Fixing Jeffrey

It all began on a Tuesday morning when Morgan was dressing. She was on her way to a function at her daughter's school. The mothers were getting together, supposedly to discuss an art 'n bake sale to raise funds for a school trip. What actually happened was that the mothers tried to out-snob each other. If you had new Jimmy Choo's or a new Gucci purse - now was the time to show it off. Morgan realised that her engagement ring wasn't on her dresser. She looked behind it, under it, around it - nothing. It was nowhere to be found.

She hollered to the upstairs maid in quite an un-ladylike manner.

"Ingrid! Ingrid! Have you seen my ring?"

Ingrid came trotting along dutifully.

"Excuse me ma'am, which ring?" She asked.

"My engagement ring." Morgan said indicating her ring finger with a lonely wedding band adorning it.

"No ma'am." Ingrid got on her hands and knees and looked around the floor by the dresser. Morgan searched her wardrobe. Their search produced nothing.

Morgan resigned herself to leaving without the ring, and as she drove to the school her mind was in overdrive as to where it could be. The thought that one of the maids had stolen it did cross her mind but she was loathe to believe it. Simply because she knew them and their work history went back to before she had married Philip. The thought of her husband caused new worry for her. The ring was an heirloom, it was first made for Philip's great grandmother by a Parisian jeweller in the late nineteenth century. It had been passed on to her eldest daughter - Philip's grandmother. The old wench was still alive, she didn't want to have to tell Philip his darling Grammy's ring was gone. She certainly didn't want an audience with Grammy herself.

She parked hurriedly in the school car-parking lot and walked to the junior art classroom. Morgan made her way inside faking her politeness - to be fair, she was being as fake as the other mothers were being. Nobody actually liked anyone else and they cliqued together just as they did when they were schoolgirls themselves. She had one fellow schoolmate here and she made her way to Charlotte as quickly as possible.

""What's the matter?" Charlie asked the moment Morgan sat down.

"Is it that obvious?" She asked her friend.

"No, but I know you, something's wrong. What is it?"

"My ring's gone." She said raising her left hand.

Charlotte's eyes turned to saucers. "Oh God." She said.

Morgan nodded with her head in her hands.

"I'm hoping I misplaced it and that Ingrid or someone has found it."

"I hope so too, for your sake." Charlotte understood because she had met Grammy once and once was enough for her.

"I'm sure it will turn up." She added quickly, seeing Morgan's distress.

They spoke about the last time Morgan had worn the ring and possible places in the house it could have fallen until the meeting was called to order. It couldn't go fast enough for her. When it was over Charlotte suggested they have a coffee first. Morgan was hesitant.

"Fortified with Bushmills." Charlotte added and Morgan agreed.

They drove into the gastronomical centre of the town and were lucky to find parking close to their favourite coffee mornings restaurant.

They found a quiet corner and ordered their coffee.

"About that other thing..." Charlie whispered conspiratorially looking around as she spoke.

"Yeah..." Morgan whispered back cutting her eyes to both sides herself.

They weren't looking suspicious at all.

"I enquired over the pond."

"It's there?" Morgan asked incredulously.

"It was fifteen years ago. That's where the trail ends. Apparently it was only in their possession for a few months. Here's the scary part, they almost sold it as a knock off with no reserve. Two weeks before the auction a curator of a private collection wanted to buy it immediately. In fact, he wanted to buy the entire lot. His excitement sparked their curiosity and they brought in their own expert who confirmed it to be the original manuscript. Long story short - they put it up for auction again three months later and it was bought by an anonymous buyer over the phone." Charlie looked pleased with herself. It had almost cost her a Tiffany lamp, people will tell you anything if they think you have enough money and they're working on a commission basis.

"No tip on who the buyer was?" Morgan asked.

"Unfortunately not, they're not that loose lipped."

"I wonder if we can get a list of known collectors from Sotheby's. Somebody has to know something that can fill the gap for us."

"I'll see what I can do when I get home." Charlie said. "Does he suspect anything?"

"I don't think so, he's been working late just about every evening since last week."

Their conversation continued and the topic changed to their children, then to the coming summer holidays and what they would be doing.

Morgan interrupted Charlie who was telling her about the guest list for a summer party.

"Don't look to your left." She said and Charlie almost blew it by turning her head slightly left before she could stop herself. Morgan glared at her.

