Harrassment

Thanks to the knee doctor for editing assistance.
There is no sex in this story. Sorry.

I am a country boy. My name is Bill Carlson. I have an Associate Degree in Animal Husbandry, and all I ever wanted was to own my own feed store and raise a family.

After finishing junior college, I married my high school sweetheart, Janice. We grew up together, and she was the only girl I ever imagined myself living with. She was a pretty, brunette, and had a nice body even after having two boys. I was proud to have her as my wife, and would do anything for her.

Janice had one problem. She envied people who lived the high life. She read the society pages in the paper, and subscribed to all the magazines that covered the "beautiful people." When she went to the dentist's office she would read the automobile magazines, and she was familiar with all the fancy cars. She knew all the designers, and was familiar with their clothing lines. She wanted to be someone more than anything, and I wasn't able to provide that for her.

I took a job in Omaha at a fancy feed store that catered to the yuppie trade. This allowed us to be closer to the big city, and I could still work at what I loved. I liked my job and was good at it. I was able to give the customers special treatment, and the company rewarded my efforts by giving me flex time. Janice liked living in the city better than country live and was happy for a while. When she decided to go to work, we had to start putting the kids in day care, but they didn't seem to mind.

Janice had a job with a medical equipment firm called Gilbert Medical. They manufactured syringes and other medical supplies. It was an office job, and she seemed to be happy because it allowed her to dress up and meet people who weren't farmers. She worked hard and seemed to lose interest in our home life. I ended up taking care of the boys most of the time. I would drop them off at the day care center, and pick them up after work. I fed them and usual got them ready for bed. I even made the meals and ended up cleaning the house most of the time. She did the laundry, taking care that all her clothing was ironed perfectly.

We had been putting money aside every month so that down the line I would be able to buy my own feed store. Now it seemed even with her working, we were no longer able to save anything. The day care took some of the money, but most of it was going for trips to the beauty shop, nail salons, and expensive clothing stores. I had a hard time understanding how we could have two jobs and save less money. She refused to discuss it, and became very defensive and upset when I brought it up. After a while, I stopped even mentioning it. I did however open another savings account which I could keep separate.

She started working overtime. She started having private phone calls. She became less attentive in bed. She wanted a newer and fancier car. She even talked about getting breast implants. There was no doubt in my mind that my wife was having an affair. I may be a simple country boy, but I wasn't dumb. At this point, I didn't even want to save the marriage, I just wanted to get everything straightened out and move on before it was too late.

It was hard to pin anything down, because I didn't associate with the people she worked with, but I was pretty sure that if something was going on, it was with somebody at work.

I worked with a couple of good guys. They were not very educated, but they worked hard. My job made me their boss, but I never played the "boss card." The work always seemed to get done without having to order them around. Everyone knew what was required and we all worked together. The guys appreciated this, and it made for a good relationship. Roy and Freddy were going to be valuable allies in my plan.

I had noticed on Wednesdays that Janice always put on fancy underwear and her best outfits. She seemed to take more time getting ready for work. I figured that would be a good time for me to start. I told the guys what was going on, and they arranged to take care of my deliveries and appointments that day. I parked by the entrance to the Gilbert Medical plant parking lot. It gave me a good chance to catch up on some technical reading that I was behind on. At about 11AM, Janice came out and got into her car. She wasn't too hard to follow, and in a few minutes she parked at the Holiday Inn lot. She parked at the west end of the lot, far from the office. A few minutes later, a guy pulled up in a red Corvette and parked at the east end of the lot. I didn't recognize the car, but when he got out, Janice got out of hers. They walked to an outside room on the first floor, number 117: and then they went in. He already had the key. My heart dropped, and I felt a little sick in the stomach. All I did was confirm my suspicions. I had no idea what I would do next.

I decided to leave and go back to work. I would take my time planning my next step. Before leaving the parking lot, I got out of the truck and snipped two of her valve stems with my baling wire cutters, one in front, and one in back. I was a little pissed off. I don't know why I didn't clip a few of his also.

