Incriminating Evidence

Incriminating Evidence

(Get rid of it!)

By

LittleOneWon

CH 01

I'm not an observant person. I don't notice very many big changes, let alone small ones. I would never make it as a private investigator, that's for sure.

That's why I'm surprised that I observed something about my wife, Alicia, on a fated Wednesday in April when she got home from work.

I remember that she was wearing a white shirt with a collar. I also remember thinking that it looked more like a man's shirt than a woman's blouse. Anyway, what I observed was something unusual on her collar. It was a streak of bright red. It looked for all the world like lipstick!

I also surprised myself when I observed that it was not the color of lipstick that she usually wears. She uses a dark red color, not nearly as bright as that streak on her collar.

Then, if you can believe it, I observed that the lipstick on her lips was a mixture of her old dark color and the new bright one. I even noticed that her lipstick seemed to be a little bit smeared. I was on a roll. It was an exceptional day for me. I was suddenly observant. That fact changed my life, but at the time, I didn't have any idea that it would.

I decided to use my newly-found observation talent to kid around a little with my wife. I said, "Honey, if you were a husband and I was your wife, I would be very concerned about that lipstick on your collar. I'd be suspicious that you'd found yourself another woman."

She observed her collar in the mirror. She seemed flustered when she said, "It must have come from one of my work colleagues. We often hug each other. That's probably how it happened."

While I believed what she said was true, I decided to keep kidding her. I said, "When you hug them, do you kiss them too?"

She answered, "Of course not. Why would you ask me something like that?"

My kidding was working great, so I pointed out that she had two different colors of lipstick on her lips. I also mentioned that it was smeared in a couple of spots,

She used the mirror to check her lips. I was expecting some novel or funny repartee from her to go along with my banter.

She said, "Frank, when did you become so damned observant?"

If she had left it there, I would have laughed and gone on to something else. Instead, she began to tremble as she stared at her feet and mumbled, "I was hoping to avoid this. I'm pretty sure that you won't like my explanation. I can assure you that it's nothing of importance. It will never come between you and me. I hope that you can accept that so we can get past this and move on with our lives."

I was surprised out of my shorts! My remarks were not meant to be accusatory in any way, but her response assumed that they were. It was her response that nudged me from observant, to concerned, to suspicious.

Things had turned deadly serious. "Who was it, Alicia? Who did you allow to kiss you? Was that bright-red lipstick a gift from him? How many times did you kiss him? What else did you do with him?"

She answered, "Frank, there was no 'him.' It was Ramona and me. That bright-red lipstick is hers. What she and I have done shouldn't put either of our marriages in any kind of jeopardy. It need not affect you and me at all."

Questions began forming in my mind. They were quickly transferred to my lips. I said, "It was between you and Ramona? When did you become friendly with her again? I thought you were through with her after she hooked up with your old boyfriend, David Jefferson! Hell, what you're telling me goes way beyond 'friendly!' Are you saying that you two are having an affair? Are the two of you a couple of queers?"

At that point, Alicia reminded me that Ramona had been her best friend in college. They were roommates for all four years! I knew that for the first two of those years, Alicia and David were "an item." That ended when I came into the picture. She kicked David to the curb and started dating me. Alicia admitted that she was surprised when Ramona picked David up from the curb, but she said, "While I wondered about it, I certainly didn't care. I was done with him. I was with you!

"Remember, we went to their wedding and they attended ours. We're two friendly couples. It just happens that the women from each couple are a little bit more than friends. That's all it is. It's more than friendly, but in today's world, it's not considered to be 'queer' anymore. Not by us, that's for sure."

I told her that all of that was good information, but it skirted the issue. "What I want to know is exactly what's going on between you and her? If you two are not a couple of queers, then what are you?"

She assured me that she wasn't "in love" with Ramona. She explained that it was just a recent revival of an old relationship that they experimented with in college. It was just some insignificant "fooling around." It was not a serious or long-term thing.

