Orange Grove Betrayal

"He told me to take off my clothes and put on a pair of thigh-high stocking and high heels. He said that he needed me to do this, to help 'seal the deal.' I tried to resist, but he insisted and reminded me that I'd said I would do what I could to help. I hated it, but I did as he asked.

"Bruce left and returned to the living room, where he turned on some salsa music. Then he called for me to come out and dance for our guests.

"I was so embarrassed, but I did as he asked, and I came out and danced for these men, naked except for the stockings and high heels! Bruce would sometimes tell me to do things like put my hands on my tetas and pinch my nipples, or to turn around and show my ass to them.

"Finally, Bruce told me to go back to the bedroom and wait, while he walked out 'guests' out to their rental car.

"I could hear them talking, but I couldn't really make out the words, but it sounded like they were setting a time to be back in the 'States."

She took another swig of wine from her glass before she started talking again. She had a far-away look in her eyes.

"Two weeks later, Bruce told me that the bankers were coming back with some papers for him to sign. I told him that I didn't want to do what he had me do the first time again.

"He told me that we really needed to work with these men, and that they were counting on my 'being nice' to them again. We had a couple of drinks while we were waiting, and I was still telling him no. He finally pressured me into taking a pill — just to calm me down, he said. I took the pill and things were kind of foggy in my head. He told me again that we were going to be rich if I just helped him.

"I finally said 'sure, I'll help' just before the two guys pulled up in their rental car. They came up to the house and Bruce let them in. He told me to take their jackets and hang them up in the entry closet, which I did. Then Bruce made us all a mixed drink, something with Tequila. We toasted to our future success. By then I was very relaxed and not worried about a thing.

"He told me to put my thigh-high stockings and high heels on again, and I remember thinking, 'Oh, I'm going to dance naked for these two guys again.' But I wasn't upset or worried about that anymore. I felt like, so what if they want to see me naked again; it won't hurt anyone. I changed, and I came back into the living room ready to put on a show.

"It was different when I got out there, though. Bruce put on the salsa music and I started dancing, but the two guys and Bruce stood up and got close to me in a circle, and started making dancing moves too. At the time I thought it was funny; me naked dancing with three guys who were all dressed.

"Then, Bruce told them that they could feel me up. They started feeling my tetas, even pinching my nipples and putting their hands on my ass and squeezing my cheeks.

"Then," Consuela sniffed, and tears started in her eyes, "Bruce took a bottle of lube and put it onto these guys fingers. He told them to finger me, which they did. The one guy stuck his fingers in the front and played with my button and put his finger in my concha. The other guy started rubbing his finger on my culo, and then began putting it in deeper, and then moving it in and out, like it was a little cock.

"I was so confused by the pill and the Tequila, that I never even complained.

"Then he stopped them, and he pushed me down onto my knees. Then they all opened their pants up and pulled out their cocks. Bruce told me I had to suck them, starting with him. I did what he told me to do. I sucked their cocks until they came into my mouth. It didn't take long, they didn't last in my mouth. I went back to the bathroom and washed out my mouth with mouthwash.

"After that, they put their cocks back in their pants, and Bruce and the bankers went over to the table and began signing papers. Then they left.

"Bruce came back into the bedroom and hugged me and told me that I was 'the finishing touch' to complete that stage of the deal. He told me I had done what he needed for me to do that night.

"Then he took me to bed and fucked me. I realized that he was excited watching me suck off two strange men!"

Consuela started weeping again and took another drink from her glass.

"At that point, I knew I was Bruce's whore, who he was using to help him fund his project. And he wouldn't even tell me what he was doing. I think that he lied to me when he said it wasn't drugs. When I heard your car pull into the drive, I expected it to be Bruce with more men for me to fuck.

"You know that we manage four different groves here, yours and three others. The other owners are absentee and only come here once or twice a year. I think they own the groves as tax write offs, and only come down to vacation with their families while claiming it as a 'business expense.'

"In the last two months, each of the other absentee owners came down to see their groves, each about two weeks apart. Bruce brought them here, and we had drinks, and he gave me a pill again to 'calm me down.'

