Compounded Lies

There is no sex in this story. Sorry.

Thanks to the Hip and Knee doctor for editing assistance.

*

"What are you doing home? Why aren't you at work? What are you packing for?"

I thought the questions wouldn't end. It would be nice if she gave me a chance to answer one of them before the next one came. Caitlin was standing by the bedroom door watching me pack. I took a lot of trips, but this time I was packing to leave and she could tell the difference.

"I lost my security clearance and I got fired."

"What? Bryan, that doesn't make sense. Can they do that? Don't you have to have a hearing or something?"

"They spent three hours explaining it to me this morning."

"Can you explain it to me a little bit better than that?"

Caitlin perched herself on the far side of the bed waiting for my reply.

"Let me ask you a few questions. Your answers might explain what happened." I continued to pack.

"I don't understand."

"Caitlin, what did you do yesterday morning before you went to work?"

"What I always do. I stopped at Starbucks and had coffee. Why?"

"Do you have coffee alone?"

"Usually."

"How about yesterday?"

There was a short hesitation before she answered. "I ran into an old friend that I went to Georgetown with."

"Does your friend have a name?"

"Ari. Ari Humeda. He was an exchange student from Lebanon."

"How good a friend was Ari?"

"What do you mean?"

"You said he was an old friend. How good a friend? Was he a casual acquaintance, a classmate, or was he someone you might have dated?"

I watched my wife squirm on the bed a little. She was trying to choose her words carefully. "Ari and I dated for a while."

"How long is a while?"

"Damn it, Bryan. What is the purpose of these questions? We agreed before we were married that we would not question each other about prior relationships. Do you remember that?"

"I am in a hurry here, Caitlin. Can you just answer the question?"

"We dated for about eighteen months. I still don't understand why that is important."

"What happened after coffee?"

"I went to work."

"Right away, or did you make a stop?"

Caitlin started to wring her hands. She seemed a little uncomfortable on the bed. "Ari had forgotten his laptop, so I walked with him while he went to get it."

"Where did he forget it at?"

"Why? Why all these questions?"

"Where, Caitlin?"

"He left it in his room. I walked with him while he got it."

"Did you go into his room?"

"Yeah. But it was just for a few minutes."

"Caitlin, it is bad enough that you are avoiding my questions, but it is totally unacceptable when you lie."

"I don't understand."

I stopped packing momentarily and glared at my wife. My tone of voiced changed from casual to forceful. "How long were you in that room with Ari Humeda? No bullshit, just answer the question."

She was confused now. "I don't remember. It might have been longer than a few minutes. We started talking and reminiscing about old times. I wasn't keeping track of the time. I am not sure how long I was there."

"It was two hours and forty - seven minutes, Caitlin. From the time you walked into his room until the time that you left, it was two hours and forty - seven minutes. Tell me what you talked about for almost three hours."

"I don't understand, Bryan. Why are you doing this? How do you know this? What does this have to do with you being fired?"

There she goes again asking questions faster than I can answer them.

"That is the reason I got fired, Caitlin."

"That doesn't make sense. Just because I spent some time with an old friend is not justification for you losing your job."

I was starting on my last suitcase. I had the first two sitting by the apartment door.

"The problem is not that you spent time with him. The problem is what you talked about."

Caitlin became quiet and was sitting perfectly still. "How do you know what we talked about?"

"The FBI has had his room bugged since he arrived in town last week. I spent three hours this morning listening to those tapes. Two hours and forty - seven minutes of it while you were there, and ten minutes that he talked on the phone after you left."

"You heard everything?"

I nodded in the affirmative.

"Oh God, no. I am so sorry Bryan. Ari and I were together for so long at college, and getting together with him yesterday for a few hours just felt so normal: so natural. I never intended to hurt you. Our marriage is more important than that."

"Listening to the two of you having sex like a couple of animals was bad enough, but that is not what got me fired. The government doesn't care if my wife is a slut, but they do care when she passes on national secrets to foreign agents. Everything would have been fine if you had just screwed him and blew him, but no, you had to brag about the important work that your husband was doing for the National Security Agency."

"Bryan, I didn't realize it. I didn't know about Ari. I was proud of you and what you were doing. I was trying to impress Ari with your importance and how well I had married. I didn't actually tell him anything about what you did: just places that you had gone to and people that you had met. I just talked about simply, unimportant things."

"It was a set up Caitlin. After you left, he called his superiors and reported that his seduction of the wife of a NSA agent had gone smoothly and according to plan. He had video cameras in the room so that he could blackmail you later. For your information, the things that you told him about yesterday, were in fact important, more so than you would ever know."

She was now sitting on the edge of the bed crying. I finished packing the last suitcase and placed it with the others. Where are you going? How can I contact you? How can we make this right?"

There she goes with the questions again.

" I have a plane to catch in sixty minutes. I don't think we will be talking again, Caitlin. Good bye."

There was knock on the door. Two federal agents in gray suits quietly entered the room. I stepped around them, and moved my three suitcases out into the hallway. As I was leaving I heard the first man speak to my wife.

"Caitlin Sorenson, the Department of Homeland Security would like to speak with you. Would you come with us, please?"

Walking to my waiting taxi, I couldn't help thinking "What the hell was I going to do in Belize?"