Paradise Falls (65 page)

He aimed the pistol at Jacob. Jennifer heard a scream outside, shouting from the hallway.

Calmly, Jennifer slipped the revolver out of her purse.

“Elliot,” she said, “Put the gun down.”

“Fuck you, whore,” he snarled, “You’re next.”

“It doesn’t have to be like this, Elliot. We’d all be dead on that ship if it weren’t for you. Don’t make me hurt you.”

The look on his face was almost inhuman. He moved closer.

“Wake up, asshole. I know you can hear me. “

Jacob’s hand twitched.

“Yeah, asshole,” Elliot barked. “I’m gonna fucking kill her. You hear me? Kill her?”

Then, Jennifer shot him.

The grip bucked against her hand. The gun jumped. The sound was loud, piercing. It made her ears ring. Elliot grabbed his stomach where the bullet hit and stumbled back, slumped against the trail and left a hot red trail down the white paint as he slid to sit on the floor, eyes wide with dull surprise, as if the concept that Jennifer might actually shoot him never occurred to him until proven. His hand fell open, and the gun started to slip out of his fingers.

His face hardened. He clutched his pistol, raised it. Jennifer fired twice more, and he collapsed to the side, his head thumping against the guest chair, his face slack, still not understanding. Jennifer calmly lowered the weapon to her lap, and waited, staring. Katie came in, screaming. Then security guards. Then police. To Jennifer it was like a time lapse film, everything flitting by at triple speed, the world a blur of light and overexposure.

Jacob’s hand lifted from the bed and came to rest on her shoulder. Jennifer leaned over and rubbed her cheek against his knuckles, waiting for them to take her away from him. They took her out first, as the police took pictures. They took her gun. She gave it freely, not speaking. Katie yelled at them as they wheeled her out, back to her room. A policeman stood outside, maybe so she couldn’t run away.

Some time later, six nurses and a doctor came, with Jacob. They wheeled him into her room, pulled back the curtain. Katie came a while later and pushed the beds together. There were still safety rails between them, but she could hold his hand now, or at least rest her bandaged limb on his palm. They gave her more drugs. Jennifer fell asleep again, with Katie sitting at the foot of the beds, keeping watch over them.

Jennifer floated in and out. Ana came in, talked to Katie, leaned over Jennifer and talked to her, but what she said faded away, leaving only warm tones. Jennifer turned to face Jacob and slept, waking to find him there again.

The next time she woke up,
really
woke up, she sat bolt upright. Jacob had the back of his bed propped up and he was eating lime Jell-O. He looked over at her.

“I was wondering how long you were going to sleep,” he rasped.

Jennifer sidled to the side of her bed and grabbed his hand.

“I thought you were going to leave me.”

“Never.”

There was a knock at the door.

“Who is it?” Jacob called.

“My name is Carl Denton. I need to speak with both of you.”

“Come in,” Jennifer sighed.

He was Official. Jennifer knew by his gait, his suit, his haircut. She’d known plenty of cops in her life. She knew new things now, though. She immediately picked out the shoulder holster under his right armpit. He was left handed but carried a pad in his left hand to conceal it. He had a slight limp from an injury to his knee and his nose had been broken but healed fairly well. There was a faint scar on the top of his head, running under his hairline. Jennifer watched him saunter into the room. She realized she was sizing up him for a fight, and her lips twitched.

He fished a wallet from his coat pocket and flashed it. Big blue letters against a white background and a badge. FBI.

“I need to ask you a few questions.”

“Can’t this wait?” said Jennifer.

He shrugged. “Mind if I sit down?”

“Go ahead.”

“Miss Katzenberg,” he said, “You shot a United States Senator’s son and killed him, you do realize that?”

“Yes,” Jennifer said, calmly.

The FBI man nodded, sagely. Jennifer shook her head, tried to relax.

“We have the gun with his prints, and camera footage from the nurse’s station outside showing him brandishing it, both times you fired,” he said, “and his father has been indicted on, well, everything. Every blogger in the world is screaming to the heavens about James Katzenberg’s corruption. It’s a hell of a story. The media is running with it.”

“I see,” said Jennifer. She wanted to demand he get to the point, but held her tongue.

