Unexpectedly, Milo - Matthew Dicks [71]
He could not allow himself to be arrested.
Milo watched as the door to his house opened and Christine appeared in the entranceway. She looked nervous and scared at first, but then seemed to relax a bit as Hairy Knuckles began to speak. After a minute, the officer motioned in Milo’s direction and he saw Christine look around the cop to see her husband standing by his car in quasi police custody. She did not look pleased.
“Mind if I ask who did the separating, Mr. Slade? Was it you or your wife?”
“Depends on who you ask,” Milo said, fixated on the scene at the front door of the house. The conversation between Christine and the cop went on for almost three minutes, and with each passing minute, Milo grew more and more nervous. He wondered how long it could take to confirm that he was not stalking his wife. What the hell could they be talking about?
Just as Milo thought that the discussion was ending, Thick-Neck Phil appeared in the doorway beside Christine, and after a moment, he seemed to be answering questions from Hairy Knuckles as well. Even though Milo suspected all along that Phil was inside the house, the sight of the man and the resulting confirmation that he was with Christine, in their home, after nine, made Milo angrier than ever before.
“Is that the guy?” Officer Eblen asked.
“Yes,” Milo said, afraid to say more. He was seething inside.
Finally, Christine and Thick-Neck stepped back into the house and closed the door and Hairy Knuckles made his way back to Milo and his partner.
“Okay, Mr. Slade. Just a couple more questions. Your wife said that you were in the house today when she wasn’t home. Is that true?”
“Huh?”
“Is that true, Mr. Slade. Were you—”
“Yes, it’s true. I stopped by to give her some flowers. When I saw that she wasn’t home, I left. Did Christine complain about me going into the house?”
“Did you and your wife have an agreement about when and how you might enter the home?”
“No,” Milo said. “Did she say we did? It’s my house too.” Hairy Knuckles just stared, so after a moment, Milo continued. “She never even asked me for the key. We’re only separated, for Christ’s sake. I’m still paying half the mortgage. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“No, but you can see how it might make a woman nervous. Right? Finding out that someone has been inside the house while she was gone. Especially after she finds out that the same man is sitting in a car outside her house.”
“Did you want her to feel nervous, Mr. Slade?” Officer Eblen asked.
“Of course not! I’m not just some man. I’m her husband. All I did was bring my wife some flowers. I had a key. She wasn’t home. That’s it.”
“What about the confrontation between you and your wife in the driveway? She said that you seemed very angry this afternoon. Angrier than she has ever seen you before.”
“Of course I was angry. I found my wife with another guy. I found his kid’s playpen in my bedroom. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, and she wouldn’t tell me anything. But that doesn’t make me a stalker.”
“So you didn’t just drop off the flowers? You went into the bedroom too?”
“Yes, I did. It’s my house. I went to use the bathroom and I noticed the playpen next to the bed. I went into the bedroom to check it out. It’s my house, damn it.”
Milo left out the part about examining Christine’s lingerie and chewing on the plastic book. He didn’t think that would go over so well.
“No need to get excited, Mr. Slade,” Officer Eblen said. “We’re just making sure that things are okay here. Just doing our job.”
“Fine. Can I go now?” He couldn’t believe how quickly the need to strike a match, a whole box of them perhaps, had filled his mind.
“Yes, you can, Mr. Slade. You’ve done nothing wrong. But you should keep in mind that sitting here in the street like this can make people nervous. You may want to reconsider that decision in the future.”
“But that’s just our opinion, Mr. Slade,” Officer Eblen added, already turning toward the squad