off towards the chopper.

Danny, Lamar and Joan stared at one another. “What do you think,” Danny said to Lamar.

“I don’t know,” Lamar finally said, looking back once more at the well that minutes ago was a cave. “Let’s go.”

*******

Marquis’s cell phone rang. He reached into his pocket and flipped it open. “Hello, Uncle Joe,” he said, listening for a while- then with a “we’re on our way,” he flipped his cell closed. He looked at Kap, his eyes shining quietly. “They found Pop- I mean Malik,” he said… “but they didn’t find my dad.”

 “Since when do you call Rah-Rah yo DAD,” Kap asked, eyeing Marquis askance.

 Marquis didn’t say anything; he got up and headed for the door. “You comin..?” And with that he opened the door and disappeared.

 Kap stared after him, shaking his head; then he jumped up and followed after.

*******

 Had the paparazzi been kept in the loop and if the grad party had not been invitation-only, a half-hour later North Seattle General would have been labeled the current ‘it’ spot, having the entire Hill Family gathered in the emergency waiting room. Anxiously, they all were waiting on news concerning different people- Malik, Claire and Rena Howard, to be exact. Everyone filled everyone else in on what they had missed, and fresh shock and horror coursed through the Hill family like running water…

In one corner sat Marquette and Joan, on a couch near the far windows sat Carmen talking quietly with Angelina, and standing near the swinging doors was Joe, Danny, Kap and Marquis, all staring down the restricted hallway. Lamar, of course, was with Malik; when the doctors insisted to check him out Lamar had insisted on going with him, he would not leave his side.

“I swear this night will never end,” Joe was saying to Danny as they stared down the hallway. “I know that animal will grow unstoppable if Marquis continues to try raising Leo on his own. He needs to be defanged, and seriously domesticated by a trained professional.”

“Will that really tame him NOW, though,” Danny said wistfully, looking at the swinging doors at the end of the corridor they stared after. “Leo’s not a little baby cub anymore- and that lion isn’t stupid; he senses how none of us really like Claire- I’ll admit that it shows,” he added. “She’s not our favorite person, so he felt no loyalty to her. That’s really our own fault.”

“I don’t see it like that,” Joe said; “Marquis has got to get that beast tamed before mauling is the least of our problems.”

“I gave the doctors a picture of Claire, her face was so mangled that they needed it to start the restructuring- but I didn’t think about that earlier, and I should have- and now they’ve almost finished the surgery.” Danny sighed. “She’s not going to look the same, we may not even recognize her.”

Joe let out a low whistle. “And not only that- there’s this business with Rena- I never thought Robert would attack his own mother…”

“There’s a lot of things we didn’t think Robbie would do,” Danny replied in a deadened tone. “We never thought he’d attack his father, either.”

Joe looked at Danny solemnly. “You have suffered these past ten years, haven’t you,” he asked, as if with a new insight. “You never got over my brother’s death.”

“I know you know how I felt about Trey,” Danny said, lowering his voice. “I don’t want to talk about it with you, it just wont help either one of us with me pissing you off once again right now.”

“It’s just… I was hurt and I thought you were heartless,” Joe said, making Danny look at him with mild surprise. “I just never saw it until now that you did have a heart- and it got just as broken as mine did…”

Danny didn’t know how to reply to this, so he remained silent. Slowly they both turned back to staring aimlessly down the hallway.

*******

Marquis and Kap stepped away from Danny and Joe, who’d forgotten they were standing right there to hear the whole exchange. The boys went to sit near a broken down water cooler. “Wow, all this time my uncle hated on my godfather because he loved my grandfather and not him,” Marquis said then, shaking his head. “Its times like now I wish I had stayed with my grams; too much fukkin drama being a Hill.”

“Yeah, but if you had stayed Marquis Howard, you wouldn’t have that Duchati Cliff-Climber right now, yo,” Kap smiled. “Or your own valet.”

Marquis looked at him. “Yeah, you rite about that,” he sheepishly grinned back. “I can’t function without Peterson.”

“Yo- what about my moms, and Ray,” Kap said then. “Should we tell everyone that they think Jamara is their daughter and my little sister..?”

“I dunno,” Marquis said then, staring at Danny. “My godfather’s got a whole lot ta take in right now, and after everything else, hearing that his new lover might be his son’s baby daddy… I dunno how he’s handling da overload.”