He stood up. “Took a lot of work for us to clean up after you two. We had to take out a lot of trash. Hell of a mess in the kitchen.”

“Sorry,” said Jacob.

“You’ve brushed up against something bigger than you realize. The Fangs... Well, where there’s fangs there’s a jaw, and where there’s a jaw a head and a a head a body. You feel me?”

“What do you really want?” said Jennifer.

“This is a job offer. You two have impressed the, ah, people I work for.”

“The FBI?”

He smirked. “No. Not the FBI.”

“We’re not interested,” Jacob said.

“Don’t worry about it for now. You two need your rest. It’s a beautiful day out there. The birds are singing,” he looked at her, and fixed his gaze on Jacob.

“The sun is shining,” he said, and stepped out.

14.

Jennifer looked at her hand. Her left hand. There was no ring. She could still barely move her fingers, and her palm was a mass of ugly, puckered scar tissue. She was going to the wound care ward at the local hospital once a week to have it debrided, a horrific process that amounted to a doctor scraping the wound bed with a little fork to keep it bleeding so it would eventually seal over.

Jacob finished changing the bandage for her and held her hand in his. She had lost most of the feeling in her two smallest fingers, but not her thumb and forefinger, though she could barely move them. The doctors had her flexing her hand constantly despite the pain to keep the damage from freezing her whole hand into a useless claw.

“You don’t have to do this,” said Jacob. “Howard said we can stay home and he’ll call with the decision.”

“I’m not going to just let it go by without saying anything,” said Jennifer.

Jacob sighed, stepped out of the car and walked around to open her door. He was driving a more modest car now, a new Toyota. It suited him. Jennifer thought it was cute, but when she said that he scowled at her. She smiled and called it cute whenever she saw it from then on.

He hadn’t lost any weight, so far as she knew, but he looked thinner nonetheless, drawn. In the hospital, he cut his hair. It made him look more professional, less wild. Jennifer liked to take her good hand and scrub her fingers through it. She thought that he did it in sympathy with her. With Katie’s help she managed to shape her sawn off hair into a kind of pageboy until it grew longer. It was past her chin, now, and soon would be long enough to tie back, but she wasn’t sure she was going to grow it out waist length this time.

For a school board, meeting, there was quite a crowd here. The parking lot was full and the front lawn of No. 1, now the only standing high school in Paradise Falls, was also covered in cars and the street was lined with them, too. Jacob and Jennifer almost had to press through the mass of people to get inside and into the auditorium. The board meetings were usually held in one of the classrooms, but tonight it was standing room only. No. 2 had the bigger auditorium of the two schools, before. Often, when there was a big assembly or presentation, the kids from No. 1 would take the bus over and it would be combined into one event. Jennifer walked with Jacob through the throng outside the auditorium, and down the aisles. They had to thread between people.

The seats were already full, in the lower gallery and the second floor. Standing room only. Jacob and Jennifer went to sit at the table facing the stage, next to the union rep, Howard, and a few others. Jennifer edged her chair closer to Jacob.

Mark Miller, the head of the school board, walked out on the stage, holding a microphone, in front of the board proper.

“Can I have everybody quiet down, please?”

The hushed speech in the room died down to a low murmur. Miller spoke more softly into the microphone.

“Usually we don’t have this level of attendance for a school board meeting, so I hope you’ll bear with us as-“

“Get to the point!” someone in the back shouted, and there was louder murmur of approval.

Miller scowled.

“First up on the agenda tonight is disciplinary action against two of our teachers in response to a complaint filed earlier this year. Under the current contract, teachers are bound by a morality clause that specifically forbids unmarried cohabitation. It was brought to the boards attention that Jennifer Katzenberg and Jacob Kane had been living together-“

He was cut off by a different voice.

“So fucking
what?”
somebody shouted.

“Now,” Miller stuttered, “We have to follow procedure here-“

A riotous chorus of
boos
thundered through the auditorium. Jacob glanced over at her and shrugged. Jennifer sat there with her arms folded, and did not hide her irritation. Finally she turned around and looked at the crowd, and slowly the booing died out.

Miller swallowed, and the microphone picked up the sound and carried it as a wet smack through the open space.

