To say I was apprehensive when I pulled into my driveway would be the understatement of the century. Jennie’s car was in the drive but the house was empty. There was a note on the kitchen counter in big block letters.
“CALL ME JUST AS SOON AS YOU GET HOME! IT’S IMPORTANT!” SARAH.
I took a deep breath and dialed the phone. She answered on the first ring. I didn’t get a chance to speak.
“Sammy! You need to come over here right now! Something terrible happened!”
I went into concerned husband mode.
“What’s wrong? Where’s Jenny? Is she with you?”
“Shut up and get your ass over here, now.”
I was at her apartment in fifteen minutes, determined to play this little drama out. I was tired, worried, more than a little afraid I was going to jail.
She practically dragged me inside, breaking into tears when she opened the door. I held her in my arms.
“Oh shit!” I thought, “I must have killed one of them.”
She settled down and patted the couch.
“I need to tell you something. Something you’re not gonna like. First, I need to tell you, Jenny is all right. A little sore, but fine.”
“Where is she? What happened? Is she in the hospital? I need answers, Sarah.”
She looked at me and clasped my hands tightly.
“This is gonna hurt. I need you to listen me, okay? Try not to interrupt. Let me get it out.”
She paused, collecting her thoughts.
“We were doing pizzas for the kids. Mitchell came by, supposedly to check on his daughter. He tried to chat me up, but I shut him down pretty quick. He turned his attention to Jen, giving her compliments and spouting bullshit. She was still pissed at you and was eating it up. I got so aggravated I ‘accidentally’ touched a hot pizza pan to his arm. He screamed like a little girl, and we put ice on it to keep it from blistering. I may have made a mistake, because Jenny hovered over him and he ate it up.”
“He left to go back to his house, to make sure everything was ready for the adults later. We got the kids fed, and the teens who were designated to sit the smaller ones showed up. They took them down the street to the Williams house, you know, the one with the really big basement? They had kids movies ready to go on that monstrosity they call a television.”
I was getting tired of listening. I interrupted her.
“Getting a little long winded here, Sarah, cut to the chase. I’m gonna ask you one more time to tell me what’s going on, or I’m gonna call neighbors, cops, and hospitals. Spill it.”
She wouldn’t look me in the eye.
“All right. We cleaned up after the pizza and wandered down the street, talking. Jenny found the bar and make a stiff drink. Her charming host gave her a big hug, and made sure he kept her glass full. You know how it is with those parties. Everybody is moving around, having a good time. I lost her. I assumed like everyone else she was somewhere in the house or on the patio.”
She was practically hissing in anger now.
“That bastard Mitchell had run out of bourbon, and rather than go to the liquor store Mandy Jones gave him her house keys, saying she had two bottles on her bar. He promised to replace them and got Jenny to go with him. Said he was uncomfortable going into the house alone. She went.”
She drew in a deep breath.
“This is where it gets hard. Somehow he got her into one of the guest rooms and they started fooling around.”
I fixed her with a cold stare.
“Define fooling around.”
She hung her head.
“They were fucking! Damn, I didn’t want to tell you this.”
Even though I already knew it, having someone tell me made it even more painful. I jumped up.
“I’m gonna kill that bastard!”
Sarah was beside me, holding my arm.
“I’m afraid it gets worse. Somebody shot them! Don’t worry, Jenny didn’t get hurt badly, but she’s still in the hospital.”
I was pacing around the room. My agitation wasn’t feigned.
“Fucking somebody else? Shot? What the hell is she in to? Did Mrs. Mitchell shoot them?”
“No, no, she was at the party. We all heard the shots, but thought it was firecrackers. We didn’t notice anything until we heard the screams.”
Mandy found them. They were in her guest room. There was a lot of blood. She called 911. They were transported to the hospital and the cops questioned everybody.”
She looked down, crying quietly.
“It’s a mess, Sammy. The cops want to talk to you, as soon as they can.”
I sat down again. The tears rolling down my cheeks weren’t faked. She got up and called the police, and a patrolman was at the door in ten minutes. He noted the tears, asked just a few questions verifying who I was, and took me to the station.
Detective Johnson seemed like a nice guy. He didn’t pressure me, he didn’t accuse me of anything, he just wanted to know where I was when it all happened.
