Strike Four

Strike Four

The tremendous thunder storm had caused the organizers to cancel the entire softball tournament after a two-hour delay and a forecast that it would continue for the entire weekend. We were a very good team and pretty much figured that we would be in the final game on Sunday night, so we planned on going home on Monday morning. The guys and I went back to the hotel and checked out two days earlier that we had planned.

I hopped into my SUV and began my drive home. Except for the high cross winds and the lightning, the five hour drive home was uneventful as I listened to music and some talk radio. My wife was planning on staying home and doing some gardening and some relaxing. Our day to day lives were often so busy that a weekend off was a Godsend.

Having left the storm behind an hour ago, I exited the freeway and followed my path home, almost on autopilot, until I got the house and found my driveway blocked by strange cars. Well, I parked on the street and walked into the front door carrying my equipment bag and my overnight case. I closed the door and was immediately greeted with the sound of laughing and cries of joy. The cries of joy were my wife's and the laughter was not.

I set down my equipment bag, took out an aluminum bat, and quietly walked up the stairs. As I approached our bedroom the sounds became louder. I walked into the room and there on the bed was my wife with her back, or rather her ass, to me. Under her with a cock in her pussy was one man. Behind her with a cock in her ass was another and next to her was a third with a cock in her mouth.

She was moaning and letting out cries of joy like I had never heard, and the combined grunts of the men covered the sound of my entrance.

"Man, this is the most fun I have ever had," said the man with his dick in my wife's ass.

"I know. I never thought that she would go for it when I mentioned it at lunch," this was the man under my wife with his cock in her pussy.

"Well I am glad you two work together. Can we do this again?" Asked the man with his dick in her mouth.

"I don't know. When you take your dick out of her mouth see what she says," the man fucking her ass spoke again.

"Out of her mouth, hell, I don't want to take it out of her throat!"

They all laughed together on that one.

Swinging the bat like the power hitter that I am, I struck the man on top of my wife first. I came down on across his right shoulder crushing it and driving the air out of his lungs, trapping my wife and the first man under his weight. The third man pulled his cock out of my wife's mouth as I swung again and hit him square in the solar plexus, driving the air out of him and doubling him over. I then hit him in the kidney as hard as I could.

My next attack was to stab, with the wide blunt portion of the bat, and crush the testicles of the bottom man, the guy in my wife's pussy. He screamed and jerked with such force that he threw the unconscious man on top of my wife and my wife off the bed and onto the floor. He doubled over, grabbing his now useless testicles and I jabbed the bat again straight into his face, crushing the area just under his left eye and rendering him as unconscious as the other two men.

My wife was on her knees next to the bed, trying to cover her breasts and her pubic area.

"Oh God! Don't kill me! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The look on her face was one of utter horror.

I scanned the room. The three men were unmoving, but my rage was still growing. Bat in hand, I stood over her, glowering, then I turned and began to destroy every piece of furniture in the room, starting with her jewelry case and the mirror on the dresser.

I crushed the lamps on the night stands and then the night stands. I found myself standing over her, starring madly into her eyes, holding the dented aluminum bat above her. She screamed and passed out.

I walked out of the room and down the stairs and after what seemed like an eternity, I sat down on the floor and pulled out my cell phone dialing 9-1-1.

"This is 9-1-1, what is your emergency?"

"This is Mick O'Dell at 1526 S 99th Plaza. I just came home to find my wife having sex with three men. I thought they were raping her and I have injured them, perhaps badly. Please send help. I will be sitting on the front porch. I am unarmed."

I hung up.

Standing, I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a soda out of the fridge, then I used the bat to break everything inside of it. I opened the cabinets and broke every glass, cup and piece of china we owned, every plate and bowl. I destroyed the kitchen chairs and on my way out of the house, I destroyed anything my bat could reach.

I walked out of the house, sat on the stairs with the bat in my lap. I opened the soda and had time to take a few swallows from the can before I heard the sirens approaching. As the cars pulled up onto the lawn I heard several voices commanding me to get on the ground. I slowly set the bat and my drink down on the porch and rose up off the porch and lay on the grass. Two officers grabbed me and put me in handcuffs while several others ran into the house.

I heard my wife's blood curdling scream as the police moved into the bedroom, I am assuming with guns drawn and further scared the hell out of her. I heard the sounds of voices on the radios they carried and I just took a deep breath and everything went black.

**********

I was shaken awake by the hands of an officer. He was shaking me and asking if I was alright. I looked up at him and nodded, as I accepted the help to get to my feet. He said something to me about rights and put me in the back of a car. I sat there as the guys in the ambulances brought out the three men. One of them was conscious, the other two not, but no one had blankets over their faces, so I guess I hadn't killed anyone. Then they led my wife out. She was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and sandals. They had a blanket wrapped around her and took her to an ambulance.

