“I'm sorry Lana, I won't be able to take you on this trip. But I'll bring you back a little something as a treat.”
“What did she say?” Lana said.
“She said you won't be coming along, but she's going to bring you back a treat. So, you're getting something out of the deal.” Roger said in a funny way.
“I guess I'll have to explore the house by myself.” Lana said.
“I'm sure we won't be gone for long. I better shut up before Mandy thinks I've gone crazy again.” Roger said.
Mandy put Roger on the leash and took him out to the car. Once in the car, he sat in his usual spot and acted as much as a cat and he could muster.
'I guess it comes and goes in waves' Mandy said to herself, regarding Roger's meowing. She drove to Joanie's and parked the car in the lot. Once she was inside, she noticed Jennifer was already sitting in a booth.
“Hi Jennifer.”
“Hi Mandy.” Jennifer dressed very well and she had yet another expensive handbag. Mandy sat down and let Roger off the leash.
“I hope you don't mind my bringing Roger to the restaurant. He had a terrible accident yesterday, and he hasn't been himself since.” Mandy explained.
“Oh, what happened to him?” Jennifer asked.
“He got hit by a truck while chasing a purse snatcher. The funny thing is, it wasn't even my purse, it was an old lady he saw being robbed. He has a very protective nature.”
“Wow, that's pretty amazing, does he have any internal damage?”
“No, the doctor gave him a clean bill of health. But his behavior is different. He now meows strangely, and almost seems as if he's responding to questions. It's not like him at all.” Mandy said.
“Do they know what it is?” Jennifer asked.
“No, the doctor says it should pass with time, so, I'm giving him a week to see what happens.” Mandy replied.
“Well, I hope the best for him.” Jennifer said.
“Me too.” Mandy said, worrying and hoping this was a passing phase.
“I'm so glad we got to meet here again. I really liked this place. I discovered it shortly after moving here from New York.” Jennifer said.
“Yes, once you eat at Joanie's you come back again and again. I've been a regular for years. How are you holding up since yesterday?” Mandy asked.
“To tell you the truth, not so good. I briefly mentioned Michael and I had drifted in our relationship. It's a little more complex than that. I met Michael about 4 years ago and it was pretty much a whirlwind romance. We really hit it off and we were travelling to places I'd never been to and he bought me all these expensive gifts. It was a totally new experience. Eventually we wound up getting married. As our marriage evolved, he started showing signs of the intimate interests he wanted to explore. The more I learned about them, the less I wanted to participate. I really thought we were going to divorce. But because of his job at that time, he worked for a firm where appearances mattered and getting divorced wouldn't have looked good, so he said we could have an open relationship, he would take care of me, while he explored his interests through other channels. He was very discreet. I knew he had another woman he saw at regular intervals. I didn't know who she could be.
“Anyway, this was a depressing experience for me, because I didn't know what to do if I divorced him. Before I had a job working as an assistant project manager, and that didn't pay much. I couldn't go back to that life style. But my personal life had become a kind of living theater piece. Michael had differences with the owner of his previous job, even though he had great success there. So, he looked for a different place to work and in the process he met Jake. Jake was starting out this hedge fund and he had a group of players ready to start working and a list of clients. So, inasmuch as it was a start up, there was a lot of money at stake. The business took off. And then a lot of Michael's old clients followed him here. They couldn't stand to work with the owner of the old place. The owner accused him of stealing his clients. That wasn't true, they left of their own free will cause they couldn't stand him.
“In the course of his working at the hedge fund, I started to have a relationship with Jake, the owner. He took a liking to me, but eventually that blossomed into a romantic relationship. We kept it very hidden, in spite of Michael's desire to have an open relationship. Now it's been going on for over a year, and Jake really wants to marry me. So, inasmuch as Michael's death benefits me greatly, I never wanted him dead. We still had a good friendship, even if our marriage had become more of a convenience. I knew if I talked to him, eventually we could get a no fault divorce and he could go his way and I mine, since he didn't have to put up the act of the old job. So, I feel terrible now, because he truly was not a bad person at all, in many ways a great guy, he just had certain personal habits that are now going to be viewed as very negative. And if the press gets wind of this, they're going to have field day, which truly doesn't do justice to him as a man, he never bothered anybody, and as far as I know, he only has one other person in his life.”
