Unfaithful

"Not when performed without consent."

"No one was forced."

"The women were incarcerated and unable to consent freely. If you didn't know it was wrong, why were you covering it up?"

"I'm just the nurse. I follow instructions."

"A senior nurse without whose help the whole scheme collapses. You forget I know your hospital rules. They needed your help with the medical procedures and your signature on the records attesting to what they had done. I know that what you said they did and what actually happened were not the same. You covered up for Curoso and Faraji. But mostly for Faraji who was your lover."

"You can prove any of that," she said but without conviction.

I showed her the statements I had collected from the officers and inmates. It was all I needed. She broke down and started crying.

"As to your being Faraji's lover, Declan admitted that to me. You really did a number on him,"

"No, you don't understand. We weren't really hurting anyone. Deke loves me. He understood. The women needed the help. Eshe was just doing Tony Curoso a favor."

"Read the statements. They were getting paid under the table to cover up the evidence of rape."

Claire put her head down on the table and just sobbed out her tears.

I had Tara waiting in the wings to play good cop. I turned Claire over to her, and she teased out the statement, which fried Curoso and Faraji.

Their scheme must have seemed foolproof and safe. Who would question a doctor in the treatment of his patient? The women simply went to the sick call, complaining of a female problem, and the authorities were forced to send her to the gynecologist, who was under contract to the state. That doctor was Curoso. If he said she needed a surgical intervention, there was no one to dispute his call. Faraji performed the surgery with the assistance of the nurse he had seduced, Claire Hudson.

Curoso and Faraji were double dipping; they were getting paid for one operation from the state and performing another under the table for a cash payment. It seemed a small scheme at first, but by the time Claire was finished talking, it became far larger. Abortions were not the only service rendered. They treated venereal disease, prescribed birth control, and covered up all and any evidence of illicit sex.

I was naïve enough to believe this was the extent of the inquiry, but you live and learn.

_______________________________

I was late getting home; there was an amazing amount of work to be done in presenting a case to the grand jury. On TV it looks so easy, but in real life, it takes preparation. The first problem is impaneling the jury if one is not sitting. Smaller counties don't keep a grand jury sitting continuously. Putting a jury in place can be a considerable administrative process. But Stan Katsaros had a jury already impaneled as if he were waiting just for me and, of course, he was.

Simone and the girls were already eating dinner when I arrived. Simone had made soup and had bought fresh bread from the bakery. I took my seat and listened to my daughters discuss their day. An eerie silence emanated from my wife's end of the table. I knew that, by then, she must have known that I'd had Claire arrested, but she was not talking about it in front of our daughters.

Simone put the girls to bed and, in an unusual move, read them bedtime stories. I was in the small downstairs room we use as an office. It's mostly Simone's space, but I was sitting there, trying to work up a schedule for the next few weeks. They would be busy for me. My mind wandered to what Carrie Wilson would do when she saw my latest set of time records. She had wanted action—now she would have it in spades.

"Why would you do something so cruel?" Simone said from the doorway.

"Just doing my job," I responded, not even looking at her.

"Your job? Claire and Deke are our best friends, and she was only doing her job. She's a nurse, damn you."

"She was covering for her paramour Eshe Faraji and assisting him in a crime that makes her an accomplice."

"Are you crazy? She's our friend, a nurse who was performing normal medical procedures."

"I can't discuss this any further."

"Is this some kind of revenge?" she demanded.

"No, at least not from me. I was given an appointment to prosecute those involved in the sexual exploitation of prison inmates, and that's what I'm doing."

"By arresting my friends."

"Yes, because they happen to be criminals."

"Says you!"

"And hopefully the grand jury."

That effectively ended the discussion, and she stormed away. We then spent the next two weeks not talking, but I barely noticed, as I was busy.

It was the evening before I was to begin presenting my case to the grand jury. I had spent the day organizing the evidence. Returning home late, I relieved Lisa, who had been kind enough to come and take care of my daughters.

"Tyhanks," I said to Lisa after checking that the girls were asleep.

She was sitting in my living room, watching the end of an old tearjerker Hollywood film on TV. The tears were flowing down her face. As she turned to me, she wiped them with the back of her hand.

