Mercenary

Chapter 8: Forsaking the prize

As I expected, my wife started calling my cell that Friday and kept it up for almost a week. I deleted every message without listening to them. There was nothing left for us to discuss. My attorney would speak on my behalf from now on. As for Paige, I didn't want to hear anything she had to say. She would probably exhaust me emotionally if I tried to separate the lies from the truth of her statements.

A couple of weeks passed without incident. Then one afternoon I was returning from a late luncheon appointment. As I approached the lobby of the Center I caught sight of Cheryl, our receptionist. The closer I got to the glass doors I saw she was making strange gestures to me with her eyes. I missed the signal but understood the meaning as I saw my wife and Lindenhall sitting in the waiting area. While I hid my emotions from them, I actually found their presence amusing.

They were both on their feet in seconds and moving towards me. I had assessed Lindenhall's size correctly. He was indeed a big man and had me by a few inches in height. He also easily outweighed me. But this was not to be his play. He let Paige reach me first while he stationed himself a couple of feet behind.

I almost thought I saw a flash of anger in her expression. What her face tried to hide her voice conveyed. "I've left message after message. You have to hear me out. Peter, I didn't want to come here. But it's the one place where you have to talk to me. "

"Paige, this is NOT the place and why is he here?" I said, while never looking in Lindenhall's direction. I heard movement to my right and knew that Cheryl was probably preparing to call building security. I turned to see her and Noelle standing together. Noelle had a very worried look in her eyes. She then moved as if to come to me but stopped when I raised my palm in her direction.

Paige was resolute, she responded without acknowledging my coworkers. "Richard is here to help me. You've made him and his family a part of our problem. I wanted to handle this discretely but you've left me no choice."

"Look, you want to talk? We'll talk. There is a restaurant at the corner." Noting the time, I added "the lunch crowd has probably gone and we can talk there." Then turning to Noelle I added, "It's OK, I'll be back in a few minutes."

We made it to the restaurant and easily found seats. I purposely selected a booth where I could force Paige and Lindenhall to sit side-by-side. I wanted to see both their faces at once. She was seemingly the spokesman for them.

"Peter you've been acting strangely ever since Thanksgiving. I thought you were just going through some jealousy phase, with me being in school and all. But when you moved out and had me served with divorce papers I knew you were going off the deep end. Not only have you hurt me, and for no good reason, but you've also complicated Richard's life too."

She briefly turned to her companion and I expected him to speak. Instead Paige decided to continue with her part as the victim.

"First of all, Richard and I are not involved in any way, except as study mates and friends. We're not having an affair. I don't know how you came to think that we were, but you're wrong. That you could think that I would do that really makes me so mad at you", she virtually spat out.

"You've embarrassed Richard and caused his family a lot of pain. He wants to sue you Peter. Did you know that? I've been trying to talk him out of it. You don't know who he is. He and his family could ruin us. I brought him here so that you could apologize. Then you need to withdraw your filing so that his life...so that all of our lives can return to normal."

Now that little speech had been totally unexpected. I'll give her this; my soon-to-be ex was a very good actress in a crisis. If I hadn't had the proof of her infidelity I'd be tempted to believe her. She really looked the part of the aggrieved party. As it was, the amusement I felt initially at their appearance was rapidly giving way to anger. A few more minutes and I likely would say or do something that would possibly lead to an altercation.

Perhaps I waited too long to respond, or maybe he wanted to play alpha male, whatever the reason, Lindenhall decided to jump into the conversation. Without even looking at Paige he interjected. "Paige, you're wasting your time with this guy. Look buddy, I'm not now, nor have I ever been fooling around with your wife. We studied together that's all, yet you've seen fit to involve me in your mess."

"My wife thinks I'm cheating on her and she's threatening to leave me. I don't want my family involved in your divorce. But if you persist in bringing me into it I'm going to sue you for defamation. I suggest you talk with Paige and fix this thing or I'll fix it for you." He had raised his voice to such a level that patrons several tables away were looking at us.

