Her Eyes

Chapter 9: WOUNDED

It had been a couple of days since he'd heard from Norma, and just when he began to worry about her—there she was.

            Walking down the hall back to his office, Alex heard a banging noise coming from the front room. He opened the door to find that it was Norma behind the bulletproof glass.

            "What is your name please," Regina asked her.

            "Are you kidding me? You don't know my name," Norma replied, leaning down and speaking through the bottom opening of the glass.

            "Norma Louise Bates," Alex answered from the back of the room.

            "We need to talk," she shouted at him. He hated the way she spoke to him in front of his colleagues...it made him feel so whipped.

            Regina opened the door for her and Alex led her back to his office. "What's this about?" Alex asked motioning for her to have a seat.

            "Jake Abernathy ambushed me in my car last night, put a gun to my neck. He told me to shown up with one hundred and fifty thousand dollars by tonight at the docks," she cried, taking a seat.

            "And what did you say?" This woman wasn't stupid enough to—

            "I said yes, I would bring him the money," she replied in agitation. Alex sighed, clearly annoyed with her. "He had a gun to my neck. I don't know anything about the money."

            He stared at her a while before answering. "All right. I'll take care of it." He had to protect her.

            Even if she didn't think he would. "So what I'm just supposed to accept that you'll 'take care of it'. Whatever that means," she mocked. She rolled her eyes at him—an overplaying of her annoyance.

            "Yes. That's right. You need to trust me," he urged. All he wanted from her was trust. That's all he would ever ask of her.

            "Trust you? That is hard to do. I'm the one who's supposed to show up with the money tonight or he's gonna kill my sons and me. Pardon me for being a little concerned about what your plan is," she argued, her voice a bit gentler than before.

            He needed to protect this woman. He vowed to the moment he heard her confession—that she had killed Keith Summers. He wouldn't let another scumbag like that lay a hand on her. "No harm is going to come to you or your sons. You have my word."

            "That's comforting," she stated sarcastically before leaving. Alex watched her leave. He wished he could lock her up in his office, just until he took take of things, to ensure no harm came to her.

            After waiting for her to fully leave the station, he got in his car and drove to Shelby's old storage unit. He knew exactly where to look for what he needed. He lifted the garage door and stepped in closing the door behind him. There was an old chest that sat against the wall. He swiftly lifted the lid and dug through. A cloud of dust puffed into the air. He grabbed the duffel bag and unzipped it—one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. After zipping it back up and closing the lid to the chest, he left the unit checking to make sure no one witnessed his little trip.

The next stop was Maggie Summers' house. He parked in the bushes and got out. Memories of their childhood flooded his thoughts, but he shook them off as quick as they had appeared. This wasn't a social visit, he reminded himself. It took a while for her to return home, but when she did, she wasn't too happy to see him.