"I'm not usually this bad," she said. 'It's the medications. I have an appointment for the insemination at the end of the week. I'll use your sperm if you are still good with it."

"It will be an honor, and I will pray for your success," I said, planting a kiss on her wet cheek.

"I hope this doesn't aggravate your problems with Simone," she said, grabbing her coat and heading for the door.

"No, my problems have nothing to do with you."

"I'm so sorry. You two were the happiest couple I knew. I will pray you work things out. It seems that two good people should be able to forgive each other," she said.

I saw her out the door, wondering about that last thing she'd said. The scandal was enveloping both the hospital and Simone's associates. I was the instrument of that scandal. It would hurt my wife, but I had done nothing that I need ask forgiveness for. I was no Sister Theresa, ready to forgive the officials who had raped me. I sought to punish the transgressors. It was what the governor had appointed me to do, and, more important, it was what I was being paid to accomplish. Yet deep down, I knew that there was an aspect of this case that had nothing to do with right and wrong or guilt and innocence.

Tomorrow I would, with any luck at all, convince the grand jury to indict two doctors, a nurse, and a half dozen correction officers. More might come later, but the beginning made a nice scandal to fill the local news and hopefully make the governor, the various interest groups, and Carrie Wilson happy.

My wife did not arrive home until near midnight. She looked tired. I was in bed by then, reading a book because I was too wound up to sleep. She took a shower and crawled into bed. She leaned over me and turned out the light. I thought that was the signal that she wanted to go to sleep. But I was wrong. She slithered down my torso and pulled down my shorts.

She took my cock into her mouth and proceeded to blow me like there was no tomorrow. When I was erect, she mounted me and continued to try and fuck me into the mattress. She gave me three orgasms before 2:00 a.m. but never said a word. She had been a sexual tiger. There had been no love in it, only sex. When she was done, she rolled to her side of the bed and went to sleep.

_______________________________

Thomas Everett Parker Jr. was a tall, distinguished man in his fifties. He was the preeminent defense counsel in the area. Parker was known for his remarkable courtroom successes and his melodious baritone voice. He was the son of Thomas Everett Parker Sr., who was a legend at the local bar until his death. The younger—and living—Parker was counsel to Dr. Curoso.

In just two days, I had succeeded in getting the grand jury to give me every indictment I asked for. The first result of which was a call from Tom Parker for a meeting. The great lawyer and his well-dressed client took seats in my modest conference room for what I assumed would be a plea negotiation.

Parker began laying out the essence of my case, and what he saw as the doctor's sterling character. In Parker's view, Curoso was a saint, helping poor women with their reproductive rights. Curoso made his own pitch when Parker stopped talking. The doctor made an elegant, if rather rehearsed, plea for mercy. I could tell that attorney and client had won over my clerk, Rebecca, whom I had sitting in on the meeting.

"Sorry," I said. "I have an indictment for three felony counts, and I see no reason to let them slide." I didn't say that Curoso was a greedy lothario who didn't have the brains to stay away from the DA's wife. But that would have been cruel, and it would have tipped them to the fact that I knew what had set these odd events in motion.

Curoso looked at Parker, who raised his eyebrows and shrugged as if to say, "I told you so." Curoso nodded to Parker, and the attorney began speaking in almost a whisper.

"My client has something to trade," he said.

"Trade?"

"He can give you a charge against someone more important," Parker said.

My mind flipped to the prison superintendent, but I was nowhere close.

"I can give you Commissioner Abruso," the doctor said.

I hoped I hid the surprise I felt, as well as the anticipation. I turned to Parker and said, "Is this legit? And how serious?"

The lawyer laid out the alleged information in a vague but convincing fashion. It seemed that Curoso had paid for the appointment to supervise the health of the Van Patten CF inmates. The appointment was for a hundred grand a year for what amounted to no more than three days a month. The kickback was twenty thousand per annum. Further, it was understood that Curoso would take care that no unwanted children entered the world that could not be accounted for.

