Suspicion

Chapter 12.

Monday Morning 9:15 AM — CableNex

By Monday morning, Tom Smith's anger was no longer the white hot rage of Friday afternoon, but he was still a very unhappy man. Sitting at his desk in his office, he hadn't heard from Kathy Matthews yet, which was beginning to irritate him. He finally called Kathy's secretary, only to be told that Kathy had called in sick, saying that she had started feeling ill the day before, and was going to see the doctor later that morning. That didn't change anything, it just postponed it.

He was actually feeling down about what he had to do. Tom liked Kathy, and she was generally speaking a reliable, intelligent employee. Or had been, anyway. For that matter, Tom liked Kathy's husband — 'Paul', he remembered was his name. They had met at several company functions and he seemed like a good man. They had talked a little about fishing, football, and family. Tom could only feel sorry for Paul, since it was almost inevitable that Kathy's affair with Karl Gerring was going to come out now. Not wide public knowledge, certainly, Tom would handle it in as sensitive a fashion as he could, but Kathy's husband was almost certainly going to find out, if he didn't know already.

Tom decided that he could wait a day to deal with Kathy, but he wanted to talk to her in person, not act like some kind of heartless ass and email her or leave a voice mail to deliver the bad news.

In the meantime, the corporate lawyer was preparing the papers to deliver to K.G. Construction explaining that the misconduct during the bidding process, potentially breaching the confidentiality of K.G.'s competitor's proposals, had voided their contract. The contract itself would have to be placed out for bid again, and K.G. would not be considered as a 'qualified' bidder for the rebid. If K.G. Construction wanted to fight the decision in the courts, they could go ahead, but they would lose.

What Tom didn't know, as he sat contemplating his next action, was that a reporter for the Wall Street Journal had received an anonymous email, dated the night before, giving him a heads up that there was a minor scandal brewing at one of the CableNex offices with respect to one of their contracts. It was from a self-styled whistleblower using the pseudonym 'Ethos'. The WSJ wouldn't rely on an anonymous source like that, but they had gotten enough detail from the tip to follow up for themselves. The reporter started making some phone calls.

Monday Morning 8:00 AM — K.G. Construction

Karl Gerring was frustrated. He'd just gotten off the phone with CableNex's local operations manager.

"Gee, Karl, I don't know what the problem is," came the friendly voice, "but I got a stop order on Friday afternoon. I tried to get ahold of you, but your assistant told me you were out of town for the weekend, and they didn't know where you were. And your work cell wasn't on — I tried it three times. You probably got my messages."

"Yes, I got your messages this morning when I came in," Karl confirmed, "but that still doesn't get my crews out working."

"Karl, I'm sure that its some small glitch, and that it'll be resolved real soon. I mean, we don't want to fall behind on our schedule, either. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't get you turned back on this afternoon." the voice on the telephone concluded.

The one damn weekend when he gets his girlfriend completely away from her family, where they can't interfere and have her go running off, this happens. Karl was fuming. But he knew there was no point in shouting at his employees about it; he'd made it clear that he hadn't wanted to be disturbed for the weekend.

All he could do for the moment was hope that whatever problem CableNex was having, they would get straightened out. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

That Morning 10:00 AM — Evelyn Hunter's House

Kathy was stirring her coffee, sitting across the table from her sister. She was actually very upbeat and happy that morning. So much so, that Evelyn almost didn't want to ask why. But she did anyway.

"OK, spill the beans. I haven't seen you this cheerful for ages? Does this have to do with your weekend?" Evelyn said, rather sternly, her question echoing her disapproval of Kathy's love affair.

"It does, at least indirectly," replied her sister, "and I think that what I have to say will make you happy as well."

Kathy continued, "Karl took me to the Bahamas this weekend, and it was a great."

Evelyn interjected, "I don't know how THAT's supposed to make me happy, and I'm sure that Paul was just tickled to death!"

"I haven't spoken to Paul about it yet," Kathy responded, "But that is not what I was getting at."

"Karl and I had a wonderful time there, but I realized as I was on the flight home that while it was fun being there, I was wishing it was Paul and not Karl with me, and that when I looked at Karl sitting next to me on the plane, I just had no special urge or desire to be with him. It was like, whatever I owed him for our love in the past was over, paid off. There was no feeling of 'a future' anymore." she explained.

