Mary's Guardian Angel Ch. 01

Author's notes; the sex in this Romance may be minimal for some and it's a long first Chapter as I'm establishing a brief history of Mary and Aaron and how they met. Some might not like it and lose interest it for its lack of vicarious luridness.

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Her name is Mary...Mary Susan Brown to be exact. Mary is a good and charitable woman. She was born and grew up in a small coal mining town in Western Pennsylvania. Her father was a dentist and her mother his dental assistant. His dental office was located in their spacious brick home.

An only child, Mary lived a happy and tranquil life, perhaps a somewhat sheltered life with parents who loved her. She adores music and dancing and the theater and she is an accomplished pianist.

She was a grade school teacher when she married and lived comfortably in an upper middle class neighborhood. She gave up the job at her husband's insistence when they moved to Bedford Hills, New York. At that time her husband landed a much sought after job as the art director for an upscale art gallery in New York City. She became involved with her church and did charity work to occupy her time. Mary is again using her maiden name of Brown after being betrayed by her husband.

Mary was 35 years old when her problems began and was reasonably content aside from her romantic need for touching and affection. She wanted a little adventure in her life and like most of us she has unrealized sexual fantasies. She was a virgin when she married and for her husband it was a marriage of convenience for he wanted a beautiful trophy wife and nothing more.

Mary's ex- husband Randall Q for Quincy Sheppard isn't a particularly affectionate man, while in fact, Randall is a back stabbing, manipulating dirty polecat as described by Myra. Myra suspected him before he showed his true skunk colors when he fooled everyone and they thought he was dedicated to the Art Gallery. However, as Myra, Mary's best friend and Matron of Honor from her home town predicated to her husband at Mary's wedding. "Randall is married to his job and money is his mistress".

Mary has a beautiful singing voice. She was the music and choir director at her church. She scheduled a Classical Music Concert featuring a quartet of strings in the Sanctuary because of the stone church's marvelous acoustics and she was to accompany them on the piano. That Sunday's concert was the culmination of the 150th Anniversary celebration of the church's founding. Unfortunately because of printing delays, Mary's memorial gift wouldn't be shipped for two more weeks.

To add to her bad luck, and minutes before the concert begin, she was detained in the Sanctuary by two detectives investigating her husband.

The detectives arranged for a local television station mobile camera crew to be there when she was arrested, patted down and handcuffed. They reporter followed her out pushing his microphone in her face for a statement when she was escorted and placed in their unmarked dark sedan. She had nothing to say to the reporters while the detectives had plenty. Everything was tactically choreographed to embarrass and scare her.

Mary arrived at the police station, distraught and confused. She was fingerprinted and photographed before being placed in a poorly lighted and dingy interrogation room for questioning by the detectives and long time partners. If successful this bust and subsequent prosecution guaranteed them both promotions.

They considered Mary the weak link of the operation. They were betting she could be manipulated and cowed and they made her wait in the windowless reeking of cigarette smoke integration room for an hour before they talked to her.

Mary's was dressed tastefully yet elegantly feminine for the concert in a navy blue tropical wool jacket and matching skirt. She was wearing a white ruffled silk-linen blouse. She chose taupe pantyhose and black heels to complete the look. Her silky and thick mid-back length auburn hair was swept up in an elegant French twist and her makeup was minimal and refreshingly natural.

She was wearing her wedding band that she never took off. She was wearing her grandmother's South Sea Pearl earrings, one-of-two cherished pieces of jewelry she wore or cared to own. The other piece of jewelry she was wearing was a intricately detailed 18kt gold Celtic cross on a gold chain underneath her blouse that was a gift from her parents.

The detectives started with their usual by talking quietly as they sat across from her keeping out of her personal space. They gave Mary a yellow legal pad and a pen and asked if she would like something to drink, such as a cup of coffee or tea perhaps, and she asked for a bottle of water. They questioned her for approximately two hours pretending to be sympathetic and understanding while trying to coax her into writing a confessing and giving her husband up.

When she asked to use the bathroom they

deliberately delayed letting her use it.