“The board is thus obligated to conduct a review of the named employee’s behavior and make a determination.”

He took a deep breath.

“As the employees have chosen to appear…” he sighed again. “Miss Katzenberg, is it true that the two of you have been living together?”

“Yes,” said Jennifer, loud enough for her voice to carry.

“Mister Kane, is it-“

Jacob launched to his feet and pulled Jennifer up, giving her time only to squeak in protest. He spun her around, pulled her to him and kissed her right there in front of the god damn town.

In his arms, she forgot about that entirely. The auditorium went insane, shaking the rafters. She opened her eyes and saw her classes on their feet, cheering. Jacob lowered her into her chair and sat down, leaving her breathless, and somehow his voice cut through all the other sound.

“Does that answer your question to your satisfaction?”

“Y-yes,” Miller said, but the speakers couldn’t keep up.

He had to wait a good five minutes, and only spoke again when the din died down to mere wolf whistles and laughter.

“Okay then, there’s not much else to add,” said Miller. “Ordinarily we would simply make a determination, but the union has requested an open vote. I’ll turn to the board members. The clerk will record a vote by show of hands. Members of the board, raise your hand if you wish to press disciplinary action and terminate the employees. Keep them down if you vote against termination.”

Jennifer froze.

There were not many times in her life when she’d thought
I could hear a pin drop
, but this was one of those times. Eight members of the school board, nine with Miller, kept their hands at their sides for a good minute.

“Well,” he said, “I guess that settles that then.”

The thunderous applause made Jennifer jerk in her seat. Jacob steadied her with a hand on his shoulder.

“You two,” Miller bellowed into the microphone, “will be needed here on Monday morning as we reorganize the classes.”

There was movement behind her.

“Now, wait,” said Miller. We’re not done…”

More movement.

Jennifer stood up, turned around, and looked at the assembly.

“Sit
down,”
she bellowed.

There was a quiet shuffle as the crowd returned to their seats, or turned where they were standing.

“It’s a little early,” said Miller, “and it’s against our usual practice to award the honor twice, but the board has previously voted in secret to name Miss Katzenberg and Mister Kane our teachers of the year.”

Jennifer’s mouth fell open. Before the applause could start, Miller raised his hand to cut it off.

“Before we proceed with the rest of the meeting, I’d like to take a moment of silence to remember all those who lost their lives in recent events, and in the bridge collapse some years ago.”

She thought the room was quiet before, but it was dead silent now. Until she heard the sobbing.

It took Jennifer a bit to realize it was her.

When the time ended, Miller looked out and said.

“We can take the rest from here. Ya’ll head home now. Stay safe.”

Jennifer floated out to the car. Her colleagues kept the crowd away from her, mostly. She hugged a few students, exchanged words with a few others, but she was in a trance by the time she sat down in the front seat next to Jacob.

“We can do this tomorrow,” he said.
 

She shook her head.

“No, tonight.”

He nodded, and he drove.

Across the bridge, and off to the right, up the short road to the parking lot. It was dark, and Paradise Falls, what was left of it, was a sea of light on the other side of the river, beyond the low stone wall and pillars that made up the memorial. Jennifer drifted over to the memorial and Jacob appeared behind her with his hands on her shoulders.

Neither one of them spoke for a while. Jennifer watched the lights moving. Lamps in houses turning on and off, cars moving. Life. Life went on, flowed along just like the river below, casting its reflection on her darkness.

“Mom,” Jacob said. “Dad. Candy.” His voice cracked. “This is Jennifer.”

He put his arms around her and buried his face in her hair and sobbed. Jennifer leaned back against him, her eyes closed, until he calmed, drew in a breath and steadied himself.

“I’m ready to go when you are.”

She nodded. “I need a minute alone. I won’t be long.”

Jacob released her, touched her shoulders and turned back to the car. She waited until he was out of earshot and walked to the wall, and leaned over, looking down the river under the new bridge. A blink and she saw it in her mind’s eye- the wreckage, the cars, bodies, Christmas presents floating on the river, sliding between chunks of ice. The whole weight of the past, damming up the river, stopping the flow of the future, leaving her in limbo. She sucked in a breath like breathing in ice water and squeezed her hand.