Chapter 16

Tawny felt odd, walking into the admin suite of the high school. She knew people were staring at her, but she didn’t care. She went to Janet Bigsby’s desk.

“I know he’s gone, but I’m still on the rolls as a sub, right?” she asked.

“Yes,” said the woman. Her voice was neutral.

“Can I get you to notarize something for me?”

“Sure. What is it?” asked Janet.

Tawny handed the form to the woman who glanced over it and then laid it on her desk, facing Tawny.

“Sign there,” she said. “I don’t need to see any ID. I know who you are.”

Tawny signed. “I’m filing for divorce and there are things in there I need to change the names on.”

“You’re filing for divorce?” asked Janet.

“Gee, wouldn’t you?” asked Tawny. “He’s not the man I thought he was. He’s not the man I thought I was marrying.”

“Good for you,” said Janet. “We couldn’t believe it at first, but some of us attended the trial. We heard what those girls said. It was awful. You weren’t there ... were you.” It wasn’t really a question.

“The detectives showed me all the statements,” said Tawny. “I almost threw up. I didn’t want to hear it all again. I knew he was guilty when I went to see him in jail. I could see it in his face.”

“I understand,” said Janet. “If you don’t mind, I’ll share that information with some others. When you weren’t in court, there were questions.”

“Surely they didn’t think I was involved in it,” said Tawny.

“No, nothing like that. People just expected you to be there and when you weren’t...”

“I guess I understand,” said Tawny. “I’m surprised anyone listened to those poor girls testimony. It must have been awful.”

“One person did up-chuck,” said Janet. “But he wasn’t from the school, and he got out of the courtroom before he actually vomited.”

“Thank you,” said Tawny. “I haven’t been called to sub for quite a while.”

“Give it some time,” said Janet. “Things are still unsettled. They’re going to let us take down the crime scene tape on his door today. A new Principal is supposedly going to get here today.”

“Anybody I know?” asked Tawny.

“I doubt it. He was hired in Oklahoma City. I guess he’s going to see how the fit is and then move his family here, later.”

“I hope he’s good,” said Tawny.

“So do we,” said Janet.

On the twenty-third of April the phone rang and it was a representative from the Sentry Safe company, asking for credit card information to pay the fee involved in supplying a lost safe combination. Tawny used her credit card, which had Murdock’s name on it. The man seemed satisfied and said the default combination on record for that serial numbered safe would be sent to the email address she had supplied.

She called Bobby, who was at work at the hardware store. He said he’d come over as soon as he got off work.

She opened her email account and found a message from the safe company. She wrote down the four digit number, rather than printing off the whole page, but decided to wait. She wanted to do as much with Bobby present as she could. He was her new partner in life. She knew thinking that way should feel odd but it didn’t.

She made a batch of tuna and noodles, and then lay down to take a nap.

“Hey,” Bobby said, gently, as he touched Tawny’s shoulder.

“Hey,” she returned, rolling to her back and stretching.

“Did you open it?”

“I was waiting for you,” she said.

“You were waiting for me, just to look at a bunch of papers?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Okay. I’m here.”

The safe was still sitting on the table. She punched in the numbers and a green light came on at the top of the keypad. Bobby reached and turned the handle. The door opened on silent hinges.

“Holy crap!” he sighed.

There were stacks of papers and folders in the safe.

There were also bundles of fresh, new bills, with bands around them.

There were a lot of bundles.

Murdock Stevens’ passport was on top of the bundles.

“This has to be his getaway money,” said Bobby. “He knew he’d eventually get caught, and this was what he’d use to run.”

“He did get caught,” said Tawny.

“Yes, but he didn’t get bail,” said Bobby. “He couldn’t get to this.”

“I didn’t know he even had a passport,” said Tawny, opening the document. All the pages were blank.

“I guess he did pretty well in the stock market,” said Bobby.

“When I sold his stocks, I got over two hundred thousand dollars,” said Tawny. “With everything else, my bank account is nearing half a million dollars, Bobby, and he never said a word about having that kind of money.”

“Maybe they were right about him planning on fleeing to some island in the Caribbean.”

“There’s no passport in there for me,” she said. “He never even suggested I apply for one.”

