Chapter 7

Catherine called me twice during those two days, sounding quite worried. It was quite clear that she felt under-powered while facing ‘The Shark’ - as she called her. Finally, I had to tell her to calm down. We had the evidence supporting us, and surely, there was no law against divorce in this state. I worked, just to keep my mind occupied with other things. I did my best to ignore the whispers and nasty looks. In order to follow what was happening to Sean, I had to watch the national news, since the local news seemed to believe that by totally ignoring Sean, he’d go away.

Friday afternoon, we all were again sitting there, facing the old judge. This time, he immediately turned to Ms. Staples.

“Ms. Staples, before we start, I’d like to know if you have been able to locate the funds Mr. Hart is supposed to be hiding?”

I could see that all the others had their eyes glued on her, while I was merely thinking of my options. Either I’ll end up being a bastard who abandoned his young wife with a small child, or I’ll become a public figure. A publicly known, heartless bastard. I noticed that I didn’t really care. I just wanted all this to be over with.

“No, your honor. But before we proceed, we’d like Mr. Hart to give some more detailed information about his funds. We are very sorry about this delay, but we need to be sure that, even though our client doesn’t want to divorce Mr. Hart, she will be treated fairly in case it happens.”

“Very well, Ms. Staples - but let me assure you that longer delays will also test my patience. We’ll meet again next Friday, same time.”

He didn’t give Catherine even the possibility to object. Suddenly, I was very awake. Ms. Staples avoided my gaze and concentrated on Caryn who seemed a bit dumbfounded herself.

“What was that, William?”

“I’ve no idea, Catherine. But like I said, there was nothing new to be found.”

This time, Ms. Staples made sure that I had no chance of confronting her in the parking lot, and to tell the truth, I wasn’t going to push my luck again, unless absolutely necessary.

A few hours later, I wished that I had. The details they wanted to know about my finances were twisted, over-detailed and totally irrelevant. But, since the judge had agreed that I must fill in the blanks, I would do it. As a result, I spent Friday evening and most of that Saturday in my office, doing the job. It was Sunday afternoon when I was finished, and I was exhausted. I was absentmindedly scanning through the news on the net and almost missed the small headline and the link to the article. It wasn’t much, just a small note that there had been a short ceremony, followed by a burial on Saturday.

I didn’t quite throw up, but my stomach turned ice-cold. I’d had everything prepared for a quick trip the following weekend, but half the reason had just been taken away.

I had already picked up my disposable phone and was ready to call another number I knew by heart, when I had second thoughts and called Greg instead. After all, he was the one who had tried to call me. I let phone ring a few times, before ending the call. He would call me back if he wanted to talk to me.

It was more than an hour later when I got a call from an unidentified number.

“Hi.”

“Hi, Will. So, you know, now.”

“Yes, I guess I know quite well where I stand, now.”

“You got the dragon lady really pissed, you know.”

“And she hired a shark to stop my divorce, while I was given the idea we had agreed about everything.”

He was silent for a while.

“Will, you should know that as soon as my contract ends, I’ll be out of this. I didn’t accept this kind of behavior while in the service, and I don’t accept it now. But I need to honor my contract.”

“Greg, I respect you for the help you have given me. Now, I only hope that they’ll allow me to walk out of this. If they decide to play dirty, they should remember that I don’t have much of a reputation to lose.”

“Believe me, I have warned them.”

“I know, I believe you.”

When we ended the call after a while, one of his questions kept on echoing inside my head: ‘Will, what are you planning to do when this is all over?’ I had absolutely no idea.

Monday morning, I delivered the financial documents I had prepared to Ms. Staples in her temporary office, myself. She was surprised and a bit worried to see me instead of Catherine, but I just handed the documents to her. While at the door, I turned to her.

“Ms. Staples, don’t expect any gratitude from them, once you are finished here. Emilie once told me that her parents treat everything and everybody equally: they are applicable resources to be used for their greatest benefit. She failed them by falling in love with me. Now, I guess they don’t want the publicity; but they denied me the ability to attend my former fiancée’s funeral after I exposed her killer.”

