Her One Came back for Her

It was clear that anyone could have copied the keys because Margaret had never had a way to lock her purse up and it was always beside her at her desk. If she had gone to do something someone could have taken them easily, without anyone really paying attention.

It was over lunch at Yummi's, that I first learned of my children's wishes to live with me. I learned that their mother was struggling to come to terms with the end of our marriage. I explained that too often in life we don't consider the consequences of our actions until the damage is done. A good example is the number of people who are doing time for doing something stupid because they did not stop and think about the opportunity in front of them.

"Dad," Jean said. "Is the adultery the only reason your divorcing mom?"

"No," I replied. "The adultery is only physical proof part of it. In order to be able to go that far, your mother had to leave the family emotionally, mentally, and spiritually before committing the act. It's the same way as Jesus explained when he said, 'I will never leave you'. We lose our faith and draw away from him. Your mother had to separate herself from us and our views on life as a family in order to begin her affair. The act was the final blow to the marriage because it caused us all to lose the ability to trust her."

"Nothing is as simple as it seems," Wade said quietly. "Her own eye's deceived her and took her down. Because of the conduct of one, we are going to all have to live with the outcome of it all."

I sat there amazed. My son had put it together and explained it better than I ever could. He had me wondering where that wisdom had come from.

"She went willingly from one man to another," Agnes said. "Knowing what she was doing. That's why I will never forgive her."

To change the conversation, I asked them all what they would like in our new home. That led to an open and honest discussion.

When I dropped them off at the roadside in front of my former home, I saw Margaret looking out the window. I did not acknowledge her. As soon as the kids reached the house and entering, I drove off to my dad's to get ready for a dinner date with Tammy.

I would learn later that Margaret had spent the whole evening in her bedroom crying.

Tammy saw my old forty's Ford truck for the first time when I picked her up. We had about a twenty-five-minute drive to go to the pizza restaurant in Marble hills. We were both dressed casually.

"Peter had been a bundle of nerves ever since he got back from his unexpected trip," Tammy said. "It did not help when he learned he had to find a new place to live. I had him served the moment he got off the plane."

"Have you been asked about his drinking," I asked?

"More than once, I gave them a few suggestions were they he likes to hang out," Tammy said. "I dropped the name of the place you wanted me to. Why was that important?"

"It's known by a select view to be a front for a high-class escort service," I said. "The police are going to find that he's a client."

Tammy started to laugh because it struck her as funny, when she calmed down, she said, "I would love to see the look on Margaret's face when she learns that. Bravo Ray, well done."

"Everything is being done to get him kicked out of the police force with his reputation completely destroyed," I said. "There will be nothing they can convict him with, but they will say he was forced out with no reference because of the evidence."

"His twenty-year police career is his whole life," Tammy said. "Is going to be destroyed because he couldn't keep it in his pants. I love it, you don't get mad you get more than even."

I then told her about my afternoon with the kids and basically what we had discussed. Tammy teared up as I went through it.

"You made me see the whole mess in a way I would never have considered," She said. "Why didn't I meet someone with your logic sooner?"

"That's because our walk-in life has made us what we are today," I said. "Before now, we most likely had not experienced life enough to develop this kind of understanding."

With that remark digesting in her mind she slid over closer to me and said, "I'm going to enjoy getting to know you a lot better."

Tammy was impressed with the pizza place. She met a longtime friend of mine and his wife. Scott and Trish Tait were in having dinner with their little daughter, who was just under five years old. We could plainly see she was about to bring into the world a brother or sister for her.

I got a kick out of the fact that she had no clue, who he was. They had just arrived before we did and invited us to join them. Tammy and Trish seemed to hit it off. Scott and I talked about the whole public mess and my plans going forward. Scott told me if I needed the funds to buy out my soon to be ex-wife from the Pig and Whistle to let him know. He would be willing to help me out.

