Good morning all and welcome to a rainy, but oddly warm March first. It seems February barely had time to say hello before it skipped through the doorway.And so a new month begins. Let’s start it with…you guessed it… a writing prompt. Shall we begin?
I fumbled a bit with this one. I think if I were to find a place to use this I would have to seriously pare it down and only use the basics. I sort of thing that reworked it could be the prologue to a murder mystery.
Monday, March 1st: He learned the truth soon enough.
He learned the truth soon enough. They couldn’t keep it from him forever. At first it was the little things he noticed, the late nights, the odd looks. He didn’t want to believe it. His wife and his best friend. He tried telling himself it was something benign. They were friends after all. They had been friends for years.
He didn’t want to believe it of either of them, let alone both.
Even though he justified behavior and interpreted comments, the suspicion gnawed at him. It forced him to mentally list multiple interpretations of every movement every comment. If Sharron was working late was it because she was preparing for a big meeting? Or was it something else? He found himself questioning everything from her actions to the groceries. Was his favorite meal being prepared this week because she felt guilty or because the cut of meat required happened to be on sale?
The questioning was driving him crazy. Finally he could take it no longer. He had to know. Still hoping he was wrong, he hired a discrete investigator and used money from his personal savings. If it turned out that his suspicious were unfounded then he didn’t want to drive a wedge between himself and those he loved. He wanted to find out the truth and if possible sweep the whole mess away, life returning to normal. If his wife and Alan weren’t having an affair then the fact he looked into such a thing could be disastrous.
His PI promised no one would know he was there.
After paying the retainer, he tried to forget about it. To live his life as normal. He never mentioned his suspicions to anyone lest they be reported back. All he had to do was wait. A business trip mercifully took him out of town so he could fret and worry about what might be found when alone and beyond anyone’s notice. But for the most part, he tried to put it out of his mind.
Two days after he returned from his trip he had a meeting with his investigator. He went to the office, claiming lunch with a prospective client. His stomach was to tied in knots for him to even contemplate getting something to eat. Still he kept his calm, board room face on as he parked behind the building, entered and climbed the stairs to the small office.
The office wasn’t nearly as run down and seedy as he expected from countless films. It was a slight disappointment to his childhood detective fantasies, but the solid, clean office staffed by professionals reassured him that he made the right choice. A down at the heels sleuth would be noticed in the places Sharron routinely went. These young professionals would blend right in. In fact, when he sat down with his agent, he was told that is exactly what happened. One of the young ladies in the office took a position as a temp at the agency where Sharron worked. She gathered information there and passed the information to the main office while another agent gathered information on her out of work office hours. It was very professionally done and designed so that faces wouldn’t be recognized.
The results, and the photographs were conclusive. They weren’t easy to look at but in a way he was finally relieved. Sharron and Alan were having an affair. Now, all he had to do was figure out what he wanted to do about it.
Ten til Midnight 