Just Once, You Out Of Your Mind?

Rick, being a former Intelligence Officer, was quick on his feet.

"Yes, she told me to get the contents of her Safe Deposit Box as well, but then forgot to give me the key." Rick lied.

"Well, there is a $100 charge for the lost key and another $100 to open it." The Manager commented.

"That's fine, just take it out of the checking account." Rick replied. Rick's casual manner throughout the exchange, finally put the Manager at ease.

Rick was shocked by the amount of money Marcy had hidden from him. Out of curiosity, he asked a clerk to print out the annual statement and was again shocked to see deposits of $5,000 every month. In addition, several bonuses in the tens of thousands had been deposited as well. So, Marcy was making $120,000 a year, not counting bonuses, as a Surgical Nurse, but only telling her husband that she was making $60,000 a year. She was obviously planning on keeping these funds secret if they were divorced, and screwing him out of this money and was probably planning on demanding more money from him, if they were divorced.

With some quick math, Rick figured out that Marcy had been doing this for little over eight years. Just before he had left for Korea.

Rick was pissed, she had asked him to take out a mortgage on the house, so that she could buy herself a new Mercedes coupe last year, when she could have paid cash for the car with her 'secret money'.

Thinking of the car made Rick smile. It wasn't in the garage, so he assumed that is was in long term parking at the airport. After he was finished at the bank, the airport would be his next stop.

In the safe deposit box, Rick got another surprise. The box had jewelry in it. Expensive jewelry, the kind rich Brain Surgeon Doctor's buy for their mistresses. The box also had cash in it, nearly another one-hundred grand and a copy of Marcy's passport. Being in the intelligence community, Rick knew that this was a 'bail stash' in case Marcy felt the need to just leave him quickly. Rick was angry again and there was no love left in him for Marcy. She was just a selfish bitch he happened to be married to at the moment. Rick left the bank with two cashier checks, a lot of cash and all the jewelry.

Rick needed a ride to the airport, so he called Josh Washington, Penny's husband. Penny was the woman that had been so helpful [sic] in getting in touch with Marcy the night before.

"Hey, Josh, this is Rick Weston. How are you doing?" Rick said, starting the phone conversation.

"Rick, how are you? Me, I'm just missing the wife. This overseas humanitarian stuff is crap." Josh replied.

Rick had met Josh at several of the hospital functions and local events. Josh had been in the Army for a few years, so they always gravitated towards one another. Josh was a good guy and Rick hated to be the bearer of bad news.

"Can you give me a ride to the airport? I need to pick up Marcy's car." Rick asked.

"Sure Rick, let me finish up here and I can swing by the house and pick you up." Josh replied. Josh was a Captain at the town's fire department and Rick had caught him on his day off.

"Josh, I don't know how to tell you this, but our wives went on this trip to fuck around on us." Rick stated after they had been riding in the car for about 10 minutes. Rick was uncertain about how wise it was to tell Josh something like this, while he was driving, but counted on Josh being a fire-fighter to be able to handle extreme stress situations.

Josh took a deep breath and exhaled.

"I figured something like this was going on." Josh finally said. "You know how you get that funny feeling, but you struggle against it because you don't want it to be true?"

"Yeah, I get that." Rick replied.

"How do you know Penny and Marcy are screwing around?" Josh asked. Rick noticed he seemed surprisingly calm.

"Marcy told me she was going to screw around on me, left me a letter and arrange for me to hook up with one of the neighbor's wives as a consolation." Kyle stated.

"And Penny?" Josh asked.

"When I couldn't get hold of Marcy last night, I called Penny's room, trying to get hold of Marcy. I heard a man's voice and confronted Penny. She begged me not to tell you in exchange for letting me know were Marcy was. I have a recording of the conversation." Rick explained.

"You're breaking your promise to Penny." Josh commented. Rick thought it was odd that Josh focused on that part of what he had said.

"She is cheating on you. This makes her a liar. I don't have any obligation to hold a confidence with a liar." Rick explained. Again, showing the morals he lived his life by since he was a young man.

"You have a recording?" Josh asked, surprised.

"Yeah, working in intelligence, it's just something you learn to do." Rick replied.

"You know in this State, that is admissible in court." Josh commented.

