The Peter Principle

I have not written any stories before and this is my first attempt. I know this story needs polish but I like the idea behind the story.

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The town of Somerville was an oddity. It was a mixture of rural and suburbia. It was home of some the wealthiest people in the state and also some of the poorest areas. The area outside of Somerville was dominated by farms and ranches complete with full crew of sharecroppers and ranch hands. The actual town was on the coast and as a result was home to a resort and plethora of boats, boathouses and beaches. The city houses resembled suburbs and was pretty affluent as far as towns go. Before the Pamela Wells came in with her resorts and her armada of fishing boats the town was one of the most conservative cities in the state. However, as the suburban housing developments started popping up the direction of the town started to change. Pamela Wells and her coven, as the old school elites were fond of calling the female career women in Somerville were intent on installing a local government more aligned to their views. If Pamela Wells was the queen, then Ellen Prince was her champion, the woman headed every single women's organization in Somerville, and she was Pamela Wells's strategist. Ellen was the one that Pamela would call upon when they had problems with anyone in town and most of the time she took care of business most men would steer clear all accept one.

Ron Hawkins was a happily married man whose luck in life has been special to be sure. Ron met his wife, Ellen, just out of law school and he considered himself the luckiest man in the world. Even at thirty-two she was a knockout. She was 5'4" perfectly curved and possessed long curly blonde hair and had legs to die for. Everybody he met agreed that she was way out of his league which lucky for him his wife did not agree.

A woman like Ellen inspired plenty of haters, there was none worse that Peter Daniels. Peter had been after Ellen since they were in law school together. He was a typical alpha male impressed with himself as well enamored with Ron's wife. She never gave him the time of day. Which to Peter just made him want her even more. Peter was an impressive person who had it all, if you ask most women, he was wealthy, successful, fit, and he was smart as well. The man was a very successful attorney. He and Ellen had a couple of epic legal battles that went both ways. To make matters worse they both worked for rival law firms. We live in the simple town of Somerville. So chances are when problems arose, you went to one law firm or the other. Peter Daniels was well known to all of the more conservative groups, while Ellen was head of every women's rights group you could name. Peter was an old fashioned man and he let Ellen know it. He would always try to get under her skin by making remarks about how she should be at home so she can clean, that her being a lawyer made her husband look like a wimp. She would always come home furious on those days. Ron tried to tell his wife that it was just a ploy. She never listened though and would go off on rants about how can there be men still like him in the world and that she was glad she married a liberated man. Funny Ron did not feel liberated. Although truth be told he sometimes he would wish he had a more traditional type of marriage, not that he minded sharing the chores, but he sometimes thought it would be nice to come home and have dinner on the table and the cleaning done.

What was more troubling to Ron was the fact the ploy was seemingly starting to work the last couple of years. In fact the last four cases were not even close, and the more his comments got under Ellen's skin the more Peter would say them and the worse her performance in the courtroom became.

Ellen had it with his superior attitude. What made matters worse was that after the last loss, the owner of his firm decided it was time for him to retire and handed the reins over to Peter. He was now the one running the law firm under the new moniker of Daniels & Associates.

Ellen looked over the briefs on her current case. One of the most prominent donors to Ellen organizations and wealthiest members of their small town, Pamela Wells, was being sued for fraud, coercion and tortious interference with contract. They were charging that Pamela coerced suppliers into not selling to her competitors. The case had the potential to ruin her. The only reason their simple town was not a conservative stronghold like every other county surrounding their town was because of Pamela Wells. All of the women's organization in Somerville would lose all support and become insignificant without Pamela Wells. Pamela was a close friend of Ellen, and when the shit hit the fan she was the first person she contacted. Of course all the conservatives of the state wanted to nail her to the wall and they hired Peter to make sure that happen.