The rest of the day dragged on extremely slowly. I picked up the kids after work, went home, and fixed supper. When she came in, I asked, how her day was, and she said OK except that she had a flat tire. One of the guys at worked changed it for her. Nothing else was ever said about it.

The next morning, I drove by the plant after dropping the boys off at the day care. It didn't take me long to locate the red Corvette. As luck would have it, the guy had a reserved parking spot with a sign. I wrote it down, "Ken Beauchamp, distribution manager."

Roy's wife also worked at Gilbert in the personnel department. By that afternoon, I knew everything there was about good old Ken. The most important thing was that he was already married. He had received a reprimand for making sexual suggestions to one of the employees, and had a few problems with his expense accounts. I got his address, phone number, cell phone number, and even his SSN, but I didn't know what I would do with this information. He was married for eight years and his wifes name was Amy. We put in a good days work and Roy, Freddy, and I had time for one beer before I had to get the kids. I still wasn't sure what I was going to do, but I was sure it would come together soon. I was trying to stay calm and logical about the situation, but I was really getting madder and madder every day. Once in a while, I found myself silently crying. I was hurt and felt like I couldn't fix myself. Having to live with Janice was getting more difficult for me. I just wanted it to end.

I got another lucky break the next day when I remembered that one of my best customers, Marge Gilbert, was the wife of the Gilbert Medical company president. I never met him, but she and I got along great. I was being especially friendly with Marge, trying to figure out if I could use our relationship to my advantage, when Marge's daughter Cindy came over. Cindy was in her last year of Vet school. Marge went into the barn to do some work, and Cindy and I talked for about an hour. I enjoyed my time with her and felt a little guilty after I left but it passed quickly.

That weekend, I spent some time in the garage doing some welding. I took a small piece of flat steel and welded four sharp points to it. I made the points out of concrete nails so that they were really hard and stiff. The plate was about 6 by 6, and it was going to be my first step at getting my revenge by harassment.

I saw Marge again on Tuesday. I was moping around a little while unloading the order, just not my jolly self. It got her attention.

"Bill, what's the matter today? Why so gloomy?"

"I have some personal problems, Marge. Sorry, I'm not good company today."

"Lets get some coffee and you can tell me about it."

We walked back to the house, and sat down in the kitchen. It looked like the inside of a restaurant. Everything was stainless steel and granite. It was like a magazine. I thought to myself, Janice would love this. Marge set the coffee down and just leaned forward and said: "Well?"

"How can you help me, Marge?"

"Well, I don't know unless you tell me the problem."

I really didn't want to talk to her about it, but finally decided maybe it could help.

"My wife, Janice, works at Gilbert Medical, and I think she is being coerced into having sex with one of her bosses, but I can't prove anything."

"Why do you think this is going on?"

"Little things mostly, but last week I found them both together at the Holiday Inn. My wife doesn't realize I know, and I don't know how to bring up the subject. I don't know if this is something she is being made to feel obligated to do, or if it is something she wants to do. Our family life has deteriorated to the point where she doesn't seem to care about the children or me. She appears to be keeping it a secret, and that is what really bothers me."

"Who's the guy?"

"I think his name is Ken Beauchamp. I don't know if Janice works for him, or if they work in different parts of the plant. I never met him."

"Do you want me to see if I can help?'

I paused a little and lowered my head. "If you think something could be done quietly, I would be glad to try it, but I don't want to raise a big stink."

"OK, let me look into it. I'll see you next Thursday with that delivery of oats."

I thanked her, and as I got up to leave, I asked, "Where is Cindy?"

"Back at school. She'll be home this weekend. Why don't you bring the boys up so she can meet them?"

Wow, this turned out far better than I expected. I am sure Janice will have no problem letting me take the boys on an outing. It might be a good weekend.

The next morning it was pouring rain. Janice dressed carefully for her special day again, and I said nothing while I watched. After dropping the kids off at the day center, I stopped by work. The guys were all set up to cover my morning shifts for me. Roy was going to use my truck, make my deliveries, and the log entries. I would initial all the entries after the times when I got back to work. Freddy brought his cousin's van to work, and I loaded a floor jack in back of it. We had fastened my steel plate to the lift of the jack. We got all the trucks loaded, and after they took off for their deliveries, I left for the Holiday Inn.

