“Hell, I don’t know. Yeah, the more I think about it, I can see that squirmy little cocksucker paying some idiot private detective a couple hundred bucks to follow the arresting officer around for a few days, and maybe get some dirt on him. It happens. In fact, that’s probably it.” Parks slammed his fist into his palm. “Well, FUCK ME! I can’t believe I let some fucking prick follow me without seeing him.”
Rachel rubbed her lover’s back. “It’s okay, honey. We’ll figure out what to do. I hate to see you so upset like this.”
Ken stood there with his mouth open, bowled over by his wife’s audacity. She and her boyfriend had just wrongfully accused him of outing their affair; the huge cop had manhandled him — and Rachel was worried about THAT sonofabitch being upset? Ken seethed in silence watching his wife comfort her paramour.
After enduring several minutes of being ignored, Ken turned to Parks, cleared his throat and went for it. “Um … so, then … uh, I guess we’ll see you in court Monday. Take it easy.” Ken gestured toward the front door.
Parks smirked. “Oh, am I being kicked out now?”
Rachel kissed his ear. “No, babe. You’re not going anywhere.” She looked up at her husband. “Come on, Ken. We need to talk.”
Ken followed his wife into the rec room of all places, feeling like a chastised puppy, though he’d done nothing wrong. He had no idea how that lawyer had found out that Rachel and Parks were fucking. Ken knew he hadn’t told anyone, so he figured someone must’ve followed one of them as Parks had suggested. The attorney certainly seemed sleazy enough to have pulled the stunt.
When the couple got to the rec room, Rachel planted her hands on her hips. “Listen, Ken, I don’t want a bunch of crap. He’s spending the night.”
“Here? With you? Are you fucking serious, Rachel? How much more of this shit am I supposed to put up with?”
“You don’t HAVE to put up with anything, Ken. You can leave anytime you want to.”
Ken buried his face in his hands. “OMG, what is going on? The whole world’s gone fucking crazy.”
“Yes, it has, Ken.” Rachel nodded. “Everything HAS gone crazy. That’s why he’s staying over. Fuck it, everyone knows now anyway. What do we have to lose?”
“But honey, what about me?” Tears filled Ken’s eyes. “What about MEEEEEE? Don’t you love me no more?”
“Yes, of course I love you, Ken. But … I’m sorry. Things are different now.”
“Different? How are things different? Either you love me or you don’t.”
“I DO love you.” Rachel sighed. “But, honey, I have feelings for Trent, too. And he has feelings for me.”
Ken hung his head. “OMG, this is a fucking nightmare.”
Rachel stared at her husband. “Ken, we need to figure this out. Find some way to make it work. It’s either that, or we get a divorce. You said you don’t want that. I don’t either. But I’m not doing this anymore, Ken. Okay? Do you? Want a divorce?”
Ken’s lips motorboated. “N-no.”
“So then … try to deal with it. Okay? I know it’s not easy, but we’ll all get through this. I’m still here, Ken. I’m not going anywhere. There’s a way to make this work. We’ll figure it out somehow. I love you. Alright?”
“Yeah, you love me — but he … he’s the one who gets to sleep with you … and … and make love to you.” He wiped away a tear. “It’s no fair.”
Rachel smiled patiently and patted his shoulder. “I love you, Ken.”
With that, she turned and strolled away. The shattered husband followed her, his face wet with misery. He couldn’t look Parks in the eye as he slinked past him on his way to the guest room.
“To Serve and Protect,” Chapter 6
by c.w. cobblestone
The hardwood bench was hell on Ken’s ass cheeks because he’d been sitting there for four hours already with only one break. But he wasn’t about to miss his wife’s turn on the witness stand.
Having already testified himself, Ken was released from sequester and allowed to watch the proceedings. He sat in the back of the courtroom with a Bernie Sanders cap pulled low over his eyes, wearing a pair of old glasses he hadn’t needed since his Lasik surgery years earlier.
