Chapter 2

It was Monday morning and I was sitting at my desk when the thought hit me. If my caller was at the restaurant where Brenda went to lunch with Kara on Wednesdays, all I had to do was go to the restaurant on Wednesday and see who she was. I had to think it through carefully before I did anything. I had kind of threatened to show up for lunch some day and Brenda acted as if that would be a good thing. So, if I did just show up at the restaurant it wouldn't cause her any alarm. The problem was, if my caller saw me before I could identify her she would disappear and I would have lost my chance.

I didn't know if the caller knew what I looked like. It is quite possible that she did and she would spot me if I got anywhere near that restaurant. I took a long lunch on Monday and drove over to Apian Way and checked out Vinny's. There would be no way for me to get inside Vinny's without being seen but there was a space in the parking lot across the street from Vinny's where I could park my car. There was part of a fence there that would block most of my car from view but would allow me to watch the restaurant.

Monday night I put my binoculars in the car so that I wouldn't forget them on Wednesday. Tuesday was very stressful. I managed to keep myself busy with my job but I hated that I had to wait until Wednesday to do anything about my problem.

I left my office at 11:00 AM on Wednesday and drove to the parking lot across the street from Vinny's. Luckily, the space behind the fence was available and I parked there.

I looked around to make sure no one was paying any attention to me and then I got the binoculars out and checked out the view. The binoculars brought the front of the window of the restaurant up close. The problem was the glare of the sunlight on the window made it difficult to see inside the restaurant. There was nothing more for me to do except wait so I got out the sandwich and soda I brought with me and ate my lunch.

At 12:05 PM I watched Brenda, Kara and another woman, who I assumed was Francis walk into Vinny's. I took out the binoculars trained them on the window. I could just make out the three of them sitting down at the table. Well, they were sitting at the table by the window. The caller had that much right. I couldn't really see the table next to them that well but it didn't appear that anyone was sitting there. I watched the front of the restaurant closely for the next forty-five minutes and while many people went into the restaurant, most of them left with their take out orders after only a few minutes.

As far as I could tell, no one had sat at the table next to Brenda and her friends. I waited until they left and watched to see if anyone came out after them. No one did.

That left me to wonder if my caller didn't make it for lunch today or was it possible that she spotted me and took off before I had a chance to see her. I had to hurry back to my office so that I would be there in case she called. I wanted her to think I had followed my usual routine of eating in my office, not that there is any reason to believe that she would know that was my routine.

As I walked into my office the phone began to ring.

"Hello, Apex Office Integrators, Mike Fulton speaking."

"Mike, I am beginning to worry about you," the voice said. "You still haven't done anything to stop your wife."

"How do you know that I haven't done anything?"

"I know because of what your wife said at lunch today?" she replied.

"You listened to their conversation again today?"

"Of course. What else do I have for entertainment? You had better start listening to me. I enjoy eavesdropping on their conversations but I don't enjoy reporting this bad news to you."

"Then why did you call me?"

"I guess it makes me feel better about listening in on their conversations. If I can help you, then maybe I am not such a bad person," she said. "Anyway, things are getting to the danger point."

"Just exactly what does that mean?"

"It means that today your wife told her friend that the next time that you have to go out of town for work she is going to have her little fling. It even got to the point where Kara was suggesting that they double date and that she knew just the right guys to go out with."

I could feel the tension building and growing up my spine. I didn't know what to say or do. I still couldn't believe that my wife would consider cheating on me but the story I was being told was starting to sound believable. My thoughts were interrupted by the voice on the phone.

"Well, are you going to do something to stop this or are you going to just let it happen? If you don't plan to do anything, tell me now so I can stop worrying about you."

"I'll take care of this," I said and then put the phone down hard.

I thought about everything I had been told over and over again and by the time I got home I was sure I had a problem but I still wasn't sure that my wife was the problem. I had just about talked myself into believing that I was right and that Brenda was innocent of the things my caller had been saying about her but them I got hit in the head with a sledgehammer.

At dinner, as I was asking the kids about their day at school Brenda asked me a question that made my blood turn cold.

"Don't you have a trip to Denver coming up soon?"

I had scheduled the trip for the following week but with everything else on my mind I had forgotten to tell Brenda about it. What had disturbed me so much was the timing of the question. My caller had said that Brenda told Kara that the next time I went out of town that she would have an affair and here she was asking me if I had a trip to Denver coming up soon. Coincidence? I didn't know what to think.

I tried like hell to put it out of my mind when Brenda asked me if we were going to work on making a baby that night. In the end I had to tell Brenda that I wasn't feeling well.

Thursday morning I made a decision to do something I never thought I would do. I made an appointment to meet with a private investigator. I arranged to see him Friday morning and then I called my customer in Denver and postponed my trip one week. I was going to have to end this mess before I left for Denver.

