Lethal Weapon Pt. 01

Because of his early return, Martin's boss was very pleased and told him he could take off early if he wished, that he would still pay him until five. If not for that, Martin would have never been sitting inside the Dairy Queen when Trish was leaving work that day.

Thinking about the way Martin smiled at her, Trish was a little flushed as she walked out to her car. She climbed in, put the key in the ignition and turned it to the on position, pumped the gas once and turned the key. The Chevy fired up and ran for about five seconds, then died. She turned the key again, with the same results. On the third try, she looked to her right and there stood Martin, just so happened, he was parked right beside her. Another try. . . and once again. . .

Martin walked around to her side of the car, "Need some help?" he asked.

"It does this all of the time, it'll go here in a minute," she replied.

"I went to school with you, didn't I, aren't you. . . Taa. .?"

"Trish," she said, "And you're Martin."

"Yes, yes. . . Martin Riggs, I was close to getting your name. . . I knew that it began with T," he chuckled.

"Trish Murtaugh. . . err, I mean. . . Ah, it was Trish Smith when I was in high school," her voice stumbled.

"Oh, you're married now. . ." he said, with obvious disappointment in his voice.

"Yeah. . . ah, ah. . . no no. . . I. . . I'm divorced!"

"Oh," he said, his mood picking back up, "Can I help you with your car?"

He would have helped her either way, it was just in his nature. Trish smiled and climbed out of the car and Martin sat down in the driver's seat. He put his foot on the accelerator and turned the key, it started and he kept his foot on the gas to keep it running. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his keys and tossed them to Trish,

"Ever driven a truck before?" he asked.

"I drove my uncle's truck when I moved back home, so yeah I guess."

"Hop in my truck right there, don't worry it's just like your car, it's got an automatic transmission. . . I'll follow you to your house, so I know where you live, then I'll take your car over to my house and see if I can make it run better. I'll leave my truck at your house while I've got your car, that way you'll have it as collateral to make sure I bring your car back. . . Sound OK?" he grinned.

"I can't afford to pay you much. . . I," she started.

"I'm not going to charge you anything, I just think your choke needs adjusted, and I'll check the timing and dwell while I'm at it. I'm pretty sure the starting problem is the choke sticking, maybe sometime later on, I can throw in some plugs, wires and a new fuel filter for you and you should be good to go then," he explained.

"Thank you," she replied.

Trish turned the key and started Martin's truck, which ran beautifully, "Wow, this is a nice truck," she said to herself quietly. Backing out of the parking space, she pulled out of the DQ parking lot, and headed towards her house with Martin close behind in her Impala. He kept one foot on the gas and one on the brake to make sure it stayed running. After arriving home she pulled up in front, he honked and waved, driving on past and heading towards home, where he still lived with his parents also.

Mr and Mrs Smith were sitting in the front porch swing when Trish pulled up, they were a little taken aback when they saw Martin honk and wave, then drive on past in her car,

"Who was that, and where's he going with your car?" Trish's father asked, "And why are you driving that truck?"

"That's Martin Riggs, we went to school together, and. . ." Trish tried to reply.

Her mother stood up, "Why did he take your car!!" she demanded.

"He going to work on it, it was acting up when I was leaving work, and he said he thought that he could fix it, so he's taking it over to his house to work on it, mother!" Trish said in a stern voice.

"And just how much is that going to cost you?"

"Nothing, he said he thought some things just needed to be adjusted," Trish said, as she walked up the steps onto the porch.

"Like what? Is he going to adjust your panties down, is that why he's going to work on your car for free?"

"NO!. . . mother, he's just a really nice guy trying to help me out," Trish replied.

"Are you planning on going out with him?"

"Mother, I doubt if he'll even ask. . . but, if by chance he would. . . yes, I would definitely go out with him!"

"Young lady, let me explain something to you. . . I. . . we. . . your father and I, never cared for Roger one bit, but we stood back, and let you marry him, and now you have a child with him. Your obligation is to your child and to your husband, we will not allow you to break your vows by seeing another man. . ."

"Roger and I are divorced mother! I can see whoever I want!"