Right on time, Janice pulled in and parked in the same spot she did before. Ken was a few moments behind her, and also parked in the same spot he did before. After they went into the room, I gave them about ten minutes to get settled in. I removed the jack from the back of the van in the pouring rain, and wheeled it down to Ken's car. I slid the jack under his engine block, and jacked it up. It took only a few seconds till I heard the pop sound as the nails punctured the oil pan. I dropped it down, and moved to the back of the Corvette. A few seconds later, I heard the same pops go into the fuel tank. Oil and gas were streaming out. I took the jack back to the van. The whole thing took less than a minute. I walked down to Janice's car, and cut slices in two valve stems again. By then, I was ready to leave. I drove past Ken's car, flicked a lit cigarette out the window, and drove off. In my rear view window I saw the flames shoot up and a few seconds later heard the explosion as I left the lot. I felt better.

Janice came home from work a little late. She didn't eat any supper, and went right to bed. I played with the boys a while, gave them a bath, and tucked them in. I slept on the couch that night. Janice stayed in bed the next morning while I got the boys ready for day care. We ate breakfast and left. She never got up. She never said anything. I didn't ask. Her car wasn't in the driveway.

About 9 AM, after we got all the trucks loaded, I got a visit from police Lieutenant John Fritz. He was a friendly enough fellow.

"Tell me about your work schedule yesterday."

"Just normal deliveries, nothing special. Why?"

"Can you account for your time around noon?"

I went into the office, and got the delivery logs from the previous day. I laid them in front of him. Each stop had the location, item delivered, time unloaded, and my initials.

He smiled and snickered a little. "That's a pretty good log. Do you guys do that every day?"

"Would you like to see the logs for the last month?"

He shook his head NO, and smiled again. I didn't know if I should feel good or bad.

"Would you like to tell me what this is about?"

He seemed to be reluctant to go into details, but finally he opened up. "There was a car damaged yesterday at the Holiday Inn in east Omaha, and we are trying to find out if anyone knew anything about it."

"Why me?"

"Well another car that was near the damaged one had two valve stems cut. The car belonged to your wife. We were wondering if it was a coincidence or not."

"First off, I don't know what my wife's car was doing in the Holiday Inn parking lot, and second, what connection did she have with the damaged car?"

"The damaged car belonged to an associate that she worked with. Apparently, they had a lunch meeting with some company clients at the hotel, and everything happened while they were at lunch."

"Did you talk to the people they had lunch with?'

" No. They couldn't remember their names."

"Do you want to level with me, or are we going to play games all morning?"

"He leaned back in his chair and smiled. "Do you know a fellow named Ken Beauchamp?"

"Never met the man, and that is the honest truth."

"I believe you." He smiled again. "I don't like to get in the middle of domestic disputes, and hope I don't have to come see you again. Here is my card. Call me before anything else happens. OK?"

He shook my hand. "Sorry I had to bring this to your attention. If I can do anything to help, let me know. OK."

As he walked away I said. "Thanks. But you really didn't tell me anything."

"Put the pieces together."

After work, when the kids and I got home, Janice's car was in the driveway. She was dressed casually and had supper ready. She said she didn't feel well, and had called in sick. She still didn't say anything about what happened the day before, so I didn't bring it up. She went to bed early, and I took care of the boys again, and slept on the couch.

She was up and about the next day, getting ready for work, when I left with the boys for day care. After dropping them off, I went by the doctors office, and requested a check for STD's. Work was normal for a Friday. When I got home, Janice was there again. After supper, I told her that I was taking the boys to spend the next day at one of my customer's farm. I asked her if she wanted to come along, knowing full well that she would find a reason to refuse. She said she had some shopping that she wanted to do, and I didn't push it any further. I didn't care if it was shopping or a date, the results were the same.

