When We Were Married Ch. 05D

I knew to a certainty there was something wrong. Talk of big money didn't rouse a smile. That wasn't Lew. But someone tapped me on the shoulder. As I turned, Heather McDonald smiled and hugged me.

"I'm sorry I was late. I wanted to be here for the actual sentencing but I had to make a meeting of detectives. But they just told me. Ten years. I guess that's acceptable, right?"

"She'll be nearly 80 when she gets out. I think Pizaro figured that was enough, if she even makes it out. And I just told her Carroll's kids will probably succeed in breaking their father's will, so when she does get out she won't be a pauper, but she won't be any multi-millionaire. All in all, I think she had a pretty shitty day."

She licked her lips and I just smiled. She knew what she was doing, as her answering smile showed.

"Congratulations, Bill. You did good."

"We did good. I wrote a memo to Knight praising you to the skies, although right now I don't think praise from me is going to do you any favors over at the cop shop. Didn't anyone tell you that you shouldn't be seen talking to me."

"I know what's going on, Bill. But a lot of us don't think Knight should be putting the whole department and its reputation behind a guy who shot a man in the back. You still have friends there."

"Thanks, Heather, but you should keep your head down. Don't get in the middle on this one because it could get ugly."

"I won't be signing any petitions, but remember if you need a friend, just pick up the phone. Oh, by the way..."

She turned slightly as a tall, dark haired young guy who just had the look of a plainclothes detective walked up to stand beside her. The looks they exchanged told me the story.

"Mr. Maitland, this is Detective Rob Goland. He's in homicide. Rob, this is Bill Maitland, the guy I was telling you about. The best prosecutor in the state."

He reached out and I shook his head. He smiled but he moved to put himself slightly between us. He was letting me know who she belonged to. She gave me a little contented grin.

"Glad to meet you, Mr. Maitland. Heather has told me all about you."

From behind his back she mouthed, "not all."

"Well, I appreciate the kind words but she's the one that really put Judy Jacobsen away. Not me. She's very good at what she does."

She couldn't help shaking her head a little bit at that, but the kid didn't pick up on it. I doubt he was thirty. More like twenty five or twenty six.

"Mr. Maitland, I just wanted to come by to check on the verdict. We've got to run. We're going to grab a bite. Rob, would you go on ahead and grab a car and pick me up at the front. I just need to take care of one more piece of business with Mr. Maitland."

"Sure. See you later, Mr. Maitland."

After he left the courtroom, she moved closer and said, "I'm sorry we haven't had a chance to get back together, Bill. I've missed...you know."

"Yeah, but...right now I'm involved. So..."

She reached out and again I shook a hand. This time she held my own between hers and squeezed. It looked professional.

"I understand, Bill. I didn't expect it to be anything more than a one-time thing. And, really, I couldn't do much now. Rob and I....we're uh.."

"He's a good looking guy. But he's lucky to have a hot item like you to hang with. Isn't he a little old for you, though."

"Smart alec. What can I say. It's the older woman thing. Love it."

"Well, Heather, go on and have your 'dinner.' But seriously, don't get involved in this Shawn Smith thing. You have to live and work in that department, and right now I'm poison. You take care of yourself. I'll be fine."

I was the only one left except for a single court reporter finishing up her work, and one lone bailiff who apparently didn't have anywhere else to be. I still felt funny about Lew so I headed down to Starbucks and realized I'd gotten lucky when I saw him grabbing a coffee and turning around to leave the courthouse.

"Lew."

"Now you're following me? You're not getting a crush on me, are you? That would be sticky, to say the least."

He sounded more like himself, but not enough.

"Lew, we've been friends for a long time. I'm not trying to pry, really, but is there anything I can help with. Professionally or personally?"

He stopped by the doors to the outside and took a sip of coffee.

"No. Your antenna are good as always, but this isn't anything you can bring your powers to bear on."

"Personal?"

He nodded.

"It's Mona. Mona and you. You remember the first thing you said when I called you about Debbie and me splitting. So I'll ask you. Did you do something stupid?"

He shook his head and just looked at the floor.

"Tell me or I'll just keep bugging the hell out of you until you do."

Keeping his eyes down, he said, "You know Mona and I......we've been trying....for kids. For awhile."

