Chapter 7

Waking up in a strange place is always unsettling. As my memory returned, everything that had happened came back, I was really unsettled. I stretched in bed, remembering that I wasn't a spring chicken any more, and that my bones and muscles didn't like me all the time. This morning was one of those times.

As I remembered the new friends I had out at the trailer park, I was depressed, knowing they had all seen the news from the night before and thought I might be some pervert who may be a threat to their kids, or grandkids. Who would believe me? Even if they proved me innocent, the damage was done. I wouldn't be welcome at home in my own neighborhood, much less in a closed community like a trailer park with a lot of kids.

Knowing I had to prove my innocence energized me. I had to prove I wasn't that kind of person and make the news media say that as loudly as they had proclaimed my guilt. I had a direction, a purpose, and a crusade.

I got up and realized immediately that I didn't have my morning pills. This was serious. I needed the stuff that got rid of the fluid in my lungs and body. I needed the blood pressure and heart stuff.

Not to waste any time, I shaved and showered quickly; putting on the clothes I had on last night. After dressing, I went out to the duty person sitting at the desk by the stairway. "Good morning, I'm Mark Robins, a new person here. I need to take a bunch of pills every morning and they are at my place in the trailer park. Can you help me make arrangements to get them?"

"Sure, Mr. Robins, I'll call the man who's watching your trailer and have him bring them when he comes in after being relieved this morning. Let me call him and you can tell him where they are and what you need."

The duty Deputy called and let me speak to the deputy on site at my trailer. "Please, get the bottles from the plastic roll around chest that is by the front wall, next to my desk. There should be five bottles on the right side of the top drawer. Check the last two bottles nearest the front to make sure there are several pills in them. If not, get the corresponding full pill bottle in the rear of the drawer. Also get couple of the yellow boxes. If you don't mind, I have a guitar in the rear closet that I would also enjoy having. The clothes you'll bring are in those drawers and the jeans are hanging in the closet."

The duty man on site said that he was invited to have breakfast with Steve Sharp and his friends a couple of streets over. He asked if I thought that would be a good idea and what he should say if asked.

"Tell them the truth. No one has proven anything yet and I'm still innocent until proven guilty. Like I said, tell them the truth."

With that taken care of, I shifted thoughts to exercise and food. I told the duty man that I need exercise and could walk in circles but needed to do it at least for a half-hour. He said, "Let me see if it's okay to let you into the hotel gym. I'll have an answer around eight. Let's order a good breakfast." I thought eating breakfast with the duty deputy would be like having breakfast with my kid who was not living at home anymore.

After breakfast, I went through all the stretches they had taught me in the cardiac rehab class out at the VA. Walking around a room for thirty minutes is boring, but I turned on the TV to listen to the morning news and weather. There were more reports about the villain taken into custody for child porn and how the federal law enforcement people had taken over the case.

About seven thirty, the agent who had been on duty at my trailer, brought my clothes, my guitar, and my pills. I thanked him for bringing the pills so quickly. I took my prescribed pills, put away my clothes, then sat on the couch with my guitar. I had always found just strumming familiar riffs was very relaxing.

At eight thirty, a deputy came into the room and said we had to go over to the federal building. The FBI wanted to question me now. He said that the county detectives would probably be there as well.

In an interrogation room, both FBI agents and a county detective that had been in on the arrest at the house began asking questions. They kept hammering on me as to when I had decided to begin collecting pictures of children in sexual situations. This was their central theme, over and over again. They asked about whether I had been collecting pictures at the office that I had sold to the new owners. I kept telling them the same thing; I had never downloaded a picture of children in sexual situations ever.

They broke for a while and brought me a bottle of water and coffee. I took a pee break and was accompanied by an agent to make sure I didn't try to run. When we continued, it was two more hours of asking questions about when the office was closed and why did I sell it. They would go back to the question of when did I begin collecting child porn and I kept telling them the same thing.

The county detective challenged me, "Would you be willing to take a lie detector test? Come on, prove your innocence, take it now, no preparation, they can do it right here."

I didn't think anything could possibly show up so I agreed but asked to go to the bathroom again. Since I take Lasix in the morning, I pee frequently until about noon. Again, an agent went with me and watched me pee and wash my hands. They took me into another interrogation room where a fat, bald headed guy with Coke bottle glasses was messing with a table full of equipment.

We had a little discussion while he explained what he was going to do before he proceeded to hook me up to multiple leads on my fingers and arms. He told me to relax, to even close my eyes if that would help me relax. He did as he said he would by asking me questions he knew to be correct and asked questions he knew to be incorrect.

