Who Needs to Talk

Buster2U has asked me to write a story on the 'honey, we need to talk' theme. I have had a few ideas in my head, but I could not make them work. Then I started on this story, and a few of those ideas came together. I hope it all works.

I am also getting comments about leaving some loose ends in my stories. I do that for a couple of reasons. First, it lets me revisit stories, but also these are short stories and I find I can't close all of the holes to my satisfaction in the space of three pages, so I like to leave them to the readers' imaginations. I am happy for anyone to fill in the blanks in my stories with their own take on them.

Thanks to my editor, kenjisato; I hope he understands how much I appreciate what he does.

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My name is Lewis Potter, my friends call me Lew, but I generally answer to anything. I am married to Ruby. We have been married for four years, but have no children, for no other reason than we are both a bit selfish, and don't want to give up our freedom. We probably will have children, but my guess is that it will be when we are well into our thirties.

We both came from poor backgrounds, living only several streets apart, but did not meet until we were both eighteen, while at a recruitment event run by our school. Ruby had done well at school and had obtained a qualification as a bookkeeper and credit controller. I, on the other hand, had done very poorly, not even graduating. What I did have was a work ethic and an eye for business. At the age of fifteen, I had started doing cleaning jobs for local shops and small offices. By the time I was eighteen, I employed thirty people and had contracts with a number of the larger businesses in our town. Ruby was looking for a job and I was looking for employees.

When Ruby came to my table at the event we talked. She handed me her CV and batted her eyes at me, saying, "I don't want a cleaning job, but you might like my number."

I phoned her before she was at the next table, asking her out for a meal the following night. We were married four years later.

Ruby did get a job from that event. She started in the purchasing office for an engineering firm, starting at the bottom of the ladder. After eight years, she was the manager of the purchasing office as well as the credit control department. Needless to say, we had a very good DINK lifestyle.

My business was thriving and I was now the biggest office and shop cleaning company in the town, having bought out two of my competitors. As with most offices, the cleaner and the security staff are the first to notice strange things happening, and they are all happy to talk.

About four months ago, I was working in the office when my secretary came in and told me there was a man in reception who would like to talk to me. She handed me his business card. It read 'Ross Evans -- Private Investigator'. I told her to bring him to the office.

As he came into the office, I stood up and offered my hand, asking, "Mr Evans, what can I do for you?"

We shook hands and I offered him a seat. Smiling, he sat down. "First, can I have a coffee? I haven't had one all day, and I am ready to kill for one."

I knew exactly how he felt, caffeine appears to be the drug of choice for most business owners. My secretary didn't have to be asked twice. She poured two mugs of coffee from the machine in my office, and left milk and sugar on the desk. Neither of us touched it.

After some small talk, I got down to business. "Well, Mr Evans, what can I do for you?"

Without missing a beat, he began, "Please call me Ross. As you have seen from my card, I am a private investigator and I am working for a client who suspects their wife is either having an affair, or is about to have one. Our girl works as a purchase ledger clerk in Stevens Piping. One of their biggest suppliers is AM Metals. AM Metals has a new salesman, named Alistair Clarke. Mr Clarke is a bit of a lothario with a taste for married women. Mr Clarke has wined and dined my client's wife for some time. They go for long lunches, he sends flowers, text at night, you know, the whole shooting match. From what we can gather, he is trying to get her to go away for a night with him. Right now, we have a fair bit of information, but we need to get the final details."

I was intrigued. This 'Secret Squirrel' stuff was lots of fun, but the name 'AM Metals' was well known to me. Ruby's employers also sourced raw materials from them, and this Clarke guy sounded like someone I wanted to keep her away from. I looked up to see Ross looking at me. He was waiting for the obvious question, so I asked, "I understand, but how can I help?"

He smiled. "I hoped you would ask that. It's quite simple, he leaves flowers, notes, and other documents on her desk. She reads them, then puts them in her bin. Your staff empty the bin. They can retrieve anything which is personal from him and give it to us. We have checked this out with our legal team, and anything personal can be retrieved without you being in any legal trouble.

