This is just a run-of-the-mill cheating wife story for those who are addicted as I am. The prolific JPB has probably done this story line already but maybe I've taken a new slant on it.

It was several weeks ago that it happened. It was a Thursday morning and I was up trying to get our two kids ready for school when the phone rang. Since it was only 7:30 I wondered who could be calling. Caller ID said it was an out of area code number which made me wonder even more.

"Hello." I spoke into the mouth piece.

"John, its me."

Its Clare, my wife. Wonder what she wants I thought since we'd just talked together the evening before.

My wife works as a representative for a small marketing and printing firm in our medium sized city and travels a lot. I'm more or less the care giver for our kids as I work at home with only occasional forays into our office in town. Anyway, it works for us and between the two of us we make pretty good money. We have a nice 4 bedroom home in the suburbs with a pool and a nice bunch of friends.

"What's up Clare?"

"I've got a problem honey. My purse was stolen last evening when I went down to the hotel lobby to get a newspaper. Iyou need to cancel our credit cards and get them to issue new ones as soon as possible. I've talked to Joy, my boss, and she's going to get a new company American Express card sent to me overnight so I can have it by tomorrow before I check out. She's also wiring some cash to tide me over.

"Your usually very careful with your purse. What happened?"

"I was a little careless and set it down on the cashiers counter while I went to get more reading material and when I got back it was gone. The cashier says she was distracted by another customer and didn't see anything. My driver's license is gone too but the hotel is sending out someone to check garbage containers in the area and I hope they find it or I'll have to take a cab to my meeting today."

"OK, I'll take care of the credit cards as quick as I can."

"I'm sorry about being so careless honey. Hopefully, it won't cost us anymore than the two hundred dollars or so that I had in my purse. The other cards I had can be replaced in time. Most of my makeup was up in the room so I'll be ready for my presentation this morning. How are the kids? I miss you guys."

That's what happened about six weeks ago. I managed to get the credit cards cancelled before any charges appeared and they did find her purse with her drivers license and other non-credit cards intact so I just forgot about it. Our lives went on.

Today I'm looking at a statement from my wife's account at Fidelity. She maintains a separate investment account because that's where she deposited the inheritance after the passing of her parents in an auto accident a few years ago. I try to respect her privacy in regards to this account but I was searching for our home insurance policy and ran across a folder with the monthly statements on her account. I knew when her parents died the inheritance was about $350K and I wondered what the value of the account was now. I was pleased that it was now in excess of $400K. As I glanced at the statement I noticed a withdrawal on the money market account of $3K about 6 weeks ago and I wondered what she'd used the money for.

My curiosity was aroused and I went into the details of her money market account and found she'd written a check for that amount to a jewelry store in the city where she'd lost her purse a couple days after she'd been there. "What did she buy in a jewelry store?" I wondered. She hadn't bought anything for me or hadn't heard her mention anything about buying jewelry for anyone else. She has a brother but I didn't think he warranted a $3K present. After several moments of thought I went to the PC and found the jewelry store's web site and noted the phone number. Picking up the phone I dialed the store.

The phone was picked up by a woman who identified the store and then asked how she could assist me. I identified myself and the transaction I was interested in then explained that we'd had a problem with the purchase and wondered if there was a store warranty on it. She took a minute to look it up on her PC and asked me, "What appears to be the problem with the rings?"

Rings? I asked myself. What rings would she be buying?

I was fortunate when the girl on the phone suddenly spoke up again.

"Oh, I remember that purchase. The lady was quite distraught when she came in and told us her wedding and engagement rings had been stolen and she wanted replacements. It took us quite awhile to find two rings that would satisfy her. She used a company credit card as collateral and mailed us a check a few days later. You say that there's a problem with them? We offer a ninety day store warranty on them. Is the diamond setting loose?"

She replaced her engagement and wedding rings? I was confused. She never mentioned loosing them; only that her purse had been stolen. I had to think more about this.

