Chapter 18

I was sitting at desk musing on the latest of my long list of personal catastrophes. And then she was sitting across from me watching me muse.

“Okay?” I said. “I guess I owe you for doing the dirty work for me, you and Barbie,” I said.

“Owe me? Hardly,” said Stephanie. “I could never do enough for you to owe me anything. I came by to kind of hold your hand. I know how you must feel. First, I leave you, then Allison dies, now this. Jack, I know it must seem like you just can’t win. But Jack you can. I don’t know what it’s going to take for you to find yourself in the winner’s circle, but you will; I know it.

“I was in the winner’s circle, for almost eight years,” I said. I’d stung her with my words; I could see it in her eyes.

“Stef, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to sound like I know it did,” I said.

“Mister, and I mean this, don’t you ever say you’re sorry to me again. I’m serious. I hope that someday, I can find a way to express to you what a man you are.

“I don’t know why Leah has done what she’s done, probably never will, but she did herself wrong, and the time will come when she figures that out. I know it my man, I know it as a great truth. Whoever that other guy is, he isn’t going to be enough. She’ll discover that to her sorrow and that soon enough for damn sure,” she said.

“Yeah well, that’ll be just too damn late regardless,” I said. “It’s clear to me that womankind and me don’t mix. I could wish it were different, but it’s not and that’s the end of it.”

“You’re wrong, and you’ll see that; I know it, like I said,” she said.

“Bet you a ten spot you’re the one that’s wrong,” I said.

“You’re on,” she said. “And that’s one bet that I am going to feel real good about taking you for.”

“Hmm, hope springs eternal,” I said, “even vain hope.”

“Look, it’s almost noon. Can I take you to lunch? I’m payin’,” she said. I gave her a look.

“Okay, I’m a little short on cash today. Donald had to hit the petty cash to help the lady out last week,” I said. “So, yeah, so long as you’re payin’ I’m in.”

“Good, let’s go,” she said.

We got seats by the window when we got to Sam’s. I did like the sunlight. I didn’t get a lot of that inside, so I tried as much as possible to get as much as possible of it when I was out and around.

“I really like the sunlight,” I said. She gave me a look.

“You didn’t get a lot of it in prison, I guess,” she said. I looked down. I hadn’t meant to sting her, I really hadn’t, but I had.

“No, but I didn’t mean to ... I’d say sorry, but you told me I couldn’t,” I said, smiling. She smiled too. It was like we could talk about topics that before would have been off limits. I guess, I was getting a bit looser when it came to such things, and so was she. I guess that was a good thing.

We ordered beer from the touring slaves, and patty melts. They came, we ate and drank taking our time which was something else that would not have been the case not very far back in the day.

“Jack, I have kind of a favor to ask of you, would that be all right?” she said. I gave her a look.

“Yeah, I guess,” I said.

“Well, Junior starts college in a couple of weeks. He’s going to need a ride up there to State and a little help getting situated. Do you think you could kind of cut yourself loose for a day or two and take him down to Tempe?” she said.

“Me?” I said. “But... ?”

“Yes, I could do it or Herb, and Randall actually offered. But well, I would appreciate it if you would do the chauffeuring,” she said.

“He’s eighteen. He doesn’t have a car waiting for him,” I said.

“No, his dad doesn’t want him to drive down there until he’s twenty. He wanted twenty-one, but I got him down to twenty; so, we’re going with that,” she said.

“Hmm,” I said. “I guess I could cut myself loose as you say. So, sure if Junior is okay with me doing it.”

“He will be. He likes you,” she said.

“Okay then, let him know,” I said. As it happened, I liked the boy too. I could envision us talking about a lot of stuff. Probably even elicit a little scuttlebutt about what all was going on in the Halstead mansion.

“I will, and I’ll give you a heads-up as to when exactly he has to be up there so you can make arrangements if you need to,” she said.

“Okay, but I’m pretty loose. It’s Donald that has to be on the street. I mean my leg, you know,” I said.

“Oh, sure, I wasn’t thinking. But good, good,” she said. She had kind of a weird look that I couldn’t read, not then at any rate.”

We were maybe twenty miles from Tempe and ASU from the mansion in Scottsdale? Not far, but with traffic what it sometimes was, it could take a little while. Plus, I intended to buy lunch for our new university student. And, Junior made the point that he wanted to talk to me. I wondered at that, but in truth I was more than interested in talking to him as well.

We pulled into Bernie’s Diner within walking distance from the campus entrance. Seated, ice teas in front of us—well it was still hot in the desert.

The waitress, Phyllis her name plate announced, took our orders and we sagged back in our seats and sipped the drinks.

“Mom likes you, you know,” he said.

“Oh, okay,” I said.

“I know you saved her that day at the motel. I’ve heard her and dad talking a lot of times,” he said.

“Well, it was a long time ago,” I said. “A lot of stuff happened over all those years.”

“Uncle Jack, would it be all right if I asked you some stuff?” he said.

“Hmm, if you don’t mind if I don’t want to answer some of the things you might want to ask,” I said.

“That’s cool,” he said. I nodded.

“Was it really bad in that place?” he said.

“Prison?” I said.

“Yes,” he said.

“Yes, very bad,” I said. “Don’t commit any crimes, you don’t ever want to find out just how bad.” He snickered.

“Promise, I won’t,” he said.

“Good,” I said.

“Mom said you used to be a policeman,” he said.

“Yes, I was,” I said. “In fact, my partner was Mickey Hardy, whom I know you know.”

