Something We Have to Talk About Ch. 02

The door bell rang and I let a man with a badge on into our house. "Is Susan Richards here?" he inquired.

"She is on the couch, what do you want."

He walked over to the couch and handed Susan a large manila envelope. "Susan" he monotone, " you are served. Your husband Jonathan Richards is divorcing you. These are the official papers. I suggest you get a lawyer to represent you in this matter.".

I was angry yet saddened that our marriage was dissolving. Our home was irreparably damaged. She looked at me with a long blank almost emotionless face, then anger took over and she threw the papers across the room. "You bastard, You knew my lawyer was going to file my divorce against you this today but you had to get there first, didn't you? I knew you hated me but I just couldn't imagine you hating me this much. You are destroying my life".

With that she sat motionless in front of the TV.

He turned and left as quickly as he came in. He had arrived at just the right time.

The door bell rang again and I opened it. Susan sat motionless. I think it all was beginning to soak into her warped brain. I was angry yet saddened that our marriage was dissolving. Our home was irreparably damaged

"Susan, you did it to yourself. I tried to salvage this awful thing but you just had to sink it"

She did not answer, she just sat and shook. I turned on the TV. The local 11am news was just beginning. The TV anchor came on with breaking news. There were pictures of a large house with police cars all around it and the familiar yellow marker tape with the words, crime scene, do not cross plainly in view. I tapped Susan on the shoulder.

Susan, do you recognize that house. She stared, her eyes opening wide. She gasped, "That's Henry's place. Oh my God" She exclaimed. Her eyes and ears were glued to the TV as the Anchor narrated about the drug raid in progress. Suddenly, there appeared a commotion at the front door. A blond haired man was being escorted out of the house, His hands were cuffed behind his back. He looked directly into the TV camera in its long range view. His face filled the TV screen. The reporter identified the man as a local divorce lawyer named Henry Stein. Susan gasped and her body went tight. She visibly shook uncontrollable. I wanted to comfort her but just couldn't. She stared at the TV as several other men and women were taken into the waiting paddy wagon, handcuffed with heads bowed. Susan gasped again.

The door bell rang again and I opened it. As if on cue, another man with a badge on entered followed by a female police officer.

"Is Susan Richards here"

"She is on the couch, officer, What do you all want"

He went to face Susan who was sitting on the couch.

"Mrs. Richards, you have been identified as a person who is well know to a Mr. Henry Stein. We know you are frequently in his office and house. Mr. Stein is being detained on multiple felony charges. You are not under arrest at this time. We

want to ask you a number of questions concerning your relationship to Mr. Stein."

"Mrs. Richards" he continued "I am going to read you your rights under the constitution of the United States of America. These are known as Miranda rights." With this he read her rights.

Susan, I shouted at her "this is the reason I made you stay here. If you had had your way last night, you would be one of those parading in handcuffs to the police station and jail, Susan. I saved you from jail."

She never said another word. She did not respond to any further questions. I tried to get her up but she was stiff as a board. Her eyes were glazed. I think she heard and saw nothing more. The officer simply got no responses from her. I thought to myself, she is taking her rights not to say anything , but then again, she didn't acknowledge or even say she was opting for silence. She had a strange look on her face as if she wasn't here any more.

The officers requested permission to search the house and premises for drugs. I refused. I told them they could contact Sherrie, my lawyer and I would cooperate completely but only with her advice and consent. They voiced understanding. The left their identification cards with phone numbers with the suggestion I call my lawyer for further advice. They looked at Susan sitting motionless. The uniformed female police officer suggested that she be allowed to call 911 for an ambulance to take her to the hospital. She commented that she needed medical help more than legal advice. I agreed but said I would call for help myself later. Perhaps after they all departed she would come out of her trance. As I showed them out I saw other officers searching Susan's car across the street. They new her license number and the car was on public property so no search warrant was needed. I didn't care and told the departing officers that.

