The Long Fall

by Daniel Quentin Steele

  “All I need to do is whisper about your sack time activities with a few married ladies in the PD office, especially the blonde married to that crazy-ass DEA agent, and you would vanish never to be seen again.”

  He grinned again.

  “In that case, I guess I won’t be filing any papers on you. Tell me again, Bill, why the hell do I like you?’

  “The same reason I like you. You love what you do and you bust your ass to do it. Life is more interesting when you’re around. The system needs us. I do what I do pretty well and you’re the best at what you do. I’d miss you if you went corporate or were representing insurance companies.”

  He shrugged.

  “Never happen. I like contact sports too much”

  “You know you’re a cliché, don’t you? The drunken, rowdy Irish bum .”

  He did a pretty good Clint Eastwood imitation and in clipped tones said, “A man’s got to know his limitations. I AM a drunken, rowdy Irish bum.”

  Then the grin vanished from his face and he was serious.

  “I never had the chance to talk to you about this, but I’m sorry about you and Debbie.”

  “Shit happens.”

  “Seriously. You want me to meet her boyfriend somewhere outside of work and rearrange his features? You can’t do that because you’re an upstanding officer of the court, but me...”

  The touching thing was, I knew he’d do it – or at least try.

  “No, but thanks for the offer. I’m trying to let that part of my life go. By the way, give your notice to August and come to work for me and I’ll bump your salary with him up $20,000. You’d be number three under me, even though I’d probably have to kill a few SAs to make the decision stick and everybody would hate your guts, but that shouldn’t bother you.”

  He just shook his head.

  “No.”

  “The funny thing is, I’m almost glad you said that.”

  “We wouldn’t have the same relationship if I had to kiss your ass, although if the offer was being tendered by the luscious Ms. Stephens over there...”

  He grinned that rakehell grin that had tumbled so many level headed ladies into his bed over the years, but Jessica just blushed and dropped her eyes.

  “Oh well, it was worth a try,” he said. “See you later, brother.”

  Jessica stood up with a bundle of papers in her hand.

  “I’m going back to the office. I have some work I can get done. See you here tomorrow morning.”

  She cast a last quick look in Cameron’s direction and walked away. When she had left Cameron came over and said, “Jesus Christ, you weren’t kidding, were you. This is a great story.”

  I just looked at him and remembered his definition of a great reporter.

  “I think you’re more cold blooded than I am, Carl. You just saw a man’s life end. Even if he draws a suspended, his family is destroyed. People will always believe he killed his wife in cold blood. His girlfriend won’t ever see him again. His friends are going to desert him and if things go the way they usually do, he won’t last another six months. Long married couples where spouses lose the other one usually go quickly. And I don’t think he’s going to want to live too much. And all it is to you is a great story?”

  “Lawyers live for terrible cases, surgeons live for the ugliest, most dangerous tumors they can find to cut out, and reporters live for stories like this. It’s what I do.”

  I knew exactly what he meant. I let him walk me out of the courtroom to a nearby hallway for an in-depth interview. He had a photographer waiting. I almost balked. I’ve had my picture taken dozens of times, but...

  “C’mon, Bill. That Halloween garb is going to make a great shot. The Vampire of the Old Bailey, say? Or The Avenger in the Courtroom. Actually, I’m thinking about titling this one, “Tisiphone, Avenger of Murder, In the Courtroom – or Furies Unleashed.” Some of our readers with more than an eighth grade reading level will get it and we’ll explain it for the rest of them.

  “You remember your college Greek mythology, don’t you. The Furies were the implacable avengers, the Goddesses – in your case it would be the God – who punished evil-doers. Criminals could never escape the snake-head God of Justice, or Vengeance, depending on your perspective. Of course, you’d be the great Bald-headed God of Vengeance.”

  “You know I like you, Carl, right? But you’re full of shit, and you can quote me on that.”

  I was finally alone as I rode the elevator up to the fifth floor. I still wasn’t sure if I had done the right thing. Bingham might get a suspended. Anything else would be a death sentence. Dellaro would have to weigh the dangers of letting a wife-killer off with a suspended sentence against the bad taste he’d leave in the mouths of voters by in effecting sending a man to prison for the rest of his life for doing what most people would have done in his situation.

  I thought about the pictures I’d seen of Mabel Bingham as a young, and then middle-aged woman. She had been a hottie. If she was like most victims, someday I’d see her in my dreams. I wondered if she would smile at me for exposing her husband’s betrayal, or stare at me with hate in her eyes for destroying the man she had loved all her life.

  And then I thought about my father. And as usual my eyes misted.

  Monday - July 11, 2005 – 7 P.M.

  “Ohhhhhhh....uhhhhhhh....uhhh...Doug....whoaaa...please...”

  She pressed her face into the sweaty pillow case and tried to catch her breath. Her heart raced. She could feel him inside her, filling her up, filling every inch with his hard meat. He felt so good, but she had to catch her breath. It felt like she had fallen off a mountain side and was rushing toward the ground. Her head was whirling. It felt like an atom bomb had gone off between her legs.

