12 comments/ 85541 views/ 18 favorites The Stein Ch. 01 By: K.K. Author's note: This story is a little different than my usual cheating wife stories. I have tried to add a little suspense and give the story some elements of a thriller. The story is long but I hope you will take the time to read all three parts and let me know what you thought of it. Again, thanks to Techsan for accepting the challenge of editing this story for me. * I was in a good mood as I pick up my bags and headed upstairs. I had just finished a big network migration project in Dallas a day early and had been able to return home earlier than planned. I was thinking about what I was going to do with Nicky that night as I turned on the landing before taking the last five steps. When I turned I saw a man standing at the top of the stairs. What really captured my attention was the gun he was holding in his hand. I stared at the gun for a moment and then saw the flash. It seemed that I was instantly propelled backwards down the stairs. Then blackness. ***** I don't know where my mind had been but I suddenly found myself in bed in a room I didn't recognize. It took me only a moment to realize that I wasn't in my own bed but I didn't know where I was. The room was mostly dark but I could hear someone whispering nearby. I tired to move without success. I was only able to turn my head a few inches. My mind was beginning to drift and I couldn't seem to focus on anything until I recognized Nicky's voice. She was standing near the door talking to a man I couldn't identify because he was facing away from me. They hadn't noticed that I was awake so I listened carefully to see if I could hear what they were saying. . "What did the doctor tell you?" the man asked. "He said Eric is doing better but he is not out of danger yet," Nicky said. Doctor? Was Nicky talking about me? What did she mean by not out of danger? I tried to make sense of what I had just heard but I just couldn't focus on anything. Nicky seemed to be holding onto the man's arm while at the same time pushing him toward the door. "John, you really shouldn't be here," she told him. "Does he remember what happened?" "I don't know. Detective Trenca tried to question him about it yesterday but Eric was too doped up from the painkillers to give any answers," Nicky said. "As soon as he is able to talk to the police I want to know what he tells them." "John, please leave before he wakes up and sees you. Beside, Detective Trenca could come back at any time." "Okay, I'm going, but just remember what I said." "I will. Now please leave. I just can't deal with you right now." Nicky said. I was trying to understand what Nicky and that man were talking about. She called him John but that didn't mean anything to me. Nicky started to look over toward me so I closed my eyes. When I opened them again the man was gone and Nicky was sitting in a chair in front of a dark window. Suddenly I wasn't sure if the man had really been there or if I had dreamed it. I was about to ask Nicky where I was and who that man was but I just couldn't seem to keep my eyes opened. I decided to rest my eyes for a minute and then I would ask Nicky to tell me where I was. ***** When I opened my eyes again it was morning and I was staring up at the white tile ceiling. The room was quiet but I sensed that there were other people in the room. I turned my head to the right as far as I could but that wasn't very far. Maybe only three or four inches but that was enough to allow me to see Nicky sitting by the window. The sunlight coming through the window behind her was making it difficult for me to see her pretty face clearly but I could see that her eyes looked puffy like she had been crying and she was holding a tissue in her hand. As I watched, Nicky turned away from me and looked out the window. Apparently she had not noticed that my eyes were opened. I turned my head to the left with no more success than I had to the right but I was able to see that pain in the ass that kept asking me questions I could not answer. I didn't know if the questioning was a memory or a dream. He was about five feet seven inches tall and maybe 165 pounds. He had curly brown hair that almost matched the color of the suit he was wearing. That suit... It looked as if he had been wearing it everyday for the last five years. The elbows were worn thin and the pockets were all tattered and the wide blue tie he was wearing was not only out of style but didn't go well with that suit. It puzzled me that I recognized him as soon as I looked over at him but I didn't know who he was. I had a vague memory of him asking me questions but for the life of me I couldn't remember what the questions were or why he was asking them. The name that popped into my head when I saw him was Curly but I wasn't sure if that was his name or did I call him that because of his hair. Anyway, Curly was leaning against the wall reading the newspaper. When he started to lower the paper and peek over the top I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep. I didn't feel like answering questions right then. While faking that I was asleep I must have fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes again the room was empty. Nicky and Curly were gone and it was dark outside. I must have fallen asleep again. I was upset with myself for sleeping so long. I had wanted to talk to Nicky. I remembered that I wanted to ask her about something but I couldn't remember what. I lay still and listened as I tried to make sense of things. Clarity came to me a little bit at a time. I was obviously in the hospital but how long had I been there and why was not clear to me. I remembered seeing Nicky sitting by the window two or three times and I also remembered Curly asking me questions at least one time and seeing him leaning against the wall more than once. I could not distinguish whether this had all happened in one day or over several days. It really bothered me that I had no concept of how long I had been in the hospital or why I was there. The room was quiet, which helped me to concentrate. I tried to think back to the last clear memory I had. I lay still and let my mind drift back and suddenly I remembered something. I remembered coming home from a project in Dallas and had walked into the house carrying my bags. I think I set my bags down in the front hall and ... What did I do? I couldn't remember. Did I go into the kitchen? Did I use the bathroom? "That must have been it," I thought. "I had been in a hurry to get home so I probably was in desparate need of a toilet." I wasn't sure if that was right but it made sense. Anyway, I remember picking up my bags again and starting up the stairs. When I turned right at the landing to go up the second flight I saw someone standing at the top of the stairs. Now I remembered. He was a big guy with dark brown hair but I didn't get a look at his face because my eyes were focused elsewhere. I was staring at the gun he was pointing at me. I stared for what seemed to be a long time but in reality was only a few seconds and then I saw a flash. I was already falling backwards down the stairs as I heard the loud explosion produced by the gun as it was fired. After that I could only remember bits and pieces. I vaguely remembered waking up in the hospital with Nicky holding my hand and crying but again, that could have been a dream. I just wasn't sure of anything. ***** The next time I saw Nicky she didn't look good. She was very pale and her eyes were bloodshot and puffy. She came over to the bed and took my hand then kissed me on the forehead. "Nicky, are you all right," I asked. "You don't look well." I was surprised at the sound of my voice. It was raspy and weak. "I haven't been able to sleep," she said. "I was so scared that I might lose you. The doctor just told me that you are out of danger and should make a full recovery" "How long have I been here?" I asked. "Since Friday." "I know since Friday, but what day is today?" " Tuesday," Nicky said. "I've lost three days," I said. "How are you feeling today?" Nicky asked. "I don't know. I don't feel much of anything right now. My head is clear and I hope it stays this way now. Up until now I've been in a fog," I said. "What happened to me?" "You don't remember?" Nicky asked. "Only a little bit of it," I said. Nicky started to say something but was cut off by man's voice. "Why don't you let me bring Mr. Anderson up to date?" The voice said. The source of the voice turned out to be Curly. He had come into the room just as I asked Nicky what had happened and had moved over to stand next to her. It looked to me like Curly was still wearing the same brown suit. "Who are you?" I asked. "You don't remember?" he asked. "I remember you asking me questions but I don't remember your name or what you asked me about," I said. "I'm Detective Tony Trenca. I have been assigned to this case." He said. "Just what exactly is this case?" I asked. "This is what we know so far," Detective Trenca said. "You came home from Dallas Friday some time around noon. When you entered your house you apparently walked into a burglary in progress. We don't know yet how many people were involved but you were carrying your luggage up the stairs when, you were shot by someone that was standing at the top of the stairs. You were shot a total of three times in the chest and abdomen. "Mrs. Anderson came into the house at approximately 12:25 and found you laying at the bottom of the stairs. She called 911 as soon as she found you. Apparently the burglar or burglars left right after you were shot. They were probably afraid that someone might have heard the shots. As it turns out you were very lucky on two counts. First, the perpetrator used a thirty-two-caliber pistol, which is one of the reasons you are still alive. A thirty-two doesn't do as much damage as say a thirty-eight or a nine-millimeter. The second bit of luck was that your wife came home for lunch. If she hadn't found you when she did and called for help you would have bled to death within minutes." I squeezed Nicky's hand and smiled at her. What do you say to your wife when you find out she saved your life? A simple thanks doesn't seem adequate. I looked back at the detective. "Do you have any idea who might have done this?" I asked. "There have been several burglaries recently in the Sherman Oaks area. They have been breaking into homes during the day when the owners are at work," he said. "This is the first time there has been any violence. We are hoping that in the panic after the shooting they may have made a mistake and left us some evidence that will help us catch them. I believe that you were shot because you saw at least one of them and they thought you were dead or they most likely would have made sure of it. "I'd like to ask you again what you remember about what happened Friday," Detective Trenca said. I told Detective Trenca that all I remembered was that I was carrying my bags upstairs and when I turned at the landing I saw someone at the top of the stairs. I told him that the guy was big and had dark brown hair but I didn't see his face because I was looking at the gun. I told him that I didn't remember anything after the first shot was fired. "You probably did see his face," Detective Trenca said, "but seeing the gun shocked you so that is all you remember right now but in time I believe you will remember what he looks like and hopefully you'll be able to describe him to us." "I hope so," I said. "I'll leave you two alone now," Detective Trenca said. "I'll stop and see you tomorrow to see if you remember anything else." I looked at Nicky and said, "Thanks for saving my life, kid." Nicky started crying and bent down and kissed me all over my face. "Eric, I don't know what I would have done if I lost you," Nicky said. Just then a horrible thought struck me. It turned my stomach into a knot and I got a lump in my throat that I could not swallow. Nicky saw the tears running from my eyes and asked, "What's wrong? Are you in pain?" "Yes, but it's not physical," I said. "It just occurred to me that if I hadn't come home when I did, it would have been you that walked into the house and you might have been killed. I don't feel so bad about getting shot now. I may have saved your life without even knowing it." Nicky hugged me and I think we both cried for a few minutes. After that I started to feel some discomfort from my wounds. Nicky called the nurse and she came in and gave me something for the pain. I slept for a few hours and when I woke up Nicky was sitting by the window reading. As soon as she noticed that I was awake she came over to my bedside and kissed me. "How do you feel?" she asked. "Do you need anything for the pain?" "No. I'm okay right now," I said. "Just before I feel asleep I had wanted to ask you what was taken?" "What do you mean, what was taken?" "What did the bastards take from our house?" I asked. "What did we lose?" "I don't know," Nicky said. "They left a mess in the family room but I don't know what was broken or damaged and I didn't really look to see what was missing yet." "Why haven you checked to see what was stolen?" I asked. I wasn't angry, just curious. "I haven't been back to the house since it happened. The cops have been all over the house investigating and I just couldn't be there. Walking in and seeing your blood on the floor at the bottom of the stairs... I just couldn't stay there. I've been staying with my parents since this happened." "Of course. I'm sorry. I just didn't think," I said. "I can understand that you wouldn't want to be there now. I guess we'll have to hire someone to come in and clean up the mess." "We can't do anything until the police release the house to us. They say it is a crime scene and we will have to wait until they finish their investigation before we can have the house cleaned. There's no hurry, we can stay at my parents until we can get the house cleaned." The rest of the time that Nicky was there we talked about everything except what had happened on Friday. That night after Nicky left I thought about how close I had come to losing everything and how close I had come to losing Nicky. It could just as easily have been her that got shot. I tried again to recall anything of importance about the shooting and did remember something else that I thought might be important. I wasn't sure if my memory was accurate but every time I tried to picture the shooter it was the same. I hoped that Detective Trenca would stop by the next day so I could tell him about it. A few minutes later the nurse came in and injected something into my IV and I was asleep within minutes. ***** I woke up in the morning feeling much better. I was still unable to move around in the bed and I wondered why. Were my injuries more serious than I had been led to believe? At eight o'clock Nicky came into the room. She kissed me and said, "I love you, Eric." "I love you, too." "Eric, I can't stay with you today," Nicky said. "School opens in two weeks and I have to attend meetings and get my classroom ready. I'll stay until the doctor visits and then I will have to leave. I'll be back around four o'clock." "That's okay, honey," I said. "I'll be fine. I might take a nap while your gone." Nicky laughed. "Take a nap?" she asked. "You mean your between nap, nap." "Yeah, all this napping makes me tired," I said. I started to laugh but it made my chest hurt and when Nicky saw the pained looked on my face she started to cry. "It's okay, Nicky. It just hurts when I laugh so don't be funny," I said. Nicky tried to smile but the tears kept rolling down her cheeks. She had just pulled a tissue from her purse when the doctor came in. "How are you feeling today, Mr. Anderson?" The doctor asked. "I don't know," I said. "I guess I'm okay under the circumstances. I'm sorry, I am sure you introduced yourself to me before but I don't remember your name." "No need to be sorry," he said. "It's understandable. I'm Dr. Berger." "Dr. Berger, can you tell me why I can't seem to move my arms or legs and I can only turn my head a little in each direction?" I asked. "We had to immobilize you to keep you from re-injuring yourself after your surgery," he responded. "How bad are my injuries?" "Serious but you are out of danger now. You were extremely lucky," Dr. Berger said. "I know, Detective Trenca already told me that. If it had been a larger caliber gun I would probably be dead now," I said. I regretted it immediately because I saw Nicky's face turn completely white. " That's true but you are even more lucky because of where the bullets struck you. One bullet penetrated the right side of your chest missing your ribs but it did go through your lung and exited through your back. The other two shots hit you in the lower abdomen but managed to miss your vital organs. Those two bullets also exited through your back. The two shots through the abdomen were the greatest concern. Luckily the bullets missed your liver and your kidneys. In fact they did very little damage." "How long will Eric have to stay in the hospital?" Nicky asked. "I am hoping to have him out of bed this afternoon and if he continues to do as well as he has so far, we will probably send him home on Monday but Eric will need to take it easy for a few more weeks. I wouldn't recommend trying to go back to work for at least three weeks," Dr. Berger said. When the doctor left Nicky said that she couldn't wait to get me back home. "I'll get a nurse to take care of you during the day and I will be your nurse at night," she said. Nicky seemed more upbeat after listening to the doctor. She kissed me and said she would be back around four o'clock and then she left. I tried to sleep after Nicky left but found myself too restless. Later a nurse came in and released the bindings that were holding my arms and legs and then removed the foam pad that had held my head in place. It felt great to be able to move my arms and legs and to be able to turn my head to look out the window. I was watching some pigeons on the window ledge when Detective Trenca arrived. "Feeling any better today, Mr. Anderson?" "I guess I am. It's hard to compare how I feel now to how I felt when I was in a constant fog. I think this is better." "I just wanted to stop by and see if you remembered anything new that might be of assistance," he said. "Something came to me last night but I am not sure if it is a real memory or not," I said. "Let's hear it." "Last night I kept reviewing the shooting in my head to see if anything new would come to me. I remembered it the same way every time except that I noticed something that I might have seen but just didn't register in my mind. I still can't recall seeing the shooters face but I think that when I was looking at the gun it was in his left hand. He was wearing a ring but it didn't appear to be a wedding band. It was on his middle finger and it was black, maybe onyx. Does that help?" "Yes, it does," Detective Trenca said. "Knowing that our shooter is probably left-handed and wears an onyx ring is a big help. It's not as good as a description of his face but it does help. Anything else?" "No. That's still all I can remember." We were both quiet for a moment and then I noticed that Detective Trenca was still wearing that brown suit and I almost started to laugh. He noticed the way I was looking at him and he looked down at his clothes. "I see you have noticed my new suit," he said as he smiled at me. "I don't usually look this dapper." "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare." "It's okay," he said. "We had a fire at the house and I lost all of my clothes." The Stein Ch. 01 "Sorry to hear that," I said. "Was there much damage to your house?" "No damage to the house, the only things burned were my clothes," he said. "Somehow all of my clothes happened to be piled in the driveway when they accidentally got soaked with gasoline. Then somebody dropped a match or a cigarette near the pile. Whoosh! Nothing left but a couple of crispy pairs of socks. I guess my wife was really pissed at me that night." He laughed a little and said, "I think we will get things worked out but in the mean time I am living in my car and I had to buy this suit at the Salvation Army store. Right now it's the only thing I have to wear." I felt sorry for him. Detective Trenca seemed like a nice guy and I hated to think that he was having problems in his marriage. What could he have done that pissed his wife off so much that she would torch his clothes. I guess that in the back of my mind I knew. I wondered how things in a marriage could go that far wrong before they would take steps to fix the problems. Detective Trenca stayed with me for more than an hour but we just talked. I sensed that there was something that he wanted to tell me but for some reason he was holding back. I finally had to ask. "I think there is something you aren't telling me but I think you want to. What is