DNA Results

Jane was very blunt when I saw her. "Al, difficult as it may seem, John has all of the rights over your kids. And I mean 'your kids' metaphorically. He is their genetic father after all. Unjust as it is, the law is the law. Now Elaine is her own boss. She is nineteen and is legally able to live with whoever she wishes if anyone at all! James is fourteen. The law says he needs a guardian until the age of sixteen. You and Ellie will need to come to some arrangement, but she does not need to let you look after James at all. She is his mother and John is his legal father. It is you who is the outsider here." Of course, I knew all of this, but hearing it aloud only heightened my despair at the situation. She continued, "Let's let the divorce proceed and take it from there."

The divorce did go through it's processes and as expected, no child maintenance was asked for. I did get forty percent of the family assets, which surprised Jane. She was expecting that I get a lot less. Elaine came to stay with me permanently, but did spend a few nights every now and then with Ellie. A quiet, uneasy truce had been reached between them. I was happy for Elaine, but still seethed with rage that it seemed Ellie had come out best in this whole mess. John was living in our old house with Ellie and James. He knew not to be there when Elaine was there. Somehow, he had managed to purchase an up-market apartment to live in when he wasn't living with Ellie. Elaine informed me that James had become a real recluse, living almost permanently in his room. He wouldn't eat with Ellie and John and only came out of his shell when Elaine was there. His relationship with Ellie was one of distaste. He could barely manage to be civil to her. He only spoke when directly spoken to and always answered in one-word, non-committal mumbles. He didn't speak to John at all! Coupled with the normal teenage rebellion, he was a ticking timebomb. "I am really worried about him dad," Elaine confided in me one day. "If he doesn't settle down soon, he will do something he will regret forever. He is hanging out with the wrong crowd at school and starting to be a pain to all of his teachers. My friends still at school say he has completely dropped his bundle in terms of schoolwork. What can we do dad?" I looked sadly at my daughter.

"Lainie, I have tried to do all I can, but the ass of a justice system is stacked against us. Legally, he is not my child and I have no authority over him. I will let you know what my other plans are though!" I said this with a conspiratorial look in my eyes. Elaine listened and smiled as I outlined my plans for the asshole. He was going to feel all sorts of pain and by the time I was through with him, he may want to leave town for good!

I had learned some things through some devious means, but not that devious, as the private detective was duly paid for! Apparently, asshole John had not been very forthcoming about all of his assets during his divorce with Shellie! He had maintained an offshore account and siphoned money into this account for years. It became a little clearer how he managed to purchase that apartment so easily after his divorce from Shellie. The detective could not ascertain where this money came from. He had started this account with a healthy cash input of two hundred thousand dollars given to him by some distant relative. He never disclosed this to the courts. The detective was, however, able to ascertain that the current balance was in the vicinity if one million dollars. "And that bastard is sponging off Ellie!" I seethed. "I'll bet he hasn't told Ellie of this either! No wonder he could afford to have a set booking for their sex shack for so long without Shellie cluing into the regular payments!" The detective also managed to detail the false name he used for this account to fool any investigators during the divorce research. James Long. That's the name he used! Bastard! This private detective I had hired was worth his weight in gold! Questions about how this private detective could find all of this out haunted me. The detective also thought that he must be able to access this account from his computer or smart phone in some way, as he never visited any foreign bank offices to his knowledge. He did have a safety deposit box at a local bank, but rarely visited it. This was getting interesting! Elaine was on board and probably more eager than me to 'burn the bastard'!

Elaine was on a mission. She had to find out how asshole accessed his lucrative off-shoe accounts. She started spending more time with Ellie, which meant that asshole was not at home so often. This was becoming a pain in the arse for him as every time he left to god knows where, he had to take all of his personal possessions with him, read computer, etc! After a while he got lazy and left his pc at Ellie's. This was the moment Elaine and I had been waiting for. She phoned me as soon as she realised her windfall. "Dad, he has left and I have his laptop computer. What do I do now? I don't know his password or anything." She stated breathlessly. "I will pick you up in fifteen," I said. "But make sure your mother doesn't know that you are leaving, or asshole will be back." She told Ellie that she was going to her room and didn't want to be disturbed for at least three hours. That was all that was needed. We had about two and a half hours to burn asshole!