We made eye contact as she walked out of the house. Her eyes were cold and dark, she was dealing with the emotional shock of what she had just gone through. After a few more minutes the squad car I was sitting in was driven to the jail and I was processed.

I was ushered into an examination room and had my handcuffs attached to the table top. After a few minutes a guy in a suit came in and sat down.

"I am Detective Rolfs. I want to ask you some questions."

"I really don't want to chat about anything until I have spoken to my lawyer."

"Very well."

I was taken to a holding cell and had the cuffs removed. I took a seat on the bench and waited. After several minutes an officer opened the cell and told me to stand. He took me to another room with a telephone. I contacted a friend on my softball team who was a lawyer. I told him that I was going to need his help with a possible assault and a divorce and asked him to meet me in jail. A few hours later, Jerry showed up. He was frisked and checked in and then taken to an area where the prisoners had visitors.

"You want to tell me what the hell happened?"

"Well, I came home from the softball tournament and found her in bed fucking three guys. I took my bat and started hitting people and breaking things. I think I broke up a lot of our property and I know I hit those guys, so I am guilty of that. I want to divorce her as fast as I can and if at all possible I don't want her to get shit."

"They are going to hold you overnight and you'll be arraigned in the morning. Then we will know the charges and how much bail will be. You couldn't just yell, honey I'm home and let them kill themselves falling down the stairs huh?"

"I guess I got mad. What should I do when the police want to talk to me?"

"Nothing. Don't answer any more questions other than your name and address."

I thanked him and stood. The officer led me to another cell and I laid down on the bunk and fell asleep until I was awaken by a banging on the cell door in the morning.

**********

"Case 35-229776"

I stepped to the desk with Jerry and stood there quietly. The attorney for the city stood.

"Your Honor, Mr. Mick O'Dell is charged with three cases of aggravated battery with intent to cause bodily harm. We ask that bail be set at $1,000,000."

"What do you have to say about this Counselor?"

Jerry spoke.

"Your Honor, Mr. O'Dell came home to find his wife having sex in his bed with three men. He was not sure if it was forced or not and reacted. He is not a flight risk and we would ask the bail to be reduced to $300,000. We would also ask that a restraining order be placed on Mrs. O'Dell so that she stays away from the house and does not aggravate him further."

"Bail is set at $500,000 and a restraining order will be agreed to."

I looked at Jerry and asked where I had to pay the bail. He told me that I only needed 10%. I told him that I would pay all of it now. We went to the clerk's office and after requesting my cell phone, I did an electronic fund transfer for $500,000. It almost emptied my retirement account, but I was free.

Next I went to the jail and had my clothes and property returned to me and I had Jerry take me home. When I got to the house I let myself in and went into the garage to get my luggage. Then upstairs to pack clothes.

"Mick, what are you doing? This is your house and you have a restraining order so your wife won't be coming here."

"What am I supposed to do; sleep in the bed she was fucking guys in? I can't do that. I'm going to a hotel. I am going to spend as much money as I can. If I have anything to say about it, she won't get a dime out of this marriage. Before I do that let me know what I owe you for today and the divorce."

"Come on I'll help you pack some clothes. We'll worry about the money later."

My good friend and I went upstairs and I packed my shoes, underwear, and some casual clothes in the first suitcase and my suits and shirts in the other. I walked down to my SUV and put the bags in the back. Then I went to the front closet and got some of my outerwear and added them to the back of the truck.

"That's that. I guess that you will call me when they need me back in court and as things progress with the divorce," I said to Jerry.

"Yes. Just remember that you can't leave town and as soon as you know where you will be staying, let me know and I will let her lawyer know where she needs to stay away from," he instructed me.

"Got it. I'll be at the Hampton Inn downtown until further notice. See ya." I shook Jerry's hand and he left.

I grabbed one of my backpacks from my camping gear on the garage wall. I packed it with an extra pair of shoes, two pairs of jeans and several polo shirts. Then I retrieved my softball equipment bag. I got into my now loaded SUV and drove downtown to the Hampton Inn.

If not for the assault charges I would have just driven in the direction I was pointing and kept driving. In my mind being a little cheat is like being a little pregnant. So, a divorce was a given. The only question was how much I was going to hurt her before it equaled the hurt I felt. The same applied to the three men who accompanied her in her journey to be a divorcee.

Seven years shot in the ass. Literally. It made me laugh a little, then I cried. Then I wanted to break everything in my reach. Then I wanted to die. Then I wanted to live long enough to see all four of them destroyed. Was it only the four of them? I dressed and went for a walk through downtown to clear my head. As I turned the corner from the hotel entrance three men stopped me.

