The Luddite Conspiracy Ch. 03

She shook her head defiantly. "I promise to play the skeptic, Cecile, but I don't promise to give up on him. Whatever happens, please know that I will remember our time together fondly."

Cecile almost laughed.Will that still be true if you find out how much I lied to get you? If you find out that I tricked you into wanting me?

He had to hope that that wouldn't happen. Instead, he said, "Gina, have you considered what Neil might do when he finds out about the two of us?"

She nodded gravely. "I have," she said, her voice flat and lifeless. "It scares me. And if, by some miracle, he's telling the truth and there really was no affair, then that will almost be worse. Then, I'm the one who fell. I'm the one who betrayed my love."

"He...doesn't have to find out. Maybe you could lie to him." And, he thought, maybe we could continue to see each other.

Gina thought about the phone call. "I imagine," she said, "that he already knows. He will eventually, regardless. Whatever else I've done, I won't lie to him. Still," she shrugged, "while I do need you to take me home, maybe you should drop me off a block away. For now."

-=-=-

Neil sat at the kitchen table, in the same round wooden seat he'd occupied just a handful of nights before, looking older and tired. He listened to the front door as it opened and closed, and to the footsteps that echoed through the house. He might have raised his voice to call out to her, to say a greeting or anything at all, but then she might have done the same. So he just waited.

When Gina finally reached the kitchen, she gasped and rushed towards him. Whatever Neil expected, after that phone call, it wasn't to have his wife wrap her arms around him and immediately start sobbing. Instinctively, he hugged her back.

He opened his mouth to say "It's okay," but it probably wasn't, so he just whispered, "I'm here, now. And I'm not going anywhere."

"I thought you'd left me," she said into his shoulder. "Promise me you won't. Promise me you won't ever leave me."

"Of course not," he instinctively replied. "Why would you think such a thing?"

She just cried harder. He waited, letting her have her release, and then gently pushed her away and motioned for her to sit down. "We need to talk about this," he said. "And we need to do it now."

She raised her eyebrows, widening red-rimmed eyes. "That's a funny thing for you to say."

"Is it? Yes. I suppose it is. But I do mean it, so please sit down."

She nodded and fell into the chair. "Tell me where you were," she said, wiping her cheeks. "Please. Tell me where you disappeared to."

He studied her a moment. "I think I'd like you to go first, please."

Gina's eyes flared. "No, dammit! You! You first!" She ran her hand through her hair. "Do you know what kind of week I've had? Women calling here, leaving angry messages on the machine for you. People telling me that you've been having an affair..."

His eyes widened incredulously. "What the fuck are you talking about?" he snapped. "Who's telling you this garbage? Do you really believe it? You have to know it's bullshit, Gina."

She met his stare. "Some..." she almost said lady, but worried that he would be able to tell who it was just from that, "...people from your office contacted me first. Then Paul called. He tried to tell me that it wasn'tyourfault, thatshe'dseducedyou.And afterward, Cecile...well, Cecile said some things, too." She blushed a little at that, and dropped her gaze.

"Paul and Cecile? That doesn't make any sense. I just talked to both of them the night I left. They knew where I was. Why would they lie to you?" Neil frowned. "No. No, I know why one of them would lie. Or at least I know now that he's capable of it. But the other I would trust with my life."

Gina waved her hands in irritation. "But it's not just them, Neil! Dammit, don't you hear me? Other people called, too-"

"Who?"

She folded her arms across her chest. "I promised I wouldn't say."

"You're kidding me. What are, we eight years old? They made you promise not to tell me they were sharing information with you, and that seemed reasonable? Why would someone who was telling the truth have to swear you to secrecy?"

"How should I know?" But her eyes darted a little. Neil could tell that she saw the logic in that question. "And then there were the messages on the machine. Two of them, both from some angry woman, shouting about you leaving her for someone else."

He gave her a skeptical look. "Those can't be real. Let me hear them."

She blushed. "I...deleted them. I didn't want to have to listen to them ever again. Theyhurtme, Neil. And...and the last thing I expected was to have to prove your own indiscretion to you. I really thought you were done with me."

"God, Gina. I can't believe you thought I was...There was no indiscretion. I wouldn't do that to you for anything. How can you really think these things about me?"

