Suspicion Ch. 13

Chapter 13.

Tuesday 9:30 AM — Rudy's Deli

Karl Gerring was sitting across from his attorney, Dave Powers, finishing off his third cup of coffee since he sat down. At 8:00 AM sharp, papers had been delivered to the K.G. Construction office from lawyers representing CableNex, and they appeared to be voiding the large contract that he had signed with them less than four months before.

Powers had been looking over the documents for the past half-an-hour. The papers weren't terribly complex, but they were bad news for Karl Gerring's company, if they held up in court.

"Karl," asked Powers, "It doesn't come right out and say it, but the implication in these papers is not that you got confidential documents, which is what the media has been suggesting, but that you had access to some secret insider information through a source in the office. You weren't screwing the procurement manager or something, were you?"

"Hell no," came Karl's immediate reply, "I didn't do anything wrong...." There was a pregnant pause.

"What?" Powers finally asked, unable to sit in silence any longer.

"Damn, damn, damn. No, it wasn't the procurement manager, but I've been involved with Kathy Matthews, the H.R. Director. It's a long story, but briefly, she was my girlfriend 20 years ago in high school, and we started seeing each other recently. In fact, it was while I was submitting the bid for this that I ran into her again," was Karl's explanation.

The look on Dave Power's face momentarily turned incredulous, his eyebrows rising and his lips pursing, almost as if he was going to whistle.

"Unfortunately my friend," Powers said, shaking his head, "You are most likely screwed, then. They are perfectly within their rights to void the contract under those circumstances. In fact, they could potentially sue YOU for the costs associated with rebidding the contract. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but to contest this action would be very expensive, you will almost certainly be out of business before you would get it into court, and you will most likely lose if you do."

"I've got to get going, I have to be in court in about an hour," Powers noted, looking at his wristwatch. "Here, let me pick up the check." he said as he moved towards the exit door. "See you, Karl."

Karl was just sitting there staring into space. He was thinking, trying to see some way to save his business from this disaster, and not at all sure that he could.

Just then his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller I.D., and it said 'County Dept. Hlth', he answered it wondering who the hell wanted to talk to him now?

11:00 AM — Equity Corp, Paul Matthew's Office

My personal cell phone rang, and when I looked at the caller I.D., it was a blocked number. Probably a sales call, but with the wheels in motion and the wall tumbling down, I decided to answer.

It was Jill Jones, my inside source at CableNex.

"Paul?" I heard Jill's voice.

"Yes, Jill. What's going on?" I replied.

"Kathy packed up her personal things this morning, and left the building. The rumors are that she is resigning for personal reasons. Tom is supposed to send out a memo later today. I just thought that you would want to know," she concluded.

"Thanks, Jill. No surprise, eh? At least not to some of us," was my almost sad response.

Jill chuckled a little,

"I guess not. You know, Paul, I don't think that I would want to get on your bad side! But I really hope that you and Kathy can work things out — she's really a good woman, and I know that she loves you and your kids more than anything."

"I do too, Jill. And I'll just say 'thanks'." We made our goodbyes, and I ended the conversation.

2:00 PM — K.G. Construction, Karl Gerring's Office

To describe Karl Gerring's day as 'shitty' was akin to describing the bomb dropped on Hiroshima as 'a modest explosive device.' In relative terms, the destructive effects were about the same.

First came the cancellation of the contract with CableNex, which was about 75% of K.G.'s existing business. Then his meeting with his lawyer, who basically told him that he was wasting his time and money trying to take legal action to contest the decision.

Then, and maybe what had him the most angry, was the call from the fucking County Health Department, telling him that he needed to come in an be tested for a so-called STD — a sexually transmitted disease. So he stopped by the County Center, sure that it was some stupid screw up, only to be tested and told that he had fucking gonorrhea! Then they started asking about his sexual partners, and all of that kind or crap. Well, he'd only had one damn sexual partner, and her name was Kathy Matthews. The bitch must have gotten it from her husband, he thought. Oh, she's going to love that, he thought, when she finds out that her 'perfect husband' has been getting a little on the side.

