Getting into the house without being heard was easy, all Jerry had to do was go around back and open the basement door.
He couldn't go in the front, the alarm system he had installed at his wife Shelly's insisting would go off.
She had been a complete nut about that for some reason, bugging Jerry until he finally installed the system.
Opening the garage door would have tripped it, too. The delay on the push button panel was set at 10 seconds because Shelly had asked him to set it that way.
"45 seconds is dumb, a burglar would be all the way into my bedroom before it went off!" She had told him.
"You just want to give your boyfriend time to sneak out the window!" Jerry had wisecracked, Shelly just laughed at him, then turned back to fixing dinner.
But it sounded logical, so he reset the delay. Of course that meant he also set the alarm off himself every time he came home, but it was just for a few seconds until he could climb out of the car and punch in the four digit code.
"This way it gets tested to make sure it works every day!" Shelly smiled brightly one afternoon as he walked in, grumbling after having tripped it about two dozen times already.
Same with any of the windows, all wired.
But he also knew no one would notice the wire he had run over the top of the door frame down there, bypassing the sensor.
Shelly almost never went down into the basement, even if she did, Jerry doubted she would notice.
The panel lit up perfectly when he had tested that, all of the loops showed secure.
The door didn't make a sound, the hinges that he had oiled slid easily. Same with the steps, each one he had carefully nailed nearly a week before.
Shelly was even happy about that, she had bugged him for months to fix the loose steps.
Testing them with his 220 pound frame, he smiled to himself. Not a sound came from them.
The little .22 caliber Hi-standard pistol he had stuck in the windbreaker that hung from hooks at the top of the stairs held nine rounds. It felt somehow satisfying to reach in the pocket and find it right there where he had left it.
Jerry had no plans on really shooting anyone, not unless he had to.
He also had no plans at all of backing down, either.
+++
Something had been going on and he was determined to find out what it was. There was no real point in confronting his wife Shelly, if something was going on she would deny it. If there wasn't, he would look foolish.
Three years of trying to get her pregnant, three years of failure bothered him. He even went to the Doctor to check, and got a laugh when the old Doc told him to not hug any strange females, even fully dressed ones because he was not only fertile but on the overly fertile side.
The old Doc snorted at his own wisecrack, patted Jerry on the shoulder and told him to go get her with a smirk.
So it was Janet's turn, instead she went to her own Doctor, the same one she had used even back before they were married.
She insisted on that, too.
That day Jerry just happened to see her coming out of the hair salon. It was simply an accident or he might never have even gotten suspicious.
Odd, she was supposed to be at her Doctor's office? Instead, she was getting her hair and nails done?
But Jerry was on the way to bid a job and already five minutes late, so that didn't really hit him until he was driving into his garage.
That was just a month ago, she had told him that evening with a sad look on her face that she could "maybe" have children but it was unlikely.
She even cried softly. He led her until she composed herself, feeling a sick sensation in the pit of his stomach.
"We can just keep trying honey!" She told him, but her tone was not quite right, it didn't quite ring true.
That was when Jerry began to keep his eyes open, he really didn't think the black lady at the hair salon was qualified to advise Shelly on things like that.
Cheating? No, not possible. Shelly was always home, always. No signs, not one of anything. She was always right there when he got home.
Of course there were those overnight trips he had to make two to three times each month.
Drugs maybe? Could that be it, she was addicted to something and hiding it? Also not possible, she looked and acted healthy as a horse, she even had a pound or two extra on her well rounded out body.
Gambling? Maybe, she could be hitting the Indian Casinos, perhaps. But a quick check of finances showed nothing out of the ordinary, if anything Shelly was a bit on the frugal side.
Except for clothes, trips to the salon for $50 worth of fingernails. Having her hair done?
Shelly's fingernails sure looked nice that day, though.
That part he never understood, he had heard, "Damn, I broke a nail!" no less than fifty times.
Later that night while Shelly was in the shower Jerry snooped in her drawers, then looked in the closet. Shelly loved nice clothes, she had outfits in there he had never seen.
There was a small bag in the dresser drawer, with panties that he wondered why a woman would bother.
