SWIB 03: The Truth

The lead investigator asked me to meet him at his office. "Sue, we are doing something wrong here, or your Molly Smith is pure as the driven snow. We are only checking on Wednesday afternoons, why is that?"

"It is the only time she and her man could get together."

"Her man. I've lived with that, but I think you know who her man is. Do you?"

"Is this totally confidential?"

"Of course, an investigation firm that leaks what it knows folds faster than you would believe. It is in my interest to be silent. That it is also in yours, is fortunate for you."

"Greg Atherton."

"Oh! I see. A big fish. They work together, are you sure they don't have a little cubby hole in one of your offices?"

"Not possible."

"You sound positive there, we'll leave that for now. Why only Wednesday afternoons?"

"Both plants report to me. You can't come or go without one of my people knowing about it, other than Wednesday afternoon. We have a staff meeting and my 'eyes' are all in that meeting. I cannot ask others; word would get out.

Molly and I have a friendly work rivalry and I have convinced my people I want to know where she is because she is impacting my team's work."

"Okay, again you are quite confident. I'll leave that. You don't have us watch every Wednesday, why is that?"

"Those are the afternoons Greg is out of town."

"How do you know he is out of town?" He looked at me and waited for an answer.

"Well, shit! As they say. I know that because he says so. He publishes a calendar."

"Do you have a copy?" His question was innocent, but clearly, he was exasperated by amateurs, who think they know it all.

"The dates are all in my phone calendar." I opened it and we looked. "Greg was out of town up to three times per month. Sometimes for a day or two, sometimes for the week. Two or three Wednesdays per month, he was out.

"Where is he on these days?"

"He never says. If you ask, he'll tell you, but in general, for the three or four of us who might call him and have his cell number. We call and talk. He could be one office away or in Timbuktu, who would know?"

He got a big smile on his face, "Well, now at least two of us know, or at least have a strong suspicion. Let me remind you, I wanted to go through all of this when we started. You told me just check the Wednesdays you had written down."

"Yea, yea, your fee is fair. Well, now we have something to go on. I'm sure we'll get a quick resolution. Fair or not, I am nearing my limit, I don't want to be able to claim you as a dependent."

He laughed. The next two weeks would give us three good chances to get information.

In the meantime. I needed to "meet" Molly's husband. So far, I had never allowed a friendship to develop. There was no way she could say her husband was Dave Smith, and I could not disclose he was my best childhood friend. I had to keep our relationship strictly professional.

It was time for that to change. We worked well together, and she was excited to accept when I said we should meet at the country club for dinner, Saturday night.

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

It had been difficult to get to know Molly and not allow her to tell me her husband was my childhood friend. More than once, she'd be going toward naming him and I'd have to divert the conversation. When I thought the Smiths were happy, I was content as we were, work acquaintances. Now, if she was screwing around, I had to know if Dave felt anything toward me. I practiced being surprised to "meet" him.

I pulled it off. There was a point when Dave looked curious about how I could be working with Molly Smith and never question it, but he let it pass. I got mixed news from my reunion. Dave had very strong feelings for me, which was great. He was head over heals in love with Molly, which posed a problem.

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

I was on my way out. I was leaving early. I had to get myself in the right frame of mind. Dave deserved the truth from me. Without it we had no chance long term. Molly approached me. She was the last person I wanted to talk to.

"Sue, would you spare me a minute?"

"It's not the best time, Molly. Maybe another..."

She blocked my path, "Sue, I know you and Dave are really serious. What I want to tell you will be very good for the two of you. Please. A few minutes."

I know my shoulders slumped. I was resigned to listen and could not imagine how it could possibly help. But we'd been close friends and were going to be working together, what's a few minutes.

"Where?"

"My office is just around the corner, let's sit there. I promise you'll leave happier than you are right now."

We sat in Molly's office; she closed the door. She started the conversation. "I'll admit I never gave you a thought as I helped Dave, but I can see it was the right thing for you and for him."

"Molly, really, I don't want some pile of crap."

"Sue, please! Listen for a few minutes. You will see it is not that.

"I was never jealous with Dave. I knew I didn't have to be. I could tell when you two were reintroduced he loved you. He loved me more, then. But he was all mine. The trouble was I was not all his.

"I don't know if you remember warning me about Ray Harrison?" She paused, to see; I just nodded.

"I thought so. It would have been a great warning, had I been someone else."

I laughed, "You mean I pushed you to him, when I warned you?" I was acting.This is why I have some guilt. I knew I was pushing her to him. She was screwing Atherton and we'd talked enough that I knew she'd get caught up in Harrison's web. I wanted her caught, divorced, and her husband free.

"I've not been honest about this, even with myself. The things he and I had done would embarrass me to describe to him, let alone you. I love Dave with all my heart which is why I can't be with him."

"You're not together because you perjured yourself."

