Enigma

I headed down to the cellar and pulled out the bottle. Pushed a button behind the rack of wine and it swung open. Switching on the light. I looked at the recording equipment. All six separate long players. We recorded everything that had been going on in the house. It had been doing that since we had been married. We had been married for two years!

Also, sitting there at the side. But not powered up. Was Uncle Peter's separate PC to transfer recording on to it for safe keeping! Uncle Peter had set the recordings up into two months each. Looking through how he had set it up. I ran through it from the beginning of the year for our bedroom. I quickly turned it into January, the first to our bedroom camera. There we were making sweet love to each other. But while I watched we made love. Somehow I thought Pam was faking it!!!

Now I started to think about all the times from before when we made love. Up to November our love had been great. But it had been dropping off up to her Christmas party when she went alone??

Then I remembered when she came home happy. Now my detective senses were tingling with suspicion. The more I sat and thought. I remembered the new clothes and the pair of earrings with the matching necklace. She told me it was only cheap paste costume jewellery???

I found the recording two months before Christmas (November/December) That was went. I lost my murder case a week before Christmas. Pam had started going out with her workmates on those Friday girl's nights out? And other nights. I saw us making love in November/December that was when our love was dropping. I put it down to me. I let it run a bit faster. Then to my surprise Pam was heading to the front door and in walked a man. I could not see his face. But they went to the dining table and he sat just out of sight of the camera.

They sat side by side Pam had a sheet of paper on the table. It was a plan. I turned up the volume on the system. I wanted to know what was being said. As a detective my senses were filled with suspicion. Then I heard a few words that made me listen to what was being said very carefully. They stood up and he rolled the paper up. Turned to Pam and kissed her long and hard.

She was putty in his arms. Like she had been like that with me.

Then she said, "you have to go now. My husband will be home any moment. And remember the Christmas party when he has to work. I want a few more loving hours like that so when we can be together."

At last I saw his face. And I knew who it was???

He told her lunch tomorrow.

I remember that night now only too well when she went alone to the Christmas party and she came home so happy!!! I powered up the other PC, the one my Uncle Peter used to keep recordings safe. And copied the whole of December down onto it. But now I had suspicions about my loving wife. What was she up to and why and why with him. And I knew part of the plot.

I had some hard evidence. But my senses were telling me Pam was up to something else but what?? I had to find out and soon?

I ate my warmed-up dinner and washed the pots up. Thinking hard as to what was going on. I went to bed. Then she came home and she went straight to the bathroom for a shower. I had been told umpteen times from other coppers that is what a cheating wife does as soon as they get home.

Pam as far I was concerned now was a cheating wife. I lay in bed and pretended to be asleep. She did not even try to give me a sleeping good night kiss. Now I was absolutely sure she was cheating on me. I made my plan? The sooner the better to find out.

I was up for work and I thought I would ask Pam out for lunch. And for her to cancel her meeting with him. And try to find out what was going on. I rang her office and her PA answered the phone. I asked for Pam, telling the PA that I was her husband.

"Sorry Mr. Holm, she went out for lunch for a business meeting half an hour ago? She will be back in about three hours," the PA said to me.

At home we were talking and I asked Pam if she had lunch with Charles (by the way he was gay).

"No, I was in the office all day catching up on all the outstanding work," she said.

She Lied to me. At that moment the phone rang. Could not have happened at a better time. I had to go back to the station. When I got home it was gone one am and Pam was fast asleep.

Pam had gone to work and this particular day she always had her hair appointment. The bank allowed her to have time off. Because they wanted the staff to look professional at all times. She always used her half morning off to have her hair done.

I woke up and knew part of her routine. Sod it, I will catch her at the hairdressers and we will go out for lunch. Mainly to ask her a few questions. I rang the hairdressers and asked for Mrs. Pam Holm. I was told that she had cancelled the appointment? But she would be back after lunch. The alarm bells were ringing loudly.

So I decided to go to the station. And the chief inspector. Had left a message for me. He wanted to see me as soon as I came in. I was wondering about why he wanted to see me. It is normally for an update or a telling off. But two days before I was with 'Jo' had given him a full update?

He told me to go home and pack for an overnight course. It was an emergency meeting for officers. It was not a request from the chief inspector, it was an order. I told him I need to speak to 'Jo' to tell her. I would not be in for the next two days. He told me he would deal with it.

I headed back to the place where Pam had her hair done. And waited for her to return after lunch. I sat inside the hotel waiting room opposite the hairdressers?

