Chapter 5

Carol looked up at me from across the table and said, "Wade, I'm sorry for what Dwight has been trying to do. You need to know that I was firmly against his bringing Claire into our activities without your knowledge and your active participation. As far as I was concerned, Dwight was breaking the cardinal rule of swinging, and I have told him so repeatedly in all this.

"The only way that swinging can work without endangering or destroying relationships is for all the activities to be specifically for and include only couples--full participation by both parties--and to ensure completely open and honest communication and participation. And we try our best NOT to have one member of a couple participate in any swing activity when his or her spouse is not a part of the event; otherwise, jealousy and emotional attraction for others outside of the marriage can start and possibly tear the couples apart.

"Just so you know. I think that Dwight and I might just about be at the end of our rope; not only in all of this, but in our marriage. It's not about the swinging; I've been on board with that from the start. It's about Dwight's attitude and actions in other things. Not only has he been getting carried away with this thing with Claire..." she said. I could see tears forming in her eyes as she continued.

"I'm pretty sure that, for the last four or five years, Dwight has been secretly having sex whenever he goes to these statewide or national teacher conferences without me." She looked directly into my eyes as she said, "That is definitely against the rules, Wade. And I'm just about to call him on it, once I have taken steps to ensure that I don't get dumped on financially -- with your help as our financial advisor -- if and when we split. You won't tell him what I just told you, will you?"

I shook my head and said, "Carol; I've got enough problems of my own right now in dealing with Claire's and my marriage. I don't need to get into the middle of yours." I leaned in and said, "But, if you or Dwight or anyone else tries to get between Claire and me, I will be ruthless in what I say and do."

I was still pissed off at Carol and the part she was playing in all of this, but I could not help but feel a little bit sorry for her in her own situation as well, and I still needed to know some other information about all of this.

"Carol, do you know if Claire has been screwing around on me since we have lived here? I mean, this is a small town and the locals all seem to know what everybody is doing. And they seem to be very adept at screening off information from us move-ins. Has Claire been unfaithful to me, to your knowledge?" I wanted to know, but a part of me was actually afraid to hear what Carol might say.

Carol actually smiled at me and said, "Wade, as far as I know, Claire swore off the swinging and sex with everyone else when she said, 'I do, ' to you. I hear just about everything that goes on in the swing scene around here and Claire has not figured into the conversation in any way that I am aware of since you and she married and moved back here.

"Neither do I know of any other occasions, nor have I even heard any rumors of any occasions, when Claire may have been involved in any sexual liaisons outside of her marriage to you. You know how gossip about stuff like that literally flies through the air in a small town. I honestly believe that she has been true to you, Wade."

I leaned in with anger on my face again and startled Carol with my next question, "Then why the hell did she lie to me about going to Harvey Bland's on Tuesday, Tim Harmon's on Wednesday, and your house to see Dwight tonight?" I had to take a bit of a risk here as I revealed my knowledge of Claire's activities on the nights in question to Carol, as I continued.

"And I even heard through the gossip grapevine -- and now from you this afternoon -- about some plan for her supposedly to meet up with all three of those guys at the quarry tomorrow night to reenact your big gangbang of fifteen years ago. Can you tell me more about all of that and why the hell she would do that, after all these years, if she were really being true to me?" I think I may have been on the verge of tears myself at this point. I felt my throat constrict a bit and it was getting hard to breathe.

Carol looked at me with a touch of fear now. "Wade, if you found out all of that ... did you ... were you involved with what happened to Harvey, Gay, and Tim?" She had edged slightly toward the end of the booth, evidently to facilitate a quick escape.

I forced myself to look relaxed and harmless. I even smiled in a way that I thought might be reassuring to Carol. "I deal with a lot of clients who like to talk," I lied. "No. I was angry enough to do those assholes some damage, but I was not involved." I crossed my fingers beneath the table as I said that.

"But, I can't say that I'm disappointed that some burglars put a small amount of hurt on those folks either, given what they were planning for my wife--and, through her, for me. Back to your story; why do you think that Claire would not want to tell me about her swinging past?"

Carol was trying to smile now without success. She still had tears forming in her eyes. "Wade, since you did not know about all of this other aspect of Claire's life during her late teen years, I believe that she might have been ashamed and afraid to tell you for fear that you might suspect her of truly being a slut at heart.

"Wade, believe me. I see how she is when she is around you and I see her with Mindy and Paul. She really is a good wife and a dedicated mother. Dwight may have set something up for this week without telling me. Other than that, I don't know what possibly could have motivated her to go to Harvey's house or Tim and Gay's house, or even for her to plan to come over to our house tonight, beyond the obvious indication that she was going to go along with having sex with those three cretins.