“Wow Jennifer, you certainly have had quite a life.” Mandy said.
“Yeah, I'm not the hippy girl from college anymore, that's for sure. Sometimes I wish I still was, life was so much simpler then.” Jennifer said.
“Yeah, it must be like that Cole Porter song 'How can you keep them down on the farm, now that they've been to Paree?'” Mandy said.
“You know, that's funny, I remember hearing that song back in college at one of the revues.” Jennifer said.
“You and I probably saw the same revue.” Mandy said. They both laughed reminiscing the old days.
While Jennifer told Mandy the story of her life, thus far, and they reminisced about the old days, Roger was paying attention to the whole story. In cases like this, you always suspect the spouse. He was thinking to himself, here it is, 70 years in the future, and nothing has changed. Women are marrying guys for their money, even if the guy is crazy. Bad things happen to crazy guys in a crazy fashion.
Another thing commonplace in the past, Roger thought, was that widows tended to benefit financially from the death of these crazy husbands. So, what's to say she didn't bump him off herself, and this whole story wasn't just window dressing. Something didn't add up here in Roger's mind and he had a good mind to start investigating this situation. But how could he investigate a death as a cat? He would have to think this through he continued thinking to himself.
At this point, not being able to contain himself he told Mandy “Why don't you ask her if there's an insurance policy or a will?” Of course, all Mandy heard was a weird meow.
“See, there's that strange meow. Are you hungry honey?” Mandy asked. Roger rolled his eyes and said to himself, never mind.
Joanie came by at around the same time “There's that beautiful boy.” And she petted Roger. Then she said “Are you ladies ready to order?”
Mandy and Jennifer placed their orders, and Mandy asked Joanie if there was anything she could get for Roger.
“I think I have some nice chicken he could eat.” Joanie replied.
Mandy said “That sounds good.” Roger thought to himself 'Chicken sounds good to me too.'
“Roger seems like such a great cat. How long have you had him?” Jennifer asked.
“About two years now. He's saved my life on more than one occasion.” Mandy said.
“Wow, that's a pretty big deal. It must be great to have a protective cat. Cats are usually pretty inactive.”
“Roger is pretty active on a regular basis. That's how he got hit by the truck. Sometimes too active.” Mandy said.
“Well, he definitely looks like a great cat.” Jennifer said.
“Oh, he is, he is.”
A little while later Joanie came back with the orders for Mandy and Jennifer. “Here's some chicken for you Roger.” And she placed the bowl on the floor. Roger was hungry, and he didn't need to be told twice when it came to food, so he went down and started to eat. 'This is actually good chicken' he thought to h
imself, thankful this awareness of him being a man hadn't affected his appetite. But he thought, this is good chicken for cats or people, this is plain good food. No wonder Mandy and Jill come to this place all the time. Mandy and Jennifer had their respective meals and for a while everybody sat quietly eating. Roger finished eating first and afterwards, sat next to Mandy like before. Mandy asked Roger:
“Did you like what Joanie cooked up for you?”
“I sure did.” Roger replied, but all Mandy heard his weird meow.
“I'll take that as a yes.” Mandy and Jennifer both laughed. “I'm going to have to get used to these weird meows. It might be his new normal. He was mostly quiet in the past.” Mandy continued.
“Well, never having heard him before, he sounds more like a Siamese cat. Sometimes those cats have such a strange meow, it actually sounds like they're talking.” Jennifer said.
