Double Duplicity

**This story immediately follows "Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave"**

"Four misfortunes befall a heedless man who commits adultery:

acquisition of demerit, disturbed sleep, thirdly blame,

and fourthly a state of woe."

Buddha

CHAPTER 1

"Houston, Mr. Bradshaw is here." Chris stepped into CJ's office where she and Matt had been going over some paperwork for closed cases.

He looked over at their eight week old daughter, Catey Rose, who had fallen asleep in her playpen. "Guess I better talk to him out here so I don't disturb Catey." He followed Chris out through the door into the lobby of the office. "Mr. Bradshaw? Nice to meet you. I'm Matt Houston." The two men shook hands. "If you would come on back we'll see what we can do for you." Matt led the way into the main part of the office. "Would you like some coffee?"

"That would be great, thanks. Black please." Bradshaw watched as Matt poured two cups and then led the way out onto the patio.

"Have a seat. I hope you don't mind being out here. My daughter is asleep in my wife's office." He noticed the strange look that Bradshaw was giving him. "She's eight weeks old."

"Oh, okay, that makes more sense." Bradshaw nervously looked around. "Mr. Houston, I asked around and everyone that I've talked to insists that you are the very best."

"Well I appreciate that. What can I do for you?" Matt propped his left ankle on his right knee.

"I believe my wife is trying to kill me." He looked at Matt who had stopped mid-sip.

"Is there any particular reason for you to think that?" Houston took a long swig of coffee.

"She uh, well, I think…" He stalled. "I think she tried to poison me two days ago."

"Uh huh. Can you give me a little more detail?" Setting down the cup of coffee, the PI pulled out a notebook and pen.

"I was rushed to the emergency room after eating some mushroom soup that she made for me – the mushrooms that she used were poisonous."

"Those things can be kind of tricky you know – hard to tell apart. Are you sure it wasn't just an accident?"

"She's been making it for me since we first got married twenty years ago." Bradshaw seemed convinced.

"Alright, does she have any reason to want you dead?" He was watching the prospective client very closely.

"No, not that I can think of…" Somehow he didn't sound too sure.

"Mr. Bradshaw, the only way I can work for you is if you're totally honest with me…is there something that you need to tell me?" After being in the private investigation business for several years as well as in Army Intelligence, Matt was pretty good at telling when someone was lying. "Because I'll tell you something right now: if I don't get the truth out of you in the next ten seconds this meeting is over and you can go find yourself another investigator."

The look of shock that spread across Leonard Bradshaw's face was another tell. "I uh, well a few years ago I had an affair…but that was then. I've been faithful to her ever since."

"And does she believe that?"

"I don't know…maybe not…since she's trying to kill me."

"Other than the mushroom soup, what else has she done?"

"About two weeks ago I was nearly run over by a car in the parking lot at my office." The cup shook in his hand as he spoke.

"And you think she was the one driving?"

"I couldn't tell – the windows had really dark tint on them. It wasn't her car…" The prospective client stood up. "Maybe I shouldn't have come here." Pushing his chair up to the table, Bradshaw turned and started toward the door to the office.

"Have you talked to the police?"

He turned. "Yes, I did after the soup incident. All the officer that I spoke to did was to laugh and say his wife's cooking was terrible, too."

"Are you sure that you aren't leaving something out?" Although he didn't know why, Matt had a feeling that there was more going on than Leonard Bradshaw was letting on to.

"I…damn it!" He sat back down in the chair. "I've been having an affair. It's the same woman that I was seeing before."

"Uh huh. What else?"

"Mr. Houston, I swear to you, that's it. Everything. Dot is so…she's so angry all the time. That's why I went back to Janice. I know it's wrong, but Dot just is so cold. Nothing I do is ever right. From the moment I wake up in the morning until I go to sleep she is constantly complaining about something I did or didn't do."

"Was it like that before you had the first affair?" Taking another sip of coffee, the private eye continued to size up the man seated across from him.

"Yes, that's what drove me into the relationship with Janice in the first place." He removed his glasses and began cleaning them with a handkerchief.

Matt watched him for a moment. "Do they know about each other?"

"Dot only knows that I had an affair, she doesn't know who it was. Janice doesn't even know that I'm married."

"And how do you keep her from finding out – tell her you're going out of town?" Houston had heard this tale before – several times. He didn't usually take cheating spouse cases but technically this one was attempted murder, at least as far as Leonard Bradshaw was concerned.

Bradshaw nodded. "I've got a condo where we meet up sometimes – sometimes we use her place."

"And what do you tell your wife when you don't come home – that you're working late or out of town?"

"Yes…now that I think about it that sounds cliché doesn't it?" He sighed heavily. "Look, I know I've messed up big time, but I don't think I deserve to die because of it."

"Mr. Bradshaw, I'll take your case but you have to understand that there are limitations as to what I can do…there are no guarantees whatsoever. I want you to know that up front. And if I find out that you've lied to me in ANY way I'm off the case. Is that understood?"

"Yes, I understand. I just need help."

"Alright. I'll need some basic information to get started with and then I'll let you talk to my wife about the paperwork. Let's get started."

After Bradshaw met with CJ and signed a contract for their services and left, Matt and CJ sat down in front of BABY, the computer that Matt used in his investigations. They began by pulling up information on Bradshaw himself, his wife Dot, and his mistress – Janice Wheeler.

