6 comments/ 11458 views/ 3 favorites The Lazarus Syndrome By: Cromagnonman This is the third in my Gerry Pretty serious of detective stories and it sort of comes full circle. CM In the back of the LJ Bar, hidden behind cases of booze, is a room that very few people know about. This is the headquarters of the thriving Pretty Detective Agency and where I spend some of my day when I'm not detecting or helping out in the bar. Today I was doing neither, the bar was yet to open and I was waiting for my next detecting job. Thriving has not been an apt description of the agency for about a month now, and I was bored at my inactivity. But this was about to change. Lou Callaway, my cop friend and now husband of the ex Dolores Pretty, walked through the bar without stopping for a beer, he was a man on a mission. "Have you heard the news Gerry?" "What news?" "Benny the Bookie's lawyer has pulled a rabbit out of his hat and Benny has just been released from jail and he's looking for you. He isn't happy about spending the year and a half inside and he's blaming you for that." "Now why would he want to blame me? I was merely doing my civic duty in providing the evidence that the police used to convict him of a crime that he'd been bragging about for weeks. If he'd kept his yap shut he wouldn't have been arrested." "He doesn't see it that way, he's now saying that he didn't kill anyone and that you set him up. I just thought that I should warn you, that's all." "Thanks for that Lou." I took the bottle from my top drawer and poured him a shot of rye and one for myself. "I'm not going out there looking for trouble but if comes looking for me then he deserves everything he gets. I don't think he'll try anything without Nigel to do the dirty work for him. (Nigel was the man mountain with the midget IQ that was sent up the river for beating half to death Tony Goode (my former partner in the Pretty Goode Detective Agency). Tony deserved it and so did Nigel, although to be fair, Nigel was only obeying instructions from Benny, he didn't have the brains to figure out that Tony needed to be roughed up. Lou had only been gone some ten minutes when Paula came through on the squawk box. "Phone for you Gerry, says his name's Benny." I thanked her and picked up the phone. "Benny, so it's true, you're back home from your vacation." "Yes, it is true. I've been talking to your friend Lieutenant Callaway and he has advised me to desist from seeking retribution against you for your contribution to my vacation. The thought never entered my head for one minute and to show that there are no hard feelings on my part, I thought that I should invite you over to my office just to catch up on old times. Shall we say in one hour?" I don't know what possessed me to agree to meet him, maybe it was boredom, but I did. I rang the cab dispatcher, I needed someone to cover my back and Eddie O'Halloran was perfect for the job. Before he became a hack he was a cop and had helped me out on a number of occasions as well as providing me with cheap transport. An hour later we pulled up outside Benny's office. Standing at the door was Nigel the 2nd, the new gorilla. I walked up to him and introduced myself. While this was sinking in I told him that Benny was expecting me and walked straight past him before the light went on in his brain. Benny was in the same huge chair that he sat in the last time I came calling, and like that time he didn't shake the hand I held out to him. "Mister Pretty, I hope that you are in perfect health. I must say that I underestimated you the last time that our paths crossed, I assure that this will not happen again." "I understand you feelings towards me but if you look back at our previous encounter you'll remember that I didn't do anything to you. Was it me that was telling people that I was responsible for offing Andy Jones? Was it me that decided to stop my former partner Tony Goode from doing his canary impersonations to the cops? No, I did not do those things, so when Andy's body turned up as a floater in the river and the evidence pointed to Tony's involvement in his disappearance, and he fingered you as being the one who asked him to make sure that the stiff wasn't found, was that my fault?" "I don't really care whose fault it was Mister Pretty, but if you recall, I had warned you that if you did anything that interfered with my operations I would be most displeased and I would show my displeasure in, for you, a most painful way." He pushed a button on his desk and sat back and waited, and waited. When Nigel the 2nd failed to materialize he became concerned. There was a knock on the door. "Enter." Nigel the 2nd was propelled into the room and crashed into Benny's desk, sending stuff flying onto the floor. Eddie smiled at me as he followed the gorilla at a more sedate pace. "They don't teach these goons manners anymore. He tried to stop me coming in." "It would seem that Benny