"Yeah, although I wonder about your sanity sometimes. Sorry. I know it's not funny for you."

"Well....we uh....found out.....not too long ago."

"What?"

"It's Mona. She can't...you know. So it's over."

Neither one of us said anything for a moment.

"Have you thought about-"

"It's over, Bill. It's over."

He met my stare.

"It's uh -- things have been tense since then. But...we'll get through it. Right now, it kind of...seems like I should be giving her a little space. That's why I'm taking the case. She's been out of the country for a little while. We just need some time."

"God knows I'm not an expert in keeping marriages together, but, you don't think you guys should be talking? Maybe see somebody?"

"Right now, she...uh....doesn't want that much to do with me. We....I didn't take the news well."

He took another sip and then said, "I do have to go, Bill. I'll be in touch."

I grabbed his arm before he could push the door open.

"I'd talk to Mona if you wanted me to. Sometimes an outside party....."

"Just leave it alone, Bill. You have enough on your plate. We'll be alright."

And he was gone.

I just stood there looking at the streams of people entering and leaving. How many of them had good marriages. Or relationships? How the hell did men and women ever manage to stay together?

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2005 2:30 A.M.

She rolled back and forth on the bed. Jesus Christ, she'd never realized how big the bed was. She was half awake, in that state where you know you're on the brink of waking, but can't quite do it. She thought of Clint, of Doug, of men and cocks from long away and her fingers ran down her thighs but she couldn't make herself enter herself.

She thought of Bill, and her defenses were down and she couldn't make herself stop thinking about him. God damn, but he was looking good. Trim and hard and cold. At least around her. He was probably hot and filling that bitch's cunt with his cum every night and every day.

Just like she'd known he would. She had always known.

"You bastard. You bulldoze your way into my life. And you desert me for your fucking job...and who knows what or who else. Just like I knew you would. Just like she said you would."

As the thought flashed in her mind it was like a key unlocking a door to a hidden room. And she was....

...walking up to the long plate glass front of a bar she and Bill had been in one time years before. O'Brien's was a honky tonk, or a dive or whatever word you wanted to use. It wasn't the kind of place she or Bill hung out in anymore. Although she knew Bill liked it.

She had called MaryJane, one of Clarice's only friends from before the divorce, looking for her aunt.

They had used to talk almost every day but it had been nearly two weeks. Clarice had been the most beautiful, the most elegeant woman Debbie had known growing up. Much of what she knew about men, about being a woman, she had copied from her aunt.

Since that bastard husband of hers had dumped her, she'd fallen to pieces. Debbie knew she'd been frantically dating, going out with guys way too old or way too young for her to be seeing, anything to keep a man in her life while Frank was squiring around the little tramp that was carrying his baby.

MaryJane, Clarice's oldest friend, had been oddly reluctant to talk to her, finally saying only that Clarice had been getting more and more wild, more reckless in who she saw and what she did with men. MaryJane was no prude. She'd been divorced three times and had a long list of men friends, but...

"I'm worried about her Debbie. She's doing stupid things. She's having unprotected sex. I saw her get into a car with a guy and I know he fucked her without a condom. I've talked to her, but she won't listen to me. Maybe she'd listen to you."

MaryJane hadn't been sure where she was tonight, but she thought that she remembered Clarice talking about meeting "some young studs" for a party beginning at O'Brien's on the Westside.

Debbie had thought about asking Bill to go with her, but as usual he was working late on a case and even if he'd been available, he just didn't like Clarice. Or at least he didn't feel the sympathy that Debbie did.

But he hadn't grown up with her. She wasn't a second mother to him. And he had always been so fucking rigid and moralistic. Clarice always said he must have been born with a stick up his ass.

Now she was inside and it was fairly un-crowded for 8 p.m. on a Thursday night. There were people at the big horseshoe shaped bar, some couples dancing, others playing pool. She looked around but didn't see a blonde almost as tall as she was anywhere.

Two of the pool players, pseudo cowboys with black hats, moseyed on over and smiling, asked her if she felt like a game or...something.

The taller one just grinned and never took his eyes off her boobs. The shorter one, who at least had the manners to pretend to be checking out her face, asked if they could buy her a drink if she wasn't with somebody.

