CHAPTER 4

             The sultry sound of a blues singer haunted the lightly smoke filled atmosphere of the Top Hat Lounge, that afternoon.  There was a strong scent of seductive perfume hanging in the air, as the cocktail waitress, scantily dressed in a very short outfit, wiggled her way between the closely spaced circular tables.  Her ample breasts peaked enticingly over the top of her tiny bodice, as she waited on a male customer leisurely seated at one of the tables.  She leaned forward looking directly into his eyes while caressingly setting the drink in front of him.  As his eyes temptingly surveyed the attractive presentation, he reached across the table and boldly stuffed a fifty dollar bill between the soft cleavage.  She gave him a very sexy and grateful smile as she swung around and walked away saying it all with her hips as she retreated.

            This was a nice diversion for Charles, as he sat waiting for his appointment to arrive.  He had flown back to Los Angeles without Victoria's knowledge.  Meeting and marrying Victoria had seemed to be a real stroke of good luck.  Not only had he married a very beautiful and rich woman but one who gave him almost all the money he wanted to spend and didn't keep track of his spare time activities.  Even so, his stroke of luck wasn't quite as good as he had anticipated.  He was overly restless, and jealous as hell regarding who had the real power in his marriage.  Maybe it was his male ego or possibly just that it was so hard to deal with the blatant fact that, from his perspective, his "wife" cared about nothing but the amassing of a great deal of property and was using him only as a tool to that end.  Whatever it was, Charles wanted the situation to change.

            Charles did love his lavish lifestyle.  But, he really didn't love Victoria.  How could he?  She only looked at him as one of her properties to be used.  As long as he was performing for her, everything was fine.  Charles would have loved to just tell her to stick it, at least one time, when she said to him "Go and buy such and such".  But, actually he was a coward.  He was too afraid of losing what he had to alienate the hand that fed him by direct confrontation.  So he hired others to do his dirty work.  He needed to concoct some way to get rid of Victoria,  while still maintaining his high standard of living.  The first step was to find out where Victoria got all that money.  That was what had brought him to this lounge to meet with Ralph Walker.

            Walker was late.  It was the obvious flirtations of the attractive waitress that kept Charles from being too impatient.  He tried to think about what he was going to be doing with her later that night but his thoughts kept going back to Victoria.  He knew he had never disappointed a woman yet and if Victoria had let him get close to her, she would have seen that he was more than just a machine.  Now it was too late.  He was fed up with her and her plans.  He was fed up with being kept by her and he wanted to be his own man.

            Victoria had a secret.  The secret that made her rich and continued to keep the money rolling in for her to purchase all the property and businesses that she claimed she needed.  Charles had every intention of finding out what that secret was.  He had placed people working for him all around Victoria and was just waiting for her to slip up and give herself away.  That was why he was sitting here.  He wasn't too happy with the private detective he had hired.  After six months Walker had come up with a big fat zero and Ralph was getting tired of waiting.

            A rather ordinary looking guy was winding his way through the maze of tables toward Charles.  Once again Charles thought how perfect he was for his work since he could easily get lost in a crowd.  He was just one of those people you would never look at, not anything like the private detectives in the movies.

"Where the hell have you been."  Charles remarked, with disapproval.

"Sorry I'm late Mr. Davenport,"  Ralph said.  "But I wanted to stay with Mrs. Davenport a little longer.  I don't know what's going on but she seems to be a little different today."

"What do you mean?"  Charles asked as he leaned forward eagerly.  This was one bit of news that he had never expected to hear.

"Well, first of all, her fainting.  She's healthy as a horse and never has anything wrong with her. Why that woman has worked eighteen hours a day seven days a week and I've never even had a sneeze reported by any of my people.  I was beginning to think she wasn't human."

"Yes, yes I know all about that.  What else?"

"Well...she took off for the beauty shop and that all seemed normal to me.  But when I talked to one of the girls inside she told me that Mrs. Davenport was acting kinda strange, like she wasn't sure about herself and about things.  Now you know what kind of person Mrs. Davenport is, always level-headed and knowing exactly what she wants.  Something just doesn't seem quite right."

"Did she say anything in particular, something that might resemble a clue?"  Charles asked hopefully yet with sarcasm in his voice.

"No, it was just a sort of feeling my operatives had, something they couldn't quite put their finger on."