Patricia Louise Sm. . . Murtaugh!! Listen to me! You may have a paper saying you're divorced, but in God's eyes, you are STILL MARRIED to Roger Murtaugh!! You are NOT allowed to lie with another man, do you understand me! I am sorry that you chose Roger to be your husband. . . But you did, YOU. . . No one else did it. It's either him, or no one."

Trish turned and opened the door to go inside, "Did you know that I was already pregnant with Jeffery when me and Roger got married? Did you know that, mother?!"

Louise Smith stood there in shock, then she mumbled to herself and started counting on her fingers. Then looking back at Trish, she said,

"So, you got yourself knocked up, and you HAD to marry him! How many other men did you screw before Roger? That's it, isn't it? Did you get tired of him, and decided you wanted to go back to whoring around?"

"I have never been with another man except for Roger, mother. He was my first. . . There's just that little tidbit that it was before we were married, and you KNOW why I left him. . . What about HIS obligation to take care of his wife and family? Huh? What about that? He was more interested in booze and hanging with his friends than he was me. . . so I left."

Louise sat back down, turned her head and said that she wasn't talking about it anymore, Trish could do whatever she wanted, but to remember that lying down with any other man besides Roger was adultery, and she WOULD NOT let an adulterous little floosy stay in her home!

Trish stormed into the house, went into her and Jeffery's room, closing the door behind her.

Once Martin arrived at home, he hooked up his small engine analyzer to Trish's car, set the points (dwell), then hooked up his timing light and set the timing. "Ah ha!" he said, when he found that the vacuum hose leading to the vacuum advance on the distributor was cracked on the end, causing a slight vacuum leak. The hose was long enough that he was able to cut the hardened and cracked end off and just reattach it.

Martin started the car and found that it ran noticeably better. Then he took a spray can of Gumout, cleaned the linkage on the carburetor good and adjusted the choke to the spec on the under hood sticker. It only took about thirty minutes to complete those tasks, so he washed her car and pulled the shop vac outside and swept the car out good too.

By the time he pulled up in front of Trish's house, her mom had gone inside to start supper, and her dad had followed. Trish was now sitting outside on the front porch alone when Martin pulled up, she ran down the steps to greet him. After seeing her car, then hearing it run, she almost started crying.

"Oh my God, it looks so nice. . . thank you, thank you, thank you. . . Oh! And listen to it run. . . Wow! I don't know how I can ever repay you. . . Oh! Thank you!"

"Have you eaten yet?" asked Martin.

"No, my mom is cooking supper right now."

"Would you like to go out for supper?"

"I would love to. . . Right now?"

"I'll go home and get cleaned up and be back in a hour, will that work?" asked Martin.

As luck would have it, Jeffery was away at Roger's parents for the weekend, they had picked him up earlier in the afternoon. She was relieved, because she knew that her parents would have never watched Jeff so that she could go out.

And so their relationship began. . .

Martin wasn't a virgin, there were several different women before Trish, but he never saw any potential in any of them as being wife material. Most of the women in this little town had been around the block and back many times, most would go to bed with a guy on the first date. And if the guy didn't try and get into their pants by the third, they wondered whether or not he was gay.

Martin saw something different in Trish, and the fact that she had a child didn't matter, she HAD been married at the time, the baby wasn't the product of a hit and run.

Unlike with Roger, Trish and Martin had done a lot of kissing and necking, but Martin waited until he was sure that she was ready before making love with her. They waited two months, then one Saturday night while Martin's parents were out of town for the weekend. . . it happened. Martin took Trish into his room, and as they necked, he slowly undressed her. Before they went any further, Trish explained that her sexual experiences with Roger were far from pleasant, so she wasn't sure what to expect with him. She told Martin how Roger had hurt her, so now he was well aware that Roger was very big. He also felt a little intimidated, because Martin was only about five and a half inches, hard. It never occurred to Trish that maybe she shouldn't have told him how big Roger was, she really wasn't aware that there was that much difference in men's penis sizes. Coming from a very religious family, sex was never discussed in her parents home.

