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“And he ties you up as part of protecting you.”

Laura refused to flinch. Looking the other woman directly in the eye, she said, “With my full consent and enthusiastic participation, yes. My relationship with James has nothing to do with abuse. Anyway, the marks I have today are from simple, soft, silk rope. I can show you some photos of me in bondage if you like. It was so beautiful James took a couple of pictures. I have them here on my phone.” She rummaged through her purse, pulled out the device, and activated the photo app. “As you can see, my arms were not bound, and I hardly look like I’m being restrained against my will, do I?”

Det. Stone reluctantly acknowledged that Laura did look free and happy. “All right. For the moment, I’ll take your word for it. What happened last night between you and your husband?”

“My ex-husband,” Laura corrected through gritted teeth. “We’ve been divorced for over four years. He didn’t like that I was leaving him and I had to get a restraining order. I haven’t seen or heard from him since it was finalized, until he came up to me at the movie theater. Plenty of people watched him verbally assault me and try to hit me. James intervened.”

“And James is your…?”

“He’s my boyfriend.”

The detective flipped some pages in her notebook. “Did you know him when you were married to Mr. Taylor?”

“Of course not!”

“Mr. Taylor alleges you weren’t exactly faithful.”

“Mr. Taylor is a lying, woman-beating sack of shit.”

“All right, let’s keep it civil in here. So you are alleging that Mr. Taylor was the instigator?”

“Yes! He came up to me, he tried to hit me, he did attack James and he kept attacking until James had no choice but to fight back! I have video of it on my phone. Let me show you?”

The detective agreed and together they watched the recording. “It doesn’t show the starting point,” the detective said at last, “but it does show Mr. Taylor was the aggressor and Mr. Black is clearly defending you. It was quick thinking on your part to record it.”

“I’m surprised no one else did. Plenty of people were watching.”

“We’ve got people over at the theater right now. Assuming their statements match yours, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You understand that we have to investigate these things, we can’t just take your word at face value.”

“No,” Laura said grudgingly. “I suppose you can’t.”

“I’m still not sure about this BDSM stuff, but I accept you are in your relationship with Mr. Black voluntarily and do not seem to be seriously injured.”

That seemed to be about as close to an apology as she was going to get, so Laura accepted it. “I would probably have assumed the same thing if I were you and I didn’t know about BDSM. It can be hard to distinguish if a mark is from abuse or if it happened consensually. Can we now please go to James and straighten out this mess?”

Together, they went to the room where James was being questioned. He looked like he was at the end of his patience from going over the events repeatedly. Det. Stone introduced Laura to her partner, Det. Bill Christopher. She took her partner aside and they talked in low tones for a moment. Laura pulled up a chair next to James and took his hand in hers.

The door opened and a third policeman leaned in to mutter something at the detectives. Nods were exchanged, and when the man left, both detectives came back to the table. Det. Christopher said, “Well, our people at the theater just checked in and it appears there has been a misunderstanding. The manager of the theater is willing to give us their footage from the parking lot cameras that caught the whole fight and to make a statement, but my colleague says you have some video that doesn’t look like it was filmed with a potato, so I’d like to see that.”

Laura handed him the phone. After Det. Stone’s partner watched the video, they explained they would need to keep the phone as evidence, at least temporarily.

Laura immediately objected, “I need my phone. How long will you have it? There are also private things on it. How do I know you won’t be poking around in the rest of it?”

Det. Christopher and Det. Stone both promised that Laura’s privacy would be protected. If she wanted to, she could stay while they made an official copy and not have to leave her phone.

Their offer suited Laura, although she would be late to pick up the children.

After the video was copied, they took care of the paperwork to get James released. Det. Stone tried to talkJames into pressing charges against Jake Taylor, but James declined.

“I would recommend you both apply for a protective order against Mr. Taylor,” Detective Stone advised “If he shows up or contacts you in any way, do not engage, just call us and we’ll take care of it.”

“Will it be hard to get it reinstated?” Laura asked.

“No, we have the forms here and a temporary order can be in place by the end of the day or Monday at the latest. You’ll need to meet with the judge, explain the situation and show your evidence to get the order. Then there will be a formal hearing at which Mr. Taylor may be present. At that point, the judge will rule on whether the order should be made permanent. As you know from your previous experience, you will have to renew the order each year,” Det. Stone explained.

Both officers gave them their cards in case they needed help in the future. Laura hoped it was over now, but she couldn’t help but think it was never that easy.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

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