part0016

The timeout to refill their drinks had opposite effects on the Henberlins. Neil found energy. He believed that his wife now believed him about the nonexistence of an affair. Once they reestablished trust they could work out a plan. Leyna seemed to have collapsed, staring down at the floor, not responding to his question about getting her another glass of wine. Finally, she shook her head as if clearing away bad thoughts, then indicated she would have a refill.

“How is it you were in Calgary last Saturday?” he began in an attempt to figure out her current state of mind.

Leyna turned and looked at him with a direct stare. “Are you sure you want to hear this?”

He held her look, trying to decide the right thing to do. As if she knew his thoughts, before he answered her question she said, “If you don’t turn me in right now, you go to jail if I go to jail. The more you know, the more you become a part of my crime.”

Again he remained silent—due to her calculating awareness or because he didn’t know what he should do. Finally he said, “Not necessarily. Tell me what you did. It won’t make it right, and I don’t know if I can help you… or even if I should.”

“I think you should,” she said, holding his eyes with hers again. “This is what happened. I’d booked my reservation to the marketing conference months ago. As the conference grew nearer, the thought of leaving you home alone with your mistress for an entire weekend raised my stress level to the point where I couldn’t let that happen. So I came up with a way to take you to Vancouver with me.

“The Aaron Codair story?”

“Well yeah, I chose him because he has the same dark hair and head shape as you. Well, I booked a flight in his name so I could tell you he dropped out at the last minute to make it seem like a great opportunity to get away together.”

“So you set all this up as part of a plan?”

Leyna smirked and gave her shoulders a slight shrug.

“Next I contacted the spa at the hotel and arranged a schedule to keep you busy while I attended my meetings. Then we met for lunch and I sprung the trip on you.”

At noon on the Friday of the conference, she’d met Henberlin for lunch.

“Guess what? I have some good news about some good luck for you,” she said with a devious smile.

“Good luck for me? What’s up?”

“Aaron from work told the boss he can’t make it to the conference this weekend. The agency is going to have to eat his plane ticket. Instead of wasting it I suggested that I take you along. They’re fine with that. They get their money back on the extra hotel room and Aaron’s per diem, so it’s a wash with the cost of the plane ticket. You get to come to Vancouver with me for the weekend. Isn’t that great?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, if I can go. What about the ticket, though, isn’t his name on it?”

“Yes, but look what I’ve got.” Leyna handed her husband a copy of his own license only it had Aaron’s name printed on it.

Neil looked at the plastic card. Not perfect but close enough, he thought. “How the hell? Isn’t this identity theft?”

“Only if you use it in an inappropriate manner.”

“This isn’t inappropriate?” he asked crooking his eyebrows .

“Come on. It’s a mere weekend trip. Aaron’s not going to mind. We have all these graphics producing machines at the agency that make this kind of switch easy and provide good results. Look at how close this is to a real driver’s license.” Leyna seemed proud of the work her coworkers were capable of performing.

“The reissue cost is more than the original ticket. What makes this all seem so perfect is scoring a trip together at no cost to us. Come on, try it, it’ll work. Besides, I leave on an earlier flight. I have to pick up my credentials and attend a cocktail party, so I’ll be waiting for you in the hotel. And I mean, I’ll be waiting and I’ll have been waiting for over an hour. You know how I feel about hotel sex, so imagine my state of mind when you finally arrive. I’ll make your trip worth it, I promise.”

His imagination didn’t have to work too hard to conjure up the images of previous bouts of hotel sex with his wife. He thought he was alone in his heightened pleasure from making love in a bed different from the one they shared each night. But once, on a sales reward trip he’d earned to San Diego, after a particularly athletic session, Leyna untangled herself from sheets, blankets, and her husband to replenish her oxygen and restore her energy. After a few deep breaths she raised up onto her elbow and in the almost dark could see her husband’s heaving shiny chest. She smiled as she rubbed her free hand over his lower abdomen and told him how much she looked forward to their naked encounters in hotel rooms. He bolted to a sitting position and suggested they turn the lights on and take their time to explore. The memory warmed him to the idea of a weekend in Vancouver.

