Chapter 14- R.I.P. Little Scotty
It took the police 3 minutes to arrive and the lead officer shook his head when he saw Dale, laying on the ground out cold.
The ambulance arrived a minute later and the paramedics ran into the house with a medical bag.
“I thought you guys were going to take care of this piece of shit for us?” The lead officer, Sergeant Noland said.
“We can, if you want. We will if the kid goes out of here in that ambulance.” I told him.
“Well, I hope the kid is going to be alright but either way, I’m sick of arresting this asshole. He deserves whatever you want to do to him. He’s a bully and a punk with a bad temper. He got a chunk of money from his wife’s insurance policy when she died last year when it was classed as an accidental overdose because we could never prove any different and he bails himself out after he sobers up every time.” Sergeant Noland told us.
“Why hasn’t anyone taken the kid out of here before this?” I asked.
“I had actually thought that family had taken the kid when his wife died, until the old lady next door called us about a week ago, reporting that he had the kid here and he was all bruised. The kid doesn’t speak much and wouldn’t tell us who hurt him. We couldn’t prove that it was the father so we contacted CPS to do a welfare check. We even came out with her for security and he pulled a gun and used the kid as a shield. We backed off and Mona told us she was going to contact you guys. I was more than glad to let you guys handle it. I’ve got more on my hands than I can handle now and a limited force to deal with it all.” He said defensively.
Just then one of the paramedics came out looking rather green and went to get a stretcher. Doc followed him a minute after him and looked at me like he was going to be sick. He shook his head and then went to the end of the porch near the fence and threw up.
A few minutes later, the paramedics came back out pushing the stretcher with a tiny body covered with a sheet. Both paramedics looked like they wanted to join Doc at the end of the porch but they pushed the stretcher over to the ambulance and loaded it in.
“I never saw Dale here today.” Sergeant Noland said to me, looking me straight in the eye and I nodded that I understood what he was saying without him having to say anymore. Boomer came back across the street and we loaded Dale into the back of our van. “Tie him up in case he wakes up before we get where we are going.” Boomer told the prospect.
I walked over to Doc as he stepped down from the porch, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “My God, Eagle. I’ve seen some horrific things in my years as a doctor but that is without a doubt the most horrible thing I have ever seen in my life.
That poor little boy must have been suffering the most horrible torture for a long time. He was bruised from head to toe and he was covered with cigarette burns but if I have to guess, he was either shaken to death or thrown up against the wall. When I moved his head to start CPR, I could actually feel his brain move inside his skull. He must have died in the last hour or so because his body was still pliant. There’s a hole in the wall just above the filthy mat he was laying on. He didn’t even have a bed, just an old exercise mat on the floor and a torn up towel for a blanket. The whole house stinks of piss and there are bugs and mouse droppings all over the place. I didn’t see any other clothes for him either. Nothing in the closet and no dresser in the room. I couldn’t stomach anymore so I don’t know if there is any food in the house or not. From what I could tell, he did a lot of take out.” Doc reported to me.
I was dreading having to go into that house but since we will have to file a report with the state, especially since the child had died, we would definitely have to document the condition of not only the child but the home we found his body in. The father would be listed as “missing” and I would take care of this body personally.
I walked over to my bike and pulled a kerchief and a digital camera out of my saddle bag and found the things I had bought for Annalisa but never gave her. I walked back to the house with dread. I took a deep breath then wrapped the kerchief around my nose and mouth before I entered the house. I could smell what Kaylee and Doc had said about the smell of piss and evidence of mice and bugs were plainly visible.
I began taking pictures and was becoming more and more disgusted as I walked from room to room. I went to the kitchen first and Doc had been right. The only thing in the fridge was beer. There was nothing but bugs in the cabinets and the trash can was overflowing onto the floor with empty take out containers. I took pictures of everything and then walked down the hall.
