Chapter 44

Jan was not thrilled by what Herman had suggested but the pages of notes from an expert on female sex offenders swayed her opinion. She also was not happy about going around some members of the task force even though she understood the rationale behind it.

Bryant went to his apartment while Jan, Holly and Cassidy went to the basketball game. He changed into a tight T-shirt and logged on to the site where he'd first met the Westlakes.

An instant message popped up almost immediately.

"I hoped you'd be here," it read.

"Hey," Bryant typed. "Is this Alan or Emma?"

"Turn on your cam and find out," the reply came. Bryant didn't have to turn on his cam; he knew it was Emma. Still, he shifted to a new site and opened up his camera. He also turned on the second camera out of view and began the application that recorded the session and took screenshots periodically.

Emma Westlake's face filled his monitor when he finished the authentication protocols. She had a wide, almost feral, smile.

"Hey," Bryant said. He was somewhat startled by the wildness in the woman's eyes. "Where is the rest of your crew?"

"Alan is at work and the girls are at a friend's house," she answered. "So, did you miss me?"

Bryant smiled but didn't reply.

"I was sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing so I figured I'd log in and see if you might be about," Bryant replied.

"I am so glad you did!" Emma said. "I've been thinking of you a lot since Saturday. I cannot believe I didn't ask for a picture of you earlier. Kameron is a really lucky girl to have a handsome guy like you as her father."

"Aw, shucks, Ma'am," Bryant joked. "You're not exactly difficult to look at either. Alan is really fortunate to have a wife who looks like you and is as understanding as you are."

"I'm not really his wife," Emma told him. "I mean, we live as husband and wife but we're not married. In the age of computers, it's too easy to track things like that. We were raised together since we were four or five years old. It would have opened up a lot of questions at the county clerk's office if we had applied for a marriage license."

"Yeah, I can see that," Bryant said. "They didn't need much of anything back when my wife and I got married. We just signed the paperwork and went to the chapel. Once the three-day waiting period was over, we could have married whenever we wanted."

"Did you have a big church wedding?" Emma asked, a hint of wistfulness in her voice.

"Huge!" Bryant replied. "My ex-wife's hometown is pretty small but I think every one of them was invited. We had the white dress, the tuxedos; hell, we even had doves released when we came out of the church. I would have preferred to have had the money they spent, but my wife was happy as hell."

"How old were you when you got married?" Emma asked.

"I was twenty and my wife was nineteen," Bryant said.

"Was she pregnant with Kameron?" Emma wondered.

"Oh, no, no," Bryant replied. "Kameron didn't come along until a few years later."

"How old are you?" Emma asked.

"I turned forty over the summer," Bryant told her – the date of birth on Merton Beckwith's driver's license.

"You are not!" Emma said. "I don't believe it. I want proof."

"I guess you could cut me in half like you do a tree and count the rings," Bryant joked.

"Would you show me your driver's license?" Emma asked.

Bryant looked startled.

"Uh, look, Emma, I, well," he stammered.

"I know, real names are to be avoided," Emma said. "You know what? I decided to say to hell with that. I like you so I'm willing to go first. My name is Melinda Pahl. I'm thirty-two years old and I live in Sanford, South Carolina. She reached up to her hairline and removed her blonde wig. Below it Bryant saw spiky brown hair. "See, this is the real me. Alan's real name is Victor. How about you?"

"Uh, well, it would be pretty easy for you to track me down if I give you my name," Bryant said. "I mean, it's not common. I guess I can trust you though. My name is Merton Beckwith. Truth is, we only live about fifty miles away from each other. I live just across the Georgia line in Scottsville."

"No kidding!" Emma said. "Okay, that makes things a lot easier. Merton, can I call you Merton?"

"Uh, sure, that's fine," Bryant said. "Is it okay if I call you Melinda or do you prefer Emma?"

"You can call me anything you want to," Emma replied with a laugh. "Why don't you go by your middle name?"

"It's actually worse than Merton," Bryant said. "My full name is Merton Lysander Beckwith the Third. Can you believe there is actually two other people with a name like that? My father should be horsewhipped for insisting I be named after him."

