A Time Well Spent

"I'd watch the bitch if I were you." Julie said as I told her I was leaving. "Once she gets her claws in there's no hope of escape."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

It wasn't much as apartments go, a single bedroom with a double bed with a comfortable feeling mattress, a dressing table and wardrobe. The bathroom had just enough room to swing a cat without braining it on the walls, a wash basin set into a bench top, a toilet in an alcove to one side and a bath with a shower over it and the most ghastly printed plastic shower curtain hanging from a rail. That would have to go for sure. The kitchen had a reasonable number of cupboards, a sink and stove that had seen better days. There was a refrigerator that needed a good scrub-out to get rid of the mould and smell before I thought about stocking it. I switched it on and it seemed to cool quickly enough without any strange noises, so I assume that it worked.

"Well, what do you think?"

"It will do for the time being. Is yours the same as this one?"

"Pretty much. It's a place to stay that's close to work and facilities, and it's cheap enough that I can save money to get a better one, or a house."

"Not much room for parties, is there?"

"I'm not the party type. The occasional dinner with friends is about it."

"Any friends in particular?"

"No. Being a Social Worker seems to be a turn-off for most men, they can't understand why I would want to help people less fortunate than me."

"So, no boyfriend. What about a girlfriend, is there one of those?"

"Do you mean, am I a lesbian? No there are no same sex tendencies in my life. Can we change the subject and get back to you? What are your immediate plans?"

"Arrange for a new stove so that I can practise my culinary skills, and replace that horrible cheap and nasty shower curtain."

"Right, I'll take you to see the agent and arrange for a new stove, and then we'll go shopping for a new shower curtain. How does that sound?"

"Don't you have to be at work?"

"Not today, I've taken a flexi-day, (time off in lieu of extra hours worked) so I'm free and at your disposal for the day."

The agent agreed to replace the old stove with a new and better one. He opened up a book on the desk in front of him. "I have here three other parties interested in this apartment, and none of them has requested that I should replace the stove." He stopped short of saying that he didn't feel under an obligation to replace it.

"How long will that last." I said to him. "I turned it on and it tripped the circuit breaker, so there is something wrong with it and, for the cost of getting a repairer out to look at it, you could have a new one that would last a lot longer. And that doesn't take into consideration the cost and availability of parts, so you see, replacing it now and letting me have the apartment is better all-around than having to contact one of the other potential tenants and still have to replace the stove."

He shoved the papers in front of me and handed me a pen so that I could sign the lease agreement. I now had my own apartment.

Shopping with Natalie was an interesting experience, her taste in shower curtains was the same as mine, her appraisal of the cookware showed a practicality over looks, no fancy stuff, just pots and pans that would do the job intended. As for appliances, again we looked for what was necessary, not desired, a kettle and toaster, a coffee machine, not the best but good enough, and an electric combination pressure and slow cooker.

A trip to the menswear store to stock up on decent jocks and socks, some jeans and shirts and shoes kitted me out until I had settled in and worked out what I wanted. I was looking at pyjamas. "Do you really need those?" She asked.

"Not really. I usually sleep in jocks and tee shirt, it's not as if I'll be entertaining in bed." I got a funny look from her for that comment. "What?"

"Nothing, just that I can't see you staying celibate for any length of time."

"I won't be going out chasing women, I'm not that type."

"Oh I believe you, but what if a woman decides to invite herself into your life?"

"Meaning you?" I decided to play along with her mood.

"You never know your luck, I just might do that."

"I bet that if I take you up on that, you'll be out of there that fast that my head will spin."

"We'll see." There was that look again.

A stop at the supermarket for necessary groceries on the way home, and the shopping was completed. We arrived back at the apartment and unpacked. "Do you feel like something to eat?" I asked as I put the final item of groceries into the cupboard.

"I do, but not here. There's a bistro down the road that serves great food, it'll be my treat, a sort of welcome to the apartment present."

She was right, the food was good, and at this time of the day there were few other customers. "I have been asking myself, why are you putting yourself out for me like this, not for my good looks and charm surely."

