History

When the subject of putting little Dwight in daycare came up, Earl and Harriet immediately balked, emphatically stating that no one could possibly be a better caregiver than a grandmother. Dwight's mother was a homebody and watching the little one gave her a new lease on life. She insisted on picking up and dropping off little Dwight every weekday so as not to inconvenience the new parents. And the mere mention of paying her for her trouble was insulting to her. It was a gift of love she chose to make.

Chapter 10

Over the course of the next two years, Dwight received three pay increases. Two of them were statewide pay raises applicable to all state personnel, and the third was a discretionary bonus raise implemented within the local university itself for his stellar performance. Professor Underwood was considered to be the fun professor and everyone struggled to get into his classes, whether it was related to their course of study or not. He made history come alive to his students and they loved him for it. He was voted favorite professor two years in a row. Evelyn was doing well at her job also. She could chug through corporate returns as quickly as the best of them and in addition to recognition, she too received nice pay raises commensurate with her proven track record.

It was at this time that she again was registered for her annual continuing education class requirements seminar, and just as it was once before, no local sessions were available matching up with her availability schedule. However, instead of Wilmington, the destination location this time was Morehead City, NC which was 300 miles (483 km) away, requiring a drive time of 5.25 hours. The classes were being held on a Tuesday and Wednesday. As before, she would have to leave Monday afternoon and check in to the hotel Monday evening and check out Thursday morning and spend much of the day driving back. Evelyn bitterly fought the trip but she was pretty much given an ultimatum. Monday morning, before leaving for work, she urged Dwight to keep the bed warm for her until her return Thursday evening. Harriet was still tending to little Dwight during the weekdays, so he would still be well cared for. But Dwight would be a single parent with the little tyke for three consecutive days.

She asked him to call her in the evenings once little Dwight was put to bed because her nightly schedule would be more flexible than his. They could talk and catch up every evening while she was out of town. As it was, Dwight's work load at the college was very light during the summer. He only had one weekly class to teach and it was on Fridays.

The routine was to try to get the toddler to bed by 8 pm every night. Some nights went better than others. Monday night after getting the little one to nod off, Dwight visited their mailbox to collect the mail, which was something Evelyn normally always handled, taking care of the mail and the bills since the was an accountant. He tossed the pile of mail on the kitchen table and decided to go ahead and call Evelyn while the baby was quietly sleeping. He knew that status could change in an instant. He'd had a light day of planning for his fall courses, updating his lectures to include the latest historical findings by worldwide researchers. She emphasized how boring the lectures still were and said she was catching up on her reading of a romance novel to stave off the monotony.

After the call was ended, he stood over the trash can quickly tossing out the junk mail when something caught his eye just as it was landing in the trash. He fished it back out noticing that it was from a bank that they had never used before addressed to Evelyn. He decided to ensure that it was just another junk mail advertisement before tossing it, so he opened it to take a quick look. He was intrigued to discover that it was an annual invoice from the Bank of Gaston in nearby Gastonia for a safe deposit box issued in her name alone. This was extremely unusual. The record showed that the safe deposit box was initially rented by her two years ago identified as box #30-07 and the annual rental was invoiced to her at cost of $125.00.

He was stunned. They had been issued a free small safe deposit box where they jointly banked there in Charlotte, so he was familiar with how they worked. It was inconceivable to him that she would have some kind of secret like this and keep him totally in the dark about it. His instinctive reaction was to call her immediately, demanding an explanation. But then he considered that if she had the key with her, and she removed the contents to another location without telling him, that she could still retain her secret, whatever it was. He'd seen her keychain numerous times and was familiar with all of the keys on it, including her office key where she worked. Safe-deposit keys are unique in appearance and he was certain she didn't have one with her. Therefore the key must be hidden there somewhere in the house.

They had a small desk over in one corner of the den where she handled all of their bills, taxes and other miscellaneous paperwork. He decided to start there. A cursory search came up empty, so he undertook a comprehensive survey, emptying all of the drawers, one at a time and even checking for anything possibly taped to the bottom of a drawer. Nothing. That was nearly two hours wasted, he thought. Still puzzled, he decided to take his shower and turn in for the night.