When he finally got to his office, he had another immediate concern. He had to call in his crews, and lay most of them off, explaining to them that the major contract that they'd been working on had been cancelled. He didn't let them know why it had been cancelled, and tried to fudge a little by telling them that he was looking into potential legal recourse. They all knew that was bullshit! They left, first to stop by the unemployment office to get their unemployment checks started, and then they would grab a newspaper and start hoofing it to find another job. Damn.

Oh, hell, what else could go wrong. He'd reached bottom.

Lacking anything else that he could do at that moment, he decided to check his email for the first time in a couple of days.

Junk, delete, more junk, delete, request for proposal, oops — not in town, delete.

Message from someone he doesn't recognize... he opened it.

He read the nasty little note, and then

HOLY SHIT!!! Kathy being gangbanged by a couple of black dudes? NO WAY!

Karl's mind was spinning as he saw the pictures. He just sat there looking at the photos embedded in his email. That was her fucking apartment; the real reason that it was 'off limits' was because she was having goddamn orgies there!

How, he thought, could I have ever thought that I loved that bitch, and that she loved me? All of the shit that she was giving me about how she loved me, but she loved her husband as well, and was going to try to keep her marriage together. She was obviously some kind of kinky, sick, whore.

Finally, he decided that he would print some copies out to confront that slut.

But was he reached for the mouse, the pictures started breaking up in that digital manner, becoming large undefined squares, losing their coherence, and finally disappearing.

"What the fuck?" was Karl's insightful observation. Karl wasn't a computer guy, so he didn't have a clue. But he knew what he'd seen. It would be imprinted on his brain forever.

The woman was pure, unmitigated poison.

4:30 PM — Equity Corp, Paul Matthews' Office

I was wrapping up things for the day. The Plan had succeeded beyond my wildest hopes, and it looked like all of my main goals had been achieved. I was riding on top of the world, at least until tomorrow, I thought. Because, as they say, tomorrow is another day.

Hubris.

My General Manager, a nice guy named Erik Samson, walked in just to make my day. Nothing like being told at the end of your shift that your position is being eliminated, your department is being closed, and your function is being outsourced!

Believe it not, when I left for home, at about quarter after 5:00, I could still manage a smile.

5:30 PM — Matthews House

As I pulled up to my house, I could see Kathy standing out on the front lawn looking down at the ground and weeping, as some guy was shouting at her. The kids were standing together, clinging to each other on the front porch, looking scared as hell. I came in to the drive too fast, screeched the brakes as I halted, and jumped out of the car, leaving the door open, with my briefcase, and everything still in the car, as I ran over to where Kathy stood.

Karl Gerring, I presume.

The man didn't seem to notice that I was running towards them, and then I could hear him,

"...my business, and now, you bitch, you gave me the fucking CLAP!" He raised his hand up as if he might slap her, although he didn't. I certainly wasn't going to let that happen!

By then, I had gotten in between him and Kathy, and I could feel her hands on my back, as she hid behind me, looking past me at the maniac.

"Hey mister — back off. This is MY wife you're threatening, and my children you've scared half-to-death, and this is my property, so I think that you ought to go. Right NOW!" I shouted at him.

I wasn't making any aggressive moves towards him, I was just holding my arms out to form a barrier, as it were, to protect my family.

"Oh, yea! You're fucking wife has lost me my business, and gave me the clap," he shouted back.

"Pardon me, but," then I lowered my voice, "if you're Karl Gerring, then my wife picked up that little present from you!"

"Bullshit, you stupid fuck. You know that apartment she has? Well, she's been having fucking orgies there taking on two, maybe three men at once. Oh, yea, black guys with huge dicks! Did you know about her black men fantasies?" he was shouting again, "Where do you think she got G.C. from? Not from me!"

I took a quick look back at Kathy. She whispered in my ear.

"Paul, I think he's gone crazy. I never did anything like that!" she whispered with an urgent edge to her voice, "Be careful, he's NUTS!"