Martin assured Trish that he would be gentle, he went slow, licking and sucking her erect nipples and stroking her breasts as he moved down towards her now soaking wet pussy. She was frozen, but so excited at the same time, she had no idea what he was doing, having never seen or been told anything at all about oral sex. Trish was more aroused and wetter than she had ever been in her life. He licked up and down her labia, parted her lips and fucked her with his tongue. She exploded into her very first orgasm shortly after Martin moved up and touched her clitoris.

Martin put on a condom and Trish braced herself, anticipating the pain that was about to come. . . There was one big difference she felt with Martin though, Trish had never really been sure that she was in love with Roger, now she positively knew that she hadn't been. She was, however, absolutely positive that she was in love with Martin, and with the emotions that she was feeling right at that moment. . . the pain wouldn't matter.

Martin put a condum on, then slid up between her legs and pressed his cock head against her opening, then slowly pushed inside. Trish was pleasantly surprised. . . It felt good and she experienced pleasure, not pain. He brought her to two more orgasms, before letting himself go. When he pulled out, Trish glimpsed at his manhood and noticed that it was quite a bit smaller than what Roger's had been. Was that why it didn't hurt? After the way Martin had made her feel though, she looked forward to doing it again.

Much to the chagrin of her parents, Trish and Martin rented a house and moved in together, then eighteen months after their chance meeting at Dairy Queen, in March of 1986, they were married. Trish continued to work at Dairy Queen and Martin at the lumber yard, until June of 1987. Martin then took a job at ZMA for a substantial raise in pay, plus benefits, and Trish quit her job, becoming a stay at home mom for Jeffery.

Mitchell and Sally Murtaugh attended Martin and Trish's wedding, they actually seemed happier for Trish than what her own parents had been. In fact, while Trish and Martin were dating, the Murtaugh's had even offered to babysit so that the couple could be alone. Trish's parents absolutely refused, professing that she was cheating on her husband and they would have no part in it. They made an appearance at the wedding, but the scowls on their faces were telling.

The Murtaugh's knew that their son was pretty much worthless and were relieved that their grandson would now be raised in a stable and loving, two parent environment. They even showed their support the following year, when Martin adopted Jeffery and changed his last name to Riggs.

Roger was happy too, it absolved him from ever having to pay child support. Martin and Trish made it clear from the beginning, Jeff would know who his grandma and grandpa Murtaugh were and that they would be included in his life just as much as they had always been. Now Jeffery had three sets of grandparents, besides the Murtaugh's, he had Mr and Mrs Smith and Martin's parents had accepted him as their own too.

Ironically, Jeffery resembled Martin enough that he could easily pass for his child. As it turned out, Martin and Roger were third cousins on Martin's mom's side.

The Smith's weren't very happy about the whole situation, they thought Martin was a decent guy and all, and would provide a good living for their daughter and grandson, but. . . Their strong Catholic beliefs said that Roger was Trish's husband, and they thought that he and Trish should have worked through their problems, instead of divorcing. They were not at all pleased about Martin adopting Jeffery either.

For the first several years of Martin and Trish's relationship, the Smith's were civil to Martin, but very indifferent with him. Trish's mom constantly reminded her that she was committing adultery and that she should leave Martin and return to Roger. Martin was well aware of his mother in law's accusations to his wife, but kept his mouth shut. He didn't want his in laws to dislike him more than they already did.

In 1990, Tom Smith had a stroke and was rushed to the hospital. At first it looked as though he was going to recover, but it wasn't to be, he passed away in his sleep ten days after being hospitalized. The news of her father's passing hit Trish hard and her mother seemed to back off of her pursuit of getting her back with Roger for the time being.

Life went on. . .

-----

Fast forward. . . July, 2010.

In the ensuing years since their wedding, Trish had given birth to two more children. Nicholas born in 1991, and Damon born in 1992. They had also done quite well for themselves financially, they had purchased a house and it was paid off. Martin had accumulated quite a few tools and man toys, Trish had furnished the house with mostly new furniture and wanted for nothing, they were living a nice middle class life. Their twenty fourth wedding anniversary had just passed a few months earlier, and Martin had been employed at ZMA for twenty three years now. Life was good.

