…

“Love is simply a tenuous attachment looking for a reason to break.”

As a twice-widowed, twice-divorced cynic of marriage, I could have expected no less from my mother.

I’d just explained the latest reason for Marigold’s non-appearance at lunch, without having to tell her the truth, that Marigold hated my mother.

At times, so did I.  This was one of them.

I also hated the fact that we had become rich from my mother’s plotting and scheming, what she called strategic marriages and fortuitous deaths.

It left me a target, or so my mother said, and her opinion of Marigold was so low she had said from the outset that she had married me for my money.  Hardly, because of a watertight prenuptial she had to sign, one that only a woman who loved the man, not the money would sign.

For that reason, I believed I was the luckiest person alive.

“Let’s face it, you don’t like her.”

“She’s a schemer Rodney, mark my words.  She’s up to something, I can feel it.”

I shook my head.  “Not accepting your lunch invitation doesn’t mean she’s up to anything.  She had a prior engagement, and you always ask at the last minute.”

“My plans are nebulous.  I could be anywhere, anytime.  Right now, I’m here.”

I shrugged.  It was not an argument I was going to win.

I went back to my office after lunch, dejected.

Perhaps there might be something in what she said because Marigold had become a little distant over the past few weeks and oddly secretive about her movements.  I thought she was planning a surprise party or weekend away.

Candice, the PA who’d been with me ever since I’d made junior management ranks, followed me into the office.

“I can tell you lunch went swimmingly.”  Sarcasm wasn’t her strongest asset, and it dripped off every word.

She hated my mother, too, particularly in the way it affected me.

“She should have been living it up in the south of France with the rest of the meddlers.”

I could just see Marigold in my peripheral vision, and when I looked up, I could see her almost stomping her way towards my office.

Others were familiar with her visits and used to her moods.  I wondered what had happened.

Candice left as she came in.  She stopped in front of my desk and literally threw her cell phone at me.  I caught it just before it caused an injury.

“What the hell is that?”  I could see now she was extremely agitated.

“What?”

“On the phone, it was attached to an anonymous message sent to me.”

I swiped the screen, once again lamenting her lack of implementing security on her phone, and a still from a video was sitting on the screen.  I pressed the play icon and watched.  Three minutes of what appeared to be me with another woman, in bed, in a hotel room.  It certainly looked like me.  It had a date and time stamp, 9:53, three days ago, when I was in Salt Lake City.

“It’s not me, Marigold.”

“Sure as hell looks like you, Rodney. You care to explain where you were and who you were with, if not with that woman?”  It was accompanied by a belligerent look, daring me to have a cast iron alibi.

The thing is, I did.  But it was not one I could explain to her.  But what was more concerning was the fact there was a video and quite obviously a fake, and that it had found its way to her.

“I’ll go one better, Marigold.  I’ll give the phone to the IT tech department, and they’ll tell me who sent the anonymous message and verify whether or not it’s me.  You do want me to prove it’s not me, don’t you?”

Judging by the expression on her face, she did not, and it took a few seconds to realize why.  My mother’s iron clad prenuptial had only one failing, and it was null and void if I was caught cheating.  My mother had told me enough times.

“Of course.”  Less bluster now.  “I’ll leave it with you.”

Candice watched her leave before coming back into my office.

“What did you do?”

“More like what didn’t I do but apparently did.”  She sat down, and I handed her the phone.  “Have a look at the video.  It’s quite interesting.”

She did, and I watched her fascination turn from surprise to wide-eyed amazement.  Then she gave me a look that may have been misplaced in awe.  “If that’s you, then you’re leading a secret life.”

“Did you see the date and time stamp?”

“Yes.  It’s definitely not you.  But it begs the question, do you have a brother or twin you know nothing about.”

“Would you like to ask my mother that question?”  Her change of expression told me she didn’t.  “That leaves the tech guys down in IT.”

“Oh, lucky you mentioned IT.  I got a report this morning about the unauthorised use of the mainframe computer.”

“We know what those guys get up to, using it to run simulations, within acceptable limits.  They know that if they break the rules, it’s their loss.”

“This is different.  It was only reported because, apparently, while you were practising your sexual skills, you were also down in the computer room.  Your pass card was used, albeit an older one that you reported as lost about a month ago.  It was supposed to have been deactivated, and it wasn’t.”

“Then I guess I’d better go down to security and find out what it all means.”

Going down in the elevator, I had a few moments to ponder on how quickly my mind had set on the idea Marigold was hatching a scheme that would bypass the prenuptial agreement.  Perhaps the continual verbal battering that I could not trust her.

Of course, it didn’t help that she turned up with a so-called anonymous video file of me cheating, just the evidence she needed.  Perhaps I would more readily accepted her innocence had she not subtly changed in the last month or so.  I put it down to the conversation about children, the fact my mother wanted to become a grandmother, and Marigold’s reluctance to be a mother, a sentiment fuelled by a very bad experience with her own mother.  My mother wasn’t exactly a role model either.

And if it was a scheme, why would she readily hand over her phone with the evidence?  Perhaps I needed to have an open mind.  That meant definitely not telling my mother, though she seemed to have spies everywhere.  If I had been even thinking of cheating, she would have sent Boris, her fixer, to stop it before it started.

IT was one of three departments under my jurisdiction, and the current manager was one of my recruits.  I’d read about Gabrielle some months before when she was arrested for hacking several government computer systems to prove their vulnerability to foreign hackers and instead of being applauded had been vilified, and sent to computer Coventry.  No one would hire her.  I tracked her down, spent a few days talking about computers, hackers, and stupid people, and then hired her.

A computer genius of this calibre was impossible to find, and if I did manage to find one, it would cost far more than we could pay them.

