"Come on partner. We got a call to cover a homicide." That was from my partner, June Eastman, a tough, black 42-year-old woman who is one hell of a detective. She and I had been together for the past two years and we worked well together. I liked her caustic sense of humor and she liked my willingness to listen to her bitch. We were assigned to homicide and were on standby.
My name is Salvatore Giuliano, but my friends call me Sallie. I have been a cop for 18 years and a detective for the past 5 years. I liked detective better. The work was more interesting and I was freer to go places and do things without a specific beat to cover. I was a widower and lived with my daughter and her husband in a small house in the suburbs of Richmond, Va. I moved in at the request of Ted, my son in law because he traveled quite a bit and wanted someone to be around for Rose, my daughter. I liked living with them will enough but would have been happier in my own place.
Rose and Ted have been married for just over 3 years and they are trying to conceive a child. This made for some uncomfortable evenings for me but I ignored it because I had been there and done that. I know Ted was probably enjoying the attempt.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." I got up, got my weapon and put it into my shoulder holster and grabbed a two-way from the rack. I followed her down to the garage where we got our car and headed out. The call came from one of the seedier sections of downtown Richmond and we knew what we were in for. All part of the job.
About an hour later, we had finished the canvas of the area with nothing of any interest found. We never had anything of interest, since most of the people were 'just minding my own business'. I decided we might as well head back since the coroner had already taken the body and the crime scene investigators were almost finished. We left word to them to get everything over to us ASAP.
June was driving and I asked her to swing by my place so that I could pick up a notebook that had some information that I wanted to include in a report that I was finishing back at the precinct. She did her usual bitching but made the turn that took us to my area. This was typical and I relaxed listening to her usual bull. She kept up the chatter till she pulled in my drive.
"Whose car is that? Is your daughter at home this time of day?" I looked at the car and the plates but didn't recognize either.
"Don't know but she may be home because of a sick day or something. Funny, she didn't mention anything. I'll be right back." With that I got out and went around to the back door that was usually unlocked. I assumed the front door was locked and I didn't have the garage door opener I normally used coming home.
I went in the back door and stopped, listening for talking coming from the living room or kitchen. Nothing. Maybe someone had stopped and they left together in Rose's car. I proceeded down the hall to my bedroom to get the notebook. As I did, I heard sounds coming from Rose and Ted's bedroom. I thought maybe Rose was on the phone and talking to someone. I went down the hall and looked in.
The sight that greeted me caused me to backtrack out of the room, stumbling backwards until I crashed into the wall behind me. I stopped to get my bearings and stumbled back the way I had come. I was having trouble dealing with the shock and my heart was racing and my breathing was labored. I thought I was having a heart attack. I made it out of the confining hallway and into the open living room. There, I fell to my knees and vomited all over the carpet. I wiped my mouth and got myself back to my feet. I looked back the way that I had come to see Rose, her eyes wide and her mouth working reaching out to me with one hand while the other held a towel to her nakedness.
"Dad! Please don't leave! Let me talk to you. You need to listen and let me explain!" She was moving toward me while she pleaded with me. I couldn't take it. I ran to the front door and wrenched it open. I made it down the steps and to the car.
"Move! Get me the hell out of here, now!" I slammed the door shut and willed June to make the car move faster. I wanted out of there before I had to look at my daughter again. I couldn't look at her. I may not ever look at her again.
June backed out of the drive using the maneuver taught to us in academy: she twisted the wheel as she left the driveway and shifted into drive as she spun around facing the open street. Well done! I never looked back.
June said nothing as she drove us back to the precinct. She knew what happened as soon as she saw me come out of the house. I think she later said that Rose had appeared in the doorway with the towel still around her. Since the car didn't belong to Rose or to me, she put two and two together pretty easily.
June finished up the report on the homicide we were attending and made all the right noises to the bosses and we checked out for 'personal time'. June made it clear that we were taking the time and 'no f-in bosses had better nib their white noses where they don't belong'. God bless her.
We went to Donavan's, a bar and grill that we both used a lot and she got us a booth in the back. She got a couple of beers and settled down for an 'intervention' as she called it. She just waited for me to talk. I began to talk about Laci.