it?" I asked. "Remember when I told you that the shooter thought you were dead or he would have made sure you were?" Detective Trenca asked. "Yeah, I remember." I said and waited for him to finish. "The shooter knew you weren't dead but he was sure that you would die. He wanted you dead but he wanted it to be slow. That's why the last two shots where in your abdomen instead of your head," Detective Trenca said. "Why?" I asked. "Why would he do that? Just because he thought I saw him?" "I don't know but I plan to find out." After that Detective Trenca asked me questions about my job and the people I worked with. It didn't occur to me until after he left that he might suspect that the shooter was someone I knew. Over the next few days I got stronger and the nurses had me out of bed and walking the halls. Nicky came to see me each morning and then came back again after work and had dinner with me. She stayed each night until visiting hours were over. A couple of times, when I was feeling lonely at night, I called Nicky at her parents' house and we talked for more then a half hour each time. Looking at Nicky each day was beginning to worry me. I could feel myself getting stronger each day but Nicky didn't seem to be doing as well. Her color was ashen and her eyes always seemed to be puffy and red. She looked to me as if she had lost weight and wasn't sleeping well. She had been through a hard time. Finding me lying on the floor with blood running out of me and then not knowing if I was going to live or die for more than three days had taken its toll on her. I was sure that once I got out of the hospital and we were back at home she would start to feel better. When I was alone at night and couldn't sleep all I could think about was Nicky. I thought about how we had met during our senior year at college. We were introduced at a frat party but under less than ideal conditions. She had come to the party as the date of one of my fraternity brothers but he got so drunk he could hardly stand up and had to ask me to give her a ride home. At the time Nicky didn't seem impressed by me or by my fraternity brothers. She didn't speak to me until I dropped her off and then she only thanked me for the ride. I, on the other hand, was very impressed with Nicole Saunders. She was tall and slim with a very nice body. She had light brown hair and big, very expressive, brown eyes. Her nose was perfect for her face and she had a large mouth that was capable of generating thousand watt smiles. Unfortunately, she didn't give me a smile on the ride to her sorority house that night. I had seen her smile when she arrived at the party and I was immediately jealous of her date. I didn't see her again for two weeks. It was at another party that I ran into her. This time she did smile at me. "Eric Anderson, right?" she asked. "Yes, and you are Nicole Saunders." "You remembered. I am impressed. I thought that after I was so rude to you when you gave me a ride home that you would have quickly forgotten all about me," she said. I thought for a moment about all the great pick up lines I could have used at that moment but instead opted for sincerity. I said, "I was impressed by how unimpressed you were with me, which caused me to remember your name." "I wasn't unimpressed," she said. "I was just so mad at Bob. He invites me to a party and then proceeds to get so drunk that he can't even take me home. I am afraid that I let my anger affect my attitude toward you. I do appreciate that you were sober and that you gave me a ride without complaining about having to leave the party." I couldn't resist this opportunity. "How could I complain about getting the chance to spend time alone with a beautiful girl like you." Nicky laughed and said, "Thanks, I guess." "Have you forgiven Bob yet?" I asked. "Nope, and I am not going to," she said. "I had just met him the week before and that was our first and only date. He blew it. I was definitely unimpressed with him." "Good, then how about going out with me?" I asked. "I promise I'll stay sober long enough to get you home." "I'd like that," Nicky said. We went out on our first date the next night and were dating exclusively by the end of the next week. I also thought about the first time we had sex. It was on our fourth date. We had gone out for pizza and then went to a movie. After the movie we drove back to Nicky's sorority house and I parked across the street. I kissed her and began to nibble on her ear. "I think I am falling in love," I whispered to her. Nicky turned her head and kissed me and said, "Me too." While kissing her, I started to unbutton Nicky's blouse and when I put my hand inside she didn't resist me at all. I felt my hand touch her bare breast for the first time and my cock almost tore the zipper out of my pants. I bent down to suck her nipple into my mouth and slipped my hand under the hem of her skirt at the same time. Nicky didn't stop me so I began to move my hand up her thigh. At the time she had her legs crossed but as I moved my hand higher up her leg she uncrossed them and allowed me to reach all the way up to the top of her legs. I pressed my fingertips against her panty-covered sex and teased her pussy. Nicky responded to this by biting me on the ear and saying, "That feels so good." I was so hot I was ready to taste Nicky's pussy right there in the car. When I tried to get my hand inside her panties Nicky grabbed my wrist. The problem was that my car was not only too small, it was parked in the only available parking space on the block and that was directly under a street lamp. There was a lot of activity on the street, which meant that anything we did in my car could be seen by anyone passing. "Not here. Let's go to my room," Nicky said. "Follow me." Nicky buttoned her blouse and then got out of the car. I got out and Nicky took my hand and led me across the street toward the sorority house. Instead of going in the front door she led me around to the back of the house and we went in through the back door and up the back staircase to her room. Once inside Nicky's bedroom I pulled her to me and started kissing her again. Nicky kissed me and then started to open my pants and push them down my legs. While she worked on my pants I removed my shirt. When she had my pants off, Nicky removed my jockey shorts and while we stood there kissing, Nicky reached down and began to stroke my cock. I was so aroused that I had to stop her before she made me climax. Then I unbuttoned her blouse and pushed it off her shoulders and let if fall to the floor. Nicky unzipped and then stepped out of her skirt and put it on a chair. Then I watched as Nicky unhooked her bra and removed it exposing her firm grapefruit sized breasts to me. I put one hand on each breast and gently massaged them. I began to kiss and lick her nipples alternating back and forth between her right and left breast and I could tell that Nicky was enjoying the sensations I was giving her. I loved how hard her nipples got as I played them with my tongue and lips. After awhile I turned Nicky around and made her sit on the edge of the bed. Then I slid my hand up the inside of Nicky's leg until I reached the crotch of her panties and I slipped my finger under the satin material. When I slipped my fingertips into her slit and began to slide it up and down in her sexual juices Nicky let out a soft moan. I was standing naked in front of Nicky with the biggest hard on I think I had ever had and the head of my cock was already shinny with pre cum and more was dripping out of me. Nicky took my cock in her hand and held it in front of her face and seemed to be examining it. "Do you want me to kiss it?" she asked. "Yes, please," I answered. Nicky leaned forward and kissed my stiff member. She ran my tongue all over the head of my cock and as she did this she pulled on my cock milking as much of my pre cum from me as she could. Nicky seemed to actually like the taste of the clear liquid. After a few minutes of this Nicky pulled my head down to kiss me. I could see that her lips were slick with my juices but I kissed her anyway. I got down on the floor in front of Nicky and while I was staring at her mound I said, "Now I am going to return the favor." I moved my head up between Nicky's creamy thighs and started planting little kisses all over her vulva. Then I began pushing my tongue between her labia. I could feel her juices running out of her pussy and down my chin. When I finally stopped my attack on Nicky's clitoris she almost attacked me. She kissed me all over my face in spite of the fact that I was covered with her love juices. I was starting to get on the bed with her when Nicky whispered, "We can't go any further unless you wear a condom." I quickly retrieved my pants and dug the condom I always carried out of my wallet. I rolled the condom onto my engorged member and then rejoined Nicky on the bed and climbed between Nicky's legs. I pressed the head of my cock against her opening and slowly pushed myself inside her. Nicky was very tight and the sensations I was feeling through my cock were wonderful. As I began to push myself into Nicky as deeply as I could she lifted her hips to meet each of my thrusts. We were soon in a rhythm that brought us both to climax at the same time. That night was certainly not the best sex we ever had but it was the most memorable because it was the first. I filled my lonely nights in the hospital just thinking about our life together. Nicky and I got married a year after we got out of college. Nicky got a teaching position with the Los Angeles County school district teaching English in high school and I got a job working for a company that installs computer networks. Nicky and I have been married for six years and the Dallas trip I just returned from was only the second time we have been apart. The first time was a little over a year ago at the end of the last school year. Nicky had volunteered us to be chaperones for a class trip to Germany for the kids in the German Club at her school. I had to cancel out of the trip to Germany to attend an educational technology conference in Denver that same week. Nicky was disappointed but she understood that I had no choice. We were only apart for a week but I missed her terribly. I got home from the conference on Thursday night and Nicky returned from the trip to Germany on that Saturday. I had an erection as I lay in that hospital bed thinking about the romantic evening we had when Nicky got home. I had fixed a romantic candle light dinner and after we ate we retired to the bedroom. Nicky went into the bathroom to take a quick shower and get herself ready form me. After I had lit several candles around the bedroom to create a warm romantic feeling I sat patiently waiting for Nicky to come out of the bathroom. I already had an erection building in anticipation of what was to come. After all it had been more that a week since we had last made love. When the double doors to the bathroom opened, Nicky was standing in the doorway wearing a black bra and panties and black thigh high stockings. As Nicky approached me I stood and put my arms around her and we began to dance to the soft rock CD I was playing. As we danced I began kissing Nicky's mouth and neck. I positioned us so that we were standing in front of the large mirror on Nicky's dresser, then I moved behind her and rubbed her breasts through her bra and pressed my erection against her firm buttocks while she watched herself in the mirror. When I slipped my hand inside her panties and began to tease her by just lightly skimming my fingertips over her vulva Nicky tipped her head back against my shoulder and closed her eyes. As I continued to play with her pussy she began to make little cooing sounds in her throat. Just as I felt my fingers getting wet from Nicky's juices she turned to face me and gave me a deep tongue kiss and began kissing her way down over my chest and down my stomach as she sank to her knees in front of me. Once on her knees she pulled my shorts down and then she cupped my balls in one hand as she kissed the very tip of my cock. I was already beginning to secrete pre-cum and as she pulled back I could see a strand of the thick clear liquid extending from the tip of my cock to Nicky's lips. I watched as Nicky ran her tongue around her lips, gathering the shiny strand and drawing it into her mouth. Then she stuck her tongue out and flicked it across the head of my cock creating a new strand of the shiny liquid this time trailing from my cock to the tip of her tongue. Without breaking the strand Nicky ran her tongue under the head of my cock and pulled her tongue and my cock into her mouth. What followed was one of the most fantastic blowjobs she has ever given me. I was very close to climaxing when Nicky stopped, stood up, and kissed me. I could taste my excitement on her lips and tongue. When she broke the kiss she said, "It's my turn" then she sat on the edge of the bed. I got down on my knees in front of her and began kissing my way down from her face to her breasts. When I got to her breasts I pulled her bra straps down off of her shoulders and pulled the cups down to expose her beautiful pear shaped breasts. I took one in each hand and gently massaged them as I alternately licked, kissed and sucked on her nipples. Nicky loves this and it often brings her to an orgasm and this time was no different. Nicky tipped her head back and grabbed my head with both hands and held me to her breast as she climbed the mountain of her orgasm. When she finally descended again, she relaxed and lay back on the bed. As she did I started kissing my way down over her stomach to the top of her panties. I pulled the crotch of her panties to the side and inhaled the heady scent of her aroused pussy. I used my tongue to slowly trace the lips of her labia then I separated them and pushed my tongue inside Nicky's pussy. As usual she responded to my attention and was soon in the throes of her second orgasm. This time when she came down from her orgasm she told me to come inside her, so I stood and positioned my cock at the entrance to Nicky's well lubricated sex and pressed forward till I was buried as deep inside her as I could get. For the next fifteen minutes Nicky and I bounced around the bed in several different positions until I couldn't hold back any longer and I shot a load inside Nicky from behind and then collapsed on top of her. Afterward, while we cuddled Nicky said, "I brought you a present from Germany." She got out of bed and I watched her cute little ass wiggle as she went over to her suitcase and searched inside until she found what she was looking for. I was actually a little disappointed when she found the gift because I was enjoying the erotic view as she bent over the suitcase. Nicky came back over to the bed and handed me an unwrapped box. She stood there smiling at me while I tried to guess what might be inside. The box was heavier than I expected which threw me off. I had expected a hat or some other lightweight souvenir. "Well, open it," Nicky said in an excited voice. Inside the box was a one-liter beer stein. The stein was hand painted and beautiful. I couldn't believe it. I had collected several beer mugs and steins over the years but never anything as nice and this one came with papers declaring that it was one of 1000, making it a great collectors item. My collection consisted of five beer mugs with names of beers that are no longer brewed, a pewter mug with a glass bottom that I got as a gift for being in a wedding and three beer steins I had found at garage sales. I never knew that Nicky had taken my collection seriously. "I can't believe this... This is beautiful but I'm afraid that you spent way too much on me." I said. "This must have been expensive." "You deserve it and I could never spend too much on you," Nicky said as she kissed me and climbed back on the bed with me." "Thanks, sweetie, I love it." "I knew that you would. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to get it for you," she said. The funny thing was that, right after she said that, she started to cry. I asked her why she was crying and she said, "I am just so happy that I was able to give you that stein. I knew it would be special." I pulled Nicky to me and held her in my arms for a long time and them we made love for the second time that night. Thinking about that night always gave me a lump in my throat. It was just one of those happy memories. I had plenty of time to think about how lucky I was to have found Nicky. I knew I would be lost without her. Suddenly it occurred to me that I was reviewing my life like an old man on his deathbed. I was young, alive and I had plenty of time to make even more great memories with Nicky. It was time for me to look to the future. ***** By Monday I was more than ready to go home. Nicky had managed to get the day off and she was at the hospital early to wait for them to release me. At ten o'clock an orderly wheeled me out to the main entrance and I got into Nicky's car. As we pulled away from the hospital Nicky said we were going to her parents house but I told her I wanted to go home. "The house hasn't been cleaned yet," Nicky said. "Detective Trenca gave me the name of a company that does the kind of clean up we need and I called them Friday and arranged for them to come today. I want to be there when they come to clean the mess and I want to see what was taken so we can file an insurance claim," I said. Nicky didn't say another word on the ride home. I think she was afraid of how I would react to the mess that was waiting for us. Before we pulled into the driveway at home I told Nicky that I thought it would be easier for me to go into the house through the front door than to have to deal with the stairs in the garage. Nicky parked the car in front of the garage door and came around the car to help me get out. Nicky held my arm as we slowly walked around to the front door. I began to feel nervous about what was waiting for us inside the house and I could see that Nicky was also uneasy. Nicky unlocked the door and I went in first. As soon as I stepped inside I was struck by a metallic smell, kind of like copper. Then I saw it. At the bottom of the stair lay my small suitcase and carry on bag. Both were covered with blood. There was also a large puddle of congealed blood on the hardwood floor next to my bags. I remembered that the doctor had said that I lost about two pints of blood but this looked like a lot more than that to me. The Stein Ch. 01 When Nicky stepped inside she stood next to me looking at the dark red puddle. Suddenly she put her hand over her mouth and ran to the bathroom. I could hear her retching as she vomited into the toilet. I guess the sight of the blood and the smell, were just too much for her. I wanted to go to her and help but I didn't think my stomach was strong enough for me to be of any assistance. I waited outside the bathroom until Nicky stopped throwing up. After she washed her face I guided her from the bathroom through the kitchen and into the family room. I sat down on the sofa with her and tried to comfort her. As I sat with my arm around Nicky I looked around the room. There were books strewn all over the floor along with several knick-knacks. I looked over at my collection of beer mugs and steins and all of them were on their shelf except for the one that Nicky had brought home from Germany for me. I was wondering if it had been stolen when Nicky interrupted my thoughts. "I'm sorry Eric. I wanted to be strong for you but seeing all that blood just brought everything back to me. I am all right now," Nicky said. "Would you like a glass of water?" I asked. "No, I am fine," she said, "and besides, I am supposed to be taking care of you. I think we should get you up to bed and then I'll fix you some lunch and bring it up." "I don't think that is a good idea," I said. "I don't think I am up to climbing those stairs right now and I don't think you need to be exposed to the mess at the bottom of the stairs again. I have an idea. Why don't you fix me a sandwich for my lunch and leave it in the refrigerator and then go back to work." "I can't leave you here by yourself." "Listen, I think you would feel much better if you didn't have to be here when they come to clean up the blood in the hall. I'll be fine. I will lie on the sofa and rest and when I get hungry I can get the sandwich," I said. "I don't know. I just don't feel right about leaving you by yourself." "I'll be fine," I said. "School starts next week and I know you still have a lot to do to get ready for the new school year. I will take it easy and I'll call you if I have any problems." "When you get home tonight we can start cleaning up this mess," I said. At that moment I saw the stein. It was smashed into little pieces on the hearth of the fireplace. Nicky saw what I was looking at and began to cry. "It's okay Nicky," I said. "The