Chapter 2

When Kathy came back over to me I asked her what he had wanted.

"The National Pharmaceutical deal is closing tonight. I have to go to a meeting at ten o'clock with Jack and Mr. Bartlett. If the meeting goes well we will get the National contract."

"So, you'll get your promotion then?"

"Yes, if everything works out."

Kathy didn't look as happy as she should if she was getting what she wanted.

"Then we can start trying to make a baby?" I asked, hoping to get a reaction from her.

"Yes, we can start our family," she said without emotion.

I wanted to shake her and say, "What the fuck is going on?"

I had a problem in that I was already beginning to get an idea of what was going on and it was up to me to figure out what I was going to do about it.

As we walked into the big room were the party was being held Kathy slipped her arm through mine and leaned close to me. The room was nicely decorated and there were several tables around the outside of the room. There was a band set up at one end of the room with an area for dancing. At the other end of the room they had set up the buffet and next to that an open bar. I scanned the room to see who was there. I don't know many of the DC&H people well but I am good at remembering faces and I had seen most of these people many times over the last six years and I had a pretty good idea of who belonged there and who didn't and it didn't take long to spot him.

He was standing next to the bar by himself. He was maybe thirty-five years old and about six feet tall. He appeared to be a fit 175 pounds. He was dressed in a dark blue double breasted Armani suit and I guessed that he would be considered a handsome man.

I pointed to him and asked Kathy, "Who is that guy standing over there by the bar?"

"I don't know," she replied but I could tell by her body language that she wasn't being truthful.

"Why don't we go over to the bar and get a drink?" I suggested.

"There are some of my department members over here that I would like to say hello to. Why don't you get us both a drink and I'll wait for you over here?" she said.

I made my way over to the bar and order Kathy a glass of red wine and got myself a beer and then turned to the Armani suit.

" Mr. Benson, how are you tonight?"

A look of surprise briefly crossed his face.

"How do you know me?" He asked.

"It's my job," I said. "I have to take this wine over to Ms. Alpin and then I'd like to come back and talk to you if you don't mind."

Mr. Benson studied me for a minute. I could tell that I worried him but he didn't seem to be afraid of me. For a moment I thought he might know who I was but I didn't see how he could. It had to be something else about me that was bothering him.

"Oh, okay. I'll be right here," he said."

I took Kathy her drink and said I was going to circulate while she talked to her friends.

"Don't wander off on me," she said. "I need you to stay close to me tonight"

"I won't be gone long. I don't want to sit here and listen to you talk shop with your friends right now," I said.

Kathy gave me a sad look as I got up from the table but she let me go. When I was sure that Kathy was no longer paying attention to what I was doing I went back over to Mr. Benson.

"My name is Fred. I work in security for DC&H," I said. "I just want to make sure there are no problems tonight. I guess Mr. Hanson has a fun evening planned."

"That's what he tells me," he said. "I am just killing time until the fun begins."

"I guess for you that begins around ten o'clock," I said.

"You seem to know everything," Mr. Benson said nervously.

"Like I said, it's my job to know things. Tonight I am to make sure no one bothers you and that later no one interrupts you if you know what I mean," I said with a wink and a sleazy smile. "I take it you like brunettes?"

"Love brunettes. Especially with long hair," he said.

"Like Ms. Alpin you mean?"

"Exactly," he said and this time he had the sleazy smile.

I wanted to choke the bastard but I couldn't do that.

"I'll bet you're like me," I said. "You like them with a lot of hair on their heads but none between their legs, right? I asked as I again winked and smiled.

"Bald is nice," he said as he laughed.

I learned what I needed from him so it was time to move away before I shoved my fist down the smug bastards throat.

"I have to circulate now. Got to make sure that no one is here that ain't supposed to be here. If you have any problems just come find me. I'll be around," I said.

I was muttering profanities under my breath as I walked away from him.