"I don't pay you for feelings or not quite putting your fingers on things! I pay you for results and much more than you are apparently worth, I might add!" Charles was getting frustrated.

"Well here's something really strange.  After going to the beauty parlor Mrs. Davenport went to the library."

"The library?  What the hell did she go to the library for?" She has a fortune tied up in computers and internet connections. She owns her own virtual Library for Gods sake.

"The best that I could see was that she went to the psychology section.  I went and looked at the books she had browsed through but all they were is a bunch of psychology books.  I have no idea precisely what she was looking for."

Charles couldn't believe it.  Finally, Victoria had done something out of the ordinary, even if it was just going to the library.  What could possibly be going on.  If she had gone to the business section he might understand but the psychology section.  "Do you think that she has discovered that you are following her and was just trying to lead you on a wild goose chase?" Charles guessed.

"I don't think so.  She doesn't act like a person that knows they're under surveillance, and I would know.  But wait there's more.  She went back to the penthouse and then out to the bank which seemed OK but then she went on to Sweeny's. Now, you know that she only sees him on Tuesday.  She has him down to a schedule just like everything else.  I mean that woman wouldn't take a piss without it being on that schedule of hers."

"Was that where she was when you left to come here?"

"No, she was at Dr. Piersons."  He said as he smiled and leaned back against the chair folding his arms.

It was then the pretty waitress came back to the table to check on Charles' drink and was surprised that someone had joined him, she had not noticed the man enter the lounge.  Ralph Walker's eyes widened a little as the waitress gave Charles another look at her bulging neckline while inquiring if Ralph wanted a drink.

He ordered a scotch wishing that women would give him invitations like they did Charles Davenport.  Ralph knew that women made plays for Charles, all the time, and that he took full advantage of those invitations.

Charles completely missed the latest show by the waitress because he was sitting there stunned by Walker's most recent information.  He sat there for a while, after Ralph left, just thinking.  This was the best yet.  Finally, Victoria was starting to act almost human and somehow...somehow he had finally convinced her to see Dr. Pierson.  Charles thought, It was just like Victoria to want to do a little homework at the library before going to see Pierson.  As he realized that her visit to the library might not be so strange after all.

He signaled the buxom young waitress that he wanted his bill.  She put it on the table, with a slow wink, and wiggled off.  When he picked it up, to assess the damage, he noticed that, on the back, she had written: "6:00 o'clock?"  He removed a pen from his pocket and wrote: "You're on, Honey!"

It was exactly six o'clock, as the silver Mercedes pulled up to the curb in front of the Top Hat.  The waitress, still dressed in her scant uniform and carrying a small suitcase, scurried out of the club and hopped into the passengers seat.  She seemed a little nervous at first, but after a few minutes of light conversation, she relaxed.  Her male companion pulled out a garage door opener, slowed, and turned right into a driveway.  Activating the door in front of him, he drove inside, and parked.  "By the way, I guess I should at least know your name before we ..."

She interrupted him with, "Darlene, Mr. Davenport."

He said, "You may as well call me Charles, because, after all, we will be getting pretty well acquainted in a few minutes."  He led her to an elevator, and once they were inside, he went on with, "You sure have what it takes!"  His eyes dropped to her bursting neckline and he smiled with a lecherous grin.

She looked at him coyly and retorted, "I don't know exactly what you mean, but I'm sure I can take anything you might have."

"Well, we'll see about that," Charles said with a chuckle, as the elevator opened and they stepped out.

*     *      *

"I must be crazy!"  Jana thought as she sat in the waiting room.  When she saw the appointment was a Dr. Pierson, she had naturally thought he was a medical doctor.  And when she looked in the address book all that there was listed was his name.  Now here she sat in a psychologists office about to talk to probably the only person that really knew everything about Victoria.

When she first found out that Pierson was a psychologist, Jana thought about turning around and getting out of there fast.  But, the more she thought about it the more she wondered if she could turn the whole thing around and have it work to her advantage.

"You can go in now, Mrs. Davenport."  The very petite oriental looking receptionist said. Entering the office, Jana was confronted by a very fatherly looking man in his late fifties sitting behind a desk.  His half glasses and rumpled suit appeared as props to make him seem like the stereotypical psychologist.

"Hello, Mrs. Davenport, how nice it is to have you come to see me."  The doctor said, as he raised to shake her hand.

"Thank you."  Jana answered, thinking that was a strange way to greet a regular patient.

