All That Blooms in Spring Ch. 03-04

Jackie broke down crying. I almost wanted to believe her - almost. She came towards me, and since I didn't back away or stop her, she closed the remainder of the distance quickly and embraced me. I wasn't totally heartless; she was still my wife, and the love I felt for her wasn't something that could be shut off. I hugged her back, and we slowly swayed in place for at least a full minute.

Finally, she lifted her sad, tiny face to look into mine. "Could you stay with me tonight?" she pleaded. "In our bed. I promise, I just want you near me. I won't try anything, or do anything, unless you start it."

I agreed, although without any enthusiasm. Jackie cuddled up to me, even in her sleep, like she was losing something precious to her. I supposed she wasn't as stupid as she appeared. In the morning, I awoke to her staring at me, her head propped up on her arm. I grumbled a 'good morning.'

"How do I get my husband back?" she asked softly, pleadingly. "Tell me, and I'll do it. I'll do anything."

I thought about that for a few moments. "You could simply tell the truth."

She looked up at me, her eyes masked in disbelief. I turned and left her standing there.

Chapter 4

As June faded into July, I hadn't made any progress in locating Ann. I couldn't find anything online about the little girl in Chicago. I'd only found one article from when Ann had first joined the Medical Center team, which included a photo of her and her husband: Ralph. He was tall, tanned and good-looking, and his actual name was Raphael Moreno; he was a true-blood Spaniard. It struck me that if Ann could be physically attracted to someone like Raphael, there wasn't much chance she'd feel the same about me, or vice versa. Either we simply had a whirlwind romance, or she may not have ever been that attached to him.

I could find nothing about Ann's parents, either. All searches for anyone named Pierce, in or near northern Idaho fell short of connecting a daughter named Ann, Anna, Anne or Annabelle. It depressed me. I'd begun to wonder if maybe I was a little crazy. I was certainly obsessed, and it started to bother me enough that I decided to take a step back. I also became overly exhausted several days per week.

"I find myself dozing off hard," I mentioned to my family doctor at my next visit. "It's like I have this urgent need to sleep - like I can't stay awake. Is that normal with my type of injuries?"

"It depends," he responded, "but we should probably draw some blood to find out what's going on. Since we have an onsite lab, let's do that now, and you can either wait on the results, or I can call you as soon as they're back."

I wasn't prepared for what my doctor told me later that day.

"Peter," he began, "we found the source of your issue. I need you to cut way back on the medications you were prescribed in Visalia. The high levels of tryptophan and diphenhydramine are interacting with each other in a negative way. I can also prescribe you lesser doses of both. Tryptophan is generally used for calming, and as an anti-anxiety medication, but in your case, it's likely doubling down with the sleeping pills, because the body turns it to serotonin in the brain, causing your need to sleep."

"Alright," I recovered quickly, as stunned as I was. "I'll cut back or stop taking them unless needed," I lied. The only meds I was taking were the pills prescribed by that doctor at the Visalia hospital, and that was only sporadically. They were supposed to be pain meds, not sleeping pills.

That night, using my phone's calendar, I started to see if I could recognize any sort of pattern involving my tiredness. That didn't take long. It was Tuesdays and Fridays. There were other days that I'd found myself fatigued at work, or when I'd gotten home, but the recent nights I'd just gone to my room early and almost passed out, had definitely been Tuesdays and Fridays. I could barely wait to head home and investigate the prescription bottle, and pills inside it.

I wondered if I'd really been prescribed the correct meds at the hospital. When I looked at the vial, it said pain medication. I searched online for 'sleeping pill' images, and none I could find looked like the ones in the vile. I looked up the exact medicine on the label and it matched the pills in the container. The other drug in my system, occurred naturally in turkey and other foods, but I wasn't engaging in Thanksgiving dinner ever Tuesday and Friday.

So my only conclusion was that my wife was poisoning me, or at least trying to make me unconscious. but I couldn't fathom why she'd do that. Even considering the possibility made me start to think of myself as paranoid. She'd be contrite, and constantly trying to get us past all that had happened. Still, the fact remained that I was suffering from exhaustion, and a medical doctor had just told me it was because of drugs in my system.