I told him. Gave him names and numbers of people who could verify I was there. Told him what time I got home, about the note from Sarah.
I slumped down in the interrogation room.
“Are you all right? Need anything?” He was at least gracious enough to ask.
“Yeah. I need about twelve hours of sleep. I need to see if my wife is all right. And I need answers. Nobody has really told me what happened. I’ve cooperated with you, how about filling in the gaps?”
To his credit, he looked uncomfortable.
“There’s no easy way to say it. Your wife and Mr. Mitchell were shot through a bedroom window while they were engaged in a sexual act. It appears to be a shotgun blast, but we can’t say that for sure. The pellets hit them in the groin and butt, nothing life threatening. One of Mr. Mitchells’ testicles got the brunt of the pellets, he may end up losing it.”
“They were in a neighbor’s house. For what it’s worth, I think this was a spontaneous thing. Their blood alcohol levels were both over the legal limit for driving.”
I asked the million dollar question.
“Do you have any idea who did it?”
He shook his head.
“Not a clue. We thought it might be you, but since you were sixty miles away, in front of witnesses, you’re pretty much in the clear. We brought in blood hounds, but everybody in the neighborhood spent all day wandering around, the dogs just ended up going in circles. We brought in a dog that specializes in gunshot residue, but so many firecrackers and other fireworks had been used she just ran around confused.”
“our focus right now is Mr. Mitchell. Seems the man had a habit of seducing wives of neighbors. That’s how he happened to move into your neighborhood, he had to leave his last one due to a divorce he was named in by a neighbor. He definitely has people who wish him ill. That’s all we have right now, but you can be sure we’ll talk again. I’m sorry, Mr. Lee.”
I left the station and went to the hospital. Jenny drove me. She tried to talk me out of going in.
“Don’t do it Sammy. It’ll make it hard on you later. I’m sure she didn’t mean it. She was drunk, she was mad at you, and she fell into the spell of a predator.”
I’m sure my eyes must have been cold when I turned to her.
“Tell me, Sarah, that makes it all right how? I’ve been drunk since we married, pretty pissed at her a few times, and have been hit on before. I didn’t even think about screwing someone else, except in fantasies.”
She didn’t have an answer for me. I went in alone.
I found the right floor and walked down the hallway. I happened to pass the asshole’s room first, and I turned and went in. He was dozing, and I stood watching him.
My stare must have awakened him. He went pale and reached for the call button. I grabbed his hand and leaned over him.
“Free advice. When you get out of here, move. I don’t mean in a week, or a month, or when the house sells. I mean move right now. If I see you in the neighborhood after today, I’ll do my very best to kick you in the balls. I hear you might have only one in the near future. Be a shame if that one got damaged too. Do you understand me?”
He was lying on his side, his damaged hip up. I slapped it, hard. He went pale and looked like he might pass out.
I stood up.
“I hope you get everything you deserve, asshole. Remember our little chat.”
That taken care of, I went off in search of my loving wife.
……………………..
I stared at her. She stared back at me. The room, cluttered with her friends and family, emptied like a bomb threat had been called in.
Finally I spoke.
“Well?”
She dropped her head.
“I’m sorry. I was drunk. It just happened. It doesn’t mean anything, I barely remember it.”
She sounded sincere, but something was missing. I couldn’t place a finger on it.
She had her feet up in stirrups with a blanket pulled over her. I reached for it. She looked up in alarm.
“Please, Don’t! It will just make it harder on us down the road. Please, Sammy.”
I ignored her. I pulled the blanket completely off. She started crying.
Well, there she was, in all her glory. The first thing I noticed was she was completely shaved. She had stopped doing that about a year ago. They did it to make sure they got all the pellets out. It was surprising, there were only about eight or ten small holes, looking a lot like pinpricks.
She was spread like that because one of the pellets grazed her clit. I remembered well how swollen it got during sex. She was lucky. If the asshole hadn’t been covering her, she would have been pretty much ruined sexually.
I covered her back up.
…………………….
The cops came back to me several times, for lack of a better suspect. They asked if I owned guns, and I unlocked my safe. My Remington 1100, my over/under, the deer rifle, my Henry twenty two, the Smith . 40, the Llama . 380, all got tested and returned to me.
I got interviewed four times. When they asked for another, I gave them the number for my lawyer. I never heard from them again.