[Ramesh_Rocky]

“I said I was a bad person. I’ve cheated and lied on him, planned on dumping him and loved other men more than him. I’d make him miserable for a few months or a few years until he finds someone else, and he may never, but I’m not going to send him to prison. I’m not going to destroy his career so he can never rebuild his life. I’m not going to watch his life turn into hell and see him lose the respect of our children. I’m a bad person, but I’m not that bad.”

She stared into my eyes. I stared into hers. It should have been a warm, fuzzy, human moment.
“That is touching,” I finally said. She didn’t say anything.
“A woman cheats on her husband, falls out of love with him, builds a second life that he has no part in, and she’s planning to dump him as soon as the kids are gone for good. Yet there is still that ember of deep love and affection that will not die, therefore she will risk jail and punishment so as not to completely destroy his life. That is downright touching.”
“Nothing is that simple, but I guess that sums it up correctly. Debbie treated you pretty roughly, but I guess from what happened at the FOP building the night you were shot, there’s still something in her that has feelings for you. So it’s not impossible.”
“I could say that she isn’t as big a slut and whore as you are, not in the same ballpark, but there’s no point in insulting you, because you may be telling the truth.”
She gave me a questioning look. “May be? You don’t believe me?”
“I’m not sure, to be honest. I want to. It’s a compelling story. The romantic in me wants to believe in it. But, if you’re telling me the truth, or most of it, you are a very smart woman who’s used to playing men, using men for fun and profit. You’re used to being in control. You didn’t have much, if any, respect for your husband until the day he almost killed you. I tend to believe you about that day, because it matches what the first cops on the scene reported. I think your husband scared you to death that day. I think you really believed you were going to die, and that would shake anybody. Things were out of your control and they still are. Paul is still alive and he may get out. When he gets out, he’ll be lurking somewhere. I think a woman used to controlling things would have a hard time living with that uncertainty.”
She looked at me and she really looked like she didn’t know where I was going, but she was a hell of a good actress.
“You could get to him in jail, of course, except I think he would be very hard to kill. I don’t think you could simply hire your usual suspects and be confident


they could actually take him out. Anyway, that leaves a trail and people that could talk and I think you’re too smart to leave yourself vulnerable that way.”
She bit her lip.
“But, if you get him out, the next time you find him - for closure - you could have somebody like Hec with you. No matter how dangerous Paul is, he’s not bullet proof. After he was dead you’ve have a witness that he had attacked you again, and probably have a cop as a witness, which would make it even better.”
I took her hand and squeezed it. She raised her eyes to meet mine.
“Then you’d never need to worry about him again - no more nightmares about his hands around your throat. You could tearfully tell your children that their father went crazy and you were just lucky to have a friend around, with a gun.”
She pulled her hand away.
“It must be terrible to live in your world, Mr. Maitland.” “It’s the real word, Mrs. Donnally.”
“Is there anything I can say, anything I can do, to convince you that the first story is the true one. I’m a bad wife, but I’m not a monster.”
“No, the trouble is, you’re too good an actress and you’re too smart.” She just shook her head.
“Impasse. You don’t know what I’m going to do or why I’ve done what I’ve done but, Paul is still going to get out, or your friend is going to lose his wife and marriage, and I will get him out. No matter how good you are, I’ve got enough money to buy his freedom. If necessary, I will sleep with everybody from the chief judge on down to the cleaning crews to give him his freedom.”
I leaned back and motioned to the waiter hiding just around the corner. After he poured another cup of strong coffee and left, I sipped it. It was hot enough to burn the roof of my mouth. Just the way I liked it.
“I’m going to let him out, if I can talk him into leaving. He may not go. I’ll do my best but, in case my suspicions are justified, and Paul winds up shot to death in the near future, or just dies in an accident, I’m coming after you.”
“Nothing is going to happen to him, Mr. Maitland, not because of me.”
“All that Angel of Death stuff is crap and you know it but, people with more money than you have wound up on death row at Raiford because they underestimated me.”
I took another sip. The hot liquid felt good going down because even though it was still a warm Jacksonville October, I felt cold.
“I could just have you killed, Paula. I could do it with one phone call. But it would cost me more than I’m willing to pay. If, however, I wind up with cancer in a few years and my time is short, I think I would make that phone call. Or, if I have an accident, I’ll set it up so the same thing happens. So if you do it and get


away with it, you’d better pray that I stay healthy. Odds are I’ll just wait and watch you. I know who you are now, and what you are. You can’t go invisible or completely under the radar. Just go ahead and live your life knowing that I’m behind you somewhere, just waiting for you to make a mistake and everybody, no matter how smart they are, makes a mistake sooner or later.
“I won’t forget and I won’t get tired of watching you, because if you’re doing what I suspect, you’re using me as a Judas goat, a tool to kill your husband. His blood will be on my hands, because I let concern for a friend push him out to where you could get to him. I don’t want to have that on my conscience.”
I put the coffee cup down and stood up.
“Goodbye, Mrs. Donnally. I hope I don’t see you again.” “Mr. Maitland...Bill...”
I was about to turn away from her but that whiskey/smoker voice stopped me.
She stood up and it was nice to be looking down at a woman for a change in my life. Her heavy breasts moved under her blouse as she rose and I couldn’t help remembering the way they had bounced as she rode Dave.
“I’m not the person you think I am, Bill, and I’m not planning what you think I am. I know you don’t believe me, but time will tell. Nothing is going to happen to Paul.”
She looked down at my midsection and I realized that I had an erection so hard it was actually painful poking out against my zipper.
“You probably should do something about that erection before you walk out, Bill. It’s kind of conspicuous. I’m flattered. Even though you won’t admit it, because you won’t admit you could be attracted to the kind of woman you think I am, you want me.”
“It’s a purely physical reaction, Mrs. Donnally. I saw you fucking Dave and Matthews. I saw those breasts bouncing. I like breasts. It doesn’t mean anything more.”
“Oh, I think it does.”
She walked around the table and was close enough to me that the hard nipples that had to be an inch or longer poking out through the thin fabric of her blouse brushed my chest. She reached out with one finger and ran it along my lower lip. I had a very different feeling from the time that Myra had done almost the same thing, but it made me even harder.
“You are one of the good guys, Bill. Everything I got on you told me you were the real deal, an honest, honorable man who tries to do the right thing. You were faithful to your wife, tried to be a good father, a good tough prosecutor. You follow the rules. But...”