Valentina's Manster

Read the first pages

From Chapter 1

Valentina's boss thinks her husband is cheating. She wants Valentina to go catch him.

“It’s Victor. I think he’s cheating on me.” Her hand gripped mine.

I wanted to shake my head. She’d been a divorce attorney for twenty years and knew how a sneaking suspicion could make a person lose sight of reality. One of the best and highest paid divorce attorneys in the greater Houston area.

Instead, I leaned forward and squeezed her hand. “What makes you think that?”

“He’s been so secretive lately. Then yesterday, I overheard him on the phone. He’s meeting someone for a trail ride at some stable this afternoon. I need you to go and take pictures. If he’s cheating on me, I’m going to put him through the wringer.”

“Whoa. I’m all for putting in extra effort around the office, but I don’t do fieldwork.” We had plenty of professionals for that. Men and women who’d chosen to make a living by capturing and immortalizing the infidelity of strangers.

“I can’t call one of our regular contractors.” Michelle’s lower lids brimmed with tears. “Word would get out, and he’d know I was checking up on him.”

Maybe she should have thought of that before she married another successful divorce attorney. Still, there had to be another way. “Can’t you look at his phone? Dig through his suit jacket for receipts?”

Her lips pursed. “Give me some credit. I’ve already done that. He’s hiding something. I just know it.”

“How do you expect me to get close enough for a photo if he’s going on a trail ride? I’m not getting on a horse, and I don’t have professional equipment.” Most of the contractors we worked with had a huge collection of lenses. I’d seen them myself when they came into the office to show us incriminating evidence they’d captured involving our clients or their almost-ex spouses.

“I’ll buy the equipment. There’s a camera store a few blocks over. I’ll give you cash. I don’t want there to be any record of the purchase.” She got up from the chair and crouched behind her desk.

“You’re not thinking rationally.” In my experience, people in a situation like this rarely did. We worked with them all the time. Michelle had just negotiated one of the largest divorce settlements in Texas state history a few weeks ago. We’d spent most of our time trying to convince the wife she’d get everything she wanted out of the settlement if she’d let her soon-to-be-ex have custody of their cat. Their dead cat. The husband wanted to dig it up from the backyard and re-bury it at his new home.

People could get so emotionally attached to the strangest things. Jealousy and paranoia made normal people do some weird ass shit, and now it looked like my boss had been afflicted by the urge.

“Please, Valentina?” She held out a stack of one-hundred-dollar bills. A thick stack. “You’re the only one I can ask to do this for me. Buy the equipment you need and keep whatever’s left over.”

I didn’t want to take advantage of her in a moment of weakness, but I’d been trying to figure out a way to pay for some recent car repairs, plus I had my eye on a pair of killer tall boots.

Against my better judgement, I caved. “I’ll give you one afternoon. If he doesn’t show, I’m not going to track him all over Texas.”

She nodded. “One afternoon. That’s all I’m asking.”

Find out what happens next tonight.