Mistaken Identity

by Christopher Maddox

  “How could they have gotten any photos of us doing anything?”

  She giggled. “Well, didn’t you ever do it where you could be seen like in the car or anyplace else kind of like we have?”

  “No, we never did anything outside where we could be seen.”

  She grinned. “You mean to tell me that you never did it in your backyard or in a park someplace while you were taking a walk?”

  I shook my head. “No, of course not. That’s the sort of thing that you do when you are in love, and you want as much excitement and romance as you can possibly stand.”

  “You mean like us having sex on the rocks down by the beach, or the time we did it in your office?”

  I grinned with a slight chuckle. “Yes, something like that.”

  “You know, I’m still waiting for you to find another place where you can seduce me in public. I get wet just thinking about it sometimes.”

  I laughed somewhat nervously. “Making love to you is a joy, regardless of where we do it, but the thought of doing it with you somewhere different, somewhere naughty, is exciting.”

  “You know, Alex, the more I think about it, the more I lean toward the idea that it’s one of her other boyfriends. I think that one of them is either trying to get even with you for taking her away from him, or he is trying to get even with her for dumping him. Either way, the result is the same. What time do you think we should call her?”

  I looked at my watch. I think we should call her this morning at ten o’clock. That should catch her right after lunch at one o’clock.

  ******

  “Hi, Nancy. Is this a good time for you?”

  “Oh, God. Hi, Alex. I’ve been so fucking worried about you. Please tell me that you are alright.”

  “I’m alright. Listen, I have Shannen on the line with us. She is the person that I have been seeing here in Seattle.”

  There was a slight pause. “Okay, … then she’s probably the one who was crying last night?” she asked.

  “Yes, she was crying last night. That is why I had to get off the phone so quickly and couldn’t explain.”

  “Okay, … I hope she’s better this morning, and I hope that it wasn’t something I did that caused her so much distress.”

  “Hi, Nancy. This is Shannen, and yes, I had a rough time last night. But, thanks to you, everything turned out alright.”

  “I don’t see how I could be involved in what you are doing in Seattle, but I’m glad I could help, whatever it was that I did.”

  I went on to explain everything that had happened the night before, including describing the photograph of the two of us kissing in front of the restaurant the last time we were there. We also discussed our theories about who might be angry enough to do something like that.

  “I guess, the thing that troubles me the most,” said Nancy, “is that someone has been following us around for quite a long time. It almost has to be someone we know, and if that’s the case, how could we not have noticed him?”

  “I don’t know, Nancy. Shannen and I were hoping that you might have some idea of whom it might be. When we first began seeing each other, you mentioned that you had been dating a couple other guys, and I believe you said that they were a little younger than you were.”

  She laughed. “One of them was a little younger, but the other one was quite a bit younger. He was right out of school.”

  “High school or college?” I asked.

  She groaned. “Oh, geez, Alex, I might have been robbing the cradle, but I wouldn’t do anything that would get me thrown in jail,” she teased.

  “Do you know where these guys are now?”

  “Oh, hell, Alex, I dated more than just two guys when we started uh … seeing each other. I just told you two so you wouldn’t think that I was taking on the whole damned town,” she giggled, and so did Shannen.

  “Are there any of them that you can think of that might be jealous of Alex and try to get back at him?”

  “Gosh, Shannen, I don’t think any of them would be capable of doing that. That kind of stuff is pretty serious. If you were to do that kind of thing to the wrong person, you could get into a lot of trouble.”

  “Well, I’m sure as hell not too happy about it,” I complained.

  “It’s really none of our business who you are dating now,” said Shannen, “but would …”

  “Listen, Shannen,” she interrupted, “it’s kind of all of our business right now because I sure don’t want to be a part of disrupting anyone’s lives, let alone yours. So ask me anything you want.”

  Shannen paused for a moment. “Thanks, Nancy. I was just wondering if you were seeing any of them now. You know, the ones that you were seeing before the two of you got together.”

  “Yes, Shannen, I hate to admit it, but I have. I just recently started seeing one of them again after Alex and I stopped seeing each other. A girl’s got to do what she’s got to do to get a little attention, you know,” she giggled. “But I can’t imagine any of them doing anything like that.”

  “It has to be someone that knows us well enough to know where we were going most of the time,” I said.

  “Alex, you said that the one photograph was photoshopped, the one with the date on it. How good a job did they do?”

  “Nancy, I work for a marketing firm, just like you, and I can assure you that whoever did it knows their way around a photo shop or has the latest technology in photography software.”

  “Wait just a second,” I interrupted. “I don’t know why I haven’t thought about this before, but how did they get your address in the first place. They wouldn’t even know your name, let alone your address. My son and daughter-in-law don’t even have this address.”

  Shannen gasped with a deep frown. “That’s right. It is not listed, and the only way they could get it is if someone gave it to them.”

  “Wait just a second,” I said. “The only time I gave your address to anyone was when I called Catherine Spiegel in Customer Service to get her to send Charlie’s treats.”

