Mercenary

"Not him, her. She's the perpetrator."

I guess my look said it all. She was the perpetrator? I was having trouble understanding how a six feet two inch man was a victim to his five foot six inch waif of a spouse? Before I could say anything Liz spoke up.

"She's the one. It's in one of the transcripts. She beats him as a way of enforcing her will. I surmise this has been happening for most of their marriage...possibly before. Forget your stereotypes. Every one in ten reported spousal abuse victims is male. Given the unique stigma associated with men in this position it's likely under reported."

"I'm just having trouble visualizing this that's all."

"You want to visualize someone, visualize Humphrey Bogart. He was a battered husband. Forget your prejudices; your brother-in-law's situation is real."

"I take it you want to speak with him. I'd like to help but I'm not the guy to do it. We're not friendly. If I called him he would immediately suspect something. There's no subterfuge I could use that would be effective."

Liz pondered my words for a few moments. She was obviously determined to approach Rob. I understood she was not under any duty to report the crime save what duty an ordinary citizen had in this situation. But for some reason I sensed she wasn't going to just let it go.

"I know the local managers of Rob's firm. One of them, Jerry Weintraug, is a good friend. I'll get Jerry to provide the introduction."

"I can place the call Liz", said my father. "You don't have to get involved with this."

A look passed between them that I couldn't place. She was adamant about being the focal point and dad acquiesced. It was one of those rare times I saw the old man back down without an argument.

At that moment I excused myself from the conversation and headed towards my room. I turned on my laptop and inserted the CD Hollis had provided me. For the next 3 hours I read the investigator's report, including the passage that had alarmed Liz.

The excerpt that was the most incriminating was part of a conversation between Paige and Dana subsequent to my questioning of her about being involved with another man. It read as follows:

PAIGE: I think Peter knows about Richard and me. DANA: How much? PAIGE: I don't know. He said someone saw us at a restaurant a few weeks ago. I don't think he knows who he is yet. DANA: What? A few weeks ago and you're telling me now? How could you be so careless? You are moving much too fast with him. You need to be discreet at least until next fall PAIGE: Richard is the wrong man. I'm in the process of breaking it off. DANA: No, you can't. He fits all the profiles. It took us too long to develop him for you to dump him because you are too soft to rein him in PAIGE: I'm not too soft! He's too aggressive. The fool is practically stalking me. DANA: So? Don't you remember that I had the same problem with Rob? It took almost a year to get that under control. Even now he occasionally challenges my authority. Last week I damn near slapped him silly when mouthed off. You've only been at this for a few months. You need patience. He'll work out in the long run. PAIGE: Richard is not Rob. I don't think he'll respond. I'm investigating replacements. DANA: Without ME? The last time you did that you ended up marrying your loser husband. Look at the mess that created. If we hadn't gotten you back in school you'd be stuck without any suitable prospects. PAIGE: We've been over this. Peter was a mistake. He only fit part of the profile. I didn't know at the time that his aunt was so involved in his upbringing. But you did the research not me. DANA: Don't go there Sis, I recommended Farnbach not Stuart. Farnbach was a perfect match. PAIGE: He was too short. DANA: Fuck that! He was perfect. Had you listened to me you'd be looking at summer homes and you wouldn't be working either. He was much more pliable. Didn't you say the guy made a killing in the commodities market? PAIGE: Granted he is on track. But he's in Chicago, besides that's irrelevant. I've got Peter and Richard to worry about. DANA: It's still salvageable. Here's what we can do...

At that point I decided that I needed food if I were going to continue, so I headed downstairs to the kitchen. It was fairly late so I didn't expect dad to be having the same thought. He was in the middle of making bacon and eggs when I arrived, not your normal diner, but we weren't your normal family.

"Mind if I join you?" I asked.

"Pull up a chair; I'll throw of few more eggs in. Do you want toast?"

"Yes. Thanks. Liz seemed pretty animated tonight. It's like that whole spousal abuse business with Dana touched a nerve."

