All Comments on 'The Pursuit of Justice'

his knowledge of her affair has to stay hidden.

he may show her a photo of the guy, explain he led a double life, is dead and see how she reacts. but that is about it.

otherwise he could go down for the murder. the people he got arrested could probably get back out claiming a frame up to hide his own actions.

so confessing to murder or knowing she fucked around with the dead guy is a no no.

Chances are?

Inquiring Minds and all ........

I was disappointed though in the lack of a conclusion

Reminds me of the film noir stuff from the 40s and 50s or the Phillip Morrow stories, well written, but I really would have liked to see what happened with his wife later.

but the ending was simply the lazy man's way out. The "What would you do?" cutesy ending is way over done in LW

For me to surmise who killed Newton or that he knew/suspected his wife was cheating. . There were too many hints, from the Merchant Marine story, the scenes of the two dead high school girls murderers in jail, both showing a side of him capable of murder. To him casually dropping Newton's name to his wife, making sure we knew he was watching her reaction. But, I didn't see the double life coming at all for some reason. I've probably seem all of the old black and white film noir movies from the Thin Man series through Bogie as Phillip Marlowe and beyond, this one would have been an equal to them. I do agree with others that an ending by Jezzaz is required, not just by another author giving us their take on what should happen. To the commentators who habitually state that leaving a story open at the end is lazy, that isn't necessarily true. Sometimes it can also tease, leaving it open for sequels, sometimes just to force the readers to think for themselves and yes, sometimes a lazy writer. However anyone who has read any of J's stories know one thing for sure, he is not a lazy writer. I know what I think, unfortunately that may have to be enough. Signed: BTW

What is the Detective going to do with his wife ❓

She will cheat again... He must find out the WHY.

Isn't that worth another story 🤔.

Thanks

AMerryman

It makes me give great stories bad scores. I miss ftds

Help

write a proper ending.

As alluded to in the story, eventually the double identities of Polk / Newton would be revealed during the court case. The various wives he blackmailed into prostitution and the involvement of Tracy Miles as his enabler and her country club set would be front-page news, and at that point I would act.

I can imagine John and Clarice relaxing after dinner, perhaps with John reading the NY Times and Clarice watching TV, both relaxing with a drink. John would be casually updating Clarice on what the paper had to say about the case and how the murdered lawyer Newton had blackmailed a lot of wives into prostitution. He would then lower the paper and look directly at Clarice and mention that the guy also went by the name of Ashton Polk, and had she ever heard of him.

THAT’s the point he notices her reaction. THAT is when he puts his detective face on and stares at a visibly pale Clarice, and THAT is when he asks her why she looks so guilty.

And that is when he starts the process of either healing or divorcing, depending on her reaction.

Jezzaz,

You are a highly rated author and it pains me to see you use the same social media argument..

You have 112 comments as I type this but I am sure thousands n thousands of unique readers to this story who love what you write n would've liked an ending. worrying about the people complaining is like reading tweets or reddit n thinking it's the real life...

Would love to see an ending to this story and as someone who likes what you write, I am sure I would award it 5 stars n no vile comments if and when you do...

Cheers... Love your work btw..

Damn good one. I'm don't think I would have enjoyed it as much as I did if the last bits about how he did the killing and discovery of his wife and Polk etc, were written in a linear fashion and I knew up front as the story progressed. This way I got to experience the suspense and mystery. Although if his discovery about his wife etc were up front in the story I guess it would have been a good mystery too, but the way it was done we got to find out about his partner and the victim/blackmailer's wife etc.

Very well done. 5 thumbs up.

This story seriously needs an ending. Please.

I saw where this was going almost immediately, but I found immense joy in continuing reading and getting there at the end. Well done!

Well,what did he do?.

So many well written stories are spoilt by having no ending. This is brilliantly written, but so badly ruined by having no ending. I couldn't award stars, the quality of the writing r deserved 5* but by not having an ending the story only deserved one. So I just didn't mark it

I think its odd they did not show a photo of Newton around when asking about him... that aspect was most unbelievable.

Good writing, but 'what would you do' is a cop-out. Would be nice to have some closure instead of leaving it hanging.

Just spent nearly an hour reading this excellent story only to find there's no ending, no closure of it. What happened with Clarice? Could he confront her and risk having himself exposed as a murderer? Seems to be there could have been another part to this story but the author has left it hanging.

Second read.

I buy jezzaz explanations in comments.

They make sense.

But I also see another reason

for the abrupt ending.

Jezzaz describes Clarice

as a good wife and a cheating wife.

That makes as much sense

as having your cake and eating it too.

So Clarice is a paradox.

Having the ending longer

would force John to confront a paradox.

How do you do that?

With a shorter ending,

jezzaz doesn't have to deal with that.

Anyway, I have no problem with the end.