"So," Kathy was still looking positive as she spoke, "As soon as I've had the chance to talk to Paul, I'm going to call Karl and tell him its over — finished, done, ended. I hope that Paul will agree that I should let the apartment go and I'll be back to where I should be, being Mrs. Paul Matthews!"

"I hope it works out for you, I really do, but you've put Paul through hell over the past four or five months, and I suspect it will take some time for him to get over it." commented Evelyn.

Kathy looked at her watch and lifted herself from the stool,

"I know, I know, believe me, I understand that. But I have to go. I have a doctor's appointment. I think that I may have a yeast infection. So I'll see you later, Evelyn."

11:00 AM — CableNex

"Tom," came Jim Graham's voice over the phone, "I'm not going ta make you happy here, and you can guess that I'm not happy either. About ten minutes ago, I got a call from a reporter fellow from 'The Wall Street Journal'," Jim pronouncing each word of the paper really clearly, with a slight pause in between each word, "and he was asking me to confirm a rumor that CableNex was having a problem with a contractor, who had won a contract based on insider information. Furthermore, the rumor suggested that CableNex had known about an improper relationship between Karl Gerring and an unspecified employee, and not done anything about it."

Tom almost fell out of his chair.

"Shit." came his succinct reply.

"Tom, now tell me: what is the status out there, and do I need to worry that I'm walkin' into any ambushes or minefields that I should know about?"

Tom sat up and began to rapidly outline the actions that he had taken.

"Jim, I put a hold on the contract Friday afternoon, as soon as I left our meeting. I also issued an immediate stop-work order to shut down any on-going tasks. The lawyers are writing up the documents to inform K.G. Construction that they are in material breach of the contract, and that we consider it to be null and void. The documents will be delivered to Karl Gerring either by the end of business today, or the first thing tomorrow morning," Tom told his boss, with the clarity of vision that comes to a men who finds his own job at substantial risk.

"All right," Graham said, signaling that he wanted to move on, "And what about Kathy Matthews?"

"Matthews was off last Friday, when I returned, and she called in sick this morning and is going to the doctor. I'm going to be asking for her resignation as soon as I see her," came Tom's immediate reply.

Graham was silent for a moment, you could almost see him considering the options, before he continued.

"Tom, here is what we are gonna tell that reporter fellow: CableNex, through its normal internal audit procedures, discovered that there was a possibility that one competitor, for the contract in question, may have inadvertently been exposed to critical information being submitted by other competitors. We do not believe that any leak was intentional, and have taken immediate action to remedy any possible improprieties that may have tainted the contracting process."

"Let me point out a couple a things about this statement, Tom. You are gonna get Kathy Matthew's resignation, but we're not gonna throw her to the wolves. So let the resignation be for, say, two weeks from now, for family reasons. Off the record, I'm gonna push the notion that K.G. Construction may have found some papers that were accidentally thrown out, and I'm gonna try to downplay this whole 'affair' thing, its just too damn shoddy. MY story makes the whole thing a little more palatable. At least it won't show up on the cover of some tabloid that my wife will see when she's grocery shopping," Graham finished.

"OK boss, that's what we do," agreed Tom, as if he had a choice.

11:30 AM — Equity Corp, Paul Matthew's Office

It had been a busy morning for me, but I was a happy man, just waiting for the elements of The Plan to come together. It was down to hours or days now, and the situation would resolve itself. I wasn't entirely sure of how it would resolve, but events were coming to a head. One more task to do before my work was done, but I was still waiting for the signal that would trigger the last act.

A little before 11:30 that morning I got my signal.

When the phone rang the caller I.D. told me it was Kathy on her cell.

"Yes, Kathy," I responded, sounding neither too happy nor particularly upset.

The sobbing and weeping on the phone actually gave me a certain satisfaction, as I anticipated the cause.

"Paaauullll," I could barely understand Kathy, just saying my name.

"Paaaullll, yyouuu need to come to Dr. Browns office, ppleeaasee!" Kathy's pain was palpable on the line.

