Jail's Bait: Time Served (Book 5)

Joe Hill, Governor of WA State, sat back in his chair at the Governor’s Mansion in Olympia, still staring at the phone which he had been on, moments ago, with his nephew Robert Hill, whom everyone called Rah-Rah for some reason.  He was completely surprised at his nephew’s reaction upon learning that all charges had been either dropped or commuted- something he should have already known of years ago.  “What is Danny playing at,” he mused.  Shaking his head, he reached again for the phone- 

BZZZZZZZZZZ! 

On reflex, Joe grabbed his wrist to shut his watch alarm up.  Anger colored his aging cheeks as he realized what the reminder timer was for.  Muttering under his breath, he reached over to his desk drawer and pulled out three pill bottles.  He opened the Sustiva bottle first, shaking out a pill before opening the Epzicom and the Atripla bottles as well.  Lining those up on the desk before him, he reached back into the desk and pulled out the Zidovudine pill bottle as well.  He put the AZT pill next to the others and poured himself a tall glass of water.  Grimacing, he took each, one by one, followed with a swallow from the glass.  He figured that at age 65 he would have been taking liver pills, or prune juice, or even heart medication.  Never had he expected to be on this sort of drug protocol…. 

Full blown AIDS. 

Not just HIV, in its early or late stages… FULL BLOWN AIDS, is what Dr. Foster had declared to him last Valentine’s Day.  So far Joe’s illness had been kept from the media, for Dr. Foster was discreet; all the Hill family physicians maintained a tight lid on all their medical issues, for that matter.  The potential for political scandal notwithstanding, Joe hadn’t yet shared with anyone in the Hill family just how far gone his health really was; and for the life of him he had no clue as to how he had caught the disease to begin with… at first. 

For the past three years, Joe had been exclusively intimate with his childhood crush, his lover, Lionel Jenkins- the self-exiled leader of the Black militant group AFRICA’S ISSUE, and when he and Lionel had hooked up together, the man once known as Inamae Shazzad X had renounced his leadership of AFRICA’S ISSUE and given control to his second in command, Kufi Unumu.  Afterwards Lionel returned to Joe and they enjoyed the next two years in perfect bliss- until that weekend Christmas before last when Joe coughed straight through that Saturday and Sunday without stopping.  Thinking that it was a lingering bug due to advancing age, he called up Dr. Foster, who ran a battery of tests and pronounced the dark diagnosis.  Joe, harassed by his own curiosity, had to know how he had gotten sick, so he produced blood samples of the three most recent intimate partners- Lionel, his ex-lover, Danny Clark, and his wife, Regine.  Swearing Dr. Foster to secrecy, he had tests run on all three samples.  Danny’s sample came up HIV-negative, as did Regine’s. 

Then came the heartstopping news…  Lionel, Joe’s first crush, the man who made him the happiest he’d ever been- was diagnosed with advanced AIDS.  And as far as Joe knew, Lionel was completely unaware of his condition. 

Joe sat back with his eyes closed, letting the pills slide down into his stomach, reflecting on the matter.  There was a side of him that wanted to throttle Lionel for not taking better care of himself.  It must have happened when he was still Inamae Shazzad, having sex with an entire flock of dirty religious zealots who saw the leader’s dick as the golden ticket.  Having all that unprotected sex increased the chance of pregnancy… which brought the promise of strengthening AFRICA’s ISSUE by swelling it with children.  Yet whatever his drive and focus was, he should have known better than to dig out every piece of ass that swore loyalty to his cause, as far as Joe surmised.  Any one of those unwashed sluts could have given him HIV, and he just spread it around his entire militant garrison like butter on bread.  And to this day Lionel still didn’t know he was deathly sick.  Staring out the window at the Olympia city skyline, Joe wondered, not for the first time, why he held back from telling his lover about their mutual illness.  Maybe he was trying to be kind to the man who had given him three years of complete satiated bliss.  Maybe he just couldn’t find the words to tell this man that his life was basically over… 

“Naww,” Joe Hill admitted to himself; “I'm just being a real asshole who wants revenge on the punk that gave me AIDS.” 