"Then we all stripped naked, and Bruce and the other man took me. They had sex with me every way that two men can fuck a woman! They took me in my mouth, my concha and my culo. They took turns and then they, how do you say? Double penetration? They 'spit roasted me' and they made me a 'sandwich.'

"I knew Bruce was whoring me to raise funds for his chingada project!

"He hinted that maybe you would come down, too, and maybe you and he would do me in a three way, or maybe you would bring your wife and we could swap around. He said it would be a turn on to watch me and your wife having sex with each other. I've never done that with another woman! With you, I might not have minded a threesome so much; but the other men were old and nasty.

"Bruce is so depraved," she concluded.

"Then last week, he said he had to go out on business, and he's never come back. He hasn't called, he hasn't been to the groves. He has abandoned us!"

I interrupted her soliloquy.

"He hinted to me that if I wanted to swap or have a threesome we could, but I let him know that Clair and I weren't interested."

She nodded.

I wasn't going to tell her what Bruce had done, but I was going to give her a warning in general.

"So far as I know, Bruce is not involved with drug trafficking, but he does seem to have done some things that could put him into a lot of legal trouble. So don't be surprised if the sheriff's people come by to talk to you. We have formally dropped Bruce's company from managing our grove, so you will get a letter to that effect in the next day or two.

I saw a new round of panic in her eyes.

"You own this house, and we were allowed to live here while we were managing your grove. Are you going to kick me and the children out now that you have fired Bruce?"

"Don't get upset. We may have to move you out eventually, but if you've told me the truth and you don't have any more involvement in Bruce's recent activities, we'll make sure that you and the boys are taken care of, one way or another.

"Just a couple more things: you have my phone number?" She checked her phone and she did.

"Okay, if Bruce shows up give me a call. Oh, and one other thing: Did Bruce ever mention the name of this puta you think he is seeing?"

"No," she replied, "But I think that she is from Central America. Costa Rica, maybe?"

"Well give me a call if you find anything else out."

Consuela stood up and hugged me.

"Thank you, David. You are one of the good men in this world!"

As Dave headed back across the grove, not two minutes had gone by when his cell phone rang. He looked at the screen and saw that it was Pete.

"Pete, what's going on?"

"Let's get down to the sheriff's office. Teresa DiSilva, one of the assistant DAs, is going to meet us there when we file charges."

"Be right there."

It took Dave about 15 minutes to reach the sheriff's office, and Pete was standing outside waiting for him.

Almost immediately, a county car pulled up as well and a mid-30ish aged woman stepped out.

"Teresa, meet Dave Stevens; Dave meet Teresa DiSilva, one of the assistant DAs for the county."

We shook hands and made our pleasantries.

"Teresa is here as a favor to me, so that the DA's office is kept in the loop, because there are going to be multiple crimes, and maybe multiple people, being presented to the DA's office."

Pete assured me that she was competent and a 'tough on crime' ADA, so it was a good idea to have her involved from the get-go.

Then we entered the sheriff's office together, where we were taken to a conference room to lay out our accusations against Bruce, et al (currently unknown) for a variety of crimes.

The sheriffs deputies had already filled out the paperwork regarding the theft and fraudulent sale of the farm equipment, based on Bubba's request. They had already impounded the two tractors sold locally, and the third tractor was being shipped back to Vero for impounding as evidence. Pete informed them (and Ms. DiSilva) that he had the documentation to prove that Bruce was limited in his authority, and could not unilaterally sell anything other than fruit from the grove without specific permission.

I asked how long it would be before we could get the tractors back and was told it would just take a couple of days to confirm our ownership, take down all the detailed information — numbers and such — located on the tractors, and finally, to have the county criminal evidence photographer come out to take a complete set of photographs, as evidence.

The deputy sheriff assisting us told me that a couple of the 'buyers' of the tractors were considering suing me to recoup what they had paid Bruce for the tractors. The sheriff's deputies on location told them that they were considering arresting them for receiving stolen property, since it was obvious that what they had paid was only a fraction of what they were worth. I guess that stopped the talk of suing me. They would just have to eat what they had paid Bruce. They did have the option to file complaints against Bruce, as well, for theft by fraud.

