Thin Ice 6 - Hangman & Socrates (2 page)

Roderick sighed deeply, realizing the man was still completely delusional about his trial and his fate.

“
Hope is your sister Carlo,” Roderick tried to reason. “She would never take Lauren from you,” he added as Carlo’s eyes narrowed.

“
Have you been looking at my Lauren, you want to touch her, taste her maybe,” he accused as Roderick reeled in his anger.

If there was one person on earth he wanted to beat the hell out of at that moment, it was Carlo Cisneros.

“
No, Carlo, Lauren is a child,” he iterated as Carlo sucked his teeth softly.

“
Lauren is all woman,” he replied lewdly as Roderick flexed his fist under the table.

The man was complete scum in his book. He was only here out of his love for Hope.

“
Carlo, the state will place her in some foster home or other if you don’t sign,” Roderick began again, praying somewhere in the man’s demented mind he could latch onto some reasoning and common sense.

Carlo sat up, leaning close to the glass that separated them and spoke again. “No one is taking my daughter, or putting her in any fuckin’ home,” he hissed angrily.

Sighing deeply, realizing he was wasting his time, Roderick rose to leave.

“
Have you fucked Hope yet,” Carlo asked simply, his tone cold and ominous.

“
That’s none of your business,” Roderick replied looking into the emotionless eyes of the man staring at him.

“
She can’t have children,” he spat as if it were a disease he was explaining.

“
I can’t really understand why she’s with you, considering she really doesn’t like to fuck much anyway,” Carlo taunted.

Roderick maintained his composure walking away as Carlo began to laugh aloud. He stopped laughing as soon as the man left his sight, the hardened hate filled glaze returning to his eyes.
Why are you playing with Lauren’s life like this,
his sanity pleaded.
Stop punishing Hope for something that wasn’t her fault.
Pushing the thought aside, he walked ahead of the jailer back to his cell, his mind still spinning, plans still being made.

2

They were once again in the courtroom and Carlo was half listening disinterestedly as the prosecution droned on and on. They were questioning Dr. Ross again about Lauren and the things they’d uncovered during her treatment. Carlo watched the women intently. He was truly developing quite an intense dislike of her.
This bitch has told lie after lie about me,
Carlo fumed in his mind never taking his glance away from the doctor. She was an unattractive woman in his estimation, hence lending itself to her seemed bitterness toward men.
Probably likes pussy,
he thought and smirked inwardly. Dr. Ross was slim, too slim for his tastes, with no curves. Her breasts were barely bumps on her chest, her nose long and pointed; her skin pale and translucent. The only semi attractive features about her were her forest green eyes.

“
Dr. Ross, in your opinion, what would you say is the prognosis for young Miss Cisneros,” the Prosecutor asked as Carlo finally reined his mind in and listened.

The Doctor sighed softly before clearing her throat slightly and answering the question.

“
It will take years of intense therapy before that young woman can lead any semblance of a normal life,” Dr. Ross replied, her tone sympathetic.

“
Is Miss Cisneros violent,” the man asked, shifting gears.

Dr. Ross frowned slightly. “No, Lauren is a traumatized victim of a madman, nothing more,” the doctor answered slightly offended at the inference.

She’d taken quite a liking to the withdrawn young woman and didn’t appreciate the prosecutor’s insinuations.

“
I’m sorry Dr. Ross,” he replied quickly. “I was merely attempting to show the jury how deeply scarred the young woman was from her father’s abuse,” he clarified.

Dr. Ross nodded slightly before speaking once more.

“
Lauren suffered traumatic physical and emotional abuse at the hands of Mr. Carlo Cisneros that has her screaming in her sleep on a nightly basis,” the doctor told the jury as several visibly frowned and other’s audibly gasped.

“
She’s taken to hurting herself when any edged objects are given to her,” Dr. Ross explained, her angry glance finally resting on Carlo, who simply watched her emotionless.

“
She has to be sedated regularly just to ensure her body and mind does not go into complete lapse,” she finished as Carlo gave her a grave look.

Dr. Ross quickly returned her attention to the prosecutor. Even knowing the man was shackled at the defense table, she was petrified of his very aura.

Carlo hated the bitch now. She had to die. Contrary to what everyone in this room seemed to think, Hangman Cisneros wasn’t washed up just yet. Smiling to himself at the thought, Carlo made a mental note to see Quenton when they took him back to his cell.

“
All right ladies and gentlemen,” the Judge began speaking as Carlo once again forced his attention on the trial.

“
We will dismiss for today and reconvene tomorrow morning at 9:30AM sharp,” he told them with a bang of his gavel.

Everyone began to rise and leave the courtroom. The bailiff came and gathered Carlo, once again checking the shackles and leading him to the holding room to wait on the other inmates so they could all board the bus at the same time. As Carlo neared the doorway he paused long enough to glance at Dr. Ross, still seated on the front room, giving him a long once over. Carlo winked slyly at her and smiled, chuckling silently at the deep scowl she returned. At the bailiffs prompting they continued their journey and made it to the holding room where Carlo was placed inside with another inmate under the watchful eye of the armed Sheriff’s deputy and left to wait.

*****

Dr. Ross arrived back at Erlanger and went directly to her office making herself a drink and sipping it.
That man is pure evil,
she thought as her mind went back to Carlo Cisneros and the day’s proceedings. The knock at her door interrupted her thoughts.

“
Yes, come in,” she called out.

“
Hi Doc,” Ernie greeted her.

Ernest Myles was an orderly at the institute having been with the organization almost fifteen years. He worked with Dr. Ross on Lauren’s case.

“
How has she been today,” Dr. Ross asked referring to the young woman.

Ernie sighed deeply telling the doctor that Lauren had been edgy and volatile all day.