"Kathy, is there something wrong? Tell me — what's wrong? Why are you so upset, are the kids OK?" I tried to sound worried and confused.

She said something else, but I couldn't understand a word of it through the crying.

"Kathy, just stay there, I'll be right down." I instructed her, trying to keep the glee from my voice.

I was whistling as I strolled to my car to drive to our GP's office.

When I arrived at Dr. Brown's, the nurse showed me right into a room, where Kathy was already sitting. Kathy was ready to run to me and wrap her arms around me to be comforted, but I kept her back with my hands and refused her embrace.

"OK, Kathy. What's this about?" I asked rather abruptly, to Kathy's dismay.

Kathy had finally gotten her tears and sobbing under control, although her voice was still trembling, and she couldn't look me, her husband in the face.

"Paul," she finally started, "I came in to see Dr. Brown this morning because I thought that I had gotten a yeast infection over the weekend," She looked up at Paul with her eyes, not moving her face, and immediately lowered them again.

"But when the Doctor saw me, he ran some tests," her voice had dropped to a whisper, "he thinks that I have gonorrhea. Oh, god... I'm so sorry... and he is going to have to report it to the county health department. He is putting me on antibiotics immediately while they do some other test..."

Dr. Brown came in an closed the door behind him. He walked over and shook my hand.

"I'm sorry, Paul, but when we encounter an STD, like gonorrhea, we have to test the patient's sexual parters, so we need to perform the tests on you as well." Dr. Brown explained, using his best neutral, clinical tone of voice. "We want to identify the source of this infection, if we can."

"The tests are about 95% positive that she has gonorrhea, although we are running a culture sample to confirm it. But honestly, I've seen enough over my career that, well, there is no question in my mind." he continued. "I'm sorry, this is probably a shock to you, but Kathy wanted you to come in and be tested and treated as soon as possible."

I looked at Kathy with a look in my eye that I hope communicated disgust. I was trying not to laugh at the little soap opera being played out in the examination room.

"Let's start with: when did you last have intercourse with your wife?" was his first question.

"Last Wednesday night." I replied.

"And, did you use any sort of protective device? Oh, wait, cancel that," he said looking at her chart, "I see that Kathy is on the pill." he said, ready to go on.

"Hold on, Doc. I used a condom last Wednesday, although not for birth control. We were experimenting with one of those 'french ticklers' with the ribs and spikes. Just for pleasure purposes." I confessed.

"Hmmm... well, well, well. Why don't you drop your pants then." he ordered, in that particular way that the medical community uses to make it sound as if it is just a suggestion, not a command.

I don't know about anyone else, but having some man handle my private parts is really low on my list of things to do — the request to 'bend over and cough' is one of the few things I hate even worse, but cold male hands examining my dick don't do a thing for me.

But Dr. Brown took a careful look and then made another, "Hmmm" sound. Then he grabbed a Q-tip and a bag, and did a rather painful little jab into my urethra, the place I always called by its scientific name, the 'pisshole'.

"Let's get you to urinate in this bottle, Just go into the restroom there at the end of the hall." he directed. And then he disappeared.

I did, and about ten minutes later, he returned to the room.

"Paul, the good news is that, at least based on my preliminary visual examination, and the urine test, you were not infected. We'll confirm it with the culture. So, you are NOT the source of the infection," was Dr. Brown's diagnosis, "which leaves us with a serious and, frankly, embarrassing question for you Kathy. We are going to need the name of any and all other sexual partners with whom you have had intercourse for the last month. They will have to be notified and treated."

He looked at her, waiting, his pen ready to take notes.

"Do you want me to ask Paul to leave the room?" he asked, a certain compassion in his voice.

Kathy shook her head, 'no.'

"There's only been one, Karl Gerring," she told him, still speaking barely above a whisper.

He got all of Karl's contact information from her, and then turned back to me.

"I'm going to put you on a prophylactic course of antibiotics as well, so that, when you have sexual relations with your wife again, we'll be completely sure that you aren't giving it back and forth to each other. You might also consider using condoms for at least some period, until we check Kathy again," and with that he left the room.

I looked at Kathy.

