I was very pleased with myself as I drove from the Long Term Parking Garage at the airport and headed home. I was two days early. I had tried to let Grace, my wife, know but the phone was busy every time I tried to call. She must have been on-line. She spent a lot of time on the computer.
I tried to reach her on the cell phone again and again as I made the almost two hour drive home. Busy, busy, busy. As I entered town I did a double take on a car I saw parked in front of a Motel. It looked like Grace's car. Wow! That was the first car I had ever seen that looked just like her little pink Miata.
Ten minutes later I pulled up in front of the house and pushed the garage door opener. Her car wasn't in the garage. I went in the house and headed directly for the office. The glow of the computer monitor greeted me. I reached to turn it off. I stopped and sat at the desk. I looked at the screen saver and reached out with one finger and hit a key. The screen changed to a chat room page.
The page was filled with a conversation between Grace and someone referred to as ST. I could not believe what I read. It was hot sexy stuff. It soon became evident that Grace had been having an affair with him for some time. In the last entry he told her he was real hot and needed to screw her, could she meet him at the usual place to spend the night. She replied, 'yes, yes, yes.'
I sat there in total shock. I couldn't think. I left the computer on and went back to my car. I closed the garage door and headed back towards the Motel where I had seen her car. It was still there. I found a place to park across the street where I could watch her car. As I waited I called my best friend who was also my attorney. His secretary told me he was out of the office and she would have him call me. Then it struck me like a shot to the head. His name was Sam Thurston. ST. I looked across the street and recognized his car parked next to her Miata.
I sat and tried to figure what to do. Confront them? Leave and act like I knew nothing. Sam knew all my business dealings. With his help she could pluck me like a chicken. Play it cool, I thought. I needed help, I racked my brain, where could I turn. Then I had it! I grabbed my brief case and got out my address book. I looked up an old friend. He answered the phone.
"Jack, this is Phil, how are you?"
"Hey, I am fine, where are you, still on the west coast?"
"No, I am back home, well almost home. I need your help and advise desperately. Can I come and talk with you?"
"Sure come on over I'll be looking for you."
"I'll see you in about an hour." I had plenty of time to think as I drove the fifty some miles to his office. His receptionist greeted me and said he was waiting in his office.
I knocked and opened the door and went in. We hugged and shook hands. He led me to a couple of easy chairs and asked how he could help me.
I told him what I had discovered on my return home. I explained to him my worries about Sam being my attorney and doing so much work for my company. He looked at me and said nothing. He picked up the phone beside him. "Will you please see if Steve and Betty can come in here." He looked at me and said, "I want these guys to hear this too."
There was a light tap on the door and it opened. A very attractive woman entered followed by a tall thin man. They sat in the other two chairs and listened to my story. She took notes and asked a few questions.
I told them that I had been away a lot lately on business. I was working on getting contracts to build aircraft parts for a very big company on the west coast. The initial bid had been on contracts worth over a million dollars. I won that bid. I was then asked if I were interested in bidding on another job. I had looked it over. It was ideal for my company, we already had the equipment and tools needed to do the job. Also I had found an error in their math which would make the job much easier. I had disclosed this to no one. The second job would be for 200 million dollars with a ten percent profit in it for me. They had accepted my bid. They would not announce the bid results until the following month.
"I really do not want either of them to get one cent of that money. Can your people handle the legal on the contracts and the divorce and keep her from taking me to the cleaners?"
"Phil, you are in good hands. Steve is our Corporate Attorney and Betty handles our domestic cases. I am sure they have lots of questions for you."
Betty smiled at me, "Mr. Burke, I believe you said you are not due home until day after tomorrow. Is that correct?"
"Yes, I was due home Friday."
"If necessary could you delay your return another day or so?"
"Sure, no problem."
Betty looked at me, "This can be really dirty if you want it that way, or we may be able to negotiate the whole thing very quietly. The more ammunition we have the better. I have a very, very good detective who works for me. If you approve it and sign the appropriate releases he can retrieve all the information from your computer. We may be able to obtain video evidence of her infidelity. Would that bother you."
"Listen, I feel betrayed and angered by what they have done, gather the evidence. If they are seriously in love with each other we can deal with it one way, if it is just sex play, that is something else. I don't know which is worse. How they handle it when I come back will tell me a lot. If they confess to me before they find out I know anything, I might have a little mercy. I am not inclined that way right now, however. Get everything you can, I would love to know how long this has been going on. I want to know if he is the only one. All that good stuff."
She said, "That sounds reasonable, stay in close touch. I will call my guy and see what he needs and when he can meet with you. If we can get her out of your house for a couple of hours he can do a whole bunch of things. His office may be possible too. We will see. It will not be cheap."
I grinned at her, "Just do it, it will be worth it."
She got up and left the room. I was really sorry to see her go. Jack grinned at me, "She is something isn't she. She is my ex-daughter in law. She caught my boy cheating on her. She will help you."
Steve and I sat and talked for an hour, he had some damned good ideas. There was not a lot we could do until the detective got us something to work with. Steve left and Jack asked me to spend the night with him. I couldn't refuse. We had a nice dinner at his place, his wife Angel was terrific, very supportive and caring. I had only met her twice before.
After dinner we sat and talked of old times when he was my boss. He commanded the Navy Seal detachment I was assigned to as a young officer. We had a number of wild adventures together. He was a fearless leader. I didn't sleep well that night. I kept seeing my wife fucking my best friend. Doesn't make for a good nights sleep.
Angel fixed a nice breakfast for us in the morning and I followed Jack to his office. Betty was waiting for us with a nice looking young man. He was the detective, Tom Greer. I signed some papers for him and told him every thing I knew about my wife and Sam. He asked me to call Grace and tell her I was going to have to stay a couple of days longer than I had expected. The main thing was to find out where Grace was going to be for the next few hours. I called and talked to her and she said she was just leaving to play tennis. Then she was going to lunch and then she was going to do some shopping. "Great," said Tom, "lets get going." Betty looked at me, "I heard you say you loved her, she didn't say that to you, does she usually do that?"
"Yeah, she used to. I can't say when she stopped saying that."
"I'll be here when you guys get back or I will be at Jack's."
"We will see you later."
Tom was very good, He installed three video cameras and copied every thing from our computer. He bugged my phones and hid a recorder and transmitter in the brush behind my house.
I showed him the way to Sam Thurston's office. I waited a few blocks away while he somehow bugged Sam's phone and office. When he called on his walkie- talkie I picked him up around the corner. I asked how in the world he was able to get in his office to plant a bug. He grinned and said it only took a second to do it. He said he asked the secretary if her boss was in, and when she said no, he said he didn't believe her, and barged right in. He just needed to get in the door and turned and came back out. She was dialing the police when he told her he was leaving and that he would be back to see Mr. Cooper in the morning with his own attorney. The secretary said, "Wait, this is Mr. Thurston's Office, Cooper is next door."
He apologized and left.
As we drove back, Tom looked over at me, "Don't do anything to hurt Betty. She is a special person."
"I am not going to ever hurt her. I am a married man, I will try and see her when I am free. I have never been so attracted to any woman in my whole life."
"Hey, anyone who sees the two of you look at each other can tell it is going to happen."
