The Caller

On Wednesday afternoon I sat in my office waiting for my caller. At 1:30 PM the phone rang.

"Have you done anything yet?" she asked as soon as I said hello.

"I have everything in hand," I said.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Sorry, I can't tell you that. I can only say that it will be over by this weekend."

She tried to question me more but I told her that was all I would say and then I hung up the phone.

*****

Thursday at three o'clock I was sitting in Brian Dunston's office at AAA Detective Agency.

"Mr. Fulton, I have what I assume is bad news for you. We caught her in the act and we have the evidence to prove it," he said.

Mr. Dunston handed me a DVD.

"It's all on here and it is all admissible in court. All of the video on this DVD was shot in public, there are no hidden cameras in homes or hotel rooms. We have a DVD player set up in the room next door if you would like to view the video now," he said.

"I'll take it with me and view it privately if you don't mind. If you would just give me the invoice I'll pay it on my way out."

*****

Back in my office again I locked my door and loaded the DVD into my laptop and hit play. Dunston was right; the evidence was all there. The first scene was time marked on Monday at 9:00 PM and showed her sitting in a booth in some bar with a man. The man had his arm around her neck and his hand was resting on her breast. They kissed a few times and then got up to dance. On the dance floor they were all over each other. The next scene jumped to 10:15 that same night and it showed her getting into a car with the same guy. As soon as they were in the car the guy pulled his cock out and she went down on him and she sucked him to completion.

The next scene was at 11:05 and showed the two of them going into a motel room at the downtown Ramada Inn. At 1:25 AM they came out of the room and went back to the bar where she got into her car and drove home.

The next scene was on Wednesday morning at 9:07 AM. She was with a different guy sitting in a dinner eating breakfast. He kept pinching her tits and would stick his tongue in her ear every few minutes. In the next scene the detective was following a car that apparently belong to the guy. At first I didn't think she was in the car with him, as her head couldn't be seen above the seat but then her head popped up as the car turned into the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse. In the next scene the car was shown at some distance from the camera. It was too far away to even see if anyone was in the car. Then the camera started to zoom in until I could see the guy fucking her doggie style in the back seat.

That was all I could handle. I uploaded the video to my hard drive and then copied it back to a blank DVD then erased the file. I put the DVD in a protective sleeve and then slipped it into a large manila envelope. I put the original DVD in my office safe and headed out to run my devil's errand.

*****

That evening I got home about twenty minutes before Brenda. As soon as the door from the garage into the kitchen opened Kevin and Michele came charging into the house without even taking the time to say hello to me. Brenda came in behind them smiling.

"You're home early tonight," she said.

"Just getting ready to make a baby tonight."

Brenda laughed. "Good, because I was thinking about you all day," she said. "Did you get the mail?"

"No, I forgot. I'll go out and get it now."

"Sit down, I'll get it," she said. "I wouldn't want you to get your little boys too tired to do their job tonight."

Brenda came back into the house with the usual assortment of credit card offerings, real estate ads and other junk mail. Along with all that she had a large manila envelope. Brenda quickly scanned through the mail and dropped everything except for the large envelope onto the coffee table. Brenda handed me the large envelope and said. "Addressed to you with no return address."

I didn't say anything. I just took the envelope from her and set it on the table next to me and said, "How about a beer?"

"I'd love one."

I got up and went into the kitchen and got the two beers and brought them back. I handed one to Brenda and then I sat back down on the sofa. We talked about work for a few minutes and then Brenda said, "Aren't you curious about what's inside that envelope?"

"It's probably just junk mail," I said.

"I know but why don't you open it anyway?" she suggested.

I picked up the envelope and started to pull the flap open when the phone rang. Brenda jumped up and answered it and as I sat looking at Brenda I heard the first part of her conversation, at least her part of the conversation.

"Hello?" Normal beginning.

"Oh hi... What? Are you serious? Just a minute..." At that point Brenda went into the kitchen and I couldn't make out anything else she was saying.

The call lasted no more than ten minutes and as soon as it was over Brenda came back into the living room and said that she had to go see Kara, that it was an emergency.

