Chapter 2 #3
He’d not hit his wife as yet, but she was pushing him into thinking that she needed to be disciplined.
The incident earlier had him believing that he was going to have to take matters into his own hands and show her what was what.
Women were stupid as he’d always known, and his wife, he thought, was about as stupid as they came.
But she wasn’t one to mess with too much.
Or he’d have to find himself someplace else to live.
He was that frightened of her. But he’d never let on that he was.
That’s all he needed was for her to think that she’d got the upper hand on him.
He didn’t bother cleaning up the mess that he’d made.
It wasn’t his domain, and he wasn’t going to do women’s work.
It was her fault that he’d made the big mess when he’d spilled the soup on the counter.
If she’d just done what he’d told her to do, then she’d have her cleaned kitchen.
Not even bothering with putting his bowl in the sink, he made his way to his office.
He tried to bring up his email so that he could see what other changes were going on in his department.
But he must have done something wrong, or they’d blocked him out of it because he couldn’t get into it no matter what he did.
It would be just like the president to have him turned out that way as well, when all he wanted to do was to tell a few people that they’d better be doing their job.
He ran a tight ship and didn’t want them slacking just because he wasn’t there to ride their asses.
What did he expect to happen? That they’d just go on like he was there is what he wanted.
Now he couldn’t even check on things like he should be able to do.
When he couldn’t get into anything on his computer at work, he decided to play a couple of games on it.
No one would ever know that he wasn’t working his tail off.
His wife never came into his office unless it was to clean up after him.
And she usually did that when he was away at the office.
Since he kept a tidy place where he worked, he didn’t know what she was going to do with him there all the time.
She certainly wouldn’t be messing with his schedule.
Just before the news came on, he took himself to the living room.
It looked to him like his wife hadn’t moved, and he figured that’s what she did every other day of the week when he wasn’t there to keep an eye on her.
As soon as he turned on the television, she put away her puzzles and watched the news with him.
They didn’t have to talk when the news was on, and he preferred it that way.
Even without a job, he wanted things to go on as they had before.
At eight thirty, he was getting ready for bed.
He didn’t know if he could sleep all that well; he’d had nothing to do all day that would have worn him out.
But he was on a schedule, and he wasn’t going to break that simply because his boss had gotten a burr up his ass about something.
Besides, he wanted to be ready to go when he was called back to work.
There was no way they were going to be able to run his department without him.
Getting up when his alarm went off, he was in the kitchen again waiting for his breakfast. When it didn’t seem like she was going to make him anything, he went on a search to find his wife.
She was sitting in the living room with her puzzle book in front of her, as if she didn’t have anything to do.
“Where’s my breakfast?” She told him to make it himself; he didn’t have anything to do all day. “I’m going to work today. To see about getting my job back. How can I do that on an empty stomach? Get in the kitchen before I have to slap you around and make it for me.”
“I’m not worried about you anymore. You got us into this mess, and I’m not going to be catering to your every whim.
I want to have a life too.” He told her that her life was making sure that his meals were cooked and the house was cleaned up.
“I’m finished with that, too. You told me when we married that I’d be in the lap of luxury.
All I’ve seen from you is you living it up while I stay at home all day waiting for you to come home. ”
“That’s the way it should be. Now get in the kitchen and make me something to eat.
I’ve had enough of you acting out. I will take you to task if you don’t do what I tell you.
” She just kept doing her puzzle, and when he slapped it out of her hand, she simply leaned up and picked it up.
His anger was getting the better of him, and when he drew back his fist and hit her, he knew that she was going to retaliate.
When she didn’t move, he kicked her with his foot.
Telling her to get up and do what he told her did nothing.
It wasn’t until he noticed all the blood that he thought he might have hurt her badly.
Pissed off now that he was going to have to call her an ambulance, he just knew that he was going to be getting into trouble for knocking his wife around.
Well, it was no less than she deserved for treating him like she was.
When the ambulance arrived, so did the police.
He sat in his chair while the medics worked on his wife.
He had to refrain from asking too many questions about her, as he wanted them to think this sort of thing happened all the time.
She needed to be made to do her job, and he was just the man to do it.
“Mr. Gravestone, how many times did you hit your wife?” He told the young officer that he’d only hit her the one time, but she’d brought it on herself.
“Did you know that you killed her when you called the ambulance? Your wife suffered from blunt force trauma that shoved her nose up into her brain, killing her where she sat.”
“That’s not possible. She’s just faking it, just like that Troff person.
Just make her wake up and get to work. She didn’t want to make me breakfast, and I have things to do today.
” He said he was taking him to jail. “For what? Knocking her around a bit? I told you that she deserved it for not doing as she’d been told.
I don’t beat her all the time, but she needed to be reminded that I’m not going to be putting up with her bullshit. ”
“I’m arresting you for the murder of your wife.
” He was read his rights and kept saying that she was faking it so that she’d not have to work.
He’d only hit her the one time, and that shouldn’t be enough to kill her.
“I’m taking you downtown. Is there anyone that we can call for you? Do you have an attorney?”
“I work for the government. Call my boss. The President. This is all his fault for making me retire. I wouldn’t even have this problem but for him.
You call him and tell him to come and bail me out.
” Instead of doing what he’d been told, the officer put him in cuffs and took him out to the cruiser.
There was no way that he’d just killed his wife.
He’d only hit her the one time, and that couldn’t be right.
Larry hit on his wife all the time with a ball bat when she needed it, and she never died.
“I want to call my boss. The least he can do for me is to bail me out of this. I only hit her the one time, and that’s not enough to kill someone. ”
After five hours, he was finally given his phone so that he could make a call.
Peter didn’t have an attorney but knew that the president was one.
All he had to do was make a couple of calls, and he’d be out of jail so fast that they’d wonder why they even arrested him.
He’d done nothing wrong and was pissed off that no one was listening to him.
John was finally on the phone with him when he got through.
“Peter, I’m to understand that you killed your wife.
Why do you think that I want to have anything to do with you now?
” He told him that it was his fault; had he been able to return to work, none of this would have happened.
“I don’t believe you. Not that it matters.
You murdered your wife, and now you’re going to have to pay for it.
I’m thinking that you’re going to get what you deserve. ”
“I only hit her the one time. People knock around their wives plenty of times, and they never die. I won’t believe she’s dead until I can see it with my own eyes.
” He said that someone would have to identify the body, but he couldn’t do it.
“She’s my wife by God, and I’m not going to prison because you decided that I needed to be retired. ”
John was still laughing when the phone went dead.
He didn’t know what he was going to do now that he was in jail.
There was no one to help him out of this mess, and he didn’t like it.
There was no way that he’d killed her with a single punch to the face.
Someone was going to be kidnapping her soon, and then he’d show them.
Damn it, this was all that Troff’s fault for being a woman.