“What time’s the flight?” he said.

Henberlin, a little nervous, shuffled along in the security line at eight-thirty that Friday evening. The security agent looked at the boarding pass and license. The names matched so a blur of scribbles transferred to the boarding pass and the agent called for the next person in line while handing Henberlin back his documents. Nothing to it, except he felt like a terrorist. But the feeling didn’t last long. When he picked up the grey plastic tray to fill it with the contents of his pockets, he didn’t find his cell phone in any of those pockets. The sense of loss pounded in on him. ‘Alone, I’m alone,’ he thought. ‘How is this going to work? What if I need to call Leyna? How are we going to stay in touch?’

But thinking about his wife changed his outlook in an instant. Leyna waiting for him in the hotel adjusted his state of mind to the oozy, sexy state she’d promised she’d be in when he arrived. The flight seemed longer than the normal short hop to Vancouver.

Finally, in the hotel’s hallway, he knocked on the room’s door and watched the peephole lens. It darkened and the door opened. Leyna had noticed on two previous occasions when she wore her blue dress with the shimmering fabric, her husband’s eyes spent a lot of time roving over her curves. He couldn’t resist taking her in his arms, not able to overcome the desire to touch the body the dress encased. She’d bought the dress for the very way that her curves were accentuated by the tight fit and smooth texture. The plunge of the neckline dropped low enough to show the start of round ampleness and the weight of her breasts. He noticed her perfect makeup, dark around the eyes, lips more red than she usually colored them, her hair down, casual and loose. He had expected naked, but liked the idea of Leyna clothed in this dress. His eyes on a quest to see through the fabric to the flesh he knew lay below, his want for her stronger that if she’d been naked. Their trust in each other meant they shared their bodies without question but as they made overtures leading up to lovemaking he always felt nervous, wondering if she would share the pleasure with him again. In his peripheral vision a taunting image, a hotel bed with clean crisp sheets he knew they would toss together. Taking the time to again appreciate the attractions of the interesting woman he had married, anticipating the joy of removing the teasing dress to reveal and enjoy the yielding body. A body showcased by a garment perfect for its intended purpose. The joy and yearning created while looking at her body foreshadowed the expected experience, the pleasure of loving Leyna.

Drinks, sly smiles, and innuendos led to lovemaking like they hadn’t enjoyed for a long while. Both hungry to accept the pleasures offered, both willing to supply everything wished for by the other.

Off to dinner and more drinks, then a return to the hotel room and sleep.

In the morning, Leyna turned off her alarm and rolled over onto her back, delaying her usual immediate rise from bed. He didn’t disappoint her waiting tactic and reached over, cupping a hand on her breast. An invitation to intimacy. They made morning love, then she left for her shower. He entered a comfy post-sex slumber, broken a short time later by her kiss goodbye.

Saturday morning, the only day of information sessions for the conference, Leyna filled a cup at the coffee station and stood off to the side watching the attendees arrive. Then, seeing someone she knew, she joined the line right behind him.

“Bob? They allow the people at Mackie-Boudreau to be exposed to outside influences?”

“Ha! Leyna… Only if they’ve been very good. I don’t know how I got here.”

“You’re always good. What are you expecting from this event?”

“Good coffee, great Danish, and very little else. I have some side meetings that should be the most productive part of being here. How about you?”

“Same. The lineup of presenters doesn’t impress me too much. I imagine I’ll split time and catch bits and pieces in the same time slots. Shall we go in?”

Being early, they found seats in the second row on the middle aisle. Ten to fifteen thin tables with stiff, almost floor-length tablecloths made rows in the conference room. Each table dotted with pitchers of ice water. Green slices of cucumber and yellow lemon wedges floated among the cubes. Small pads of cream colored paper and shiny brown plastic pens with the hotel’s logo sat in front of each tucked-in chair .

The noise level increased as the rows began to fill. Leyna, chatting with her acquaintance, ignored her coffee until one of her hand gestures contacted the saucer, tipping the cup and sending a dark splash spreading over the white cloth. She jumped to her feet and looked for anything to stop the flow of coffee when an attendant appeared with a rag to soak up the stain. The attendant absorbed as much of the liquid as she could manage, then placed a clean white cloth napkin over the stain and apologized for the little she could do at the moment.