"Sorry." Said Charlie. "Why not?"

"There's a man sitting four tables down from us also drinking coffee."

"Oh yes, that's very suspicious." Charlie retorted and swung her head to her left in an exaggerated action as if looking for the waitress.

"Funny." Morgan said sarcastically.

"The one in the beige overcoat trying hard to blend with the plant?"

"Yep, him." Morgan said and sipped her coffee. "He was at the school."

Charlie's head almost swung around for a second time.

"Are you sure?"

"I almost ran him over leaving the school. Now he turns up here, ten miles and a hundred coffee shops between here and there."

"Co-incidence?"

"I think not."

Charlie mulled that over.

"You think he's following us?" She asked.

"One of us." Morgan corrected. "We'll only know when we leave and split up."

"Suddenly I don't want to leave." Charlie said. Morgan didn't look so confident either.

"I can't phone Philip now, can you perhaps..."

Charlie tried to reach Anthony but he was in a meeting.

"I have to go, my ring." Morgan said finally breaking the silence that had ensued after the failed call. "If he's following me I'll speak to Philip about it."

"Lock your doors, don't speed and don't stop. Stick to the main roads."

"Yes, mother. What if he's following you?"

"I'll do the same. We'll soon find out anyway."

***********************

The minute Morgan got home she was on her phone to Charlie.

"And?" She asked when Charlotte answered.

"He didn't follow me." Charlie said sounding relieved.

"I didn't see him either." Morgan admitted.

"He wasn't following us then, co-incidence, that's all."

Morgan unwillingly let it go, she had bigger fish to fry, she had to find that ring. Even so, the niggly feeling that the stranger had been following her, wouldn't go away.

Her day got worse when she spoke to Ingrid who told her that there was still no sign of the ring. Morgan asked Ingrid about the places Charlie had suggested and Ingrid assured her they would not stop searching until it was found.

It was late afternoon when the gardener came to the kitchen door and requested to see Morgan.

"Hello, Tom. Please come in." She said.

"No, Miss. I want to ask if you know the man in the silver Toyota, he was parked at the end of the wall, I happened to be in the greenhouse getting plants and saw him standing next to the water duct. He looked suspicious."

A cold finger ran down Morgan's spine.

"A man in a beige overcoat?"

"Yes, Miss."

"I don't know him Tom, he followed me today. Is he still there?"

"No, Miss. I shouted at him and he got in his car and left."

"Thank you so much Tom, if he comes back please let me or Philip know."

She walked away, her mind reeling with questions. One thing was certain, she had to tell Philip.

Philip arrived at eleven that evening and Morgan, who had waited up, immediately flew into him.

"Where the hell have you been?" She asked, her anger having had hours to burn.

"Working." Came the curt reply.

"Bullshit! The phone rings in your office when your assistant leaves."

"Are you calling me a liar?" He shouted back.

Morgan stopped and looked at Philip as if she was seeing him for the first time.

"Are you having an affair Philip?" She asked quietly.

"Don't be ridiculous!" He continued shouting. "I'm working on a deal, I told you." He finished loudly.

Morgan simply kept staring at him.

"I don't have time for this, I'm tired. I'm going to bed." He said.

She wanted to say 'In the guest room', but she couldn't get the words out. Philip dropped his coat over a chair and walked off, leaving her standing alone in the livingroom.

Morgan followed him a half an hour later and found Philip snoring already. As she undressed she tried to remember the last time they had made love. Correction, she told herself. Had sex was a better description. She got into bed and laid curled up behind Philip instead of turning her back to him.

She fell asleep fitfully, when she was asleep Philip's eyes snapped open. He'd been pretending to sleep. He hadn't been able to sleep at all for a week.

Morgan had begun behaving strangely more than a month ago, beginning with secret meetings with her best friend Charlie that she thought he didn't know about, and he wouldn't have if he hadn't overheard a telephone conversation between the two of them. He had tried to follow Morgan for a few days but she had almost caught him. He finally told his best friend Mark and Mark had suggested he hired a private investigator.