Or the flaw in the first person POV.

I think this is a great story and well written.

Top ratings from me.

The wife needs to just ‘disappear’ from her next conference. Doesn’t come home, no one knows where she is…

Gave you 5* of course, however, you left the largest question hanging and this is incomplete.

Are you open to others finishing this?

Me? I would try to bribe the author in an effort to get him to finish the story.

Good story writing should always "engage the mind" of the reader, and this missive does. A mystery, from start to finish. The story is not 'incomplete'...it is 'to the moment' and we (as observers) are left to ponder what will the protagonist do.......what would we do? Delicious!

Well done and thank you!

I disagree with not ending because any ending is going to piss off SOMEONE. Well, yeah, so does that mean that we should never end a story? End the story the way you think it should end, and let the chips fall as they may.

I think SomeoneOneTwoThree hit it right on the nail. It is a paradox, and to explore that would need a whole second part to the story, and in the end, it would still be two separate stories. No, this was a good ending to an excellent story.

Well done, that man! Thank you. 5* all the way.

Divorce Clarice. It's still not too late for this man to have kids and a happy life.

He has to get rid of his cheating wife. Just because Polk is gone doesn't mean she won't find other hook-ups at future conferences. As a cop he must eventually come to this conclusion. Crime and Punishment.

Something about this story just didn’t ring true to me. It’s a story about a cop in Minnesota but it didn’t read like an American story. I can’t put my finger on it, I may read it again to try and figure it out. All that said, it was a good story, several unexpected twists, and a very surprising ending. Very nice.

Interesting, well written and good plot line. A little long winded & slightly ponderous. But enjoyable.

I don't mind an open ending when it feels dramatically and structurally justified. Is it justified in this story, or is the ending just a cop-out (no pun intended)? Close call, but for me it works.

Really dumb cops for not showing the picture of Newton to Polk’s secretary when they first meet and then ask her if she has seen this guy. Just giving a name is never good enough. You need a picture of who you are looking for then show it to a person so they have some reference!

I loved it 10 stars, Good ending, he must not divorce her, he would end up a suicide stat.

Great read. Five stars.

I particularly liked the twist in the tail.

The problem I see is that the wife is going to continue to go off to conferences where she'll find another Polk.

Although, maybe she'll put two and two together when she hears his name mentioned when the cases come to trial.

Let's hope so.

Fantastic story. Ending left heaps to think about so was good as it was.

I'd like a sequel because the ending was thought provoking and I'm greedy for more from this author.

Plenty of holes in this story--Miranda would certainly have brought a photo--but pretty good as the story of a pure psychopath. Not the spree killer type but your everyday, cold-blooded type. He easily executes the lover and calmly weighs the costs and benefits of keeping the wife around.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading and didn't see the end coming. 5*

Get whole of the plot by third page and story category....but read it till end to find out what he would do about his wife

Great story. Thoroughly enjoyed this read. Would love a final chapter… the wife needs to be dealt with. Thank-you

Really great story, just wish we knew what he did about wife 😞.

So there I was, reading the usual cop story as found on the tv every day when the story took a little turn ........

DIVORCE

Excellent.

Excellent not quite finished story

I have read many stories on this website, and this is the first story that prompted me to make a comment. Not about the detective itself but how his wife ends up cheating was very similar to how I found out my wife of 20 years was cheating on me as well and her line of work she was in the consumer electronics Industry and each year when they had the big CES Electronics conventions out of Las Vegas my wife and several other people and her division would go out there to sell by and also hook up contracts with other companies in their division. Just by sheer accidents, a friend of mine had started working with one of the competitors to my wife's company, was out at the CES convention that year, and happened to see my wife walking to the bank of elevators at the casino they were staying at with a fellow executive from her company with his hand on my wife's ass. My friend was able to get a few pictures with his digital camera, remember this was in the early 90s, and digital cameras on smartphones really want prevalent at that time. Once I got the pictures, I did some digging and found absolutely no suspicious activity at home on the computer emails text on her phone nothing just like the detective in this story. So regrettably I wasn't sure if my wife was cheating, or if she was just being a little overly friendly with one of her co-workers, but the next year at the CES convention, I also put some recorders in the bottom of my wife's purse also sold one in the inner lining of one of her suit jackets and put one in one of her rolling suitcases. When she got back as usual she didn't not want to make love for a couple of days which I always thought was kind of funny since we had been separated for four or five days and when she was home we would consistently make love normally five sometimes six days a week. My heart was totally crushed when I was able to get the recording devices out and listen to him, and just like in this story my wife and her coworker f***** every time they didn't have a business meeting or contract negotiation. Listening to have some Pillow Talk in between f*** sessions, it came out that they had been doing this for 12 years, so more than half of our marriage my wife was getting really f***** at least once a year. Did a lot of digging and still cannot find any evidence of her caring around here in our home state, so I assumed it was just once a year fling with her and this guy. Now the funny thing about our prenup the way it was written up that if there was proof that one of us cheated first the Draconian measures of the prenup would be enforced and that person would leave would only 5% of our net wealth. I had all the evidence on tapes of them f****** sucking and talking about how long they've been doing this and that they also only like to do it once a year since it was almost impossible for them to get caught. Now the only reason why I didn't do anything at this time like divorce my c*** of a wife was because we had two fraternal twins at home that were 16 so what I did, was just to do like my wife did and I started f****** around when I went out of town. 2 years later when both fraternal twins had graduated high school and we're moving out of the house and going to college I lowered the boom on my wife with the proof I had, of course every cliche in the book was thrown at me about being just sex and she loved me and she respected me all this b*******. The prenup was found to be valid by the family court judge, 6 months after I had filed even going to six Court mandates counseling sessions didn't stop me from wanting to get divorced. Now being a vindictive sort that I am I waited for a year after the divorce have been finalized and then happened to meet up with my ex one night told her how I decided to play her game and I told her about all the p**** I got while she was oblivious to that, you should have seen the look on her face how mad she got, like she thought it was unfair, and I told her b******* you're the one that started cheating on our marriage first so you got f***** and not in a way that you really liked.