After several hours, Susan had urinated on the couch with out the slightest movement. Only occasionally did she close her eyes. Her breathing was slow and regular. I tried to talk to her but she didn't respond. I was petrified. What had happened to my Susan? By mid afternoon I knew I needed medical help for her. I called her parents and told them I had to take Susan to the hospital. They asked what is wrong and I told them I didn't know. I thought maybe she had had a stroke as she wasn't moving but appeared to be otherwise ok. I asked them to keep the children and I would keep them fully informed. I told them to turn on the news and watch about the drug raid on a lawyers office. I told them this person was a close friend of Susan's. With that I called 911 and asked for help. There was no need for sirens as my wife seemed not to be critical. Then I called mom and told her what was happening and for her to tell grandad, George and Sherrie. She readily agreed. She had just arrived back with grandad for the lawyers and bank herself.

The Rescue squad arrived, asked a number of questions and examined Susan. She never moved a muscle. The put her on a stretcher and took her to the hospital. I followed after locking the house.

My trusty old Ford truck coughed and roared to life. As I pulled out my cell phone rang. It was George. I told him what was happening. He said, "Take care of Susan and the children. Everything is under control otherwise. Sherrie has been notified and is available if needed. Your mom and grandad are on their way to the hospital to be with you. I have to notify the narcotics detectives that Susan will be at the hospital, They want to interview her" he hung up. Before I could tell him they had been here already.

At the ER we gathered waiting for the doctors to report to us. After about an hour an young doctor called us into a small conference room.

"Susan is in a catatonic state. The drug tests only showed some Xanax in her urine. Something catastrophic to her emotional state occurred and she has with drawn. I can't don't know anymore now. She will be admitted to the ICU at least overnight. An Internist, a specialist in adult medicine, is in with her as we speak, Her physical well being is now insured at least on the short term basis. Tomorrow, a psychiatrist will exam her. You should be here tomorrow afternoon to talk with him. He will give you lots more information." with that he disappeared only to reappear with an older tall thin doctor. After introductions, we learned he was the internist who would be in charge of Susan for at lest the next couple of days. He confirmed what the younger ER doctor had said.

We all went back to see Susan. She did not acknowledge any of us. I thought her body is alive but her mind is dead. I hated what she had done. I think she finally saw what she had done and just couldn't handle it. I didn't know. I knew things had gotten worse as George had warned. I reached tenderly to take her wedding band and engagement ring from her finger. No need for someone to be tempted to pawn these. I kissed her on the cheek and told her I really did love her. She didn't move or even flicker an eye lid.

The next day both sets of parents and I went to the hospital. We all visited with Susan. The children had to remaining the waiting room. They wanted to see their mom. We debated but finally let them come in. We told them that their Mommy was sleeping. They accepted that explanation. Susan remained stiff and non communicative. We met with the psychiatrist who told us that a CAT scan proved she had not had a frontal lobe stroke. Her drug tests showed she was not drugged out. The level of Xanax was decreasing. I told both sets of parents what I had done and why. They seemed to agree. I had also told the doctor in private what I had done and why yesterday.. He said I had done the right thing even if it were illegal. He was not going to include that in any reports. It had no bearing on her condition.

Susan did not improve in the first week in the hospital. I quit my job to care for the children. Some one put fifty thousand dollars in my bank account. I suspected grandad but he only smiled and said that God had a way of providing for his children. I resigned from my job. I was going to miss my job but a new era in my life was beginning.

Susan was moved to a long term psychiatric facility. She failed to improve. Her parents took her beloved teddy bear they had saved all these years. Susan and her teddy bear had been inseparable up to her first grade. Susan held the Teddy bear, caressed it and smiled as she cuddled with it. Her mom took her the old worn security blanket. Susan slept with it around her face. Susan seemed content. She had begun to speak but it was her childhood speech pattern. She didn't recognize me or her parents. But she hugged her teddy bear and her security blanket.

