[This tale has betrayal, revenge, justice, oral sex, anal sex, coitus, bondage, s/m, vaginal sex, Mff, ff, and a visit to Chicago. If any of those will put you off or disturb you then please don't read this story.]
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My secretary buzzed twice; I had a phone call; she didn't know the caller.
'What the hell,' I thought.
"Nick Wells."
"Mr. Wells, my name is Carolyn Jones and I'm a private investigator. I would like a half hour of your time."
"I don't use private investigators. My work is not that kind of law."
"I know that. My work gives me access to lots of information and, in this case, there is no lawyer in LA better suited for this than you. I need only half an hour of your time."
She sounded on the up and up and I was intrigued. Things were OK in the office at the moment. My staff were preparing for a case that would not see a courtroom for another six weeks.
"OK. Let's have lunch. I would like to eat somewhere nice today. How about meeting me at the Broadway Grill in Beverly Hills at one?"
"No. Too many people know you there and me. How about China Palace in the Marina?"
"OK. It's on Washington?"
"Yes. You had dinner there with Jake and Fred last month."
"I remember. One o'clock."
The phone went dead. She knew a lot about me. What could this possibly be about. I told my secretary I was going out for a couple hours. She made a note and asked, "Can I get you on cell?"
I nodded as I walked out. At one I walked in to the China Palace. It was almost deserted. I saw a woman sitting alone and walked toward her. Three steps toward her I heard a soft voice say, "Not her, behind you." I turned and met Carolyn Jones. She was not what her voice had me imagine. She was about five eight, in her forties, short colored blond hair, blue eyes, great skin and about twenty pounds heavy. She was dressed in skirt and white blouse with a light sport jacket over. Nothing tight, nothing cut low. A woman easy not to notice.
"I have a reserved booth." She walked past me and I followed. Near the back of the restaurant was a small alcove hard to see from the front door. Her table was in that area. She sat facing the rest of the restaurant. If anyone approached she would see them first.
The waitress came and we ordered. After she walked away Carolyn said, "Shall we get to business?"
I waved a hand and she began.
"You don't know it but you are in the process of being screwed. Your best friend, Mike Thompson, is screwing Janice."
I didn't move. I'm not sure I breathed. I just looked at Carolyn.
"OK. You need proof. Carolyn joined a gym three months ago and she goes to the gym three afternoons a week. You knew that. What you didn't know was she works out there for forty-five minutes and spends the next hour up in Mike's apartment. Three times a week. Last month she told you she wanted to go visit her sister. She stayed a week. She was at her sister's two days. The other five she was in Chicago with Mike. He was there for a business conference and attended the opening day while Janice was at her sister's."
"You telling me this great story doesn't make it so."
"I have plenty of proof. And I'll sell you the proof. For the discussion now make believe it is all true. What would you like to do?"
"I want to ruin Mike and Janice. I'd like them both beat to a pulp. Those are my first thoughts."
"There is more to the story. Mike wants to ruin you. He has a plan to put you on national TV and surprise you with the news that Janice is leaving you and going with him. He plans to tell the TV world that he made a fool, a cuckold, of a big lawyer."
"How do you know all this?"
"I can only answer that question and any other if I am hired by you signing this contract." She took it out of her purse and handed it to me. I read it.
"There is a problem with this contract."
"I know. The date. It must have that date or I cannot tell you anything."
"It says I pay one thousand dollars for each full day and one hundred fifty per hour for each partial day you work exclusively for me. This is dated six months ago. If I sign how much do I owe?"
"One thousand one hundred fifty dollars."
"Give me an invoice."
She had it ready. I wrote her a check and signed the contract.
"Now, why so little?"
"Because of one word in the contract. Exclusively. The day after we signed this contract Mike hired me to spy on you. He wanted me to find whatever dirt he could use to screw you. His contract is up tomorrow. Most of the time I worked for him looking first at you and then at him. He didn't know it but I always look into the people who hire me to dig up stuff on people. What I found about you and him didn't sit well."
