In Her Eye's I was Redundant

When I came home that night, I asked Lenna about it and she claimed it was nothing important. When I told her what our daughter had said to me about it Lenna replied that our daughter must have gotten the wrong impression and that she would straighten it out with her after supper.

Over dinner that night I gave her that look I had when I was taunting her when we were back in high school. This time her mood changed drastically and she got awful quiet. I believed that Lenna now believed that I knew she was having an affair. After dinner well she was getting the boys into bed my daughter asked me what was going on.

"Luna I'm not sure," I said. "People have informed me about something and if its true things are going to get a lot worse here for a while because it's going to take time for your parents to work through it. Just remember this situation was not because of you or your brothers' conduct."

*******

It had been three weeks since I had discovered the bracelet with all the charms on it. The sixteen charms on it were appraised at eight grand each. The Platinum used with the gold in the bracelet caused the chain to have a value of twenty grand.

Whoever had given it to her had used one of the most well-known goldsmiths in the jewelry business to get it made. Since the individual charms we all unique they had been bought to mark special moments or events in the two's relationship. If you figured that she received two charms a year perhaps for birthday and anniversary you would come up with about eight years.

I didn't want to believe it, but the circumstantial evidence was pointing in a direction that I did not even want to consider. That's why I had rearranged my schedule to fit in a stop so that I could get what I needed.

I had booked a hotel room in St. Louis so that I could get the full report from the private investigators before heading on with the rest of my business trip. That's when the fears I had were confirmed.

My wife's lover for the last almost eight years was a man that I had known all of my own life. He was my father. The private investigators provided me with a written copy and a stick with it all on file for me.

After the gentlemen had left with their payment in full in hand. I read through the whole printed out report. It was so detailed that I don't know how I didn't throw up. Thankfully I had bought a couple of bottles scotch from the duty-free store on my way back from Canada, and I drank more than a couple of stiff shots while reading it.

After getting up the courage I called my soon to be ex-father in law Leonard LeBlanc and asked him for his private email account. Leonard was a proud man who lived with his own set of values, and I hated what this report was going to do to him personally. Yet I knew if I did not let him know what the truth was that he would help Lenna destroy me in our divorce.

"Why the hell should I do that," Leonard asked?"

"Because I want you to be aware of what's coming," I said. "Because you wouldn't believe it if you heard it from me. It's a file that has just been given to me about two hours ago. It cost me six thousand to get it."

After getting it, I sent it to him via my laptop and waited for the phone call that was about to come. Leonard LeBlanc when you first met him would come across as being Gomer Pile personified. He was well over six feet tall but as clumsy and awkward as they come. He had been an alligator hunter's son when growing up whose father had been lucky and struck it rich.

With his backward ways and simple words, he came across as a dufus. Many had been taken to the cleaners because they had understated the brilliance the man hid from most. When he took an interest in something, he went into to investigate it from the bottom floor up.

Many a CEO had been shocked when the very tough deal had been agreed to was signed that he had been employed by them for six months. When he took over a corporation, he already had it all figured out how to improve its profitability and productivity. Using their weaknesses against them he would have already shaved millions off of their starting price.

As soon as my cellphone rang, I answered it. As I expected it was my father in law.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Jett," Leonard said. "You were right. If you had told me I would have called, you the biggest liar in the country. How bad is it going to get?"

"I'm going to treat them the same way you would," I said. "There will be no mercy for the two of them."

"Don't blame you at all son," He said. "I'd burn anyone for what they did. Just promise me you won't do anything before we have a sit-down chat where what we say can't be recorded."

Leonard LeBlanc was a religious man who had never attended church a day in his life. He had his view of life and what was right or wrong. Like it or not you had to respect the man for living them throughout his life. To get his support said everything.

"Dad how about we take the boy's on a fishing trip on the first Sunday after I come home," I asked. "You could call your daughter and make the arrangement tonight if she is at home."

He laughed and said, "I love it, that way we will kill two birds with one stone. One of the things I need to know is what made you suspicious?"

