Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 119

Jacko

POV

Being called out to the Sun Valley Sanatorium with my team was not a pretty sight. We could not arrest the woman who did the stabbing as she was already there for life, being classed as a danger to society and never to be released. The two women were never meant to have been put in that wing with that dangerous woman. I am kicking myself for not checking on the woman when I got the news of the first beatings, but I had so much on my plate. I got the call on my way there to check on them that they had been stabbed. I was nervous calling Bob and relieved when his phone went to the message bank. I hung up on Bethany, and she promised to tell Bob. I feel bad for interrupting his joy of his first grandson and the honor of being named after him. I will have to catch up later and have a congratulatory drink. Bethany seemed to take it well, but then she most likely had a lot to handle lately, and this would be just another blimp on her already rocky road of life.

Our team is checking all the security footage and paperwork to see why they were in the wing. The head was as shocked as we were to learn why they were placed there. She had given orders to be in the assessment wing, never to be released, and to enter the wing cautiously.

We took the names of the people looking after that section since they arrived and who processed them initially. We also took all the surveillance tapes with us. Our IT guy said he did not trust we would get a good look at the videos here and wanted our equipment to review them and ensure everything was kept from tampering. We took several boxes with us, photos of the crime scene, and anything else we could think of at the time. This was a mess, and I was not happy to inherit it.

I am sure Bob is going to want a lot of answers, and fast.

The team and I took the boxes to what I called the Wedding room for a better name for it and had one of the ladies start a spreadsheet with all the names of the employees. She was super quick and accurate. The idea was to see if any of the names matched ours and have them in a spreadsheet. She would wave her magic fingers and merge the data, and they would find any names that matched. Visit Jo bnib.com to read the complete sentences for free.If you are not reading this novel on Jo b nib.com, some paragraphs are incomplete. She said it would take about an hour to type all the names in, so while she did that, I started a new whiteboard with the photos of Wendy and Cynthia and other relevant information relating to the stabbing. With the spreadsheet completed, we found two ladies whose names were on the wedding list. We now have to find out what happened. We had more than one list. One was those involved in the running of the fraud, one for the hotels, as we were not sure who in the hotels was in on the scam, and those who were wed that might have had nothing to do with either part of the wedding and were innocent people who got ripped off by the fraudsters. I have a feeling these two ladies were innocent parties and saw this as an opportunity to get revenge, but whether they had intended to go this far was yet to be seen. We needed to see how the woman got the knife and who turned a blind eye to it. They are the ones who will be charged with the murder or at least the instigators of the murder.

I left the team to review the footage and let me know what they found. I felt I needed to see Bob personally. Bethany said he was still at the hospital today and would return home tomorrow, so I would see the new baby and speak with Bob simultaneously. Bob POV

The baby and the mother were doing well; the doctor said they could go home tomorrow. It was a bit quick to kick a new mother out, but apparently, that is how they do it now. They keep them in only if the mother or baby is having trouble. Nate was excited; both Thomas and Nate had a week home to spend with mother and baby, get her used to having a little one around, and the guys were going to learn to change diapers and help bathe him. Yeah, they were super excited; wait till they are exhausted after a long night of trying to put him to sleep, though having two guys to help you out might make a huge difference. I am interested in seeing how it goes. I think Nate will cook and wash the clothes, while Thomas will help more with the baby side of things. I listened to them discuss how they would start and make changes as they went. I wish I could stay and watch, but I have a funeral to organize, and if I am up to it, visit Cynthia and see how she is.

I had breakfast with Thomas. We discussed the funeral arrangements and agreed it should be a family affair. Plus, there should be a cremation; no sign of her should be left. We both decided that we might be targets by association and were trying to figure out how to avoid haters coming at us. With a new baby, things are making us more aware of how vulnerable we could be, and we have agreed to upgrade our security to include Thomas, Nate, Judy, and baby Bob.

'Hello, folks, Jacko said as he surprised us by walking into the hospital room carrying flowers and a giant blue teddy bear. 'Hi Jacko, Do you remember Thomas?' I shook Jacko's hand after he handed Judy the flowers and teddy bear. Judy was sitting on her bed, watching the men interact.

'Yes, you have grown into a fine-looking lad. Congratulations, you're a Dad now.' He shook Thomas's hand, and Thomas introduced Judy, Nate, and baby Bob.

'We were discussing raising the security to include Thomas and his family in case others out there want to hurt us because of Wendy. Do you have any suggestions on making them understand we are victims, too?' I asked. It baffled me what to do without jeopardizing the case we have.

'Yes, I have thought of that. We are ready to start the big arrest, and we will start with the judge and the old police commissioner. Also, all the Gutter boys we know are here in the city. That will happen at the same time; then we start pulling in all the others; we have four precincts ready to join in on the mass arrest. By the end of the week, we will have started to gather everyone together and hopefully have the top wanted in our custody!

'I am going to organize the funeral. We have a family only, and to cremate her, scatter her ashes at the local tip; I am over that woman.' Thomas chuckled as we agreed she did not deserve to be anywhere else but at the rubbish dump.

'A fitting place for that lady, Jacko agreed with a humorless chuckle.

'Bob, I came to tell you that we are going to arrest two ladies that were behind the murder of Wendy and the assault on Cynthia, which, I am sorry to say, looks like it was going to be murder. Cynthia has not been doing so well since she came out of surgery, and if she does live, she will be scared for life, and the doctors are not sure if she will ever walk about; the knife hit the spinal cord.

'If she lives, then it will most likely be best to send her back to the Sun Valley, where they can look after her since they failed to do it the first time. Thomas spat. He was angry that his family was at risk just because these women were greedy. 'When do you leave the hospital?' Jacko asked, looking fondly at baby Bob.

'We are waiting for the doctor to do her rounds soon! Nate answered softly.

'Jacko, why did the two women kill Wendy?' Nate must have been thinking while we chatted and could not put the pieces of the puzzle together.

'They were duped by them. When one of the ladies, after ten years of marriage, was kicked out of her home by her thought-to-be husband for another woman, she had to find a place to live and a job. She had been a stay-at-home wife, and it was a lot for her to change.

Once she had her life in some order, she went to a lawyer to file for a divorce only to find out she was never married, and as it had been longer than a year since she had separated from the man, she had no claim on anything, so she more or less lost the chance to claim anything!' Jacko was now holding the baby when the doctor walked in and stopped at the door, staring at all the men in the room.

A cheer went out when the doctor finished checking on the mother and baby, and they were set to go.

'Let's get out of here and get home for a decent cup of coffee. We gathered everything and waited for a wheelchair to take mother and baby out. Jack and I followed the proud family out the door and all the way back to their home.

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