“Maybe he knew you’d never go with him.”

“Maybe he never planned to take me,” said Tawny.

“Then he’s even more of an idiot than I thought he was.”

“It’s becoming more and more clear that he’s been planning this for years. Marrying me may have just been his attempt to look normal while he fucked all those little girls in secret. Who knows how long he’s been doing this? A lot of his victims could have moved away and have no idea he got caught. And if he could have, he’d have abandoned me and gone off to some island where his money could buy him all the young girls he wanted.”

“Like I said. He’s an idiot. Any man who would want girls like that, instead of a real woman like you, is certifiably insane.”

“You’re sweet. Wanna get laid?”

“Yes, but don’t you want to go through the rest of the stuff in the safe?”

“I have plenty of time to do that,” she said. “Right now, I want my lover to make me feel special.”

“You are special,” he said.

“You’d take me with you if you went on the lam, wouldn’t you?” she said, unbuttoning her blouse. She didn’t have on a bra under it.

“First off, I’d never be tempted to cheat on you. Not with high school girls. Not with anybody. We’d never need to go on the lam.”

“You are going to get so laid,” she purred.

Murdock was initially placed in general population at the prison. That may have been intentional on the part of the warden, who had a fifteen-year-old-daughter who went to public school. That said, the warden was also intent on keeping this new inmate alive, at least for a while. Guards were ordered to keep a very close eye on inmate 58372-NOK. To be honest, what kept Murdock on his feet was the fact that his fellow convicts were bored. They tended to “play with their food” before “eating it.” Another reason he wasn’t killed immediately is because his cellmate was another “kiddy diddler”, a man named ‘Smiley’ Wilkes. Smiley’s ideal sex partner was half the age of Murdock’s and he’d been in prison for seven years when Murdock got there. He gave Murdock lessons in survival 101, assuming Murdock would be a kindred spirit. Nobody else would talk to Smiley, anyway.

It took a week for his processing to be complete, at which time he was allowed to make collect calls to his wife, until a phone and commissary account could be set up. He expected her to be his source of funds while he was in prison. His first call, in fact, was to tell her to send him money for his commissary and to set up a prepaid phone account, as well as find out how she was doing at finding him a new lawyer to file his appeal. He held Duke Cunningham responsible for the fact that he was in prison.

She happened to be washing her hair when he placed the call. Since Bobby was there, he answered the phone.

“Will you accept a collect call from Murdock Stevens?” asked the operator.

Bobby wasn’t quite ready for such a question, but he managed to come up with the response he thought was appropriate.

“Not right now,” he said. “She’s busy washing her hair.”

“Who is that?“ yelled Murdock into the phone.

“Thank you,” said the operator and the connection was broken.

Bobby went to the bathroom, where Tawny was bent over the tub, rinsing the soap out of her hair. She was wearing her fluffy robe. Bobby put his hands on her hips in a casual, comfortable, intimate way.

“You’ll never guess who just called,” he said.

“Somebody called?”

“You were busy, so I answered the phone,” he said. “I thought it might be your divorce lawyer, or something.”

“Who was it?”

“It was a collect call from Murdock Stevens,” he said.

She stood up and her wet hair fell to the front of her robe, soaking it. She looked bedraggled.

“I said you were washing your hair and couldn’t take the call at this time,” he said. “It’s all I could think of.”

“Oh,” she said. She wasn’t quite ready to field calls from her imprisoned husband, either.

“He heard me. He yelled, asking who I was.”

“Did you tell him?” Tawny’s mine was racing.

“No, the operator hung up.”

“But he knows there was a man here,” said Tawny.

“I guess so,” said Bobby.

The phone rang again. Bobby and Tawny looked at each other.

“It’s probably him again,” said Bobby.

“I’ll answer it this time,” she said.

“Yes, I’ll accept the charges,” said Tawny.

“Who’s there with you?” yelled Murdock.

“Don’t yell at me, Murdock,” she said. “Nobody in this town will talk to me because of you.”

“Somebody’s there,” said Murdock, lowering his voice. “A man answered the phone a minute ago.”

“What do you want?” she asked.

“Who’s there?” demanded Murdock.

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