Chapter 3

Friday Evening

It was 6:50 PM when I pulled into the parking lot of the Brodricksburg Inn. Carrie had told me to be there at seven o'clock so I had ten minutes to kill before I had to walk into the ballroom. This would be the seventh time in the last three years that Carrie had acted as chairperson for one of these charity dinner dances. After the success of Carrie's first dinner dance three years ago, every charity in town wanted her to run their fundraisers. To her credit, Carrie is an excellent planner and organizer but she just didn't know how to say no. Carrie had organized dinner dances for the Red Cross, the Heart Fund, the Cancer Society and she even did the Policemen's Ball. Her current effort was for the Brodricksburg Memorial Hospital Building Fund. In addition to all that she served on the Brodricksburg Board of Education Planning Board.

I had been by her side at every one of these occasions. One thing that Carrie had made clear to me after the second event she put on was that if she told me to be there at seven o'clock she meant exactly that. She didn't want me to arrive early because she that when I arrived early she was too busy with last minute details to talk to me so my being there made her nervous. She also didn't want me to come late because of my job. Any time I am late for anything she begins to worry.

So I waited until 6:58 before I got out of my car and headed into the Inn. When I walked into the ballroom, Carrie was checking seating assignments at the tables against her master chart. When she saw me she smiled and held up a finger to indicate that she would be with me in one minute.

When Carrie was finished checking the seating she came over and kissed me.

"Hi, sweetie. The blue suit looks good on you," She said.

"That black dress looks great on you. I can't wait to get you out of it when we get home," I said.

Carrie blushed a little and punched me on the arm.

"If you don't behave yourself, you won't get that chance," she said. "Rich is still coming, isn't he?"

"Gees, I am beginning to wonder if you were more worried about whether Rich was coming than you were about me," I said.

"Well, he is a good looking guy," she said. "Besides, I mentioned to Linda that you might be bringing Rich with you and I think she was excited about that."

"You know, if those two should fall in love and get married and end up hating each other, it will be all your fault," I said.

"Hey, we've been married for ten years and we still love each other," Carrie said and then kissed me again. "Come on, our table is over here," Carrie said as she led me to the left side of the room near the head table.

"This is the same table we always sit at," I said.

"I arrange it that way so you don't get lost on your way back from the men's room."

"Very thoughtful of you," I said.

Even though Carrie was the chairperson of these events, she never sat at the head table. She reserved that for the big shots in the charity that was hosting the event and the attending dignitaries like Mayor Gargas and Congressman Freewater, our local representative in congress. Carrie always said that she didn't like sitting at the head table because she didn't like being the center of attention at these events but I know she did it for me, so that I wouldn't feel uncomfortable.

We had just arrived at our table when Carrie spotted her friend Linda coming into the ballroom.

"Brian, be a sweetheart and get a couple of glasses of white wine while I go get Linda,"

"Yeah, any excuse to get rid of me," I said.

"I won't be getting rid of you for at least another fifty years," Carrie said as she moved off in Linda's direction.

I had just ordered two glasses of Chardonnay and a beer for myself when Hanratty appeared at my side.

"Wow, you clean up pretty good when you want to," I said.

"Gotta look good for tonight's victim, don't I?" Hanratty replied.

"What do you mean by tonight's victim?"

"Come on, we both know that your wife is going to try to fix me up with one of her friends again tonight," Hanratty said.

"I didn't tell you that."

"Didn't have to. I know Carrie won't rest until she makes me as miserable as you are." Hanratty said.

"I am not miserable," I said.

"I know. That's why I don't stop Carrie from trying."

"I think you'll like Linda," I said.

While I waited for Hanratty to order a beer, I looked back into the ballroom and saw that Carrie was back at our table with Linda. Then I saw something else that really caught my interest. I saw Commissioner Buske standing with Mayor Gargas and Congressman Freewater. Standing near enough to this group to be part of them but far enough away that I couldn't be sure was Captain Ross.

Hanratty and I took our drinks back to the table and while Carrie was introducing Linda to Hanratty I excused myself. I said that I had to say hello to Captain Ross. Hanratty gave me a funny look but didn't say anything and then turned his attention to Linda Abbot.

I really didn't want to talk to Ross but I was hoping that I might hear some of what the other three men were talking about. The trip across the room turned out to be a waste of time. The three men stopped talking as soon as they saw me approaching Captain Ross.

"Good evening, Captain, nice to see you," I said.

"Yeah, good to see you too," he snorted. "I see your wife managed to arrange the seating so that Chief Pasiak and his wife will be sitting at your table again."

"Really? I hadn't noticed," I said.

Actually I knew that the chief would be at our table because Carrie always sat him with us, but she didn't do it to help my career, she did it because she and Mrs. Pasiak had become close friends while working together on a lot of charity boards. I must say that it pleased me to know that the seating arrangements bothered Ross.

I tried to keep a conversation going with Ross but when I saw the Mayor and Congressman Freewater wander off in one direction and Commissioner Buske in the other I ended the conversation and went back to my table.

When I got back to the table Chief Pasiak and his wife, Audrey, were just sitting down. While Carrie was introducing Audrey to her friend, Linda, the Chief looked at me and with just a very slight nod of his head let me know that he had seen the three men talking.

