Affair of Terror

She resisted as he started forcing her to his car when they heard a voice. "Cathy, are you okay? The figure who had just exited the building could see she was struggling. "Hey, you, let her go!"

"Get out of here and mind your own business," Tony growled.

The lonely individual ran back into the building. Tony laughed, "So much for heroes, huh?"

Just then the guy came back out with two more people, one was a security guard. Tony saw them briskly walking in his direction so he let Cathy go, jumped into his car and took off with tires squealing. Cathy was rubbing her wrist when the men reached her.

It was the guard who first inquired, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks to you guys."

She recognized Tim as being the first person who saw what was happening and got the reinforcements. He worked for the same company she did. "Are you sure? Who was that guy?"

"I don't know; never saw him before," she lied. "Just some crackpot I guess." She thanked everyone again then asked Tim if he wanted to have lunch with her. "My treat," she offered. She wasn't sure if Tony was still around, but she didn't want to get caught alone again.

All through lunch and for the rest of the day, Cathy wondered why Tony was acting so crazy. Hell, they'd only had sex seven or eight times. Now she had a slight bruise on her wrist to go with the one on her face, although the new one was barely noticeable. Someone would have to be looking hard to see it.

Earlier that day, Al was a little spooked as he opened the studio. He looked around before turning the key. When Michelle came in about ten minutes behind him, he sat her down and explained what happened. He asked if she'd seen anything or anyone who looked suspicious on her way in. She said she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but he could see fear in her eyes.

"Look, Michelle, why don't you take the day off. Go home, put your feet up on something, and relax. I'll take care of things here and I'll still pay you."

"Al, we have three shoots today. I'm not going anywhere."

He sighed and tried to show his displeasure, but the truth was, he was glad she didn't take him up on his offer. It was going to be a busy day, and without her help, he'd be there till midnight.

They were in the middle of setting up for their first shoot when a stranger walked in. Immediately, Al's first thought was to protect Michelle. Thankfully, that wouldn't be necessary and his nerves calmed as the guy introduced himself.

"Mr. Hodges, my name is Pat Sorenson. I'm an inspector attached to the Chicago Fire Department's arson unit. I understand you had a little problem here last night."

Al inwardly sighed with relief. "Yes, sir, Mr. Sorenson, evidently somebody tried to bomb the building."

"There's no evidently about it. Someone most definitely tried. Thankfully, they didn't have the slightest idea of what they were doing. They obviously got the plans from the internet. They had match heads as the main charge but used the wrong casing. That caused a low-order detonation which triggered the fire instead of an explosion.

"The police report says you have no idea who could have done it. You can't think of anyone, a ticked-off client perhaps?"

"I can't think of a soul, Inspector. We don't work with the public. We don't shoot weddings or anything like that. This is a commercial studio. We work with ad agencies, mostly."

The inspector looked over at Michelle. "How about you, young lady, can you think of anyone who would want to put this place out of business?"

"Not at all," she replied.

"Okay. Well, I'm going to go around to the back. I'll be taking lots of pictures and rummaging around to see if anything was missed in the dark of night. I'll stop back in before I go. In the meantime, if you think of anything that can help in the investigation, please write it down so you don't forget."

"Will do, Inspector, and thanks," Al said.

Later, as Cathy and Al sat eating dinner, she asked if there were any new developments as to the attempted bombing. Al told her about the fire inspector before asking about her day. Cathy left out the part about Tony and only mentioned that the company had surpassed their quota for the quarter.

Al mentioned that he had ordered several outdoor cameras from Amazon, and he'd install them as soon as they were delivered the following day.

The next morning, Diane was anxiously waiting in the office for her friend to arrive. She pounced as soon as Cathy sat down at her desk. "Okay, spill it," she demanded. "It's all over the whole building that you got mugged yesterday at lunchtime. What the fuck is going on, and don't you dare tell me you have it handled because you obviously don't."

Cathy sighed. She really didn't want to tell anyone but Diane was a trusted friend. "Okay, let's have lunch at Plato's Place and I'll tell you all about it."

