Cora's Curiosity

When I entered the house Cora was sitting at the kitchen table with a half empty bottle of wine on the table in front of her and a full glass in her hand.

"That isn't very smart of you Cora. You shouldn't be drinking that heavily while you are pregnant. You could cause problems for the baby."

"What the fuck do you care! You don't think it is yours anyway."

"And I won't know for sure until it is born and I can have a DNA test done, but until then I have to go forward thinking that it is mine. If it is mine I don't want it born behind bars. That means that I am probably going to have to help you stay out of jail. Before I commit to lying for you I need to know some things. One is does anyone else know about you getting together with the guy?

"No one else knows. The people at work have seen me talk to him and dance with him, but all the other girls talked to him and danced with him. Marsha did see me kiss him in the parking lot, but others kissed in the parking lot so my kissing Amos was not unique."

"How about at his place? Did you leave anything there that could show that you had been there?"

"I don't think so. I've watched enough cop shows on TV to know about fingerprints and I went through the place and wiped down everything I might have touched."

"Was this guy a clean and neat sort of person?"

"I guess so. Why do you ask that?"

"You fucked him on his bed and if he didn't wash the sheets they might be able to get some DNA evidence from them."

"They looked clean to me when he pulled down the covers."

"But you can't be sue?"

"No. No, I can't."

"Then the best we can hope for is that the police never suspect you, but if they do come around this is the story we are going to tell. The asshole started hitting on you and you told him you were happily married and weren't interested. He ignored you and kept hitting on you and it pissed you off so you decided to play him, string him along making him think he as getting somewhere, getting his hopes up before laughing at him and telling him he was a chump. Wednesday night you weren't feeling well so you begged off playing cards and stayed home. Same thing for the night you fucked the asshole. You were feeling sickly so you didn't go to your card night, but stayed home. We can use your pregnancy as the reason you haven't been feeling well. Did anyone ask you why this Amos guy didn't show up for work?"

"Nobody even noticed that he wasn't there until around lunch time, but no one asked me anything about him."

"Could be that his body hasn't been found yet so the cops aren't on the case yet. Just act normal at work. Don't give anybody any reason to connect you to the asshole."

I got up and headed for the door and Cora and Cora asked me where I was going.

"You haven't started dinner so I'm going out to get something to eat."

"Are you taking me with you?"

I hesitated a couple of seconds before saying, "I might as well. If I'm going to lie for you folks will need to see us together as a normal couple."

She grabbed her purse and followed me out to the car. The ride to the restaurant was silent as was the meal and most of the ride home. We were several minutes from the house when she said:

"You do know that I love you right? And I want to live my life with you?"

I just paid attention to my driving and stayed silent.

"It was a stupid thing for me to do baby and I promise to spend the rest of my life making it up to you. Just give me a chance. That's all I'm asking for baby; a chance to make things right between us."

"Until the next time you get curious? Do you not realize that what you have done has altered the way I think about you now? You cheated on me Cora and that has changed the way I see you. If you hadn't killed the man I would have never known, but because you needed my help you told me about it. Now I'm asking myself if the guy was the first. You say he was, but how can I believe it? The very act of cheating means that you are not trustworthy so how can I now believe anything that you say? Even if I were to believe you that he was the first do I have any guarantee that he will be the last? You can swear on a stack of bibles that he is, but you are a cheater Cora and that fact makes anything you say to me suspect.

"I'm repeating myself here Cora, but you are untrustworthy now. Anything you say to me I'll be looking at as self-serving. Knowing what you did and why you did it has me wondering. You say it was awful, but I have to ask myself if the curiosity is still there. Are you thinking that maybe Decker was not really representative of black men and so your curiosity will have you trying out another one?"

"My God Walter; how can you think that of me?

"Given the situation we find ourselves in right now how can I not think it? Repeating myself again what you did shows me that I can't trust you."

As I finished speaking I was pulling into the driveway. I parked and got out of the car before Cora ha any chance of replying. In the house I headed for the living room, settled down on the couch and turned on the TV. There wasn't anything that I wanted to watch, but I thought if I looked interested in what was on Cora would leave me alone. I was in no mood to hear any more of her denials and promises. A couple of minutes later she said:

"I'm going up to bed" and I just nodded to acknowledge that I'd heard her and went back to watching TV. I channel jumped for about an hour and then I went upstairs. I went into the bedroom, got the clothes that I would need for the next day, grabbed my pillow off the bed and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Cora asked.

"To one of the spare bedrooms."

"Why?"

"Jesus F Christ Cora; are you stupid? You still don't get it do you? You think what you did wasn't any worse than overdrawing the checking account or putting a small dent in the car. What you did has changed our whole relationship. I can't be near you now. I want to wrap my hands around your neck and squeeze while shouting "You stupid cunt! How could you have done this to us?"

She started crying and I left the room.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I was up and gone before Cora woke up. I stopped at a restaurant, had breakfast and then went into work. I managed to get my work done even though the situation I was in was never far from my mind and as I drove home that night I wondered what would be waiting for me at the house. Would asshole's body have been found and would the cops be at the house when I got there? The police were not at the house when I got there, but Cora wasn't there either. I got leftovers out of the fridge and put them in the microwave. I was sitting at the table eating when Cora walked in.