They claimed the single stall women's bathroom on the floor was in use each time one of them left the interrogation room to check. They were lying and the questioning continued until she was uncomfortable and fidgeting in her chair with gas pains and cramps. The female detective escorted Mary to the bathroom as if she was doing her a favor. She stood in front of the open stall glaring impatiently at Mary and made inappropriate comments about the disgusting smell.

They changed tactics when she returned from the bathroom by standing close and menacing on either side of her. They leaned forward and got into her face and loudly accused her of being involved in stealing original paintings worth tens of millions of dollars and replacing them with forgeries and then selling the originals to private collectors. They pounded on the desk and kicked her chair demanding the names those private collectors.

They assured her they had hard evidence she was guilty and involved in everything, a bluff, when in fact she wasn't at all. She has no idea what they were talking about. They told her when convicted she would spend years in prison.

They told her a privileged white woman like her will be raped and forced to perform cunnilingus or worse by the hard and violent streetwise women incarcerated with her. They told Mary she will be bought and sold to the highest bidder or merely passed around. They said her pretty face will be cut and disfigured with "bitch scars" if she resisted their advances or snitched to the CO's. They promised her a lighter sentence in protective custody or the witness protection program if she cooperated, although they had no such intentions or authority.

What evidence they actually found was a USB drive taped under the spare tire in the trunk of her Lexus 460 Sedan. Their computer technician discovered coded text hidden in the EXIF information of the family photo album for closed bank accounts where large sums of money, deposits and withdrawals were shuffled back and forth over a five year period to offshore accounts of unknown origins.

They found luggage containing women's clothing, a blonde wig and plane tickets to Buenos Aires Argentina. They also found her real passport and fake photo ID's of various types with different names along with ten grand in cash. They were convinced she put them there and was going to flee the country.

She asked for an attorney and invoked her 5th Amendment right to remain silent yet they continued to brow beat her for another half hour until she was close to tears, giving her one last chance write a confession. She prayed silently and found her inner strength and remained defiantly silent and resolute.

Mary tacitly maintained her innocence due to the fact she was totally innocent.

At that point she was begrudgingly given the opportunity of two telephone calls and nobody answered although she left messages. The detective's next plan, as this one failed to get a confession, was to see if any evidence can be salvaged from the arson fire that pretty much leveled her house to its foundation.

She was arraigned before the judge with a barely competent public defender representing her. Mary tried to speak up twice and was told by the judge to sit down and be quiet. She was removed from the courtroom by the bailiff on her third attempt and bail was set at a quarter of a million in her absence.

The public defender advised her she was to surrender her passport despite the fact the police were holding it as evidence and she was transported to the women's lockup to be processed and held pending trial.

The Correction Officer she was assigned to, CO Anita Lopez, was a seasoned veteran. Mary was stripped naked right down to having to remove the hairpins in her beautiful long and thick, silky auburn hair, and all her clothing and jewelry, including her wedding band was taken away from her.

During the strip frisk, Anita paused to silently admire a beautiful woman.

Mary is 5' 7" at 140 lbs. She has firm round breasts and a pleasingly voluptuous figure appreciated by discriminating men who prefer the classic natural full figured woman. She has a fair complexion and a cute, ever so slightly turned up button nose. Her ears are small and dainty. Her eyes are sea green and her lips are full and generous, warm soft lips begging to be kissed.

Mary walked through the metal detector. This was followed by a routine cavity search where she started quietly crying, wiping away the tears and taking deep breathes trying to compose herself and remain calm. It was obvious to the Officer that Mary is no hard case. She knew an act when she saw one. She knew Mary was not faking. She was firm but gentle with her.

Anita stopped and spoke quietly to calm her. She explained the procedure and the reason for it and her duty to complete it. Recognizing the kindness and consideration, Mary composed herself and quietly submitted. That didn't mean Anita won't deal swiftly and harshly when the job demanded it. She was the go to Officer on the women's block for that.

She handed her baggy orange coveralls and while Mary dressed explained the rules. She gave her advice how to cope with her time there. The most important piece of advice was "never sleep with your head to the bars".