  Nancy cleared her throat. “So it looks like it must be someone from your office that is behind this. Are there any amateur photographers working for you, that you know of?”

  “No, not that I know of. What bothers me is that most of the people that work there have been there for years, and they are more like family to me, rather than just employees.”

  Nancy groaned loudly. “I’m sorry, Alex. I know how much those people mean to you. It’s a damned shame that someone would do that to you after everything you have done for them.”

  “I apologize for dragging you into this, Nancy. I guess the next thing I need to do is call Catherine and find out what she knows.”

  “Okay. Well, good luck, you two. I hope that you get to the bottom of this. If I can help in any way, please give me a call.”

  “Thanks, Nancy. We’ll keep in touch and let you know what happens.”

  “Thanks, Alex. It was nice talking to you, Shannen. Maybe we’ll meet sometime. Bye, bye,” she said in a genuine and sympathetic tone.

  “Likewise, Nancy, and perhaps, we will meet sometime. Bye.”

  I watched Shannen closely as she sat silently at the kitchen table. “Well, what do you think?”

  “I like her. She appears to be very genuine and honest.”

  “No, I didn’t mean Nancy, but now that you brought it up, she really is a nice person. She’s intelligent and very loyal to her company. She has had offers from other agencies, but she has always turned them down, opting to stay where she is in spite of being offered more money.”

  “That’s a rare commodity these days. Most people in the workforce today will change companies in a heartbeat for a few more dollars.”

  “What I wanted to know was what you thought about the likelihood of it being someone that worked for me.”

  “Oh, Alex, I’m so sorry for you about that. I know that it is going to be hard for you to make that call to Catherine.”

  I smiled at her. “Tha
nks, honey. It is sweet of you to be concerned about me and one of my deranged employees. Remind me to ask you someday how it is that you run all of those companies and still have so much free time, free time for me.”

  “You asked me that before, but we started talking about charities, and we never got back to it. It’s easy. Unlike you, I didn’t start these companies, so I’m not as emotionally involved as you are. I hire good people to run them and not bother me with their day-to-day business. If they make money, I’m happy. I have an accountant that I trust very much whose only job is to go around to every corporation each year and audit their books. If he finds a problem, then I get involved. Other than that, I have a meeting once a year where the heads of the companies get together, so they can fill me in on what they expect to do the following year. If I had to deal with the day-to-day business of running these companies, it would drive me crazy.”

  “That’s pretty amazing. You must have very good managers working for you,” I smiled. “And the money just keeps pouring in.”

  “So far, it has. I pay the managers very well and have never had any problems with any of them. Actually, I pay them not to bother me.”

  “Okay, as much as I don’t want to do this, I have to get it over with,” I said as I tapped on Catherine’s number. I placed the phone on the table between the two of us and tapped on the speaker icon.

  “Customer service. This is Catherine.”

  “Hi, Catherine. How are you doing?”

  “Well, hello, Alex,” she said in a cheery voice. “Don’t tell me that you are out of doggy treats already.”

  I laughed and looked over at the canister where Shannen keeps Charlie’s goodies. “No, we still have plenty of those left.”

  “Well, then, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call? Don’t tell me that you are getting bored with retirement already,” she teased.

  “No, it’s nothing like that. I couldn’t be happier. I do need your help, though.”

  “All you have to do is name it.”

  I laughed and looked at Shannen out of the corner of my eye. “I wish all of my girls were as easy as you are, Catherine.”

  She laughed. “I’ve always been easy, Alex. You’ve just …uh, … ”

  For some reason, she stopped and didn’t finish her sentence. “I know, Catherine, you have always been the most helpful person that I know.”

  “Thank you, boss. What is it that I can help you with?”

  I took a deep breath. “Remember when I called and asked you to send me a case of our doggy treats to Shannen’s house?”

  “Of course.”

  “I’m curious. Was anyone with you at the time, or did anyone else have access to Shannen’s address here in Seattle?”

  She was quiet for a moment. “Yes, I suppose there were a few people here. Why do you ask? Is something wrong?”

  “Well, I don’t know how wrong it is, but it is disturbing. Someone sent some photographs to Shannen of me with another woman, and I would like to know who sent them. We are trying to find out who it was and what their motives were.”

  “Oh, my God, Alex, how bad is it? I mean, what do they show?”

  I laughed, knowing what she was getting at. “There weren’t any x-rated pictures if that’s what you are worried about.”

  “Thank God. That could have caused you some real problems with … Shannen, I’m sure.”

  “Possibly, but who all had access to her address?”

  “Well, anyone that works here and whose computer has access to the company server, can log into our client information file. When I sent her the package, I put her information into our computer, so I could print a FedEx label. In addition to that, Nancy’s boss, Tony Marco, and his nephew, Paul Angelo, were here, making a sales call. They were to see Harry in marketing, and he was giving Paul a tour of the plant because it was the first time he had been here.”

  “So, anyone of them could have seen the address?”

  She didn’t answer right away. “Yes, but, Alex, I didn’t know that I was supposed to keep it a secret.”

