Paper Matches

Bill nodded his head and said, "I know the place. I see their sign every time I drive to work, or when I go back home."

Jason continued, "I never did get anything from the cameras, but I was able to use the information on the audio recording so that I could be waiting there to get film of the two of them going into and coming out of the room one evening. It was enough, especially when it showed them kissing and feeling each other up in the parking lot."

He shook his head and looked sad as he said, "22 years, down the drain just like that. At least the kids took my side, and have basically disowned her. They're both in University, and these were supposed to be the start of the...our... golden years, I guess. I don't know where she moved to, somewhere near Detroit I think. She has a sister there."

"The neighbor got divorced too, but he had no interest in a long-term relationship with my ex. His wife took him to the cleaners, because they had a prenup that she was able to use against him; something about an adulterer hardly getting any of the family assets."

He seemed to realize that he was getting away from what they had been discussing and quickly laughed before continuing, "That's enough about what my problem was like. You're here for my help with your own situation, not the other way around."

Jason thought for a couple of moments before he said, "I think I know exactly what you need. There's some new equipment that just came out, and I just read about it the other day. High definition, audio and video capable, and connects to a computer using WiFi. They're small, and they give a very high quality output."

He quickly got up and said, "Let me go get one of the trade publications that's on my desk. I'll show you what I mean."

Before he left the room Jason stopped and added, "You know, I'd loan you the two cameras I used, but I gave them to a friend. I do have the telephone recorder, though, and I'll bring it to work with me tomorrow. It works well, and you can just give it back to me when you're finished with it."

+++++++++

It took Jason a little longer than planned to find the publication he was thinking of, and Bill used the time to once again think about where he would be able to place surveillance devices. He thought he had that all figured out, but everything changed when Jason returned.

Jason seemed excited when he reentered the conference room. He was waving the trade publication as he came in and sat down across from Bill. He opened it up to one of the pages and turned it so that Bill could see the information.

"This little baby is quite the camera. It uses WiFi to send audio and video to a PC or network server, and it accepts programming from the PC. It can be run by battery or an AC adapter. There are also versions that come built into things like a working clock radio, plug-in air freshener or Carbon Monoxide detector."

The two men looked over the information provided in the advertisement and then Jason left to grab his laptop so that they could visit the corporate website of the manufacturer. They found even more information on options and features on their website.

Bill had a small smile and was nodding his head as he said, "This equipment looks ideal for me. Do you have any idea how long it would take to get it? I'd like to have it up and running before my next trip in 10 days."

Jason did another quick check of the website and found that there was a distributor in Cincinnati. "I deal with this supplier from time to time. I would think we could get them to ship whatever you want overnight. Delivery won't be a problem."

"In fact, I should have a good working relationship with their sales manager. Her name is Heidi Westerback, and I knew her years ago when we were teenagers and both of us lived in Xenia."

Jason paused, and it was obvious that he was doing some thinking as his gaze was fixed on the end wall of the room. Bill was just about to say something when Jason continued, "I think I heard she had been widowed a while back. Maybe I can use your order as an excuse to get to know her again, not as customer and client, but as man and woman. You know, we actually dated years ago."

Quickly returning to the present from his trip down memory lane he said, "Let's figure out what you need and we can order it by the end of the day, and hopefully you'll have it here in the morning."

The two men discussed the possibilities that Bill had settled on, and ended up ordering four of the high-end devices. Bill was back in his office before noon, with the order having been placed and charged to his credit card. When he left Jason he was at his desk, engaged in a pleasant personal conversation with his old friend Heidi.

+++++++++++

Bill's order of surveillance equipment arrived the next day, and he spent his free time inspecting it and reading the enclosed literature. If it hadn't been prevented by their company's security rules, the ones he had written himself, he would have installed the software and practiced with the equipment right then and there.

Jason had brought in the telephone recorder as promised, along with the instruction booklet for it. It was a simple device that was installed in the telephone line by plugging it into a wall jack, and then plugging a telephone into the recorder. A quick look at the specifications showed that the replaceable batteries would record hours of conversation to a standard plug-in memory card.

He was very impressed with the apparent quality and sophisticated features of all of the industrial grade equipment. Before the end of the day he had booked the next day off, time he intended to use for installation and testing of the cameras.

++++++++++

That was how he found himself in a nearby IHOP restaurant the next morning, having a light breakfast while he waited a sufficient length of time to allow his wife to leave their house for her job. He hadn't told her about his day off for obvious reasons, and he hoped to use the time to install and fine-tune the surveillance system.

By 9:15 he was back in his house, his car safely hidden away in the garage. It didn't take him long to get started with the installation. The first device was a simple freestanding camera housed in a black metal box approximately 1 inch by 2" by 4" deep. A short WiFi antenna extended from the back of it, and a small power adapter plugged into a jack in the back as well.

This camera was soon attached with double-sided tape to the side of a piece of their stereo equipment in the living room, its power source plugged into the power bar that the rest of their home entertainment system used. Bill felt that it would provide a pretty good view of the entire living room, the entrance way, and part of the kitchen.