“No, no, thank you so much. I should be apologizing,” Leyna said. Then she turned to her companion. “I’m sorry, Bob. I hope I didn’t splash any on you. I guess I’ll go get another cup. I plan to leave halfway through, anyway, so I’ll lurk in the back for a while then take off. Maybe I’ll see you again later.”

“I hope so. I’ll keep an eye out for you,” he said.

Leyna left to get another cup of coffee. She returned and sat in the back row for the first fifteen minutes of the presentation. She paid no attention to the speaker and finally stood and left the room.

Before leaving she went to the coat desk.

“This beats trying to check a jacket before the conference starts,” she said to the check steward.

“We sure were crowded this morning. Here you go.”

Leyna took her tag and walked to the farthest room in the hallway near the exit. She climbed the stairs to street level, coming out on the side of the hotel. It took but a minute for her to hail a taxi. Climbing into the back seat she said, “The airport please.” Then she leaned back into the seat and turned her head to the window.

“Surprising how light the traffic is. It’s never like this,” the driver commented.

They made excellent time.

At the airport, she purchased a ticket on one of the small airlines servicing the small cities in British Columbia and Alberta. She used her sister’s married name. At Security, she presented her sister’s driver’s license, which she’d previously extracted from her sister’s purse. The flight made one stop in Kelowna, then flew into Calgary .

She grabbed a cab, telling the driver to take her to City Hall. From there, she walked to a department store and purchased a black hoodie, black sweat pants, thin synthetic tan gloves, and canvas running shoes. She paid cash, then went to the food court on the second floor. In the washroom, her hands were shaking so much she had trouble tying her shoelaces. Adjacent to the food court stood a row of light green lockers for shoppers to store purchases while they continued to shop. Leyna pulled a key from her pocket and opened one of the lockers. She placed her good clothes inside, pulled a small plastic bag out, then relocked the locker and pocketed the key.

A short walk later, she used a key she had previously copied to enter her husband’s secret apartment. She took a quick look around, then sat down in a chair in the bedroom before pulling out her husband’s cell phone. It took her two guesses to come up with his four-digit security code. He hadn’t used the four digits of their home address but his fallback, their anniversary month and year, gained her access to the phone. She scrolled to Yanmei’s contact record, clicked on the message icon and typed: “Vancouver cancelled. At the apartment waiting for you.”

She touched the send button.

Within a minute, the cell phone vibrated. She entered the security code again and saw the message with Yanmei’s name below the speech balloon: “Be there soon. What’s up?”

Leyna didn’t text back.

She reached into her pocket and removed the small handgun she had retrieved from the locker. It was the scariest thing in her life right now. Scarier than the way she went about acquiring the gun. Dressing down and approaching desperate-looking people in dangerous parts of East Calgary. She had no choice but to acquire a gun in such a way; she couldn’t approach anyone she knew. Though the approaches were dangerous, they were also productive. She watched a young, unshaven man with a mess of curly hair extort something from a homeless person. He’d slapped the sitting man in order to take the man’s cigarettes. As he lit a smoke he looked at Leyna, lifted his chin to ask what she wanted. She stated her request. After giving the young man fifty dollars, she got the name of a small grocery store and who to ask for. She went to the store and asked for the person whose name she’d been given—a man’s name. To her surprise, a woman came to meet her and led her to a back corner of the small grocery store and asked what she was after. Hearing the explanation and questioning Leyna about the person who had sent her, she hesitated at first then told Leyna where and when to meet for the delivery and how much money to bring.

At the delivery, she met a different person. During a noon hour in a downtown park, she received a key to a locker and directions to the locker’s location. She handed over her payment, trusting a criminal with blind faith that she would get what she paid for. Inside the locker, wrapped in a plastic bag, she found the gun along with a box of ammunition. ‘Time to rethink what I’m doing,’ she thought. ‘This is a real gun and I intend to use it on a real person.’ She closed and relocked the locker.