“You know, you're right. It is reminiscent of Siamese cats. I wonder if Roger has a Siamese cat gene that has been activated as a result of this accident and now it's coming out in his meow? Who knows? I'm just glad he didn't get hurt otherwise.” Mandy replied.
Mandy and Jennifer continued chit chatting and Roger paid attention to see if he could glean anything else from their conversation. But it was just two people catching up and talking generalities. He thought to himself, he was a special agent, disguised as a cat. Better that than going crazy. Eventually Mandy and Jennifer parted ways and Mandy headed back home. Roger looked forward to getting home and formulating how to start working on this case. It would keep his mind occupied, he thought.
Mandy thought about Jennifer's rags to riches story. She would call Jill when she got home, I'm sure she would be interested in how Jennifer came to become married. Mandy finally arrived home. She opened the door for Roger to leap out. “Well, we're home.” She said. Roger went to the front door and Mandy opened it, he scooted in, with Mandy following.
Lana came running from her nook when she heard they had come back. She wanted to know what Roger did and where did they go. Mandy saw Lana come out and asked her “Hi Lana, are you hungry?” She went to the kitchen and opened up a can of food for Lana and called her. Lana followed Mandy to the kitchen and Roger was there already. Mandy then went to the living room to call Jill.
Lana couldn't contain her excitement “So what did you do, where did you go?”
“We went to Joanie's, the place where Mandy and Jill go to all the time. I had some of the food, I can understand why Mandy and Jill go there all the time.”
“You already ate?!”
“Well, it is a restaurant. Joanie offered to feed me, and what was I going to say, no? She brought out this chicken dish that was something else. At least I thought so.”
“Well, pardon me while I eat this other food here.” Lana said, playing with Roger, as though her feelings had been hurt.
“Hey, don't get me wrong. This stuff is pretty good too.” Roger said, trying to make Lana feel better.
“So, what did you do at Joanie's?” Lana asked between eating.
“Mostly, I listened to what this Jennifer woman had to say about her husband and her marriage. As a detective, there were a couple of questions that went unanswered, but I realized things hadn't changed much since I was a man 70 years ago, people are still living complicated strange lives of their own doing.” Roger said.
“So, what is it you want to know?” Lana asked.
“I want to know if there is an insurance policy or a will. I won't go into details as to what those are, but basically, they allow a person to get someone else's money. I've known people who will kill other people to get their money legally. As long as nobody finds out they killed the person on purpose. That's what's known as murder, something detectives deal with a lot.”
“That doesn't sound very pleasant. Why didn't you get a job where you could do nice things?” Lana asked.
“I didn't know any better and I was just trying to follow in my father's footsteps. I didn't know I could do something else.”
Mandy called Jill to let her know how it went with Jennifer.
“Hi Jill, it's Mandy. How's it going at the animal shelter?”
“Well, luckily we didn't get any new animals and we managed to get two adopted, so that's two less we have to worry about getting them homes.”
“That sounds great. I was calling to fill you in on Jennifer. In many ways she's the same person we knew back in college wearing grown up clothes.”
Mandy continued to fill Jill in on all the aspects of the conversation.
“Well, it seems she's gotten into a certain lifestyle and now she doesn't want to give it up.” Jill said.
“That about sums it up.” Mandy replied. “In the course of my conversation, I came to the conclusion she didn't have a motive for killing Michael. Why would she? Why kill the goose laying the golden eggs. And as icing on the cake, she's having this relation with another financial hot shot. So, this whole thing may have been a tragic accident.”
“Are you going to tell Fred?” Jill asked.
“Yes, I'll probably be seeing Fred today or tomorrow. I can give him all the details.”
Roger and Lana came from the kitchen to the living room, once Lana had finished eating. They sat there while Mandy continued talking on the phone. Roger thought it pretty amazing people actually carried their phones around. No longer were they bound to the house. He was sure it had their drawbacks, like people calling you all the time, but Roger thought it very interesting. Another thing that fascinated Roger was the fact televisions had become commonplace and gotten much bigger. And they were flat. Yes, now that he had the awareness he was a man, the world seemed far more interesting.