"So, I get the proof of his activities for the last three months?"
"More. I dig. I have phone records, hotel bills, security footage, photos, and even a video with sound of them together. It all belongs to you."
"It can't all be in that purse."
"No, it isn't. However, here is a sample." She handed me a nine by eleven envelope. I opened it and without removing anything, looked inside. An eight by ten color photo of Janice sucking Mike's cock! I poured the contents of the envelope on the table. Fifteen photos, all in color of Mike and Janice fucking, sucking and being in bed together. One of the pictures was of them doing it doggy style on our bed. Included were three hotel receipts for charges to a room signed in Janice's hand. Signed Janice Thompson.
I looked at the evidence carefully. I looked up at Carolyn. "What now?"
"You believe me?"
"Yes."
"OK. You need to know their plan. Mike is a pretty well known business man in the entertainment world. He has some connections. He has arranged to have you invited on a TV talk show, the Mickey Pond Show. You will be told that the show is about honoring Best Friends. You will not be told it is Mike. Before you come on stage the audience will be told that Mike and Janice fell in love and you are coming on so they can tell you together that Janice wants a divorce so she can begin a relationship with Mike. Janice plans to go with you to Chicago for the show and have her things moved out of your room while the show is on. Mike will have a room in the same hotel."
"How do you know all this?"
"I have been taping his conversations and their conversations for months."
"He doesn't just want Janice, he wants to humiliate me in the process."
"He does want you humiliated, but he doesn't really want Janice. Janice knows nothing about the real motive for the whole thing. She was set up too."
"What?"
"Six years ago you were the lead lawyer in a case that cost Mike three quarters of a million dollars. McWilliams vs. Crocker. He took the verdict personally. He was pissed that you cost him that money and has been plotting revenge ever since. He befriended you to find a way to hurt you. What he found was Janice. Whenever you were out of town or really busy, he wined and dined and was a really good friend. Eventually he wore her down and made his move. That was a year ago. He made is fatal mistake when he hired me to dig up dirt on you."
"What are you going to give him?"
"Nothing. You don't even cheat on your taxes! You are a true Boy Scout!"
"He's going to be pissed!"
"Not as pissed as he'll be if his plan backfires."
"If I hand Janice divorce papers on the show and sue him for alienation of affections he's screwed on national TV. I can even offer to show pictures on TV of them in bed together. Not the x-rated ones but still, them in bed together!"
Carolyn sat forward and looked at me closely.
"Will you divorce Janice?"
"He set a trap and she fell in. I'll need to hear her side of this and see the whole file. I just don't know. It may come down to her reaction to the TV show."
"Mike is smart and devious. He has done more to Janice than screw her. When you go through the evidence you will see a different Janice than the one you think you know. I would advise doing nothing hasty to Janice. Serve her with divorce in order to make the case against Mike, but really look at what he has done to her. She is a victim too. The show is going to contact you tomorrow for next Friday in Chicago."
"I have a lot to think about and see. How much stuff is in your car?"
"One file box."
I looked at my watch. One half an hour.
"This half an hour is on the invoice. Let's go get your stuff. Thanks for lunch."
"I'm not sure what to say."
"Call me when you have digested what's in the box. I need to talk with you then. OK?"
"OK. Give me a day or two."
I put the photos and things back in the envelope and followed her. At the cash register I paid for lunch. At her car she opened the trunk and I saw two boxes. One had N.W. on the lid, the other M.T. I took the one marked N.W.
On my way back to the office I called my secretary. "Reserve a conference room for half an hour from now. For the rest of the day."
I called Pete Marsh the partner who handled divorces and other family law cases. A shark in a thousand dollar suit.
"Pete, Nick Wells. I'm looking at a case that might interest you. Could you meet me in conference room "B" any time this afternoon or tomorrow?"