"Look," I told the girl. "I need to talk with my wife about this and get back with you. I'll call back later."

"Ok, goodbye."

She sounded puzzled but not as puzzled as I was.

Obviously, the rings must have been in her purse when it was stolen. Why would they have been in her purse unless she didn't want others to know she was married. There were no restrictions on marriage as far as her job that I was aware of. However, if she wanted to appear unmarried in a social situation, I rationalized, it could mean that she wanted to be a player when she was away from home. The thought gave me an immediate queasy feeling in my stomach. We'd been married eleven years and had two children, Jeremy, 7 and Melissa, 6 and I thought we had an ideal marriage and family. Our love life was good, or so I thought. Why would she go looking for sex outside our marriage? She usually traveled once a month and was away two or three nights at a distant city so if she wanted to play she would feel safe doing it then. The loss of her rings must have really scared her and she decided to replace them with some some as close as possible to the originals. I'd bought them when I wasn't making as much money and they weren't fancy so it wouldn't have been terribly expensive to purchase a good likeness of them.

If she did have her purse stolen in the hotel she must have reported it. I wondered what she told them about the loss. I found the number of the hotel and gave them a call. I asked them if they had a record of my wife's purse being stolen. When they indicated they did have a written record of the the incident I asked if they could FAX me a copy. Within a few minutes I had copy.

The report was made and signed by Clare. In it she described how her purse had been stolen while she was dancing in the lounge. She'd left the purse in the booth where she'd been sitting and it was gone when she got back to her seat. The hoel had noted that Clare had not wanted the police involved.

My thoughts were going wild with the implications of what I'd discovered. She had lied to me by omission by not telling me about her rings being stolen and had lied when she told me it had been stolen in the gift shop. Maybe there was some other explanation for this but I couldn't picture a different scenario than the ugly thoughts that were going around in my head. I knew I'd have to find out what the loss of those rings meant or it would drive me crazy wondering but it was becoming obvious the rings were in her purse while she was dancing with some unknown male...

She been on a trip since then a couple of weeks ago and was due to go on another trip in a couple of days and I needed to get a little more information on the itinerary for her next trip. I wanted to find out what she did in the evenings when she was away from home. If she had been being intimate with other men, maybe the loss of her rings was enough to scare her from doing anything more. I knew if I found out she'd been unfaithful to me it would probably be the end of our marriage although the impact on the kids was something I didn't want think about. She was an excellent mother, but I couldn't allow her to have custody if we split and she was going to be traveling and screwing around.

My mind was going a mile-a-minute trying to think of ways to find other clues concerning her faithfulness.

What other clues might tell me what she was doing on her trips? Would she fuck them bareback or would she have them use condoms? I would bet she had them use condoms as she wouldn't chance bringing something home or getting pregnant. I'd had a vasectomy after our second child was born and a pregnancy would be an absolute no - no. She couldn't trust the man to bring condoms so she must carry her own supply. Where would she keep them? She wouldn't keep them at home or in her car so she would have to keep them in her office at work. They would probably be with her when she left for her business trips. She always carried her business papers, laptop and presentation materials in a large brief case that she kept at her office. However, if she were leaving on an early morning flight she would bring the bag home the evening before and then take it and her suitcase to the airport. That was the key; I had to find an opportunity to search that brief case before she left. I hoped her next trip required an early morning flight.

I decided I would have to be calm about this so I didn't alert her that there was something wrong. I need not have worried because once the kids got home from school I was too busy to worry but the possibility that she was cheating on me remained in the back of my mind. When Clare got home from work I was involved in a minor accident while preparing dinner as a dish of beans had slipped out of my hands and fallen to the floor. My usual calm was involved in cleaning up the mess and with the kids running around I looked a little frazzled so I don't suppose she noticed anything odd in my demeanor. After things had calmed down and the mess cleaned up I welcomed her with a kiss on the cheek as I usually did and we sat down to eat.