She sighed. "I'm not sure that I do, now. But see it from my point of view. You come home early all emotional about some...problem...at work. You won't talk to me about it, but you're near crying. And you tell me that you've let me down. Then, suddenly, you disappear without a word-"

"I left you a-"

"A note. So you said. I still don't see it, Neil. Where did it go?" She waved her arms around the room. "Did it just get up and walk out the door?"

"I don't know. But it was here."

"It doesn't matter. We're talking about my perspective. I never saw the note. I never knew it existed, if it exists. So you left without a single word. And then I get cryptic phone calls out of the blue from coworkers...friends of yours included...allof them referencing an affair."

"That still seems impossible to me."

"But it happened. Finally, two phone calls are placed to this house. Some goddamn woman, callingmyhouse, screeching atmyhusband! What am I supposed to think?"

Neil studied her face. "Well, I guess it is obvious what you'resupposedto think. You'resupposedto think that I'm leaving you for another woman. The question is, who wanted for you to think that? And why? Who's been pulling your strings, leading you down that path, and what did they gain by it?"

She rolled her eyes. "So now it's a conspiracy?"

He nodded slowly. "Listen to me very carefully, Gina. I am convinced that the problem with the Technica is related to the brake pedal linkage."

"Neil," she groaned. Her eyes conveyed exasperation.

"Just listen! This is important: we did not touch the brake pedal design. We didn't touch anything around it. Nothing. When we submitted our final work, no related changes had been made. Okay? So that means that somebody adjusted our work after it had been submitted and approved." He stood up, abruptly, and began pacing. He chewed on his thumbnail as he spoke. "Of the people who had access to the submitted plans, only one has the kind of cold blooded hatred needed to even be considered as a suspect. And that's Tracy Bunkley." Glancing at his wife, he saw her eyes widen a little, and it occurred to him that Tracy must be the unnamed "others" who helped confirmed the affair. "She's wanted to be rid of me for a long time, now. I don't pretend to understand why, but she doesn't exactly make a secret of it either. The more I try to stay below the radar and just do my job, the more she hates me for it. For me to get fired, vilified, or even arrested would make that woman's year," He waved a finger as he paced. "The problem is, Tracy doesn't have the know-how to do it. She simply doesn't have the ability. She would have to have an accomplice. Someone who knows a lot about pedal linkage designs...someone who she can manipulate and control. They'd have to be weak-willed, or ambitious in some way, or maybe have a secret they desperately need kept. Cecile Schaefer may not have any secrets, but heisan incredibly ambitious young man. To a fault. He wants my job as badly as Tracy wants me gone. When he talks in the break room, it's never about his past. He only thinks about the future, and he talks about it all the time. Cecile is a dreamer. He wants to be important. And he strikes me as very, very impatient." He stopped walking and stared across the room at her. "He's also unaccounted for at a critical time while the plans were being processed." This time the widening was more obvious, and a question occurred to him. "Gina, you said Cecile helped confirm my supposed affair. When did he do this?"

"I..." she looked away. "He came by..."

"Came by the house? When was this? It sure seems strange that he would suddenly show up here, now of all times. How long did he stay here? Did he comfort you? Did he look after you, as you grieved for your marriage?" She put her hand over her mouth and refused to look at him. "Gina," he said softly, "whose bed did you sleep in last night?"

For a second he thought she might break into tears again, but instead she drew herself up. "No!" she shouted. "Listen to yourself, Neil! You're accusing Cecile and this, this Tracy woman, of a crime! And of framing you for it! You're telling me that Paul Keegan, a man you've been friends with for years, lied to me in order to help them! Am I supposed to take all of that as fact? And you still haven't told me where you went for three days, or why!"

Neil sighed. "You're right. I haven't. I went to Murfreesboro, Gina."

"Murfreesboro? In Tennessee? Neil, what the hell is in Tennessee?"

"Someone I had to see. A man."

"And what was so special about this man, that you had to run off right away without so much as a goodbye to your wife?"

"The car I designed malfunctioned, and he was in an accident. His daughter died," he said slowly. "His four year old daughter."

Her hand flew up to her mouth. "What?" Then, "Oh, God, Neil."