"Would you like to lay on the couch or would you prefer to just sit in the chair and talk first?"  Jana, being a little nervous, said she would prefer sitting in the chair.

"Now, I understand that you have been working too hard and you need to learn to relax.  I can see that you seem very tense."

"Yes, I am a little nervous and tense"

“Well, don't you worry.  I can give you some relaxation exercises and if you like I can use hypnosis to give you some posthypnotic suggestions.  Those seem to work the best for a busy person like yourself, but, of course, it has to be your choice."

"I think just the relaxation exercises first." Jana said, the last thing she needed was someone hypnotizing her and finding out about Victoria being Jana.

"OK, just let yourself sink into the chair.  It is a very comfortable chair.  I am going to use some words now that you can put into the first person which you can use to relax yourself.  Are you ready?"  Jana nodded her head, as she started to relax for the first time since she had woke up into this nightmare.  She could hear the doctor's voice somewhere behind her as he said.

"Feel yourself becoming very relaxed, now.  Relaxing, relaxing more and more relaxed.  Relax yourself a bit at a time now beginning with the toes.  Feel the toes becoming more and more relaxed.  Now the rest of the foot and the ankle relaxing, relaxing more and more as I describe that relaxation to you."  Jana was starting to feel light yet unable to move as the tension eased from her body.  Her mind was beginning to slip into the carefree feeling of one with everything and yet with nothing.  It was a wonderful feeling and her problems didn't even seem to be anywhere in her thoughts, as she floated into a dreamlike state.  Her dreams where of Michael holding her, touching, then caressing as they laughed together and professed their love.

Then suddenly the ache came back that she wasn't with Michael.  She tried to fight it because she wanted so bad to be with him but it was like an outside force was trying to bring her back to reality.

She snapped back just as the doctor was asking her about her money.  Why was he asking her about her money?  Should she play along with him or just wake up suddenly or maybe confront him regarding his, what appeared to be, unethical way of doing his business.  Jana decided to end it, since she really didn't know enough to carry on with the relaxation technique.

"Oh!"  She said, as she stretched. "What happened?  Did I fall asleep?"

"I guess you did."

At that instant, she noticed her shoes were laying on the floor.  As she got out of the chair to pick them up, she realized that her blouse was partially open, and noticeably  blushed as she quickly refashioned the tiny pearl buttons. "What's going on?  What really happened?" Jana asked ardently, as she slipped her shoes back on her slender feet, exposing a little more of her legs than she had intended.

"Nothing much, really,"  He said calmly, but his lecherous eyes were ogling the sensational view. Then, he continued, "I just had you slip your shoes off in order to relax.  You must have been very tried.  It's a good thing that you decided to come to me, you definitely needed to learn to relax.  I would like to see you again to teach you some more."

I'll bet you would, Jana thought angrily, but then said, "I would be happy to come back.  I feel just great."  Lying through her teeth.  Truthfully, she felt violated, and certainly didn't trust this doctor, if he really was a doctor.  "Thank you very much."  She continued, trying not to show her displeasure.

"Great, do you think you can come back the day after tomorrow, that's Thursday?"  The doctor asked, a little too anxiously.

"I'll have to check my schedule and let the receptionist know.  I'll call later."  Jana said, as she hurried out of the office.  That was a close call!  she thought.

Anyway, Jana hoped it was only a close call and that she didn't give anything away.  The whole episode had been a very strange ordeal indeed and obviously Victoria had never been to this doctor before.  So, why the appointment?  Did someone set it up for her or did Victoria make the arrangements? Jana would have to find out from Suzanne.  She was going to have to be more careful and not fall into another trap like that.

As she exited the building she noticed a large clock up above the door.  Her heart pounded, as she realized that she had been in the good doctors office for a lot longer than she had thought.

*      *      *

Jana didn't notice the silver Mercedes parked across the street as she exited the building and climbed into the limousine.  Charles smiled diabolically with anticipation, as he waited for what seemed like an unusually long time for the limousine to depart.  Finally Victoria was out of sight.

He was really anxious to find out what Dr. Pierson was able to extract from her.  Maybe now his luck had changed and he would be able to find out Victoria's secret.  He was lucky to find Dr. Pierson, who had gambling debts.  Since money was not much of a problem to Charles and the stakes were so high he felt no qualms about bribing and blackmailing the doctor into extracting from Victoria the information that he so desperately needed.