"Yeah, I know. Want a copy?" Rick joked, chuckling.

"Yeah, I'd appreciate it." Josh said, thanking him. "Where is your wife's car parked?"

"My soon to be ex-wife's car should be parked in long term storage. Most likely the covered section." Rick replied, as they started to navigate the maze that was airport parking.

They found Marcy's car and Rick, using the spare key, hopped in, adjusted the seat and mirrors and then followed Josh out the toll gate. 30 minutes later they were back at Rick's house.

"What are we going to do?" Josh asked.

"I'm getting a divorce and some revenge." Rick commented.

"I want in on the revenge." Josh pleaded. He almost sounded like a kid asking to tag along with his older brother to the movies.

"I will take care of the revenge." Rick said, smiling. "Are you getting a divorce?"

"Oh, hell yeah!" Josh replied. "Penny knows I don't put up with that bullshit."

"Know any good divorce attorney's in town?" Rick asked.

"Of course, guys at the station are getting divorced all the time." Josh replied.

"What are you going to do about the kids?" Rick asked. Penny and Josh had three kids that Rick thought were all in High School.

"Well, two are in college and the youngest is a Senior at the High School." Josh answered.

"Oh, so you are good to go." Rick reasoned.

"Yeah, Brian will stay with me, I'm sure. We watch football together and we are working on building a Hot Rod together." Josh explained.

"One thing I found out today, Marcy hid some cash from me that she had accumulated over the years. You may want to be sure nothing like that is happening." Rick said, hoping to help Josh.

"Wow, I don't think Penny would pull anything like that, but I will go to all the banks in town and check." Josh replied.

Josh went home and Rick headed to bed, after getting some work done, then calling Diedre and telling her about his day and talking to her about her day.

After Rick's morning run and shower he checked his email and saw that Rhonda had replied. She did not mince words, "Burn the Bitch".

Rick was surprised by her anger, but definitely understood it. He replied to the email, asking his daughter if she had participated in Kyle's intelligence gathering against their mother, years before.

Rick went through Marcy's car and found the key to the safe deposit box and a house key that he didn't recognize. He made the assumption that it belonged to Dr. Trey Cardosa's house or condo. He continued to rifle through the car and found statements to a brokerage firm with Marcy's name on it that Rick had no idea she had invested in at all.

Rick went inside and after a few minutes on the internet, he had the address to Dr. Trey Cardosa'a condo.

Rick next called Dr. Carlos Mendez, PhD, the Program Director for Doctors without Borders, on the trip that Marcy, Penny and Dr. Trey Cardosa were on. His name was on the contact sheet Marcy had conveniently left for Rick. Each Team was led by a Program Director and an Assistant Director, because they wanted the medical doctors to focus on fixing sick people and not worrying about coordinating operating rooms, scheduling patients, border crossings and hotel accommodations.

"Dr. Mendez," He answered his phone.

"Dr. Mendez, this is Rick Weston. I have a very disturbing matter to discuss with you." Rick started, not wanting to beat around the bush.

"Mr. Weston, how can I help you?" Dr. Mendez said, after a moment. He recognized the last name as being the same as the lead surgical nurse and he knew she was married. It sounded to Rick like Dr. Mendez was getting a pad and pen.

"I wanted to make you aware that several of the nurses and doctors on your current mission, my wife included. Are using this opportunity to violate their marriage vows." Rick announced.

"Oh my, I'm sorry to hear that." Dr. Mendez commented.

"Yes, my wife informed me, that she was taking this opportunity to step outside our marriage and there was nothing I could do about it. When I attempted to contact her, I went through Penny Washington as I was unable to locate my wife in her room late in the evening. During the course of the conversation with Penny, it was revealed that there was a man, not her husband, in her room. She connected me with my wife in Dr. Cardosa's room who answered the phone. My wife again informed me that she was going to sleep with Dr. Cardosa regardless and there wasn't anything I could do about it." Kyle laid out his evidence for the Dr. "Dr. Mendez, I am a retired Colonel from the US Army. I have a Master's in Leadership and another in International Diplomacy. I am a senior consultant with Gibraltar Securities. Your organization relies on 85% public donation, the remaining comes from government funding. If you don't make efforts to stop the orgy that your mission has become, I will go public with the information I have and your funding will dry up. With my contacts in the US Government, I can make all the government funding disappear, too. I don't like to make threats of this nature, as your organization does outstanding work around the world. I will however make it very well-known public information that your organization condones extramarital affairs, if you don't do something about this."

