A Conspiracy to Commit...

"Hello Rita, this Barry. Is Mr. Chase in? May I speak with him?" I thought that I would skip any personal pleasantries with Rita. I wanted to give the impression that I was all business this morning.

"Hello Barry, how are you today?" Rita wasn't about to let me speak to the boss until I acknowledged her presence.

"I'm doing well, Rita. Sorry about that, but my head is filled with a lot of nonsense at the moment. How are you today?" This time I put a little humor in my voice. I learned early in my business career that you do what you have to do to get what you need.

"Thanks for asking, Barry. I'm doing very well this morning. I miss seeing your smiling face around the office. Will you be coming back soon?" She never missed the opportunity to demonstrate her seat of power.

"That's what I need to talk to Mr. Chase about, Rita. Seems there are some complications that I need to discuss with him."

"I think that he might have a few minutes to talk to you, Barry. Please hold for a moment." It seems that my homage to her highness was now satisfied. The phone went on hold for a short while and then I heard Steven's voice.

"Hello, Barry. How's everything going?" Steven was always up beat whenever we talked. Even when faced with bad news, he never lost his composure.

"Good morning, Mr. Chase. Not so good, I'm afraid. There are two major problems at this time. The first has to do with the Boise operation. I have finished my report and I will be sending it to your office by courier. After you read it, if there are any questions, please call me on my cell phone." I paused in my dialog and took a deep breath. The second item would be harder for me to discuss with him.

"The second problem has to do with my wife and my marriage. I left Boise last evening on the four o'clock flight after I finished my report. Carol didn't know I was coming home early. She wasn't home when I got there." Another pause before I continued on a deep breath. "She left me a sober note. It appears that our marriage is in serious trouble. She also left a number where I should call her. I haven't done that yet because there seems to be more to this than meets the eye." This time I took a longer pause to give Steven a chance to say a word or two.

"Barry, I'm deeply sorry to hear that there is a problem between you and Carol. Does it have anything to do with your job assignments away from home?"

That question hardly needed an answer since we had previously discussed the impact the long assignments away from home were having on my marriage.

"I'm afraid it has, Mr. Chase. I told Carol that this would be my last long assignment away from home. I guess it didn't come soon enough for her."

"What are you going to do next, Barry?"

"Well, after receiving the disturbing news last night, I had my cousin Josh come over. He's a detective and I needed to get his view on the situation. Even though there isn't anything criminal involved, Josh thought that it would be better to find out more about the reasons Carol has left the house. He thinks there may be extraneous circumstances that need to be investigated before I have any dialog with Carol. I agree with him. Any conversation between Carol and I right now might bring an immediate end to our marriage." I was dancing around the provocative video that Carol had left for me to see.

"One of the things I want to do is make Carol think that I'm still in Boise and that I haven't read her note. This would give Josh a few days to check out Carol's whereabouts and see if there is anything there that I should know about before I call her."

"That sounds so covert and suspicious, Barry. Do you really think that there might be anything more than just a lonely wife going off somewhere?"

"That could be the extent of it, Mr. Chase. I really hope that's all this is. But, the note indicated something else. Something that might involve another person. Anyway, I would like you to cover for me, if you would." Pause. "If you would tell Rita and the others that I'm going to be stuck in Boise for a couple of more days to complete my assignment, I'd really appreciate it. Tell them I won't be at the facility, but I have some work to do in the State archives. That way, Josh can do some background checking and I won't get hit by any new surprises when Carol and I do have our conversation."

"Certainly, Barry. No problem setting up a smoke screen for you. I'll tell Rita that you'll be in Boise longer than you first thought. Just more complications up there." Steven's voice had taken on a parental tone as if a father was talking to his son.

"Thank you, sir. I don't know where this will lead or just how long it will take to resolve. I will call you in a day or so to update you on what the situation is by then." Neither of us spoke for a few seconds. Then I said. "I have to go now, Mr. Chase. I will call you soon. Thank you."

"Take care, Barry. I will cover your ass from this end. Bye." The line went dead.

