“It was great advice. And I have followed it. I wooed her with words and flowers and attention. I refused to let myself be put off by her coldness and her insults and her mockery. I fought to convince her to at least try marital counseling, which as you know she refused. I told her I knew and had known about her affairs – all of them – over the last three years and tried to get her to talk to me about why she felt the need to be with other men.
“She refused, as I thought she would. She became angry and then mocked me. I thought at one time that those words would destroy me. But they didn’t. When she told me she no longer loved me, and doubted she ever had, I left our home and drove to a lonely park and I cried. Like a baby. But she never saw a tear.
“I told her this past weekend that I’d filed for a divorce. We have no children, we both work and have careers and her income is comparable to mine. I think we should be able to separate our lives without too much difficulty. I really didn’t expect sadness, but she seemed relieved and asked me to remove my belongings as quickly as possible.”
Teller studied the man in front of him. There were obvious differences from the man who had felt unable to control his life six months ago. Most striking was the way he didn’t seem to always be cringing as though expecting a blow.
“And how do you feel about all this, Martin? You fought for three years to save your marriage. And now you’re letting it go, walking away?”
“Relieved, as well. I think you knew this was going to happen. My greatest fear has always been that I lost her because I wasn’t man enough, wasn’t strong enough, didn’t love her enough, to be worthy of her. But for the past five months I did everything any husband could do to win his wife back. I demonstrated my love and devotion for her.
“But it wasn’t enough. And finally I realized nothing would ever be enough for her. She simply did not want to be married to me.”
Teller fondled his pipe.
“I am truly sorry Martin. I know you did love her and you did fight for her. But sometimes, there are fights you can’t win. Are you going to be alright? Are you sure you wouldn’t want to keep going for a least a few more sessions to adapt to what’s happened?”
He shook his head and stood up. He smiled again.
“No, thank you, Doctor. A strange thing happened. I bought the flowers every day as you suggested, at the same flower shop near our home. And there was a woman working there. We just seemed to start talking and I finally told her what I was doing. Over the months we became what I thought were good friends. When I finally decided my marriage was dead, I felt it only right to stop in at her shop and tell her I wouldn’t be coming by again.”
Cassell smiled and Teller would have sworn his eyes twinkled.
“She asked me to let her take me out for a cup of coffee. I found out she’d been divorced and knew what it was like to be on the other side. We’ve been out three times since, and she’s waiting for me outside. I should feel like mourning the loss of the woman I gave 15 years of my life to. But, I feel…happy.”
Teller reached out to take his hand.
“Good luck, Martin. If you ever feel the need to talk – about anything – you know where I am.”
When Cassell had left and Teller was alone with his thoughts, he realized Cassell would be one of the stories with a happy ending. And he had never expected a happy ending there.
“Which only means,” he said to himself as he locked up, turned on the alarm system, and walked out into the night, “that I’ve got to seriously start working on humility.”
CHAPTER EIGHT: WHERE ARE THE HAPPY MARRIAGES?
November 10, 2005
Wednesday, 9:30 A.M.
It had been an interesting morning. Debbie’d gotten in at 9 a.m. and needed Patrick Leary and called his office. His secretary, a 24-year-old recent UNF graduate who’d become Leary’s secretary three months before, appeared a little flustered.
“Um, mam, Mr. Leary isn’t in right now.”
“You know where he is?”
“I - _he told me he had business down on the second floor.”
Second floor was where the secretaries, juvenile, business offenses and most of the clerical functions were located. She wondered what was going on down there that would require his attention, but she really didn’t have to think hard to figure it out. Some female was receiving his attention, or a hot injection of his affection.
Leary was infamous for working his way through the female staff, but this was getting to be ridiculous, she thought, with more than a little irritation. He was good, very good, but the Public Defender’s Office wasn’t a social mixer for horny male and female employees. She’d been thinking about talking to him about slowing down his pursuits and maybe this was the day.
“Well, Ms –“
“Goldstein, Sylvie Goldstein.”
“”Well, Ms. Goldstein, please inform Mr. Leary the moment he returns that I want him to come up to my office. Not in a few hours, but the minute he gets back. Can you tell him?”
“Yes ma’am..”
Not more than 15 minutes later she got a panicky call from Helen at the front desk.
“Ms. Bascomb. We have a….situation at the front desk.”
“Call security. An irate client? What?”
“We – I can’t. It’s not that kind of situation.”
“Well, what kind of situation is it?”
“We have…somebody down here at the front desk.”
“Somebody? What? Who?”
“It’s a Mr. Ian Nettles.”
“And?”
“He’s Annette Nettles’ husband.”
“Will you talk English to me, dammit? What is going on?”
“Annette Nettles. She works on your floor. She’s one of the public defenders.”
“I know who she is. What the hell is the problem? I don’t have all morning. Talk English.”
There was a long hesitation and then a soft whisper, “You’ve heard about her and Mr. Leary, right?”
She thought back and remembered glimpses of the two. It began to dawn on her what the ‘situation’ was.
“And?”
“We – I – think they’re together.”