I wanted to cry when I saw Scotty’s bedroom. Doc was right. There was a thin mat on the floor, the kind people take to yoga classes but it looked like it had been rescued from someone’s trash as the plastic cover on it was ripped and the foam filling was showing and it was filthy. I wouldn’t have kept the old torn up towel I found on the floor as an oil rag to work on my bike, much less use it to cover a child. Again, I took pictures of everything including the hole in the wall that would have easily matched the size of a child’s head.
I continued on down the hall to what was apparently the master bedroom. There was a king sized bed covered with filthy sheets and an old comforter that must have been very nice at one time but now it was all dirty and ripped in places. Dale apparently just dropped his clothes wherever he happened to be standing at the time because they were everywhere. You couldn’t even walk on the floor without stepping on dirty laundry. I quickly took pictures of the room and hurried out of the house. I bent over and pulled the kerchief off of my face and took several deep breaths as I tried to keep down the bile that was rising in my throat.
“My God, that’s nasty.” I muttered when I saw the tip of Boomer’s boots and felt his hand on my back.
“You okay, brother?” Boomer asked.
“I’m going to have nightmares about this one for a while. We’ve done a lot of these rescues Boomer but this is without a doubt the worst one yet. The fire department needs to use this place as a practice burn. The landlord will have to have this place tented, probably more than once to get rid of all the bugs, not to mention the mice. I dread having to go to the hospital to take pictures of that kid. I wonder if the coroner will do it for me?” I said as I straightened up. As I did, I saw Mrs. Wilson peeking around the corner of the fence.
“Is it safe to come out now?” She asked. “Is Scotty okay?”
“Yes, it’s safe to come out now but no, Scotty is not okay. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Mrs. Wilson but Scotty is dead. Doc thinks he died from being thrown against the wall earlier today. That must have been what you heard. He was dead before we got here.” I told her and knew what was coming next as she began to cry.
“Oh that poor baby! I hope the police took his father to jail and that they throw away the key this time!” she said and then turned and walked back to her house.
The cops surrounded the house with caution, do not enter tape as Boomer and I got back on our bikes. Boomer pulled up next to Kaylee’s window on the passenger side of Doc’s van and he told her “Baby, go back with Doc. Eagle and I have to go to the morgue and take pictures of the little boy for our report to the state and then we are going to take care of his sperm donor. Any man that would do that to his own child does not deserve to be called a father.”
“All right. I’ll have a cold beer waiting for you.” She said as she leaned out the window and kissed him.
While Boomer talked to Kaylee, I called Rooster. This wasn’t something I wanted to send via text.
“Rooster.” He answered his phone.
“The kid was dead before we got here. God, Rooster, wait until you see the pictures of this place. We still have to go to the morgue for pictures of the body but as soon as we do that, we’re going to take his father for a ride in the desert.” I told him.
“I get it. I’ll tell Annalisa to wait up for you?” Rooster asked.
“She can if she wants but I’m going to get stone cold drunk when I get home.” I said in a deadpan voice.
“Take one of your pills, Eagle.” He said and then hung up.
Boomer’s POV
As soon as Doc pulled away and Eagle left for the hospital, the prospect and I drove outside the city limits about 5 miles from Coilney and parked off on a side road. Dale was starting to wake up and he was not a happy camper. We rolled up the windows and closed the doors as the prospect got out of the van to sit in the shade it provided to chat with me while we waited for Eagle. It was now noon and the sun was high in a clear sky and even though it was now November, the days were still hot in the wide open plains in Texas, especially inside the black van.
Dale started thrashing around in the back of the van that must be like an oven inside by now, considering that it was black on the outside, it would soak up that hot sun’s rays.
He yelled for someone to let him out but we just laughed at him. When he started to kick the inside walls of the van, I yelled at him, “If you dent my van, I’m going to shoot your sorry ass.”
“Let me out! It’s fucking hot in here.” Dale yelled back.