stein can be replaced. Now make me a sandwich and get out of here." "Are you sure about this?" "Absolutely." "Okay then, I'll go to work," she said. "I think you are right, I would feel better being away from here until the foyer is cleaned. I can't look at that without feeling sick." "That should be gone by the time you get home," I said. Nicky did as I suggested and made the sandwich for me and put it into the refrigerator. Then she left for work. The cleaners showed about an hour later, while I was eating my sandwich. I went to the door and let them into the foyer. The man who appeared to be in charge looked at the blood puddle on the floor. "Is this all of it or are there more spots that need cleaning?" he asked me. "That should be the only spot but you might check the stairs and the wall on the landing to see if there was any spatter up there," I answered. "This should only take an hour to clean and deodorize. Whose blood is it?" "Mine." "Wow. Looks like at least two pints," he said. "You're lucky to be alive." "How could you tell it was two pints?" I asked. "I have had a lot of experience cleaning up crime scenes, after a while you just know," he said. Crime scene... This was my home; it was difficult to think of it as a crime scene. The cleaners began their work and I went back to the kitchen to finish my sandwich. When I had finished eating I put my plate into the sink and went back into the family room. I was about to sit down when I thought that I should check my safe to see if the burglars had broken into it. In our house there was a cabinet built into the wall above the fireplace. It was designed as a place to put a television. We had an entertainment center along an adjacent wall so I used the space over the fireplace for my safe. I didn't have much in the safe, just insurance policies, legal papers, savings bonds, and some stock certificates. I also had about one hundred dollars in cash in the safe. The door to the cabinet was partially opened so I assumed that the burglars must have seen the safe but when I opened the door the safe appeared to be intact. There was no damage to the outside of the safe so it didn't look as though anyone had tried to break into it and it didn't appear that anyone had even tried to move it. I opened the safe to check the contents and found that nothing was missing. That was a relief. I locked the safe again and closed the cabinet doors. For a moment I contemplated cleaning up the items broken and scattered around the room but I realized that I didn't have the energy so I lay down on the sofa and rested. By the time Nicky came home from work the foyer was spotless. The coppery smell was replaced by the scent of cinnamon. I thought that was a strange scent to use as a deodorizer but I kind of liked it. I had thought that sending Nicky to work that day was a good idea but when she got home I wasn't so sure. She seemed very stressed out and agitated. It took twenty minutes and a large scotch to get her to relax. When I asked her why she was so stressed out she began to cry. "I just want this all to go away," she said. "I don't want to think about it anymore." "I am sure the police will catch these guys soon," I said, but that didn't seem to comfort Nicky very much. We didn't get around to doing any cleaning like I had planned. Nicky just wanted to sit close to me on the sofa all evening. That night was the first time in two weeks that Nicky and I slept together but there was no sex. I wasn't physically up to it and Nicky seemed to be afraid to touch me anywhere other than to hold my hand or kiss my face. I didn't sleep well. I kept waking up thinking I was hearing someone in the house and every time I woke up I would find that Nicky was also awake. ***** Tuesday went better. I was feeling a little stronger and was able to walk down the stairs by myself. I had breakfast with Nicky and then I cleaned the kitchen while Nicky got ready for work. Later that morning Detective Trenca stopped by to see how I was doing and to get a list of anything that was stolen. While we talked I put on a pot of coffee. "Did you make a list of what's missing?" Detective Trenca asked. "No, I didn't because nothing seems to be missing." I said. "Really?" Detective Trenca said with an ironic sound to his voice. "You probably have already thought about this Detective, but I think there must have been at least two people involved," I said. Detective Trenca seemed to be amused by that. "Why don't we get a little less formal? Call me Tony and if it's all right with you, I'll call you Eric." "That's fine with me," I said. "Okay then, Eric, let me hear your theory," Tony said. "Well, we know someone was upstairs because he is the one who shot me. The fact that the downstairs was a mess, indicating that someone had searched the first floor, but nothing was missing, makes me think that whoever was searching the first floor bolted when he heard the gun shots or shortly thereafter. Otherwise why didn't they take the TV, the CD player or the DVD player? The safe is what really made me curious. Whoever searched the first floor obviously saw the safe so why didn't they try to bust it open or carry it away to open it somewhere else. Isn't a safe just the kind of thing a burglar would be looking for?" I posed. "That's very good. I have been trying to figure that out myself. You may be right about the gun shots scaring them off," Tony said. "Do you think there is another explanation?" I asked. "I am just keeping my options open. Sometimes if you try too hard to make the facts fit your conclusion you will successfully come up with the wrong answer," Tony said and then smiled at me. I waited to see if Tony would let me in on what he was thinking but I guess he didn't want me that involved in his investigation. By then the coffee had finished perking and I asked Tony if he had time for a cup. "Love one," he said. I poured two cups and took them into the family room and we sat down, me on the sofa and Tony on a wing chair facing me. I noticed him looking around the room at the mess left by the burglars. "I guess I'll have to start cleaning this up after you leave," I said. "I have seen a lot more damage done by burglars but I have also seen cases where nothing was out of place except the items that were stolen," Tony said. Just then a question popped into my head that I didn't want to ask but I knew I had to. "I guess by now that guy that shot me knows that I survived. Do you think it's likely that he'll come back and try to finish the job?" I asked. "There is always that chance but I think it is highly unlikely. He knows you're alive but he also knows that you were not able to describe him. Coming after you now would just increase the chance of him getting caught. Are you worried?" "Not so much for myself, but I am worried about Nicky's safety. I know she didn't sleep well last night and I think it's because she is worried that they might come back," I said. "I can have the number of patrols through your neighborhood increased for a while if that would help," "It would, thanks." I took a sip of my coffee and decided to change the subject. "I see you are wearing a new suit today. How are things on the home front?" I asked. "Much better, thank you. The wife has forgiven me for my stupidity," Tony said. "Another woman?" "Almost," Tony said. "Tracy caught me necking with another woman at a party. I had way too much to drink and this woman was flirting with me big time. I got a little carried away. Luckily, Tracy caught me before I went too far. As angry as she was for catching me necking it scares me to think what she would have done if she caught me doing the horizontal mambo with that woman. The only thing that saved my ass was that Tracy knows that I had never done anything like that before." I was beginning to feel that Tony and I were becoming friends. Maybe I was misreading the situation but I definitely felt comfortable talking to him and he seemed relaxed around me. It's always nice to make new friends. Tony stayed for a second cup of coffee and then had to leave when he got a call from police dispatch. I spent the rest of the day cleaning up the mess. There really wasn't all that much to clean up but I had to move slowly as I was still pretty weak. The saddest thing about the clean up was picking up the pieces of the beer stein Nicky had bought me in Germany. A lot of things had been tossed around the room but the stein was the only thing broken. It was almost as thought someone broke it just to be mean. Out of the thirteen mugs and steins on the shelf why was that particular stein the one that was broken? It was the most valuable and the only one that had significant sentimental value to me. I was beginning to get very pissed as I thought about it but then I remembered that I had also been shot three times. I decided to try and keep things in perspective. When I was satisfied with the cleaning I had done on the first floor I went upstairs. I found it a little curious that nothing on the second floor appeared to be out of place. Nicky didn't have much in the way of expensive jewelry but what she had was in the case on top of her dresser. Nothing was missing. This led me to the conclusion that I must have come into the house just after the guy who shot me had gone upstairs, not giving him time to begin searching for valuables. It was beginning to look as though my timing, while causing me to get shot, had prevented the burglars from stealing anything from the house. When Nicky got home from work that evening there was no longer any sign of what had taken place in the house just a week and a half earlier. When Nicky saw that I had cleaned the house she scolded me. "You know you're still supposed to be taking it easy," she said. "I couldn't just sit there and look at the mess any longer," I said. Besides, I felt pretty good all day." "Well, you don't look so good right now," she said. "You look very pale. You just sit there while I make dinner. If you get up again I'll call Dr. Berger and tell him to put you back in the hospital." Nicky was smiling as she said it. "Okay, I'll be a good boy," I said. "Please don't send me back to the hospital." Nicky began to laugh at me. "Just sit while I get your dinner," she said. After dinner Nicky took me up to bed and changed my bandages. We were both relieved that there didn't seem to be any bleeding or discharge from the wounds. Once she had the fresh bandages on me, Nicky gave me a very tender massage. I guess I had over done things a bit that day. I feel asleep before Nicky finished the massage. ***** Wednesday morning I got up and had breakfast with Nicky. "Tonight is the open house for new students at the school," Nicky said. "I can probably get out of it if you would rather I stayed home." "How late will you be?" I asked. "It starts at seven o'clock and is scheduled to end at eight-thirty. I should be home by nine o'clock at the latest. I'll come home from school at four and fix dinner and change your bandages before I go to the open house. I'll have to leave here by six-thirty," Nicky said. "I think you should go," I said. "We need to go on with our regular lives as much as we can," As Nicky prepared to leave for work I could see that something was bothering her. It was obvious to me that Nicky was still worried about me. When she came over to kiss me before she left for work, she hugged me a little longer and a little tighter than usual. "I love you," she whispered in my ear. "I love you too." After Nicky left, the house was almost too quiet. I tried to think of something I could do to occupy myself but the only ideas that came to mind were things that would be too physically challenging for me in the condition I was in. I had overdone it the day before and I had promised Nicky and myself that I was going to take it easy that day. I decided to load up the CD player and put it on low. Then I got the Dean Koonce book I had bought recently but hadn't started yet and sat down to read. I read until Nicky came home, stopping only long enough to eat lunch. Nicky was pleased that I had taken it easy all day but said that I should have put the book down for a couple of hours and taken a nap. Nicky changed my bandages, fixed dinner and at six-thirty was ready to head over to the high school for the open house. When she left I went into the family room to watch television. Unfortunately the only shows on television were summer repeats so I turned the set off and sat. With nothing to occupy my mind I began to think about the burglary and the shooting again. Something was beginning to bother me about the whole thing. If this was the team of burglars that Tony thought might be responsible, I couldn't understand how they would have left with nothing. It still wasn't obvious how they got into the house in the first place, which made me very uneasy. The uneasy feeling I had made me get up and check the safe again. Maybe something was missing from the safe, something that I hadn't noticed on my first inspection. When I got the safe opened I went through all my folders and verified that nothing was missing, but I found that I had overlooked something on my first inspection. I stared at the two $300 vouchers from American Airlines and my legs got weak as the realization of what they meant slowly began to sink in. I put them back into the safe and then sat down on the sofa to think things through given this new information. When I could come to no other conclusion I shouted out loud, "No fucking way... This cannot be happening. God damn it, Nicky, what have you done?" The Stein Ch. 02 The pain I was feeling in my chest was more than could be caused by my wounds. I began to wonder if Nicky had just dealt me the final blow. Everything wasn't clear to me yet so I knew that I had to proceed slowly to avoid making a big mistake. I reviewed all possible scenarios and kept coming back to just one conclusion, Nicky was already in the house when I was shot. She had to have been upstairs with the shooter when I came into the house. Now I had to figure out what that mean and what I should do about it. I was very angry and knew that when Nicky came home the confrontation would be ugly. I tried to plan what I would say to her but my anger was such that I knew I wouldn't be able to contain it and it scared me. The thought of Nicky being upstairs alone with another man was making me crazy. Finally I decided that I would not be able to talk to her because I was afraid I might hurt her. Once I had all of the facts put together in the right order I knew it was time to talk to Tony but before I called him there was someone else I needed to talk to. Jim Culkin and I had grown up together in Glendale. We had been best friends for as long as I could remember. Jim had been the best man at my wedding and I had been his best man. I hadn't seen much of Jim for the last couple of years. Jim still lived in Glendale and with Nicky and I living in Sherman Oaks it seemed to be just too much of an effort to get together as much as we would like. It was Jim I called that evening. "Hello, Jim?" "Eric?" "Yes, how are you." "I'm good, how are you?" he asked. "Not too good right now. I have a problem that I am going to need your help with," I said. "You know you can count on me," Jim said. "After all, what are friends for?" "I appreciate that, but in this case I don't need you because you're a friend, I need you because you're a lawyer." "What's the problem?" I told Jim everything. I explained about the shooting, and the apparent burglary and how nothing was taken. Then I told him about the airline vouchers and what they meant and then I told him what I wanted him to do for me. "You can count on me," Jim said. "What time would you like me to come over?" "Why don't you plan on being here at nine o'clock," I said. "Okay then, I'll be at your house at nine o'clock." "Thanks, Jim, I can't tell you how much this means to me." "Like I said, what are friends for?" Jim said. As soon as I hung up from talking to Jim I called Tony on his cell phone. "Tony, it's Eric Anderson." "Eric, I am glad you called. I have some news for you," he said. "Is there any chance you could come over here tonight at nine o'clock? I have something important to tell you concerning this case." I said. "You haven't been playing detective, have you?" "No. I came across something that may shed some light on this case though. I am not happy about this but I have to talk to you about it," I said. "You have me curious now. I will be there at nine," Tony said. When I got off the phone with Tony it was seven forty-five. I had another hour and fifteen minutes to kill before Jim and Tony arrived. I hoped that Nicky would get home before they arrived so that she wouldn't walk into the house and find them already there. I spent the next hour making my plan of action. I got a legal pad and a pencil and sat at the kitchen table making notes. I was still sitting there when Nicky walked into the house at 8:50. "What are you writing?" she asked. "Just making some notes for something I have to do later," I said. "What's that?" 'That's not important right now," I said. "We are going to have some company in a few minutes." "We are? Who?" "Jim Culkin and Tony Trenca," I said. "We haven seen Jim in a long time," Nicky said. "Why is he coming over?" "I told him about the shooting so he's coming over to see if he can help," I said. "It'll be nice to see him again but what can he do to help?" Nicky asked. "I guess we'll have to wait and see." "Why is Detective Trenca coming over?" she asked. "He said he has some news about this case," I said. I could see a lot of concern cross Nicky's face. "Have they caught the burglar who shot you?" "I don't know," I said. "We'll have to wait till he gets her to find out." Nicky went upstairs to change clothes and I sat down and waited for my guests to arrive. I hoped that they would arrive soon. I was finding it very difficult to hide my anger. Jim was the first to arrive at nine o'clock on the dot. When he came in I could see him looking me over to see what condition I was in. We were still standing in the foyer when Nicky came down the stairs and gave Jim a hug. "Nice to see you again Jim," Nicky said as she kissed him on the cheek. Before our conversation could go any farther the doorbell rang. I opened the door and invited Tony in. After I made the introductions Tony looked at me as if to ask what Jim was doing there. "For now let's just say that Jim is an interested observer." I said. Tony accepted my explanation and we all headed into the family room to sit. I had already made a pot of coffee and I asked Nicky if she would help me serve our guests. Once we were all seated with our coffee I turned to Tony. "Tony, on the phone you said that you had some news for us," I said. "Yes. I wanted you tell you that the gang of burglars we suspected in your shooting have been arrested. They were caught in the act of burglarizing a house about ten blocks from here this afternoon," Tony said. I could tell by the look on Tony's face that he had something more to say that was probably not good news. "Tony, I am getting the impression from you that you don't think these are the guys responsible for shooting me." "How did you know that?" Tony asked. "Like I told you on the phone, I have made a bit of a break through in this case myself," I said. Nicky grabbed my arm and said, "What? You know who shot you?" "No, I don't know who shot me but I think I can help Tony find out who did," I said. I looked over at Jim and he was just sitting back watching all of us. I turned to Tony and he was staring at me. "Okay, Eric, you have the floor," Tony said. "I am very curious to hear what you have to say." "You'll have to be patient with me. I need you to understand how this all happened for it to make sense." "Take your time and I'll hold my questions for later," Tony said. "This came to me tonight. I was double-checking the contents of my safe when I came across two $300 American Airline travel vouchers. Ever since I woke up in the hospital I have been trying to remember everything that happen from the time I entered the house and walked up the stairs until I was shot. I was hoping that I would remember what the shooter looked like or that something else would come to me but the only thing I could remember was that the shooter was holding the gun in his left hand and he was wearing an onyx ring. "When I found the travel vouchers I realized that I had to go back farther to start putting everything together. One thing that I was clear about but I didn't want to think about was that my original plans for coming home from Dallas had me arriving at LAX at 5:30 Friday evening. Nicky was going to pick me up at the airport and we were going to stop for dinner on the way home. But my plans got changed. "By Thursday my project was running a little ahead of schedule and it appeared that if we worked late on