I spoke to her psychiatrist. He told me, she most likely was living in her childhood. A time when all was happiness. She could not handle what she had done. Her only solution was to retreat into full time child hood fantasy. He told me that she had already started her regression by compartmentalizing her life before the major break. He speculated that perhaps she was not really responsible. I couldn't accept that. I think she knew exactly what she was doing but didn't realize the consequences until it was to late.

All the monitoring, the bank records and transactions had not been factors. As Sherrie had said, better to be over prepared than under prepared and at the wrong time.

I let my mom borrow Susan's laptop to practice on. Mom was taking a class in computers. I smiled, here she was moving through her 50's and still wanting to learn, I took note of that for myself. Any way, one day I got a call from her. She asked me to come over to her place. She had obtained high speed internet access. After arriving she took me to the kitchen table she used as her "office". She did accounting for a number of older couples gratis. She showed me that she had found what appeared to be Susan's secret files. I wondered what kind of craziness Susan had hidden in them. Mom smiled and said it's not craziness. She had off shore bank account names and numbers and codes and passwords. She had accessed the accounts and found about five million dollars stashed away. Apparently it was from the insurance payoffs after Henry's wife's death. The Feds and the narcotics people did not know of them. Susan had the only proof of their existence on her laptop. Henry had been smart enough not to keep that information on his home and office computers. Their had been no deposits or withdrawals sine the initial opening deposit. Henry was in prison for at least another 7 years. He had tried to get me to give him Susan's computer but I had refused. He claimed it was his but I had had the satisfaction of telling him he couldn't use it in prison and I was going to have at least something of his since he had something of mine. He never said why he wanted the computer. Now I knew. I smiled. This was going to be my revenge. When he got out of prison he was going to be penniless. His hidden assets were going to be long gone. All his property had been confiscated by the narcotics folks as "ill gotten gains". His office / home had been auctioned off as had his cars and bank account. I smiled. George had been right. My day was just arriving some two years later.

"Mom" I said. "we have to talk to Sherrie about this".

Chapter Eight

The next day we were back in Sherrie's office. I hadn't been there in over a year yet it still was familiar. Her coffee was fresh as ever.

I started the conversation. "Sherrie, we have uncovered some very interesting information off Susan's laptop computer. Let me restart this conversation putting everything in the hypothetical so you will be freer to comment, so to speak, at a distance that is responding to hypothetical. Suppose information was discovered on Susan's laptop which indicated a large sum of money stashed away in off shore accounts. Now this money was legitimately acquired and deposited long before the events involving Susan and Henry. Further supposing the laptop was never requested nor searched by the authorities. Further supposing on mom and I plus Henry knew of the money and Henry doesn't know we know. Also suppose that this hypothetical Henry knows the account information resides exclusively on Susan's laptop. Now this Susan person in non compos mentis. Here's the question, Supposing this money disappeared and was untraceable. What could Henry do about it once he is out of prison?"

Sherrie thought for a moment. "hypothetically speaking, it is Henry's. Therefore if it disappeared it could be called theft. Now the practicalities are quite different. First, these off shore banks do not cooperate with US or local authorities in disputes about the accounts so as a hypothetical answer, yes it's theft but more than likely noting could ever be proven. Second, if the accounts were moved between banks several times an audit trail would disappear. Third, the US Dept of Revenue would have no interest in this matter until the money comes back into the United States. Fourth, since the alleged hypothetical crime was committed on foreign territory, The US Dept of Justice would have no interest in it. The national government might have an interest but likely they would not respond. Charisteracally they stay out of their nations banking havens. The only difficulties would be when the money arrives back in a U.S. bank on U.S. soil. At that point, the government would be interested in income taxes unless the hypothetical Henry had it. Fifth, if this alleged computer disappeared permanently with no trace of the account information along with it. Then those responsible could not be prosecuted even by a foreign government." She stopped and smiled. " Does this hypothetical information help any hypothetical persons acquire any hypothetical funds from hypothetical off shore banks?"