"It did" said my father after he turned around from the stove. "You know that Liz was married twice before. What you don't know is that both of her previous husbands were abusers."

"Liz? It's hard to imagine her tolerating that kind of treatment."

"Why do think that, because she's highly educated and an attorney? Her first husband was an attorney. At the time he beat her Liz was still a sitting judge. When she finally left him she chose another man with similar proclivities."

"How did she break the pattern?"

"A few years of therapy and a lot of good friends, that's how. You want coffee with this?"

"No, it's too late for that. I'll drink juice. Well that explains her response tonight. This business with Rob and Dana is personal to her."

"Very personal."

I finished dinner and decided to get little work done. Sometime near midnight I had an idea. I fired up the laptop once again. I was searching for references to a statement Paige had made after supposedly breaking it off with Lindenhall. It took a few minutes to find it. Suddenly everything began to make sense.

Chapter 9: The Christmas Party

I hadn't fully considered my life alone. Many of my goals had Paige as an active participant. Now those goals were in question as were a number of decisions I had made up to that point in my life. Suddenly when I thought of them they didn't fit. That was my problem in general; things didn't fit. I knew that the fog I was in would eventually lift, but I had no idea of how or when.

I became more of a workaholic and a slight depression started to take hold. I say slight, because my Dad was there to intercede periodically. In addition, I instinctively knew it would become more important than ever for me to reconnect with my extended family. That too, was inevitable since I found myself invited out to dinner at least twice a week by one relative or another.

I also called my brother and cousins more frequently and in general became a more responsible member of my family. This was an obligation I had neglected while being married to Paige. I never realized how much I had been avoiding them until then. Now they all seemed intent on circling the wagons and wrapping me in a protective cocoon while my divorce was in progress.

Still I dreaded the coming Christmas holidays. My work ethic meant that my professional reputation was growing but when contrasted with my personal life I still thought of myself as a failure. I don't know how I could have prevented Paige from doing what she did. But that didn't relieve me of taking on some of the guilt for the failure of my marriage.

The decorations and songs of the season only served to heighten my feeling of defeat. I internally debated seeing a therapist, but my pride prevented me. I thought I could negotiate my own better mental health.

I think Noelle spotted this change in my mood, even though I endeavored to hide it during the workday. By the middle of December, she was insistently trying to elicit my promise to attend the company Christmas party. I knew I had to break the pattern that was controlling my psyche so I reluctantly agreed. I also agreed because she asked, and this was unusual for her. She rarely attended these social functions herself.

Historically, the holidays were also a time promotions and transfers. Our branch manager and his assistant were both suddenly promoted at the beginning of the month. Of course I wasn't surprised. Rumors had been circulating for some time. I had even asked Noelle about them several times.

Our branch manger, Sandersohn, had his position filled the day the promotions were announced. We were assigned a veteran staffer from New York. His name was Donald Baldwin.

I had rarely met with Sandersohn even though he was my second line. He was Noelle's boss; she interacted with him as a matter of habit. So having a new person as the local executive was of little importance or concern to me. Besides, his office was on a floor above the Center. He was surrounded by the main sales and administrative staff there. I hardly expected to see him in our domain.

Of course, I knew one of his first tasks was to get to know his people. He seemed to approach that duty with gusto. Unfortunately, this man's technique for meeting new people was a little unnerving; it was more than that, he had a way of redefining intrusive.

For example, I would be in the midst of presenting and Baldwin would drop by and pretend to be part of the audience. Then he would ask questions (without first introducing himself). If that was not bad enough, his questions were usually off topic. They served more to confuse our customers than enlighten them. But how do you tell the boss to shut up and go away?

I stopped going to lunch in the building cafeteria because of him. He would seek out our table if a seat were available. Then the questioning would start, and soon he would be probing into areas that most people would deem "personal" and totally inappropriate to discuss in the workplace.

