Sister-In-Law Surveillance

*

On Monday morning, I was sitting in a hire car - a white hatchback that blended in and didn't stand out - up the street from Daniel and Sammi-Jo's house in the West Lakes area, wearing a Middle-Eastern style dress, a hijab on my head and wondering not for the first time what the fuck I was doing here. I had initially thought of wearing a burqa to completely conceal my face, but this would make me stand out more and Sammi-Jo would probably notice more if a woman wearing a burqa was there every time she looked around. Wearing a less conspicuous hijab, I could blend into the background better.

Watching the house, I saw Sammi-Jo emerge soon after 8 am dressed in a white blouse that showed plenty of cleavage, a very short white tennis skirt that displayed her nicely toned body and expensive sunglasses. The kids were in tow, and made for the garage. Heaven and Neveah were dressed for pre-school in pink tee-shirts and jeans, while Zayden also wore a pink tee-shirt and shorts. I couldn't help noticing that Zayden's tee-shirt sported a pink unicorn prancing in front of a rainbow. Probably it was a tee-shirt previously worn by his older sisters and which they had now out-grown, but was it appropriate for a boy to wear this sort of hand-me-down?

Anyway, that wasn't the point, I was here to observe his mother not him. Sammi-Jo took a few minutes to get the kids organized in her car - an SUV style vehicle - before she reversed down the driveway and into the street.

I followed, knowing the tricks of following cars, always keeping a few car-lengths behind but never losing sight of your target vehicle. Sammi-Jo drove to her daughters' school, dropped Heaven and Neveah off for the day, and left with Zayden in the car. I wasn't sure if she was going to drop him off at daycare or with her mother, but instead of remaining in the West Lakes area she drove easterly towards Woodville and I wondered if she was going to drop Zayden at Mum and Dad's but then remembered Mum was working today, and in any case Mum would have mentioned it.

Instead Sammi-Jo drove in the direction of the city, and it was hard keeping up with her without directly being on her tail. She had been wearing white sandals when she emerged from the house, but it seemed like she was wearing lead boots given how fast she was driving, and this with her young son in the car. Sammi-Jo also seemed to think that amber lights meant 'speed up so you can get through before it turns red' and that give way signs were optional, and I worried about getting pulled over by the police if speed-demon Sammi-Jo kept driving this way. If nothing else, I could report to my parents that their daughter-in-law was a really bad driver.

Sammi-Jo skirted the city by driving down West Terrace, and I worried she would turn onto Sir Donald Bradman Drive or Anzac Highway, where keeping up with her on those roads would be even more difficult. However, she kept going south as West Terrace turned to Goodwood Road, before turning east and me following her to the trendy suburb of Unley, just south of the city.

She parked her car, me parking the hire car a short distance away and watching as she got Zayden out of the car. "You want to have fun with Mummy, Grandma, Aunty Lori-Beth and Aunty Jamie-Lee and your cousins?" she asked.

Zayden nodded. "Yes Mummy. Is it proper Grandma?"

Sammi-Jo giggled and ruffled her son's hair. "Of course proper Grandma, you big silly. Other Grandma isn't as much fun."

I was sure my mother wouldn't have liked to be referred to as 'Other Grandma' and Mrs. Maclean as 'Proper Grandma' by Sammi-Jo, but I think she had bigger fish to fry than that when it came to her daughter-in-law.

I made sure I was wearing my sunglasses and my hijab covered as much of my face as possible as I discretely followed them, Sammi-Jo holding Zayden's hand. I was nervous as kids were unpredictable, and Zayden could well turn around and blurt out, "Hi Aunty Rachel!" and the game would be up.

Sammi-Jo met up with her two similar-looking sisters in a large shopping precinct, Jamie-Lee's baby bump protruding from her maternity blouse. Also there was their mother Hilary Maclean, and two other young women I didn't know, probably fellow 'mummy-bloggers', one of them pregnant like Jamie-Lee. Each of the five young women had a kid with them, with Zayden the only boy. Although one wouldn't know it the way he happily fitted in with the girls, skipping along and proudly proclaiming, "I get to be a girl too today, no boys today!" He couldn't have been more different from his Dad, Daniel never wanting to play girls' games with us or our female cousins when we were kids.

With Grandma Hilary supervising the children, the group headed into a nail salon, the five younger women all having manicures and pedicures. "Are you sure you don't want a manicure or pedicure too Mum?" Sammi-Jo asked. "My treat."