is not as good a judge of muscle as he is of horse flesh." I looked at Benny, he wasn't as cocky as he had been. "Now you were just telling me what you had planned for me, so it's only proper that I should tell you what I have planned for you. Nothing, I have nothing planned for you because I'm not going to waste any energy on you and, as long as you keep away from me, I'll keep it that way. Do I make myself clear?" Benny just glared at my back as Eddie and I left. "I don't trust him not to do anything." Eddie said as we climbed into his cab. "Neither do I, neither do I. Let's just hope that he's as successful this time as he was the last time, in the mean time we should watch our backs and unfortunately, after that little show of strength, you're included." "Don't worry about me Gerry, I can take care of myself." "I know you can, just making you aware of what might happen." He dropped me off at the end of the lane as usual and headed off to earn some money. I walked into the bar to be met by a puzzled expression from Paula our barmaid. "Where's Laura Lee, isn't she with you?" "No, why should she be?" "She got a call not long after you left and told me that she was going to meet you." "Did she say where this was supposed to happen?" "No." I couldn't think of anywhere else she could have gone or anyone else she would be meeting. Benny's words rang one of those huge Japanese gongs in my head and all sorts of horrible things went through my head. Where to start? That was the question and I had no answer for that. I went back to my office out back and sat down, willing myself to think. When that failed I rang Lou. "Hi Lou, you haven't seen Laura Lee in your travels have you?" "Why are you asking me? I've been stuck here all day trying to get on top of my paperwork. Don't tell me that you've mislaid her somewhere." "I hope not, it's just that not long after I went off to visit Benny she got a call and took off. All she said to Paula was that she was going out to meet me. I didn't call her and I also hadn't made any arrangements to meet her. I don't know what to do or where to start." "Why don't you take a seat and try to relax. You never know she might waltz in through the door all smiles with a present for you." "I won't be able to relax until she comes back." "Just try. I'll put feelers out and if I hear of anything I'll call you." "Thanks Lou." I hung up but relaxation didn't come easy, in fact it didn't come at all. Paula came in to ask if I could give her a hand behind the bar, so I followed her out and began pouring drinks, but my heart wasn't in it. An hour later the phone rang and this voice said. "Mr. Pretty, I want to hire you to find Andy Jones." "But he's dead and buried." "I think not. Your fee for this job will be the return of Laura Lee Jones. Don't worry, we will keep her in good health, although she may not be very comfortable. The sooner you find the elusive Mr. Jones the sooner your lady will be released." "How do I contact you when I find Lazarus, I mean the dead Andy Jones?" "You will call this number." He recited a number that I wrote in my little Private Detective's note book. "You will call this number at the same time every day and tell me that you've found him or at least are very close to finding him." "I don't know how successful I'll be, after all the police said that the body that they fished out of the river was that of Andy Jones and the Coroner said that the body was that of Andy Jones and Laura Lee said that it was Andy and the insurance companies are convinced that it was him, and you now tell me that it wasn't and that he's still alive. Can I speak to Laura Lee?" "Gerry, listen to me, don't do what they say, it's best to let sleeping dogs . . . . ." There was the sound of a slap and a sob and the line went dead. I rang Lou straight away. "Lou, I've just had a call from someone who has Laura Lee, and he says that he'll release her if I find Andy Jones for him. He's seems convinced that the body that you fished out of the river wasn't the late lamented Andy." "We have no doubts as to the identity of the deceased and we're not going to dig it up just because someone thinks otherwise. This person that you spoke to, did you recognize the voice?" "No, he disguised his voice with a handkerchief." "The best that I can do is to go and have a chat with our mutual friend Benny. In the mean time you just sit tight and don't run off half-cocked." I rang the cab company and Eddie was around in five minutes. "Someone has taken Laura Lee and the only thing that I can think of is to try and trace her movements after she left here. Can you speak to your dispatcher and see if she called for a cab a couple of hours ago." "Sure thing Gerry, I'll give you a call if I find out anything." I went back to pretending to tend the bar until the trade dropped off and then I went upstairs and had a look through Laura Lee's papers to see if there was