Gaslight

GASLIGHT

“I’m sorry,” he said.

I looked back at my friend—oops, my now former friend—Marco.

“Too late,” I said turning forward and walking away. I’d had it. I was at the end of my rope. I was done.

“Sam, I’m sorry” he said running to catch up with me. “I didn’t think it was a big deal.”

I stopped and turned back to look at him. “Are you kidding me? You didn’t think accusing me of stealing your idea is a big deal?”

He shrugged. “You know what I mean.”

I breathed in slowly, trying to hold my temper. “You told the bosses that it was your concept, and that I was trying to take credit for your work. Now I have to attend an ethics tribunal. I could lose my job!” I looked away, then back at Marco. “Thanks a lot! And by the way, it is a big deal!” 

This was bad. Really, really bad. Regardless of the outcome of the tribunal, I would always be suspect. Even if I was completely exonerated, there would always be that question about my honesty. I was ruined.  

Unconsciously, I started walking slowly towards home. I had to go somewhere. I couldn’t go back to work—I was suspended until the tribunal. I didn’t think that drowning my sorrows at a bar would be a good idea right now, either. I couldn’t face my parents. I was the only one in my family to finish high school and go to university—all their hopes were riding on me. They’d be devastated by the allegations, the taint, the hint of impropriety.

Why did this happen?

Marco started about a month after me. His desk was close to mine, so we became friends, almost organically. We were both in the development side of the business, responsible for coming up with new concepts for the platforms that our tech company was developing. It was a great gig. The company was a fantastic employer. They worked really hard to make their employees happy—lots of perks, a great dynamic office space, plenty of support.  

Now that was probably going to end for me.

Damn you, Marco!

We’d spent a lot of time brainstorming, bouncing ideas off each other. I’d had a bit of success. One of the apps that I’d designed had gone viral, and for a short period of time, I was a darling at the company. But, you’re only as good as your latest creation, so while tending to my app baby, I also had to continue developing new and exciting content. Right now, the company was focussing on AI—you know, maybe use a bit of AI to run an app or program. Because everyone was jumping on the AI bandwagon, we had to pile on as well. It was a great selling point because AI was, well, the newest and most exciting thing out there. In a world of new and exciting, AI applications were the cat’s meow, as my grandma used to say. 

But Marco was not your usual geek. I’d always thought that maybe sales was more his field. He could sell snow in the winter. He was very charismatic, and entertaining, and fun to be around. He was everyone’s friend, and everyone liked him.  But, I could also see that he was a bit glib and insincere. You know, the person who, when you’re talking to them, is always looking around for someone more interesting to talk to? Or the kind of person who smiles a lot, but those smiles never reach their eyes? That was Marco, but the good out weighed the bad. 

We became friends outside of work, and we would hang out. I wasn’t in seeing anyone right now, but had been in a committed relationship for a number of years. Marco, on the other hand, was involved in a number of short-term relationships that fizzled out quickly. His excuse was they were too clingy, they were too needy, they had trust issues, they had daddy issues. Right now, I was pretty sure they had Marco issues.  

I continued walking towards home, knowing that Pat, my dog (get it? Pat my dog? Who says computer geeks aren’t funny?), and an unopened bottle of a lovely South African pinotage were waiting for me and my troubles. By the time I arrived home, my mood was ... different. I was no longer homicidal, and I'd stop crying half way home. I was now calm-ish. I knew that I needed to look at the problem logically—the same way that I approached programming or project development. Logic would be my friend.

I unlocked the door and was greeted by Pat’s excited barking. Except he wasn’t at the door. It sounded like he was in the backyard.  

What the hell?  

I walked to the back door. Pat was on the other side of the door, on the deck, loosing his bananas, barking and jumping. While Pat was part border collie and very clever, but I didn’t think he was smart enough to open the back door, go outside and lock the door from the inside.

This was not good. I went outside with Pat, and called nine-one-one.

“Nine-one-one. What’s your emergency?”

“Someone broke into my house.”

“Are they still in the house?”

“I don’t know. I’m outside with my dog in the backyard.”

“Do not go back into the house,” warned the officer. “Officers are on the way.”

