Deceptive Practices

by Simon Wood

  The question stopped Olivia and neutralized the rage boiling up inside her. She hated to admit it, but the answer was yes. Maybe her conscience would have stepped in at some point, but she knew in her heart of hearts that if Clare had told her to do it instead of talking her off the ledge, she would have done it.

  “Sit down, Liv. We need to talk.”

  Olivia did as she was told.

  “Do you want to patch things up with Richard?”

  “It’s not for me to patch anything. He’s the one who broke a good thing.”

  Clare raised a hand. “Okay, are you interested in him making up for his mistake?”

  “I don’t know. A part of me says yes. I love Richard, but I’m not sure I can forgive him, and worse, I’m not sure I can trust him. There’s nothing to say he won’t do this again.”

  Clare refilled her glass, then looked at her drink. The sight of it seemed to disappoint her, and she put it next to the vodka bottle.

  “Clare, please tell me what any of this has to do with the call. I understand if you were only talking me down, and I appreciate it. I could have done something really stupid tonight, and you stopped me. But if that’s it, then I need to go.”

  “I’m trying to gauge how you feel. I want you to answer my first question.”

  “Which was what?”

  “What do you want? Forget reconciliation. Forget divorce. Think about your emotions. How do you feel, and what do you want?”

  It wasn’t hard to answer. When she peeled everything back to the core, the answer was plain and simple. “I want to hurt Richard as much as he hurt me.”

  “That can be arranged.”

  Clare’s answer stunned Olivia into silence. The only sound in the room was the growling air conditioner. “What does that mean?”

  “There are people who can make him pay for what he’s done to you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Infidelity Limited. They offer a discreet service that deals with infidelity issues.”

  “What do they do?”

  Clare hesitated, just for a second, but that was enough. The hesitation told Olivia exactly what Infidelity Limited did to the adulterous men.

  “Richard hurt you,” Clare said, “and Infidelity Limited can hurt him back, in the way you wanted to tonight.”

  “They’ll run him down?”

  “No. They’ll give him a beating.”

  “I can’t have them do that. That’s crazy.”

  “Liv, less than an hour ago, you were talking about wiping those two out. This is a safer option.”

  Yes, she’d come close to running Richard down, but that had been in the heat of the moment. Sending someone after him was a premeditated act of violence. “How do you know about these people?”

  “I hired them to deal with Nick.”

  “You had Nick beaten up? Is that why he left you?”

  “Yes. I’m not proud of what I did, but it had to be done. You have to understand that. If I hadn’t done it, things would have been worse. He was flushing our lives down the toilet. He was spending money we didn’t have. He knocked over a 7-Eleven; did you know that? I needed someone to scare him straight, so he would shape up or ship out. He chose to ship out.”

  Olivia’s cell rang, making both of them jump. She pulled out the phone. It was Richard, calling from home. She frowned and answered the call.

  “Hey, babe,” Richard said. “Where are you? I thought you were staying in tonight.”

  Richard calling her “babe” after what he’d done tonight grated against every one of her nerve endings. She pushed her disgust to one side and injected a cheerful tone into her voice. “I’m at Clare’s.”

  “What’s gone wrong this time—money or men?”

  His derision would have been justified yesterday. Not tonight. Piety only worked for the pious.

  “Family is family,” she replied.

  “That’s why I love you.”

  Each word of that lie burned her flesh through to the bone. Her grip on the phone turned into a stranglehold. “I’m going to stay here tonight. I’ll come home in the morning.”

  “Okay. Call me if you need anything.”

  Did she detect a note of joy in his voice? The wife wasn’t coming home, so he could run back to his slut for the night. She put the thought from her mind. There was no point in torturing herself. There’d be plenty of time for that in the coming weeks and months.

  “I will. See you tomorrow,” she said and hung up. “You asked me what I want to do, Clare? I want you to call Infidelity Limited.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Olivia sat, watching the shoppers at the Sunvalley Mall drift by her. There weren’t many on a Friday morning. She felt conspicuous, as if everyone knew why she was there.

