Mayfield Enterprises Pt. 01

On page 46 of the notebook, Nesbit wrote that he already had dug a grave at a site twenty miles farther north and he included the GPS coordinates.

The two had decided on the method of my death, but not the timing. Nesbit had a small amount of cyanide and when the day came, Micki would simply put it in my coffee. Once I was dead, Nesbit would take me out to the gravesite toss my body in the hole and cover it up. Then Nesbit would become Tom Mayfield. They would write a letter of resignation to my boss, sell the house and the two of them would leave town, and no one would know I was dead.

From what I read, Micki took part in creating Mayfield Enterprises LLC, but I don't think she knew about Nesbit's plan to purchase the Deadwood Saloon, Hotel, and Casino, because it turns out her part in his plan had an end date. It did seem that Micki was familiar with most of Nesbit's plan, but I don't think she would be very happy if she read the notebook, especially with what was on the last page. Page 50 had the GPS location of Micki's pre-dug grave in Colorado.

The notebook was the smoking gun, but how could I go to the police with it? I broke into Nesbit's house and stole his property. Nesbit could claim that the notebook was exactly what it looked like, an outline for a book he wanted to write. Micki wouldn't like what was in the notebook, but she would go along with Nesbit's story to cover her own ass. So, instead of going directly to the police, I decided to confront the two miserable shits and let Micki read the notebook. I planned to record the meeting and then call the police. I decided to wait until Friday and see if Nesbit was going to spend the night with Micki. I hoped he would so that I could get back into his house and get the green notebook. I put both notebooks and everything else back the way I found it, then locked up the house and put the key back over the back door. After that, I spent the night in a motel about five miles up Old Marshall Highway.

Chapter 8

After breakfast Friday morning I entered the GPS coordinates I copied from the green notebook and headed out to find my grave. The GPS guided me fifteen miles north on Old Marshall Highway to what looked like an old farm path. I drove down the path about five hundred yards until the GPS indicated that I had reached my destination.

I had to stop about halfway down a heavily wooded hillside that ended in a swampy area. I walked around for ten minutes before I found it. There was a pile of dirt sitting on a sheet of plywood and covered with a trap. Next to that was another sheet of plywood covering a hole that was about six feet long and four feet deep. So, this was to be my final resting place?

At five o'clock that evening I parked by the old ESSO station again and waited for Micki to drive by on her way home. She passed by at a quarter after five, and I waited till almost six to see if Nesbit would drive by on his way to my house. When I didn't see him by six o'clock, I drove by his house. He was home. The blue Corvette was parked in his driveway, so I parked down the street and watched his house to determine if he was in for the night. At 6:30 he came out and got into his car and drove away. I followed him as far as the ESSO station, then waited there to see if he went to the house. Fifteen minutes later I saw Nesbit pull into my driveway and go straight into the garage.

As soon as I saw the garage door close, I drove back to Nesbit's house. I checked Nesbit's e-mail and did another look around to see if I missed anything important. I grabbed the notebook and the purchase contract for the Deadwood Saloon Hotel, and Casino. I was almost out the door when I remembered the gun. My first thought was to make sure it was still in the drawer and not with Nesbit. The gun was in the drawer, so I decided to take it with me for protection.

I got to the house just after eight o'clock. I parked my truck outside, knowing that Nesbit parked his car in my space in the garage. I tucked the gun into my belt behind my right hip and covered it with my coat before entering the house through the garage. When I stepped into the kitchen, I heard music and voices in the living room. I set the notebook on the kitchen table and moved to the archway leading into the living room.

The scene that I was confronted with when I peeked around the corner made me sick. Micki and Nesbit were naked. Micki was on her back on our leather sofa with her legs spread enough that I could see Nesbit's semen leaking from her vaginal opening, while Nesbit was on his side facing Micki. Both were drinking wine and there was a half-empty bottle on the coffee table. With the music playing, neither of them heard me enter the living room. I was so angry at that moment I was tempted to skip the confrontation and just shoot them both.

I stepped back into the kitchen and set my phone to record audio. I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, then stepped into the room. "I guess you weren't expecting me home this weekend?" I said loud enough to be heard over the music.