When I got back to the other side of the room the band had started to play and a man approach Kathy and asked her to dance. She very nicely but firmly turned him down and then grabbed my arm and dragged me out to the dance floor before I had a chance to sit. As we danced I kept an eye on Mr. Benson to make sure he wasn't watching us. I didn't want him to figure out I was Kathy's husband yet. I was still formulating my plans and didn't want them blown before they were even complete.

I was still trying to figure the last few pieces of the puzzle I was dealing with and it was already 9:30. My nervous stress was causing my stomach to do flips.

The song ended and I started to move back toward the table where Kathy had been sitting when the band started playing a slow song. Kathy pulled me back onto the dance floor and was holding me close to her. Kathy always did like to dance close to me but it seemed that this time she was trying get inside me. She was holding me so tightly that it was uncomfortable.

At one point during the dance I noticed the Benson was looking at me and seemed to be a little uptight. I smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up sign and then tried to ignore him. I wondered if seeing me dancing with Kathy made him suspicious that I wasn't who I had claimed to be but by then I no longer cared.

When that dance ended we headed back to the table. I was just sitting down when I saw Greg Bartlett approaching us and he was carrying a small package in his hand. He pulled Kathy aside and whispered something to her and handed her the package and then left. Kathy came back over to the table holding the package behind her back and bent down to speak to me.

"I have to go to the girl's room," she said.

When I looked up at her I could see something in her eyes that made me feel sick.

"Don't do it," I said.

"Don't do what?"

I grabbed Kathy's arm and held it as I looked into her eyes.

"You know what I am talking about. You know I am not stupid. I know what's going on here. Stop it now."

"I don't know what you are talking about," she said. "I just have to go to the girl's room."

Kathy pulled her arm away from me and I watched her walk away. She didn't look back.

While she was gone I reviewed what I knew and what I had figured out from the things I had seen. For me the problem started the first time Kathy referred to Mr. Hanson as Jack. That had bothered me but things didn't start to escalate until the sudden onset of Kathy's depression. That's when she told me that the National Pharmaceutical deal was in jeopardy and that if it failed it was going to be her fault even thought she didn't do anything wrong. Then there were all of the meetings with Bartlett and Hanson and a meeting with the customer. Kathy seemed to be tracking her menstrual cycle, or somebody's, and according to her calendar that night was a fertile night. I still couldn't make sense out of that because Kathy was still on the pill.

Then there was the argument we had about her shaving her pussy. Kathy never told me the truth about why she was going to do that and I never told her what I had seen earlier that evening when I was standing on the porch. That I had watched her through the window while my world crumbled around me. What I saw was Kathy standing in the nude in our living room and I was thinking about how beautiful she was when I saw a hand reach out from the chair she was standing next to and cup the left cheek of Kathy's buttocks. She flinched a little and I could see her gluteus muscles tighten as the man's fingers tried to work their way into her crack. The fingers stopped moving for a moment and Kathy's muscles seemed to relax. Then the fingers delved deeper into her crack and started moving lower going down between her legs.

I had continued to watch as Kathy turned toward the chair and the man's hand moved around to her front and was running up and down through her pubic hair. Then I found out who the hand belonged to. Jack Hanson leaned out from the chair and kissed Kathy on her stomach. I only heard a little of what was said before I went to the garage and opened the door.

I didn't want to walk into the house with her standing in the nude in front of another man. I couldn't handle that so by opening the garage door I alerted them that I was home and gave them time to stop what they were doing. As I headed upstairs to confront Kathy I peeked out the front door in time to see Hanson scurrying, like the rat bastard that he is, across the street to his car.

My guess was that Benson got a look at Kathy and decided he wanted her and made that clear to Hanson. She was the deal breaker. I further guessed that Benson had demanded that she shave her pussy for him. I didn't spend much time trying to figure out why all this was happening I only knew that I had to stop it before it went to far.

The fact that Bartlett and Hanson were up to their necks in this made it necessary for me to somehow fuck up their plans and try to screw them over in the process.

The last piece of all this was Kathy's trip to the lady's room. I was sure that the package that Bartlett had handed Kathy contained shaving cream and a razor. Kathy was now in the lady's room shaving her pussy so that she could give Benson the perk he had asked for. Well, fuck her too.

