by Dan Arnold
She extended her hand and when I took it, it was as cold as ice.
“Mr. Simpson, I believe I’ll take that drink now.” I said.
He chuckled and pointed to an assortment of bottles on a shelf next to the fireplace. There was glassware stacked behind them.
“There’s an ice maker in the cabinet down there, help yourself.”
“Can I get you anything, Mrs. Simpson?” I offered.
I figured Henry, the butler, wasn’t going to be joining us.
“I guess about two fingers of Bourbon won’t kill me.” She replied
“… On the rocks?”
“No, neat is fine.”
Soon, we were seated and settled down to discuss the matter at hand.
“Corinne, this fella is like a badger, once he takes a hold of something, he just won’t let go of it.”
“So I’m told,” she smiled, coldly.
“Mr. Simpson I have a lot of questions...” I started.
“Yep, I expect you do. First, let me ask you one.” Ted Simpson interrupted.
I nodded and simply said, “OK.”.
“Why the hell didn’t you just go away and leave us alone. I figured writing you a check and telling you ‘good bye’ would settle the matter.”
I considered how to respond.
“I intended to, but Walter wouldn’t leave me alone.”
They looked at each other, and Mr. Simpson sighed.
“Now it’s my turn. Why did you hire me to run a background check on you?” I asked.
“I told you, I’m about to make a run at the Governorship. Corinne suggested it would be a good idea to see what kind of a mess our opposition might be able to stir up.”
“OK, but why me, there are plenty of other agencies with better resources?”
“Walter recommended you. He wanted to do it himself, but he realized he already knew everything that might be pertinent. We needed a disinterested third party. So he suggested you.”
I still wondered why he had picked me, instead of a bigger firm.
“Did he say why?”
“Not really, just that he had heard you were thorough. He was right, you are thorough.” He observed.
“Why does Walter have the last name Farley? Does it have something to do with your absence from college for part of a semester?”
Mr. Simpson got red in the face.
“Damn, boy, you seem to know all the answers. Why ask the question?”
I looked at Mrs. Simpson.
“Ted left school, because he needed to deal with aspects of a little indiscretion in his youthful life. He had fathered a child with an underage girl. Ted was in love with her and wanted to marry her, but his father wouldn’t permit it. Ted actually left school to sneak off to be with her, when the baby was born. She had the baby and then her parents threatened to expose the situation to the media and the authorities. Ted’s father handled the matter by bribing the young woman’s family to keep quiet. Ted returned to college the next semester. He continued to support Ms. Farley and their son, often visiting them, even after he and I were married.”
I nodded. “Yeah, when I finally talked to your college roommate, he told me part of the story. I didn’t know the girl’s name, and I didn’t know Walter was that baby.”
I thought of another question.
“Mr Simpson, why didn’t you marry the girl, when she came of age?”
“I was already married, to Corinne.”
I thought about what I had just learned. How young had the Farley girl been?
“Ted’s father felt I would be a more suitable choice for Ted,” Mrs. Simpson added.
“Yeah, and I learned real quick, he was right about that,” Ted Simpson said, winking at Corinne.
“Mrs. Simpson, you said Walter is ‘our’ son. How did you come to think of him as your son?”
“We… that is to say I, am unable to have children. Walter’s mother was killed in an automobile accident when Walter was eleven. He came to live with us. He’s the closest thing to a son I will ever have.”
“Yes, ma’am, I understand. Are you aware that Walter has some mental health issues?”
She smiled sadly. “Mr. Tucker, Walter is a sociopath. He is the most damaged and dangerous person I have ever known.”
Mr. Simpson reached over and took his wife’s hand.
“Well, there you have it, boy. You got to the bottom of the story.” He said.
“Mr. Simpson, Walter is your biggest liability. It appears he stole the technical specs for your horizontal drilling and fracturing from a competing company. You funded a business for him and he ran it into the ground. He’s trying to get back on top, and he sees me as his competition. Over the last several months, he’s bugged my office, planted a transponder on my truck, sent men to follow me, and generally interfered with me, on several levels.”
“Well, I’m real sorry about your luck. He’s just like you in that way, he won’t let go once he gets a bite.”
“Let me be clear. If you run for political office, it will all come out. Walter is headed for self-destruction, and he may very well pull you down with him.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I see that. I was hopeful all this would blow over. It’s not his fault, you know? He can’t help it. He’s real smart, did great in school. Smarts ain’t the problem. He’s got a screw loose. I was hoping some time spent in the military would help him learn some self-discipline, but it didn’t help. He came out even more twisted.”
Simpson stopped to take a deep pull on his Scotch. Then he started talking again.
“Walter got the job up in Oklahoma, because I recommended him. I didn’t know he was going to steal proprietary information. I’ve tried to help him and get help for him, but he can’t be controlled. I set him up with his own business, because I knew he could never run Simpson Oil and Gas. I’ll see he’s taken care of, but he’ll never control any part of the company. The stockholders must come first.”
I noticed his last word had sounded like “firshht,” because the single malt was kicking in.
We sat in silence for a moment.