"I never told you the story of my wife Laci and me. You know she died but you didn't know that we were separated when she did. We had been separated for just over 2 months when she was diagnosed with cancer. By the time they found it she was only given 6 months to live." I stopped for a minute. I never told anyone this story before. Only Rose and I knew about what happened and we never discussed it even between ourselves. It wasn't a happy story. It also explained why I didn't care much about anything or anyone too much. The pain from that time had never completely disappeared.
"We were separated because I came home one afternoon early so damned sick. At the time I was a beat cop and I had one hell of a cold and a headache that was enough to make me blind and stupid. One of the guys offered to cover for me and I gladly accepted."
"When I came home, I saw my friend's car in the driveway and wondered why he was there. I wondered if something was wrong. Jim and I had been friends forever. We went through grade school and high school together and remained friends ever since. I went in to see what was up." I had to stop again while I took a healthy swig of my beer. I signaled the waitress for another round.
"When I got in the house, I saw no one in the downstairs so I went up the steps looking for Jim or my wife. I found them both together on the bed, him fucking the shit out of her and her yelling for him to put it to her. I'll never forget the picture of his hairy ass pounding into her while she had her legs wrapped around his ass and her arms around his back." I just stared at the wall until I could get my breathing back under control. Even after 11 years, I still almost lost it when I remembered.
"I won't bore you with a lot of details. Just that I filed for separation the next day and the lawyers told me I needed to stay separated for 90 days before the divorce could be filed. I never talked to her about it and I told some friends to tell Jim to stay the hell out of my way or I would kill him. I think he moved away or something since I never saw him again."
"Laci tried to get me to talk to her but I refused. I told her the last time I saw her that I didn't want to hear any of her reasons or excuses or anything else. I told her that I could never forgive her and that I wanted out of our marriage. She continued to try to talk to me but I stayed as far away from her as I could. Rose was only 14 at the time but I even avoided her. Maybe that was wrong, but I didn't care."
"About two months into our separation, my attorney told me that Laci was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and the docs only gave her 6 months to live. He wanted to know if I still wanted to proceed with the divorce and I told him to let things go as they were. There was no need to go ahead with the divorce since she would not live to see the end of it anyway."
"God, Sallie, I didn't know any of this. No wonder today almost killed you. To see this with your daughter after seeing it with your wife! My God, you poor man." She looked at me with pity in her eyes.
"I never visited her in the hospital and never went to see my daughter during the time she was dying. Some people think that was cruel and maybe it was. But I couldn't bring myself to watch her die. I still loved her with all my heart and it was killing me to know that she was dying, but I still couldn't tell her what she wanted to hear."
"The hospital called one afternoon and said that Laci had only hours to live and that she wanted to see me. I couldn't think of any reason to refuse so I agreed to see her. They urged me to come as soon as I could. I got there about an hour later. I went to her room and she was lying in bed, tubes and wires all over with Rose holding her hand."
"I went to her side and pulled up a chair. She smiled a sad smile at me and reached for my hand. I let her take it. She asked Rose to give us some time alone. Rose left and Laci began to talk."
"She told me that she and Jim had only been together about 4 times over a period of 5 years, and only after I made detective. It was only after something happened to make her or him vulnerable. She said that they originally became close because they both loved me and that later their shared love became something more. She said that both of them felt guilty every time they got together and that it was sometimes more that a year between times because of that. Eventually, I would be so deeply immersed in a case or he would have had something go wrong in his life and they finally got together. She said the time I found them together was after I had been working on a case that really made me withdrawn and depressed. I hadn't touched her for almost a month. Jim was there that day and it just happened. I listened but didn't feel much either way. It had been too much for me to accept."
"I just let her talk without interrupting and she finally finished. She said that she was glad I had let her say what she needed to say. She said that she had two requests to make of me and asked me if I would hear her out. I said I would." Once more with the beer. The hard part was coming.
"The first thing she said was 'Promise me that you will take care of Rose and make sure that she gets to college.' I agreed and said that I would give her everything I could and make sure that she got to college if that's what she wanted."
"The second thing she said was 'Please, can you forgive me for what I did to you and to our marriage?' I told her no. She just looked at me and closed her eyes. She died hours later."
