The Tooth Fairy — Part VI
My name is Henry James and I’m a writer for Dark Sides of the Truth Magazine.
Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Conclusion
I’d spent most of Thursday evening listening to Wayne Bethard tell me one of the most outlandish stories I’d heard since, well, since the one I heard from Margaret Foley.
Lately, I’ve come across some really weird ass stories.
Even for me.
But, I’ve never been the kind of writer to shy away no matter how outlandish and crazy a story seems. Now I’m on my way back to the Polunsky unit to have what may be my last conversation with Robert Reed, the man who murdered Wayne’s brother.
After the initial shakedown and body search and still not getting damned candy or flowers from either of the two guards, I was escorted to the visitor area of the death row unit.
I sat in the assigned booth and waited until Robert was escorted in. He seemed even more frail than when I’d first met the man. This time he seemed off balance, struggling to kneel without falling as he pushed his hands through the open port and waited for the guard to remove his cuffs. He lurched to his feet and fell onto the bench opposite me as the guard slammed the port shut.
We both reached for the phones and I had no sooner brought the phone to my ear when he asked, “you talk to Wayne?”
I nodded.
“Yeah, and he gave me something and told me to let you know he’d done his part and it was over for him.”
“Wayne’s a good man. You need to do everything you can to keep him and his family out of this.”
“Don’t worry. I have ways of burying things so deep nobody will ever find them. So talk to me Robert. What’s the story?”
“Okay so you know about Sammy and what a prick he was right?”
“Yes and I know he pounded your ass everyday at school for your lunch money.”
“Yeah, he did. There were times Wayne tried to stop him, but he beat the shit out of Wayne too. He didn’t care. For him it was all about the money.”
“I suppose Sammy meeting the Tooth Fairy changed all that,” I said.
When Robert nodded I could tell he and Wayne were both in fantasy shit up to their necks. At this rate it probably wouldn’t be too long before I joined them.
“Well, things didn’t change much. Even though the asshole never seemed to run out of money, he still didn’t pass up an opportunity to hunt me down and steal the money my mom gave me.”
“Once a prick, always a prick I guess,” I mumbled.
“But here’s the thing Mr…uh I forgot your name.”
“James, Henry James.”
“Here’s the thing Mr. James. Those days everyone knew about my mom. It was just us. My dad died when I was young and she had to work three jobs to support us. She busted her ass to make sure I was fed and clothed and got a good education. Bethard knew it too, but he didn’t give a damn. He got his jollies beating the shit out of me and taking my money. The money my mom slaved for.”
The man paused, then reached up and rubbed his eyes.
“We were so fucking poor my mom died in a charity hospital. After that I went to stay with her sister so I could finish school.”
“I guess the beatings continued right?”
Robert nodded his head, “yeah right up until the day he dropped out of school. We didn’t hear from him until fifteen years later when his name started popping up in the news. Out of nowhere he became the talk of the town, a corporate raider extraordinaire with deep pockets and all the power. He was the king on the top rung of the ladder.”
“And you and Wayne knew how he did it didn’t you?”
Robert sighed and nodded.
“Yeah, we knew. He was as evil as they come Mr. James. A perfect fit to be a corporate raider. His company would swoop in and take over a business then strip it of its assets, selling everything for a profit and shutting the companies down. Nobody knew where he managed to come up with all the money, but we did.”
“So how was it you and he met in that parking garage? What happened that night Robert?”
Robert shrugged then stared at me, the darkened pupils of his pale blue eyes constricting as he talked.
“It was when the great Sammy Bethard and his pack of hyenas came after the company where I worked. I’d been with that company for almost twenty years and in less than a month it was gone, and my job with it.”
“Ah damn,” I muttered.
“Yeah,” Robert continued, “all those years of putting up with his torture and abuse, my mom dying trying to support me. It was the last straw Mr. James, the last fucking straw.”
“So, you met him in the parking lot and you beat the shit out of him?”
Robert nodded and grinned.
“I beat his ass so bad, I knocked a tooth out of the man’s mouth. Then I took his goddamned wallet and I walked out of the garage. I told myself now the great Sammy Bethard would know how it feels to be knocked senseless and robbed.”
“Did you say you knocked out a tooth?”
Robert closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes he looked at me and nodded.
“Yes, and I took it, along with his wallet and his car keys. I scooped up the tooth and put them all in my pocket.”
Something began to gnaw at me inside. But this wasn’t the occasional stomach grumble from being hungry. This was like my entire body was trying to shrink away from something frightening. Something lying just beneath the surface. Something inside warned me not to peel another layer of this story away. For a second, I almost listened.
“The tooth Wayne gave me yesterday, it belonged to Sammy?”
“Yes.”
READ ON THE TOOTH FAIRY — CONCLUSION
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