For the next few hours, Cathy was having trouble concentrating on her job. She was actually looking forward to talking to Diane. She'd kept her secret and felt so guilty for the past several months, maybe unloading her burden would give her a little relief.

The two ladies sat down and waited till the waitress took their orders before Diane started with her inquisition. "Okay, if Al didn't give you that shiner, somebody did. I'm guessing you have a boyfriend."

Cathy sighed inwardly. No one ever accused Diane of being stupid. "Yes, but you have to promise never to mention this to anyone. I've already broken it off with him and I'm sorry it ever started up in the first place."

"Who is it; somebody I know?"

Cathy lowered her voice. "No, I don't think you know him." She hesitated again, "Di, promise me you won't say anything to anyone about this."

"I promise," replied Diane. "I'd never do anything to hurt you, you know that."

"I know, it's just that..." she stopped for just a second before indulging her friend. "His name is Tony Belshaw. We were introduced at lunch by a friend of mine."

"Some friend," Diane sarcastically stated.

"Oh, I'm sure Audrey has no idea what he's actually like. At first, he comes off as this really cool guy. He's good-looking, funny, and has personality oozing from every pore. He also has this air of danger about him, kind of like a bad boy in the three-piece suit."

Diane was determined not to be judgemental, but she just couldn't help herself. "Cath, I still don't understand how you fell into bed with this guy, not when you've got a guy like Al waiting at home for you."

"I know," she sadly responded, "but It wasn't really my idea—not at first, anyway. He practically raped me the first time it happened. I was at Carl's Diner. I was eating lunch alone when he came in and spotted me. He didn't even ask to sit down, he just did. Within five minutes he made a pass at me.

"I needed a couple minutes to try and figure out how I was going to handle it. I had no intention of having sex with him, but at the same time, I was attracted to him. I excused myself and went to the lady's room to think. I wasn't in there very long. I had decided to simply tell him I was happily married and hoped he wouldn't pursue it any further, but he was waiting for me in the hallway when I came out.

"He grabbed my wrists and pinned them to the wall above my head then kissed me—hard. Then he crossed my wrists and held them together with one hand while he pulled my skirt up with the other. He stuck his hand down my panties and started fingering me."

"Jesus, Cathy, why didn't you cry rape?"

"I know, I know, I should have stopped him immediately, but I was scared. I didn't know what to do. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. I'm sure he saw the fear in my eyes. I think he got off on it because he smiled and kissed me again.

"You should have kneed him in the balls."

"I know. I wasn't thinking. My mind was in kind of a fog."

"So what happened?"

Cathy hesitated. Admitting what happened next was excruciating. "Despite the fear, I was also excited. He could obviously feel how wet I was and took it as an invitation. He pulled me into the men's room and pushed me down, over one of the sinks. I... I just stayed there, like I was frozen in place, while he pulled my skirt up, and jerked my panties down."

"Cathy, how could you let him..." she stopped in mid-sentence when she saw the shame on her friend's face.

"I... I was just so... I don't know, overwhelmed, I guess you'd say. It all happened so fast and he was so domineering, I... I felt helpless."

"Jesus, Cathy, you should have gone to the police."

"It's too late now," Cathy responded.

"Not necessarily, is that when he hit you?"

Cathy shook her head no. "This happened a few months ago. That's what I mean, it's too late."

Diane was having a hard time putting two and two together. If it happened that far back, why did he slap her a couple days ago? Then it dawned on her. "You haven't been sleeping with him? Not after all that."

"Yeah," she replied. "I know how wrong it was but it was just so damned exciting, at least in the beginning. He was just so forceful, so dominant. I always felt so helpless. Who could possibly blame me for fucking somebody if I couldn't do anything to stop them? It was like role-playing, at least that's how I looked at it. Tony, however, took it a lot more seriously.

"He has a key to some buddy's apartment that he can use during the day when his friend is at work. It's not far from here. About a week after he screwed me in the restaurant he was waiting for me in the parking lot at lunchtime. He had me follow him to the apartment. He wasn't any more gentle there than he was the first time but we had a bed and more privacy.

