Testing my wife's fidelity 3
“Hello, rajiv mittal speaking.” “is your wife’s name manisha?” asked a female voice. “yes,” i said suspiciously, “what is this about?” “i just wanted to warn you that your wife is going to have an affair.” “what? Who is this? Is this some kind of a joke because it isn’t funny,” i said. “you are free to take it as you want …but i warned you” she said, before setting down the phone. This had to be some kind of a joke but who and why would anyone do anything thing like this to me? I wondered if the caller knew it was a joke or was she just doing something she was asked to do by someone else? I got back to work for a meeting at 2 o’clock and the problems brought to light during the meeting kept me busy the rest of the afternoon. However i could not help thinking about the anonymous call as i drove home that evening. I intended to tell manisha about the call but i decided that was not the best course of action. I had first to figure out if it was a joke and who was behind it. There was also the fact that some time back manisha asked me whether i had ever thought of having an affair. During the evening i kept wondering whether these two pieces of information were related. As it turned out i did not have much opportunity to talk with manisha that night. After dinner i got a call from one of our project managers and while i was talking to him, manisha came into my office and whispered that she was tired and was going up to bed. By the time i got off the phone, manisha was already asleep. The following day i had to tackle a few urgent issues and had to put the call out of my mind and it just faded into the background. I didn’t think about it again until a few days later when i was going over a project with my partner shekhar. When my phone rang, i picked it up without lifting my head from the computer screen and answered, “rajiv mittal here.” “you didn’t pay attention to what i told you, did you?” came the familiar voice. “shekhar, i have to take this call, do you mind,” i immediately said. “no problem,” shekhar said as he went out and closed the door behind him. Trying to remain calm, i asked, “so, who are you?” “it doesn’t matter …just pay more attention to your wife,” the voice said. A thought flashed through my mind, if i could to keep her talking some more, maybe i cold find where the call was coming from. “is there something else i should know?” i asked. “yes …but it’s up to you decide if you want to keep your wife,” she said. My stomach muscles tighten involuntarily. “why do you say that?” i said. A thousand things were going on in my mind at that time and it took me a few seconds to realize that the caller had hung up without answering my question. Now was the time to find out from where the call came and i knew only richa, our secretary could tell me. I immediately rushed to the reception room, but richa was nowhere to be seen. Just then i heard giggling in one of the cubicles nearby and knew it had to be her. I wanted to tell her off for not doing her work but knew right away that was not the best approach if i wanted her to help me. “richa,” i said, walking up to her, “i need our help in retracing a call i just had.” “of course, sir,” she said, not the least affected by the fact that i’d just caught her fooling around with her friend, instead of working. I accompanied her to her desk and waited patiently for her to take her seat. “but, sir, did you get the call directly?” She asked. “yes,” i said. “then, i can’t say which call it is.” “why that?” “because we have received 10 calls over the last 5 minutes,” she said, “and it is impossible to say which call was transferred to your extension.” I now had to think out a solution fast. I told her “richa, can you please print out the list of all these 10 or more calls …” she looked at me and said, “but, sir, it is confidential …” “richa, please … i need to contact a major client who intends to invest millions of rupees in our company, and you are the only one i can trust to find his number,” i said. The trick seemed to work. Richa clicked on her mouse and immediately a screen capture of all incoming calls came out of the printer next to her. It was that simple. I immediately thought of something else. “richa, do one more thing, this same client phoned me on wednesday at around 1.30 …can you find a list of incoming calls in your archive.“ “yes, sir, it’s right here.” Richa was now taken up in her role and was willing to do everything in her power to help. “thanks dear, the boss will be proud of you,” i said as i collected the second printed sheet and went to my office. I knew that if i could find a phone number that was common on both sheets, this would probably be the one i was looking for. Unfortunately i found there were 3 numbers common on both sheets. These were from our regular batch of clients who must be calling the office every day. However i looked again and this time i recognized one of the numbers and … It was the number from my wife’s office. So, the caller was one of manisha’s colleagues. Who would that be? Why would she play such a joke on me and manisha? That brought me back to the basic problem. The caller was either telling the truth or she wasn’t. If she was lying, why did she do it? But now there was a serious possibility that she was telling the truth, which would mean that my wife was in touch with rohit sinha again. The last time i met him, he told me the board was about to decide on his case and i had assumed that he would be fired. Could it be that his suspension had been cancelled and he was back at the office and back courting my wife? The caller had told me that my wife was going to have an affair, meaning that they had not yet been at it. It could be she was one of manisha’s colleague who had seen them flirting and thought i should be told about it before it is too late. I knew i needed to find the truth and fast. One option was to ask manisha some questions.