"I found a bracelet with a bunch of charms on it, that I got appraised and found out that it was custom made, "I said. "Last Monday when I was in Montreal, I arranged to have it sent to my wife, from Paris France. It will be sent by courier one piece at a time to arrive at her workplace with a note saying will contact you and your lover at the appropriate time so you can learn the cost of my silence. She should have all sixteen pieces back in her possession before I arrive home."

"Jesus Jett she is going to become a basket case, so will he," Lenna's father said. "so why?"

"It gives me time to find a buyer for my shares of the corporation because I am going to be selling my father's dream," I said. "Because that's the only thing that will hurt him as much as he hurt me."

"It will keep them off-balance psychologically for the next little while," I explained. "Their fears will become more manifest as the date of my return nears."

"How much more do you have on this trip," Leonard asked?

"I got two more weeks plus of living out of a suitcase," I said. "From the day the first couriered letter arrives in my eye's they are the walking dead."

"It would be easier if they ended up dead," Leonard said. "Killed off as if it were an accident."

After he got off the phone, I relaxed in the knowledge of the fact that Leonard Leblanc would wait on no man. Being a man from the swamps he knew of ways to resolve things in such a way that no questions would be asked.

*******

I was in the heart of New York staying at a Trump hotel enjoying one of the many restaurants fantastic dinners with some of the businessmen I was dealing with. Thankfully I would be heading home on Friday.

I was still at the table when the detectives came to see me with some unpleasant news. It was already well after nine p.m. My father was dead. I was shocked. I had to ask what happened.

It seems that my wife and he had decided to go for a swim on the back fifty in the swimming hole that Lenna and I had spent a lot of time in when we were first dating. They had gone for a leisure horse ride this Wednesday afternoon while the kids were in school and had decided to cool off. Dad had gone in ahead of Lenna because it was a hot day.

The local authorities believed that someone had dumped a pet alligator into it a couple of years ago and it had adapted to its new home. My father's naked body was recovered by divers after they had killed the alligator. All three of us realized what the circumstances implied.

My wife Lenna was okay but was having a lot of emotional problems. Seeing her father in law killed right before her eyes had shaken her to the core. Our children were staying with their grandparents until my wife was able to get control of things.

I returned to my table and explained to the people still there what I had just learned then excused myself to attend to a few personal things. Walking back to my suite I could not help thinking that I would never want to get on the wrong side of Leonard Leblanc. I wondered what he had planned for his daughter.

After making myself a stiff drink I made a phone call. Leonard answered right away.

"How are the kids," was the first thing I asked?"

"Fair to middle-lin," Dad said in slang. "They're upset but not much more than what I would consider normal for kids their age."

"If they are still up can I talk to them," I asked?

I spent the next hour talking to all three of my children before they hand their grandfather's cellphone back to him.

"From what I understand from what Lenna was able to explain," Leonard said, "your father drowned because the alligator took him down in its roll. They found his naked body with a few dead animals in his refrigerator. His body was not bitten but does have a few scratches so I would suggest a closed casket."

"Thanks, Dad," I said in seriousness. "I'll be home first thing Saturday morning to start making the funeral arrangement. I'll let you go because I best call my wife and see how she is dealing with it."

"Sounds like a good idea, after all, one must keep up appearances at times like this," he said before he said goodbye.

I called Lenna and the reports were right she was a basket case. It was hard to carry a conversation with her because she couldn't stop crying. She couldn't understand how they could have not seen the alligator before because they spent every Wednesday horse riding. I asked if it was normal for the two of them to go swimming nude together. Lenna went over the edge emotionally and dropped the call. She now knew I knew the truth.

I was in the middle of a business meeting the next morning when the same two detectives I had met the night before had me called out. It seems that after my wife had passed out drunk trying to drown her sorrows. There had been a gas explosion that had blown up part of the house. She didn't make it out and had been crushed to death by the debris.

