MY WIFE AND THE NO-GOOD LYING SCUMBAG–Part 4

CHAPTER 12

The cookout was great. I’d told Robert to bring his family around two so as expected Dad pulled his SUV into the driveway just after one. I helped him carry the extra chairs into the back yard as Mom and my mother-in-law carried their coleslaw and potato salads into the kitchen. They had enough to feed a small army. I knew it would be a special day.

Jennie had told me last night just as I was falling asleep that she wanted to start the day with a bang. She did, setting the alarm for seven, leading me straight to the shower, then back into the bed for some of the most incredible sex of our lives. She pinned me to the bed—not really, I was much bigger and stronger than she was—and licked her way around my chest and abdomen en route to my cock which by then was hard enough to hurt. Only when she thought I could take no more did she sit on me, slowly lowering herself down my pole. Jennie’s head was up and her back was arched as her face clearly showed her ecstasy. Jennie rode me slowly for several minutes until neither of us could take any more. I drove into her fiercely as she ground her clit into my abdomen. We came together, Jennie with a long feral scream that ended only when we were both sated and too exhausted to even move.

“Now that’s the way to start the day!” All I could do was groan until I looked at the clock, lifted Jennie and hustled her back to the shower. We enjoyed a quick breakfast before cleaning the house and setting up the deck for the party. We had the world famous potato salad and coleslaw along with my hand-made burgers and a huge package of Nathan’s hot dogs from Costco.

The real star of the day was Heidi who loved playing with Ted’s kids. Robert’s family arrived first and they were tentative with her, especially Robert’s daughter Sandra, nine, who was obviously terrified. I kneeled in front of her, one hand on Heidi’s collar and whispered, “Sandy, you should never show an animal that you’re afraid. Be confident and she’ll respect that.”

“I’m afraid she’ll bite me.”

“She won’t…I promise. She only bit that man because he hurt Jennie. Now…all you need to do is hold your hand out and let her sniff you. Okay? I’ll hold her by the collar.” She nodded and I moved aside. Holding Heidi’s collar with one hand and her wrist gently with the other I slowly brought the two together. Heidi sniffed as I told her, “Heidi…protect.” She looked at me then sniffed again, finally licking Sandy’s hand. I knew Sandy was okay when she laughed. Then I repeated the process with Robbie, Robert’s son, Anne, his wife, and Robert.

They were still a little reluctant, but when Joseph and Gretchen arrived that changed in a heartbeat. Joseph went straight to the garage for Heidi’s Frisbee. They played for almost an hour until I made them stop so Heidi could have a drink and rest.

“It’s hard to believe that’s the dog that almost killed Alcott.” Robert and I were seated in a pair of folding chairs under a big maple with Heidi enjoying a long drink at our feet. The kids were in the garage washing their hands and arms in my sink as Joseph and Gretchen had done at least a dozen times over the past few months.

“She’s like Jekyll and Hyde. She’s the perfect family dog. She loves us and we love her. She only turns on her Hyde persona when instructed to by one of us although she reacted to Jennie’s scream. I will admit we had a few scares when Heidi was new to us. Jennie can be a screamer. Once Heidi was sure that both of us were okay she was back to her family pet mode. Now she just ignores us. Heidi!” She came to us at a trot. I petted her, scratched her chest and stuck my arm into her mouth, holding it there for a minute. “Tells you something, doesn’t it? She’s only dangerous to outsiders. Want to try?”

“No thanks, Tim—she doesn’t know me well enough.”

“Maybe not…but I do and that’s what counts. She takes her cues from Jennie and me. When the baby comes she’ll take care of it, too.” Later, after dinner, Robert and Anne asked me to contact Karl Kline on their behalf. They went to meet with him the following weekend, returning home $6,000 poorer, but with their new pet, Cara—Heidi’s sister who had been specially trained to deal with children.

