Bay of Deception Read Free Page A

again and picked up where he'd left off.
     
    “I was three weeks out of the Brooklyn police academy when we met.  Linda was an East Coast girl all the way, although she’d spent summers with her divorced mother in Hickory, North Carolina.  A friendship was what I wanted originally and for the first three months, that’s all it was.”
    “Her parent’s marriage, as Linda used to say, ‘was not a happy one.’  Her dad was a cop, as well as her uncle, an older brother and two cousins.  I’d met her in the D.A.’s office where she’d worked and asked her out a couple of days later.  I couldn’t have been more wrong for her, I know that now, but she still lived with her dad and was eager to break free herself.  Because I acted like a gentleman and treated her well, Linda thought I was different than all the cops in her family. Different than what she thought of all cops.
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”  Mrs. McKenny asked, her tone edgy.
    He looked at her and felt a growing sense of exasperation.  “I was about to explain...” She waved him on and taking a deep breath, picked up his life’s thread.
     
    “As a child Linda had discovered her father’s infidelity, saw him cheat on her mother repeatedly till the two were divorced.  In time her uncle, older brother, and even her two cousins took up girlfriends on the side.  Their wives, suspecting much, confided their worst fears to Linda, who felt obligated to keep their dark secrets.  I knew none of this for a long time.  By the time I did, Linda already believed I had followed in her father’s footsteps.” Oliver paused, darted a look at Mrs. McKenny and then continued.
    “After graduating from New York University with my B.A. in Political Science, my mother hoped I would go into academia, perhaps become a professor at one of the many East Coast universities, eventually.  She refused to accept my becoming a cop, dismissing it as beneath me and grew distant and cold, snubbing my new wife in the process. We found ourselves largely alone on the East Coast. 
    "Like my father, I soon grew weary of my mother’s fascination with status and began applying out of state, eventually landing a position in Los Angeles, California.  It wasn’t hard to convince Linda to move and a year after earning my badge, we found ourselves living in Glendale, a small suburb of Los Angeles.  Though my job took me into the rougher neighborhoods of L.A at times, life was good.
    "Our second year there, we traveled up to Carmel for our first real honeymoon and instead, we both fell in love with Pacific Grove.  Though I had fit in well enough at my job and made some good friends, Linda struggled to make connections and missed her girlfriends back home.  She seemed to come alive during our week in Carmel and on a whim, I contacted all the local police chiefs. 
    "The second to our last day of vacation, as Linda shopped on the Monterey Wharf for souvenirs I drove over to meet the one person who’d returned my call; Chief Williams.  We hit it off right away but in such a desirable small town, it took over two years before an opening came through.  By that time, Linda’s accusations of my unfaithfulness had become a monthly event.”
    “Were you?”  Mrs. McKenny’s tone dared him to confess, his guilt apparently decided. 
    “No, Mrs. McKenny, I wasn’t.  Contrary to what Linda believed, I was faithful till the day she left me.”
    “Collin claimed to be faithful too,” Mrs. McKenny shot back.  “Even when I found hotel receipts for days when he was supposedly at work.”
    “Mrs. McKenny, can we get something clear?” he asked, fed up.  “I am not Collin McKenny.  In addition, let me go on record by saying I’ve never hurt a woman, or slept around ever during my eight year marriage.”
    “So why did she think you were?” she asked accusingly.
    “In a word, Mrs. McKenny, paperwork .” He paused and looked at her.  “May I continue?” 
    With a