Ellen gulped as she saw the name on the opposing side. She told herself she was not going to let him get under his skin, too much was riding on this case. It was time to show these back wood hillbillies what strong educated women could do. Ellen was an elitist in the truest sense of the word, in her mind most people of Somerville were beneath her, not because she believed in privileged, but because she just had the view that if people did not think like her it then they were not smart, or they were ignorant wretches.

The phone rang and Ellen picked up and answered, "Fitzpatrick and Associates this Ellen speaking, how can I help you?" Ellen said while perusing the file.

"Ah I see you found your true calling, receptionist." Peter said unable to stifle a small chucled.

"If I was, I could hang up on you, what do you want, call me to say you want to drop the civil suit against my client?"

"Why I just wanted to tell you I am sending you some new files for discovery, we have some nice e-mails sent from your benefactor Pamela Wells. It seems she has a penchant for losing her cool." Peter said while suppressing a chuckle.

What an ass, Ellen thought. She was trying as hard as she could to not lose her cool.

"We will see if you are still singing the same tune once we get to depositions." Ellen cooed back in a seductive voice.

"Ooo I wonder what are you ladies will do once your cash machine gets gutted dry for what she has done. I am sure my benefactors will allow you ladies out of the kitchen for bake sales, or hold spots on the PTA." Peter said chuckling. He loved goading Ellen, now he had the upper hand.

"Oh you just see, when I get her off, we will see if you and you gun club right wing nut balls will be acting so cocky when you fail and we file our own suit."

"Oh man you are delusional, just remember that we offered your client to settle for one quarter of what she is going to lose in this law suit, but I must say it is about time we got a Republican mayor. Pamela Wells wife, I mean husband, has been in that job for entirely too long." Peter said.

Ellen face turned red as her knuckles turned white from holding the phone so hard, "Frank, (Pamela's husband) is ten times the man than you will ever be, you Neanderthal." Ellen said through gritted teeth.

"I seriously doubt that Princess, if you ever seen what kind of man I am you would not go back to those wimpy men you and your client call husbands." He said with a tone of complete arrogance.

"We will see if you are still grinning by the time this is over, and Peter, by the time we are done with you, well let's just say you and your friends might want to move to the next county over, because you and your Neanderthal friends days are going to be limited here in Somerville." Ellen said as she hung up the phone.

Peter smirked as he hit the hang up button on his phone and said to himself,"We shall see about that princess." On Peter's desk was a picture from Ellen taken during her law school days. He smirked as he looked at the files at his desk.

Later in the day Mayor's office. Frank Wells was sitting in a small chair on the side of the mayor's room, his wife the real power in their marriage was sitting at the mayor's desk with her expensive designer shoes resting atop the desk. Everyone knew she had absolutely emasculated Frank but Pamela did not care. Pamela Wells was about ten years older than her latest protégé Ellen but that did stop her from being in great shape. The woman was an amazon to put in simple terms, her legs were rock solid as she was in perfect shape. The woman's arms were well sculpted as were her stomach, she still had breast however. The woman welcomed Ellen into her husband's office.

"Pam, you did not tell me you wrote emails threatening the copper mine operator's business if they sold to your competitor." Ellen stated flatly while walking forward and handing the papers to Pam.

"Threats I would not be dumb enough to threaten anyone like that, not when I could simply offer a non-compete agree... Wait this is my email, who wrote this? I don't understand, surely this is fake, I think I am being framed." Pam stated sounding worried as she realized what these emails meant for her case. The papers contained emails of her illegally threatening to ruin the parties business if they sold to any of her competitors, even going as far as taking credit for ruining other peoples existing contracts. This was damning.

"Ellen I did not write these...in fact this last one was written from my home computer, and both my husband and I were not home when this was written, I could not have written these!" Pam protested in a voice of panic.

"Calm down, Pam, ok, ok, do you have anyone or anything that can prove that you were away from your house." Ellen asked.

"Sure we went to go visit, George Straton as his home and then he took us out to dinner. Just ask him and get it on record or go to the restaurant Albertos that Italian Restaurant near McDougal Ranch." Pam said.

