Cobalt Blue

"Hold a moment, please."

"Sean, how're you doing this morning? You haven't done anything foolish since we talked Saturday, have you?"

"No, buddy, I moved out and am renting a camper from a Patrol Sergeant near Euharlee, I haven't seen Sarah since Friday, well, I haven't seen her in person, anyway."

"Have you spoken to her at all?"

"She blew my phone up yesterday and this morning but I only told her I'd talk to her later this evening if I got a chance."

"OK, don't try to get creative and go after revenge, let me get things handled through the court."

"About that, were you able to get the papers filed this morning?"

"No, It'll be tomorrow, probably just after lunch before I'll get them filed with the Clerk of the Court."

"Well, you and I need to have another sit-down pretty soon, there have been some developments since we spoke Saturday night. You don't, by any chance, represent either of the two guys who were on the boats with Sarah, do you? Legally?"

"No, I've never been approached or retained by either one."

"OK, so do I have you retained now?"

"What's going on, Sean?"

I thought for a minute, not sure how much I could say about Stephanie's case to a defense attorney and not jeopardize it.

"There are some gears rolling around this situation that promise to get pretty messy pretty soon and I need to make sure we aren't going to encounter any conflict of interests with you representing me and theoretic defense of some other players in another theoretic criminal case that might possibly come to bear in the near future."

"I see." Ted paused in thought for a minute "To answer your question, no, I'm not representing anyone depicted in your video, nor have I been retained in any capacity by anyone that is, to my knowledge, in any way associated or affiliated with Sutton Real Estate."

"OK, thanks. Let me know when you get the papers filed and we can discuss when and where to serve her."

"That sounds like a plan, to me."

We disconnected and I left the office to interview some witnesses regarding the cases I pulled to work on for the day and I was able to put Sarah and Sutton Real Estate out of my mind for a while.

Chapter 8

Since I was in the office before 08:30 that morning I felt justified in leaving at 4:30 that afternoon. I stopped at the grocery store on my way back to the river lot to buy enough food to last 'til the weekend, keeping in mind that I needed to limit the refrigerated items until I got a better grasp of just how much I could store in the camper's compact refrigerator. I was back at the camper, had the groceries put away and had changed into baggy shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. I had ignored every attempt that Sarah had made to call or text me during the day and decided that she deserved a call. I wasn't going to have our confrontation over the telephone and certainly not over text messaging, that was something that could only be done in person and face to face but I wasn't going to hide from her or the situation, either. My phone rang while I held it but before I was able to call Sarah, It was Stephanie.

"Hello, Detective."

"Hey, Gilmour, are you near your office?"

"No, I'm at home right now, about to kick back and relax for the evening. What can I help you with?"

"You went back home?"

"Yeah" Then realizing she was thinking about the house Sarah and I had lived in I corrected myself. "No, I'm at the river, this is home now."

"Oh, well I have a huge favor to ask of you, and I'd rather not get into it on the phone. Can I come back out this evening? I can bring something to eat again."

"Yeah, come on out. Do you like grilled pork chops?"

"I enjoy Pork chops."

"OK, I'll put another chop in the marinade and then see you when you get here, the gate will be unlatched, just close it behind you."

"Will do. Have you talked to Sarah yet?"

"I was about to call her when you rang in."

"Good, part of the favor is, do you mind holding off on mentioning the video or my investigation for a day or two?"

"I won't mention it before you and I meet this evening and discuss what's on your mind." I compromised.

"Thank you, I'll see you in about an hour or so."

We disconnected the call and I pressed the speed dial for Sarah's cell phone and prepared to wait but there was no need, she answered before the first ring ended.

"Sean!, Where are you?! You need to come home!"

"Sarah, I don't need to be there now, you made your decisions and I've made mine. I tried to impress on you how serious things have gotten but you didn't listen, you decided that your job was your priority and that expressing disrespect for me was acceptable. I disagree and I have removed myself from your disrespect until we sort this situation out."

"Is this because of that drone or whatever you want to call it?"