"Emergency? What kind of emergency?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. Kara was too upset to make much sense on the phone. Can you feed the kids and put them to bed?"

"Of course. I have done it before you know."

"I know. I'm sorry I am just worried and upset."

Brenda grabbed her purse and keys and headed out the door.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," she said.

"Don't worry about me, take care of Kara," I said.

After Brenda left I went into the family room where Kevin and Michele were watching television.

"Mommy had to go out for a while so I have to feed you. You have two choices, I can cook some liver and onions or we could go to MacDonald's. It's your choice," I said.

Kevin started yelling, "MacDonald's... MacDonald's... MacDonald's.

Michele, with her usual sense of humor said, "UM... That's a tough choice. You know how much I like liver but I am sure that you would rather not have to cook so I'll go to MacDonald's just to make it easy on you."

I picked Michele up and swung her around over my head and put her on the floor and tickled her. "You're such a silly kid," I said.

Kevin wasn't about to be left out so he pulled on my arm. "My turn. I want to fly like Michele did."

I gave Kevin a ride and then tickled him too.

The three of us went out to MacDonald's and were back home in less than an hour. Then I sent them upstairs to get ready for bed. By eight o'clock they were tucked into their beds and Kevin was already asleep and I was sitting on the edge of Michele's bed listening while she told me about something that happened at school that day.

When she finished her story, I kissed her on the forehead and turned off her light. Then I went downstairs and got a beer. I settled onto the sofa and took a long swallow of my beer and then picked up the large envelope and opened in. I dumped the contents of the envelope onto the coffee table. The envelope contained two copies of the itinerary for my trip to Denver, my airline tickets, my hotel reservation and my rental car reservation.

I took one copy of the itinerary and put it on the refrigerator and held it in place with a magnet shaped like a bunch of bananas. I put the rest of the papers in my briefcase and then picked up my Sports Illustrated and began reading.

*****

It was almost midnight when Brenda got home and I could see that she was stressed over whatever happened to Kara.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Huh?"

"What was Kara's emergency?"

"Let me get a beer and then I tell you what happened," she said. "Do you want one?"

"Yes."

Brenda came back with the beer and sat next to me on the sofa.

"Okay, let's start again. What was Kara's emergency?" I asked.

Brenda took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "John threw her out of the house tonight."

"What? John did what?"

"When Kara got home from work at 6:30 tonight, John was waiting for her. He had already packed a bag for her and he tossed it out the door and told her to go with it."

"Oh my God. I can't believe this. Does John have another woman, is that why he threw her out?" I asked.

"No. Of course not. You know John, he would never do that."

I was quiet for a minute and then blurted out, "It's Kara. She had another man. Is that what this is about?"

Brenda looked down at the floor and said, "Yes. John found out she was fooling around."

"Jesus Christ! What the fuck is the matter with her. She was married to a great guy. I thought she loved him."

"She does love him," Brenda said.

"If she loved him, how could she cheat on him?"

"I don't know. I don't know why she did it," she said. "I feel so bad for her."

"You feel bad for her? What about John? She cheated on him."

"I know but he didn't have to throw her out of her house. He hit he, too."

I didn't like that. "He did?"

"He called her a slut and slapped her face."

"Is that all?" I asked.

"What do you mean is that all? He slapped her. He shouldn't have done that," she said.

'You're taking her side? She cheated on him. You know how much he loved her. This must have hurt him terribly. If that happened to me, I would have done the same thing or maybe worse. I love you more than anything else in this world but if you ever hurt me that way I don't think I would handle it any better than John did."

"I'm not taking her side, I just think John should have given her time to talk to him about it."

"What would there be to talk about? You mean that John should have given her time to make up lies to tell him about why she cheated on him." I said.

"Why are you so angry about this?" Brenda asked.

"I'm angry because I can feel John's pain. I'll bet if it had been John that cheated you wouldn't be as sympathetic toward him."

Brenda started to say something but stopped.

"You are Kara's best friend. You have lunch with her every week. Did you have any idea that she was cheating on John?"

"What? Why are you asking me that? What are you trying to say?" Brenda sputtered out.