Saturday, with Cindy and the boys at the Gilberts ranch, was great. We spent the whole day having fun. Marge made a great lunch for everyone, and I didn't want it to end. Cindy loved the boys, and they seemed to like her a lot also. Mister Gilbert wasn't there, so I still didn't get to meet him. Marge didn't say anything at all about our previous conversation, and it didn't appear that Cindy was aware of it. I hated to go home, but eventually we had to.

Janice didn't ask at all about our day. She just didn't care. The boys tried several times to tell her all the things they got to do, but she tuned them out. Eventually, they quit trying. She did ask why I wasn't sleeping in the bed anymore, and I explained that due to work problems I was tossing and turning a lot, and didn't want to disturb her sleep. That was the last she ever said about it.

The next week was totally normal. I noticed on her special day, that she didn't make any special preparations, so I assumed the tryst for the day was canceled. That was fine with me, because I had a lot of work to catch up with. I stopped in to see a divorce lawyer that I had heard about, and she gave me some handouts and brochures with lots of information. She had some fill-in-the-blank forms that looked interesting. Everything was back to normal till next Wednesday.

She started off with a morning shower and then carefully did her hair. She had new, black, sexy underwear, and a new perfume. It even looked like new shoes. I was being careful not to let her see me looking, and I rushed out with the boys. I was sure this was going to be a date day. After dropping off the boys, I went by the plant and checked his parking spot. A new Porsche Boxer was sitting in his slot. I jotted down the license number, and rushed back to work. The guys were as excited as I was about the new development. We rushed all the morning deliveries and fudged the logs again. I am sure John Fritz could see through this ruse, but we did it anyhow. We had a free and long lunchtime. Roy continued with the deliveries. Freddy stopped by the swimming pool supply store and got two big bottles of hydrochloric acid. I went to spend lunch with John Fritz.

John gave me a weird look when I walked into his office with pulled pork sandwiches, fries, and a couple of cokes. I said Hi, and sat down across from him. He knew something was up and smiled from ear to ear. I said I thought we could have lunch together and he could bring me up to date on the car damage case. I had to figure out how to keep him busy for about two hours. It was going to be a long lunch. While I was trying to be pleasant, Freddy was down at the Holiday Inn parking lot. He found the Boxer, and carefully poured acid all over the trunk, fenders, and deck. He slit the convertible top and poured acid all over the leather seats and the floor mats. The dash got a dose of acid also. For good measure, he put a box of mothballs in the gas tank. The naphtha would do a nasty job on the engine if anyone started it up. The acid that was left, was spread across the top of the tires. Before he left, he snipped the valve stems on Janice's car again. It was all over within fifteen minutes. The only bad part, was that I didn't know how long the two of them would be in the room. John and I chatted about frivolous things for the longest time, until he finally said: "What the hell are you up to?"

"Just wanted to make sure I had a good alibi in case something happened to Ken Beauchamp's car today."

"What's special about today?"

" The pulled pork sandwich was on special."

I took out my cell phone and called the day care center. "Hi Carol. This is Bill Carlson. I am going to be tied up at work this afternoon, and was hoping you could call Janice and ask her to come pick up the boys. Thanks, I really do appreciate it. You can catch her at 874-3211, extension 117. You might have to ask for her by name. Try and call as soon as possible to make sure you catch her. OK? Thanks again."

John leaned back in his chair and snickered. Boy, those pork sandwiches tasted good.

Everything was silent for a while and finally John said, "Do you think I should call Mister Beauchamp and ask how his car is?"

"Why would you want to do that?"

"You wouldn't happen to know where I could reach him do you?"

I gave him his cell number and the number of the Holiday Inn room 117. "Pick one."

John put the phone on speakerphone, and called the hotel number. After a few rings, Ken Beauchamp answered breathing heavily. "Hello, who is this?"

"Mister Beauchamp, this is detective Fritz. I was calling to let you know that we still don't have any leads on who damaged your car."

"Why are you calling here? How did you get this number?"

"I am a policeman Mister Beauchamp. Did you get a new car yet?"