Nesbit jerked around so fast that he fell off the sofa and Micki screamed and dropped her wine glass. The scene was almost comical. Nesbit sitting on the floor looking up at me, while Micki tried to cover her pussy while her spilled wine was mixing with her vaginal discharge on the leather sofa.

"Why don't the two of you get dressed and then we can have a little chat."

After the shock of my sudden appearance, Micki didn't look all that concerned as she got up and headed upstairs to our bedroom. Nesbit picked up his clothes and began to dress in front of me.

When Nesbit finished dressing, I said, "Why don't we sit down and wait for Micki to come back?

"Listen, let's not make too big a deal out of this," Nesbit said.

"You're kidding, right? You're fucking my wife and I'm not supposed to make a big deal about it. To me, this is a pretty big fucking deal."

Nesbit held up both of his hands as if to say he understood my point. So, we sat in silence until Micki came back downstairs in a bathrobe. She looked at me and then at Nesbit. I notice a slight smirk on Nesbit's face as he said, "I could use a cup of coffee, what about you? Micki, why don't you make a pot of coffee?"

Micki looked relaxed when she came into the room, but when Nesbit told her to make a pot of coffee, a worried look replace her calm demeanor. When I saw the change in Micki's expression, I figured that Nesbit had signaled Micki that he wanted her to put the cyanide in my coffee. I guess Nesbit decided it was time for me to go.

From where I was sitting, I could see Micki in the kitchen, putting coffee in the coffeemaker, and filling it with water. Then she moved out of sight, I assumed to prepare what she thought would be the last cup of coffee I would ever have. Micki didn't come back into the living room, and the silence in the room was starting to make me uneasy. "So, how long have the two of you been playing behind my back?" I said.

Nesbit smirked at me again, and said, "We've been in love for a little over a year now."

We were quiet for about ten minutes until the coffee maker made the hissing noise it always makes as the last of the water is perked through the grounds. Five more minutes passed before Nesbit called out to Micki. "Hey sweetheart, if you are not doing anything how about bringing the coffee in."

"In a minute," Micki said. Five more minutes passed before I could see Micki filling the cups. She put the cups on a tray and carried them into the living room and put the tray on the coffee table. Micki put my cup on the small table sitting next to me and then handed Nesbit his cup. When she finally sat down, Micki looked at me with a sad expression on her face. I hoped that meant that she felt bad about what she was doing.

Nesbit picked up his cup and took a sip and then looked at Micki and smiled. I picked up my cup and held it for a second and put it back down. "Too hot," I said and set the cup back on the table.

"So, Micki, why? Why did you let yourself get seduced by this piece of snake excrement?"

Nesbit let that smirk appear on his face again as he sipped his coffee, then turned to Micki and said, "You may as well tell him, it can't hurt anything now."

"You were never here, and Dave was. He convinced me that I would be better off with him than with you."

I thought that was a strange answer. She didn't accuse me of cheating, which I expected would be her first excuse. I also noticed that her answer had puzzled Nesbit. He didn't look happy with her response.

I picked up my cup again and said, "That's a pretty flimsy excuse for having an affair."

Nesbit looked at Micki and said, "There was a lot more to it than that, and it wasn't just an affair. Micki is going to be my wife after your... after the divorce."

I moved my cup like I was about to take a sip and watched Micki for her reaction, but she was looking at Nesbit. He was watching me, waiting for me to take a fatal drink from my cup. When I set the cup back down again Nesbit looked exasperated. I figured it was about time to put an end to the charade.

"Micki, would you do me a favor and go get the notebook I left on the kitchen table, please?" I said.

As Micki stood up, I pulled the gun from under my jacket but kept it out of sight behind my right thigh.

"What notebook?" Nesbit asked.

"Last night while you were fucking my wife, I paid a visit to your house. I found an interesting notebook in your desk," I said. "You know, the green one with your plans for Micki and me."

When Micki came back into the room with the notebook, Nesbit grabbed it from her and said, "This is just a bunch of nonsense I wrote for my own entertainment."

"Have you let Micki read it? I think she should."

Micki didn't say a word, she just sat down and stared at Nesbit.

"Micki doesn't need to read this," Nesbit said.