  She checked her watch. Infidelity Limited was late. She’d kept up her end of the bargain. She’d arrived at the Starbucks precisely at noon, bought a coffee, and taken a table in the outdoor area. It was now 12:40, and she couldn’t keep nursing her cold coffee for much longer. She couldn’t believe she’d burned a vacation day on this shambles.

  Clare had set up the meeting. It had taken a couple of days of calls through various intermediaries to get the word that they wanted to meet Olivia. Olivia understood the need for all the precautions, but it did nothing for her nerves. Her resolve was shrinking with every passing minute. Was she really going to have Richard beaten up?

  The precautions had initially given her confidence, because they meant these people knew what they were doing. Now, she wasn’t so sure. Being forty minutes late and counting didn’t say much for their professionalism. In the meantime, Richard was still running around on her. Only last night he’d had another “squash night.”

  God, what am I doing? she thought. How had she gotten herself into this position?

  She checked her watch again. She’d give Infidelity Limited until the top of the hour. If they hadn’t contacted her by then, she was going. Screw them, and screw Richard. She’d go home, confront him, and tell him to get out. It wasn’t like he didn’t have somewhere to go.

  A woman leaving the Starbucks interrupted Olivia from her thoughts. The woman crouched down, then dropped a napkin on the table. “Excuse me. I think you dropped this.”

  Olivia thanked the woman absently and picked up the paper napkin. She rolled it around in her hand for a minute before noticing the writing.

  WOMEN’S RESTROOMS. UPPER LEVEL. NEXT TO PENNEY’S. NOW.

  Olivia looked up. The woman who’d given her the napkin was long gone. Not that Olivia would recognize her. She hadn’t even looked at her.

  It didn’t matter now. She’d been given her signal.

  She left the coffee on the table, grabbed her purse, and rode the escalator to the upper level. The women’s restroom was in a corner next to one of the main entrances into the mall. Her heart was beating rabbit fast when she pushed open the door to the ladies’ room.

  Two women were at the sinks, washing their hands and chatting. They didn’t react to Olivia’s arrival.

  Were these women her contacts? Was she supposed to introduce herself? The napkin hadn’t said.

  The door to the handicapped stall opened, and a severe-looking woman with broad shoulders stood in the doorway. She put her finger to her lips and waved Olivia over.

  Olivia glanced at the two women at the sinks to see if they’d caught the exchange. They hadn’t, so Olivia joined the woman in the oversized stall and closed the door.

  The woman was in her fifties. She was big in all her proportions. She weighed at least 250 pounds and stood close to six feet tall. Her hands were large and coarse. Her nails were unpainted, chipped, and split. She looked more than capable of dishing out a beating on Richard.

  Olivia started to speak, but the woman raised a finger to silence her. When the two women at the sinks left, the woman said, “Okay. Strip.”

  “What?”

  “We don’t have time for questions. Strip.”

/>   “No.”

  “Look, you play by our rules or not at all. We don’t take chances when it comes to this kind of work. We don’t know who you are. You could be a cop for all we know. So you strip. Okay?”

  Olivia nodded. The woman took Olivia’s purse and rifled through it as Olivia kicked off her shoes and stripped down to her underwear. She guessed humiliation was part of their business too. They wanted to prove who was in charge.

  The woman made a turn-around gesture and picked through Olivia’s hair before checking her body for hidden devices. Then she turned her attention to Olivia’s clothes, inspecting them for micro cameras, wires, and God knew what else. The inspection was conducted in silence, while other women entered and left the restroom unaware of the events going on inside the handicapped stall.

  When the woman was done, she nodded to Olivia, and Olivia put her clothes back on.

  The woman listened to make sure they were alone before opening the stall door. “I’ll leave first. You wait two minutes; then you leave. Thank you for your cooperation. We’ll be in touch.”