I was finishing my 'good morning' breakfast as the phone rang. At first I hesitated in answering it. But, I thought that there was no way that Carol would know to call me at Josh's house.

The phone call was from Josh, telling me to take his pickup truck and go out of town and check into a hotel, anywhere within an hour's drive. He was concerned that someone from the office or the neighbourhood might see me on the street. He wanted to ensure that Carol would continue to think that I was still in Boise.

Showered and dressed, I called a courier service to take the Boise report over to Mr. Chase. At least while I'm out of pocket, he will be able to start whatever actions he felt necessary to correct the problems at the Boise facility.

After the courier left with the package, I loaded my stuff into the pickup truck and headed west out of Chicago. I thought that Elgin would be a nice place to hide out for the next couple of days. There's a nice Sheraton hotel that I stayed at during a management seminar a couple of years back. Also, there's a Riverboat Casino on the Fox River that might provide some entertainment to keep my mind off my marital problems.

I checked into the Sheraton, then called Josh and gave him the room number.

"I feel like some kind of fugitive, Josh. Or maybe even worse, more of a victim in this whole drama." My mood was not at all upbeat as Josh and I talked for a few minutes. He tried to give me some good news.

"There may be a hit on the finger prints on that DVD disc. The lab is still running the prints through the local and Federal databases. I should know something by this evening." That bit of news was encouraging.

"Any luck locating Carol's car?" I asked.

"Not so far. It may be possible that she's out of town or that her car is in some parking garage where my guys would never see it. It's a long shot that we would find it out in the open. But, since she doesn't know you're on to her at this time, maybe she'll drive around where we can find her. You never know in these types of situations what might just pop up." Josh paused for a long time and then continued.

"I'll check with Felix after we hang up and see if he is on to something. What you need to do this evening is go down to the exercise room and the swimming pool. Give yourself a good work out.

"Also, don't forget to give Carol another call. If she happens to answer, remember to stay cool. You know nothing about her affair. You're still in Boise and you'll be there in a couple more days." Pause. "If she doesn't answer just leave another message telling her how sorry you are that you're stuck in Boise."

I acknowledged Josh's suggestions. Tonight I would have a good workout down in the exercise area, have a great supper, call Carol and then get to bed. Hopefully I'll sleep as well as I did last night.

Surprising as it might sound, I completed all my 'tasks' for the evening and when I finally got into bed I went straight to sleep. My mind and body were certainly reacting very differently to this crisis than I would have imagined.

*

Chapter 5: The Casino

Wednesday morning and I slept till nine o'clock. After shaking off the sleep, I ordered up room service breakfast. Although there was a dark cloud hanging over my mind, I did not feel angry or depressed. Maybe it was the fact that I hadn't confronted Carol yet. Once that happens, god only knows where my head and emotions will be. I shook those thoughts out of my mind and headed downstairs.

It was a short drive over to the Riverboat Casino near downtown. I needed something to occupy me for the long day ahead. A poker game would be just the remedy that I needed.

When I was in college, I discovered that I was a very good poker player. There was something like a sixth sense that I had about the cards and the other players around the table. I seemed to instinctively know when to push a hand or when to fold a hand. It was a very rare occurrence that I would leave the table with less money than when I sat down to play.

It took a lot of self-control in those days not to take my poker playing to an obsessive level. I did not want to become a compulsive gambler, no matter how good I thought I was with a deck of cards. But now, with all this chaos going on in my life, it seemed like a good time to be obsessive about something. I smiled to myself as I headed toward the card tables. I didn't want to do the high stakes games, at least not yet. I was here for the entertainment and hopefully to keep my mind off of Carol.

It didn't take long to realize that 'the touch' was still with me. Hand after hand, I was able to maximize a good hand and only take a small hit for a bad hand. I played with the same group for three hours and then it was time for a lunch and nature break. I was feeling more alive as I walked around the open deck. There was almost two thousand more dollars in my pocket than there was when I stepped on board. Smiling to myself, I thought that after two more hours it would be time to leave.

