Chapter 10

Ray tied his shoes and straightened up in the chair. He glanced at the clock on his night table. Noon. In rush hour traffic, it would take about forty minutes to get from Troy to Detroit. He had every intention of going to the VEX conference.

He reached for the USB lying on the table and stuffed it into his back pocket. There would be plenty of eggheads at the conference he could talk to that would help him find the answers he sought.

Picking up the brochure he had procured from the library, he scanned the contents again. The VEX conference was the premier robotics expo/competition in the Midwest. Everyone involved in the industry from home goods, to defense would be there to partake and witness first- hand cutting-edge technology in this field.

Over the past several months, he’d become conversant in certain aspects of the field although much of it still escaped his grasp.

A pair of glowing, red eyes floated in front of his face. He shook his head to rid the image. He didn’t want to think about that robot right now. All the searching he had done online and at the library, had not produced one iota of information in regard to that robot. Not even a model number could be found. It was like it didn’t exist.

He blew out a breath and tossed the brochure back onto the table. Ray cinched the belt around his waist. He took a quick glance in the long view mirror then focused his thoughts elsewhere. Not that the change in mental road paths were better. He flexed his arm muscle, seeing the bicep pump up accordingly. Since his termination, he’d stepped up his workouts. There was little else to do. Too, it was a way for him to keep connected with his son. Dylan had mentioned he wanted to bulk up in order to qualify for the next weight class for wrestling.

Dylan had settled into his new school. The stigma of his name—at least, out in more of the rural parts of the county—didn’t carry much weight. He and his son talked almost every day via face to face apps on the phone. They worked out together, watching each other as they went on their reps. It was a poor substitute for his son’s physical presence but it was something.

He grabbed his jacket and thrust his arms through the sleeves. Jessie. He hated thinking of her as his ex-wife. The thought made him cringe. He never wanted her to wear that label. Most of their discussions revolved around Dylan. Only once, since his acquittal, did he ask Jessie to see if they can try again.

Jessie had stared at him for a long moment on the screen. Her ornate eyes had been heavily made up with bright, vibrant colors, surrounded by thick, dark lashes. He remembered her hair styled in a short, blonde weave which made her look, in his eyes, delectable.

But her next word had been bleak. “I can’t, Ray. Despite the jury, I just don’t believe your story.”

He grimaced at his own reflection. That had hurt more than he could say. From the day he met his wife, all he wanted was to grow old with her. They had joked in the past about sharing each other’s teeth when they got to be a hundred years old.

“With the cost of everything going up,” Jessie had quipped on that long-ago day, “we’ll only have enough money to buy one set of teeth.” They both laughed, hugging each other in their mirth.

He missed everything their lives together had held: taxes, broken water pipes, Dylan’s bout with measles, drinks, and barbeques, laundry day, church, binge watching a show, funerals, trips Up North, Christmas, and just everything! Shadowy misty elements of their shared past filled the house like an invisible fog from which he couldn’t escape.

Jessie and he had had a good marriage. He knew that deep inside his bones. Throughout the years, as he listened to fellow officers moan and complain about their spouses and significant others, he knew he’d been blessed in his own relationship. Sure, they had little tiffs such as when she forgot to get the oil changed in the car. But life for him had been perfect. She satisfied his needs in more ways than one and he’d thought he’d done the same for her.

He went over to the night table to check his phone. Charged fully. He slid the device into his back pocket.

His mind came back to the question which plagued him. “Why me?”

Had their marriage been too good, perhaps? The question brought him up short. He tried to think of it. Had there not been enough turmoil in their married life? Jessie, when this whole mess began, had left him.