Dilemma Continued Ch. 04

This chapter does not stand alone, and should not be read without reading the preceding chapters. In keeping with the original story, there is no sex, it just deals with the wrong done to Lorelei and her relationship with Chris.

Back To Texas

As I had said earlier, I was heading back to work, and on the first day, I was sitting down with Lou my boss. He started off "Chris. We have three major clients in Houston that while they are not having problems right now, want to sit down with us and see where improvements can be made in their security. They are very concerned about hackers, especially competitors seeing what their future plans are. Also our board of directors has another idea. A lot of our work is coming from the southern states and we are a long way away, so what they would like you to do is look around and do a feasibility study on opening a branch office down there. Question is, we know how you feel about those babies of yours. Can you handle being down there for several months and not getting home very often?"

My answer was "Boss, I would have difficulty handling it if I had a big attachment to Philly, but if you don't mind me working out of a small town near Austin, I'm sure that my Mom and Dad would be delighted to look after the kids in their own home instead of freezing here. It would also be a big help to me in some personal stuff that I want to look into so if that meets with your approval, then I'm your man."

"Sounds great to me," he said, " I'm sure that we can arrange to make sure that your home here is looked after so you have a place to come back to."

When I went home and told Mom and Dad what was going to happen, they were over the moon, as Mom said "You have a great home here but it isn't our home, we are still Texans and always will be. When Lorelei is ready to head for Austin we will be ready to go home. I'm sure that we can move the babies stuff down there for as long as we need it."

I told her that would be looked after and made a mental note to see Lou the next day. I told Lorelei about the job and told her I would be in the Austin area for a couple of months anyway so she knew where to look for me if needed.

A week later I found myself in Houston discussing security systems with the three major companies I was concerned with. While I didn't have a lot of work to do, there were a lot of discussions on systems. The biggest company, Alpha Systems was extremely concerned about security. The CEO Walt James explained to me, that while the board was most impressed with our system, their concern was that we were so far away if something went wrong. I explained Lou's thinking on opening a branch office either in the Houston, Dallas or Austin area sometime in the near future. Walt was delighted and promised me a list of realtors dealing with office leases. I told him and the CEOs of the other companies that I would temporarily be working out of Austin, and they were all really helpful.

Halfway through the second business week, I found myself at the Hilton in Austin ready to contact Pete at the University. I had sworn never to return to Austin, but after walking around the downtown area I realized just how much I had missed Texas. Just in case of emergency, I found out where Lorelei's office was. And when I looked at the listing in the building directory, I sure realized how much she had surrounded herself by women. Then when I read their advertising in the daily paper, I saw that they were very much involved in women's issues. I wryly thought that Professor King really had no idea what he was going to create when he decided to mess with Lorelei.

The next day I went to U of T and went to the University Police Office. Pete was waiting for me, waved me on back and asked if I would like coffee. We ended up in a small kitchen, where he got busy on the coffee machine, making a flask. He laughed at my look of wonderment that the chief would be making the coffee. "Around here now if someone wants coffee and there is none made they make it themselves, that even applies to the chief."

We took our coffee through to his office and sat in a pair of armchairs that he had in a corner away from the desk. He explained that sometimes when dealing with students or his own officers who had gone through problems, the chairs avoided the across the desk official feeling. I found it a great idea, and filed it away for when I designed my own office.

While we were having our coffee, Pete told me that as he had already intimated that about five years previously the University had been involved in several big lawsuits involving sexual harassment of students. Gossip was rife and the school was getting a bad name which was hurting enrollment particularly of women. Consultants had been called in to see what could be done to improve the school's image. Their report was thorough and pulled no punches. As a result, a number of members of the Board of Governors had resigned, the president of the university had not been offered a further contract and over a period of time pressure had been put on a number of professors and the former Police Chief to resign. "The good ole boys are gone," he said. After Pete was appointed the new president had asked him to go over the old cases that he felt had been handled badly and that was why he had approached me, he had Lorelei's side of the story but not mine.

I told Pete I was going to be around for a few weeks, between Austin and Houston and that I would be delighted to give him any help that I could also to me it seemed he was working along the same lines as Cindy, Allan and myself had picked up on. Pete asked me to give him my side of the story and asked if he could tape it. I said "go ahead, it isn't any great secret." Basically we were both going to the law event and ball game in Dallas, but I had been delayed by an additional class, Lorelei had been offered a ride by King and when they arrived there they were intimate in King's room. I hadn't known until fairly recently that there had been a chance that Lorelei had been drugged, and that I really hadn't given her the chance to explain anything. My idea at the time was to get as far away from Lorelei, King and the University as I possibly could and I hadn't communicated with Lorelei until after Cindy's death and at Cindy's urging."

Pete asked. "Who was the professor who held the additional class and was there any need for it?"

I told him "It was Ms Sagayo, the Japanese computer science professor' I was really angry, as we had only been in class for ten minutes and she told us to go."

Pete said "you were likely set up well ahead of time. We found out that Sagayo and King were an item at the time. Nobody knew, or if they did they were not telling and it wasn't made public until Mr Sagayo divorced her, citing her adultery with King, It made headlines here but of course you would not have known it in Philly."

I asked, "Are you saying that she deliberately kept me back so that King got a chance at Lorelei?"

His reply was "that is a possibility that I have to consider. Also if Lorelei was drugged, any suggestion of consent is nullified, that makes it rape on King's part."

I sat there really in a daze, Pete had opened up a whole new concept of the matter, one that I had never thought of. I asked him "where do we go from here?"

Pete went on "First, what I need is a detailed statement from you regarding what happened, right from the time that you were told of the additional class, up until you left Dallas, then if you are willing, I have the permission of the Dean to appoint you as a temporary University Police Officer. I want to keep you close to the investigation, as I think you may be able to fill in a lot of blanks."

I told him that I would have to discuss this with my boss as it could create a problem, but that I would let him know. That afternoon I called Lou, told him what had happened in the past, and explained the steps that Pete was taking and asked him what he felt I should do. His reply shook me. He said that he felt I had done Lorelei a tremendous injustice by my attitude' and that if I didn't have the desire to see that her name was totally cleared, then I wasn't the guy he thought I was He said "You can have indefinite leave for as long as you need, just do what you have to." I thanked him for seeing it so clearly and helping me see what I should do.

I then called Pete, and said "Okay, my boss is 100 percent behind me, you have me on loan for as long as you need!"

His reply was "In that case be here at nine a.m. tomorrow ready to be sworn in, then we go to work."

I called Mom in Philly and told her what had happened, and she gave me good news. Lorelei had been to the clinic that afternoon, and the doctor had cleared her to go back to Austin so she was leaving the next day. She and Dad were going to take the babies to their home and would close up my condo until I got back to Philly. She was going to arrange with the super at the building to keep an eye on the place till I could decide what was going to happen. Another choice that I would have to make in the not too distant future.

To Be Continued...