“You should just count yourself lucky that I need this van for other things otherwise I’d build a fire and drive the van right over it and roast your good for nothing ass.” I yelled back at him. “Now shut the fuck up!”
The prospect snickered at my threats.
“I’m not lying. If we didn’t need this van I would do just that, AFTER I’ve used him for a punching back and maybe some skilled target practice.” I grinned at him.
“Eagle seemed pretty upset. Is he going to be okay?” Justin asked.
“I sure hope so. Eagle suffers from PTSD sometimes. Something like this is very likely to set off an episode for him but hopefully his medication will take care of it.” I told him. I was worried about Eagle going to the morgue by himself and just hoped that he was going to be okay.
“Did doing this make him have that?” Justin asked.
“No. Eagle was in the marines and did time over in Iraq. He saw and did things over there that have scarred him for life. When he first came back, he used to have really bad night terrors. No one could get near him when he would drop back to that time in his mind. Almost ended up on the funny farm but Rooster found him a therapist and they spent over a year trying different medicines until he finally found one that works for him.
If you ever hear him having night terrors and there’s no one around, do not touch him. Just stand back and call his name until he wakes up and then keep talking to him, tell him who you are and where he is. Never get close to him. The only one who can control him when he loses it is Hulk and that’s only because he’s the only one tall enough and strong enough to pick him up off his feet and hold him off the ground until he calms down. I might be able to but I’m really not willing to test it on him. Eagle is incredibly strong, especially when he’s like that. Rooster tries not to send him on these missions too often and I’m kind of curious to know why he sent him this time but I don’t question orders, I just follow them.”
“So what do you guys have planned for Mr. Sleazy here?” Justin asked.
“Not sure yet. If it gets too intense for you there is no shame in looking away. Believe me, if Eagle goes into his “war zone”, I may turn away myself. He can get really intense.” I told him.
We only had to wait for about an hour before Eagle pulled up and the look on his face was chilling to say the least. I looked into his eyes and they showed no emotion whatsoever and even with the heat of the day, I felt a chill run down my back.
He didn’t say anything but motioned us to follow him. He led us down the road we had turned off on to until we were in a completely deserted area. He got up on a small rise and used his scope to make sure no one was anywhere within a mile of us. Then he came down and said “He not awake yet? How hard did you hit him?”
“Oh, he woke up but we closed up all the windows and shut him in. He was not a happy camper and kept complaining about how hot it was in this black van.” the prospect and I grinned at Eagle.
“Hahaha! I like it. Good. Have we got rope?” He asked.
“Yeah, there’s some in the back of the van.” the prospect said.
“Good. Ready for some boxing lessons, kid?” Eagle asked.
“Sure.” he replied.
“Boomer, haul Mr. Sleazy out here and let’s have some fun!” Eagle said, rubbing his hands together. “Need some incentive, kid?” He asked the prospect.
“Like what?” Justin asked.
“Here, take a look at this. Swipe to the left.” He said and handed him the digital camera then took a hand wrap out of his bag and began to wrap his knuckles like he was going into the boxing ring.
A second later, I heard the prospect gasp and then whisper, “He did this to his own son? My god, he was just a baby!”
“What the fuck is going on? This is not the Coilney jail!” Dale started to yell again as I dragged him out of the van.
“No, Dale. This is the doorway to hell and you’ve got a one way ticket.” Eagle walked up to him and punched him right in the face. “I just came from the morgue where an autopsy is being performed on your son right now. What did you do to him? Shake him? Throw him against the wall? How many times? The coroner counted over 20 cigarette burns on his tiny body and more than 2 dozen bruises, even to his genitals. What did you do, kick him in the balls because his were bigger than yours?
You are a sick mother fucker, Dale and you deserve what you dished out to your innocent child and then some. He wasn’t big enough to defend himself and you murdered him. Why? How could a father do that to his own son?” We could hear bones cracking and breaking as Eagle just kept punching him with every question. Over and over again until Dale passed out again.
