Chapter 14

 

Lauren and Daniel decided to allow their attraction for each other to be more open. They began appearing at social events as a hand holding, “gushing over each other couple”, although Daniel had not yet popped the question. He was waiting for just the right occasion. His plan was to propose at her birthday celebration scheduled for the end of the month.

They were in Daniel’s office at the Wildcat’s stadium when the receptionist told him that he had a phone call from Luke Martin a stable hand at the Old Brooking Country Club.

Lauren looked surprised when she heard the name of the caller. “I wonder what he could want.”

“I don’t know, but there is only one way to find out.” He picked up the phone. “Daniel McKnight, here.”

The voice at the other end was hesitant. “Er, my name is Luke Martin. I don’t think you know me, but up until yesterday I worked with the horses at the country club.”

The silence at the other end prompted Daniel to interrupt, “I believe I do remember you. You help every year with the Club’s horse show. You do a grand job.”

 “Yeah, that’s me.”

Daniel glanced at Lauren and shrugged. He noticed that she seemed to be getting uncomfortable with the call.

“What can I do for you Luke?”

“Well, like I said, Mister McKnight, I don’t work at the club anymore. I got laid off yesterday. I’ve worked there since I was in my teens. They didn’t seem to care about that.”

“Well, how can I help you? Are you looking for a job with one of my teams?”

Luke hesitated for a few seconds. “No, it’s nothing like that. You see, they have an unwritten rule at the club that ‘what goes on there, stays there’. You know, like in Las Vegas. I’ve respected that up ‘til now, but since I don’t work there anymore, I don’t feel like I’m bound by that rule anymore.”

Daniel was getting impatient. “Will you please get to the point, Luke? What’s this secret of yours and what does it have to do with me?”

On the mention of the word “secret” Lauren’s face drained. She reached out for a chair and fell into the cushions. Daniel had his back to her at the time and her distress went unnoticed.

“I’m gettin’ to that. You’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Spit it out.”

“Okay! Well a few years back Lauren Hampton and I got it on. That child she miscarried was mine. I didn’t even know that she was pregnant until the accident. When she lost her baby in the accident, she told me that it had to be mine ‘cause she wasn’t doing it with her old man at the time. She had planned to let him think it was his. That didn’t work out of course.” 

Daniel turned to Lauren and he could tell by the look on her face that Luke was telling him the truth. He shot her an assuring smile.

Lauren simply lowered her eyes to her clasped hands.

“That’s quite a story Mister Martin. What evidence do you have to support your allegations?”

“I’ve got it all on tape. She came to me several months after the accident and spelled it all out. She told me she couldn’t ever see me again. At the time I understood.”

“So, why are you calling me now? If it’s about work, the job I was talking about before, might be possible, if you’re interested?”

“No, it’s nothing like that. You see, I’m tired of working and I need a change of scenery. I’d like to go someplace where it’s warm all year, but that costs lots of money. The problem is that I’ve never been able to save very much. I thought you might want to help me out there. I could live pretty nice with a nest egg of, let’s say, a hundred grand. I’ll give you the tape and you have my word that there will be no copies. You can trust me; after all, I already proved that I’m trustworthy by keeping quiet for all these years.”

“Even if I had that kind of money readily available, which I don’t, I would never pay anything to you. How can you threaten to ruin the reputation of an upstanding woman who just made a mistake? A woman you say you have a lot of respect for. She’s had enough heartbreak in her life. You shouldn’t be trying to profit from it.”

“I haven’t threatened anyone and don’t act so high and mighty with me, mister I’m willing to bet that she wouldn’t have gotten that cushy divorce settlement from her husband if he had known about her affair with me. She’s profited plenty. I just want to get my share of that money to keep my mouth shut. I think that’s very fair,”

“Perhaps you haven’t given it much thought, Luke, but blackmail will get you a change of scenery that you won’t enjoy too much.”

“Do you think I’m stupid? Do you think I haven’t thought this thing through? Well, I’m betting that you and your lady won’t want the kind of publicity you would get if that ever happens. Look, I’m not in the mood to play games with you. If you aren’t interested, maybe Adam Hampton will be, or as a last resort, I can get a few bucks selling my story. Dirt on the Hamptons will sell. After all it’s my story too so I can tell it to anyone I want to. There’s no crime in that, now is there? You’ve got ‘till noon tomorrow.”

Daniel looked at Lauren. Through the tears that were flowing down her cheeks she made it clear that she didn’t want him to make any deal with Luke.

With that assurance, Daniel concluded the call, “There won’t be any money coming from me, Luke. I hope that you have a change of heart and do the decent thing. You’ll never find any peace in your life by coercing people into giving you money like this. I wish you the best.” Daniel didn’t wait for a response. He hung up the phone and rushed immediately to Lauren’s side.

