Cheating Husband

Cheating Husband

     Elaine raised the unfolded map in her hands to cover her face. Minutes later she lowered it just below her eyes. Then she quickly raised it again. After a few seconds, Elaine started lowering her map. She continued to lower it until she stopped just below her right shoulders at a slight angle.

     Where is Scott? Elaine thought as she peered down at her map. She moved her head around as though she was studying it. Her head looked at the map, but her eyes squinted toward an outdoor café down the street.

     Scott was just here. Where did he go? He couldn’t have finished eating and left so quickly. Scott has only eaten half of his food. Elaine thought as she slowly started scanning the cafe.

     His eating companion is still here. So, he can’t be too far away. But where is he? Elaine stopped her scan on Wendy. She continued her scanning a few seconds later. After completing a scan, she started around that cafe again. Suddenly she stopped on Scott.

     There he is. He just went to the bathroom. Elaine followed him as he returned to the table where he started eating again. She watched them eat and talk to each other. Then Scott paid the bill, and they left in separate directions. Elaine quickly, and clumsily, folded up the map and put it in her back pocket before she started following Wendy.

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     As Elaine entered an office, she removed the wedding ring. She laid it on the desk as she sat in the chair behind it. Elaine opened her desktop computer. Then she tapped it to turn it on. As the computer powered up, Elaine opened a desk drawer and pulled out a ring box. She placed the wedding ring on it.

     Elaine swiveled around and looked up at a picture of an older female. “Thanks for the loan of your ring. It worked again. No one ever suspects a married woman as being a Private Eye.”

     After swiveling back toward the desk, Elaine adjusted herself in her chair. She pulled the map out of back pocket. Opening another desk drawer, she tossed it in with several other maps.

     Just then her computer beeped. Elaine entered her password into it. A few seconds later the computer showed the desktop background. Elaine double clicked on the Microsoft Word icon. A minute later Word came up. She clicked to open the ‘Scott/Wendy Investigation’ file. And within a few seconds, it appeared.

     Elaine worked on that file for about fifteen minutes when Monica stormed in. “What have you found out about my cheating husband?”

     “I haven’t found anything.” Elaine stopped typing and looked up at Monica. “That’s why I called you. I’m dropping this investigation. Monica, I haven’t found anything to indicate that Scott is having an affair with Wendy or anyone else. I have been following Scott and Wendy for a month. And they have eaten together several times. But that’s all they have done. They haven’t held hands, kissed, hugged goodbye, or meet for sex. Nothing that says they are sleeping together.”

     “If it’s not an affair then what is it? Who is she?”

     “That I don’t know. I didn’t find out too much about Wendy. The only thing I did find is that there is no connection between her and Scott.”

     “Then you need to continue the investigation. There must be some other reason why Scott and Wendy have been seeing each other.”

     “I could do that. But I’m not going to do it. If I did, I would just be wasting your money and my time. I haven’t found any connection. And I’m not going to. If you want to know what Scott and Wendy have in common, there are only two people who can tell you that. You need to talk to you husband.

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     A television played on a table next to a stairway. Elaine didn’t seem to be paying any attention to it as she tapped away at the computer keyboard. Suddenly she stopped and leaned back in her chair. She mumbled as she read what she had written. A few seconds later she started tapping again.

     First, she saved what was on the computer. Then she printed it. Elaine had glanced at it before she put it in a folder labeled, ‘Scott/Wendy Investigation.’ She then opened the file cabinet behind her and pulled out a large stamp. A stamp Elaine used it to stamp ‘File Closed’ on the folder before she put it in that same cabinet drawer.

     Elaine got up and started walking toward the stairs when she suddenly stopped. She grabbed the television remote and turned up the television. It was a newscast with a couple seated at a desk and pictures of Monica and Scott behind them. The female newscaster spoke, “Update on a story we did earlier. Monica Larrison has been found dead. The police don’t know who called in the murder or who did it yet. But they are looking for her husband, Scott Larrison, as a prime suspect in her murder.”

     “This is all my fault.” Elaine staggered backward shocked. She almost fell but grabbed her chair and placed it behind her seconds before falling into it. “I told her to confront her husband about Wendy.”

     For several minutes, Elaine just stared at that television as the newscast continued. Suddenly, Elaine sat up. “Why do I wait until the end of the month to send out my bills. I should have done this one a week ago. How am I going to get paid now?”

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     I know one thing that the police don’t know. It’s Wendy. Elaine thought as she walked up to a house with a couple of uniformed police officers guarding an opened door. The couple stepped aside to allow Elaine to enter that house.

