The Insanity Plea by Larry D. Thompson Read Free Book Online

Your wife, Mr. Gardner, the doctors and I are all
just trying to do what is best for you. I’m going to follow the recommendations
of the psychiatrists and order thirty days of commitment and medications. You
must take the medicine. If you don’t voluntarily do so, you will be forced to
take it by injection. After your stay here, you can return to your wife and
job. Bailiffs, please escort Mr. Little back to his unit.”
    With a bailiff on each side, Dan left
the room, refusing to look at Bob or Mary Lee. Bob stared out the window as
Mary Lee lowered her head and wiped her eyes.

CHAPTER 12
     
     
    The posse of four young professionals
got together with some regularity for drinks and dinner. Sometimes they dined
out and sometimes one or more cooked. All of them had advanced degrees and jobs
that involved problem solving. Particularly when one of them had a professional
problem that needed fresh ideas, it would be tossed to the others over dinner. Frequently,
a solution would magically appear toward the end of the evening. It was Duke
who began calling the group “the posse.” They usually weren’t out after bad
guys, except maybe when Rita brought one of her computer scams to the group. Still,
no one objected to Duke’s name.
    On the morning after talking with
Wayne, Duke called Rita. “Hey, Senorita, what’s my favorite code buster doing
this morning?”
    “If you must know, I’m sitting here
in my usual work uniform of shorts and T-shirt, not busting codes but trying to
break through the newest computer fraud. All of our clients are terrified after
what happened to Target. Nice not to have to fight the traffic to do my work.”
    “Look, Wayne’s in a jam. I don’t understand
what’s going on. Can the four of us meet at your place this evening? We got
some powerful talking to do with him. Since you’re right next door, he won’t
have any excuse not to get his butt over to your place.”
    “Strange, you know I see Wayne nearly
every day. He hasn’t mentioned anything about a problem.”    
    “Apparently only came up yesterday
afternoon, darlin’.”
    “Enough said. You and Claudia get him
over here about seven. I’ll make some of my mama’s enchiladas.”
    Rita clicked off the phone and tried
to concentrate on her computer scam with no success. Her mind kept wandering to
her next-door neighbor. She started to step out her door, walk a few steps and
beat on his front door. Then she reminded herself that he was already at work. Besides,
it would be better for the four of them to discuss whatever it was together. Instead,
she put on a dab of make-up and some running shoes and walked past the pool to
the health club where she stationary biked, pumped iron and worked with the
machines for an hour and a half.
    Rita’s parents had waded the Rio
Grande forty years ago. Her father planned the trip for years, even learning to
read and write English so that he could more easily blend into the work force
in the United States. When they got to Houston, he found a job in construction
and Rita’s mother cleaned houses. A few years later Rita was born. At first
they lived in an apartment with another family. Over the years her father
advanced to project manager for a home builder. When he advanced, they moved
into a single wide mobile home and then to a double wide on three acres in East
Houston.
    When she graduated from high school,
she took a job as a secretary for a private detective. Six months later she convinced
her boss to let her become a licensed private investigator. That freed her
schedule enough that she began taking classes at the University of Houston,
majoring in computer science. After she completed her masters, she went to work
for a Chicago based company that investigated computer fraud for Fortune 500
companies. Extremely well paid, she had a virtual office in her townhouse next
door to Wayne.
    Her relationship with Wayne was, to
say the least, strange. She had barely moved in when they met.