Elaine met me down the street from our old house and I immediately drove to an address which I had researched some weeks ago. I did not know the occupant of the address, but I had emailed him about a 'job' I wanted done. I knocked on the door and was answered by an unshaven, pimply kid who must have been about twenty years old. "What you want gramps?" he answered through the slightly ajar door.

"Fuck the gramps kid!" I replied. "My name is Al and I organised this a while ago. Are we on or not?" He seemed to hesitate, but when he spied Elaine behind me, he reluctantly let us in. "So, can you do what you said you could, or are you full of shit?" I asked.

"Easy old man," he answered. "Just give me one hour and this laptop will sing to us." He took the laptop and inserted usb cables and hdmi cables, for what reason I did not know. The only thing I did know was that he promised to unlock any password protected files on the hard drive. This was why I was here. He was not cheap, but if he was successful, my plan to burn the asshole would end in success.

While he hummed and "ah ahed," to no one in particular, Elaine and I looked around the apartment. This was not a life I could live. The apartment was a mess. Bits and pieces of tech gear were strewn everywhere. Left over pizza was in many different locations around the apartment. The only place where there was a comfortable seat was in front of a huge set of monitors. Showing on the screens at present were the logon screen of asshole's laptop as well as some sort of scrolling code. This went one for about forty minutes when tech head shouted, "Bingo! We're in!" The home logon screen shifted to asshole's home screen. We went immediately to his web browser and checked out bookmarks which he had set up. Sure enough, hidden in two layers down was one called, 'Bank of Greece'. This was where we clicked next. The logon screen for this website showed and the usual scrolling code activated on tech head's screens. Again, about fifty minutes later, The logon screen self-filled with characters. We had his logon! I quickly logged on and found the account details there. Sure enough, he had nine hundred thousand dollars plus change in that account. I transferred all but ten dollars to an account which I had already set up. It was in the name of C. Heaters. I wonder if he would get the clue! We continued to search his hard drive and found the safety deposit box details as well. Taking note of these, I paid tech head and left. We only had limited time to return asshole's laptop.

Elaine arrived back and replaced the laptop. She then informed Ellie that she was leaving again. We waited around the corner and spotted asshole driving back to Ellie's almost as soon as Elaine left the house. "God, that was quick!" I thought. He must have been fairly close by!

Back at my house again, I took stock of what had happened. Asshole must have been into some real dodgy shit to have that amount of cash. He was only an ordinary accountant. Questions about how and why he hid it offshore while living a seemingly normal suburban life flooded my mind. There must be some reason that he was hiding everything. But hiding it from whom? The tax department has been able to secure deals with most overseas banks to stop citizens hiding cash overseas, so he had to know that sooner or later it would be found by the government. If my private detective could find it so easily, so could the government. This needed more research. Maybe the safety deposit box held some answers.

Here again is where Elaine came to the rescue. I was full time teaching again, so my times to go investigating were limited. She went to the bank in the city where the box was. She had all of the security passwords from asshole's computer, so she hoped that it would be enough. I am sure that if it was me, a middle-aged male, they would ask every question under the sun. But Elaine was an almost twenty pretty thing. She dressed to the tees and knew how to show off what she had. My daughter had grown up and I felt a twinge of regret at her loss of childhood. It worked though! She managed to sweet talk her way through the first layer of security, spinning a yarn about her step-dad being in hospital. The fact that she had all of the other passwords, etc, seemed to be enough to let her through. When she opened the box, all that was in there was a number of accounting journals and an envelope full of smaller items. Not wanting to push her luck, she quickly put both into her handbag and left the bank. She made sure to smile sweetly and bend over ever so slightly in front of the security guard, pretending to check her bag as she left. He got a glimpse of her cleavage, the memory of which would be enough to last him the day.

