That Damn Dog

"Secondly James, every damn person here is giving you a wide berth. What's the matter son? You've been like this a couple of days now. Do you have any idea how hard it is to remove those biohazard stickers? You've pissed someone off and probably more than one, and some monkey stuck one on your laboratory door before you got in this morning."

Fuck, that's how bad I am, I didn't even notice any scratch marks on my door. He and I had always chided each other good-naturedly. Lennard knew to keep away from shorting my name, and I knew to steer clear of mentioning two ex-wives; apart from those two areas, it was no hole barred.

"I'm having a little rough patch with Kelly of late. Nothing bad, just something that doesn't gel. It's ok; I'll get it sorted somehow."

"Get it sorted, be buggered! I don't need to tell you, that you are the only thing standing between me and the street. Between you and my two ex-vampires, you own the majority share in my company. What happens to you, happen to me, son! I'm not going to blow smoke up your arse, and tell you I'm here to help you for non-selfish reasons, because I do have a stake in seeing you happy. So now what's bothering you? When it comes to worrisome wives, you're talking to an expert here."

When Lennard had brought me into the company, the first thing I had asked for were stock options instead of raises, so that I could keep control of my patents, if any. Lennard agreed to it, because he was just starting out and not having to increase his wage bill sounded attractive to him at the time.

What he hadn't counted on, were two ex-wives walking off with half of everything he owned, leaving me a major stock holder, although he now saw it as one of his even better deals. When his first wife walked off with half of everything, I ended up just about equal shares with him and his ex, and when his second took off, again with half, I ended up with the casting vote. With mine, along with Lennard's stock, we could just manage to veto any decision those two vultures tried to make concerning Lennard's business.

I poured out all my worries and everything that had transpired of late, "I never understood why you got mixed up with either of your wives. I mean from the start with each of them, I thought I saw that gold glint in their eyes when they looked at you."

Lennard sat there eyeing me; I'd never covered this ground with him and he was probably repentant, hesitant about talking about his failed marriages. "Yeah well, what can I say? Walk a mile in my shoes son; it's damn hard to see the person behind the boobs, especially when you're constantly having them shoved in your face." Lennard chuckled and then became serious. "So you think she's cheating on you?"

"That's the hell of it Lennard, I don't know. There's nothing I can point at to say that's it, no solid proof. No photo's or confessions or even witnesses. She's not staying out late, I don't know what she does during the day, but every time I've rung the house phone, she's been there, but that doesn't prove a damn anything. It's all just a feeling I've got, and now with this bloody stupid argument we're in, it not only reinforces my sense of unease, and it's downright scaring the shit out of me. If I knew one way or the other, I could do something about it. All I have are half arsed suspicions and half answered question."

"So get someone on to her and get her checked out, and her friends as well. Hell I can give you half a dozen good private investigators who'll get the job done for a reasonable price. I don't want to throw water on an oil fire, but from bitter experience it doesn't pay to procrastinate for too long in these matters son!"

Damn, I wonder if Lennard's been talking to my father at all; that's one to add to the other interesting little debacle in the toolshed. Oil fires and water are not good company kept! Look, I was ten, okay!

I looked at Lennard with a growing feeling of sadness, he was saying what I had been thinking, and for a marriage, those types of thought can kill it deader than dodo. "Don't you think that's a little drastic at this time?"

Lennard dropped his gaze to the little clear Perspex box sitting on his table with two wedding bands set in resin. "I understand your reluctance James, you love the woman and you don't want to judge her unfairly, but at its worst, it's called denial mate! Colour it anyway you want, it still looks the same. Okay I agree that I'm probably not the best person for you to be talking to on this subject, but you have to do something and pretty damn quickly, if it's not already too late. How about going for shock value?"

To be Continued with...The fickle finger of fate

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