"The first time we went there, he ordered me to undress for him while he sat and watched me. God, Di, it was... I don't know, I don't know how to explain it. My hands were shaking as I unbuttoned my blouse. When I was naked, he told me to put my hands at my sides and just stand there a minute while he stared at me. After he got undressed, he screwed me missionary style the first time, then made me suck him to get him back up faster before taking me again from behind. I hate to admit it, but I got off both times."

"Oh, Cathy," was all her friend could say.

"I know. You can't imagine how guilty I felt, afterward."

"Why did he slap you?"

"Well, over the last several weeks we did it a few more times, but after a little while, he started getting really possessive. He kept telling me I was his woman now; he owned my pussy, things like that. It was a little disconcerting. I wasn't sure if he was serious or just upping the roleplay thing, but I'd made up my mind I was going to end it with him. A few days later he met me in the parking lot again but I told him I had a business luncheon and couldn't go with him.

"I don't know if he got mad, or what, but the next day he told me I had to fuck his friend for letting us use the apartment. Then he said I was no longer allowed to have sex with Al. Can you imagine the gall?"

"What'd you say?"

"I was afraid to say anything. I figured I'd just avoid him from then on and eventually he'd get the idea. I started parking my car on the street instead of the lot and I used the south entrance of the building to come and go. It worked, too, until the other day."

"That's when he slapped you?"

"Yeah; he followed me to Denny's. I didn't even see him until he sat down. He was mad as hell. He asked me why I'd been avoiding him and not answering his texts. I told him it was over. I wasn't going to stop having sex with Al and I sure as hell wasn't about to fuck his buddy. That's when he slapped me. The waitress saw it and grabbed a couple of guys from the counter and told him to leave. A little later, when I was done eating, one of the guys walked me to my car."

"What are you going to do? Based on that little scene in the parking lot yesterday, it doesn't seem like he's about to give up."

"I don't know, and now I may have an even bigger problem."

"What's that?"

"The night before last, someone tried to bomb Al's studio."

"What? Oh my God, is he all right?"

"Yeah, it was like three in the morning. Al and I were in bed when the cops called. The bomb was a dud, but I can only think of one person who might do something like that."

"You don't mean Tony?"

"Who else? Al doesn't have an enemy in the world. Tony's the only one I can think of that has a motive, or at least thinks he does."

"Oh, Cathy, you've got to go to the police. He might come after Al personally, next time, or maybe you again."

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Di. You're right, I know I have to talk to the police but then they'll talk to Al. He'll find out about my affair and my marriage will be over. God," she said, looking up with tears in her eyes, "why did I ever do this? It was so stupid."

Diane had no words of wisdom, no words of comfort. Her friend was in pain but it was self-inflicted. She knew her heart should be breaking in sympathy but a part of her was saying, you brought it on yourself, dumb-ass. She reached across the table and took Cathy's hand. "It's going to come out, you know that."

Cathy nodded, but the tears were starting to flow harder and she found it difficult to talk.

"Honey, I wouldn't let Al find out from the cops. That'll make it even worse. You're going to have to own up to it. You've got to tell him. If you keep quiet and something happens to Al, you'd never forgive yourself."

"I know. Jesus, Diane, I've never even thought of cheating on Al before. I can't believe I got myself into this mess. I'm so scared. I know I'm going to lose him," she said while wiping her eyes with a paper napkin.

"I wish I had some comforting words for you, Cath, but I don't. You made a mistake, a big one, now you have to face the consequences."

"I know," she sniffled. "I'll tell him tonight when he gets home. Oh, Diane, I'm so scared. I don't think my marriage is going to survive."

Diane took a breath and let it out with a sigh. "I don't know what to tell you, Cath. From what you say, it sounds like it's going to come out one way or another. I really think it's better to try and get out ahead of it."

Cathy was still drying her eyes. "Can you do me favor, Di? Will you tell them at work that I got sick and went home? I can't go back in there right now. I need some time to prepare."

"Sure, Cath. You think you'll be in tomorrow?"

"I don't know," she stated. "It depends on how things go tonight."

The two friends paid up, then took off in different directions. Cathy had never experienced such an acute feeling of dread in her life.