"You need to give me your wallet," the middle one said.

"Why?"

The one man remained in front of me while the other two circled behind me.

"Because if you don't I will take it and leave you fucked up."

"I'm already fucked up, so what are you going to do now?"

The fella doing all the talking moved to me and grabbed me. At that point I had been attacked and I took all of my anger out on him. Dad always told me that if you are going to lose a fight, get in the most damage before you go down right? My right hand came up as fast as I could bring it and I drove my right index finger as deep into his left eyes as I could.

He screamed and grabbed his face as I turned to his friends.

"You started it. Do you want to finish it, or do you want to take your friend to the hospital and see if you can save his eye?"

They paused for a moment, but the sound of their friend screaming in agony and seeing him writhing on the ground caused them to grab him and drag him off. I watched them go, to be sure they would not return and then I leaned against the building and started to shake as the adrenaline wore off. I walked back into the hotel and went to the front desk.

"Hi. Please call 9-1-1. I was just attacked on the sidewalk outside and I hurt one of the attackers pretty bad. I think his friends are walking him over to the hospital."

The woman at the desk did as I asked.

"I am going to go and sit over there." I pointed to a spot in the lobby in front of the TV set. "When the police get here, that's where I'll be."

Well I did it now. Two assaults in two days. Severe bodily damage in both cases. I am going to make a real name for myself pretty soon. The icing on the cake would be if they were friends with the three men that were fucking my wife. Maybe they had their turns before I got home. The crazy began to rise again, and I fought to keep myself sane.

A few minutes later two police officers came in and went to the front desk. They turned when the woman pointed to me and I waved at them. They split with one officer walking towards me and the other flanking me.

"Sir, are you the one who had the desk call 9-1-1?"

"I must be, or you would not be here, and she would not have pointed me out. Right?"

"Please tell me what is going on."

"Sure, I was walking outside to clear my head from some bad things that happened yesterday, and these three guys approached me and asked for my wallet. There was one guy in front of me and two to each side. The guy in front of me told me that if I failed to give them my wallet they would fuck me up. I told him that I was already fucked up and he grabbed me. I poked him in the left eye with my right index finger as hard as I could, and he went down screaming. His two friends moved towards me and I told them that they needed to get their friend to the hospital if they wanted to save his eye. Last I saw, they were dragging him off towards St. Luke's. I came in here and had the desk call you."

"You seem awfully calm."

"Yeah, I've been shaking since it happened. I guess I'm calming down. They could still be two or three blocks away and should not be hard to find."

"We have a car looking for them as we speak. Now, would you please give me your name and address?"

"Sure."

I gave him the info and he typed it into the what looked like a big iPad.

"Well, Mr. O'Dell, it would seem that you are having a bad week."

"Yup. My only hope right now is that the hotel has video of the outside of this building and that it will verify what happened. Otherwise I assume that we are going for a ride."

Just then a call came in on the radio attached to one of the officers that a car had found three men at the hospital. One had been injured and they said that they had been jumped by a gang of men. I looked at the officers and smiled.

"Great, I'm a gang now."

The officer laughed at that.

"Mr. O'Dell? What are you doing here at the hotel when you only live a few blocks away?"

"Well sir, that is the other part of my fun week. I came home early from a softball tournament and found my wife having sex in my bed with three men. I thought it was a rape, because she would never cheat on me, right? So, I took my softball bat and put the three of them in the hospital. I was then arrested for assault and battery with intent to do bodily harm. When I posted bail, I couldn't sleep in the bed she had done that in, so I came here."

"We'll need to take you in. Since you are not staying in your home, you become a flight risk and procedure is to hold you. Would you please come with me?"

"Sure. Can I go to the desk and tell them what is going on?"

"Yup, we will go together."

We walked over to the front desk and I explained that I had to go with the officers and that may car was in the parking garage and my clothes were in my room. She wrote down all of the details and I told her that I would keep my room key in case I was back soon.

I walked out with the police and on the way, they asked where the assault took place. I walked them through the whole thing. Then I got in the back seat of their cruiser and we went the three blocks to the station.

"Guys, before I get out, do I need to call my lawyer?"

"You are not under arrest, but you are being held for questioning. If you want a lawyer, you should ask before they ask any questions. Although they are going to ask the same ones we asked. So, in a way it is a kind of moot point."

An hour later a man came in to the holding cell.

"Mr. O'Dell we are letting you go on your own recognizance. Please go to your home."

"Do I have to go to the house? After what my soon to be ex-wife did there it is not my home anymore. I would rather just stay at the hotel."

I would also just as soon run up the credit card balances, but I never said that.

"It is not the norm but you did tell the court where you were staying."