"That night when you and I talked, I wasn't seeing the situation clearly. I really thought it was my fault. I hadn't realized yet what was happening, or what it meant. And I thought...I thought that I..." he looked away, staring at the wall, "So I went to see him, and to tell him what I'd done." His jaw clenched. "I wanted him to hurt me for it."

She swallowed. "Did he?"

A soft, humorless smile. "Only a little."

They sat silently for a few moments. "I don't know if I believe you," Gina said quietly. "I'd hate to think that Cecile...thatanybody...is capable of hurting or killing for the sake of a promotion at work. And what about Paul? Why would he say those things about you if they weren't true? He's your friend."

"You're right. I'm not sure what happened there. But I intend to find out," he took his cell phone and car keys out of his pockets and moved toward the door. "In the meantime, maybe you should call your new lover and ask him why he was so willing to lie to you. Find out why it was so important to him to fuck my wife that he would ruin me for the chance." She gasped, but he ignored it. Halfway through the door another thought hit him, and he paused. "Oh, and Gina? You should know this: the flight I booked to Tennessee was a late one. Most of the people we know are already asleep by that time, but I wanted to leave the car here for you to use, so I needed a lift. I called the only young man I knew, figuring he might still be up. He came right over. I thought that was nice of him, to do that for me. Just before we drove away, though, he decided that he wanted to go back in and get a soda. I waited for him in the car." He glared at her look of confusion. "Do you understand what I'm saying? The last person to be inthisroom, with the note that I left onthattable, was Cecile Schaefer. So when you call him, see if you can get him to stop lying long enough to tell you what he did with it." He slammed the door behind him.

Gina put her hand to her mouth, and cried.

-=-=-

Paul Keegan turned left, off the arterial main road and into a nondescript suburban setting. After passing a handful of intersections, a number of houses, and very few trees, he at last found what he was looking for. The figure walking up the road toward him was lean and lonely. It was moving swiftly, having covered nearly a half mile more road than Paul would have predicted it might have in the time since his phone rang. Taking a hit from his cigarette and pulling over, he watched Neil climb into the car but said nothing.

When he'd heard the tense, clipped-tone greeting thirty minutes earlier, he had immediately been informed that something was very wrong. Speeding slightly, he'd rushed to meet his old friend. Now, stubbing out the last of his cancer stick, he waited patiently for direction.

"I don't care where you go," Neil said, studying the road in front of them. "Just drive."

Paul nodded, used someone's driveway to turn around, and headed back toward the interstate. He continued his silence, knowing that Neil would initiate the conversation when he was ready.

Finally, the other man sighed. "You called Gina," he said. "I want to know when."

Paul frowned. "Gina? Wednesday, I suppose. I called the house looking for you. It was right before you called me on your cell, actually. You remember?"

Neil nodded, squinting out at the road and chewing on his thumbnail. "That's right. I do remember that." He raised his eyebrows. "That's all? You didn't call any other time?"

"Yeah, that's it. Why?" Paul couldn't make any sense of the line of questioning.

"What did you say to her?"

He frowned. "Exact words?"

"Exact words."

"Something about giving you a chance to talk. I told her that it wasn't your fault, that Tracy had manipulated the situation to give you maximum-"

"Exact wording, Paul."

"Sorry. I guess, the way I put it was, 'It's all that bitch's fault.' I figured you would do all the elaborating from there." He offered a wry apologetic smile, but Neil just nodded again.

"What else did you say?"

"What I ended up telling you. That Tracy was trying to seduce me into taking your job."

Neil frowned. "Somehow, my wife thinks you were telling her that I'd had an affair. She took your words and misconstrued them, but I don't quite get how."

Paul swore. "You were calling me, Neil. The phone was cutting out with the ringing."

"Shit. There it is, then." Neil seemed to relax. "I knew I could trust you. I just couldn't find the way forward."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing. Talk to me about the Technica."

Paul glanced at his friend. "Now? What about Gina? Shouldn't we go back to the house, or something? I can tell her-"

"There'll be time for that, and soon. There are other reasons for her fears, and they'll all be addressed before this is over. For now it's enough that she suspects the truth. She wouldn't knowingly betray me any more than you would."

"Betray you?"

"The Technica, Paul. Talk to me."

He shook his head, concentrating on his driving. "You were right. It was the brake pedal linkage."

Neil nodded. "It was modified, after the pilot build."