“Why did you offer me the job as your head of security? Walter has his people providing security for you.”
He shook his head. “Walter’s boys, the ones he has left, are basically just body guards. I don’t really need them. I need cyber security and overall corporate security, to manage all aspects of our corporate risk. I figured you were better qualified.”
“What made you think Walter would have tolerated that?”
“Hell, boy, do you think I give a flying fig about Walter’s personal pride. I run one of the largest and most successful independent oil and gas E&P companies in the United States. We have a board of directors, with me as the Chairman of the Board and CEO, to make decisions about the future of our company. I didn’t know Walter was going to fixate on you as his personal enemy, but since he did, you can consider the offer withdrawn.”
I could tell he was more than a little bit drunk.
“Well, where do we go from here?” I asked.
“We’re going to bed. You can go on home, or go to hell, for all I care,” he slurred.
I nodded and stood up.
“There’s one other thing I think you should be aware of. You know about the investigation into the murder of Edward Nordstrom, the man who worked for Walter. I’m quite sure Walter killed him, or he had it done. And, I’m pretty sure he sent a man to kill me, earlier this year. I tell you this to let you know how desperate he is. This is not going to end well for him.”
“Get the hell out of my house,” Mr. Simpson spat. “And, I’d watch my back if I were you.”
“You’ll have to excuse my husband’s manners, Mr. Tucker. He’s just upset his political ambitions may not be realized,” Mrs. Simpson said, as she stood up to show me to the door. “He’s rather used to getting what he wants.”
“Yes,” I said, looking down at Mr. Simpson, where he sat slumped in the big arm chair. “And �
�the apple don’t fall far from the tree’.”
Thirty-Six
Trudy Gerhardt was missing. At least she was missing from her home. Technically I had been hired by Bobby Gerhardt, her nine-year-old son. He wanted to know where his mommy went.
It was the usual thing; Mrs. Gerhardt packed up some of her stuff one day and drove away. Bobby was left with his dad, and a lot of questions. Tom Gerhardt was too confused and heartsick to explain anything to Bobby. He didn’t know where his wife had gone either.
Tom was the man paying the bill, but little Bobby was our client.
Christine’s diligent research eventually found Trudy Gerhardt, down near Houston. She was living with a guy named Brad Townsend, a man she had “met” on the internet.
Four hours of driving in the rain, brought me to a lovely residence in a huge, planned living development called “The Woodlands.” I rang the doorbell.
The lady who answered the door was a reasonably attractive brunette, whom I recognized immediately from the pictures Bobby and his dad had shown me.
“Hello, Mrs. Gerhardt. My name is John Wesley Tucker, Bobby sent me. I’d like to talk to you for a moment. May I come in?”
“Who… what… what do you mean, Bobby sent you?”
“Yes Ma’am, you remember Bobby, your son? Bobby called me and asked me to find you. Could we talk inside?”
Maybe it was because of the pouring rain, or maybe she wanted to know about Bobby, for whatever reason, she invited me in. I took off my raincoat. She made coffee while I wandered around in the den. When she returned with the coffee service, we sat and talked.
“How is Bobby?” She asked.
“He’s confused, frightened and hurt, Mrs. Gerhardt. He wants to know you’re alright. He wants to know if you’re coming home. He wants to know why you left. He thinks he must have done something to make you so mad, you left without even saying goodbye.”
She shook her head. “Kids get the strangest ideas.”
“Why did you leave?”
She took a moment to consider her response. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then she answered my question.
“I just got tired and bored. Tired of being a wife and mother, bored with the life I was living.”
She went on to tell me about how she had “met” her internet lover. It had all started innocently enough; Brad Townsend was a friend of a friend on Facebook. Pretty soon they were chatting directly online, and progressed to phone conversations. It slowly evolved into adultery and a failed marriage. It could be argued the marriage had already failed, and was the reason she had become attracted to the stranger on the internet.
“Did your husband mistreat you?” I asked her.
“Tom? Goodness no. He hasn’t got the backbone for it. He has all the fire of a bowl of bread pudding. He just wasn’t available. We never talked, and it had gotten to where we shared a bed, but only because we didn’t have three bedrooms. It wasn’t a marriage; it was more like we just tolerated each other.”
“Will you be going home to Tom and Bobby?”
She shook her head again. “Not a chance. I’m finally starting to have some fun. Brad is a hoot. Why would I want to go back to boring old Tom?”
“What about Bobby?”
“We’ll work something out. He can come visit me sometime.” She suggested.
“Ma’am, are you a religious person?”
“What do you mean?” She asked.
“Do you go to church or synagogue?”
“Sure, sometimes, why do you ask?” She narrowed her eyes at me.
“Did you get married in a church?” I already knew the answer, because I had seen a wedding photo on the mantle in their home.
“Yes, we did, what’s your point?”
“Just to remind you that you said vows in front of God and witnesses, promising you would never do what you’re doing, right here, right now.”
“That’s none of your business.” She said, standing up.