"We have also spoken to her employer, here is an authorisation for you to retrieve the information. By cooperating with our investigation, they avoid any legal issues, for breaching the fraternisation clause in her contact, that might come their way. If you want to know why they signed this, then here is the CEO's business card. Please phone him to confirm his agreement."

I already had the CEO's number on my phone. Without saying a word to Ross, I picked up the phone and dialled the CEO.

He answered on the second ring and without so much as a 'hallo', started straight in, "Lew, I assume Ross Evans is sitting in your office. I confirm I give you full permission to obtain and give any information that does not relate to this company to him or his employees. My attorney is drawing up a letter right now, which we will email to you, to that effect. Got to go, as the attorney is in my office right now, but call me back if you need anything more."

He hung up the phone. I hadn't even spoken a word. Obviously, this was an issue they wanted out of the way as quickly as possible.

Ross was smiling at me.

I just nodded, and added, "He confirmed what you said. Give me all the information and we will put her bin in a separate bag. I will sort it here, and you can collect the details every morning at eleven. Does that work for you?"

Ross confirmed with, "That is perfect."

I called in the supervisor of that crew and Ross briefed us on what to look for, early lunches, late lunches, flowers, notes, etc.

We worked with Ross for about six weeks. At the end of the period, he advised that the investigation had finished. One of my staff noticed the lady concerned had not come back after lunch. We phoned Ross and told him. He had tailed them to a motel. The marriage ended in divorce.

Work and home life carried on as normal. Until one day, Ruby arrived home a little flustered. I tried to figure out what was happening but she wouldn't tell me.

About a week later, one of my long-term staff, Donna, came into my office. She was a good employee that had been with me from virtually the start. I thought of her as a friend. She was twenty-five years older than me, and she treated me a bit like a son. She sat down in the chair, and I could see something wasn't right.

Then she started, "You know, a couple of months ago, I was working in the office where we kept an eye on that woman?"

I was intrigued, how could I forget. "Yes, it was a very interesting time. Why do you bring it up?" I asked, while raising my eyebrow to show I was most certainly intrigued.

"Well," she sort of stammered, "as you know, I am now working in the office your wife works in, and that same guy we were watching is now coming into her office. I noticed a big bunch of flowers and she went out for lunch with him. This is the card that was on the flowers."

She handed me the card and I read it. "My dearest Ruby, thank you for helping me renew the contract with your company. You have no idea how grateful I am. I hope you will accept my invitation to lunch so we can connect properly. With love, Alistair."

My blood ran cold. The language instantly told me this was not the first personal interaction, and it certainly was getting close to, if it had not already, passing the point of failing the spouse test. I knew from Ross that this guy took his time, but he was very successful at hitting on married women, and my wife was in the crosshairs.

I thanked Donna and asked her to keep an eye out for anything else, and to give me a rundown each morning. If there were any other notes, I asked her to bring them to me.

As soon as she left, I picked up the phone and dialed Ross. He answered on the third ring.

"Hi Lou, what can I do for you?"

I started right into the conversation, telling him what Donna had told me. "I have just had one of my employees in with me. She was the one that cleared the desk every night on that case with you. After the investigation finished, we moved her to another role, working in the office my wife works in. Donna just told me that the same Mr Clarke is putting the press on my wife, and she is now going out to lunch with him. I have the card from the flowers he sent, and it suggests he has ambitions with her."

Ross took a deep breath. "We are still investigating Mr Clarke. In fact, you are the third husband at the moment, the only difference is the other two didn't know who he was to start with. The other husbands have agreed to share costs, would you like to join in with them?"

"Of course, what do I need to do?" I answered.

Ross advised he was meeting the husbands at two o'clock, and asked, "Can you come to my office to meet up, do the necessary paperwork, and share the information."

I agreed to be there.

At exactly 1:55pm, I was sitting in Ross's office. In the room was Dan McWilliams and Jonny Ashley, the two husbands; Ross and one of his employees Mike Pearson, who was running the data collection on this case, were also with us.

