Dark Shadows

"I grew up watching Home Improvement! I had a huge crush on the middle son."

"My mom loved it, too, and I've watched a few of the reruns with her. I wasn't quite ready for television when the original series was on."

"Okay, I'm probably going to get into trouble here, but I have to ask. I was wondering how..."

"I'm 23," he said answering her question before she could ask.

"I spent a year in college taking some basic classes, but it wasn't taking me where I wanted to go. I could have forged on and gotten a degree in computer science, but in all fairness...and in all humility...I pretty much already knew more than I'd ever learn after taking every undergrad class they offer. There really is no substitute for real-world experience. And again, I say with all humility, I have a ton of actual experience."

He smiled at her then said, "So what would you like me to do? And please be as specific as you can."

"I need to know if my husband is cheating on me," she said point blank.

"Okay. That was pretty specific. Wow. I hope that's not the case," he told her honestly.

"Me, too, but my sister was married to his older brother...please don't laugh...and he cheated on her. My husband is like a younger clone of his older brother and the same pattern is playing out with him just like clockwork."

"That sounds almost surreal," Collin told her truthfully. "I can't imagine any man doing that to a woman as beautiful as you."

"Me? Beautiful? Wow, that's rich!" Lisa said. "It's kind of you to say, but beautiful is the last thing I feel."

"Then your feeling-meter is broken," he said with a smile. "You look like the gorgeous female detective on the TV show Castle."

"Ah! I know that show, too. Detective Kate Beckett," Lisa offered. "And she really is gorgeous so thank you, but I don't look anything like her."

The truth was, Lisa had heard that several times over the years and she was willing to admit there was—or at least had been—a reasonably close resemblance. Her high cheekbones were the envy of every woman who knew her.

"Not to be contrary, but yes, you do. I don't watch that much TV, but I did make it a point to check out that show whenever I could because, well...I had a huge crush on her for the longest time."

"She is pretty, but isn't she just a teeny bit too old for you?" Lisa said politely.

"Perhaps," Collin began. "But the truth is I tend to prefer older women. Girls bore me while attractive, older women...intrigue me."

He smiled and between the smile and itself and those dimples...

"Ah-hah. I see," Lisa said not really seeing anything other than his amazing smile. She laughed and suddenly felt a lot more comfortable with him.

Lisa realized she was staring and blinked a couple of times then told Collin, "Okay, we've both admitted our childhood crushes so perhaps we should get down to business and..."

She stopped talking suddenly then said, "I'm not even paying you so perhaps I should be quiet and let you talk, huh?"

Now Collin laughed then told her, "For the record, my crush on Stana Katic, her real name, only started a few years ago when I first watched the show with a friend of mine and although you might consider 18 to be part of my childhood, I wasn't exactly a little boy."

He smiled then continued. "As to payment, that's irrelevant. You're doing me a favor, too, so for the purposes of this job, you're the boss."

"That's very kind of you, but since I know next to nothing about this kind of thing, I'd prefer you tell me how you think we should proceed."

"Let's start with his cell phone. What's his number?"

In ten minutes, Collin had all of Michael's phone contacts, call logs, and previous locations for as long as he'd had the phone. That was the good news. The bad news was he'd just upgraded to a new iPhone7 a month ago and switched numbers so there wasn't that much data to cull from. To his credit, Michael only had a handful of photos on his new phone and they were either of his wife or his family.

Still, one number kept coming up in his call log, and in a couple more minutes, Collin had a name to match the phone number.

"Elena Morassovich," he said. "Does that ring a bell?"

"No. I've never even heard the name."

"It sounds Russian or at least Slavic. Does he have anything to do with that language or part of the world?"

"He's in pharmaceutical sales, but I don't think Russia, or any country in that part of the world, is on his list of approved clients," she said trying to calm herself with some humor which was obviously not at all funny.

"All right. Let's correlate her number and locations with his known locations and see what we get."

Lisa sat there in awe of both Collin's considerable skills and in fear of the results she felt certain were coming as a result.

"Okay, it doesn't appear that either of them have been in the same location based solely on data stored in their phones."

"So he's not having an affair with her, right?" Lisa said hopefully.