As he entered Dr. Pierson's office, he noticed that the doctor was frowning.

"Weren't you able to get anything out of her?"  Charles angrily asked without so much as a hello.

"Yes, yes, don't worry."  The doctor answered thinking Charles would get a lot more if he used honey instead of vinegar.  "But I don't think it's anything you'll want to hear."

"What do you mean?  What was it?"

"Well...."  The doctor was a little nervous about telling him.  He knew that it would really cause him more problems than solve any for him and the doctor really didn't want to hear his complaining.

"Come on, Come on, what is it?"  Charles prodded impatiently.

"Your very beautiful wife has a lover."  The doctor said.

"That's totally impossible!"  Charles stated with complete confidence.  "There's absolutely no way that she could have a lover.  I have had her followed for six months now and she has done nothing except business, business, business.  Love doesn't seem to be a word in her vocabulary."

"Well, none the less, all she could talk about was this guy Michael.  How much she loved him and his kisses and his love making.  I couldn't get her to talk about anything else. In fact, when I tried, she just came out of the hypnosis."

Charles was stunned.  He had always told himself that she was just frigid.  How else could she have resisted him? No other woman could.  Now, suddenly there was another man. How could that be?  Where had she met him?  And when?  Maybe that counterfeit P.I. was more incompetent than he had suspected. 

Charles tried to tell himself once again that he didn't love Victoria so he couldn't be jealous, and it was just that his pride was hurt and a terrible blow to his ego.  Victoria was not going to get away with this, he vowed.  He was curious though, as he thought to himself, why neither Ralph nor Suzanne had come across anything to corroborate this seemingly irrefutable information about Victoria?  I certainly am going to get to the bottom of this!

*      *      *

Jake noticed the worried look on Victoria's face.  "I thought you were going to see that doctor to make you feel better.  You look more uptight now than when you went in."

"I know Jake, things didn't go very well.  Actually, I don't really know what all happened, but I do know that he doesn't seem at all ethical."  Jana said.

"Well, Suzanne said that she was happy you were finally going to get some help at relaxing.  Especially after your fainting this morning, she felt that the work had finally got to you.  I was kinda hoping that it would do you some good too."

"Thank you, Jake.  I know that Suzanne's and your hearts are in the right place but I wish you wouldn't worry about me so much, I'm just fine."  Jana hoped that she wouldn't get anymore help like this doctor had to offer.

"Well, you can't blame us for being concerned about you."  Jake said, getting in the last word, as he pulled up in front of the penthouse.

It had been a long day for Jana and she was glad to slip into the warm and comfortable waterbed.  She had never slept in a waterbed before this one and was beginning to realize what she had been missing.  It was wonderful and it didn't take long for her to drift off into a restless sleep, dreaming about Michael all mixed up with Victoria's life.

Jana woke up with the feeling of Michael still against her.  She had been dreaming of them holding each other and as sometimes happened, if she held herself very still, she could get that feeling to linger for just a few moments longer. But it was almost too much to bear when she realized that the feeling had slipped away, and Michael had too.

This is the day, Jana said to herself, I'm going to Missouri and find Michael, no matter what!"

She climbed out of bed and went over to the appointment book.  She made a big X through all the appointments then she put a note on them for Suzanne to cancel them all, she was going to be busy.

This was the fourth day since she had discovered herself here without Michael and that was long enough.  Making her own airline reservations, she packed a bag, called a cab and left.  At this point she wasn't going to trust anyone.  She was on her own.

*      *      *

Ralph stroked the inside of her thigh with his eyes. One thing he would have to say for Mrs. Davenport was that she sure was a looker.  After following Victoria Davenport for six months he had come to appreciate her beauty, but it wasn't just her beauty that made Victoria so appealing.  He had found that she was a good, kind and generous person who didn't let her business get in the way of her caring for others.  The only person who didn't seem to appreciate her was Charles Davenport.

He didn't like Charles.  Not only because Charles treated him like dirt but because of the way he treated Victoria.  He needed the money, otherwise he would tell o'le Charlie Davenport to go stuff it.  He had thought about approaching Victoria and letting her know what was going on, but he was held by a stupid code that said he couldn't do that.  At least he felt that Victoria wasn't in any real danger because he knew a coward when he saw one, and Charlie Davenport was definitely a coward.

