CHAPTER 14

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I had all of Daisy's stuff on the porch by the end of the day. The locksmith had charged me double for immediate service. I paid him gladly, just as I paid the garage door guy to change the code. I changed the alarm code myself then I retired to what had been our room, lay back on the bed and cried my heart out. I was all cried out an hour later. I really had loved Daisy with all my mind, body, and soul. I thought at the time that I was now exactly like Daisy's father. I used to be a man. Now…who knew?

I fell asleep there fully clothed until Daisy phoned collect Sunday morning. "John, you have to come and bail me out. This is a terrible mistake. Please, I'm at the precinct. I need your help." I was silent for more than a minute until she continued, "John? John?"

"I suppose we have to speak sometime and now is as good as any other. We're done, Daisy…finished."

"But, why? I love you. We love each other."

"Well, to start with there was the conversation you had with your mother Monday evening. I forgot to mention that I installed a phone in my workshop. I heard all of your plans for me. I'd have to be an idiot to allow that to happen. You know what a memory I have." I spent the next five minutes repeating everything word for word, hearing Daisy gasp several times. "I found that 'object' your mother kindly provided for you to use on me—stainless steel...durable as well as decorative, if you'll pardon my sarcasm. Unfortunately, it had a terminal accident between my anvil and sledge hammer. You'll find it in one of the boxes on the front porch right under a check for your earnings. I hope it was for real estate sales and not for fucking your boss."

"John, please don't believe anything in that conversation. I have to act that way or my mother won't talk to me."

"Would that be so bad? She helped to fuck us up once before and now she's done it again. If you didn't mean anything in that conversation why didn't you mention it to me? Why didn't you show me that contraption so we could destroy it together? And don't tell me you didn't have sex with your boss. I saw you leave your office. I was there in the parking lot when you kissed him and I followed you to the bar. Even in the truck I was driving I could see your head bobbing up and down and I saw you wipe a dollop of semen from your lips. We're done. I've put all of your stuff in boxes on the porch. Pick up your shit and go. You've had a profitable year—new car, expensive diamond ring, jewelry, clothes—probably coming to more than a hundred grand. It would have been more if we had been married, even with the pre-nup."

"We burned that."

"We burned our copies. The lawyer has the original. I'm not an idiot, you know."

I could hear the regret in her voice as she spoke, "So…there's no chance for us?"

"No…none. Goodbye, Daisy—I don't want to see you again…not even once. If I do, I'll pursue a restraining order. Why don't you go home to mommy dearest?" I ended the call thinking that I had really dodged a bullet, but where was I going to find a replacement? My skills with women were still nothing to brag about.

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I spent a quiet Sunday lolling around the house and thinking that I should get a boat. At least then I could go fishing, something I hadn't done since I was a teenager. Yes—I could easily afford a boat and maybe even a membership at the yacht club down by the harbor. I could certainly take a look at some during the many spare weekend hours ahead.

I went to work early Monday morning and every morning for the next month, staying late because I really had no life other than my work. I must confess that I was less than cordial to my employees. Okay, I was a real grouch. Then on Monday morning exactly four weeks later I was in my office well before my secretary, Cara, arrived at 9:00. She looked in, shook her head, and disappeared, returning five minutes later with two cups of coffee, closing the door as she brought them to my desk. "Okay, John, I've worked with you for almost two years and I've never seen you act like this before. Something's up with you. What is it? You've been a different person for the past month."

I took a deep breath before speaking. "I broke up with Daisy. I had no choice." Then I explained about the phone call with her mother.

I could tell that Cara was pissed. "That fucking bitch!"

"I've had a few dozen similar thoughts over the past month, but I sort of got even that first Friday night."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, remember that I worked all week with my office door closed and locked? I built a remote control for her boss's car that week. Then I used that truck I rented to follow them when they left work Friday afternoon. Daisy actually tongue-kissed him in the parking lot not thirty feet from where I was parked. She gave him a blowjob in the car on the way to a nearby bar. That's when I installed the remote control and two cameras—one to see where they were going and the other to see them in the front seat.

"She took him into her mouth as soon as they were back in the car and I took control while they were driving toward King's Park. It was actually funny watching him try to control the car. I had him doing sixty through there and I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I saw a cop car ahead. I managed to sideswipe the cop car and speed them away. I led the cop on a merry chase down 25A, passing on a double yellow and at one point I stopped the car until the cop walked up. Then I drove them away again."

"You didn't!"

"Yeah, I did, but I stopped again and disconnected before they made it to Smithtown. I wouldn't want to hurt anyone so I just pulled the car over to the shoulder."

"Damn, John…that's great. Driving Miss Daisy; kind of like that movie, only better. I like that."

"It gets better. I managed to score some coke from a guy I used to work with. I couldn't get her boyfriend's prints on the bottle, but I did get his DNA before I hid it in his door pocket."

"What about Daisy?"

"I couldn't and I didn't have to. She had coke in her purse; claimed she gave it to her to hold."

"Damn, even junior high school kids know better than that."

"Three detectives came to the house Saturday morning to question me. They also asked me to check out the control mechanism which I gladly did. It was cheaply made and had burned up by the time I was done with it."

"That was lucky."

I couldn't resist a smirk. "I'm glad you think so. Anyway, the cops told me they were both stoned and had been drinking heavily. He's probably going to prison between the vehicular charges and the coke—felony amount—but Daisy will probably get probation. The device was so badly burned there's no way to get anything out of it so they'll never trace it to me. I used gloves when making and installing it, so no DNA other than what I added when I was examining it for the police."

"Okay, so why aren't you happier? You look like you're really down in the dumps."

"Perhaps you haven't noticed how bad I am with women. Before this I had Daisy. With all of her faults she was still hot as hell and she was fantastic in bed. I'm no good at the bar and club scene so I have no idea where I'm going to find another woman who will love me."

"John, you're probably the finest man I know. You're smart as hell—no, you're even smarter than that--you're polite and considerate—a real gentleman. I don't think you'll have to look too far to find that dream woman of yours. You're better off without her. Whenever she came here to see you I noticed how much you adored her. I think we all did, but know what we saw from her? Indifference; most of the time it seemed that she didn't care about you at all."

"Yeah…I guess. Thanks for the compliments, not that they'll do me any good. What say we get some work done today?" I immersed myself in work for the rest of the week, starting early and staying late yet again.