"That's part of it, the other part is that I took a look at your trial transcripts, before you ask, I have my ways of getting a look at them. Your lawyer missed a few key elements in the evidence that he could have challenged but didn't"

"I know. Last night I thought that I'd double check my memory, so I re-read it for the million and oneth time, and it sort of leapt off the page and grabbed me by the throat. I don't know how I could have missed it every time that I read it before. In the on-site forensic examination of the body immediately after the incident, some congealed blood was noted, but the evidence submitted in court made no mention of this. Already congealed blood would indicate that the wound was some time old before my vehicle hit him. That along with so little blood at the scene should have been picked up, but wasn't."

"The question that needs to be asked is, was the forensic report tampered with after the police got it, or was the omission in the examination or the original post mortem report?"

"What we need is a copy of the original hand written forensic report, the one presented in court, and compare them, but how are we going to do that?"

"We can't do anything tonight, so why don't we go home."

Home for the night turned out to be Natalie's apartment. We arrived back in our apartment block, and I was going to just walk her to her door and go to mine. Somehow I accepted her invitation to her place for a nightcap. Our conversation was all very formal for a while, then, on about our third nightcap it had degenerated to some serious flirting on both our parts. I missed being in the presence of an intelligent, sophisticated and beautiful woman, so much so that when she issued her invitation for me to sleep with her, I, after some hesitation, accepted (bullshit, you had said yes a whole nanosecond after I had finished issuing the invitation, Natalie).

There was a fundamental difference between Natalie and Julie, when it came to sex. With Julie it was merely her getting her rocks off with a one night stand, while with Natalie, it was the beginning of an exploration into what could be in the future. She was more concerned with me as a whole person, rather than a small (Huh, you call that small? Natalie) part of me.

After a pleasant breakfast she left for work, showered and preened and looking positively radiant. "See you this evening, it'll be your turn to entertain me." With a quick but passionate kiss she was gone, leaving me to ponder my way back to my empty apartment.

I had work to do today, I had to have my mail re-directed from the gaol to my new postal address, a box number at the GPO, and check out the resources at the State Library.

Having made some headway into what I had to do, I gathered the ingredients for a dish that I hoped would surprise Natalie when she got home from work.

I left an envelope stuck on her door with an invitation to dine with me. I asked that she be at my apartment at 7:00 for dinner at 7:30. I prepared what I could beforehand and had the rest ready to finish off after she arrived. That out of the way, I got myself tarted up with a shower and shave, squirt of the pits and into my new jeans and shirt.

I was just lighting the candles when there was a soft tap on my door. I opened it to find a radiant Natalie in a very sexy dress waiting to come in. I put out my hand to draw her to me and we kissed as I kicked the door shut.

"My, doesn't this look good, you didn't have to go to all this trouble just for me."

"Yes I did, you have been so good to me that I have to find some way to repay your kindness. Tonight will go part of the way. Would you like a drink while I finish off the preparations?"

"I'll have a white wine if you have it, thank you."

"One white wine coming up." I took the bottle from the fridge and opened it, thank god for screw caps, poured both of us a glass and placed the bottle in an ice bucket that I'd prepared earlier.

Dinner was a homemade seafood pizza. I had bought myself one of those pizza stones that was heating in the oven, (newly installed today, its maiden run) the freshly made by me pizza base was waiting for the topping. A splash of olive oil so that it didn't get soggy from the ingredients, a tomato based sauce followed by pieces of fish, prawns, calamari, mussels, baby octopus, some chopped onion and mozzarella cheese and into the oven. "We have about twenty minutes, what would you like to do? We could sit and listen to music, or we could watch TV, or we could just enjoy each other's company. Your choice."

Her choice was to put her arms around my neck and kiss me. "What have you been doing today, apart from showing off your culinary skills?"

"I have spent some time at the library checking through the newspaper records of the trial and its aftermath. I came to the conclusion that I'd been stitched up pretty well, the verdict seemed to have come as a shock to the journalists covering it."

