Paranoia

The day Dave left, Lisa got him to ring her when he got to his motel to make sure he'd arrived safely. Then at 7PM, after she'd organised dinner for the twins, she rang her parent's house phone on some invented pretext, being careful to speak to both of them. She did notice her mother was unusually brusque. Next she rang Sharon on some other pretext. The final call was to the motel number Dave had given her. Dave picked up straight away and she launched into the conversation she'd prepared. All totally legitimate stuff. Convinced all bases were almost covered she went into the garage and with great effort removed the spare wheel then the GPS tracker. She put it on a shelf. She'd previously warned the twins she had a girl's night arranged with Linda. When she left they were both doing something on Julie's laptop.

Finally, close to 8PM she left. She meandered around for a while, trying to spot any cars following her. She wondered again why she was going to all this trouble. At the same time, she recognised the excitement that all the plotting engendered. 10 minutes later she drove past the house and noted Jason's car was still in the driveway. Julie didn't have a car. Preparations complete, all bases covered, she drove across town to the motel Frank was already booked into.

Frank was already there and opened the room door. Lisa quickly slipped inside. Again they kissed, then Lisa finally pulled him over to the bed and they both fell on to it. They continued kissing and Frank moved his hands up to stroke her left breast.

This time Lisa literally screamed when the text warning beep sounded. She pulled it from her handbag but was too scared to look at the screen for over a minute. She was vaguely aware that Frank's phone was also ringing. She finally looked at the screen.

'I hope you locked your car, that motel is in a bit of a rough neighbourhood.'

Lisa could feel herself getting dizzy and see blackness appearing in her vision. She slumped back on the bed. She watched Frank heading out the door.

"Frank, where are you going?"

"That was my wife on the phone. She said she'd got a text saying I was in a motel with some woman. I told her I was just finishing a business dinner but she told me that if I'm not home in 15 minutes, she'll kill me. I'm off."

With that he ran to his car and burnt rubber.

Unable to go home as it would blow her cover story, Lisa really did go to her best friend Linda's house. Totally befuddled Lisa broke down and told the whole story to her. As smart as she was Linda could offer no more advice on who was stalking Lisa or how it was being done. The only thing that they hadn't discounted was some sort of surveillance in her handbag. With a sharp knife they absolutely destroyed the bag. Lisa regretted doing this. She'd carried that bag for years. But she must know.

It wasn't until they removed the last of the bag's liner that they found it. A small printed circuit card that looked exactly like one of the SIM cards that came in the first generation of cell phones. Both Lisa and Linda stared down at the offending item. After a minute, Lisa gestured for Linda to follow her to a bedroom where she shut the door.

"What do you think it is Lisa," she whispered?"

"I'm sure it's a combination voice recorder/homing device. Probably transmits everything in real time by satellite. The rotten bastards."

"I dunno Lisa. It looks too small and surely if it does transmit stuff it would need a power source."

"Believe me Linda, this is it, this is the cause of all my problems. Think about it. Whenever I've planned anything on the phone or in person, that thing has picked it up. Whenever I've gone somewhere, like a motel, that thing has shown them exactly where. I still don't know who is doing it but I'm going to have fun fucking with them.

At 11.30PM Lisa went home with the outline of a plan already forming in her mind. She would have felt less smug if she'd known that same mind was developing a large fracture.

Dave came home the next day and appeared perfectly normal. The kids seemed perfectly normal. Everybody was fucking normal, except Lisa. She was the only one not normal and was having trouble hiding her growing insanity.

Over the next week she put all three elements of her plan into action. The first element was a decoy weekend trip to the beach with Linda. She purchased two new handbags, very similar to her old one and carefully hid the device in the lining of one of them. Then with bag in hand she elaborately planned to meet Linda and drive to the beach town. She told Dave, the twins, Sharon and her parents all about the trip early the following week. She made bookings at a hotel in the beach town on her old login on the computer. Meanwhile, all the real arrangements for a dirty weekend with Frank in a city two hours flying time away were completed on a brand new account she'd set up. While on the phone to him she made sure the bag with the bug in was well away. All real plan communications were done via email and house phone. Frank suggested she scan for key logger programs again. She did that the next day when the house was empty.