That revelation forced my hand. I'd already purchased security software for uploading footage to my new laptop. All that remained was to go to an electronics store and purchase the hardware: one small camera that I could place on a bookshelf in our living room. I didn't need to spy on Jackie, just confirm what I really hoped wasn't true.

Tuesday, I sat watching a baseball game in the living room, right after finishing two helpings of Jackie's lasagna. She'd always been a good cook. My eyes became heavy, and I held out as long as I could, but finally told Jackie that I was overly tired and was going to bed. Many nights, Jackie would sit with me and watch TV, but I also discovered that on those two nights, she was always busying herself in some other part of the house. I slept soundly, confident that I would have the proof I needed the next day - one way or the other.

At work, the next morning, I uploaded the file from the security cam. I saw Jackie appear in the living room, dressed in sweat pants and a loose fitting top. She wore make-up, which seemed strange. Maybe an hour after I went to bed Jackie answered our front door, and there stood Alise. Jackie quickly went out the door with her, and returned around twelve-thirty in the morning.

That was interesting, but there was nothing telling, nor any 'there' there, in terms of proof. Of course, I made the obvious conclusion, but I said nothing to Jackie. I didn't have a chance to view the recording from Friday night until Saturday afternoon, when I took my laptop to my favorite coffee internet café. Because of what the footage showed, I had to shut the lid early on.

Similar to what I'd seen in Tuesday's footage, about an hour after I went to bed on Friday night, Jackie opened the door to both Alise and Todd. She quickly poured them a glass of wine, and sat chatting for about thirty minutes. Then Jackie left the room, presumably to check in on me. While she was gone, Alise started kissing her husband on our sofa, unbuttoning most of his shirt while they were lip-locked. When Jackie returned, she sat on the other side of Todd, and started rubbing his bare chest. Soon, both ladies hands were roaming, and found his crotch. Todd leaned back, his arms across the back of the sofa, striking an eerily-similar pose to what I saw in the hot tub that fateful night.

Within minutes, Todd's cock was out, and Alise started kissing and licking it. I found myself hoping that Jackie had closed our front drapes before their arrival. The large picture window was on the same wall as the camera, but anyone walking by would have certainly been treated to a show. Jackie slid her sweat pants off, and she was naked under them. My wife climbed up onto the sofa and squatted over Todd's mouth. I watched for a minute or so longer - until her cries of passion became too loud for a public space. My first thought had been to watch the rest later, but the truth was, that I didn't really care if they fucked or not. We were done - and just when my fruitless search for Ann had started me thinking about giving my wife another chance.

Over the next four weeks, I made some plans. I was still young, and I'd survived a near fatal accident. There are very few things that can provide perspective like that. I had a decent job, and although I wasn't in love with it, the pay was plenty for me to move on and start over. Jackie could even have the house, if she could afford it.

I'd been staying away more often, especially on Tuesday and Friday, just to screw with them. At least, that's what I told myself. The real reason was because they were randomly and callously drugging my food, and none of them were pharmacists. I'd taken to eating dinner out those nights, and tried to stay away from the house as often as I could. During the month of August, I honestly expected Jackie to have me served with divorce papers, as little as we saw of each other. Conversely, she seemed to be getting her needs met, and that seemed to be all that really mattered to her. Maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised that she was fine with the insidious status quo she'd created.

My nights, just before drifting off to sleep, were still overflowing with thoughts of Ann: Where was she now? Did she miss me? Was she better off without me?

I still needed to find some way of getting even with Todd, Alise, and my soon-to-be-former wife. It was probably petty, however, the idea of them getting off Scott-free after what had happened to me, not to mention what they were still doing, wasn't going to work for me.

When I received an email in late August that threw me for a total loop, I finally decided to shit or get off the pot. It was from none other than Raphael Moreno. To say it was cryptic would be an understatement. It only told me to go to a particular address, ask for Ben, and purchase what he had for me. The email ended with, "She misses you."

Immediately, my quest to find Ann was back on. Even the payback my former friends and wife were owed took a back seat.