"You'll get through this, Mrs. Sheppard, Mary." Officer Lopez assured her. "I saw the film footage of your arrest on Channel 4 news. It was disgraceful to arrest you in the Sanctuary of your Church. In case you haven't heard your husband can't be found. It's reported he's fled the country. It stands to reason if you were guilty, you'd be gone with the wind too. Also, why would you torch your own house to hide evidence and not flee immediately with your husband?

I'm a church going woman and I seldom miss Mass. I know you're a good woman and I believe you're innocent. I've prayed my Rosary every day since I was five.

I've been on the job for 30 years and my faith has kept me safe...these have kept me safe." Anita reached into her pocket taking something out and kissed them. "They're very old and holy and are blessed by generations of my families' women with prayers to God.

They were my mother's and her mother's and we've lost track how long they have been in the family except they're very old. I can only guess the number of prayers that have passed through them and I have the rest of the pieces of the broken Rosary at home.

Prayer should be shared and I will pray for you. Your need is greater than mine. Please give me your hand and Mary accepted...three old and polished smooth from much use, black beads on a fragile chain...

MARY'S RECENTLY CLEANED CELL SMELLED STRONGLY of disinfectant and faintly of vomit and urine. She had little appetite and didn't eat much from the food trays when they were brought to her. She drank sparingly from her sink's water fountain. The sink and toilet was an integrated one piece stainless steel unit with an upper sink and bottom toilet.

The noise at times was deafening and then dropped unexpectedly to a tense oppressive silence. Ordinary conversations were salted with profanity by the crude women incarcerated there, including the occasional challenges, catcalls, insults and threats. Some good natured and some not, going back and forth between those who recognize and are comfortable with those of their own kind.

Most disgusting and frightening to Mary were the sexual innuendos and direct sexual offers and threats directed at her by the homely lesbian in her early to mid-forties occupying a cell across the way from her.

The woman was very graphic in what she wanted to do to convert Mary to her persuasion of sexual preference. This included a makeover entailing a drastic change in Mary's appearance, beginning with multiple face piercings, tattoos and a haircut to name a few. She was licking her lips and blowing kisses while rubbing her breasts and masturbating inside her unzipped coveralls as she described what she wanted to do to Mary.

The obese bull dyke was six-four or better and grotesquely imposing. Her bullet shaped head was shaved and her head and face, including her large bulbous hooked nose was covered with tattoos of spiders, cockroaches and snakes crawling out of the orifices of corpses in various states of decomposition. There were demons on her neck leering up with pleasure and approval of the landscape of the lesbian's woman's face. Mary shivered in disgust trying not to imagine what other macabre inked landscapes was hidden under the coveralls on her tormentor's hideous bloated body.

Anita encouraged her to stay strong and to ignore this woman. In fact, she told Mary not respond to any of them or get into in conversations; including friendly conversations or believing words of sympathy or concern and Mary took all Anita's advice and her gift to heart.

CO Lopez made her final round before shift change and warned the bull dyke who was harassing Mary to stop if she wanted to eat more than one meal a day for the next 6 months. The aggressive lesbian did for the duration of Mary's stay.

Mary spent the night dozing and waking up from nightmares. She couldn't get comfortable. Her bed was a hard narrow steel shelf welded to the wall. It had a thin fire resistant mattress covered with rough textured cut resistant material. She was accustomed to roomy beds with lots of big pillows and the single pillow issued to her was small, thin and lumpy. Although freshly laundered, the institutional white sheets were dingy and stained. The label on her new blanket said it was made from reprocessed wool and other unknown fibers and it was irritating and scratchy.

She spent much of the time over thinking her situation about everything Anita told her. She prayed asking God for help with the beads held reverently in her hands. She read the Psalms in the Bible given to her by the female trustee when she came around with the book cart. The next day and night was the same with no visitors, including her Minister and his was one of the telephone numbers she called. Nobody came to post bail. On her third morning Anita brought her a visitor.