"Mr. Weston, I am very sorry for your pain and will make every effort to see that they cease their actions. We are a professional and moral organization. Much of our funding comes from churches that would never condone this type of behavior. I will see to this immediately. Again, I am sorry for any trouble you feel we may have caused you." Dr. Mendez said. He was backpaddling hard. In the time he had been listening to Rick on the phone, he had been looking Rick up on the internet. He found that Doctors without Borders had found themselves a very dangerous potential opponent in Rick, because these damn doctors and nurses couldn't keep their shit in their pants.

"Dr. Mendez, I assure you. I don't want to hurt the organization in any way, but I will unleash hell, if something isn't done." Rick explained.

"I understand and will do my best to put an end to this. Thank you for your call, Mr. Weston, I hope the rest of your day is better, sir." Dr. Mendez stated, sincerely.

"Thank you, Dr. Mendez and good luck resolving this issue." Rick replied and hung up.

Rick had no idea what was going to transpire in Bogota, but he was sure he would find out this evening.

Now, he had other appointments to keep.

Rick went to a few jewelry stores to have all of Marcy's stash, and her jewelry from home appraised. Most of the boxes had receipts in them with Dr. Trey Cardosa's name on them as the purchaser, but Rick wanted to make sure. He kept the receipts, in case he needed evidence of Marcy's infidelity. With this information, he put it all up for sale on eBay. Rick laughed the whole time, it was the prefect crime. He had taken her money and jewelry and she couldn't say shit, because it would tip her hand to what she was doing all these years. She had to know that he could file for divorce under mental cruelty for all the shit she had pulled, the letter in particular and the hidden bank accounts and jewelry was more evidence.

Dr. Mendez hadn't been this pissed in years. He knew they did good work, but sometimes these doctors and nurses were just a giant pain in the ass and not worth the effort. Some of them were arrogant, entitled and many had a God Complex.

First, he got hold of the security company that was providing escorts for the doctors and nurses. He had the security personnel meet him at the hotel, that the doctors and nurses were staying at and he had the hotel manager open their rooms. He had the women's luggage moved to down to the third floor and the men's moved to the fifth floor, if it wasn't already there. He planned to post guards in the hallways and in the stairwells.

Next, he had the manager set aside a conference room for him, so he could speak to the doctors and nurses when they returned from the hospital.

Josh called Rick, who informed him that they had an appointment with the divorce lawyer tomorrow after his shift ended.

Rick was surprised when he looked at his caller ID, he hadn't heard from Marcy since he had called her and was not expecting to hear from her again.

"Hello, Marcy." He answered, flatly.

"What the hell did you do?" Marcy screamed through the phone.

"I haven't done anything." Rick replied.

"Well, I doubt that! Dr. Mendez is pissed because someone called and told him that the doctors and nurses on this mission were violating their marriage vows. When we were at the hospital today, they had security come in and move our rooms. All the women on one floor, all the men on another floor. When we threatened to quit because he was treating us like children, he said go ahead. He promised that if we quit, he would make sure that the entire medical community would know that we quit because we weren't being allowed to fuck each other!" Marcy was breathing hard when she stopped talking.

"Are you done?" Rick asked. He could barely keep himself from laughing. Dr. Mendez was treating them like children and they deserved it.

"What did you say?" Marcy asked.

"I asked, if you were done talking?" Rick repeated himself.

"I guess?" Marcy replied, confused.

"Okay, goodbye." Rick said, hanging up. He then turned his phone off. He thought that he should maybe get a new phone number.

Rick used his work phone to call Diedre that evening and was in hysterics, when he told her about the measures Dr. Mendez had taken to keep the doctors and nurses from destroying the organization's funding.

Rick went to sleep with smile on his face.

