Dave continued to stare at him for a few moments and then slowly nodded. “Yes,” he said softly.
“Yes what?” Jake asked.
“Yes, it sounds reasonable,” he said.
“Then you will abide by the terms of this restraining order?”
“Yes,” he said. “I will abide by it.”
Jake smiled. “All right then,” he said. “I guess I won’t be seeing you around then. You have a nice day, doc.”
And with that, Jake walked slowly back to the limousine, almost strolling.
He did not look back and Dr. Dave said nothing more.
It was just before 6:30 when the limousine dropped Jake off in front of his house. He tipped the driver fifty dollars, thanked him for his part in the mission, and then went to the front door. He had to ring the bell to get in because, in his haste to leave Coos Bay, he had not brought his keys with him.
Elsa opened the door. Her dark-skinned face showed a mixture of concern and relief as she saw him standing there. “It’s good to see you, Jake,” she said. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is okay,” he assured her, stepping in and giving her a hug. “How’s Laura?”
“She’s up in your bedroom,” she replied. “I made some dinner for her—my stuffed pork chops—but she didn’t eat much. She told me about her ordeal this afternoon. She seems very upset ... very worried.”
“She’s had quite a day,” Jake said, closing the front door behind him.
“It sounds as if she did,” Elsa said. “She seems a very nice girl, Jake.”
“She’s a sweetheart,” he agreed.
“I assume things are quite serious between the two of you?”
He nodded. “Quite serious.”
She smiled her smile of approval. She then turned her stern, motherly look upon him. “Do I need to expect a visit from any police officers?” she asked.
“No,” he told her. “I handled the situation without violence.”
“Really?”
“Really,” he assured her. “The doc and I had ourselves a nice little talk and we came to an agreement.”
“An agreement?”
“He stays away from Laura forever and, in return, he stays out of the hospital and out of the newspapers.”
“Are you sure he’ll abide by that deal?”
“I’m pretty sure he will,” Jake said. “He seemed more intimidated by the thought that his wife would find out about all of this than the thought that I might put him in traction.” A shrug. “Maybe he’s never been in traction before. Anyway, I think we’ve seen and heard the last of Dr. Dave.”
“If you say so,” Elsa said doubtfully. She hesitated for a moment and then said, “I mentioned this to Laura earlier, and she was quite opposed to the idea, but I must ask you now. Shouldn’t the police get involved anyway? He did attempt to force himself upon her if I understood her story correctly.”
“If she wants to get the cops involved, I will support that decision and stand by her, but if she doesn’t, I will do the same. In truth, involving the cops would accomplish little but getting bad publicity for everyone.”
“But it was attempted rape,” Elsa said.
“It’s hard for a woman to get any justice even when it’s a completed rape,” Jake said. “This would just be a convoluted mess. She has a previous sexual relationship with the perpetrator. He has had a long-standing open invitation to her apartment and a well-established pattern of coming over there at lunch for sex. She has nothing but her own word that she told him they were through and he should not come over to her house anymore. It’s your basic he-said/she-said situation through and through. It is very unlikely the investigating cops would consider it anything other than a domestic squabble that maybe turned a little violent, or maybe didn’t. I doubt they would even arrest him, but the word of the situation would make its way to the press and Laura would be dragged through the mud along with the good doctor and probably me and Phil as well.” He shook his head. “No, I think the way I handled the situation is probably the best for all concerned.”
She still looked doubtful. “If you say so, Jake.”
“I say so,” he said. “I’d better get up there and see her. Thanks for taking care of her, Elsa.”
“No need to thank me,” she said. “It will be nice to have someone in the house again to feed and look after.”
“Yep,” Jake said with a smile, pulling her into another hug. “Your free ride is over, Elsa.”
She laughed and returned the hug with considerable affection. “Never boring working for you, Jake,” she said, not for the first time and not for the last.
He headed for the stairs. Just before mounting them, he turned around again. “Are there any of those stuffed pork chops left?”
“There are,” she said. “I’ll heat a few up for you and then cook up some fresh spinach to go with them.”
“That would be awesome, Elsa. Thanks.”
She headed off to the kitchen and he went upstairs to his bedroom. He opened the door and found Laura sitting on the edge of the bed. Her eyes were puffy, as if she’d been crying. Her face, however, lit up when she saw him.
“Jake!” she cried, springing to her feet and rushing over to him. “Oh my God, I’m so glad it’s you!”
He took her in his arms and hugged her tightly. She hugged back just as hard. “Were you expecting someone else?” he asked.
“I heard the doorbell ring a few minutes ago,” she said, still clinging to him, speaking into his neck. “I thought it might be ... you know ... the police.”
“Sting and the boys?” Jake asked. “Why would they be here?”
She broke the embrace and looked in his face. “What?” she asked, confused.
He chuckled a little. “Sorry,” he said. “Bad joke. Why would you think the cops were here?”
She shook her head a little. “Well ... I thought maybe they might be coming to say you were ... in jail or something.”
“Naw,” he scoffed. “It was just me ringing that bell. I’m a dumbass and forgot to bring my keys from Oregon so I had to have Elsa let me in. What do you think of Elsa?”
“Uh ... I like her,” Laura said. “She’s easy to talk to and very nice, but ... but ... what happened? Did you talk to Dave?”
“I talked to him,” Jake said.
“And?”
“And you don’t have to worry about Dr. Dave anymore. He will not bother you, me, or anyone we know any further.”
“He won’t?”
“He won’t,” Jake assured her.
“Well ... what did you say to him? How can you know he’s not going to bother me?”
“I laid out some plain facts for him and he agreed with my assessment of the situation.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“It means I told him that if he comes within two hundred yards of you ever again, even on accident, that I was going to find him and beat his ass. And if he ever contacted you, spoke to you, or, worst of all, touched you, I was going to put him in the hospital.”
She looked in his eyes as he said this. “You said that to him?”
“That was a paraphrase, of course. The actual conversation was a bit longer, but yes, I said that to him and I made him believe my words.”
“How did you do that?”
“It was easy,” he said. “My words were true. Truth conveys very well in situations such as this one and it’s a great motivator.”
She gave a little shudder. “You would really do that ... for me?”
“Yes,” he said. “I would really do that for you. I was not bullshitting the good doctor. My threat, coupled with the additional information that his wife would find out all about his little affair with you if this thing started involving the cops, did the trick. He has assured me that he will stay away from you. And I believe him.”
She licked her lip a little. “Wow,” she whispered.