"Aaron, thank goodness you're here? Are you bailing me out? Where is my husband? Is what I've been told about him true? Did my house burn to the ground? This is a nightmare. I..."

"I'll tell you everything in good time, Mary." he interrupted. "I've posted your bail and retained a top notch attorney for you. I was in Georgia when I heard what happened to you. On the way here my truck threw a lower bearing in Ohio.

I'm sorry I couldn't get here sooner for you. Officer Lopez has been very helpful though and she's seen to it you'll be processed and out of here immediately..."

AARON GABRIEL MCCLOUD WAS 33 at the time of Mary's arrest. His father abandoned him and his mother when he was six and afterward his life was unstructured and chaotic as he moved from place to place. He seldom ate regular meals then and they often went hungry.

He lived with the changing faces of his mother's boyfriends. When he turned ten his mother found a decent enough one, Larry. Larry didn't drink or smoke and had a steady job as a short order cook and helped with the rent and groceries.

They were living in a nice apartment and things were looking up...for his mother. However, between work and Larry, she had even less time for Aaron. He began acting out by skipping school. He spent time on the streets, learning their ways and getting into fights.

By the time of was twelve, Aaron, was taking on bigger and older boys and winning those violent fights. He stole what he could get away with until he was caught stealing a whole uncut Genoa Salami from an Italian Market a few blocks from his apartment. He was nabbed by a Philadelphia Police Detective who ran faster than him. His attempted fight with Frank was brief and futile and a bit painful for him.

The fleet footed flat-foot brought Aaron back to the Market and made him apologize. Being a practical man, Frank paid the wholesale cost of the slightly battered salami and kept it for himself. He then bought Aaron a proper lunch and made him an offer he couldn't refuse; be arrested for assaulting a Police Officer or take a chance for something better and join up with him.

Frank Gallo was involved with the Big Brothers and Sisters of America. He and his first wife, Denise raised a daughter who was then living in Seattle and working towards a partnership in her law firm and he saw little of her.

Frank secretly always wanted a son. He married Marie a few years after he lost his Denise to illness. Marie is 10 years younger and he's crazy about her and she him. Although polite, his daughter is standoffish and distant with his second wife.

He put Aaron on a better path when he paid for him to attend 4 weeks at Youth camp in the Blue Mountains. At the time Frank was scheduled to be there as a youth counselor. Afterward with his mother's cooperation, Aaron spent every Saturday and Wednesday with him, doing guy things like teaching him to fish and Frank took him to a ballgames. Over time, Aaron spent more time with Frank and Marie Gallo. He became involved in school sports, excelling in football and wrestling.

He received tutoring from Marie after school and she spoiled him with his favorite desserts

provided he ate the good balanced meals she put in front of him. To please Marie, Aaron attended church with them on Sunday. He brought his grades up and made the merit role followed by honor role.

Being an Art teacher, Marie bought him a sketch pad and pencils and encouraged him to draw. She recognized talent when she saw it. By the time he turned fifteen, Aaron's mother had gone through two more men until she found one with a profession. Tim Flint was an Optometrist.

He was infatuated with her although not so much Aaron. She married him and left to start a new life in South Carolina while Aaron moved in with Frank and Marie to finish high school.

He graduated high school with honors and enlisted in the Navy to help pay for college, although he joked he joined the Navy to ride the waves. While attending college he discovered a love for writing and published his first Crime Novel in memory of Frank.

Aaron is an average looking man at 6'1" at 170lbs. He keeps his thick brown hair clipped short and tight. He is an amateur boxer and a natural pugilist. He honed his finesse with his fists while boxing in the Navy. He added this to his street fighting skills of dirty tricks learned growing up in the mean streets of Philadelphia. There the Marquess of Queensberry rules is for heroes or fools.

He's a successful author and artist. He's published historical novels under his own name. He's published a collection of short stories under the pen name Ian Stone, using the same for his true crime or crime fiction novels. For relaxation, and to amuse himself, Aaron wrote erotic online stories as Rogue Mercenary such as Romance, erotic- couplings and non-consensual.