"I didn't actually say that," Collin told her politely. "It's still possible. This only means there's no obvious connection. For instance, if I could show that both of them were at the same location, it would a simple next step to find out where that location is um...located. Like a restaurant or even...a motel."

"So who is she?"

"That's my next task. It may take me a while to find out who she is and where she lives, but I will find it. You're welcome to wait or I can call you when I have more information."

"I wouldn't mind staying, but I'm sure you don't want me hanging around so I can..."

Collin smiled a friendly smile and told her, "I don't mind you hanging around at all, Mrs. Kennedy."

"Well, if you're sure. I wouldn't mind staying, but...only if you'll call me Lisa."

He smiled again and said, "You're the boss...Lisa."

Collin was going back and forth between her phone, and using a laptop, his phone, and Lisa had no idea what he was doing or why. She sipped on her coffee and watched him work while trying not to stare.

It was silly to think she would sit there and do such a thing. He was barely old enough to buy a drink and she was still married. Well, legally anyway. Okay, then why was she sitting there fighting off the urge to stare, and why was she unable to forget his comment about preferring older women? And how old was 'older' in his mind? She was quite sure he meant women around 25 and maybe a even a bit older. He certainly couldn't mean a 35-year woman 'going on 80.' Could he?

He was just so incredibly good looking it was hard not stare whether he was 23 or 43. Were he 43 or even 33, Lisa wondered if she might not even flirt with him—or more. She consoled herself with the thought that a girl could dream or even with the old saw about how she was just 'window shopping.'

"Lisa?" she heard him say and somehow knew it wasn't the first time he'd called her name.

"Oh, sorry. Yes? Did you find something?" she said as she snapped out of her daydream state.

"No, I was wondering if you'd like a refill. We might be here for a while."

"Sure. That would be nice. But let me get this one, okay?"

She felt like she was at a bar picking up the next round and yet she couldn't remember ever feeling like this at any bar even after several drinks since she was maybe what...Collin's age?

Collin had already drained his first cup and thanked her for the refill.

"It's my one vice," he told her with a smile.

Lisa found herself laughing even though his comment wasn't funny.

"You can't have many of them, that's for sure," she said wondering how that slipped out after she said it.

Collin swallowed his first sip of his second cup and asked in a friendly tone, "Why would you say that?"

"Well, you look like the quintessential all-American boy," she said with a smile before she realized what she'd just said—again.

"No, wait! I didn't mean to imply you're a boy. It was just a colloq..."

Collin laughed quietly and said, "It's okay, Lisa. I'm not sensitive about my age. I mean, it's not like I have a lot of control over it, right?"

"Whew! I just didn't want to offend you."

She knew she should shut up and stop talking, but her mouth opened again almost involuntarily and words came spilling out.

"I guess I was trying to say you're a really good-looking guy with that very athletic, surfer kind of thing going on."

Collin chuckled this time and told her, "The truth is I've never even been to a beach. Growing up around Seattle isn't quite the same as living in San Diego or Miami, right? Here the beach means something very different. My dad used to go dig clams at Copalis Beach back in the day, but he never got around to taking me which is fine because I'm not into cold and it's almost always cold at the beach."

"Is digging clams something you wanted to do?" Lisa asked. "With your dad?"

"I'd have loved to do anything with my dad—in spite of the cold, but he passed away when I was seven so I never really had too much opportunity."

"I...I can't even imagine. Collin, I'm so sorry," Lisa said with genuine sorrow.

"Thank you, but I was so young that when I think about the memories I have of him, it's almost like I'm talking about someone else's father, you know?"

"Do you have any special memories? If you don't want to talk about this, I understand."

"I don't mind at all," he told her with another friendly smile. "I like talking to you."

"Same here," she said as some kind of 'feeling' washed over her. "When I was 23, I never met anyone who talked like you."

Collin set his coffee cup down, looked right at, then said with mock seriousness, "Did you just call me a nerd?"

Lisa thought he was kidding around, but the thought that she'd just insulted him horrified her.

"No! No, not all. What I meant was...well, you...you're just so...I don't know. You're a deep thinker or something. You don't just go on and on about sports or the kinds of things most people your age—me included at the time—talk about. That's all."

