UnVailed

"Do you think you can get past this?"

"I don't know Yvonne. I obviously cannot trust her anymore. I saw what that did to my dad. I have a lot to think about, that's all I know at this point."

"But you took her back once before." Yvonne said with a hopeful look on her face.

"Damn she's right."

"Yeah, but we weren't married and she hadn't been actively deceiving me," I replied. And I was right too.

I hadn't seen Joy in the three weeks that followed my beating of Garrett. She finally stopped calling around the middle of the second week. After a week of not dodging phone calls I realized that Joy and I had not declared our relationship exclusive. Obviously she still saw that little slime ball prick; OK fine. I hadn't claimed her as my girl, I had just assumed that we were a couple, but the fact that she had allowed her father to believe I had hit her was the first, second and third strike.

I had just returned home from hockey practice. I was looking forward to a hot shower and some ibuprofen. I had my gear bags and went up the stairs to my apartment. She was sitting beside my door. "I don't answer the phone when you call, so somehow that clues you into coming over here?"

"Is there really a need to be a dick? I've missed you."

"You haven't missed me; well maybe you have if your boyfriend is still laid up."

"Oh so that's it. You're still pissed off that I saw Garrett."

I opened my door and said, "No. As a matter of fact that is what I am least pissed about. Only thing I am really pissed off about is the fact that you let your father believe that I laid hands on you. If you wanna go off and fuck that skel scum bag be my fucking guest."

I walked in and realized that she'd followed me in. She opened her mouth to say something but I jumped right back into the fray, "We never decided to be exclusive, so I can't be upset with you for fucking him. No. I'm pissed at myself for not seeing things as they really are. My silly ass thinks that once I sleep with a girl, we are dating until one or both of us decide we aren't."

I dropped my gear in the middle of the floor and continued my rant. "The way I see it is; we had a few good times you and I. You didn't like the fact that I'm not a piece of shit, or that I didn't hit you. OK I'm not for everyone. You want a wasteoid fuck who can't slap anything with a dick around so he's gotta hit you. Cool. Enjoy him. Maybe I'll send you two some brass knuckles for a wedding gift."

"Are you finished?" She stood there looking as defiant as a girl can look while crying her eyes out.

"Oh I'm finished. I'm just not sure why you're still here."

"Look asshole. I apologize for letting my daddy think for an instant that you had harmed me, but my first order of business was calling off our date so that you wouldn't go do something that would get your macho ass thrown in jail.

I forgot my phone at home when I went to see Garrett, and..."

"Hey. You don't owe me an explanation. I told you I'm over it."

"No, you need to hear me out damn it. I went to Garrett that afternoon because he was moving to Wyoming. I..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, a goodbye fuck. Is there a point coming up?"

"No not a goodbye fuck, just goodbye. I knew, or thought I knew that I could have something special with you. Garrett asked, more like ordered me to go with him. When I said I had someone else he beat me. I got away and hid from him at my friend Jules' house.

I went home to call you, so that you wouldn't go beat him up and get in trouble. I thought my dad was at his bowling night, but he saw me come through the door. He saw my face and well you know the rest."

"OK, I've heard your side. Now I have a date with a hot shower." The funny thing was the look she got on her face when I said that. Until I said the word "shower" she looked completely downtrodden. I still don't know what made me say it.

"You wanna join me in the shower?"

I didn't have to ask her twice. We decided we were exclusive that night. Three weeks later she moved into my apartment, and we were married eight months later. The only time Garrett was ever mentioned again was the night she told me that he'd been killed in a car wreck in Laramie Wyoming. She went up there with one of her girlfriends for two days for his funeral. And now a decade later Joy was being removed from an ambulance and being rolled onto the critical care ward at St. Augustine's.

She looked no different than she had in Vail. The doctors said they gave her really good odds at a full recovery. After a few minutes they took us back out into the waiting room.

After thirty minutes of sitting there, Hugh texted me saying that Cal Davis was coming in to be interviewed at four o'clock. I told Jim and Yvonne that I had an appointment that I couldn't miss and left.

I went home and let Piper out to do her business while I donned a suit and tie. I knew if Sheriff Jeb Hannibal was going to allow me to sit in on the questioning I would have to look like a detective.