I explained to the both of them who Tammy was, and they seemed to take it all in stride. I learned from him that once Peter was removed, they would be promoting the captain instead of going outside to find his replacement. Scott thought that was what the town should have done in the first place. If they had none of what was going on would have happened.

Tammy when she heard that had a smile on her face that I would describe as a mile wide. The extra-large pizza pie was over the top. Between the food and the two pitchers of beer we all over ate.

It was Trish who suggested we all get together next Saturday night for an informal evening of dinner and dancing at Bythia's on Bythia. Tammy said it's a date.

"Trish if you don't mind me asking," Tammy said. "How did you meet Scott?"

"Scott used to work as an investigator for the State," Trish explained. "On my twenty-ninth birthday, I tried to arrest him. As a result, we got handcuffed to each other and eleven months later we were married. Ray can tell you our full story later."

"Tammy, Trish's parents have been friends for years we met, because we both belong to the legion" I explained. "I met Scott through them. How are Helen and John doing?"

"Busy beavers with their grandchildren," Trish said with a smile. "You know Mom she not really happy unless she has them running after her."

After learning that Tammy was a registered nurse the ladies had to exchange phone numbers. Scott and Trish picked up the bill as we prepared to call it a night.

By the time we got back to her place, I had to pull in and finish their story.

*****

Two weeks later

Peter Reynolds and Margaret were sitting in Dunkin Donuts Sunday morning having a coffee trying to figure out who was trying to destroy him. From the tip that sent him into a hole in the wall, his walking up in the back of the truck naked, the robbery of the Pig and Whistle, the paying of the taxes on the property that they had used, the finding of the stolen checks in a locked drawer, and now the claim that he was a client of an expensive high-end escort service was putting him in a situation where he was being forced out.

The state police and the detective's working with them now believed it was the break-in at the Pig and Whistle that provided the money to pay for this. Margaret had finally admitted that the piece of paper with the combo for the safe had come from the bottom of her jewelry box at home. The detectives upon hearing that concluded that Peter could have easily discovered it when he was in her bedroom.

Everybody they worked with now believed that he deliberately had used Margaret to cover up his bad habits. It had reached the point where he would not even have an acholic beverage. It was believed he had been on a bender the weekend he disappeared. It was magnified because it was a media story.

Peter had suggested that Margaret's husband might be the one who was behind it. The detectives ran the interview tapes to show his facial expressions when he learned about the affair. They had the recorded audio of Ray talking to Margaret and her apparently ending the call, then calling his parents for help. Everything they had recorded pointed to the fact that he had no clue about their relationship. The decisive factor was when the Pastor provided him with an unbreakable alibi for the weekend in question.

Raymond Burns had been brilliant in his comments laying the foundation that he had been set up by Margaret and him. So damn well that he had no credibility left. The questions he had raised had led the detectives in a direction that was proving very damaging. The circumstantial evidence was adding up and it naturally led to just one collusion.

His lawsuit was going to cost the department dearly. Raymond Burns was viewed as being untouchable, an innocent who had just got caught up on this.

"Whoever is behind this," Margaret said, "Has enough knowledge of how the police think to manipulate the evidence to point it right at you. The question is who have you pissed off enough inside the department?"

"Your husband has been careful," Peter said. "Even if he wants something from the house, he's using the lawyer to do it. That tells me he's a thinker and is quite capable of doing this. The problem is that it would require a team to pull something off like this."

"At least three people to get you on the truck," Margaret said, "Someone within the department to steal my keys and put them back. The key to your drawer could have been copied the day you disappeared. The problem is how did they get the combo for the safe in my handwriting? Bottom line Ray is not evil enough to have organized this."

"The state even talked to the owner of the property who says that it was nice to see that Peter kept his word," Peter said. "My house will be there waiting for me when I get paroled."