The contents of the box were laid out on my kitchen table when I got back from school that afternoon. Elaine was there looking pale and very anxious. "Dad, you're not going to believe what was in the box. Here check this out." She placed two passports in my hand. Opening the first, I saw that it was for asshole, but the passport was in the name of Bruce Williams. It was an Australian passport. The second had a typical passport photo of Ellie, but it was in the name of Anne Williams, Mrs Anne Williams, also an Australian passport.

"What the F," I remembered my daughter was there. "It looks like he had planned some sort of getaway. He was planning to disappear with your mother Elaine. The divorces must have really upset their plans for a while. Look at this; two plane tickets with Qantas, from LA to Sydney, one way and it was scheduled for two weeks' time! Surely your mother wasn't in one this! She did some stupid things, but I am pretty sure she wouldn't just up and leave you and James! There's more going on here." Elaine was dumbfounded by the revelations, but continued searching through the envelope's contents all strewn over the table.

"Dad, I think this photo is interesting. It shows asshole, she had taken to calling him that as well now, but when he was about my age. Take a look." I looked at the picture and immediately recognised who was in the photo. It was during our university years. It showed asshole, looking very suave and confident. Alongside him was another university student I remembered. It suddenly dawned on me who it was. "Holy shit!" My daughter was forgotten for a moment! "That's Jimmy Lamont! He was the son of a famous, or I should say infamous gang boss, Al Lamont. Nobody liked him at uni. He threw money around, harassed any female he fancied and even had certain students beaten up if they crossed him in any way. So, asshole was good friends with him. He must have hidden it pretty well, because I never saw any signs of it. Mind you, I never saw any signs of him and your mother being close at uni either! God I must have been a naïve SOB!"

Having gone through most of the envelope's contents, I concentrated on the journals. They looked like normal accounting ledgers, boring! The entries showed regular cash deposits and withdrawals into and from an account in the name of 'J Lamont'. "He must have been doing the books for this crime figure," I said. The other journal was more cryptic. It only showed deposits, except for one very large withdrawal recently. "The apartment!" I thought. The name of this account was none other than James Long! This was the account we had just raided. Either asshole was being paid ten thousand dollars regularly for his clandestine bookkeeping, or he had pilfered money from Jimmy's account! Either way, the pieces of the puzzle were beginning to make sense. "Elaine, we have disturbed an ant's nest here. This could lead to huge trouble for us if we are caught, but especially for asshole and your mother. Now I don't care at all about asshole, but your mother is a different story. I know I hate her with a passion, excuse me Lainie, but I wouldn't wish her dead. This crime family is rumoured to deal with anyone who crosses them fairly decisively. We need to tread carefully here."

Elaine again went pale. "Do you think that they know it was us?" she whispered. I had the same thought.

"I hope not!" I replied.

I knew we had to cover our tracks and as quickly as possible. I took the journals to school and asked my teacher's aide to make two copies of them. I also copied the passports. The originals Elaine put back into the safety deposit box. I did however, keep Ellie's fake passport and her flight voucher. This time the young security guard smiled sweetly at Elaine and stared with anticipation at the beauty before him. To no avail however, this time!

Elaine and I discussed what we had to do. Her mother was in great danger. If Al Lamont figured out that asshole was stealing from him, asshole's days were numbered. Unfortunately, Ellie could or would be collateral damage. She had to separate from him as soon as possible, so that there would be no connection between them. "Fat chance of that!" I thought wryly. "They have been screwing and living a clandestine marriage behind my back for more than my marriage to Ellie."

Asshole had to go! And Ellie had to disappear!

One copy of the journals would have to appear in Al's letter box. Ellie had to disappear under her false name as fast as possible. Now, how to get her to agree!

I phoned her. She took a while to answer it, no doubt wondering why I called her up considering that I had steadfastly refused to answer any of her calls since we divorced. "Alan. This is a surprise," she hesitatingly answered.