That last part really steamed me. These two were incorrigible. What kind of fool did they take me for? Had Paige told this idiot that I would cave if they pressured me? Did she not know me at all? Did she think that I had misinterpreted her response at her parents' house?

Her face now showed the same resolve as Lindenhall's. They were both waiting for me to blink.

This situation seemed to call for a few choice words. I looked down at the table and started very slowly rocking my body for almost a minute trying to rein in my anger before I began.

I spoke quietly, knowing they would have to lean in to hear me. "You two are unreal. You invite me here to threaten me? I see both of you with disturbing clarity. I'm supposed to be worried about a defamation suit? It's only defamation if I knowingly say something false about you. That's not the case here." Then standing and staring directly at Lindenhall I shouted, "I have pictures of your pimpled ass while fucking this slut in the Van Pelt Library. I have fucking 8 by 10s you asshole!"

I stepped back several feet from the booth and turned to leave. I knew he wouldn't let it go. I counted on it. As predicted, Lindenhall came rushing from around the table and took a swing at me. When I heard movement I turned and assumed my stance preparing for his attack. He moved quickly for a big man, with mannerisms that told me he knew something about fighting. Of course I knew something about that subject myself. You don't grow up in the city without learning how to fight.

This was not to be finesse match. I looked at his hands and knew he would have to be taken down quickly. As he swung I shifted to the side, but not quite fast enough. He grazed my jaw and it stung like hell. He must have abraded my skin with a ring.

Suppressing the pain, I quickly moved inward in a tight crouch to eliminate his advantage of reach. I faked a short jab to his face and he covered up. Unfortunately for him, vanity may have forced him to over commit his guard. It was a costly mistake. His action left my intended target wide open.

The next blow carried all of my weight and was delivered without interference to his testicles. He groaned as his hands involuntarily went to his crotch. That punch ended his part in the fight. As he began to bend forward, I sidestepped, pivoted, and placed a kick to the backside of his knee which brought about the collapse of his left leg.

I shifted my weight again in the opposite direction and landed a blow to his kidneys as he was moving downward. That may have been overkill. His body barely acknowledged the hit. For my part I was breathing heavier now as the adrenaline flowed unabated.

It was too much for him though. He hit the tile floor face first with a god-awful thud, his arms knocking over a couple of chairs during his descent. Paige, who had been a quiet witness up to that point, screamed as did several other patrons. The intensity of her scream caused me to freeze. Until that cry I was preparing to place a kick to his ribs as he lay doubled up.

I stood immobile as I saw Paige rush to his side while the owner appeared near him followed by several of her employees. Their presence brought me fully back from my hysteria. My bloodlust was gone.

I never looked at Lindenhall's face again. My gaze was on Paige as she assisted her lover. As reason once again took over my emotions I apologized to the owner and promised to wait for the police. The owner merely shook her head and passed me a napkin for my jaw.

Paige, with the assistance of two busboys struggled to calm her fallen companion. Lindenhall was oblivious, apparently concerned only with trying to breathe normally. As he gradually regained awareness she had the presence of mind to tell him that they had to leave; they didn't want to face the authorities.

All the while they were trying to calm him she kept looking over at me, but never spoke. The one word to describe her look was shock. She seemed in awe that I would have responded the way I had; or perhaps she was surprised that her 'boyfriend' went down so easily. I must have looked a sight, dripping blood and standing ready to continue the battle.

I watched over the next few minutes as Lindenhall managed, with Paige's help, to walk out of the restaurant. After they were gone I began asking all those in the vicinity of our table if they had seen the fight. I hoped to gain a witness or two for the necessary personal protection order. If I were to encounter him again I wanted some legal cover as a prelude to the confrontation.

While the patrons, to a person, didn't want to get involved, the owner and her cashier agreed to back my side of the story. I noticed that the owner had the same look as Paige. She seemed surprised at my handling of Lindenhall. Ignoring her expression, I wrote down their names and numbers and told them I would likely need their help when the officers arrived.

