Chapter 23: Very Interesting

November 2, 1991, Chicago, Illinois

“Is Chris coming tonight?” Kara asked.

“I doubt it,” I said. “He hasn’t shown up for anything since Cindi left him. And she’s doing the traditional ‘masquerade ball’ mask. Nothing more. She’ll leave William with April and Sarah.”

“That’s a heck of a change from last year!”

“I think she’s thinking she might have pushed things too far,” I said.

“I don’t! She went to the door naked with me! She might regret the problem with Chris, but not with her costume last year!”

“What ‘costume’?” I chuckled. “It was body paint!”

“You know what I meant!” Kara giggled. “Is everyone else coming?”

“I have no idea! That depends on whether or not they get laid tonight!”

“What got into you today?” Jessica laughed. “You’re in silly mode!”

“I spent the afternoon with my Pumpkin. That always puts me in a good mood.”

“True. What did you do on your date?”

“Just lunch at Wendy’s and a nice walk. I used my monthly allotment of carbs to make her happy.”

“Spending time with you is all that’s necessary to make her happy. It’ll be fun watching this relationship as she gets older.”

“As open-minded as I am, I’m not sure I need to hear about my daughter’s sexual escapades!”

“You should have thought about that before we had a daughter!” Kara giggled. “Actually, two daughters!”

“I don’t think Stephie has the same personality,” I said.

“No. She’ll be the quiet one that nobody suspects is a sex goddess!”

“Again, I’m not sure that’s a thing a dad needs to know! I have no problem with them doing it! I just don’t need to know!”

“But you want to hear all of your BOYS’ exploits?” she huffed. “Just like a MAN!”

“Excuse me, but name one, just one, guy I’ve talked to about what I’ve done. I tell you, Jessica, and Elyse as the price for having the freedom I do. I’m not going to talk to Jesse or Matthew or the other boys about details. Or even who they’re with. On the other hand, I can almost GUARANTEE your eldest daughter will make sure I know who does what with whom!”

“Back to the question,” Kara said. “Who’s going to BE HERE tonight?”

“Pretty much all the regulars except Chris. Alex and Sam are making their once-a-year appearance.”

“Should we get into our costumes?” Jessica asked.

“It’s about time,” I agreed.

“Is Jesse coming as a Red Army officer?” Jessica asked.

“As a full colonel,” I chuckled. “Dima gave me colonel’s insignia for Jesse’s uniform and Jennifer is replacing the lieutenant’s insignia with the new ones.”

“That’s a heck of a promotion! Lieutenant to Colonel!”

“It’s Jesse,” I chuckled.

We dressed, made sure the kids were settled with April and Sarah, then headed back to the house for the party.

November 4, 1991, Chicago, Illinois

“Tell, as best you can remember, the first time you understood your sister’s desires.”

This was where it got tricky. I didn’t. I never picked up on it. My friends did. Melanie and Jennifer. I wouldn’t use names, but I had to tell Doctor Mercer the truth. I knew she’d use what I said to validate what my sister told her. I wondered how she’d handle conflicting reports. But that was for later.

“I didn’t. I never figured it out. Two of my female friends pointed it out in September of ‘78.”

“Are you looking at your journals? Or is it that burned into your memory?”

“Both. I reviewed my journals to refresh my memory.”

“I probably don’t have to tell you how dangerous it is to have this written down.”

“No, you don’t. But there’s no way I could destroy those journals at this point. They’re under lock and key, and the later ones are on encrypted computer disks with a sufficiently complex password to keep them safe.”

At least they currently were, if not in the past. I’d rectified that carelessness immediately upon Elyse telling me how quickly she’d guessed the passwords.

“I’m curious, and this is a bit off topic, what happens to those if you were to die?”

“Right now? Someone would make sure they got to Bethany. In the future, I don’t know. I’ll have to figure it out.”

“And the password?”

“Is with one person I trust implicitly. Don’t worry.”

“Sorry, so you said two female friends told you about your sister’s desire for you in 1978? You were fifteen and in tenth grade, right? And she was eleven.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“And this came as a complete shock to you?”

“Yes. In fact, the girl who first told me about it said she didn’t expect Stephanie to even drop any hints, that one day she’d show up and, as my friend put it, ‘drop the hammer’.”

“And how did she know? Did Stephanie tell her?”

“No. Both girls who figured it out did so simply by watching how we interacted. I know once or twice my dad commented about how close my sister and I were, but to my knowledge, he never put all the pieces together the way my two friends did.”

“Parents wouldn’t believe that kind of thing unless they actually saw some overt sign. I’m guessing your sister hid it pretty well if even you didn’t know.”

“I think so, yes.”

“How did you respond?”

“I sort of freaked out. My friend basically told me to be prepared for the request and decide how to handle it. At that point, she didn’t encourage me to do it. That came later. I said I’d never, ever do it. The last thing my friend said to me really hits home now. She said to remember that Stephanie loved me and that I loved her, and that whatever I did would have a profound effect on her life - and on mine. She was right.”