"But I can't, for the life of me, see Claire actually carrying through with that, given how she obviously feels about you. You need to talk to her, Wade. Find out from her directly and try to salvage your marriage out of all this."

I snarled, "How can I salvage my marriage when my wife is not being completely honest with me? Hell, she didn't tell me about all of that stuff in her past, her late teen years. If she had, and if she had promised me that it was all just that--the past--I would still have married her and loved her completely."

I actually could feel the tears of anger and hurt on my face as I continued. "And now, not only hasn't she been completely honest about her past; she hasn't been honest with me about the activities THIS week. Hell, she told me outright lies to cover her visits to all three of your houses this week and to cover her visit to the quarry for the so-called reenactment this coming Friday. How do I trust her after that?"

Carol put a hand on my cheek and said softly, with tears of her own, "Wade, you are a good man, and Claire knows it. A lot of us in this town know it. I have the feeling that her lies to you about the visits to see Harvey, Tim, and Dwight, and about Friday, were all tied to her attempts to keep what she felt was her 'sordid past' from getting back to you.

"I can't believe that Claire would actually carry through and have sex with any of those three guys. You need to find her and ask her. And, from there, work on getting back into total and absolute honesty with each other."

I started to say something, when Carol held up her hand and said, "I know you have trouble believing that she will be honest after all of this stuff this week. But listen to me. As a woman, I can tell you that we do not always lie to our men or withhold things merely to deceive them. We often bend the truth to avoid hurting someone we truly love. Give Claire the benefit of the doubt and try to believe that she was not telling the whole truth in an effort to keep from hurting you or causing you to worry about her faithfulness."

I still was not buying one-hundred percent of what Carol was selling. But I kept quiet and nodded as we finished our drinks. After we had both used drink napkins to wipe our eyes, we stood and smiled a mutual smile of friends, and then we hugged briefly. I wished Carol well, and thanked her for filling in some of the blanks. I promised her that I would keep her secrets in confidence and that I would be glad to help her if she needed it when she finally had her reckoning with Dwight.

I also advised Carol to make an appointment with me for just her if she decided that she and Dwight were not going to work out; she needed to get some of her financial instruments screened off from Dwight if that were to occur. I told that, if she were to get a lawyer and begin formal proceedings against Dwight in the future, she should be sure to tell the lawyer about me and my role in her long-term finances. Then, we departed Jimmy's place separately.

When I got home, there was an unfamiliar car parked across the street from my house. As I exited my 4Runner, the driver of the car got out. I recognized him as the giant who had come to my house the other morning and had rigged the phone taps. He greeted me briefly and handed me a package, saying only that it contained a DVD-R with the contents of the Harmon's computer that had 'mysteriously' vanished from their home during an alleged home invasion.

When he drove off, I took the package inside and set it aside until I could get something to eat. I had skipped lunch and, with only the bar crackers I had eaten during my talk with Carol, I was ravenous. I scarfed down a sandwich and a Little Debbie cream-filled oatmeal cookie dessert snack. Taking the package with me, I entered the den and woke up the computer.

I removed the DVD-R that was in the envelope and inserted it into the tray of the computer. When it had spun up, I opened the file explorer and saw that it contained many Harmon family word processing documents--which I ignored--along with quite a few AVI-format video files. I opened my media player and established a media listing of all the video files on the DVD-R and started the review process. When a file opened and it looked like it was just normal downloaded internet porn, I would click the 'Next' button and move to the next video.

Eventually, I got to some that were obviously amateur video. These appeared to be videos of actual swing events from recent years. As I clicked through them, I was surprised to see some familiar faces that I would never have suspected being part of this type of event. Some were clients of mine. I got my surprise under control and clicked on through until I hit pay dirt.

I recognized Claire right away, but it was Claire more than fifteen years ago. Man! She was so hot, even back then at eighteen! I smiled to myself as I realized that I still thought she was hot, even after giving birth twice--she had gotten herself back into terrific shape in only a few months after each of the two deliveries.

In the video, Claire was being double-teamed by a younger version of Dwight and another guy who I did not recognize. I guessed that this video had been taken at one of the swing events that Claire's aunt and uncle had held, ones that included the teens who were now of participating age. I watched it all the way through and I was surprised to discover that my cock had gotten hard as a rock as I had watched Claire in action back then.

