Nine Minutes (23 page)

It wasn’t
until the custody hearing that things started to get really nasty. The divorce
had been finalized months earlier, and Blue and Jan were sharing joint custody
of the boys. Blue told
Grizz
that it looked like
things were going to turn out in his favor. The motorcycle gang was brought up
in the custody hearings, but with no proof, Jan was practically laughed out of
the courtroom. Blue’s attorney attacked with a vengeance, bringing up Jan’s
battle with mental illness and adultery.

     
I think that this
lulled Blue and
Grizz
into a false sense of security
where the gang was concerned. They figured she wouldn’t be able to do any harm
now.

     
But I guess Jan
couldn’t take it anymore. She finally pulled an ace out of her sleeve like she’d
done so many years earlier, when Blue was going to leave her and she suddenly got
pregnant.

     
This time it was
different, though. This time, her ace would have a ripple effect that couldn’t
be measured. It would destroy people.
A lot of people.

     
Jan decided it
was time to tell the world about Guinevere Love Lemon.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

I don’t
know how she managed it. How she was able to investigate my name without
bringing it to the attention of
Grizz’s
network of
informants, law enforcement and otherwise. I’m pretty sure she didn’t know if I
was a runaway or had been abducted, but she did somehow find out I’d
disappeared in 1975, never to be heard from again.

     
This was her
first step in getting custody of her boys. She was going to bring down Blue by
bringing down the gang. By bringing down
Grizz
.

     
I had to admit she
was one gutsy woman. She was working with authorities to go into the Witness
Protection Program. Blue was wrong. Jan knew far, far more than he thought.

     
I was never
certain how she tracked down
Froggy
without causing
notice to herself.
Froggy
had never gotten over what
Grizz
had done to
Willow
. He’d
started to slowly withdraw from the group after her exile, and even more so
after her death. It was obvious by his testimony on the witness stand that he
totally despised
Grizz
for what he did to her.
Froggy
was more than willing to tell the authorities
everything he knew in exchange for his protection.

     
The police showed
up at our house in Shady Ranches with a warrant and arrested
Grizz
. He didn’t put up a fight as they handcuffed him and
read him his rights. He was calm. He was certain his attorney would have him
out on bail within hours.

     
Grizz
had been arrested before. It was never a big deal in
the past—always minor charges that were an attempt to harass him. He was
never arrested for any serious crimes. But this was the first time he was
arrested in my presence. He stared at me and listened calmly as they read him
his rights and started reciting the list of charges.

     
“Jason William
Talbot, you have the right to remain silent—”

     
It was the first
time I’d heard his whole name.

     
I’d gotten over
my obsession with learning his real name years earlier. I never saw the gang’s
use of fictitious names as anything but a means for them to cause confusion,
anyway. I never saw it as the big deal that they did.

     
But suddenly, as
they listed the charges,
Grizz’s
demeanor changed. He
went ballistic, even with his hands behind his back, when they called me by my
real name and started asking me questions.

     
“Are you in fact
Guinivere
Love Lemon, who disappeared from Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida on May 15, 1975?” I couldn’t answer. I was in shock.

     
“Were you a
runaway or abducted by this man?”

     
Grizz
knew then that this arrest wasn’t for a list of
trivial offenses. This would be different. They knew who I was. The big
question was had I been abducted or was I a runaway? And how involved had I
been in
Grizz’s
criminal activity?

     
One of the
officers said to me, “Answer very cautiously, Guinevere.
If
you were abducted by this man in 1975 against your will, that’s one thing.
But if you were a runaway and participated willingly in the Satan’s Army gang,
it’s a whole different ballgame.”

     
“Don’t answer a
fucking thing until we talk to our attorney,”
Grizz
snapped.
“Don’t say a word, Kit. Nothing. Get the fuck away from my wife.”

     
He head-butted
one of the men and sent him sprawling backwards into our stone fireplace. The
man was dazed but didn’t appear to be hurt.

     
I’d started
crying, and even though the men were kind to me, I was afraid. Two of them
started beating on
Grizz
. He barely flinched.

     
“Stop it,” I
cried. “Please, everyone. Just stop. We’ll go with you. Please, no more.”

     
“You can’t take
her to jail,”
Grizz
snarled. “She can’t be in jail.
This has nothing to do with her. Leave her alone.”

     
“We’re not
arresting her, just you,
fuckwad
.” This from the guy
Grizz
had head-butted. Of course, he said it from a safe
distance.

     
“It’ll all be
settled at the station,” the oldest of the men said.

     
It was a line
right out of an old black-and-white police movie. The detective reminded me of
a kindly grandfather. He was probably close to retirement and wanted to be
anywhere but here.

     
He added, “She’ll
be fine. She won’t get hurt. Calm down. This is just procedure. You know how
this goes down, Jason.” He turned to me and gently took me by the arm. “I’m
Detective Banner, and it’ll be okay, Guinevere. We just need to ask you some
questions. It’s all part of the process. Your husband is overreacting.”

     
I looked at him
sadly. “He’s just worried about me because I’m pregnant.”

____________

I’d just
found out a week earlier I was pregnant again. I wasn’t far along at all, but
Grizz
and I still let
ourselves
get excited.