"Do you have a nickname or anything?" Emma wondered.

"My ex-wife calls me 'asshole' but I don't think that's what you were looking for," Bryant replied.

"You are too funny," Emma told him. "Your sense of humor really didn't come across until now. I saw hints of it when we were on cam but nothing like this. I think we introduced the kids too quickly, Merton. I'm sorry about that."

"Cour ... Kameron wanted to meet you," Bryant told her, purposefully letting slip the name that school records that Smithfield Area High School would show attended there.

"Cora?" Emma asked. "Maybe Cora Lee?"

"Courtney," Bryant said, feigning a frown at his gaffe. If he could get the children's names it would make the investigation a lot quicker.

"That's a pretty name!" Emma said enthusiastically. "Courtney Beckwith. Is she in high school yet?"

"A freshman," Bryant said. "She's pretty excited about gymnastics tryouts. She's been bouncing all over the house since she got the preferred tryout invitation."

"What's a preferred tryout?" Emma wondered.

"Anyone can try out for the team," Bryant explained. "But the coach selects a few underclassmen who get preferred slots. That means she's pretty much assured of a spot unless she gets hurt or something."

"She must be pretty good!" Emma exclaimed.

"She's decent," Bryant said with a shrug. "If she worked harder at it she'd be better."

"She's got the right size," Emma laughed. "Are you really six-foot-six?"

"Yeah," Bryant said, averting his gaze. He took the moment to check out the notes taped around his bedroom.

"There is nothing to be ashamed of," Emma told him. "I'm tall for a woman. I'm almost five-foot-ten. I think it's cool you're so tall."

"I've been this tall since I was twelve years old!" Bryant said. "When I was thirteen I was six-foot-six but I still weighed just a hundred and twenty-five pounds. You wouldn't think it was cool if you walked around town looking like a bean pole – a bean pole named Merton, to boot."

"But you're not one-twenty-five now, are you?" Emma said, raising her eyebrows slightly. "I can tell you're a well-built guy. Vic is only five-seven. I can't wear heels when he's anywhere near me or he looks like a midget. He also barely weighs one-fifty. I'm one-forty, but most of mine is in my bust and butt. Your wife must have been tiny!"

"She's a little shorter than Courtney," Bryant said. The tech wizards had put together a photo of him, Holly and Cassidy to look like a family Christmas card. He pulled it out and put it in front of the camera.

"She doesn't look that small," Emma said.

Bryant pulled the photo away and smiled at the camera.

"I'm sitting down in it," he said. "That was our last Christmas together. Courtney was twelve but she'd already stopped growing. I'm as tall sitting down as they are standing up. I think the stool I was on was a typical bar stool."

Emma laughed.

"You should take a picture of you two standing together!" she said. "How in the world did you wind up married to someone so small?"

"She was the first woman that ever showed any interest in me," Bryant confessed. "I was always this really tall goofy kid with the weird name. I didn't have a single date in high school. I think Lauren was looking to escape her little town. I was working over in Statesboro – that's not far from here, you know. She was in college there. By then I'd filled out some. I was already about 220 pounds because I was working manual labor. She got in a bit of trouble one evening and I helped her out. I walked her home and she asked me if I would like to go out with her sometime. I agreed and that was that."

"What sort of trouble did she get into?" Emma wondered.

"She had a date with some guy who didn't appear willing to take 'no' for an answer," Bryant confided. "I convinced him it would be in his best interests to walk away before he was unable to even crawl away."

"Ooh!" Emma said. "God, that sounds so hot! Did you kick the shit out of him?"

"I didn't have to," Bryant admitted. "You know, I haven't been in a fight since I was ten or eleven years old. I always had long arms and bony knuckles. I didn't have to hit someone hard to make them bleed. Once word got around that I could fight a little, no one messed with me much."

"I'll bet!" Emma said. "Well, if you ever feel the need to protect me don't hesitate! I shouldn't say this but I'm going to. I'm a little wet thinking of you standing up for my virtue."

She blushed prettily and Bryant had no doubt she was holding her breath to gain the visual affect.