Paul frowned. "Yeah. But what bothers me is, who could have done that? I talked to Tracy, dropped some hints that I knew more than I should, and she got to sweating. There's no way she's not hip-deep in this. But she wouldn't know how to do such a thing. There must be at least one accomplice."

"Sounds like you followed the same logic I did. It's too bad the company won't do the same." Neil rubbed his fingers over his forehead. "They're scared to death, and they'll just look for the quickest way out."

"There's something else, Neil," Paul rubbed his fingers, missing his cigarette. "Cecile is unaccounted for right after we signed off on it."

"I know. He was in Tracy's office, getting yelled at, is what we were lead to believe. He came out upset, almost in tears, and wouldn't talk to us for a while." Neil shook his head. "The stupid fucking kid wasn't crying because she'd flexed muscle on him. He was crying because he'd just ruined us."

Paul nodded. "We can't prove this."

"Maybe not. There's more." Neil bit his thumbnail again. "The reason Gina thought I was having an affair is that Tracy called and told her I was."

"What!"

"Either right before or right after you called. Your misheard words didn't sell it, they just added fuel to the fire."

"Fuck. I'm so sorry-"

"It wasn't you. And it gets worse. That night, I wrote her a note explaining everything and then called Cecile for a lift. He came over, we loaded up, and then he went back into the house for a drink before we left. Conveniently, while he was in there, my note disappeared. Sometime the next day, Cecile came over and 'confessed' to knowing all about my affair."

"Why would he do all this?" Paul asked, horrified.

Neil shrugged. "The logical answer is that he and Tracy were hoping I would be so distracted by my crumbling marriage that I would be a non issue...at least long enough for the report to go through and bury me. With my wife on the verge of throwing me out and minimal evidence to defend myself with, I would be forced to choose how I spent my energies carefully. But I have two problems with that theory. First, Cecile's not a logical guy. It's not how he plays. Second, they had no reason to put themselves that much further out on the line. The benefit just isn't there to outweigh the danger. So I think that Cecile got it in his head, somehow or other, that he's in love with my wife. Tracy went along for no reason other than that he knew all her secrets, and she could no longer afford to be in conflict with him." He smiled sadly. "She never was enough of a team player to really get to know the new guys. Now, she's latched herself onto an impulsive and chaotic force if ever there was one. I really thought Cecile would calm down and grow up, eventually. I thought he'd even be a pretty good guy. But I guess we can see the direction of his path now. It goes right through my lawn."

Paul nodded. "How did Gina react to all of this?"

Neil clenched his jaw, closed his eyes, and then said, "Later."

"Okay. Later. So now what do we do? Will it help our case if she tells the board about what Tracy and Cecile did?"

"We'd be dead in the water if that was our whole case, and you know it. In fact, even bringing Gina with would be a bad idea. Having to drag my wife along...hardly an impartial witness...makes us look desperate and ridiculous."

"Do we have alternatives?"

He nodded. "Tomorrow's a big day."

Paul snorted. "That reporter is showing up in the morning to start interviewing..."

"That's right. Moira Adams. I'd forgotten."

"...so I imagine they'll want to cook us sometime in the morning."

Neil frowned. "Source says the meeting's at nine."

Paul tried to ignore the anxiety that rippled through his belly. "So what do we do?"

-=-=-

Cecile swung violently around, pacing manically as he dialed, and smashed his toe against the leg of the kitchen table. A sickening crack accompanied the hit, and bracing pain shot up his leg. Releasing a stream of curses, he stumbled and almost dropped the phone. Hopping one-legged across the kitchen, still cussing, he jumped up onto the counter and clutched at the wounded digit. Just as he was finishing his stream of swear words, Tracy answered.

"Cecile? Is that you?" She sounded annoyed.

"Sorry," he moaned. "I think I just broke my toe."

A 'tsk' sound carried down the phone. "Well, I hope you didn't call me to reportthat."

"No. I...Tracy, Neil's home. He came home last night."

"Fuck. Already? Why? What did you tell him?"

"Me? I didn't tell him anything! Why would I...Tracy, Gina was with me when he got home. She was...here all night."

"Really?" She sounded substantially more amused. "And Neil knows about it?"

"Yeah. I mean I don't know for sure, but Gina said she was gonna tell him."