Incomplete ending. But I suspect he will divorce her. Long term affairs even if purely physical and low frequency are basically really, really hard to forgive. And men forgive cheating wives much less than the opposite.

A very good story right up to the ending. Such a let down as to who committed the murder and how it was hidden within the story. I am also one that very much hates the you guess the ending.

Dear Jezzaz, silly question to end. It was always what did John do? As you and he are one in the same person, really think its confession time, man up sir.

Convoluted but creative story. Don't see how stays with Clarice, except maybe for a bridge time to make sure there is no suspicion cast his way. She may never learn that Ashton Polk is Syndey Newton, but she will realize that at some point that Ashton Polk is non-responsive. Of she picks at that thread, she might wake someone up to the fact that the dead guy was fucking her for a long time. He night wait until after the court conviction of Philips is complete. Or maybe he goes for a separation and then divorce, but not telling her the real reason why. Forgiving her long term adultery even if sporadic, is basically impossible. Men are indeed less likely to forgive adultery and reconcile than women.

‘Finish The Damned Story’……Where are you???

Nice story, if left dangling. It seems there was evidence Polk was going to blackmail Clarice, and of course the double life and murder of Polk/Newton would be all over the news, so Clarice would know, and if I was the protagonist, then there must be a confrontation with Clarice. She surely is the real cipher in the story, devoted and serene while living her own double life. The MC must learn who she really is, so, since Jezzaz asked, I’d make her squirm as the truth (absent the killing) was made clear. Then I’d evaluate if I could continue in a relationship with someone I did not trust, and either adjust the relationship to account for the new reality, or exit it completely.

I figured out that the MC was likely the murderer, Newton = Polk, and Clarice was an adulteress fairly early in the story, but it was a tightly told tale with nice twists and turns,

As the author hints, be there when she learns her lover was the dead Newton, blackmailer and consort to a criminal kingpin, and see her reaction. If she stays as cool as she has the rest of the story, you know she’s some kind of sociopath and you do what you’ve gotta do. If she comes apart, confesses all, and apologizes, you might have a decision. But deep inside, I’d be thinking of how coolly and ruthlessly they pulled their affair off. Can you ever trust someone like that?

Second read for me, good story, clever plot.

What to do? Goodbye sweetheart.

Once a cheater...because it can't be undone.

Plus now she has a taste of that particular fruit and thinks she got away with it.

Except for, in my opinion, two glaring flaws, this was a great story. No, ‘despite’ two glaring flaws this is a great story. The first flaw were the first two pages of the story. Superfluous, extraneous, pick an adjective, Those pages were nothing but fluff, with the MC meandering through his married life, his career in the Merchant Marines, with little if any pertinent mention of the case at hand. Oh it was mentioned a few times, offhandedly, but with nothing that wasn’t covered in much more detail later in the story. The second flaw in the story was the ending. “What would you do?” ? I do recognize that the author had already taxed his brain for five pages of very good story, but what IS that? “What would you do?”. It’s a copout, that’s what it is, to save the author from having to actually figure out how to deal with his cheating whore of a wife without tipping his hand to the cops that he was the real murderer.

Oh well, like I said, it’s just my opinion, and I still think it’s a great story in spite of those two issues.

Five stars, jezzaz, but please don’t let it happen again.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If it were me, I go for a clever confrontation, say "Were you looking foward to being whored out by Polk?". and see if she can be disturbed from equilibrium... really fun to write, I'd think.