Thursday we could finish the project and would be able to go home earlier on Friday. I discussed this with my team and the customer and we all agreed to stay late Thursday and finish the project. "That night we broke for dinner at 5:00 and I called the airline and asked if I could change my flight to something earlier in the morning. The girl at American said that they had a flight out at 7:45 AM that would get me to LAX at 8:54 AM. I told her to book that flight. We finished the job at 11:30 Thursday night. "Friday morning I was at the airport at 6:15 AM. I got a cup of coffee, a muffin and a newspaper and waited at my gate until the gate attendants opened the counter. As soon as they opened up I went to the counter to get my seat assignment and to do one other thing that I always do when I am not on a tight schedule,. I asked the gate attendant if the flight was over booked. She said that it was and I asked if they needed volunteers to take a later flight. She said that they did so I handed her my ticket and said that I was volunteering. "In exchange for my ticket American Airlines gave me a $300 voucher for future travel and gave me a seat on a flight schedule at 9:15 AM. That flight was also over booked and I got a second $300 voucher and was booked on the 10:05 AM flight. This flight was not over booked and I arrived at LAX at 11:15 AM. "In twenty minutes I had collected by bags and caught a cab. Traffic was light on the freeways that morning and so we were able to make very good time from the airport to the house. "When I walked into the house I set my bags down in the hall just as the grandfather clock in the living room chimed on the quarter hour. I remember looking at my watch and seeing that it was 12:15. Up until I found those vouchers I couldn't remember what I did when I first came into the house. Now I remember. When I set my bags down in the hall I went into the family room, opened the safe and put the two vouchers in the safe. I locked the safe and then went back out to the foyer, picked up my bags and headed upstairs. We all know what happened then." Nicky, who hadn't let go of my arm since we sat down, squeezed it tighter as I reminded her of what happened on the stairs. "Once I remembered what I did when I came into the house I realized that there had been no burglars downstairs. As you can see there is no place anyone could have hidden in here. If someone had been in this room I would have seen them. I would have also seen the mess they had made but there was none. "At this point the whole time line became a problem. I entered the house at 12:15. There was no sign of a burglary in progress on the first floor. By the time I headed upstairs at least two more minutes had passed making it about 12:17 when I was shot. Eight minutes later, at 12:25 Nicky finds me and calls 911. That would have meant that in the eight minutes between my getting shot and Nicky calling 911, the burglars decided to throw things around on the first floor to make it look like a burglary but they didn't steal anything. "Nothing made sense to me. If the burglars had been in the house but hadn't taken anything yet and hadn't even started to search the first floor when one of them shot me why would they trash the family room to make it look like a burglary. Why wouldn't they just leave to make it look like a straight out murder? Why would they draw attention to themselves?" "That was very well thought out," Tony said. "I can see that you are beginning to think along the same lines I am. So who do you think shot you and why?" "I still don't know who shot me or exactly why, but I think I know someone who does," I said. "I believe that there were two people upstairs that day. One of them shot me. The other one sat with me and watched me bleed for eight minutes before she called 911. In the mean time the shooter trashed the family room to make it look like I had walked in on a burglary in progress." Nicky had pulled away from me and was now curled up in the corner of the sofa crying. "I believe that Nicky can tell you who shot me and why," I said. Tony didn't look at all surprised. "I am sorry, Eric. That is what I was beginning to believe happened too," he said. "I am going to have to take her in for questioning." "Tony, can we have a few minutes?" I asked. "I'm not sure that's a good idea right now. I don't think you should talk to Nicky until we get this straightened out." "Not for me. I want Nicky to talk to Jim," I said. "He is her attorney." "You arranged for your wife to have her attorney here even though she is probably involved with your shooting?" Tony asked. "I don't know what was going on between Nicky and the man who shot me but I can not believe that she would have intentionally caused this to happen," I said. "I just want to make sure she has excellent legal counsel from someone she trusts. If you let Jim talk to Nicky for a few minutes I think she will cooperate with you and answer all of your questions." Nicky was still curled up on the sofa and hadn't said a word. "I am going to go with you on this," Tony said. "She can talk with Jim and then I will give her the chance to voluntarily come to the station and answer questions. If she chooses not to come down we will issue an arrest warrant. I can't do any more than that." Jim, Tony and I all stood up together and walked to the door. I shook Tony's hand and thanked him for giving Nicky the chance to come in voluntarily. Then Jim shook Tony's hand. "I'll bring her into the station within an hour," Jim said. "I know her pretty well. I think she will want to cooperate." "I hope you're right," Tony said as he turned to walk out of the house. When the door closed Jim turned to me and said, "I'll go talk to her now. You do understand that anything Nicky tells me will be confidential and I will not be able to discuss it with you." "I understand," I said. "I asked you to do this because I know Nicky would be more comfortable with you representing her than someone she doesn't know. I would never use our friendship to try and make you betray a client confidence and I know you wouldn't do that even if I did ask." "I knew you would understand that under normal circumstances," Jim said, "but these are not normal circumstances. Is there anything you would like me to tell Nicky?" "If the police let her leave after they question her she will have to go to her parents house," I said. "I still love her but I can't be with her now. Tell her that I will call her dad and tell him what is going on. I'm sure he'll come to the police station to be with her." "You look like you want to say something else," Jim said. "What is it?" "It's just that I don't know how all this is going to come out but it doesn't look good for my marriage," I said. "I want you to do the best you can for Nicky in this matter but I would ask you not to represent her in divorce proceedings. I know you can't represent me, that would be a conflict of interest and I sure as hell don't want my best friend sitting next to my wife during divorce proceedings. If she asks just refer her to another attorney." "No problem," he said. "I wouldn't want to be involved on either side in divorce proceedings between you and Nicky. Let me go talk to her now. I think it will be better if you don't talk to Nicky again until this is resolved. If you need to tell her something you can call me. Agreed?" I told Jim that I agreed but that I would also communicate with Nicky through her parents if necessary. Then I went up to our bedroom while Jim went into the family room to talk with Nicky. Twenty minutes later Jim called up to me from the bottom of the stairs and I went down to see what he wanted. "Eric, Nicky would like to go upstairs and pack some clothes to take with her." "I'll go into my study, then she can go upstairs and pack," I said. I wanted to ask if Nicky agreed to cooperate with the police investigation but I knew that I couldn't. Jim would tell me what he could but for the rest I would just have to wait and see what happens. While Nicky was upstairs packing her bags I sat at my desk trying to make sense out of everything that had happen that day. There had never been any indication of trouble in our marriage or had I just missed the signs? The idea that Nicky would have been in our room with another man just didn't make sense to me but that is what the evidence led me to believe. Tony was thinking the same thing even before it occurred to me. Was Nicky really having an affair? Had her lover shot me? Tony had told me that the shooter had definitely wanted me dead but he wanted me to die slowly. Why? I wonder if once I found out who shot me if that would make any more sense. The hardest thing for me to understand is why Nicky hadn't called 911 immediately. Eight minutes passed before she made that call. Was she hoping that I would die? Did she hate me that much? I refused to believe that. Nicky had always been a loving wife. Since the shooting she has done everything possible to show me how much she loved me. I supposed that guilt could have something to do with that but could it be something darker. Was she trying to convince me that she couldn't have had anything to do with my being shot? What scared me most was that I might never know the complete truth about what happened. ***** When I heard footsteps coming toward my study door I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes and turned as the door opened. Jim stuck his head in the door. "Eric, we're leaving now. You said you were going to call Nicky's father, right?" "I will call him in a few minutes. Thanks, Jim." I sat at my desk and waited until I heard the front door close. I felt like I was about to break down but I knew I had to hold myself together a little longer. I still had to call Nicky's dad and I wanted to make sure I caught him before he went to bed. No one wants to get the kind of news I was about to deliver and if he was already in bed when I called it would just make it worse. "George?" "Oh, Eric. How are you, son?" Nicky's father said. "I am improving," I said. "I am afraid I have something disturbing to tell you." There was silence on the line for a moment and then, "What is it, Eric?" "Nicky is at the Sherman Oaks police station. She is being questioned about her involvement in my shooting," I said. "Oh, my God. You can't be serious," he said. "You can't believe that Nicky would have anything to do with that." "Listen, George, I know this is a shock. It was to me also," I said. "I can't tell you any more than that right now. I just wanted to ask you to go down to the police station and be there for her. She is going to have to stay with you and Mary for a while." "Eric, I don't know what to say. There has to be some kind of mistake. Nicky loves you. I can't believe this." "I'm sorry, George. I know this is hard to accept," I said. "Will you go to the station?" "Of course. What are you going to do Eric?" he asked. "I don't know yet." "Please don't do anything rash. Wait till we find out what really happened before you make any long term decisions," he said. "I will, George, thanks." I put the phone down and lay my head on the desk and tried to push all thoughts out of my mind. This was going to be the hardest time since this all started. I didn't have time to really think about what this all meant earlier. From the moment I found the travel vouchers in the safe my mind had been kept busy by all the things I had to do. I had to call Jim and explain everything to him. I had to contact Tony and ask him to come over to the house. I had to think about how I was going to explain everything to Tony so that he would understand. After that I had to talk to Nicky's dad. Now that all of that was done and I was left by myself to ponder what had had been done to me and decide what to do about it. As hard as I tried I could not get the thought out of my mind. Nicky had a lover and he shot me. He wanted me dead so that he could have Nicky to himself. Was he planning to kill me or did he only shoot me because I showed up at the wrong moment? How long had their affair been going on? I knew that with these thoughts spinning around in my head I wasn't going to get any sleep so I took one of the pain pills the doctor prescribed for me and went to bed. The powerful painkiller put me to sleep in less than ten minutes. The Stein Ch. 02 When I got up Thursday I felt lost. How was I going to function without Nicky? I was extremely angry with her but at the same time I missed her terribly. I tried to think about what I was going to do but my mind kept going back to thoughts of Nicky's betrayal. I knew I was going to have to get past all of that but it wasn't going to be easy. The phone rang several times that morning but I let the answering machine pick up the calls. A few were from the school, wondering where Nicky was. Nicky's mother called and wanted to talk to me but I wasn't ready for that conversation. There were a few callers that left no message. I wondered if any or all of those calls might have been from Nicky's lover. Finally at five o'clock Tony called. When I heard his voice I picked up the phone. "Tony, I'm here." "Hi, Eric. How you holding up?" he asked. "Not very well?" "You got any scotch at your house?" Tony asked. "Yea, I have a bottle. Why?" "I'd like to stop over for a drink," he said. "Sure, come on over. I could use the company," I said. An hour later Tony was sitting in the winged chair opposite me swirling the ice around in his glass of scotch. "Sorry I can't tell you any more at this time." Tony said. He had just finished telling me that Nicky had cooperated and answered every question they asked her. He said that she was at the station for two hours and then they let her go home with her father. Tony said that they now knew who shot me but he couldn't tell me that until he was arrested. Apparently the man who shot me was out of state attending a meeting and was due back on Sunday. They didn't want to do anything to tip him off that they were looking for him. Tony said that they could have the police in Colorado, where he was attending the meeting, arrest him but then they would have to go through the extradition process, which could slow things down. Tony said that the assistant district attorney assigned to the case decided to wait until Sunday so they could pick the suspect up at his house. "I was all for having the Denver Police pick him up. I would rather have him behind bars waiting to be extradited than to chance him finding out we are looking for him. He might disappear if he knows we are after him," Tony said, "but I was overruled." I felt some relief that they knew who shot me but the fact that they got that information from Nicky just confirmed what I was hoping was somehow not true. Nicky was involved. Tony told me that he didn't know what Nicky had told the investigator because he was not there during her questioning. He said that even if he had been there he would not be able to discuss it with me. He said this was an ongoing investigation and he would not have been able to tell me anymore than he already had. I took a sip of my scotch and looked up at the ceiling fan as it turned slowly. "I can't quite seem to get a handle on my feelings about all this. I guess I am just confused by the whole thing," I said. "That's understandable. This will all get much clearer next week," Tony said. "You know what I would do if I were you? I would get the hell out of Dodge," he said. "What? Leave town, and go where?" I asked. "Go to the beach, go to Vegas, go to Hawaii. Just get away from here for a while. A change of scenery would do you good," he said. I thought about that for a minute and said, "You might be right. There is nothing to keep me here right now. Maybe lying on a beach somewhere is just what I need." "I'll call you if anything happens that you need to know about," Tony said. "I think I'll do that. I don't know where just yet but I will go somewhere. Thanks for the suggestion. You will call me if anything happens, right?" "I said I would, didn't I?" Tony said. Tony stayed for another hour and just chatted with me. When he first came over I thought he was trying to get information from me but it became obvious that he just wanted to talk. Before he left he got my cell phone number and told me to let him know where I was going and where I would stay. After Tony left I thought about where I might go to get away for a while. Hawaii sounded great but in my condition I didn't feel that I was up to the long plane ride. Every place I could think of was either too far to travel or not far enough away to suit me. By the time I finally went to bed I still hadn't made any decision. Friday morning I called my office to see what was happening there in my absence. I was both relieved and disappointed to find out they were functioning quite well without me. I was talking to my boss, Charlie Carson, about when I would be able to come back to work and he told me not to worry about it. "Whenever you are ready your job will be waiting for you," Charlie said. "How is Nicky holding up through all this?" "She's doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances," I said. I hadn't told him that she was involved in the shooting. At the time I felt that the fewer people who knew about that the better. "I know how hard it must be for you to just sit around," Charlie said. "What are you going to do to keep yourself occupied?" "I thought I would get out of town for a couple of weeks," I said. "Where will you go?" "I haven't decided yet. I can't go far. I can't sit comfortably for more than a couple of hours so no long car rides or plane rides." I said. "How about Vegas?" Charlie suggested. "I don't know," I said, "I thought about it but I don't think I want to stay in one of those huge hotels. I need to be able to get away by myself. It would be nice if I could have both the privacy I need and still have access to the casinos and the great restaurants." "I just might have the solution for you," Charlie said. "I have a small house in Vegas just a few miles west of the strip. I bought it a few years ago before the real estate prices went crazy over there. You are welcome to use it." "That's really generous of you but I'm not sure..." Charlie cut me off. "Actually you would be doing me a favor. We haven't been there for almost three months. I would appreciate it if you would spend some time there and check up on things for me. Make sure there are no water leaks and the air conditioner is working." "Since you put it that way, I guess I could do that. It is just a short flight and taxi ride. I'll do it," I said. "Thanks." "Good. Just a couple of things I need you to do while you are there," he said. "Sure, whatever you need." "There's an old Honda Civic in the garage. You might have to put the battery on the charger I have in the garage but I would like you to use that while you are there and then fill the gas tank before you leave. Also, before you come home I want you to pick up a case of Heineken and stick it in the refrigerator. We are going over there next month and it would be nice to have some cold beer waiting for us." "I can do that. I might even get some for myself... Thanks, Charlie," I said. "I am glad that this works out for you," Charlie said. "I'll drop the key off at your house on my way home from work tonight." I decided then that I would catch a flight to Vegas in the morning and called to make flight reservations. Later in the day I called Nicky's parents house. "Hello?" "Hi, Mary, it's Eric." "Eric, did you want to talk to Nicky?" Mary said. "No, I can't talk to her right now," I said. "Please, she really needs to talk to you." "I'm sorry, I just can't handle that right now. I just called to tell you that I am going out of town for a while," I said. "I will be leaving in the morning so tell Nicky that if she wants to come over to the house to get some of her clothes or anything else she can stop by anytime after ten tomorrow morning." "I'll tell her, Eric, but can't you speak to her yourself?" Mary pleaded. "Mary, I just can't. I am too angry and hurt right now to be able to deal with her. I'm sorry," I said. "I understand. I hope you two can work this out," Mary said. I don't know why but Mary's last comment set me off. "Work this out? For God's sake Mary, her lover shot me. That doesn't leave a lot of room for forgiveness." Before Nicky's mother could say another word I disconnected. I was in a real funk after that call. I felt bad that I treated Mary so badly and I had to admit to myself that I wished there was a way for us to work things out but I couldn't see how that could be done. I spent the rest of the day thinking about my relationship with Nicky trying to remember any little detail that might have indicated that there was a problem festering in our marriage. There was nothing. I could think of nothing that Nicky had ever done that would make me think that she was