"Yeah, I got the same impression when I looked into it. What are you going to do about it?"

"Tomorrow I'm going to speak to a barrister, a client from my previous life, who has a reputation for being very astute. I wish now that I had chosen him to represent me the first time around."

"Good thinking. I wouldn't like to be you if you try to take them on, whoever they are, un-prepared."

"I have worked too hard over the past five years to blow it all by going in half-cocked this time." The 'ping' of the oven timer announce that it was now time to eat.

I took the pizza from the oven, it was nicely browned on top, and placed it on a cutting board. The crust gave a nice crunch as my knife cut into it. I took the cutting board and all into the dining room and placed it on the table. I opened a bottle of red and poured us each a glass. "Right, dig in while it's hot. I hope that I haven't stuffed it up."

Natalie took a bite from the pointy end of her slice and munched on it. "Mmmm, where did you learn to cook like this?"

"Years ago I got sick of the pizza franchise pizzas with their fancy stuffed crust and mountains of soggy toppings and decided that I would learn to make proper pizzas. This is my memory of that lesson." I had to admit that it did taste better than those that arrived by delivery driver in their padded containers in boxes with a layer of oil in the bottom.

I took a sip of the red before attacking my second slice. Natalie was on her third by then. "I think I should have made two pizzas."

"No, I'm glad that you didn't. If you'd made two we would have eaten two and one is enough, I don't want either of us getting fat."

"How was your day?" I asked.

"The usual. Oh I did go to the hotel and Julie asked after you."

"What did you tell her?"

"I told her that the last time I'd seen you, you were fine. What I didn't tell her was that the last time I'd seen you was this morning. She didn't need to know that, she's a handy person to have on my side because she keeps an eye on the residents and alerts me to any potential problems."

"You really love your job, don't you?"

"Yes, it's the kind of job that lets me feel as if I'm doing something important, and not just pushing papers around in an office somewhere."

"I bet that you meet some interesting people."

"Yes, you never know who you're likely to bump into, sometimes even hardened criminals."

"I'd look out for them, they could be dangerous."

"I don't know, I met one the other day who seemed perfectly normal."

"I still think that you should be careful who you pick up, I wouldn't want to lose you."

"Fat chance of that. I meant to talk to you about us."

"Oh, oh. I don't think that I like the sound of this."

"What I was about to say was, I like you a lot, probably even love you. I want to get to know you better. Because I believe that we could be good for each other in the long term, and I don't want to stuff it up by rushing into things. What do you think?"

"I think that we should explore all facets of our relationship as it unfolds, and not try to pre-empt anything. I also think that we have the potential for a long term relationship. While last night would appear to be rushing it just a little, what I believe that it has done is to show us, in a very short-time, that we are sexually compatible. We didn't rush into sex like a couple of randy goats, and it definitely wasn't the same as commercial sex, not that I've had any experience at that, it's just what I've heard from in-mates talking of visits to brothels."

"I'm glad about that, not that I've anything against working girls, some of my best clients fit into that category, and they are, by and large, decent people. Don't get me wrong, I've met some pretty rough girls in my time, and there wasn't a lot that I could do for them, just when I thought that I was making progress they were back on drugs. When they reach that stage there's not a lot you can do with them, just wait and hold out your hand to them and help to pick up the pieces of their lives if they'll let you."

I took the now clean cutting board back to the kitchen and returned with a serving of tiramisu for each of us. As we'd finished the bottle of red, it was back to the white wine.

"This has been good having you cook for me, we'll have to do it more often. Don't expect me to reciprocate, I'm not that much of a cook."

"Do you want me to teach you?"

"That would be nice."

We finished the meal and, there was no suggestion on either of our parts, walked down to my bedroom. We were in no rush to consummate our relationship, it was slow and almost ethereal, our disrobing and getting into bed, and each other's arms. Natalie came long before me and clung to me as her spasms wracked her body. "It has been a long while, probably never, since I've had loving as good as this. You'd better not decide that you don't want me because, I have to warn you, my retribution will be swift and painful."