"I told my lawyer where I am and he told the court. I am facing assault charges on three guys, I don't want to make it worse than it already is."

"Fine. Go back to the hotel," the first officer said.

They drove me back to the hotel and I went to bed and slept. In the morning I had a text from Jerry, my lawyer. I called him.

"Mick, Deb wants to get some of her stuff from the house. How do you want to handle it?"

"It has been three days, has she been served? Do I have to be there?"

"Yeah, she got the papers last night and you should be there. I will arrange for a sheriff to come along and you can verify that she is not taking anything in dispute. She thinks that you are staying there and doesn't want to violate the restraining order."

"OK. Make the arrangements with the sheriff and let me know when to get there to have the house open. Tell her that I am throwing the bed out if she or her fuckers want it they should be ready to take it."

"Will do, buddy." My dear friend Jerry sounded more hurt than I did.

Later that day I got a call that the appointment would be for Thursday morning at 9am. I had been calling in on a day to day basis to let my employer know if I was coming in that day. I called them and told them that it looked like I could be there on Friday. My boss seemed to be very understanding. He was on the softball team as well.

On Thursday, I arrived at the house at 7am. I did a walk through to be sure that I absolutely had everything I wanted. Most everything else in the house was destroyed due to my rampage on Saturday. I had to stop and think about the house. I bought it three years before I was married. I did not move the slut in until we had married. So, I didn't think that she would have any claim on it. She may, however, want me to pay for anything she might have wanted that I had used as batting practice.

At 8:30am Jerry arrived with a sheriff. They walked in and when he saw the carnage he looked at me.

"Sir, did you do this today?"

"No sheriff. I did this on Saturday when I found my soon to be ex-wife here fucking three guys. I kind of beat the house after I beat the three guys."

"You aren't going to beat anything today are you?"

"Only myself for marrying that useless piece of shit slut," I smiled at him.

"Do you want to take anything from the house?"

"No sir. I took all of my clothes and personal stuff on Monday when I made bail. I'll eventually want my tools and lawn equipment."

"Will any of that be contested by your wife?"

"No, my soon to be ex-wife will not want my clothes or my deodorant or my softball equipment, and that was all I took. My lawyer was with me and he can attest to that."

"Yup!" Jerry didn't talk much, except under certain conditions.

At 9am sharp a car pulled into the driveway and she got out. She walked up the drive, looking not real sure of herself, and rang the doorbell.

"Sheriff would you do the honors?"

He walked to the door and opened it. She looked up at the large man and he stood to the side. When she was inside she stopped and stared at the damage.

"May I see your ID please?" The sheriff asked.

She showed her ID to the nice huge man.

"Please come in, Mrs. O'Dell. Where would you like to start in order to gather your possessions?"

"My God. I thought the destruction was just a dream from my shock. Mick, what have you done?"

I looked at her, turned my back and walked into the kitchen.

"I need to talk to him."

"I wouldn't do that. You would violate the restraining order. He is only here to see that you only take things you are entitled to," Jerry explained.

"But he needs to understand," Deb pleaded.

"He will hear all he wants when you sign the divorce papers," Jerry spoke again.

"I don't want a divorce. He can't divorce me for being stupid."

"Yes, he can. It happens every day. Why don't you start in the bedroom?" Jerry directed her up the stairs.

She walked up the stairs to the bedroom to find it as it had been left. Blood all over the sheets. Broken lamps and furniture. She looked around and shook her head.

"He hates me, doesn't he?"

"Yes," Jerry spoke.

She opened the closet and saw all of her clothes there as they had been. She looked around for their luggage.

"There is no luggage any more. He owned all of it when he married you, so he took it with him," Jerry said.

"How am I supposed to take my things with me?"

"I'm sure that there are still some trash bags in the kitchen," Jerry was being a regular chatterbox.

She walked out of the bedroom and was almost in shock as she surveyed the damage Mick had done. Hardly any part of the house she saw was left undamaged. She walked into the kitchen to find her husband sitting on a partial chair. There was broken glass and china all over the room. The refrigerator was open, and the smell of sour milk was in the air from the milk bottle that had been shattered by his softball bat.

She went to the cabinet under the sink and found the box of trash bags. She was now in tears as she realized what it was like to be hated. She also realize how close she had come to being killed on Saturday. How close three men had come to dying. She quickly moved with crunching steps out of the glass strewn room and got her clothes out of the closet and dresser. She gathered her things out of the bathroom.

She went to the living room with the idea that she would take the pictures of her wedding and honeymoon that had been on the fireplace mantle, only to find the frames destroyed, and the pictures ripped to shreds. She went to the closet at the entrance to the house and got her coats. She hauled everything out to her car and between the back seat and the trunk, she was able to fit everything in.

