Something had changed in Steve's elemental persona since Julia had left him in the kitchen that morning. As she studied the situation, her hauteur lifted momentarily.
"What's gotten into you, Steve?" she asked cautiously, examining his face to detect any nuance that would revive her advantage.
Clearly a degree of existential momentum had shifted to Steve at some point during the day. But she could not assess the new balances of power sufficiently to dash boldly forward hoping to crush his resistance as usual.
Dr. Julia Harvey, adultress and malfeasant extraordinaire, enforced zero tolerance when forced to associate with men like her husband who settled for the mean rather than take unjustifiable risks in seeking to impress the gamblers in their professions.
Before she could insist that Steve account for his newly discovered aplomb, her cell vibrated and she could see that Jeffery Alexander was the caller. She abruptly retreated to the kitchen as she put the cell to her ear and answered.
Without preamble Jeffery began to unload his rapidly mushrooming troubles. Julia sucked in her breath contemptuously and slapped him through the phone.
"Get hold of yourself, Jeff!," she commanded. He fell silent and she softened her voice as she seized the initiative.
"Why are you hiding in the kitchen," Steve called to her from the livingroom, his light mood deceptive. "It would be in your best interests to get back in here and talk to your husband."
Julia ignored Steve's interruption as she began to
perceive the implications of Jeffery's plight.
"It's ten minutes 'til six, Jeff," she warned almost whispering.
They must not fail to please their benefactors in the the progressive scheme to build a world class medical center and research institute. Of course if in their zealous public service they enriched themselves, such was fate.
In any event, she counseled sagely, they must not jeopardize their one chance to grab the gold ring.
"Things here at the office are on their way to hell, Jules, and I can forget about having a home," Jeffery whimpered. "There's no way I can get away from my attorneys before eight o'clock, Jules."
"Are you going wimpy on me, Jeff?" she asked with cold overtones.
After a long pause, Julia had calculated a tactical course of action.
"We can't be an hour late for the meeting at the farm," she answered thoughtfully. "So! Our only option is for me go alone and meet them as they have almost demanded."
"No!" Jeffery responded. "That's foolhardy."
Jeffery considered the unscheduled nature of the meeting at the Miles Farm to be a cause for the ultimate in caution. Though straining his credulity with all his might, Jeffery could not warm to persons Julia considered to be her "benefactors."
Julia's assiduous lover could qualify as a replacement for her husband, but, incredibly, he had not cleared all of the hurdles in seizing a fortune. He could not offer a cogent statement to support his persistent doubts about the global financiers attempting to mastermind the building of the most ambitious public service edifice since The Garden of Eden. But he had intended to drive to a wooded area along Miles Road about a mile from the farm house and proceed on foot to make a covert inspection of the scene inside and outside the house.
Derisive laughter erupted from Julia as Jeffery stated his reasons for his discomfort with the meeting. Of course, Jeffery, weary from an afternoon of threats and belligerence, withdrew his objections to her going to the meeting alone.
"James Bond you are not!" Julia hooted. "If you had reason to believe we were dealing with killer racketeers, Jeff, you should have warned before we signed on to their scheme."
"Yeah! I know," Jeffery agreed, "it's a little late to think about that now."
"I consider it worth the risk, Jeff," she said after awhile. "I want that money, Jeff!"
"Okay! Do what you think best, Jules," he sighed. "Sorry! I've got to go now but I'll get out there as soon as I can. Okay?"
"I suppose it will have to be okay," she said, her voice low and without conviction. Then she forced a flare of confidence and assured him that, "We're acting like sophomores planning our first orgy."
With just a hint of bravado, she told him that they soon would be grinning into their mai tais somewhere on a peaceful Pacific beach while they counted collective $10 million. She paused for effect, but Jeffery remained silent.
"Cheer up!" she commanded. "All is well, and we're about to be rich."
As she ended the exchange with an effort to break Jeffery out of his defeatist mood, the line went dead. Jeffery was no longer there, and she had only a brief moment to turn her attention to an analysis of her husband's antagonistic behavior.
Defanging this particular Lion King in his own recliner should pose no problem. She glanced at her watch. She had only seconds to deflate her husband's renewed ego. It was now 6:07. She turned on her heel and strode with determination from the kitchen through the diningroom and into the livingroom.
Steve was not in his recliner and the TV and table lamps were off. She shouted up the stairs that she wanted him to come down to hear her parting remarks; but Steve was not in the house.
Weathering an unaccustomed moment of frustration, she retrieved her Mercedes keys from her purse, tucked the purse under her arm and literally trotted to the driveway. As she slid into the Mercedes, she noted that Steve's pickup was missing.
As she eased the Mercedes out of the driveway into the street, Julia calculated that she had just enough time to stop at Victoria's Secret in the mall and still get to the Miles farm house by the specified time.
Replacing the missing lavender blue panties was mandatory. Steve was weak, but she would not seek to better herself at this time. She must delay until she and Jeffery Alexander could score in the fantastic opportunity presented by their service on the hospital board.
Brilliance seldom makes much difference in the real world. For instance, Dr. Julia Harvey could command $2500 for a lecture at a Las Vegas convention, but she could not divine the fact that her husband, Steve, was tailing her without making much of an effort at deception.
Steve watched as Julia eased the Mercedes into a parking space 50 feet from the north entrance to the mall and entered the massive business center on the run. He Parked a few rows farther away from the entrance and relaxed to await her return.
Steve knew without resorting to reason or logic that his wife was patronizing Victoria's Secret.
This knowledge had a mixed effect on the devastated husband of a most arrogant and disrespectful wife.
Soon she returned carrying a small package. Steve cranked up his Ford 250 and idled as she slid under the wheel of the Mercedes and soon accelerated onto the southbound Interstate. Steve was close behind her making no effort to avoid detection.
In the Mercedes, however, Julia was beginning to second guess herself. What did she know about her rich but strange co-conspirators? Only that they have money and have promised her $5 million for her vote on the three-seat hospital board.
"I could be consorting with wild dogs in a snake pit for all I know," she muttered, initiating a belated analysis of the four swarthy individuals that she had met and could identify.
Exit 219 was coming up fast. Slowing to make the left turn off the exit ramp onto the country road, she was aware of two sets of headlights behind her. This road was designated on the county map as only a four digit number, but two miles east of the Interstate, Miles Road would intersect the county road.
"I think the Miles farm house is about half a mile north on Miles Road from the intersection with the county Road. She noted that the area featured many
acres of stands of trees and a substantial percentage of the land had not been cleared of shrubs and wild berry briars.
Suddenly her adrenal gland began to work overtime when she saw the small sign located at the intersection with Miles Road. Slowing to a walking pace, she hesitated to make the turn, knowing that the turn in for the Miles farm house would be only a few hundred feet in front of her.
In the rear view mirror, she saw headlights a quarter of a mile behind her, but the glare suddenly was extinguished as she watched. She dismissed the thought of anyone behind her as she turned in to Miles Road and immediately saw the entry road for the farm house.
