Walkabout

Here I am again. You remember in the movie Amadeus where the king says "too many notes." Sometimes I feel like that really describes my stories. Nothing new here, a series of real happenings woven into a story that would fit in here. Does a good woman become a bad woman when they do bad?

The movie in my head that was this story would not stop having new episodes. Time to abandon this one and move on.

Walkabout

Friday evening: September 11

There, it was done. Her last trip to Chicago, where her company's HQ was located. She'd had her victory lap and with retirement in two months she would never have to go there again. And William! They had spent the last week reminiscing about the six years they've been 'carrying on'. They'd said their goodbyes and kissed for the last time at their 'special place'. And that last night together, she'd hold that warm memory in her heart for a long time. Such a loving and tender lovemaking; it was a perfect end to a 'perfect affair'.

But now her plane was landing and she was going back to her real life. Tommy would pick her up, and in two months they would both be retired and commence the next phase of their life together. Gail thought, not for the first time, how lucky she was to have Tommy as her husband. Fiercely loyal, intelligent, successful, and a great father to their son Andrew. She was looking forward to spending the rest of her life in his loving arms.

And that was going to start the minute she got off the plane. He'd always picked her up just outside the arrival doors. From this moment forward, she was going to dedicate her whole life to making that man happy.

Exiting the ramp gate she looked around only to find Andrew standing there. "Andrew, where's your father. Is there something wrong? He always picks me up when I return."

"Papa won't be coming. I'm here to take you to your house."

"You're scaring me. Tell me what's going on. Is your father hurt!? Tell me where he is!"

"Actually mother, I don't know where Papa is. He's gone and I don't know where."

"What are you talking about! Gone, what do you mean gone!!?"

"Well mother, it seems Mrs. William Parsons was visiting dad this week and they have been meeting almost every day. I'm not too sure of the details, except that Papa is gone. I don't know where, or if or when he'll ever be back."

Gail's brain couldn't process what she had just heard and as her eyes rolled back in her head she fainted dead away. Luckily Andrew was prepared and caught her as she swooned. He hustled her over to a seat in the waiting area and called out for the gate attendant to get medical assistance.

Well, he thought, that went about how he expected it to.

####

Previous Monday: September 7

"Tom, your 11am is here." With that Janet ushered in the lady in question. She looked to be in her late forties, expensively dressed and poised, but she didn't look very happy. She was carrying an expensive looking briefcase.

"Mrs. Carson, thank you for coming in person. I don't get many visitors to my office. We usually hustle out to our client's locations to drum up business. It's rather unusual for a client to come to us. Your need for our services must have unique circumstances for you to be here. May I offer you coffee or another beverage?"

"Yes, thank you. Some sparkling water would be nice. I must say your organization seems much bigger than I was led to believe. So how many people actually work here at Baker & Co.?"

"Mrs. Carson, you would make a great straight man. I will answer the same way the Pope did when he was asked the same question about the Vatican "oh, about half of them."

That little joke cracked the otherwise dour face into a little smile. "You are a bit of a joker; I'd heard that about you too. But to business if you don't mind." The dour expression returned, "I'm afraid I am here under false pretenses. Mr. Baker, my name is not Carson, it's actually Parsons. I am married to William Parsons, the CFO at your wife's company. And I'm sorry to have to tell you that your wife Gail and my William have been having an affair for the last six years. They have been 'getting together' during your wife's twice a year visits to Chicago HQ."

Tom went from zero to sixty in seconds flat, "OK Mrs. Carson, Parsons or whoever you are, you had better tell me what this joke is all about, and fast. I've never hit a woman before, but my fist is just itching to get acquainted with your nose."

"I'm afraid that I really am William Parsons' wife, and he and Gail really have been having an affair. I have brought all the proof my Private Investigators have gathered over the years to share with you. I know I would want to be told if I was in your shoes. So, unfortunately I've come to upset your world."

