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Authors: Larry D. Thompson
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make the
record books. They are usually confident they will not be caught. After a
killing, they scour the newspapers, TV and the internet, reveling in the
limelight. They want their fifteen minutes of fame to last for years and years.
Often, they succeed. It’s as if they say to themselves, Now, we can let the games begin .”
An attractive young woman rose. Her
blond hair, blue eyes and well-filled sweater immediately caught the speaker’s
attention. “Dr. Parke, how can you study these twisted individuals and almost
get into their minds to understand their gruesome lives without having it
impact you? I mean, do you also find it necessary to have two personalities?”
Dr. Parke studied the woman,
appearing to drink in her features, before he replied. “Perhaps, young lady,
Sigmund Freud put it best a hundred years ago when he said, ‘No one who, like
me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human
breast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle
unscathed’.”
CHAPTER 17
The next morning Wayne found the “Do
Not Disturb” sign gone from Rita’s door and knocked lightly. Shortly, the door
opened and Rita was there wearing a Texas Longhorns tee shirt and apparently
nothing else. A thought flickered through Wayne’s mind: My neighbor is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, with or without
make-up.
“It’s a little early, isn’t it?” Rita
said, her voice still husky from sleep. “You want some coffee?”
Wayne considered the offer and then
declined. “No, thanks. I just wanted you to know that my mother called last
night. Dan’s been beat up pretty bad. I’m going down there this morning.”
Instantly awake, Rita said, “Give me
five minutes and I’ll go with you.”
“Appreciate the offer. I’m not
looking for company. I just thought you should know. I told Duke last night. I’m
sure he’s told Claudia by now.”
Rita nodded, knowing that Wayne would
not change his mind. “Fair enough. I’d like to go, but I damn sure know and
understand you. Just get over here for dinner tonight, just the two of us. I
want to know how he is and take your pulse, too.” She then grabbed him, gave
him a hug and a slightly lingering kiss goodbye. Turning to leave, Wayne’s
thoughts about his brother were momentarily overridden by the feel of her lips
and her breasts against his chest.
When he got to I-45 South, he
returned his focus to what lay ahead. He had successfully severed ties to his
brother for over nine years, choosing not to even bring his name into a conversation.
Alienated is the word that popped into his mind. Deep down he knew that something
like this was going to occur, eventually. Why now? On the other hand, nine
years was a long time without having to deal with the problem. And what a
problem this turned out to be. It was bad enough that he had a brother with
schizophrenia who was beyond help. Now he was charged with a murder, capital murder.
This trip was really for his mother. Typical
of her, she had injected herself into the process. Wayne owed it to her to at
least understand more about the charges and defenses. He would start with Harry
Klein.
He crossed the four lane causeway that
served as the island’s umbilical cord to the rest of Texas and felt himself
drawn back to the culture and heritage that he had left behind. Perhaps, the island should never have been
inhabited. Maybe it would have been better to have left it an unoccupied sand
bar as God and nature intended. But, starting with the Karankawa Indians, long
before the white man discovered the island and leading up to the day that Wayne
drove over the causeway, man could not stay away. Cost, be it dollars or human
lives, was not an issue. From cannibals, to pirates to freebooters, to
prostitutes and gamblers, and now to more solid citizens, Galveston had
evolved. It was an island of sixty-five thousand people, numbers little changed
from 1900.
record books. They are usually confident they will not be caught. After a
killing, they scour the newspapers, TV and the internet, reveling in the
limelight. They want their fifteen minutes of fame to last for years and years.
Often, they succeed. It’s as if they say to themselves, Now, we can let the games begin .”
An attractive young woman rose. Her
blond hair, blue eyes and well-filled sweater immediately caught the speaker’s
attention. “Dr. Parke, how can you study these twisted individuals and almost
get into their minds to understand their gruesome lives without having it
impact you? I mean, do you also find it necessary to have two personalities?”
Dr. Parke studied the woman,
appearing to drink in her features, before he replied. “Perhaps, young lady,
Sigmund Freud put it best a hundred years ago when he said, ‘No one who, like
me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human
breast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle
unscathed’.”
CHAPTER 17
The next morning Wayne found the “Do
Not Disturb” sign gone from Rita’s door and knocked lightly. Shortly, the door
opened and Rita was there wearing a Texas Longhorns tee shirt and apparently
nothing else. A thought flickered through Wayne’s mind: My neighbor is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, with or without
make-up.
“It’s a little early, isn’t it?” Rita
said, her voice still husky from sleep. “You want some coffee?”
Wayne considered the offer and then
declined. “No, thanks. I just wanted you to know that my mother called last
night. Dan’s been beat up pretty bad. I’m going down there this morning.”
Instantly awake, Rita said, “Give me
five minutes and I’ll go with you.”
“Appreciate the offer. I’m not
looking for company. I just thought you should know. I told Duke last night. I’m
sure he’s told Claudia by now.”
Rita nodded, knowing that Wayne would
not change his mind. “Fair enough. I’d like to go, but I damn sure know and
understand you. Just get over here for dinner tonight, just the two of us. I
want to know how he is and take your pulse, too.” She then grabbed him, gave
him a hug and a slightly lingering kiss goodbye. Turning to leave, Wayne’s
thoughts about his brother were momentarily overridden by the feel of her lips
and her breasts against his chest.
When he got to I-45 South, he
returned his focus to what lay ahead. He had successfully severed ties to his
brother for over nine years, choosing not to even bring his name into a conversation.
Alienated is the word that popped into his mind. Deep down he knew that something
like this was going to occur, eventually. Why now? On the other hand, nine
years was a long time without having to deal with the problem. And what a
problem this turned out to be. It was bad enough that he had a brother with
schizophrenia who was beyond help. Now he was charged with a murder, capital murder.
This trip was really for his mother. Typical
of her, she had injected herself into the process. Wayne owed it to her to at
least understand more about the charges and defenses. He would start with Harry
Klein.
He crossed the four lane causeway that
served as the island’s umbilical cord to the rest of Texas and felt himself
drawn back to the culture and heritage that he had left behind. Perhaps, the island should never have been
inhabited. Maybe it would have been better to have left it an unoccupied sand
bar as God and nature intended. But, starting with the Karankawa Indians, long
before the white man discovered the island and leading up to the day that Wayne
drove over the causeway, man could not stay away. Cost, be it dollars or human
lives, was not an issue. From cannibals, to pirates to freebooters, to
prostitutes and gamblers, and now to more solid citizens, Galveston had
evolved. It was an island of sixty-five thousand people, numbers little changed
from 1900.
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