The sex between the two had been intensely brutal to the point of being almost cruel this past year.  Joe started taking Viagra just to be able to punish that ass to the point of making Lionel bleed.  Lionel, unaware that the hurtful sex was revenge for passing an STD, simply assumed that Joe was giving him some really good dick, to the point that he needed a two day break each time; and left it at that.  All he saw when he looked at Joe was the starry sky, and Joe knew it.  If only he had stayed with Danny, he thought ruefully; and then he remembered that Danny was getting his legs lifted in the air by Joe’s own brother Ray.. whom no one knew as his brother, by the way. 

Secrets, secrets and more secrets… 

Joe turned in his chair to the cabinet behind him, reached into his pockets and pulled out a silver key.  Unlocking the cabinet, he pulled out a drawer and selected a dark colored file bound with a leather strap.  He placed the file on the desk before him, closed the cabinet and picked up the phone, pressing a specific button.  Soon a voice spoke on the other end.  “Good morning, Governor,” it said. 

“Good morning, Price,” Joe said, absently studying the file.  “How soon can you get here?  Its time to tie up some loose ends,” he added. 

“I'm on my way,” Price said; “see you in 20 minutes.” 

“Very good,” Joe replied to hjs lawyer, hanging up the phone.  He gave a sigh.  “Secrets, and more secrets… and I've got em all.” 

Turning his full attention back to the bound file, he traced the label on the top which read DETAILS FOR WILL…

******

“And you’re sure this is how you want everything to go...?  No last minute changes…?” the lawyer asked as he shut off the video recorder. 

“Joe shook his head.  “No, this is the last change I will make.  The addendums are all set, and everything that has to be arranged has been; set in motion in the event of my demise.”  He rose from the high-backed chair he had chose for the videos. 

Mr. Price nodded grimly then.  “You do realize that half your family may not survive the reading of this will, and the other half wont know what hit em.  And all of them together,” he added wryly, “will probably agree to hate you for the rest of eternity.” 

“Hate me...?  Sure they will; some of them already do,” Joe replied added with a wink towards his lawyer.  “What’ll I care about that, after I'm gone?  I know I'm headed straight for Hell,” he added with a wry smile as he reached for his liquor cabinet and poured himself a shot of bourbon.  “I just want to make sure I leave here with a bang- the biggest bang the Hill family has ever known.” 

“You really are one mean son of a bitch,” Mr. Price remarked pleasantly as he finished disconnecting the video equipment.  Placing the tapes and the signed will into his carry-bag, he came over to shake Joe’s hand.  “A really MEAN S.O.B.” 

“That’s the fun of already knowing you’re set to dance with the Devil for the rest of eternity,” he said; “you don’t have to hold back.”  And he shook Mr. Price’s hand.  “Thanks again for your help.”

******

Joe was still sitting in his chair after Mr. Price had gone, smirking at the idea of his family’s reacting to the reading of his will, when the phone rang.  He checked the caller ID- it was Crimson Crest, the Hill family ancestral home.  He picked up, expecting his butler.  “Yes, Smithers, what’s happened...?” 

“It’s me, Joe,” said the voice of Joe’s wife, Regine Hill.  She sounded… odd. 

“Jean, what is it,” Joe asked curiously.  “Is everything okay?” 

“Its Smithers,” Regine said then, haltingly.  “He’s had a heart attack.” 

Joe’s face went pale.  “Is he.. still with us...?” 

“He wouldn’t allow the EMT’s to take him to the hospital; he’s in the infirmary here at the house; I've sent for Dr. Foster.  Smithers keeps asking for you… it seems like he’s really only holding on until he can see you… one last time.” 

Tears of shock sprang to Joe’s eyes.  “I'm on my way right now,” he said, hanging up the phone.  He buzzed his secretary. 

“Yes, Governor,” his assistant replied seconds later. 

“Find my pilot and have him ready for me at the helipad,” Joe said then, standing to his feet and grabbing the file from his desk and pushing it back into the cabinet.  “I'll be over there in five minutes, and tell him to file a flight plan to the north end of the Bolo Grounds.  I'm taking the ‘copter home.” 

“Right away,” the secretary said, the phone going dead. 

Joe, preoccupied with getting back to Crimson Crest as fast as he could, rushed out of the Governor’s office, shutting the door behind him… completely forgetting to re-lock the cabinet door…