"No, it isn't. That drone doesn't define or validate me any more than any of the cars, bikes, the boat or anything else I've ever built has. It's just a thing, a tool to be used. I've moved out because you left me weeks or even months ago, I'm just giving you the freedom you seem to want and am moving on with my life."

"You're fucking somebody else, aren't you?"

The sudden burst of laughter erupted before I had a chance to catch it and I nearly dropped the phone.

"Are you serious?! I've never even considered touching anyone other than you since I met you, Not once! I might ask if you've been as faithful but I'm not all confident that you can give me the same honest answer!"

It was strangely amusing to hear the labored silence on the phone as Sarah must've been trying to figure out just how much I knew and what I was conjecturing, not knowing how to respond.

"That's what I thought." I answered myself.

"Sean, I've alw.."

"Just! Stop! Right there!" I interrupted. "Don't you dare say you've always loved me or you've always been faithful to me and our marriage or any other lie you might come up with! I'm over it!"

"You can't be leaving me, we've been married for twenty years, we have a grown son..." She was near blubbering.

"Sarah, we can meet later this week or this weekend and discuss what we're going to do next, I don't want to do this on the phone, we both deserve more respect than to have to deal with this any way other than face to face. I'll call you in a few days but you might want to go ahead and look for an attorney."

I disconnected the call and went into the trailer to start two thick center cut pork chops marinating in a combination of soy sauce and a few herbs so they would be ready for the grill when Stephanie arrived. Once I finished that task I went back out to sit in my folding chair and read another chapter or two of Dan Brown's "Origin", the fifth book in the Robert Langdon series, while listening to the water murmur below.

I was lighting a chimney of charcoal in the Weber when Stephanie arrived, this time she climbed out of the Expedition holding 12 pack of Amber Bock wearing a pair of yoga pants and another baggy top, a blouse that looked like it was four sizes too large for her petite frame. It occurred to me that while she seemed to be (rightly so) proud of her magnificent derriere and absolutely enticing legs, she might be a bit insecure about her upper anatomy. From my memory of the night before, her modest breasts were certainly nothing anyone should ever feel ashamed of. I remember noticing and stamping my personal judgment as 'Perfect'.

She looked at me, smiled and said "Hey, be right back." then disappeared into the camper trailer, closing the door behind her.

A few minutes later the door opened again and she stepped out, still smiling, now holding two of the Amber Bock bottles. She walked over, sat in the other folding chair beside mine at the camp fire ring and handed me one of the bottles.

I took a drag off the already opened bottle and said "I hope I didn't give the impression that I drink alcohol every day or as a way to manage stressful situations. Its actually pretty rare that I drink and seldom do I drink beer then. But I do appreciate the two that you've chosen so far, you've nailed two of my three favorite beers. I doubt anyone else can boast a success record that high."

"Now I feel like I'm sending the message that I'm a raging alcoholic." Stephanie said looking down at her bottle.

"No, that's not what I was trying to say. I've had company for the past three nights straight and the first two nights I've ended up drinking more than I typically drink in a month's time each night. I just don't want anyone to get the wrong impression of me and my drinking habits. I have nothing against having a drink and, to be honest, I will most likely drink more than normal tonight too, just because I can but this isn't a regular occurrence for me. I may go a month without another drink after this weekend or I might get half side-ways next weekend, who knows.

"I don't drink much either and I'm more a wine kind of girl than a beer drinker, myself to be honest but you mentioned liking this last night so I thought if you were providing dinner I'd bring the beer you like. Are you still going to feed me?" she asked with slightly sad expression.

"Wow, I'm impressed, you listened and the information was important enough for you to remember. Thank you. Of course I'm still going to feed you. I haven't had such pleasant dinner company in months!"

I was glad to see a real smile return to her face.

"Now, what about this favor you need from me?"

"Did you talk to your wife yet this afternoon?"

"Right now I'm having a difficult time thinking of her as my wife but yes, I called her right after you and I spoke on the phone earlier."

"Did y'all talk about repairing your relationship? Will you consider reconciling with her?"

