Letters from a Stalker

Giancarlo Corletti arrived at the station and Judge's eyebrows rose right into his hairline. He and his wife made a stunningly handsome couple and yet, it occurred to Judge that it was the first time that he was seeing the illusive Sig. Corletti. For all the wife's appearances on the society pages of the Sunday Gleaner and the Jamaica Herald he was very seldom by her side. In fact, Judge could not remember him at all, yet one look at him and Judge was sure that this was by design. Giancarlo Corletti obviously had no interest at all in his wife's world of social engagements and hangers-on. Judge was sympathetic.

He was never one for counselling, but this couple needed it if any did. Judge did not think himself qualified to be giving anyone advice except that he had seen this kind of thing before up close and personal. He would spew the platitudes that he had been told when his own marriage was breaking down and hope that this one ended up better than his did.

Corletti glanced at his wife puzzled. She did not look at him at all. Milner and Judge looked at each other. Judge nodded.

"Welcome, Sig. Corletti. I'm sure that you've been wondering why we've asked you here today. It concerns a case involving your wife."

Giancarlo Corletti glanced suspiciously at the woman. He turned back to Milner but said nothing.

"Sig.ra Corletti came to us yesterday with some salacious notes; very scandalous and very threatening in nature."

Corletti turned to look at his wife again, and in truth he did seem to be more sympathetic, Judge was happy to see. Hector Milner continued.

"We believe that we know the origins of these notes, and we believe that you have it in your power to do something about them."

"Is it a blackmail threat? Do they want money?" Giancarlo Corletti asked, annoyed.

Judge's heart sank. This was beyond the stage where Avril Corletti could retrieve her marriage. Her husband was clearly prepared to throw money at her problems, which was where they had originated in the first place he guessed.

"I have no problem paying to cover up my wife's indiscretions," Corletti was saying.

Judge could stand it no longer. He interrupted.

"No, Sig. Corletti. It is YOUR indiscretions that are the problem here."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me! We believe that these notes were meant to frighten you into taking better care of your wife. Your affair with Sylvia Earle is a problem for her. Is this not true, Sig.ra Corletti?"

Avril Corletti jumped. She clutched her mouth trying to stifle a little scream.

"What are you saying, Detective Inspector?" Giancarlo Corletti was standing now.

"Please sit down, sir. What I am saying is that your wife had these notes sent to your home in the hope that you would see them or at least see that she was upset and inquire as to the cause. You have obviously done neither."

"Why am I here?" Giancarlo Corletti snapped. He was clearly angry now.

"We wanted to tell you that your wife loves you so much that she was prepared to do something criminal to attract your attention, and get you to express some affection for her again."

"Please stop!" Avril Corletti was clearly embarrassed. She obviously did not think that things would end like this.

"What he said is true, Carlo. I sent these notes to myself; or rather, I had someone send them to me so that you could think that someone wanted to hurt me and come back to my side as you were in the beginning of our marriage. All you do is spend time with that Sylvia Earle person! I don't know why! What is Sylvia Earle doing for you that I am not?"

"Hah!" Giancarlo Corletti barked meanly. "This is not the place, Avril; but for your information she does plenty for me that you don't do!"

"What, is it? Anal sex again? Is that what this is about? Is it that she likes to be tied up and spanked or is it that you do, Giancarlo?" Avril Corletti retorted.

Giancarlo Corletti, Judge and Milner all froze.

"I told you that this is not the place, Avril," Corletti's voice was steel.

Judge and Milner got up to excuse themselves and give the couple some privacy, but Giancarlo Corletti ordered them to sit down! Judge found himself sitting down again across the room from an equally surprised Milner.

"You've heard enough to know that I can't stand my wife! Do you have any idea what it's like living with someone who is concerned only about keeping up appearances? There is no intimacy with her. We can't even have a child because she wants to keep her figure! If she had said that she wanted to keep her career I would have been more impressed, though one can take even that too far! But her figure? Can you believe that? Would you tolerate that, either of you? Missionary with a condom after fifteen years of marriage!" he railed at the policemen. "Yes! Sylvia Earle is ten times, no one hundred times, the woman that you are Avril! She gives me plenty in bed that you've probably never even heard about. I'm in love with her and I'm going to divorce you and marry her!"

"Marriage! Don't make me laugh, Giancarlo! She is a common whore!"

"And what are you, Avril? You're married to me because of my money and the social standing that that can buy you; so what does that make you, Avril? Sylvia has declined my proposal on three occasions already but I'm not giving up. Now that I can tell her that you know about us perhaps she will change her mind. I can tell her that I'm finally getting a divorce. That ought to settle things."

"I'm going to take you to the cleaners!" Avril Corletti promised her husband.

"Who gives a shit, Avril? There is still enough to go around. For Sylvia and me even half of my holdings would be more than enough. Can you say the same thing?"

"What I can say is that I saw you! I saw you, Giancarlo! I saw you with this Sylvia Earle person! It was disgusting! In our bed too!" Avril Corletti burst into bitter tears. "She's not even a woman!"

"Shut up Avril, I'm sure that these gentlemen do not need to hear details," Giancarlo Corletti seemed shocked and then curiously deflated.

"Buggery is a crime here in Jamaica!" the woman retorted. "I think that they do need to hear details."