anything there that would point me in the right direction. I picked up her address book and began to leaf through it and it wasn't until I reached the 'L's' that I came across something very interesting. The number against Lucy's name wasn't an overseas number at all, it was in Vermont. I was tempted to ring it just to hear her voice again but thought that Andy might answer. Andy answer, Andy. I was going to have to take a trip to Vermont and confront them and, if he'd agree which I doubted, Andy could rise from the dead and I could save Laura Lee. I was just about to stretch my friendship with Eddie by asking him if he would drive me to Vermont when he called. "Gerry I found the hack that picked Laura Lee up from the bar. He told me that he drove her to a warehouse in the garment district, he said that she was acting really worried, she kept on asking him to drive faster. When he dropped her off she almost ran to the door of this building." "Did he say which building?" "I'll pick you up in five minutes and take you there." He was good as his word and five minutes later we were on our way. I resisted the temptation to ask Eddie to drive faster, he was going plenty fast enough and in no time at all he pulled in to the kerb across from the building. "That's the joint." We looked at it and were not pleased at what we saw. The paint, what there was of it, was weathered to a dirty gray color and there used to be a sign that announced to the world the name of the business that once occupied the site. Now I expected little more than an infestation of rats, some of which were holding Laura Lee hostage. "I guess we'd better check to see if there's a rear entrance, we can hardly stroll up and knock on the front door, can we?" I said. "I don't see why not. You check out the back while I'll wait a few minutes and then knock on the door, if someone answers I'll just say that I was sent to pick up a fare." "Okay. Give me five minutes and then knock, hopefully I'll have found another entrance and a way in." I found a way in and crept towards where I could hear voices. There were at least two men and a woman and they sounded as if they were good friends, not a couple of kidnappers and the kidnapped. As I edged even closer I had to stop and listen because I recognized Laura Lee's voice. "What do you think that Gerry will do?" "He's a smart guy and I think that he knows where Andy is. Whether he brings him here is another thing, it depends on how much he loves me and my money. My guess is that we'll see Andy soon." Wait a minute. There's something fishy here, she knows that Lucy is in Vermont and not England as I'd been led to believe, but she still thinks that Andy's dead, or does she? What if that wasn't Andy at all that I'd spoken to and who I'd encouraged to skip the country with Lucy? The 'what if's' were piling up at an alarming rate and if the pile got any higher I'd never be able to climb over them. "I can't wait to get my hands on that miserable little neck, he's cost me thousands with that betting scam that he's cooked up. I wish that I could work out how he does it so that I can use it on my competition." What's going on here? Laura Lee knows how Lucy and Andy had operated, if that's all it would take for her to free herself she just has to tell them. All that separated us was a row of packing crates. I peered through the gap between two of them and what I saw came as a shock. There was Laura Lee sprawled on this sofa with her head in the lap of one of the men and her feet on the other's. The guy at her feet had his hand up her dress and was obviously feeling her between the legs while the other guy had his hand down the front of her blouse and was fondling her breasts. She was making no effort to fight them off or to escape, in fact she appeared to be enjoying herself. There was a knock on the door. "Who the hell is that?" Man number one asked. "You could go and find out." Man number two told him. "Why do I have to do everything around here?" He got up and trudged to the front door. There was a muffled conversation and he trudged back. "Some hack said that he got a booking for a pick-up at this address. I told him that he was mistaken and he left" "What did he look like?" Laura Lee asked him. "Big guy, thick set, black hair and blue eyes, nose looks like it has taken a few hits." "Damn! That sounds Like Eddie, Gerry's mate and that means that Gerry is around here somewhere. How did he find us so quickly?" "What are we going to do? What if he's brought the cops with him?" "Spread out and see if he's in here. We need to find out what he knows. One thing that I've found out over the past eighteen months that I've been friendly with him is that he's not your average dumb private dick." "And you'd be the one to know about his private dick." There seemed to be a note of jealousy in this guy's voice. "You've still been getting your share of me haven't you?" "I don't like