His next camera went into their master bedroom. It was a different version of the device, and was housed inside a completely normal looking and fully functional clock radio. He suspected that there was some additional shielding inside to protect the electronics from interference, but otherwise it looked nothing like surveillance equipment.

It got its power from the AC plug used by the clock radio, and the only real difference from the standard clock radio it replaced were slight changes on the front of it, and a stubby WiFi antenna that folded out from the back of it. Their old clock radio ended up at the bottom of a box in the garage.

Once it was in place Bill doubted that his wife would even notice it wasn't the original one. Both of them had long since quit using the alarm feature of their clock radio, depending instead on their cell phone alarms. About the only use it ever got was to show them the time if they were to awaken during the night.

A third camera, identical to the one he installed in his own bedroom went into the guest bedroom. It had never had a clock radio in the past, but he doubted that it would attract any significant attention from his wife in just a couple of weeks. In fact, Bill felt it was unlikely that Linda would even realize there hadn't been a clock radio in the guest bedroom.

The fourth camera was installed in the recreation room in the basement. They didn't use it very often, usually only when they had company, but he wanted one there anyway. It was another of the non-disguised versions, and he attached it to the side of the TiVo unit on their television stand. If he hadn't known it was there, he likely wouldn't have noticed it at all.

Bill had decided to install the telephone recorder downstairs as well because there was an older extension telephone there that was rarely used. The wall jack was located behind the sofa in a location that was completely hidden.

When they were all installed, Bill stopped for a cup of coffee and a short break. When that was over he walked into each of the rooms that now had audio and video surveillance installed, trying to see how well the units blended in. None of them appeared to stand out in any way.

++++++++

It didn't take too long for Bill to install the software and familiarize himself with how everything worked. By noon he was watching a live feed from his own living room. The picture quality was good right from the beginning.

By one o'clock he had pretty well mastered the adjustments available to him to maximize picture quality and properly set up the motion detection. The camera would only come on when it detected motion and would then stay on for two minutes after motion ceased.

His next test was to enable video capture to his hard drive. When he had everything set up to what he felt would be the optimal settings, he reset the system. It would now wait until motion activated the camera. He decided to test it by going to the kitchen for a snack, and then wandering around in the living room for several minutes before leaving the room.

He went back to his home office where the computer and surveillance system was set up, waited the requisite two minutes for the video capture to stop, and then reviewed the video of himself. The video system worked like a charm, but he could see that the audio could only be pushed to pick up audible conversations within about 15 feet.

He took his time, and as a result almost another hour passed while he worked to set up the three remaining cameras, test them, and then review the results of each. Again, everything worked exactly as he had hoped.

His final test of the surveillance system was to spend a few minutes in each of the four monitored rooms and then review the total results he had obtained. Again everything seemed to work well. It did occur to him that free space on his hard drive could theoretically be an issue, and he decided to let the system run for a couple of days to test that concern.

To test the telephone recorder he used the kitchen telephone to call his secretary, a simple call to find out whether anything important had come up. As a second test he called his home number with his cell phone and engaged in a sham conversation with himself. It only lasted about a minute, but he felt that that was enough.

Jason had given him a spare memory card for the telephone recorder, so a quick swap of memory cards allowed him to plug the one containing his test calls into his home computer, where he was able to confirm through a set of headphones that the telephone calls had been recorded perfectly.

He knew that his wife wouldn't likely be home before five o'clock, but to be on the safe side in case she left work early, he decided to leave the house much earlier than that. It didn't happen often, but Linda would sometimes leave work early so that she could avoid the traffic.

With everything apparently under control he reset the capture files, restarted the program, and left for an hour and a half. He spent the time at an out-of-the-way Internet café, reading news sites while he sipped a cup of coffee.

+++++++++++

The rest of that week and the following weekend went by smoothly and quickly. Linda didn't notice either of the new clock radios, nor did she give any indication she had spotted the other two more conventional surveillance devices.

In any case, Bill was ready with an explanation if she questioned either of the clock radios, prepared to say he had run into a good sale when he stopped in for a moment at a discount store. If she spotted either of the other two units he intended to try bluffing his way through it by saying they were an idea of his for home security. He would claim to have heard of a rash of break-ins in the area.

The four cameras had been operational for the full five days, and Bill was a little concerned about how well his hard drive would handle the volume of digital data. He found time to check the free space on his hard drive daily, as well as doing things that he would normally be expected to do on his computer.

Late Sunday evening he swapped the memory cards in the telephone recorder and quickly transferred the sound files to his iPod. It was a capability mentioned in the instruction book, and what he found was that the option performed flawlessly. He didn't bother listening to his recordings that night, instead he had decided to check them out at the office the next day.

He simply didn't have time to fully check the video files themselves, and actually didn't want to run the risk of his wife catching him while he reviewed a video taken in their own bedroom. He was pleased to note, however, that it didn't appear they would overwhelm his hard drive, especially over the comparatively shorter three-day duration of his upcoming Colorado Springs trip.