A car pulled up outside the hotel and she was with him. They kissed long and hard. It was a lover's kiss and much more as I watched them. He got out and came to the hotel. Pam checked her hair and drove away. I hid my face from him as he walked past me. I will give her time to get back and then I will call her. To ask her out for a late lunch!!!

I phone Pam. She answered the phone. Her PA must have been out for her lunch. I asked her out for that none existent lunch we were going to have. She told me she could not come out for lunch. Because of the work load on her desk. But would she be home on time?

I headed for home and got my motorbike ready. For my trip to the emergency meeting some twenty miles away. Which was to start at seven o'clock in the evening. A funny time to start I was thinking.

Pam was home on time. That was when I told her I would be away overnight and would be back sometime late tomorrow afternoon. She packed my overnight bag in the bedroom and was making eyes at me. I had on my biking leathers. She wanted me to make love to her before I left. There was not a hope in hell that was going to happen.

I told her I have to check my bike out and get it out from the back of the garage. And I have to leave soon. I picked up my overnight bag and headed for the garage. Started the bike up and headed back into the house. Pam was on the phone. I heard half of the conversation and I knew what I was going to do. I went down to the cellar and opened up the hidden room. And picked up something that had belonged to my Uncle Peter.

I went back up to Pam. To say, I will see you tomorrow as she put the phone down. Saying to me it was a wrong number. I headed off on my bike to the emergency meeting.

I parked my bike up and locked it with my padlocks and chains. I had to park some distance away. I headed to the hotel and booked in. The meeting finished at ten pm. As far as I was concerned it was a complete waste of time. I went to the bar and then went out for a walk and waited for tomorrow's morning meeting. I was having my breakfast when two police officers came up to my table and introduced themselves. They sat down and asked me when I last saw my wife.

I told them at six pm the previous day when I left home WHY?

"Detective Holm, we have some bad news for you, your wife is dead. And she was with another man. And he also is dead! Can you tell us where you have been in the last 24 hours," they said to me.

I told them chapter and verse. And from time to time shaking my head saying it cannot be true. And pushing my hands into my face. I asked them who the other man was and where they were. They told me in a bed naked it looked like they had been intimate.

I turned to them and said," So you think I have murdered my wife don't you."

"Yes and No, Detective Holm but you are under suspicion we have to tell you."

"Are you going to arrest me," I said to them since you believe I killed my wife.

They looked at me.

"Well I did not kill her and how did she die and where. You have forgotten to tell me that remember," I said to them in a grumpy voice.

"Mrs. Holm was in your bedroom and shot once in the head. He also was shot three times in the back. And on the floor were plans of the bank where Mrs. Holm worked," they said to me.

"And who the hell was the man and I want his name right now," I said to them with fury in my voice.

"Sorry Detective Holm. We have been told. Not to inform you of his name but your chief inspector will when you return to your station," they said to me.

With that I was heading home with twenty miles to go. As I got home 'Jo' was waiting for me in a police car. I put my bike on the drive and looked at my home. It was all taped off. It was a murder scene.

'Jo' held me. It was nice to feel a female body against me. She was warm and loving and was giving out clear signs of concerns for me. After about five minutes.

'Jo' said," the chief inspector wants to see you right away."

We headed for the station but we did not talk much. We both were thinking. Am I going to be charged with murder. I walked in the chief inspector's office he told me to sit down. And 'Jo' sat down looking at me in the face. Then two more officers came in.

"Detective Holm. I want to know minute by minute. From when you left your home at six pm last night. Until you were having your breakfast," the chief inspector said to me.

I knew I was in trouble because. I was twenty miles away with nobody to back up my story. So I told the chief inspector it by chapter and verse. Dotting the "I" and crossing the "T"s. like we were told to do in our training. All the time what I was saying was being written down.

"Sir, am I being charged with the murder of my wife and her lover it seems to me," I said to the chief inspector.

"No but you are suspended until we have checked out your story," the chief inspector said to me.

"Detective Wilson. Take Detective Holm to the hotel and you are responsible for him. Until we have evidence of his guilt or not," the chief inspector said.

Over the next week my time with 'Jo' changed. I saw her really for the first time as a woman. And not as I thought she was a Dyke? At last we were back in the station opposite the chief inspector.

"Detective Holm. Were you aware that your wife had a separate bank account. Which was opened before Christmas," the chief inspector said.

"No sir, we always used our joint account for both our salaries to be paid into. And all our bills were paid through the bank. Check our accounts. We do not have much savings there. Other than what my Uncle Peter left me and that was declared by me when I started in the force."

