Shadows in the Storm- Part 3 of 5: People Shuffle In and Out

As soon as Corrine left for the beer run, Bill ate a couple of bites of leftovers standing in front of the open door, got himself a cold beer, and opened the briefcase on the work table in their home office. He liked working with money. The power of it, what it looked like, and the feeling he got when he held it in his hand. In the case, he was looking at bundles of bills ranging in value between 100 and 1 with each different denomination wrapped in a different colored paper band. Straps of 100 dollar bills were on top and the pictures of Benjamin Franklin seemed to be smiling smugly at him like a row of tellers greeting him at a bank. All together he was looking at almost 75 pounds of US currency worth about 1 million dollars. It was right there in front of him. He reached out and picked up a bundle of 100s, fanned his cheek with it, picked up another, putting each bundle on top of the table. He inhaled. It even smelled good. He took one of each color and arranged them on top of the desk into a colorful display. After a final look, he put the bills back in the case, locked it, and slid it under the desk where he normally kept it. He would take the money to the vault first thing tomorrow.

With the confrontation fresh in her mind and without any time for coming back down following her orgasm, Corrine was still a nervous wreck when she got back to their house. She put the 12 pack of ale in the refrigerator and started making their dinner to keep her anxiety at a tolerable level.

Cory was glad that Bill seemed to just want to eat and not engage in any small talk. With dinner finished, Bill got himself a fresh beer and went to the den to watch the news. On Thursdays it wasn’t unusual for Bill to fall asleep in the oversized soft brown leather chair in the den after supper and stay there until almost time to get ready for work the next day. Corrine needed to think about how to neutralize George. She turned the thermostat up just a little and kept Bill well supplied with beer.

By 830 Bill’s eyes were spending more time closed than open and he was well underway to falling asleep. Cory wanted to help him along. She sat down next to him and started rubbing the back of his neck, shoulders, and as his eyes closed she rubbed his eyelids coaxing them to stay closed. By 945 his breaths were coming at a steady rate and he was soundly sleeping.

She turned the sound down and went to the home office. The possibility that George might hurt Bill continued to worry Cory. She sat for a long time and finally made peace with the possibility that Bill might stop loving her. If she had finally fucked up the most positive thing in her life so be it. But she was not going to let George hurt Bill. That was not something she would allow as long as there was one breath of life left in her.

Two months later Cory picked up George, they drove to the airport, caught an international flight to Lima, Peru, and then travelled on a domestic flight to Pisco. From the time they landed in Peru, George was prancing like a hot shot jet setting man of the world. Cory hadn’t worked out all the details, but she did have one objective for the trip. Bill got home from work at his usual time.

That’s unusual. Cory’s cars gone?

He spotted the large brown envelope on the kitchen table.

Bill, I need to take care of something and may be gone for some time. I’m sorry that I can’t provide you with a better explanation but it’s a mistake I made a long time ago and now I have to take care of my mistake.

In the envelope is a consent decree in case you need or want a divorce and power of attorney giving you full power to do whatever is necessary in my absence.

I love you Bill. I will always love you.

Cory

Bill walked down the hall to their home office, tried to read the note again but his hands were shaking so badly that he couldn’t hold the note still so he set the note down on the table and stood over the table. He shook his head and looked around searching for something that would help him understand

What is it that Cory wouldn’t or couldn’t discuss with ME?

He called Cory’s phone, left voice messages, and sent text messages until her phone wouldn’t accept anything additional.

WHAT am I going to do?

Whether it was good fortune or bad luck, it was Friday so he had the week end to recover but he was faced with two days of uncertainty. He tried making lists, going through their bank records, and finally went to visit the Waters. She hadn’t told them anything and they were as mystified as Bill about where she had gone. As her aunt, Brenda was closest to Cory.

“The years when Cory was being bounced around from place to place before we adopted her left their mark on Cory.

“Sometimes if there is a problem she just can’t ask for help.

“Before the two of you married she and I talked a good deal.

“I have no doubt that she loved you Bill. And no doubt that she still loves you.

“Cory is very smart. If she said she needed to take care of something on her own, I have no doubt that she will do so.”

By Monday he had recovered enough to come up with a routine that would work for him in Cory’s absence. But it was tough now that what had been making all the irritations he had to put up with at work seem worthwhile. It progressed to the point that he was obsessed with trying to come up with an explanation and less than a month later, he was waiting for the jitney to go to make his Thursday drop offs for the armored car Friday runs and left the case with the money at the jitney pick up point while he went to the men’s room. Sam was conducting an audit of the operations on the armored car floor and had just walked down the stairs. He recognized the case at the jitney stand and could see that Bill was nowhere around. Always ready for a hustle, he ran back up the stairs, got the case from the trunk of his car on the personal car floor, hurried back down the stairs, and switched his case full of blank paper for the one with cash. Since he was the project manager for installing the surveillance cameras, he knew that the camera’s range did not cover the area between the stair case and the jitney pick up point. And with no visual evidence there would be no way to prove he had switched the cases. Bill would be responsible for the loss for not following company guidelines to keep his eyes on the case at all times when it was in his custody. Sam concluded that it was not his problem. Bill had been careless and Sam had just cashed in on an opportunity.

At 800 Friday, the armored car manager notified the cash operations head, Carter Stevens, that the armored cars assigned to deliver cash to the client banks had not been able to leave for their routes because of not having cash for their routes. Carter authorized use of emergency funds so that the banks would get the cash they needed to open and conducted a quick investigation that included an inquiry meeting with Bill.

“Bill, the armored car coordinator called me this morning and told me that the case that was supposed to contain the cash only had blank paper in it.

“For now, the situation is dealt with to make sure our clients have what they need but now I need for you to write down everything you did yesterday and especially focused on taking the case to the armored car vault.”