"Brenda, you have always been honest with me, please don't start lying to me now. Did you know Kara was fooling around with other men?"

Brenda couldn't seem to look at me and then she meekly said, "Yes."

"For how long?"

"Several months."

"Did you try to stop her?"

"How?"

"Did you even try?" I persisted.

"No."

"Then you were an enabler. By not trying to stop her, you in effect encouraged her to do it," I said.

"No... No. I did not encourage her. I didn't like what she was doing, I just didn't know what to say so I didn't say anything."

"That makes you partly to blame for what happened tonight." I said. I surprised myself at the level of anger I was feeling toward Brenda at that moment.

"How can you say it's my fault? I didn't tell her to cheat on John."

"But you never did anything to stop her from cheating and now that she has been caught you are taking her side. I don't think I know you anymore. Aren't you the one that was always talking about how important fidelity was to a marriage? Does that only apply to the husbands or is it that it doesn't apply to your close friends?"

"Kara made a mistake. She's my friend and I have to stick by her. She's in a lot of pain."

"What about John? Don't you think he is in pain? What Kara did doesn't just affect her and John. Look what it is doing to us right now," I said and then got up from the sofa. "I'm going to bed."

Brenda didn't say a word.

I lay awake in bed for a while thinking about the argument I just had with Brenda. I was angry with her for not seeing the damage Kara did and I was angry with myself for getting angry. At least the situation would give Brenda plenty to think about. Any idea she may have had about having an affair to spice up her life should be gone now.

When Brenda came to bed a half hour later I pretended to be asleep so I wouldn't have to talk to her.

*****

The next few days were a little chilly around our house. On Monday morning I caught my flight to Denver. I decided that I wasn't going to call Brenda on Monday so she called me at nine o'clock, eleven o'clock her time in Richmond.

"Why didn't you call me when you got out there?" She asked.

"I didn't think you wanted to talk to me."

Brenda was quiet for a moment and then said, "I don't care what you thought, you should have to called me."

"Okay, I am sorry I didn't call. It won't happen again."

We only talked for about five minutes. Brenda said she had to make sure I got to Denver all right before she could go to sleep. Then she told me to make sure I called early enough to talk to the kids the next day.

The next couple of days Brenda was more friendly when I talked to her. We both avoided the subject of Kara and John.

My flight home on Thursday was due in a little after seven o'clock in the evening. I called Brenda before I left Denver and told her what time I expected to be home.

"Can you get yourself something to eat on the way home?" she asked. I am taking the kids to have dinner with my parents and you won't get here in time for dinner."

"No problem. I'll see you at home."

My flight arrived on time and I decide to stop by this little bar and grill I knew that served great burgers. When I walked in I saw John at the bar picking up a drink. I decided to talk to him and see how he was doing.

By the time I caught up to him he was already sliding into a booth and to my surprise he was sitting with a woman I didn't know.

"Hi, John, how are you?"

"Mike, it's nice to see you. I'm doing okay. About as well as can be expected under the circumstances," he said. Mike, this is my friend Fanny... Fanny, Mike."

"Nice to meet you Fanny," I said.

"If it weren't for Fanny, I might have gone completely off the deep end over this," John said.

"In that case I am really happy to meet you," I said to Fanny.

"Mike, we're just having a drink before we go out to dinner. Why don't you get a drink and join us?"

I ordered a beer and pulled a chair up to the outside of the booth. We didn't talk about Kara or what she had done. John spent most of the time talking about Fanny. He said he had known her since college. He talked more about their time at college and then he asked me about Brenda and the kids.

After about twenty minutes John said he had to go to the rest room. When he left the table Fanny smiled at me.

"Fanny? I assume that's a nickname. I am guessing that your name is Francis, am I right?"

"You're right. I must say you did a good job," Fanny said.

"That's what I do. I solve problems." I said. "So, how long have you been in love with John?"

"Since I met him in college."

"You were Kara's room mate then, weren't you?"

"Yes. You are good."

"So, you used me to get rid of Kara," I said.

"Yes. I am sorry but I couldn't do it myself. I didn't want her to know I betrayed her and I didn't want to be the one to have to tell John that his wife was cheating on him."