She went on to say that it was just something that they enjoyed on a purely sexual level. She said that back in the day they called it being "AC/DC." She said it meant that their gates could swing in both directions. She said that neither one of them stopped dating boys back in college, they just dated some girls too. They enjoyed a little "girl-on-girl" fun occasionally.

She said that this new revival was just to have a little harmless fun. "It means nothing to either one of us. It's not a threat to you or David."

I asked how it got started again. She said, "One day, Ramona was having a bad day at work. We met for lunch in the park. I gave her a kiss in an attempt to cheer her up. The kiss turned into more than that and it was repeated several times."

I said, "So, you started it."

She said, "I suppose so, but it was a mutual thing."

I asked, "Does David know what his wife is doing with you?"

"Yes, he does and he doesn't have a problem with it. He knows Ramona is never going to leave him to be with me. He knows that what Ramona and I do can never produce a child. He's not overly concerned about it."

"Are you saying that he's right and I'm wrong? Do you think that I'm out of touch with the modern world? Do you think that I should accept your lesbian relationship like David has?"

She told me that it was not a lesbian relationship. She said that a lesbian's gate swings in just one direction and that neither she nor Ramona was like that. She said, "Our gates can swing in both directions. We enjoy each other, but not to the detriment of our spouses."

She emphasized once more that she and Ramona enjoyed what they did, but they always remained faithful wives in every way that counted.

"You've got to be kidding me, Alicia! You're asking me to ignore the fact that you've been sexually intimate with someone other than me? I'm not sure what it means legally or morally to the world at large, but it's devastating to me!

"Is it adultery? Maybe not, but perhaps it should be! Is it an affair? Who knows? At the very least, it has to be an emotional affair. An affair is an affair! Is it less of an affair because both participants are females? Perhaps it is, but it still hurts the ones being betrayed. In this case, the betrayed ones are David and me!"

At that point, she let it all hang out. She said, "If you tell me that you think my actions are a threat to our marriage and that you want me to quit seeing her, I will stop my relationship with Ramona right this minute. All you have to say is 'STOP.' You say it and I'll do it. What I have with Ramona doesn't mean that much to me. If you tell me to stop, it will be over."

I said, "All right, I'm telling you to stop, but that doesn't erase what you've already done. If a serial killer agrees to stop killing, that doesn't absolve him or her from the killings that have already occurred."

She said, "I can't turn back the clock and undo what's been done, but as of this day in mid-April, I'll never again be with Ramona or any other woman sexually. Make that, 'any other person.' I promise to never be with anyone but you, sexually or emotionally, from now on."

Once again, I said, "Even if you do keep that promise, it can't erase what's already happened."

She answered, "I can only rely on your forgiveness for what's already happened. You know that it was not like I'd been with another man. The level of betrayal was not comparable to that. I hope that you can appreciate that fact."

I was so confused. One day of being observant had proved to be disastrous! I guess it could have been worse. As she said, it wasn't like she had been with another man. At least she told me the truth, didn't she?

CH 02

I continued to be upset by what Alicia had done. I decided to talk to David. I was still unsure about the extent of Alicia's betrayal and I hoped that talking to him would be informative. I offered to buy him lunch and he accepted.

After the compulsory small talk, our conversation drifted to the happenings between his wife and mine. Not much new was revealed until he said that he enjoyed watching them!

"You watched them? Were they comfortable with that? Where did it happen?"

He said that "the girls" had their first few encounters in Alicia's car in Big Forest Park. "It was when they started having their Wednesday afternoon rendezvous in our house that I was able to watch them. I think my level of arousal was equal to theirs."

I was flabbergasted, to say the least. While his wife engaged in a betrayal, he was an excited observer!

At my first opportunity, I told Alicia that David had revealed to me that he watched her having sex with his wife. She said, "Oh, my God! Are you still seeking more information even after I've stopped?" She acknowledged that he did watch sometimes. I asked her if he participated.