cheating on me or that there was any other problem in our marriage. To the contrary I could only think of things she had done to show her love for me. I couldn't think of any time that I was ever anything but sure that Nicky loved me as much as I loved her. How all this could have happened was a great mystery to me. I hoped that my time in Las Vegas would help me find some clarity. At 6:30 that evening Charlie stopped by the house and gave me the keys and directions to his house in Vegas. "I think you and Nicky will like the house," Charlie said. " Nicky is not going with me," I said and immediately wished that I hadn't. "She's not? Why?" Charlie asked. "She couldn't get away," was the first thing I could think of to say. "Classes start on Monday so she has to stay in town. Charlie, do me one more favor, don't tell anyone where I am... Anyone. I don't want to be disturbed." I could tell that Charlie understood what I was saying. "Don't worry, no one will know where you are unless you tell them," Charlie said. After Charlie left I called Tony and told him I was going to Vegas. "What hotel you staying at? He asked. "I am not staying at a hotel, I am staying at a friends house," I said. "Good. Who else knows where you are staying?" he asked. "Only my boss and that's only because it's his house. Why?" "I just don't want anyone to know where you are until we have our suspect in custody. I'm still not happy with the Assistant DA's decision to wait till this guy comes home to arrest him. Too many things could go wrong. I just feel that the fewer people that know where you are the better." "In that case I am glad I made a point out of telling my boss not to tell anyone where I was going," I said. "Good job," Tony said. "Have you talked to your wife?" "No. I called her mother this morning to tell her I was going away for a while. She tried to get me to talk to Nicky but I refused." "Good. I know this is difficult but it is better that you don't talk with her until we get this mess cleaned up," Tony said. "Well, I have your cell phone number so if I need to get a hold of you I can. Make sure you keep your phone with you." "Jesus, you're being a bit of a mother hen, aren't you?" "Remember what I told you. This guy didn't just shoot you in a panic. He wanted you dead and he wanted it to be slow and painful. I think that if he had another chance at you he would kill you," Tony said. "I may be wrong, but fifteen years as a cop tells me I am right. No sense taking any chances." "I will heed your warning and be careful," I said. "Anything else you want to tell me?" "Yes. The Assistant DA plans on talking to your wife again tomorrow. Is there anything you can think of that we can ask her about that might shed any light on this case?" he asked. "Tony, I thought about that all day and could come up with nothing. Nicky has never done anything that has made me the least bit suspicious of her. I can't think of anything that would help your investigation. I wish I could help. I want the answers as much as you do," I said. "I am sure you do," he said. "When are you leaving?" "I have a 9:00 AM flight out of Burbank." "Well, enjoy your... I don't know what to call this. Anyway, try and relax and get yourself strong. Some of the most painful parts of this case are still ahead and you will need to be strong to deal with them," Tony said. "Tony, I really appreciate everything you have done. It's only been two weeks since this shit storm started and the only positive thing that has happened is that I feel like I have made a new friend," I said. "You're right. You have made a friend. I usually don't get this personally involved in a case. I just hope that when this is all over you will still consider me a friend." Tony said. "I don't think that will be a problem. I value friendship and besides, I think having a cop for a friend would be a smart move on my part," I said. "You know, you're not as dumb as you look," Tony said. "I get that a lot." After the call I went up to pack for my trip. I had to take enough clothes for a two-week stay while at the same time I had to travel light. I still wasn't strong enough to handle heavy suitcases. I was able to use a small rolling bag and a small carry on. I packed mostly socks and underwear. I packed three pairs of pants three shorts and six short sleeve shirts. I knew that Charlie's house had a washer and dryer so I didn't need a lot of shirts and pants. If I needed anything more I could purchase it in Vegas. ****** At 10:30 Saturday morning I was in Las Vegas in a taxi heading west on Charleston Boulevard. The temperature that morning was already 101 degrees and climbing. When I stepped out of the terminal building it felt like a blast furnace hit me. Luckily the taxi had a good air conditioner. Charlie Carson's house was on Desert Foot Hills Drive, which is about seven miles west of Las Vegas Boulevard. When the taxi stopped in front of the house I was very surprised. Charlie had said it was a small house. I guess it was small if you consider 3500 square feet small. The house was white stucco with a red tile roof, much like most of the other houses in the area but this one just seemed more elegant. The front entrance consisted of heavy red oak double doors with stained glass windows. The doors opened into a large foyer with a stone tile floor. The air conditioner was already on and the house was a comfortable seventy-two degrees. I discovered as I explored the house that it was a smart home. A computer controlled everything. Charlie was able to control the climate control, the alarm systems and security lights remotely via the Internet. There were security cameras above the front entrance, above the garage door and in the back of the house overlooking the back door and the swimming pool. Everything was high tech. The inside of the house looked like a magazine spread in Architectural Digest. The master bedroom was on the second floor and it was huge. The room was the full depth of the house so it had windows facing both east and west. Looking out the windows to the west provided a beautiful view of the mountains. Through the windows facing east was a view of the hotels along the strip and the swimming pool in the back yard. The back of the house faced east which kept the afternoon sun off the patio and the large pool. The house momentarily lifted my spirits. As I was looking around at the beautiful home I thought, "Nicky would love this," and then the depression I had been feeling for the last three days came crashing back down on me. How could I miss her so much and at the same time feel so much anger toward her? I was there, at Charlie's house by myself because of what Nicky had done. I forced my thoughts away from Nicky and started thinking about what I was going to do with the rest of my day. The swimming pool looked very inviting but I decided that I had better take care of some other things first while I still had the energy. I knew that as the day wore on my energy level would drop significantly. That is the way it had been since I woke up in the hospital almost two weeks earlier. Each day I felt better in the mornings and got progressively weaker as the day wore on. My first objective was to get the Honda in the garage started so that I could go get some groceries. The car was ten years old but Charlie had obviously taken very good care of it. I was relieved to find that the battery wasn't dead and the car started on the first try and as I pull out of the garage I was glad that I had been paying attention as I rode in the taxi because I remembered seeing a shopping center not far from the house. It was only five blocks away and I managed to find it easily. I bought enough food, soft drinks and beer to last me a week and then headed back to the house. When I pulled the car into the garage I realized that I was drained. I barely had enough strength left to carry the groceries into the house. I managed to get the groceries put away and then poured myself a large glass of orange juice hoping that would help restore some of my energy. I made myself a sandwich and after I ate I decided to go out and relax by the pool and get some sun before it disappeared to the west side of the house. I put my swimming trunks on and went into the bathroom to remove my bandages and put on some sunscreen. When I looked in the mirror I saw the three ugly scars from the bullet wounds. I thought to myself, "What a wonderful conversation piece they make." The scars made me self-conscious so I put a shirt on before I went outside and I waited to be sure none of the neighbors could see me before I removed the shirt. The extreme heat forced me to go into the pool to cool off. Feeling refreshed I got out and lay down in a lounge chair and was nearly asleep when my cell phone rang. "Eric?" "Hey, Tony, how are you?" "Good. Listen, Eric, I have to ask you some questions if you don't mind." "No problem. Ask whatever you want," I said, although I could not imagine what he could ask me that he hadn't already asked me. "Tell me about Sarah Bowden." Tony said. "Sarah Bowden? What does she have to do with this?" I asked. "I don't know. I am hoping you can tell me," Tony said. "Sarah is a girl I knew in college." "Did you date her?" "Yes, I went out with her three or four times." "Did you have sex with her?" Tony asked. I was starting to get annoyed. "What's this all about?" "Sorry, Eric, just part of the investigation. So, did you have sex with her?" "No." "Is that why you broke up with her, because she wouldn't have sex with you?" Tony said. "No, it wasn't like that at all," I said, letting the tone of my voice show that I was getting pissed off. "We went out a few times and we both realized the relationship was going nowhere, so we stopped dating." "Were you still on speaking terms when you broke up?" "Yes, we were still on speaking terms but we didn't break up. We were never in an exclusive relationship. The relationship we had didn't last that long. Why are you asking me about a girl I dated a few times more than ten years ago." "Just something that came up in the investigation that I have to follow up on. Were you dating your wife then, too?" "No. I hadn't met Nicky yet." "Okay then tell me about your relationship with Sarah Bowden." "What exactly do you want to know?" I asked. "Why don't you start with how you met?" I took a deep breath as I tried to remember. "It was a Saturday night and I was heading back to the fraternity house after a party. I stopped to get gas at one of those gas station mini marts. While I was filling my tank a car pulled up on the other side of the pumps. There was a couple in the car and the guy was yelling at the girl. I couldn't hear what they were saying to each other but the guy was getting pretty loud. "When my tank was full I went inside the store to pay and as I was coming out the guy that had been in the other car was coming into the store." The Stein Ch. 02 "Did you know him?" Tony asked. "No. We didn't even look at each other as we passed. Anyway, when I got back to my car the girl jumps out of the other car and starts begging me to take her with me. I could see that she had a mouse under her eye and I figure her boyfriend must have hit her so I told her to get in my car and we left before her boyfriend came out of the store. "She was pretty shaken up. I asked her where she wanted to go and she asked if I would take her somewhere she could get a cup of coffee. The only place we could find open that time of night was a Denny's. We got a booth and ordered two cups of coffee and then just sat there. Finally I asked her why her boyfriend had hit her. She told me that he wasn't her boyfriend. She said that she had gone out with him twice and he suddenly became very possessive. She said that earlier that night she was at a dance and was dancing with a friend when the guy came in and grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the place. "She said that he made her get into his car and then he started accusing her of cheating on him. When I saw them at the gas station she was trying to explain to him that they weren't going steady so she could dance with or see anyone she wanted. That was when he hit her. When he went into the store to buy cigarettes she jumped out of the car and asked me to help her. "We talked for a long time that night and then I took her back to her dorm. When I dropped her off she thanked me for helping her and then kissed me. I didn't know what else to do so I asked her out on a date. "By the end of our first date I could tell that there really wasn't any connection between us. I would have ended it right then but I sensed that she wanted me to ask her out again so I did. It was on our third or fourth date that we both realized we were going nowhere. We parted as friends." "Did you remain friends?" Tony asked. "I think we would have but I just didn't see her very often after that. I saw her on campus a few times over the next month or so but never saw her after that." "Who was the guy that hit her?" Tony asked. "I don't know. I don't remember if she ever told me his name." "So, is there anything else you can tell me about Sarah Bowden?" Tony asked. "No. This is the first time anyone has mentioned her name to me since college... No, wait a minute. Nicky asked me about her once, about a year ago." "Why did she ask?" "I don't know," I said. "It was just after she came back from Germany. I had fixed a romantic dinner to welcome her home and while we were eating Nicky asked me if I knew a Sarah Bowden." "What did you tell her?" Tony asked. "The truth. That I had dated her a few times during my junior year." "And Nicky didn't tell you why she asked?" Tony said. "Nicky said that someone told her to ask me if I knew her but she wouldn't tell me who asked," I said. "Why was your wife in Germany?" "She was a chaperone for a trip for the members of the German Club at the high school where Nicky teaches." I said. "Who else was on the trip with her?" "The German language teacher Carol Stanley and her husband Jack, the European History teacher Barbara Martin and her husband Cal, guidance counselor Janice Whiten and the physical education teacher John Parker," I said. Tony's expression changed for a moment as if something I had said registered with him. "Why didn't you go with your wife?" "I was supposed to but I had to cancel out so I could go to a technical education conference in Denver that was scheduled the same week," I said. "Has your wife ever mentioned Sarah Bowden again?" "No." "So that's everything?" "Yes." "I hope so." Tony said. "What the fuck does that mean?" I said. "I don't know if this Sarah Bowden has anything to do with this case, but it is a lead I have to follow so I am just hoping that you told me everything I should know about your relationship with her," Tony said. I was hot. Was Tony insinuating that I had done something wrong with Sarah? I had thought he was a friend but now he was pulling this bullshit. "Can you tell me now why you are asking me about Sarah?" I asked. "Sorry, buddy, can't tell you anything at this time," he said. "Why are you trying to find skeletons in my closet? I thought we were friends?" "That's the problem with having a friend that's a cop. I still have to do my job," Tony said and hung up on me. Doing his job? Bullshit. Someone was trying to derail the investigation by bringing Sarah into it. I couldn't imagine how she could possibly figure into this mess. I spent the rest of the weekend relaxing. I spent a lot of time around the pool and the rest of the time reading books that Charlie had in his library. The boss was really impressing me. Who would have thought that he would have a great library in his house? I didn't think he ever read a book. On Monday I started to increase my physical activity. I took a two-mile walk in the morning and that afternoon I started swimming laps. I expected a call from Tony Monday telling me that they had arrested my shooter but he didn't call. That afternoon I called Nicky's father to see how she was doing. After saying hello I asked how Nicky was holding up. "Eric, did you know that Nicky resigned from her job?" George asked. "She quit? Why?" I asked. "She said that it was because she was worried that rumors would start up after this comes out in the news," George said, "but I think there's more to it than that." I didn't know what to think about that. Nicky loved teaching so I felt badly for her but at the same time I felt that she did this to herself. "Tell her I'm sorry that she had to quit her job." "I will, Eric," he said. I had nothing else to say so I ended the call. ***** When I hadn't heard from Tony by late Tuesday afternoon I was ready to call him but a part of me didn't want to talk to Tony. I was still a little pissed about the way he questioned me about Sarah Bowden. Wednesday morning Charlie called me. "How is the house working out for you, Eric?" he asked. "Great, Charlie. I thought you said this was a small house," I said. "It is compared to my house in Sherman Oaks," he said. "So you got the car started?" "Yes, I did and I picked up a couple of cases of Heineken but somehow I don't think they'll last till you get here. I may have to buy some more before I head home. So what's going on over there?" "Not much but there was a police detective over here asking about you first thing this morning," Charlie said. I was getting pissed again. Why the fuck was Tony snooping around where I worked? "What did he want?" I asked. "He wanted to know if I knew where you were." "He already knows where I am... Oh. Wait, no he doesn't. I told him I was staying at a friend's house but I didn't tell him whose house and I didn't tell him the address. Did you tell him where I was?" "Yes. I hope that was all right." "No problem. It's okay to tell the cops where I am," I said. Charlie and I talked for a little while longer about work and projects that he hoped I would be back to work on soon. After the call I was feeling pretty good so I poured myself a Heineken and sat in the pool and refreshed my inside and outside at the same time. When I didn't hear from Tony by five o'clock that evening I decided to drive down to the strip. I thought I would play some blackjack and then get some dinner. I was thinking of going to Bellagio but then I remembered how much Nicky liked the Bellagio and I didn't want to be reminded of her that evening. I ended up at Treasure Island instead. I played blackjack for three hours and suddenly I felt very tired. I decided to skip the idea of having dinner in one of the great restaurants on the strip and just go back to the house. I got back to the house just before nine o'clock and it wasn't until I was in the kitchen fixing a sandwich that I noticed that I had missed a call on my cell phone. I must not have heard the phone ring when I was in the casino. I checked voice mail and there was a message from Tony. It just said, "Call me," and gave me his cell phone number. I was still pissed at him so I waited till I finished eating my sandwich before I called him. "You wanted me to call?" I said when he answered the phone. "Where the hell have you been?" Tony asked. "Whoa there. What the hell is this? I don't have to check in with you. I went out tonight," I said. "Sorry to be so brusque but we have a problem. We don't know where he is?" Tony said. "You don't know where who is?" "Our suspect. He didn't return from his meeting in Denver," Tony said. "We know that he checked out of his hotel and went to the airport and got on the plane to LA but we lost him at LAX." "So the guy that shot me is still on the loose? Jesus Christ, how could that happen?" I asked. "I am sorry, buddy but this isn't my fault. If you remember, I wanted him picked up in Denver and held for extradition but I was overruled. Now he is on the loose. We don't know if he knows we are looking for him or not. We hope not. You should be safe over there and we are keeping a close watch on your wife. We don't think she contacted him but we are doing everything we can to make sure of that." "You think Nicky might have tipped him off that you were looking for him?" "I would not have thought so but now? Who knows?" "So, other than that how are you doing?" Tony asked. "I'd be doing a whole lot better if you would stop snooping around in my business and catch this guy," I said. "What do you mean, snooping around in your business?" Tony asked. "First you call me and started asking me about a girl I knew more than ten years ago and won't tell me why and then this morning you start snooping around my place of employment asking questions about me." "What are you talking about?" Tony asked. "My boss called me this morning and said that you were in there first thing this morning asking questions about me?" "Shit. It wasn't me, Eric. What kind of questions?" "It wasn't you? Did you send someone else out there?" "No." "Charlie told me the cop that came out there asked him