“She really doesn’t want to divorce you.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll not hold that against you.”

The rest of the work week dragged by slowly. Even though all the meetings were taking place behind closed doors, I started getting odd looks wherever I was. I guess nothing remained secret in this little town. Finally, it was Friday afternoon, and we were inside the same room again, facing the old judge.

“Ms. Staples, are you now happy with the documentation?”

“Yes, your honor. We are sorry about the delay.”

Just like that. Two weeks wasted for nothing. No, not for nothing. They just wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t be there at Emilie’s funeral. I forced myself to calm down, as now I just wanted this thing to get over with.

“Mrs. Hamlin, do you have anything to say.”

“Your honor, my client, Mr. Hart, has made a very fair suggestion to his wife.”

“Ms. Staples?”

“Your honor, Mrs. Hart doesn’t want the divorce. Besides, we think that his suggestion is not fair, considering that he would be leaving this wife and small child.”

Only then did I get it. Of course, they thought that Judy was mine. They were counting on statistics on this, since I was quite sure that Caryn had confessed to them about what had happened, but I was quite sure that Ms. Staples was counting on statistics here.

“Ms. Staples, Mrs. Hamlin - I have to admit that I’m such an old-fashioned person that I do believe that a husband should take care of his family, but I warn you that I feel no sympathy for the adulterer or adulteress. Ms. Staples, does your client deny having a affair?”

“Yes, your honor. Most certainly it wasn’t an affair. If you please, Mrs. Hart would explain herself.”

I had to tap Catherine in order to make her react.

“Objection, your honor.”

“On what grounds, Mrs. Hamlin?”

I had been busy writing a note and I showed it to Catherine.

“Your honor, when Mr. Hart first suspected some problems, he offered Mrs. Hart several opportunities to come clean with certain happenings.”

“Overruled. Look, I may be stretching some rules here, but I’m too old to care. It’s either here or in counseling; and by starting to do it here, we may be able to save some time. Mrs. Hart, please.”

I was about to stand up; Catherine stopped me. I was fuming inside. Hell, I had done everything by the book, and getting a divorce should have been a walk-though. I guess that in a civilized town, it would have been.

I have to give it to Ms. Staples. She was doing an excellent job. Getting Caryn to tell her story was an excellent move. Caryn’s voice was nice, and touching, and even Catherine gasped when Caryn told about her mother’s death and how her father changed. How he first started beating and molesting Justin and then Caryn. How she lost her virginity to her father when she was fourteen. Then one day, Justin had snapped as he had had enough and he hit back when their father - once again - came to beat him while drunk. Their father fell down the stairs and died, breaking his neck. Instead of calling the cops, Justin called his friend Sean, and asked for help.

Sean and Justin managed to get the father to his car and Sean managed quite easily to make it look like he had driven off the road and then his car caught fire. The only problem was that now, Justin owed Sean a favor, and it was Caryn who occasionally paid the price.

The thing was that I had already known most of this, and had guessed the rest. By combining the missing persons info and surveillance data, I knew that Sean visited Caryn between kidnappings. But yet, it was different to hear her telling it in an empty voice. My jaw was tight and I stared into nothingness as I listened to her. But my eyes remained dry, and her voice flat and emotionless. Up until the moment she mentioned me for the first time.

“ ... but then Will started courting me. First I couldn’t believe it. It was like a fairy-tale, a dream come true. He was so good and nice to me that it seemed impossible. I thought that, once I got married, Sean wouldn’t come to me anymore. At first, it seemed that it would be like that. But then a bit later, Justin told me that Sean got extremely angry when he found out that I got married, and he made some nasty comments about Will, and he threatened that, if Justin did anything but help him, we would both be in serious trouble. During all those years, he had forced Justin to take part in all kinds of things that were not at all legal, and then Sean occasionally teased Justin that he should be careful not to get his nice police ass behind bars...”