"'That's what I want to talk about. I loved Dave so much. I wanted him back. I debated back and forth whether I would tell the truth, or say I froze and saw nothing...'

"Molly", I held up a finger, "A quick review? You did neither of those things."

"She said, 'I know. The why is what you and Dave need to know. A few days before I was to testify, I got a call from Ray. He wanted me to come to the truck stop and just talk. He sweet-talked me. He'd never said a decent word to me, and he was charming me.

"Well, I knew the drill. He'd get me there, get me naked and make me beg to do some demeaning thing. He'd withhold that until I was absolutely crazy and then make me testify against Dave. What's worse, I knew I'd do it. I'd tell the whole world Dave plotted the Kennedy assassination, when he got through with me. I told Ray to fuck off, I'd never speak to him again."

I stared at her. "There must be more, Molly. "This makes no sense."

"She shed a few tears, wiped her eyes, and said, 'You saw the video at the Pines. You saw my odd posture. I tried to hug Ray and he told me to 'present', elbows back, tits out, and freeze, until he told me differently. Then, he hit Dave, and beat him bloody, and all I could do is remain frozen. My addled brain thought my world was over, maybe if I just obeyed, it would be okay."

I looked at her like she had two heads, "You can't believe that."

"She laughed, 'I know. Impossible. But the thing is you start playing submissive to some dominant creep and sooner than you'd believe, you really are submissive to them. As much as I loved Dave, I let him be beaten unconscious and had to have the ass hole who beat him call 911.

"If I stayed with Dave, he would suffer again, or maybe worse. I couldn't allow that."

It hit me, "So you lied about him, so he'd never take you back."

"She smiled at me. I had it right. "Tell him. I do love him. But some guy is going to approach me with a whip and a large bottle of lube and before I know it, I'll be the one to beat Dave, so this guy will continue to abuse me. He is too nice for me. Fortunately, he is so honorable. A public humiliation, like I gave him, meant he is now safe from me."

"You know he will appreciate hearing that. It will make a difference to him and to us, uh, him and me. He doesn't say it, but I know it haunts him. How could he have been so bad his love betrayed him in open court?"

She openly cried for the briefest moment and gained her composure. "No, tell him the phone call from Ray made me realize I am not for him, and I had to risk everything to make sure he rid himself of me."

I said, "I hope we can resume our friendship, though I suspect it will always be awkward around Dave."

She agreed, but said, who knows what the future holds. It was important to her that Dave and I married and live happily ever after.

Now, that I know it was important to her to end her marriage to Dave, I don't need to explain my role. Her truth is what Dave needs to hear.

Dave Smith

What a year it has been. It began and I was hopelessly in love with one woman, it ends with me more in love, but with a different woman. The middle was a mess.

I am disturbed by my wife's total betrayal. Of course, I divorced her. I did wait until her trial was completed. I was not going to be like her. A messy divorce would hurt her at trial. I was raised to be compassionate, turn the other cheek, I could divorce her at the end of the trial. I did.

I was surprised she was acquitted, but to tell the truth, I just didn't give a shit. She was the past and unimportant. As quickly as I could, I had her served, my lawyer said she received the divorce with what the process server termed, relief.

She immediately proposed her share of our assets had been used in her legal defense. She wanted nothing.

A few months earlier I learned Sue's husband was caught fooling around and she was divorcing him. Two days after I filed, Molly sent my attorney her response, that afternoon I called Sue. We were two wounded souls who became a romantic item that same day.

We were both a little gun-shy and cautious, but we were best friends turned lovers. The fact we'd both made mistakes not realizing we were meant for one another made our romance different from what I presume most rebounds are.

Six months have passed, and it is time to ask her to marry me. I said I'd cook dinner at my apartment and I'm just waiting for her arrival. Here she is.

"You look more beautiful every time I see you." She came into my arms, and we kissed. "No more of that for a minute. We'll end up naked in the kitchen, making love on the table."

"Are you trying to encourage me or discourage me?" she laughed.

"Neither really. I just want to do this first." I pulled a ring box out of my pocket and opened it for her to see. "Sue, my love, will you marry me?"

She took the ring, put it on, and said, "Of course, I've waited my whole life for this."

The kitchen table didn't get used, but we didn't make it down the hall to the bedroom, either. A couch in the den was closest. Sue is adventurous and laughs that she used to be quite inhibited. She feels safe with me, and we enjoy exploring each other as much as we used to enjoy exploring the river bluffs as kids -- well, maybe a little more than that.

We enjoyed each other, then a good meal, and were starting to talk about our future. She said, "Molly stopped me today. She wanted to tell me why she betrayed you in court."

"I really don't care much about another of Molly's tales. She should write fiction."

Sue took me through the whole story. I guess it made me feel better, but not much. The simple truth was her punishments were in front of her and my rewards were in front of me. If the best revenge is living well; I have my revenge.