"Then Detective, how can your account for all this money in her account half million. Was she saving up for a rainy day," he said.

"Sir I do not know anything about the account and how she got the half million," I said to him.

I somehow knew the answer. It was him. He was doing the robbers with the help of Pam. She was going to either walk out on me or get a divorce. It all was taking place in my mind. The questioning went on for three more hours. I told him it over and over again. At last the chief inspector accepted my story and I was back on duty.

In the weeks and months that followed. My other officers felt sorry for me because they all knew Pam had been cheating on me. I was just another addiction to the long list of those being cheated on.

'Jo' was a power of strength to me. Inside and outside of work, I had a few beers and evening dinners. 'Jo' was all women when we went out for our dinners.

Then one evening 'Jo' stumbled falling into my arms. I caught her and looked into those blue eyes and saw something that I had not seen before. I knew the look from her and it was love from me. My eyes were sending out the same message to her. Without thinking our lips met for the first time. My hands held her tight and both her arms went round my back. We held each other tightly as our kiss lasted and lasted. I did not want it to stop. Until we broke apart.

"Sorry that should not have happened," I said to 'Jo', dropping my head down.

"No, I am not sorry that has happened. I might as well tell you. I am in love with you," Jo said to me and kissed me again.

That was the beginning of our love for each other. Yes it turned out she was looking for a husband all those years and months ago. She was willing to wait for me.

Before we were to marry.

I had said to Josephine," I promise you that. I will never ever cheat on you. And must we have one of those prenuptial agreements made."

"Why bother Sheridan. I am a one-woman man and soon you will find that out," Josephine said to me smiling.

With that we kissed and all I wanted to do is make love to Josephine. She knew it. But she wanted to wait until we were married. Within the week we were married.

+ + + + + +

I was coming up to my 30th birthday. Mum and dad wanted to arrange my birthday party. And I had news for them. Josephine was expecting twins. I wanted boys off course and Josephine wanted girls. Josephine was about to become a full-time home mother. Also there was a letter waiting for me from my Uncle's lawyer.

But it was bad news for me from Uncle Peter's lawyer. This was when I found out the meaning of that bad news comes in threes.

I started off with my son. In the letter there are a few things you need to know?

The first one was that Uncle Peter was my biological father?

Even though his name was different from mine. I had taken on my father's name. the man who brought me up.

The second thing was that my mother. Had the affair with Uncle Peter while my father was in the Army military police. And that is how he found out my mother was having an affair with him. Before my father asked my mother to marry him.

The third thing was that my father knew that I was not his son. I was an only child. Dad was sterile.

Now I know why Uncle Peter called me son even when my father? was there. It must have hurt so bad for him.

Uncle Peter made all his money from selling to all the services from around the world. And that was how he met my mother. When my father was not there.

Uncle Peter insisted that I did not put the house in joint names. I had the house transferred over in four equal parts to my children and informed them all about the cellar.

The years had been good to us. I had a woman who was faithful to me and had given me four children and that was exactly what I wanted. As the years passed us by. I had a secret of my own. I think Josephine knew and had put two and two together before we were married. If she did know my secret she never spoke about it.

We are both grandparents now and I was feeling more guilty than ever before. I sat down and wrote a letter to my loving faithful wife Josephine. Which was to be opened after I was dead. And if Josephine died before me our lawyer had instructions to rip it up. This is what was in the letter.

To my loving wife Josephine.

Darling this may come as a shock to you. But you knew about my anger, hate, my hurt, about people that would cheat on their partner. And I would have none of it. But somehow. I think you already knew. But I have to tell you my secret. I have kept it for all our married life.

If you remember, I had to go to an emergency meeting. At the orders of my chief inspector then. It was twenty miles away. That night Pam was shot in the head once. The man was shot in the back. Both of them were in bed naked. I do not have to spell it out to you what was going on. She was cheating on me in our bed. And on the floor were plans of the bank where she worked. She had become a robber like him.

Well I went back to the house and found them in my bed. I shot Pam first right between the eyes. And he was trying to get away. I shot him three times in the back to make sure he would be dead. Then I got back on my bike and rode back the twenty miles. I stopped at the river and threw the gun into it. It belonged to my Uncle Peter? At breakfast I was told Pam was dead. Yes you married a murder. And you knew the nickname our fellow officer called me for years on end. It was Sherlock Holmes.

And do not laugh. The man who Pam was with that night. His name was Professor James Moriarty.

A comical end I think it deserves a 5 for effort.