I then called 'Aunt' Liz and calmly explained the situation. As I knew she would, she gave me a tongue lashing for the fight and for even speaking directly with Paige....let alone her lover. I promised that this would be the last time I would put myself in such a situation. I also agreed to answer only the questions the officers posed to me when they arrived. I was to volunteer nothing else.

By now I sincerely regretted the fight. While it felt good to have knocked Lindenhall on his ass, I knew better than to be fighting in public. I knew I was responsible for the altercation. I had purposely goaded him into attacking me. I never doubted my ability to take him out. Furthermore, I was prepared to seriously hurt him. Those around us might not have known this, but I did. Such was my rage at the time. Perhaps that was the hidden reason I never became a cop; I was afraid of my own anger.

Being my father's son, such public brawls were long ago considered unacceptable; even though it was my father who had taught me to fight. Those lessons came with a couple provisos: that I act only in self-defense or in defense of my family and that I ignore all notions of a fair fight and disable my opponent before ceasing my attack. Lindenhall was by himself and unarmed. His actual threat to me was minimal. Dad would immediately see through this to my motives.

When I finished with my lawyer the police came walking through the door. I was somewhat startled by their swift arrival. They started taking their report by interviewing the witnesses. One of the officers stared at me a little longer than comfortable after he took down my name, but he never pursued his obvious curiosity.

There was potential recognition of who I was but I never gave any reason for him to ask further. My dad was a well known officer and so was my brother. There was little doubt that this escapade would reach their ears within hours.

When it became clear that I was the party who had been attacked, I was faced with the prospect of pressing charges against Lindenhall for assault and battery. I couldn't resist. I gave up his name and address. He would likely beat the charge, but the aggravation and embarrassment it would cause was too tempting.

I returned to work and tried to push the last hour out of my mind. Upon entering the lobby Cheryl was eager to have me recount my time in the restaurant. The bruise on my jaw made for an instant topic of conversation. I thanked her for trying to warn me but avoided giving details of the fight. She understood my obvious discomfort with the discussion and stopped asking.

Before I could leave, she added: "Hold on Peter, I'll call Noelle. She wanted to see you when you returned. She was very worried. I had to calm her down when you left. She was in the process of leaving for the restaurant when I persuaded her to call the police instead."

That last piece of information I found very disturbing, even though it explained the fast appearance of the cops. I never intended to bring this kind of drama to the job. Just as I was thinking how I might have handled the situation differently, Noelle appeared.

I can't explain why, but when I saw her I felt very ashamed of myself. She didn't look upset or annoyed with me; in fact, if I read her expression correctly she looked very relieved. When she entered my space I almost thought she were about to embrace me, but caught herself at the last moment.

"Are you OK? Oh my God, you're hurt. " She grabbed my arm and led me back towards the pantry. There was an emergency med kit on the wall near the sink.

I stood there like a small child letting her take charge. She rifled through the kit then gave up, turning her attention to a package of cloth towels, one of which went quickly under water.

She started wiping my jaw line and the area around the bruise. This was the first time she had ever touched me. I flinched when her hands made contact with my face, and yet her touch was soft and extremely gentle. My movement was more a reaction to her contact than a reaction to pain. Unfortunately, she took it for the latter.

"I knew I should have gone with you", she said more to herself as she continued to focus on the affected area. I looked in her eyes and saw that she was near to tears. She then turned back to the wall cabinet and extracted a small tube, whose contents she applied first to her fingers and then to my face. The question was who was the one really in pain here?

What could I say to her that would make this situation any better? Before I could think of something we were interrupted by the arrival of Cheryl followed by my brother Tommy.

Noelle had never met my brother so she was immediately caught off guard with this large policeman who showed up wearing his most dangerous face. I saw her tense up and move closer to my side.

My baby brother does tend to bring out this reaction in people. On more than one occasion he had quelled a disturbance by merely getting out of his car. He was six feet four and over two hundred an thirty pounds of pure muscle.