"Ellie, we need to talk urgently. It's about James," I lied. "No questions now, but meet me at the Coffee Bean in fifteen minutes." I hung up before her questions started. When she walked in, she was pale.

"What's this about Alan?" she started. "Has something happened to James? What has he done?" I gestured for her to sit down. Without a word, I placed her fake passport down on the table, open. She glanced down at it and when she realised that it was her picture, she quickly looked up at me. "What is this, Alan? What are you playing at? This isn't my passport. Where did you get it?" I waited for her to finish her questions. At least it seemed that she was as surprised as I was about the existence of the fake document. Without another word, I place the two flight tickets down on the table. These were the originals.

"It looks like asshole wanted the two of you to disappear, Mrs Williams!" She went a paler shade of pale than before.

"What? How? I would never leave my kids. I know they have been hell to live with since our divorce Alan, but I still love them. They are John's kids too. He wouldn't just up and leave them!" when she said the last bit, she bit her tongue. It was the first time that she had openly admitted to me that the kids weren't mine.

"You're actually standing up for that cheating asshole?" My anger started to surface. "That lying, devious prick who willingly cuckolded me with your help for over nineteen years. You're expecting me to believe that he has a moral fibre!" I was shouting at this point and other patrons were openly staring. Ellie had never seen me this mad before and it scared her.

"I'm leaving!" she stated. As she started to get up, I placed the journals on the table. "What are those?" she asked. "More fake documents?" I asked her to look at them carefully. She understood immediately what they were. She was always the one to look after our finances.

"Ellie," I said more calmly. "It looks like asshole has been cheating on you as well. He has been stealing from the wrong person. Now there is a certain justice from my point of view, but it doesn't give me any comfort. This lovely man, John, aka asshole, has not just been screwing you behind my back for all these years, he has also been screwing Al Lamont financially during the same time. I am sure that Al will find out shortly what he has been up to and if you are still with him, or around him, well, let's just say that you might be royally screwed! By all of his lackies, and their friends and if you don't end up in some Mexican whorehouse as the white flavour of the month, you might see the Mexican desert from six feet under." I let that sink in. I didn't think it was possible, but she went paler still.

Now the other patrons were really worried. A waitress, seeing Ellie's distress, came over. "Are you all right lady? Can I get you anything?" With no answer from Ellie, the waitress left, confused.

"Ellie, I won't beat around the bush. You need to disappear to Australia now. Use the fake passport and the flight voucher. Get away cold. The Lamonts know you are with asshole and have been forever." Again, that twinge of bile arose at the thought of how these two had lied to me for so long. "You have to give me custody of James and sign over the house, our old house to James and Elaine in trust. I have the papers here." I placed the last yellow envelope on the table. "Make no mistake Ellie. I am offering you an out, not because I have any feelings for you. No that's wrong. I do have feelings for you." She looked at me in surprise.

"Alan, I ne.." she began. I cut her off.

"The feelings I have for you are those of hate, pure unadulterated hate and disgust! How you had the gall to do what you did to me, to our marriage, to our kids, I will never understand. You treated the love and respect that I had for you with utter contempt. No, I am giving you an out because you are the mother of James and Elaine and I love them dearly. They deserve to have their mother alive, not dead in some Mexican ditch after being used and abused by whoever. I don't give a rat's ass what happens to asshole. I hope he gets left in some Mexican desert instead! Now sign the papers and get out of the country and out of our lives. Last chance!"

Ellie picked up the papers, read them and signed. "Alan, this means I have no claim on my children," she sobbed.

"Welcome to the club bitch. Now you know how I felt when I learned of your long-term deceit." I stood up and left the café. The patrons collectively sighed with relief, but still looked over at the sobbing lady still seated.

James came to my house with all of his gear the next day. "Hey dad. What's going on? Mum left a note on the table for me to come here and expect to stay for quite a while. Most of her stuff is gone. It's like she isn't coming back!" I looked at James, my James and smiled. "It's ok son. All will be explained shortly. Go and unpack." Elaine raced in, hugged her brother and helped him get his gear away.