Since there was little that we could do to help in the case, Danny was kind enough to drop me back home after a very tasty lunch at one of our favorite haunts. Now, you'd think that, since I always got food or somethin' on my tie, that I'd be a messy eater. Not true! I had not a spot on me. It was only when I'm wearin' a tie that it was an issue. I have no idea what that portended for my life, but there it was.

I hadn't heard back from Sue, either. Man, was she pissed at me. I honestly, think this might be the last straw. And, somehow, I was okay with that. We'd been livin' apart for awhile now and I'd gotten used to being on my own. I found that there were some things that I missed, but since we hadn't had sex for some time before the split, it was just little things that I could do without. Sad, ain't it?

I decided to spend the rest of my day goofin' off in my workshop. That's what I called the disaster area where I did my electronics stuff. I'd taken over the room that Sue had been usin' as an office. It was nice to have my own space, upstairs, rather than being relegated to the basement. The basement should be for things like laundry and whatnot. So, yeah, there were things that I didn't miss at all.

But, I hadn't taken the time to move everythin' from the basement to the workshop. I decided that today was the day.

I made my way down the stairs to my old desk with a medium sized box to help pack up things. Well, okay, I was just plannin' on throwin' shit into the box and then sort of dumpin' it in a pile to sort when I got upstairs with it. I did at least plan on pickin' up similar things, such as all tools, to put in the box. It was a system.

When I got down to my old desk, I looked around, wonderin' where to start. I decided to pick up supplies. That's when I saw them; what was left of rolls of white and black electrical tape. Granted, I saw other colors, too, but they hadn't been used. In fact, I saw several rolls of each color, but only a little bit of one roll of black and even less of the white. I checked the trash. Yep, several empty rolls of tape that had once held white. There were several used rolls of black, too. It was like I had ordered many sets of an assortment of colors to get the white and black, then used almost all of both.

I was puzzled. I didn't remember orderin' anythin', nor did I remember usin' electrical tape, and a lot of it, on somethin'. You didn't commonly use electrical tape on small electronics. Typically, it as for electrical work in houses and other structures.

That's when I remembered the story I told to Danny about decoratin' things for the color guard with tape... and how I wondered if that's what the Jester had done. I had a sinkin' feelin' in my gut.

I checked my Amazon account. Sure enough, I'd ordered electrical tape assortments. I'd also ordered a replacement robot kit. I had no recollection of doing either. It was supposed to arrive in the afternoon.

I sat in the chair at the desk to contemplate it all. As far as I could tell, there were two possibilities: One, the Jester was further prankin' me by breakin' into my home and workin' in my space, or at least makin' it look like he had... or... I was the Jester and doin' these things without knowin' I did. Like, on the nights that I didn't remember how I got to the couch.

Certainly, I'd been tired lately. And, I'd had more than my share of headaches, but I hadn't thought anythin' of it, not even enough to mention it to Danny. I complained to Danny about almost everythin'.

Well, I had no real, solid proof that either possibility was likely. And, until I did, I couldn't make a decision about turnin' myself in or not. I didn't like the idea of the latter, but I also didn't want things to get out of hand and someone get hurt. So far, things were relatively minor. In fact, some people, like the other cops, were beginnin' to think it was pretty funny.

I needed to figure out what to do with the evidence. If I was the Jester and decided to turn myself in, it would come in handy later. On the other hand, if I was bein' pranked, I'd still need it and should turn it in now. I guess that meant I was keepin' it. I'd have to hide it somewhere, though.

I gathered the trash and anythin' else I thought might be related to what was goin' on and put it in a bag. Then, it was a matter of where to hide the thing. I decided to hide it in the closet up in my workshop.

I headed up there and did just that. It would stay there until I had solid evidence of either scenario.

I jumped when I heard the doorbell, then laughed at myself. I was goin' to have to be better than that, if I wanted to keep this secret.

I found an Amazon package on the doorstep and took it inside. It dawned on me that there was a way to further test if I wasn't imaginin' things; I could see if the missin' parts of the robot kit made a little light-changin' circuit doohickey. I got to work.

Several internet searches and YouTube videos later, I had laid out all the parts for just such a doohickey. I wasn't dumb enough to actually make it, but it was clear that it could be done with the robot kit parts. And, oddly enough, it was just the parts I was missin'.

Things were pointin' more and more to me being the Jester. I wasn't sure what to do. This would end my career. Though, now that I thought about it, I doubted I'd get jail time; the stolen car angle would no longer hold water. I couldn't "steal" my own car. My insurance wouldn't pay for it, though.

I jumped again when my phone rang. It was Sue.

"Hey," I said when I answered. "I'm sorry about this morning. I didn't leave you hangin' on purpose."

"I figured you didn't, Terry, but I'm still pissed off. You could have set an alarm or something. But, this is just like you."

"I— don't know what to say to that," I said sadly.

"Terry, I think it's time to end things. I think that we just aren't meant to be together any more."

I cleared my throat that was suddenly tight. Knowin' somethin's true didn't mean it was it any easier to hear. "Yeah, as much as it hurts, I think you're right."

"Okay, so, if I have papers drawn up, you'll sign them?"

"Sure, if they're fair." I realized as soon as I said it that I'd insulted her. Again.

She made her angry noise. But, she kept it reigned in, which was more than I deserved. "I'll have my lawyer draw up something fair, then and send it over next week."

"Okay. I'll take a look at them and let you know."

"Alright," she said, then hung up. Not even a goodbye. But then, that was like her.

The thing was, what was fair was her paying alimony. She made more than I did buy a mile, and we had no children for us to share, so the divorce should be a simple thing. I doubted she wanted the house; she'd never really like it much. Why she agreed to buy it and not a house in the suburbs, I'll never know. Maybe it had somethin' to do with being closer to my job?

At any rate, my life as shapin' up to be kind of crappy. Things were not lookin' good.