“Really?” he said. “I didn’t know you and she were partners.”

“Well, we were. She’s a great lady and a great cop,” I said, “still is.”

“I did know that. Dad told me she’s a detective,” he said.

“I’d like to ask you a question?” I said.” He nodded.

“What do you plan to study here,” I said. He smiled, and that big and wide.

“I’m going to be studying Criminal Justice,” he said.

“Really,” I said.

“I wanna be a cop too, like you,” he said. I could feel my face flush.

“A cop? Like me?” I said.

“Yes, mom says she is so proud of you and says it would be an honor to have another like you in the family,” he said. Now the kid was embarrassing me. And, if his mom really did say the things he said she’d said, he was embarrassing me doubly so.

“Hmm,” I said. And, the more I thought about it the more uncomfortable his words made me. Still, the truth that he was going to be studying Criminal Justice was interesting.

We talked for a while, the food came and we ate. And I delivered him to the dorm he’d already been assigned to and helped him unpack and get set up. He’d have a roommate, but whoever that was going to be had not yet arrived.

And, then I was on the road back to Phoenix. Well, it was Monday, September 12, 2012, and I did have a job. Stephanie would be there, and I knew I’d be getting questions. I wondered if she knew what the kid had said to me, and for that matter, asked me. I was betting she did.

I pulled into the lot behind our store. I sat for a long moment. I reminisced as to what had gone down per my delivery of the kid to the university. I went inside.

“How did it go?” she said as I passed her desk. I stopped and smirked and shrugged.

“You don’t know?” I said. She sported the most innocent of looks which announced to me that she did in fact know, know it all!

“Not really,” she lied.

‘Just sort of really, right?” I said. She looked down.

“I am a detective,” I said.

“Right,” she said. “He knew most of the stuff he told you already. I just added a few things that I was pretty sure he didn’t know, or wasn’t sure that he did,” she said.

“Hmm,” I said, and I went into my office. We’d be talking she and I, but it was going to be a bit later. I had some thinking to do. I was still lonely and still alone and I didn’t like it! Then, it was a month later, and we still hadn’t talked, not in depth. Then, I got the surprise of my middle aged more than eventful life.

A man she had never seen before showed up in front of Stephanie Halstead’s desk.

“Can I help you, sir?” said Stephanie.

“Yes, I’m here to see mister Danson,” he said.

“And, your name, sir?” she said.

“William Mayfield,” he said. The look on Stephanie Halstead’s face immediately morphed into one of utter disbelief.

“Mayfield?” she said. “Willy Mayfield?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Is he in?” The two people stared at each other for a brief moment.

“Yes, I will take you back to see the man,” she said. She stood and motioned the man to follow her down the short hall.

She knocked. “Come in,” I said. My ex-wife led a stranger in.

“Mister Danson, may I present, William, Willy, Mayfield,” she said. I gave her look, that I was certain, could not have been described, not even by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

“Mister Mayfield, I have to say I’m surprised, shocked, stunned that you have the brass balls to come here. You must know that of all the people on the planet Earth, that could be considered persona non grata, you are number one,” I said.

“Yes,” he said. Stephanie was still in the room and standing right behind the man. I wanted her to stay. I wanted a witness for this one, no question.

“Have a seat, Mister Mayfield,” I said. Stephanie started to leave. “Missus Halstead, please, you stay too if you will.” She looked momentarily confused, but smiled and took the other seat, the one to the man’s left.

“So?” I said. The man was nervous, very nervous.

“Mister Danson, I know a lot about you. Almost all of it from Leah. I know you saved your wife’s, your ex-wife’s, life—twice. I know you work with the homeless and other desperate persons to help them out when they’re, well, down and out. I know you used to be a cop, but never pulled your gun until that day, that first time, you saved your ex-wife; and spent years in prison for doing so. And...” he said.

I noticed Stephanie looking at the floor while the man talked. I don’t think he knew the woman next to him was my ex-wife.

“And?” I said.

“Well, and Leah told me about the fifty million dollars. I’m not going to try and snow you. I was hoping that if I got her to be with me, well...” he said.

“That you would get a chunk of the money,” I said, interrupting him. His turn to look at the floor.

“Yes,” he said. “But then I finally realized, as did Leah. Well that you were one of those few good guys that would never take any money from your ex-wife or her husband. That told me something else,” he said.

“Oh?” I said.

“That you might be willing to help me, yes, even me the one who cheated with your wife, who’d plotted with that wife, and ruined your marriage to an otherwise perfectly good woman,” he said. He stopped talking.

There was quiet in the room for some moments.

“Again, so, help you how?” I said, finally breaking the silence. “I’m not into giving you any money.”

He actually laughed. “No, no, no I’m totally aware of that,” he said. “I might indeed have brass balls, but not that brassy.”

“Hmm,” I said.

“So again, So?” I said.

“Sir, I need a job. I’ve been let go from mine, and I need one, and well, Leah told me, before I made the mistake of messin’ with Sally, that you had those kinds of resources because of your work with the homeless. Well, I’m gonna be homeless at the end of the month, and I’m already pretty much penniless.

“So, asshole that I am, I decided to come here and ask,” he said.

“Can I ask, Mister Mayfield, did Leah tell you about her time inside?” I said.

“A little, very little. Just said that yeah, she’d gotten a dime from the judge for manslaughter and a fancy-dancy lawyer had got her out a couple of years early. Told me that’s all she was going to say about it. I was more interested in the money than her, well, sort of; so, I stopped asking questions,” he said.