That evening I got some photographs from one of our albums to give to the investigator.

Friday morning at 9:30 I entered AAA Detective Agency. I knew better than to think that AAA had anything to do with the quality of their work. They chose the name so they would be close to the top of the list of detective agencies in the phone book. It worked; they were the third on the list. They got my business because I never call the first name listed and the second agency didn't answer the phone.

I was escorted into Brian Dunston's office where I spent twenty minutes telling him exactly what I wanted him to do and then I handed him the pictures.

'Good looking woman," he said.

The way he said it disgusted me. I already had a pretty low opinion of him. I didn't think much of a man that would make his living off the pain of others. Spying on cheating spouses was not a career that I could respect.

"Yes, she is," I said tersely. "Now let me go over my instructions one more time. First of all you have to be discrete. I don't want her to know that you are following her around."

"No problem, Mr. Fulton," he said. "We are professionals here. She won't know we are following her."

"If you find that she is meeting anyone and having an affair or affairs I want proof. Photographs, video, or voice recordings, I don't care which as long as they clearly prove what she is doing."

"Don't worry about a thing Mr. Fulton, if she is fooling around we will get the proof."

"I need whatever evidence you get by next Thursday, I said.

"I understand. Why don't you plan on coming in next Thursday afternoon around three o'clock and we will give you whatever we have been able to uncover."

"Okay, next Thursday at three. I'll see you then," I said.

I was feeling sick to my stomach when I left Mr. Dunston's office.

The next several days dragged by. I managed to keep Brenda from noticing that anything was wrong. I didn't want her to think that I was suspicious of anything and I certainly didn't want to upset the children. I was proud of myself when I was able to make love to Brenda four out of seven nights.

On Wednesday afternoon I sat in my office waiting for my caller. At 1:30 PM the phone rang.

"Have you done anything yet?" she asked as soon as I said hello.

"I have everything in hand," I said.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Sorry, I can't tell you that. I can only say that it will be over by this weekend."

She tried to question me more but I told her that was all I would say and then I hung up the phone.

Thursday at three o'clock I was sitting in Brian Dunston's office at AAA Detective Agency.

"Mr. Fulton, I have what I assume is bad news for you. We caught her in the act and we have the evidence to prove it," he said.

Mr. Dunston handed me a DVD.

"It's all on here and it is all admissible in court. All of the video on this DVD was shot in public, there are no hidden cameras in homes or hotel rooms. We have a DVD player set up in the room next door if you would like to view the video now," he said.

"I'll take it with me and view it privately if you don't mind. If you would just give me the invoice I'll pay it on my way out."

Back in my office again I locked my door and loaded the DVD into my laptop and hit play. Dunston was right; the evidence was all there. The first scene was time marked on Monday at 9:00 PM and showed her sitting in a booth in some bar with a man. The man had his arm around her neck and his hand was resting on her breast. They kissed a few times and then got up to dance. On the dance floor they were all over each other. The next scene jumped to 10:15 that same night and it showed her getting into a car with the same guy. As soon as they were in the car the guy pulled his cock out and she went down on him and she sucked him to completion.

The next scene was at 11:05 and showed the two of them going into a motel room at the downtown Ramada Inn. At 1:25 AM they came out of the room and went back to the bar where she got into her car and drove home.

The next scene was on Wednesday morning at 9:07 AM. She was with a different guy sitting in a dinner eating breakfast. He kept pinching her tits and would stick his tongue in her ear every few minutes. In the next scene the detective was following a car that apparently belong to the guy. At first I didn't think she was in the car with him, as her head couldn't be seen above the seat but then her head popped up as the car turned into the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse. In the next scene the car was shown at some distance from the camera. It was too far away to even see if anyone was in the car. Then the camera started to zoom in until I could see the guy fucking her doggie style in the back seat.

That was all I could handle. I uploaded the video to my hard drive and then copied it back to a blank DVD then erased the file. I put the DVD in a protective sleeve and then slipped it into a large manila envelope. I put the original DVD in my office safe and headed out to run my devil's errand.

That evening I got home about twenty minutes before Brenda. As soon as the door from the garage into the kitchen opened Kevin and Michele came charging into the house without even taking the time to say hello to me. Brenda came in behind them smiling.

"You're home early tonight," she said.

"Just getting ready to make a baby tonight."

Brenda laughed. "Good, because I was thinking about you all day," she said. "Did you get the mail?"

"No, I forgot. I'll go out and get it now."

"Sit down, I'll get it," she said. "I wouldn't want you to get your little boys too tired to do their job tonight."

Brenda came back into the house with the usual assortment of credit card offerings, real estate ads and other junk mail. Along with all that she had a large manila envelope. Brenda quickly scanned through the mail and dropped everything except for the large envelope onto the coffee table. Brenda handed me the large envelope and said. "Addressed to you with no return address."

