The Temporary Detective

Chapter Thirty-One

James could have done without the photos. Some of them were so graphic, he had to look away. He couldn't begin to comprehend how any man could go through gender reassignment surgery, as he discovered it was properly called. Then again, it might be the perfect lie to get Jayla off his back. Of course, she'd never believe him—or worse, she would deem him the ultimate challenge.

Bill had to be talking about Stan Henderson. So, was that the attraction? Was Stan the ultimate challenge or, as Isobel had speculated, was Conchita actually in love with him?

He rolled his chair away from his desk, put his feet up, and considered what Felice had told him: Conchita thought Doreen made good people do bad things. Did Conchita believe that Doreen was somehow responsible for Stan's sexual confusion? The marriage had been annulled. Was that because Doreen discovered Stan's orientation or because Stan was so disgusted with Doreen that he turned transvestite? James didn't know much about these things, but he was pretty sure it didn't work that way.

He scanned the web page he was on, which maintained that gender confusion was present from earliest childhood, and that those who change gender don't necessarily alter their sexual orientation. Doreen hadn't turned Stan into a transsexual any more than a bad relationship could make you gay. (He briefly contemplated telling Jayla he was gay, but ruled that out also.) So was this the bad thing Conchita thought Doreen was making Stan do, or was there something else?

He hit a few more keys on his computer, and a pair of "before and after" close-ups appeared.

"Eeeeccchhh," groaned James. He rose from his chair, disgusted, and retreated to the window. He looked down at the tiny, scurrying people below and the cars, which looked like the Matchboxes he'd played with as a kid. He tried to imagine Conchita wielding a pair of deadly scissors. People did all kinds of things in the name of tough love and religious salvation. Maybe she had fallen off the wagon and done it in a blackout.

What he really wanted to know was where things had stood with Stan and Doreen. Why had she gotten him the job at InterBank in the first place? Had she been trying to do something nice for him—or did she want him close by so she could somehow humiliate him for having made a joke of their marriage? Had she ever been able to forgive him for their wedding night when he'd (presumably) revealed his true self? Can any woman forgive a man for shunning her in bed, whatever the reason? And wouldn't a woman like Doreen be more vengeful than most?

The door to his office, which he'd left ajar, creaked open suddenly, and James leaped across the room to his computer. Unfortunately, Ginger was quicker than he was. Worse, his finger hit the wrong key, and instead of closing the window with the graphic "before and after" photos, he enlarged it.

"I was just passing by, and—aaargghh!" Ginger let out a strangled shriek.

James fumbled for the right key and managed to close the window on his computer screen.

"I, uh, that was—it's research."

"I will not have my employees looking at pornography in the office! Do you understand me?" she snapped ferociously.

"It wasn't pornography! I was researching sex-change operations," he blurted out.

Ginger blanched. "I...had...no idea."

"Not for me!" Although, as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized there was no recovery. It only sounded like a cover up. "I have a girlfriend," he added. Shit, he thought. That sounded even worse.

"I don't really need to know...anything...about your personal life, Mr. Cooke," Ginger said stiffly. "Now, please return to the work for which you were hired."