It was 9:45 and Kathy hadn't returned to the table yet. I was getting tense because I was running out of time. I still had not come up with a clear plan of action so I got up to go find Kathy with the idea that I was going to physically drag her out of the building and take her home and deal with the fallout later. As I started toward the door the band announced that they were taking a break and an idea popped into my head. I looked around quickly and noted that Benson, Bartlett and Hanson were now all standing together by the bar so I had the audience I wanted.

I walked over to the band as they were putting their instruments down and spoke to the lead singer.

"Can you leave your mike hot?" I asked. "I want to make a few announcements."

"Sure, no problem," he replied and handed me his wireless mike. It's already hot, just flip the switch on the side and you will be good to go."

"Thanks."

I paced back and forth for a minute trying to think of what I wanted to say and then I took a deep breath and turned the microphone on.

"Can I have everyone's attention please?" I started.

I could see many of the guests turning to look in my direction but there was still a lot on noise in the room.

"Can I have your attention please?" I repeated.

The noise began to dwindle down to just a few people talking. As I looked around I saw Kathy returning from the lady's room. Then I looked over at the triumvirate of assholes Benson, Bartlett and Hanson. The three of them were looking at me with curious expressions on their faces.

"Can I get everyone's attention?"

The room was now quiet. Kathy was standing in the doorway staring at me.

"Thank you. I just want to take a few minutes to talk to all of you on this special occasion. First, I wanted to say what a great party this is. Let's give a round of applause to the people that put this party on for us."

Almost everyone started to applaud and Kathy started walking slowly toward me. Her expression was that of fear...

"I have had a few drinks and I am feeling pretty good right now so I hope the words come out right. The reason I wanted to talk to you was to share some things that are going on with me and my wonderful wife Kathy."

I gave Kathy a look and smiled at her then I turned to look the three assholes standing at the bar. I couldn't tell what they were thinking but they didn't look happy.

"First, I want to share some good news with all of you. Kathy and I are going to have a baby."

Many of the guests began to applaud. Kathy's hands went up to cover her face, which would have looked like mild embarrassment to anyone who didn't know what was really happening. Hanson looked angry, Bartlett confused but I couldn't read Benson.

"There is more good news too. Kathy told me that she is getting a promotion tonight because of her work on the National Pharmaceutical deal. I understand that Kathy, Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Hanson and Mr. Benson are meeting upstairs tonight to sign the contract. Isn't that great?"

More applause.

"Oh God, please stop," I heard Kathy say. She had stopped about ten feet from me and slowly sat down on the floor.

Assholes number one and two were livid, Benson almost looked amused.

"This evening started off so strangely that I thought I would share it with you. When I got home from work tonight I found my loving wife in the bathroom getting ready to shave and I don't mean her legs or arm pits."

There was some laughter from the crowd but most people were now sitting in stunned silence.

"We had a little argument about it. She told me it was supposed to be a surprise for me and I told her not to do it. I won that argument or at least I thought I did. Now I realize that she wasn't shaving for me she was doing it on orders from Jack. Kathy was just in the little girl's room and I believe she shaved herself while she was in there. Now all of you are probably wondering why Jack Hanson would tell Kathy she had to shave her pussy..."

There was an audible gasp when I said that. Kathy was now lying on the floor crying and most of the guests were staring at me as if they were watching a train wreck. There were only two assholes now. It looked as though Benson had skipped out. Hanson's face was bright red and he was shaking. Bartlett was walking toward me as if he thought he could make me stop.

"The reason Kathy shaved her pussy is because she was to be a gift to Mr. Benson tonight and Mr. Benson wanted her pussy to be hairless. It seems that your company management thinks it is good business to encourage its employees to have sex with potential customers to win contracts even if it destroys a marriage."

Now Bartlett was right in front of me and he tried to take the microphone from me. I pulled the mike away from him and turned it off.

