The Scarlet Letter Scandal (22 page)

Kellie couldn’t stop thinking about the Phantom. She didn’t even know his name. She didn’t know how to figure out who he was or what he looked like. Short of walking across the street and banging on the door one morning after Brandon left for work (which was starting to seem like a better and better idea), she wasn’t sure what else she could do besides wait for him to make the next move.

She knew she wanted him to do this very badly. They couldn’t just have window sex with each other (as amazing as that had been) in the middle of their suburban neighborhood in broad daylight while she was already under investigation by the cops. She thought at first he must work at home, but since she’d been looking at the house more she noticed it seemed to be dead quiet a lot—and she was positive he wasn’t married. Maybe he had a home office but also worked at night sometimes? She didn’t know, but Kellie was certainly open to the idea of the mystery man coming over during some weekday when Brandon was working.

Brandon had seemed really abnormally jealous about the Phantom. In the swinger lifestyle, everything was all about being open, and Kellie hadn’t lied about anything, if you didn’t count her omission of the voyeur encounter—but that had just been last week. She wondered if the Phantom would show up for another party at the club, though single men generally weren’t allowed. Their security had been pretty lapse, she thought with a smirk, since they’d let two uniformed cops in. The Phantom had managed to find out about the club and visit the party without being recognized. It seemed unlikely he’d just show up again unless his wife/girlfriend/whoever was with him so they could gain entry as a couple. She had searched the addresses and he definitely wasn’t a member. The whole thing was a true mystery.

Brandon walked into the kitchen and interrupted her thoughts. He was wearing only flannel pajama bottoms as he came over and greeted her, still disheveled from sleep. They’d fought about breaking the engagement, but both realized now would be a terrible time to plan a wedding. The running of the business, though on pins and needles, kept them busy. Things were usually peaceful lately, if strained.

“Good morning,” said Kellie, setting about getting coffee for each of them.

“Same to you,” said Brandon, reaching for a box of cereal.

“We need to talk about planning the New Year’s Eve Toga Party,” said Kellie.

“Business meetings before coffee?” asked Brandon.

“Well, during coffee at least,” said Kellie, handing him a cup.

“Do we really even need to plan anything special?” asked Brandon. “We both know our income isn’t coming from the swingers’ club anymore.”

“I get that we’re the neighborhood Walmart for illegal prescription drugs,” said Kellie, “but now the club is a cover for that operation, don’t you think? It’s taking the cops and the county months to figure out if they can shut us down after their illegal little bust at the masquerade party, so we should continue business as usual until someone stops us from doing that.”

“Why take the chance of getting busted running the club when we already have a lucrative underground business now? The Internet site where I’ve been buying everything has worked out great,” said Brandon. “We’re making more money than we ever did running a sex club out of the basement.”

“I LIKE running the club,” said Kellie. “It’s what I do! I love sex, I love seeing new people, I love the excitement and the fun. The drug money is great but I don’t want to shut down the club.”

“It’s not
drug money
like you make it sound,” said Brandon. “We’re not meth dealers. And I bet I know who you mean when you talk about new people.”

“Really,” asked Kellie, “who?”

“Well, it’s not Batman,” said Brandon. “That was Chaz, by the way, since you didn’t seem to notice him that night.”

“No, I had no idea,” said Kellie. “But things got a little crazy with the visit from the cop shop and all.”

“Rachel and Kate were here too that night asking where you were,” said Brandon.

“Why are we even talking about this now after all this time?” asked Kellie.

“Why don’t you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t mind talking about it, I just don’t understand what your problem is.”

“We don’t know who that guy was,” said Brandon. “That’s my problem. We are a membership club. He was not a member. He’s got to be the mole.”

“It was also a silence night, so I didn’t talk to him to ask,” said Kellie. “Anonymity was the whole point of that party! I am so fucking sick and tired of talking about this! Drop it!”

“Maybe I will,” said Brandon, and he slammed down his coffee cup and left the kitchen.

Kellie sat at the table, fuming.
Fuck him
, she thought.
Or not!
She realized now that her and Brandon’s relationship had only ever been about sex. How they were going to have it, how kinky they could make it, and planning the sex parties that were their business. He had been better to her than her first husband, so she thought that meant she loved him, but deep down she’d known theirs wasn’t a forever thing. She had been stupid to agree to marry him one night—they were both drunk anyway, and he’d never even been able to afford a nice ring. It was a joke of an engagement. They got along fine, at least at one point, but she was bored and lonely and sick and tired of being stressed out about money. At least that situation had gotten better since the prescription money had started rolling in.

She had become nearly obsessed with the Phantom and wanting to know more about him. She felt something with him that she never had before with anyone—and completely without words—without ever even setting eyes on him.

She opened her laptop and began working on the invitation for the New Year’s Eve toga party for the website. Brandon could worry about selling Xanax and Oxy for money while she set up another opportunity for the Phantom to appear again.