"You! My wife says you're a liar, and I believe her, so you're a liar. You are a miserable piece of shit," I told him, and then, as I saw the police car pulling up on the street, I stepped closer and dropped my voice again, but I made no openly aggressive looking motions, "And I'm the one who took down your life and your business, and flushed you down the toilet, like the turd you are!"

That's what I said that pushed him over the edge, timing it so that Karl's punch hit my unresisting face just a moment before the cops could grab him. You know, I was surprised at the creative ways that policemen use their batons to control violent people. I got a kind of short tutorial on the subject, watching from the ground as they subdued the out-of-control Karl and hauled him in handcuffs back to their car. Icing on the cake!

Thank goodness, he hit me with a right; he didn't reopen the scars from the car accident!

I didn't really resist his blow, so it knocked me down, and I stayed there while the cops were subduing him. As they dragged him off, I was suddenly surrounded. My wife was trying to hold my head and shoulders and to kiss me. My children had run up, and were crying and trying to hold me. Actually, a couple of our neighbors, who had no doubt heard the whole scurrilous episode, came over to help me back up.

"What was that about, Paul?" asked the lady from two doors down the street, who was particularly inclined towards spreading salacious gossip.

"That's the crazy man who's been stalking Kathy for months!" I proclaimed loudly, knowing that this would become 'the story', "I guess he finally went completely over the edge."

I turned to Kathy, and to add credence to my little lie, I asked her,

"Did he hurt you, dear? Maybe this will be the end of the nightmare!"

Our neighbors nodded in agreement, finally understanding the turmoil that had racked our family for months. At least they thought they understood.

We thanked them all for their understanding and support, and I walked over to my car, got my briefcase out, and closed the door. Then I walked back, put my arms around my family, and herded them into the house.

Once we were all in the house, we were still really hyped, and the adrenaline was still flowing. Too much to be bothered with fixing dinner. So take a guess at what the Matthews did for dinner? Damn right: pizza. Oh well, the kids sure loved it! I thought it was OK (my taste in pizza goes towards a thick crust with sausage and mushrooms — no way in our house. Thin crust, extra cheese and pepperoni. Sigh.) To tell you the truth, I don't think that Kathy tasted it much, or cared much, either. She was going through the motions.

The kids had been terribly frightened, and they kept asking me questions like, 'Is that bad man coming back?', 'Will the police keep him in jail?' I told them that I didn't think he would be coming back, and that now that Daddy was home, I would protect them.

When Jason asked me if I would use my gun if the man came back, I looked into Kathy's eyes, as I said, "Yes, Jason. If he comes back and tries to threaten us again, I will use my gun if I have too." Having said that, I did make sure that Jason knew that I would only shoot my gun if we were in danger ourselves, and the 'bad' man was seriously threatening us. But if I had to, I would.

That seemed to satisfy the kids, although I had to stay with Christi for maybe 45 minutes before she fell asleep that night. Jason took me at my word, and seemed to accept it as the truth, and returned to his normal school night routine — homework, computer, games, texting his buddies, and finally bed.

I did emphasize to both children that they probably shouldn't talk about what had happened to anyone, unless I told them to.

With both of the kids in bed, I returned to the living room, where a cried-out Kathy sat in the dark, just staring.

"I've really fucked everything up, haven't I, honey?" she quietly asked me, rhetorically I suppose, but I was going to answer.

"It might not be totally inaccurate to say that." came my calm reply.

"It's funny, but today I was going to let you know that my obsession with Karl was over, that I just didn't feel anything much for him, especially compared to my family. I was going to call you right after I got back from the doctors. But why should you believe me now, after finding out that I contracted an STD, and that whole scene out in front this afternoon," Kathy said, and then laughed a little laugh, a completely self-deprecatory sound, saying 'what kind of a fool am I.'

The I think to her surprise, I responded,

"Actually, I do believe you. For one thing, I spoke to your sister this afternoon, before the little tete-a-tete with Karl. She told me what you had told her this morning when you stopped by her place on the way to the doctor's office."

She was a little relieved at hearing that, that truth and accuracy of what she'd admitted to me had been confirmed by another source, who had heard it before things had gone completely crazy.