having to share you with him and if he ever found out that you're still sleeping with me he's likely to spill the beans about this whole thing. We can't let him get away or he'll spoil everything." Self preservation galloped to the top of my mind and I followed that old adage that says that the best defense is a strong offence. Slipping my .45 from its holster I stepped out from behind the packing crates. "Now isn't this a cozy little gathering, here is the love of my life cozying up to two men who, if the message that I got wasn't a lie, were supposed to have kidnapped her. Not only that but she's just admitted that she's not been the faithful lover that I thought she was, and it does my ego no good at all to find that I'm nothing more than a patsy in some scheme or other." "Gerry it's not what it looks like, I was just going along with these guys waiting for my knight in shining armor to come and rescue me. Thank god you're here." She made to come to me but I moved my roscoe to cover her. "That's far enough Laura Lee, you can stand by your lover and his friend while I figure this all out." I was confused but becoming less confused as my brain slowly began to process the information that it has recently received and compared it with that already stored. "Let me guess, your best friend here used to own the bar and probably still has an interest in it. He let you tell everyone that he'd sold it to you because, probably for reasons of his divorce and the fact his wife wanted a cut of his earnings in child support, he had to make it appear on paper at least that he wasn't earning much. So he sold it to you for a very small amount and paid her a share of that amount. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that this whole betting scam was just a dodge to cover up some other enterprise like maybe he's into a form of chemical distribution. It didn't matter whether you won or lost at the track just as long as the money you had was clean. But then you got greedy, that's why the betting scam and the insurance scam on Andy's supposed death. What's next I wonder? Could it have something to do with the fact that I recently took out an insurance policy, at your insistence, naming you as my sole beneficiary? Could it be that I was going to be the next floater pulled out of the river? How am I doing so far?" "You can't prove any of this." Man number 1 said. "I don't have to, I'll just tell the police and they can investigate it." "I suppose that you think that you're going to get away from here and go tell your buddy Callaway." "Eventually, yes, that's the plan." I was trying to sound confident of my ability to do just that and I was drawing on all of the acting skills that I had. "It might take some time for that to happen but then I'm a patient sort of guy. Why don't the three of you get cozy on that sofa and resume restraining Laura Lee, I quite enjoyed what I saw of that." The tense silence was shattered by the front door crashing in followed by Nigel the 2nd and Benny the Bookie. "Mr. Pretty, you seem to have things under control, why don't you tell me which of these gentlemen is Andy Jones?" Why was Benny asking me that? He must have known Andy, after all he'd had many financial dealings with him. "Benny, you know as well as I do that neither of these men is Andy. As soon as you asked me to finger one of them I knew that you were testing me to see if I'd point the finger at one to save Laura Lee, but I'm not going to do that." He looked surprised at that. "If you want to find out where he is you're going to have to let Nigel the 2nd loose on one of them, or on Laura Lee." "I don't understand you Mr. Pretty, I was led to believe that you and the lovely Laura Lee were joined at the hip, but it appears that this is no longer the case." "You aren't the only person who has been deceived by my relationship with her. Our conversation had just about reached the interesting part where one of them decided to boast how they'd taken me for the fool that I feel right now." This happy gathering was interrupted by the arrival of Lou Callaway closely followed by Eddie carrying an impressive looking 'over and under' 12 bore. "At this stage this is a personal visit," Lou told them, "but if push comes to shove and someone gets hurt or even dead it will very quickly become official. Gerry, I think that it's time that you came with us and leave these business people to their meeting." Eddie covered our retreat. "Can you explain to me what's going on?" Lou asked as we sat around his desk at the precinct house. "It would appear . . ." I gave them a summary of what I did know and what I thought to be the case. "So you see," I concluded my story, "Laura Lee has been playing me for a patsy the whole time. I'd been led to believe that Lucy was the brains behind the betting scheme and that Andy had been the person laying the bets and the bookies were getting worried at his run of