Box

41

This is embarrassing.

I’m in a police lineup with two black guys, an old wino who’s pissing his pants as we speak, and a cross-dressing punk rocker who shit in hers long before I got here.

Guess which of us was eye-witnessed driving the rental car?

Me.

No surprise there.

But there is a surprise.

A big one.

Chris, a.k.a. Zander’s “friend”, fingers me as the guy who, acting alone, forced his way into the bowling alley, put a gun to her head, and made her open the owner’s private safe.

The cops aren’t overly impressed with my story, that Zander scheduled a date with me in order to dupe me into being the getaway driver for her robbery.

Can you blame them?

So they book me and it appears I’ll be spending the night at city jail.

But when my background check comes back and Paducah police learn I’m the world’s greatest Cardiothoracic surgeon, a guy who earns two hundred grand per operation, my story suddenly sounds better than Chris’s.

After an hour of rigorous interrogation, Chris admits Zander set the whole thing up and gave her half the money.

Chris’s boyfriend picked Zander up from the riverbank, accepted Chris’s half of the money for her, and drove Zander to a truck stop in Eddyville, Kentucky. When he dropped her off, he called Chris’s cellphone, and Chris reported the robbery.

Nearly two hours after it took place.

What made Chris finally spill her guts?

Outrage.

Zander gave Chris and her boyfriend half the bowling alley money, as promised.

But when Chris heard about the eight-thousand dollar robbery that took place around my ankles at the riverbank, she freaked out. She felt half of that should have gone into her pocket.

Police can’t locate anyone named Zander Evans in their data banks. The detectives can’t even get a hit on Google.

I tell them about the dating website, but they tell me she’s pulled her photo and closed her account. It could take the police department weeks to gain access to the original records.

They’re happy to hear I’ve got recent photos of Zander on my cell phone.

They download the photos, take down my information, and tell me I’ll need to come back to town at some point to testify against Zander and/or Chris.

I tell the cop who’s not Zander’s boyfriend I’m willing to come back if I can fit it into my schedule.

“I could jail you till then, if that would make things easier for you,” he says.

I hope they never catch Zander.

Not because she has my support, but because if I have to testify against her the entire riverbank episode will be on the public record. Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be for me if the multi-million dollar donors to my hospital found out their top surgeon was unable to sustain an erection during a routine blowjob?

It’s late by the time I get back to the hotel, and I’m exhausted. But not too exhausted to open the door for Renee, who wants to spend the night despite the unwelcome police visit earlier.

“What made you decide to come back?” I say.

“You know that cop whose son was in my class at school last semester?”

“Yeah?”

“I figure it won’t matter so much that he saw me naked if you and I wind up getting married,” she says, hopefully.

“That’s quite true,” I say, shamelessly.

“There’s been a slight change since I saw you,” she says. “I went to McDonalds to get one of their dollar meals, you know?”

No. I don’t, but I say, “What happened?”

“I had to use the bathroom.”

“And?”

“I got my period, is all. That’s not a problem for you, is it? I mean, being a doctor and all?”

“Depends on how you feel.”

“About doing it?”

“I mean, do you feel up to having sex?”

“Yes, of course!” she says. “I’m not one to let it slow me down!”

“Well, that’s a damn fine piece of news,” I say, and mean it.

“So it’s not a problem?”

“Not for me.”

“You know what really feels good this time of the month?” she says.

“What’s that?”

“Oral sex.”

“I know. You showed me. And you know what?”

“What?”

“You’re damned good at it!”

“Really?”

“Really. You want to have another go?”

“Thanks, Gideon. That’s really sweet of you. But I meant me.”

“What about you?”

“It feels extra good to me when…you know.”

“Whoa. You want me to give you oral?”

“Yes.”

“Seriously?”

“A real man would!” she says.

I look at my watch. “You know what I just realized?” I say.

“What’s that?”

“I haven’t had dinner yet. Are you hungry?”

“Well, I did eat from the dollar menu a little while ago.”

“Oh.”

“You know what we could do? Order you some room service. And while we’re waiting for your dinner to arrive, maybe we could…you know.”

I order us two bottles of wine and pray they arrive before she gets naked.