We usually chatted about our day as we ate so I didn't think it would be unusual to ask about her up coming trip.

"Are you off again in a couple of days.?"

Oh, yes. Its pretty much the same thing again. I'm not looking forward to it."

"If you don't like it why don't you apply for a different position. You've been with them long enough and know enough about the company, you could fit in just about anywhere."

"I've thought about it but I want to stick it out a little longer before settling down to a desk job."

I decided to prick her conscience a little.

"The kids and I miss you very much when you're gone."

"I know and I'm sorry about that. I miss you too."

"So, where are you going this time and do you leave in the morning so we can get together before you leave?" I leered at her, mindful that the kids were listening.

I thought I was doing a good job of acting as though things were normal although I was having a hard time eating with my stomach in turmoil. She obviously thought things were normal because she responded in kind. I wondered if her stomach was giving her problems, but she seemed to be eating without difficulty. Maybe I was wrong about her but I f I could search her case I'd have a better feel for her fidelity.

"I'm only going to Denton so I'll be leaving in the morning on a 7:30 flight and I'll need something to tide me over till I get back on Friday." She winked back at me.

"That's good." I winked back and she blushed.

That meant she'd be bringing the case home with her the evening before she left and wouldn't be going into work before she left for the airport. Her blase attitude about her trip in front of our kids and myself would seem to indicate she wasn't playing around when she was away or she had grown accustomed to cheating. The brief case would tell the story, I hoped.

The evening before Clare left on her trip she arrived home in good spirits and put her car next to mine in the garage as usual. She seemed to be excited about something and I wondered if it was in anticipation of sex with me or with someone else. She didn't bring her brief case in with her so I assumed it was out in her car. I had been working on getting dinner and as we sat down to eat she asked me if I would get her suitcase out of the garage when we finished eating.

"Sure, do you have everything you're going to need?"

"Oh yes, its just the usual trip. I have my brief case in the car ready to go and I'll just pack my bag with the usual things I need for a couple of nights away. Do you have anything planned while I'm away?"

"No, the kids and I will just do our thing as we always do during the week. Maybe we could do something together as a family this weekend."

"That sounds good. I'll be looking forward to it."

After dinner she helped me clean up the table and the kitchen then fill the dishwasher. After turning it on she went to the bedroom to pack and I headed to the garage to get her suitcase. While in the garage I looked in her car but didn't see her brief case so I assumed she had it locked in her trunk. I'd anticipated this and had an idea to access it during the evening.

Going back to the bedroom with her suitcase I asked, "Where are the keys to your car? You have a tire that's low and probably has a slow leak. If I get it down to the gas station I can ger Jerry to fix it right away."

She looked flustered for a minute and then reached for her purse. As she was handing me her keys she asked,

"Can't you just put the spare on?"

"That's just for emergencies. We have time to fix it so I think that's what we should do." I told her as I headed back to the garage before she had a chance to think.

Quickly backing her car out of the garage I headed down to the corner gas station that my high school buddy, Jerry, owned. Pulling into the front of one of his bays I honked the horn and he saw me and opened the door allowing me to drive in and close it behind me.

"What's up man?"

"I'm supposed to be here getting a tire fixed but I needed the time to check something else."

"Problems at home bud."

"Maybe." I told him as I opened the trunk and removed Clare's brief case. Setting it on a work bench I used the key on her ring to open it.

"Well, I've got a customer so have fun." Jerry told me as he headed back into the small convenience store he ran with his station ... I very carefully began to search the case as I didn't want to disturb anything unnecessarily. Checking some pockets in the lid my fingers found a package that I withdrew. My heart sank when I saw the opened package of condoms. There were about three missing. My worst suspicions were confirmed. I put the package back where I found it and closed and locked her case. Putting the case back in the trunk I closed it and turned as Jerry came back.

"Did you find what you were looking for?"