My case had just soared through the stratosphere, and everything finally made perfect sense. That missing piece that I knew was there somewhere had finally appeared, and now I had found enlightenment. Parker saw right through me, and I wondered just how much he understood. The deal we eventually struck kept Curoso out of prison but had him plead to a felony.

The doctor would lose his license but would have it back by the time he finished his three years of probation. He left my office a happy man. I was still stunned, and a bit chagrined, at my own naivete as they left. Rebecca's view was different.

"Wow, I thought this summer was going to be dull," she said. "I've learned more than I could ever at school."

"Well, don't get too excited. We just got a pile more work. "

I set out the new schedule. I called Tara and told her about the new turn in our investigation, and then I went home. I needed to relax in a quiet place and think through what had just happened.

Simone's car in the driveway told me she was home in the middle of the day. There was no second car. Despite how things stood between us, I expected to catch no one in flagrante delicto. What I did find was my wife packing.

"Were you going to tell me you were leaving?" I asked.

She jumped a bit, not expecting me that time of day, but went back to packing her trunk.

"Yes, of course," she said. "Tonight I was going to tell Vicky, Beth, and you."

"Can I ask why?"

"There's a new Ebola outbreak in Nigeria. I got a call at work. They need all the help they can get."

"Okay, new question: why you?"

"Don't be like that. I have to go. If I don't, then who will?"

"Maybe someone without a family who needs them."

She laughed and turned to fully face me. "We both know that the girls don't actually need me when they have you, and you don't want me."

"My daughters need a mother," I said.

"No, they have a Superdad. He's a real prick out in the big world, but he's everything a girl needs at home. The problem is he has a wife that doesn't fit inside his house anymore. So this will be best for all involved. Maybe when I come home next time, we can put it back together."

"So that's it? You're leaving."

"Yes, but I need a favor. I want to take Claire with me. Can you arrange to let her off so she can do what God put her on this earth to do?"

"I think that can be arranged. I might take a few weeks."

"Thank you."

_______________________________

Angie's is one of many restaurant/bar combinations that are so plentiful along Western Ave by the state office campus and the university. Mike Tillman, chairman of the Commission on Corrections, sat in a booth toward the back. It was well past the lunch time of most state employees, so the place was relatively empty.

When I asked for a meeting, Mike had invited me to lunch. He picked the time and the place. It was a casual setting where a state employee was not out of place; this kept with the illusion that the independent commission and independent prosecutor were not actually conspiring. At this point, people might get the wrong impression if we met formally. Some might suspect what happened was a contrivance, but none would speak their suspicions without some hard evidence.

"The chicken parm sandwich is good, but get the onion rings, not the fries," Mike said as I sat down.

The bored looking waitress was called over as I took my seat and I accepted Mike's recommendation as I ordered.

"With coffee," I said, handing the waitress the menu back.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Mike began as soon as the girl left.

"Well, I really had only one question," I said, trying to look him right in the eyes.

Mike only smiled at my attempt to control the conversation. "Just one question?"

"Yes, I pretty much understand I played the pawn in this game."

"Tsk-tsk, no pawn. A knight at least. Maybe not a white night, but a knight at least."

"Figure of speech for a party who's been manipulated," I said.

"Now I'm curious. How do you see yourself being manipulated?" Mike said with a smile that let me know he already knew the answer.

"Stan Katsaros is a man who's twenty years older than his wife. It's the kind of thing that can make a man nervous, especially a not very attractive short Greek lawyer married to a very pretty lady. But when he's district attorney and suspects his wife of infidelity, he has a lot of resources at his disposal," I said, watching Mike closely.

He just nodded his head that I should go on.

"Well, when Stan discovers his wife is having an affair with her gynecologist, he's upset. But when he discovers what the gynecologist is up to with the prison inmates, he has a very big problem. He has discovered crimes within his jurisdiction, but he's done so with illegal surveillance. He's caught. If he acts on what he knows, he gets slammed for misusing his office, not to mention being exposed as a cuckold. On the other hand, should it come out that he knew and did nothing?"

"Interesting problem," Mike said.

"Yes, very, but the solution is more so. You see, Stan knows someone who can investigate without the need for any probable cause or even explanation. An agency set up just for that purpose. So, naturally, Stan takes his information where it can be used."