"Good, this is great news, I think Peter and his buddies just made their first mistake, if we can prove these were faked we can counter sue for malicious civil prosecution, and bring them all down." Ellen said excited.

Ellen smiled as she and Pam said their goodbyes. Ellen left smiling as she drove over to George Stanton's house. George was the head of the chamber of commerce. He was strongly conservative man like most the men of this town, but he also was a business man, so he never let politics cloud his business. He made quite a bit of money partnering with Pamela on various business ventures. In fact, according to Pam they were discussing one of those ventures the day that email was written.

Ellen came to Straton's house and explained the situation and asked if George would go on record and verify Pam's story. What followed Ellen blindsided the beautiful attorney.

"Ma'am I have no clue what you are talking about. I was at Redwood Estates Country club all day long. Go ask anyone who is there they will tell you I hosted a barbeque for the Elect Shooter Stevens campaign." George said.

"But both the mayor and her husband said they were with you that day? Are you sure it was not another day?" Ellen asked desperately.

"I said I was at Redwood Estates don't believe me go check their records." George said in an irritated tone, it was obvious Ellen was irritating him.

Ellen did not know what else to say as she walked out dejected and defeated. She was truly starting to worry about the fate of Pamela Wells. She did not want to think about what it would be like in this town if Pamela was found guilty. Because just about every service or organization that catered to women would most likely shut down. The misogynistic majority of the town already resented the fact that Pamela was so wealthy and powerful. Now Ellen had to go to the country club a place she loathed. The place was the one the last remaining symbols of male power in Somerville.

The members of Redwood Estates were a virtual who's who of prominent males in Somerville including the head. The country club did not have one single female member, not even wives. Sure it was common place to see wives at the country club but they were not members, their husbands were, everything they did was accounted for under their husband's name. Woman had a separate section of the country club they could go to, they held the status of revered persons. A nice way of saying that they could use some facilities of country club but were not members, and were not under any circumstances allowed to go into the "members" section of the club. The wives did not mind because their side of the country club had more luxuries than even the most exclusive spas possessed and the wives of the male members used it as their own personal status symbol.

However, to Ellen she saw those women as what was wrong with this country. Women so enfeebled that they had to have man to do anything. In Ellen's mind they were not intelligent, or productive, or contributing anything to the cause of the plight of women in Somerville. If anything she found them out of place. The ringleader of the women of Somerville was a woman named, Candace Walters, wife of the cattle baron Quinn Walters. Candace was the epitome of a rich trophy wife. She had flawless pale skin and vibrant red hair. The woman was sex incarnate, just about every man that laid eyes on her were powerless to take them off. She was an ex NFL cheerleader and was not afraid to own it.

Ellen smirked as she walked into the lobby of the country club. The country club was divided at the lobby. On one side the country club had a white glass door that overlooked one of the pools at the country club. The door simply read ,"The Esteemed Ladies of Redwood" . She saw Candace Walter wearing a swimsuit and carrying around some sort of mixed drink, she was holding court to her fellow women of Redwood laying on her back on one of the lawn chairs as if it was her throne. Ellen simply just shook her head and walked towards the receptionist area. She remembers the last time she locked horns with Candace, and exchange that left Candace virtually tongue tied as both her and Pamela embarrassed Candace front of the entire Chamber of Commerce.

The opposite side of the lobby had two enormous redwood doors with a simple gold placard that read, "Members Only". Ellen vowed that one day she would bury this place and open up those doors for all women. Ellen and Pamela had accomplished so much, when Pamela first came onto the scene in Somerville, the country club mentality was a mainstay everywhere you walked around town. Now, Ellen felt Somerville was a true bastion of progressivism in a sea of outdated thinking.

A beautiful receptionist saw Ellen enter the lobby, and asked, "May I help you Ma'am?"

"Yes, I am an attorney for Mrs. Pamela Wells and I would like to verify that George Stranton hosted a BBQ event a couple of months previous?

