Cora's Curiosity

"That's all for now, but we may need to talk with you again."

"There is one thing, but I'm sure you have already thought of it. If this Decker character was hitting on my wife he probably hit on other wives, fiancés and girlfriends. Maybe you should be looking in that direction."

We all stood up, they left the room and I headed for my budget meeting.

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When I got home Cora had dinner ready and as we ate we went over our meetings with the police and made sure that our stories matched in general and that neither of us had said something that the cops could pounce on and try to exploit.

"We are not out of the woods yet. We are going to be on their list of suspects for quite a while. Unless they come up with some evidence to prove otherwise we should be alright as long as we sick to our story. They will probably come back a time or two especially if they can't come up with any other suspects."

After dinner I watched the news and then picked up a book that I had been reading and settled in for a quiet night. At bedtime I again retied to the spare bedroom, but I didn't sleep well. Cora and I had never gone more than three days without making love and I was as horny as a billy-goat. I needed to make up my mind as to what I was going to do. Get off the dime so to speak. I resolved to get myself tested the next day and push Cora to do the same.

Cora was up and had the coffee ready when I got to the kitchen. I poured a cup, doctored it up with cream and sugar and took a sip. I put the cup down and told Cora that I was going to get myself tested for STDs and she surprised me when she told me that she had already done it on her lunch hour the day before.

"I should have the results today."

"Call me when you get the results."

"Why? Dare I hope for a thaw in your attitude towards me?"

I just shrugged and finished my coffee and left for work. On the drive in I considered my options. There were only two - stay or go. The arguments to be made for staying were the baby Cora was carrying and all the good years we'd had together. The case to be made for going was the fact that I doubted that I would ever trust Cora again and what that lack of trust would do to any relationship I would have with her.

I rolled it over and over in my head, but it always came back to the baby Cora was carrying. If it was mine I was going to be a full-time father to the child. It would not grow up as I had. No splitting up it's time between separated parents. But therein lay the problem. That chance that the baby wasn't mine. That is what Cora had done to me. I no longer had the complete trust in her that I had once had. Now everything she said or did would have me looking at it with a kernel of doubt in my mind and I honestly didn't know that either Cora or I could live in a relationship like that. Understand here; the love I had for Cora was still there (and so was the lust) but the trust was gone!

I called my doctor as soon as I got to work and made an appointment to get myself tested. He told me to just come on in whenever I could and he would have one of the nurses draw the blood and I'd get the results in a day or two. I left work half an hour early for lunch and got it done. The rest of the day went quick and driving home I made up my mind that I was going to stay. Even if the child wasn't mine it wasn't the child's fault and it would still need a father. If it wasn't mine it would still be a constant reminder of what Cora had done, but I'd already accepted that I would probably never trust Cora again and the baby would just continually reinforce that in my mind. Of course I was assuming that Cora and I wouldn't be in jail when the baby arrived.

My cell phone rang just as I was pushing the button on the garage door opener. It was Cora calling to tell that she had heard from the clinic and that she was disease free. That meant that I didn't need to wait to hear how my test would come out since Cora was the only one I'd been with since we started going steady. As I pushed the button to close the garage door I made the decision to be a little warmer toward Cora than I'd been since her confession to me. If I was going to stay, and I was, I was going to have to do my part in healing our relationship. But I was still going to leave the threat of my possibly leaving hang over Cora's head. I was just mean enough to want to cause her some emotional pain or stress to pay her back for what she'd put me through.

I would tell her I would stay until the child was born and we could determine whether or not it was mine, but I would not let her know that I'd decided to stay no matter what the outcome. Before the sound of the car door closing faded I realized that telling Cora any of that wouldn't bother her at all if she knew that baby was mine. She would just smile and say:

"Not a problem baby; not a problem at all."

Of course the big problem was still setting there. Would we both be in jail when the baby arrived?

Cora had dinner ready and the table set when I walked into the house. There was a bottle Merlot ad two glasses sitting on the table and the two glasses had already been poured. That plus the fact that Cora had called me to let me know she was clean told me what she was hoping for. I was more than ready for the same thing myself.

I was pleasant during the meal and listened to Cora describe her day. The detectives had returned and had spent some time with the Human Resource's manager, but they hadn't talked to anyone else. After dinner I watched the evening news and then channel hopped until Cora said she was going up to bed. I gave her a couple of minutes and then I shut off the TV and followed her up. She smiled when I came into the bedroom instead of going to the spare bedroom. The smile got even bigger as I started to undress. She was out of her clothes before I was and had pulled down the covers and spread herself out waiting for me.

It had been a while for both of us and I climaxed a lot quicker than I wanted to and I hadn't even come close to getting Cora off. She didn't let it phase her and she moved to take my spent cock in her mouth. It didn't take her long to get me back in action and the second time I was able to give her an orgasm. As we laid there side by side on the bed Cora asked:

"Are we going to be all right baby?"

I guess all the meanness I'd been carrying around had drained out of the head of my dick with the rest of my discharge and I said, "That depends Cora."

"On what?"

"On you getting away with murder. I will tell you this. If you don't get away with it and I don't end up in jail for lying for you I won't sit around waiting for you to get out."

"We should be okay. I'm certain I removed all traces of my ever being at Decker's place."

"Maybe you did and then again maybe you didn't. You might have overlooked something, but even if you didn't there are other things we don't know about and have no control over. Did a neighbor see you go into Decker's place? Did he brag to a buddy that he nailed you and mentioned you by name? If he did was the buddy a good enough friend that he will take the information to the police? Even if he doesn't go to them what if the cops look up all his friends and close associates and ask them if they have any information that will help them in their investigation?

"There are just too many unknowns Cora. As an example; what if the gun you tossed into the dumpster ends up on top of the pile when the trash ends up at the landfill? What if someone spots it and calls the police? They will do a ballistics check on it and find out that it is the gun that killed Decker. Did you wipe your prints off of it before you tossed it? It is the little things you have no control over that end up biting you on the ass.

"Even if the police come up with nothing and Decker's murder goes into the cold case files it is still there waiting for something to happen that will make it an active case again. There is no statute of limitations on murder Cora. It will be there hanging over your head for the rest of your life. There is one more thing Cora. If they do charge some other person and get a conviction based on circumstantial evidence I'm not sure that I'm the kind of man to sit back and see an innocent man go to jail."

That little speech put a damper on the evening's activities and we both rolled over and went to sleep.

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The wet blanket I'd thrown over the previous evenings activities didn't seem to matter in the morning when Cora woke me up with a blow job which, by the way, is something that I heartedly recommend as a way to start your day. We showered together and over breakfast we made plans for the weekend. By unspoken agreement we didn't talk about what I'd come to think of as Cora's Foley.

The next six months passed without incident. The detectives never came back to talk to either Cora or me an as far as Cora knows they haven't talked to anyone she works with. The baby joined us and there was no doubt in my mind that Thomas Louis Drayton was the product of my loins.

It has been over two years now and it looks like Cora is going to get away with what she did, but in the back of my mind is the memory of what I'd once told her. It is hanging over her head and will be hanging there for the rest of her life. All we can do is take things a day at a time and hope that the thread holding it over her doesn't break and let it drop on her.