Those were another productive two hours. I walked off the boat with a little more than thirty two hundred dollars. I was finally feeling good about something for the first time in about twenty hours.

*

Chapter 6: The Strange Phone Call

Driving back to the hotel, I thought that a hot bath and a great dinner would be a nice way to end this day. My cell phone began to ring as I was entering the room. I looked at the incoming phone number, and the prefix was that of our corporate phone system. I answered it.

"Hello."

"Hi Barry, this is Phil. Phil Bogan from Strategic Planning. How are you tonight?" The voice on the other end was a total surprise. Phil Bogan was not a person with whom I had dealt with often at work. His department was out of my realm of contacts. I had met him several times at a couple of Board meetings but we had never had any real interactions.

"As good as could be expected, Phil. What can I do for you?"

"Nothing in particular, Barry. Mr. Chase told the staff meeting today that you would be stuck in Boise for several more days. I just thought that was going to be kind of rough on you." His voice sounded fake and contrived.

"I guess it goes with the territory. Sometimes they're easy and other times you catch a hard one. At least, I have a good handle on this one and it should be resolved in a few more days. But thanks for asking." My mind was racing, trying to figure out why Phil Bogan would want to call me. It didn't make any sense.

"Hey, maybe we could catch a beer or something after you get back?"

"That might work. I'll call you when I get back in the office. Sorry, but I have to go right now."

"Ok. See you when you get back. Bye."

"Bye."

I hung up the phone and sat back trying to make some sense out of the Phil's phone call. Was it just some kind of coincidence? Who was the famous philosopher who said that, 'There is no such thing as a coincidence.'? As I sat there mulling over all the possibilities, the cell phone rang again. It was Josh's office number calling.

"Hello."

"Hey Barry, how's your day going?" Josh had a strong voice.

"I'm doing damn good. I had a good night's sleep and then I went to the Casino to play some poker. Right now I'm thirty two hundred dollars richer. Not a bad day, wouldn't you say?" I tried to keep my voice upbeat.

"That is damn good! I guess Felix and I will have to come out there and have you buy us a steak and lobster dinner."

"Well, you better hurry. I'm getting pretty damn hungry and there's a great place to get a steak in this town. How long do you think it will take you to get here?"

"I just called Felix. I'm on my way over to pick him up. We should be there in less than an hour. Do you want us to meet you some place other than the hotel?"

"Good idea. Why don't you meet me at the Fin and Feather on route 25. I'll be in the lounge talking to Jack Daniel's until you two show up. Don't get any speeding tickets." I laughed as we hung up.

*

Chapter 7: Detective Work

I was on my second double JD when Josh and Felix entered the restaurant. I got up as they walked toward me. "Our table is waiting, gentlemen. And I'm about to fall over from hunger." I said to them as we started to walk toward the dining area.

The dinner was splendid, just what I needed. A bottle of good wine was great with our steaks. When we were finished eating, we walked to the back patio and sat down to enjoy some fresh evening air. Josh was the first to speak.

"Seems we all had a very good day today. You at the poker table, Felix and I doing our gum-shoe sleuthing. First, those fingerprints came through for us. We now know the name of the man in the video." Josh said in a monotone voice. No emotion, no enthusiasm, just the facts. "His name is Les Snyder. He has a long rap sheet. He's a real con artist, mainly preying upon unsuspecting women. There are no arrest warrants out for him at this time, but the police in Lake Tahoe and Vegas would like to talk to him. They have him listed as a person-of-interest."

Josh was fingering his napkin as he spoke slowly. "He has a dozen aliases, his last one was Luke Simms. I'm not sure if he's using that one now or if he's created a new name while he's in our town." Josh then nodded to Felix.

"The second good news that Josh wanted me to tell you, is that I located where your wife is staying. Just before noon, a patrol car spotted her car driving into the Fairfield Mall. They got the license plate number and watched her park near the West entrance. Once they called it in to the station, Josh called me and gave me the details. I drove out to the mall and parked next to her car. With a quick sleight of hand, I managed to attach a tracking device to the bottom of her car. Then I waited inside the entrance door. After another half hour, I finally saw your wife leave the store with a man and get into her car. I thought it strange, but the guy made her drive." Felix took a sip of his iced tea and nodded to me as he continued.