Back in 1990, a few months after Trish's father passed away, Martin noticed that her mother seemed to warm up to him for some odd reason and she'd been. . . Well, not actually friendly, but had acted a lot more tolerable of him ever since.

Meanwhile. . .

The July temperatures and the humidity rolling up from the Gulf, were proving to be exceedingly uncomfortable for the workers inside the plant at ZMA. In the warehouse, the temperature was well over 90 degrees as large industrial fans hummed, circulating air around inside of the concrete and steel structure, making it at least bearable for those working back in this area.

The production floor was another story though. The heat from the production ovens, along with that generated from the electronic machinery used in the process, made the temperatures well in excess of 100 degrees. Small fans were all that could be used in this area, because the larger fans kicked up dust that contaminated the manufacturing process. With high humidity and the small amount of air circulating around, work was stunningly distressing.

Despite the heat, the talk at the plant didn't have anything to do with how hot or uncomfortable it was inside the building, the main source of chatter was about the discovery of a dead body down behind the old paper mill, along Bluegrass Creek a few weeks before. It was an area that was frequented by crack heads and druggies of all sorts. It seemed some poor soul had partied just a little too hardy. The preliminary investigation showed that they had suffered a heart attack, after what looked like an all night cocaine binge, autopsy results were pending. No one was really surprised though, because Roger Murtaugh and his brother Joshua had dabbled around with drugs and alcohol for almost all of their adult lives. Just another unfortunate result of the drug culture that seemed to permeate this small town.

Martin was working day shift, it was extremely hot and had been an especially busy morning, and he'd about had his fill of hearing about Roger. Rumors that he'd been murdered, who had done it and all different kinds of explanations for his untimely death were making their way around the plant. Martin was glad that only a handful of people at ZMA knew that his wife had once been married to Roger. Martin decided he needed a break and told his co workers that he was heading outside for a few minutes.

Just outside of the warehouse, a thicket of trees had grown and kept the sun blocked from a large area for most of the day. The company had constructed a small rest area on this shaded spot, complete with a soda machine and a picnic table. This area, at the back of the building, was also covered by a large metal roof to protect it from the elements. Frequently, those working the floor, would take short breaks and step outside of the plant to cool off and for a breath of fresh air.

Martin made his way through the shipping and receiving area, stepping outside into the rest area, and purchased a can of Pepsi, then sat down at the picnic table. The outside air was hot, but the slight breeze that was blowing felt good drifting across his face and arms, which were covered in sweat. During his break, Martin had a short conversation about the hot weather with the driver of a tractor/ trailer, who was waiting in the rest area for his truck of cardboard to be unloaded. After sitting, talking and relaxing for about ten minutes, Martin finished the Pepsi, and headed back inside towards his work area.

Coming inside the building from the rest area, tall stacks of wooden pallets lined both sides of the walkway. As Martin walked through, he could hear the reverse alarm of an approaching fork truck. Danny glover was unloading the truck belonging to the driver Martin had just spoken to a few moments before. Danny had just picked up a load of perforated cardboard, used for making boxes from the trailer parked in the receiving area.

Martin peered out from around the stack to see where the forklift was located and waited. Danny stopped about fifteen feet away and positioned the pallet of cardboard across the aisle from where Martin was, then placed the fork truck in reverse. As Danny backed up, several beads of sweat ran down his forehead and dripped into his eyes. Briefly unable to see, he slammed on the brakes, but was too late, the fork truck clipped the end stack of pallets, pushing it into the stack behind just enough to make it wobble.

To no one's knowledge, the bottom pallet on the wobbling stack had been damaged by a previous encounter with a fork truck, and had several nails pulled loose and boards that were cracked. The wobble caused the cracked wood to fracture, and the pallet collapsed, the stack tipped and started to fall in Martin's direction. The forklift was blocking the path to his right, so he had to run to his left, into the same path as the stack of pallets was falling. The stack toppled very slowly, like a big tree that had just been felled, the aisle was about twenty feet wide and went on for over a hundred feet. So Martin had plenty of time and room to get clear before it hit the floor.