Sexy Af

"So while threatening you and me for having sex while you were still married to him was a way to cause trouble, it didn't make sense. Especially because there were so many things he was lying about."

"You obviously know I have some experience in law enforcement, but what you haven't seen is I have a particular interest on spotting liars. I've even done a few papers on them that are taught at police academies."

"See, most of the time when people talk, they are animated, they use hand gestures. A liar, will often drop all motion, will school his body and face to not give anything away, he'll go dead-pan or straight-faced. The idea behind it is simple, the liar doesn't want to give any tells away, except, this is the biggest tell of all."

"If he's animated one moment, then goes all still the next, that's a pretty big sign. Another tell is when a person uses contractions and then changes to non-contractions."

She'd stopped scowling but her eyebrows formed a V, "Contractions?"

"Don't, didn't, can't, non-contractions, do not, did not, that type of stuff. This is actually one of the bigger tells. It happens a lot. People tend to emphasize their non-contractions."

She looked toward Vann, then around the room, I could tell she was still confused about what was going on. I glanced at Vann, he looked worried.

Continuing, "You probably didn't notice, but he did that a lot during our last conversation. I told you before, it's all training. If you're not looking for it, you'd never notice, but if you are listening, dear god, it's like a whistle going off."

"The thing is, his lies made no sense, was it just to cause trouble? But then I remembered, you said he wanted you to split your retirement, he wanted $50,000 from you."

"Suddenly, things started to make sense, he couldn't outright extort you, but I'm sure if he made a big deal officially, then after you were scared about losing your career, offer some type of compromise. I'm sure you'd agree, if just to be done with him."

Her eyes went wide, and her face flushed red, I could see the anger in her eyes as she looked at Vann.

"I see I hit a nerve there, so we'll get back to that. Another thing that bothered me was when you called his name. I was looking right at him, and the first time you said his name it didn't register. It took a split second before he realized it."

"Now, I got to thinking, I know when somebody uses my first name it takes me a moment to realize who they're talking to. Curse of military life, we tend to use last names as first names."

"But for some reason it stood out to me. Maybe intuition, maybe something else. You may not remember, but I called him 'Great One,' and it didn't even phase him. Which is weird because that's what his name means. I found it a little difficult to believe somebody with his ego wouldn't know that or respond to it. So that made me real suspicious."

"But it also made something click, weirdest story I've heard in a while. You see, they recently had a Marine exposed for more than twenty years of fraud. This guy went to boot camp but was discharged after two years as a private, but then he shows up at a reserve unit with phony paperwork as a sergeant."

"They think it's a glitch and the last unit forgot to input him into the system. Dude spends twenty-five years in the reserves, actually makes the rank of sergeant major. They keep re-enlisting him and when he gets ready to retire, they go back through his paperwork to make sure everything is in order. That's when they start noticing discrepancies."

"A little digging and they find out the whole story. Now, I don't know why that clicked except that Vann went from active duty Marine, to National Guard active."

"I actually know a lot of people who do it, so it really shouldn't have stood out to me, but they way you described him, it just seemed weird. So going off instinct, I decided to investigate a little."

"The problem is, I couldn't have him suspicious, because I know people like this, sociopaths, but they're very good at spotting when people are being false. So I had to hurt you, I had to make him feel he'd won, so I agreed to make a statement against you. I figured that would be enough leverage for him to make you do what he wanted, then he'd drop the case."

"For the record, Reed was ready to kill me."

She glanced at Reed, he smiled. Her eyes were slowly taking on a much more interested look.

"After I left, I asked the Marine at the front desk to get the Starbucks cup in the trash. I told him I'd give him $50, but he couldn't touch it, he needed to get it with a plastic bag and make sure nobody else touched it."

"Then I left and came back in an hour to get it. By then you and asshole had left."

"Now I've gained a lot of favors over the years in my investigations and I've never used any of them. I've never needed to. However, this time I called in a lot of favors, and boy were they willing to do me a solid. People jump on the chance to repay me and get on my good side. Apparently, I have a good reputation. We were able to get a rush on a DNA test, and on fingerprints."

I paused, then I looked at Vann, his face was barely contained fury, his eyes darted around the room and settled on Ligero.

I turned back to Ligero, "And holy hell! You would not believe the shitstorm that came up."

"Your boy here is a very wanted man. He has some outstanding warrants in Florida and Louisiana for fraud, and a is also wanted in connection with a rape charge in Florida."

Ligero's eyes went wide as she looked at Vann.

"It gets better, in a weird twist of fate, I was right. He's a fake, not a Staff Sergeant. Or at least he wasn't. In almost the exact way I just described, he was discharged as a private by the Army, he was caught stealing or something. After he was kicked out, he got phony paperwork from an honorably discharged soldier and showed up to a National Guard unit as a sergeant."

"He may have gotten the next rank legit, but he's all fake."

Her mouth had dropped.

"Oh, before I forget, his name is William Harris."

She was still staring at him as he glared around the room tight-lipped.

"I'll admit I didn't expect to find this level of assholeness but damn."