"You see, I know that you and Gail are about to retire. I believe you are turning over your company to your son Andrew. William and I are also planning an early retirement. However, since I've known about his affair with Gail from the beginning, I have been making plans to divorce William and make him pay dearly for straying. I have no intention of spending the rest of my life with someone who I can't trust."

Tom sat back in his chair and became very still. This woman seemed sincere, he didn't detect any falsehood. And if it was true that his Gail had been stepping out on him, for six years! he would be making some people very unhappy real soon. He needed to keep his wits about him, if this was for real, he'd need to stay sharp.

"Alright Mrs. Parsons, you have my undivided attention. Give me the highlights and then we'll get down to the details later."

"Of course, it all started as I said six years ago on one of your wife's regular visits to Chicago. I'm afraid working closely with William in the Finance department had allowed them to grow close. And unfortunately your Gail fell for William's line of bullshit. It started out slowly; I think that first year they only spent an afternoon together on each of her two visits. But as time has gone on, they've taken advantage of your wife's week in Chicago to spend every evening and night together. This past week they've spent saying goodbye to each other, it seems there is some genuine affection between them. Gail expects to come home to you and forget that William ever existed, and William expects to do the same. However, I am going to put a world of hurt on him, and Gail for that matter."

"You see I accidentally found out about them on that first afternoon they spend together six years ago. I immediately went on the alert and had William followed for a whole year afterwards. Once I discovered that he and Gail only got together on her trips out there, I had my Investigators back off and only follow them when Gail was in town. As a result, I have times and dates, pictures and video of them together. William is a creature of habit and used the same hotel on each occasion. So it was easy for the Investigators to ensure they got the same room each time, and had cameras installed and waiting when they arrived. I understand that a bit of green changed hands with a certain concierge, but I think it was well worth it."

"I have electronic copies of everything here in my case, all that is for you. There is a folder with a summary report from the Investigators so you'll have their contact information too." With that Mrs. Parsons reached into the case and brought forth an accordion folder. "Here you are. I am here all week and am at your disposal. At the very least I can provide some support, this must all come as a shock to you. I have had years to process and plan. You are having this shoved in your face all at once."

Tom took the folder from her and opening it took out the summary report, it looked like several pages.

"The first two pages are an executive summary, and then comes an outline of the dates they were together. There is not much detail for their first time. Even though the Investigator was able to get in place immediately, he only got pictures of them at dinner that first night and exiting the hotel later. Finally there is an inventory of the documentation - audio, stills, and video files. There are also field notes from the people who surveilled them."

Tom hardly heard her as he read through the summary. Then he quickly glanced through the remaining pages, he'd come back and read them carefully later. He placed the report gingerly on his desk and was drumming his fingers on the pages, "Well fuck." He got a faraway look on his face and again became very still. Mrs. Parsons was growing restless as Tom's stillness stretched into several minutes.

Coming back from wherever he'd gone Tom focused once again on Mrs. Parsons. "First of all, thank you. Yes, I do want to know. I mean I appreciate your coming all this way to make me aware of what has been going on. I'm glad you're going to be here this week while Gail and William are having their goodbye tryst. I do have questions that immediately come to mind. And I'm sure I will think up a few more. But first, if you'll excuse me for a moment."

Going to the door of his office he asked Janet to bring a notepad and join them. "Janet, Mrs. Parsons is here on important business of a personal nature. I will be handling her case myself. I'd like to you clear as much of my calendar for the rest of the week as possible. First of all, please get us reservations for lunch somewhere quiet, I've suddenly gotten very hungry and will be wanting to continue our conversation. Secondly, please get an appointment with my sister for right after lunch. Don't take no for an answer, this is of the utmost importance. And finally I need to know where Julian is working today."

Janet was puzzled by all these sudden requests. She'd worked for Tom for 21 years, she knew his every mood. He was clearly in disaster mode, but this didn't sound like the regular Incident Response assignment they usually had with clients. And what the heck did he want to talk to Julian about? Nodding, she hurried back to her desk to get his requests done.

"Mrs. Parsons, I hope my launching into action is alright with you?"

