“He hurts me. A couple of times, he almost strangled me when I wouldn’t do what he wanted.”
Jerrold listened, shocked, becoming angrier by the minute.
“Jerrold, you remember that girl he used to go out with? Penny... what’s-her-name?”
“It was Patty Atchison. We used to call her Little Patty Porkchop.”
“You remember what happened to her?”
He shrugged. “I heard she overdosed.”
Somehow knowing what was coming, he heard her say words which made him go cold inside.
“Billy killed her. He told me. He killed her boyfriend, too, so that he could have her. She warned me about him, and now... I’m... “ she started crying once more.
“The police... ?” he said quietly.
“They’re no better than talking to Mr. Cowper or my parents. You know what I mean. They’ve all got their head up their ass. He’ll kill both of us before they’ll wake up and do something about it.”
She was right. There was nothing he could say about her logic, because his own experience had led him to the same conclusion.
“So,” he said, “what are you going to do?”