You mean for the character? I'd say who cares, but you were trying for noir, yes? A certain lack of sympathy is almost de rigueur.

Green-something

Loved the story. Like Texican says, it's a matter of trust. Can't do it. No guilt, no change in attitude, just cold cheating, she proved she absolutely can't be trusted. Bye bitch. Thanks for everything, but you just proved your evil.

We know Clarice was in the blackmail folder, but Asswipe had not yet pulled the trigger. Did she know her status? Was she being blackmailed off the books as it were. Her body language when observed at the hotel and the dialogue he recorded seemed not to imply any coerceion. Had she resigned herself or was she a willing participant? Too many moving parts. At this point a discussion with her would be necessary, but might not reveal any truth. Tough call.

LMJ

Divorce the wife. Once a cheater, always a cheater.

You're the writer and you ask me what to do next? After all that decent writing and story telling and that's how you end it?... 1-star... what I give every author that can't or doesn't complete his own story... especially one that long and involved.

Necesita una continuación, con las interrogantes: ¿Desde cuándo?, ¿Porqué?, ¿Porqué Clarice no confió en John, luego de la primera vez, si es que fue drogada, antes de seguir si es que fue chantajeada?, de hecho es casi imposible perdonarla, tanto si lo hizo porque le apetecía hacerlo con Newton, o porque fue fue obligada, ya que al final algo de apego tuvo que llegar a tener por el sexo con Newton-Polk, ya que éste no tuvo que recurrir a chantajearla, aparentemente y, ¿se prostituyó con otros tipos, como las otras víctimas de chantaje?.

Problem is that he cannot make a big fuss out of it. He has to be careful as his partner was running the case and with him part of it, his involvement would taint the whole thing opening it up for appeal, even if it is just found out that Clarice had a long occasional affair with the asshole, i.e. no implication of guilt identified but him hurt being part of the invesgivation.

Also doesn't look like she was being blackmailed but with Polk being who he was how would it not have been eventually? It looked like consensual lust at occasional conferences. And Polk may not have even been the first. He has no bearing on her involvement. If he confronts, nit sure what he will learn and he is not really in a position yo threaten her without a house of cards coming down.

So how does he proceed? Probably lie.and said he met someone else and he wants a divorce. Ot say that he has fallen out of love with her and wants her to be free to find someone else and file for irreconcilable differences. A couple years down the road he can name drop Polk in some way or have an anonymous package delivered with info. But by bring part of then investigation, he has trapped himself, ignoring any investugation from IA. Fruit of the poisoned tree and all that.

Clearly though there is no way to stay married. His only chance to confront her is further down the line, if even chooses to do so at that time. Again having a leak come to her attention years ahead is probably the best. Or confront her in the future but lie about any knowledge. By then no one will care. But if it is shown in any way that he knows at the present (or even near future), she can blow this wide open. Maybe she won't if he backs down and accepts what she did and forgives her. Sure. But does he want that?

Unbelievably great story. Book worthy. Had me tied up from 11-2 in the morning. Wonderful writing.

Spyauth

Revisit after a while, if ever a story needed making into a TV show, this remains high on my list.

Pretty decent story overall!! Unfortunately you didn’t FINISH THE DAMN STORY!!!

tough spot for MC.I cldnt live w/ her no matter how much i loved her or how much she completwed me etc. He thought she had his back but at best that was only situational, when she cheated she clearly did not have his back, she was demeaning cuckolding and emasculating him. For me, it wld depend on what else i had in life to stay alive for, no kids, no parents (as far as i cld tell). I confront her and shoot her from asss or cunt up towards head/upper torso. Fairly sure she wld at least bleed out if not die right quickly, but wld hope for at least 30 min of regret on her part as well as bad pain before she passed out. The "victim "polk shld also have been shot up the ass, no quick death for him. Anyhow after shooting the wife, hed have to decide to live and skedaddle or die and off himself. Since hes known she cheating for a while and kept it hiddenn from wife, he might be able to 1- do to her what he did to polk and maybe somehow get away w/ it, and before confrontation, put assets aside to live off after killing her. she deserved a painful exit. rk

Sorry. Have to confront her. Don't have to confess ot the execution. But have to tell her that Ashton Polk was Sydney Newton and what he did. And rhat he knee they were having an affair. Just show her the dossier and what Polk planned. Even if she runs to the police, they won't figure anything out. It might affect an appeal for Philips but unclear. Two years is a long time. Doubt it is her first shindig. With Polk hone, she will find another target. She compartmentalize. Bit of a sociopath.

No way that DG allows a police officer to look inner trunk. She tells the cop, “ No.” He does not have probable cause. The author established she knows her rights. So, no. She might be ambiguously inebriated; she ain’t stupid.

Great story! Love that he did for Polk/Newton. Hr deserved to die. No one could stay with that cheating wife. He can never trust her again.