"And Paul, I have utterly NO idea what Karl was talking about, you know, that really vile thing about me having 'gang-bangs with black studs in my apartment," she continued, "I really, truly, think that he has gone completely crazy; he sounds like some sort of paranoid. I hope that you can believe me about this, too. The ONLY man I even had in the apartment, and the ONLY man that I ever had sex with there was YOU. Period!"

I had to smile a little, happy that Kathy couldn't quite see my face in the dark room.

"Kathy, I know you, and I am totally sure that you did not do those things. Even if someone presented me photos intended to prove such a thing, I would assume they were fake. Then I would ask you, and I expect that you would tell me the truth," I told her, thinking that it might be an impolitic time to let her know that I knew that such photos could be faked! And how and where to have it done.

"I don't know how you can believe anything that I tell you anymore, Paul," came her answer to my statement.

"You know, reflecting on truth and lies, throughout this entire sad time, I realized that you lied to me in two ways: you initially tried to misdirect me, by suggesting that the bite marks on your breasts were bruises; and you certainly lied to me by omission — by NOT telling me things that I should have known. On the other hand, when I asked a direct question, you didn't lie to me, you confessed. For that I am grateful. I'm not saying the 'lies' of misdirection and omission haven't hurt me, but they don't hurt as much as if you had out and out lied to my face when I asked you a question," I concluded.

At that point, I moved over next to Kathy on the couch, and hugged her, and she returned the embraced with a quiet desperation. We sat like that for a couple of minutes, not saying anything, just holding each other like survivors of some terrible disaster, although in our case, it was not natural.

A lot of my anger had dissipated, some of it as a natural consequence of having Kathy back living with us over the past several months, some due to the fact that I had taken action to deal with both Karl and Kathy. Before Karl had shown up at her office, we'd had a good marriage, and you don't have a long-term good marriage if you don't, at some fundamental level, get along and like each other. I still liked and loved Kathy. She wasn't my best friend to quite the same degree that she had been, and our love had taken a hit, but the roots were deep and were damaged, not destroyed.

The decision to start having sex with her again, even if motivated for somewhat unethical reasons, and despite some real reservations on my part about it, turned out to be a good thing as well. As long as someone wants to have sex you with, it tells you that they still have a deep feeling for you, and sex is in some ways the lubricant that smoothes the friction of two people living together for a long period of time. It's hard to stay angry with someone who is trying their best to sexually satisfy you. To some extent, I suppose that at times, both Kathy and I during the recent months had made an extra effort to enhance our sexual bond with each other, even if we didn't always feel like having sex at any particular time, but that itself was a kind of proof of sincerity.

It was Kathy who broke the silence.

"There is something else that happened today that you should know about," Kathy's voice was almost trembling as she told me. "I was forced to resign from CableNex because of my relationship with Karl.

"I heard," was my response. Kathy didn't ask from whom.

She continued,

"One of Karl's competitors thought that it had been too easy for him to win the bid, so they had investigators follow him around. When they saw me with him, and realized that I worked for CableNex, they went to corporate, and corporate investigated as well. They couldn't find any evidence that I had done anything illegal, but they told me that if it went to court, it would look like I had been leaking information to Karl that gave him an edge in the bidding." I could feel Kathy looking at me in the dark. "The funny thing is, I never gave Karl any information about the bids, but it didn't matter. They just assumed that if I was having an affair with him, then I must be talking out of school."

"I wanted to tell you that. I don't ever want to keep secrets from you again," she explained.

"Tom, my boss, was very nice about it. My resignation officially won't be effective for two weeks, and it will be announced that it was for 'family reasons. I'll be paid during that period, and I'll get all of my benefits and severance pay. So, I'll get about six months pay in total," she continued, "But I don't know where I'll get another job. Tom said that CableNex would give me a positive recommendation, but everyone here locally will know that something was wrong."

I thought that my next words would surprise her, as I had my own surprise to reveal.

"Well, Kathy, I may surprise you, but I think that's great that you don't have that job anymore," I asserted, and felt a jolt go through her body, as I held her. To make sure that she didn't get a word in edgewise, I just kept going.