Chapter 2

For the next 2 years, however, nothing really significant that I knew of caused any serious rift in my and Jen's relationship. She was still working at Angela's real estate office, with Julie, and Trudi. Donny and I were both traveling more than before, doing more insurance fraud investigations out of state; although I was doing more, and incidentally spending more time away from home, because I wanted to get enough money ahead so that Jen and I could have our first child, and she could quit work for at least 2 years.

I knew that Jen was still going out with Julie and Donny when I was out of town, and that Trudi and Angela often went out with Julie and Jen after work on a Friday to have drinks. But I believed that I could trust Donny (hell, I'd trusted him with my life before), and since Julie was his wife, and Jen's best friend, I believed that I could trust her also.

About 6 months before our fourth wedding anniversary, my big boss called Donny and I into his office. He told us that he had a 7-figure claimed loss because of a supposed jewelry theft in Miami. The problem was that the Insured was rumored to be a big-time drug dealer, from South America. Donny and I both were offered the opportunity to go down there to help with the police investigation, but only Donny would know that I worked as an insurance investigator. I would get a job with one of our affiliate companies down in that general area, and attempt to find out what I could as an insurance runner, but an outsider to the primary investigation, particularly since I spoke Spanish fluently because of my mother's heritage and my upbringing.

That insurance claim loss turned out to be a bigger deal than anyone had thought, so that instead of being gone for 10 — 14 days, with only one weekend away from home, I was in Miami for more than a month before we wrapped up all we could do. I was only able to get back to Atlanta for a short weekend trip. And that one weekend home was rather strange and disturbing, to say the least.

I had told Jen when I went down there that I could only call during certain hours, and only on a throw-away cell phone. I bought a new one each week, and called Jen either first thing in the morning before she went to work, or mid-evening before I went out to mingle with the office workers where I was working "undercover" so to speak.

I could talk to Donny because he was at our main Miami office, and part of my cover job was to coordinate issuance of inland marine floater policies, and Donny was located at the office where the underwriting of these policies was decided. I kept him in the loop, and we managed to have lunch at least once or maybe twice a week.

Jen's birthday came during the month that I was out of town. I had told Donny to tell Jen that because of where we were in the investigation I didn't believe that I could get away for the weekend before her birthday, but that I would try to fly up on Sunday and fly back that same night if I could swing it.

As it turned out, my "boss" at the office where I was working had to go out of town himself to Atlanta, and since he knew that I had worked the Atlanta area before, he asked me to go along for a presentation that Saturday morning. Needless to say, I quickly agreed, and we caught an early bird that Saturday morning, which got us in Atlanta around 7:30 a.m. I called Jen as soon as we got into the airport concourse, but to my surprise there was no answer, and the answering machine picked up.

"Jen, where are you, I'm coming home to see you, so we can celebrate your birthday. Call me on my regular cell phone."

I tried Jen's cell phone, but it was apparently turned off as she did not answer that either.

I went to breakfast with Martin, my Miami "boss" & then my cell phone went off, as Donny and I had previously arranged. "Hello, oh, yeah, man, how are you?" {... } "Yeah, I'm in Atlanta with Martin, what's up? {... }

"Oh, right, right, I'm sorry, I forgot about it, when do you need it?" {... } "Man, that's really a tight schedule, Martin needs me to present a proposal with him." {... } "Oh, ok, hang on for a minute."

"Martin, this is Don Jamison from main office, he's back from Miami, and he needs a status report from me that I was supposed to get to him yesterday. It completely slipped my mind, but I need to meet him and get it done. Do you need to talk to him?"

Martin hesitated and then shook his head no.

"Ok, Don, unless I get hung up, I'll meet you at Atlanta main office in about 45 minutes, will that be soon enough?'

Well, our set up worked, Donny had gotten me free to go home, but somehow I did not think to ask Donny if he knew where Jen was at that time. When I got home, and went into our bedroom, right away I was alarmed and upset. Our bed had apparently not been slept in the night before.

I immediately called Donny again. "Hey, man, what's up, do you know where Jen is, she's not at home?"

There was a pause, more than just a short second, then Donny said, "well, she and Julie have started working out at 'Curves', so I guess that they went early this morning, so she will probably be home soon, unless they eat breakfast out."

What the hell was going on here? Jen had not been home last night, and if she went out to work out, it sure would not have been before 7:00 in the morning.

"Donny, man, this is me, remember. Don't bullshit an old bullshitter. What the hell is going on here, Jen didn't leave out of here this early, just to work out."