     
“Call Mark. He’ll
have me out by tonight,”
Grizz
told me as they walked
him to our door.

     
“Not this time,
Talbot,” one of the officers, a young one, said. “I don’t think a judge will
give you a bail option. Kidnapping is a federal offense. You’ll stay locked up
until trial.”

     
“Just call him,
Kit.”

     
“No,
Grizz
,” I called after him. “He’s not good enough for this.
I’ve got someone else in mind.”

     
I’d been
following the career of a very powerful and well-known defense attorney. He was
young, but was making a real name for himself in South Florida.

     
“Who?”
Grizz
yelled back over his shoulder. I was now following
behind him with Detective Banner at my side.

     
“Matthew,” I told
him, resolve firm in my voice.

     
“Matthew who?” he
asked as they put him in the back of the police car.

     
“Matthew
Rockman
. The kid from my porch.”

     
The car door
slammed, and he was gone.

     
I’d told no one,
not even Sarah Jo, that I’d been back in touch with my friend from high school.
It just didn’t seem necessary.

     
Matthew had found
me back in 1980. It wasn’t hard. It was during the time when I was living at
the motel and had found out I was pregnant that first time. It was no secret
the leader of Satan’s Army lived at the Glades Motel.

     
Matthew pulled in
one day pretending to be a lost motorist. Chowder told him he’d passed Flamingo
Road miles back. He would have to turn around. He’d casually asked Chowder if
the motel was open for business. Chowder had eyed him cautiously and didn’t
answer, just pointed to the road.
But not before Matthew
spotted me.

     
I’d come out, gotten
in my car and, without knowing I was doing so, actually followed him onto State
Road 84. Armed with information—that I lived there and what I drove—now
he could plan a way to see me.

     
Matthew could
have followed me the first day he saw me, but he was worried he’d raised
Chowder’s suspicions. So he’d parked in Pete’s parking lot, facing the highway,
for two days before he spotted me driving my Trans Am. He followed me to the
grocery store and waited until after I got out of my car to approach me.

     
I’d recognized
him immediately. He told me he didn’t want to make trouble, just wanted to
talk. And that’s all we did. I told him almost everything—everything
except my knowledge of
Grizz’s
criminal endeavors.

     
“You don’t need to
try and hide what the guy does, Gin. His gang is notorious. I just want to see
how you’re doing.”

     
“I’m good,
Matthew. I know
Grizz
threatened you that night. I’m
sorry for that. But honestly, I’m happy with him. He’s good to me. I’m going to
have his baby.”

     
This surprised
him. “I just needed to check on you before I did anything. I’m not that kid
anymore. I’m not afraid of him.”

     
“Well, you should
be afraid of him. Just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean he can’t get to
you. That’s not a threat, Matthew. I’m just stating a fact. I’m telling a
friend,
who
I care about, to stay away. Please just
leave us alone.”

     
“You’re certain
of that, Gin? I’ll keep it to myself if you’re telling me the truth.”

     
“I’m certain,
Matthew.”

     
I’d given a long
explanation then, about how I didn’t approve of or participate in
Grizz’s
gang activity, but had found myself falling in love
with him anyway. Matthew couldn’t equate the straight-A, mild-mannered girl
with the grown woman who was married to the brutal leader of a motorcycle gang.
But he also remembered my neglected home life, and how much I loved the
attention his family lavished on me.

     
Our conversation
went from me convincing him to leave us alone to two old friends catching up on
each other’s lives. I had been sitting in his car talking to him when he got
very quiet and stared out over his steering wheel. I guess he just couldn’t let
it go.

     
“You know, your
abduction influenced my decision to go to law school.” He looked at me now. “I
didn’t like being threatened, feeling helpless. I knew the guy who took you was
a criminal. I’m going to law school to bring down scumbags like him.”

     
I noticed that
the knuckles on his left hand had whitened. He was clenching the steering wheel
hard.
 
Tears sprang to my eyes. “Please
don’t call him that.” He started to interrupt but I held up my hand. “He has
treated me better than anyone ever has. I love him, Matthew. I’m doing
everything I can to get him away from this lifestyle. Please leave us alone. He
promised me he would quit when the baby comes. I believe him.”

     
He sighed and
looked back out over the steering wheel. The conversation turned lighthearted
again. He told me how he loved law school. I joked that I was glad the end of
my tutoring him didn’t interfere with him going off to college. It was a nice
talk.

     
I hadn’t seen or
spoken to Matthew since that day, but I read the newspapers and watched the
news. He was young, but blazing a trail through the justice system by winning
impossible cases. Don’t think the irony wasn’t lost on me that he told me years
ago he was going to law school to put the bad guys away, and now he was the
best in the business at setting them free.

     
 
I reflected on all of this as I waited in
Detective Banner’s office, sipping watered-down coffee and waiting for Matthew
to show up. When he finally did, Matthew brought a man with him I didn’t know.

     
“Gin, this is
Cary Lewis. He’s not with my firm. I can’t represent Jason because of our
history. But I’m putting you in the hands of someone who is better at this job
than anyone I know. You trust me on this, I hope?”

     
I looked up at
him from where I was sitting. “If you tell me you have no hard feelings toward
him, if you can look me in the eye and tell me that, then yes.” I took a breath.
“I trust you.”