"Anyway, we've been prepping a case against him all week. Detective Mills here," I said pointing to the civilian. "Is happily ready to take him into custody for extradition to Florida where he'll be tried for rape. Pretty rock-solid case too. They have DNA evidence and eyewitness testimony."

"Before that though, Gunny Reed has been filling out paperwork all week. Turns out marriage by fraud is a pretty easy thing to annul. The judge was more than willing to sign the paperwork. Usually it takes a while to get on the docket, but like I said, I've been calling in favors all week."

At this point she was still in shock, I asked, "I assume I was right about the retirement thing?"

She focused on me, blinked a few times and nodded her head.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. I asked the Sergeant Major to call the finance institution. He sent some paperwork once we knew what was going on. That's why they've been stalling you until today. You were supposed to get an electronic deposit today, right?"

She nodded.

"Yeah, don't worry, they've got a hold on it until you call them. It won't leave your account."

Her jaw dropped again, "Now the bad news is that we're going to have a hard time getting any money for all your stuff he sold. Even if they can find his accounts, there are other fraud victims, so the line is pretty long."

"After he goes to jail for rape, he's going to be on a whirlwind tour of city jails across a couple of states that are just waiting to get him into their courts. Your future children will graduate college before he he's free again."

"Buuuuuut, on the bonus side, I submitted your name as the person that led to his arrest. So that means you're entitled to the reward for his capture. Two different counties had a $10,000 reward. I got them to expedite it, it should be in your account this morning. Probably there now, if you want to check. I'd suggest you save a third of it for taxes, that'll still put you 13 grand ahead, it should replace a lot of your clothes and stuff."

At that point I stopped and sat back. Everybody in the room was smiling except Harris. The civilian detective motioned for him to stand up and he brought his hands behind his back to handcuff him as he read him his rights.

Halfway through Ligero stood up and walked in front of him until they were almost nose to nose, without warning she brought her knee straight up into his groin.

"Ohhhh, damn," Reed and I said at once.

The detective and the MP just winced and even the Blake looked away. Harris lay wheezing for a good ten minutes on the ground after that.

"I... want... to... press... charges," he said between gasps.

"For what? I didn't see anything," the detective said.

The rest of us shook our heads as he looked around. The MP hooked him into a standing position and then him and the detective took him away.

"That was incredible Gunny," Blake said. "I've wanted to see you in action since I heard stories about you, that did not disappoint."

Turning to Ligero, he continued, "You can have the rest of the day, I'm sure you have details in your life to take care of."

She nodded, "Thank you Sergeant Major."

"If you two need the day off to help her, go for it," he said, then he left the room.

We all stared at one another.

Reed smiled at her, "I'll be outside."

When we were alone, we both looked at each other for a few minutes.

"Sorry I had to hurt you on Monday, I knew he needed to have you in a corner."

Her eyes were a little watery, "Not going to lie, that was a blow. Probably the hardest one I took that day. I've been crying all damn week."

"Sorry."

She took a deep breath, "I understand why you did it."

Another minute went by.

"So, the Sergeant Major let you stay in the barracks this week until you got things sorted right?"

She nodded.

"Know what you'll do now?"

"I guess find a place to live," she smiled. "At least I can go shopping and have something to wear now."

I nodded, "You know, I have a two-bedroom house. If you needed a place to stay until you found your own place..." I trailed off.

She raised an eyebrow.

I continued, "I mean, it's not like we haven't lived together for the last year. I'd let you stay however long you wanted, a week, a month..."

"A year?" she interrupted.

I smiled, "Even longer if you need it."

"Hmmm, I think that's possible. The only problem is I've gotten used to your snoring, so I don't think I'll be able to sleep in the guest room."

"I know what you mean, yours is pretty loud too, it was eerily quiet all week long, made it very hard to sleep. I guess if you want to share my bed, I think I can live with that."

Moving toward me she closed the distance until her face was inches from mine, "I'm warning you, I don't cook. I listen to music loud. I need constant attention and will bug the living shit out of you if I don't get it. Also, I have a temper."

I raised an eyebrow, "Remind me again what I'm getting out of this."

She smiled and wrapped her hands around my neck, "I give the best apologies." She said as she pressed her lips to mine. We closed our eyes and I wrapped my arms around her. The kiss was soft, gentle, her tongue slipped past my lips and slowly moved against my tongue. I lost all sense of time.

A throat cleared, "So are we moving her stuff into your place or what? I'm hungry, can we go eat before we go shopping?"

We both opened our eyes and looked at Reed, he'd come back into the room unnoticed.

"You really know how to ruin a moment," I said.

He rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys will have plenty of time to do that later."

"Did she accept? Is she moving in?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Told you she would, you big dummy. Let's go get her crap and drop if off at your house, then we can go to lunch. After that, I'll leave you two alone, you can go shopping with her all day if she wants."

*****

Note: The fraud story referenced about the soldier is actually true. For those that think there is something wrong with the writing in this story, please refer to my story "Kinky Sex and Pop Tarts," it will explain all. Criticism is fine, I'm a big boy, I can handle it, but anon trolls deleted.