“That’s crazy, huh, him fukkin wit the spittin image of your granpa,” Kap added in a low voice.

“That’s why I think we should hold off on sayin anything about Jamara, for now at least,” Marquis said. “Mo crazy-ness aint needed for the time being, at least until we get our family out of the hospital; I mean, down the road if it comes out, your moms still might not contest the adoption, even if they run DNA and find out that its all true…”

“Yeah, you’re right; it might be just enough to know that she’s protected, and safe for now, and her big brother is watching over her- if that’s what I really am… Momz aint gonna tell em, and I don’t think Ray is gonna say anything. This stays just between us until further notice.” Kap sighed. “Are u calm now from earlier,” he asked Marquis seriously.

 “Yeah, I’m good,” Marquis said, giving Kap another slow smile. “Hearin that my dad didn’t make it out of the cave… I dunno, I’m numb about it, but still I grew up witout him, and I knew his track record. What I’m sayin is dat I feel bad that I don’t feel AS bad as I know I should feel.”

“It’s real weirded out right now, all this business about your father,” Kap added, “and that’s why when you went off on me I aint say nuthin. You needed ta vent.”

Marquis nodded quietly. “I jus needed you ta just let me get it out, and I aint even tell you all that, so how did you know?”

“It’s my job ta know you,” Kap said; “I’m your best friend and the love of your life- if I don’t know you, who really does..?”

 “My wife will,” Marquis said wickedly, looking over to where Carmen sat talking with Angelina. “But you always know my heart best though,” he added, his heart in his eyes.

 “Damn str8, ‘cause I love you,” Kap said, sitting back in the chair, sharing the passionate look- and then he stared over at the girls. “So… we gonna marry em after college..?”

 “Yeah,” Marquis said. “Soon as we get our degrees, we set the date.”

 “A double wedding, me an Angel, you and Carmen, huh,” Kap said. “I likes, I likes,” he nodded in agreement.

 “I hope my grams can make it,” Marquis said then, his mood turning somber once more. “I’m gonna doubly try to patch it up between me and her, and invite her to join our family. Technically she would’ve already been a Hill if my grandfather had went through with marrying her.”

 “Well, it aint too late,” Kap said brightly; “when she wakes up, go on down the hall and talk to her. Maybe this time she wont turn you away.”

 And with that both boys got back up and went back to their wait spot, resuming their stare down the hallway behind Joe and Danny.

*******

In one of the exam rooms the doctors were pronouncing Malik in fine shape for someone trapped in cold ocean water for an extraordinary length of time; besides a slight case of hypothermia, he would be fine with a hot bath, some chicken soup and warm blankets, along with taking it easy for a couple of days. Satisfied with the results, the doctors trooped out and closed the door behind them, leaving Malik with Lamar- who was still giving him a sidelong look every so often… “Okay, baby, what’s with the look,” he asked finally, once they were all alone.

“What look,” Lamar offhandedly began, suddenly busily tying his shoelace.

Malik gave him a stern look. “Okay, first off you’re not wearing laces, you are wearing wingtips, so what laces are you trying to tie..?”

Lamar looked up at Malik- and then sat up. “Fine, I’ll tell the truth- I wasn’t tying my laces. Your turn now- why did you lie?” he asked directly, looking him in the eye.

Now it was Malik’s turn to look sheepish. “I-I don’t know what you-”

“Now YOU don’t play that game with ME,” Lamar said fiercely. “I know that Rah-Rah was down there with you- I heard two kinds of echoing come up from the cave. Rah-Rah didn’t come up the rope after you- so what happened?” Lamar’s eyes furrowed. “Did you kill him?”

Malik stared at Lamar for a long time. “The truth, then,” he said with a sigh. “I just as good as killed him,” he finally said, and then he explained the scene down in the Carthages. “And when I saw him go under, I hesitated- I knew that he was under too long and if I didn’t try to find him… well, I turned my back and went for the rope. I left him to drown,” he finished guiltily.

“Malik- you didn’t have a choice,” Lamar said in defense. “You had to get to that rope, you didn’t even know how close you came to drowning yourself if you had waited any longer… and Rah-Rah was also trying to kill you- you HAD NO CHOICE,” he added, resting one hand on Malik’s arm. “Survival of the fittest; it was either you or him in the end, and I don’t have to tell you how I would have felt if you weren’t the one I pulled out of that cave, knowing the other one wouldn’t have made it.”