Robert walked into my office almost two weeks later to give me an update. “You wouldn’t believe the change in Sandy. She’s taken Cara under her wing. She showed Cara around the yard and set up Cara’s bed in her room. It seems that she was being bullied by a couple of boys in the neighborhood. She asked Anne to have Cara sit in the front yard to wait for her yesterday. Anne had just told her to sit and stay when she took off like a shot. The boys had pushed Sandy to the sidewalk, spilling her books. Cara stood over her, growling at the two boys until Sandy told her to back off.” He laughed. “I doubt they’ll do that again. Sandy told me they were terrified. She insists on taking Cara for a walk every afternoon and feeding her after we eat. If I had known what a change a dog would make in her I would have bought one years ago.” We shared a laugh and returned to work.

Simon Alcott unfortunately survived his twelve-hour surgery and the skin grafts from his thigh and was transferred to the Suffolk County Jail three weeks later. By then he had amassed more than five hundred charges, mostly involving fraud and larceny related to his dozens of major building projects, but also nine allegations of forcible rape and sexual assault from his interactions with Jennie. He was also sued by virtually every customer he’d had over the past twenty years. Unfortunately, he failed to survive his first week in jail. About ten days before his transfer a deadly accident in the public housing projects in the South Bronx took the lives of sixteen people including that of Alexandra Suarez, eight years old, when the steel staircase suddenly collapsed. Alcorp had been the contractor. The steel was found to be not ten percent below spec, but twenty.

Alexandra was the shining light in her brother’s life. Pepe vowed revenge and, as the leader of the area’s most powerful Hispanic gang, he had plenty of contacts in the jail. Simon had been there only four days when he “tripped,” breaking his nose. The following night a fight broke out in the shower. When the room was cleared by the guards a body lay at the opposite end of the room, his head bashed in and his windpipe crushed—injuries that virtually exactly matched those incurred by Alexandra. I was one of many—I was sure—who was glad to see the bastard dead, especially because Jennie would never have to testify in court.

I was sure that everything would get back to normal now—whatever that was. Jennie’s pregnancy was, thankfully, mostly uneventful with the exception of about a dozen incidences of morning sickness. She was just entering her eighth month when Claire called me on the intercom. “Mr. Healey, you have a visitor, but she won’t give me her name.”

“That’s odd,” I thought, but I walked immediately to my office door, putting on my best “client smile.” I stepped into the doorway, “Good afternoon, I’m Tim Healey…how may I help you?”

“By going into your office, if that’s acceptable,” the sixty-something woman replied. She was short, with long brown hair tied up into a tight bun, brown eyes, and what I thought was expensive makeup.

“Of course.“ I stepped aside and, with a wave of my arm, showed her in.

“Please close the door. My words are for your ears only.” I did, but not knowing who or why or what, I turned on my portable digital recorder. I showed her to a chair in front of my desk as I retreated behind it.

She waited a few seconds before beginning. “I know you ratted out my husband.”

“I’m sorry? Perhaps if I knew who you are I’d know what I’m accused of.”

“I’m Suzanne Alcott—Simon’s wife.”

“Oh,” I commented neutrally. “I’d say I was sorry for your loss under other circumstances, but I’m not. If anyone deserved to die it was your husband.”

“I must agree. You see, I sent the information to you in the hope you’d expose him. I must say you exceeded even my high expectations. Simon was a serial cheat; he cheated at everything—life as well as business. Would you believe that he actually bragged about forcing your poor wife to have sex with him? The son of a bitch even showed me pictures on his phone. They were most lurid and disgusting. He bragged about how he coerced her and even how he had made her cry every time. When he wasn’t bragging about that it was how he had cheated on this project or that.”

“I am sorry. No woman should have to take that kind of treatment.”

“I didn’t, did I? I got even by exposing him. You were an excellent agent for my vengeance…even better than I had hoped.”

“What’s going to happen to you financially? Are you going to survive all the lawsuits and fines?”

“Oh, yes; you see I have my own money—an inheritance from my grandparents. I never relied on Simon for money. Actually, it was the other way around. He was loving and attentive when we were first married then his business took off and work became his life and his wife. I had my share of lovers, maybe more than my share, but I had the decency to keep my mouth closed and my affairs private. I’ll want you as my accountant. It’s good to know I’m dealing with an honest man for a change. Simon insisted we use some friend of his and I strongly suspect he took advantage. I have an appointment with Mr. Reinhardt in fifteen minutes.