One afternoon he caught me at lunch and had the gall to ask me about my estranged wife's bust measurements! I can't even recall how he got to that point in the conversation, but I certainly remembered the question. I parried it with a polite but firm rebuff.

A couple of weeks on the job and I had judged that the guy was a Class A jerk. It would only be matter of time before he screwed up and his superiors removed him. It was then that I actively tried to avoid him during the day. Even so, he was amusing enough to take my mind off my own problems.

The worst part of his personality was that he was a touchy-feely kind of person. Always during the conversation, he had to place his hand on your shoulder, on your arm, or on your back. For the women his hand tended to roam. None of them had spoken to him about it, but I was waiting for some form of confrontation ...and soon.

Noelle was particularly uncomfortable around him. He had only seen me a half dozen times in the first couple of weeks of his tenure. In contrast, he was stopping by to see her two or three times a day.

The habit she and I had established of getting together at the end of each workday in her office now took on a greater importance. She was using me after hours to shield herself from Baldwin. Officially, we were recapping the events of the day and setting or adjusting plans for the next. But I knew that was a dodge.

I tried on several occasions to inquire about how she was doing with him I but would receive only short answers. She would quickly shut down my line of inquiry. At first I thought that whatever it was, she could handle it; now a couple of weeks into December, I wasn't so sure.

I also noticed that she was slowly reverting to the 'old' Noelle. She was wearing more of those stiff business suits that made her look masculine. Her easy manner and quick smile had been replaced by the hard countenance she exhibited when I first met her. She also seemed to be withdrawing from her team.

This was all very disturbing. I knew the real Noelle. It was if she were trying to de-feminize herself, trying to ward off any and all advances. I was concerned for her, but she wouldn't open up about the job. If the guy was harassing her I wanted to know. I thought the upcoming party might make a perfect setting in which to talk with her about it.

The Christmas party was on Friday, the 22nd of December. It had been a very good year for the company and for our office in particular. We had beaten the pundits who thought that we would experience a downturn after the fantastic growth of the prior year.

The gala was being held in the ballroom of one of the city's finest hotels. As was our practice, the guest list included all employees in the region as well as their spouses or significant others. That would make a potential guest list of nearly 500 people.

I knew that Noelle was bringing her mother as a guest, so I talked my dad into attending as mine. The old man was a bit annoyed at this obvious attempt to fix him up but I didn't care. Even though his social life was a thousand times more active than my own, I still wanted him to settle down with one woman. At present he was in between girlfriends.

In almost twenty years, he'd not stayed in any relationship longer than six months. It was a problem that caused the entire family a lot of concern. I secretly hoped that Muriel might just change that.

I guessed there were close to 400 people in the ballroom when we arrived. I set about the task of introducing my father around to all my colleagues. Many of the single women without boyfriends had brought their mothers or sisters. I was mildly amused at the reception I received when I greeted them.

Several of the women were openly flirting with me! Dad was so caught up in my discomfort at their advances that he was having difficulty not laughing aloud when we spoke with them. In between guests, he started teasing me.

"So did you bring me along as a bodyguard or a chaperone this evening?" he laughed

"Look Dad it's not what you think. I don't know where this is coming from. I've barely said more than 'hello' to most of these women. That last one, Shelley, she's only met me once and that was early this year. Why she put on that act was beyond me."

"Oh you don't know huh?" said the old man slapping my back.

I moved to give him a few words when I felt someone touch my arm. I turned to find Noelle with Muriel standing a step behind her.

I quickly scanned Noelle and was speechless. The French braid she wore was gone. She had donned a completely new do; she had cut her hair very short, no more than a few inches in length. Her appearance should have repulsed me; instead the effect was to put more emphasis on her face and neck.

Some women could not survive this look. On Noelle what was a pretty face now became a radiant face. You could see from the side the gentle curve of her neck and when she turned to face you there were the serious pools of her eyes. I was immediately spellbound.