"Consider me warned." We eventually drifted off to sleep. I woke before her and slipped out of bed to prepare breakfast for us. The smell of fresh coffee brought a half-asleep Natalie out to the kitchen. "Good morning Darling, what time is it?"

"7:30 or a little after."

That's all right, I don't have to rush, and I can enjoy this. My usual breakfast is on the run. She grabbed her cup of coffee and took a sip before helping me by buttering the toast. There was something nice about having her here with me like this.

"I'd better go and get changed for work." She told me after we'd washed the dishes.

"What would you like for dinner tonight?" I asked her as we stood just inside my closed door kissing.

"Surprise me. Do you want me to come here?"

"Yes, I would like that. Good-bye, I'll see you at seven."

"'Bye my darling." She opened the door and was gone.

My first job of the day was to find a good Lawyer. I remembered that we had several as customers, including my father-in-law, definitely not him. One that I remembered that had a good track record was Robert Browning, he was a regular buyer of Ferraris. I looked him up in the phone book and spoke to his secretary who told me that he was in court this morning and that she would get him to call me when he got back into the office.

I set up a carry file with all of the information that I had about the trial and my research into the conduct of it, as well as my opinions into the way that the evidence was presented in a way that I didn't stand a chance.

It was around 2:00pm when I got the call. "Mr Browning, It's Tom Cowley, I wonder if I could arrange an appointment with you to discuss several legal issues."

"Resulting from your incarceration I gather."

"Yes. I was released recently and would like to speak to you with the view to having the original trial declared a mis-trial and put in an application for a pardon."

"I would need some substantial grounds for either of those, I hope that you have done your homework. Don't get me wrong, I believe that you were not well served by the Lawyer that represented you in that initial trial, but then the cards were heavily stacked in their favour. Let me see what you've got and we'll take it from there. Would 10:00 in the morning suit you?"

"That would be great. You have given me some hope already, thank you."

I was buoyed by his response, here was a man hinting that he would help me, but that I needed to show that I deserved to be helped, and that I wouldn't rely on him to do all of the grafting work. If I provided him with the ammunition, he would win the war for me. I had work to do.

Back to the State Library for copies of the news reports of the trial. These were nothing more than a précis of proceedings, but they were better than nothing until I could get a copy of the transcripts. I was winding through the microfiche of one of the papers when a photo caught my eye, it was Jennifer, taken at around the time of the trial, with a man at a function, one of many that she didn't include me on her invitation. He was named as Stephen Rawlinson. This was the bastard that led the prosecution case. On a hunch I thought that I should check him out. The white pages directory provided me with a surprise. One of the three phone numbers listed against his name was very familiar.

I arrived home in time to cook dinner, a cheat's version of a Moroccan tagine. This is best slow cooked in one of those ceramic dishes with the conical lid, but I found that I could achieve the same results using the electric pressure cooker. All that I needed to do was to chuck the ingredients into the cooker bowl, along with the seasonings, lock down the lid and set it on 'stew' and it would be cooked in just over half an hour. The couscous was also a cheat, it was a packet instant variety, but then I didn't have the time or the proper couscoussiere to cook it in.

One thing that I had come to love about Natalie is her punctuality, Jennifer was habitually late for parties and important functions. Right on 7:00 there was that soft tap on my door that announced her arrival. I opened the door and stood back with my arms open to receive her. Her coming into my arms and kissing me didn't disappoint, it was as loving and affectionate as last night.

"Hi Darling, how did you go today?"

"I think I might have found a Barrister to take my case."

"That's great, who is it?"

"Robert Browning, do you know him or know of him?"

"Yes, is this certain?"

"No, he's testing me out. He knows of the case and has hinted that he thought that I didn't have the best legal representation at my trial, but that if I wanted him to represent me, I'd have to have already done most of the leg work."

"Sounds fair. So, did you get any more info today?"

"Yes, I took copies of the news reports of the trial, such as they are, but that's not the interesting discovery I made. There was a photo in the social pages of my lovely wife with a Stephen Rawlinson."