“As in ‘together’ how?”
“Together together. Mr. Leary was at her office earlier this morning and they left together 30 minutes ago to – discuss some case – and they haven’t been seen since.”
“Understood. Does anybody have any idea where they are”
“….I’m not sure. Somebody said they were seen near the…restrooms.”
“And you’re afraid that if you send her husband up to her floor he’s liable to run into them coming out of the same restroom, which could get kind of sticky, right?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“I’ll be down there in a minute.”
As she took the elevator down she decided today would be the day to lay the law down. No matter how good he was, Leary wasn’t valuable enough to spawn fights in the office, jealous husbands gunning for him and gossip in the newspapers.
She saw him as she walked off the elevator. He was hard to miss. Six-foot four, broad shouldered, a mane of fiery red hair too long and unkempt for any businessman. He stood shifting his weight from one foot to another. He was obviously not the kind of man who was used to sitting.
He sensed her approach before he could have heard her and swung around toward her. As he gave her an inspection, it was more than the normal male tits to ass view. He took her in from crown to toe and she had the feeling he had the closest thing to x-ray vision she’d ever encountered. And at the same time he swept the room. She had a feeling that if she’d blinded folded him, he could have accurately described everything in the room.
As he studied her, she studied him. Not classically handsome. His nose was too big, lips too thick. His eyes were set wide apart in a broad forehead. The bottom half of his face was that of a bar room brawler, sensual, violent. The top of his face could have belonged to a different perso
n. The eyes were a peculiar shade of almost gray that she’d never seen before, cool and absorbing everything around him. The eyes of a planner.
She stepped toward him and extended her hand.
“Mr. Nettles, I’m Ms. Bascomb, the Administrator for the Public Defender’s Office. I understand you’re here to see your wife.”
The voice was a soft rumble. She was no expert but she thought was a slight trace of a Scottish burr in his voice.
“That’s correct. All I asked was to be directed to her office or have her come down here. You people are acting like I’m asking for some major violation of security. What’s the problem? Why did they have to call the Administrator down to handle a minor request?”
“I’m sorry if you got that impression, Mr. Nettles. There’s no major problem. I was on my way down to discuss a case with her but that can wait. She was down on this floor to meet with a defendant we’re representing. We can’t find her at the moment, but we don’t require our attorneys to sign out when they travel around the courthouse. They usually check out with their secretaries, but people forget. I’ll head up to look for her and I’m sure I’ll find her in a few minutes. I’ll send her directly down to you.
“In the meantime, please come with me to the guest waiting area. There’s coffee or tea and soft drinks. Make yourself comfortable and she’ll be down in just a moment.”
He studied her face and she had the uncomfortable feeling that like Bill, this man was experienced in sorting truth from lies. He was law enforcement or government or some sort. And he wasn’t happy. And unlike Bill, this man gave off a palpable aura of barely harnessed violence and anger. She wondered if she’ need to call extra security when he met with his wandering wife.
“I noticed a Starbucks on the way up. I think I’ll head down there. Hopefully by the time I get back you’ll have found Annette. I’d like to take a look around this place, get a feel for it. This is the first time I’ve spent any time around my wife’s second home. Sometimes it helps to get a feel for a place.”
Debbie gave him a big smile and took a deep breath and was glad to see his eyes focus on her chest. He was tense and driven, but he wasn’t dead from the waist down.
“Feel free to look around. Those of us who work here, like your wife, find the courthouse to be a fascinating place. I’ll make sure she’s here when you return.”
“Thank you, Ms. – Bascomb, was it?”
He gave her the first small smile she’d seen. It vanished quickly, but it gave her a sense of how attractive, even magnetic, he could be if she’d caught him in a better mood. She wondered how stupid Annette Nettles had to be to cheat on a man who looked like this, even with Leary.
He slipped past her and headed for the elevators. He even moved with a smooth, controlled sense of power. She looked back and saw the receptionist staring after him.
“Wow.”
“Exactly,” Debbie said. “Now let’s find Ms. Nettles.”
She took the elevator up to the next floor and methodically started checking the restrooms without saying anything to anybody. After checking a male restroom with a warning knock and finding it empty, she slipped into a witness room and picked up a telephone. She dialed a familiar extension.
“Mr. Maitland’s office.”
“Cheryl, this is Debbie. I need to talk to Bill for a second, quickly.”
“Debbie?”
“Quick question, Bill. You know the DEA agent married to Annette Nettles in our office?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve heard some rumors, but nothing I could nail down. Is there anything you can tell me definitely about what kind of man he is?”
“Why?”
“I believe Annette Nettles is somewhere off with Pat Leary, and Mr. Nettles is at our front desk trying to find her, and he doesn’t appear happy.”
“Oh shit. You need to call in security. Don’t be obvious about it, but you need some muscle nearby. I’ll send a couple of our investigators down and call the bailiff’s office and have them send a few up. In the meantime, wherever you find Leary and Nettles, separate them and get Leary out of the building for a little while. You don’t want him in there if Nettles even sniffs out a hint that’s he’s been with Mrs. Nettles.”