where I was and he told him." "Oh, fuck. You need to get out of the house now. Get a hotel room somewhere and don't talk to anyone but me." Tony said. "You think he is coming here?" "I don't know but I think it's a good bet. Why else would he want to know where you are?" "Tony?" "What"? "I think it's time you tell me who the fuck this guy I," I said. "John Parker." "The high school phys Ed teacher?" "That's right. How well do you know him?" Tony asked. "I don't really know him at all," I said. Nicky talked about him a lot when he first came to the school two years ago. She thought he was going to do a good job as a phys Ed teacher and the football coach. I have never met him myself. Oh, shit... I just remembered that Nicky told me that Parker once told her that he knew who I was in college." "But you don't know him?" "I don't remember his name from my college days and I don't know if I would recognize him if I saw him," I said. Then another thought struck me. "Is Nicky having an affair with John Parker?" I could feel my chest tightening as the realization set in. How long had this been going on and how had I not had seen any indication that Nicky was cheating on me? I felt pain, betrayal, anger and stupidity all at the same time. "We are still not sure what the relationship is between Mr. Parker and your wife. We only know what she has told us so far but we don't know if it is the truth yet but we will find out," Tony said. "What has Nicky told you?" "I am sorry Eric, but I just can tell you at this time. I promise I will tell you everything as soon as I can. For now I just want you to get out of that house and find some other place to stay tonight." "He could already be here. It only takes an hour to fly from LA to Vegas," I said. "He may be there but he didn't fly. We have been watching the airports and we have been in touch with his credit card company and he has not made any charges today. If he is in Vegas he drove there. I want you to leave the house now and make sure you are not being followed. If you even think someone is following you, call me immediately," Tony said. "What can you do if I am being followed? You're in LA and I 'm in Vegas." I said. "I can get in touch with the Las Vegas police and get them to come to your assistance." "Okay, I am leaving now." I closed my phone and started turning off lights. Once I had the interior of the house dark I peeked out the windows and looked for any cars parked in the street. When I didn't see any cars on the street I went into the garage and got into Charlie's Honda. Throughout this whole ordeal I had dealt with just about every imaginable emotion but as I sat in the dark contemplating my next action, I felt fear for the first time. I started the Honda and waited for a few more seconds before I pushed the button on the remote to open the garage door. As soon as there was enough clearance under the door I drove out of the garage fast hitting the button to close the garage door, as I turned left onto the street. The Stein Ch. 03 I was two blocks from the house and there were no other cars in sight. No one was following me so I began to think that maybe it wasn't John Parker that had visited Charlie that morning. Maybe it was a cop and Tony just didn't know about it. I was waiting at the light to make a left onto the Charleston Boulevard when I saw a silver Ford Explorer turning right off Charleston on to Desert Foot Hills Drive. I took a quick look at the SUV and although I couldn't see the driver through the tinted windows I saw that the vehicle had California plates on it. Seeing California plates on a car in Nevada is no surprise but seeing a car with California plates turning on to the street where I had been staying was just too much of a coincidence for me. As I traveled east on Charleston I was trying to decide which hotel I should go to when I came upon the I-15 interchange. I made my decision in that instant. I turned right onto the ramp for I-15 South. If John Parker was in Las Vegas looking for me I was going back to LA. The ten year-old Honda performed admirably, easily maintaining speeds between seventy-five and eighty miles per hour all the way back to the 10. Things slowed down a little there but I was back in Burbank at 2:30 AM were I checked into a small hotel near the Burbank airport. I wasn't sure if it would be safe to go home because I still wasn't sure that John Parker was in Vegas looking for me. He might be watching my house. Then again he could be on his way to Mexico. I really didn't have a fucking clue as to what was going on. I sat down on the bed in my dingy hotel room and once again began to ask myself questions trying to make sense of things. Why would John Parker want to kill me? Did he want me out of the way so he could have Nicky? That was a possibility but it didn't seem to make sense. If he wanted Nicky and she wanted to be with him they sure as hell didn't need to kill me. Divorce would have been much easier. It wasn't like I had a lot of money that Nicky would inherit. Financially she would have made out just as well in a divorce. There had to be something else going on. I was beginning to wish that I had confronted Nicky with what I knew before I brought in Tony and Jim. Maybe she would have told me what this was all about. My body was aching, my head was beginning to hurt and I needed sleep. In the morning I called Tony and told him where I was. I also told him about the car I saw with California plates the night before. "What kind of car was it?" Tony asked. "It was a silver Ford Explorer," I said. "That was probably his Explorer," Tony said. "We found out late last night that Mr. Parker had parked his Ford Explorer at LAX when he flew out to Denver. We managed to get a security camera picture of him as he drove out of the parking lot Sunday evening. Where are you now?" "I am at the hotel. Room 254," I said. Forty-five minutes later Tony was at my door. When he came in he was carrying a brief case, which he set on the only table in the small room. Tony opened the brief case and took out a photograph and handed it to me. "Do you recognize him?" he asked. It was a black and white picture taken from a high angle looking down through the windshield of a car. The man in the drivers seat had dark hair and a rather ordinary face. He appeared to be rather large but it was difficult to tell from the photo. I didn't recognize him. I looked at Tony and asked, "Is this John Parker?" "That's him. Have you seen him before?" he asked. "No. He doesn't look at all familiar to me," I said. "I notified the Las Vegas Police and the Nevada State Police to be on the lookout for his car. They will arrest him if they find him and hold him for us," Tony said. "I think you'll want to watch this." Then Tony pulled videotape out of his briefcase and set the video on the table. "I'm not supposed to let anyone see this yet but I thought you should. You can't tell anyone I gave this to you." "I won't, but what is it?" "You'll just have to wait and see," Tony said. "I have to get back to the station. As you can imagine things are a little crazy since Mr. Parker disappeared." Tony was at the door ready to leave and said, "I'll call you later and we can talk." When the door closed behind Tony I looked that the television sitting on the dresser. I knew there wouldn't be a VCR there but I looked anyway. I called the front desk and asked if they had a VCR that I could rent. The guy that answered the phone said that they did have VCRs and if I wanted one he would have it sent up to my room. I was actually surprised when the VCR was delivered five minutes later. I didn't expect that level of service in that hotel. It only took me a few minutes to hook up the VCR. I loaded the videocassette into the player but waited for another minute before I hit the play button. I was a little afraid of what I was going to see. I was just ready to hit the play button when I remembered something from when I was in the hospital. I remembered waking up and hearing Nicky talking to a man as they stood by the door. She had called him John. Could it have been Parker? I thought about it for another minute and remembered what they were talking about. Nicky said, "John, you really shouldn't be here." "Does he remember what happened?" Nicky responded, "I don't know. Detective Trenca tried to question him about it yesterday but Eric was too doped up from the painkillers to give any answers." "As soon as he is able to talk to the police I want to know what he tells them." "John, please leave before he wakes up and sees you. Beside, Detective Trenca could come back at any time." John said, "Okay, I'm going, but just remember what I said." "I will. Now please leave. I just can't deal with you right now." Nicky said. "She had him in my fucking hospital room," I said out loud. I would have to be sure and tell Tony about that. Finally I took a deep breath and hit the play button. The television screen was all snow for a few seconds then the picture flipped a few times and settled down. On the screen I could see Nicky and Jim sitting at a table facing toward the camera. The room was painted a drab gray color and the tabletop was an equally drab gray. Nicky was wearing the clothes she had been wearing when she left the house with Jim a week earlier. I assumed then that the video was from that night. Jim was talking quietly to Nicky and she had her hands on the table in front of her palms down and she was staring straight ahead with no expression on her face. After a minute a door on the left side of the room opened and a man dressed in gray pants and wearing a white shirt sans tie entered the room. "Good evening, Mrs. Anderson, I am Detective Harris and I will be conducting this interview. Before we get started would you like a glass of water or do you need a bathroom break," he asked. "No, I don't need anything right now," Nicky answered in a weak monotone voice. "Fine, then let's get started." Detective Harris said. From what I could tell the video camera must have been hidden behind a two- way mirror. I got that impression because no one in the room paid any attention to the camera. I would expect that if the camera were in the room it would draw Nicky and Jim's attention. "Mrs. Anderson, I would like to start with the events that took place in your home on Friday August eighth. So if you will just answer the questions truthfully and with as much detail as possible I think we can clear this up quickly," Detective Harris said. Nicky said, "Okay." "Now Mrs. Anderson, were you in the house when your husband was shot?" Detective Harris asked. Nicky's head dropped to her chest. "Yes." "Who shot your husband?" Detective Harris asked. "It was an accident," Nicky said. "Mrs. Anderson, who shot your husband?" Detective Harris asked again. "John Parker," Nicky said in a voice just barely above a whisper. "Who is John Parker?" "He's a phys Ed teacher at my school." "Where were you when your husband was shot?" Detective Harris asked. "I was hiding in my closet." "If you were hiding in your closet, how do you know the shooting was an accident?" Detective Harris asked. "John told me what happened," Nicky said. "Okay, Mrs. Anderson, why don't you tell me what happened that afternoon." "John and I were upstairs in my bedroom when we heard the front door open," Nicky said. "I knew Eric wasn't due home because I was supposed to pick him up at the airport that evening so I was scared. I picked up the phone to call 911 but John signaled me to be quiet and he stepped out of the room to the top of the stairs and looked down. He came back into the bedroom a few seconds later and whispered that someone was snooping around downstairs and then he told me to hide in my closet until he came to get me." "How long were you in the closet?" "I don't know, a minute maybe two." Nicky said. "Then what happened?" "I heard the gun shots. I was terrified. I thought someone had shot John and I was sure they were going to find me too," Nicky said in a shaky voice. "I sat on the floor in my closet listening for any sound that might tell me what was going to happen next and then the closet door opened and John was standing there. His face was ashen. I asked him what happen as I got up off the floor. He started mumbling, 'It was an accident... It was an accident.' "I followed him to the bedroom door and he said, 'I thought I saw a gun in his hand. I panicked and shot him.' I didn't know what he was going on about until I looked down the stairs and saw Eric laying there. I ran down the stairs and screamed for John to call 911 but John was right behind me on the stairs and he said it was already too late. He said that if Eric wasn't dead yet he would be before help could arrive. "By then I was sitting at the bottom of the stairs trying to see if Eric was breathing. While I was doing that, John said, 'We have to make this look like a burglary.' "It was then that I noticed that Eric was still breathing and I told John that I was going to call 911. John grabbed my arm and told me to wait a few minutes while he tried to make this look like a burglary and then he went into the family room. I heard him throwing stuff around the room but I knew I couldn't wait any longer so I dialed 911. I was immediately put on hold. John came back into the foyer while I was still waiting for the 911 operator to answer. He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was calling 911. "John took my face in his hand and pulled it toward his face and said, 'When the police get here tell then you came home and found Eric laying there and don't tell them anything else.' "I asked him why and he said, 'The police will never believe this was an accident. They will think we killed him on purpose.' "I was so scared and confused that when the 911 operator finally came on the line I told her that I had come home for lunch and found Eric on the floor at the bottom of the stairs and that it appeared that he had been shot." "What did Mr. Parker do while you were on the phone?" Detective Harris asked. "He stood and watched me until I finished the call and then he said, 'remember to stick to the story. If you don't and the police come after me you will go down with me.'" "What did Mr. Parker do after he warned you to stick to the story?" "John did something strange. He bent down close to Eric and I thought he was checking to see if he was still alive. Then he whispered something in Eric's ear and then he left," Nicky said. "He said something to your husband? Did you hear what he said to him?" Detective Harris asked. "I am not sure but part of it sounded like 'That's for Sarah,' but I can't be sure. I could just barely hear him. "What did you think that meant?" Detective Harris asked. "I have no idea?" Nicky said. "Who do you think Sarah is?" Detective Harris asked. "I am not sure. He might have been talking about a girl Eric dated in college before we met. Sarah Bowden." "Why do you think he was referring to Sarah Bowden?" "John asked me once if Eric knew Sarah Bowden?" I could see Detective Harris writing Sarah Bowden's name on his pad and he underlined it. "We'll come back to her later," he said. "Now I would like to know about your relationship with John Parker." "What do you mean by my relationship with John Parker?" Nicky asked defensively. "Just exactly that. What was the nature of you relationship with Mr. Parker?" "John is my boss. He is a teacher at my high school." "That's your only relationship with him?" Detective Harris asked. Nicky tensed up and I saw Jim put his hand to top of hers to comfort her. "Just what are you trying to imply?" Nicky said. "I am just wondering why Mr. Parker was in your bedroom with you," he said. "Would you care to explain that? "He followed me up stairs." Nicky said. "Why was Mr. Parker at your house?" Detective Harris asked. "He went there with me after lunch." "So you had lunch together?" "Yes, with a few of the other teachers." "I will want the names of the others that had lunch with you that day," Detective Harris said. "After lunch, why did you and Mr. Parker go to your house?" "I spilled tomato sauce on my blouse so I went home to change my blouse," Nicky said. "Who drove?" "I drove." "Mr. Parker was riding with you?" "Yes." "So, when you got to your house you both went in and Mr. Parker followed you upstairs to change your blouse?" Detective Harris asked. "He didn't follow me up stairs." "You just said he followed you upstairs." Detective Harris said. "When we walked into the house John went into the family room while I went upstairs to change." "But then he came upstairs?" "Yes." "Why?" "He was carrying the beer stein he bought for me in Germany," Nicky said. I couldn't believe what I had just heard. Parker had bought that stein for Nicky. Then she had the nerve to give it to me like it was such a special gift. The acid in my stomach was beginning to churn. "That bitch." "Why did he bring the beer stein upstairs?" the detective asked. "He wanted to reminded me of our night out in Germany," Nicky said. "Why do you think he came upstairs with the stein instead of waiting until you came downstairs?" The tears were streaming down Nicky's face as she answered. "I guess he wanted me to have sex with him," Nicky said. I could feel a tingling in my spine when Nicky said that Parker followed her up stairs to have sex with her. I felt like my body was going to explode. "So then, would you describe your relationship with Mr. Parker as a sexual relationship?" Detective Harris asked. "No. I didn't have sex with him." "Was that because your husband came home and interrupted you?" Detective Harris was beginning to take on the characteristics of a pit bull. He could smell blood and he was ready to go in for the kill. Part of me wanted him to break Nicky down but part of me wanted him to go easier on her. "I was not going to have sex with John." Nicky was becoming very agitated and was having trouble controlling her temper. Jim kept whispering to her, trying to calm her down. "You said that Mr. Parker followed you upstairs to have sex with you but now you say you weren't going to have sex with him. Which is it, Mrs. Anderson?" Detective Harris asked. "He came upstairs with that damn beer stein and was trying to talk me into having sex with him but I was not going to have sex with him," Nicky said. "He was trying to talk you into having sex with him? You mean he was trying to seduce you?" "Yes... I guess so," Nicky said. "Did he have any reason to believe that you would be willing to have sex with him?" Detective Harris asked. "He kept talking about what happened in Germany and how we should..." Before I could hear the rest of Nicky's answer, the hotel room started to move. It took me less than two seconds to realize that we were having an earthquake. I quickly moved to the doorway into the bathroom to wait it out. It felt like a fairly strong quake, maybe a six. The room's large picture window cracked and then fell out of the frame and dropped into the parking lot below. A moment later the power went off. The whole event lasted less that thirty seconds but I could already hear sirens all over the city along with every car alarm in Los Angeles County. I sat down on the bed and waited for the power to come back on but it didn't. I waited more than an hour for the power to come back on but when it started to get dark I disconnected the VCR and took it down to the front desk to ask if I could take the VCR with me and return it the next day because my tape was stuck inside it. When I got to the hotel lobby I noticed that they had lights. I asked the clerk about that and he said they had an emergency generator. I asked him about taking the VCR with me and he said that he couldn't allow me to do that then he suggested that we plug the VCR into one of the outlets serviced by the generator and then I could eject the tape. Five minutes later I was in the Honda with the tape and headed to my house. I just hoped that I would have power when I got there. I called Tony and told him where I was going and why. He said that he needed to talk to me and he would meet me at the house in about a half hour. By the time I got to the house it was extremely dark outside. There was no moon that night and the power was out all over the city. Without the streetlights I could barely see my house from the driveway when I shut off the cars headlights. I picked up the videotape from the front seat of the car and headed around to the front door. It was so dark that I kept stepping off the edge of my sidewalk, nearly spraining my ankle a couple of times. At the front door I had to get down on my hands and knees to try to get the key into the lock. It was so dark that I felt that I would have an easier time getting the key into the lock if I closed my eyes and it worked. When I got the door opened and stepped inside I found that it was even darker inside. I held my hand up in front of my face but I couldn't