luck. So Benny decided to end that run permanently, so yours truly arranged for Lucy and Andy to skip across to England where they could upset the bookies there and make a fortune. Something smells fishy about this, but I can't put a finger on it. What if the floater really was Andy and the guy in the photo that Laura Lee showed me and that Lucy was with was someone else entirely?" The Lazarus Syndrome We sat and pondered for some time while our coffee got cold, trying to figure out what the hell was going on, what I'd let myself become embroiled in. Slowly an idea began to form and gain momentum. "Maybe Lucy can help." "Lucy, isn't she over in England?" Lou asked. "Eddie, how would you like a trip to Vermont?" "Sure thing but you'll have to pay for this one." "Okay let's go but first we'll need to swing by the bar and hope that Laura Lee hasn't got there before us." Paula was looking flustered when I walked in. "Gerry, what's going on? Where's Laura Lee? I need help here and the lunch rush hasn't even started." "Ring Bill and ask him if he can cover for me for now and probably this evening. I don't know where Laura Lee is, and I'm running around like a crazy man trying to find her." She picked up the phone and was dialing as I headed for the stairs. I found the address book where I'd left it and hurried back out, not pausing but still hearing Paula tell me that Bill would be here soon. I made the call while Eddie filled his cab up for the trip. Lucy seemed surprised and sounded almost pleased to hear from me and gave me instructions on how to get to where she was. We drove in silence, pausing only to get directions when it looked as if we were getting lost. Lucy was waiting for us when we stopped out front of this cabin. She was in the back seat almost before we'd come to a complete stop. "You can tell me what's been going on as we drive back to town." This was followed by a torrent of questions, some of which I could answer with confidence while others I was just guessing and told her so. I felt her arms snake around my neck and then her lips were on my cheek followed by her voice in my ear. "Gerry, did you miss me?" "Sure Honey." Even I had to admit that I didn't sound convincing. "I know that you're confused but there's a logical explanation, but that will have to wait until we get back, I want to see Mom's face when all of this comes out. In the mean time I'm going to convince you that you missed me." If I was confused before, I was even more confused now. "What about Andy?" "Who? Oh you mean my late lamented father." "But he told me that he wasn't your real father." "That part of what he told you was true. The part that he omitted to tell you because you didn't ask was that he wasn't Andy, you just assumed that he was because he looked like the photo you saw and he was with me." Her whispering in my ear had the same effect as if she was blowing in it, and it was awakening memories in me that I thought that I'd forgotten. I closed my eyes and let her continue with her convincing. The trip back was uneventful compared to the chaos that welcomed us when we arrived at the precinct house. "Hi Lucy," he said but he hadn't taken in the fact that she was here and not in England. "As soon as you'd gone to who knows where I sent a couple of squad cars over to that warehouse and it looked like all hell had broken loose, there were bodies everywhere." Then it sank in that Lucy was standing there. "What are you doing here, you're supposed to be in England?" "That's what we wanted everyone to think, but I never left the country. My smart man here found me." Lou looked confused which wasn't hard, he always looked that way. "Like I was saying all hell had broken loose. Benny was dead, shot by someone, and his goon was sitting on the floor covered in blood, it appears that he had been shot a couple of times but none of them were fatal. One of the men who were there with Laura Lee was also dead and at first we thought that Benny might have shot him but then we found that he didn't have a gun and neither did the big guy. We've put out an APB on Laura Lee and the other guy and we hope that they don't get away, they have a lot of questions that we need answers to." "Maybe I can fill in a few blanks. The body that you dragged out of the river was Andy Jones, my father." "That's a relief, I wasn't looking forward to digging him up so that we could dig deeper into his identity." Lou said. "You wouldn't believe how disgusting the smell is" "The reason he died was the same one that Mom used when she hired Gerry to find him. He had been losing money at the track and he had been being a naughty boy with other women. So whoever it was that made the decisions in this whole mess decided that he had to go and that the finger of blame should point elsewhere. Benny was chosen as a message to other bookies who had any thoughts about trying to stop the operation. You were considered