"Listen asshole, you try to grab the mike from me again and I'll drop you like a bag of rocks. Come to think of it I may do that anyway."

Bartlett backed away from me and looked over at Hanson. While they looked at each other I turned the mike back on.

"One last thing and this is for Bartlett and Hanson. I will be filing a lawsuit against this company for what you did to my marriage and I am sure I will get a nice settlement. Part of that settlement will be that you two assholes and anyone else involved in the mess will be fired. Good night everybody and enjoy the rest of your party."

The room was dead silent as I set the mike down and walked over to where Kathy was laying on the floor and I squatted down beside her.

"Kathy."

She looked up at me with tears running down her cheeks.

"Fred. I am so..."

"Kathy, don't say anything," I interrupted. "Do you think you'll get that promotion now?"

I stood up and looked around. People were staring at us but when I looked back at them they turned away. I looked down at Kathy one last time and then I left the room.

I had picked up my coat and was walking across the lobby toward the door when Hanson stepped in front of me.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" He asked.

"Yes," I said. "I fucked you before you and DC&H could finish fucking my wife and I hope I cost you millions. I would hate to think that we all went through this for a few hundred thousand dollars."

"You're going to pay for this." Hanson said.

"Actually, I think you will be the one who pays for this," I said. "Along with my law suit I am going to have a discussion with the SEC. I think they might be interested in the way this company has been doing business."

I turned to leave and Hanson grabbed my arm.

"Just a minute, I am not through with you yet," he said.

I brushed his arm away.

"You touch me again and you won't be walking when you leave here tonight," I said.

I could hear him muttering profanities behind my back as I left.

When I got home I went straight to the liquor cabinet and got a bottle of scotch and began to slowly drink myself into oblivion. I believe this was the genesis of my nightmares. I was on my second drink when I spotted something blue sitting in one of the big potted plants on the kitchen floor. I got up to see what it was. It was a blue plastic case and it was pretty well hidden under the foliage of the plant. I knew what it was as soon as I picked it up and when I opened it I confirmed my suspicion. I remembered something dropping out of the bathroom wastebasket Monday morning. I had looked all over the kitchen for it but never thought to look in the flower pot. I went back to the sofa and put the case on the coffee table next to the scotch. I filled my glass and took a big gulp. Then I picked the case up and opened it again. As I stared at it I thought to myself "It's fucking full, none missing."

I put the case back down and poured another drink. I don't know how long I lasted but I woke up on the sofa in the family room at nine o'clock Saturday morning. The scotch bottle was nearly empty, my head was pounding and my mouth tasted like shit. I stood up and felt dizzy for a minute. My stomach felt like it was in full rebellion against me.

I started the coffee maker and went off to take a shower. When I went upstairs I noted that there was no sign that Kathy had come home and I really didn't expect that she would, either because she was afraid to face me or because she was pissed that I had fucked everything up at DC&H. I wasn't exactly sure if I cared either way.

The shower helped. I felt a little better. After two cups of coffee, scrambled eggs and toast I sat down on the sofa in the family room. I sat there trying to think about what my next move should be. It broke my heart to think about how much I had loved Kathy. I wondered how she could have done this to us? I couldn't believe that her ambition was so strong that she would agree to have sex with a customer to win a deal. As if that wasn't bad enough, she was willing to shave her pussy for him too. She was willing to do this because Jack Hanson told her to do it. I doubted that I would ever be able to forgive her for any of this but I knew that I would have to give her a chance to explain herself if she wanted that chance. I just couldn't walk away without at least hearing what she had to say but I would not pursue her to ask for an explanation. I figured that if she didn't feel the need to try and explain her actions to me then I really didn't need to know why. The why would only be important if she wanted a second chance with me.

I couldn't think of anything to do other than to wait and see if Kathy tried to contact me. I began to wonder where she had spent the night and then I remembered the way she looked when I left the party. I felt a little guilty about leaving her on the floor that way. I realized that I should have brought her home with me. I wasn't real proud of myself but I had been hurt and angry and felt no sympathy for Kathy at the time. The more I thought about that the worse I felt and the more I wondered where she was staying.