She went back into the house and did another walk through. I had come out of the kitchen to sit on the couch.

"Mick, is there anything that you want me to take with me?"

I looked at her.

"Take your fucking bed so you and your fucking friends can fuck in familiar territory. Take the fucking bloody sheets and the fucking bloody mattress and get your fucking cunt out of my fucking house. If you don't want your fucking bed as a fucking trophy, I will burn it in your fucking honor." I had made a point of emphasizing the word 'fucking' so she knew my meaning. I turned and walked back to the kitchen.

When she heard the crunch of glass as I walked in the kitchen she screamed and ran out the door. She sat in her car and screamed and cried for several minutes beating on the steering wheel, before the sheriff went to her.

"Are you OK to drive? Do I need to call someone for you?"

She asked for Jerry to come to her.

"Jerry, you were once my friend too. Please give me your card so when I find a lawyer I can get in touch with you. I know it won't matter but tell Mick I'm sorry. I'm sorry I got caught and I'm sorry that I fucked other men. I am sorry that I hurt him. I had no idea that the hurt would be so bad."

"It won't matter how you feel or if you are sorry or not. Before Saturday that man would have died for you. Before Saturday that man would have gone to the ends of the earth for you. Before Saturday that man was going to love you unconditionally for the rest of his life. Do you really understand that? Do you not know how much he loves and how much others love him?"

"I do now."

"Good, then now you will understand what it means when I tell you that now there is one man on this planet that will hate every cell in your body until the day he dies. It is going to take everything I have to stop him from destroying you and the men who fucked you. He is going to want to do everything he can do to make sure you never have a relationship where the other party, man or woman, doesn't know that you are a cheater."

"He is going to want to make sure that the three men he knows of are ruined, that their families are ruined, that their children grow up in poverty. If he finds out that there are more men he will want to go after them as well. If your parents were still alive he would want to go after them. If you ever have children, he will want to laugh at every tragedy they encounter in their lives. If they die before he does he will want to go to their funerals and laugh at them in front of you. You did this."

She looked at Jerry in shock. She could not believe what she had heard. If what Jerry had said was true, her life as she knew it was over. She had to do something. Mick was crazy if what Jerry said was true.

The court date for the assaults came a few months later and Mick sat next to Jerry. The three men that Mick had beaten were sitting at the table across from them. The first move they had made was to get the case split so each man had a separate trial. The judge disallowed that. The evidence was introduced, what there was of it. A bat with the men's blood on it.

Deb O'Dell sat behind Mick, but Jerry asked the bailiff to move her to the side with her fuckers. She cringed when he said that in front of her. Each man admitted to having had sex with Deb, but only that one time, and it was consensual. Jerry got the man that worked closest with Deb, Rod Strong, to admit that he had been working on her for the better part of a year before he could get her to consent to having sex. And then another two months to talk her into the gangbang.

The other two men, Kenny Jackson and Claude DuBois, admitted that they were asked to join in by the first man and they eagerly agreed. Deb testified that she had invited the three men into the house and Jerry had cross examined her and she made the point that Mick had no clue about the gang bang. He also made sure that she said that there was no way that he could have known that Deb was not being raped.

When the prosecution rested, they had painted a good picture of three men and a woman who had set up a plan to have an affair when they knew the husband would be out of town. They admitted that they chose that weekend specifically because they would have three days to carry out an extended affair and I would never know about it. Each of the men had been forced to admit on the record that they had sex with Deb and therefore seal the fate of their own marriages.

With the admission that all of them had a sexual affair, they were summarily fired from their jobs with prejudice. They would not be getting any recommendation from their former employer when they applied for a new job.

Jerry's defense of temporary insanity was backed up by the report of the police and the fact that he was in shock when they found him on his porch still holding the bat. The fact that he had destroyed the entire interior of the house played in his favor that he was not in control of his senses. A couple of the doctors who examined him on Saturday testified that he was, indeed, in shock. Both testified that they were amazed that he had not killed anyone, considering the state he was in.

The jury found Mick to be guilty of a reduce charge. They made him responsible for the medical costs of his attack, but he would serve no jail time. He walked out of the courthouse a free man and got his $500,000 bail back.

The divorce was smooth with the testimony of the three men being submitted to prove the charge of adultery. Deb got no part of the house that Mick had owned before the marriage. Mick had to pay the remainder of the lease on Deb's car and after that she would be responsible for her own vehicle costs. He was ordered to pay an alimony of $2000 per month for 6 months. The judge stated that Deb should be able to get a job to support herself by then. The divorce would be final in sixty days.

Jerry then used the decisions of the cases to sue the company for allowing the violation of their code of conduct when it was revealed in the assault cases that the men had done all of the planning on company time and in three cases there was a complaint of sexual harassment filed by Deb against the men with no action taken by the company.