I clipped on Pat’s leash before I took him out front to wait for the police. I stood across the street, on my neighbour Marjorie’s lawn. No way I wanted to be anywhere near my house if there was an intruder still inside.

“I see you’ve rescued Pat from the backyard,” said a voice behind me.  

I turned, and smiled at Marjorie. We walked up towards her front porch.

“Hey Marjorie. Did Pat’s barking wake you?”

Marjorie was a bar owner who worked most nights until two or three in the morning. “No problem. I was going to get up anyways.” She smiled and walked down the steps so that she could give Pat some chin scritches. “Hey buddy!” she said to Pat. She looked up at me. “He was frantic. I was just on my way over to rescue him.” 

Marjorie and I had a reciprocal relationship—she’d feed and let Pat out if I was going to be late, and I would feed her cats, Bonnie and Clyde, if she couldn’t make it home.

“Someone was in my house.  They locked Pat outside in the yard. We're waiting for the police to get here.”

“Oh my God! Did they take anything?”

“I have no idea. When I realized that someone had been in the house, I went outside, rescued Pat, and called the cops.” I looked from my house to Marjorie. “How long was he barking for?”

Marjorie thought for a moment. “Maybe fifteen minutes.”

That meant that someone could still be in the house. I shivered involuntarily.  

Just then the police arrived. As the squad car pulled up to the curb, I walked over, introduced myself, and explained why I had called them. There were two officers—a woman and a man. They told me to go back over to Marjorie’s house, and stay there until someone came to get me.  

I returned to Marjorie’s porch. We watched the house in silence.

When I broke the silence, it was to ask Marjorie about her security system. Marjorie had been a security expert before she’d chucked it all to buy a bar. Every time she offered to hook me up with a personal security system, I’d always passed, saying that I had Pat to take care of any problems. Apparently I was wrong. She told me she’d get the contact info for the guy who had installed her system.

The two police officers came out my front door. They were not alone. Marco was with them, his hands cuffed in front of him.  

I knew it!

“Seriously!” I could hear him pleading. “She’s having a bit of trouble at work right now, and needed to get her copy of the work before she could tamper with it. Ask her bosses! They’ll confirm what I say!”

Pat started growling and barking, pulling at his leash. He had never liked Marco. Every time he came over, Pat would growl and stay by my side. But he’d never behaved like this.

“Son of a bitch!” I said, stomping over to where Marco was bleating his innocence to the police. I walked right up to Marco, and stabbed my finger towards his face. “He DOES NOT have permission to be in my house. And HE is the reason that I’ve got problems at work!” I said, barely being able to stop myself from throttling the life out of him.

Pat barked and growled.

“Quietly,” I said with a slight tug at his collar.  If only that worked for Marco! Pat stopped barking and pulling, but continued to growl softly, showing his teeth to Marco.

Marco ignored Pat. He shook his head. “No way. She stole my work, and was trying to pass it off as her own.”

“Bullshit!” I said stomping my foot. “You’re a liar!”

“Quiet!” said the female officer, looking at Marco and me. “Both of you!”

We complied.

“Now,” she said, holding out a laptop—my laptop, “Who owns this?”

“It’s mine,” I said at the same time that Marco said, “Me!”

“Liar” I said taking a step towards him. Pat growled louder.

Carlos shook his head. “It’s mine, officers. She stole it. When I found it, it had been wiped clean. She stole all my data.”  

I stood there, gape-mouthed. “You erased and reset my computer? All my stuff is gone?” I said, a sick feeling in my stomach. “You asshole!”

Marco looked at me. “You did that to my computer? How could you? I thought we were friends.” He shook his head sadly. “Officers, it’s my computer, and she destroyed it.”

Now I was really angry. “I can prove that this—” I pointed to the laptop the officer was holding, “—is mine.”

Marco shook his head. “I bought this laptop for me off of Facebook Marketplace. It’s mine.”

“Take the bottom cover off,” I said. “On the bottom are my initials, engraved beside the serial number.”

The officer pried off the bottom cover. “There was something there, but it’s been scratched off. And there’s no serial number.”