I didn't say anything. I just took the envelope from her and set it on the table next to me and said, "How about a beer?"

"I'd love one."

I got up and went into the kitchen and got the two beers and brought them back. I handed one to Brenda and then I sat back down on the sofa. We talked about work for a few minutes and then Brenda said, "Aren't you curious about what's inside that envelope?"

"It's probably just junk mail," I said.

"I know but why don't you open it anyway?" she suggested.

I picked up the envelope and started to pull the flap open when the phone rang. Brenda jumped up and answered it and as I sat looking at Brenda I heard the first part of her conversation, at least her part of the conversation.

"Hello?" Normal beginning.

"Oh hi... What? Are you serious? Just a minute..." At that point Brenda went into the kitchen and I couldn't make out anything else she was saying.

The call lasted no more than ten minutes and as soon as it was over Brenda came back into the living room and said that she had to go see Kara, that it was an emergency.

"Emergency? What kind of emergency?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. Kara was too upset to make much sense on the phone. Can you feed the kids and put them to bed?"

"Of course. I have done it before you know."

"I know. I'm sorry I am just worried and upset."

Brenda grabbed her purse and keys and headed out the door.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," she said.

"Don't worry about me, take care of Kara," I said.

After Brenda left I went into the family room where Kevin and Michele were watching television.

"Mommy had to go out for a while so I have to feed you. You have two choices, I can cook some liver and onions or we could go to MacDonald's. It's your choice," I said.

Kevin started yelling, "MacDonald's... MacDonald's... MacDonald's.

Michele, with her usual sense of humor said, "UM... That's a tough choice. You know how much I like liver but I am sure that you would rather not have to cook so I'll go to MacDonald's just to make it easy on you."

I picked Michele up and swung her around over my head and put her on the floor and tickled her. "You're such a silly kid," I said.

Kevin wasn't about to be left out so he pulled on my arm. "My turn. I want to fly like Michele did."

I gave Kevin a ride and then tickled him too.

The three of us went out to MacDonald's and were back home in less than an hour. Then I sent them upstairs to get ready for bed. By eight o'clock they were tucked into their beds and Kevin was already asleep and I was sitting on the edge of Michele's bed listening while she told me about something that happened at school that day.

When she finished her story, I kissed her on the forehead and turned off her light. Then I went downstairs and got a beer. I settled onto the sofa and took a long swallow of my beer and then picked up the large envelope and opened in. I dumped the contents of the envelope onto the coffee table. The envelope contained two copies of the itinerary for my trip to Denver, my airline tickets, my hotel reservation and my rental car reservation.

I took one copy of the itinerary and put it on the refrigerator and held it in place with a magnet shaped like a bunch of bananas. I put the rest of the papers in my briefcase and then picked up my Sports Illustrated and began reading.

It was almost midnight when Brenda got home and I could see that she was stressed over whatever happened to Kara.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Huh?"

"What was Kara's emergency?"

"Let me get a beer and then I tell you what happened," she said. "Do you want one?"

"Yes."

Brenda came back with the beer and sat next to me on the sofa.

"Okay, let's start again. What was Kara's emergency?" I asked.

Brenda took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "John threw her out of the house tonight."

"What? John did what?"

"When Kara got home from work at 6:30 tonight, John was waiting for her. He had already packed a bag for her and he tossed it out the door and told her to go with it."

"Oh my God. I can't believe this. Does John have another woman, is that why he threw her out?" I asked.

"No. Of course not. You know John, he would never do that."

I was quiet for a minute and then blurted out, "It's Kara. She had another man. Is that what this is about?"

Brenda looked down at the floor and said, "Yes. John found out she was fooling around."

"Jesus Christ! What the fuck is the matter with her. She was married to a great guy. I thought she loved him."

"She does love him," Brenda said.

"If she loved him, how could she cheat on him?"

"I don't know. I don't know why she did it," she said. "I feel so bad for her."

"You feel bad for her? What about John? She cheated on him."

"I know but he didn't have to throw her out of her house. He hit he, too."

I didn't like that. "He did?"

"He called her a slut and slapped her face."

"Is that all?" I asked.

"What do you mean is that all? He slapped her. He shouldn't have done that," she said.

'You're taking her side? She cheated on him. You know how much he loved her. This must have hurt him terribly. If that happened to me, I would have done the same thing or maybe worse. I love you more than anything else in this world but if you ever hurt me that way I don't think I would handle it any better than John did."

"I'm not taking her side, I just think John should have given her time to talk to him about it."

"What would there be to talk about? You mean that John should have given her time to make up lies to tell him about why she cheated on him." I said.

"Why are you so angry about this?" Brenda asked.

"I'm angry because I can feel John's pain. I'll bet if it had been John that cheated you wouldn't be as sympathetic toward him."