Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 112

Bob POV

'Hi Jacko, what do I owe the pleasure of this call?' I was in a good mood, and things were progressing with Pam. More or less, Bethany gave me the green like in the den. Having her permission, though I didn't need it, made me feel good and relieved. I thought I needed her blessing. Bethany and I are close; we have a good relationship, and very few subjects are taboo to discuss. I am sure somewhere down the line, Bethany will give me the father/daughter chat, and I will be the child in the conversation. OH, how times have changed. I chuckled to myself at the thought and looked forward to hearing it. 'Can you come to the office? I have something to show you! He sounded excited, which only improved my day when Jacko was excited.

'Give me ten.' I hung up, finished reading the urgent report on my desk, and signed it. I handed it to my secretary as I passed her desk. She looked at me questioningly. I shrugged and left the office. She would not ask and hoped I would explain where I was going and if I would be returning to the office. I had nothing scheduled, so she would not have a clue of my whereabouts, but I am answerable to no one in this office.

Five minutes later, I was knocking on Jacko's door. He came out and asked me to follow him. We walked down the corridor to a locked door. He used a swipe card and moved aside for me to enter first. The room had eight whiteboards with pictures and writing on them. Before each whiteboard was a table with boxes and files; it was a work in progress, and I recognized names and faces.

I wanted to bring you up to speed on our other case. The one involving Bethany's accident is in a different room and is progressing to trial this week, and Bethany does not need to attend court! That was a relief. I did not want her to be facing those thugs yet. I nodded for him to continue.

'Table one is all about the judge, his involvement, and a list of cases dismissed or sentences was good behavior, instead of what they should have received.' I had a good look at this table. I never liked this judge, but I never knew the depth of his corruption. 'How did he become involved?' I was curious, as I could not fathom how a judge would get involved.

'That is the beauty of the 'woman wives club, or whatever they want to call themselves. The judge was one of the four original couples that got married. None was famous at the time. Young seniors embark on life's journey; they have a big party at the end of school before they all go their separate ways to college or uni. Apparently, none knew the wedding was real, and the lads continued with life, never knowing they had a wife.

'How did they replace out?' I was more than confused.

'Wendy and Sonya went back to have another wedding, and the celebrant, his name is Hector, the same one that married the girls before, told them they were already married. This Hector guy was as crooked as they come, and he came up with the idea of getting the wedding they wanted. He would not send in the registration forms for a fee, and that was the beginning of the wedding club or whatever other name they kept calling it. There were four girls named Wendy, Cathy, Sonya, and Helena. Later, a girl named Marge joined in but only lasted maybe ten weddings before stopping, but they did not let her go. When she got married to a famous man, their blackmail side came out. But it was all Wendy's idea, if you believe, Cathy and Sonya. However, that brought the judge into the fray. Through Wendy's stupidity, he replaces out that she has tried to blackmail him, and he suddenly becomes interested in the scheme. The judge brought in the hotels and the Gutter Boys later on. When Wendy heard the others preferring the judge taking over, Wendy was fuming and found all sorts of ways to try and keep the power. She gained the upper hand when she sent Cynthia over to the judge and had her take him to bed. That changed the dynamics of the whole arrangement again. But that also made Cynthia greedier for a larger portion of the pie. Jacko stopped talking as we made it to the table, which was Wendy, and I saw a picture of my ex-wife on the whiteboard and a whole slew of names linking her to crimes I knew about but not her involvement in them; I felt I had been lied to, our entire marriage, which was not a marriage, and that she was most likely laughing about it behind my back, making a mockery of me being a police officer. I felt like I wanted to be sick as I saw the years I had stayed with her; she was breaking the laws I was trying to defend and how unfaithful she had been.

'Where is all the money they had been laundering gone?' I suddenly had the urge for them to lose everything they owned. I gave her everything; she only ever gave me my wonderful daughter and my son. Her other daughter is nasty, and no wonder I never took to her the same way I did with Bethany right from the first cuddle. It was love at first sight, and I fought to do the same with Cynthia, but it just never came.

'Who have we left to gather information to start the arrests?' I asked, looking at all that we had so far.

'We can pick up the judge anytime, but we are holding off till we get Bethany's assault and k********g done, depending on how that goes as to how soon we pull the others in. Bennett is in deep. He is not leaving the court area free. The moment he steps out of court, if he gets off, that is, we arrest him. If he does go to jail, as we believe he should. Then we can charge him for the rest in jail. We have all the Gutter Boys ready to go but are holding off a little longer, as the four that need to be in court might squeal. We are still squeezing them, they have a link to other countries, and we are working with Interpol to discuss whether we should try the Gutter Boys here, or deport them for their courts to handle. It comes down to whether we can get these four guys that were part of the k********g or even one of them to talk; we can move quicker; the court is booked out, but I am sure we can get some. move around with this being so high profile!

'Will having Wendy and Cynthia out of the picture damage what we have?' I was worried they were going to try and pin a lot on them and get off.

'No, we discussed this with the judge before taking up your suggestion, which was brilliant, by the way. He said that this all started before Cynthia was born, so they can't pinpoint where they are now, just on them. The whole thing started with the girls, but the boys soon jumped on board. Wendy is the worst of them all. I have no idea how you stayed married to her for so long. No offense. He looked at me with guilt, but that was more of what he had said before thinking it through, and I couldn't help but chuckle.

'I stayed with my girl Bethany. She was mistreated. Can you imagine how much worse it would have been if I had not been there? When she married Bret, I thought something fishy was going on when Cynthia had been dating him all through high school. Bethany was oblivious to it all, and when he gave her attention, I think she was so desperate for someone to care. She took him as love, and it was all wrong. I wanted to say something for many years, but how do you break your own girl's heart? It would have crushed her if I got involved and might have hurt our relationship. I could not risk that.' I hope I did the right thing.

Jacko came and rubbed my back in sympathy. He knew the torment I had gone through as I fought to make the right decision. He had been there for me all during the mess of my marriage and supported me in every way he could.

'You got a good son; bring him back into the fold and have your two children reunite. He had a point. Bethany had mentioned wanting to see him. I would have to get in contact with him and see if he is available for us to visit. I know he won't want to travel just yet, with his wife so close to having their first child. We were close once, but Wendy spoiled much of that.