MONDAY MORNING, CONTINUED.
After Steve's stunning confession and the shock of the video that he showed me, I wasn't sure what to do. I just needed to think. I got up from the table and poured another whiskey, neat. I slammed it and left the room. I circled around in the living room a bit in small circles and thought about what to do next. It took about five minutes to develop a plan.
I walked calmly back into the kitchen, pulled back my chair and sat down.
"Steve, here is what we are going to do. And you are going to do everything that I say."
Steve nodded. Of course he was going to do everything I said. He really screwed up and owed me.
"First, show me the app that you have on your phone. Here is my phone. Upload the app, asshole." I demanded.
Steve took my phone and added the app. It only took a minute or so.
"Now, open up the app on my phone and log in with your password. Okay, now show me how to change the password."
Steve showed me how and I changed the password to something completely different.
"Now, delete the app off your phone. You are going to continue paying for the app and cloud server until I tell you to stop. I also want you to go home and delete every copy you may have of all of the videos. Got it?"
"Yes... yes ... yes. I can do that." Steve stammered.
I could tell he had no idea what I was up to.
"And there is one more thing" I added. "I am going to send you papers on e-mail to deed over your part of the cabin to me. Same with Sherry. I am going to do that tonight and I want notarized originals on my doorstep by noon tomorrow."
"But Chad, we spent a fortune to buy the cabin and fix it up." Steve protested.
"Do you want to go to prison, Steve?" I was leaning towards him and staring him down. "I'll be glad to go down and file a police report right now, if that is the way you want to handle this."
"Okay, okay. We'll do it. Fuck Chad, you are brutal."
Steve got up to leave.
"Wait, there's more. When you get home, I want you to draw a map of the cabin and specifically identify where you have hidden the cameras. Then leave the map with the deeds on my doorstep.
Steve turned to head for the front door.
"Wait, there's more" I said.
"What? What more can you possibly want, Chad?"
"You are leaving me the keys to your BMW. Put them here on the table," I told him.
"What in the fuck, Chad? What do you need those for? How am I supposed to get home?"
"Fuck you Steve. You can walk, you asshole. The keys and the car are my insurance. Here is what you are going to do. After you delete all of the copies of the videos on your home computers, pads, phones, whatever you have, you and Sherry are going to hire a forensic computer analyst. I am going to be the one to pick which company. They are going to go through everything you have. They are going to write a report and execute an affidavit confirming that everything from the cabin has been deleted. And you are going to pay for it. And I can tell you that it will not be cheap. When you give me the report and affidavit you can have your keys back. But until then, the BMW stays here. Got it?"
Steve just stared into nothingness. He was dumbfounded. I doubt he thought he was going to come over here, confess what he had done, and leave without his car.
"Got it, you asshole?" I was not calm anymore, I needed him to agree.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it. Damn, you are a lot more ruthless than I thought."