She was just about to wake up when I got back to the room where mom was sitting reading a magazine. “Did she wake up while I was gone?”
“No. She fretted a little and called out to you, but she never opened her eyes.” I sat on the bed and touched her hand. She sighed and sunk deeper into the pillow.
“I’m here sweetheart.” I kissed her forehead and sent mom downstairs to see about her broth. She moved too sudden in her sleep and rolled over on her face. Her cry of pain made my gut hurt and I imagined this is what parents felt when their kids were hurt or sick. If I could change places with her I would in a heartbeat.
“It’s okay baby, okay, okay.” She was running a slight fever now but I was afraid to give her another pill this soon. The bottle said every four hours and she had a ways to go still. Tears rolled down her face and tore the heart right out of me. “Solomon?”
“Yes?” I went back to the bed and took her hand in mine. “Go back to sleep baby.” Please go to sleep so I know you’re not feeling anything. It seems all she needed was to have me near so she could drift off again.
The longer I sat there the angrier I became. I needed answers but the phone wasn’t ringing. I was trapped, I needed to be out there handling this myself, but I couldn’t leave her. I’d never felt so helpless before in my life. Had she cried out for me when this was happening to her?
No, she said she blacked out after the first blow. Still! Rage fought with love, and love won. I will get to the bottom of it in due time. For now my place was with her.
She slept around the clock, waking only long enough to take her medicine and dribble down a few teaspoons of broth before falling asleep again. She was feverish and fretful and the fact that I could do nothing more for her brought me low.
All my money, all my resources, and there was nothing I could do to take her pain away. I groaned in my soul as I sat there looking at the destruction of her beautiful face.
“Sleep is the best thing for her son. She’ll heal nicely you’ll see. I called that doctor who saw her and he said her face should go back to normal in a couple weeks. The swelling is the worst of it. In other words, it looks worse than it really is.”
Mom must’ve sensed my distress and was trying to reassure me, but nothing could. Nothing was going to make me feel better until I shed the blood of that evil bitch.
“I’d like to see him take a punch to the face and tell me it looks worst than it really is. Look at her, look at what some dead fuck did to her.”
“What do you mean dead? You know who’s responsible?”
“I mean that when I get my hands on the one responsible they will not see the light of day again.”
“Solomon, don’t talk crazy. Let the police handle this.”
“Police? They’re not involved.”
“Why ever not?”
“Because it’s not what I want.” She shook her head and tried reasoning with me, but her words fell on deaf ears.
My phone beeped with a text and I breathed a little easier when I read it. “I’ll be downstairs in my office call me if she wakes up.” I looked at her as she moved to the bed to fuss with the covers. “Okay son I will.”
“I mean it mom, as soon as her eyes open call me. I promised her.” She nodded in understanding and I kissed my baby’s hair, which was the only safe place, before leaving the room
Downstairs they were all waiting for me. “You’d better have results; if you don’t you can all turn around and get the hell outta here.”
“We got what you needed boss.”
“Tell me.” I sat behind my desk and clasped my hands under my chin.
Ralph dropped the ring on my desk. I picked it up and twirled it around on my fingertip. Is this what had driven that fool over the edge? What had signed her death sentence? A fucking piece of coal?
“Where did you find it?” He showed me the slip from the pawn shop. “And that’s not all. They had surveillance. The footage is good, and so is the disguise, but you won’t have any trouble knowing…”
“Did you get a copy?”
“Yes.”
“And the other? The IPO, who does it belong to?” I tapped my finger on the desk. I already knew but I wanted all the evidence. I’m going to bury her with it.
“The same.” I nodded my head once.
“The doctor, did you find him?”