**********

Things were settling into a routine for me. I bought a nice condo and was focused on my job when one day about six months later, two men came to my job and asked to speak to me.

"Mr. O'Dell, I am Detective James, and this is my partner Sargent Harden. We need to ask you some questions."

"OK. What is this about?"

"Where were you last night between 7 and 8:30pm?"

"I was home. Watching the game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Why?" I asked suspiciously.

"Do you have any witnesses?"

"Why?" Now I was very suspicious.

"Any witnesses."

"I think I need to talk to my lawyer," I said very carefully.

"Alright. Last night between 7 and 8:30pm, Mr. Rodney Strong was shot and killed. He was shot in the genitals and in the head. Someone put a gun in his mouth and blew the back of his head off."

"I'm sorry. Who is Rodney Strong?"

"Really? You want to play that game?" The bad cop spoke up.

"Look Sargent Harden, I don't know who...... wait a minute. Rod Strong? The son of a bitch that talked my ex-wife into fucking him and his friends?"

"The one and the same."

"Ha ha! No shit! Someone blew off his nuts and gave him a lead blowjob? Great!"

"So, any witnesses as to where you were?"

"Well no direct witnesses."

"What do you mean direct?"

"Well I have some friends who like hockey like I do, and we were chatting online during the game. We carried on a running commentary and I guess it would be hard to do that if I was wherever I needed to be to shoot that piece of shit."

"Can you supply me with a copy of the chat?"

"Let me contact my lawyer to make sure the data cannot be turned against me and I will get back to you tomorrow, OK?"

"OK. Here is my card. Contact me when you have the data."

"Is it OK if my lawyer does that? I have to be at work all day."

"Sure."

The detectives left, and I did a happy dance before I called Jerry.

"Hi Jerry! Good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?"

"Give me the bad news first."

"OK. The cops think I did it."

"Did what?" Jerry had a 'now what?' tone to his voice.

"That's the good news. Last night between 7 and 8:30pm someone shot Rod Strong in the head and nuts and killed him. Apparently, they stuck a gun in his mouth and blew his head off."

"And that is the good news?"

"Yeah! Couldn't happen to a nicer guy."

"So, you are a murder suspect. Why do I fail to see the good there?"

"Last night was a hockey night. I was online chatting with the guys while we watched the game. I need you to log into my account and get a transcript of the chat. It will show that between 7 and 8:30pm I was engaged in the game and didn't have time to shoot the bastard. I was typing all during that time."

"OK, I can do that. Give me your account info and password. When I have the data, I will let you know and then you can change your password."

I gave him the info he requested and hit the sack. I chuckled myself to sleep.

**********

"Mr. O'Dell? This is Detective James. We got your data and our computer guys say that you are clean. Thank you for your cooperation. Before I let you go, do you have any idea who might have done it?"

"Me? Nope. I would guess some other poor bastard that had his marriage destroyed. When you find out who did it, I would like to know so I can thank him before he fry's."

"Right. Good night."

**********

About a month later I got another visit at work from the Detectives.

"Hello Mr. O'Dell."

"Hello Detective James. Sargent Harden. How can I help you? Did you find the guy?"

"No, we did not. I need to ask you where you were last night between 7 and 8:30pm?"

"No! Really? Who?"

"Mr. Kendall Jackson was found shot in the genitals and in the head."

"Wow! Well last night between 7 and 8:30pm I was at the Shoot Out Bar playing in my dart league with about 60 of my closest friends."

"The Shoot Out Bar? The one on Rocky Mountain?"

"The one and only."

"OK. Give me the names of a few of the people who were there to verify your presence."

I gave him the names of the owner and the dart league president and a woman that was with me. Then I called Jerry.

"Hi Jerry. I got good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?"

"The bad."

"The cops suspect me."

"What!? Again?"

"Yes. Someone did in Kenny Jackson in the same manner. I was throwing darts surrounded by lots of witnesses."

"I hope the cops are smart enough to warn Claude DuBois. He has to be warned."

"Hey maybe for shits and grins I should call him myself."

"NO! Don't you do anything to get involved in any way. If he does get killed and you can't prove your innocence it would be bad."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I wonder who would do this?"

"I don't know, but I can't imagine that those two were banging more wives together."

"I want to call the cops and ask them if they are going to warn Claude. I got a bad feeling about this."

"OK."

I disconnected the phone and dialed the number on the card the Detective had given me.

"Detective James."

"Hi Detective, this is Mick O'Dell. I know you are probably going to do this, but have you warned the third man that was involved in my assault case and divorce?"

"Who is that?"

"Claude DuBois. He worked with Rod and Kenny and the three of them were the guys I beat up when I caught them fucking my wife. I wondered after you left if they were together fucking wives again."