"We'll talk about this at home." I told her, and she had a look of complete panic on her face. "Calm down, Kathy, this isn't the end of the world. But you can imagine that I'm not feeling real charitable towards you right now, so give me some time to cool off, before we talk, OK?"

She nodded, and (since I didn't want her to have an accident or something on the way home,) I actually hugged her, and gave her a kiss on the cheek as we parted to return to our cars. I told her to go home and rest, that I would be along in an hour or two.

The last action required by The Plan, I completed at the local library.

I found one of the computers scattered around that was both empty and secluded. For the last time, I opened my special email system on-line, and plugged in the USB flash memory device into the port on the front of the computer. Then, I prepared an email intended to stab a rival in the heart.

To: Karl Gerring

Subject: Hey dumb shit,

You think you hot, fucking some other dudes wife. That's what you think. While she fucking you, look at what she doing in her apartment! Like these photos? I don't supposed she told you she was gang-banging a bunch of black dudes on the side too. Damn, I got to laugh. You as stupid as her old man. Me and the bro's thought you might want to know.

Mr. 10inchMan

Then I attached five of the doctored photos to the email.

Ah, now perhaps you're wondering why I would do something as infantile as putting pictures of my wife, even if they were fake, into Mr. K. Gerring's hands?

That was where Sanjay's programming came in.

In addition to the photos, I attached a small piece of Java code to the email. If Java wasn't enabled on Karl's system, the photos wouldn't show up. If it was, then when Karl tried to either save or print the photo files, they would all self-destruct, including the original email. And once the email is opened, after a minute the email and photos would self-destruct anyway.

I was stabbing him, but the knife would simply disappear. Poof!

When I returned to my car, I turned my cell phone back on, and discovered a voice mail from Evelyn asking me to call. When I returned the call, she gave me a quick summary of the conversation that she had with Kathy that morning, before she went to the doctor. I was somewhat pleased that Kathy had, it seems, decided to put Karl aside, and that she did it before finding out that she had and STD, presumably from him. But, it was too late now for her to avoid the pain that was coming, because at this point, I couldn't stop it if I wanted to.

Matthew's House 3:00 PM

When I finally returned home, I call for Kathy, but there was no answer. I walked up into the bedroom, and thought that I heard water running in the shower. I knocked, and there was no answer, so I went in and found Kathy sitting in the shower, with the water running. She was just sitting there weeping. I reached in and turned off the tepid water. She had been there long enough to use up all of the hot water, and that takes some doing — we have a 75 gal. hot water heater.

I reached over and grabbed a bath towel, and picked Kathy up into a standing position, and gently dried her off. Then I helped her step out of the shower enclosure, and dried, and brushed her hair out as much as I could. Kathy hugged me with an intensity that I'd never seen before, and tried to kiss me. I refused to kiss her, and she began to break down. I softly explained to her, that one could have gonorrhea in the mouth as well as the vagina, and that, if she had used her mouth on Karl, on her happy weekend in the Bahamas... So I didn't think that she should be kissing either me or the children until Dr. Brown had given her an all clear diagnosis.

I put together a light lunch, just a bowl of chicken soup and a toasted English muffin, and sat there in the kitchen encouraging Kathy to eat it. She got most of it down, and then I took her back up to the bedroom and put her to bed, covering her with the sheets, and closing the blackout shades.

When the kids got home, I told them that their Mom wasn't feeling well (boy was THAT the truth,) and that she was trying to get some sleep in our room. Amazingly, the kids actually kept the noise level down, we ate, did homework, talked and played until bedtime, and then went to bed with nary a complaint. Will wonders never cease.

I finally sat down to watch the 10:00 News on the local network affiliate. I almost missed it, when they started the story,

"In business news; according to an article that is to run in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal, the local office of cable television provider, CableNex, has announced that a contract to extend and replace outdated cable with a new fiber optic network, originally awarded to K.G. Construction, has been terminated due to irregularities in the bidding process. According to well placed sources, an internal audit discovered reason to believe that confidential information on competitors bids from print outs that were supposed to be destroyed, may have found their way into the hands of Karl Gerring, the President of K.G. Construction. Our attempts to reach Mr. Gerring for comment were unsuccessful, but we will continue to pursue this story."