"Please call me Marsha, if we're going to be spending time together hashing over what comes next we should dispense with the formalities. And yes, I wondered how you would react. I was prepared to run if you started throwing things or punching the walls." There was that little smile again.

"Thank you, and please call me Tom. I tend to go into action mode when confronted with an emergency and this certainly qualifies. If you don't mind I'd like to leave my hard questions for lunch. In the meantime, can you tell me how you made your initial discovery?"

"It was entirely by coincidence. I was supposed to be in a completely different part of town for lunch with my sister. But when I picked her up she said she wanted to visit a boutique her friend had just opened. So we changed our lunch spot and I literally saw William and Gail walk by the restaurant window and into the hotel across the street. My sister never noticed and as I excused myself from the table and immediately got on the phone with a Private Investigator. After that it was easy to keep tabs on William and his new girlfriend."

"Wow, what a lucky break. Ok, maybe a bit of a hard question - why have you waited until now to tell me about their affair?"

"It was very selfish of me, you see I didn't know you and was afraid you'd spoil my plans. If I came to you before I was ready and you went off the deep end, we'll I couldn't take that chance." Tom nodded, that made a certain amount of sense.

"Smart- control the variables in your favor until it was time to pull the trigger." Just then Janet came back in after knocking of the door frame.

"Ok you've got reservations at Paoli's at noon, your sister says 2pm, and Julian is finishing up a job in Monterrey and will be back late this afternoon. I've looked at your calendar and there's nothing on it that I can't push off until next week."

"Thanks Janet. Marsha do you mind if we walk? The restaurant is only a few blocks from here and it's a pleasant day. I think the semi-fresh air will do us good." Tom had noticed that Marsha was dressed expensively, but had on what appeared to be comfortable shoes. If she had been in heels he would have called for a car.

"That would be fine. I'm really glad you're keeping your head about you. It seems that we're going to get along nicely."

"Well Marsha, have you ever been to our fair city before?"

"Yes actually I have. I first came out here with my father on a business trip while I was still in high school. And I've been out several times over the years, a girlfriends wedding, another business trip, and the like. I do enjoy my visits to San Francisco."

They spent the rest of the walk talking about the places Marsha had visited and what she liked when she had been here before.

"Frankie!" Tom and the maître d' of Paoli's embraced and they pounded each other's backs.

"Tommy, welcome. I don't get to see you often enough. You work too much. Although I heard you're finally going to retire."

"Yup that's the plan. Frankie this is a business associate of mine, could we please have a table in front of the windows?"

After Frankie brought their drinks, Arnold Palmers for the both of them, they ordered and, "Marsha, I think I'm going to be a bit upset that you waited all this time to let me know what was going on. Please help me understand."

"Well, at first I was just so angry that I had no thought of you at all. I just wanted to strangle the both of them. It took me a long time to formulate a plan to get my revenge on William. We both come from fairly well off families, but rather stable for all that. Oh sure, in our social circle there are always some scandals, cheating spouses are all too common. But I never thought it would happen to me. We were normal in most respects, I practice patent law and we have two kids in high school. I thought we had it made."

"But six years, not only did you have to keep it all bottled up, but I guess you had to act normal. To know and not let on, you must be a world class actress."

"I hit the gym with a vengeance! The me you see today is down 15 pounds, and I'm in better shape that when I played tennis in college. Which I took up again, by the way. After the first few months I got my anger under control and got some healthy advice from my grandfather. He's a retired judge and he cautioned patience, maybe it would blow over - William would get tired of her, or come to his senses, and we could work on forgiveness. So that helped stall things for a couple of years.

"But listening to the recordings of Gail and William talking, it became clear they were enjoying their time together. They were getting a bit of a high from fooling everyone. So in the third year I started planning in earnest. We don't have a pre-nuptial agreement, and in all other respects William has been a good husband. So it took me a while to come up with a game plan, using my own private lawyer to help me. We slowly made arrangements that protected my inheritance and ensured that the boys and I would be well taken care of. With all the evidence I've amassed I'm going to crush them both."

