Thief Pt. 01

I slowly walked around the room from the window. I knew this room should be empty, but mistakes do happen. I was lucky, all was quiet. I went to the door and listened. Silence. I slowly opened the door and scanned the hallway. Perfect, no one around. I walked to the right until I got to the door I was after and then put a small device on the keypad. A minute later the door beeped and opened. I went into the room and did what I came to do.

25 minutes later I was walking outside heading toward the rear of the estate when I heard a voice I shouldn't hear.

Oh yes, give it to me!"

The voice came from an opened window, and I carefully looked into the room. Yep, there she was riding on top of her boss. I quickly took some pictures and video and then continued on my way. I kept my mind focused on my job and made it safely to the boat I had waiting for me. I then navigated my way quietly away from the area.

Two hours later, I docked the boat at a private dock, wiped it down just in case, and left that area. Another two hours and I was sitting in my 'office' going over the pictures I had taken. There was no doubt that the woman was indeed my wife of last five years. The man was her boss and yep, they were having sex. Now I needed to think and to plan.

I was surprised when my wife told me we were invited to a dinner at the Albatross. It was a private club on the ocean, and I had always wanted to look around inside for professional reasons. To have my wife give me a way in was fantastic. The only problem with the whole evening was the way my wife acted around her colleagues. There was nothing ever overt, but yet, there was a constant sense I was being laughed at. My wife continually spoke for me dodging any questions about what I did and even then, it seemed a bit belittling with the way she talked about me to others. I mean I realize that when you think your husband is a nerd that fixes computer problems, to some that may seem dull and menial, but she had never given me a reason to think she felt that way when I told her what I did.

The only other issue I had was the way she acted around her boss. She treated him like a king. Since I was being treated like a peasant, this was not good. I kept my mouth shut and was glad of the opportunity to be in the Albatross. I looked around as much as I was allowed and then smiled when we finally left.

I had told my wife I was going out of town that following weekend for work and her only response was a simple ok and her asking when I would be back. I told her I would be leaving on Thursday and returning Sunday night. Nothing else was ever said about my trip and I left on Thursday as I had said. I flew to New York, and then took a private flight to a nearby town.

After my job that night at the Albatross, the next day I again flew in a private plane back to New York and then returned on Sunday as promised. The two private flights were done under a different name with no tie to the name I was using at the moment. I always tried to keep things nice and separate.

I went home to an empty house and poured myself a drink. I was sitting in the den when she returned home from wherever she had been. She smiled at me and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

How was your trip?

It was fine.

Oh, that's good. It was a bit boring around here. I spent the weekend either in the pool or reading, so I am glad you are finally home.

We spent the evening relaxing together and then we went to bed. No, we didn't have sex. She had not initiated sex with me over the last few months and I quit initiating after our night at the Albatross. I had wondered then what was going on, but now that I knew, I had no desire to sleep with her again.

The following morning, she was up before me and out of the house before I even got out of bed. I slowly packed everything that was of value to me into boxes and put the boxes in my truck. When I finished, I went to the computer and entered a few commands and then calmly walked out of the house for the last time. I went to my office and repeated the process there and then left. I drove to the marina and put all my stuff on a boat that had just been placed back into the water. I had arranged this from New York. I then went and bought some supplies and again loaded those into the boat. By the time she would normally get home from work, I was already out to sea.

That morning the manager of the Albatross had come into work after having the weekend off, opened his office and then fainted. When he fell, he hit his head, and it took several hours for anyone to discover him. He was rushed to the hospital and did not wake up until the next morning. That little accident cost authorities another whole day for their investigation.

Not long after he fell and hit his head, an electrical fire broke out at a house on the other side of town. The fire department was unable to save the house and the investigation into the cause of the fire determined that the owner had apparently hooked too many items up to an extension cord in her bathroom. Simple dumb luck that she was at work when it happened.

My wife returned home to find her house a smoldering ruin and no sign of her husband. She called me and got a message that the number was no longer in service. She went to find me at work. She went to the building she had dropped me off at several times over the last few years only to learn that no one there had ever heard of me or even seen me that they could remember.

In a panic, she checked her online banking application and saw that her accounts were normal. We did not have a joint account. Each of us had our own accounts and simply paid all bills together. She tried everything to get ahold of me and in doing so realized how little she knew about me. She didn't know where I worked, she had only dropped me off and never visited me at work. She didn't know any of my friends, not even their names. She went to her parents' house and explained what had happened. They agreed she could stay with them.

Over the next few days, she learned that the house she thought of as theirs was not owned by either of us. There was no insurance on it that she could find. She learned that there was no record of her 'husband' anywhere other than on her marriage license. Her boss had called in some favors and found that my name had belonged to an 89-year-old man who had died the year she met me. I was a ghost. No records, no phone number, nothing that would lead to me. She was devastated. She spent several days crying.

Well, she was dealing with her loss, the Albatross was dealing with theirs. The police began going through their membership and checking out everyone that had had access to the office. Her boss was questioned about the people that were at his party and he had informed the police none of them were given access to the office area. He did mention that one of his employee's husband had disappeared after that weekend but swore that the man had not had any chance to go into the office. It was locked during dinner.

The police of course checked out the husband and learned that it was a false name. He became the number one suspect. They brought the wife in for questioning. It was during that questioning that they learned about the wife's affair with her boss. Even with that there was nothing that led them to question the boss any further. At least until they received an anonymous email that informed them that the boss had an account in the Caymans. A quick check showed that his account had received a rather large amount of money in the days after the incident. Now the police had two suspects.

The police spent months investigating and, in the end, had to drop the case for a lack of evidence. But they kept a close eye on her boss. Close enough that they got him for possession of cocaine less than a month after they dropped the theft case. He had almost a kilo, so he was sentenced for possession with the intent of distributing. He died in prison a few years later.

A year after I disappeared my wife filed for divorce on the grounds of abandonment. She got nothing out of the divorce. She was left with only bills and a whole lot of tears.

I was living on a lovely private island that was part of the country of Vanuatu. I bought this island to get away from it all and I liked it. I had a wonderful villa with a state-of-the-art alarm system. After all, I had a lot of precious artifacts and artwork to protect.