All arrangements, both decoy and real, were in place by the weekend before the trip. Time to put the third part of the plan into action. Operation 'fuck my way back into marriage harmony'. She recognised that her marriage may still be in trouble. Dave hadn't mentioned counselling in a while but was still working tons of overtime. She wasn't sure if this was for money for the club or to keep away from her, although she was 95% sure of the former. She just didn't know. Lisa was now certain that her stalker wasn't Dave. She knew he'd been in an amateur dramatic society in his youth but shit, Russell Crowe couldn't pull off the act he was if it was him. No, prime candidates were her parents and the twins. Sometimes she caught both kids looking at her funny when they thought she wasn't looking. As for her parents, her mother was still being extremely short with her and their weekly visits had dried up. In fact Lisa couldn't remember the last time her parents visited.

Providing unlimited sex for Dave would not only buy time for the marriage but fill an insatiable urge. After all, it was over four months since she'd experienced an orgasm with a man's penis buried where nature intended it to be.

Well the operation lasted one night and backfired badly.

When Dave came home on Saturday it was to the smell of his favourite meal and a very sexily dressed Lisa. She explained that the kids were away all weekend and lavished attention on Dave all throughout the meal. Afterwards she took his hand and led him to the bedroom. She stripped. Dave just stood next to the bed with a kind of neutral expression on his face.

"Come on lover, get nude."

"I dunno Lisa, this feels kind of strange to me. It's like you've been using sex or the lack of it as a weapon for months. Doing this kind of feels like I'm being thrown a bone for being a good boy. I just feels wrong and far from sexy."

Lisa stood in front of Dave, squeezed her breasts together and rubbed them against his chest.

"Come on lover, these babies need some loving. Besides all that old stuff doesn't apply any more. We both know why you've been doing all that overtime lately."

"So I was right, this is a reward for being a good boy."

"No Davey, I really, really need you."

"I dunno Lisa, I'm just not in the mood. Maybe if you were to try to change my mind." With this statement he unzipped his fly and waggled his eyebrows.

"What do you mean David?"

"I would have thought it was obvious babe, I'm suggesting a little oral warm-up on your part."

"Don't be disgusting Dave."

"Well, you had no problems doing it before we were married. What are you proposing, just lying there or leaving me hanging like you normally do?"

With that, Dave zipped up again and turned to leave throwing over his shoulder. "I told you before Lisa, any money from overtime I'm working goes straight into the kid's college fund." He left.

Relations were very strained for the rest of the week.

The following Friday the new elaborate plans went into operation. Lisa bade her family goodbye as they all left for work in the morning. She finished packing and drove to Linda's house. The two conspirators following the prepared script as they kept busy removing the GPS tracker from the Lexus spare wheel well and putting it in the trunk of Linda's car where it was joined by Lisa's handbag with the chip in it and her regular cell phone. Lisa waved goodbye to Linda as she left on her all expenses paid trip to the beach. Lisa then called a cab to the airport on the disposable phone.

An hour later, about five minutes before the flight was called, Lisa's phone buzzed. Expecting it to be from Frank, she pulled it out.

'If you get on that plane I WILL tell Dave about how Frank is on the other flight at 2.05PM and about the double room booked at the Desert Vista Motel.'

It didn't register on her that this text came to her disposable phone. The one only she, Frank and Linda should know the existence of.

The airport security guard came over and asked if she was all right when she threw her phone at the floor hard enough to smash it to pieces then slumped back in her chair. She was still there all throughout the numerous calls over the airport speakers but didn't recognise the false name she was using for this trip. She was still there when Frank arrived and flew out from a different gate.

Many hours later she recovered enough to leave the airport and take a taxi to a motel where she stayed until Sunday night brooding. She then collected her car and drove home. With one phone 'accidentally' deliberately left in a car trunk, two hours away, and the other smashed and in an airport bin she was free from Frank's influence for two days. In two days she came to a decision. It was one that a less stubborn person would have made weeks ago. She would dump Frank and put all her effort into her marriage and family. She came to realise that she loved Dave with all her heart and the thought of losing him filled her with dread.