Early Tuesday morning, after pinning a clothespin to his nose, he changed little Dwight's diaper, freshened up his little bottom and prepared him for the day. His mom dropped by right on time and hustled the tyke off to a day of fun being spoiled by grandma. She spent more time each day with him than they did and her love for him most assuredly equaled theirs.

Dwight called Jeanette, his assistant giving her tasks to do in his absence. He said he needed to take care of some things and for her not to expect him in that day. It was then that he began his search for the elusive key in earnest. He went through their bedroom top to bottom. He checked her every drawer, cabinet, under every table and chair, any and everywhere she might hide the small flat brass key. He disassembled their bed down to the frame and searched every crook, cranny and crevice in which it could be concealed. Still nothing. He went through the baby's room from stem to stern, again frustrated in his efforts. He then wondered if she had hidden it where she worked. In light of his null results, it seemed the most logical explanation. By that time, the day was gone and his mother would soon be returning his son home. He would give it more thought overnight and try to think like she might would think, when hiding it.

His call to her Tuesday night was flat. He was so anxious to ask her about it, but knew she would probably go underground with her secret even more if confronted too early. He was determined to come from a position of knowledge rather than leaving her with the upper hand. She asked him what was wrong and he said that he was just tired of going through a ton of papers for his research, which was true in a sense, but he let her assume it was related to his work. They said their 'I love yous' and 'good nights' and hung up.

Wednesday morning he'd had an epiphany. All night he'd asked himself where she might not think he would ever look to hide the key and came up with a place that he had indeed passed over without even thinking. He returned to her closet and pulled out her wedding dress. It had been dry cleaned and stored in a double zipped bag which had a transparent clear flexible plastic window to allow the dress to be viewed without opening it. He unzipped it all the way down to the bottom where he found her wedding shoes. They had been dyed to match her dress and so she kept them together with her dress in the bottom of the bag. He pulled out the shoes and shook them. To his disappointment, they didn't make a sound. Then he shoved his hand inside each one. In the toe of the right shoe, he discovered a small cloth bag and inside the bag was the key! It was readily identified by the distinct marking 30-07.

He was both relieved and mystified at the same time. Relieved that he wasn't being paranoid. She did in fact have a secret safe deposit box that she obviously didn't want him knowing about. He was mystified for two reasons. For one, he wondered why. Secondly, he wondered how he was going to access that box without her knowledge. Now that he knew where the key was, he put everything back exactly as he had found it. He could quickly retrieve the key at any future time as long as she didn't suspect that he knew of its existence. He knew he had to cover his tracks. He took the envelope that the safe deposit box invoice had been mailed in and went to an office supply store looking for its mate. It was of the type with two clear plastic windows allowing the invoice to show both sender and receiver addresses. He found a small box of twenty-five and inserted the invoice in the new envelope and sealed it. He discarded the rest to prevent any suspicion.

Before he left home for work on Thursday, he put a stamp on the envelope and left it in their mailbox mixed in together with the previous day's mail. The fact that the stamp had not been canceled wasn't a big deal; that happens quite often. Now, when Evelyn returned home from Morehead City, she would retrieve the mail as usual and handle it in her habitual manner. But Dwight was absolutely certain that he would never see that invoice again. And since he now knew where the key was, that was no longer important. However, he didn't want to take the chance that she might move it elsewhere so he devised a plan in his head to determine what the contents of that box were.

Chapter 11

The first thing that he did was bring in a confidante. He needed an accomplice to make his plan work. And the one person that he knew that he could trust was Jeanette Williams. No matter what the circumstances, she always seemed to land in his corner. He decided that he needed to tell her the truth in order to gain her cooperation. She was wide-eyed as she listened to how he uncovered Evelyn's mysterious secret and the lengths to which Dwight had gone to, to discover the key's hiding place. She was definitely in. She would help him in any way she could.