He hadn't seen those before, either. But even that was not abnormal, when they went out for dinner or dancing, pretty outfits and tiny undies always appeared.
Jerry loved it when Shelly would come out and pose, basking in his delight at the way she looked. The woman certainly could turn her share of heads, and it was obvious that she was well aware of that.
He grinned to himself, almost wishing it was Saturday night. Dancing with her made him feel proud, then later without fail he got to slip off the outer layers and discover what she almost had on underneath this time.
Then he found the birth control pills.
Birth control pills?
He saw red at that, and barely managed to compose himself before she came out of the shower.
His instinct was to completely blow his stack and yell at her, but he had learned to make sure before acting.
Once many years before he had caught Dana, his girlfriend at the time kissing some good looking guy that showed up at a party. Jerry had been right to the point with Dana of asking the big question, and he knew she was thinking that also. They had even done the meet Mom and Dad stuff, it was getting serious.
Then he saw her kissing some guy all over his face with eagerness, her body plastered to him in what did not look like any friendly brush on the cheek. He had stood there in shock as she excitedly greeted the man.
Jerry had gone over and smacked the dude, putting him right on his ass.
The man turned out to be her brother that Jerry had never met, just home for the weekend from College. Meeting the brother was going to be the big surprise of the evening, so although Dana had mentioned she had one, she kept the fact that he was showing up that night to herself.
After finding himself thrown out of the house, Dana would not even take his phone calls after that. He had just barely made it to second base a few times with her, and she had hinted earlier that this was going to be the day.
That had actually been more than a hint, when he arrived that night Dana had kissed him, then slipped a pack of condoms into his shirt pocket, giving him a sly look.
Talk about an instant erection!
Smacking her brother right in front of everyone put the skids on that of course.
Yes, think before acting, a lesson well learned.
+++
Jerry had to do a bit of traveling, his job was to bid fencing for farmers, pole barns, corrals. Sometimes he designed a series of corrals so that farmers could handle their big livestock, separate them out for trips to the auction, or for medical attention, things like that.
It was a darned good job because he got to meet a lot of very nice people, plus he was also outside.
The last job had been great, not only did he sell nearly 4 miles of fencing but the family invited him for dinner. Corn Bread with Ham and black beans, real Corn bread, not the crap that comes in the boxes.
Sam Martin was a grizzled old guy, tall and lean. He wore faded red long johns, that was clear because the heavy work shirt was always unbuttoned, suspenders holding up his heavy work pants. His wife Dotty was on the chubby side and happy, a big smile never seemed to leave her face.
By the end of the day, after traveling all over the man's ranch on a pair of Honda ATV's, Sam and Jerry became good friends. They both loved to hunt and fish, Sam somehow became almost like a Father figure that Jerry never had in his own life.
It might be hard to understand how that could happen in just one long day between two men out talking about everything under the Sun, but it did.
The couple had a daughter, she was around 19 or so and a stone fox. Even in a flannel shirt and blue jeans it was clear this was a fine looking young woman.
She also acted interested but of course Jerry was married so she had no hope at all with him.
Molly, they said her name was. He thought about her off and on all the way home the next day.
Yes, good people, the kind a man wants to get to know.
Their ranch was mostly rolling hills with good water, and Sam had been building his herds for years. Now he needed a good fence, some big pole barns.
The outside world was getting closer to his land all the time, new people were coming in and they didn't like the Cows and Sheep free ranging across their planted lawns and flower gardens.
So there was no choice, build fences or allow the land to grow homes. Sam chose to build fences.
That turned out to be one of his biggest sales to date.
The down side of Jerry's job was that most big farms tended to be long distances away, so very often he would find himself 300 to 400 miles away from home.
That was how it was with this place, over 350 miles away in Idaho.
The company paid his motels and meals while on the road, so instead of driving all the way home, Jerry would usually get a motel room, then head home the next day.
It was different this time, Sam and Dotty insisted he spend the night, escorting him to a large upstairs bedroom. It was so quiet out there that Jerry had trouble getting to sleep.
Once in awhile he would hear a Sheep or a Cow, each time it was like an alarm clock.
The night was warm, he found himself kicking his own covers off.