I had known the sheriff all of my life. He and my dad had worked together and I was best friends with his son Paul. Paul and I played pee wee football and hockey together. We were always on the same team until Jeb got elected Sheriff and they moved to the north side of town to live nearer to the office.

Everyone knew Paul and I were headed for pro hockey. It's funny how promise can be snuffed out. My dad died during my junior year in college. I lost my interest in playing and dropped out. My Grandfather and uncle put me to work as a brick mason when no one could talk me into going to finish my criminal justice degree.

Paul had three NHL teams looking at him and then in his junior season he broke his femur and his career died. Paul got a job with the Colorado Springs PD and coaches youth hockey. It had always been hockey or police work for us, and now I lay bricks for a living.

When I got to the Sheriff's office Hugh came out to greet me.

"Ok Zeke. Vail PD is going to be in on this over a video conference. We'll put you in a chair away from their view. Jeb said to remind you not to say anything, mainly because it could jeopardize a court case. Got it?"

"Yeah, and before you say any anything I know not to attack this prick."

'You know Nora and I have your back. Anything you need; just ask."

We walked into the department. We went down a hallway to several interview rooms. Several people were milling around and I instantly recognized her. For a moment I was transported back in time to high school. I'd had the same feeling when I laid eyes on her back then. Katrina Sheppard was the hottest girl in high school, even as a freshman.

Time had been more than kind to her. She had only gotten better with age and was more beautiful than she'd been when I stared at her during every class we ever had together. I had long dreamed of spending just one night with her, but I never felt I was in her class.

She was the head cheerleader. She was the homecoming queen. She was the prom queen. She was beauty and elegance on the arm of the starting varsity quarterback while I was the skater. I was the defensive back that played on second and third down. While I was the star of the hockey team, the hockey team wasn't the basketball team with cheerleaders and a pep band. The hockey team had its own following, mainly the parents and girlfriends of the guys on the team.

While I was standing there debating if she'd married a doctor or a lawyer, a couple deputies ushered her into a room. "Quit drooling Zeke," Hugh said as he steered me into a room. Sheriff Jeb Hannibal was standing there grinning from ear to ear. "I've always wanted to do this," he said producing a badge from behind his back. "I am deputizing you just so that we can say that only law enforcement personnel were in the room."

He had me swear an oath and then reminded me that I was to turn my badge in before leaving. He actually hugged me after he handed me the badge. "Son, I have been hoping, and still hope that someday you'll finish your degree and come to work for me. Your daddy was a fine cop, and I know you would be too."

Hugh and I left Jeb's office, my shield proudly on display, when my mind wandered again to Katrina Sheppard. I'd known back then that she was way out of my league but I wondered; had I been the right kind of boy in school if she'd have turned out to be a cheating whore as well. Somehow I doubted she would be; maybe that's part of what put her out of my reach. Maybe men in my family had a knack for marrying whores. I was sure Daniel would agree with that supposition.

We got to a room and went in. Hugh pointed me to a chair that was not in the line of sight of the camera. Hugh sat at a chair at the conference table and started working a keyboard. Soon I heard the voice of Detective Phillips and some other guy through the speakers.

A few minutes later a deputy led a smarmy looking motherfucker into the room. The guy just had "salesman" written all over him. He's the guy who steers you from the five year old jalopy on the car lot to the shiny almost new overpriced piece of shit that earns him a fatter paycheck. I had never met Cal Davis face to face, but I'd heard a lot about him.

Even as he sat in a room full of cops, the guy's smile never faltered. He looked like he was sizing us up as potential customers. I had never met the man before, but I felt I knew him from everything Joy had ever said about her mentor.

"Ok," Hugh started. "Mr. Davis we thank you for coming in, and I need to remind you that this interview is being recorded."

"Sure no problem," Cal said.

"Ok for the record this is Detective Hugh McMillan of the El Paso County Sheriff's department. With me are Detectives Keith Douglas and Roger Riggs."

"Roger Riggs? Wasn't that a character in Lethal Weapon?" No that was Martin Riggs, played by Mel Gibson; Roger Murtaugh was Danny Glover. "Oh."