I looked at mom then at Sherrie and responded. "I think the hypothetical may become realities once we leave our trustworthy confidential source of information's office."

Mom spoke up. "Jonathan and Sherrie, there is more information on this computer that just that. In other files, I found a lot of information that Henry had run a high end Brothel from his office. He had a covey of prostitutes working for him. It is possible that Susan was one of those"

This hit me like a bomb shell and I almost feel out of my chair.

Mom continued, I would like to give this information to the authorities and have Henry charge with pimping and prostitution and what ever other crimes he might be guilty of, like income tax evasion. How can we get this information to the authorities before the time limitations and without further damaging Susan's and her families reputation.

Sherrie again went into deep thought, her legal mind running in high gear behind that calm façade.

"Let me give you some non-hypothetical advice. The time limitation may have already expired unless there was rape involved which would be hard to prove now." I wondered now about the bruises I had found on Susan's body that fateful night. Susan could not testify but I still retained the vaginal specimen. Sherrie continued "I think that since Henry is debarred from the practice of law for life, since he will always have a felony criminal record and will be penniless when he get out of prison, the amount of justice we can extract from him without additional personal and family damage has been exacted. Jonathan, I know you have been terribly hurt. For you there is no justice. Susan is gone and cannot be replaced. Nevertheless, from a legal standpoint, I think to deplete his off shore account, hypothetically speaking, (she had a broad grin on her face) will be some measure of justice for you. Now I suggest you talk to George Town again about how best to bring this hypothetical money into your U.S. possession legally. We have an excellent CPA Lawyer in our practice who knows federal tax laws in and out. He will help you decide how much and when to bring the money into the U.S. with the minimum but all taxes paid. The IRS is not interested in how you acquired the money, only that taxes are paid." With that she called her assistant to help make an appointment with their Federal tax expert lawyer.

Sherrie, "what is your hourly fee for this consultation?" I asked.

"150 dollars an hour and we have been here about an hour."

"Please bill me at the your standard rate for 50 hours of service."

Mom and I departed satisfied that we had done the right thing. As you might suspect we consulted both George and the tax attorney. We arranged for the money to be transferred at the rate of $9,500.00 dollars per month into five separate bank accounts. One for each child, mom and myself. We figured it would be all transferred in a little over 5 years. Just before Henry got out but to insure the moneys safety, we first moved it to another off shore bank and from there to yet a third off shore bank. With each transfer taxes were withheld.

Four years later, Susan is still mostly unchanged. I visit her but she doesn't recognize me. The divorce was dropped. The narcotic detectives found no drugs in her car. I sold it as I didn't like it and it reminded me of her.

Granddad had died and left me and the children a ton of inheritance. Which I didn't need but it was mostly tax free. His 400 acre farm had been turned into shopping malls and homes and businesses and his estate was unbelievably rich.

I was lonely and the children had no mother. I was still married to Susan and was providing for her. I was determined to do so forever even though she had finally rejected me. That final part I truly believed was part of her psychosis. The doctors said she would never recover. I had mixed feeling about a potential recovery. She seemed happy now. That's what she always wanted. Why destroy that by bringing her out into reality where all the pain and suffering is.

One day I called the children's grandparents together. Since Susan's debacle, we had all grown closer as families and individuals. We met at my house. I laid out a plan to divorce Susan but to take care of her financial needs. If I were to meet someone who would be a good mother for the children, I wanted to be free to marry her for their sake. They agreed.

With Sherrie's firms help we set up a trust to provide for Susan for her lifetime. She would be well taken care of.

With the children being school and my not needing to work, I was bored. I enrolled in the community college and finished my associates degree in business management. I went back to my former employer and inquired about possible part-time employment. They had a position of parts manager coming up. I applied and was accepted. I got to work on the big diesels from time to time. The dealer ship was doing better. We didn't buy off market and post production parts except for caterpillar. We had no more returns for secondary repairs due to lousy parts.