Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 80

Theo

POV

Bob and I walked to the hospital. Yeah, he lives that close to it, but on the other side of town, I love that we are so close. Bethany needs her sports day with her dad; it is so beautiful to watch them together so they are in sync with each other. Both c**k their heads the same and laugh at the same time. Bethany is definitely a chip off the old block, so to speak. I noticed that she knew when he needed something on day one of our sports days and was already getting up to get it before he even asked. 'Hi, Robson. ETA of our package?' Bob asked Robson kindly, keeping to code for those around us listening in as he shook his hand.

'Five minutes, everything is ready! He looked at his watch and back up at us, a smile never leaving his face. You could tell he was happy to be getting Bethany home, but his eyes told you he was as worried as us.

'Any news on the condition?' Bob may appear to be relaxed and composed, but after spending this time together, worrying, and giving each other support, I could pick up more on how he really is. He is a very complex man. I already liked him, and so did my Dad. 'Critical, but stable.' So my girl is hanging in there. I had no idea if she was dead or alive until that comment. Now, to see what that means. We chatted for a while, killing time as we all watched the driveway, eager to see the ambulance arrive. Robson had all the staff stay clear of the area there; only the three of us were allowed there until the client was moved to the ICU in the lab. This is not unusual if we have a high-profile client; they like their privacy, and none of the staff would think to question it.

The ambulance came up the driveway with no lights and sirens, which we rarely do unless it was a significant heart attack and the paramedics were struggling with the patient. Most of the time, it is all planned surgery; most heart attack victims are taken straight to the public hospital, and we are called in if needed, or it is one of our clients, and we are asked if they can be brought directly to us. It is all controlled by Robson. If he says no to the request, then the patient, whether a client of ours or not, must go to the public hospital; that is rare.

The ambulance turned and reversed. The paramedic jumped out of the passenger door, opened the back door, and revealed my Dad sitting beside Bethany, holding her hand and monitoring her. He looked up at me and smiled; it was the best look I could have asked for; it conveyed a lot in that small smile.

'Hi Son. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I had no idea Dad was in on this. It should not have surprised me; to be honest, I just had not even thought about it.

'Hi Dad, how is she?' I asked as Robson and Bob shook Dad's hand after he climbed out of the ambulance.

The gurney passed me by, and I tried to follow, but Robson grabbed me by my arm and shook his head.

'Wait, your Dad has work to do that is urgent before we can get involved; give him some time to do what he does best; he is the trauma specialist here.' I nodded, stood between Robson and Bob, slowly followed the gurney, and watched my Dad walk beside it, giving Bethany another jab of something. I wished I could have seen her, touched her, kissed her before she was whisked away.

'Maybe we can have a cup of coffee while we wait, giving Hank time to assess her condition and get her stable before we bombard him, Robson suggested, and led us to the private kitchen. He made the coffee for us. Neither Bob nor I wanted to talk yet; both were deep in thought.

'Bob, when did you know what was happening to Bethany and this mess?' I asked. I had only been getting a little bit and pieces, but I had learned a lot, staying with him.

'That is the hard part to admit. I had no idea about Wendy's involvement. I had been investigating a few complaints about weddings some hotels thought were dodgy. I was gathering information for about three years, slowly pinpointing it down to a celebrant who works out in Vega, who was moonlighting these other weddings, and it appeared the registration of those marriages never happened. Then, when Bethany caught her sister and husband and found out about their fake marriage, things started to click for me. In Cynthia's case, they were pretending to get married to get money out of the hotel. They had several hotels that would contact the women's club for a celebrant, and they paid them money to do marriages, and their fake one was typical of what was going on. Then Bethany gave her lawyer all that information that was just on Cynthia's side of this, and more dates linked up, and names became clearer. To top it off, some of the clients thought they were really getting married. But it does not stop at weddings, and all this started about thirty years ago when Wendy married the now congressman. The idea of fake weddings came up, and I believe her husband is part of all of this, as well as a few other well-to-do men; the celebrant may change the name slightly or the date of birth, like in Bethany's case, or not register it at all. Then you add in this new gang, and they are all tied into this. I am just missing a step. I have the ladies, all six of them, and their real husbands who are in on it, too, the celebrant and the head of the gang, but for some reason, I cannot figure out the end game. It has to be more than money and extortion, and something I have missed is still nagging at the back of my mind. Oh, and one of the precincts is in on this too, that detective who took Bethany in at some awful time at night and took her briefcase but never returned it. Luckily, she kept a second copy of them all, which I now have. I work with someone who is not in on it before I jump on the bent coppers. There is still a bit more to do, but I have a good crew working with me now, which is not part of the police force and is not biased. That was the most Bob had said in days, and I had a better idea of what was going on now. He filled in the pieces, and by the look on Robson's face, he already knew a lot about this.

'So Scott?' I asked, and he nodded. Scott was working for Bob to get to the bottom of this. When you can't trust those around you, who can you trust?

'Bob, what are you? I thought you were just a detective, but after seeing you in action, you are more than that, aren't you?' I asked, not able to let it go any longer.

'My girl sees me as her big teddy bear to hug, hold, and go to when needing comfort. No matter what, I am in the police force, I am still her Dad, and she only ever introduces me to her friends as either a police officer or a detective, and in some ways, the way she introduces me to her friends tells me how she feels about them. Those she had little to no trust in. I am a police officer. If she trusts you a little, I am the detective. 'But what are you?' I asked again, and Robson started to laugh.

'He is our police commissioner. I am shocked. It never occurred to me that he was him, the big man. I know him as Bob, and maybe one day my future father-in-law, but he is a police commissioner; no wonder he could pull strings, and the other police officers deferred to him.

'Yes, I was a top detective in the other city and had been offered the commissioner job many times over the years, but after what happened to Bethany, I took the job. Part of accepting that job was to move here, and I needed to stay close to Bethany. Leaving Wendy was easy. We had fallen apart years ago, and to be honest, I never paid much attention to her or Cynthia. I did try to help Bethany when I could, but Wendy often made it hard. Once I had moved here and looked deeper into my marriage, did I start joining the dots? I had not been able to join before. Don't worry, I am still Bob.' He chuckled.