The General -CH3- (Patreon)

Warner laughed under his breath and shook his head.

“Maybe the car hit you harder than I thought. That’s just nonsense.”

Tapping the send button Warner looked back to his screen and started to rapidly fill in the information the customer was requesting.

He was doing his best to not think about the fact that nothing was going to happen to Travis Pattin. That the DA had called him six times now in the last week made it harder to do that of course.

He knew that it was a call to discuss the case. To talk to Warner directly before the DA said anything publicly about the case.

And just as likely that he doesn’t want to leave a voice mail because that’d be considerably harder to back-track. It’d be a recorded statement.

Then again… do I live in a single party consent state? I could probably record him without ever letting on that I am.

With Maya at home though it was easier to pretend the DA wasn’t hounding him and that Pattin was going to get off the hook without even a slap on the wrist.

Since she’d gotten back home, his home, she’d done a lot of texting, reading, and watching tv.

Being bed-ridden meant that she really couldn’t do a whole lot. Even going to the bathroom was more or less out of the picture. Warner had to empty a bed-pan as the first thing he did every morning, when he got back from work, and before he went to bed.

The danger to her life was over now though. In spite of the grievousness of her injury, the hospital had saved her life.

Now it was time for her to recover. Or at least, do her best to recover. A number of doctors had already talked to him about what their expectations were. She’d likely be able to walk eventually, but they expected it to be with a limp.

Pins, rods, plates, and screws would be an ever constant companion for her for the rest of her life. Doctor visits with insurance covered orderlies carrying her to and from the vehicle would be the norm for a while.

But she was at least at home now with him. Safe, and home.

Asa still hadn’t showed up. Maya seemed completely unperturbed by that. Nor even surprised. Warner’s mind had gone straight to the idea that it wasn’t the first time Asa had vanished.

By this point though she’d had to have come back. Knowing his ex-wife however, she’d come back, realized she was probably in trouble, and had vanished again.

Depending on how long she thought she needed to be gone they might not see her for months.

In the mean time, he’d move forward with his full custody hearing.

His phone blipped again and Warner glanced down.

It was another text message from Maya.

“It’s not nonsense, it’s my opinion. She wouldn’t have come to check on me, for my sake. She doesn’t know me. She came to see you. Gave you her cell phone number, too.

“You should call her. Ask her out to dinner.”

Rolling his eyes, Warner responded quickly. He knew he shouldn’t have his phone out on the call floor. Especially on his first real day back at work.

But he didn’t think anyone would care much. Everyone knew what’d happened to Maya. It’d made the news after all.

“Haha, no. She probably has a boyfriend and I really don’t want to date anyone.”

Setting his phone back down Warner opened took another ticket from the queue and began reading it over.

“Hey Warner,” said a female voice.

Looking over from his screen he found Alice, a coworker, standing there. She’d always gotten on his nerves but he could never pinpoint why. There was just something about her that aggravated him whenever he saw her.

Right now though, he actually understood it.

He recognized it this time. The last time he’d felt it was right before he’d killed a young man with a revolver.

Injustice.

There was a sense of injustice coming from her. Not an overly strong sense of it, but definitely something.

“Hey, Alice,” Warner said, not really sure what she wanted. She’d never dropped by to talk to him before. They rarely talked at all, in fact.

“You remember when I told you about that accident a few years back? Before I started working here?” Alice asked.

He didn’t.

“Yup,” Warner said.

“The lawyer I used could probably really get you a good settlement with the state and the guy who did it, or his insurance at least,” Alice said.

As if someone had pulled back a curtain Warner knew what injustice she was guilty of.

That Alice was scamming someone from the accident she’d been involved in. That they were receiving unfair treatment. Their rights were being violated through her direct actions.

Except it was against a company, not a person.

I can… sense… it. Just like the man. Both men.

Except hers isn’t… very much. It doesn’t have the same feeling that I need to address it.

It just annoys me.

What’s… what’s going on? Am I drunk? Am I going crazy?

His mind flashed back to when he’d seen himself with yellow wings and eyes in the mirror back at the hospital. Nothing since then had happened but he really hadn’t been out much. He’d been spending all his time with Maya.

“I think I’ll be okay,” Warner said. The legal counsel he’d hired assured him they’d make sure he got everything Maya deserved out of this. Regardless of what the DA, the Fletcher police department, or the state wanted. “Thanks though, Alice, I appreciate it.”

“Of course, think nothing of it. I’ll let you go,” Alice said, waving a hand at him with a smile.

Nodding his head with a smile, Warner waved back at her. “See you later, Alice.”

His phone started buzzing again, the screen lighting up.

An unlisted number was calling him. There was also a missed text from Maya.

Ignoring the call, he tapped the message.

“Stu-pid. We need to talk about this.” There was a pair of hands clapping punctuating the break in stupid.

The hell is she calling from that makes it unlisted.

Picking up the phone Warner locked his computer, accepted the call, and began walking away to the break room.

Texting on the floor was one thing, taking a personal call was altogether something different.