“Prospect, make a small fire, please. He burned his son with a cigarette. We’re going to make sure Dale here knows exactly what that feels like.” Eagle said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Damn, it’s hot out here.”
The prospect gathered some small sticks from a small tree that was just about dead a few yards away from where we were parked. “Not much out here in the way of firewood, I hope you are not planning on cooking him or we’ll need to find somewhere with more woods.” He said when he came back with a small armful of sticks.
“No, just enough to get the tips of some of those sticks red hot. Let’s cut his clothes off. He’s not going to need them anymore. We can burn them to get the fire really going.” Eagle said.
We took out our knives and began cutting Dale’s clothes off and weren’t particularly careful not to cut him up a bit in the process.
“Damn, he stinks! Are you sure you want to burn his clothes? It’s going to smell to high heaven.” I asked.
“Yeah. Leave no evidence of him anywhere. Check his wallet for any cash. I’ll make sure it gets sent to Mona to help with the funeral expenses for Scotty. I’m going to have our lawyer get control of the insurance policy money he got for his wife’s death and anything in his account to cover the rest of it and to make sure the kid gets a nice headstone and flowers on his grave every year until it runs out.” Eagle said with conviction.
“Good deal.” I told him and looked at the prospect. He had mixed emotions on his face and I couldn’t tell what he was thinking but he seemed to have even more respect for Eagle after that.
Dale began to moan and wake up about the same time our “fire sticks” were nice and hot and glowing red on the end.
“Prospect, tie his hands above his head and then sit on them. Boomer, sit on that ankle.” Eagle said as he kicked Dale’s legs apart and then sat on his other ankle. “Seems like it was the insides of Scotty’s legs and the underside of his biceps were Dale’s favorite places to burn his son with cigarettes so let’s return the favor.” He said and jammed his red hot stick tip in Dale’s thigh just below his balls. Dale screamed and struggled but with us sitting on him, he couldn’t move much. “Is that the way Scotty screamed when you burned him like this? Did he beg his daddy to stop?” Eagle said and jammed another hot stick in his thigh. I could tell Eagle was going into his war zone.
“Why, Dale? Why would you do that to your little boy?” Eagle said, plunging another hot stick into his stomach this time just above his dick. Dale screamed and passed out again.
I didn’t touch him but just started calling Eagle’s name because I could tell he was already deep in the zone.
“Eagle! Eagle! Come back brother. It’s me, Boomer! Eagle you are home, man. Come back. Annalisa and Carmella are waiting for you.” I yelled at him over and over again until he finally stopped jabbing Dale with one stick after another. He finally turned his head and had a completely unfocused look on his face at first but finally said “Boomer?”
“Yeah, man. Welcome back. He passed out again and it’s getting late. Let’s wrap this up and go home to our women.” I told him.
He nodded his head and looked around at the landscape. “I think we should take him home with us. Too hard to hide the parts out here and it’s too domesticated an area for meat eaters out here. Buzzards can easily be spotted from miles away too. And it’s too hot to have to dig a bunch of holes.”
“A bunch of holes? We only have one body to bury.” The prospect said in a bewildered tone.
“Rookie. He’s not going to be in one piece for much longer.” I said.
“Oh!” the prospect replied and it was as if a light bulb came on over his head and he looked a little green for a second but he jumped up off of Dale’s hands and began collecting our dead “sticks” and threw them in the back of the van. “Hang on a second and let me get the tarp spread out back here. I don’t want to have to scrub dried blood out of here later.”
“Good thinking. Plus we can wrap him up in case we get stopped.” I told him and then helped him spread the tarp in the back of the van.
Dale’s clothes were completely burned up but we stirred the ashes into the sand and made sure there was nothing left but ashes. Then I grabbed one arm and the prospect the other while Eagle grabbed his feet and we threw Dale in the back of the van. The prospect climbed back in the van and swore. “Damn, he smells worse now than he did before.”