"No thank you, boys, although the offer is appreciated. If I didn't have business, I'd love to play with you..."

She grinned as she said it, knowing their tongues would be dragging the floor and they'd do almost anything she asked now that she had flirted harmlessly with them. Sometimes it seemed almost unfair to take advantage of men's horniness. Sometimes...

"I'm looking for a friend. An older lady. Blonde. About 5-6. Mid-50s. She might have been in here with some friends -- male friends. Any chance you might have seen her in here tonight?"

They exchanged glances.

The taller one managed to drag his gaze away from her chest and said, "Yeah, I think she's in here. She headed into the bathroom. I guess those other guys must have gone in with her to hold her hand."

The look she flashed him made him quickly add, "Probably they all just had to go at the same time. A lot of beer gets drunk in here."

"Thanks boys. Maybe I'll see you in here again someday."

She walked across the room trying to tone down her natural wiggle. It came naturally after so many years of practicing it, but they'd been helpful and there was no need to tease the animals in the zoo.

As she approached the bathrooms painted with Western Cowboys and Cowgirls art, she hoped she was wrong about what might be happening back here.

She walked into the Cowgirls' bathroom. It was a big place. There was somebody in a stall and a girl who looked to be 15 with long straight hair, no boobs, and a pierced bellybutton putting lipstick on in the mirror.

The girl gave her a quick glance and quick as that Debbie knew she had earned another enemy. Women were bitches. She glanced at the bottom of the occupied stall. The legs were black.

She pushed on the door to the Cowboys' bathroom and it moved a little then stopped. Someone was blocking the door.

"It's occupied. I got a sick friend in here. Let me get him cleaned up and you can come in."

She stepped back two paces and hit it at a run, trying to take the impact on her shoulder. The door swung open hard and the man who'd been blocking it went down to his hands and knees. Beyond him was...

"Clarice!"

The guy who had been grinding his heel into her naked breast stared at Debbie for a moment, then lunged at her.

"Bitch. Grab her you morons."

Debbie put all of her weight into the kick that landed squarely between his legs and left him gasping on the floor.

Before she could move the guy she'd pushed away from the door had grabbed her from behind. She tried to kick backwards but he was smart enough to wrap her legs up with his own.

With her arms pinned, she started to scream. With the music outside, and this far back, they might not hear her, but no one was going to hold her down again and use her against her will. Not without a fight.

The third man who'd been standing over Clarice came at her and she braced herself. She didn't even think about it as she shouted, "You touch me and my husband will hunt you down."

He didn't stop but barreled into her, grabbing her by the shoulders and using his momentum to slam her and the guy behind her into the wall next to the door.

The head of the guy holding her slammed hard into the wall and the man holding her shoulders rammed him into the wall again hard. The man behind Debbie loosened his grip and the man in front of her grabbed Debbie and threw her to one side.

The man he'd rammed into the wall put his hands up only to get a fist to the face that bounced him off the wall again. In the next instant, the third man who'd thrown Debbie to the floor had him in a bear hug up against the wall.

As they struggled, the third man looked at the one Debbie had kicked in the balls. He had risen to his feet and started toward Debbie.

"Danny, don't. You stupid fucker, don't."

"Are you fucking crazy. The bitch could send us all to prison. Now we have to grab her and take her somewhere where we can convince her to keep her mouth shut."

"Let go of me Bobby."

"Both of you, shut up. Listen to me. We are so, so fucking close to spending the rest of our lives in Raiford, if we even get that far."

"Yeah, if we let her call for help. I'm not going down for raping some old slut that wanted it."

The one called Bobby kept his arms around the man he was holding.

"LISTEN. Listen to me. I've seen her. I've done work around the courthouse. She's that guy Maitland's wife. He's the fucking top State Attorney in Jacksonville.

"Touching her is worse than going after a cop's wife. He's a fucking asshole and if the stories I've heard are true, we hurt her and we won't live to go to trial."

"You might not make it that far anyway."

The three men looked at the doorway and the short dark haired man who stood there tapping a baseball bat lightly in one hand.

Debbie recognized the owner of the bar, O'Brien, and she knew of his reputation. With or without the baseball bat, the three of them were about to enter a world of pain.

"You stupid assholes...you got the balls to do this in MY place. I hope you fight back, I really do."

