The Woman Next Door (10 page)

“Which one do you like, honey?”

“I knew you were going to ask that,” he said, sighing.

* * *

“Hello the cabin!” Wally called out, a big grin on his face.

“Wally!” Elizabeth opened the door and ran outside to greet him. “I am so happy to see you! Is it all over?” she asked, so excited she was nearly jumping up and down.

“Where is the lieutenant?” Wally asked. “And why are you stepping outside and making a target of yourself?” he gruffly added in a scolding tone of voice.

“Oh No! It didn’t work?” Elizabeth’s green eyes filled with tears.

“Now, I didn’t say that, little girl. I only want to tell this one time, so where is the lieutenant?”

“He’s inside, taking a shower. He said he slept wrong and has a kink in his neck. I told him to stand under the shower for a while to see if the hot water helped a bit.”

“Lizzy, you scared the hell out of me!” Craig scolded. “Wally, please tell me you have good news. I’m going to go crazy if I have to sit on Lizzy much longer!”

“I’m sorry to be such a bother,” Elizabeth told him, hiding her face against his shirt.

“You aren’t a bother, but you do scare me and try my patience. You know you weren’t to go outside.”

“But, it is Wally. We trust him.”

“We do, but what if he was followed?”

“I’m not a fool, young man,” Wally said crisply. “I made sure I wasn’t, not that it matters. We got the whole McMaken Family. Your tip paid off in a big way, Elizabeth, and we also had help from Lon’s girlfriend. It seems he crossed a line with her and she knew she would be killed if he found her. She had names, and she confirmed that McMaken was planning to kill Peyton Gregory, and then have a party tonight to celebrate. We arrested each and every one of the people she gave us, and we found enough documentation in McMaken’s safe to put him away for good.”

“Good work,” Craig said with a relieved smile.

“Oh, you ain’t heard it all, Lieutenant. That creep sent two men after Elizabeth’s neighbor and tried to scare her into telling where you were hiding. One of them took out a knife and threatened her and she snapped her loppers at him and gave him hell. Dunson and Anders got there just in time. They sent her home, and after those two were hauled in, Dunson and Anders went to question Mrs. Huffy. She’s one sassy lady. Her husband had her in the car and on their way out of town within ten minutes. McMaken sent one of the goons back to get information from her… He wasn’t none too pleased that she wasn’t there.”

“I knew he would go after people I know. I don’t like Catherine Huffy, but I would hate for her to get hurt because of me.”

“You listen to me, young lady…
NONE
of this is your fault. Do you hear me?” Wally asked, shaking a finger at her. “This is all McMaken’s fault. He underestimated you, the lieutenant here, Officer Sylvia, Mrs. Huffy, and his girlfriend. He buried himself, and it is not your fault.”

“Thank you for saying that, Wally. Is everyone else okay?” she asked. “Was anyone harmed when they protected the senator?”

“There was a little skirmish, but nothing our boys in blue couldn’t handle. I was proud to help,” he declared. “What do I smell cooking? I’m starving.”

“It’s nearly ready, Wally. Come on inside. Isn’t it odd for me to invite you inside your own home?” Elizabeth laughed at herself, and was relieved when Wally chuckled too.

“Did you have everything you needed?” he asked. “I worried there wasn’t no milk or fresh fruit or eggs.”

“A friend brought some by,” she shared that information, and Craig explained about Randy, and said he needed to go by Randy’s house and talk to his parents and make sure they knew what a special son they had. Wally nodded.

Elizabeth put the finishing touches on dinner, and was glad she’d made a lot in anticipation of tomorrow’s lunch.”

“You made lasagna!” Wally declared. “This is a real treat.”

“Enjoy, Wally. I made a lot. Craig is a healthy eater.”

“I’m not a fool; I know good food when I taste it. Wally, she turned your staples into gourmet meals. I’m not kidding.”