"Leonard Joseph Bradshaw, age 41, a cost accountant with Weber, Trice, Holbrook, and Cohen for the last seventeen years. He and his wife have been married for twenty years, two boys: Steven and Sean, twins, fourteen years old." CJ punched a few more keys. "Mrs. Dorothy Jane Bradshaw, also 41, works as a hair stylist. She took five years off when the boys were born. Belongs to the PTA."

"Alright, now we have the other woman: Janice Renee Wheeler, age 33, single, no kids. Works as a personal trainer out of three different gyms in the city." She sat back on the couch.

Matt put his arm around her shoulders. "So no records or scandals – publicly anyway." He got up and walked over to the windows that overlooked the skyline of Los Angeles. "I believe we're going to need to use some critters on this one. We need to put one on both of the ladies' cars, and put a camera or two in Bradshaw's house, his condo, and Wheeler's apartment."

"I thought you said the wife was the one he suspected; why plant critters at Janice's place and car?" She got up and went behind the bar to pour a cup of coffee.

"Just to be thorough. If she knows he's having an affair, she might try to get to him there – and possibly the other woman, too." Matt turned back around. "I asked him for his wife's schedule as well as Wheeler's. They both leave for work by 7:00am, so I'll plant the critters on the cars during the night and then take care of the others during the daytime. I'm going to meet with him to plant them in the house and the apartments – that way I won't have to worry about alarms or nosy neighbors."

"So you're going to start tonight then?"

"Yep, that's my plan." He walked toward the bar until he heard his daughter beginning to fuss. "I believe Sleeping Beauty just woke up." Going into CJ's office he picked up his daughter out of the playpen. "Hey there Lady Bug. You've got wet drawers. Let's go take care of that." Catey Rose quit fussing and started cooing as soon as her daddy picked her up and started talking. As he headed down to the nursery, Matt started singing to her, a silly song about a flying purple people eater, and CJ cracked up.

Since they had finished up the other work that they had on tap and wouldn't be starting on the Bradshaw case until that night, the Houstons headed home for the afternoon. Matt spent the rest of the day working cattle with his two ranch hands, Lamar and Bo.

When the alarm clock went off at 2:00am, Matt groaned. The thought of having to leave the comfortable bed and CJ, who was half laying across him, was not welcomed. He carefully slid out from under his wife, giving her one of his pillows to lie on instead. Kissing her gently on the cheek, he put on the clothes that he had laid out before going to bed. He quickly scrawled a note. They had an unspoken rule: you always say goodbye when you leave.

HEY BABE,

GONE TO PLANT CRITTERS. SEE YOU AT THE OFFICE LATER.

LOVE,

MATT

As he walked through the kitchen, he poured himself a cup of coffee from the pot that he had set to brew half an hour before his alarm clock went off. After popping the top on the travel mug, he headed out the door and slid behind the wheel of his truck. The critters were already in the console and ready to be planted on the cars.

A short time later, the private investigator stopped outside the parking garage of Janice Wheeler's apartment and quietly slipped inside, putting the tracking device on the trainer's car and slipping back out without being noticed. Next on his list was Dorothy Bradshaw's car. He pulled into the curb in front of the accountant's house and quickly placed the tracker on Mrs. Bradshaw's vehicle, then pulled away from the curb and went to the office. He activated the critters once there and then stretched out on the couch for a nap. He awoke to the alarm on his phone at 7:30 and got up to make a pot of coffee.

Chris came in just before 8:00 as did CJ. The pair found Matt sitting on one of the barstools, his head on the bar and a cup of coffee in his hand, snoring. CJ set down Catey Rose and her carrier before moving over to begin lightly kissing Matt's right ear. After a couple of tries he moaned, then giggled, and finally woke up enough to realize where he was and who was watching. Chris burst into laughter and the private eye gave CJ the raised eyebrow look.

"You sure did look cute sucking your thumb, Boss." CJ leaned down and gave him another kiss – this one on the lips.

"Uh huh, I bet." He pulled her in closer and kissed her back before looking down at their daughter. "So how's my Lady Bug this morning?"

"Hungry. I swear she eats more than any baby I've ever seen." CJ watched as Matt leaned over and pulled his daughter out of the carrier.

"That's 'cause she's a hard working baby. Ain't that right, Catey?" He gave her a kiss on the cheek, receiving a big smile from the now eight week old.

"How did it go?" CJ poured herself and Chris coffee and then headed for her office with Matt and Catey following along.

"Smooth as a baby's butt." He plopped down on the loveseat holding his daughter and began tickling her chin and talking to her. "I'm supposed to meet Bradshaw at 9:00 to plant the rest of the critters. He has a key to Janice Wheeler's apartment."

"That sure makes your life easier." CJ turned on the computer monitor.

"Guess I better go check on the critters. Are you going to help?" He took Catey with him and sat down on the couch, pulling up BABY the computer. "Okay, Miss Catey Rose – look here: see that dot right there? That's Dorothy Bradshaw's car and it looks like she's at work. And this…" he tapped a couple more keys, "this right here is Janice Wheeler's car. She's at the Platinum Gym on Wilshire, see?"

CJ stuck her head out of her office and watched as Matt talked to Catey about the job. Chris came walking in and grinned at CJ as her boss explained that the critters would tell her and Daddy just where the cars went.

"Maybe one day she'll be running the whole operation." Chris laughed as she headed for CJ with a couple of papers that needed to be signed.

"Nah, she'll do something else. Maybe she'll be the president." Matt stood up and walked out on the patio with the baby.