“Yes, she was. But you said later on, she encouraged you.”

“Yes. Several girls encouraged me.”

“How many people know about this?”

“Quite a few, actually, but every single one of them is completely loyal to me and would never, ever reveal that confidence.”

“You put a lot of trust in people. You could have ended up in jail. You still might, depending on how Illinois law reads.”

“Water under the bridge, Doc. I’ll deal with that if it happens. You have to figure if it hasn’t leaked in ten years, it isn’t going to.”

“Probably not. But as volatile as Stephanie appears to be, she might blurt it out or even use it vindictively.”

“Again, if that was going to happen, it would have. I know the risks, Doctor Mercer. And I can’t change what’s happened.”

“So what happened next?”

“I looked for clues, and eventually I saw some.”

“How did you move from freaking out and saying you would never do it to actually doing it?”

“It was a slow process, but my mom more or less convinced me.”

“Your mom?! What?!”

“You know how she was. I think I told you about the incident with buying the computer.”

I heard pages flipping.

“Ah yes, the ‘open defiance’ claim. False, I might add.”

“Absolutely false. Well, I left out one important part. I told you that my mom forbade me from spending time with Stephanie, and that Stephanie couldn’t swim with me.”

“Yes.”

“What I didn’t say was, that night, my sister came to me and made her demand.”

“To prove to herself that your mother didn’t control either of you. At age eleven.”

“Yes. I told her ‘no’ at that point, but promised her that when she was ready, I’d do it. Eventually, that turned into ‘after you have your first period’ to try to push it back past when I left for Sweden, in the fervent hope that a year away would change her mind.”

“But you had agreed to do it.”

“That’s different from wanting to do it. That came later.”

“She got her period when?”

“About a month before I left. That’s when I told her I wanted her to look like a woman, again, to push things past my trip to Sweden, at a minimum.”

“But you would have done it if she’d made it a flat-out demand?”

“That’s the ‘What if?’ stuff again. I don’t know what I would have done if she’d made it a demand at that point, after she got her period.”

“It sounds as if you were conflicted.”

“Absolutely.”

“You told me you had no sexual attraction to girls that age. But you agreed to have sex with her at age eleven.”

“I agreed at some hypothetical future date. And no, I was not sexually attracted to her.”

“But you would have had sex with her?”

I chuckled, “Doctor Mercer, it is indeed possible to have sex with someone you aren’t attracted to. I’d say the parts work properly in the vast majority of cases when the appropriate actions are performed to encourage them.”

“Yes, that’s true. But usually there is SOME attraction.”

“You mean other than loving her more than life itself at that point?”

“That would certainly explain it. So you managed to put her off and successfully fled the country.”

I chuckled, “Yes. I hid out in Sweden for a year. We only talked occasionally, and exchanged some letters, but the entire topic was more or less on the back burner for me most of the time. I hoped it would go away.”

“But it didn’t. What happened when you came home?”

“My sister had turned into a stone-cold fox. I was blown away.”

“And at that point you had the desire?”

“Well, once she said she wanted me to fuck her brains out, I did,” I chuckled.

“But you didn’t?”

“No. We agreed on Spring Break, which was after her fourteenth birthday. To me, that seemed about right. And gave her a chance to change her mind.”

“What happened in the intervening time? I mean, besides the things you’ve told me in counseling.”

“A lot of flirting and teasing. She saw me naked a few times, but I never saw her. I didn’t want to until it was time.”

“And you never had second thoughts?”

“No, I didn’t. She got angry with me over the cheating incident with Becky which I’ve told you about and I’m sure Kara relayed.”

“In detail, yes. What happened?”

“That’s when Stephanie slapped me and told me she didn’t want to do it with me. We worked through it, and by the time the first day of Spring Break rolled around, it happened.”

“I’m going to regret asking this, knowing your history, but how was it?”

“Out of this world,” I chuckled.

“And how did you feel?”

“Fantastic. Mentally, emotionally, and physically.”

“She enjoyed it? As far as you could tell?”

I laughed hard, “Doctor Mercer, of all the people on the planet who could judge that, I think I can say she enjoyed it. We spent the entire next week screwing ourselves silly in every way imaginable.”

“And by that you mean?”

“Her first time, that first day, involved vaginal, oral, and anal sex. And all of those were repeated multiple times during that week.”

“You’re joking! She was fourteen!”

“Yes, and she’ll tell you that not only did she want it, she DEMANDED it. Ask her about demanding to see her virginal blood on me before we completed our first intercourse. I pulled out and showed her. Ask her about TASTING it. And making ME taste it. Then, when we finished, having me lick her and afterwards kiss her with her blood and my semen on my lips. And ask her about saving the towel with her virginal blood on it.”

There was silence for a moment.

“I, uhm, am not sure what to say. Do you know if she still has that towel?”

“I’m positive she does. There’s nothing on this planet that would make her give that up.”

Doctor Mercer sighed, “This situation with Stephanie is going to be even more difficult than I thought.”