"Also by video conference we have Detective Desirae Phillips and Detective Ron Albert of the Vail Police Department. Now Mr. Davis you understand you have been read your rights and you still agree to talk with us without an attorney present?"

"Yes I do."

As they began the routine questions about his address and such I realized that my gut was telling me that this wasn't the guy. He was fucking Joy, but no way did he beat her. The guy could sell ice cubes to Eskimos, and sported a wedding band that cost more than my truck. He could charm a woman into doing his bidding, and he didn't seem the type who'd risk his livelihood by chancing a domestic violence charge.

Finally they got to the questions I was waiting for. "Mr. Davis," came Phillips' voice over the speakers, "Can you tell us of your whereabouts from a week ago today until Sunday afternoon?"

"Yes. From Monday until Friday I was in Houston at our corporate convention. I got home Friday evening and was with my wife all weekend."

"So you were at a convention all week?"

"Yes."

"Well that makes this all so much easier Mr. Davis," said Phillips. "Our last interviewee made us call four different people to verify his alibi. With you all we need to do is call your employer, he can provide us with all of the contact information we need."

The smile never faded, but his tan sure did. He had that "I'm fucked" look in his eyes. I knew he was broken when Hugh asked if he'd mind waiting for a few more minutes while he called Bernie Jags.

"Wait," Cal said. His confident swagger was AWOL. "Can I tell you guys something without it getting back to my wife?"

I saw the smirk on Detective Douglas' face and marveled at how easily they had played Cal. He soon was telling us that he'd been sleeping with Joy for more than six years. I mentally figured that she'd started training with him around six years ago.

He did freak out when they told him this was concerning Joy. I saw real fear as he asked if she was missing or had someone killed her. When they asked him about Friday his explanation was interesting.

"When it was time for me to leave, she called her husband and told him that she'd won a trip to Vail and was flying into Denver in three hours. I heard her on the phone. Then we drove to Denver and I dropped her off at the terminal. All she was going to do was walk to the arrival area and wait for him to pick her up. I left and drove home. My wife can verify that I was at home from Friday night on."

A few more follow up questions from the detectives were answered satisfactorily, and then Hugh signed off from the Vail feed and told Cal he was free to go, but warned him against leaving town for a few weeks.

"Can I ask one favor?" Cal asked Hugh.

"You can ask, but I can't guarantee anything."

"Can I have a few minutes of privacy with Detective Riggs?"

Hugh looked at me and I said "I'll hear him out."

I sat opposite Cal in the chair that Hugh had just vacated. He looked dejected and beaten down. It was a far cry from the smiling "nothing can fuck my day up" guy who'd walked into the room just forty minutes before.

"So Roger is there a need for formal introductions here?" he asked.

"Obviously not. You seem to know who I am."

"Joy keeps a picture of you in her presentation kit, and all over her desk at the office. She loves you, you know?"

"NO. No she doesn't. If she loved me we wouldn't be here."

"The problem is; I love her too."

"Well at least four weeks a year anyway," I added flippantly. "I'd bet your wife wouldn't think too highly of your love."

"I do love her Roger. I love my wife too. She knows of my infatuation with Joy. Let me start at the beginning. I knew Joy was special the day I interviewed her for the opening on my team. I felt I needed to take her under my wing and train her myself.

"As you know there are days when people just aren't home when we arrive for our presentation. Well, one Saturday we had several no-shows so we decided to go have a bite to eat at that old-style drive in restaurant over by the Army base. As we ate and talked I realized we had chemistry and we ended up making love in one of those motels that cater to visiting military families.

"We didn't make love again for about a month. We both felt guilty; but we felt our chemistry at the same time."

"Not guilty enough to stop fucking though huh?" I said humorlessly.

"It sounds cheap and tawdry when you put it that way. Cheap and tawdry is the opposite of what Joy and I have."

"Well pardon fucking me. I didn't know I was pissing all over your little fairy tale romance."

"I understand your anger. I really do, and I can't even imagine how you must feel, but I don't regret my love for Joy one iota."

I couldn't believe the shit this asshole was spewing. I was sure that if I decked him no one would disbelieve that he tripped and hit his face on the table. But I was going to keep the high ground, and Joy had ceased to be my problem.

"So are you telling me that you'd be cool with your wife running off twice a year to fuck someone else?"