  “You like that baby? I thought that damned pussy was going to snap shut there for a moment. Boy, when you cum you cum.”

  He pulled out and she almost whimpered but he grabbed her by the hips and rolled her over onto her back and slammed it in so hard her head hit the bed board. He hammered it home once, then drew back until only the big fat head was inside her. He reached down, grabbed both her breasts and pulled them up. It was painful but it was as if all the nerve endings had gone off at once. He stuffed one inside his mouth, bit the nipple and bit again harder until she gasped. It felt like he was going to bite it off, but she couldn’t stop wanting it.

  “God, I wish you still had milk in these. I’d love to milk you. Drink you.”

  As he was biting he began to hammer his cock home, so hard she literally bounced up and down on the bed under him. Her head kept hitting the backboard and she knew if she didn’t move down he’d probably give her a concussion, but she couldn’t get her thoughts together enough to beg him to let her slide down. She forgot to breath. The only thing in the world was his hands and mouth on her tits and that wonderful cock inside her.

  Then she felt that explosive release inside her and he kept hammering. God knows how long it would take him to get off.

  “You love that, don’t you, baby. Poor little Bill never got that deep, did he? Bastard. Could you even feel him inside you? This is what you need. Was this what you were thinking about that last night he was with you.”

  Only the fact that she had just climaxed, her fourth in an hour since Doug had started eating and finger fucking and then plain old fucking her, allowed her to grab his shoulders and shove him back as hard as she could. He fell back, his dick popping out of her.

  He thought she was playing as she pushed him back until she was able to get a foot up and planted it squarely in his chest and shoved. He fell backwards and unable to keep his balance, went completely off the back of the bed.

  His head appeared over the edge of the bed as he said, “What the ..What are you doing, Deb?”

  “Stay there,” she warned him. She didn’t realize she had picked up the small alarm clock on the stand beside her bed until his glance made her realize what she was holding in a throwing position.

  “Godda
mn, are you crazy? You could have hurt me.”

  He stood, his rampant cock standing up red and ready.

  “You could have broken something irreplaceable, babe.”

  “I’d have hated that. But...”

  She drew herself up on the bed. It made her breasts hang down like swollen fruit while he could see her pussy, swollen and wet from their fucking.

  “Look at me. You like this?”

  “You know I do.”

  “Have you been with anybody else since we got together? I know there are dozens of women who’d grab you in an instant.”

  “No, you know better than that. That was our deal. I gave you those medical reports and I haven’t been inside another woman because I know you’d drop me if you ever thought I might pass anything on to you. Not that it’s been easy, but I love feeling your pussy around my dick too much to screw it up by going out on you.”

  “I think I believe you. You know I could fuck around on you with no trouble. There are a dozen guys on the staff alone that would love to have this, even if they had to wear condoms. And they would. But I haven’t been with anybody else.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Then listen to this, Doug. You talk too much. You are a great lover. You have a wonderful cock. And then you ruin it all by insulting my husband. Why? Are you so insecure you can’t keep it up without insulting Bill?”

  “I don’t understand. Why is Bill-“

  “Because, I dumped him, you dummy, I ended the marriage. I cheated on him. It...was the right thing to do, for me, but I feel guilty. It’s stupid, but I feel guilty. I don’t want to think about Bill. I don’t want you reminding me of him, especially when we’re….together. Is that so hard to understand?”

  “No, but...it’s hard sometimes. This is his house. His wife. His kids. His mementoes. His goddamned pictures on the wall, pictures of you and him. Why the hell haven’t you taken those down? Or why don’t you ever come to my place. It would be as easy for you as for me to come here.”

  “Because that Sodom and Gomorrah you call an apartment complex is crawling with 20-somethings who love rubbing themselves all over you when I’m around, or telling me stories about how great your dick was when they had you six months ago or three months ago. And if they’re not doing that, they’re talking about music and shows I’ve never heard of, and looking at me like I’m 90, not 39. It just makes me uncomfortable.”

  “The same way I’m uncomfortable here.”

  “You don’t have to keep coming around here if it’s too much trouble.”

  “What the hell happened to you, Deb? When you called me, it seemed like you wanted me back. Was I mistaken?”

  “Didn’t it seem like I wanted you back? I think screaming how good you are would give you an idea that I was glad you were back.”

  She wasn’t going to tell him about the e-mails. He’d just worry. She trusted Bill not to release them once he’d won on the maintenance, but still...she didn’t expect Doug to trust Bill the way she did. And the damned things had shaken her.

  She looked down at his cock. It was still so hard it was throbbing.

  “Come here,” she said, sliding off the bed and heading for the bathroom. After a moment he followed her. She knelt down beside the toilet. She held her hand out to him. He walked toward her, that hard cock bouncing like a metronome.

  “What, why in here? What are you-?”

  She grabbed his cock and pulled him until he was standing over the open toilet bowl.

  “I’m not mean enough to send you home with that bad a case of blue balls.”