“Mrs. Gerhardt, you’re still a married woman. Sometimes keeping a commitment is… difficult and unrewarding on a personal level, but ultimately essential for everyone involved. Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if you went home and worked on your marriage?”
“Don’t call me, Mrs. Gerhardt. My name is Trudy. The marriage is over. I’ve filed for a divorce from Tom. I think it’s time for you to go.” She snapped.
I put my raincoat back on and headed for home, four more hours of driving in the rain.
As I drove, I thought about my meeting with Mrs. Gerhardt. I had recorded the meeting with a video camera built into a pen, which I had clipped into my shirt pocket. I was hoping I would have good, clear images to show Bobby. I wanted him to see that his mother was safe and healthy. I figured I would let the video answer his questions.
It probably wouldn’t help much.
Back in my office I downloaded the video and saved it on a thumb drive. I found the whole thing very sad. It was typical of the times in which we live. She had been seduced by her own selfishness. It takes two to marry, but it only takes one to end a marriage. Sure, they were both responsible, in fact in some ways Tom Gerhardt was the most responsible person, but the point was she had chosen to end it. She had abandoned her husband and her son, to pursue her own personal happiness and pleasure.
Christine and I talked about it.
“Yeah, it’s sad, but men do it all the time. Men are usually more deceptive and sneaky about it, but society seems to accept it when men do it. We only get bent out of shape when a woman does it.” Christine observed.
“I know, Christine, it’s part of my point. Society doesn’t have the authority to decide what’s right and wrong. Sin is sin. Man or woman. Just because we live in a time and place where pretty much anything goes, doesn’t change the reality of right and wrong.” I started “Humans have always been selfish. Everything a person does is right in their own eyes. If the criteria by which we establish law is nothing more than, ‘if it feels right to you, then it is right for you’, then there is no real basis for law. If a society decides stealing is a crime in this century, decade, or year, but changes its mind in the next, where is the truth? People want what they want, and if they can’t have it, or can’t do it legally, then they do it illegally, or work to change the law, so they can have it their way.”
“Well, that’s the way democracy works. ‘We the people’ get to determine our moral codes and laws, through our elected representatives.” Christine answered.
“If ‘we the people’ don’t acknowledge there is a higher authority upon which to base our laws, then there is no authority except general consensus. We live in a society with the general consensus of ‘if it feels good, just do it’.” I posited.
“No, we don’t. We add the stipulation… ‘so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone’. Otherwise, it would mean anyone could do whatever they wanted, to whoever they wanted to do it to. It really would be chaos.”
“Exactly, and when there is no real basis for law, other than ‘so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone’, it leaves the door open for discussion about the definition of ‘hurt’, and the definition of ‘anyone’. For several centuries slavery was accepted as normal, because some people decided some other people weren’t ‘people’ but property, so slavery didn’t ‘hurt’ them. We don’t want to forget Hitler and the Nazis decided it would be a good idea to eradicate Jews, gypsies, and anyone else they deemed ‘unsuitable’, and the German society agreed.”
“Sure, but other societies disagreed, and we fought a world war over it.” Christine reminded me.
“We fought a world war partly because of how Hitler treated people, but it was mostly to stop his attempt at world domination. Just a few years later, the world turned a blind eye to Stalin’s slaughter of millions of his own people. My point is, no society, or any group of societies can be trusted to determine right and wrong, without a higher authority. Maybe next time, they’ll decide all redheaded people should be excluded from vo
ting, or blue eyed people should be blinded, or religious people should have no legal rights.”
“That’s ridiculous.” She replied.
“No, it’s predictable. Our society has already decided people who are still in the womb aren’t people.”
Christine wasn’t having it. “Oh sure, the abortion issue, you religious types always come back to it, don’t you?” She sneered.
“What I’m saying is, if societies have the power to make law based on nothing more than consensus, watch your back. Next week, they may be coming for you.”
“Wow, you really are paranoid.”
“No, Christine, I’m not. Look to the lessons of history. God established laws so we could see our inability to live in obedience, constantly choosing to indulge our selfish desires. We fail individually and as societies. History has proven that societies and cultures fail when they abandon traditional moral beliefs, and they all do, eventually.”
“Well, isn’t that because of the second law of thermodynamics, entropy, or something?” she asked.
I laughed.
“Chaos is more likely to naturally occur than order? Organized systems tend to become disorganized? Heat or energy tends to dissipate over time? A parked car doesn’t improve by sitting idle in the weather for decades. Sure, those terms you mentioned are scientific principles to describe the process. Eventually, everything decays. The Bible calls it the law of sin and death. One thing leads to the other.” I agreed. “It isn’t the way it was supposed to go, but original sin started the process. The bible also says ‘the Law of the Spirit of life, in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’ That means we can overcome selfish desire and come into obedience to God’s law, not through our own righteousness, but through Christ’s having paid the penalty for our disobedience. So long as we live like animals ignoring the law of God, and making our own laws based on what feels good, we have separated ourselves from His perfect order. We have embraced a life which leads to chaos. We will die in sin. When we surrender to God, we become born again as new spiritual persons, the old has passed away.” I concluded.