He gestured to the trio with one hand, beckoning to them.

"Come on, please try to get by me. I'm just one old man. You might make it."

The man called Bobby let his friend go and held up his hands in a placating gesture as he backed away from the man with the bat.

"O'Brien, don't. The old bitch wanted this. She told us she wanted us all and didn't want to wait till we could go somewhere private. It turned her on to get gang fucked in a public place. It got out of hand, but she wanted it. She did."

"Call the cops, O'Brien," Debbie said, rising unsteadily to her feet. Her nylons were ruined and her left breast was sore where she'd hit the floor.

"Already done, Mrs. Maitland."

The three men looked from one to the other. Gauging their chances of making it past O'Brien against waiting for the cops to arrive. The one called Danny breathed hard and Debbie knew he was getting ready to charge.

As he set himself she stepped in behind him and buried the point of her right shoe deep into his balls from the back. He went down like a pole-axed steer.

"Debbie, baby, don't....."

Debbie looked back at the woman on the floor. White strands of cum ran from her hair to her face to her half naked body. Piss had pooled around her on the floor. The smell of that the vomit on the floor and on her was enough to make Debbie nauseous. Clarice's voice was so reedy and thin Debbie almost couldn't hear her.

She knelt down beside her and pulled her body close to her, ignoring the smell.

"What, Clarice...what?"

She whispered into Debbie's ear, "no, let them go, please."

"No. I'm not going to let them go after what they did to you. They raped you, the bastards. Bill will send every one of them to Raiford for life."

"please...please..just take me home...."

"How can you ask me to do that? God, Clarice, look at what they did...."

Her aunt forced her with one trembling hand to look into her eyes.

"It's true, baby. I came in here of my own free will. I wanted them...to.....and it just got...out of hand...."

"They still didn't have the right-"

"Deb....if they're arrested....it will all come out.....and Frank...with that fucking little bimbo of his...will get a good laugh....at how desperate for cock I am since I lost his. I couldn't stand it. I'd kill myself."

"It's not right that they get away with this."

"They're just pigs, like every other man. I let them have me. It's my fault."

It took her just a second. The cops would be here any time.

"O'Brien, let them pass."

"No."

"Please, for me. For Bill. I know he likes you and this dive. She's my aunt. I can't let this go public. Please."

He stood there for an interminable minute then stepped back. The three men stepped warily around them. As they passed he touched Bobby on the shoulder and Bobby froze.

"I know your daddy, Bobby. You and your friends will never come in here again. If you see me on the street, you'll cross to the other side. Because if you ever cross my path again, I'll hurt you, and I'll tell your daddy exact what kind of animal he raised. And you know that will break his heart."

Bobby nodded and the three men stumbled away.

"What can I do?"

"Can you get me a blanket or big towel, and is there a back way out of here?"

When he came back she took the towel and said, "Please, keep everyone out and don't come back for a few minutes. And, O'Brien, for the love of God, don't ever tell Bill anything about this."

She could read the question.

"He's never liked Clarice and he won't have any respect for her if the finds out. And he won't let it lie. He'll go after them and it will all go public and she'll be humiliated. No matter what it looks like, she deserves better than that."

He finally nodded.

"Nothing ever happened back here. Just another boring night."

As she walked by him she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. He touched it as she passed and said with a smile, "Now I can't ever wash my face again."

Ten minutes later she had a shivering Clarice slumped over in the front seat of her 2001 Cadilac CTS. It was Autumn, early September, but unseasonably cool and her aunt couldn't stop shivering. Debbie had done everything she could to wipe the fluids off her and clean her hair, but she was still a mess. There was an ugly bruise on the side of one breast.

"It'll be okay, Clarice. Thank God you didn't let them....inside you without protection. No telling what those assholes might be carrying."

Clarice kept her eyes closed but said, "It's okay baby. I know you think I'm a miserable slut. Sucking off three men in a bathroom. Not the way you remember me, is it?"

"Clarice...God knows I can't act Holier than thou. You've pulled me out of some nasty situations. You know what I was like. You remember the time when I was 16 and you stormed into that Biker Bar at the Beach and pulled out a .38 and threatened to start shooting off balls if they didn't toss my drunken ass out of that place."