Joe Victim

Chapter Fifty-One

Schroder doesn’t want to get out of bed. Ever again. He has somewhat of a headache. Or more accurately somewhat of a hangover. Brought on by somewhat too many drinks and the fact that yesterday was somewhat of a disaster. Jonas Jones loved every second of it. He was all over the news. He was the man the dead detective had come to in order to be found, and the camera loved him. The camera soaked up every second along with the public. Helping the living contact the dead was Jonas’s calling in life. A gift. Proven over and over. People shouldn’t doubt him, and less people doubted him after yesterday, and, if you wanted to know more about Jonas and his abilities, his books can be found at any good bookstore.

Of course the media didn’t know if the body was going to be Calhoun’s-nobody knew that, not for a fact, not until later last night when Kent had rung him and told him about the pin put into Calhoun’s leg five years ago when he’d lost control of his car. No amount of pins would have helped the rapist he was chasing back then, because that guy was pinned between Calhoun’s fender and the brick wall of a dairy, and now that event has a serial number and that number confirms the body they dug up belongs to the dead detective. That discovery put a transfer of funds into place. People making money on a dead man. Including himself. A dead man who had been tortured. Ten grand showed up in Schroder’s account overnight. It’s the easiest money he’s ever earned and it’s the sickest he’s ever felt.

“This will be made public tomorrow,” Kent told him, “and if you release that information before then I swear, Carl, I’ll never-”

“I won’t say anything,” he said. “How are you getting on with your three dead bodies?”

“We’re getting on,” she answered, and then she hung up.

So last night he drank to numb the pain of what he had done, of who he had climbed into bed with. He drank because it helped, even though drinking wasn’t helping his marriage, but it wasn’t as though he was drinking every night. Jesus, the last time he even touched a drop was at Detective Inspector Landry’s wake four weeks ago-he hasn’t touched it since because that drink back then was the start of him losing his job. Things keep slipping away from him. A few months ago Kent was the new detective on the force, and now she was talking down to him, like he was worthless. A few months ago he was the one telling her what to do. How. The. fuck. Have things gotten to where they have?

Of course, he knows exactly how.

His daughter has helped wake him by jumping repeatedly on the end of the bed, each bounce like somebody squeezing his brain between their palms. He watches some cartoons with her for five minutes, then jumps in the shower.

The hot water helps wake him, it helps massage the hangover away a little. When he’s done he puts on the same suit he wore yesterday when he was on TV, which is the same suit he wore when he was on the force, which is the only suit he has. His wife is making breakfast for the baby and his daughter. He smiles at her and she frowns at him and it’s not looking like it’s going to be a great day. It’s almost eight thirty and he’s feeling tired again. He shakes a couple of Wake-E pills out a packet from his pocket and takes them when his wife isn’t looking, not needing her to nag him again about how many he’s been taking.

They don’t talk much over breakfast, which is common these days, and their lack of talking is becoming a habit and a problem and he wonders if he’s losing his marriage and hopes like hell he’s not. The baby is looking up and laughing at him, and smiles at her and she laughs some more.

When this is over, all this stuff with the Carver, then he’ll tell Jonas to. . to what? Shove his job? And then what? Have no money? He can spend more time with his family, as much time as he wants, then they can all starve in the cold, huddled beneath blankets and be together forever.

He finishes his breakfast and his wife wishes him good luck at the trial. Then she kisses him good-bye and he hugs her back and maybe he’s just reading too much into things, maybe his wife is just as tired most of the time and there’s nothing wrong with their marriage because the hug feels good and warm and makes him wish he wasn’t going anywhere at all except back to bed with her. He kisses his baby good-bye and the baby smiles and giggles before a hiccup bubble appears between his lips, popped a moment later by a thick but short stream of undigested milk. He hugs his daughter and heads for the door.

The trial starts at ten o’clock. Joe will arrive at the courthouse at nine forty. That’s thirty minutes away. He starts the drive into town. The airwaves are full of people expressing their opinions. There are reporters at the courthouse already, saying there is a large crowd with more people coming, many carrying signs, many chanting slogans. Then there is another growing group, one of teenagers in costumes-he can see Spider-Man, he can see a couple of Xena Warrior Princesses, he can see four Batmans, and at least half a dozen Waldos from Where’s Waldo? among dozens of other costumes from Manga characters to popular movie personalities. The reporter says it’s going to be a tough day for everybody, which immediately restores Schroder’s faith in reporters-when they want to, they really can get the facts right.

He turns off the radio. Right now there will be bomb-sniffing dogs going through the court building. If they’d found explosives he would have heard. So the trial is going ahead.

At his next red light, he uses his cell phone to look up the number for a florist and is given several options. At the next red light he calls the number, and is halfway through ordering flowers for his wife when the light turns green. He rolls through the intersection and pulls over and focuses on his order and comes up with a message for the card. He smiles at the thought of his wife getting them. It’s not going to solve any problems-but it’s a step in the right direction.

“Good choice,” the woman tells him, and he’s happy somebody at least thinks he’s making a good decision. “She’ll have them by lunchtime.”

Schroder spots his first vampire a few blocks from the courthouse-she’s arguing with another girl who’s also dressed as a vampire, a guy standing in between them not doing a great job at moderating, but certainly doing a great job of looking uncomfortable. Schroder wonders if it’s the classic cliché of wearing something unique only to find somebody else wearing it too. Neither vampire seems bothered by the sun.

Traffic gets thicker, drivers having to slow down as pedestrians start to spill into the street. A few blocks away from the courthouse it comes to a standstill. Hundreds of people are outside the courthouse already. There have been suggestions those numbers could get into the thousands. He turns the radio back on. Callers for the death penalty want people going down there to support their cause. People against the death penalty want people going down there to support their cause. Everybody wants somebody. The students just want to hang out and drink themselves stupid.

He makes his way to the back of the courthouse. He can see Jonas Jones, who is dressed as a smug psychic, and once again Schroder suspects somebody is leaking him information. The only thing here for the psychic is one more opportunity to get his face in front of a camera.

There are fifteen parking spaces back here, and four of them have been assigned to the police. One of those four has been given to Schroder, as he was the lead detective on the case and will be here every day. The other spaces are reserved for judges, some for lawyers. There’s even a spot that’s been reserved for an ambulance that will be here soon for the duration of the trial-thanks to all the death threats that have come Joe’s way. Emotions will be running high, so the ambulance is there also for family members of Joe’s victims-it’s easy to imagine people getting upset and fainting or passing out, or having heart attacks brought on by the anger.

He gets out of the car. Magnum PI, Smurfette, and a couple of nuns are walking by, Magnum making eye contact with him for a split second before stroking his mustache and saying something to one of the male nuns before they all start laughing, and Schroder has the bad idea whatever it is it’s about him. He makes his way to the entrance and shows his ID to the security guard, who looks at it, looks at Schroder, looks out at the street as a guy dressed in a suit with a top hat and rubber chickens hanging from his arms yells at somebody to wait up. The guard looks at the ID again and then writes something down on a clipboard. He shrugs one of those The world is going to shit shrugs, then hands Schroder a pass to clip onto his jacket. More people are on the street now, and he wonders if some of them are figuring out this is the entrance that will be used. He hopes not, because Joe just might not make it inside alive.

A few seconds later he changes his mind-he decides it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if the crowd got hold of Joe, not really, not a bad thing at all.