Hilary Maclean shook her head. "No thanks Sammi-Jo, I had a spa treatment with my sister earlier this week and that included a manicure and pedicure. I'm happy watching the kids."

So while the five younger women got their shoes off and into the chairs for some pampering, Mrs. Maclean sat with the five kids at the front of the shop, Zayden really getting in touch with his feminine side by playing dolls and princesses with the girls, at one stage pretending he was in a beauty pageant like his cousins Honestee and Starlette, his grandmother putting a fake tiara on his head to the boy's delight.

He also looked at the chairs where his mother, two aunts and their friends were having manicures and pedicures, their bare feet on display. If Zayden got a foot fetish as an adult, this would again have a traceable cause.

Next to the nail salon was a news-agency and gift shop, and I was able to browse there while listening to their conversation, which wasn't difficult as Sammi-Jo and her sisters all had loud voices, as did their friends. They all behaved the same, acting as though the Asian women giving them manicures and pedicures didn't exist and talking and over-sharing about the most inappropriate things.

I didn't need to know that youngest sister Jamie-Lee had to sleep in another room from her husband the previous night, as her pregnancy had given her a nasty case of gas and she didn't want him to suffocate in his sleep. I didn't need to know that Lori-Beth's husband Matt had a weakness for white chocolate topping, especially when it was applied to certain private areas of Lori-Beth's body covered by her bra and her knickers. And I definitely didn't need to know about what Sammi-Jo and Daniel had done in their bedroom on Saturday night and very early Sunday morning before he flew out for Sydney. My life was better before I knew that my brother especially enjoyed doing 23 times 3 with his wife.

The other friends exchanged similar stories, before with their manicures and pedicures completed, the group headed for a nearby alfresco restaurant for lunch, taking an outside table to enjoy the South Australian sunshine. I ordered a coffee at the place next door and sat close enough to their table to hear everything that was said during lunch, mostly they talked about their daughters competing in beauty pageants, their online blogging and vlogging and how much they loved spending money. At one stage, Sammi-Jo sat Zayden on her knee and breastfed him in public, much like she had done eight days earlier at the restaurant in the city for Dad's birthday. None of the other women in the group breastfed their daughters around the same age.

After giving their credit cards a bit of a workout after lunch, the women then headed their separate ways mid-afternoon, none of them seeming to have picked up that there had been a 'Muslim' woman in the vicinity most of the day.

"Do we have to go home now Mummy?" Zayden protested as they headed back to Sammi-Jo's car, looking most disappointed.

"Yes, but you can still have fun helping Mummy when we get home," said Sammi-Jo. "Mummy needs to do the laundry, otherwise Mummy is going to run out of clean knickers to wear. You want to be a big help to Mummy with her laundry, don't you?"

"Yay!" exclaimed Zayden.

"Yay!" said Sammi-Jo, giving her son a high five. "And when we've done that, we'll go and collect your sisters from school."

Sammi-Jo vanished around the corner holding Zayden's hand, heading back to her car. I didn't follow them, today had been a waste of time not that I expected anything to be different, and if Sammi-Jo was cheating, obviously she wasn't doing it today.

I waited until I was sure they were long gone before returning to the hire car. I thought about Sammi-Jo's conversation with her son about helping her with the laundry and that she specifically mentioned her panties. Again, I worried about the effect this would have on my nephew as he grew older. If when the kids were teenagers and there were problems with Zayden concerning troubling incidents with his mother and sisters' underwear, or him sneaking into the girls' changing rooms at high school to go through their bags to look for their knickers, then this could again be easily tracked back to events in the present day.

*

Tuesday morning, and again I was parked up the street from Sammi-Jo's house, waiting for my sister-in-law to emerge with her kids, which she again did right on schedule. This time, Zayden looked like he was headed for daycare, and was dressed in a pink tee-shirt with 'Princess' on the front and jeans, much like his two older sisters. Zayden also carried a pink backpack, again with 'Princess' inscribed on it. All I could do was shake my head, and remind myself I was here to watch his mother.

Sammi-Jo herself was dressed in a running top, shorts and running shoes and carried a sports bag. Was she going to one of her personal training sessions? This morning I wore a different disguise, attired in a grey wig and an old-fashioned shirt and pair of women's trousers, fake glasses on my face to make myself look like a woman aged in her early 70s. I needed to mix things up with my disguises, lest Sammi-Jo should get suspicious if she happened to see the same woman in successive days.

