Excerpt
One, Cross Threaded
Maddie
had a whirlwind first day. Mary Gage was efficient although a bit on the cool
side. She gave Maddie a tour of each
court, introducing her to that courts assistant. She met several of the judges.
Judge Carl McCarthy, Criminal Court, shook her hand while looking at her tits.
She envisioned kneeing him in the groin while she starred straight at his eye
sockets. She knew the type and was looking forward to digging into his past and
present.
Mary
caught the violation.
Further
down the hall Mary said, “He’s harmless.”
Maddie
said “Oh?” and let it go, but thought to herself, “Ya, right!”
The
Juvenile Court judge, Peter Peck was around fifty years old, older than
McCarthy, by around ten years. He shook
her hand as if his was made of cold, oiled linguini. His light blue, almost
albino eyes stared blankly at Mary as she tried to explain who Maddie was and
why she was giving her the tour.
He wasn’t giving Mary his full attention because
his eyes were drawn to a young boy leaving his court room. He made a quick
skittish head nod at Maddie.
Mary
quickly diverted Maddie’s attention to discussion of processing paperwork from
each court.
Further
down the hall family court was just adjourning.
Curt and Tony were standing outside the doors when Judge Violet bumped
into them, spilling her papers which Tony briskly grabbed up, trying to catch
any useful information while rearranging them to pass back to her. She curtly
said “thank you,” and grabbed the papers out of his hand appearing aggravated
as she came toward Mary and Maddie. She
passed by ignoring them both.
“You
can meet her later,” said Mary. “She has had some hostility issues lately.”
“That’s
fine with me,” Maddie said as the stench of perfume wafted in the breeze the old
woman created.
Excerpt
Two, Cross Threaded
Maddie
decided to check out Mary’s property tax file. She found nothing. She went
online to property tax files for neighboring counties. In Clover County she
found Mary’s taxes on buildings to be fairly high and appraisal value was 2.5
million. The land value was more staggering. For a 500 acre parcel Mary was
accessed for value at $1,000,000. One might think she and Rusty were looking at
real estate development as a career change.
She
checked the county records under Rusty’s name in the township his cabin was in
and found the property was owned by Detritus Development Corporation; Rusty
Naylor and Marlene Christa, president and vice president. She recognized the
name ‘Christa’. Though she had yet to meet her she had seen her passing by in
the hall. Marlene was with the public defender’s office.
Maddie
thought it odd that someone would name a company after decomposing matter.
Excerpt
Three, Cross Threaded
Peter
Peck had been a pale, scrawny child.
His
mother was a workaholic and his dad was his caretaker and very protective of
Peter.
One
night in the late fall when the roads were wet and temperature had dropped to
below freezing his mom’s car was broadsided by a fish truck. Peter’s dad
grabbed him up and put him in his car seat. Peter was eight years old but his
dad insisted he sit in a car seat if he was going to ride up front.
They
went to the crash site where his dad was informed the ambulance had taken his
wife to the hospital. There were dead fish all over the road. His father opened
the door of the car and vomited.
Peter
never ate fish again.
His
mom had died while in route to the hospital.
She left Peter and his dad very well off. Peter’s college funds were totally taken care
of.
When
Peter was ten years old his father remarried. The woman was a buxom,
controlling, overbearing, troll, in Peter’s eye, sweet as pie to his father
though.
Peter
developed an intense desire to torture the woman he now called ‘mother dear’.
The
final straw for his dad was when Peter put cayenne pepper in the talcum powder
she used under her breasts and in her crotch area.
His
father sent him off to boarding school where he thrived.