For Bruce's actions at the bank, we couldn't charge him with theft for emptying the operations account, because he was entitled to access to that money. I could, they told me, sue him later for return of the money as a civil matter. I wasn't holding my breath waiting for that to happen!

They could charge him with fraud and attempted theft of the money in the primary account, using a phony Power of Attorney to get it.

Finally, was the theft by sale of the grove. It was going to be a little tricky regarding what charges applied, since we were stopping the actual transfer of the grove; but stopping a theft in progress doesn't erase the fact that it was attempted.

That concluded our initial session, although we made it clear to the deputy that if we found additional crimes, we would be back.

Ms. DiSilva thanked us for the heads up and thought that when the DA's office got the paperwork from the sheriff, they would probably add a number of additional charges. Then she left to go back to the office.

I had a feeling that it didn't matter what charges they laid out, because Bruce was not going to hang around waiting to be arrested. I expected that he was selling his truck and covering his tracks even as we ran around in circles figuring out just exactly what he had done. New ID, a new location, hundreds or even thousands of miles away, he would do a disappearing act.

Plus, at this point, all he committed were property crimes, and those didn't rank as high as other crimes like murder, rape or kidnapping, with the police. No multistate all-points bulletins would be issued, or even if they were, there wouldn't be police briefings to the guys on the streets for more than a day or two. Unfortunately, there are too many other serious crimes to handle.

I followed Pete over to our next stop: Andy Lopez's 'Properties by Andy.'

Both Pete and I had met Andy on occasion, although we weren't friends or anything. More like casual acquaintances.

When we entered his business, we were met by a young, well-dressed woman, who was obviously a salesperson. She had a smile, welcomed us in, and only showed a little disappointment when we told her we were not looking for property and we asked for Andy.

Andy came out, and as soon as he saw Pete, he rolled his eyes and said, "Pete, what a mess!"

"Sorry about that, Andy, but it's really good for you that we could keep a fraudulent transaction from going through."

"Yeah, you're right. Come on back to my office. Would you like some coffee?"

We told him yes, and he called out to the young agent who was on the floor, "Carolyn, could you bring three coffees and a tray back to my office?"

We sat down and chit chatted for a short time, Andy asking Pete how the family was and vice versa. He asked me about my family, since we didn't live in Vero anymore. I told him about Clair and the kids.

Carolyn brought in a tray on wheels with three coffees in mugs, and all the fixings. I took a couple of pseudo-sugars for mine, while Pete added both cream and sugar and Andy took his black.

Almost immediately after we had finished fixing our coffees, in walked a young, maybe 24- or 25-year-old woman. Andy introduced us to his daughter, Estella. She had an armful of papers with her.

"Hi, Pete, good to see you again. Although I would really have liked for this sale to go through. Five million for the grove. Oh well. Dad asked me to make you duplicates of all the paperwork that was completed."

"Thanks, 'Stella. Make sure that you keep the originals together and put them somewhere safe. They will almost certainly become evidence and the DA will want 'originals,' not copies."

She sat down in an extra chair.

"Honestly, Pete, it all seemed legit to me. He told me that Dave's family wanted to sell the grove, and I knew that Jake Sterns had been after that land for years. So, I took the listing, but even before it was up on the MLS, I called Jake, and he was down here and had me writing an offer that afternoon."

She pulled out her copy of the notarized POA and passed it to Pete.

"I thought that this gave Bruce the authority to act on behalf or Dave's family. He usually does, you know, he buys fertilizers, hires pickers and handles the packing houses. It wasn't a complete surprise. You know a lot of the groves that are closer to the beach are being sold to developers. I think that three have sold in just the past six months."

There was something that she said there that tickled my brain, but I couldn't, or at least didn't, put my finger on it at the time.

In any case, Andy and his daughter assured us that the sale had 'fallen through,' and indeed it never got to the MLS.

Estella did look a little wistful though.