“That’s good to know.” He ate a few bites of food, then looked at Craig and said, “We had us two spies on the inside. The captain was right about them, and they’re up on charges.”

“Has a decision been made about Sylvia?” Craig hated to ask, but he was concerned.

“The DA isn’t going to file charges. He said that every last person on the jury would sympathize with Sylvia and find her innocent because McMaken threatened her baby. Internal Affairs hasn’t made a decision yet.”

“I want to talk to them, Craig. Please, can you set it up for me?” Elizabeth asked. “I want to tell them my view of everything. They need to hear what I have to say.”

“I’ll see what I can do, honey, but just so you know, they don’t have to let you speak.”

“Yes, they do!” she insisted. “I can make them understand just how strong the urge to protect a child is, and her baby is so young. God, honey… Can you imagine anyone torturing that baby? How that threat would scare Sylvia out of her mind? In Sylvia’s place, I would have done the same thing.
Nothing
will be served by taking away her means to earn a living.”

“I think you
could
convince those turkeys to let her keep on working.” Wally spoke his mind.

“I’ll see if I can get them to agree to hear Lizzy out, but, no tantrums if they say no.”

“I’ll try my very best. When are we leaving for town?” she asked excitedly. “I have so much to do to catch up with everyone.”

“I think you’d best stay right here for another day or two just to make sure those morons don’t get out on a technicality,” Wally advised them.

“But, if they are behind bars…”

“Wally is right, Lizzy. I want to go home, too, but I want to make sure that no one comes around looking for you. Right now you are the least of their worries, but the fact that you can testify that you heard McMaken making plans to assassinate Peyton Gregory is no small fact even though he was caught in the act.”

“When do you think it will be safe?” she asked Craig.

“Hopefully soon.”

It wasn’t that easy, however. The police had a few members of the McMaken Family to round up, and it wasn’t considered safe for Elizabeth to come home, and both Athena and Sylvia were being kept in protective custody, too. It was reported to them by Wally that Lon McMaken was mad as hell and making all sorts of threats toward the women he felt betrayed him. The captain agreed to let Craig use his vacation time to stay with Elizabeth and keep her safe, and Randy kept them in fresh fruit, veggies and dairy supplies.

Finally, even though it took much longer than they wanted, Lon McMaken and his miserable family were put in prison, where they belonged. On the upside of things, Craig and Elizabeth grew closer from spending so much time together, and they recognized their feelings for each other were true. Craig officially asked Elizabeth to marry him, using a ring that was given to him by his grandmother. Elizabeth was delighted to say yes, and told Craig she was so happy she didn’t know what to do with herself. He found that endearing, and promised her a ‘real’ ring when they were able to return to the city. Elizabeth told him that she already had her real ring and she didn’t want another.

It felt good to return home and live in her own home once again, and everyone at work thought her a hero. Elizabeth protested and said it wasn’t her own choice, but her coworkers continued to treat her as though she singlehandedly brought down the McMaken Family and sent them to prison.

Elizabeth was granted an interview with the Internal Affairs division of the police department, and they heard her wishes regarding Sylvia. One man said he couldn’t believe that she would defend the woman and she asked him what he would have done if it were his helpless baby they were threatening to torture. She played on his sympathies until he was feeling green! It was decided to give Sylvia another chance, but Craig warned his fiancée that Sylvia wouldn’t have an easy time of it. It would take a long time to regain the trust of her fellow officers.

The one other person who touched her life was Athena. The woman calmly testified, and she corroborated everything that Elizabeth said. “Lonnie was afraid that Nurse Matthews would connect Senator Gregory’s assassination to him, and that is why he wanted her killed. If anyone else would have slipped up like that, Lonnie would have had him executed, but Lonnie felt as though it was Nurse Matthews’ fault for being a conscientious nurse and overhearing his conversation. Lonnie McMaken is not a nice man, and I learned that the hard way.”