"Well, the police will be interested to read it when they get here, especially when they find the cyanide in the coffee that Micki made for me. The two of you are going to be in very deep shit."

Nesbit got up and started toward me until he saw the gun in my hand. "Sit back down asshole."

Nesbit picked up his coffee cup and it looked like he was thinking of throwing it at me, so I stood up and pointed the gun at his head, and said, "Sit down and shut up."

Nesbit sat back down, I did too. Both Micki and Nesbit seemed to be waiting for me to say something. Nesbit tried to act calm as he drank his coffee, but Micki was anything but calm.

Then Micki finally spoke, "Tom, I am sorry for the mess I have made of everything. You don't have to worry; I didn't put anything in your coffee."

Nesbit gave Micki an angry look and said, "What did you do?"

"I found the notebook in the kitchen while I was making the coffee, so I read it. Everything you told me was a lie. I was ready to kill Tom because I believed your lies, and now I find out that you planned to kill me, you bastard. I was so stupid, but I'm not anymore. I put the poison in your coffee asshole."

Nesbit yelled, "God Damn you," and lunged toward Micki, but she backed away from him causing him to fall on the floor. When he tried to get up his breathing was raspy, and his lips seemed to be turning blue. He dropped back down to the floor, and his body began to convulse, and he started foaming at the mouth. He was dead within minutes. Micki sat on the sofa looking down at Nesbit's body and started crying.

When Micki looked up at me, with tears running down her cheeks she said, "I am sorry Tom. You better call the police now. When they get here, I will tell them I was the one that put the poison in his coffee."

I had the phone in my hand, ready to make the call as I was thinking about what I was going to tell the police when I realized that I might not come out of this unscathed. I looked down at Nesbit's body on the floor and started to feel sick, so I walked out to the kitchen and sat at the table.

Micki followed me and sat down across from me. Micki held her head in her hands and said, "I can't believe I screwed my life up so badly. I let that bastard destroy our lives. I'm sorry, I am so sorry. I deserve whatever happens to me now," Micki said.

When I didn't respond, Micki looked at me and said, "Aren't you going to call?"

"Get me a beer while I think this through?" I said. "Nesbit's not in any hurry now, so why should we be?"

I sat for ten or fifteen minutes before I took the first sip, and then I finished the beer before I spoke again.

"How would you like to avoid going to jail?" I said.

"How can I? I killed him, and you saw me do it. And you have that notebook with his plot to kill you with my help," Micki said.

"I also recorded our conversation. How many people know about you and Nesbit?"

"No one knows, well other than you. We made sure that no one saw us together in public, and I never told anyone about the affair," Micki said. "What did you mean when you asked me if I would like to avoid going to jail?"

"If you want to stay out of jail, we have to get rid of the asshole in there," I said as I pointed into the other room.

"Get rid of him? How?"

"Since he was nice enough to provide us with an empty grave, we will stick to his plan with one exception. It'll be that asshole in that hole, instead of me."

Micki's face was pale, almost white when she looked at me. "You're going to bury him?"

"No, we are going to bury him. I need you to go empty his pockets. Give me his car keys and wallet, and anything else he is carrying."

"Can't you do that?"

"He was your lover and you killed him, so you have to do it."

Micki went into the living room and pulled Nesbit's wallet out of his back pocket, then rolled him onto his back so she could go through his front pockets. When she was finished, she handed me Nesbit's wallet and his keys.

"While you get dressed, I'm going to pull my truck into the garage," I said.

I had to back Nesbit's Corvette out of the garage before I could back my truck in. While sitting in the Vette, I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to own a car like that. Then I worried about the car. It was a loose end that I would have to think about later.

With the Vette parked outside I backed my truck into the garage as close to the kitchen door as I could get. When I came back into the house, Micki, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt was waiting for me in the kitchen. The two of us dragged the body out to the garage and loaded it into the bed of my truck. Then I covered it with one of my work tarps. I told Micki to get in the truck while I checked to make sure I had a shovel and a hand truck in the back of the truck.

Chapter 9

The first ten minutes of the drive were quiet, then I asked Micki why she betrayed me the way she did.