“Rod, what brings you to the dungeon.”  Gabrielle was always pleased to see me.  I had wondered a few times if something else might have developed between us, but I was a married man and it never crossed my mind.  There was also a chance her open and friendly manner could be misinterpreted.

“It seems I’m in trouble.”  I held up the phone.  ” This has images of me, only I know it’s not me because I was somewhere else.”  I passed it to her.  “I believe this is the first time I’ve seen a deep fake video.”

She looked at the video, with similar facial expressions to Candice.  “It can’t be you.”  She’d also seen the time and date stamp.  “We both know where you were.  Let me check it out, and I’ll get back to you.”

When I arrived back in my office, Eric Dorning, the head of security, was waiting for me.  Candice simply nodded her head in his direction and shrugged, telling me Eric had not told her why he was there.

“Close the door, Rod.  It’s a delicate matter.”

And Seriously, he wanted the door shut?  I closed it and sat behind the desk.  “What can I do for you?”

“A key card that was believed missing was apparently used to gain access to the computer department.  Two issues, one that was not deactivated, and the other, that it was yours, and had an all-access clearance attached to it.  That it was lost is, at the very least,8 a suspension, while aspects of how and where it was lost are undertaken.  At worst, it could cause dismissal depending on the damage caused to the company.  As you are…”

I put my hand up to stop him right there.  The fact that my mother was a substantial shareholder and was in some small part responsible for my position in the company, I never asked for special treatment.  “I know what you are going to say, and don’t.  I am no different from any other employee, and if the course of action on your part is to suspend me while you investigate, then do so.”

“We don’t have to do that.”

“You do.  This can’t be kept under wraps, and everyone needs to know that no one in this company should expect or be given special treatment.  A short truthful statement about why I’m missing will suffice.”

“Your mother will not approve.”

“It’s not her call.  Am I being suspended?”

“Yes.”

“Then you should escort me to the front door and remove my key card and phone.” I put the card and the phone and company car keys on the desk, and stood.  I could see Candice observing, and she knew what it meant.  She made a face, then headed for the elevator.  I deduced that it meant she wanted to see me at the cafe up the street.

It was clear Eric did not want to suspend me because when I was unavailable, he had to report to my immediate superior, Victor Wellman, a man who was bitterly opposed to my appointment.  With this crisis, he would have all the ammunition he needed to get rid of me.  Eric had said as much on the way down.  He said he would call when the investigation was complete.

Candice had two cups of coffee waiting and a puzzled expression.  “What did you do wrong?”

“Losing a card key without adequately securing it at all times is a cardinal sin, and in certain circumstances, a stackable offence.  I’m guilty as charged.”

“What about the fact that after reporting it missing, they didn’t deactivate it?  If there’s blame, Eric is the one who should take responsibility for the current incident.”

“I hardly think any of that matters.  Wellman will use this to have me removed.  And he’s well within his right to do so.”

“You think he’s brave enough to take on your mother?”

“He’s the only one who is, but it may have unintended consequences.  But I’m not going to fight it.  I’ve had enough of politics and everything else.  I asked for no special treatment.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Take a few days off, see what’s bugging Marigold.  I have been missing lately, so perhaps we can catch up.”  If she was home.  To be honest, I had no idea what she did with herself lately.

I had expected to come home to an empty house.

After leaving Candice to contemplate her future, I took the subway, something I hadn’t done in a long time.  Then, it was a reasonable walk to our apartment.  I spoke the James, the only building concierge I knew, who was on a rare day shift.  It was odd to see the foyer in daylight on a weekday.

Then I went up to the apartment and let myself in.  I had expected to be alone, but after I shut the door, I heard subdued voices, followed by laughter.  Marigold.  And she was not alone.

I followed the sounds up the corridor to the end, our bedroom.  I put my head in the door and saw her naked, sitting on a man I didn’t recognise.  It was not hard to see what they were doing.

“Revenge sex, Marigold.  I can’t say I’m surprised.”

She squealed in surprise, or was it shock?

“When you’re done, pack your bags and leave.  You better not be here when I come back.  Goodbye, Marigold.”

I left, knowing she would not be able to catch me or follow me.  Whether she left or not didn’t matter.  I was never going back to that apartment again.

…

It took a week to unravel the conspiracy and see the reality.

The man with Marigold was one of Mellman’s recruits in a plan to get rid of me.  He had also recruited Marigold, who had tired of me because I was never home, and it was she who had taken the card key. 

Her ‘boyfriend’ was a graphics expert and had been the one to transplant my body and that of a random woman over a recording of him having sex with Marigold.  It took Gabrielle a week to work out how he did it and was more appreciative of his talent than she should be. 

He had used the card key to get in and was the one responsible for the unauthorised use of the mainframe.  He has also erased all the CCTV footage for the time of the transgression.

Wellman was silly enough to send the video to Marigold, thinking it would be untraceable and anonymous.  It may have seemed so to a novice like him, but it was easily unmasked by an expert like Gabrielle.

I never did understand why Mellman wanted to destroy my life because it couldn’t just be because my mother had used her influence to get me that job.  Not for a few months, anyway, when Eric had told Gabrielle that he had discovered that there had been another candidate for that role, a relative of Mellman’s.  Still, to me, it seemed over the top.

I could understand Marigold.  Perhaps if she had told me she didn’t want to be married to me anymore, I would have been disappointed, but I would have been sure she got a decent settlement, rather than what she ended up with.

But, in the end, I did get to do something I’d always wanted to do, and that was to try my hand at being a private detective.  Gabrielle had brought it up in one of our late-night conversations, the fact we were well suited to handling cases where people were wronged by deep fake videos and anonymously released revenge tapes.

We were both surprised but the number of people who called, texted, or emailed in the week after I posted an advertisement.

…

© Charles Heath 2023