“Breaker, Breaker One-nine, anybody out there. I’ve broken down and need assistance. Breaker, breaker one-nine.”  I knew she was out there listening at two in the morning, her husband had told me so. She was always up in the middle of the night with the baby and she kept the base station on to keep her company while she tended the child.  The radio crackles, and I hear a sweet voice on the other end, “Breaker, Breaker one-nine, who is needing assistance? What can I do to help, this is Tender Touch” And that’s the conversation that started my deception of Tender Touch and she really was a tender touch, a tender heart, and soul. I’ll never forget the woman that stole my heart. I will always love her and will never have her.

After she “helped” me that first night, I kept in contact with her over the CB radio every chance I got, every day she was on helping other drivers with their problems.  I listened to her, her voice was like an angel’s voice.  Her laughter at the driver’s jokes, even if they weren’t funny jokes was a joy to hear.  Once there was an imposter in the red light district that thought the handle Tender Touch would be a better way to get customers and for awhile there, I heard some awful things said to my angel, but she straightened them out and other drivers would interrupt her to tell her not to worry, they would take care of the imposter. Our Tender Touch was well loved by all the truck drivers in the region and we all had the utmost respect for her. So why was I deceiving her?

I was told she was cheating, she was lying to her husband and she was basically a bitch. After talking to her for weeks now, I wondered, but it was time for me to make my move. Her husband had plans and was paying me to follow through on these plans, he wanted her out of his life and was going to do everything and anything to achieve this goal.  And I do mean anything.  He was convinced of her guilt.

“Hey Tender Touch, how about meeting me for a cup of coffee sometime?” I asked.   “Oh, darlin’, that’s awfully sweet, but I’m a happily married woman with two babies at home, I can’t do that.  Maybe if that wasn’t the case, but it is, thanks for asking, though”, she said. I tried to get that coffee date a couple of more times, but no luck, that lady was not cheating on her husband.  I know she had a lot of friends on the CB she talked a lot, she seemed lonely, there was a sadness beginning to develop in her voice.  She didn’t seem herself lately.

I was given instructions to start following her and to set up recording devices on the phones and the house.  She and her husband had become friends with some neighbors and had started socializing. The neighbor’s husband started dropping by when Tender Touch’s husband was at work,  the conversations were disturbing, from the outside of the house, it looked like an affair was going on, but inside, she was protesting the whole time. She constantly told him to go home. She constantly told him that if she was going to be anyone’s mistress she was going to be her husband’s. She fought to get him out the door.  Only her babies cries really kept him at bay, they evidently pulled at his conscience.  I now wonder if her husband had put him up to the seduction. Because later that week, she and her husband went over to these neighbor’s house for dinner and drinks. She came home very upset and flustered. I heard her ask her husband to help her, she couldn’t understand why she was so groggy and dizzy, she only had one drink.

The next day, she received a phone call from the neighbor’s wife accusing her of having an affair with her husband. She was shocked and started crying.  “It never happened, she said, I know he has tried, he tried last night, but I refuse every time.  He is your problem, not mine.”  She was so upset, Tender Touch called her husband immediately and told him the whole conversation.  He said nothing except that he was too busy to talk to her.

Not understanding why she was feeling so bad and dizzy, she decided to take herself to the doctors.  I saw her drop the babies off across the street as she stumbled in the van, she looked pale and weak.  I followed her to the medical office.  She was there for some time and around noon, she came back out to the van and went to the back to lay down.  She didn’t drive home.