Both Judge and Milner looked at each other. This had got out of hand. They had obviously lost control of the situation, completely.

"Sylvia Earle is not even a woman!" Avril Corletti shrieked again. "She's a man! She has both sets of body parts, you understand? My husband is in love with a trans-woman! I saw his hands on Ms Earle's body the way they used to be on mine! I saw him playing with and tweaking Ms. Earle's breasts and sucking her cock as if his life depended on it! I saw this Sylvia Earle person take him the way he keeps wanting to take me, and they were not using a strap-on! That cock was fully functioning! I saw Sylvia Earle spank him in the face... with her cock! I saw him give her a blowjob! Can you believe that? Do you want to know what they were like when she mounted him?"

"Keep your voice down, Avril!" her husband warned. "Everyone will hear you! Sylvia is not a transwoman. She hasn't had all her surgeries yet, but this is a free world, and she is not doing anything wrong. She's a lovely woman, and I'm in love with her! You have to understand..."

"I don't care what you say!" she screamed. She turned to Judge and Milner. "Aren't you going to arrest him? He took a man's cock up in his ass! He did it more than once! I saw him! I heard him groan with lust. I saw him ejaculate! I tell you, Sylvia Earle is a shemale! Just ask her! Carlo is more of a woman than she is!"

Judge looked at Corletti's stricken face. It was clear that the man expected the worst kind of censure from him. He looked next at Avril Corletti, her beauty marred by the malice that she now felt toward her husband. Judge came to a decision.

"I doubt that Sylvia Earle would confess to anything of the sort, but truthfully, even if she would, it would be none of my business, and frankly, Sig.ra Corletti, personally I can't see a crime in loving someone, but it is a crime to blackmail people here in Jamaica. You seem to have spent a long time looking at something that you claim disgusted you. How else did you see so much of your husband's relations with Ms. Earle?"

"What are you talking about? Sylvia Earle is a shemale! She taught my husband the ways of men making love to other men. Isn't that wrong?"

"I doubt that Sylvia Earle did that, Madam, but hear me out. I see absolutely nothing wrong with this. I believe that whatever your husband does in the privacy of your home is his business. I do not plan to do anything about him and Ms. Earle; though," he turned to Giancarlo Corletti, "I am not sure that remaining here would be your best option. Some people will think that Ms. Earle is a gay man. I do not think so myself. I know that the situation is more complicated than that, but I do not think that everyone will be so understanding; and I agree with you wife, it is in very poor form to take your lover, man or woman, into the matrimonial bed. That was not nice of you, Sig Corletti."

He turned back to the distraught woman seated in front of him, "I don't plan to tell anyone about this at all. I am sure that Detective Milner agrees with me that this whole sordid affair is better left alone. Let your husband divorce you, you're probably better off in the long-term if he does not really love you, take what you can get, and keep your mouth shut. Your situation with Ms. Earle being a pre-operative transsexual is new to me, but I know that people discover that their spouses are unfaithful every day. They survive. Your pain will fade in time, and with the help of good friends. Life is too short to spend it moping about a lost love. Move on! If I hear about this I will know that it was you who told. I'm just trying to get the images that David Crossman described in those letters out of my head; so you won't hear me talking about this, ever."

He glanced at Milner to see if he had his agreement. Milner was having a very difficult time not laughing. Judge frowned. This was no laughing matter in a place like Jamaica. He would have to tell Milner to work on his poker face some more for the future.

"I will have justice!" an incredulous Avril Corletti declared. "I know the Commissioner! I know his wife!"

"If I were you, I'd shut up, lady!" Milner interjected, suddenly very serious.

"How dare you speak to me like this!" Avril snarled.

"Listen to me you spoiled little bitch! You will say nothing about this to anyone or we will make sure that the media gets hold of your little notes and your part in the story behind them. I will see to it personally! Believe me, no one is going to believe that your husband ran off with a transsexual and even if they thought that it might be true it would not reflect well on you to have people know that you could not keep your husband and that he left you for a trans-man" Milner was angry, and as frightening as a Rotweiller about to attack, and Judge, understanding it, was thankful for his support.

"I cannot believe this! Perhaps you are the same!" Avril Corletti said, unwisely; jumping to her feet in a rage. She had no way of knowing that she was appealing for understanding to a man who had also lost his own marriage because of a taboo relationship; between his boss, the Commissioner of Police, and his now ex-wife, Thalia; and this man's only real friend.

"Sig.ra Corletti, get out of this office before I arrest you for public mischief," Milner snapped. "Remember that it is a crime to report crimes that have not happened and you did that when you came in here claiming to receive a series of letters from someone sick. You are the only person in this room who is sick!"

Avril Coreletti looked at the three men in the room. All of them looked back at her coldly; a first for her. She got up with as much dignity as she could muster and looked straight into her husband's eye.

"My body is a temple, Giancarlo; your Sylvia Earle's is a market! Remember that."

She spat in his face and walked out; her head held high, and again ignoring the appreciative stares of everyone around her.

Judge offered his handkerchief to Giancarlo Corletti. He sighed. Perhaps his therapist would find it a sign of progress that he was actually able to side with a man who was having an affair with someone undergoing gender reassignment surgery in Jamaica.