I asked her what she was thinking. With one of those, 'it's not really funny' laughs, she said, "You understand that a 6% commission for listing and selling the property, or even just the 3% listing commission, would have made my year? There goes my new car."

Yeah, I agreed, as I mentally calculated a $150,000 to $300,000 commission.

Estella though had another thought going through her mind, as she silently said to herself, "That son-of-a-bitch! I let him fuck me — I even let him have my ass, something I've never let my husband do — and now it all disappears, and I'm fucked again!"

We left the office, finding another place where Bruce had left a trail of shit behind him.

Chapter 4. Clair and I talk

As it was getting late, Pete went home, and I went back to the family cottage on the island. There I found Clair waiting for me.

"Well?" she asked.

"Well," I replied, "We are getting things fixed as much as we can. But I think that we are out the $25,000, or more correctly, the $24,950 from the operations account, because he had legal access to that. But there will be enough other charges against him that if, or when, he is caught, he will be in prison for a long, long time.

"I also stopped and saw Consuela. She says that she hasn't seen or heard from Bruce for a week. That he told her about some 'project' that was going to make them rich, with ranches down in Central America, someplace. She claims that she never knew the details, and she seemed petrified that he was going to get involved with drugs, and they would end up slaves to the cartels.

"I guess that over the past six months or so, Bruce was whoring her out to his potential business partners and prospective investors. Having her give blowjobs to his 'bankers' and threesomes with some of his other clients. She seemed pretty disgusted with herself for giving in and doing it, but you know how Bruce is. He promised her the moon and laid on a guilt trip that if she didn't go along, the failure of his 'project' would be on her. He used drugs to make her go along, as well."

At that point Clair interrupted me.

"Dave," she said, "I never told you this, but before our wedding. Bruce suggested that you and I and him could have a threesome together. That it would be the best sex that I'd ever have and that after the first time, we could repeat it the future. In fact, he implied that once he was married, we could do swaps when we were here in Vero. I was horrified and disgusted that a man who was one of your best friends growing up would even think of propositioning your wife-to-be just days before our wedding. I never told you, because I'm sure that he was drunk at the time and because he had been a close friend. And the next day, he didn't seem to remember what he had said, and he was back acting normal again. So, I shrugged it off. But I never forgot. I don't know if you noticed that I've always kept my distance from Bruce, and I've always stayed close to you if we had to be together."

I actually had noticed that, but I had attributed it to some instinct that told my wife he wasn't completely honest and maybe he was a little too flirty and inclined to be touchier than most women were comfortable with. I stuck with him because he was, like his father before him, a good grove manager.

This new revelation just added to my anger and feelings of betrayal. He may have been drunk, but I'm sure that he knew and remembered every word he had said. Perhaps he thought that he was putting a seed of a thought in her head that she might act on in the future. He certainly didn't know my wife.

Like Connie Lopez had told me all those years before, Bruce wasn't and had never been my friend.

I changed the subject and let Clair know that we were going to have dinner with Pete and his wife Brenda. Brenda was one of the women in Vero who Clair was very fond of; a chance to have dinner and socialize with her was a pleasant opportunity.

"But keep in mind, you and Pete keep off business tonight!"

I agreed.

We kept that promise, Pete told me Brenda had extracted the same promise from him, and we had a pleasant dinner together at one of the great seafood restaurants. So close to the ocean, the seafood was right off the docks, as fresh as it could be, and the cooks spent years perfecting their skills. I had to admire what they did; when I tried to make seafood at home, it just never came out that good.

As most of the year, the temperatures are warm in Florida, so we took a walk along the beach. The bugs were not too bad at that time of the year, the weather having cooled off from the summer heat, so it was a pleasant time strolling along the beach, listening to the waves break. For me, it recalled memories of my teenage years in Vero with my friends. But like Jesus and George Washington, I had my own Judas, my own Benedict Arnold to deal with.

Back in the beach house, Clair and I got ready for bed, and when I pulled back the sheets to find Clair naked, waiting for me, I knew I was going to have a good evening ahead of me.