“What am I supposed to tell Marquis,” Malik said, looking over at Lamar with regret and recrimination shining brightly in his dark eyes. “That was his FATHER-”

“No, YOU were his father these past ten years,” Lamar proclaimed; “and you still are. You say NOTHING about what happened down there- he’s had to deal with enough.”

“You want me to keep this from him- and everyone else, you mean, right?” Malik frowned at Lamar. “They need to know the truth..! I purposely left my cousin to die in what basically became the bottom of a quarter-mile deep well, full of seawater..!”

“And until the day YOU die, that stays between us- no one else needs to know this- and anyway you have a record, remember,” Lamar said then. “Money can’t erase that- and to the police you are a target because you’re a celebrity with a prior arrest record, from a celebrity family- you’ll be charged and the book thrown at you.”

“Oh come on,” Malik snapped, “it’s not THAT serious, is it..!”

“You think that you WON’T be made an example of because you’re rich..?” Lamar replied archly. “You really THINK white people are fans of a rich young black man..? This will be their way to strip the Teflon off your back, and to do it in front of millions of people- the best way they can find to get back at you for being richer than THEY are..! Think, Malik,” Lamar pleaded. “Don’t say anything..!!”

Just then the door opened and a short, portly uniformed Caucasian officer came into the exam room, carrying a sheaf of papers; he didn’t bother to knock, which was explained by his self-important aura. “How are you feeling, Mr. Hill,” he brusquely said to Malik by way of greeting; “I’ve got a couple questions for you concerning the whereabouts of Robert Hill.”

Lamar and Malik looked at one another. “I… don’t know where Robert Hill is,” Malik said abruptly.

“Mr. Hill,” the officer said, going over the bundle of papers absently, “we have documentation that he is your first cousin, we know that he broke out of a maximum security mental asylum earlier on tonight, and we have reason to believe that you staged an elaborate attempt to help your cousin escape out to sea, through the Carthage Bluffs.”

Lamar and Malik’s mouths dropped open collectively. “You’re not serious,” Lamar said incredulously.

“Please be quiet, sir, or I will have to take you down to the station for hindering a police investigation,” the self-important cop barked at Lamar, stunning him silent.

“Police investigation,” Malik said then, incensed. “On what grounds?”

“Please spare us the lies, Mr, Hill,” the officer interjected grandiosely, moving to face Malik and Lamar, his back to the door. “Radio transcripts we commandeered from a helicopter team tonight revealed evidence that your father was also involved in an obvious attempt to sneak you and your cousin out of the country.”

“You have GOT to be kidding me,” Malik spat, his temper rushing forward; a hint of Joop was starting to show.

Lamar grabbed his arm. “Malik, don’t go all ‘Joop’ on us,” he warned- “it wont end good for you right now.”

“Listen to your friend,” the cop threatened; “or I’ll continue this inquiry downtown. Do you deny that your father used a helicopter team tonight to locate you and Robert Hill,” he went on.

“Yeah, I do,” Malik said, “because there is no such person as Robert ‘Hill’.”

“We understand that he has different last names,” the cop went on, shuffling his papers while adding under his breath, “most of you people do…”

“What the FUCK did you just say,” Malik said, jumping up, his inner Joop clearly taking over as his rage exploded out of control. “Say dat shyt again to my face!”

“Awww fuck,” Lamar said in alarm, “Joop- CALM DOWN!!!”

The cop staggered back from Joop’s sheer fury, and in a flash he whipped out his gun and trained it on both Joop and Lamar, pure fright evident in his face. “N-N-Now that’s it,” he stammered, the gun waving wildly back and forth between both Lamar and Joop. “P-p-put your hands b-behind your n-neck, or I-I’ll-”

Just then the door swung open and a nurse walked into the room. “Oh, my god,” she screamed when she saw the scene before her.

The self-important portly cop, however, jumped at the new sound behind his back- and in his frightened reflex he pulled the trigger- the gun went off with a loud BOOM.

Lamar jerked.

In slow motion Joop turned to see his lover topple over slowly. With a sudden bloody splotch on his chest, Lamar hit the floor as the nurse continued to scream in horror.