I saw the image through the frosted glass in the door. It hesitated, moved back and then forward. There was a little more hesitation and then the door opened and she came in.

Seeing her almost took my breath away. She was gorgeous. I believe the phrase that suited her best was “Drop Dead Gorgeous.” I stood up from behind my desk to greet her and said as I offered her my hand:

“Good morning. I’m Robert Dalton.”

She took the offered hand, shook it and said “Sonia. Sonia Harding.”

“Won’t you please have a seat and tell me what I can do for you?”

She sat down and crossed her legs in that way that only women can seem to do be able to do. In the process displaying long shapely legs and feet encased in four inched heeled CFMs. There was no doubt in my mind, not even a smidgen, that the display was deliberate. The lady knew what she had and she used it to her advantage. She couldn’t possibly know that I was a ‘leg man’ and that high heels were one of my biggest turn-ons.

I sat there admiring the display and waited for her to tell me why she was in my office. Of course I knew why she was here, but needed to get to the specifics. Knew why she was here? The door she walked through had a sign on it. The sign said Dalton Investigative Services so Sonia Harding obviously needed the services of a private investigator.

She looked at me as if she were sizing me up and then said “I’m here to offer you a two week, all expenses paid vacation to Maui.”

I laughed and said “Sure. What’s the catch?”

“You have to go with me.”

Still chuckling I asked “Who put you up to this?”

“In a way I guess you could say it was your wife. When I found out she was who my husband was cheating on me with I decided that the best revenge would be to do the same thing with her husband, but unlike your wife and my husband I don’t intend to hide it. The question here is will you go along with it?”

I made a show of checking my calendar and then said “My calendar is clear until April tenth (it was then March third ) so just when do you see this revenge taking place?”

“I’m ready to leave right now.”

“Right now? You mean as of this minute? How are we going to do that? It takes time to arrange for hotel reservations, arrange for plane tickets. Need to pack for the trip and things like that.”

“Plane and place to stay are already taken care of. As for packing? We will buy what we need when we get there.”

This just had to be a prank that someone was playing on me, but I was just curious enough to go along with it and see where it was going so I said:

“Okay; I’m in. What now?”

“Now we go to Maui” she said as she stood up, looked at me and asked “Coming?”

I stood up and followed her out of the office, stopping just long enough to lock the place up, and then followed her out of the building where I got the first inkling that things might not be like I thought.

There, waiting at the curb was a limousine with a chauffeur leaning on the front fender. The chauffer straightened up as soon as he saw us walk out the building and moved to open the rear door. I followed her into the car and when the chauffer was in the car and behind the wheel she said:

“To the airport Frank.”

The chauffer started the car and we were on our way.

I reached forward and slid the privacy panel closed then asked:

“When did you find out about your husband cheating on you?”

“Yesterday.”

“You found out yesterday and were able to set this all up in less than twenty-four hours?”

“Nothing that money couldn’t take care of.”

“Money?”

“My maiden name was Westerbrook; as in Westerbrook Industries.”

“Then I guess you can afford it, but it doesn’t make sense to me. Your husband must be brain dead. I mean drop dead gorgeous, wealthy, and he takes a chance on losing it all by cheating on you? That just not make sense to me.”

“Me either, but he did and he got caught.”

As I looked at her I remembered reading about it in the newspaper. Randall Westerbrook and his wife Regina being lost at sea while they on their yacht on their way to Bermuda. It was a big story because of the Bermuda Triangle angle of the story. I did remember the story mentioning they were survived by a daughter and I was apparently being driven to the airport with her.

Sonia asked “What do you think your wife is going to think if you don’t come home tonight?”

“How about we don’t talk about her and your hubby while we are together. Talking about them would be a downer and I’d much rather spend our time together in a good mood, no, make that a great mood.”

“That’s a marvelous way of approaching our vacation. Tell me a little about yourself.”

“Ladies first.”

“Nothing much to tell. Cheerleader in high school, graduated and went to Wharton to get my Bachelors in Business Management and then an MBA followed by my joining the family business. I’m active in several charities and civic pursuits and I stay in shape by playing tennis, swimming laps in my pool and running five miles a day at least four times a week. I’d like to do it every day, but sometimes business gets in the way. I like all kinds of music except rap and I have season tickets to the Broncos, the Rockies and the Denver Symphony. Your turn.”

“Early on about the same as you. Played football and baseball in high school and after graduating I went To Metro State to get a Bachelors in Business Management, but I got tired of school, dropped out and joined the Army. I ended up in Military Police and spent the last year of my enlistment in the Criminal Investigation Division.

“Following my discharge I joined the police force where I worked nights while I went back to school and got my Bachelors during the days. Once I got my degree in Business Management, I quit the force because I got fed up doing nothing but writing traffic tickets. I’d liked the work I did in CID so I decided to set myself up as a private investigator. And I’m pretty successful at it.”

Then she wanted to know what I did as a PI and I gave her a thumb-nail sketch. It wasn’t like some people thought where I spent all my time following husbands and wives trying to find cheating although there was some of that. The majority of my business were insurance companies where I investigated suspicious and fraudulent claims. I had four insurance companies that had me on retainer to investigate things where needed.