"Do you feel good about what you did?"

"I don't feel bad. Listen; if Kara hadn't started cheating on John I would have forever stayed in the background. I would never have done anything to hurt either one of them. But when she started bragging about cheating on John, I had to put a stop to it and why shouldn't I help myself while doing it."

"But why did you have to drag Brenda and me into this?"

"There was no one else. I am sorry to put you through this but I just couldn't let her get away with what she was doing to him,' Fanny said.

"How did you know that I would alert John to Kara's cheating?" I asked.

"I have been having lunch with your wife every week for more than a year. She talks about you all the time. She painted a pretty clear picture of someone that has high moral standards and I could tell from her description of you that you would put a stop to Kara's cheating one way or another and I was sure that in the end John would find out the truth.

"It was a real streak of genius to do it anonymously. John thinks the wife of one of Kara's boy friends hired the detective to follow him and then she sent the pictures to John."

"I guess I have just one more issue with you," I said. "You lied about Brenda being interested in having an affair, didn't you?"

"Yes. I had to say that to get you involved. That fact is that Brenda was very upset with Kara over this but she never said anything to her about it. Brenda and I talked about it a few times. Brenda kept hoping that Kara would come to her senses and stop fooling around. I never told Brenda this but I kept hoping that John would catch her."

"So Kara never tried to persuade Brenda to try fooling around?" I inquired.

"Actually, Kara did suggest it once and Brenda made it very clear that she would never do that. That's where I got the idea about calling you. I twisted things a bit but it was based on Kara making that suggestion," Fanny said.

I wasn't sure if I hated Fanny or admired her gumption. She found a way to alert John to Kara's cheating and then she was there for him to help ease his pain.

Before I could say anything else to Fanny I spotted John on his way back from the restroom.

We finished our drinks and just before they left John turned to me and said, "I don't know what the future holds but I hope that you and Brenda will still consider me as a friend."

"I am sure we will, John."

"It was very nice meeting you, Mike," Fanny said as a sly smile briefly appeared on her face.

"Likewise," I said.

After they left I ordered a cheeseburger and fries and another beer. As I sat eating my dinner a strange feeling came over me. It was a kind of euphoria and it took me a few minutes to realize why I felt that way. All the stress of the last few weeks was gone. Although I keep telling myself that I didn't believe that Brenda would ever cheat on me, a part of me was worried that maybe she would. When Fanny told me that Brenda had never shown any interest in having an affair and in fact had made it clear that she would never do that, the significance of that didn't sink in immediately. It all hit me at once. That was the best Cheeseburger I had ever had.

As soon as I finished my dinner I called Brenda to tell her I was headed home. Brenda said that she was almost ready to leave her parents house and would see me at home in about a half hour. Suddenly a half hour seemed like an eternity.

*****

I arrived home fifteen minutes before Brenda. I was so jazzed from the conversation I had with Fanny that I couldn't sit down. My mind was buzzing with all the emotions I was feeling. I needed to apologize to Brenda for the way I acted the night John threw Kara out of the house. I wanted to hold Brenda close and tell her I loved her. I wanted to make love to her. I wanted to grab her as soon as she walked in the door and make love to her on the floor in the kitchen but I knew I could not do that. I wasn't going to be able to do any of those things until the kids were asleep.

Suddenly it struck me that Brenda was angry with me when I left for Denver. I wondered if she was still angry. This home coming might not happened the way I wanted it to. I could end up spending the evening trying to get Brenda to forgive me for being so hard on her about not trying to intervene with Kara and stop her from destroying her marriage.

I thought about the times married guys I worked with bragged about their conquests while on business trips. I didn't approve of their behavior but I never said anything. I guess I was just as much of an enabler as Brenda had been with Kara. The only reason I was so hard on Brenda was because I was trying to use what happened to Kara as a warning to her that if she did cheat on me she could expect no better than what happened to Kara. Finding out after the fact that Brenda had never considered cheating made my behavior indefensible. I could never tell Brenda the truth about why I acted that way so I had to hope that she would accept my apology and forgive me.