“And me?”

“You’re your usual coldly-analytical self. You know what you did wrong and you understand your motivations.”

“Do I?”

“You said,” she flipped a page, “you ‘loved her more than life itself’. I’d say that’s your primary motivation right there.”

“I’d say you were right, Doctor.”

“Let’s end here. I’m supposed to talk to her tomorrow. I’ll want to talk to you about how things progressed and how you broke it off.”

“There were multiple times we broke it off.”

“You did that, right? And she restarted it?”

“That’s a fair assessment, yes.”

“OK. I’m not surprised given what you’ve said. And I strongly suspect she’ll corroborate your account. What will she do when I tell her to destroy that towel?”

“Doctor Mercer, I’d wear full body armor for the rest of my days. And hire a bodyguard. And seriously consider leaving the country. The planet, if you were able.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.”

November 5, 1991, Chicago, Illinois

At the diner on Tuesday at lunch, I simply ordered my salad and said nothing else to Crystal other than a simple greeting. She gave me an odd look, looked like she was going to say something, then thought better of it. The same was true when she brought my food, and I ate while reading The Economist. I finished my meal, left the tip, and paid the check. I left without a word, though I saw her staring at me on my way out.

I returned to the office in time for a call that Jamie had scheduled with me. He hadn’t told me the details, just that he needed to discuss the BLS suit with me. The phone rang less than five minutes after I returned.

“What’s up, Jamie? Why what appears to be cloak-and-dagger?”

“I needed to verify a few things before I talked to you, and I didn’t want you doing anything until I had all the facts.”

“Uh-huh. What’s the issue?”

“You carry liability insurance on the business.”

“Yes, of course. And a bunch of other insurance, too.”

“Your liability policy requires you to make use of the insurance company’s attorneys, and give them an opportunity to settle the case, or fight it in whatever way they wish.”

“Settle?!” I spluttered. “Fuck that!”

“It’s not that simple. If you refuse, then the policy won’t apply, and you could be on the hook for the whole five million, PLUS attorney’s fees. And remember, BLS has more lawyers working on this than you do, given that Nelson is covering their own legal fees, and part of yours.”

“You mean if we lose?”

“Yes. Under Massachusetts law, the jury can find NIKA wholly culpable for the entire amount of the judgment. That would mean if Nelson couldn’t pay, or wouldn’t pay, you would have to. Let’s say they decide to declare bankruptcy. A law firm has very little in the way of assets, and the bankruptcy court can’t really take the law licenses away. You, on the other hand, could be forced to sell NIKA to pay the debt.”

“Which is why I carry insurance, of course.”

“And that insurance requires you to let them try to settle, and to use their attorneys. You can retain your own, but they control the case.”

“Fucking hell,” I sighed. “So?”

“They want to offer BLS $250,000 to make this go away. I suspect they’d go to twice that amount before they considered litigating.”

“But even then, THEY get to decide how the case is handled?”

“Yes. Including trying to throw Nelson under the bus, something you’ve forbidden us from doing.”

“Of course I have! They’re a customer. If I fuck over my customers, I’m dead! But it sounds like the insurance carrier doesn’t care.”

“They don’t. But, that also gives you a possible way out of the pickle.”

“Which is?”

“Proving to them that settling or throwing your customer under the bus will harm your business and that you will hold them responsible for that. It’s hardball. But it might work. The goal is to get them to let us manage the case, but still pay the costs if we lose.”

“Is that possible?” I asked.

“We’ll see. All we can do is try to negotiate with them. But, if BLS is willing to accept the money, and they likely will, we can’t prevent the settlement short of cancelling the policy. And then we’d have to pay.”

“Why did this come up now?” I asked.

“In discovery, they asked for insurance policies. Probably for this very reason. That caused me to make the phone call.”

“How much is this going to cost me?”

“Nothing. They’re fighting to save themselves money. Of course, if they pay anything out, it’ll raise your premiums.”

“Of course it will,” I sighed. “Sometimes I wonder if the whole point of this suit is to distract us and cost us money.”

“There is no doubt that’s a component, as is the hope they can get a settlement.”

“I wonder if they’ll take it?”

“We won’t know until it’s presented. Let me get to work on this.”

“Thanks, Jamie, I guess.”

I hung up and went to find Elyse. I asked her to take a walk with me because I needed to get out of the office. I explained what Jamie had said, and, she mostly agreed with me, though she did point out the risk mitigation.

“And you didn’t raise the issue of this policy when we were first served why?” I asked.

“I didn’t understand it any more than you did. We both screwed up by not reading the details of the policy and missing the fact that they could take over the suit!”

“When it comes time to renew these policies, we need to discuss in detail exactly what we’re insuring and what our options are. I don’t like the idea that somebody could come along and sue us for something we’d probably easily win, only to have the insurance company buy them off.”

“That sounds like extortion!” she protested.

“It certainly does, but I bet a lot of these high-profile lawsuits are effectively extortion. Give me enough money to go away or I’ll make your life hell for years.”