“They’re at it again, Craig!” Hubert said into his cell phone. “I’m going to go outside and do my best to break it up, but it’s all I can do to handle Catherine. You’d better come if you can!”

“I’m on my way,” Craig said, putting the light on top of his car and driving as fast as it was safe to do so in the heavy traffic. The truce between Elizabeth and Catherine Huffy lasted throughout the trial, but as soon as the crime family was put away for good, the two females started fighting with each other again. Mrs. Huffy wanted that damn fire bush gone, and Elizabeth actually went to the nursery to find another one to plant right beside the first! Craig managed to stop her that day by calling while she was shopping and warning her to stop yanking on Mrs. Huffy’s chains.

Craig parked around the corner and started toward the house on foot. He wanted to see for himself what those two were doing and saying. It was long past time he took Elizabeth in hand in regards to the woman next door. He could hear them screeching at each other well before they could see him coming towards them. Craig spotted Hubert and motioned for him to join him in confronting Elizabeth and Catherine.

“You are nothing but an interfering old biddy!” Elizabeth said loudly.

“I am not the one who was almost killed by a crime family!” Catherine retorted. “If this huge bush wasn’t here, I would have known you were in trouble!”

“I do not want you snooping on me!”

“I do not snoop! I merely observe and try to keep the neighborhood safe for everyone!” Catherine denied, stomping her foot angrily. “What is the point of a neighborhood watch if you put bushes in your yard to block your house and the street?”

“You aren’t just observing when you hear something unusual. You are sitting in your house with binoculars, trying to see into our personal lives! I won’t have it; do you hear me?”

“I’m not deaf, Elizabeth Matthews! I can’t understand why you are being so stubborn and unreasonable! After all you’ve been through, you should welcome my help in watching out for your safety!”

“You don’t care a fig for my safety, you crazy woman! All you want is to poke your long, crooked nose into my personal business! It makes you insane that you can’t see who is coming and going from over here! You can’t handle it because you don’t know when I am home or away from home. You can’t spy on me and try to figure out my work schedule! It is none of your damn business! If it was permitted in the bylaws, I would build a fence so high that you’d never, ever see me again!”

“Well, I never!” Catherine gasped. “You are such a rude woman, Elizabeth Matthews!”

“I am only rude because you are so overbearing! None of the neighbors can stand you! The only reason none of them speak up to you is because we all love Hubert.”

“Of all the hateful things to say! You need a good paddling and I am of a mind to speak to Lieutenant Johnson!”

Her words cut through Elizabeth like a knife. Mrs. Huffy had no idea how close she was to the truth. Craig would definitely spank her if he heard her yelling at the older woman in this manner. It was time for her to back off and take her temper inside the house. “You leave my fire bush alone. I’ve already ordered two more of them, and I am going to make a secondary fence out of them for my yard. You and I are
never
going to get along, Mrs. Huffy, and I want you to go away and leave me alone.” She turned on her heel and ran smack into Craig. “Oh! What are you doing here?” she demanded, her temper flaring at finding him right behind her.

“Hubert called me,” he said, his voice tight with displeasure.

“Hubert Eugene! How dare you involve the police in this personal matter?” Catherine demanded, her hands on her hips.

“I heard what you said about Elizabeth needing a good spanking,” Hubert ignored her question to say. “I agree with you, Catherine,” he said quietly, and when she nodded in satisfaction, he added, “I happen to think you need a good spanking, too.”

“What! Don’t be ridiculous, Hubert Eugene!” Catherine scolded, embarrassed as could be. She knew that women her age were not spanked! How could her husband say that in front of their snotty neighbor woman?

“I’m not being ridiculous. If Elizabeth needs a spanking for speaking to you so rudely, then you need a spanking for provoking her. I believe you do it on purpose, Catherine.”

“I do not!” Catherine denied the accusation. “I just want to be able to see, and this horrible fire bush prevents me from doing that! Now she is planning to make a fence of fire bushes to block my sight in this direction altogether! Tell her she can’t do that, Hubert Eugene.”