"Danny, calm down, Jen has been spending some time over here with us, she's really lonely with you gone, and she's gotten to where she hates to stay there at your place alone."

"So, what are you saying, did she spend the night there with you and Julie last night?"

"Danny, I went to Joe Dempsey's bachelor party last night, got fucked up bad, and ended up sleeping on Bob Carr's couch last night. Bob told me that he had called Julie and covered for me, but I didn't get home until after I called you this morning. Julie was gone, but I noticed some of Jen's clothes here in the guest bedroom."

"Well, why didn't you say that at first, Donny, there is some funny crap going on here; you're like a cat trying to cover shit."

"Danny, you know how you are, you can get strange about Jen sometimes."

"Donny, what's Julie's cell phone number, Jen apparently has hers turned off?"

"Danny, I'll call her for you, and have Jen call you."

"What's the reason I can't call Julie myself, if there something you want to tell Julie before I talk to her or Jen?"

"Damn it, Danny, you've gotten paranoid as hell. Julie's cell phone number is 555- 1212, go ahead and call her, I'm not going to get in the middle of anything," and Donny hung up. What did he just say, not in the middle... ?

I quickly dialed Julie's cell phone, but got a busy signal. I tried again in several minutes and this time she answered after several rings. "Julie, this is Dan, is Jen with you?"

"Oh hey, Dan, oh, what,... what do you mean,... wait, hang on a second, someone is talking to me here..." and Julie apparently covered her speaker with her hand. I could still hear her say, it's Dan, what do want me to tell him, and he asked where you were?

Jen must have indicated ok, because Julie came back to me, "Oh, Dan, I'm back, yeah, Jen's right here, hold on."

"Hey, honey, where are you?", Jen said with a slight nervous sound in her voice.

"More to the point, Jen, where are you, I called home at 7:30 this morning and you weren't there; where were you, and why is your cell phone turned off?"

"I'm sorry, honey, I turned it off when we worked out. Well, Julie and I have started working out at Curves [they got their stories straight already], and we decided to go early this morning."

I told Jen that I was glad she was working out, so that we could work out together. Then I sort of bluffed as I asked her, "I tried to call late last night, but couldn't get you, were you out with Julie and Donny?"

"Oh, Donny had some bachelor thing to go to, so the girls from the office went out for dinner and drinks, and a little dancing afterwards. I got a little tipsy, you know how I get when I drink champagne, so Julie asked me to spend the night with her."

Donny must have gotten to Julie first after all, they are all covering ass!

I told her that we could celebrate her birthday this weekend after all because I was back in Atlanta, and didn't have to fly back until Sunday evening. Jen sounded really excited, and wanted to know if she could invite Julie and Don to go with us. Sure, I told her, whatever makes you happy.

But, inside me, something had taken a turn for the worse, I just didn't know what.

The rest of the weekend went ok, and Jen seemed as loving and devoted as ever, but I just could not shake from my mind, that whole interchange between Donny and me, then with Julie and Jen; it seemed clear to me that there was something being hidden from me by all of them. Well, I would just deal with it when my job in Miami was through.

Donny and I finally finished up the investigation in Miami, and were able to save the company some major dollars on the payoff on the claimed loss, so our boss was exuberant in his welcome back. More to the point, we both got a really nice bonus check the following month.

Matters just rocked along, with nothing really strange seemingly going on, until mid October of that year. To put what happened next in perspective, you would need to know about a Halloween party that we attended with Donny and Julie the year before this. Jen had started about this "really cool" party that Angela Wright was giving, and that she and Julie wanted to attend, particularly since it was their boss's party. The thing was, it was a costume party, and I was not all that psyched up about getting in some stupid costume and spending the evening with people who, for the most part, I did not want to be around, let alone socialize with.

But, as was usual, Jen got her way, so we went. The costume theme was "BD/SM", so Jen was going to go as a "collared submissive", and she wanted me dressed as her "dom". What the hell did I know about how a dom dressed or acted, so without really discussing it with anyone else, I decided to go like a dapper 'James Bond' character, with a tux, formal shirt and studs, like to a very formal black-tie event or reception.

Jen looked good, and she even had a collar that she'd gotten from somewhere, with a silvery chain leash attached that she wanted me to hold when we went into the party. She didn't say much about my 'costume', but I could tell from her expression that she was at best not impressed, and that she apparently wanted me dressed somehow differently. Like, I didn't know how else to dress, this was not my scene.