“Hey,” Warner said into the line. “I don-”

“Mr. James, I’m so glad you picked up,” said a voice Warner didn’t know.

“Uh, who’s this?” Warner asked, stopping dead in his tracks. He didn’t want to talk to anyone at all right now.

“This is District Attorney Jim Goff,” said the man.

Closing his eyes, Warner winced.

If there was a contest to determine the least likely person Warner would want to talk to right now, Jim Goff would be the runner up.

“Ah, hello Mr. Goff,” Warner said, starting to walk again. “I’ve been looking forward to talking to you. When can we move forward with criminal charges against Mr. Pattin?

“Fleeing the scene of a crime is a felony after all.”

“Ah,” Jim said, clearly not expecting that. “I’m afraid we won’t be pressing charges.”

“What?” Warner asked. He didn’t have to feign his anger. In fact he was having problems not crushing his phone. “Why the hell not? A witness identified his vehicle. Even the license plate. I know for a fact that there’s a camera at the intersection up ahead and probably caught him fleeing the scene of the crime.”

Jim didn’t respond to that. Neither of those things were anything that Althea had told him. Both those items were something he’d dug up all on his own.

He wasn’t going to let Jim go without explaining his actions, even if Warner didn’t think he’d win.

He’d at least try.

“I just don’t feel like we have a case,” Jim said.

“I think you’re not pushing this because he’s a cop,” Warner growled, marching through the lobby of his office building and straight outside.

“That’s not it at all,” Jim countered.

“That’s exactly what it is. There’s more than enough proof to get a jury to vote against him. Especially because he’s a cop who fled the scene of a crime,” Warner said. “Even though we both know a judge would probably give him a lenient sentence.”

“I don’t think this conversation is going very well,” Jim said

“Oh? Why’s that? Because you’re giving a cop a break for running over a little girl? Is that why?” Warner shouted into his phone. “Because that’s what it feels like on this end. I can’t wait to talk to the press about this, the camera, and the license plate.”

“I don’t think that’d be wise,” Jim offered, sounding considerably more unsure now.

“Coming from the guy who doesn’t want to press a clearly guilty man into a court case, I don’t think you’re qualified to tell me what is and isn’t wise, Jim,” Warner said.

“Look, we just don’t-”

“You just don’t want to push on a cop,” Warner said interrupting the weasel. “And that’s all it comes down to. You can tell me you’re changing your mind and pressing charges, or we can end this call and I go straight to the local news outlets.

“Whats it going to be?”

Jim didn’t answer.

He hung up instead.

Closing his eyes, Warner turned toward the wall and quivered with rage. His entire body shook from head to toe. The cell phone in his hand creaked softly at the sheer force he was exerting on it.

Vibrating softly it started to ring again.

Glaring at the screen he was more than happy to talk to Jim again so he could yell at him.

Instead it was Maya.

Choking on his own breath, Warner gasped and then coughed several times.

Tapping the accept button after getting his breath under control he held it up to his ear.

“Hey there,” he said.

“Hi dad. So, seriously. You’re being stupid,” Maya said. “You can’t honestly tell me you don’t think she’s interested in you.”

Shaking his head, Warner pressed his forehead to the wall and then laughed.

“I think she felt sorry for me if I had to answer you directly,” Warner said.

He was still a ball of ugly violent rage. One that wanted to find Jim and the injustice he’d put on Maya and see out justice.

With a revolver.

But he couldn’t let Maya ever know that. She’d come out of this optimistic and bright.

He’d never seen her cry or bemoan her situation.

“No, she clearly had a thing for you,” Maya said. “I mean, she visited me twice after I met her that first time. Both times when you were there. She’s got white-boy fever. Wants herself a man who’s a daddy.”

“The hell did- I’m seriously turning off the internet and bricking your phone,” Warner said, trying hard not to laugh at her comments. “The car hit you so hard you’re talking way above your age level. I need to make you watch a whole bunch of the clubhouse.”

“Ugh, dad, seriously? I’m a teenager. I’ve had sex-ed and everything. I-”

“Nope! I don’t want to hear it. La-la-la-la, my precious daughter is an innocent, la-la-la,” Warner declared.

“Oh my god, for reals dad?” Maya asked as she laughed on the other end of the line.

***

Driving through traffic Warner couldn’t help but wish he could work at home. Sighing for perhaps the tenth time he leaned his head up to the cool glass of his window.

The rain pattered down unendingly and more than likely the cause for his misery.

“Everyone forgets how to drive the moment it starts to rain,” Warner grumbled.

Easing forward the car directly in front of him started to move again.

Following suit, Warner rolled along, figuring he’d stop in a few feet again.

Except he didn’t. He rolled by what looked like to be a pretty bad accident. A number of fire-men were working at prying a door loose from the frame of a rather squashed looking sedan. An ambulance was nearby and someone was being loaded up into it even as he watched.

“Damn, that’s pretty bad,” Warner muttered. His mind flinched away from the thoughts that inevitably came. Of Pattin causing a similar scene for his daughter.