She said that he seemed to get stimulated by their behavior and she saw him "wanking-off" in his chair several times. "That was the extent of his participation." Well, at least she confirmed what David had said. She didn't lie about it. Once again, she told me the truth, didn't she?

Things began to settle down. When the next Wednesday came around, Alicia came home with no trace of bright red lipstick or any smearing. Things were returning to normal, but I remained wary.

As I look back, I never thought to ask her one very important question. I guess I was too inexperienced in such matters to ask her how long their "fooling around" had been going on. I just assumed that it was a recent thing. Wrong!

My monthly trip to headquarters was coming up, which meant I would be gone on Tuesday and Wednesday. I was thinking about having one of my friends keep an eye on Alicia while I was gone. I even considered getting a private investigator to do it. While I was mulling that over, I had a chance to see Alicia's digital day planner. She had been updating it when one of our neighbor ladies showed up at our door. They were locked in a long conversation.

I used that opportunity to look at her entries for the days that I would be gone. There was no entry for Tuesday, but Wednesday showed two entries. The first one said, "Check with R & D." I took that to mean that she intended to talk with Ramona and David. I could see why she might want to talk with Ramona, but why David?

The second entry said, "Empty suitcase and dispose." I had no idea what that meant. It appeared that she wanted to empty one of her suitcases and then get rid of it. That put my curiosity into high gear. It was a strange entry!

I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if I had not pursued her entry about the suitcase. I'm certain that my life would have been much less complicated. After all, Alicia had stopped her misbehaving and was back to being the caring wife that I remembered and loved. Our marriage was improving. We had survived and we were back on the right track. Why didn't I just ignore that entry? I guess it was because I was curious about what "empty suitcase and dispose" could mean.

My curiosity led me to spring into action when my wife and my sister left on an afternoon shopping trip on Saturday.

CH 03

I entered our closet and began examining each suitcase. There was one that was different. It was the only one that was locked!

The lock was very small and was of the combination variety. There were four numeric dials to set. I started by trying various numbers of significance to us. I tried the year Alicia was born. The year I was born. The year we got married. It was when I entered her age followed by my age that presto, the suitcase opened. That might be recorded as the most significant event of my entire life!

The first item that I saw was a container of spermicide. I have never seen her use it! Is she using it when I'm not watching? I always use a condom when we have sex. We agreed to do that until we were ready to start a family. Does she mistrust condoms that much? I was puzzled.

I was even more confused when the next item that I saw was a package of birth control pills! It was one of those cards with a pill for each day of the month. I examined it and saw that each of the pills had been removed from its little bubble. Every pill had been used! At the top, I saw "MARCH". I recognized the handwriting. My wife had written that label. What the hell? Was she that obsessively afraid of getting pregnant? She used both a spermicide and birth control pills! Isn't that a lot of overkill?

Next, I found another identical card that was labeled "APRIL." A couple of rows had been used. At that point, I had to believe that my wife was surreptitiously using a spermicide and taking birth control pills. I became more puzzled with each discovery. While she might be overly cautious about getting pregnant, I began to suspect something much worse.

A little demon on my shoulder was shouting that there was more to Alicia's "fooling around" with Ramona than what I'd been led to believe. It yelled, "Woman-on-woman, my ass! David just watched? Not likely!" I poured myself a stiff drink and pondered the situation.

I decided to close the suitcase and put it back where I found it. I needed to wrap my head around what my discovery meant to the future of my marriage.

As I returned to the suitcase, I noticed something else. Just below an item of underwear, I saw three smaller cards. They turned out to be pregnancy tests! They were labeled December, January, and February. There was an explanation paragraph on them telling the user how to read the results.

I discovered that the December and January tests were negative, but the February test was POSITIVE! My, God! Alicia had become pregnant just a couple of months ago. The room seemed to be spinning. I felt faint. My wife had been impregnated by someone after her January test!