Anyway, we picked up Donny and Julie. Julie showed up dressed in black leather, like a strapped bikini, and Donny was also in leather, with chains hanging on him. I thought they both looked sort of silly myself, but Julie and Jen were all over each other, hugging, giggling, so excited, so what the hell, if it worked for them, I'd go with the flow.

The party was at an old hotel downtown, in a ballroom area that was partitioned off into several different rooms or areas. There was an open bar, so I headed there right away to get drinks for myself and Jen. Donny went with me.

Donny had not said much of anything to me, which in itself was surprising, because we generally kidded each other most of the time when we were together about something or the other. "Nice outfit", he said.

Here it comes, I thought. "Yeah, you too, what are you supposed to be, a leather dom, or submissive or what?"

He gave me sort of a funny, inquiring look, then he sort of laughed, "well, you know, it could be either one, it's just a costume anyway, right?"

"Hell, I didn't know what to wear, but I remembered all those old James Bond movies, with Sean being so masculine and domineering with women, so this was all I could come up at the last moment."

"Did you talk with Jen about it before you decided what to wear?"

"No, not really, why, was I supposed to?"

"Yeah, supposedly she and Julie were going to get together and plan all our outfits to match up."

"Well, nobody told me so I just winged it. Anyway, there was no way in hell I was going to wear some sort of leather suit and chains to a party, even for Jen." Again, with the weird look at me, but Donny didn't say anything else.

We got our drinks and those for the women and started back to where we'd left them talking to Angela. But I did not see them or Angela at first. Donny and I stood around talking to each other, and to one of the few male agents, named Bob Carr, that worked with Angela, while I looked around for Jen. When I didn't see her, I started to get puzzled, and started to move away to look for her, when Donny told me that he thought they had gone into another room, and he'd get them back so we could mingle.

Donny had only been gone a few minutes, when Bob saw someone else he knew and started talking and moving off with them. I then walked toward the area where Donny had gone.

When I walked through the archway, the light in this room was considerably more dim than the main area, but not too dim to see Jen and Julie with a tall black man between them, hugging them both up in his arms. I also noticed immediately that now both Julie and Jen had on collars with those silvery chains attached, and this man was holding both chains in his hands.

This was a little too much for me, I don't know about Donny, but costumes or not, this was a little too much role play for me. Just as I started toward them, Donny came up beside me.

"Hey, man, I was just getting ready to go back and find you, the girls are in here."

"Yes, I know, I see them, with some black dude manhandling them."

Donny acted he saw the girls for the first time, and was surprised. "Oh, yeah, well, that's just Damon Washington; he's a developer-builder that's one of Angela's best clients."

"Whatever, but I want his hands off my wife."

Donny put his hand on my arm, and I paused for a moment. "Chill, Dan, this is a party, you'll embarrass everyone, there's nothing going on here."

I don't know if Donny stopped me for that purpose or if they heard what had been said, but by the time that I walked up to them, Damon had released both women. He held out his hand as I walked up, and introduced himself.

"You must be Dan, Jen's husband, I heard about the James Bond costume."

Reluctantly, I shook his hand briefly. Yeah, who's been talking about my 'costume' and what the hell just went on here? He tried the old pressure hand squeeze, so I gave back better than he gave, and he winced slightly as he turned my hand loose.

I took Jen by the arm, and walked away without saying another word to Damon, and lead her back out into the main ballroom.

"I put down your drink, why don't you walk over to the bar with me, I'll get you another and this time I can keep track of you."

"Oh, Danny, don't be silly, this is just a party, let's relax and have a good time."

I lost track of Jen on several different occasions that evening, but each time when I looked for her, Julie or Donny would sidetrack me, then Jen would show up within a few minutes thereafter. For me, the rest of the night was more or less a blur, I didn't drink more than a couple of drinks, but nonetheless, I had the feeling all night that there were undercurrents of some sort swirling around that I did not understand or comprehend.

When I tried to talk to Jen about my feelings that Sunday, she just pooh-poohed me and said that maybe I'd had more to drink than I should've had. Well, I knew that was not the case, but it was over and done with, so I didn't press the issue.

Anyway, back to the present. I told Jen that I did not want to go this year's Halloween party that Angela was throwing, I had not enjoyed last year's party. There was not any dancing to speak of — I had started taking some lessons from a friend of mine, so I enjoyed ballroom-style dancing, but Jen professes not to like to dance all that much, and generally wants to dance only a few dances with me.

When I told her that I didn't want to go to the party, Jen acted out-of-sorts and rather pouty, informing me that it was her boss' party, and that attendance for her was more or less mandatory. When I wanted to know more about the party, Jen waved her hand, and told me she'd find out, but that it was to be full costume again, this time at a private club outside Atlanta, in the north Fulton — Alpharetta area.