Dave and the twins were already in bed when Lisa returned home. She slipped into bed and snuggled up to her wonderful man. She gave Dave his first blowjob in 18 years. He never completely woke up but just grabbed her head and shot his load deep into her mouth. She swallowed the lot. Even in the semi darkness she could see the satisfied smile on his face and at peace with herself she snuggled up to him and went to sleep.

The next morning she was up early cooking an elaborate breakfast for her family. She gave Dave a huge kiss when he appeared but when he started to describe the fantastic dream he'd had the previous night she shushed him with a finger on his lips.

"That was no dream, lover, let's just call it a down payment on things to come."

Two hours later Frank rang the house phone. When it became obvious Lisa was dropping him, he rang off telling her he would be over in half an hour. She prepared a fresh pot of coffee.

When Frank arrived they were sitting in the kitchen and Frank was droning on about something but Lisa wasn't listening. She was concentrating on her phone. Waiting. Right on cue it beeped. With no surprise at all she picked it up and read the text.

'Surely you aren't going to fuck that man in Dave's bed.'

She carefully put the phone down, grabbed Frank's arm and dragged him to the door. "I'm sorry Frank, it's over, just accept it please." She shut the door in his confused face.

Frank sent her nine texts during the rest of that day, the last one at after 11PM. There was obviously an unresolved issue still there. She turned the phone off. Lisa's period also started later in the day. Sex was off the menu but that wasn't going to stop her from being as loving as she could be to Dave.

Lisa's plan for the next day was entirely consistent with her new attitude. She showered and went out. It wasn't until the third lingerie shop she found exactly what she had in mind. After a long grocery shop and visit to a specialty deli for the things she wanted she drove home.

She sat in the driveway and rang Frank. She wanted him to accept they were done and stop trying to contact her. The last thing she needed was for Dave to find out about Frank now. She noticed that she'd forgotten to turn her phone on this morning. She was surprised when a woman's voice answered Frank's mobile.

"Hello, can I speak to Frank please?"

"No he's still in the hospital. I'm his wife. Is this Lisa?"

"Yes it is, wha...what happened?"

"Frank was badly beaten up last night. Someone attacked him with a baseball bat. His nose is broken as are a few of his ribs. One kneecap is smashed and don't ask about his balls. Let's just say he won't be sitting down for a month or so."

"That's terrible, I hope they catch the mongrel that did it."

"Gee I hope not, it was me."

The sheer calmness with which that last statement was delivered made it hard to sink in to Lisa's brain.

"Which hospital is Frank in, I'd like to go and see him?"

"I don't think you should."

"Why not?"

The response was anything but calm.

"Well for a start slut, if I ever set eyes on you, I'll cut off those fake tits of yours, wrap them in the prenup agreement I have with Frank, the one that leaves him with only the shirt on his back, and ram them down your cheating, lying throat!" The line went dead. Lisa headed into the house stunned. It was just after 4PM.

Sitting in her lounge room were her parents, Sharon and the twins. They watched her silently as she walked in. Confusedly she took a seat in the only vacant chair. Her father opened the attack.

"Lisa, what is it going to take to get you to stop all this shit?"

Lisa's mother put her hand on her husband's arm.

"Hush Herb, I'll handle this."

"Lisa, we know everything. Julie originally saw you in the coffee shop. She rang me wanting to know what to do. I sent you the first text. Then we organised a family meeting to set up some surveillance just in case the first text didn't guilt you into stopping. You'll never know how disappointed we all were when you went to the country club with that snake. Sharon followed you to the club and Jason told us when you started behaving inappropriately. He rang me and I texted you on the new disposable phone we'd bought. It was very naughty of Julie to put on that fake New York accent when you rang." Jason took over the narrative.

"After that it was easy to put a GPS tracker in your car, bug the phones, install a key logger and divert your emails. We knew all your plans before you did. We kept an eye on your purse when we decided you would probably respond by getting a disposable phone. We tampered with that one as well." Sharon interrupted.