While I was hearing what the demon was telling me, my heart said that there was still a chance that she was pregnant by me. If so, wouldn't she have said something? Would she be showing by now? My mind was telling me to quit finding explanations other than the obvious one, but my heart insisted on keeping the door of possible normalcy open.

When I recovered enough to continue, I made the most devastating discovery of all. I found two empty pill boxes at the very bottom of the suitcase. They were both written for Alicia Anderson, my wife. One was for a drug called Mifepristone. The other one was for Misoprostol. The prescribing doctor's name was unfamiliar to me.

The date on the bottles was February 21. I overcame my trepidation and searched for those medicines online. It turned out that they are used in combination to abort a pregnancy!

I remembered that Alicia was sick for a week in February. She said it was "female problems." Now, I knew that she was technically right about that, but she didn't tell me the rest of the story. Little did I know that It was my problem too!

My heart began to look for a logical reason for her to abort "our" baby. There must be a valid reason that I'm not able to see right now. The demon, however, was shouting that my wife had unprotected sexual intercourse with another man starting last year, probably in November or December. That man was the one that got her pregnant! His name was most likely David Jefferson!

If I accepted what my mind and the demon kept telling me, everything else made sense. When they began screwing, he must have refused to use protection. She tried to prevent getting pregnant by using a spermicide. It didn't work. By the time she discovered her pregnancy, it was too late for the morning-after pill.

At that point, she had to make a decision. If she wanted to preserve her marriage, she had to end the pregnancy and somehow keep it all from me. The other side of the coin would destroy two marriages and cause problems too consequential to contemplate.

Somehow, she got some quack to prescribe the meds that would abort the baby. My heart was reluctant to admit what the evidence indicated: that my wife aborted another man's baby in mid-February!

Just as the demon on my shoulder had said, it all added up. The "fooling around" with Ramona had started near the end of last year. David's observing and masturbating started soon thereafter. In all probability, as passions increased, his masturbating morphed into much more. Since he refused to use protection, Alicia began using a spermicide before each tryst.

She began taking pregnancy tests to confirm that the spermicide was working. The February test changed everything. She had two paths available. First, she could pretend that it was mine. In these days of DNA testing, that was probably not going to work. She took the remaining path and decided to abort the baby. Against all odds, it worked. She aborted the baby right under my nose and I remained clueless about everything. Little did I suspect that my wife aborted a baby that she had conceived with David Jefferson! I bought her "female problems" story hook, line, and sinker!

The story could have ended at this point, but it didn't. When she recovered, the trysts got back on track! The big difference was that she substituted birth control pills for the failed spermicide. Resuming the trysts after they had resulted in an unwanted pregnancy and abortion, was indefensible.

The trysts might still be going on undiscovered if it hadn't been for that one Wednesday when I observed the lipstick on her collar. I never noticed anything before, but I had one unusual day when a red streak on her collar caught my eye. It was a very abnormal day for me and it changed everything.

That one abnormal day was a Wednesday in mid-April. It was the day that I playfully confronted her and she ended up assuring me that she would stop seeing Ramona. Coincidentally, the evidence I discovered in the suitcase showed that she stopped taking birth control pills right after that. I thought she had just recently started "fooling around" with Ramona, but by then she had already been pregnant by Ramona's husband and had aborted the baby. That's the real story. It's not pretty.

CH 04

I know what I have to do. It won't be easy for me or Alicia. What happened to her? She had been the perfect wife until her "fooling around" occurred. She had stopped doing that, but the damage had already been done! In my opinion, she had kicked me to the curb and reclaimed her relationship with David Jefferson.

I dumped the contents of the suitcase into a plastic bag. Then I relocked the suitcase and put it back where I found it. I placed the bag of evidence in my electronic-equipment workbench and locked the drawer. All of the evidence was in my possession. I had it preserved under lock and key.

I mentioned before that we didn't let things fester in our marriage. This time, however, I had to wait for professional help. I arranged to have my assistant take my monthly trip to headquarters and I took some compensatory time at work so I could meet with Frank Robinson, my attorney.