"Sorry I'm late, but Amos struck again."

"The police?"

"No. The project the Amos was working on has a deadline and his not coming in to work has put it way behind. I was drafted to pick up on it and try and meet the deadline."

"That will teach you to go around shooting people."

"It isn't funny. What it is is another way of showing me how stupid I was. Partial punishment for my lapse of good sense."

I made no reply to that and since I had nuked enough leftovers for both of us Car sat down to eat.

"Any talk about the asshole at work?"

"A lot of speculation on why he has been a no call no show. He hadn't missed a day since he came to work there or even been late."

"What did you say about it?"

"Nothing, although I did let everyone know how pissed I was at getting stuck with his project."

"Look on the bright side. If you manage to meet the deadline given that you were suddenly dropped into it you will look like a star to your boss."

"Oh goodie! I can see it now. Project in trouble? Dump it on Cora. I'm not sure that I want to be put in those situations. What if I can't save the project? I can't afford to have a bunch of failures on my record. I'm going to need this job when you leave me."

When she said that she was looking at me and I could tell from her facial expression that she was hoping that I would say "That will never happen" but I kept my mouth shut and didn't say anything. Truth was that I hadn't yet made up my mind as to what I was going to do and leaving her was an option, but I wasn't anywhere near ready to make a decision. When I didn't say anything she said:

"Because of the project being behind I'm going to have to go into work tomorrow. It's a good thing we didn't have any plans for the weekend."

"We have that party at your sister's tomorrow night."

"I'll be home in plenty of time for that. Project in trouble or not I don't intend to spend all of my Saturday at work. If the project doesn't make the deadline I'll blame it on the boss for not getting me involved sooner."

To me that sounded like cutting off your nose to spite your face, but I kept that thought to myself. After dinner I watched some TV until bedtime and I could tell Cora was upset when I again went to the spare bedroom.

I slept in on Saturday and Cora was up and gone when I got out of bed. I drank coffee and read the morning paper for a while and then I went out to the garage, put my golf clubs in the trunk of the car and headed for the driving range at the municipal golf course. I hit a couple of buckets of balls working on my grip and my tendency to lift my head when I hit the ball. I had to keep telling myself "Keep your head down dummy" but it wasn't all that easy to do. A good golf swing requires concentration on the mechanics of it and my concentration was lacking. My head was still full of what Cora had done and the possible outcomes of her actions.

I finally gave up on driving and moved over to the practice putting green. I fared no better there and I finally gave up and headed for the clubhouse to have a beer or three. There were a couple of guys there that I knew so I joined them and killed an hour or so before heading home to get ready to go over to Cora's sister's place. As we got in the car to leave the house Cora asked:

"How are we going to play this?"

"Play what?"

"How are we going to act at the party?"

"Like a loving couple. How else?"

"Then you are going to have to act a little warmer toward me that you have for the last couple of days."

"I can handle it" I said and she gave me a long look and then turned to watch the scenery passing by outside the car.

We got through the party okay and on the way home Cora asked, "When are you going to come back to our bed?"

I was in a fairly good mood so instead of going all stony and cold on her I said, "I don't know. I'm still having a hard time coming to grips with what you did and all the thoughts that your actions put into my head."

She was silent after hearing that and didn't speak again until we were home and in the house.

"What do I have to do to prove to you that Amos was my only bit of stupidity?"

"I don't know that there is anything you can do to make that happen."

"When will you at least let me start proving to you that I love you and only you? When will you let me start spoiling you rotten to make up for my stupidity?"

"I don't know Cora. There are still so many unanswered questions."

"What are they?"

"You already know them Cora and on top of all of them I now have a new one that only occurred to me today."

"What is it?"

"You told me how asshole told you he was going to share you with his friends. You said he mentioned threesomes, foursomes and gangbangs. If he did that kind of stuff the chances are pretty good he picked up an STD or two. If so did he give them to you? Did you give them to me?"

"I told you that I insisted on a condom."

"Yeah, but did you check it when he pulled out of you to see if it broke or had a tear in it? Did you little trip down Curiosity Lane include sucking him before fucking him? You can catch a social disease like that you know. Some of those diseases only need a transfer of bodily fluids to spread. You can get HIV from swapping spit in a French kiss with someone who has the virus."

I didn't know if that was true or not, but I was trying to inflict some mental pain. Some to match the mental pain she had given me. She turned pale at what I'd said and I could see on her face that she had never given that possibility any thought.

"I'll get tested first thing Monday" she said.

"I'd probably better get myself tested too."

She looked away from me and I said goodnight and headed up the stairs for the spare bedroom and put myself down for the night.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sunday I slept in late and then spent the day working around the house. Cora sensed my mood and pretty much stayed out of my way. Around four I knocked off, showered and changed clothes. When I went downstairs Cora asked:

"What are we doing for dinner?"