"Well Marsha, I don't have much experience with this domestic kind of thing, I only deal with corporate bad guys. Won't your having waited all this time knowing what was going on hurt your case? Isn't that called condoning, or some such?"

"The term is 'condonation'. My lawyer says that there has to be some aspect of forgiveness in order to nullify the adultery part. And I have kept accurate records of my actions that there is no forgiveness. And at no time have I given any indication to William that I would ever forgive adultery, in fact quite the opposite. In any case, that's for the lawyers to argue. Once my lawsuits hit them they'll be too busy trying to put their lives back together."

"So when did you finally decide to clue me in?"

"That happened last year. I had my investigators do a thorough background on Gail. That's when you, Andrew, and your company came into the picture. My team and I considered when and how to inform you. We never thought about not telling you, by the way. We had a few final arrangements to fall into place and then we decided that with your retirement coming up, the time was going to be during our lovebirds farewell tryst."

"Wow, you planned this like a military operation. I'm impressed."

"Thank you, I've tried to be careful about everything. And as I said I had good advisors, my grandfather and father are both West Point. William will be living out of a cardboard box under the expressway by the time I'm through with him."

"Remind me not to get on your bad side. What about Gail, what are you plans for her?"

"Stupid woman, falling for that old saw about it not taking anything away from your spouse. They would talk about how their time in their 'special place' at the hotel was out of time and space. "Their own special hideaway where they could forget the outside world". What a croc! They ruined 22 years of marriage for me, and I believe close to 40 for you. Selfish, selfish - only thinking of themselves. We'll it's time to pay the piper, and I'm going to collect."

Just then their entrees arrived and they moved on to more pleasant topics.

#####

"Hi Barbara, thanks for giving us an appointment on such short notice. This is Marsha Parsons"

Barbara held out her hand to Marsha, "Pleased to meet you, I'm Barbara Baker."

"I wish we were meeting for a more positive reason Ms. Baker, I'm afraid we're not here on a pleasant errand." Marsha took the seat indicated and turned to Tom to lead the discussion.

Tom placed the accordion folder he'd gotten from Marsha on Barbara's desk, "Barbara, this folder contains evidence documenting the affair that Gail and Mrs. Parsons husband William have been having during her twice yearly visits to her company's Chicago HQ."

"Holy fuck Tom! Please tell me this isn't true!"

"Unfortunately it is true. Apparently Gail and William, Mr. Parsons, have been shacking up while she's out in Chicago for her twice a year trips. They've been at it for about six years. It's all documented in the stuff that's in this folder. Mrs. Parsons has had a private detective firm on the pair pretty much since it started. I've only read through the case summary, but from the looks of it there's quite an extensive body of evidence that's been collected.

Barbara dumped the folder out on to her desk; out tumbled the summary pages, a hard drive, and what looked to be a small folio.

"Ms. Baker, my investigator has been quite thorough. The executive summary outlines the contents of the rest, it's all in there. The hard drive has audio recordings, pictures, and video of them."

"Tom, you know I don't do family law. Are you bringing this to me so I can begin a divorce for you?"

"No Barbara, I haven't decided about that yet. I'm coming to you as my lawyer; somebody needs to take custody of this evidence in case I get dragged into the actions Mrs. Parsons' lawyers are bringing."

"Oh, crap. Yes of course." Turning to Mrs. Parsons, "could you please tell me what your lawyers are planning?"

Marsha leaned forward and shuffled some of the papers that had spilled out. "Ah here it is. This letter is from my lawyers, it explains the strategy. I had them prepare this for Tom so that he could decide how he might want to participate."

"Give me a moment to scan this." Barbara did a quick scan, "Oh crap, you're going after Adelicus, your husband, and Gail. Hmmm, interesting, Adultery, hmmm. This looks like a scorched earth strategy; has everyone been served?"

"Not yet. Adelicus will be served on Friday afternoon at HQ. William over the weekend, and Gail will be served around lunch time Monday. The timing of those services is to maximize the shock effect on all concerned. As I've explained to Tom, I am very angry about all this so I'm going for the throat."