Sitting in the apartment, she held the gun in her hand for the first time. She tasted her morning coffee and the heartburn it brought on. Her stomach ached not from hunger, not from illness. She mouth-breathed short, shallow breaths. She thought she would faint because she couldn’t get enough oxygen into her lungs.

The door clicked and she heard a whoosh of air as it opened and closed. She waited, amazed she held the gun up and kept it still. She didn’t wonder if she would do what she had to do. The time was now. Make no mistake, the thing would happen. She knew she would do it. A body came two steps through the bedroom door, then sensed another person and stopped. Leyna pulled the trigger twice and the body fell to the ground. Still seated, she thought, ‘That was a man.’

She stood over the body, saw the key lying beside his hand and shook her head. She said in a low voice, “No idea. ”

She stepped past him, walked out, and sat in another chair outside the bedroom door in the living room. Again she waited. Minutes later the door lock clicked, then opened and closed again. Leyna heard Yanmei enter. It sounded like she placed something on the kitchen counter then opened the refrigerator for a second or two before closing it again.

Leyna stayed still in her chair until Yanmei walked through the opening from the kitchen into the living room. Leyna stood and walked toward Yanmei, who raised her hands in front of her and began walking backward out of the living room into the kitchen. As Leyna moved toward the doorway, Yanmei started to yell but Leyna didn’t register the words. Not interested in communication, she thought only about firing the gun. She pulled the trigger and the shot knocked Yanmei down. Leyna continued into the kitchen, stood over Yanmei, and shot her one more time.

She paused. Relief trickled top down in slow motion and filled her body. Relief that the affair was over, relief that she did what she had to do, and relief that she wouldn’t have to do anything like this ever again.

She moved to the door and left the apartment to return to the food court of the department store. Back in her own clothes, she placed the other garments back in the store bag she received when she purchased them. One check in the mirror, then out to the street to take the C-train to the Kensington district.

She threw the gun and the bag of clothing into a dumpster behind a coffee shop where she guessed the dumpster would be picked up often. From there, she took a taxi to the airport and purchased a ticket on a different regional airline. This time through Kamloops to Vancouver.

The last sessions of the conference were still in progress as Leyna arrived at the hotel. She stepped into one of the sessions and sat emotionless at one of the back tables, breathing steady breaths, trying to determine the topic of the session before it ended .

“I met with some people I knew after the session and we went to the bar to have a drink before I met you back in the room. You know what happened then,” she finished with a smile.

“Leyna, the way you’re telling me this, it’s like you’re proud of yourself.”

“Well, you have to admit, there’s nothing that could possibly point to me. If for some reason they did check me out, there are so many things that point to my being at the conference for the entire day. But still…” Leyna waved her hands beside her ears. “If I’m to believe your story, that there was no affair, then I killed people for no good reason. How can I feel proud?”

“If you believe? You still have doubts?”

“Accepting that truth means I made a terrible mistake.”

“You think killing two people over a real affair isn’t a mistake?”

“I couldn’t stand what you were doing to me. I had to take it away from you.”

“You should have asked me. I could have eased your mind and we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“Are you going to turn me in?”

“It’s the right thing to do, but I don’t know. You’re my wife and I love you. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, but the Albins deserves justice.”

“Neil, I can’t go to jail. I can’t be locked up.” Her frantic voice raked on Henberlin’s concerns for his wife. He heard tones he hadn’t heard since she became depressed after their second anniversary. Life had settled down for her. Her father had never entertained running for office again, so no political exposure and she was no longer a frequent topic in the social pages. Henberlin’s sales activity had been ramping up and he’d been getting considerable recognition from his company for what he had accomplished. Leyna felt left out and unimportant. At that time, they recognized the risk she had of falling into depression, and had started her on mild doses of medication. The drugs had the desired effect and Leyna stopped their use without showing signs of returning symptoms. That is until about two months earlier, when Henberlin noticed a bottle of the same prescription sitting beside the sink. It had a recent fill date. When he asked her about it, she only offered that she’d felt a little rough around the edges lately, and wanted to take care of things before they got to be too much for her.