“
She fought two of the nurses trying to medicate her,” Ernie told Dr. Ross as she sighed deeply. “Messed one of them up pretty good, she had to get 16 stitches to close the wound to her face,” he explained as Dr. Ross frowned.

“
Where is she now,” she asked, referring once again to Lauren.

“
D Ward,” Ernie returned, bracing for her fury.

D Ward was where the most heinous and hardened patients were housed.

“
What the fuck,” Dr. Ross screamed, jumping from her desk and striding out of her office.

Ernie followed knowing exactly where they would end up.

“
Paul, just what the hell is going on,” Dr. Ross screamed once she arrived at the director’s office.

Paul Carnegie had been in charge of Erlanger for the last five years. He and Dr. Ross butted heads on a regular basis since day one.

“
Calm down Kaitlyn,” Paul told her, pushing back from his desk and rising.

“
Calm down my ass,” she screamed once again. “That child is 16 years old, she’s not 30,” Dr. Ross told him, nostrils flaring as she angrily glared at him.

“
What would you have me do Kaitlyn,” Paul tried diplomatically.

“
She’s dangerous, we both know that,” he went on as Dr. Ross never took her eyes off him and Ernie absorbed every word.

“
She’s a child, sedate her and restrain her,” Dr. Ross told him tightly, still furious but trying to control herself.

“
Then lock her in her room, but do not put her on D Ward, ripe pickings for some nasty patient, or worker for that matter, to rape her or hurt her again,” she finished, teeth clenched.

Paul held up both palms in surrender, making a call and having Lauren immediately returned to B Ward where Dr. Ross operated.

“
Thank you,” she told him curtly, turning on her heel and walking away.

“
Make sure you call me the moment she arrives back in her room,” Dr. Ross instructed.

Ernie assured her he would as the doctor nodded and went on her way. Watching until she disappeared, Ernie stepped into an empty room and used the phone provided for patients.

“
Yeah,” the party answered. “I got what you asked for,” Ernie told them nervously.

“
Good, I’ll be by tonight to pick it up,” they returned.

“
OK, I get off at 9PM,” Ernie replied.

Chuckling, the caller assured him they knew what time he got off, how he went home, where he lived, and what he was having for dinner tonight. Disconnecting without further conversation, Ernie swallowed hard took a deep breath and headed to B Ward. Upon his arrival Lauren was once again inside her room, sedated and restrained to the bed. As instructed he alerted Dr. Ross. The doctor arrived seven minutes later and entered the room, examining the young woman from head to toe. Satisfied that nothing had befallen her, she left, locking the door behind her.

“
What’s gonna happen to her Dr. Ross,” Ernie asked of the young woman.

Sighing deeply Dr. Ross replied she didn’t know.

“
That damned lunatic of a father of hers won’t sign the documents so her aunt can take custody of her,” she fumed.

“
If she can’t win a petition through the courts they’ll put that child in a foster home,” Dr. Ross finished angrily.

Hasn’t that poor child been through enough already,
her mind questioned. It was things like that that shored her assertion that there was no God. How could an almighty deity allow such an atrocity? Sighing deeply Dr. Ross’s mind answered; he couldn’t, therefore, there is no God.

*****

“
Hey Carlo,” Quenton greeted him as his shift started and he made his rounds.

“
Hello Quenton,” Carlo returned giving him a looking.

Nodding slightly he continued his rounds, the sly signal passed that he would return as Carlo had beckoned. Relaxing on his bunk, waiting for the guard’s return, he went over all the testimony given today. Carlo also thought about Hope and her presence once again. She came every day, and every day he ignored her. When would she take a clue he thought sighing lightly. Everyone was conspiring to take away his Lauren. She was the last good thing left he had on this earth.
She only wants to help Lauren, Carlo,
his sanity was once again trying to reason.

“
Bullshit,” he fumed aloud. “She wants to give my Lauren to Roderick,” he mumbled angry at the thought of the man touching his daughter.

Hearing the guard returning, he snapped out of the infuriating thoughts and turned his attention to business.

Quenton made sure the camera monitoring Carlo’s cell was disabled before they began interacting. First he gave Carlo the small waxed paper square holding the hit of heroin.

“
Thanks, I was beginning to have withdrawal,” Carlo replied honestly as Quenton nodded and said nothing as the man began to prepare the hit.

“
I have a job for you,” he told Quenton in between smoking.

“
What is it,” the man questioned.

Quenton had been with the Sheriff’s department for three years, he’d been a member of The Association for seven. Carlo told the man exactly what he wanted and how he wanted it done.

“
Hmm, okay,” Quenton replied his mind whirling. “I’ll have more for you tomorrow,” he told Carlo, referring to the heroin.

Nodding slightly as his high began to take affect; he dismissed the guard from his presence and enveloped himself in the warm blanketed high the drug provided. When he was high, Carlo had no control over his memories, this time being no exception.

After finding his mother dead and killing his father, Carlo’s world turned upside down. They were shuffled off to live with an aunt on their mother’s side in the poorest section of Chicago. Carlo didn’t really care where he ended up. He was done with school and rules. He wanted to live his life on his on terms and be left alone, which his aunt did for the most part. It was in the dilapidated tenant apartments that his aunt lived in Carlo met Sharaine Wilson, some two years later. She lived with her mom, two sisters and a brother in the apartment directly below them. Carlo noticed her one day while hanging out in the hood with some of the guys he’d befriended. She was cute to him, medium height with nice breasts and a round almost apple shaped butt. Her hair was curly from the permanent wave she got every three months and her eyes were soft brown. Striking up a conversation Carlo got to know her better. Sharaine invited him to her friend’s house to spend time. Raven Sterling had her own place, making it very convenient for everyone to hang out and be together. Carlo never figured out how she paid for it, considering she didn’t work.