Soon he was asking, "Did you begin collecting child pictures while you had your business?

"Have you ever had sex with a child ten years old or younger?"

"Have you ever had sex with a child twelve years old or younger?"

We went right up to sixteen then he switched to, "Did you know your wife was seeing another man?"

I answered, "Yes."

"Did you know the man's name?"

"Again, "Yes," because I had worked to find it out.

"Do you think the evidence against you is false?"

That was a definite, "Yes."

"Did you modify your computers from your closed business since you removed them from service?"

I had to say yes because I had just taken one of the computers to put one together for me out at the trailer park.

"Did you modify this computer to operate on the internet?"

That was yes also.

"Did you modify this computer to download pictures of children having sex?"

That was a no.

This continued for another fifteen minutes then the guy administering the test said he wanted to ask the same questions, but on a different machine. He hooked me up to the other machine and we did it all again. The questions were all exactly the same and I answered them all the same.

When we were done, an agent took me back to the other interrogation room where they began asking me how I found out Steven's name. Then they began to get real serious about when I had modified the computer recently.

"That's easy. My wife told me early Monday evening that I had to be out of the house by Friday. I began packing up and preparing to move right away. When I rented the trailerhouse I found, one of the items I wanted was a desktop PC, so I took the PC that had formerly been my personal PC on my desk at the office and began preparing it to use in the trailer. I already knew I could use a wireless connection, so I had prepared the box to accept a new network interface card. I couldn't use any more of the PCs from the office, so I left them for my wife to dispose of. She said she was going to trash anything that I left."

The agent asked, "When were you last in the house?"

"Tuesday, late afternoon. Since I was able to get everything of mine together, I moved my stuff out to a temporary storage facility and into the trailer. I don't have that much personal stuff. I've since given up the storage facility as the park found a shed for me to use since I've been helping out there."

They asked again, "You haven't been back to the house since Tuesday?"

"No, I even left the key to the house on the kitchen table and just locked the front door on the way out. My wife didn't come home until late Monday night and I only saw her briefly on Tuesday morning. The first time I've been back to the house is Friday at six. She sent me several e-mails and also had my daughter tell me to make sure I would be there Friday."

The two agents questioning me looked at each other and left.

One came back in and asked, "Tell me again when you built your computer that you have in your trailer."

I said, "I built it Tuesday, but I just used a box I had and made sure everything I needed worked. I ended up trading the PC I took from home for a faster used box with a wireless network card that I have now. I kept the hard drive from the old PC but that's it. All of the PCs I had were used on a network that had the internet."

When they asked the same question but in a different way, I answered, "The one thing I did to the PC I was going to build was to make room for a wireless network card because that's what I'm using out there. I ended up not using that box since I made a deal for a newer, faster PC. I did put the hard drive from the old PC into the new PC so I could transfer any of the old files I might want."

The agent asked, "We noticed you had a laptop too. You gave us permission to look through the other computer, do you mind if we look through your laptop?"

"Be my guest. Look through everything I own. The only kids' pictures you'll find are of my grandkids. All the young pictures of my daughter are still at home."

A little after noon they came and gave me a Subway roasted chicken breast sandwich and a Coke. I asked for another bottle of water and sat alone to eat, waiting for whatever they were going to ask next.

About one, the Deputy Marshal Chuck Johnson came and said hi. He asked if everyone was being respectful and I told him they had. He said to me, "Mark, I know you didn't do what you're accused of and the agents are convinced you didn't either. They are looking at everything to see if they can find out who is trying to frame you and why."

"Thanks, Chuck, It's very kind of you to help me. So many have helped me since Monday that I feel very lucky. I'm going to owe a lot of people when this is over. Poor Sarah took my case and then it blew up in her face. For a lady that likes her money, she sure is blowing a lot to help me."

Chuck smiled, "She's doing all right. I'd bet she'll get even more divorce cases that will pay big money after all the publicity she'll get for helping you. I think that even though your luck is off a little, you will still bring happiness to a lot of people."

"I hope so. I just hope I can make people know I didn't do any of these things. The TV people convicted me last night. They'll never spend the time to convince people that I didn't do anything wrong."

"Let Sarah handle that," Chuck said. "She's good at making something right. She'll handle it."