It seemed to Ralph as if his whole existence centered around Victoria right now.  (He could call her Victoria in his thoughts since Charlie didn't know).  He only seemed alive when he was watching her.  Was this love?  He didn't know since he had never been in love but he knew he had awful strong feelings for Victoria.  The whole thing didn't make sense, here was a woman that was completely out of his reach but still he felt a need to be near her.

He hated it when he had to put her down in front of Charles.  But he had figured out that that was what Charles wanted because he felt intimidated by her and you have to give the boss what he wants.

Damn his strong code of ethics, but if anyone could possibly sway him from them, it would be Victoria.

When he first started following Victoria, she was just like a robot, going from one business transaction to another. Then slowly he started seeing her generous side.  She would go out of her way to help someone or give up her very valuable time for a charity.

She seemed driven by some invisible force, like she didn't have enough time to finish one project before starting on the next.  Always pushing and pushing to what end he didn't know.  All he knew was that this Victoria of the last four days was different.  Somehow she was softer, more alive.  He was worried because this new Victoria was more real to him, more vulnerable and he possessed an even stronger feeling for her than before.  He knew that to get personal about an individual under surveillance could cause some real problems but he was getting to the point where it didn’t matter to him.  He knew it wasn't very professional and he didn't care.  All he knew was that he wanted to be with Victoria even if it was from a distance.

He wasn't surprised that Victoria had suddenly packed a bag and flew off, she often did that.  This time it was Missouri.  He couldn't understand why anyone would want to go to Missouri but he also couldn't understand why anyone would want to go to Mattoon, Illinois; Pawhuska, Oklahoma; Lurton, Arkansas or any of the other little towns she had been to.  She seemed to be buying up the whole middle part of the country and he couldn't understand why anyone would want all the land she was buying and the crazy small businesses she was backing.  He just guessed that she had some plan in that beautiful head of hers and time would tell what it was all about.  He just hoped that Charles wouldn't gum things up for her.

He watched intently as Victoria crossed her legs.  She seemed to be in deep thought and wasn't aware that her skirt was sliding up a little, even that was unusual for Victoria who was always in control.  She even jumped a little when the stewardess asked her if she wanted a drink.  He knew that Victoria had seemed a little tense but he hadn't realized it was so bad.  Maybe he should have stopped her from going to see that phony shrink.  The doctor could have done something to her that made her so uncomfortable and edgy.  As the plane touched down in Springfield, Missouri, he vowed that he was going to try and help Victoria the best he could, even if it meant losing his paycheck.

As Ralph traveled along the highway, behind Victoria, in his rented car, he thought about all that had just transpired.  After Victoria entered the airline terminal she had proceeded to rent a car.  He was surprised since always before the people she was doing business with would pick her up.  Then she drove out of the airport and on to the highway as if she knew the area.  He had watched her carefully from the time she left the airplane and she had never once looked at a map.

Maybe this was the area where Victoria had grown up. When he had taken this job from Charles Davenport like any good P.I. he had done a background check on Victoria, he didn't like surprises.  He had found it very peculiar that there was no trace of Victoria prior to mid 1985.  He just figured she was running away from a shady past and had changed her name to conceal it.  The more he got to know her, the more he wondered if maybe she was trying to protect someone, that fit more into her personality.  He had followed a lot of women in his day and in his entire fifteen years of being a P.I. he'd have to admit that this was the strangest case he had come upon.  Most of the women he followed were the phony society women who did charity work just to be in the in crowd or to muck up their schedules to make it easier to hide their promiscuity.  Victoria lived her charity events and the giving that only a true philanthropist could afford.

The one question that kept coming to his mind, that he couldn't answer was:  Where did she get all that money from? He had checked out every possible avenue he could think of. He had checked to see if she had inherited it but there was no record of anything like that.  Victoria had practically no money back in 1985.  He then checked to see if she had won a lottery or something, but nothing.  However she got it, it was a complete mystery to him.

The car he was behind turned off the highway at Spencer and Ralph followed.  As it pulled over to the side of the road, he had to continue on so he wouldn't be noticed.  He managed to turn into a driveway where he was hidden, and he could still see Victoria.  He was surprised, as he watched, as she sat there for a few minutes and then put on a blond wig and sunglasses.  What could she possibly be up to?              

 *           *           *  

Beginning     Chapter 5

Copyright 1990 by Anita and David Mathews