"No. I don't see that happening. Why would I consider that a possibility?"

"Y'all were married for a long time, right? Surely you can overcome this and get back to a happy life again."

I just looked at her in amazement, wondering what she was up to? I couldn't remember Sarah ever mentioning having her as a friend but I couldn't understand why Stephanie would be trying to push us back together otherwise. The bizarre direction this conversation had taken caught me off-guard and I wasn't at all thrilled with it.

"Is that the favor you're asking for? Because if it is I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you."

"No, that isn't the favor, I just needed to be sure what your intentions are. The favor comes if you intend to follow through and file for divorce."

"I've already filed. Well, my attorney drew up the petition today and intends to file them tomorrow. I intend to have her served at work as soon as possible. I want to send a message to Sutton, whether I can do anything to him or not."

"I assume you are filing on the grounds of Adultery?"

"Absolutely!"

"Well, now we come to the favor..."

I waited for Stephanie to organize her thoughts, I knew she had something in mind that she wasn't sure how she wanted to present.

She looked at me and said "Why don't you check the grill to see if its ready yet and lets get dinner going then get back to our conversation. Besides, we need a re-fill, both of our bottles are empty."

I arranged the coals in the grill then went into the trailer to help Stephanie start preparing red potatoes for roasting in butter, rosemary and paprika, corn on the cob and steamed asparagus with garlic to go with our grilled chops. I took the marinating chops outside to start them on the grill and was arranging them when she came back out the door holding two new bottles and handed me one.

She finally began to speak "I met with the D.A. Today and we've decided to go ahead and bring charges before the Grand Jury against all four Real Estate Agencies but we need the video to do it. If you file now and use the video for your divorce it will expose the evidence early and give the defendants a heads up to what we have on them before we're ready."

"Well, when their attorney files a motion for Discovery they're going to get everything you've got anyway."

"True, but we can set the timeline for when they get what and that gives us a slightly better position.

"I see, so what you're saying is logic dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?"

"Or the one." Stephanie said with a smile.

I couldn't help myself, I burst out laughing, I was impressed that she not only knew the quote but immediately returned the correct response.

"Nerd"

She just kept smiling for several seconds then said "The Wrath of Kahn was one of the better Star Trek movies but the TV series was still better than any of them. And Spock was HOT."

I shook my head then stood to turn the chops on the grill before stepping to the edge of the river bank to look down at the water drifting past and thinking about what Stephanie had said. She certainly was asking for a big favor.

After a couple minutes passed I turned and walked back toward the trailer "Looks like I'm going to drink a little more than usual again tonight, you ready for another?"

"Sure."

"I'm having a stout this time, which do you want?"

"I'll have whatever you're having."

Inside I washed the two pint glasses we'd used the night before and filled them from two cans of Guinness and checked on the potatoes and corn roasting in the oven then started heating the steamer for the asparagus before rejoining Stephanie outside.

I had begun gathering a small stack of wood earlier in the afternoon and started a fire in the ring of rocks between the trailer and the river bank where our chairs were situated.

"If I file on the grounds that our marriage is Irretrievably Broken, I'll have to wait a minimum of 30 days for it to be granted. Minimum, and that lets everybody off without having to confront her betrayal and cheating. If I wait for her to be convicted and sentenced for the charges you are filing I could be waiting for months or more likely years to be able to use the Conviction on a Charge of Moral Turpitude grounds. And that assumes you have the drug charges and that she is sentenced to two years or more. In fact, that assumes she's convicted in the first place."

"You don't have to wait that long, in fact the DA only wants you to wait a week at most. We want to coordinate and serve search warrants simultaneously on all four agencies' records to find information supporting the charges we're bringing. You may be clear to file and have her served as early as Friday but by the middle of next week at the latest."

"Let me think about this until after we eat.".

"Okay"

We decided to eat inside again, the mosquitoes and flies were still too much to deal with while we were trying to enjoy our meal and our conversation remained light and easy. I enjoyed the comfort we seemed to be sharing with one another, it was a pleasant diversion.

