I got off my ass, and hit the door. In 15 minutes I was in the Plano SpyCentre Security Store. I’d driven past it dozens of times, but never imagined I’d be using it. They were helpful, and I have to admit, they had dozens of solutions for what I was looking for.
On the way back to Nick’s house, I picked up a few more ‘Odds-n-ends’. Within a couple of hours after my return, I had the place wired to the nines. The gear wasn’t cheap. Most of the hidden cameras cost several hundred dollars apiece from that damn store. But that was Ok, Brenda’s business was going to pay for it. I’d damn certain make sure of that.
Fake smoke alarm cameras, hidden book cameras, fake wall charger cameras, I had them all in place.
With Phase One complete. I started on Phase Two. I trashed the place. Brought in dirt from the yard. Pissed on the carpet. Cut up a fish and placed pieces of it deep inside several of his vents. Did the same with some raw chicken. Went to the garage and flipped the circuit breaker on the kitchen. Crammed a fist full of paper-towels into each of the toilets. I even opened up the shower-head, and stuck a piece of fish inside it as well.
I shook up a beer, and let it spray all over the guest room. Another for the master bedroom. I left the bed as it was, trashed. Didn’t worry about DNA or anything. Hardly likely a simple case of vandalism would be inspected that carefully. Besides, at that moment, I didn’t care.
Finally satisfied with my effort, I left the back door wide open, and left a muddy trail across his porch, walking back and forth several times, leading to the back of his yard. I broke a window leading into the guest bedroom, from the outside, and opened it. I made a few more tracks across the back deck to the window. Tracked the mud into the guest bedroom.
Phase Two complete, I headed home. Time for Phase Three. I dealt with accounts and credit cards, reporting the cards stolen, closing out the ones I could, and moving money out of the joint accounts back into my business account.
I’d need some anonymity, and to hide my trail, so for about $300 each, I set up a couple of Nevada corporations, with 24 hour turnaround service. Amazing how easy it was. Ten minutes on a website, and everything was started.
Now to deal with Brenda. I loved her, I did. Unreservedly for over seven years. For those seven years, I left seven grand in the joint account. A grub stake for her new life. One week from now, I’d close it out. I hope she made good choices.
It was getting late, so I made a call. Phase four.
“Hi Gail, Brenda asked me to give you a call.”
“Dave! I’ve been trying to get hold of her, she never got back to us after her morning cleaning. Did something happen?” She sounded nervous, and I was wondering if the cleaning crew had said anything.
“I’m not sure. I got a call at work. She said she had to go out of town, apparently some kind of imminent death in the family. I had no idea, it was all so sudden.”
I forgot to mention that the imminent death was Brenda’s, if she didn’t disappear.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Did she say when she’d be back?”
“No word. I imagine it’ll be a few days. She didn’t pack much.” I think that was fair to say. Nothing wasn’t much.
“You’ll let me know if you hear from her? Tell her I hope things get better.”
“If I hear from her, you’ll be the first to know.”
* * *
I woke up after sleeping far better than I ever expected to. I went to work, like it was any other day, but checked the accounts regularly. She was using her ATM card, had taken out a few hundred dollars, and filled her tank at a gas station in Louisiana. Looks like she was running toward Florida. There was no charge for a motel, but she might have used cash.
It was no surprise when I got a call from Nick in the late afternoon.
“How was the honeymoon?” I asked.
“Dave, my house was trashed! When’s the last time you were over there?”
“My God, really? I checked your mail and stuff day before yesterday. It looked fine then. I’m certain I locked up afterward.”
“Looks like they broke in through a window. They left the place wide open. There were three God damn cats in there when we got home, and the place was a complete mess. Why the fuck would anyone do that?”
“Damn neighborhood kids, probably. Vandals. You have no idea who would do that? Nobody pissed off at you personally?”
“Hell no. As far as I know, I don’t have an enemy in the world. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Probably just bad luck. Real shame too. I know that Brenda had her team over there a couple of days ago to get the place cleaned up for you when you got back. Belated wedding present.”
“Shit. Is she around? I could really use her help getting everything back in order. Alice was supposed to move in tomorrow, but not the way it is now.”
“She had a family emergency. She had to leave town. Sorry about that. Give Gail a call, I’m sure she’ll squeeze you in.” Between her thighs, I thought.
“Yeah, I think I’ll do that. Damn the luck!”
I felt a little better, as I saw the jigsaw pieces of my plan slowly snap together.
At home that evening, I went to the study, where Brenda did all her business work. Her computer was password protected, but nothing special. She used the same three passwords for everything, and this was no different. I guess the whore trusted me. Thank God for all the people who knew nothing about security.
I laughed at how easy it was to access all her stuff. Logging into the business website, it automatically filled in her username and password. Thank you Chrome. One click and I was in.
A few hours later, I knew it all. When the ‘special’ services started, how the repertoire was expanded. Who the clients were. How often they were serviced. What they paid. Nick was scheduled for a full cleaning the following day, and I was pleased to see he had opted for some of the specialty choices. Nothing too crazy, but he had opted for the top down mattress cleaning, which was straight sex, and the vent cleaning, a euphemism for a blowjob. Nice way to spend the day after your honeymoon.
I printed off names, addresses, emails, phone numbers. I had a use for those.