Linda Singleton was more confused and bewildered than ever. Tommy had come home the night before and told her he had been spending a lot of time with the Furnesses, trying to help them with a problem they were having; he had mentioned something about Fred being temporarily impotent. Linda had been so relieved to learn that Tommy had not been going out with other women after all that she had readily agreed when he had asked if she would attempt to bring the older couple back together before it was too late. She had called Fred Furness that very evening while Tommy listened and made an appointment to meet them on Sunday afternoon in their apartment. She didn't say anything about Fred's previous visit, when he had attached the tape recorder to the telephone. She was not quite sure how Tommy would take her participation in Fred's spying on his wife's activities.
Then, early Saturday morning, while Tommy was out of the house coaching the Little League baseball team from the neighborhood, Fred had called again. He sounded more depressed and desperate than ever, and begged Linda to come over as soon as possible that day. Since it was Saturday, Linda promised that just as soon as she could finish the housework and the little bit of shopping she had to do, she would pass by the apartment.
As she rang the doorbell and waited, she couldn't help recalling the obscene sounds she had heard the last time she had been there. She wondered vaguely what she or Tommy would be able to do for this couple, but, having promised, she couldn't back out now even if she wanted to.
Suddenly she heard footsteps approaching inside the door. It opened, and she stood face-to-face with Fred Furness. He looked even more concerned and worried than before, and she felt so sorry for him it was all she could do to keep from reaching out to him with her hand to comfort him.
'Thanks for coming, Linda,' he said in a voice filled with despondency. 'I don't know what I would do if there weren't someone I could talk to about this thing.'
'I don't know if I'll be any help at all, Fred. But I'll try. That's what friends are for.' Before now, she had never really considered the Furnesses to be friends of hers, but after going through all that unfounded worry about Tommy, she felt very sympathetic toward them. She even felt a little guilty in a way, because she found herself secretly thankful that it was the Furnesses and not herself and Tommy who were in this predicament. She was trying to decide whether she should tell Grace Furness in private that she had heard the other day outside the door, when she became aware of the fact that Fred must be alone in the apartment.
'Where's Grace?' the innocent young bride asked, slightly nervous at being alone with Fred. She wouldn't want Grace to think anything was going on without her knowledge.
Furness made an angry gesture with his hand. 'Grace and I had another knock-down, drag-out argument earlier this morning before I called you, and she walked out. I had positive proof of my suspicions this time and she couldn't take it. The two-timing bitch!' he snarled.
'I'm so sorry,' Linda consoled him. She had a fleeting image in her mind of Fred playing the tape he had made in her bedroom, and she was filled with a terrible sense of responsibility. Perhaps she should have refused to let him use her for that purpose, but she didn't know what she could have done. She sat down nervously on the edge of a chair and watched Fred pace back and forth, almost inaudible curses spewing from his lips.
Suddenly he stopped in front of her and looked down into her face. 'I hate to bring you into this awful mess, Linda, but I see no other way,' he said at length.
Linda was surprised at his expression. Now he seemed to be looking at her with compassion, almost as if it were she instead of he who was having the trouble.
'Tommy mentioned the problem I've been having with my wife, didn't he?' Furness asked.
Thinking he was talking about the inability to make love to his wife, she nodded her head and blushed, not being accustomed to discussing such matters with anyone except her own husband.
'Good,' Fred went on. 'Then I don't have to break the bad news myself. What are we going to do about it?' he demanded in a voice that was suddenly gruff and vindictive.
'I-I don't understand,' she stammered. She couldn't imagine why her neighbor thought she herself should do anything except perhaps offer some advice.
'Don't understand? I mean how do we even the score with those two! If they think they can do this to us and get away with it, they're crazy!' he practically shouted at her.
The full implication of his words struck her like a sledgehammer. She felt her whole body tense. She hadn't had the slightest idea that this was what he wanted to talk about, and she braced herself, afraid she just might go to pieces. It couldn't possibly be true! Not her own husband with Grace! The stunned young bride sat speechless before her husband's friend of so many years, her eyes wide open in disbelief.
Fred Furness watched her shocked reaction with inward glee. He knew she was completely surprised by his words, and he could see on her face her frantic attempts to hide her feelings. Slowly, he pretended that it was just dawning on him that she did not know what had been going on.
'My God!' he breathed. 'I thought Tommy had already told you about it. Here, let me get you a drink.' He hurriedly mixed a strong vodka and soda and handed it to her with an air of commiseration.
'I suggest you slug a little of this down. It might make it easier for you,' he told her.
Linda continued sitting stiffly for what seemed a long time, not yet able to trust her hands to hold the glass. Finally, she took a deep breath and accepted it, hoping it would wash away the choking feeling she felt in her throat. 'All right,' she whispered in a soft voice. 'Thank you.'
She sipped slowly at the burning liquid, fighting to control the tears which threatened to flood up into her eyes, still nursing a dim hope in the back of her mind that it was all a mistake, that Fred Furness was jumping to conclusions completely unfounded in fact.
'You'd better drink all of it. This is a pretty rough thing to take, so you'd better sit back. I don't want you falling off the chair when you hear this,' he said, opening a drawer under the coffee table. She watched uncertainly as he pulled out the transistor tape recorder he had brought to her apartment, put it on the table and started to sit down on the couch opposite her. Suddenly there was a noise in the hallway, and he tilted his head and listened intently as the door to another apartment opened and closed.
'You can hear everything in this place,' he complained. 'I'd rather the neighbors didn't know what's on the tape. Come on into the other room and I'll close the door. And bring your drink,' he ordered, not giving her a chance to object before he led the way.
Reluctantly, Linda managed to get up from where she sat. Her knees felt weak and trembled slightly as she followed him toward the back of the apartment. When she saw it was the bedroom he was taking her to, she hesitated in the doorway before finally deciding to enter. Then she crossed past the foot of the big double bed and sat in the chintz armchair by the window.
'I'm sorry to be the one to break the news to you,' Fred said in a convincing voice. 'If I'd known, I wouldn't have blurted it out like that. But what's done is done,' he apologized.
Without any further waiting, he leaned forward over the tape recorder he had placed on the bedside table and switched it on. Linda held her outward calm now by sheer force of will, but involuntarily she sucked in her breath when the first sounds came to her ears. At first there was only the slight rustle of clothes being hurriedly removed, coupled with the almost undetectable noises of heavy breathing.
'I've left out the first part,' he explained. 'This is what I'm certain you'll be most interested in.'
There was near silence for a moment, and then she could hear a woman's voice coming through.
'Have you had many women? Other than your wife, I mean.'
'That's my wife Grace,' Furness whispered, watching the expression on Linda's face intently.
'Enough.' It was the familiar voice of Linda's husband Tommy coming over the speaker; even the distortion of the telephone could not keep her from recognizing him. Her face turned almost white. There was a pause and then Grace's voice continued and was answered by Tommy's.
'Is Linda good in bed?'
'She's too inexperienced.'
Linda gasped out loud and her face flushed. Furness reached forward and switched the recorder off. Smiling secretly to himself at her husband's remark about her sexual capability, he was thinking it might be enough to set her off.
In spite of the suggestive nature of the conversation she was hearing on the tape, Linda felt compelled to