Chapter Seven
The next morning found a very nervous and excitable Jake Wylan, head of Wylan Investments, the firm where Michael was employed. He had been routinely questioned by the police yesterday regarding Michael's death. He was astounded by this even as much as anybody else. However, Jake wondered if something he had started was what caused Michael's death.
A couple of days before, Jake had hired a “counselor”. This person was supposed to talk to Michael and start a discussion regarding divorcing his wife so she could be free to marry. He figured hiring a professional in this field would be better than confronting Michael directly. Jake certainly didn't want to turn this situation in any kind of negative. He wanted it to eventually become a dialogue, leading to positive outcomes by intelligent adults.
It was five days after he had hired this person Michael was found dead. Did this person have anything to do with it? Jake had been trying to reach the counselor by phone and email to no avail. So Jake was worried. He had paid up front, in good faith, thinking this would be a process lasting a couple of weeks. The upfront payment was supposed to establish trust among the parties. Now, all Jake had was a dead Michael, a missing counselor and he was out a $100 bucks. Jake wondered if something this guy said caused Michael to take his life. Did this guy facilitate Michael's death? The more he thought of it, the more nervous he got. What if this is got tracked back to him? Jake wondered if he could be an accessory to murder. He thought Jennifer would think he hired somebody to bump off Michael, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Fact of the matter is, Jake liked Michael. Michael was a good guy, had a great financial mind, and a great employee. Yes, it was true Jake had been having an affair with his wife for over a year, but they had an open marriage, Michael didn't care. Jennifer was quiet regarding her relationship and Jake felt better erring on the side of caution. Jake had no reason or desire to cause Michael any harm. Nevertheless, Jake wondered, did this “counselor” think the best way to deal with this situation is to do away with Michael and he convinced him to take his life? Did he facilitate the situation by acting as an assistant to Michael's nude act? These were the questions that were gnawing at Jake's psyche.
Finally the phone call Jake had been waiting for finally came.
“Hi Jake, this is
Robert, how are you doing?”
“Not too good Robert. Did you hear about Michael's death?”
“Yeah, that was gnarly dude, the guy just wiped out on his own.”
“Listen Robert, I hired you to reach out to Michael and start a dialogue regarding his wife. Did you ever get in touch with him?”
“Well, I left him a message, and he messaged me back and we were supposed to get together, but it never happened.”
“Are you sure of that? At any point did you suggest anything in regard to ending his life, or possibly helping him with his activities?”
“Nah man, that wouldn't have been cool. You don't tell the guy to kill himself to get him out of the way, that would be like so unethical.”
“Sorry Robert, it's just that I've been so nervous over this, and not knowing you, and then this happens, it's too coincidental, I thought something went down that caused him to re-examine his life, and in some way I don't know, that somehow I triggered this.”
“Relax man, Michael was a cool dude doing his thing and it just went south on him. Hey, those are dangerous games he was playing with himself, and sometimes when you play with fire, you get burned, know what I'm saying?”
“Yeah, he definitely was left of center.”
“So, don't worry man, you didn't do anything, whatever he did, he did to himself without any outside help.”
“It's just that cops are investigating this, I don't want it to seem I hired someone to work on Michael. What if they find there was foul play? They'll come hunting for you and me thinking somehow we had something to do with this. All I wanted to set the stage for discussions, nothing violent.”
“Relax man, you've been watching too many police shows or something. You didn't do anything, I didn't do anything. He's the only one that did something and unfortunately, that something led to his death. Maybe he slipped and fell in the closet, who knows. Whatever happened, it's most likely a case of accidental suicide. Some people do it with drugs, he did it with sex.”
“Well, be aware they're going to search his phone and mostly likely find your number and contact you.”
Mystery at the Hedge Fund Page 5