Chuck left and a couple agents came in carrying coffee, including a Styrofoam cup for me. They continued in the same line of questioning, but were not pushy like they had been before. They did ask me to describe everything I did in my past business and what I had done since selling it. They had me describe in detail, all of my activities since I packed up and left home. I said, "I was only at the trailer park from Tuesday evening through early Friday evening. I was busy every day helping in the R&D center and fixing a few cars for some of the older folks out there. One of the cars is owned by a younger lady with kids but she needed the help too."

The one agent said, "That's what everyone has told us so far. I can tell you that we've gone through your trailer and shed thoroughly and found nothing that incriminates you. Our computer guys took your hard drives from out there and your laptop and have gone through both and found nothing."

Those two left me about two thirty. I was getting tired, so I laid my head on the table and tried to nap. About a half-hour later, a geeky looking guy, with an attractive lady named Jan, came and took me into their lab. The geeky one was a computer guy who asked me questions about what software I had on the office PCs. I told them, "Each had XP Professional along with older copies of Office Professional 97 left over from Windows 98 days. All had Internet Explorer and used Outlook for e-mail. Some had copies of some communication software for various equipment manufacturers and some had a pricing program made up from Excel and Access. There might be a few other random programs, but that's about it. Everyone used Word for correspondence and most everyone used Power Point for presentations and quotes. Our business software was left with the company on our server so they had an accurate inventory and had a history to work from. That was part of the deal."

"When exactly was the last time you used the computers you had at your office."

I had to think, did we use them after the transfer or did they bring all their own PCs? "Actually, we did download all the individual files for the machines but they had their own software licenses and didn't buy any of mine. The sale of the company was February first but it took about two weeks to transfer customer and employee personnel files, so it was sometime in February. I brought the PCs home to the garage and have played with the one I have at home, but the rest have just sat. I used one on my test bench, but it didn't have Windows, only DOS as I used it as a test box. When I wanted to use it for more than that, I used the hard drive that is in the box at the trailer house."

The geeky looking guy asked, "So you wouldn't have had any transactions or file downloads on any of the PCs from February to now?"

"That's right. They were all just sitting beneath my workbench. I was going to use them as a possible gift to one of the schools, but they don't want anything but Pentium IVs, and these are all older than that."

Jan said, "We noticed that. Okay, I'll take you back to the hotel. We have found some interesting information on the PC when you were supposed to have downloaded all of those porno files. We also found some traces of a heavy sedative on that wineglass you insisted on being tested. The content was heavy enough that with your heart condition, it might have killed you."

I grimaced and clenched my teeth, hoping it was the creep that Judy was messing with that came up with that idea. It's not that Judy isn't bright; she just isn't programmed like that. To her, everything is black and white, but she can be easily influenced. Get her attention and she'll go along with you until she finds out you're screwing her. Problem is, sometimes that's too late.

I asked, "Did you check the fingerprints on that glass?"

"We did and we have a match," Jan said.

"Well, so what kind of dude is this Steven Barts?" I thought they could tell me that.

"That wasn't his name when he was fingerprinted. That is something else we have to look into. Don't go calling your ex to blab what we've found. That's why we're not telling you everything at this time. Just enjoy your accommodations for a couple of days."

I was bushed by the time I got back to the hotel. Sitting around all day while people ask you questions over and over again is very tiring. I'm sure it is for them too, but for me it was really tough. I was pleased they were working so hard on a Saturday.

When we got off at the floor, the duty man said, "You have permission to use the hotel gym. When you want to go, the downstairs man will accompany you. Let me know when you want to go."

"That might make me feel better. Tell him that,,, oh, I don't have my shorts and tennis shoes."

The man said, "Yes, you do, we brought the rest of your clothes for a few more days, along with your swimsuit, shorts, some T-shirts, and tennis shoes. Go change and the duty man will come up to take you to the gym."

Jan, who had accompanied me up to the room said, "We're working this weekend to see what we can come up with. I think we can have this cleared up real quick, or at least be in a lot better shape than we are right now. Relax, you're looking good on this, so just keep being honest and tell us what we need to know."

That was a no brainer. I did change quickly and met the duty guy who took me to the fifth floor gym. I used the treadmill that was complete with a TV, and used their multi-position exercise machine for the exercises I'm allowed to do. In all, I spent about an hour and fifteen minutes in the room. The duty guy had done several things with me and said, "I'll have to bring my exercise clothes with me; no sense in me just watching what you do."

Back upstairs, I discussed with the duty deputy on the floor about supper. We decided on one of the hotel's fancy fish entrees with a salad and the appropriate wine. Sounded good to me, but first, I went in the room to dig out an ice cold beer. That went down in about two swallows.