I had to leave for Charlotte, N.C. that Monday morning before the last weekend before the weekend of the Halloween party, so I told Jen I'd think about it, and we could talk when I got home later on that week. Well, one thing led to another, and I ended up not getting freed up until Friday morning. I called Jen several times that week, but since things had gotten bollixed, I didn't know when I'd get back to Atlanta. I certainly had not had any time to find and rent a costume.

When my office matters abruptly cleared up, and I could see that I could catch a plane out that afternoon, I tried to call Jen at the office. The receptionist seemed surprised to hear from me, but told me that Jen and Julie were out at an open-house walk through of a brand new designer home.

That surprised me, as I didn't know that Jen and Julie were going out that day.

"Who is the builder?" I asked almost as a throw away question.

"Oh, it's one of Damon's new homes, he expressly asked that Julie and Jen be present for the open house".

This news set my teeth on edge, I hadn't liked that black bastard last year, fondling my wife. For some reason that I couldn't really articulate, I decided to leave a message about a different arrival time than I knew I had. "Let my wife know, then, that I'm leaving Charlotte today, and expect that I'll be in late this evening. I'll call her on my cell phone when I land in Atlanta."

Less than 30 minutes later, my cell phone rang, and it was Jen. Again, she did not sound like herself, her laugh seemed forced and somewhat brittle.

"Honey, I'm out at an open house with Julie, but we're on the way back to the office now. If you're going to be late, then I'll go for dinner and drinks with Julie and Donny."

"Oh, ok, sweetheart, keep your cell phone on, if I can get in early enough, I'll join you'all for drinks."

"Ok, I will, but I don't expect we'll be out late, maybe I should just meet you at home."

"Where are you'all going, just in case?"

"I don't know, but probably start out at Smokey Joes."

"Alright, I love you, I'll talk to you when I get in tonight." Jen told me she loved me too, and we hung up.

I'm not that suspicious, especially of Jen, but for some reason, thoughts about Damon at last year's Halloween party sprang into my mind, and I determined that I would get back in plenty of time to be at Smokey Joes when Jen, Julie and Don got there.

Best laid plans, and all that! Despite my best efforts to leave early, my flight was more than an hour late leaving Charlotte, the luggage at Atlanta was late getting up on the carousel, and so I didn't leave the Atlanta airport until after 7:00 that evening.

It ordinarily takes about 35-40 minutes to get from the airport to Smokey Joes, so I got there just before 8:00. When I walked in, I didn't see at first anyone that I knew, so I walked toward the back where there were several rooms that were often used for private parties and club meetings. When I looked in the first room, the first person I saw was Trudi talking to Angela, and when Trudi saw me, she immediately got a stricken look on her face and looked toward the end of the room where there was a small dance floor.

When I followed her look, what I saw stunned me momentarily into a shocked immobility. Jen was slow dancing with Damon, and she was plastered to him. His hands were on her butt, pulling her into his groin, and her arms were clasped around his neck.

I reacted then, and headed at a fast walk toward them, when I saw Angela start toward me with her hands out as if to stop me. "Dan, wait a minute, I need to talk to you."

[Screw you, bitch, I'll talk to you later after I kick a muthafucker's ass.]

Damon saw me when I was still 3- 4 steps away from him but to my surprise, he didn't seem to mind that he saw me, in fact, he gave a little smirk of a grin. "Well, look who's here, the 'husband'."

When he said that, Jen who had not seen me come up started to pull away from him, but he just seemed to pull her tighter back against him. I took Jen's shoulder and started to pull her away, but Damon grabbed my hand away from Jen.

I instantly took his finger and thumb in a hold, and pulled him toward me as I bent his fingers back, breaking both his thumb and one finger at the same time, forcing him hard on his knees down to the floor. I pulled my free hand back for a knuckle strike to his low ribs, but before I could complete the strike, Donny who had come up behind me, grabbed my free arm and pulled me away from Damon.

"Dan, don't man, you'll kill him; and he's not worth that."

I pulled away from Donny, and looked down at Damon, who was still on the floor, holding his injured hand to his chest. I leaned down close to his face, as I spoke in a low harsh voice.

"Listen to me you motherfucker, I'll only say this one time. If you ever put your hands on my wife again, I'll put you in the hospital for a week, do you hear me, you won't walk right for the rest of your life."

I reached out toward Jen, who was standing there sobbing. "Get your things, we're leaving here now."