"You're in a situation where everything is stacked against you," Margaret said. "It looks like you're going to be forced to resign because they have already stripped you of your authority until the investigations are done. It doesn't help that the detectives feel you set them up and led them to arrest my soon to be ex-husband. Is there anything in your past that will give more credibility to the circumstantial evidence?"

"The only thing I can say of a positive nature is that Tammy has not tried to turn our kids against me," Peter said. "Both of them feel I am getting a bit of payback for doing what I've done. They refuse to talk about their mother at all with me because as they say I gave up the right to know the first time I cheated."

"At least you still have a relationship with yours," Margaret said. "Jean the oldest said we never left you, mom, you left us the moment your eyes went to your lover. That's why we are hurting so much, we never saw it until it was too late to confront you with it. Now they are house hunting with their father and preparing to move in with him."

Peter sat there in thought slowly coming to the realization that not only had they destroyed their relationships with their families but now they as a couple had nothing going for them except the bond of the problems, they had brought upon themselves. Hell, they didn't even love each other.

I had got the lawyer to arrange for my car to be delivered to my fathers via a third party. I traded the electrical car in for a ford used Ford explorer, getting the difference back. This afternoon, Tammy, my three kids and I were out house hunting. No Tammy's and my relationship was still at the getting to know you, situation. She had just come with us to be an extra set of eyes.

Margaret and I, thanks to our lawyers had reached an agreement. She got to keep the house and I got to keep the business. The transfer of ownership had already been documented and registered.

The city manager had their lawyers looking at my suit and had asked for us to wait until the state's investigation was done. Dale Britton had made it clear that we viewed it as a stalling maneuver.

We found a nice home available with five acres of land. It had four bedrooms, all on the second floor with a huge master bedroom and a double walk-in closet. A four-bay garage with an open floor layout on the main floor. It had no basement but did have a way of shutting down the living room to make it a safe room during a tornado.

Wade liked the extra building that came with it because we could turn it into a shop for working on cars. We all agreed it needed repainting and the floors needed upgrading on the main floor. I wanted to go laminated all through the lower floor because of easy maintenance.

Tammy thought the home otherwise was up to date and current. I said I wanted to change the lights going upstairs to l e d lights and have them recessed into the ceiling, along with most of the ceiling lights on the lower floor.

I thought the price was high, so I put a bid in that was a lot lower.

Tammy called her children and we all met at Red Lobster for dinner. Both Tammy and I were surprised that the kids all knew of each other even though hers were a couple of years older and in post-secondary school.

That night when I dropped my kids off at their mother's house Tammy was with me. I would learn from my children the next day, that when their mother has seen us together; she had become enraged.

In pure anger, Margaret demanded answers to questions that they didn't have because this was the first time, they had ever met her. She really got pissed off when Wade told her, what dad does with his life, is no longer your business after all you chose to throw him away for Mr. Reynolds.

A month later

On a Tuesday morning just after nine, Peter Reynolds took a look at his office at the police station for the last time. The State's investigation had come in stating the even though there was no proof linking him, everything pointed indirectly at him. The bender he was on and where he was found made it impossible to convict. The Mayor and the Police Captain accepted his badge and his gun.

He was given the choice to resign or be terminated. Either way, no reference would be given because of what the evidence implied. He had decided to resign effective immediately providing no blame would be attributed to Margaret Burns.

Whoever had gone after him had done a masterful job at it. His career had been destroyed because he had allowed his eyes to be focused on another.

Margaret watched Peter walking out the front door of the police station a broken man. There were no goodbyes or good luck, everyone was glad to get rid of him. There had been too much drama over the last couple of months because of questionable conduct.

Peter was going to be forced to leave town there was no way he would be able to find employment here. The ongoing, onslaught of media questioning had guaranteed that.

Margaret felt as if she was losing the only friend she had left in the world. Most of those her husband and she had associated with regularly were not speaking to her. Even her children were busy packing preparing for the moving day into their father's new house.