I showered and when the deputy came in, he said, "I can eat with you tonight, if you want. Our other visitors have left."

"As long as you don't ask me the same question more than twice, it will be nice to have some company."

He laughed and said, "That's what we have to do to see if you answer the same all the time. You'd be surprised how many times the suspect will change his story. When that happens we just keep hammering on what he has not said yet."

I nodded and said, "Let's eat while it's warm. I'll turn on the TV so we can see if I'm still the hot topic."

The deputy said, "You might be, but I think you're going to start hearing a different slant on things pretty soon."

I said with a plea in my voice, "Hope so, I hope they spend as much time telling everyone it was a mistake and that I was not a perv."

"They won't do that," the Deputy said. "What's newsworthy about a guy that hasn't done anything?"

"That's what I'm afraid of," I said worried. "Guess I'll have to pay for a full page ad in the newspaper to convince people I haven't been fooling around with kids."

"There might be other ways. Get an attorney and let them figure out a way to clear your name." The Deputy smiled while he kept shoveling in the food.

We ate and enjoyed our great meal. He said, "When it gets later, order some more dessert for a bedtime snack. It's not bad staying here if you learn how to use the system. Enjoy your evening; I should stay at my desk. Someone may call, so I need to be there so they don't have to radio me."

The rest of Saturday evening was peaceful. I was wrung out from the day, so I kicked back with my feet up on the coffee table and watched TV while strumming my guitar. I woke up about one and went to bed. No sense in getting my back sore by sleeping sitting up.

I awoke at my usual six in the morning and made some coffee in the little coffeepot that was in the room. It was enough to get my body running to do all the bathroom stuff one has to do. I took my medications and stretched out in my shorts, a T-shirt, and tennis shoes. When I went out to the duty desk, there was a different deputy there. "How about having the downstairs guy take me to the gym?"

The younger deputy said, "According to this, you don't need a babysitter. Just go do what you're going to do and come back upstairs. You can order breakfast when you're done."

I went to the gym room and used the treadmill for forty-five minutes and the machine for about twenty. The exercise makes me feel great and my meds were working, as I had to stop twice to go pee.

At the duty desk, we picked out our breakfast and I asked for a newspaper, if they had one. I said I would pay for it, but the guy said it should have been brought up already. He said he would get them to send up some coffee right away as he could use a cup.

We ended up eating together with the door open so he could hear the phone if it rang. We ate a leisurely breakfast discussing the usual topics of the day. How the baseball team, the Rays, were doing and how the Bucs football team was going to do. Training camp was in its first week and the coach still had not made all the cuts we thought he would.

I was reading the paper, drinking coffee with the door still open, when Jan came walking in with that Chuck guy that was with the Marshal's office. I said, "Sorry you two have to work on Sunday. I hope you get some time off to go with this."

Jan smiled, "I'm like the assistant Station Chief so I'm here so the Chief doesn't have to be. Chuck is just a nice guy and is checking up on things."

Chuck said, "For your information, we brought in your wife's friend this morning. He's in interrogation right now."

Not wanting to tell them, but thinking I should, I said, "You know, I hope you read this guy his rights. No one ever did for me. The detective was too interested in getting me outside in front of those cameras and then you brought me in and never said them to me."

Jan rolled her eyes, "Well, you didn't need them to tell us everything you did. With your help, and the guys in the lab, we have a pretty good case building up against your wife and this guy. We didn't bring her in yet, but we have a car parked at the curb in front of your house. I'm sure she's panicking about now. We'll bring her in this afternoon and start on her. She should be easy by then."

I said, "Thanks again for helping me out. I'm sure without all of your help; I would be languishing in the county lockup with the detectives thinking they had me bagged on this case."

Chuck said, "I didn't think you were guilty and I told Steve and his family that. Kathy said you were not going to have a hard time convincing everyone out at the park that you were not guilty and that you didn't have anything to do with that stuff. We all saw how you enjoyed the kids but never did anything but chat with them. Mercy says you are definitely not guilty and I second that. Your lie detector tests yesterday should be proof enough. When we have the real culprit, then you can clear yourself."

Jan said, "I need you to come over to the agency to give us some more detail of your visit Friday and the notes and calls before you went."

I nodded then said, "Let me put on some jeans and a regular shirt. I'll be right with you."

I changed clothes, washed my face, and brushed my hair. Perhaps the cameras could make me, an old guy with glasses with longer hair look good enough to attract some lovely lasses to come my way. What do I need more for; there is a big group of single women out at the park.