Dwight had found an online website that offered to provide a counterfeit driver's license. The fake ID price ranged from $185 to $1400, depending on how closely it would be scrutinized. He did not need it to be verified on any electronic system database. He merely needed one for a cursory identity check. He brought in a sample of Evelyn's signature and had Jeanette practice on and off all day, perfecting the reproduction to the best of her ability. Once her duplication appeared fairly accurate to the naked eye, he then asked her to order the fake ID using Evelyn's name and address but to use her own picture. She used her forged version of Evelyn's signature to go on the license. That particular setup was invoiced at $225.00, which Dwight gladly reimbursed her in cash. The license was delivered to her doorstep within a week.

Dwight secured a quality non-descript leather briefcase from the lost and found department. Items held for over 120 days were sold for just a few dollars. He normally carried a compact leather binder/portfolio himself for the papers he carried home but had no idea what the contents of the safe deposit box might be. Like the old Boy Scout motto, he wanted to be prepared. Once everything was set, Jeanette accompanied him to the Bank of Gaston in nearby Gastonia during a regular weekday. They walked in together. She presented her ID showing her to be Evelyn Underwood and asked to see safe deposit box 30-07. Dwight went with her into the vault where Jeanette was asked to sign the signature card for verification. She signed Evelyn's signature on the card beneath the only two other signatures that were on it. Apparently, Evelyn had not visited the box often. The bank employee checked Jeanette's forged signature against the other two on the card and asked her to produce her key, which she did.

The teller then opened the door to the large box marked 30-07 on the bottom row of boxes in the vault. She then opened the door to a side room attached to the vault where the contents of the box could be viewed and left the couple to their own business. When Dwight slid the box out into the open, he noticed that it was exceptionally heavy. That shocked him. It was VERY heavy. He had to use some serious muscle just to lift the box from its resting place and move it to the reviewing table in the small private room. He estimated the box to weigh nearly 70 lbs. (32 kg). He asked Jeanette to keep a lookout to make sure they weren't disturbed by another patron as he proceeded to view the contents of this unusual secretive container.

There was a manila envelope on top which he set aside for the moment to see what it was underneath inside that was so heavy. What he saw again astonished him. He estimated that there were somewhere between forty to sixty rolls of coins in the box. He picked one of them up and opened it. When he poured the first few coins out into his hand, he then saw that they were one troy ounce American Eagle gold coins 0.999 pure. He instantly knew what this was but didn't want to break down right there inside the vault in front of his assistant. He put the coins back into the roll and closed it. He rushed to transfer all of the rolls of coins from the safe deposit box into the briefcase he had brought with him. Then he tossed the manila envelope on top and asked Jeanette to slip the now empty safe deposit box back into its holder in the vault and to call the attendant to close it and return her key, which took place efficiently.

He didn't dare try to carry the briefcase by the handle. It would have quickly broken and spilled the contents all over the floor. He instead, carried it snugly up against his body, with both hands underneath the bottom of the briefcase for support. On the trip back to Charlotte, Jeanette, trying to be sensitive, didn't ask him what was in the safe deposit box that was so heavy. She saw tears streaming down his face and knew that he was more upset than she had ever seen him before.

"She cheated on me, Jeanette." He cried. "Evelyn cheated on me. I am one hundred percent sure. There's no other possible explanation."

"I'm sorry Dwight. She's always acted so loving around you. Even when you weren't around, she never had a single bad thing to say about you. I don't get it." Puzzled Jeanette.

"She's just trying to make up for her betrayal. That's all that is. It's just an act to deflect attention away from the fact that she cheated on me. If she really loved me, she wouldn't have had sex with another man. Now that I know, I can't live with her anymore. I'm going to divorce her and make her part of my past. I hate it when history repeats itself. First Patricia and now Evelyn. Well, I know how to learn from history and I'll be damned if I'm going to sit still and let her get away scot-free."

He dropped Jeanette off back on campus and asked her to hold the fort down for him, explaining that he might be off from work for a day or two. He asked her to destroy her fake ID so that she couldn't be implicated in anything untoward. She promised to do just that as long as he promised not to shut her out and to respond to her if she contacted him for any reason. She reassured him that she had his back and would fiercely defend her boss against all comers. He loved her devotion. If only Evelyn had displayed such loyalty.

