Three Blind Mice

It was well into the wee hours of the morning before I went home.

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Ruth Truscott was waiting for me when I showed up. We headed out to Hickory House for breakfast. She noticed that my wedding band was gone. Neither one of us had seen the Arch in St Louis so we decided to head up there for the day.

After that, we went to the St Louis zoo. It was about three in the afternoon when Ruth asked me if I wanted to talk to Sue Ellen. I thought about it for a few then I said perhaps I should because she needed to hear she had no home to come home to.

I had to wait for Sue Ellen to be escorted to the visitor's room. It made me smile to see her wearing orange. It was apparent that she no longer looked like the little dainty southern girl she had presented herself as. The façade she had created for herself had been destroyed for good. I had to ask myself if our whole existence had been an illusion, she had created to aid her in the cover-up of who and what she was. She sat down and picked up the phone as I looked at her through the glass with a touch of sadness. It was now clear to me that our whole life together had been a lie.

"It was me," I said. "Who gave the FBI the information that helped to take the organization you worked with down. It began back in January when I started cleaning up my junk email files."

"How," she asked?

"The Insta Girl's emails that were sent out daily," I said. "Three of them had pictures of Beth, Cathy, and you from your Penn State days. I was getting an average of six a day. I tried to unsubscribe them but couldn't because windows outlook had marked them as unsafe. That Sunday when we had them over for dinner, I took your pictures so that I could take them to the FBI. Until then I thought they had to be stolen images. Within a week I knew that my belief was wrong."

"I'm sorry," Sue Ellen said. "My mistake was that I fell in love with you. The original plan was to divorce the three of you after two years."

"I don't believe you when you say you fell in love with me," I said. "I believe the only thing you're sorry for is getting caught. By the way Ben, George and I had search warrants served on us. The FBI found the books in which you all had the information on your offshore bank accounts. I think they're going to seize the funds in them."

It was fun to watch Sue Ellen's face go white. The knowledge that her real life's earning may be all for not had to be hurting.

"You will be served with divorce papers in the next few days," I said. "Your clients are all under arrest and their careers are over. I do have one question for you. Why did your friends and you choose the three of us to be your patsy's?"

For the first time in her life, Sue Ellen did know what to say so I repeated the question a second time.

After about five minutes she said, "When we were recruited into the industry, we were given classes for weeks on human behavior. One of the things our instructors focused on was one's political beliefs. We were taught that we wanted only clients who were liberal inclined because they would justify what they were doing with a temperament that would be to our benefit. Their personalities showed that if it was against the law, it was the law that was wrong not what they were doing. Liberals also are known for accepting the lies as the truth because they, in general, they don't question anything."

'So, their view was what's good for me is acceptable," I said, "Whether or not if society agrees with it or not."

"Partly but you have simplified it too much," Sue said. "Liberals live in their own bubble and usually it has nothing to do with reality. Most liberals have the feeling that the law was not written for them. That's how they justify everything. We didn't realize that when we got involved with the three of you that you weren't liberals. We were too focused on the fact that your lifestyle fit into ours perfectly. It provided us with a cover we thought would never be broken."

With that said I replied, "We were three blind mice running after wives who by their conduct had cut off our tails with a carving knife. Goodbye Sue Ellen any further communication will be done through the lawyers. Don' try to come back to the house as my lawyer is getting a restraining order because of your connection to the Russian Mafia."

I hung up the phone I had got my answers even if I didn't like them. Within minutes I was back in my truck with Ruth.

"Jack are you okay," Ruth asked in concern?

"It's hard when you realize that the lady you married never loved you," I said. "The three of us were chosen because of our work schedule provided them with a perfect cover for what they were doing. Nothing more nothing less."

"Ouch, I know it's going to be rough for a few days," Ruth said. "Perhaps finding out makes it easier to move on."

"I started moving on when I believed she was selling herself," I said. "Ruth open the glove box. Inside you will find an envelope I was going to drop off Monday. It's a notebook that I found going through Sue Ellen's personal stuff. I believe it will lead you to her offshore accounts."

Ruth opened it up and as she was skimming through it, I said. "Ben and George are looking for their wives records. If they find it, they will be delivering it first thing on Monday. I may have been told the truth today but knowing it and hearing verified still hurts."