I was still sitting on the sofa at eleven o'clock when the phone rang. I assumed that it was Kathy calling and I debated on whether I should answer. I picked the phone up on the sixth ring.

"Mr. Alpin?"

"Yes."

"This is Special Agent Mark Walker of the FBI," the voice on the phone said. "Is your wife with you?"

"My wife is not home," I said.

I wondered why the FBI would want to talk to Kathy.

"No problem. It's you I want to talk to," agent Walker said.

"Me?" I asked. "What's this about?"

"I would rather not discuss this over the phone," he said. "Can you come to my office this afternoon?"

"I guess so," I said. "Where are you located?"

Agent Walker gave me directions to his office and I agreed to meet him there at two o'clock that afternoon. After the call I tried to figure out what the FBI would want with me. The best I could figure is that it must have something to do with one of the cases I had worked on recently. If that was the case why couldn't he tell me what he wanted over the phone?

Over the years I have often had to talk to different law enforcement agencies for cases I was working and it never bothered me but for some reason this invitation to talk to the FBI had me a little worried.

At 1:00 I dressed in jeans and a sweater and headed into town to meet with Agent Walker.

I left my car in the parking garage across the street from the high rise office building in downtown Indianapolis, which housed the FBI offices. I took the elevator up to their seventh floor office and gave me name to the receptionist.

"I am here to see Special Agent Walker," I said.

"Have a seat and I'll let him know you are here," she replied.

I only had to wait two minutes before he came into the lobby to get me. Unlike the expensive Armani suit he had been wearing the night before, Special Agent Walker was wearing blue Dockers and a white oxford shirt with no tie.

"Mr. Alpin, thanks for coming in," he said. "Please follow me."

I follow him into a conference room and as I sat down Agent Walker offered me a cup of coffee, which I accepted. He poured two cups from the coffee maker on a table in the corner and handed one to me. He took a sip of his coffee and then sat down across the table from me.

"Should I call you Special Agent Walker or Mr. Benson?" I asked.

"Why don't you try Mark, ' he said, "and may I address you as Fred?"

"Fred will be fine."

"I guess you must be pretty confused right now," Mark said.

"Yes, I am but I think I am starting to get a picture of what's going on," I said. "I take it you were working under cover as Mr. Benson."

"That's right. I am counting on your discretion to keep anything I tell you here confidential," he said.

"I think you probably know that I am an investigator myself and understand confidentiality," I said. "I am still not sure if you are friend or foe. I hope you can explain all this to me and how my wife got involved in this mess."

"I will tell you what I can and will answer any questions as long as they don't jeopardize our investigations."

"Okay, I'll listen to what you have to say but I have to tell you that I am really pissed that my wife was used the way she was. This mess has probably ended my marriage," I said.

"Things may not be as bad as you think," Mark said. "Let me just put you in the picture and then you can ask your questions."

"That's fine with me," I said.

"Earlier this year the Security and Exchange Commission contacted the FBI," he started. "They had received some disturbing information about the business tactics of DC&H from someone inside the company and asked that we investigate the allegations. After following up on the information given us by the SEC we found enough evidence to justify further investigation. I can't tell you about our investigations other than to say that it was decided to do some undercover work."

Mark got up and began to pace around the room as he talked.

"We had found out through our investigation that DC&H had been trying to get National Pharmaceutical interested in a merger. Mr. Benson had spoken with one of our agents and indicated that he was concerned with DC&H's tactics. At that point we found out that no one from DC&H had met Mr. Benson so with his cooperation I took on his identity and began negotiating with DC&H. I was able to convince Mr. Hanson and Mr. Bartlett that I was Mr. Benson and I led them to believe that I was interest in their ideas for a merger and might be willing sign a contract for them to handle the merger. When they began to drool over the millions of dollars they thought they would make off the deal I started acting reluctant. I told them that I wanted to talk to some other firms before I made a decision. The idea was to see what tactics they would use to try and get me to sign a deal with them."