Craig had heard enough. “I am tired of you two women fighting over this bush. It ends now.” He turned on his heel and marched to the shed where Elizabeth kept her yard tools, and he returned seconds later with a chain saw. He started it, and to Elizabeth’s utter horror, he cut down the bush from the base. “There. Now there is no reason for you two women to be fighting.” He turned to take the saw back to the shed, but looked over his shoulder to say, “Inside the house, now, Miss Matthews. Hubert, please take your wife home.”

“I will be happy to do that, Craig. Come along, Catherine. You are in for a serious spanking.”

“Me?” Catherine replied. “I am not the one who needs to be punished!”

“I disagree. You have baited and prodded Elizabeth, causing her to dislike you. You are a nosy neighbor, Catherine, and I am going to start spanking you each time I catch you poking your nose into our neighbors’ business. Now, get yourself inside… Unless you want me to cut a switch and use it on you right out here on the lawn where all the neighbors can see and witness you getting your comeuppance?”

“Hubert Eugene, stop talking like that! Elizabeth is going to get the wrong idea!”

“I will make sure she gets the right idea, then.” Hubert took his wife’s arm and pulled her close to bend her over his arm and then his hand fell like a piston, spanking her so firmly that she couldn’t help crying out in pain and mortification!

“Stop that!” Elizabeth scolded, reaching out to grab Hubert’s hand. “Catherine is too old for you to treat her this way!” she stated, clearly shocked that he would spank the woman.

“Oh no; you shouldn’t have called Catherine old, Elizabeth!” Hubert murmured, and two seconds later his angry wife was glaring at the young woman.

“I am
not
old! And I’ll thank you not to forget that! Your generation thinks that anyone over fifty is too old to amount to anything, and I am tired of it. Hubert, let’s go! I have been insulted enough for one day! What does she know about ‘too old’?”

“Calm down, Catherine.”

“She’ll be this age soon, and then I’ll ask her if she is too old!”

“You’ll be in a nursing home by then, and probably nosing into all of the residents’ personal business.”

“That’s not true, Hubert! I am not nosy! I take our neighborhood watch seriously!”

Elizabeth was so shocked by her neighbors’ behavior that she was totally unprepared when Craig returned, bent and swooped her up over his shoulder.

“I told you to go inside, young lady!” He started spanking the seat of her jeans and the swats were so hard they took her breath away.

“Stop! Stop! You need to listen, Craig! Emergency!” she declared, trying to get his attention, and that word did the trick. He stopped.

“Emergency? What?” He looked all around, expecting to find danger lurking somewhere.

“Craig, you need to put me down and go after the neighbors! Hubert is planning to spank Catherine, and she is too old for that. Please go and save her before he hurts her!”

Craig would have laughed but for the fact that Elizabeth was earnest. She was clearly upset and wanted no harm to come to the woman next door. “Elizabeth, a spanking is not going to harm Catherine. Hubert is trying to keep her from getting hurt… by you, or by someone else who doesn’t like a nosy neighbor.”

“Don’t you think she is too old to be spanked?” Elizabeth asked, horrified.

“No woman ever gets too old to be spanked, according to my grandfather. I believe it was his father or grandfather who taught him that, and I know my father agrees. Catherine Huffy is not that old, sweetheart, and I respect Hubert for dealing with her; just as I am going to deal with you, Elizabeth.”

“It’s not
my
fault! You heard Hubert; she came over here to pick a fight with me over my beautiful fire bush! You cut down my fire bush!” she accused, trying to kick him, and when she couldn’t get her feet free to do some damage, she raised her fists and started beating his back. All that earned her was even harder spanks over her jeans. “Stop it! You have no right to do this after you ruined my fire bush! It took me a long time to get it just right, and you cut it down in less than a minute! I am so unhappy with you!” She whacked him again.