Dwight sobbed as he made the drive back to their humble abode. He was mourning the loss of his wife, his marriage, his happy home, his future. He mourned that his son would be coming from a broken home. His spirit was broken and would take time to heal. He carried the heavy load into the kitchen and set it on a chair next to the table. Then he proceeded to remove and count the coins retrieved from the briefcase. Each roll contained twenty, one-ounce gold coins. He counted fifty rolls. Fifty rolls of twenty coins each totaled one thousand ounces of pure gold. He opened the manila envelope and looked at the papers inside. On top was a receipt made out to Daniel Creighton, for the purchase of 1,000 troy ounces of Gold Eagles at a cost of $2000.00 per ounce, totaling the tidy sum of $2,000,000.00.

That was one hundred percent confirmation. There need be no other evidence. She had given the wealthy Daniel Creighton the twenty-four hours serving him as his whore and this was her payment. It was clear now why she had secreted the bounty from him. She knew that if he discovered it, their marriage would be toast. She was right. But Dwight knew that he had not signed anything. He looked through the other papers. There were copies of the non-disclosure forms from both of them. His signature had obviously been forged. She didn't have the originals, only copies, but still, it was proof of her betrayal and infidelity, at least to him.

As he sat there in his misery; a new thought that he never would have entertained before today, entered his mind. Little Dwight. Although he seemed to be his spitting image, there was suddenly room for doubt as to his parentage. Damn her! Damn her to hell! Now his whole life and everything he loved was being turned on its head. He had to know. He rushed into the baby's room and found a pacifier that he knew contained enough of his son's DNA to clone another child if need be. He carefully placed it into a plastic bag to prevent contamination.

He looked up an online DNA service, took a Q-Tip swab from inside his own mouth, and mailed it along with the pacifier to the Service. He'd directed that the results be sent to his work office instead of his home address. Indications were that it would take at least two weeks to receive the results back. He loved his son. How could he not? But he needed to know for certain just how hard he needed to fight for custody when it came to that. Having no clue how to find a decent divorce attorney, he called Reginald, the Chair of the History Department who had suffered a grueling divorce last year, for advice.

"Hey, Reginald, Dwight here. I hate to intrude any into your personal life, but I'm in a quandary right now and need some serious advice."

"What's going on Dwight? I'll help out any way I can. You know that."

"Well, I'm afraid my marriage has fallen apart, and no amount of counseling can repair it. We're headed for divorce court, no two ways about it. I remember that you went through a tough time with yours last year and was hoping you might share who you believe might be a good attorney to represent me in my divorce from Evelyn."

"Oh dear me. I'm so sorry Dwight. I had no idea things had broken down between you two. If there ever was a couple who I believed was forever, it was you two. But I, of all people, understand all too well how people can change and not for the better. I would definitely not use my attorney. My ex-wife's attorney was a shark and my ex now has a jar with my balls embalmed in it for her amusement. Vera, Vera Tanner is her name I believe. If you have her on your side, you may come out of it on the other side with your balls still intact. As much as I hate her, I believe she's your best bet for coming out on top. Her office is across from the courthouse. I remember because that's where I was castrated" He chuckled.

"Thanks, Reginald. Sorry to dredge up bad memories for you but I appreciate you giving me your best opinion which means a lot to me. That's why I called you. I knew you would give it to me straight."

"Thank you for that Dwight. Even with the shark at your side, it's going to be an emotional roller coaster for you, you can be sure. Now knowing your circumstances, I can make allowances in your schedule to help you meet your obligations here without any fallout. We have plenty of TA and adjuncts chomping at the bit to help you out if you ever need it. We don't want to lose you to flight. The best advice I can give you is to stand your ground and don't run from adversity. Meet it head-on and deal with it immediately as it comes and you'll get through this with your integrity intact. Let me know if I can do anything, my boy. Well respected, you are."