The rest of the evening was very pleasant. We had an excellent meal and Carrie and I danced until we were both too exhausted to move. As the evening came to an end, I noticed Hanratty and Linda Abbot huddled in a corner talking. They were both smiling a lot and they looked very comfortable together. I knew that there would be no living with Carrie if those two became a couple.

As Carrie and I were saying good night to the Chief and his wife, the Chief whispered, "See me in my office Monday morning, early."

"I'll be there."

Back home in bed that night, Carrie was full of herself. We were both naked and she was sitting on top of me with my erection embedded in her hot nest. Carrie was moving up and down slowly as she talked about the evening.

"Wasn't that meal great?" she asked. "And the band, they were really good, weren't they?"

"Yes, everything was perfect, as usual," I said. "You know what this means, don't you?"

"No. What?"

"Tomorrow you will get a call from someone that desperately needs you to run their next fund raiser and you won't be able to say no."

"You don't mind me running these fund raisers do you?"

"Of course not. You know that I am proud of you."

Carrie began moving a little faster.

"I think Linda and Rich hit it off, don't you?" she asked.

"Looked that way to me," I said.

Carrie bent down and kissed me. "Do you know how much I love you?"

"A lot, I hope," I said.

"You're right."

Carrie wrapped her arms around me and rolled us over so that I was on top of her.

"Finish me off now," she said.

I started taking long hard strokes into Carrie and soon she was breathing hard and her whole body tensed up as she climaxed. Seeing her orgasm took me over the brink and I was soon pumping my seed deep inside her.

Monday Morning

"Any idea what the Commissioner, the Mayor and the Congressman where talking about Friday night?" Chief Pasiak asked.

"Not a clue, sir," I said. "They broke up their little meeting before I could get close enough to hear anything. Do you think Captain Ross is part of that little club?"

"Don't know, but I think we should assume he is," The Chief said. "He probably thinks that the Mayor will help him become Chief when I retire."

"Probably so," I said.

"What did you find out last week?" The Chief asked.

"I found out that CSC holds the contract to supply maintenance and repair parts for our motor fleet and they have been the low price bidder for that contract for the last three years," I said. "Friday I went over to look at the bid request the city wrote for those services and all of the responses received from vendors including CSC.

"The RFP was very specific in what it asked for to the point of specifying the brand names of the replacement parts requested."

"That is probably not unusual," the Chief said. "You would want everybody to be bidding on the products, wouldn't you?"

"That's true, but what I found interesting was that all of the normal maintenance parts and supplies for the motor fleet called out in the RFP had the same brand name."

"Why do you think that was interesting?" the Chief asked.

"Well, everything from the motor oil to the replacement sparkplugs called out in the RFP were all from one manufacturer," I said. "That includes oil filters, air filters, antifreeze, shock absorbers, windshield whispers, belts and tires and a lot of other stuff."

"That is interesting."

"What was even more interesting was that I have never heard of the brand name before," I said. "The RFP specifically listed Mazura Maatsa as the brand name for all of those products and more."

"Mazura Maatsa? Who the hell are they?"

"I looked them up on the Internet and found their home page. Apparently they are an off shore company with their offices in Malaysia. Their web site lists all of their products and they are all in the RFP. There was a statement on the web page that said that all of their products met or exceeded the original manufacturer's specifications," I said.

"Aside from the RFP single sourcing all of those products did you find anything suspicious?" the Chief asked.

"Actually, yes. The web site did list all of the parts that are included in the RFP but there was no price list and I could find no way to order the parts from Mazura Maatsa. There was no contact information and no e-mail address. It appeared that there was no way to order any of the products shown on their web page."

The Chief sat quietly and waited for me to continue.

"There were eight vendors that responded to the RFP that the city posted three years ago. Seven of the vendors were disqualified because their bid responses did not include pricing for the Mazura Maatsa parts. Those bids gave pricing for common American brands of the same parts. Champion spark plugs, Quaker State Oil, etc. Only CSC quoted prices for the Mazura Maatsa products. The next year there were only five responses and three of those were disqualified for not quoting prices for the Mazura Maatsa parts and supplies. The one vendor, other than CSC that quoted the Mazura Maatsa parts had higher prices for those parts.

"Then last year there were five bidders again. Two of them were disqualified for not quoting Mazura Maatsa parts. CSC and two other vendors responded with the Mazura Maatsa prices but again, CSC had the lowest prices for those parts."

"Why do you think CSC was able to quote a lower price for the same parts from Mazura Maatsa?"

"That puzzled me too, so I called one of the other vendors that had quoted Mazura Maatsa parts and asked them about that. They told me that CSC has exclusive rights to sell Mazura Maatsa products in the US. So they had to get pricing for the Mazura Maatsa products from CSC. The price CSC quoted them for the Mazura Maatsa parts was uplifted by ten percent."

"I am not sure there is anything illegal about that," the Chief said.

"Right, but I do wonder why the RFP required the Mazura Maatsa parts when the more popular brand parts were no more expensive," I said. "If there is anything illegal here it will be in why Mazura Maatsa parts were required by the RFP. My suspicion is that CSC bribed someone to specify the Mazura Maatsa parts in the RFP. I don't know if we can tie that to Commissioner Buske yet but I am working on it."