K
ate arrived early at Rachel’s office. It wasn’t a place she frequented. Usually they met at Kate’s office or at the coffee shop. Kate knew her daughter, Zarina, was suspicious they were having an affair, but it wasn’t something they spoke of. She wouldn’t lie about it if Zarina asked. She just didn’t bring it up. The accounting firm receptionist showed Kate to Rachel’s office, explaining that Rachel had run out for coffee and would return momentarily.

Kate sat in the leather chair across from Rachel’s desk at first, but got bored after a few minutes of checking her phone and stood to walk around. The décor of the office was classy and elegant—an antique desk and matching chair, oil paintings on the walls, heavy tapestry curtains hanging beside the ten-foot Victorian windows; all were befitting of a swanky historic downtown Keytown workplace. As she turned from the window, something caught her eye on Rachel’s desk. She walked over and realized what she’d seen that was familiar: that Keytown Mouse logo. Rachel’s laptop sat on the desk next to her desktop and on the screen read the words ADMIN LOGIN and PASSWORD and just above them, that little cartoon mouse.

Kate wasn’t usually a snoop, but she found herself opening Rachel’s top drawer, not even sure what she was looking for. The thin center drawer below her desktop had compartments for paper clips and other office supply items, and Kate saw that the entire center section, where the pens should be, was filled with loose blue and white capsules that read ADDERALL. Kate picked one up, marveling at the tiny white beads visible through the capsule’s shell. She put it back in the drawer and closed it.

Kate quickly walked around to the “guest” side of the desk and sat down. Her heart raced. That computer screen could only mean one thing.
Rachel
was the Keytown Mouse? Kate searched her memory for what the blog had said. It was the talk of the town, even reaching the newspaper! Kate thought back to attending the masquerade party with Rachel and how many people would go nuts if they knew the identity of the secret blogger. Especially Maggie. Rachel had always been jealous of Maggie, asking far too many questions about the fling they’d had in the past and the friendship they still shared.

And the pills! Kate was sure they didn’t belong to Rachel’s son, or they wouldn’t have been loose like that. Not to mention how many there were. It seemed so risky and sloppy to keep them in her drawer where her boss could accidentally discover them.

Why wouldn’t Rachel have told her these secrets? It was the behavior of an…addict? Kate tried to push the word from her mind, even as images of Rachel’s often-frenzied behavior flashed before her in memories of the recent past.

In that moment, Rachel breezed in, holding two coffee cups from Zoomdweebies Café up the street.
My own daughter’s shop
, thought Kate.
The tangled webs we weave
.

“Oh, hey there,” said Rachel, placing the coffees on the desk, perky out of happiness that her boss was out of town at a conference, otherwise Kate wouldn’t even be in the office to begin with. “I didn’t think you’d be here this early. You know you’re always ten or fifteen minutes late.”

“Usually,” said Kate. “But I decided not to stop at the campus library to pick up the book I needed till after…”

“What’s wrong?” said Rachel. “You look distracted.”

Kate picked up the coffee and took a sip, buying time. Should she tell Rachel she saw the computer screen? Was there any other reason the screen would be there? Why the hell didn’t her screen saver kick in, anyway?

“Just busy today,” said Kate. “The department chair called a lunch meeting, so I have to go in a few minutes.”

“Oh, okay,” said Rachel, sitting in the chair beside Kate. “And that sucks. Ugh, surprise meetings.”

Kate stood and looked down at Rachel. “Yeah, surprises can suck. Thanks for the coffee.”

She turned and walked out of the office, leaving the coffee on the desk, her cheeks burning. She couldn’t sit there and pretend nothing happened. She would simply go back to her office and read through that stupid blog for clues. No way was she going to accuse Rachel of authoring the blog and keeping it from her if it wasn’t even true, though her instinct told her it was.

As Kate took the short drive back to the college campus, she thought about all the upheaval the blog had caused. Zarina had told her about the chatter in the coffee shop. Women in the subdivision talked about who was running the swingers’ club, and of course Maggie and Lisa had been in and wondered who was spinning the half-baked tales.

Although she wasn’t affected directly, Kate couldn’t help but feel betrayed. She didn’t like the idea that someone who was so close to her was so enthusiastic about spilling secrets. Kate’s bisexuality wasn’t exactly intelligence agency level material, but as a college professor she sure didn’t want her life splashed all over the Internet.

After parking, Kate walked back to her office on the tree-covered campus. Maggie and Lisa needed to know that Rachel was writing about them. She picked up her phone and struggled with whether or not to text Maggie. She cared about Rachel, but she had always had a funny feeling about really trusting her. An instinct not really backed up by anything specific, just a gut feeling. She worried Rachel had fallen in love with her, and Kate didn’t really do love, preferring mature relationships of mutual respect. Though she really had fallen for Maggie harder than she’d expected to, it had been a reminder that it was better to keep your heart neutral. When you lower expectations about relationships, it isn’t as easy to get hurt. Still, Maggie deserved to know the truth.

After a moment, Kate texted Maggie:
Rachel is the Keytown Mouse.