at one point but I wouldn't let them do it." "Thank you for that." It appears that my being Lucy's lover at the time had its benefits, apart from the obvious. "So what happens now?" "We can't do much until Laura Lee and her partner turn up although I will need a statement from both of you at some time soon so don't leave town." We got back to the bar to find the place was packed and Paula and Bill looking just about beat, so Lucy and I jumped in and began pouring drinks. We hardly heard the band above the noise but they had the crowd with them until closing. I sent Paula and Bill home after the last customer had left telling them that we'd clean up. Lucy started washing glasses while I emptied the ash trays and stacked them on the bar while I wiped down the tables. I had just got the bucket and mop from out back when Lou was banging on the door so I let him in. "We caught up with them about half an hour ago, they were heading for Canada. Laura Lee is singing her head off trying to tell us that her partner was behind the whole deal and offering to spill the beans on everything that he'd planned. We'll still need your statements, if you can come in in the morning we'll take them. This is one mess that I'll be glad to see the end of. It was around two in the morning by the time that we'd finished and Lucy poured us each a drink and headed for a booth. "Are you telling me that Laura Lee knew that Andy was dead?" I asked her. Lucy sat opposite sipping on her whisky. "Of course she did, in fact she killed him months before you were brought into the picture. The whole thing was her plan from start to finish, she had to get rid of him because he wasn't following her instructions, he was betting for himself and losing most of the money that she was winning." "Wait a minute, just whose idea was this betting scheme?" "Well I figured it out, but it was her idea, you see he was losing heavily so we discussed it and I suggested that there might be a way of shifting the odds in our favor. I thought about it for a while and then I put together my plan. I tested it for some time before I was satisfied that it would work. At first we used Andy to lay bets, he was to spread them around and not lay it all on one bookie. Then we found that he was placing more than our system bets, and losing, with Benny who was getting a little upset and threatened him. That was when Mom got the idea of killing two birds with one stone, get rid of Andy and fix it so that Benny took the fall for it." "If Andy had been dead for months before she called me, who was the man that I saw you getting friendly with after you were supposed to have gone back to college, he looked just like the photo she showed me of Andy." "It was some guy that she knew and who agreed to pose as Andy. Don't tell me that you were jealous of him?" She looked at me with that smile that she used to have when she knew that she was right. "You were, weren't you?" "Of course not!" But I was, wasn't I? Hell I was in love with Lucy and when she kissed that guy my life was heading for the basement again, so when Laura Lee came onto me I was an active participant in the inevitable. "If you thought that you had a monopoly on jealousy think again. It was one hell of an argument between Mom and me when I found out that the two of you were together and that you were living here. I called her all kinds of bitch until she sat me down and told me that she would do you for a while and then cut you loose and let me have you." "Didn't I have any say in your schemes?" "In a word, no. Look I was in love with you, I'm still in love with you and when the dust settles I'm going to insist that you make an honest woman of me so that your son has a name." "What? Do you mean to tell me that in the, what is it a year and a half, from when we, you know, and now, in that time you've had a baby that I didn't know about, and that he's mine?" "Yes." For the first time her mood was subdued. "You wait till you meet him, he looks just like you, and he's smart like you." She looked misty at me as my mind was trying to absorb what she had just said, especially that bit about me being smart, I felt so far from smart right now. "You are smart, you figured out that, while Andy owed the bookies money our scheme didn't, it was the other way around. It was you that warned us that Benny was circling ready to strike and came up with the plan that Andy and I should get out of the country. Only a smart man who was in love with me would have thought of that as a way to keep us safe so that the final part of the scheme would succeed. If you hadn't loved me you would have gone to the police, wouldn't you?" "Yes." "So you did love me, now all I have to hope for is that you'll still love me." "That body that was fished out of the river, that was Andy wasn't it?" "Yes, it was Andy, and before you ask, yes he was my real father." "But if he was killed months before I was called