see it. I knew that there was a powerful flashlight in the kitchen pantry. All I had to do was work my way through the foyer and along the hallway into the kitchen, a distance of about fifteen feet and then go to the right another six feet and I would be at the pantry door. Normally it would take me five or six seconds to cover that distance but in the darkness I was moving very slowly. As a child I had never been afraid of the dark but I had never encountered a blackness so profound as I found myself in that night. After thirty seconds of shuffling my feet along the floor and keeping my shoulder against the wall I reached the doorway into the kitchen. I am still not sure why I stopped there but when I did I sensed something that made the hair on the back of my neck bristle followed by the hair on my arms. It took me a few seconds to understand what had generated this increased level of fear. It was something I smelled. It hit me as soon as I got to the kitchen doorway. It was the strong sour smell of body odor and something else. For a moment I thought it might be me that smelled bad but then I recognized the other odor. It was whiskey breath. Somebody else was in the house, but who. Was someone taking advantage of the power outage by breaking into my house or was it something even more sinister. I thought over the possibilities and decided that I didn't like coincidence. I decided that it was not a looter, it had to be Parker. I was frozen in place as I listened for any sound that might give away his position. He could be right in front of me or even directly behind me. I was just hoping that Parker's night vision wasn't any better than mine and that the lights would stay off until I could figure out how to get out of the house without running into him. The Stein Ch. 03 After debating my few options I decided that my best hope was to try and get to the pantry. If I could get the flashlight I could shine it in Parker's eyes to blind him temporarily and then I could use it as a weapon. I was sure that Parker had a gun otherwise I don't think he would have come to the house. I just couldn't understand why he would take the chance to come after me. I let all of the air out of my lungs slowly and then inhaled deeply just as slowly so that I wouldn't make any noise. Then I stepped into the kitchen keeping my back against the wall and proceeded to move, using small side steps, toward the pantry door. I stopped moving about every foot to listen. I couldn't hear him but I could feel his presence in the room with me. After what seemed like an eternity I reached the pantry door. Now I was going to have to step away from the wall so that I could open the door. I felt the beginning of a panic attack. I had been taking very small breaths so I wouldn't make noise and now I felt like I couldn't get enough air. I wanted to suck in a deep breath but I didn't dare do that. This just added to my panic. I had an overwhelming urge to scream and run from the house but I couldn't. I stood still for a moment longer and then reached my right foot forward about a foot and then followed that with my left. I was about to repeat that process when I felt him. We hadn't actually touched each other but I could feel his body heat. I didn't know what to do. Did Parker know I was that close to him? I could smell his breath and his body odor was strong enough to make my eyes water. I wondered if I should step back quickly or should I take a wild swing at him and hope to connect hard enough that it would allow me time to get out of the house. Before I could make up my mind I felt his hand brush along the side of my face. "Hello, Eric." Parker said in the most malevolent voice I had ever heard. I knew instinctively that Parker had only touched me to get a better idea of where I was standing so that he could shoot me. I immediately reached out my hands and pushed him as hard as I could as I took a step to the right. I must have caught him completely off guard because he stumbled backward just as he fired the gun. The muzzle flash blinded me and the noise deafened me but the bullet missed me. I spun around quickly and found the door to the pantry and opened it. I stepped inside and closed the door behind me. I searched for the flashlight while in the kitchen Parker fired two more wild shots. I found the large heavy-duty flashlight on the top shelf of the pantry and picked it up. Then I squeezed myself as far into the corner as I could so that if Parker found the pantry door and opened it I would be out of his line of fire. As I leaned my back against the wall I kept my left hand against the edge of the door just for orientation. I thought that if Parker found the pantry door and opened it I would use the flashlight as a club and try and hit him with it. It was quiet for a few seconds than then Parker began to speak to me. "Eric, why are you making this so difficult. I have been waiting a long time for this night. Why don't you just give up and come meet your fate like a man," he said. The temptation was to call out and ask him what this was all about but I didn't think he wanted to talk, he wanted to kill me. "Come on, Eric, one bullet in the head and it's all over. Then I can go get Nicole and she and I can celebrate your death by fucking each other's brains out," he said. "You know, I have been banging that sweet pussy of hers for more than a year now." I knew what Parker was trying to do. He want to make me angry enough that I would say or do something that would let him know where I was hiding. It was working. I was having trouble controlling the rage that was building within me. Just then I felt the pantry door move. It wasn't opening it was bowed in. Apparently he was leaning against the door. "Okay, Eric, where are you?" he said in a sing song voice. "I'll bet that you didn't know that Nicole came to my hotel room while we were in Germany last year and told me that she wanted me to make love to her. She sucked my cock so well that I bought her a nice beer stein the next day. I must have tapped that juicy cunt of hers at least ten times during that trip." His words were having a definite effect on me. The only good thing was that his talking made it clear that he was leaning with his back against the pantry door. "While I was fucking Nicole the day before you were supposed to come home from Dallas, she ask me to kill you so we could be together," he said. "I was planning on doing it when she picked you up at the airport that night but you had to come home early. Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men... I guess Nicole and I will have to skip the country tonight after I kill you." At that point my rage took over. I prepared myself by taking a deep breath and then charged into the door with all my strength. The door flew open throwing Parker forward and I ran into him from behind. Our momentum carried us into the dinette set and Parker lost his balance and fell over one of the chairs with me hanging on his back. We hit the floor hard and I thought that I heard the gun slide across the floor but in the dark, I couldn't be sure. All I knew was that I was going to have to subdue this bastard somehow. I hadn't realized how big he was until I was on top of him. The fall had knocked the wind out of Parker, which gave me a moment to try and gain an advantage over him. I switched the flashlight over to my left hand and then put my arm under his right armpit and got my hand behind his head. This immobilized his right arm. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that he was left-handed. I was leaning to the left as I tightened my hold on his right arm when he shot his left elbow up hard into the side of my head. For a moment I thought I might lose consciousness. Instinctively I knew if I passed out I would never wake up. While I was waiting for my head to clear I felt his body tensing and I figured he was going to try and hit me with his elbow again. I raised the flashlight up and brought it down as hard as I could hoping that it would hit him somewhere on the arm. There was a loud crack and Parker let out a scream when the flashlight made contact. I had no idea how much damage I might have done and I wasn't taking any chances. I lifted the flashlight and brought it down hard again. This time when I made contact the flashlight flew out of my hand and skidded across the floor. Parker let out another painful scream and then he lay still. I could feel his breathing as it went from ragged to even. I began to wonder if somehow I had caused him to lose consciousness but then he spoke. "You are going to pay for that Eric," he said. "I am going to cut your balls off before I kill you and then I am going to give your balls to Nicole as a gift. When she sees them she will know you are dead. That will make her very happy." I could feel the rage building inside me but it was sapping all of my strength. Things were beginning to come into focus for me. I knew that if I didn't remain calm I wouldn't be ready when Parker made his next move. Taking advantage of the fact that Parker seemed to be taking a break from his struggles to regain some of his strength I unclipped my cell phone from my belt and opened it. The light from the display allowed me to see that Parker was laying with his face turned to the right. His left arm was flat on the floor. I couldn't tell if his arm had been injured or if he was just waiting for the right moment to go on the offensive again. It took me only a couple of seconds to find Tony's number and hit speed dial. Tony picked up on the third ring. "Tony, Parker is here in the house with me. Hurry." I said and didn't wait for Tony to respond. "Help won't get her in time to save you," Parker said. "By this time tomorrow Nicole and I will be on the beach in Rio sipping cocktails and laughing about how weak you were. I am going to make you cry before you die so I can tell Nicole what a baby you were." At that moment a thought struck me. I knew what he was trying to do and I wondered if maybe I could turn the tables on him. It was a gamble but I had to try it. I leaned down close to his ear and said, "You know, John, Sarah told me that she didn't want to be with you because she heard that you were inadequate in bed. She said she had no use for a wimp and that was why she liked me." That hit a nerve. "You shut the fuck up about Sarah," he said. "Sarah told me that girls that knew you called you jingle bells because you balls were so tiny," I said. "You're dead, you son of a bitch," he said. "You're dead, do you hear me, dead." In the light from the phone I could see that Parker was practically foaming at the mouth as he made that last threat. Suddenly I began to wonder if my last tactic had been such a good idea. Things were calm for a few seconds and then the display on my phone timed out and the light went off plunging us back into complete darkness. That's when Parker made his move. Suddenly Parker was on his knees and I was hanging on with all my strength. Somehow Parker made it to a standing position and swung his body around in a circle. I lost my grip and was thrown across the room. I knew I should try and get out of the house but in the dark I had no idea where I had landed so I didn't know which direction to go. I sat on the floor and remained as quiet as I could be. I listened for any movement by Parker. A few seconds later I heard him. It sounded like he was sliding his hand back and forth across the floor trying to find his gun. I started sliding across the floor away from Parker, hoping to find something that would tell me what part of the room I was in. I kept doing this until I felt my back hit a wall. As I slid my hand along the baseboard to try and determine exactly where I was I bumped into the spring stop for the pantry door. I now knew where I was but unfortunately, my hand had bent the spring stop and then it snapped out of my hand making a loud twang sound. I am not sure if I will ever be able to fully comprehend what happened during the next several seconds. I knew that the noise from the doorstop gave my position away and that Parker would have an idea of where I was. Before I could do anything about that there was a flash and bang as Parker fired a shot in my direction. The bullet hit just above my head and I felt the bits of drywall fall on me. I figured that he must have thought I was standing up but the flash from the gun would have shown him that I was sitting on the floor. I was afraid the next shot would be on target. My ears were ringing from the first shot so it was difficult to make out the other noises I was hearing. It sounded like someone was shouting and I figured it was Parker yelling at me again. A second later Parker was illuminated in a bright light. I could now see Parker sitting on the floor facing me. He was only about seven feet away from me as he raised his gun and pointed it at me. I heard more shouting and then three gun shots. Parker seemed to have been knocked over backward. I was staring at Parker's prone body as a puddle of blood was starting to form on the floor next to him. As the realization of what happened started to sink in I turned my head to the right and was blinded by what appeared to be three flashlight beams. A uniformed police officer carrying a flashlight, stepped forward and moved quickly over to Parker. He kicked Parker's gun away and then checked his neck for a pulse. "He's still alive sir," the officer said. Then another uniformed officer started talking into his radio. I was still in a daze when Tony Trenca squatted down next to me. "Are you all right Eric?" he asked. "Do you have any injuries?" "No. He missed," I said, "but I don't think he would have missed the next time. Thanks for saving my ass. Which one of you shot him?" "We all did," Tony said. ***** By the time Parker had been taken away in an ambulance I had already told the story of what happened to three different detectives, each of them telling me how lucky I was afterward. As if I didn't know that. After most of the other police had left Tony and I sat down in the family room and talked. I looked at Tony and said, "I don't understand this, why was he so set on killing me all of a sudden?" "It was an obsession. I think that he felt that you took something that belonged to him and he wanted revenge," Tony said. "This wasn't about Nicky, was it?" "No. He was using her to get to you," Tony said. "Sarah Bowden?" "Yes. Her name came up a couple of times during your wife's questioning so I tracked her down. It's Mrs. Cooper now. She is married and lives in Phoenix. I talked to her by phone just before I came over here." "What did you find out from her?" I asked. "I asked Mrs. Cooper if she knew you and she said that she did and she told me the same story you told me about how you met and that you dated three times and both of you decided it was going nowhere. Then I asked her about John Parker. She was quiet for a while and I had to prompt her again to get her to answer the question. "She said that John Parker was the guy she was with the night you met her at the gas station. She said that after that night she didn't see him for a couple of months and then he called her. He told her he was sorry for the way he behaved and gave her a big speech about how sorry he was and then asked her if he could come over to her apartment just to talk to her for a few minutes. "She made the mistake of thinking he was sincere and let him come over. She said that when Parker got to her apartment he behaved like a perfect gentleman for a little while and then suddenly told her how angry he was that she had run off on him that night. He told her that she was his and nothing was going to change that. Then she said that he tried to rape her. "She got away from him and got her phone and was ready to dial 911. Mr. Parker told her to go ahead and call. He said that he would just tell the police that the two of them were about to have sex when she suddenly changed her mind. Since there had been no penetration the police would probably believe him and she might be in trouble for making a false police report. "Mrs. Cooper said she realized that it would be difficult to prove anything and all she wanted was to get him out of her apartment. She said that as he was leaving, Mr. Parker told her that he was going to take care of her boyfriend and if he saw them together he would kill both of them. Mrs. Cooper said that she wasn't dating anyone at the time so she figured that he was telling her that he didn't want her dating anyone. She said that if she had known that the threat was specifically aimed at you she would have let you know. She said it didn't occur to her because the two of you had stopped dating more than a month before her encounter with Mr. Parker. "Mrs. Cooper said that Mr. Parker started calling her several times a week so she finally withdrew from school and moved to Phoenix without leaving a forwarding address." "And he never found her in Phoenix?" I asked. "No. There was only one person at USC that knew where Mrs. Cooper went when she left school at mid semester and Mr. Parker didn't know her. I found that friend and through her found Mrs. Cooper's parents and they helped me get in touch with her." "I hope Parker gets locked up for a long time. I would hate to think that he might come looking for me when he gets out of prison," I said. "I don't expect you will ever hear from Mr. Parker again. The chances of his surviving his injuries are very slim. He already appeared to be in a coma when he left here." I wasn't sure how I felt about that. Certainly not happy but maybe relieved. "Sorry, buddy but your house is a crime seen again," Tony said. "You will have to leave things where they are until we are done. It won't take long. Internal Affairs will want to come by in the morning. It's required after an officer involved shooting. In this case it was three officers involved. You should have you house back by noon tomorrow." "Can I stay here tonight?" I asked. "I don't want to have to go out and find a hotel tonight." "I don't think that will be a problem, just don't touch anything in the kitchen until the investigation is complete," Tony said. "I won't touch anything, I just want to go to bed." "Did you finish watching the video?" Tony asked. "No. I was interrupted by the earthquake." "Oh, right. You did tell me that. Just make sure you never tell anyone I gave you that copy and after you watch it get rid of it. Throw it away or record over it," Tony said. "What will happen to Nicky?" I asked. "I don't know," Tony said. "That's up to the DA's office. I wasn't there when your wife was questioned and I haven't seen the tape of her interview yet. I was going to review it last week but didn't have time. She did cooperate. If she told the truth and they believe her she might not be charged with anything," Tony said. We stood up and Tony said, "I had better go now. I'll let you know if I hear anything about your wife one way or the other." I walked Tony to the door. "Thanks, Tony. I guess I owe you a scotch." I said. "At least two," Tony said on his way out. ***** Standing alone in my family room I thought about the things that Parker had been saying to me. Was any of it true? I had already heard Nicky say that Parker had bought the beer stein for her so he had been telling the truth about that. Did Nicky have sex with him while they were in Germany? Had he really managed to seduce her into having an affair with him in his quest to get to me? It was hard for me to believe that Nicky would have done that but I knew Nicky had lied to me about buying the stein. How many other lies had she told me? I thought about watching the rest of the video but I was just too exhausted. I decided I would watch it the next day. That night I slept restlessly. My dreams will filled with images from the past three weeks. Some of the images were of actual events and some were nightmare images of things conjured up by my deepest fears and darkest thoughts. I awoke Friday morning to the sound of my doorbell ringing. I put on a robe and went down to answer the door. There were two men at the door in plain brown suits. For a moment I wondered if they bought their suits at the same place Tony had bought the suit he was wearing the first time I met him. The two men identified themselves as detectives from the Internal Affairs Department and that they had come to look at the scene of the shooting. One of them asked me if I or anyone else had touched anything in the kitchen since the shooting. I told them that no one had been in the kitchen since the investigators had left the night before. They asked me to tell them what had happened and when they finished questioning me about the shooting I went back upstairs to take a shower and they finished their investigation in my kitchen. When I came back downstairs the two IAD guys were ready to leave. They said that they were done and I could