I went in and asked if we could speed up the process because I needed to fly out as soon as possible. Thankfully they had understood, and I ended up getting a better deal than I expected.

I lucked out I caught the last plane into Cape that night. As I stepped down out of the twelve-seater size plane, I saw my father in law waiting for me.

"The wife and I expect you and the grandkids to stay with us until things are sorted out," Dad said. "That should give yourself time to get things organized and settled."

"How's mom handling it," I asked.

"It was hard for her until the police informed us this afternoon that she had been your father's long term lover," Dad said. "They confirmed their suspicions by finding the blackmail notes Lenna had been receiving in your father's study."

"That's interesting," I said. "It must have been troubling them."

"What shocked them was finding the bracelet with the sixteen different erotic charms all in a state of undress," Dad added. "It could be viewed as a pattern of what the lovers did back when. Of course, they plan to talk to you when the funeral is over."

"How do you suggest that I handle my meeting with them," I said.

"Straight forward. Have your prenuptial agreement and the private investigators report with you. Give them it right away it will prove you had no motive to set them up."

I smiled because I knew he said that to remind me that will all deaths until they are proven one way, or another were treated as they were suspicious. The more upfront I was about them the less chance they would rule it a homicide.

Dad and I went together to the funeral director's office to pick out the coffins. We had decided on a closed casket for both of them. Afterward, I touched base with Terry at the office letting him know the contracts were signed and that I would be taking a few days off.

The funeral and tea for the love birds were well attended. I thought my children handled it well all things considering. I held it in as much as possible but there were times that I showed it. It was believed by most that the two had a closer than a normal relationship, but nothing was mentioned publicly.

The detectives respectfully waited until the fire inspectors had filed the final report on what had caused the gas explosion at my house. They had ruled it to be caused by a faulty installation that had taken place while I was away. I was informed that with the report I could legally sue the gas company for wrongful death and loss of home.

They had found nothing that could put a time on when the alligator was placed in the pond. I showed them my pre nub agreement, and the private investigators report. Using my father in law's printer I gave them a copy to take with them.

They thanked me for disclosing the information because it resolved any lingering questions that might have been brought up when others reviewed their final report and ruling on the situation.

Lenna's Dad and I were sitting on the back patio having a couple of cold beers reviewing my interview with the detectives when he said, "The wife and I will be changing our will leaving everything to the kids in a living trust to be controlled by you until they reach the age of thirty. Do you want to know if I had anything to do with what happened?"

"Dad, it doesn't matter," I replied. "Karma gave them what they deserved; Let's just leave it at that!"

Leonard smiled and said, "I always knew you were a smart man, who knew just what to say when he needed to."

******

My children and I were at Macy's doing a major shopping that was overwhelming me when Fiona ran into me. We had moved into my father's house while they rebuilt mine. It was overdue and needed desperately. She volunteered to step in and help."

"Fiona we are buying stuff because we have nothing left," I said. "Let me introduce you to my three children Luna, Leon, and Levi."

It was decided we would start with the boys. After finding out what the boys liked and did not like we got started. We picked up enough undergarments for two weeks. Tee shirts, blue jeans, shirts, jackets and other clothing came next. As soon as I could I paid for what we had decided on and took it out to the car. By the time we were done, I had made six trips to the car and I was exhausted. The last trip was because of new shoes.

"Dad why doesn't Fiona come with us to our temporary home," the kids said. "Then she can come back with you to help you get your new wardrobe."

"I don't want to leave your father with the impression that I am intruding," she said. "Into something that is none of my business."

"Dad!" Luna said quite firmly. "I think you so go along and then take her out for supper to show her how much we appreciate her help."

So that's what we did. After dropping off the kids and unloading all the stuff we went back, and she helped me out. All in all, it had taken us four hours, so I asked Fiona out for dinner. After she said yes, I called Luna to get her approval, then arranged via cellphone to have their favorite pizza delivered. When I got home, I got asked the big question. "Dad, are you going to ask her out a real date?"

And that was the question yet to be answered.