I adjusted the dimension of the wall on the computer monitor in front of me. I glanced up at the TV screen when I heard the news anchor talking about a murder committed in nearby Ocala. The first thing I saw was a long view showing Sally, my wife, and David, my best friend, stepping from a motel door in the background. She had left work early to do some shopping and he was supposed to be in Gainesville checking on a jobsite. I was stunned. What the hell was this?
All sorts of possibilities entered my head. I knew I couldn't accuse them of anything without solid proof. This was a total surprise to me. My wife and I had been married for 14 years and Dave and his wife had been close friends for ten years. Dave, Sally, and I were in business together. We had started an architectural service together. We worked closely together and David Forester, and his wife Mary, were our best friends after hours, we saw each other socially several times a month.
I have a degree in Architecture and do the designs. Sally runs the business end of the firm while Dave works mostly in the field, checking that things are being done correctly according to my plans. We did well until four years ago. I won a prestigious award for the design of a City Hall for a local city. Suddenly we had inquiries from all over. We had quadrupled the size of our staff and I now had 12 other architects working for me. We had just moved into a new building we had built for ourselves. The building was 7 stories tall and our offices took up the whole top floor. The most of the rest of the building was rented and the rents paid the mortgage with a nice profit left over. We had each put up money in the beginning. I had invested 50%, Sally 25% and Dave put up the balance.
I had about 20 major designs in progress at that time and worked long, long hours. I was way ahead of schedule and was planning to slow down soon.
That afternoon's surprise had me very confused. I didn't know what to think. I knew the passion between Sally and I had waned a bit during the last several years because of the long hours I was putting in. I would have bet everything I owned that Sally loved me dearly and was true to me. Our sex life was sporadic but I thought it was adequate.
I thought about what I had seen. George Shelton, my old college buddy, was the assistant manager of the TV Station. I had my secretary get him on the phone for me. He owed me some big time favors from years before. I asked if he could get me a DVD of the News show from that afternoon. He said that was a small thing and he would have it delivered to my office within an hour. I called Sally at four as was my habit no matter where we were if we were apart. She seemed to be happy to hear from me and told me she had bought a nice flank steak and had called Mary and invited she and Dave for dinner so I would need to get home in time to get the grill going. She said she was planning dinner for 6:30 or 7.
It wasn't a few minutes later that my intercom buzzed and the receptionist informed me that she had a small package addressed to Mr. John Nelson. Shortly the DVD was delivered to my office. I put it on and after viewing it three times, I was convinced I had seen what I thought I saw. What I hadn't seen before was that prior to my attention being drawn to the program there was a shot of Dave and Sally kissing inside the door to room 116. They were in plain view behind the reporter describing the area where the murder had occurred several hours prior to that. Another shot showed the name of the Motel, although I recognized it anyway. I had designed the remodel several years ago.
I knew Tom Noble, the owner of the Nobility Motel and I called him and we talked about all the excitement there. I asked if he had surveillance video of that area near room 115 to 118. He said that the police had taken copies of the video of that area of the motel and were very happy with the quality of the pictures. I asked if he knew Dave and he said they had talked on the phone but had never met in person. I told him I was interested looking at those shots. He said we could view them anytime I wanted to see them. He would leave instruction to the desk clerks to give me access to anything I wanted to see. I asked if I could view them in about 15 minutes and he said, "Hey! John, that is no problem the DVDs from this afternoon are in the player now."
I closed down my big computer that I used with my CAD programs. I told my secretary that I was going home a bit early and for her to notify security when the last person left our offices. I watched the surveillance video and saw both of their cars park in front of 116. Dave arrived first, got the key from the office then entered the room. Sally arrived a few minutes later and went right in the door. There was other traffic up and down the walk, then a man with a gun appeared running past 116 and down around the corner of the building. Then police and plain clothes officers were hurrying by carrying drawn weapons. Then all was quiet for a while. Then I saw the TV crew set up and the reporter was visible talking while Sally and Dave kissed in the door and left. I had the clerk make me a copy. I ran the video to the section where Sally and Dave arrived and asked the clerk if he knew them.
"Why yes, I sure do, they spend at least one day or night here every week. They check in about noon and are gone in the morning. That is Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, they have been doin' that for as long as I have been here and that's two years next month. Nice folks!"
I thanked him and took the copy of the DVD and headed home. I had to decide how to play this. I could see no advantage to letting the two cheaters know I was on to them. I would have to keep cool until I had everything figured out. I was formulating a plan, it was rough as yet and I needed time.
I thought about my loving wife. She was a year younger than I and was just turning 35 and looked years younger. She worked out one or two afternoons a week. Now I had a good idea of what exercises she was doing. How could I be so stupid. Were they cheating me in other ways, like stealing money from the business? I needed a secret audit of the books somehow. Sally handled that part of the business and I had always totally trusted her. I would have to get she and Dave out of town or something and set up a forensic audit while they were away.
Then it hit me, Sally and I were supposed to go to the Southeastern Architect's Association meeting for three days the end of next week. We would take Dave and Mary with us. We had even discussed the possibility of doing that a few weeks ago.
I had to find someone I trusted. Marge my regular secretary was going on maternity leave for a month on Monday. I usually isolated myself from most of the other employees and stuck to my own work area with my assistants.
Then I thought of the new girl who had been working for several days, getting checked out by Marge. Marge was getting her ready to take over for her while she was gone on maternity leave. I had noticed that her work was excellent. She was very young and was a very pretty little girl. Marge told me she was extremely intelligent, a single mother with a 2 1/2 year old daughter and was taking college courses on several nights a week. Her name was Debbie Sommers. The few letters and notes I had dictated to her were perfect when she brought them to me.
She had even asked me the first time I met her if she could talk to me for a few minutes. She had wanted to know if there was any chance of getting the company to start a child care room in the building for people like her. She said she thought many of the workers would be much more comfortable having their children close by.
Debbie presented her case very calmly and intelligently, explaining the advantages to the companies in the building. She had the names of the workers from all the companies who wanted such a facility, she had the estimated cost for staffing attendants, and even included the rent of the only available space. This little girl had her act together. I was impressed, I told her to work on her idea some more and had talked the idea over with Sally and Dave. They both thought it was a good idea. Sally was going to meet with all the tenants and sound them out about splitting the costs of the project. I hadn't heard back from Sally as yet.
I needed to talk some with Debbie. I would have plenty of opportunity for the next month when she would be in and out of my private office every day. I thought about Sally, what had happened to us. I could still not believe this woman was only pretending when she was such a passionate lover. She was always happy, she would come in my office several times a day and kiss me lovingly and tell me she loved me. No one was that good an actor, where they?