"I knew you were complimenting me," he finally admitted. He was not only smiling at her, his eyes seemed to be boring deep into her brain as though they were...'scanning her soul' or something.

"Yes. Yes, I was complimenting you. You're just so different from most younger guys and well, you're nothing at all like I was expecting."

"Ah-hah! You did just call me a nerd," he said lightening the mood. "That's okay. I wear that word like a badge of honor."

He smiled then got back to work and Lisa sat there openly staring at again him feeling utterly and completely...discombobulated.

Twenty minutes passed by before Collin spoke.

"Okay. I think I have a line on Ms. Elena Morrassovich."

"A line?" Lisa asked.

"I'm pretty sure I know who she is. She appears to be someone who um...provides female companionship to a 'discreet clientele'. She has a website that has some very sophisticated encryption—a lot better than the DMV's—and that's what was taking so long. The fact that she goes to such great lengths to keep it hidden may be important. Here. Take a look."

Collin spun the laptop around and let Lisa take a look at it.

"Slavic Sweethearts?" she said after reading the title.

"Not exactly romantic sounding but then her business has nothing to do with romance. It's appears to be strictly cash for time. She has about a dozen girls from Russia, Ukraine, and Serbia 'working' for her. This is all very upscale, classy stuff. Well, at least inasmuch as you can call prostitution 'upscale.' I guess what I'm saying is these girls are very expensive."

Lisa felt sick when she clicked on one of the girl's profiles. She was stunningly attractive and charged a whopping $2,500 an hour. She offered a special '24-7 girlfriend-experience package' for $10,000."

She didn't need to look any further. It was obvious all of these young girls offered the same thing to 'discriminating gentlemen.' So Michael was discriminating. How comforting.

"So this proves he's cheating, right?" Lisa asked.

"No, it doesn't. It's strongly suggestive, but it isn't proof. We need to find evidence of your husband being at the same place with one of these women to even get close to proof. If we do, that will only be circumstantial, but it might hold up in court at some level. Physically catching him with one of them is the kind of proof we need. Well, we don't have to be physically present. We just have to get it on video."

Collin paused then said, "Or you could just throw this in his face and see if admits to cheating."

"No, I don't want blow this. If he's cheating, I need to know it. Listen, you've already offered me a lot of your valuable time so..."

"Just so we're clear, Lisa, I'm not stopping here, either," he assured her. "When I take on a project, I stay with it to the end. I just wanted to lay out your options. I'm pretty sure he's a regular client and if that's true, it won't be hard to find out for sure. It'll just require me to find out how Ms. Morassovich communicates with her girls after a...'discriminating gentleman' calls her. There is one interesting thing I've found, though."

Lisa tilted her head and waited for him to continue.

"Well, the regular phone calls stopped just over a month ago. He's only called this Elena's number twice since then whereas he was calling several times a week prior to that."

Lisa had provided Michael's former cell number and that's where most of the evidence came from.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Lisa said when she heard Collin describe her husband as a 'discriminating gentleman.' "Any idea what this change in call frequency might mean?"

"At first blush, it appears he may not be using her service as often. If that's true, it could indicate he's either working a whole lot more or possibly that money is becoming an issue. It could even indicate he's changed his ways and stopped being...discriminating."

Lisa shook her head with visible contempt. "I'm not privy to anything about money. I know he earns a ton of it, but I have no idea what he spends. I get an allowance like a chi..."

Lisa stopped talking and said, "Sorry. That's not relevant."

"No, it is relevant. It tells me more about his mindset; one I don't much care for, by the way. Men who use money to control women disgust me. Only the ones that physically abuse them are worse in my way of thinking."

He looked right at her and asked, "Does he abuse you, Lisa?"

"No. Never. Not...physically anyway. No, he just ignores me and keeps me on a very tight financial leash. And he checks up on me—a lot."

"Prick," Collin muttered.

"Did you need to leave?" Collin asked when he saw Lisa check the time on her phone.

"No. Sorry. I'm just so...disgusted at the thought of my husband with one of these women doing the things I wish he'd do with me that I..."

Lisa stopped talking again and just sat there.

Collin closed his laptop and sat there for a second just thinking.