It would have been interesting to see him and Lindenhall in a battle royal. They were very closely matched in size and build. However, my money was on Tommy in any fight between them.

"There you are." The words were said more in challenge then sympathy. Then looking me over, he continued, "Well at least you weren't hurt too bad. That's more than I can say about the other guy. He's over in Graduate hospital with a broken cheekbone."

Folding his arms across his chest he moved back a few steps before finishing what I knew was the inevitable dressing down.

"What the hell were you thinking? Dad is going to have fit when he hears about this, and you're going to explain it to him, not me." Tommy then started shaking his head. He must have seen Noelle's concern so he abruptly changed the tone.

Extending his hand to her he said, "Sergeant Thomas Stuart ma'am. I'm this idiot's brother." I sensed her muscles relax as she shook his hand. Cheryl, who was standing off to the sidelines started giggling when she heard that last comment. It was at this point that I found my voice.

"Enough Tommy, I don't need a lecture from you on this. How did you find out about it anyway?"

"Pete, the officers that interviewed you are out of the 9th district. They're my guys. One of them saw the name and address and had a feeling we might be related so they call me immediately. They gave me a rundown, now I'll hear it from you. What happened?"

Baby brother tried using 'the voice' on me. That was little too much. I was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable with all of this attention anyway. "I gave my story Tommy. I've already gotten too many people involved in this. Stay out of it. I'm fine, that's all you need to know."

"Is he always like this during the day?" Tommy said to Noelle, while smirking. She for her part she was smiling too. Then turning back to me he added. "I'll leave now. You don't have to talk to me; you can tell the old man the details. See'ya." With that he and Cheryl left the room.

"Lean down a little, I haven't finished yet". Said Noelle as she reached for the same tube she had before.

"I'm sorry." I said softly, once we were alone.

"You should be. You should never have left with those two. We could have gotten rid of them easily. You didn't have to go. Do you realize what could have happened?" I felt a slight tremor in her hand as she said this. I had never considered her feelings when I went with Paige and her 'boyfriend'.

Noelle and I were not just co-workers, we were close friends and I needed to remember that. Her closeness and the obvious problem she was having with my injury only reinforced my deepening embarrassment. This woman had a way of touching my conscience like no one else ever had.

She finished working on my face and left without saying another word, leaving me to beat myself up for ever getting her involved, even if it were only as a bystander.

There were just a couple of hours left in the workday. I stayed in the office till five and left. There wasn't much to be gained in working late that night. In reality I wanted to avoid having my nightly de-brief with Noelle. My life was a little too complicated at the moment. I needed to sort out my problems without her. Besides, I knew Dad would be waiting for me when I got home. I expected a long night of apologies.

Of course if I were good at predictions I would have known of Paige's plans years ago; so I wasn't surprised when I arrived to find Dad and 'Aunt' Liz waiting. Neither of them looked particularly happy to see me. For my part I was glad to see Liz.

Dad had said that she had been divorced twice herself. I would never have known, since she was currently married to our cousin, and had been so for at least a dozen years. In fact, my father had introduced them.

They were an exceptionally happy couple. If their happiness came from a heritage of divorce then my future was at least hopeful. I held on tight to that thought since Liz looked to be in a particularly foul mood.

She was seated on the couch while Dad stood near the mantle. I moved to give the obligatory embrace hoping to at least force the opening dialog into one which was less condemning of my actions.

She was not fooled in the least. "Peter, you can drop the act. We both know your behavior this afternoon was inexcusable. However, I'm here about something else. Did you happen to read the entire report of the investigators?"

"I read it, but not completely. Is something wrong?"

"I believe so. What's your relationship to your brother in law? Are you friendly with him?"

"Not really. The guy is an ass. What is this about?"

"There is potential evidence of a crime being committed." Liz began. She then looked over at my father before turning back to me.

"It's OK, there's nothing in that report that can't be shared with Dad. What possible crime are you speaking of?"

"Spousal abuse."

I moved to a seat before speaking. "Rob can be quite pompous but I can't see him hurting Dana."