“Here put this over your nose and try to breathe through your mouth but if you see a cop, don’t forget to pull the mask down or he might think you just robbed a bank or something. When you get back to the compound, take the van up to the top of the logging road past Rooster’s place and make sure you lock the doors. We’ll finish taking care of Dale later.” Eagle told him.
We climbed on our bikes and I looked over at Eagle. “Dude, you need to stop somewhere and clean up or you are going to scare Annalisa and Carmella.”
“I’ll stop at home and take a shower before I go back to the club house. Annalisa and Carmella are supposed to stay at the club house until we return so it should be okay for us to stop there. How come you are not covered in blood too? He asked.
“Dude, you kind of went into your war zone there for a bit. We never got a chance to hit him. You broke him all up inside all by yourself.” I told him.
“Damn! It’s just seeing what he did to his own son, really fucked with my head. But I can’t keep slipping back into that, not now. Boomer, it scares the hell out of me that one of these nights I’m going to slip into that zone and either Annalisa or Carmella are going to get hurt if they get too close to me. Especially Carmella. I’ve already warned Annalisa on what to do if I do but Carmella is just a baby. She’s not going to realize what is going on and I might accidentally hurt her.” Eagle confessed to me.
“Is your medication not working anymore?” I asked him.
“Most of the time it works fine except when I get really worked up like the night the Cobras attacked or like today. I took my meds before I left the house this morning but you saw what happened.” Eagle said and he looked really scared.
“I don’t know what to tell you dude. Maybe you need to talk to Doc or your therapist about it. I have noticed that you don’t seem to drink as much as you used to. Could that have anything to do with it?” I asked him.
“I don’t think so but I’m not 100% sure. I’ll try to talk to Doc when we get back. Thanks Boomer.” He said.
“Anytime, bro. Come on. I miss Kaylee.” I told him and we took off.
Eagle’s POV
I stopped off at our house and took a quick shower before driving back to the compound. Boomer and I immediately said hello to our ladies and then went to see Rooster. We told him everything that went down and he downloaded the pictures on my camera. He was as disgusted as we had been but rubbed his hands together when he found out we had brought Dale back with us.
“We were out in the open basically. Granted we were out where no one could see what we were doing but we didn’t feel like it was a good idea to leave pieces of him laying around. Buzzards would have moved in and given away our hiding places. Around here, we have wild animals that will take care of the problem. The biggest thing out there besides the buzzards might have been an armadillo and they are not really big enough to dispose of a body his size fast enough.” I explained and I could feel Boomer watching me closely, wondering if I had actually come all the way back from my “war zone”. Rooster seemed to pick up on the way he was watching me and seemed to know what had happened.
“Well, I’m sure the rest of the guys will be glad for a shot at this bozo. I guess I’d better call and break the news to Papa Joe. I waited until I got your full report to call him. Eagle, why don’t you go and see Annalisa and Carmella. Carmella has been looking for you all day.” Rooster fibbed.
“Yeah, I’d like something to eat and a few beers too.” I said and left the room.
Boomer’s POV
“Did he go into his war zone?” Was the first thing Rooster asked as soon as the door closed behind Eagle.
“Yeah. That’s the deepest I’ve seen him go since he got it under control, except for the night the Cobras attacked. You should have seen him torturing Dale. It was down right scary. I think he scared the hell out of the prospect that was with us. We told the prospect to take the van up to the top of the logging road past your place.
I think we need to wait until the ladies go to sleep to deal with Dale and as far away from here as possible so that his screams don’t disturb them. And I know he may get upset but it would be best for him if Eagle does not attend. He’s already afraid of having an episode and hurting his wife and daughter. I don’t think we need to give that situation any fuel.” I told him.
“I agree but you know I’ll be first in line! I’ll let those I want there know to be ready to go at what time. Now go on and see Kaylee. She was really upset when they got back.” Rooster said.