"It might help if you got something to eat. If you're like me, all you've had is coffee this morning, and I could really use some food. Would you maybe like to have lunch with me? We can continue working if you'd like."

Collin was right. Lisa hadn't had anything to eat as she'd felt sick to her stomach from the time she woke up and began thinking about all of this again. She was also very hungry and even though she didn't feel much like eating, she knew she had to force herself to at least have some soup or a sandwich.

"You know what? That sounds really good as long as you'll let me pay. I already feel like a freeloader and that might help assuage my guilt a little bit."

Collin smiled and laughed quietly before saying, "I'm happy to go dutch."

"No. I'm not poor. I have money. Or at least I should say my husband does."

Collin could tell by the sound of her voice there was more to what she'd not said that what she had.

"So your husband makes a boatload of money and yet you live on a fixed allowance?"

Lisa sighed before saying, "That's pretty much the way it is. He's generous when it comes to things like buying me a new car or furniture for the home or even clothes, but when it comes to me just taking money out of the bank and spending it on what I want... Let's just say I'd be doing that at my own peril."

Collin was putting his laptop into a carrying case but stopped to ask a question.

"Okay. Well, I guess the fact that he isn't physically abusive makes me dislike him a little less."

"Right. Not physically," Lisa replied immediately. "He's never so much as touched me."

She thought about adding, "At least not for several months," but didn't want to get into that with Collin who was essentially her unpaid private eye.

"Abuse takes many forms," he told her as he finished packing up. "I'm sure I'll be crossing a line this time but...I hate men like that."

He saw a look on Lisa's face that told him she understood so he kept going.

"They have a beautiful, loving wife they not only take for granted but treat like sh...garbage. They make a ton of money but dole it out in a kind of carrot and stick sort of thing to control the women they claim they love. I'm not married, but I swear to God I could never do that to anyone, let alone the woman I vowed to love 'until death do us part'."

He paused again then said, "Especially not to someone as kind and beautiful as you."

Collin grabbed the bag his laptop was in and slung it over his shoulder and went to stand up. As he did, he saw Lisa's eyes welling up with tears. Instinctively, he put his hand on her shoulder and said, "I'm very sorry. I knew I'd be crossing a line. It's just that when guys do that kind of thing it..."

Lisa shook her head as she reached for a napkin and said, "You didn't cross any line. You just hit the nail on the head. That's all."

She dabbed her eyes then said, "I try not to think about things like that for...well, for obvious reasons. I really have tried to be a loving wife, but you're right, Michael doesn't seem to care."

She crushed the napkin into a ball, stood up, then said, "To say he's controlling is an understatement."

She forced a smile then said, "Anyway, what were you thinking for lunch?"

"I was thinking I'd be happy to go anywhere with you so why don't you choose?"

Lisa had that...feeling...again and couldn't hold Collin's gaze.

"I...I don't do all that well with deciding things like that. Maybe you should pick."

"If I'm spending your money then I vote for someplace inexpensive. Is Subway too cheesy?"

"Cheesy? No, not at all. That sounds really nice," Lisa said genuinely glad to go wherever Collin wanted.

A half hour later, they were both enjoying flatbread turkey sandwiches.

"I love being able to choose the toppings I want," Lisa told him as they sat down to eat. "And I love being able to get it warmed up. This looks delicious."

"It's a favorite spot for people like me," he said before digging in.

"People like you?" Lisa asked looking for clarification.

"Oh, sorry," he said, his mouth full of food. He shifted everything to one side and said, "Poor people. Poor people struggling to get a business up and running."

"Ah! Okay. Got it," she said before taking a first bite of her own. "Oh, my gosh! That is so good!"

Collin smiled and told her, "Can I pick 'em or what?"

Lisa covered her mouth as she couldn't help but laugh.

"I can't remember the last time I ate out somewhere," she said before taking a second bite.

Collin wanted to ask how that could be, but it was pretty easy to put two and two together. There were many things he wanted to ask about, but settled for something easy and light.

"What do you enjoy doing for fun?" he asked before taking another bite.

"Fun. Hmmm. What's that?" she said with a smile, but the kind of smile that told him she didn't have much of it.