The address turned out to be an independently-owned electronics store in San Jose. Ben asked my name and then took me to the register, where he gave me a bag with a burner phone. He helped me activate it, and less than ten minutes later a previously-sent text message came in.

The message told me to go to Houge Park, park on the southeast end of the lot, and wait near basketball court number one. It also provided a date and time. The date was two days later, Saturday, so I made plans to take Friday afternoon off.

I drove around the exterior of the park on the main and side streets, and I noticed there was parking on both sides of the courts. Parking on the other side, I could discreetly observe Court One from a distance, for whoever wanted to meet me, without being seen. On Saturday morning, I rented a vehicle in our neighborhood and drove over to Houge Park. Parking opposite where I'd been instructed, I sat for nearly thirty minutes past the time given in the text. Finally, just as I was about to leave, a man approached court one.

It was Dalton.

I tried to follow Dalton, but being on the other side I'd had to pull out on a different street. By the time I got around to where he was, there was no sign of him.

My focus returned to revenge. Dalton had tried to impersonate Ann's former husband, all while he pretended to actually be her husband at the hospital. I was gaining more questions and no real answers, but given what I'd been planning, though, I might get the chance to kill two birds with one stone.

I started coming home more often - no more Tuesdays or Fridays out. I told Jackie that I was sorry for all the grief I'd caused her, and asked - not told - her if we might see if there was anything left to salvage. She seemed delighted. - emphasis on 'seemed.' I no longer trusted anything she said or did - nor my ability to draw out the truth. That was what hidden cameras were for.

I even had sex with her once. I might as well join the 'farewell sex' club, was how I justified it. It wasn't any better or worse than some college one-night-stand. I also started watching the security footage, but with a new focus on those two days. But now, I watched her preparation of our evening meal, but nothing after I went to bed.

The camera pointed across the living room, towards the kitchen. For two weeks, it seemed she didn't tamper with my food at all, and since I was free of the drugs, I would have found out the hard way if she had.

In week three - early September - there was Jackie, grinding something up and adding it to my pot pie before throwing it in the oven. I rewound the recording and discovered her taking it from a vial in our towel drawer. That was a Tuesday, and I played along, although I excused myself twice to use the restroom during dinner, citing a nasty lunch earlier in the day. I didn't want her killing me due to overdose.

I made plans for Friday. Her guard was sufficiently down. I knew she'd be selfish, or Todd would, and she'd simply go along like she'd been doing the entire time. I fleetingly wondered if she'd been fucking Todd ever since our college roommate days. They'd certainly had opportunity.

I called her an hour after arriving at work and asked her if she thought it was a good idea to invite Todd and Alsie over for dinner. She loved the idea, and I made some noise, asking if it might not be too short of notice. She quickly dismissed that concern and an hour later texted me that they would be there. I told her not to cook. Alise was a big fan of Panda, so I told her I'd take care of dinner so no one would have to clean up.

She texted me their orders, and, after paying at the drive-through, I sat in the parking lot adding crushed-up tryptophan and sleeping pills to all but my order. I didn't need them to sleep all night, just to doze off for a while. To Todd's meal I added half of a 'roofie' that I'd bought from a guy at work. He was a bigger guy than me, and I didn't want my plan to backfire.

With a few bottles of good wine, it was lights out for my targets at around nine-o'clock. Todd lasted the longest. I could see he was starting to connect the dots even as he kept dozing off right in the middle of our conversation. Sadly, he realized too late that he'd placed himself at my mercy.

Jackie and Alise were awakened by the smelling salts I'd purchased a few days before. They were bound by nylon ropes - back-to-back - to two kitchen chairs I moved into the living room. Their wrists were tied together, but I secured their ankles independently to the chairs. Todd had his own special chair, placed in the middle of the room, where the ladies could both see him.

Jackie started right in on me, asking what I thought I was doing, and demanding I untie her immediately. Alise looked terrified. Todd was a little difficult to bring around; I wryly thought to myself that it had been awfully irresponsible of me to guess at the cocktail and dosages without consulting anybody else. Who would do such a thing? The salts, combined with cold water and a few hard slaps to the face, did the trick. Seeing me manhandle Todd finally shut my wife up.