My mind also registered that she was wearing a slinky dark green dress that clung to every curve of her body. The dress was cut low in the front and seemed at first to be held up by her frontal endowments, until I noticed the spaghetti straps. The material ended a couple of inches above her knees and only acted to highlight her beautiful legs and sexy heels.

If she were trying to not to look womanly she had by accident achieved the exact opposite effect. The package she presented screamed unbridled sensuality. When my scan made it back to her face there were those serious eyes boring straight through me.

I blushed with embarrassment for ogling my friend. And to my surprise she was blushing too. I'd known it before, but now I KNEW IT: Noelle was one very, very desirable lady.

She was already tall for a woman, at five foot eight inches. With those shoes she was almost the same height as me, so it was difficult to avert my eyes from hers. It was an awkward moment that was saved when Muriel came forward to give me a warm embrace. Immediately after we separated I introduced them both to my father.

Dad and Muriel were far better at establishing a rapport with each another than Noelle and I. Within minutes they were talking as if they were the only two people in the hall. While that conversation was underway I had an opportunity to look over at Muriel.

To say she too looked radiant would have been an understatement. The dress and hair were different but Muriel had a way about her, a projection of herself that was inviting to the male animal. Had I not been so taken with her daughter I would have tried to monopolize her time; the age difference be damned. Instead, Dad was doing a masterful job of holding her interest.

It quickly became obvious that our parents didn't need us around. So Noelle and I drifted away from them and sought out a table for the four of us. In contrast, our conversation was light and somewhat strained. Gone was the easiness we felt with one another at the end of each workday. Something had changed. I knew what it was but didn't want to accept or even acknowledge that I could be attracted to her as a woman.

The environment helped me mask my feelings. The hotel pulled out all stops at dinner. The meal was fantastic and the service impeccable. I was surprised to learn that it was Noelle who had made all the arrangements for this affair, selecting the hotel, the menu and even the entertainment. I queried her about her part and found that at last we had one subject we could easily talk about without seeming to flirt.

At the other part of the table Muriel and my Dad never stopped talking, that is until the meal was over and the dancing began. The main lights in the hall were dimmed to accentuate the music. At that point our parents left and I didn't see them again until the end of the evening.

While we were exhausting the subject of the party arrangements I became annoyed when one of Noelle's fellow managers asked her to dance. I gave the man a look that clearly expressed the same. I in turn danced with his wife but it was small consolation. The song was relatively fast and gave me little time to reflect on the evening to that point.

When it was over I drifted away from the table and started making my approach around the room. At that moment I needed a little distance from my beautiful dinner companion. I was beginning to act and think like a jealous suitor. The separation would probably be good for my reputation and hers.

I'm not usually the most politically adept, but tonight I wanted to thank as many in the office as I could on the support they had given me and everyone in the Center this year. I found that my thanks were very warmly received, even by folks with whom I had only had the most casual of contact. It was also a surprise that most every one said very kind words about Noelle also.

This foray into the crowd had taken me the better part of an hour. I suddenly felt a very strong desire to return to Noelle and I anxiously searched the hall hoping that she had not left.

I saw her from across the room. She was standing along a wall at a side angle speaking with Baldwin who stood on the side farthest from me. Or more likely, he was speaking with her. The man was his usual self. I could see he was invading her space and his hand was beginning to wander over her back.

I moved through the crowd as fast as I could, all the while keeping them in sight. As I got within a dozen feet I saw his hand come to rest on Noelle's derriere. I could see her right hand clench as I closed the gap. In another moment there would be one hell of an altercation if I didn't get there in time.

I called to her feigning a slight inebriation.

"Yo boss! Oh hi Don, I need to take this lady away from you for a moment. This is my song and she promised me one dance before the evening was over", I said, purposely raising my voice loud enough to attract attention. As I finished I forcefully took her right hand and pulled her with me towards the dance floor.

She was resistant at first, being so close to slugging him. The man was unfazed. He accepted my interruption jovially and moved away. What a slimy bastard!