The investigator, a man with the very common name of Jones, had been following her for a week. The man had submitted a report the day before. One meeting with Charlie at a coffee shop and the two had disappeared into the library for three hours. Other than that she hadn't done anything suspicious. Jones was of the opinion that Philip was mistaken. Philip told him to continue following her, he was determined to catch her out. It was Jones' suggestion that Philip 'work late' to give her more opportunities to meet her lover but so far a week's drinking after work at the club had netted him nothing. What disturbed him most was that Morgan hadn't even noticed the fact that he smelled like alcohol for the entire week.

An hour later he finally fell asleep from pure exhaustion. The alarm went off at five the next morning and he was awake immediately. Morgan had turned on her other side eventually and was fast asleep. He arose and quickly showered. After he had dressed he looked in on his daughter and kissed her gently on her forehead. She was so little still, he promised himself that he would fix this. He didn't want her to grow up with divorced parents.

He left for work before six in the morning, he had a hang-over and was in no mood for another confrontation with Morgan. He could not believe her cheek - to accuse him of having an affair! A typical defence, he thought, blaming him for the same thing she was guilty of to throw him off. No, my girl - he thought - not that easily.

He got to his office and let himself in. First things first, he thought and dialled Jones' number. While he waited for Jones to pick up he shook a Tums from the bottle he kept in his drawer, his ulcers were playing up again from stress.

"H'lo." Said a sleepy voice.

"Jones wake up, it's Buchanan." Exactly how was Jones going to catch Morgan if he slept all the time?

"Yessir, I'm awake, I'm walking out the door right now."

Philip wondered if he should address the lie, he decided against it and popped another Tums.

"Anything to report?" He asked instead.

"She went to some sort of mother's meeting at the kid's school yesterday. Then she had coffee with Mrs. Graham." He said and added, "Your gardener made me, so I took off."

"My fucking half-blind gardener spotted you?" Philip asked, his temper rising every second with this idiot's incompetence.

"Yes." Jones admitted sheepishly.

"You're fired." Philip said and slammed down the phone.

His assistant brought his private mail in just before lunch. It was a large brown envelope with no postage; only his name across the front with a red 'For your eyes only' stamp over it.

"Somebody left it at the front desk this morning." His assistant said by way of explanation.

Curious, he tore it at the flap with a letter-opener. He peeped inside and saw what looked like a photograph. He reached in and pulled the contents out, several photographs. The first was a photo of Morgan's engagement ring on top of what appeared to be a copy of today's Business Times. What the hell, he thought and looked at the next photo.

It was a photo of Philip kissing a woman outside a hotel entrance. He remembered the occasion, the woman was a corporate lawyer who had been at university with him, thus the familiarity. He and two partners were meeting businessmen from Thailand in the hotel and Carry had handled the legal issues. He didn't understand the purpose of the photo and flipped to the next one.

He felt like he had been kicked in the balls. It was a photo of his daughter. She was asleep in her bed when the photo was taken.

"Fuck." He blurted when he could breathe again.

There were three more photo's, different photo's of him with three other women. All of which were innocent. He looked back over the photo's - they were innocent, but if Morgan saw them she wouldn't think so, she hadn't met any of the women. His first priority though, was his daughter.

He called his wife.

"Morgan! Where's Andrea?"

"At school, don't speak to me like that!"

"Pick. Her. Up. Now."

"No. Why?"

"Somebody sent me blackmail photo's. I'm on my way home. Pick Andrea up now Morgan - I'm serious."

As he spoke he had grabbed his jacket and car keys and was half- running to the elevator.

"Oh God, someone followed me yesterday." She said.

"Getting in the lift, signal's going, I'm on my way." Philip said and ended the call.

He made it home in record time, Morgan had collected Andrea and was sitting in the livingroom with her. When Philip entered she looked at him worriedly. Philip glanced at Andrea then looked at Morgan again.

"Andrea sweetheart, why don't you see if Ingrid has a treat for you?"

Andrea was puzzled by both her mother and her father's behaviour.

"Are you going to fight?" She asked.

"No baby." Morgan said.

Andrea accepted it with a shrug and set off to find Ingrid.

"Study." Philip said and they went into the study, he shut the door behind them.

"Someone sent these to me this morning. Where's your ring?" Philip asked and Morgan's head snapped up from the envelope on the desk.

"I was going to tell you..."

"It's missing?"

"Misplaced."

Philip took out the first photo and gave it to Morgan. She looked at it and then sat back heavily in her chair.