"No. I have a hard enough time sharing Joy with you."

"That won't be a problem any longer. You can have the whore."

"So you'll throw her aside because she loves someone else?"

"Dude! Are you fucking dense? You tell me it's hard for you to share then with the next breath expect me to? Fuck you. At least you knew you were sharing. I had no clue. If I had known we wouldn't have been sharing for long ' cause I don't condone cheating."

"I guess you're right. That's why you and my wife got to go on the trips. She got to go to Mexico City, San Diego and Rio. You got Cabo San Lucas, Corpus Christi, and Miami. You were supposed to get Vail, and my wife was going to get Estes Park. The extra trips were getting to be too expensive so we kept it local this year."

"Extra trips? I got to go to Miami last year and that's the only time I have been out of state. I got to go to Vail to sign for her cheating ass. You guys fuck in Indy for two weeks, and the supposed convention for two weeks. What the fuck do you mean about all these other cities?"

"Joy and I felt bad about what we were doing. So to assuage our guilt, we'd treat our spouses to vacations as well. She and I spend the week of the convention together, and then she'd invite you to wherever we went for the second week and I'd go home. We'd spend the meeting week in Indy together, then she'd go home and I'd meet my wife for a week of vacation."

"Bullshit. Joy has been gone for two weeks every time, and I only went to Miami. I knew that room felt too used for her to only have been there one night."

"So if she wasn't at home with you or in any of the places I thought she took you...She was cheating on me."

The fucking guy actually started crying. "Really? Cheating on you? Fuck you pal. Have a good life, and Give Joy my best. She's in St. Augustine's; room 2410. Tell her dad I'll be in touch."

I made for the door, but stopped when he pathetically asked me, "You aren't going to tell my wife are you?"

"Dude, I don't even know your wife. Even if I did why would I want to hurt her? No, I won't tell her. It's more satisfying to know that guilt will eat you alive, or not. A piece of shit cheater has no conscience. Have a nice life jerk off but remember; one day, you'll stand before the Almighty and answer for it all." I turned and walked out.

Hugh was waiting for me in the hall. "Hey Zeke, I really am sorry. I thought we had the guy."

"Yeah. I knew as soon as he walked in there he wasn't the guy who beat her. . I just feel so fucking stupid. How could this have been going on under my nose the entire time? I never had a ..."

At that moment I was interrupted by a commotion behind us. Hugh and I turned to see Katrina Sheppard slapping the shit out of Cal. "You worthless cheating son of a bitch! Do not come home Calvin. I don't want to see you ever again!"

She was bawling her eyes out as a deputy pulled her off of Cal. He was sporting more than a few welts from the short smack down. As they went past us she looked at me. I was searching for something to say when she stepped up to me and pulled me into a hug that almost left me breathless. "I'm so very sorry," she sobbed.

It's not your or my fault," I reasoned. "We both just happened to find letches to marry."

She laughed and pulled away. I reached up and wiped a tear from her beautiful face. "I hope you'll be OK," I told her. "I've had a few days to wrap my head around this."

"I wish you the best of luck too Roger," she said as she kissed my cheek and turned to leave. It was at that point I recognized the officer walking with her. It was her brother James. James had been two grades behind us in school, so I didn't know him per se. Suddenly I knew how she had come to be at the Sheriff's station that afternoon.

I looked at Hugh and said, "He's got that at home and he has to fuck Joy?"

"Some guys just want what they're not supposed to have," he said. We walked down to Jeb's office so I could turn in my badge and listen to a lecture on how I could still finish my degree and be a cop. I'd heard it all before, and who knows; one day I might listen. I know I was listening to that whisper in the back of my head that said I'd been missing something for the past ten years.

*****

The next few days were busy as hell for me. I spent all day Tuesday looking for an attorney that would keep me from getting my ass handed to me in the divorce. I didn't really see much of a fight coming, but I wanted to be prepared.

I hired a guy from a firm in Denver that handled nothing but men's cases. They usually fought hard to get fathers a better deal, but in my case they said they'd do what they could to protect me. I was damn glad Joy and I hadn't got around to having kids. We'd discussed it, a lot more recently, but we'd never taken the plunge.