I listened as Ruth made a phone call on her cellphone to inform a supervisor about the discovery, and how she obtained it. When she got off the phone she started to laugh.

"Keep it in mind," I said. "These accounts will be brought up in divorce court because Missouri is a fifty / fifty state."

"Jack my supervisor suggested that I recruit you to our team," Ruth said. "Thanks to you they will be going to have to do a lot of work to get the authority to do searches on those who we have arrested homes."

We were headed back on the interstate talking about things in general when her cellphone buzzed again.

I heard one side of the phone conversation. It was her mom wanting to know if she was coming for dinner. Ruth explained that she was with a Jack Daniel Patterson heading back from St Louis. Then came the normal questions about who I was, what was our relationship, what we were doing in St Louis, and if I was coming to dinner with her. Ruth said look mom we are just at the friend's stage.

A few minutes later she looked at me, rolled her eyes and said. "You want to come for dinner?"

I nodded my head in the affirmative, she mouthed thanked.

"What brought that all on," I asked Ruth when she got off the phone?"

"The shock my mother went into when my mother learned that I was with a man, and it was not related to work," She said with a laugh. "Be prepared for the one thousand question evening."

"I don' think your mother will get much of a chance to question me, I said. "After your stepfather finds out where I work."

I was right as soon as Ruth's stepfather found out where I worked, I was lost to Ruth and her mother as he got caught up with what was going on at the plant. It was interesting to learn that the general manager was retiring, and it was a toss-up who was going to be offered that position. With the pressure being put on by upper management on the dayshift day manager he thought that I was on the inside. The ease I had the night shift running had really impressed upper management. Complaints from the employee's under me were nonexistent.

Ruth's stepfather asked me how I met Ruth, so I explained the whole situation to him. I found his insight into my situation quite enlightening. He too had met his current wife when his world was being turned upside down. For them, it had been a good twenty years.

It was almost eleven pm by the time I dropped Ruth off at home. I found that I had really enjoyed her company and we had agreed to get together next Friday.

Sunday the three blind mice got together. I told the boys about my meeting with Sue Ellen and my feelings about it. Neither Ben or George had been in to see their wives. They liked the fact that I was going for a restraining order because of who she was working for.

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It had been a busy week at work. Sue Ellen and her best female friends had been refused bail because of the possibility of being a flight risk. I was surprised to find that not only had Sue Ellen agreed to the divorce she had readily accepted the terms. It was agreed that I would put her personal items in storage in a rental unit obtained by her lawyer.

My lawyer expected Judge Donald McDonald to sign off on it if I appeared before him in court. So, Friday afternoon I was picking up a couple of bundles of boxes to start boxing up her stuff. Her vehicle had already been taken by her lawyer's office to a consignment dealer to be sold off.

I bought a small locked box for Sue Ellen's good jewelry which I placed in it and delivered it directly to her lawyer's office and had them provide me with a written letter that I had done that.

Ruth and I spent the weekend together, we find we were getting closer. Ruth told me that my soon to be ex-wife and her two best friends were trying to work out a deal. What was complicating it for Sue Ellen was my claim to half of her illegally earned revenue. The FBI had learned that they were all legal citizens of Belize and would never be able to recover any of the money she had earned on her back without her cooperation.

As soon as I got Sue Ellen's personal items to the storage unit, I put the house up for sale. I wanted to get rid of the past and put it permanently behind me.

It took three months for the divorce to get done. Sue Ellen had to do three years in the fed system before she would be released and then she would be kicked out of the country. Her lawyer presented me with a cheque from her trust for what the divorce Judge had awarded me.

I finally got an offer on my place and I accepted it. I had won the farm next to my parents in the divorce settlement and had given legal noticed to the tenants. Ruth and I were getting serious, so we agreed on what we wanted to have done to the house before moving into it.

It was the last weekend of the summer that two things happened. At the end of the summer company picnic, it was announced that I was becoming the new general manager. It was a Monday to Friday work week with evening and weekends off.

With her mother and stepfather at the company picnic, I got down on one knee and proposed to Ruth Truscott. Of course, she said yes. What happened to Sue Ellen and her friends well that's another story.

Finished