“And that is enough!” Craig roared. “I seem to recall that we still haven’t dealt with the slap you dealt me on the day we met! We’ll just get that spanking over with now, as well as the one you earned for fighting with Catherine Huffy.”

“No!” Elizabeth tried to throw herself off his shoulder, and since he was on one foot when she tried to get away, he lost his balance and she gained her footing. Elizabeth took off running, determined that he wasn’t going to catch her and spank her! She permitted that sort of behavior at the cabin, but now that she was home, it wasn’t going to happen! Elizabeth only had a few seconds head start, but she ran like the wind, and left him behind in a matter of seconds.

* * *

“Hubert Eugene, how could you embarrass me so?” Catherine demanded, tears filling her eyes. Her cheeks were a bright red, attesting to the fact that she was humiliated. “And in front of that woman next door! Sometimes I can’t believe you!”

“Sometimes
I
can’t believe
you
, Catherine. Didn’t we discuss this already? You were told to stay away from Elizabeth Matthews. She is entitled to do what she wants with her yard.”

“Not if it blocks my view!” Catherine stubbornly insisted, and then smugly added, “Not that it is a problem now. Lieutenant Johnson sided with me, and high time!”

“The man didn’t side with you, Catherine. He simply got rid of the thing that you two women have been arguing over for months now. This fighting has to stop, and I intend to make sure that it does. You can go into the bedroom and prepare the bed for a strapping. It has been a long time since I felt I needed to be so harsh with you, Catherine, but I have reached the end of my patience. I’m sure you remember what is expected of you.”

“Please, Hubert Eugene! Not that! I am too sensitive for a strapping. I won’t be able to move if you do that!”

“Don’t make the mistake of trying to talk me out of it, Catherine. You are getting the strapping, and then we are getting in the car and going to the nursery and you are going to buy Elizabeth Matthews a new fire bush out of your personal money.”

“I won’t do it, Hubert Eugene!” she immediately protested. “No! That horrible bush is finally gone and I am not going to see it replaced!”

“You will change your mind; I’m sure. Now move…”

* * *

Craig felt his temper soar when Elizabeth managed to escape from him, and he could well imagine what the other police officers would have to say if they learned she’d outmaneuvered him, and her half his size! He gave chase, and was truly surprised to learn that she was super fast on her feet. Of course, he was no slouch in that department, and he gained on her steadily. Finally, Craig was able to reach out and tackle her to the ground.

Elizabeth had the wind knocked out of her, and she gasped to breathe. “I… can’t… breathe!”

“You’ll be all right in a minute. Breathe normally, try to relax.”

“I’m… a… nurse!” Elizabeth reminded him.

“Then stop trying to talk. Damn it, Lizzy, I didn’t mean to hurt you! Blister you good, yes, but hurt you, never.”

“I’m… not hurt,” she insisted. “I’m sorry… I… ran…” She rested her head on his shoulder. “I panicked.”

“Why? Are you afraid of me?”

“No. Afraid of a sore butt, yes. I didn’t think you would do that again when life was back to normal,” she confessed.

“I’ll do it anytime it needs doing,” he assured her.

“But, that isn’t at all modern and fitting for today’s world.”

“Do you want to end up divorced like over half of the population?”

“No, I don’t,” she answered, looking into his eyes.

“Then we’ll do things the old-fashioned way. I’ve seen how it works; there are no divorces in my family, and plenty of very happy marriages.”

“My parents are still married, but I believe it is in name only. They even take separate vacations.”

“I don’t want that for us.”

“I don’t either, Craig.”

He got to his feet, and then he reached down and helped her up. “Let’s go and get this spanking over with, Miss Matthews.”

“I won’t fight with Mrs. Huffy again,” she promised.

“And this spanking will be a good reminder.” He led her straight to her kitchen and then bent her over the small table. Craig then took a spatula from the canister beside the stove, and walked over to where she remained. He used the spatula to leave a burning sting on her left cheek, and then he spanked that same spot several more times.