"Basketball, soccer, volleyball or softball? No, actually, you didn't play softball so it was one of the other three. Maybe even all three?" I observed.

"You're discounting softball?" she responded.

"Yeah, I just don't see you playing softball but you played one of the other three."

"What if I told you I was a cheerleader and I didn't care for all the aggression of team sports?"

"You'd be lying to me, you preferred the team sports specifically because of the aggressive competitiveness. And you weren't a cheerleader."

She smiled and shook her head "Basketball and soccer."

Our conversation topic changed a couple more times before we finished eating and washed the dishes, then each of us pulling another bottle from the refrigerator we went back outside and stoked the campfire with more driftwood.

"OK, I'll call Kilgore tomorrow and tell him to hold off on filing the petition until Friday afternoon, then we can serve Sarah sometime next week. That should give y'all time to execute your search warrants before anyone gets a chance to throw a shredder party before you get to them." "Which brings me to another subject we need to address."

"What's that?"

"You realize Ted Kilgore is handling my divorce, right?"

"I figured that out a minute ago when you said you'd call him tomorrow. I didn't know he handled divorces, I thought he only took criminal defense cases."

"Apparently divorces are what kept him fed the first part of his career, he hasn't done them personally since he made his mark as a Headhunter Defense Attorney about ten years ago. He's the first person I showed the video to and he recognized two of the men on the boat with Sarah, they're both members of the same Country Club he is. This was before I knew there was an active investigation in place, of course. The problem is that he has to know what's going on since it relates to Sarah and Me. He has assured me that I have his primary retainer and that he has no defense relationship to anyone in the video or related to the Sutton Agency but I don't know who the other targets of your investigation are so I can't be sure that he doesn't have a connection to them. I believe that he is ethical enough that he won't jeopardize your cases but its not my place to roll the dice on your table. I just want you to be aware of his involvement."

"Yeah, that does add another consideration for us. I'll have to discuss this with the D.A."

"I don't want to know when you decide to execute your search warrants and considering my connection I don't believe it would be a good idea for me to be associated with the investigation any more than I already am."

"That's fine, I agree."

After a while, our conversation ebbed again and soon we were just sitting, listening to tree frogs, cicadas and whippoorwills serenade us in the peaceful night.

"It's getting late, you're welcome to stay again if you'd like."

"Are you going to be a Boy scout again?"

I looked at her and hoped she'd understand what I had to say "Stephanie, I don't have much to offer anybody more than my word. Despite anything Sarah has done to break our marriage vows I still made a promise. At the very least until after the papers have been filed and she's been served and has responded I have to honor my vow. If I don't then I'm no better than any cheater and even my word won't be worth the breath required to utter it. I'm extremely flattered that you even seem interested and I assure you that I find you so attractive that it has taken every bit of my will power not to drag you into the bedroom when you drove up this afternoon. I'm very grateful for your company and I honestly hope we're able to share many more evenings out here in the future. In the very near future, actually. But yes, I am going to be a Boy scout again tonight. In fact, I'm going to be such a Boy scout that if you do stay you're sleeping in the bedroom and I'm taking the fold down table bunk." I ended with a grin.

She looked a bit disappointed but when she spoke she still had a happy tease to her voice "I hope you have another Pink Floyd shirt, I left your other one at home."

"I'm pretty sure I can find something for you."

I made certain that the fire was out and the coals were spread within the rock ring so that no spark was likely to get out during the night. I then folded the chairs, placing them back on the table under the awning and we went inside to get ready for bed.

"Why do you think I wasn't a Cheerleader?"

"Were you?"

"No, but that's beside the point, why are you so sure that I wasn't?"

"You are happy showing off your magnificent ass and legs with shorts or yoga pants but you keep wearing baggy, over sized tops and I've never known a cheerleader who didn't take every opportunity to flaunt her breasts. And from the way you wear my Floyd shirt? Yours are exceptional and you shouldn't hide them."

I was happy to see a smile try to cover her blush as she glanced down at her hands.