There was only one video left in the playlist. I clicked it and saw a bunch of naked older teens in a low-light environment and they were outdoors. This must have been the evening at the quarry fifteen years ago. Two girls were on their backs and there were a bunch of guys around them.

As the video began, there were two black guys fucking the two reclining girls like there was no tomorrow in the normal missionary position. They did not last long and finished almost at the same time. As they pulled away, I could recognize one girl as a younger version of Carol, along with that oh-so-hot younger version of my beloved Claire.

The video went on for about an hour-and-a half and I watched it all the way through. On two occasions, both Carol and Claire were raised up on all fours and were double-teamed; but, for the most part, it was straight missionary sex, and there was no anal sex, although I heard it mentioned once and I saw Carol shake her head vigorously and object, as did Claire.

The whole episode actually got sort of boring, except for the times when I saw Claire scream out and writhe in a very vivid orgasm. Carol tended to stop moving and moan with her orgasms. Claire was definitely animated, and it excited me to see, primarily because it was exactly the same way she reacted with me currently whenever we had sex.

So far, the only thing unusual about the whole thing was the number of guys each of the girls had sex with over the period of the video; and the interracial element, of course; not that the race thing bothered me. If I had counted right, Carol had had sex with six of the guys and Claire had had sex with all nine, with two of them doing her twice.

I wondered what such a big deal about all of this was, as it related to Claire and me today, that is. After all, this had all happened before I even knew of the existence of Claire Ruth McNamee. I could see where there might be some sexual excitement for some women at the prospect of an evening of endless cock, but Claire had given me no indication in all our time together that she had desires for that kind of activity. I mean, she had assured me many times that I gave her all the sexual satisfaction that she needed. I decided to ask her what the deal was when I finally sat down with her.

I specifically wanted to know why she had left these details out of our sex revelation talks before we were married, and even afterward. I put the disk away and locked it in a lower desk drawer.

Going outside, I sat in the car and activated the GPS tracker. When I saw where Claire's car was, I pulled out my cell phone and hit the first speed dial button.

After four rings--five would have taken it to voice mail--I heard her answer softly. "Hello, Wade."

"Honey, where the hell are you?" I asked, knowing that she had come back into town and was parked in the lot of the Holiday Inn Express. "I've been worried about you ever since you ran out of Mindy's classroom. Roger and Nan are worried too."

Claire was silent for about five seconds. Then I heard her say, "I couldn't face you after what Mindy said. I couldn't face my kids either, or my parents. I am staying by myself tonight, Wade, and I'm not telling you where I will be. I may stay more than one night. I have to get some things clear in my head and let things calm down a bit; then we will talk. Please let me have some space for a day or two. If you still want me to be your wife after what you heard today, and after what I have to tell you later, I will be the happiest woman in the world; but ... you need time to think on it and I need time too."

"Sweetie, I don't need time. I made my decision over ten years ago," I said. But, before I could say anything else, she interrupted.

"I know, but that was then. This is now, and I need some time now. Please give me the time I need and let me call you when I'm ready. Okay?"

I sighed and, hedging a bit on the truth, said, "Okay, Sweetie. I am worried about you, not knowing where you are, and not knowing exactly when I will see you again."

"I know, Honey. I'm sorry; about this; about ALL of this. I love you," she said as she punched off the connection. I looked at the phone as I thought about what she was doing. I was a little upset that she would not tell me where she was; I mean, I knew where she was because of the tracker, but the fact that she would not give me the assurance of a specific location irritated me. Irreconcilable? Not really; just irritating.

I called Claire's parents' house number and Roger answered. I told him that I had talked to Claire on the phone and she had assured me that she was all right. I did not tell him that I already knew where she was, not did I mention anything about my recently-acquired knowledge of his and his wife's earlier single experiment with a wilder lifestyle. I only related to him that Claire had given me sufficient assurances that she was in a safe situation. She just needed some alone time.

Roger complimented me on my ability to take the situation as it was and remain calm and not be upset with Claire more than I was. I assured him that I really was upset, just not to the point of endangering our marriage. He thanked me for the call and said he would pass the good news on to Nan. I spoke to the kids and told them that everything was okay with their mom and that she and I both loved them, and for them to mind Grandma and Grandpa; and then Roger came back on and we said goodnight and hung up.

I sacked out, but it took me over an hour to get to sleep finally. I was still trying to absorb all of this and figure out just what it was that Claire was thinking and what exactly she was afraid of.

The next morning was Friday and, coffee in hand, I checked the tracker in my 4Runner and was relieved to see that her car was still at the Holiday Inn Express. I would still keep track of Claire's location all day, just in case she decided to run for some reason.