  Olivia grabbed the woman’s arm. “Hey, wait a minute. What’s going on here? I thought we had an arrangement.”

  The woman jabbed Olivia in the stomach. Suddenly, Olivia couldn’t breathe. She sucked in air, but it didn’t seem to find its way into her lungs. The woman guided her onto the toilet.

  “What did I tell you about following the rules? If you want our help, you’ll do as you’re told.”

  Olivia nodded, still struggling for breath.

  “I’m leaving now. Don’t let me catch you tailing me.”

  Olivia nodded again, and the woman let herself out.

  Olivia waited the two minutes before leaving the restroom. The woman was nowhere to be seen.

  She’d had enough of this crap. Getting back at Richard wasn’t worth this. A good divorce lawyer was what she needed.

  She headed back to her car. Every time she took a step, she felt the woman’s fingers where she’d poked Olivia under her rib cage.

  They’d get in touch with her? No, she’d get in touch with them. She’d have Clare tell them thanks but no thanks. They had rules, and so did she. She had the right to choose, and she chose no.

  As she walked through the parking garage, a Chrysler 300 stopped in front of her. The passenger window slid down, and a bald man craned his head to see her better.

  “Get in,” he said.

  She froze.

  “C’mon, Olivia. I don’t have all day. You called us. Not the other way around.”

  Olivia glanced around before getting into the car.

  He hit the gas the second she had her seat belt on.

  “Apologies for the cloak-and-dagger act, but we can’t take any chances. It’s for your protection as well as ours. None of our clients will ever feel any pain if we do our due diligence.”

  Olivia rubbed her aching stomach. “Has anyone told the woman in the bathroom about that policy?”

  The man laughed. “Dolores mentioned she had to use some force. She’s a trip, isn’t she?”

  Yeah, you can say that again, Olivia thought.

  “She gets a little overzealous from time to time. Jail time will do that to you. Her heart is in the right place. I’m Roy, by the way. I’m your case officer.”

  Like Dolores, Roy was in his fifties and had an ex-football-player look to him. He was broad shouldered and muscled despite some extra weight. He wore a Rolex and an ugly pinkie ring on his right hand.

  Roy left the parking garage and joined the freeway, heading south toward San Jose. A trickle of fear seeped into her. There was no escape. She was this man’s prisoner.

  “If you’re so concerned with security, why did you and Dolores let me see your faces?”

  “I want you to see my face. It’s important that you know me. It’s easy for someone to sell out a faceless organization, but it’s not so easy when you know the people you’re doing business with. Knowing me will keep you honest.”

  “I don’t think us being friends would stop me from selling you out.”

  “I didn’t say we’d be friends. Look at me, Olivia. Take a good look. I want you to see the kind of man I am because just by looking at me, I think you can imagine the kind of pain I can inflict on a person.”

  Olivia didn’t have to imagine too hard. He possessed the strength and size to fell the biggest of men. She’d already noticed the scar tissue built up over his knuckles. Now, she wondered how much of that scar tissue had been a result of people who’d tried to screw him and Infidelity Limited over.

  “Make no mistake; I won’t go to jail for you, Olivia. If you do anything to compromise my business, I will come after you. I know what you look like. I know where you live. I can get to you at any time. I’m more than well equipped. Do I make myself clear?”

  Olivia started to speak, but her mouth had gone dry, and her voice cracked. She cleared her throat. “Crystal clear.”

  Roy smiled, the warmth returning to his face. “Do you have the consultation fee? I hate to ask for it, but with all the precautions I have to take, people need to be paid.”

  Olivia handed him an envelope from her purse, containing $500 in cash. He didn’t check the envelope’s contents; he simply dropped it in the door pocket.

  “How much do you know about us?” Roy asked.

  “Only what Clare told me. You take care of cheating spouses.”