clean up the mess now. After they left I called the same company that I called to cleaned my blood off the floor in the foyer and they said they wouldn't be able to get there until after noon on Monday. I told them that would be okay and made the appointment. By 11:00 AM power had been restored to parts of the city and fortunately that included most of Sherman Oaks. With the power on I decided to make a pot of coffee and then watch the rest of Nicky's interview. I looked around the kitchen but didn't see the video tape anywhere. I tried to remember what I had done with the tape when I came into the house the night before but I couldn't remember. I went out to the car but it wasn't there either. Then it occurred to me that the IAD guys might have found the tape in the kitchen and took it with them. There was no label on the tape so unless they checked it out on my VCR they wouldn't know what was on it. Had I dropped the tape on the floor when I pushed Parker? If the IAD guys had found the tape on the floor in the kitchen they might have thought it was important. The bottom line was that the tape was gone and there was nothing I could do about it. I would have to alert Tony so he could cover his ass. I didn't want him to get in trouble for giving me a copy of Nicky being questioned. The Stein Ch. 03 Without the tape to look at I didn't know what to do with myself. I felt very alone. I wanted Nicky home with me. I missed her terribly and I wondered if we would ever be together again. Then some of the things Parker had said to me began to eat at my psyche. How could Nicky have been involved with this man? I was beginning to see that none of this could have happened unless Nicky had been involved with Parker in some manner. Whether she had a brief affair with him while they were in Germany or if it had continued even after they came back home didn't matter. Either way our marriage was over. I still couldn't believe that Nicky wanted me dead. I would never believe that. My mood was becoming quite foul and I decided my coffee needed some strengthening so I went to the pantry to get my bourbon. I looked over at the bloodstain on the floor as I walked to the pantry to get the bourbon. For a moment I thought I saw Parkers face staring at me from the dark red puddle. I shuddered a little as I turned away to open the pantry. I could still feel the chill in my spine as I stood staring at the amber liquid in the bottle of Maker's Mark and for the first time I said out loud, "I hope that bastard is dead." For a moment my eye was drawn to the shelf where the flashlight had been the night before. "Oh, yes, now I remember," I said to myself. Then I turned around to see if the flashlight was still on the floor. It wasn't. I guess that had been taken as evidence. The rest of the day was spent weighing everything I knew to come up with a plan of action for how I was going to deal with Nicky. That evening Tony stopped by to collect the two drinks I owed him. He told me that John Parker had remained in a coma until 12:45 PM and then succumbed to his wounds. I poured Tony another scotch as it was evident he needed it. He was trying to act like it was no big deal but I could tell that taking a man's life, even if it was justifiable, was a heavy burden for Tony to carry. We discussed his feelings about the shooting even though he said he didn't want to talk about it and then he gave me the other news he had for me. "I talked to the Assistant DA and she said that they are not going to press charges on your wife," Tony said. "She said that Mrs. Anderson cooperated fully with the investigation and they didn't believe she was materially involved with the attempts on your life by Mr. Parker." I was glad that Nicky was out of that mess but I still had to decide what I was going to do about Nicky. Tony told me more about his discussion with the Assistant DA and what she told him the reasons were for not filing charges against Nicky. As I listened to Tony I began to feel a strange sensation in my body. It was almost as though my body was losing weight as I sat there. Part of my mind was concentrating on what Tony was telling me and another part of my mind was deciding what I was going to do about my marriage. ***** By ten o'clock Saturday morning I was in the Honda on my way over to Nicky's parents house. George met me at the door and asked me how I was and then led me into the living room where Mary and Nicky were sitting. "We heard what happened on the news last night," Mary said. "That must have been terrible for you." Nicky started crying and said, "Why didn't you call yesterday and tell us what happened?" "I am sorry. I should have called but yesterday was a miserable day and I really didn't want to talk to anyone," I lied. Actually it wasn't a complete lie. I just wasn't ready to talk to Nicky. Then watching Nicky for her reaction I said, "Did you know that Parker died from his wounds?" Nicky looked down at her hands and was shaking her head as her eyes filled with tears again. George said, "Yes. It was on the news last night. There is no sorrow for him is this house." Nicky looked up at me and said, "I am not crying for him, Eric, I am crying because of what he did to us." "I can't understand what would make a man behave that way," Mary said. "Eric, did you know that the DA's office called yesterday? They said that they aren't going to charge Nicky with anything." I looked over at Nicky. "Yes, I heard. That's good news," I said Nicky smiled at me but didn't speak. "Mary, I just want to tell you and George how much I appreciate your help and support during this very stressful time," I said. Then looking at Nicky I said, "This has been difficult for all of us." Nicky got up off the sofa and walked over to me and stood directly in front of me and asked, "Can I come home with you?" "No. I am not going home." "Not going home? Where are you going?" Nicky asked as she looked at me wide eyed. "I have to take Charlie's car back to his house in Las Vegas." I said. Nicky's water works were starting again but she was trying to put on a brave front. "I don't understand. Charlie lives in Sherman Oaks, why do you have to take his car to Las Vegas?" Nicky asked. I put my hands on both sides of her face and looked directly into her beautiful eyes and said, "I'll explain it all to you on the way to Las Vegas." Nicky was wiping the tears from her eyes as she asked, "You want me to go to Vegas with you?" I leaned forward and kissed Nicky on the forehead. "Yes, of course I want you to go with me," I said. Nicky wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly. "George, I need a favor. I have people coming over to clean the mess in the kitchen on Monday. Do you think you could go over there and house sit while they work?" "No problem. What time should I be there?" "Around noon," I said. "If you don't mind, Nicky and I have to leave now." George and Mary walked us to the door. It was impossible for them to hide the smiles on their faces. They were happy to see Nicky and me back together. "We need to stop back at the house so I can pack some clothes," Nicky said as we walked to the car. "I have already packed everything you'll need," I said. "So you knew before you got here that you were going to take me with you?" "You are my wife. The woman I love, why would I go anywhere without you?" I said. Nicky grabbed me and kissed me on the mouth. "You're the man I love." For the first forty-five minutes of the trip Nicky didn't say much. She just sat quietly with a smile on her face. When we reached the interchange from I-10 to I-15 Nicky started to talk. "You packed my clothes? What did you pack?" she asked. "I packed underwear, especially the panties and bras I like to see you wear, a few shorts and tops, your black cocktail dress, your bikini and your one piece bathing suit. I also packed your sandals and the black heels that go with your cocktail dress. I threw all of your makeup into a bag also. Anything else you need you will have to buy." Nicky kissed me on the cheek and we began to talk about things the way we always had. After a while Nicky sat back and seemed to relax but I started to become aware of a mood change. I could see that Nicky was becoming more somber and I finally had to ask her what was wrong. "Eric, I am so sorry about everything that happened. I need to tell you everything so you'll understand that I love you and that there was never anything between John and me. I am just afraid that you might not trust me anymore and if that's true it could ruin our marriage. I want you to ask me any questions you might have. I will tell you anything you want to know so please talk to me." "I do have one question that I would like to know the answer to. This is important so I need to know the truth," I said. Nicky turned toward me. "No matter what you ask me I promise to tell you the truth," he said. "Okay then. Nicky, did you..." Nicky started shaking her head no before I even could finish the question. "Did you break the beer stein?" I asked. Nicky's head was still shaking as I completed the question. "No... Wait...What? Yes, yes I did," she said. "That is not a question I expected," "Obviously." "Do you want to know why I broke it?" Nicky asked. "No. I already know," I said. Nicky looked at me with a question in her eyes. "Nicky, I love you and trust you completely. I now know everything I need to know in order to move on. This topic needs no further discussion, at least not until we get back home next week. I just want to spend the next several days enjoying the fact that were are together again," I said as I reached over and took Nicky's hand in mine. Nicky was all smiles the rest of the way to Charlie's house. When we got to the house I took a quick look around to see if there was any evidence that Parker had broken into the house the night I left Vegas. I found no evidence that Parked had been there. I began to wonder if he had seen me leaving that night. He knew what I looked like so he might have recognized me when we passed each other. When we walked into the house Nicky looked around and said, "This is much better than staying at one of the strip hotels." While Nicky gave herself a quick tour of the house I retrieved two cold Heinekens from the refrigerator. Nicky was in the master bedroom looking out at the pool in the back yard when I handed her a beer. "Do you want to change into your bikini and hit the pool?" I asked. "Yes, but first I want us both to take off our clothes and then I want to make love to you." I must say that I liked Nicky's direct approach. We stood facing each other as we began to strip. When I removed my shirt and Nicky saw my scars she began to cry. I had to go to her and put my arms around her until she calmed down. I kissed her several times and told her everything was going to be all right. "It's just that when I see those scars I can't help but feel responsible for them," Nicky said. "Nicky, listen to me," I said. "You were not responsible for what Parker did. The reason he tried to kill me had nothing to do with you." Nicky looked at me in disbelief. "Parker was obsessed with Sarah Bowden. He had a grudge against me ever since I helped her get away from him the night I met her. I didn't know him and I didn't know about his obsession until a couple of days ago. I'll tell you the whole story later but for now I just want you to know that none of what happened to me was your fault. It was all Parker. If he hadn't shot me that day on the stairs he would have done it some other time and he might have been more successful. So let's just make love and forget about John Parker for a while," I said. Then I picked Nicky up and carried her to the bed where I finished removing her clothes. As soon as I had her naked I striped off the rest of my clothes and joined Nicky on the bed. "Are you up to this?" Nicky asked. "I almost lost you once. I certainly don't want you to have a heart attack during sex. You are going to need all the strength you have to survive the loving I am going to give you." "I am willing to risk it. Let's see what you've got," I said and then kissed Nicky. Nicky forced me to roll onto my back. I have to admit I didn't exactly resist her. She kissed my face several times and then started down my neck to my chest. Nicky stopped for a moment and looked into my eyes and said, "Eric, I love you," and then she gently kissed each of the scars on my chest before sliding down and taking my swollen member into her mouth. Nicky brought me near climax twice with her mouth and then she straddled my hips and took my cock inside her hot sex and rode us both to orgasm. When we had both recovered from our orgasms I kissed Nicky and said, "That was great, but if you plan on doing me in with sex you are going to have to do better than that." "The day is still young, buster, so you better take some vitamins," Nicky said. We spend the rest of the day relaxing around the pool and that evening Nicky made dinner from the groceries I had purchased the previous weekend. It was just spaghetti with Ragu sauce and a bottle of red wine but we made it a romantic dinner. We made love again that night and then sat up in bed as we looked out the window at the lights from the strip and just talked to each other. ***** EPILOG I would guess that many of you readers are wondering how I was able to completely trust Nicky again. Was I ignoring all of the negative possibilities? No. Let me explain. After the investigators from IAD left the house on Friday you will remember that I had decided that I wanted to add something stronger to my coffee. When I went to the pantry to get the bourbon I happened to look up at the shelf the flashlight had been on before I grabbed it. Of course the flashlight was no longer there but in its place was the videotape of Nicky's interview at the police station. So along with my bourbon and coffee I watched the rest of the tape. When I loaded the tape in my VCR and hit play it started just after the last part that I remembered seeing so I backed the tape up a little and hit play. Detective Harris said, "He was trying to talk you into having sex with him? You mean he was trying to seduce you?" "Yes... I guess so," Nicky said. "Did he have any reason to believe that you would be willing to have sex with him?" Detective Harris asked. "He kept talking about what happened in Germany and how we should finish what we started that night." "Mrs. Anderson, why don't you tell me about what happened between you and Mr. Parker in Germany?" Nicky spoke to Jim for a moment and then said, "We went to Germany as chaperones for the German club. The club members had been invited to visit Germany by a school in Munich. Our students stayed with families of the students of the host school. The seven chaperones stayed at a local hotel. "On our last full day there we took the students out to shop for souvenirs. I was looking in the window of a store that sold all kinds of collectables. At first I was looking at the Hummels. I had often wanted to start collecting them but they are so expensive. Next to the Hummels I spotted a German beer stein. As soon as I saw it I knew it was something that Eric would like." "Why would you husband like the stein?" Detective Harris asked. "Eric has a small collection of beer mugs and steins but nothing as nice as the one I was looking at in the store window." "Okay, continue then." "I could see the price tag on the stein and I calculated that the price in dollars would be more than one hundred dollars. Just then John came over and asked me what I was looking at. I told him that I liked the beer stein but it was too expensive. After that we rounded up the students and took them back to the school to be picked up by their hosts. "That evening the chaperones were invited out to dinner by a few of the teachers at our host school. When I was getting ready to go out John came to my room and said he had a gift for me and handed me an unwrapped box. Inside the box was the beer stein I had been looking at. I told John that I couldn't accept such an expensive gift but he insisted. He said it was a thank you for all the help I had given him as he got settled in at our school. "Part of me knew that I shouldn't accept the gift but part of me wanted it because I knew Eric would like it. So, I thanked John and we headed off to meet the other chaperones in the hotel lobby. "We had dinner at a restaurant near the hotel and then our hosts took us to an authentic Bier Haus. There was an Um Pa band playing and our host started teaching us to dance some German folk dances. We were having a great time and I had too much to drink so that by the time we left to go back to our hotel I was feeling pretty good. John held my arm as we walked and I assumed that he was just making sure that I didn't stumble on the cobble stone sidewalk. "When we got back to the hotel John escorted me to my room and when I opened my door he pulled me to him and kissed me. It surprised me and I am afraid I didn't react so he kissed me again and for a moment I kissed him back and then I realized what I was doing and I pulled away from him. I told him what he did was inappropriate and I should never have let him kiss me the second time. He said that he wanted me and that he knew that I wanted him also. I told him he was wrong and then I pushed him back into the hall and I closed me door." "Was that the end of it? Did Mr. Parker leave you alone after that?" Detective Harris asked. "Pretty much. The next day John apologized for his behavior and blamed it on how much he had had to drink the night before. He behaved himself the rest of the time." "So you didn't have sex with Mr. Parker?" "No. I have never had sex with Mr. Parker. I love my husband and I have never cheated on him and I never will." "When you came home, what did your husband say about the beer stein that Mr. Parker gave you?" "I didn't tell Eric that John gave me the stein. I told him that I bought it for him. It made me happy when I saw how much Eric liked the stein but then it struck me that I had just lied to Eric for the first time in our marriage and I began to cry. I almost told him the truth then and now I wish I had." "After the trip did Mr. Parker try to get you to go out with him or suggest that you have an affair with him?" Detective Harris asked. "He would flirt with me occasionally but he never did anything terribly inappropriate." "What do you mean by terribly inappropriate?" "Well, the flirting was inappropriate but not offensive. He never suggested that we go out or anything like that and he never suggested that we have sex, that is until the day of the accident." "Why do you say it was an accident?" "John wouldn't have shot Eric on purpose. He shot Eric by accident." "Mrs. Anderson, the shooting was no accident. Mr. Parker knew your husband, he had enough time to identify him on the stairs before he shot him. There is no way Mr. Parker would not have seen that your husband was carrying his bags upstairs and that he did not have a gun." "No, that can't be. He wouldn't have done that on purpose." Nicky cried. "Mrs. Anderson, when you were hiding in the closet did you hear the gun shots?" "Yes." "Can you describe what you heard?" Detective Harris asked. "The first shot was very loud and then a few seconds passed and the next two shots were not quit as loud," Nicky said. "Do you have any idea why there was a delay between the first shot and the last two?" "No. I never really thought about it." "Mr. Parker waited at the top of the stair until Your husband reached the landing and had turned so he was facing Mr. Parker." Detective Harris said. "Mr. Parker then shot your husband in the chest. Mr. Anderson then fell down the stairs landing on top of his luggage. Mr. Parker then walked down the stairs and stood over him and shot him two more times in the abdomen. It was apparent from Mr. Parkers actions that he wanted your husband dead and he wanted it to be slow and painful." Nicky's head dropped onto the table and she was sobbing. Jim pulled her up and hugged her and said something to help her calm down and then Jim asked if someone would bring Nicky a glass of water. Detective Harris gave Nicky a chance to recover while they waited for the water. "Now, Mrs. Anderson, can you think of any reason that Mr. Parker would want to kill your husband?" Detective Harris asked. Nicky shook her head. "I can't believe he would do that and I certainly don't know why he would." "Is there anything else you can tell me that might help us understand why Mr. Parker would want to shoot your husband?" "I can't think of anything except that now I am wondering if this has anything to do with Sarah Bowden," Nicky said. "Why do you think this has something to do with Ms. Bowden?" "I don't know. It's just that while we were in Germany, John told me to ask Eric if her remembered Sarah Bowden but then he wouldn't tell me why he wanted me to ask him."