"Dave convinced me that you were cheating on me. He kept telling me that he was in love with me, and I needed to leave you to be with him."

"What made you want to kill me? Why not just divorce me?"

"It was the money. Dave told me that once we got rid of you, we could use our combined resources to build Mayfield Enterprises. He said we would make millions of dollars. He played on my anger at you for cheating on me. I was so gullible. I know you will never be able to forgive me. I may never be able to forgive myself."

I didn't comment on her response.

"Why was he going to take over my identity?"

"Dave said it was to make sure no one would come looking for you. Dave said the plan was to make it appear that we quit our jobs, sold the house, and moved to California."

"When did Nesbit buy that new Corvette?"

"He just picked it a few days ago," Micki said.

"The car could be a problem," I said. "We have to get rid of it in a way that doesn't cause anyone to come looking for Nesbit. Is there some way we can sell it?"

Micki was quiet for a minute then laughed,

"You think this is funny?"

"Well, what you just said is a little bit funny. The car really isn't a problem. This is the funny part. Dave arranged to have Mayfield Enterprises lease the car for the President of Mayfield Enterprises. The car is yours."

"You're kidding."

"The car is registered to Thomas Mayfield, and since you are Thomas Mayfield, problem solved."

The sudden thought of owning that beautiful car excited me, but then I had to come back to the reality of what we were doing.

"Tell me about Mayfield Enterprises," I said.

"We set that up so we could buy companies that are in financial trouble and then break up the company and sell off their assets. We would start with small companies and expand as our revenues grew."

"Like a smash and grab," I said.

"What do you mean 'smash and grab?'"

"It's like when a gang rushes into a jewelry store and smashes the display cases and grabs the expensive jewelry and then runs out of the store before the police show up. Your plan was to go into a small company break the company up then grab anything of value the company owned."

"You make it sound like we were criminals."

"If the shoe fits. Anyway, I don't think that is what Nesbit was planning to do. What do you know about the Deadwood Saloon Hotel and Casino?" I said.

"Never heard of it," Micki said.

I pulled the purchase contract and the copy of the email from the real estate agent, out of my pocket and handed them to Micki. She turned on the overhead light so she could read them. When she finished Micki just shook her head. "Looks like Mayfield Enterprises will have to purchase the Deadwood Saloon Hotel and Casino unless we can find a way to break this contract," Micki said.

"He never discussed this with you?"

"No."

We were both quiet after that until we reached the gravesite.

With only a sliver of the moon showing it was difficult to see. I pulled a battery-powered work light out of my tool chest to give us enough light to get the job done. I removed the sheet of plywood covering the hole and leaned it against the truck. We slid Nesbit's body out of the truck bed and onto my hand truck. Then I rolled Nesbit over to the hole. I tipped the hand truck up until Nesbit's body dropped into the hole. His body turned over and landed in the bottom of the whole face up, with his eyes open and it appeared as though he was still smirking up at me. "No one will ever see that fucking smirk again," I mumbled to myself.

It sickened me to look at the body, so I moved on to the next task. I pulled the tarp off the dirt pile and shoveled more than half of the dirt off the plywood and into the hole. Then Micki and I both tipped the edge of the plywood up until the rest of the dirt slid into the hole. After loading the tarp, the two sheets of plywood, and the hand truck into the bed of my truck Micki and I dragged several dead tree limbs and branches to cover the grave as best we could. The whole operation took us less than twenty minutes.

We rode back home in silence.

Back at the house I left the truck in the driveway and parked 'my Corvette' in the garage, while Micki went inside. When I walked into the kitchen, Micki handed me a beer and said, "What happens now?"

"Life goes on as usual. Sunday, I'll head back to Memphis, and you will go back to work as usual on Monday," I said.

"Does that mean we are staying together?" Micki asked.

"No. You and I are done. While I am in Memphis finishing up my project, you are going to find a lawyer and file for divorce. We will not mention Mayfield Enterprises to anyone. You created it and now you will have to figure out how to dismantle it so we can get our money back. I can't think about this anymore tonight. It's been a long day and I am tired. We will talk about this more tomorrow. I'll be in the guest room."

Chapter 10

When I went downstairs in the morning, Micki was already up.