"So you two were married for how long?" Emma asked. The throatiness of her voice confirmed Bryant's suspicions that she was holding her breath.

"Seventeen years," Bryant said. "I think she was ready to call it quits only a few years in, though. I didn't turn out like she hoped I would. I think she saw me as some raw material she could craft and build into her ideal guy. I put up with it for a while but once I started my own business I was too busy and too tired to fool with her games. That's when she decided to start sleeping with other men."

"Did you do that, too?" Emma wondered.

"Men don't interest me," Bryant said with a wry smile.

"Oh, you!" Emma replied, rolling her eyes. "You know what I meant."

"No," Bryant told her. "My vows meant something to me so I fulfilled them. After the divorce I spent most of my time rebuilding my company. Even though she's the one who fucked around I had to pay her half the net worth. I don't have to pay child support because the alimony she would owe me cancels it out but it still pisses me off."

"I can imagine!" Emma said. "I didn't have alimony or anything like that. I have a good job. My ex paid child support until he passed away. The girls are his beneficiaries of his life insurance so that helped out. Merton, I have to run in a few minutes; the girls and Vic are going to be home. Can we talk again soon?"

"I think Courtney was planning to log on tomorrow night," Bryant answered.

"No, I mean just the two of us – you and me?" Emma replied, seemingly ashamed at the suggestion.

"I don't see why not," Bryant said with a shrug. "We're just talking like we would be if everyone else was in the room."

"What if I wanted to do more than that?" Emma asked hesitantly.

"More than talk?" Bryant asked. "I guess we could log onto a gaming site or something and chase aliens together if you want. I know Courtney does that from time to time."

Emma laughed.

"I meant things like this," she said. She lifted her blouse over her head and undid her bra. Her bare breasts were visible and she tweaked each nipple until it stood at attention.

"Oh," Bryant said, his eyes wide. "Well, I'm ... I'm not sure, Melinda. I, uh, well, I don't have much experience with women. I mean, gosh, you're pretty but I'm not sure this is a good idea. I don't have secrets from my daughter."

"I don't think one secret would hurt, do you?" Emma asked. She was pleased at the look of lust on Bryant's face.

"Well, maybe not," Bryant said. "I mean, what do you have in mind?"

"I want to meet you," Emma said huskily. The thought that the guy she was chatting with had only two lovers in his life intrigued her mightily. She could teach him to do all the things she liked – and he would probably be willing to do anything once he got a taste of her in bed.

"I thought we were talking about getting together for New Year's Eve," Bryant pointed out.

"You and me without the others," Emma said. "Maybe I could come down to Scottsville one afternoon this week. I think I could be a big help in transitioning Courtney from you to people more her age. I've been through it. And plus I'd really like to get to know you better – much better. Would you like that?"

"Uh, it would have to be of an evening," Bryant said. "I've got to work."

"Can't you take off even one day?" Emma said with a pout. "I promise it'll be worth it."

"I'll have to see," Bryant said. "Since the divorce, I'm on the job site working more than I used to be."

Emma shifted so her breasts heaved.

"I tell you what," Bryant said. "Let me clear an afternoon this week. It might not be able to be here. Too many people know me and Courtney. That's why we can't go out. How about if we meet halfway?"

"We could meet in Carter's Crossing," Emma said, smiling broadly. "They have a nice restaurant."

"Will Friday work for you?" Bryant inquired. "That will give me a couple of days to get ahead and I can go in Saturday if I need to."

"That sounds perfect," Emma said. "Oh, and Merton, since I took off my shirt, don't you think you could take off yours before we go?"

Bryant glanced downward in hesitation before lifting the T-shirt over his head.

"Oh, my!" Emma said. "I am really looking forward to Friday now!"

Jan arrived at Bryant's apartment a few hours later. They had spent almost every night together since his return from Ohio but he had resisted her offer that he should move into her house.

"How was the game?" he asked as she took off her jacket and hung it in the closet. He had to smile as he watched her actions. At her house the coat would have been tossed carelessly on the couch or hung on the back of the chair.