“You bastard!” I said. “How long have you been planning this?”

The female officer looked at her partner, who shrugged. “Okay. First,” she looked at me. “Do you want him arrested and charged?

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Absolutely!” I said.

“Come on, Sam!” said Marco, “Don't do this! I’m sorry I didn’t want to sleep with you.” He looked at the officers. “This is a revenge crime, I swear. She’s setting me up!”

I stood there, gobsmacked. ‘’I have never, ever, EVER thought of him romantically. Ew. He was good looking but, seriously, looks aren’t everything.” I shuddered and turned to look at Marco, directly. “I would rather crawl naked, through glass, than have sex with you.” I turned to the officers. “He’s crazy. And delusional. And a liar.”

“Sam, you have to tell the police the truth!” he pleaded.

“Like you’re telling the truth right now, you liar!”

“Quiet!” said the female police officer, looking back and forth between us. She turned to Marco. ”You are being arrested for break and enter. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law …” She read him his rights. “Do you understand these rights as I have presented them to you?”

“You’re making a grave mistake, officers. She’s the thief!” he said, pointing his handcuffed hands toward me.

“Do you understand your rights?” she repeated, stridently. The officer was getting annoyed, and took a step towards Marco, making sure that he was paying attention to what she was saying.

“Yes,” he said. “I understand my rights.”

“Good,” she said. “We are going to take you down to the police station and book you.” She looked at me. “We need you to come down to the station so that we can straighten up this whole computer mess out.” She paused and looked closely at me. “And we’re going to need you to come down as soon as possible. Within the next hour.”

I nodded.

As they were leading Marco to the patrol car, I could hear him throwing me under the bus,

“She’s a psycho …”

“I never trusted her …”

“She can’t do her job. That’s why she stole my data …”

“Her dog’s a psycho, too. He’s a dangerous dog! He bit me! He should be put down. She should be put down.”

Marjorie offered to keep Pat until I came back from the police station. I went into my house, looking for evidence that Marco had been there. Although he was very careful, just the knowledge that he had breached my sanctum sanctorum, my private space, was disquieting. I now understood when people said that they felt violated by a break in.

I was creeped out by the fact that he’d been in here, alone. What else had he done when I wasn’t here? Did he go through my things? I was going to have to burn everything he touched.

I collected all the information that I needed, and headed down to the station. When I arrived, I was put in a small room—not an interrogation room, but a visitor’s room with a couple of chairs and a couch, to wait.

The same female officer came into the room. I gave her the information about my computer. There was no serial number any more—it had been etched off—but I had the receipt for a computer just like the one they had found in the house. I had all my documents backed up on the cloud, dated and secure. No one knew my password except me, so they were safe.  I showed them to her on my phone.

“It seems that you were telling the truth.” She said, nodding her head slightly. “Thank you for coming down and straightening this out for us.” She looked at me. “This is not the type of charge that we keep people in jail for. If he can make bail, he should be out before dinner time. Be careful.”

I left the police station. As I was walking towards my car, I smiled. Things were going to be okay. I’d proved my case to the police. I was sure that I could convince the ethics board—especially once they found out that Marco had been arrested. As weird as it seemed, I was almost glad Marco had broken into my house. It put the blame clearly on his shoulders.  

*****

GRRRRRRR!

I bolted up in bed, listening. “What is it, boy?” I asked, my hand going to his Pat's. Then I heard it—knocking at the door.  I looked at the clock. It was after two in the morning. It could only be one person.

Common sense said to not answer the door, and to call the police. But I ignored common sense. I opened the door, and, as suspected, there was Marco.

“Why, Sam? Why are you doing this to me?” he said immediately.

“Why am I doing this to you?” I retorted. “You broke into my house, and tried to steal my computer. You locked Pat outside. You invaded my home!” 

“You’re a psycho, Sam. You need help.”

“I’ve called the police. They should be here any second. You better go.”

He leaned in and whispered. “You should never have screwed me over, Sam. You’re gonna pay for that mistake.”

I whispered back. “You should never have rejected me, Marco. You’re paying for that mistake right now.” 

I shut the door, and waited for the police.