My sister-in-law again sped through the suburban streets, running amber lights, ignoring give way signs and slowing down but not coming to a complete stop at most stop signs she encountered, and this with her three kids in the car. Fortunately Heaven and Neveah were dropped off at school in one piece, as was Zayden at daycare soon after, and I had the challenging job of following Sammi-Jo through busy traffic as she sped through the suburbs north of the Adelaide CBD until she reached the leafy eastern suburbs around Norwood.

Sammi-Jo pulled her car to a halt in the driveway of an expensive-looking house beside a pink sports car with personalized number-plates of 'Simona'. I stayed well back and watched through binoculars, as Sammi-Jo got out of the car and tied her blonde hair back into a pony-tail. The front door of the house opened and out came an attractive young slim woman with Eastern European looks probably aged in her mid-30s. She was also tying her dark brown hair back into a pony-tail, and like Sammi-Jo she was dressed in running gear. Was this the Simona that owned the sports car and lived at this fine house?

I watched as the two women embraced lightly and greeted each other, then jogged up the street, before jogging back and stretching up. Clearly they were going running, and this was confirmed as they set off at quite a fast pace, me confirming that this was indeed Simona as they ran past the car, not noticing me at all. Sammi-Jo referred to her friend as Simona, and this Simona girl had a strong European accent.

Not sure how long they would be gone, I looked up Simona on my phone via Sammi-Jo's social media, finding she was a friend of Sammi-Jo. Simona was from Bucharest in Romania originally, was married and had a son and daughter although being older than Sammi-Jo her kids were older. I looked up Simona's husband online, and he was as I expected a very wealthy man, Simona clearly his trophy wife.

After about an hour or so the two women came back, sweaty and breathless after their long run. They stretched in the front garden, me mentally reprimanding myself as I found myself concentrating on Simona's bum through my binoculars a little too long, the shape of her vagina visible in her tight active-wear shorts and the top of her white knickers showing, my vagina getting moist in my own knickers at the sight.

Simona and Sammi-Jo then headed inside the house, Sammi-Jo taking her sports bag out of her car, presumably to shower. I got bored as the two women remained inside for over two hours, presumably they were having lunch, and was nearly asleep by the time they emerged around noon.

Both girls had obviously changed out of their sweaty sports clothes, and were now wearing blouses that showed plenty of their cleavage, really tight jeans that would have forced their panties up into their vaginas and open shoes that showed off their bare feet. I thought Sammi-Jo might be leaving, but instead she jumped into the front passenger seat of Simona's sports car, the pretty Romanian into the driver's seat and reversing down the driveway.

Despite Simona's sports car having the great potential for speed, to my relief Simona unlike her little blonde friend obviously realized that South Australia's traffic rules applied to her, and paid heed to speed limits, amber lights, stop signs and give way signs. This made it easier for me to follow her, and the journey wasn't far, just to Norwood's main shopping precinct.

Their destination was a boutique, and a very expensive boutique. I looked into the shop as Simona and Sammi-Jo purchased cocktail dresses with very high price tags, and noticed that while Simona paid for her dress with a credit card no doubt financed by her rich husband, Sammi-Jo paid for her dress with crisp 100 and 50 dollar notes, something she had been observed doing in the past. I was able to discretely film Sammi-Jo paying for these purchases with cash, then was out of the way as the two women emerged carrying their bags.

I trailed Simona's car again, and this time they went into the city, and to somewhere more interesting, an adult shop. I didn't follow them in there, I didn't know how much room there was in the store and if I got too close Sammi-Jo might recognize me despite my disguise.

They weren't in there long, just 5 minutes or so before coming out of the sex shop carrying small brown paper bags, both giggling like schoolgirls. I got photos of them entering and leaving, but it wasn't suspicious. Both women were married, Simona was probably giving her husband a surprise tonight, and Sammi-Jo probably planning a 'welcome home' for my brother next week, a welcome home I didn't want to know about.

Again, I followed Simona's car and again nothing unusual happened. She drove home, then she and Sammi-Jo exchanged a hug and a cheerful goodbye. Sammi-Jo climbed into her car and drove away, with her and Simona waving as she departed.

