Chapter II Blackmailed
It seemed to take forever for Carol to make her way across the yard to her front
door. She felt like a blubbering fool and had not gained any better control
over her emotions by the time she made it home and had gotten to the liquor
cabinet. She didn't drink except for rare social occasions, but whatever had
just happened required something to help her sort things out. Plus, she had the
envelope to contend with. What could be in it?
She poured herself a scotch with shaking hands and drank it down quickly, then
poured another. She went into the guest bathroom and splashed cold water on her
face. She thought of the neighbor she had never seen before and how she had so
quickly and completely controlled her, even if for a very brief time. Carol
thought that she could have prevented it had she been prepared. She was simply
caught unaware. It wasn't a big deal, she told herself. That woman is some
kind of cop or something and she was just toying with me for whatever sick
reason. I'm home now. That won't happen again. "Turn around, Carol.", she
mocked out loud. She cringed, wondering if Megan had left yet. She quickly
made sure her daughter was gone, then took the envelope and the second glass of
scotch with her into the den. The sofa there was always a place of comfort to
her.
Carol took a deep breath, then a sip of the scotch. She wondered why she was so
wet. She was repulsed by the thought that a woman had made her horny. It had
to be something other than that. She blushed deeply, then tried to shake the
thought off.
With trembling fingers she slowly tore open the end of the envelope and pulled
the contents out. A slim microrecorder fell out onto the floor as she placed
the thin stack of papers on the table in front of her. The first document
consisted of printed mailing labels with the names and addresses of her mother,
her husband who was away on a military deployment, her minister, the principle
of the school where she taught, several of her fellow teachers at the school,
the chairwoman of the base noncommissioned officer's wives club, and even the
commanding officer of the base military police.
She nervously slid the page of labels aside to look down on an eight by ten
glossy photograph of her giving oral sex to Ralph Petersen, her secret lover
when her husband was gone on military deployments. It had to have been taken at
the motel where they had met just last week, but...Carol's heart felt like it
sank into a bottomless pit. The implications of the photograph in combination
with the labels hit her so hard that she simply froze. Thoughts of what would
happen to her life if the picture were mailed to the people on the list started
swirling through her mind in a nonsensical vortex of the most distressing
impressions imaginable.
She turned the photograph over, placing it on top of the labels. The only
remaining document was a white sheet of paper with a local phone number on it.
Carol knew it would ring next door. She looked down at the microrecorder on the
floor and correctly guessed that it contained audio recordings of her and Ralph
having sex in the motel room. After listening a portion of the tape, she shut
it off and sat in stunned silence.
The scotch was having a numbing effect on her but she needed more. She picked
up the glass and drank it slowly. If she worked hard at it, she could come
close to thinking through the problem rationally. She was obviously being
blackmailed, but for what, she did not know. She had no money or assets that
would attract anyone's attention. The audiotape existed to prevent her from
being able to claim the picture was somehow faked. As she finished the scotch
and began replacing all of the items in the envelope except for the phone
number, a sense of overwhelming shame overcame her. If not for her desire for
sexual excitement, this wouldn't have happened. It was her fault. All her
fault, and she would just have to deal with it the best that she could.
Carol forced herself not to think about how the picture or the recording could
have been made. She didn't want to think Ralph was somehow involved. He
wouldn't do something like that. But, someone knew, somehow, where they were
going to meet and what room it was going to be. She and Ralph were the only
ones who had that information. She took a deep breath and went quickly to the
kitchen to wash out the glass she had been drinking from. She hated clutter and
habitually cleaned or put things away when she was through with them.
She returned to the den, remembering what had happened at her neighbor's house
just a few minutes earlier. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, she
was strangely excited by the memory. Every aspect of it repulsed her totally,
yet the heat that was growing between her legs contradicted her emotions and her
thoughts.
She gathered the envelope and the paper containing the phone number and took
them to the small office her husband had converted from a pantry for her. She
sat at the desk and slid the phone over until it was directly in front of her.
Taking another deep breath to help regain her composure, she slowly dialed the
number that had been provided to her.