"Okay, you fuckers," I announced, "you're going to answer all my questions truthfully. You're not going to scream, and I better not catch any of you in a lie." I pulled my S&W 9mm Luger out from behind me as I said that. Jackie knew I owned the gun, but had never seen me handle it.

"Where is Ann, and why have you all been lying to me about my accident?" I asked first.

"Fucking hell, here we go a..." Todd snarled, beating Jackie to it. I stomped down hard on his bare foot with my heavy hiking boot, likely dislocating a toe or two. The popping noise meant I'd maybe even broken something. Until then, he probably hadn't noticed that I'd removed his shoes and socks.

"Leave him alone!" Alise screamed. It was both humorous and ironic that at least somebody cared about her man. Jackie was only begging me to take it out on her, and not our friends; so much for her loyalties.

"What did I just say about lying to me?" I asked, putting the barrel of the sidearm to the bridge of his nose. "Once more, and I can't guarantee any of you will see tomorrow.

"Let's start again," I generously offered. "Who's Dalton, and how is he involved in all this?" That one threw them off. I could see the wheels turning, trying to figure out how much I actually knew, and what they could get away with. They also looked extremely fearful.

"You've all my life is hell." I screamed. "I've lost everything that means anything to me," I said looking at each of them for a moment. "You've even tried to steal my memories. Rock bottom is a final destination, so I'm desperate - pissed and desperate." I glared at Todd. "The truth will truly set you free."

"He's the person - the agent - who was assigned to investigate your accident," Jackie answered. At least she'd given up trying to spin him as Ann's husband. However, she was still lying by omission.

"Bullshit," I spat, crushing Todd's other foot.

"Okay, OKAY!" Jackie wailed as Todd grunted, trying to contain a scream. "He's with the FBI!" She stopped suddenly, really trying to decide how much to give away. "Turns out, your little girlfriend isn't quite who you think she is. He was already investigating her when you had your accident. He put two and two together. He started snooping around her place."

"Why all the damn deception then?" I yelled at her. "I'd already seen him at the cabin, and in the gas station restroom. That fucker knocked me out. Who else was in on this? Who knew at the hospital in Visalia?"

I was rapid-firing questions, and no one seemed to want to answer. I was getting tired of dealing with them. It dawned on me that having my gun out for effect wasn't such a good idea. It was empty, but the loaded clip was just sitting on my bed in the other room.

Todd obviously wasn't keen on sustaining more injuries, so he decided to become the spokesman. His expression very quickly showed he regretted that decision.

"She's got big troubles, Pete," Todd began. "Something to do with her parents, and then her moving out there on the mountain. We were told to come to Rivers' - that's Dalton's last name - office so he could explain what he'd learned. They needed her, but they needed you out of the way. Jackie was both relieved and heartbroken to learn that you were alive, but had been living with this random woman and had never tried to reach out. That was a shitty thing to do, by the way, regardless of how things were left."

"Fuck you, you prick," I told him. "You're the reason for that. Fucking another man's wife - your so-called friend - and for what? Some superiority trip or have you been fucking her since way back? Then she went along with it. You'd be fucking her right now - if I hadn't discovered she'd been drugging me."

I left that loom for a minute. Alise looked like she might pass out. Jackie had a deer-in-the-headlights expression, knowing the gig was up.

"So the plan to 'get me out of the way,'" I continued prodding, "was what - to kill me? Is that what he was trying to do in that gas station?"

"No." Jackie said defensively. "The plan was to guilt you into coming home. If that didn't work, they were going to arrest her, and threaten you with the same. He told us what she did with you was way beyond a normal 'good Samaritan.' He said you may or may not be culpable but that he could make you think you were in trouble too, but then he'd convince you to come home and he'd let it slide.

"The gas station was truly an accident," my former wife explained. "But it also offered an opportunity, according to Agent Rivers. In a conference room at the hospital, he finally got it out of us why you'd wandered off in the middle of the night and why you might not want to go home. He set up the hospital sham. Told us what to say. Made Ann go along with it, in return for her possible release. I'm sure there was more to it, but she did it."