"Nevermind that, that's nothing, look at this." Philip showed her the photo of their daughter.

"No." She looked him with panic in her eyes.

Philip nodded. "Whoever took this was in our house, when we were sleeping."

"Oh God, no."

"I'll bet we're going to get more photos. Until I find them, we're going to take precautions. They also sent these." He said and passed her the rest.

"You can either take my word for it or not believe me, I really don't care. Those are all businesswomen. That woman Carry - I saw fifteen months ago when we did the Thai deal. Whoever this is has been following me or both of us for more than a year."

"I've been trying to tell you, somebody followed me yesterday."

Philip sat back and looked at Morgan, he decided he would have to tell her.

"I know about him, Tom saw him as well."

"You knew and you didn't tell me?" There was a flash of anger in her eyes.

"I hired him. I think you're having an affair, so I hired him to follow you. Right now, I couldn't care -"

"I am not having an affair! You are!"

"No - I am not! I swear!"

They locked eyes with each other and both held the stare.

"Why do you think I'm having an affair?" Morgan asked still holding Philip's eyes.

"I overheard you on the phone a month ago, you said 'He doesn't suspect anything'. You've been meeting Charlie a lot the past month as well."

Morgan smiled a little. "You've been 'working' late for more than a week." She said, making quotation marks in the air.

"It was that idiot's suggestion to catch you cheating, I've been at the club drinking every night."

Morgan nodded it was time she told him.

"I'm - we're; Charlie and I are looking for the Don Quixote manuscript. I wanted to buy it for your birthday."

"What?" Philip asked, that was unexpected.

"You heard me." She said.

Philip shook his head as if he was waking up.

"Ummm...." He shrugged then sighed heavily. "I'm sorry." He said.

"I'm sorry too." She felt so foolish.

"Looks like we're both idiots, but that's not the priority right now." He blushed at his own incorrect assumptions.

Now that the secrets were out and they were on the same page Philip phoned their lawyer and friend Ryan and asked him to come over. As they waited Morgan checked on Andrea and Ingrid, who assured her the doors were locked. Philip checked the downstairs windows and sent Ada to check the upstairs.

They met in the study again.

"Drink?" Philip asked going to the bar built into a shelf.

"Please." Morgan said.

He poured the drinks then joined her on the couch.

"I'm scared." She said.

"So am I. I wish Ryan would get here, I'll feel much better with professional security."

"Where's the guy you hired?"

"Fired. For heaven sake, Tom spotted him. He's not even a deterrent."

"I'm horny." Morgan looked at Philip.

He grinned. "So am I. How's that for timing?" He said and they both chuckled.

**********************

A few hours later they had discussed the photos at length with a man called Garber whom Ryan had brought along. Garber made some calls and then the Buchanan's formally hired his company. They set up camp both inside the house and somewhere outside. Garber explained the rules they would have to abide by so that they could be properly guarded. At long last the meeting was over and Philip and Morgan found themselves alone.

They looked at each other and Philip asked, "Still horny baby?"

Morgan looked at him demurely.

Philip took her by the hand and wordlessly led the way upstairs to their bedroom. He locked the door behind them.

"What do you want to do to me?" She asked with a seductive smile.

"Everything." He said and folded her in his arms.

She closed her eyes and felt his lips searching for hers. He licked her lower lip and she opened her mouth to taste him.

She licked his teeth as she felt his tongue gently entering her mouth. Her hand slid up his back to his shoulder and he lifted one hand to her hair, digging into it and pulling her body closer to his as he kissed her more desperately.

Their tongues glided over one another, tasting each other. Morgan teased him, pulling her tongue back into her mouth. Philip found her tongue and coaxed it back into his mouth. Again their tongues touched and swirled around each other. Philip's free hand had been busy in the meantime, he'd pulled her blouse loose and had pulled her bra cup down under one breast. He was running his thumb back and forth over her nipple while cupping the underside of her breast.

"I know what you want." She whispered in his ear, then she licked his ear all round and nibbled on his ear lobe.

"What do I want?" He whispered back.

"Do you want me to show you, or tell you?" She teased.

"Show me." Came the soft reply.

She lifted her arms and Philip pulled her blouse off. He reached behind her back and unclasped her bra, which Morgan hurriedly pulled off.