Ross started the meeting by saying, "Gentlemen, we are here because the three of you have the same problem. Dan and Jonny this is Lew. Lew would like to join your investigation. If you are happy, we will sign him up as a client and complete the paperwork that allows for information sharing."

Both looked at me, then Ross, and replied, "Yes, that would be OK."

The paperwork took about fifteen minutes, then I swiped my personal credit card for a five-thousand-dollar advance, knowing Ruby never saw that statement.

Ross started, "Well, Dan, Jonny and Lew, our mutual problem goes by the name of Mr Alistair Clarke. For your benefit, Lew, Dan's wife works at AM Metal with Mr Clarke and Jonny's wife works for the school board, which buys metals for use in technology class in schools. Mr Clarke has a well-rehearsed process. He chases the woman through work, with flowers, messages, lunch, and usually tries to get them to go to a motel in the afternoon. He does this to women who have children, and he usually tries to get them to bed several times.

"With women, who are childless, he tries to get them to ask their husbands for a hall pass. He seems to get a real kick out of the husbands knowing he has succeeded in taking their wife's affection. He tries to take them away for a weekend, then dumps them.

"We know of at least five divorces he has caused in this area over the last year. We traced him back to his previous employment, which was in Dallas. Basically, his employer sacked him when they were hit with a class action for alienation of affection by seven husbands over a three-year period. This guy is a nasty piece of work."

He took another drink of coffee, then continued, "Lew, do you do the cleaning at AM Metals or the school district offices? The last time we checked it out, if you put the contents of the bin in your bag, you can use the rubbish as long as it is not protected with a confidentiality clause in your contract with the company you are cleaning for."

I shook my head. "No, we don't do either of those," was my response.

Ross nodded. "Shame, but keep collecting the rubbish from your wife's bin. Now, who pays the bill on your wife's phone?"

"My business does," I stated.

Ross smiled, and asked, "What type of phone does she have?"

"A Samsung," I stated as a matter of record.

"Good. Please fill in this document giving us permission to collect data from her phone." He then handed me a sheet of paper with a QR code on it, and continued, "Scan this code with her phone. It will take you to our server. Use the username and password at the bottom, and it will download software on her phone that will give us all her calls, texts, emails and even WhatsApp messages. We know he always uses the cell phone, so he doesn't get the husband answering the house phone by mistake."

The meeting wrapped up with Dan, Jonny and I exchanging phone numbers, and we set up a WhatsApp group including Ross and Mike. This way, we could exchange information quickly.

When I got home, Ruby was already there. Again, she was a bit distracted holding her phone close and not really listening to what I was saying. She went out to feed the dog, and I noticed she had taken the phone with her, something she never did.

When I asked what was wrong, she said she had a strange day and felt very tired. She went to bed at nine-thirty, two hours earlier than normal. I stayed up to our regular time before going to look for her phone. It was not in the normal place, so I went up to our room. I could see her phone cable beside the bed and when I looked closely, it went under her pillow. It was impossible to get it out without waking her, so I went to bed. This was not looking good, and I found sleep hard to come by.

I got lucky. In the middle of the night, she got up and left the room. I quickly grabbed her phone, scanned the QR code, entered the details, and returned the phone before she came back.

The next morning, she just wandered around the house until she left for work. If I hadn't spoken to her, she would have said nothing to me.

At about eleven-thirty that morning, Mike, from Ross's office, phoned. They had completed the analysis of the first dump of data. He began to explain, "She has opened up a new email address which only he appears to use. This, by the way, is great for us. We did not know how he was contacting the women, so we are working on hacking his email now. The emails from him are really the hard sell.

"He got her to tell him how you were her first and only, and he is going to town on how she needs to learn new things to keep the marriage fresh and exciting. She is giving him some very private information on your lives, and he is like a sponge, taking it all in, then using it to his advantage. He has hinted how a new sexual experience will spice up your lives, and must have already suggested a weekend away when they were at lunch yesterday. He is now reinforcing it with 'it's only sex' and 'if he really loved you...' lines. I'm sorry to say that he is moving fast, and he is moving in for the kill."