Today had been another waste of time. Apart from Sammi-Jo carrying so much cash to pay for an expensive dress at an up-market boutique, nothing unusual had happened. And using cash was probably to hide her spending habits, although if she was making large cash withdrawals this probably would have stood out too. Oh well, his wife's spending habits were my brother's problems, not mine.

I didn't bother following Sammi-Jo home, she would have to pick up her kids in an hour or so and there wasn't any time for her to get up to anything, plus I didn't want to risk getting any traffic infringements trying to keep up with her.

Instead, I went to the museum, forgetting that I was still wearing my 'old lady' disguise, only remembering when the cashier asked me, "Do you have a concession card Ma'am?" when I purchased my ticket.

Going home after my museum visit, I changed into a tee-shirt and jeans and relaxed watching television. In the early evening I was sitting barefoot on the toilet, my jeans and white knickers down around my ankles, watching cat videos on my phone when it rang. I looked at the caller ID, it was Mum. I shook my head, she could wait until I'd finished, or leave me a message or send me a text.

The phone stopped ringing, but less than 10 seconds later it was Mum again. I sighed. She could damn well wait, and when I failed to answer Mum rang off. I was just reaching for some toilet paper when the phone rang again, and it once more was Mum.

Very irritated and seeing that I wasn't going to be left alone to use the toilet in peace and privacy, this time I answered it. "What is it Mum?" I snapped.

"I hope you don't greet everyone with such rudeness when you answer your phone Rachel," Mum admonished me. "I've spoken to you before about that."

"Mum, sometimes I'm not really in a position to answer the phone, and you can leave me a message or send me a text and I'll get back to you," I said.

"Rachel, are you on the toilet?" Mum asked.

"Yes," I snapped impatiently.

"You're just the same as your sister," said Mum. "I've accidentally called Fiona when she was on the toilet before, and she was just as rude and snappy as you are now."

"Maybe call Sammi-Jo when she's on the toilet, you might get a more friendly response given she posts photos of herself and does origami demonstrations for her son while she's using the loo," I said sarcastically. "Anyway, you've got my attention now, what's so important I can't call you back in five minutes or so?"

"Have you found the evidence that the little tart is cheating on your brother yet?" Mum demanded to know.

"Mum, last week I told you and Dad not to call me about this, that I'd do some discrete observations and get back to you," I said.

"Did you see her doing anything wrong?"

I sighed. Mum was insufferable sometimes when she got a bee in a bonnet about something. She was unconsciously sounding just like Mrs. Blunt the other day, who thought her husband was having an affair when in fact he was sneaking out to watch children's cartoons.

"Mum, I can confirm to you that your daughter-in-law loves spending money your son earns on herself," I said. "I can also confirm that she's not South Australia's best driver. But nothing else apart from that."

"That's because you haven't been looking hard enough, Rachel!" Mum stormed. "Your brother is married to a floozy, and you should have been able to find proof of that by now. Or maybe your father and I should do our own surveillance on your brother's whore of a wife."

"Mum, listen to me, do not do anything yourselves, I can't stress that enough," I asserted. 'I've only been watching her two days, these things can take time. What do you think she was going to do, have sex with some guy on the Glenelg tram at peak hour in full view of everyone? I will keep watching her, and I will get back to you, okay?"

"I hope you do," Mum asserted. "Your father is getting high blood pressure again worrying about all of this."

"I said I will keep watching her and get back to you," I said. "Can you please leave me to get on with it, and can you please leave me alone now so I can use the toilet?"

I sighed as I ended the call and put my phone on the toilet cistern, enjoying the peace and quiet now my mother wasn't talking my ear off. When I finished and flushed the toilet, I walked into the adjacent bathroom adjusting my knickers through my jeans. Washing my hands at the sink, I looked at my reflection in the mirror, my brown eyes staring back at me.

How much time was I going to waste tomorrow on this wild goose chase, trying to prove my sister-in-law was cheating on my brother, when I doubted she was?

*

One Wednesday morning, I wore a black wig and dark clothes with dark sunglasses that made me look half gothic and half bogan as I trailed my sister-in-law. As usual, the day began with Sammi-Jo dropping her daughters at pre-school. Zayden was not dropped off at daycare today, and as I tried to keep up with Sammi-Jo as she sped through Woodville, I presumed he might be going to Mrs. Maclean to look after for the day.