This house had no adequate rafters; it all had to be moved in from the wings. What it did have, apparently, was unions for the stagehands, which meant... work got done more slowly and sometimes not at all for a while when disputes arose as to just which union had responsibility for which particular activity. Those disputes also tended to get loud, which kind of screws up an opera rehearsal.If this kind of turmoil was tiresomely familiar to me, the previous evening had been anything but. I was used. “Heard you had problems, Peebee,” he said, and I nodded.“Yeah, I got set up,” I said. “Larry, if you can, tell me how much trouble I’m really in.”He sighed. I hated to put him on the spot like that, but I wanted to know what he knew.“Darlin’,” he finally said, “Although I’m assistant chief, that don’t really mean shit in the real world. The chief don’t tell me shit.” I saw him look at the other cop, and the man nodded. I assumed Larry trusted him. “Anyway, some high-powered lawyer dude called a. "Thats nice." He said with his tongue hanging out. "Make sure it's the green two piece and bring out a round of shots for us by the jacuzzi."The music was loud enough she didnt hear our little exchange. Neal went outside and I went to help my wife into her bathing suit before she fell over."You should wear the green one." I don't know why I didn't put a stop to this all immediately. Maybe I was fooling myself."The "little" green one?" She balked. "It's so tiny! You want me wearing that in front. His skin was very dark and he had almond colored eyes.Now most of that didn’t matter to me except to elicit envy, however his eyes were beautiful. He went by Nashville. He was transferred to our Ward from downstate for a hearing. We ended up as partners in spades that first night. We ended the night undefeated.Three nights later, we we’re both up late. He was stressing about his hearing but hiding it better than I was hiding my stress of going to prison. I was 6’2” tall, a hundred and seventy.