The next morning, Rick checked eBay and saw that the two diamond necklaces and a diamond bracelet from Marcy's safe deposit box had sold for 'buy it now' prices and the remaining two diamond necklaces from Dr. Trey Cardosa were involved in bidding wars, that had driven the prices well beyond their original cost. The few pieces of jewelry from Marcy's collection at home were doing nicely as well. Rick smiled as the auctions would be done next week and probably bring in over $100,000.

Rick got an email from Rhonda and she did acknowledge that she had helped her brother and his friends gather information about their mother's affair, while he was stationed in Korea. She said that she and Kyle had talked about it and decided to follow their dad's lead. Since Rick had decided to work to keep the family together, that is what the kids were going to support. Now that Marcy had committed this final insult to their father, Rhonda didn't care what her dad did to Marcy. Rick replied that he was going to see an attorney today and would keep her informed.

Rick showered and jumped in his truck. He had an early appointment with the divorce attorney today. He picked up Josh on the way and could not help, but notice the packing boxes by the front door.

"Packing Penny's stuff?" Rick asked, once they were back in the truck.

"Yep, she is going to come back to a divorce and her shit packed." Josh affirmed.

"Did she call you last night?" Rick queried.

"No, why?" Josh asked.

Rick explained how he had called Dr. Mendez and how Marcy had called him screaming about the measures Dr. Mendez had taken to keep the doctors and nurses from screwing.

When the two men entered the attorney's office, they were still laughing.

They were immediately shown in to meet their attorney. Rick asked to go first, as he had a plan. He presented the letter from Marcy, the voice recording of the phone call with Penny and Marcy, and the evidence his children had collected of their mother's infidelity, while he was in Korea. The attorney smiled after he finished reading the letter and leafing through the evidence.

"So, Mr. Weston, do you want to just file a regular divorce or go for shock and awe and file on the grounds of mental cruelty?" He asked.

"Mental Cruelty, I want to burn her to the ground." Rick replied without hesitation.

"I also want to sue the Private Investigators for failing to find anything. My kids found this stuff." Rick said, knowing he couldn't show the attorney the bank statements from Marcy's secret accounts.

"This is a relatively small town guys, and the county is not much bigger. The judges here don't tolerate cheaters of any kind and this here is just crazy." The attorney said, waving Marcy's letter. "I am going to write up the divorce paper for you with a 90-10 split of the assets based on mental cruelty, with you getting the house. Figure out the value of the house, how much cash you have together and then divide it out 90-10. Giving her 10% of the value of the house and cash assets and leave that in the joint account and take the rest and put it in a new account. Change the locks on the house. When do they get back?" He asked.

"A little over five weeks." Rick replied.

"Okay, that gives us plenty of time." The attorney commented. "I don't do criminal law, but I am going to turn this over to my buddy that does and he is going to start by pulling their PI License with the State Board for misconduct and that should get their attention." The attorney stated, waving the two bank statements that showed Rick had hired the PI's and Marcy had bribed them.

"Josh, I take it your case is not so cut and dry." The attorney said.

"No, one kid still at home and no real evidence except her admission to Rick on the recording." Josh explained.

"We should be able to work with that. This State allows recordings of conversations if only one party is aware of the conversation being recorded." The attorney explained.

"What will that give me?" Josh asked.

"That should give you a 75-25 split in your favor. You keep the residence and primary custody of the child." The attorney explained. "If she gets a decent lawyer, it may not be that good, but I doubt it."

"That's awesome, the divorce itself will be painful for her. I know her, sort of, I guess." Josh replied, shaking his head. He still couldn't believe Penny's actions, but had no tolerance for infidelity.

"When do you want them served? When they get back?" The attorney asked.

"Yep, Marcy asked that I not make a scene at the airport, so that is exactly what is going to happen. Serve them at the airport when they get back." Rick said, smiling.

"Yep, at the airport." Josh agreed.

"Very well, gentlemen. Please see my secretary on the way out and pay my retainer fee." The attorney instructed. They all shook hands and exited the office.

When it came time to pay, Rick pulled a wad of hundred dollar bills out of his pocket and paid in cash.

"Mr. Washington?" The secretary asked, when it came time for Josh to pay.

"Let me get this, Josh." Rick insisted, and started counting out hundreds.

"What?" Josh asked, surprised.

"It's okay. I'll explain later." Rick said, and continued to count hundreds, paying Josh' $2000 retainer too.