Watson by Kathi Barton (ebook reader txt) 📕

people think it’s easy being lazy. It ain’t. I have to be thinking up new ways all the time to get myself out of doing shit.” She asked him if he had ever worked. “Long time ago. But I got fired when I was caught napping on the job. Tell me this—how come they expect you to be at work at eight in the damned morning, and they don’t let you take a couple of little snoozes along the day? I just couldn’t do it.”

Saying nothing, she watched him out of the corner of her eye. Cooper had told her to let him do the talking, and he might say something that would get his ass into trouble. The police were recording them, using the camera system that was in every cubicle of the emergency department. More police were at the house now, examining the blood and other items around the place. He also told her that the place looked like it was a dumping ground. Not hoarding, he told her, but just trash piled up all over the place.

“I did have me a sweet deal once. This guy gave me a hundred bucks for stealing shit off cars that were just sitting around. It was easy money until he got his ass caught.” Rayne asked him if that was something he considered hard work. “Nah. I mean, I guess it is hard work, but it was fun ripping people off.”

“I see. I’m going to work on the other cut now. How are you holding up?” He said he was fine but could use a little more juice.” Calling for a nurse, she received a little more numbing medication and put it in his arm. “Better?”

“Yeah, that’s the shit right there.” She wondered if he was ever going to talk about the boy. That’s what she wanted to get him on, abuse. “Where is that dumbass anyway? Brenda said she’d have him at the house before I woke up.”

“He’s been X-rayed for some broken ribs and some other injuries he must have gotten from falling.” Sloan laughed. “Why do you find it funny that he is hurting?”

“The kid knows better than to say a word about how he gets himself beat up. I tell you, he’s a lot more fun to knock around now that he’s older.” She stared at him. “Come on. You have to know he’s no more fallen out of a tree than I’m a good person. He’s a little thief that gets into the shit I pay for. I was going to teach him a lesson about that, but the neighbor came over and started screaming at me about the noise and shit.”

“What did you do to him?” He seemed almost proud of the fact that he’d tried to cut his arm off. Sloan went into great detail about how he’d had Brenda hold Louis down while he used a butcher knife to try to cut his hand off. “Why would you not just give him a glass of milk? I mean, he’s a growing boy and needs it.”

“He ain’t gonna be around much longer if he don’t behave himself and stay out of shit that don’t belong to him.” Sloan laughed a little as she bent her head over her task. Letting him see her fury right now would not help Louis. “You sure are easy to talk to. I mean, I’d not say shit if we were being recorded or something. There are laws about that shit.”

“About what shit? Recording you? I don’t know if you saw them or not, but there are signs all over this place that tells you that you’re being recorded.” He shook his head and told her that was just signs they put up for people to think on it. “You believe that?”

“Sure. Them things are expensive, and I know that this hospital ain’t got the money like the big ones do. I mean, just look at what you got on. It says doctor on it. We both know that ain’t something that is going to happen. Women are nurses. Men are doctors.” He laughed again. She’d forgotten that she’d put on her new lab coat when she’d left the offices upstairs. “I got me one of them recording things at the house. When I’m in the mood, I sometimes replay some of the shit that I did during the day. That’s how I know Mistake was into my milk. It was right there for everyone to see.”

She heard a scuffle on the other side of the curtain, and then the curtain was pushed back. Cooper was standing there with a big smile on his face and his gun pointed at Sloan. He asked her if she wouldn’t mind backing away from the man.

“Mr. Albert Sloan, you’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Louis Sloan.”

Rayne backed out of the room as Sloan’s rights were read to him. Wats was right here with AJ, and he handed her the baby while he held her in his arms.

“You did a good job in there. I would have murdered him when he told me that he was lazy.” She told him she’d been terrified that he’d not admit to what he’d done to the little boy. “I’ve gone up to check on Louis. He’s in a room now, and they have him hooked up to an IV to help with his malnutrition. AJ was entertaining him while I was there. He’s going into the system unless we take him with us. What do you think?”

“That’s a silly question. Of course, we’ll take him home with us when he’s ready.” Wats kissed her on the forehead, and she laid her head on his chest again. “He’s so afraid, Wats. Do you think he’ll trust us someday?”

“Yes. If for no other reason than we’ve not hurt AJ. He was checking her for marks when I was in the room with him. He was trying his best to be slick about it, but Louis