The house she had thought was too small would be too big for just her self. It saddened her to realize how unimportant that now was. Although things were slowly improving in her relationship with her children, she knew the trust and love they once had for her had changed forever.

Peter and she had looked, but had found nothing out about Tammy and Ray's relationship. All they could prove was that they had met each other. Only after that horrible weekend that had destroyed everyone's world was almost over.

Raymond was being his usual self, holding everything and refusing to talk about anything but the kids. He and the kids had spent the weekend picking out the furniture they wanted in their bedrooms. From what she had seen of his new place that he had bought it was bigger than what theirs had been and had more land.

He had asked to be able to remove all his shop equipment this Saturday and had requested that she not be around when he was doing it. As his lawyer had said she was his past and he was trying to leave it behind him for good.

Margaret was just leaving the police station for the day when she saw Tammy standing there looking at her in glee. The news of her soon to be ex-husbands resignation had been on the twelve o'clock news.

"Peter's broke you know, the pre nub was quite clear on that, because my father's a lawyer and drew it up," Tammy said. "If either one us committed adultery, we lost everything we put into the marriage but the original value of my trust. It's sad because he can't even afford a slut like you."

"Do you know who took him down," Margaret asked?

"Yes, I do," Tammy said with a big grin. "They say that all dogs return to their vomit. Peter did and it took him down."

Margaret knew what Tammy meant and lost it big time. She went at her with pure hate, she was going to kill the bitch. Tammy was prepared and fought back. The staff on hand had to come out and break them up. Both the ladies were going to have a black eye that was going to be hard to cover up with makeup.

The broke them up and advised Tammy to leave, to allow both of the ladies to calm down.

I was called by Tammy's daughter about what had happened. Her mother had taken off the rest of the week to help me set up the house that I would be starting to move into tomorrow since the contractors were doing their cleanup today. I had got a ten-year open mortgage at three point five percent thanks to being able to put a huge down payment, out of the retained earnings of my corporation.

I spend the night making ice bags to help keep the swelling down. Tamara thought it was a hoot that two middle-aged women would act like immature children over a man.

"Ray," she asked while her mother was taking a shower. "Have you started to heal?"

"I think that your mother and I have helped each other," I said, "to ease the pain. We are still at the friend's stage but were both interested to see where it goes, but not pushing each other."

"Mom credits you for getting her through all of this," Tamara said. "She said it was you who got her to see that her marriage was over before the affair even started. I'm still trying to see how that is possible."

"In order to have an affair, the person would have had have been emotionally drawing themselves from the partner they were with," I said. "Instead of working on the relationships, they had already decided they wanted a new one. The affair happened because they viewed the marriage as dead."

We were still discussing the issue when Tammy sat down beside me and said. "I knew there was a problem, Tamara before we moved down here. I thought the move would give us a fresh start. I was wrong. It takes two to make a relationship work with both giving a hundred and ten percent. I was, your father wasn't. Ray can say the same about Margaret. The moment your partner stops doing that your relationship is in danger."

'Mom, Ray, I have a boyfriend who starting to get serious," She said. "Do you think this is something I should discuss with him?"

We both said yes.

Three weeks later

Judge McDonald lowered his gavel ending Margaret's and my marriage. I was given primary custody of our three children because of their wishes. Margaret had unrestricted access. The mayor, because of Margaret's involvement with Peter had put her on a one years' probation. The terms and conditions we had agreed to. had been approved by him.

Margaret and I went outside and sat on the bench because it was time to clear up the air.

"I lost sight of who and what I was, the moment Peter came back into my life," Margaret said. "I want you to know that. I realize now that I had unresolved issues that I had forgot about, so, did he. Don't blame yourself for any of this. It was all Peter's and my doing."

"Thank you for that," I said. "It answers a lot of questions. I offer you a civil relationship going forward nothing more. I won't even refer to you as a friend. Outside of our children's' lives, we will stay out of each other's way because it's going to take me a long time before I can forgive you."