When she got home, Cathy didn't even think about fixing Al his favorite meal or any other way of trying to cushion the blow. He would see it as a trivial effort to diminish her crime, "I cheated on you but I made your favorite dinner to make up for it." No, that wasn't going to work at all.

What she did consider was whether to try and stifle her emotions or not. She wasn't sure she could talk to him without bawling her eyes out, anyway, but should she try? Would showing herself as a strong woman, resolute in her promise to never do anything like that again, be more convincing than just showing her shame and despair? Al was a strong person, himself, and admired strength in others, but in this case, would he see it as her being unremorseful? She had no idea, nor did she have a clue as to how she would even start the conversation. Her eyes started to water.

As she sat, Cathy contemplated the end of her marriage, but what was even worse was how it would affect Al. She could only imagine the hurt she was going to cause by reversing roles; what if it was he who cheated? How would she feel? Just the mere thought broke her heart. She tried in vain trying to come up with a way to soften the blow, but it was no use. No matter how many times she ran over different scenarios in her mind, nothing was going to save her marriage or Al's feelings.

She glanced at her phone and saw it was going on four o'clock. She really didn't feel like cooking, she felt like crying—like going upstairs, lying down on the bed, and bawling her eyes out, that's what she felt like doing. All she could think to do was send Al a text.

Hi, honey, anything new on the bombing?

She was surprised when he answered just a few minutes later. He was usually very busy and sometimes took hours to get back to her.

Hi, hon, no, I haven't heard anything.

Would you mind if we ordered a pizza? I'm feeling a little under the weather and don't feel like cooking tonight.

That's fine with me, hon. I should be home about six. How about if I pick one up on the way?

That would be great.

Can I pick you up anything at the drug store?

No thanks, honey. I'm feeling a little blah, but I'll be fine. Love you.

Love you too.

*****

Diane was a little surprised to see her friend arrive at work the following morning. "I didn't think you'd be in today," she said, pulling Cathy to the corner of the room and speaking softly. "How'd it go?"

"I couldn't do it, Di. I chickened out."

"Okay, maybe that's a good thing," Diane replied. "Follow me."

Cathy followed her friend into the lady's room. Diane checked under the doors of each stall to make sure they were alone before speaking. "I was talking to my daughter last night. She works for a judge. She said you should get a restraining order. It's easy, there's only a couple of forms you download from the Net. Fill them out and file them at the County Clerks Office. That's all there is to it.

"When you're done, text the asshole and tell him what you did. Tell him you'll have him arrested if he bothers you or Al again. I doubt very much if he hassles you after that, not if he knows he'll get arrested. You might even mention that you know it was him who tried to bomb Al's studio."

"But I don't know that... not for sure."

"You said yourself, Al didn't have any enemies; who else would it be?"

"It's worth a try. I swear, Di, if I get out of this with my marriage intact, I will never, EVER even look at another man again for as long as I live."

That afternoon, Cathy went to HR and said she still wasn't feeling very well and asked to go home. She wanted to make sure she got to the house before Al. She signed on to her laptop and downloaded the forms she needed, filled them out, and stuck them into her purse. Next, she looked to see where the nearest circuit court building was. The following day she called in sick one more time so she could file the paperwork. She found the building with no trouble. The officer just inside the entrance directed her to the clerk's office.

She could feel her heart pounding as she got in a short line. She kept reciting a silent prayer with every step closer as the people in front of her were helped, 'please let this work,' 'please let this work.'

"Yes, Ma'am, how can I help you?"

Cathy stepped up and laid the forms down in front of them. "Yes, Ma'am, I... I want to file these and get a restraining order," she nervously told the elderly woman behind the counter.

The woman glanced at the affidavits and handed them back to Cathy. "Go around here to the gate," she said, motioning the way with her hand, "I'll get someone to help you."

Cathy thanked the woman and started for the gate as the woman called out for Aaron. A tall man who looked to be in his thirties opened the gate for her and asked Cathy to follow him to his desk. "Okay, how can I help?" he asked as they each sat down.

"Ah, there's a... a man harassing me and my husband. I want to get a restraining order on him."

"Okay, are those the affidavits?" he asked, nodding to the papers Cathy was holding.

"Oh, yes, sorry," she said as she handed him the paperwork.