"Problem solved," Mike said.

"But," I said.

"But?" Mike asked.

"Well, the man he saw had his own agenda, a little payback for being passed over. And this man knew somethings Stan didn't."

"Such as?"

"How the doctor got his job and how the system works," I said.

"I haven't heard a question yet," he replied.

"Why me? You could have had your pick. Why go for an obscure defense attorney with a less-than-stellar reputation to blow up the Department of Corrections?"

Mike put on a big grin and said, "Jimmy, you still don't get it. Like I said, a knight. The kind of guy who will take on three frat boys to save a drunk co-ed, but fight as dirty as it gets. A guy with a pretty wife who was getting hit on by the asshole doctors. A fucking shrewd prick of a lawyer who didn't need more than to be pointed in the right direction."

He paused as the waitress brought the food. When she'd gone, he picked up where he left off. "The good guys win here. Stan gets his wife back and a nice revenge. The governor gets to clean house in the largest state agency and put in his own people, and you get a nice paycheck. Admittedly, if you had been less efficient, you would have made out better, but I'm sure no one will complain if your string it out a bit at the end."

"And what do you get, Mike?"

"The satisfaction of seeing those pricks who stabbed me in the back and pushed me aside go down. Plus the gratitude of the public and the sitting governor," he said, very pleased with himself.

"And after the storm has passed, when Abruso's friends come out from under their rocks?" I asked.

"By then I will be long gone, and, as you said, you are an obscure defense lawyer. We have nothing to worry about."

I was not convinced of that last part. Politicians have long memories, and we had eliminated a substantial piece of the patronage pie. But the food was excellent, and Mike's company was good, even though he was a son of a bitch. After lunch, I headed back to the office, knowing that I had been used but at least understanding the reason for it.

Epilogue

I was at the bar in the Gideon Hotel ballroom. It was the annual meeting of the Defenders Bar Association. It goes without saying that my brief tenure as a special prosecutor had not made me any friends in the defense bar. I was being avoided like the pariah that I was.

"Buy a lady a drink?" a female voice asked.

I turned to see Carrie Wilson standing behind me. "Didn't know there were any ladies here. Thought it was just attorneys."

"Is that what passes for humor among special counsels?" she said.

"Well, we do try to smile if we can."

"Poor Jimmy, lost all his friends putting people in jail."

"That's not exactly accurate. Abruso got probation, and I had to plead out Dr. Caruso, Claire Hudson, and most of the officers," I said.

"Seems the only fish you snagged was Dr. Faraji, the least culpable of the lot," she accused.

"Now do I get a drink?"

She was drinking gin and tonic, and, with glass in hand, she led me to an empty table.

"The governor thinks we should let Faraji go," she said.

"Why?"

"As I said, he's not all that culpable, and it seems a bit unfair—and like he's being punished for something other than the unauthorized procedures."

She had raised her eyebrows. I knew what everyone was saying. My wife had run off to Africa in the middle of the scandal. It was no secret that Dr. Faraji had been putting the moves on her. Some were saying that Simone and Faraji had had an affair. The truth of such rumors didn't matter because the suspicion was enough.

"And that would be?"

"I hear your wife is back in Africa."

"Yes, about three months now."

"Must be hard on the marriage?"

I had to laugh. "You know it is, as you know we are now legally separated."

"So, give Faraji a deal and end this scandal and come have dinner with me," she said.

"Dinner?" Carrie Wilson was offering me an out. Let Faraji go; the governor had what he wanted. The powers that be would not object that my prosecution had actually failed to incarcerate anyone.

"Yes, dinner. Special prosecutors do eat?"

"I might not be the best company for a governor's assistant."

"Oh, you will do. You're a state university snob who looks down on Ivy League grads, but you're not a bad-looking fellow, and besides, I loved to hear who the father of your sister's wife's baby is," she said with an endearing smile.

Lisa was pregnant. While showing me the ultrasound, Tara told me the baby was a boy. The newly married couple were extremely happy, but rumors abounded about the identity of the father.

"How do I know I can trust you with such sensitive information?" I said.