     I’m not saying that Wendy did it. But she is somehow the reason why Scott killed her, though. Elaine stopped just inside the entrance and started a slow scan of the death of Monica. Monica laid in the center of the living room floor. Her head laid in red liquid.

     Two plain clothed police officers were taking pictures. One took pictures of Monica at different angles. The other one snapped pictures of the surroundings. A female plain-clothed police officer directed both of them. Another one headed her way.

     “What are you doing here?” Detective James Malone asked. “Did you know Monica?”

     Elaine started walking around that living room. James walked right beside her. “No, not really. I mean I did know her. She was a client of mine.”

     “She hired you because her husband was cheating on her, didn’t she? At least she thought he was having an affair.”

     “I’m going to tell you what I told her. I didn’t find anything. Scott wasn’t having an affair. That’s why I dropped the case a couple of weeks ago.”

     James suddenly stopped. “If you’re not working for her anymore, then why are you here?”

     “Because I am responsible for Monica’s death. I’m the one who told her to talk to Scott about what he has been up to lately. Knowing her as I did, I’m not surprised she waited this long before she did it. I am here to help you find him.”

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     “It has been almost three weeks, and Wendy hasn’t done anything to indicate she is going to meet up with Scott anytime soon. Maybe I was wrong about her leading me to him.” Elaine clicked off the recorder in her hand and placed it in the seat next to her.

     Elaine picked up some pictures of Wendy and started looking at them. The one in her hand showed Wendy in her office. She tossed it on the floor of the car where she sat. Elaine looked at the next picture. It showed Wendy eating at the same café where she and Scott ate. “That’s the same table they always ate at when they were there. I wonder if that means anything.”

     After looking at six more pictures and tossing them on the floor too, Elaine picked one that showed Wendy entering a forest. “I didn’t know Wendy liked to hike or camp. She never did that with Scott. At least not while I was investigating them. Maybe she has a cabin there, and that’s where Scott is hiding.”

     Elaine suddenly ducked beneath her dashboard. A few seconds later she peeked out the passenger side window. Across the street, Elaine saw Wendy walk out of a large office building and start walking down the street. Elaine watched as Wendy walked down to the end of the block, turned and walked into a parking garage.

     Wendy’s car pulled out of that parking garage about ten minutes later. Elaine barely got a glimpse of her behind the wheel of her car before it turned the corner and headed down the street. After letting several cars pass her, Elaine pulled into traffic and followed Wendy back to her house.

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     Wendy scooped up a shovel full of dirt and tossed it aside. Then she tossed the shovel in the other direction. A few seconds later Wendy picked up some branches and toss them into a small hole. Wendy then used another branch and lit it on fire from a lighter she pulled out of her pocket just before she threw it into that hole.

     The hole became a hole of flame. Elaine came running out of the forest toward the flame and started kicking dirt into it. Wendy just stood there in shock. “What are you doing?”

     “What do you think I’m doing? I’m stopping you from destroying evidence in a murder.”
A few seconds later the flame disappeared. “I knew that showing myself to you a few times you would do something stupid.”

     “You let me see you? Why did you do that?”

     “I was getting tired of you not going to Scott. Sooner or later, I knew you would go to him. But I wanted it to be sooner. So, I made you do it by exposing myself.”

     “What I didn’t expect is what you did when you got to you’re here. At first, I thought you were building a fire. Then I realized what you were doing.”

     “You didn’t look for a spot to build your fire. No, you didn’t.” Elaine smiled. “You came to this exact spot.”

     Elaine peeked into the hole. It was hard to see through the ashes and scarred tree branches, but Elaine could see Scott’s burnt slightly face underneath all that. “Nice try trying to get rid of the evidence. I do like how you tried to do it, though. Making it look like a campfire.”

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     “It's been just over a year since the murder of Scott and Monica Larrison. A double murder that was solved by a local Private Eye named Elaine Wallis.” Elaine leaned back in her desk chair as she continued to read the newspaper silently for several minutes. Her mouth moved. But no words came out.

     “The big question Elaine wanted to know, what everyone wanted to now, was why Wendy killed them. That came out during her trial. Scott was her brother. It wasn’t too surprising that no one knew that because Wendy was in the Witness Protection Program.”

     So, that’s why I couldn’t find out anything about her. “No one knows why she was in it. She’s keeping quiet about that. But whatever it was Scott and Monica found out about it. And that’s what got them killed.”

     Elaine mumbled as she read a few more minutes. Then she put the newspaper on her desk. Leaned back in her chair and smiled. “I knew solving this murder would burst my career as a Private Eye. And boy was I right about that. I’ve got so many cases now I can’t handle them all, and not one of them is about a cheating husband.”

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