Free All Acts Of Pleasure: A Rowan Gant Investigation by M. R. Sellars Page A

Dull pain was radiating from
my tailbone up through my lower back, and my nerves were more than
just a little jangled.
    “Jeezus! Fuck me! Goddammit, Rowan!” Ben
sputtered with more than enough anger to fill the room to capacity.
“GOD DAMMIT! GOD DAMMIT!”
    I was definitely stunned from the fall, and
my ears were now ringing, so his tirade came at me as a muted
string of syllables. Fortunately, I didn’t feel any queasiness or a
blackout coming on, so I didn’t think I was truly injured.
    However, I just kept sitting there,
motionless, letting my rage work as an anesthetic for all the pain,
emotional as well as physical.
    Ben’s tone ratcheted down the scale from
anger to remorse in the span of a single sentence. “Awww, Jeez,
Row…Man…What’d ya’ hafta fuckin’ go an’ do that for?!”
    I assumed the question was rhetorical, not
that I had really intended to answer him if it wasn’t. Still, I
couldn’t help but throw one of his earlier comments back in his
face.
    “I think you know,” I spat.
    “Jeezus…Are ya’ okay?” He stepped forward as
he spoke, extending his arm and offering me a hand up.
    I simply shrugged away from him.
    “Row…”
    “Fuck you, Ben,” I told him.
    “Dammit, Row, this…”
    “Get out of my house,” I ordered, my voice a
low growl, fully devoid of any compassion. “Just…Just get out of my
house.”
    He stood there, looking down at me with
abject sadness welling behind his eyes. What just happened was
something neither one of us was going to be able to fix, at least,
not right at this moment. And, the way I was feeling, I wasn’t sure
if I ever wanted it fixed. I had a sickening notion that I was
going to need every bit of my anger just to get through what was
coming, and that was assuming that I was going to make it through
at all.
    The silent pause continued with us both
staring at one another, him pained, me incensed. I allowed it to
continue for what seemed a full minute but was in reality probably
no more than a scant few seconds.
    “You heard me you sonofabitch!” I finally
screamed. “Get the fuck out of my house!”
    With a dazed shake of his head and one last
look of sadness, he turned and headed for the door.
    CSU technicians were already coming into the
house as Ben was lumbering out. One of them shot me a concerned
look, glanced over his shoulder at Ben’s back as he disappeared
down the front steps, and then returned his gaze to me.
    “Are you okay, sir?” he asked.
    “No,” I snipped.
    He reached his hand toward me and started to
ask, “Do you need…”
    “No!” I cut him off, my tone still livid.
“Just leave me alone!”
    He shook his head and muttered a sarcastic
“Excuse me” as he took a step back then turned away and joined up
with the other techs as they began fanning out through my home.
    I didn’t bother to drag myself up from the
floor until I heard Ben’s vehicle back out of the driveway then
speed away, taking my entire reason for living with it.
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER 5:
     
     
    “This isn’t good,” Jackie’s voice hummed from
the earpiece of the phone.
    Our attorney had patiently listened to me as
I relayed to her the story of Felicity’s arrest, interrupting me
only when necessary to ask for clarification on particular facts.
Then, following a proverbial pregnant pause at the end of my
diatribe, those three words were all she said. Unfortunately, they
were far from what I wanted to hear.
    Jackie had a habit of thinking out loud, and
I’m certain that the comment was nothing more than her rhetorically
voicing her thoughts. However, I was still at least five notches
beyond pissed off, not to mention the fact that a handful of crime
scene technicians were turning my house into a disaster area all
around me as I stood there. Therefore, I was really in no mood for
listening to someone tell me something I already knew. Especially
when it wasn’t helping to fix the problem.
    “No fucking shit,” I spat into the