Out of nowhere a long older car slammed into the already wrecked sedan. Blasting through it, sending the firemen tumbling to the ground, and bouncing over a curb, the car kept going.

Smashing over a sign, jumping off the far side of the curb, the car turned back onto the street and sped away.

Vanishing in to the heavy downpour.

The police were nowhere near their vehicle and were far more concerned with the new victims than chasing after the car.

In that single moment Warner slammed his steering wheel to the right, mashed his gas pedal, and did just that.

Chased after a vehicle that just carried out the same crime that’d happened to his daughter. A hit and run.

Warner almost crashed within seconds though, cars appearing practically out of the gloom of the evening without a warning.

Dodging to one side he found a lane he could fly up through.

And better yet, the car of the individual up ahead.

What am I doing?

His blood was racing in his veins, his mind swimming with the delicious possibility of punishing someone who deserved.

Vibrating in his chair, it felt like his very soul was aflame with the idea. That all he had to do was catch up to this person and end their life.

A mere thought of doing such a thing sparked his desire for it all the. His mind cast his memory back to the moment when he’d killed that young thug.

The absolute sweet joy of it when he’d rid the world of something that evil.

Warner promptly stomped on his brakes and bounced up a ramp toward a big-box store.

Panting hard he yanked the wheel around and nearly fish-tailed out. Sliding a bit he ended up wedging himself up between two different parking spaces and almost into a third.

“What the hell is wrong with me?” Warner asked to no one. “What’s wrong with me? I… I… I don’t even know anymore.”

Sitting there, breathing hard, Warner tried to wrangle his thoughts and emotions back under control. Each time he managed it, his mind wandered off seconds later.

Back toward the hard to deny need that he felt.

To charge after that criminal and punish them. He could kill them, hurt them, or subject them to a sentence of his own devising.

But chastising them in one way or another was ultimately what he desperately wanted to do.

I want to… chastise… them? The hell?

“You’re losing it Warner. You’re losing it,” he said. “You’re seeing things, you killed someone, and you wanted to kill someone else.

“You’re losing it and you need help. Need help. Let’s get… let’s get help.”

One of the doctors had recommended not just Warner taking Maya to therapy, but him going as well.

Putting his car into park he pulled out his phone and called Maya.

“Hey-o, daddy-o,” Maya said after the first ring. “Let me guess, you forgot to get pizza and now you want to know if something else is okay?”

“Uh,” Warner said with a sudden and intense laser focus. He had indeed forgotten the pizza, but due to the traffic, he was actually in the clear. “No. That’s not it. I’m actually stuck in traffic so it’s going to be a bit later. Pizza is still good but I might get it from a different spot. Closer to him. Would get cold with me otherwise.”

“Oh. Oh, okay. That’s cool. Pizza really sounds good,” Maya said. “That and pizza doesn’t bother the posts much. Can just move it around them.”

The posts were the implant caps they’d put in her jaw after losing her teeth. They’d warned that it would be better to put the implants in after she had time to heal but they were concerned it’d be worse to wait.

Warner wasn’t a dentist but he didn’t see it as a problem.

“No pepperoni. Spicy things hurt,” Maya added.

“Yeah, no pepperoni,” Warner said with a chuckle. “Hey. Since I’m stuck in traffic I wanted to ask you a favor, too.”

“What… what is it?” Maya asked. She sounded nervous. Unsure.

He was reminded of the fact that she really was just a young girl in a situation that she didn’t deserve. She was holding up incredibly well, but she was still a little girl, and needed him to be her father.

“We’re both going to go to therapy,” Warner said. “You and me both. I think we should talk to people about whats happening.”

Maya didn’t say anything. He could hear the tv in the background though.

“I mean, I can’t really leave my bed, dad,” argued Maya.

“We’ll figure out something. I’m sure there’s therapists out there who do video conferencing,” Warner said. “It’s the twenty-first century after all.”

“I guess… I just… I dunno… won’t that make it worse?” Maya asked. Her tone sounded extremely nervous.

“I’m sure it won’t be pleasant, but I firmly believe we should go. Both of us,” Warner explained. “I’ll see one, and you’ll maybe see the same one, or a different one.”

“I… okay, dad. I can do that, I guess,” Maya mumbled.

“Great. Thanks, sweetie. I really appreciate that. I really, really do,” Warner said.

“But I need you to do something for me in exchange,” said Maya.

“That’s not how this works,” Warner said shaking his head with a grin. “See, I tell you what we’re going to do, and we do that. Because I’m your dad and I believe it’s the right thing to do here.”

“If you want me to participate, you’ll do something for me,” Maya said, stressing the word participate.

“I’m listening,” Warner said humoring her.

“You have to text or call Althea and ask her out for coffee or dinner,” Maya demanded. “She gots the white-boy fever and you’re the only cure.”

“I swear I’m bricking your phone, turning the internet off, and canceling the cable-service,” Warner promised.

He really didn’t like the way his daughter was talking.

“Oh dad,” Maya said with a laugh. “You’re so old.”