  Now I felt bad because I never had any reason to want her to keep it a secret. “No, Catherine, there was no reason for you to keep it a secret. I wasn’t expecting anything like this.”

  “I have a confession to make, boss. I didn’t actually take the package to FedEx myself. I was about to head for their offices when Tony said that he was going right by there on his way home. I told him that I appreciated his offer, but it had to get there as soon as possible because it had to go out tonight. He promised me that he would leave within five minutes, so I let him take it. I had no idea that it would lead to anything like this.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Catherine. Neither one of us had any way of knowing that something like this could come from it.”

  “Yes, but anyone on our system could get her address as long as they knew her name.”

  I sighed. “Okay, Catherine, thanks for your help. If you can think of anything else that might help, please give me a call.”

  “Oh, Alex, I will. I promise.”

  “Bye, bye, Catherine,” I said as I tapped the off button.

  Shannen took a deep breath. “I don’t know how helpful that was. I can’t believe that the manager of an advertising agency, or his nephew, would risk losing your account by doing something stupid like this. It just doesn’t make sense.”

  “No, it doesn’t make sense. It just isn’t logical, but someone did it, and they appear to be the most likely suspects we have right now.”

  “So what’s next?”

  I shook my head. “Hell, I’m not quite sure. I’ve had lunch with Tony a couple times, but I barely know him. I think that Paul works with Nancy, or he interned with her sometime back. I can’t remember.”

  Shannen got up and walked over to the sink and looked out the window toward the water. She started to say something, but she paused for a moment, looking somewhat frustrated or concerned. “What is it, honey?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me, but it seemed to me like Catherine was a little uncomfortable with some of your questions.”

  “She was probably just nervous about what happened and the fact that she told me that she would personally take the package to FedEx and didn’t. She has worked for the company for years and was very good to me when my wife died. She went out of her way to make sure that I was okay. Occasionally, she brought food to the office for me like cakes and pies. She even called me at home a few times after work or on the weekends to make sure I was alright. She even brought food to the house for me a few times.”

  “Was there ever anything between the two of you?”

  “You mean like, did we have sex?”

  She laughed. “I think that’s putting it a little bluntly, but yes, I was wondering if the two of you might have …”

  “No,” I interrupted her with a chuckle. “We never had sex. She never came on to me like that. She was just concerned about me and wanted to make sure that I was getting proper nutrition. For a few weeks after Malaya passed, I drank a little too much, and I think that she was concerned.”

  “She apparently stopped bringing you food somewhere along the line. What made her stop?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know. Perhaps, it was because she saw that I had snapped out of it and had stopped drinking so much. She, most likely, just figured that I would be fine and that I no longer needed her help.”

  She turned around and looked at me. “You’re probably right, but it is a little unusual for a woman to cater to a man’s needs like that unless they have ulterior motives. And you’re sure that she never came on to you?”

  I laughed. “Listen, I think that I would remember something like that. I think her only interest was in taking care of her boss.”

  She laughed at my words and gave me a big hug. “I’m sure,” she said as she patted me on the bottom.

  “I guess I’ll have to call Nancy back and ask her a few more questions about To
ny and his nephew Paul.”

  Chapter Eleven

  We called Nancy back right after our conversation with Catherine. Shannen said hello, but I did most of the talking. I asked her everything I could think of concerning Tony and Paul. She confirmed that Paul had interned with her for about a year after he got out of school and that she sees him around the office practically every day.

  However, she was quite adamant that neither Tony nor Paul would do anything to upset the relationship between their company and ours. She said that our account was too important to them to think about jeopardizing it. She was sure that there was just no way that they could be even remotely involved.

  I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it seemed to me that she was a little nervous talking about it. She didn’t sound like herself, but it wasn’t anything obvious. I thought that she might just be apprehensive because Shannen was on the phone with us.

  About five o’clock that same evening, Shannen walked up to me quietly and kissed me on the cheek.

  “It’s five o’clock, and we didn’t even eat lunch. No wonder I’m so hungry,” she chuckled. “I’m going to go to the meat market and pick up a couple of New York steaks. Why don’t you stay here, take care of Charlie, and clean the grill while I’m gone. Oh, yes, I almost forgot the most important thing. Open a bottle of wine so it can start breathing because, by the time I get back, I think that it will have breathed quite enough,” she laughed.

  “Yes, ma’am,” I grinned as I scooped up Charlie to take him for his evening spin around the yard. As I walked with him, I thought about Nancy and some of her answers concerning Paul. I remembered her saying how closely they had worked together for about a year. It was then that I realized that the year in question was the year just before Nancy and I began our “friends with benefits” thing. I stroked my chin between my thumb and forefinger. “Hm, I wonder if she had an affair with Paul and was afraid to tell me about it,” I mumbled aloud and Charlie barked at me. “Aw, I’ll fill you in later, Charlie,” I laughed.

  I decided to call Nancy back while Shannen was at the meat market. It wasn’t as if I was going to hid anything from her. I just thought that it might be easier for her to talk if it were just the two of us on the telephone.