Unfortunately, I knew that Justin had done a bit more than ‘some questionable things’ while working with Sean, but I was also quite sure that he had kept those things from his sister.

“ ... I was on cloud nine in the beginning of our marriage. We were together all the time, and I was safe from Sean. I felt happy and safe. But then Will had to make his trips, and Justin told Sean that I was alone there...”

Suddenly, her voice almost broke.

“Sean kept on laughing at Will, and he told me that he would find out if I’d let my husband know that he was seeing me. There would be some severe consequences for Will. He had never admitted anything to me, but he had hinted that there was hardly anything he wouldn’t be able to do. So, in order to prevent Will from getting hurt, I kept Sean’s visits secret, and did my best to be a good wife to my husband. Then we found out that I was pregnant. I was at a loss at first, but Will supported me totally. In a way, it was the happiest time of my life. Sean didn’t want to even touch me when it started to show, while Will got even more considerate, if that was possible. Then, without any warning, came the day when Will asked for divorce on the grounds of adultery. Sean also got served, and he became more than furious. He forced me and Justin to ask Will to visit me at home; but, as soon as Will got there, Sean started beating him. The next thing I heard was that Sean was in a hospital, and now they are accusing him of murders, and also Justin was in jail, too. I never, never wanted to cheat on Will! I only did it because I was afraid of what Sean would do.”

She was sniffing silently at this point and I could see that even Catherine’s eyes were moist. Shit, she should be a professional and helping me. I nudged her and made her look at the sheet I had put in front of her. It took her a moment to understand what I had written there, but finally, she nodded. Meanwhile, the old judge had turned in our direction raising his eyebrows and looking much too satisfied with himself.

“Mrs. Hamlin?”

“Your honor, I’d like to ask Mrs. Hart if Mr. Hart had ever indicated that he wasn’t at all afraid of Sean Donaghue?”

When I looked at Caryn, I saw that she winced. Just why did she want to torture herself like this? By signing the papers, she could easily start a new, comfortable, life somewhere else with Judy. The judge turned to Caryn.

“Mrs. Hart?”

“Yes.”

Her whisper was barely audible. But Catherine wasn’t finished.

“Didn’t Mr. Hart say that Sean Donaghue ‘looked like a bully to me, and acted like one,’ and that he wasn’t afraid of bullies? Didn’t he offer you the chance to tell what had happened, when he saw that you felt uneasy after his first business trip?”

The room was all silent.

“Yes. Yes, he did.”

The old judge took mercy on Caryn at this point.

“Mrs. Hamlin, I’m sure that you have made your point clear, here, and no more questions are needed on this matter. I feel that Mrs. Hart was very brave and honest here, and she certainly had good reason to be scared of Mr. Donaghue.”

WTF! By the time this happened, nobody even knew that Sean would be anything more than a small-town bully. I was about to stand up but Catherine stopped me. But the judge wasn’t done with me.

“Besides, Mr. Hart; I think that you got your revenge by beating Mr. Donaghue so that he was hospitalized for weeks, and now it seems that he’ll finish his days behind bars. Isn’t that enough? After all, you have a wife who loves you and a small daughter.”

I pushed one sheet of paper to Catherine and she took it in her hands, but not without a sigh.

“Your honor, regarding the daughter of Mrs. Hart, I’d like to present you the results of her DNA test. It shows that Mr. Hart can’t be her father.”

At the same moment Caryn burst out with a small cry, and the old judge looked at us angrily.

“Mrs. Hamlin, sometimes I’m not sure if all this modern technology is a gift or a curse, and Mr. Hart - wouldn’t it be possible that you also could have seeded the baby?”

Somewhere inside I wanted to scream that there was no way in hell that I could be the father! I’d had a vasectomy before I started this mission, but I certainly couldn’t confess that. But yet all this was totally irrelevant, I only wanted a divorce so that we all could go on with our lives.