* * *
George Cash was proud of his success. He now had three supermarkets in the county and he kept the big chains out of his territory through shrewdness and cunning. His wife adored him and he felt she would walk across hot coals for him and provided him with three healthy adorable boys. He spent all his spare time, which wasn't much, trying to make athletes out of his boys including being a soccer coach. He had one secret. He had an insatiable appetite for sex. He enjoyed some things that his wife did not. He loved his wife dearly and gave her anything she wanted but he needed Kristy. He also cared for her. He wanted to keep her as his mistress but she wouldn't hear of it. He thought that she liked the variety of different men. Sure, it had its downside. The men were not always nice to her. However, he knew she had her regulars and shied away from the rogue players.
George's financial success was partially due to his regional manager, Doug Rydal. Not only was Doug a terrific manager and kept the stores running smoothly and in the black, Doug was a confidante to George. Doug knew about George's secret and helped him cover it up.
George sat behind his post WW11 medal desk in the cramped office of the store on Duvall Street. He scheduled a meeting with Doug for this morning to go over some details concerning an employee who put in a complaint about the store manager.
Doug entered the tiny replica of a working office, walked over to the coffee pot and poured himself a cup of coffee.
"These are pretty serious charges against Margaret, if they are true." Doug said.
"We had better get Margaret in here she needs to know what's going on" George always liked Margaret; however she could be a curmudgeon sometimes with her employees. Sometimes Doug would have to remind her to be kinder to them. He expected loyalty from his people and in order to get it he knew one of the secrets was to be fair and treat them well.
Margaret needed to be reminded of George's policies every once in awhile but she ran a tight store other than that. The three of them had a good meeting and Margaret assured the men she would work on her personality skills. With that, part of business over, Doug took the morning paper and opened it to the article in the paper he wanted George to read after Margaret left.
"Have you seen this?" George picked up the paper and read the article about Kristy's arrest
"No, I hadn't." That was all that came out of his mouth. He stared at the paper as if it would go away, if he stared long enough.
"I realize this is quite a shock, but do you have any idea how this is going to affect you?" George hadn't said a word since he read the article. He sat at the desk and stared. Finally, he snapped out of his trance and spoke.
"I don't know. I have to think. This changes everything. I have to find out about that black book. If that goes public, I am in a world of hurt."
"Why don't you take off and see if you can find her. Maybe she's got some news that will make you feel better."
"I've got a connection on the force. I don't know how to approach the subject without coming right out and asking about that book. I would rather no one else knew about this. I have to make some calls. Take over for me. I'll be available by phone if you need me, but I have to get back to my office. He dialed his contact phone number for Kristy and found it disconnected. He then dialed his old golfing friend, Bob Danforth who still worked at the sheriff's department as a detective. He was out in the field, but they would get a message to him as soon as possible. He didn't want to make it sound like an emergency, he thought about a casual lunch together to try to pump him for some information. It wasn't long before Bob called.
"Hey, good buddy, how long has it been?" Bob was pleased to hear from George.
"It's been too long. How does lunch sound?" George did his best to keep his voice from sounding too anxious.
"Today at 1 o'clock at Barnie's sound good?"
"Perfect. I'll see you there"
Lunch went well with the usual pleasantries. George finally snaked his way around to the subject that brought him there in the first place.
"How about that hooker they caught that I read about in the papers? I hear the black book they found in her possession has created quite a stir."
"Actually, I heard that they had to give it back to her. It was considered personal property."
"Yeah, but before they gave it back, they must have taken down some of the names from the book." George's voice was strenuously at a monotone.
"The scuttle butt around the station is that there were some pretty prominent names in there, but they can't do anything about it." George was sure Bob was clueless he was being pumped for information. George felt that he had all the information that he could get from the conversation and the lunch concluded on a jovial note.
George went back to his office and tried to resume his daily routine. It was almost impossible. Doug broke the tension when he knocked and entered the office.
"Okay, how did it go at lunch?"
"Good and bad. I found out what I wanted to know, but I also, know now that there isn't a thing I can do but wait for the other shoe to drop."
The Cat's Dowry and Other Short Stories Page 9