  “That’s how Infidelity Limited started out. If a wife found out her husband was cheating and she wanted a little payback, we provided the fists to do that. A little Old Testament, I’ll grant you, but we were scratching an itch. We’ve come a long way since then. Cheating spouses are only one part of the business. We deal with wayward kids, abusive parents and spouses, stalkers, and people with addictions. If there’s someone in your life causing you pain and grief, we can take care of it. And I don’t want you thinking that we’re nothing more than a bunch of thugs who go around whaling on people. We tailor our approach to your specific situation. For example, cheating spouses get treated differently than a stalker. Vengeance might be the overriding desire in cases of infidelity, whereas safety is the primary concern when it comes to stalkers. Making that stalker leave town will be our primary aim.”

  It was odd to listen to Roy speak about Infidelity Limited in such lofty terms, like they were some philanthropic organization and not a criminal enterprise. She couldn’t decide if it was a method for desensitizing their clients to the violence or legitimizing their existence to themselves.

  “The reason I’m telling you all this is we can’t do our job if you don’t tell us what you want to gain from our intervention. What are your needs here?”

  It was a good question that she had trouble answering.

  Roy picked up on her hesitancy. “Why don’t you tell me a little about the situation? Your husband is having an affair, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “How long’s it been going on for?”

  “I don’t know. I found out for sure a week ago last Thursday, but I think it’s been going on some time.”

  “Who’s the woman?”

  “I don’t know her, but I know where she lives.”

  “Why don’t you tell me how you feel about your husband’s cheating?”

  “I feel like a failure.”

  Roy smiled. “And a host of other things, I bet.”

  Olivia smiled back. “Yes.”

  “I’ve become a little bit of an amateur therapist with this job. I’ve heard it and seen it all. Everybody’s story is different, but also the same. The big question is, do you want revenge?”

  “He hurt me, and I want to hurt him back. If I scream at him, tell him what a shit he’s been, demand answers, and do all the things he expects, I doubt he’ll get the message. He might understand all this if you did something to him. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway.”

  “That makes sense and is very fair under the circumstances. Do you want him back? It will dic
tate how I go about educating Richard on his mistake.”

  Educating. She liked that. Never had she equated violence with education, but maybe that was why her life was in the toilet.

  “I don’t know. Part of me says no. He betrayed me, and it’s over. But part of me says yes. I know this is stupid, but I still love him. We’ve had a lot of good years together, and I would hate to write them off. To be honest, it’s all too raw. I don’t know what I want. I don’t even know what’s possible. I think I might take him back under the right circumstances, but I’d want to see real contrition.”

  “I might be able to turn him around. I’ve managed it with others, but there are no guarantees. People will only reform if they want to. He won’t appreciate our intervention. At least, he certainly won’t in the short term. Just know that the action Infidelity Limited takes could push him further away.”

  She was prepared for that eventuality. Saying it with flowers worked. Saying it with fists probably didn’t. A failed marriage would hurt, but she’d accept it if it happened.

  “How safe am I from reprisals?” she asked.

  “It all depends. Do you think Richard will be violent?”

  “No, but what’s stopping him from calling the police? He’ll know that I orchestrated this.”

  “The honest answer is there’s nothing stopping him. But you don’t have anything to fear. No one we’ve dealt with is thinking about the police after we’ve visited them. Either they’re walking the wrong side of the law themselves and wouldn’t welcome any police involvement or they don’t want the world to know their spouse caught them cheating and they caught a beating for it.”

  If there was one thing Richard valued, it was his reputation. If push came to literal shove, he’d keep quiet.

  “Got any questions for me?”

  “Are you married, Roy?”

  He showed her his ringless left hand. “Not married, but I have a woman in my life who is very special to me.”

  “Ever cheated on her or anyone else?”

  “No. Never.”

  “How’d you get into all this?”

  “A friend needed someone bigger and stronger than her to send a message, and I was that person. I saw how I could do the same for others, so I started Infidelity Limited. Let’s get you back to your car.”