The clock read well past three in the morning. Despite this, and also in spite of the loud music coming once again from the apartment overhead, Adrian was vacuuming his rug for what had to have been the third time that evening. He moved with extreme care along the diagonal lines, stopping only when he reached the wall. His mission complete again, he reached for a bottle of window cleaner on the coffee table.
"Adrian, why are you doing this to yourself?" came a familiar voice form behind him. Adrian turned to see his wife had arrived again. "I, I can't help it," he admitted, putting down the bottle, "I just don't………feel right. It's just that………he trusts me so much. I feel like I'm letting him down keeping it from him. I, I hope you don't think less of me for it."
"I would never think any less of you," she gave him a reassuring look of sympathy, "Now why don't you go to bed, Adrian? You've got a lot to do tomorrow."
Adrian looked deep into her eyes. Convinced, he flicked off the lights and trudged into his bedroom and pulled down the covers on his bed very slowly so they remaining perfectly even. "Tell me," he blurted out as he plopped down on what had been his side of the bed, "Did you still love John Schmidt towards the end? Every time you'd mention his name, you'd get this look that………."
"Adrian, please don't think of these things," she told him, "You were and are the only one that mattered to me. Don't let these things go through your mind; you need all the rest you can."
She reached for the light switch. There was a low zapping sound as the light went out, and Adrian abruptly found himself all alone again. "Trudy?" he called out, but there was no response. Sighing, he groped for the light bulb and discovered it had burnt out. He slumped back on the bed and tried to block out the earsplitting music from above, not feeling better at all.
"I think about it a lot of the time, actually," the detective was relating the following morning as he gazed blankly out his psychiatrist's office window, "But now more than ever."
"I see," Dr. Charles Kroger leaned forward in his seat across from Adrian, "So you're convinced Trudy still loved this John Schmidt?"
"I just know it deep down," Adrian nodded softly, "Really, I'm surprised sometimes we even lasted seven years. I know I got on her nerves a lot, and I wouldn't have blamed her if she had left."
"Well Adrian, the fact is Trudy DID stay," Dr. Kroger reminded him, "That should tell you something about yourself right there, that she could overlook whatever she may have found wrong with you and see the good man inside."
"Perhaps," Adrian rose up and started rearranging the cushions on his armchair for no apparent reason, "But I know I get to people a lot; I don't like making people mad or uncomfortable."
"Again, Adrian, you're only looking at the bad in yourself," his psychiatrist said, squinting his eyes shut in slight discomfort of his own as his client strode over and fiddled with a button on his sweater than he'd missed, "I think it's time you looked more at the positives in your life; you'll find you'll be a lot happier if you do."
He glanced at his watch before continuing, "So, while we still have time today, you said you were worried about Captain Stottlemeyer?"
"Of course I'm worried about him," Adrian shook his head, "He was there for me when I needed help, he was almost like a second brother, and now I feel like I'm letting him down by not letting on to him what I know about this case. But at the same time, I can't tell him, because I just know he'll make things worse on himself."
"So what makes you sure he would explode if it turns out that Karen did in fact kill Arthur Schmidt?" Dr. Kroger inquired.
"You've seen the man," Adrian rose again and walked over to the window, but apparently decided against whatever he'd been planning on doing and sat down again, "He's like the Pacific Rim when he feels he's been crossed, and right now it's not even a good idea to even mention Karen's name in his presence. He's completely convinced she's out to run him completely into the ground with this whole thing."
"And what do you think?" his psychiatrist had to know, "You said you had been to a few of the hearings, after all."
"Well," Adrian took a very long breath, "I think a couple of the things her attorney said about the captain were up to 9.7 percent inflated from the truth, but I wouldn't really call the outright lies. Right now, though, I think it's just best to keep the two of them apart. I've never seen two people more at odds with each other than they are, and I've seen some nasty relationships in my time. And lately," he hung his head, "I can't help thinking how it might have been different if I had agreed to follow………"
"Adrian, Adrian, this is also something you shouldn't guilt trip yourself on," Dr. Kroger told him, "They would have divorced whether or not you'd been tailing Karen that time. Now if you want my advice, I think you would do well explaining to one or both of them how their actions make you feel. There's no need for you to feel like you're suffering for their conflict. Telling……….."
"Just, just a minute," Adrian rose yet again and straightened out the photographs of Dr. Kroger's family on his desk so they were in a perfectly straight line. "Anyway," the psychiatrist couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes, "I also understand you've consulted a bit with your brother on this case, and he seems to be a little jealous?"
"I really don't see what he has to be jealous about, really," Adrian said, "He doesn't have to worry about roving germs on the street and narrow elevators and milk on the shelves of every store and………"
"I hate to rush, Adrian, but we are at two minutes remaining in this session," Dr. Kroger reminded him.
"Right," Adrian nodded, "Ambrose, well, he wants to call into the Crimestoppers line. Plus, I think he's disappointed the script about my life was changed to a television format; Benjy had written him in as a major character in its movie version."
"And how do you feel about this?" Dr. Kroger inquired.
"He knows I have a promise to Trudy that I'd solve every case I could," Adrian told him, "He knows how important doing what I do is to me. And he shouldn't worry about the show; if it's a hit, they'll get around to when I got back with him in due time; shouldn't take much longer than the third season if they start where I got back on my feet."
"Well, Adrian, you have to realize that Ambrose has a lot to be envious of with you," Dr. Kroger pointed out, "You've done so much that he probably feels a bit insignificant stuck inside his house the whole time. If you ask me, I think it wouldn't hurt a bit to step back from Crimestoppers for just one week and give him a chance to make his own difference in the world. After all, the………"
"Trouble," Adrian rose to his feet, a dark look on his face.
"What is it now, Adrian?" his psychiatrist had to know.
"I can sense him, he's doing it again," Adrian strode for the door, knowing that the hour was up and he could. Sure enough, his intuition had been right; a familiar figure was hunching over the bulletin board in the lobby, pinning up memos. "Hold it right there, you!" Adrian barreled over the board, causing Harold to turn with a loud hiss, "These belong in chronological order, not this way!"
"Oh no they don't!" Harold shouted at him, "They belong in ALPHABETICAL order, like so!"
"That does it, you're insane, no ifs ands or buts about it!" Adrian snatched the last memo out of Harold's hand. He reached for others, only to have Harold push his hand away and seize the memo. The two of them struggled for control of it before Dr. Kroger rushed over and placed himself between them. "Adrian, Harold, this is no place for fighting!" he told them calmly but firmly, "Now I want you two to take nice, deep, relaxing breaths."
"Look at what he's done!" far from relaxed, Adrian pointed at the bulletin board as if it were a volcano about to erupt, "He wrecked the memos! Make him put then back in chronological order where they belong!"
Dr. Kroger ignored this request completely. "Harold, it's time for your session now," he told his other patient. Harold eagerly trotted after him toward the office, turning just before he entered it to sneer at Adrian, "By the way, he invited me to his son's birthday next week."
"You……..!!!!" Adrian lunged at the door just before it closed. "All right buster, you want total war, you'll get total war!" he shouted at it, "From now on, it's no mercy!"