in to look for him, where was his body all this time?" "Over there." She pointed to the big freezer room in the other corner, the one that held the frozen food for the bar, the one that I hadn't seen the inside of until after I moved in. My stomach churned when I thought of the people, myself included, eating food taken from a freezer that had held a dead body for months. "So he was taken out of the freezer at the right time, wrapped in a bundle, held in a warehouse until he'd thawed and entrusted to Tony to dispose of thinking that it was Benny that wanted it dumped. And I suggested that you disappear overseas, but you didn't, did you?" "No, but I did have to disappear for a while and I couldn't risk you or anyone else finding me. Mom has this cabin in Vermont and that's where I hid out and that's where Mike is now, being looked after by my cousin. I think that you know the whole story now." "Let me tell you it's some story and it'll take a little time for it all to sink in." "That brings us back to more pressing issues. Do you still love me? Can you still love me knowing what you know about me now?" Hell that's putting me on the spot. Just what were my feelings for her? My body is telling me that yes, I do love her, and I do want to make love to her, to feel once more the softness of her body, the firmness of those perky little breasts and those puffy nipples, and the warm, wet depths of her pussy holding my cock in its embrace, milking from it every drop of sperm. But my mind was screaming at me to not get involved in this scheming woman who, along with her mother, had deceived me, with both of whom my body had encouraged me to embrace, and look where that got me. "You can talk now, you can tell me that you still love me." She reached across the table, took my hand and placed it on one of those breasts. I could feel my mind's resolve flying out the door. "My mind is telling me that you're a devious bitch and I shouldn't get involved with you, but my body is wanting you so much right now that I can't think straight." She came and sat on my side of the table and her hand stroked my cock through my trousers, teasing him until he was rock hard. "Fuck what my mind is telling me." I slid across the seat and she slid out of the cubicle to let me out. I took her hand and led her upstairs to the bedroom that I'd shared with Laura Lee. My mind was telling me that this was all wrong but my raging hard-on was telling my mind to shut the fuck up. Lucy came into my arms and was once more the focus of my life and I let it happen, after all we had a kid to think about. Somewhere in the middle of the night, right after I'd come inside her again, Lucy held me tight. "Gerry, you know that I had a couple of guys before I met you? Well, since then there has been no-one. I didn't have sex with anyone because I knew that he wouldn't live up to you. And having just been the recipient of the most intense love making of my life I'm glad that I made that decision. The same I'm sure that you are now aware, can't be said for my mother. I know that she's been seeing her old boss behind your back, but that's her. I'm aware that sex with her would probably be a great experience because she's had a lot of experience and knows what men fantasize about and gives them that. But I'm different, with me you won't have to worry about getting jealous ever again." I held her to me until my cock was ready for action once more. "This is not something that I learnt from your mother, it's something that she knew nothing of. I admit that she knew how to please my physical me, but I wanted something that filled my spiritual me, so just lie there and experience it with me. I love you Lucy Pretty." "That sounds perfect, Lucy Pretty. I like it and I'm sure that I'll still be liking it a hundred years from now. Do you mind if I join in with you?" "Be my guest." We both had to admit that it was the most sublime bit of loving that either of us had ever experienced. Lou looked at us and shook his head, he knew exactly how we'd spent the night after he'd left us, the fact that we were holding hands and Lucy's saddle sore gait was a dead give-away. We made our statements, much of which contradicted Laura Lee's statement in which she laid the blame squarely on her partner's shoulders. Both of them would swing for what they had done, two counts of murder and one of attempted murder would make sure of that. Andy Jones hadn't quite done a Lazarus and risen from the dead, but his ghost had jumped up and bitten Laura Lee on the arse. As for Lucy and me, we fetched Mike from Lucy's cousin and he does look a little like me, well a lot like me. I'd never be able to deny it in a paternity suit, that's if I'd wanted to. He's a great kid and I don't think that growing up in a bar will be good for him, but Lucy keeps telling me that she turned out okay. I have to disagree with her here, she turned out better than okay.