  “Shit, but a blowjob in here? Why not the –“

  “No blow job. I’ll jerk you off, but that’s it. Remember this the next time the urge to insult Bill pops into your head. And the next time, there won’t even be a hand job. You can just take care of the problem yourself.”

  He glared at her for a moment, then shook his head and closed his eyes as she began stroking him.

  “Come on, Doug. Come on baby. Give it to me. You know I love it when you squirt inside me so hard. Let me see if this time. Come on. I can feel it building up. Like Old Faithful. Come on, baby, give me a show.”

  Finally he exploded, one rope of filmy white squirting out after another. Most hit the water but some hit the side of the toilet. It was like directing a high pressure water hose. She was so damned tempted to cap the well, so to speak, with her mouth, but she stopped herself. She wanted him to remember the lesson.

  He slumped forward and held the side of the toilet bowl to keep his balance.

  “My God, even that was great.”

  “Yeah, but remember, nothing the next time.”

  She cleaned him off with toilet paper and cleaned up the toilet after he left. When she came out he was sitting on the bed. She pointed to his slacks hung over a nearby chair.

  “Get dressed.”

  “You’re throwing me out?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Shit, that’s cold.”

  She sat down on the bed beside him and grabbed one hand.

  “Doug, you remember the last time we talked. I said you were my friend. And you are. I care for you. But it’s friendship. It was never anything else. Well, a lot of lust, but friendship. We’re great in bed. I love having sex with you,. But-“

  “Why isn’t it me giving you this speech?”

  “I don’t know. It never occurred to me that you would...”

  “Why not? We’re compatible as hell in bed. We’re both professionals. I’ve got a little edge on you in publications and I get more attention because I’m younger, but you have been noticed. Your work on management theory and corporate organization has been talked about. I’ve had people in the business world say that you would have no problem getting on with any number of firms in this town in an executive position, if you were looking...

  “We could make a life for ourselves...if you were willing to even think about it.”

  “Doug, Doug. You’re dreaming and those kinds of dreams could mess up what we do have. In the first place, you’re not going to be able to stay in Jacksonville. You were right before. The smart move is to get out before you’re fired. Bill screwed us both royally.

  “Even though there’s nothing in writing, too many people know what happened with Bill. They know the university turned thumbs down on us for embarrassing the institution. Any school or academic institution you go to within a hundred miles will find some legally acceptable reason not to hire you, but the main reason will be that they think you’re a stud professor who thinks more about screwing than his job and doesn’t mind giving anyplace he works a black eye to score some pussy.

  “So, you can’t stay, and I’m not going to move, if I can help it. I’ve got two kids. They go to school here. Their friends are here. Their father is here. He might not have been the best father in the world, but he’s their father. And even if they were willing to move, I think Bill would move heaven and earth to stop me, and you’ve already figured out that he can pretty much get anything he wants in the legal system.”

  She looked at him and almost felt sorry for him. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

  “Besides, baby, look at us. I’m 39, almost 40. You’re 28. When you’re 40 I’ll be 52 and probably hitting menopause. You’re probably going to want kids. I have two and I’m not having any more. I don’t want to be going to PTA meetings while I’m having hot flashes. Your friends are not my friends. We don’t like the same music.”

  She reached over and hugged him.

  “It’s not fair, Doug, but you can’t compete with Bill on that. We had our babies together. He was my first great love. Even though it’s over, Bill and I have that history together. History we’ll never have.”

  He pushed her away, got up and got dressed. Both kids were out but they’d be back so she slipped on shorts and a thin blouse. She walked Doug to the front door. Before he could open it, she spun him around and leaned up to give him a long kiss.

&n
bsp; “I love our time together, Doug. Just don’t ask for more than I can give.”

  He stepped away from her and licked his lips as if to taste her kiss.

  “Your trouble, Deb, is that you’re too damned picky. You threw away one husband because he got too old and out of shape, and you’re throwing away a guy that cares for you because I’m too young and I’m not Bill. I hope to God you find what you’re looking for, because otherwise you’re going to wind up old and alone, or old and a barfly sitting somewhere trying to pick up college kids.”

  He opened the door.

  “I just wish I’d met you first.”

  She grabbed his shoulder.

  “You are coming back?”

  He turned and smiled, then reached out to cup one breast.

  “Do I look like an idiot? I’ll take what I can get. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  When he had left she locked the door. Both kids had keys. Then she went to the liquor cabinet and opened it with a key. She pulled the bottle of Goldschlager out. Bill hadn’t gotten it when he came back to pick up his things and she had always liked it as well as he did. She poured a shot glass full and went back into their bedroom. Turning on the television, she ignored a pile of papers to be graded. She could afford to goof off one night.

  She clicked on the DirecTV TiVo unit and found a re-run she’d missed of the new medical show, “House.” She liked the show, even though she hardly ever got to watch the shows as they aired, because it was quality television.

  She also liked it, because while she could never pin it down, the lead character invariably reminded her of Bill. Which was stupid. Actor Hugh Laurie was tall, slender, with a full head of hair. Maybe, she thought, it was because House was an asshole with no personal life obsessed by his job. And he was the best at it. That must be it.