Aleator quanto in arte est melior tanto est nequior

nder the auspices that he wanted to spare litigation that he claimed would be uneventful and unsuccessful for me anyway, DF made contact by email on Valentine's Day. He asserted that he'd gain all of the remaining assets, or at least 50% of them upon divorce, pursuant to the Agreements he'd cajoled me to sign while he was purportedly reconciling the marriage. That's the reconciliation he feigned whilst enjoying his illicit affair with KMC, making certain that any query or intervention from me would be the perfect reason to accuse me of failing to forgive and provide the trust necessary for rebuilding the marriage.

DF had a knack for choosing perfect timing. The prior year I'd been stood up for a planned dinner, while he dashed off to make KMC's evening "satisfying". In this incoming email, the first direct contact I'd received from DF since his disappearance, he demanded that I give him an additional $10,000 to avoid a process that he threatened he'd make very "nasty" and "dirty". Hah! As if I hadn't already learned that he would continue to sup from the "cocoon" he'd wrapped me in and take all that he could and be "ugly and dirty" about it anyway. All I could determine from the email was that it was sent from the laptop computer belonging to our jointly-owned business which he'd taken some 5 months earlier and failed to return. Presumably, from the ISP information, he was in the same town.

"Aleator quanto in arte est melior tanto est nequior. The cleaverer the gamester, the greater his knavery."

I chose to ignore DF's email. Besides, I had much more pressing and certainly much more enjoyable interests to focus on that day.

The terminal building was buzzing with activity from morn until late night. This day is traditionally one of our most active days and this year was no exception. We serviced a record number of guests and on frequent trips downstairs from my office complex, I scanned the crowds hoping to see a familiar face amongst the group of patrons. By this time, I had Doug's image well memorised from the photographs he'd provided. Albeit rather small, and supposedly harvested from his personal website as he claimed, they were adequate enough for me to be able to see enough detail that would set him apart from a crowd, instantaneously.

Although from Florida, his skin tone was not overly tanned ~ his complexion fair on the whole. His closely cropped dark brown hair featured no sideburns to speak of. He had crystal clear eyes, yes, piercing eyes focused on a subject like a hawk with straight fine-haired brows that served as the baseline to the strong plane of his forehead. Although the photos I had were a little small to make a clear distinction, he appeared to have either a dime-sized birthmark or a small dimple or impression on his left cheek which caught the light of the camera, just underneath the cheek bone. His ears were distinct too, with slightly exaggerated lower lobes. But the smile that was broad and inviting, exposed somewhat elongated front teeth, with a either a slightly perceptible gap or a shadow between the two fronts. His most distinguishing facial feature was a long, straight and pronounced nose.


Standing 6' tall, at approximately 195 lbs, he was an avid runner and had spoken of running as a form of relaxation. I could see from his picture, well the one which was a full body view, that his legs were toned in the calves and thighs. The backdrop appeared to be the Grand Canyon, although I've never been, it was rugged terrain. He wore a t-shirt with a motif on it that spelled out MacKenzie Challenge. I suspect it was a running event, perhaps in Florida somewhere. His skin appeared to be fine and smooth, the body hair on his arms and legs, almost down like in nature. He wore a gold signet type ring on his right ring finger (he said it was his grandfather's) and a watch on his left wrist that featured a black strap and appeared to have a rather intricate digital feature, ideal for timing accuracy. And were I to overhear him speaking, well there'd be no mistaking him. His unique voice had been permanently etched in my mind.

I was convinced that the reason I'd not received my morning offline was because he was here, in my town. He'd related many times that he was a non-conformist, and didn't do much according to convention. He preferred to surprise, rather than to perform on queue. I scanned the crowd thoroughly.