She spoke first, “I’m sorry, Daniel. I should have told you, but it was so long ago that I never thought it would surface again. It only lasted two months. It was at a really low point in my marriage. I was vulnerable and Luke was available. I’m so ashamed.”

He took her hands in his. “You’ve done nothing wrong, Lauren. None of this matters to me. I love you for who you are now, not who you were then. I wish I knew what’s going to happen next. I suspect he’ll go to Adam with his tape, and maybe Adam will think about using it as a wedge to reduce or cancel your support payments. Of course if he did, he would risk exposure of the fraud he committed. More than likely, regardless of how tempted he is, he will probably send Luke packing just as I did.”

“What will Luke do then?”

“He threatened to sell his story to the media. It would be a much smaller payday for him, but from the short conversation we had, I think he’s vindictive enough to do it. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens when he talks to Adam. I’m pretty sure Adam will call you as soon as he hears about it.”

Daniel put his arms around her and held her close. “I love you too much to let anyone smear your good name. Just as a precaution I’ll call Walt Madding at Palentine and ask him to do a quick check on Luke Martin. Let’s see who we’re dealing with before we do anything more.”

He called Walt with the details. Walt promised to do a quick probe of Luke.

As Daniel was concluding his call with Walt, Lauren’s cell phone rang. She saw that it was Adam calling. She answered the call and got a three minute tirade from him about infidelity and how he had been faithful throughout their marriage. He finished with the wish that he had known about her affair before he agreed to pay her the exorbitant amount of support he put out every month. When his venting was over, she asked him to hold for a minute. Daniel had finished his call and was urging her to let him talk to Adam. She handed him the phone.

“Adam, Daniel here.”

“What do you want, McKnight? This has nothing to do with you. Don’t you think that you’ve meddled enough in my business?”

“I beg to differ. What concerns Lauren, concerns me, now. Besides, when she gets a call asking for a hundred thousand dollars, it becomes my business.” He stopped for a second to collect his thoughts. “Look, Adam, there’s nothing to be gained by rehashing the past. I think we need to work together to figure out how to deal with this weasel.”

Adam had no immediate response. There was reluctance in his voice when he finally spoke, “He asked me for the same amount. I told him I had no interest in dealing with him.”

“I told him to take a hike, too. He threatened to call you and if that didn’t work he said that he’d sell his story to a gossip rag.”

“I’m going to level with you, McKnight; I don’t give a rat’s ass what he does. Don’t try to make her sordid affair my business. I’m the one who was cuckolded and she has a lot more to lose by a scandal than I do. I’ll take my chances.”

“I don‘t disagree with you, Adam. Does that mean that you’re washing your hands on the entire situation, even if it means bad publicity for Lauren and for you?”

“She made her bed, or should I say hay stack, let the cheatin’ bitch sleep in it. Don‘t call me again.” Adam hung up.

Daniel turned to Lauren and updated her, “He wants no part of it. He’s very bitter. It looks like we’re going to have to handle this by ourselves.”

“I guess he has every right to be upset. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to call Walt again. We need to stop Luke from going to the media.”

Adam’s face was fiery red as he slammed the phone down. The nerve of those two expecting me to help them cover up her infidelity with a stable hand of all things. So McKnight wants to be her “knight in shining armor”. Well, we’ll see. Maybe it’s about time to topple the high and mighty Daniel McKnight. Adam picked up the phone and set up a meeting.

 

Two days later Daniel met Lauren in his office to update her on the “Luke Martin” situation. She could tell from his relaxed demeanor that he had good news.

“Well, it‘s over,” he said as he handed her the tape.

“The little pissant decided to surrender the tape and take a bus to Florida with ten thousand dollars in his pocket. I think he was very happy to put Old Brooking behind him.”

“How did you get him to do that?”

“Walt borrowed two of my three hundred pound Wildcat line backers and paid Luke a visit at the room where he was staying. He traded the tape for the ten thousand dollars, a one-way ticket to Miami and two unbroken legs. Walt says he seemed happy with the arrangement. It turns out he has a long arrest record as a minor, which the club never knew about. Walt found a small quantity of cocaine in his room, which Luke claimed they planted. With two prior convictions as a juvie, it would have put him away for a while. The bottom line is that he’s on the bus and is out of our lives for good. He’s lucky that Walt is a nice guy. Luke swore that this is the only copy. Walt warned him that if anything ever came out about the affair, that they would find him and finish the job. By the way, I had to play the tape to make sure it was the right one.”

She looked at the tape in her hand. “Again, I‘m sorry, Daniel, that you had to get involved in this. I guess the only thing left to do is to destroy this.”

Daniel found a “butt can” in a supply closet. They went out to the practice field. He squirted lighter fluid on the tape and dropped a match on top. They both watched silently as the tape twisted and squirmed as it surrendered to its inevitable expiration. In minutes it was a molten mass at the bottom of the can.

“Should we call Adam and let him know?

“No, let him sweat. We don’t owe him a thing.”