'I kept an eye on you at the warehouse and when you disappeared into the stockroom I rang mum. And in case you're wondering, no I never broke my promise not to tell Dave." Julie spoke next.

"We couldn't believe it when you went to that seedy motel. We just tracked you with the GPS and Grandma texted you after your car stopped moving and we'd seen the address."

Lisa jumped on that. "No that can't be right. I found your stupid GPS tracker in the spare wheel well and left it here before going to that motel."

Everyone exchanged glances with each other. There was a common theme of confused looks. Jason broke the silence first.

"What are you talking about mum, I put the tracker in a hole in the chassis."

"But I checked all the phones for bugs and ran an anti-key logger program on the computer twice."

"Yes mum that was very clever. But it wasn't smart to tell Frank what you were going to do via email first. It gave us plenty of time to remove everything first then reinstall it later. That's how we knew about the decoy trip to the beach and the real plane trip. The key logger caught you setting up a new email account." Sharon interrupted again.

"And I was watching the house when Frank turned up here yesterday. I took a photo of him at the door."

"And I printed it out with copies of the emails and put them in Frank's letterbox", said Julie.

"But that can't be right", said Lisa, "I found your bug in my handbag and made sure you heard all kinds of false information."

"What bug mum?"

While they again looked at each other in confusion, Lisa went and got the offending chip. Jason looked at it and said, "This is just a SIM card mum. Have you ever lost one?"

Lisa suddenly remembered about five years back when her phone came apart in her bag. She never found that damned SIM card. She felt such a fool.

Everyone paused for thought. Lisa's mother kicked the attack off again.

"Why Lisa?"

This was the question that still largely confused Lisa. What remained of her rational mind tried to justify what she now subconsciously knew was unjustifiable.

"Our sex life got very dull. I thought some extramarital stimulation would put a spark back in it."

Her mother again became the main spokesperson for the group.

"I can't believe that was the first excuse that came out of your mouth. Your dad and I certainly didn't raise you to have morals like that or to show the same common sense as a pissed off Rattlesnake. Besides, your sister tells me that you weren't overly adventurous in the bedroom department at home. Tell us Lisa, what did you do to spice things up a bit? Did you buy something sexy or make any effort on your appearance?"

"But Dave hardly ever approaches me for sex anymore."

"And why is that Lisa? Could it be that most times he did, he got knocked back? That can really affect a guy's confidence. He responds by stopping asking and hoping like hell that you restore it by suggesting it to him."

Lisa knew her mum had a point there but wasn't about to admit it.

"But he was always so tired."

"No shit Sherlock. Could it possibly be because he was working 60 to 70 hours a week to afford to be able to buy you this huge house and that flash car of yours. Did it ever occur to you to go out and get a job so you could afford all the fancy things and he could reduce his hours? Did it?"

"But mum, it's his role..."

This time it was her dad's turn to break in.

"I can't believe this shit. It is your role to help him in any way you can and to live within the means he can provide."

"But Dad, I just want the nice things that you and mum have."

"And the poor bastard almost killed himself trying to give them to you. Did you know Lisa, that Dave came and saw me about a year after you were married? He asked me to stop giving you money, said it was his job to provide for you now. You've got to love a guy that has the pride to do that." The look that Lisa's mother gave her father demonstrated to everyone that this was news to her.

"Dave was taking me for granted."

Her mother took over again.

"Who was taking who for granted Lisa? Think for a moment, what special things have you done for Dave lately. What did you buy him for his birthday this year? No, that's right, you forgot all about it didn't you. Even after that you didn't rush out and buy anything did you? Did you plan an evening of unbridled make-up sex, no you went right back to planning your next smooch session with Frankie."

Lisa knew she was scraping the bottom of the barrel for excuses.

"Yes and what about Valentine's day, I just got a lousy card and box of chocolates this year."

"Oh yes and what did you get for him?"

Lisa knew she was on firmer ground here.

"Come on, everyone knows that Valentine's Day is when men show their girls how much they mean to them."

"No Lisa, Valentine's day is when 'lovers' show each other how much they love each other."