I knew what she was getting at. On Sunday we almost always went out to dinner and even though I wasn't at all interested in sitting across a table from Cora I knew that for the sake of appearances I needed to do it. If the cops did come calling they had to find a loving couple and anyone they talked to that knew us had to be saying that we were the perfect loving couple and our relationship was envied by all. I made sure that Cora knew the part she had to play - no sour expressions, smiles only - and then we headed for Tricocci's for dinner. There were several people that we knew there and I'm pretty sure we put on a good show for them.

Cora had taken great care to make herself look gorgeous and sexy and it was clear to me what she was hoping for when we got home, but it didn't work. When bedtime came I headed for the spare bedroom.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were uneventful on the home front; just repeats of the days since the Thursday that Cora asked me to be her alibi. At work Cora's coworkers talked about what might have happened to cause asshole to be a no call no show, but none of them asked Cora if she knew which showed, at least to me, that none of them suspected that she had anything going with Amos.

Wednesday Cora played card with her group and when asked why she had missed the previous Wednesday she blamed it on not feeling well because of her pregnancy and a couple of the other women commiserated with her basically saying "Been there, done that."

Thursday's paper carried the story of a man found dead in his house. His mother, concerned that she hadn't heard from him in almost a week and hadn't answered any of her phone calls, went over to his house and found him dead on his bedroom floor. She told reporters that he had been shot. Police were asking anyone who might have information to please contact them. Over dinner that evening Cora said that assholes murder was the primary subject of conversation at work, but no one seemed to be looking at her and no one asked her if she had any ideas on the subject.

Friday at eleven two detectives showed up at the office and talked to everyone there asking for any information they might have that would help the investigation. According to Cora no one had anything to say. A couple of people did say that the asshole hadn't worked there long enough for anyone to get to know him very well. Before they left the detectives left their cards and asked that anyone who might suddenly remember something to give them a call.

Cora was a nervous wreck all weekend afraid that Marsha might call them and tell them about what she had seen Cora and the asshole doing in the parking lot. Whether it was Marsha or someone else who told them the detectives showed up at Cora's office on Monday to ask her some questions. They wanted to know how well she knew the asshole and inferred that they knew she had been intimate with him. Cora told them that she didn't know him all that well. They told her they had information that she had been very, very friendly with him and she told them they had been misinformed. She had danced with him when he had joined her and her coworkers after work for a drink or two, but she also danced with other male coworkers. Then they asked her if she also kissed her other coworkers in the bar parking lot. She told them that she had on occasion and then before they could ask her another question she had said:

"Let's just cut to the chase here okay? Amos started hitting on me as soon as he started working here. I told him I was happily married and not interested. He ignored what I told him and kept hitting on me even after I'd told him a dozen times I was not interested so I decided to bust his balls. I started teasing him and leading him on letting him think he was getting somewhere only to send him home with a case of blue balls every time. The man was an asshole and even if I was to ever cheat on my husband it would be with a dirt bag like Amos."

Then they wanted to know where she had been on the nights of the sixth, seventh and eighth. She told them that she had been home with me. They thanked her for her cooperation and said they might want to ask her a few more questions as their investigation progressed.

She waited for a half an hour after she had gone and then she called me and told me of their visit and what had been said. I was not surprised when they showed up my office just after lunch. They went straight at it, but not in the way that Cora and I had expected. They told me that they were investigating the death of Amos Decker and would I please tell them where I was on the nights of the sixth, seventh and eighth. Where I was. Not Cora, but me!

"Why are you asking me that? I don't even know an Amos Decker."

"We have information that your wife was intimate with Mr. Decker and our experience has shown that husbands will sometimes get violent when they find out."

"Are you accusing me of murder? Should I get a lawyer before talking to you any farther?"

"We are not accusing you of anything at this point, but you are what we call a 'person of interest' in this case. Our questions are to see if we can remove you from the list of persons of interest."

"Why the three day spread?

"Mr. Decker's body wasn't found until long after he was killed. The body had decomposed to the point where the medical examiner could not pin point the exact time of death. He did estimate that Mr. Decker had been dead for at least five days before his body was discovered. According to his boss he was at work until five on Wednesday. That would indicate that the time of death would have occurred somewhere between Wednesday the sixth and Friday the eighth."

I sat there silent for a couple of seconds and then said, "In the first place you are wrong about my wife having been intimate with Mr. Decker. She told me all about how this Decker character and how he had finally pissed her off enough that she decided to play him. As for where I was on the three days in question I was here at work during the day and at home with my wife in the evenings."

I picked up the phone and dialed the extension number for my secretary and when she picked up I asked her to make a copy of my day planner for the week of the fourth and bring it to me. When she did I handed the copy to the detectives.

"That is a record of my daily activities here at work; who I met with, who I talked to and about what. If necessary I can give you the contact information for all of them. You will note that I was here in the office from eight to five-thirty every day of the week and I'm sure that my secretary and my boss can attest to that. My evenings were al spent at home with my wife with the exception of Thursday when we went out to dinner. I didn't save the credit card receipt, but I'm sure that I can get a copy from the credit card company if you need it. Also I sure that the staff at Tricocci's can verify that we were there since we are regular customers and are always greeted by name when we go there. Unless you have something further to discuss I'm due at a budget meeting in two minutes."