A House on Eden

16. Pete

I had asked Pete to have lunch with me. We met at George's, a small sandwich shop on Franklin Road downtown Roanoke. The place was buzzing with businessmen and lawyers, all squeezing in lunch into their full schedules.

I studied him from across the table. He was younger then Bruce, had an open face, bright blue eyes and short blond hair. He was in uniform, catching anxious glances from the customers chewing their sandwiches. "You've been partners with Bruce a long time," I said.

"Yep," he smiled, "7 years."

"I'm sure you know Bruce and I are having problems," I said. "I imagine he talks about it."

"All the time," he said. "He's really torn up about it. Having trouble concentrating on the job. Not like him to lose his head like that."

"How well do you know him?" I asked.

"How well does a guy know a guy?" He said. "We've been on enough stakeouts together for me to know him pretty well. I know his side of things."

"What's his side?" I asked.

"Well," he said, "there's your infidelity, Jessie. He's really upset by that. In fact, it hurt him to the core. You and that hot shot lawyer need to stop what you're doing. All he wants is for you to come home."

"Does Bruce strike you as a violent man," Pete? I asked. "Like a man who might lose his temper?"

"Not at all," he said. "Bruce is the highest decorated officer in the Roanoke PD, with the highest quota of arrests. He can get rough on a perp sometimes, but he's usually the picture of calm."

"Pete," I said, "he's been abusing me our entire marriage, beating me senseless, slamming me into walls. He's the reason I can't have children."

"Can't believe that," he said, "sorry I can't. Bruce is crazy about you, Jessie, he says so all the time. He's miserable without you. A man that broken up like that doesn't hit his wife."

"Then he has you fooled," I said. "He has the entire PD fooled."

"I would believe it if I witnessed it," he said.

"Bruce is too careful for that," I said. "He knows exactly how far he can go."

"Why did you ask me here, Jessie?" He said.

"To ask you to reason with him," I said. "I am filing for divorce. He gets to keep everything. He can even take my car if he wants. All he has to do is sign and both our misery will be over. He'll go on with his life and I with mine."

"I'll tell him," he smiled, "but I know what he's gonna say."

"What?" I said.

"That he doesn't believe in it," he said.

"Believe in what?" I asked.

"Divorce," he smiled. "He's old fashioned like that, god-fearing and all."

"Bruce has not set foot in church for over ten years," I said. "He's as god-fearing as a mouse."

He laughed. "I'll tell him you said that," he smiled. "He'll get a kick out of that for sure."

"Tell him to sign the papers," I said, "or contest it. Tell him he must respond."

"I'll tell him," he said, "but it won't do you any good. Bruce has his mind made up about it, yes sir."

"You've been partners with him far too long," I said. You talk just like him."

After work, as I entered the house, Bruce called.