All Sexual Activity In This Story Is Between Characters Who Are 18+ Years Old
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September 20, 1940
Mary Trotter sat behind the wheel of her mint-green 1930 Cadillac 16 four-door sedan. Like everything else, it was part of the vast estate she had inherited, upon Eli Farragut's passing, the previous May. Unlike anything else, it stirred special feelings in her, every time she got in the car. She ran her right hand over the upholstery beside her hip and smiled. The memory of her first fuck with Eli, in the back seat, flooded her mind as she felt the friction of her bone suede glove rubbing the plush velvet. Her peach juiced and her heart ached.
Drumming her fingers on the steering wheel, Mary agonized aloud into the empty cabin, "What am I to DO, Eli? Freddy's off to college... I won't see HIM before Christmas. Can I REALLY forgive Ted... or Papa... for impregnating young Cynthia Hart?" She stewed as she realized, that for all her fine words to the Harts, just ten minutes ago, before they boarded the 8:20 Farragut Flyer, she resented them and was glad they were leaving town.
Suddenly, the sedan's rag-top rippled with an audible series of small pops. Mary felt an inexplicable draft. Looking around, she saw all the windows were up and the vents were closed. Facing front again, gooseflesh stiffened the fine hairs on her nape and a chill chased down her spine as her deceased paramour's face filled the rear-view mirror. She gasped with surprise, but felt fearlessly at ease.
Eli's bass voice rumbled, "Va visiter le prΓͺtre. Il entendra ta dilemme. Tu te sentiras mieux, ma chΓ©rie d'amour." In an instant, the apparition disappeared and the skin on Mary's neck returned to its normal smooth texture. She shook her flaxen hair and involuntarily shuddered.
Staring into the mirror, which now reflected only the F & C Depot's parking lot, Mary spoke into the air, as if Farragut were still with her. "I was on my way to the parish to work in the Women's Auxiliary Office, Eli. If you think it will help, I'll see if Father Logan can spare me some time."
Five blocks later, on SE Knight Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, another vision appeared in Mary's rear-view mirror: Bright red lights glowed in front of the handlebars of a police motorcycle. Its rider was signalling her to pull over to the curb. When the Caddy was stopped, Officer Steve Janssen swung his leg over his Harley-Davidson, dropped the kickstand and sauntered up to the gleaming luxury car.
"Good morning, Officer," Mary greeted him politely, after rolling down her window. "What's the matter?"
"Good morning, ma'am," Janssen replied, neutrally. "May I see your operator's license please?" He never gave an immediate response to the first question that virtually every driver asked him at any traffic stop. While Mary hunted in her matching suede handbag, he scanned the sedan's interior, not expecting anything extraordinary, but exercising due diligence all the same.
When Janssen's eyes came to rest on Mary's upturned face, he took particular note of her gold-flecked hazel eyes and smiling dark cherry lips. Immediately, he recalled seeing her, that spring, on the porch at 46 SE Garvey Street, when he and Officer Sean O'Rourke discovered Old Man Farragut dead in his bed. He remembered, too, seeing a pair of silk stockings strewn on the big pillow beside the deceased's head, a cut chocolate cake in the kitchen, and remarking to his partner, "It looks like the old geezer went out having had a good time..."
On that day, Janssen remembered, Mary wore a simple, but flimsy, blue cotton dress. He remembered, because he and Sean had later discussed, over coffee, how it clung to her body in such a way as to prove she wore few, if any, underclothes. They had speculated, with lascivious dark humor, that Farragut had, in fact, been fucked to death by his back-door renter.
Detective Howard had dismissed the same notion, as well as foul play, when he determined that Mrs. Trotter was provably at home with her husband in the early morning hours when the gentleman passed, and upon the medical examiner's findings, citing natural causes for the death. "Still," Janssen thought again, as Mary's sweet face jogged his memory, "What could be more 'natural' than too much of a good thing?"
Suppressing a sardonic laugh, the policeman received the paper rectangle Mary handed him. Their gloves precluded any static electricity discharge, but Janssen's brow furrowed infinitesimally as he imagined some sort of spark racing from her fingers to his during the transfer. He coughed and studied the license. "Well, Mrs... Trotter," Janssen said after a moment. "There's a 'STOP' sign back there, at Knight Street and Eason Avenue. You went through without even slowing down... and it took you three MORE blocks to notice me behind you." He decided a friendly grin would not hurt as he said, "I thought I'd have to use my SIREN... Is everything OK?"
Mary put on her most sincerely chagrined look as she answered, "Yes, Officer, everything is fine. I'm sorry... I guess I was a little distracted." Widening her eyes, Mary, who truly had been in a daze since Eli's phantasmal appearance, exclaimed, "I hope I didn't cause an accident!"
Janssen replied, "No... that was fortunate. No one else was in the intersection and you were moving under the limit, too." He lowered his voice and added with a serious tone, "I still need to write a citation, though."
Mary's face fell. "Really? I'm VERY sorry," she pouted. "Do you HAVE to? I'd be ever so grateful if you could... FORGET about it... just ONCE?"