To Hatred Turned by Ken Englade Page B

scrutinize the surroundings.
    “Would you like to look at the rest of the room?” Carol asked nervously, attempting to hide her concern with sarcasm. “I mean it’s got a bathtub. Want to check under the bed?”
    Joy grunted. “Okay,” she said impatiently, plopping tensely on the edge of the bed, “what’s the scoop?”
    Carol gripped her hands together and tried to sound casual. “Well, Joy,” she said nervously, “I’d say we’re both in trouble.”
    Joy asked a simple question: “Why?”
    Carol sighed. Garland was less than happy with her, she explained, because she had him arrested for assault. Additionally, he thought she had hidden his truck and was refusing to give it back. But most of all, Carol said, it was because she had a tape that allegedly implicated Garland in the plots against Rozanne and Larry.
    “Before we go any further,” Joy asked, “do you really have it?”
    “Yes, I do,” Carol said, sounding injured. “And it’s going to stay in that safety-deposit box. It’s not coming out ever.”
    It appeared to her, Joy said, that Carol could get Garland off her back simply by agreeing to drop the assault charges against him, giving him back his truck, and reassuring him about the tape. However, Carol disagreed, insisting that Garland was going to keep harassing her.
    “With that tape, I don’t really think so,” Joy scoffed.
    Joy’s apparent lack of empathy infuriated Carol. “The man is sadistic,” she said angrily. “He’s crazy.”
    He may be as unbalanced as Carol claimed, Joy retorted, but he was not crazy enough to want to go to jail.
    “He’s schizophrenic,” Carol replied. “He is not stable.” He doesn’t care about going to jail, she added.
    Joy sighed. Okay, she conceded. Garland was not mentally well. So what did Carol suggest? What did she think could be done to alleviate the situation?
    Carol slumped and stared at the floor, confessing that she was at her wit’s end, that she was so frightened and confused that she could hardly think straight. What did she—Joy—think could be done? Carol asked.
    Joy did not answer for several minutes, considering the possibilities. I’ll call him, she said finally.
    Carol was shocked at the suggestion. “To do what?” she asked incredulously. “What are you going to talk to him about?”
    “Tell him to stop all this craziness,” Joy said, explaining her logic. “It’s the only way anybody’s going to survive.” She would persuade him to leave Carol alone, Joy said, because that was the only way they all could get on with their lives with a minimum of trouble.
    Carol was not convinced. In fact, she was not even sure Joy fully comprehended the seriousness of the situation. “You’re not with the program,” Carol spat, her voice shrill. “The man calls three times last Sunday. Three times! None of which was he polite, kind, sweet, or anything else. He was aggressive, hostile, and very willing to tell me what he’d do to me. Now, I don’t think getting him on the phone and saying, ‘Oh, you really shouldn’t do this,’ is going to do a lot of good.”
    That was where the tape came in, Joy pointed out. If Garland knew that the tape would be turned over to police if he continued to pursue Carol, it would be a tremendous incentive for him to leave her alone.
    Although the argument made sense to Joy, Carol was not convinced. Garland was going to keep after her, Carol maintained, whether she dropped the assault charge against him or not, whether there was a tape or not. “He’s going to come after me,” Carol asserted, “whether it’s today, six months from now, or three years from now. He’s got a lot of patience. And he holds a grudge a long time.”
    To Joy, no matter what her sister said, Carol’s biggest insurance policy seemed to be the tape. “I don’t suggest giving him the tape,” she said dryly.
    Joy didn’t have to worry about that, Carol responded quickly; she didn’t plan to give Garland