The revelation in open court that a Marysville police officer was sleeping with the alleged victim in an attempted rape case drew media attention, with three TV crews and a reporter for the Marysville Daily Record showing up to cover the proceedings. Ken knew the testimony he and Parks had provided during the last hearing would likely attract the press, and that it was an easy matter for reporters to troll social media to find pictures of the people involved in the case, so the outed cuckold hoped his disguise might fool them. He’d briefly considered avoiding court altogether, although in the end he decided to go. He was afraid of being hounded by reporters, but he needed to hear what his precious wife had to say.
After Rachel was sworn in, she took the stand and shimmied in her seat, blinking under the glare of the TV cameras. Ken felt sorry for her. He also thought she looked pretty in her yellow dress, and despite his apprehension and shame at her now-public infidelity, he was uplifted by her elegance. And, even though she was about to embarrass him beyond comprehension by what he knew was going to be mortifying testimony, Ken said a prayer, thanking the heavens that he was married to such a beautiful angel.
ADA Turnbow approached the podium. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Coolidge.”
“Good afternoon.”
“Can you tell the court your full name?”
“Rachel Tamara Coolidge. My maiden name was Becker.”
“How old are you, Ma’am?”
“Twenty-seven.”
“And where do you work?”
“I’m chief loan officer for Beaverland Credit Union.”
“Okay, Mrs. Coolidge, thank you.” Turnbow glanced at her notes. “Now … Mrs. Coolidge, can you tell me what happened on the night of June 12?”
“Yes. My husband and I had dinner at the Blue Ribbon Diner. I told him I didn’t think that was a very good idea, because Marysville has some pretty bad neighborhoods. But we never went to Portland for his birthday like I had promised, so I figured I owed it to him.”
“Okay. And what happened after you left the diner, Mrs. Coolidge?”
“Well, my husband wanted to take a walk. Again, I didn’t think it was a good idea, but he really wanted me to see this neighborhood, so I finally agreed, as long as we stayed on the main street, which was Darvin. And when we passed this abandoned house with boards on the windows, a man jumped out of the alley and put a knife up against my husband’s throat and told us to get in the alley.”
“And, Mrs. Coolidge, is this man in the courtroom now?”
Rachel pointed at the defendant. Whittaker blew her a kiss.
Turnbull frowned. “Let the record reflect that the witness identified the defendant, Edward Whittaker — and, Your Honor, I’d also like add that the defendant’s behavior is entirely inappropriate.”
Judge Ortiz scowled at Whittaker. “Sir, there will be no further such displays. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, sir.” Whittaker muttered a few more syllables under his breath but the judge let it go.
ADA Turnbull cleared her throat. “So, after Mr. Whittaker told you to go to the alley — and before I get to that question, what did Mr. Whittaker say when he told you to go to the alley? What were his exact words?”
“Well, he had the knife up against my husband’s throat, and he said, ‘get in the alley, bitch, or I’ll cut this little sissy faggot’s head off.'”
There were chuckles in the courtroom. Ken squeezed his eyes shut.
Turnbull continued: “And then what happened?”
“Um, Mr. Whittaker tells my husband ‘give me your money,’ so he did. And then he, um, the defendant, started saying a bunch of dirty things to me, like ‘you’re mine now, bitch.’ And then he stuck the knife up against my ribs and pulled me down on the ground … and started grabbing my breasts and trying to undo my pants. I was trying to fight him off but he was too strong.”
“And where was your husband during this?”
“Well, he was just kind of standing there. You know, sort of in shock.”
Ken squirmed in his seat as his heart pumped hot blood to his ears.
Turnbull nodded. “And what happened next?”
“Well … Officer Parks was standing across the street with his gun, and he yells, ‘drop it, asshole.’ And Mr. Whittaker drops his knife and puts his hands up. Officer Parks and his partner arrested him and took him to their car.”
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