On Monday he made time to visit with Jason Shields, anxious to let him know how well the cameras and their software were working for him, and how well they fit his requirements.

"I want to thank you for all your help, Jason. It appears that your friend in Cincinnati carries high quality merchandise, and maybe you could let her know that someday. Your telephone recorder works really well. I have the sound files for the last five days on my iPod, and I've been listening to them already today. So far everything sounds like normal conversations, thank goodness."

Jason shook the hand that was offered to him, and then started grinning. "I should be thanking you, Bill. I spoke with Heidi a couple of times since we placed that order, and we have a dinner date for Friday. I'm going to take off part of the afternoon to get ready and get down to Cincinnati, and I'll pick her up at her condo at 5:30."

"If we hadn't gotten onto the subject of cheating wives, or in your case a suspected cheating wife, I probably wouldn't have thought of trying to get to know Heidi again, at least not right now anyway. Hell, if I'd waited, since she is a recent widow she might have met someone else. You never know about these things."

Bill joined Jason for a good laugh about the circumstances, and how they had played out. "If everything goes as hoped for by each of us, we both may be very happy about our conversation. You may be reconnecting with Heidi, and I may be exorcising the demons that have been making me suspect Linda."

Jason nodded his head in agreement, and the two men parted with smiles on their faces. Both of them knew that by Saturday they would likely know something about what their futures might hold.

++++++++++++++++++

Later Monday afternoon, at 3 p.m., Bill left work early, ostensibly to take care of some personal business. In reality he wanted to check on the audio and video files he had been recording since the previous week, verify that they worked properly when left unattended, and then delete them to recover some hard drive space.

He had already listened to the entire file that he had transferred from the telephone recorder to his iPod, and there was nothing in any of his wife's phone calls that seemed in the least way suspicious. He knew it didn't cover the entire range of possibilities though, because perhaps she would have used her cell phone for any call that she didn't want him to accidentally overhear.

Everything checked out perfectly. He was able to review portions of all four of the files, fast forwarding through large sections of them, and satisfying himself that the system would do what he needed. Again he noted that not all of the audio was picked up if the speech or conversation was further than about 15 feet away from the camera's audio pickup.

When that was done he deleted all of the stored files and reset the system. He decided that he would reset it again in a couple of days, before he left on his trip. At least now he knew there would be no hard drive capacity problems.

The fact he had to delete the video of the two of them making love in their bedroom sort of annoyed him. Later he realized that he owned the equipment now, and could always devise a way to convince Linda it was obsolete equipment he had obtained from work, and they could create all of their own erotic movies. He hoped she'd be okay with that idea.

Linda came home at her usual time, and didn't have any reason to suspect that her husband had been home earlier than was normal. Together they prepared a nice meal, and spent the evening watching a movie they had TiVoed on the weekend. When the movie ended they remained on the sofa in their living room, talking about what they had watched.

"That was a fun movie, wasn't it Bill. I really like movies with children as some of the main characters."

"I really enjoyed it too, Linda." He slid his arm around his wife before continuing, "Usually these movies with children don't have much adult romantic content in them, but this one did. Did it give you any ideas?" He caressed her cheek with his fingers, and when she turned his way he began to kiss her. She quickly responded.

That first kiss seemed to get them both warmed up, and it carried on for a lengthy time. Finally Linda broke the kiss and said, "I've wanted to talk to you about something, and that movie brought it back to my mind again. Lately I've been thinking we should get serious about having children of our own. What would you think of that idea?"

After asking the question Linda had not given him time to answer before she tried to swallow his tongue and count his teeth with her own tongue. It was another minute before she released her husband.

"Wow, Linda. You haven't kissed me like that in a while. We should watch movies with kids in them more often." He was smiling when he said it, and while he hadn't forgotten her question, he didn't get a chance to answer before she spoke.

"It has been a while, Bill, but that's not all my fault you know. You've been pretty wrapped up in your job for quite a while. But you haven't answered my question. What do you think?"

Bill pondered his answer for a few seconds before he replied, "I've always wanted to have kids, Linda. You know that. If you're serious, you won't get an argument from me." He laughed and added, "I'm not the one taking the birth control pills."

Linda gave him another kiss, this one quite a bit shorter and involving a lot less tongue before she said, "I am serious, Bill. I know we've talked about this in the past, and you've always left it up to me, but I think I might be ready now. My job is starting to get annoying at times, and I wouldn't mind quitting. Maybe the time is right to decide to have children."

That was the way they left the discussion, and they soon got back to swapping spit on the sofa. When Bill started undoing her blouse and pushing up her bra, she quickly suggested that they continue their conversation in the bedroom. It wasn't long before she was demonstrating her oral skills once again, while enthusiastically accepting Bill's oral efforts as they 69ed on their bed.

Mutual oral satisfaction was followed by the standard penis in vagina coupling in several variations, before they ended their lovemaking with Linda kneeling astride Bill, with her providing most of the required motion, and Bill providing some very welcome breast stimulation. They both agreed it was a most satisfactory session.