Chapter 6

Author’s Note. This chapter goes back a little in time to relate events that have occurred.

As he signed the document Frank Watkins couldn’t help but think that it was five years of marriage that just went down the drain. Filing these papers with the court would end his marriage to Jodie Watkins. He wondered if she would change her name back to her maiden name.

Frank was six years older than Jodie and had met her after he had established his law firm in partnership with Harvey Banner. Frank wasn’t an overly handsome guy but he was an honest and sincere person and was able to express himself in that manner when he was in court.

Having that ability enabled him to have a jury believing everything he said was the gospel truth. That resulted in a jury giving several multi-million dollar verdicts primarily when large corporations were the co-defendants.

He had met Jodie when he was asked to speak at a high school career day. She was a high school biology teacher and had been teaching for two years. She was also a very attractive lady with a pretty face and a slim frame. He asked her out and she accepted his invitation.

Frank couldn’t say if it was love or the attraction he had for her that caused him to propose to her three months after he first met her. She accepted his proposal and they were married by a Judge Frank knew in his chambers.

The marriage started well because Jodie was a good lover. Frank discovered that she didn’t have the large breasts she appeared to have. Her large breasts were because of the padding in the push-up bra that she wore that gave her that appearance. To him, that was immaterial which had him making love to her practically every night.

In looking back on his early years of marriage, because he wanted to please Jodie he agreed to do a few things she wanted him to do for her. One was to purchase a house that was located in a suburban private golf course community. She didn’t like living downtown in his high-rise condo which had a nice view of the lake.

The second thing she wanted him to agree to was for her to have breast augmentation. He told her she was fine the way she was but she wouldn’t stop asking him. When she started crying he gave in to her and agreed to have it done. Jodie went from a thirty-two B cup to a thirty-four C cup. This surgeon was good in that he made her breasts look like they were natural. Often when Frank looked at Jodie he thought her having this procedure done was a good investment on his part.

Jodie thought there was no reason for her to continue to work as a teacher and preferred to be a so-called stay-at-home mom even though she was on birth control pills and they had no children. The activities at the club she said were more than enough to keep her busy. Neither she nor Frank golfed which had their social membership be sufficient for Jodie to participate in all the club’s activities except for golf.

After a few years of marriage, Frank could sense that some changes had occurred. He realized that the only time they made love was when he wanted to do it. She never was the instigator but she never refused for them to have intimate relations. It seemed to him that she had changed and didn’t care either way if they made or didn’t make love.

Frank was no dummy and started anticipating what could be the worst-case scenario happening in his marriage. Because of that, he started to put away some of the funds he was getting from the large settlements and verdicts his law firm was obtaining in an account that he only knew about. It wasn’t quite kosher what he was doing but he thought he should be prepared for all eventualities. After doing this for a relatively short time he was pleasantly surprised by the amount of money in the account.

Because of his perceived deteriorating marriage relationship, he was starting to have some suspicions about Jodie. Without her knowledge, he set up her iPhone which enabled him to track its location with his iPhone. He also put an air tag tracker in her car as another way he could check on her whereabouts. During the day he would periodically check to see where her phone or car was which by assumption was where Jodie was.

In doing this, he saw that these locators two times indicated she was at a hotel by O’Hare airport. That caused Frank to think about why she was there and he didn’t like why he thought she was there. His law firm used an investigator who was an ex-Chicago police detective by the name of Ed Bragley. Frank told Ed what he suspected was going on and said he would phone Ed when he saw Jodie was at this hotel. There was no pattern he saw as to what day she would be there.

About one week later the locator told him Jodie was at this hotel and he relayed this information to Ed.

The following day Ed phoned him and said because of the picture Frank gave him he recognized Jodie when she was leaving the hotel. She was in the company of a man about her age when she left. At her car, she gave this man a kiss which Ed photographed. Ed said he kept an eye on the man and wrote down the license plate of the car this man was driving.

The license plate on the car was registered to Keith Tanner and gave his address. A google search indicated Keith was a high school teacher at the school Jodie had been a teacher and was married. Ed did check with the desk clerk and after greasing her palm, the clerk confirmed that Keith was a fairly regular guest and had made a room reservation for next Tuesday. Ed asked Frank what he wanted him to do.

Since Ed would not be able to get into the hotel room, Frank asked Ed if he would just make a video of both Jodie and Keith entering the hotel and then a video of them leaving together. He also asked Ed to send him his bill for doing this. Ed said there was no charge for doing this as Frank gives him enough business and besides, Frank is a nice guy. Ed said he has a personal dislike for wives who cheat on their husbands.

The following week, late Tuesday afternoon, Ed was in Frank’s office and gave him the video. Frank thanked Ed and watched the video. Jodie seemed like a happy camper when she left the hotel and gave this man a solid kiss by her car.