"What? They were the guys in your divorce? For some reason that never came up on our database. We knew they were the guys you assaulted, but not that they were the guys having sex with your wife."

"Wow! I would have thought that all of that would have been tied together. Maybe because one was a civil matter and the other a criminal."

"Maybe. Weirder shit has happened. Thank you for the call. I hope it leads somewhere."

"Me too. I don't want you to visit my office anymore."

**********

Two weeks later I was in my office and in walks Detective James.

"Oh no, again?"

"Yes. Mr. Claude DuBois was killed in the same manner last night between 7 and 8:30pm."

"Detective, I was alone in my condo watching TV. No witnesses. None. Am I in trouble? Do I need to call my lawyer?"

"Nope. I don't think at this point that you are in any trouble. Unless you did it."

"Nope. To tell you the truth, I don't even know where those three men lived. After the divorce and my acquittal, I moved on."

"I have one other concern. Your ex-wife. We are looking at the spouses of the three men now that we know about the connection to the divorce. We are looking at ex-wives and close family members. Do you know where we can find your ex-wife?"

"Nope. I haven't spoken to her since the day she came to pick up her shit from the house. It took me several months of therapy to get back to normal and not carry around the rage I had. My lawyer, Jerry Lewis, might have an idea."

"Do you mind if we talk to your lawyer?"

"That shouldn't be an issue since I am not involved in the crimes. Let me call him and ask him."

I had my phone on the desk and I just pushed a speed dial button.

"That is an awfully quiet phone."

"Oh, yeah, they don't like us using our phones on the job here, so if we do we have to keep them as silent as possible. I could hit the speed dial, and no one would know I had done it. The person on the other end could hear me, but I could not hear them."

Jerry answered the phone. I put the phone on speaker.

"Hi Jerry, I have you on speaker phone and I have Detective James here. Claude DuBois was killed last night between 7 and 8:30pm in the same manner. He wants to see if you have Deb's contact info."

"Hi detective. I have the last address she had during the divorce, but I have no idea if it is accurate today."

"That is fine, it is a start."

Jerry gave him the address and phone number and Detective James left. I thanked Jerry and disconnected the call. I was facing a deadline on a project, so I was cranking out some serious work and lost track of time. I was imputing numbers and formulas when I heard something behind me. I had turned off the lights in the office to save energy, right? The only light in the room was my desk lamp.

"Hi Mick," I turned out of surprise.

"What do you want?" My surprise could not hide the hate in it.

"You still hate me, don't you?" Deb's shoulders sagged.

"Why wouldn't I?"

I put my hands in my desk and in the process hit the speed dial on my phone for Jerry.

"I thought maybe after all this time you might have forgiven me."

"Never."

"But I'm sorry," she said, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"OK."

"You hate me so much that you won't even talk to me?"

"Yup."

"Dammit Mick! I'm sorry! I don't know what else to say. I love you. After I lost everything all I had left was my love for you."

"OK."

"Have you been following the news over the past few months?"

"Yes."

"You know about Rod and Kenny and Claude?"

"Yup."

"The police came and talked to me."

"Me too. They thought I did I," I said stiffly.

"Me too."

"I didn't."

"Me either, Mick. But I know who did."

"Who?"

"Oh, it isn't going to be that easy. If you want to know, you are going to have to talk to me. Really talk to me."

"I have a better idea. Why don't I just call the police?"

"I won't talk to them and they can't make me."

I reached for my phone and hung up on the call to Jerry, hoping that he had heard enough and called the cops. I then picked up the phone and looked at it. I played with the buttons and looked at Deb.

"I'm gonna call the cops." I set the phone down but hit the correct memory button without Deb seeing.

"Go ahead, by the time they get here I will be gone and unfindable. I have reason to believe that I am the next target and I am getting out of town before it happens."

"Why would you be a target? Unless the killer is one of the spouses. The cops are already screening the spouses."

"They won't find anything there. It isn't one of the spouses."

"Who else would care? Were the three of them gang banging another married woman?"

"Not that I know of. As far as I know they haven't even talked to each other since all of our divorces."

"Well you seem to know a lot more than you are letting on."

"I do. I have, shall we say, inside information. It is really a big deal."

"Why didn't you just go to the police with it?"

"Because I realized that I might be able to use it to get to you and make you talk to me. I love you Mick. I fucked us over really bad. I really feel that you and I need to get back on a talking basis or you are never going to really heal. I have been watching you. You are still tortured by what I did. It won't go away until you can really tell me what you feel about me, and I do the same to you."

"I know how I feel about you. I hate your guts."