I explained her attitude last night, then added, "It must have been a constant thought last night and this morning. She didn't even know I was there last night, and this morning." I then asked, "Are they still messaging now or have they a lunch planned?"

Mike looked at the message and read the last one, "This has just come in -- 'let's have lunch at the Beach Club tomorrow and we can make plans. Lew loves you and if you tell him, it's not cheating so he can't refuse a hall pass.' She has just replied with 'OK'."

Mike and I concluded the call and I sat back wondering what I was going to do. Just confronting her was never going to work. He would keep working on her and go with his other method of taking her to a motel for an afternoon. No, I had to kill this, or end our marriage.

I phoned Ross and after some pleasantries, I said, "Looks like he's going straight for Ruby and want's to rub my nose in it. Even if I kill it, he will try to take her to a motel. I need a plan to kill this stone dead. I think I am going to get divorce papers drawn up. I am also thinking I need a Plan B, but haven't worked one out yet. What do you think?"

Ross was silent for a few moments, then replied, "It's always good to have a Plan B, but if it doesn't work he will not stop. I know this man and his ego will not let her go, so if you can't forgive her, divorce will loom large at some point. I will prepare a package for your attorney, or I can recommend one.".

"I have one, thanks. He did the business agreement and it is protected in a divorce behind a trust," I replied.

I phoned my attorney and asked for an appointment. We agreed to meet the next day at nine-thirty in the morning.

As I walked into the attorney's office, he looked at me. "Crap, who's cheated?"

I smiled, he could read me like a book. I sat down and took the cup of coffee his secretary placed in front of me, and started. "Ruby is about to cheat on me. There is a salesman coming into her work, and he is putting the moves on her. She's buying it, and right now I don't see any other outcome. I am working on a Plan B to stop it, but Plan A is divorce if she cheats."

We spent the next hour discussing the options. I wanted a straight-out divorce. The business was protected behind an agreement, but everything else was fifty-fifty. There were no children, so there was no need for support. The house would be sold. I was not going to sue Clarke, his employer or her employer-- too costly and no prospects of success.

We shook hands, I paid a retainer and left. He would complete the papers and hold them on file for me to call on, if needed.

The week progressed and Ruby's mood was up and down. One night, she couldn't get enough of my time and affection; the next, she hardly even knew I was there.

On Friday afternoon, Donna called to say Ruby had received a big bunch of flowers. The message on the card was, 'I have taken the plunge, will you?'

As I put the message on the WhatsApp group, I noticed Ross had put up a message, saying, "Dan he has taken her to the Holiday Inn for lunch. We know he has a room, but it's not a done deal. Get here now and we might get this stopped."

I was glad for Dan. He would get closure now, one way or the other. I hoped it was getting close to that point for me. I was so distracted that I was letting new business slip through my fingers.

I messaged the group telling Mike about the flowers and what was on the card. His response was, "I will check her emails now, there was nothing this morning."

About five minutes later, Mike phoned, and he said, "Look at your WhatsApp without hanging up."

I opened the app and there was a document sent to me by Mike. I opened it. It was a booking confirmation for a hotel, located on a lake about thirty miles out of town. It was for a double room, for next Friday and Saturday nights, and the two names on the book were Clarke and Ruby.

I went back on the phone, and said, "That looks bad."

Mike sighed. "Yes, and the email is worse. It is a cheater's handbook guiding Ruby how to tell you and what to say. I am going to send it to you."

I thanked him and we hung up.

The email arrived and I read it through. It was a chain of emails with the subject 'Weekend'. It started about two weeks ago, with him sending her a link to a hotel. It was the same hotel he finally booked. In the mail, he said how he would love to take her to the hotel to pamper her, making suggestions of other things he would like to do.

The next mails were a line of him asking her what she thought and why would I not let her do something that would make her happy. The final email was the booking, plus a list of things to say and do to get me to say yes. It was the pre-cheating handbook. It included making me a nice meal next Thursday, loads of sex all week, then telling me it was just sex with him, but it would teach her so much, that I had so many more experiences before we got married, ending with "If you really loved me."