Bill was stunned.

“I don’t know how this happened.”

“Just write down everything. And I mean every little detail no matter how unimportant it might seem to you.

“I am not accusing you of stealing but there is a problem. And now I need to move forward to recover the company’s funds.”

“I understand.”

“I’m just doing my job, Bill.

“It’s nothing personal but I have to do my job.”

“I know.”

Seven days later, Bill and Carter had a follow up meeting.

“Bill, we have hired a private detective to look into the loss and if we find some other explanation something may change but for now I have to hold you responsible for the loss for not following approved procedures to keep your eyes on the case at all times when it was in your custody.

“I have a letter that I’m going to ask you to sign that says you will be able to keep your job only if you will agree to a repayment plan”

Bill made an initial payment as a result of the repayment plan agreement, put his and Cory’s house up for sale at a reduced price, gathered up his travel documents, and fourteen days later left Des Moines to live at a fishing lodge he had bought with plans to retire there in Manitoba.

Cory and George stayed at the same hotel her parents stayed at during their Pisco diving trip. After they checked into the hotel in Pisco, Cory looked through the hotel services guide and recognized the name of the concierge, Aaron Ruiz. Once they had checked in George went to beach leaving Cory and Aaron to talk for several hours in the square over Peruvian coffee, shots of amber Pisco, and sweet Picarones. She and George spent their first month sightseeing in Peru. Cory was proceeding carefully, but George was living it up. For him sightseeing was just not that interesting and he said he wanted to do something else. Cory and Aaron discussed several options that George might find enticing and of all the activities available, George chose deep sea fishing, something he had never done before Peru and with Aaron’s help arranging things he went on a 2 day excursion. It was the opportunity Cory had been waiting for. She said she didn’t want to risk sea sickness, urged George to go enjoy himself, and said she would make a dinner reservation for when he got back. He left early the next morning sitting between some lobster traps as Cory waved from the bell tower of a mission near the water until she saw the boat disappear behind the Ballestas Islands, kissed her middle finger, and raised it high above her head.

“So long!”

That evening Cory and Aaron enjoyed dinner at one of his favorites. He helped Cory get a fire started in one of the out of the way pits in the courtyard and she sat next to it adding wood until the documents and firewood she piled on top of them burned to ashes which she gathered and scattered from a pier down the coast far away from the hotel. The next day Cory boarded a return flight to Des Moines. She picked up her luggage from the baggage claim, her SUV from airport parking, dropped by the office supply story to get a new memory card for her phone, and sat in the parking space with her hands clasped in front of her.

Mission accomplished!

She saw that she had service, listened to the voice mail, skimmed through the messages, and called Bill’s phone.

The number you have reached is not a working number. Please check your number and dial again.

She entered the number manually.

The number you have reached is not a working number. Please check your number and dial again.

At Bill’s and her house, she saw two vehicles parked in the driveway that she didn’t recognize, stopped the SUV on the street next to the sidewalk, and as she approached the front door, a man walked out and asked if he could help her.

“Hello. My name is Corrine Johnstone. I’m looking for Bill Johnstone.”

“You’re Cory? Bill doesn’t live here anymore but he did leave something for you. Would you mind waiting here for me here for a few minutes?”

A short while later, the man came out with an envelope and handed it to Cory. She recognized the writing on the front as Bill’s. Inside she found a note from Bill explaining what had happened since she left and a cashier’s check made out to her for 375,000.

Dear Cory. I don’t know if this note will get to you. After you left, I got a bit careless at work and made a work related mistake. I had to make an initial payment on a debt I now have from that mistake and sold the house.

The enclosed check is for your portion of the sale of our house.

I used some of my portion and some of our savings to set up funding for my mom’s care.

I don’t know if I will ever see you again. If you do get this note and I don’t see you again, I hope you know that I loved you deeply. There will always be a hole in my heart that only you could fill. Bill

Stunned, Cory sat in the SUV staring blankly.

What am I going to do?

Maybe I should have talked to Bill.

Too late now, you little idiot.

You made this mess.

Now learn to live with it.

Cory needed to get herself back together. After a visit to her parents she went to live in a farmhouse on her parents’ farm. With lots of chores and projects, the farm provided exactly what she needed to keep from dwelling on Bill.

Bill’s mom liked Cory the first time they met and they always got along well. Cory went to the rest home where Dorothy Johnstone was living hoping that maybe Bill had at least told Dorothy where he was going. She didn’t know how to broach the subject and put it on her schedule to visit his mom at the rest home on a regular basis hoping that Dorothy might inadvertently let her know. During one visit she was about to ask the receptionist to call Dottie but then she saw George’s mom, Karen Simpson. They had a long visit in the coffee shop before Dottie came into the shop to join them.

Karen told Cory that George had bragged to her about having sex with Cory, but that it was so long ago that she couldn’t remember when, that when George told her she told him that his bragging about having sex with a woman was immature, rude, and disgustingly ugly, and since Karen and Dottie were good friends she had told Dottie. Karen went on to speculate that her telling him that he disgusted her must have been too humiliating for him because she hadn’t heard anything from him since he told her.

I don’t know that George’s dead. All I really know is that we flew to Peru together but he didn’t come back with me.

Dottie sat listening quietly while Karen and Cory talked and finally said Karen had told her about George’s bragging even before Cory and Bill married and that as far as she was concerned Cory, George, and Bill were all mature of age adults and it wasn’t her place to judge others. If Cory had a need that included having sex with George, that was between them to sort out. At the end of their visit, Karen and Dottie, gave Cory a big hug, told her not to worry about either of them since they had each other, and to please come by to see them from time to time.

Just shut up!