"I love you too. Mick, you can't have strong feelings like that and only have them on one side of the spectrum. If you really didn't care, you couldn't hate or love me. The fact that you still hate me means that you are still hurt by what I did and that means that you still feel the love we shared. If there was no love there would be no hate."

"That doesn't make a shitload of sense to me."

"Me either," a voice from the dark of my office spoke out.

"I was wondering when you were going to get to me," Deb said.

"It would have been in a few weeks, but you had to force the issue."

"Who is that?"

"What? After all these years you don't recognize the voice of your best friend and your lawyer?"

"Jerry!? You?"

"Yeah, me," Jerry stepped out of the shadows holding a pistol.

"I told you that it was not one of the spouses," Deb said. "Now if you had asked if it was one of the lovers, you would have been closer. Same with the police. They have been looking for the connected lovers. But good old Jerry here is not a connected lover. Are you Jerry?"

"You seem to have a lot of answers, go on," my friend prompted.

"It occurred to me when I left the house after getting my stuff." Deb said looking at me. "Jerry came out and told me a few things about how much you loved me and about how much you now hated me and about how much others loved you."

"Others loved me?" I was mystified.

"Yup. You see there has been someone who has loved you secretly for a very long time, but who could not get your attention. That person was more hurt by what I did than you, because he loved you more that anything. Right Jerry?"

"Right, Deb. It took some time, but I got Rod to talk you into fucking him and his friends. And into ruining Mick's love for you. I figured that then I could come to Mick's rescue and try to get him to love me like I loved him."

I was stunned by my friends admission. "Jerry, you were my best friend. You were in love with me?"

"Yes! I drugged Rod one night and took pictures of us fucking, then I blackmailed him into seducing Deb. I coached him in how to seduce her and then I gave him the drugs that would make her want to fuck the other guys. He was supposed to get pictures of the whole thing, but the man I loved more than life came home early and fucked up the whole thing."

"Then a few months ago, Rod got a hold of me. He had hit rock bottom and thought he had nothing to lose and was going to tell you what I had done. He told me that he had told Kenny and Claude as a backup in case I went after him. I couldn't take any chances, so I killed him. I went to Kenny and Claude and told them the same would happen if they talked."

"So, when the police talked to them you killed them?"

"The cops never made the connection until you told them after I killed Kenny. He was going to blackmail me over the murder of Rod. So, he had to go. Then the cops contacted Claude and I figured that whiny bitch would eventually talk so I did him."

"Kind of over dramatic wasn't it?"

"What? You mean doing it the same way at the same times? Deb fucked them between 7 and 8:30 the night you came home. They fucked her, so I blew off their cocks. She sucked their cocks, so I had them suck my gun and blew the backs of their head off. I guess I came to hard for them," Jerry let out a crazy laugh.

"Mr. Lewis, drop the gun and turn around slowly," a deep voice came from the dark.

Jerry turned and fired a shot. Out of the dark there was a loud pop and an electrical crackle. Jerry stiffened and dropped to the floor shaking and seizing up. Detective James and Sargent Holden stepped out of the shadows and then the door flew open and several uniformed officers walked in.

"Don't move Mrs. O'Dell." Detective James aimed the stun gun at her.

"Hello Mr. O'Dell. You can hang up your phone now."

"You had the phone on?" Deb exclaimed.

"I told you I was going to call the cops. My phone is kind of quiet."

"I called Jerry when you walked in and I guess he decided to come over because you said that you knew who the killer was. I hung up on Jerry and called the cops. Good thing too. He would have killed you and then me."

"He was going to kill me anyway because I told Claude that Jerry was the killer and he told me that he knew that. He wouldn't have killed you because he loved you."

"He would have killed me as soon as I told him that I was not interested in him. In love or not, he was nuts."

"Detective thanks for not killing him. He has been my friend for as long as I can remember. He needs help and he needs to be locked up while he gets it."

"Well you can thank your wife here."

"You mean my ex-wife."

"Nope! You see another thing that Jerry did was to tear up the final papers and not get them filed with the court, He contacted the judge and told him that when the reality of the divorce set in, we reconciled so the judge went along with it to reduce the paperwork and he just tore up the papers too. We have never been divorced. I have all of your alimony money in an account. I have spent none of it. Don't ask me why. I don't know. I guess I didn't want to profit from my betrayal."

**********

Jerry went away for the rest of his life. Deb and I and the Detective testified against him in court. He was screaming how much he loved me as they dragged him out of the courtroom after his conviction.

Deb and I talked. I told her to keep the money. She could use it for a real divorce. She never filed. We talk every week and once or twice a month we meet up for dinner and dancing or dinner and a movie. On those occasions we talk. We talk about our life and about our other dates.

Yes, we see other people who interest us. But so far no one has interested us to pull the trigger and finalize the divorce.