"That tracking device has a two- to three-mile range, so I didn't have to follow them too closely. The signal led me to a house in Elmwood. A two-story house in a quiet neighborhood. I didn't see her car parked on the street or in the driveway, but the signal was very strong so the car must have been in the garage at the rear of the house. There was no one outside and no sign of anything unusual.

"When Josh and I go back to the city, I'll pay a visit to the house and see if anything is different and if the signal still is at that location." Felix smiled and ended his comments.

Now some of the facts were starting to fall into place. Carol had hooked up with a con man and right now she is with him being his fuck slut. God! How could this happen? What went wrong? Was it all because I was away from her so much on business? I thought she understood and that we were now going to build a better life for ourselves since my road trips were at an end.

"Since we're dealing with a con man here, Barry, I think it would be a very good idea if you were to get your finances out of Carol's reach. I would suspect that Les has his eyes on your bank and credit accounts. Sometime, somehow he will get Carol to hand over all of your money to him. One way to thwart his con game is to take away any access that she might have to your funds." Josh was back into his serious cop role. I hadn't thought of a con game as a root cause of this crisis, but maybe it was just that he had targeted Carol with the intent of seducing her and then conning her out of our savings.

"Damn! That could be the key to this whole mess. A con game! I'll go online and make all the necessary transfers to put the money out of Carol's reach. That will be done before I go to bed tonight." My mind was going at a hundred miles an hour as it was trying to work out a rational explanation based on the information that Josh and Felix had just given me. Felix spoke up again.

"One other thing, Barry. This afternoon, before I got the call about Carol's car, I went over to your house disguised as a TV service man and I installed a couple of remote control hidden cameras. One of those cameras is mounted near the front door with a motion sensor that will turn it on if it detects any movement at your front door. The other camera is in the hallway and it is also triggered by a motion and sound sensor. If Carol, or anyone else returns to the house, the cameras will record the time and give visual images. Just another precaution to alert us if something unusual takes place before you make contact with her." Felix looked at me in a way to bolster my confidence, knowing that I would not get blindsided again by my wife. I nodded my head in approval. Words were not necessary.

The three of us got up and were walking out to the parking lot when the thought hit me. 'Phil Bogan's phone call.'

"Hey guys, wait a minute. I have to tell you about a strange call I got today. It was later this afternoon, I left the Casino and got back to my hotel room when I got a call from a person at corporate headquarters. A guy named Phil Bogan.

"What's really strange about the call was, that I hardly have any dealings with Phil. His group deals with strategic planning and has nothing to do with the job I do at the company. When he called, he asked me if I were going to be in Boise for a few more days. He said that Mr. Chase had mentioned my staying in Boise during a staff meeting. I don't know why Mr. Chase would have done that, telling Rita would have been enough." My statement stopped the two of them in their tracks. Another piece of the puzzle may have just dropped on the table.

"Tell me more about this guy...this Phil Bogan." Josh asked, as he looked hard into my face.

"Not much to tell. I've been in several meetings with him over the past four years. Nothing passed between us. There was nothing I had to add to his operation, and likewise he had nothing to add to mine. I did peg him as a Teflon-coated ladder climber. He struck me as a sly conniving preppie survivor." My words probably did not paint a good picture of Phil, but it was all I could think of at the time.

Both men nodded as we patted each other on the shoulders. Then they got into their car and I walked over to the pick up truck. 'Phil Bogan...' the thought would not leave my mind.

When I got back to the hotel room I immediately went on line with my laptop and pulled up our bank accounts. I moved all of the money out of the checking and savings accounts to a new account with my signature only. Then I called the credit card companies, canceling the joint credit cards that we have. I knew that Carol had two credit cards in her name only, so as long as she didn't try to use our common credit cards or try to access the bank accounts, the secret would remain intact and she would go on thinking that all was well.