“He looked like a rough customer, but why the panic?”
“I know some guys in the DEA. Nettles works around the world, but they send him into bad places. His code name is ‘WidowMaker.’ That explain it?”
“Oh.”
“Do you want me to come down there? I think I met him one time in Washington. I might be able to calm him down.”
“Thank you, but no thanks. This is my responsibility. I can handle it. But thanks for the heads up.”
“Good luck. And be careful. His bite is worse than his bark.”
She called to the receptionist, gave her her cell number and said, “When he gets there try to keep him there, don’t let him go wandering, and call me.”
She checked out the next bathroom but there were only two male Assistant PDs smoking in the stalls and staring at her with guilty expressions. Which left only one men’s restroom near the rear stairway and elevators that led directly to the parking lots facing the St. Johns.
She stepped inside and noted it was empty and almost silent. There was the sound of heavy breathing and the kind of sighing she was familiar with, only usually those satisfied female sounds had come out of her with Doug and earlier in her life. The sounds were coming from the middle stall. She didn’t have to bend too far to see two sets of feet and legs overlapping. As she watched she could see a pair of panties being pulled up one handed.
She rapped her knuckles on the door of the closest stall.
“Ms. Nettles, Mr. Leary, I need you out here. Now. Don’t bother finishing dressing. Out. Now.”
There was a long silence.
“I’m going to turn around and walk out of here and when that door closes behind me, so does your career here. You will both be out of this office and out of jobs before the end of the business day.”
There was a shorter silence and then the door to the stall swung outward and Leary came out adjusting his underwear. Annette Nettles stood beside and a little behind him, tucking her blouse in, adjusting her bra and trying to stare into Debbie’s eyes.
“Ms Bascomb, I’ll admit to having fantasies of your catching me with my pants down, but I never quite saw it in this context.” Leary grinned that crooked little boy grin but it wasn’t going to work this time.
“It’s not funny, Mr. Leary. For you or Ms. Nettles. This is a gross violation of EVERY rule of behavior and conduct in any office, not just one staffed by Officers of the Court with a duty to the public to display higher standards of behavior.”
Nettles finished adjusting her bra and buttoned her blouse. Like her husband she was a fiery redhead, at least this week and it looked natural on her. She had that fine, almost translucent skin some redheads have the fine blue line of veins visible under the skin. Judging her critically, Debbie thought she’d made the best of her assets. Her breasts weren’t large, but she was small boned and small waisted and they would catch a man’s eye.
“Mrs. Bascomb, I apologize for this lapse,” she said. “It won’t happen again. We – uh – I – it was a slow time and we thought we could take a – break – without affecting our duties. But, we’re all adults here and once in a while people slip.”
“That’s the only problem you see? Interfering with your work? It didn’t occur to you that if the place was dead, sneaking away to a public bathroom, getting naked and having sex where you could be interrupted or witnessed by virtually anyone walking in – might not be a problem?
“But no one did come in, until you did,” Leary said stepping in front of Nettles. “We’ll admit to a bit of foolishness, but there was no harm done. Ms. Nettles is a fine, hardworking attorney who’s an asset to this office, and I have had my moments as well. I honestly don’t see the purpose of your tracking us down here like some Ju
nior High Principle tracking down students smoking in the bathroom.”
His habitual half smile warmed words that might otherwise be taken as a challenge, but this time it wouldn’t be enough.
“You don’t see the purpose, Mr. Leary? Well, for one, there are several office rules about inappropriate behavior in the office, and especially during office hours when it’s open to the public. Having sex in a public bathroom stall would fall within that definition. And aside from the problem of embarrassment if your activities were discovered, there’s another rule about fraternization being frowned upon. If you’re going to have an office romance, you’re supposed to have the sense to do it outside the courthouse.”
As he started to speak, she cut him off.
“And yes, I know virtually no one observes that rule. But it’s there for a reason and a manager can enforce it. Employees – lawyers – have a right to private lives, but not when it interferes with the smooth functioning of a business. Which this office is, believe it or not, not your private playground.”
“Ms. Bascomb, I don’t want to argue with you but I think you’re taking this way way too far.”
“I don’t think so. Ms. Nettles, would you say your husband has a temper?”
She had been making herself presentable but her head shot up at that.
“What? What does that have-“
“He’s outside right now. He’s already been here trying to find you. He does not appear to be in a good mood and I am told by people who know that his code name within the DEA is The Widowmaker. Unless you guys have a VERY open marriage, I don’t think it would be a good idea for him to discover his wife fucking another attorney in a bathroom stall. Am I misreading the situation?”
Nettles didn’t appear fearful, more angry.
“So he just shows up out of the blue, tearing around like a bull in a china shop and throwing his government agent weight around?”
“I wouldn’t say that. He showed up like a husband who wanted to see his wife – who couldn’t be found.”
“Well, for what good it will do, I’ll go and talk to him. It’s not going to make any difference in how things are between us. But I don’t want him dragging our personal business out in front of everybody in MY office.”
The Wind Is Rising 1 Page 9