The receptionist looked down like she was looking up something then picked up the phone and paged, "Would Mr. Daniels please come to the lobby Mr. Daniels."

"I don't think that is necessary." Ellen exclaimed indignantly.

"Actually it is, Ma'am he will be here momentarily." The young woman smiled as she sat back down.

Ellen was left waiting at the reception desk in the lobby. Poor Ellen looked entirely left out of place dressed in a grey pant suit. Ellen grew angrier by each passing second he was making her wait and she knew it, but she had to take a look at that logbook, George was lying and that would prove it.

The two giant oak doors to the member's side only opened up what came out shocked Ellen. It was Peter Daniels wearing only a towel. Ellen could not stop looking at him. Peter was a very fit man and his muscles covered in a sheen of a steam room.

"What's a matter Princess never seen a real man before?" Peter said with a smirk, which elicited a laugh from the receptionist who was gushing at seeing Peter.

"You are a pig Peter, I need to see the clubs logbook to prove someone is lying." She said looking away from Peter, who took the gesture to walk closer to Ellen.

"No" Peter replied.

"No? Are you seriously going to fight me on this?" Ellen said indignantly.

"Yes... if you are going to come in here, a private club, and try to strong arm your betters than yes I am going to tell you no. I am going to make you take your pant suit over to the court and file a motion to request it, and I am going to forbid you from talking to any employee of the club as they are under my representation. However, if you check that attitude and ask me nicely and say please, and address me as Mr. Daniels then I might see it in my heart to let you look at the logbook you asked for." Peter said looking Ellen directly in the eye.

Ellen face was red with anger and she was about to tell Peter what he could do with his request when she thought better of it, she needed to prove George was lying if she was going to get him to tell her who put him up to it. So Ellen cleared her throat and was paused as she tried to build up the nerve to say in a soft defeated voice,"Mr. Daniels may I please have a look at the logbook?"

Peter smirked as he leaned forward and picked up the logbook and handed it over to Ellen, "Now was that hard princess?"

Ellen bit her tongue and franticly flipped through the logbook and gasped when she saw the logbook. It verified George's story.

"This cannot be right, you guys are all in on it, you forged this logbook" Ellen accused Peter.

Peter frowned and looked at the logbook,"Ah the day of George's bbq party.

"Oh my gawd his barbeque was so delicious" The receptionist chimed it.

"I am surprised you could remember that Kelly you seemed to be enjoying yourself that night." Peter teased.

"Oh hush Mr. Daniels, you know how I get when I have too much champagne." Kelly the receptionist said.

Peter then looked at Ellen," I am sorry ,but George has about fifty men and women here at the club who all attended the bbq party he hosted here at the club. Here look at the video"

Peter said while playing a video from his cellphone. Sure enough there was George Stanton with Kelly wrapped around his arm. The people appeared to having the time of their lives.

Ellen did not know what to do. She simply said, "Thank You, Peter." Before making a slow walk towards the door.

"Don't you mean Mr. Daniels, Ma'am" Kelly corrected.

Ellen simply turned around and shot Kelly a look that could kill and continued walking out the door.

Peter smiled from ear to ear as he ogled Ellen butt as she walked out of country club.

Ellen frantically drove to Pam's house this was awful either Pamela was lying or she had been framed in a matter that she will be unable to get out of the allegations. Damn this fucking town. Ellen thought to herself. She was flustered. If Pamela goes down then it will be the end of so many organizations around town, including every politician that opposes the Redwood Estate crowd.

I'll be damned if I let these assholes get away with this shit! If they want to make up facts then so could we! It was about time for those assholes get a taste of their own medicine. No there was no way I was going to stoop to their level surely the girls will find another way. Ellen was fuming as she drove down the highway.

Ellen composed herself and called an emergency meeting of the Women Leadership Caucus. An organization of the most powerful women in Somerville and their region of the state. Every single member had a post graduate degree and most excelled in male dominated fields. However, Pamela Wells was the cash cow that made all their plans viable. The WLC already had ousted two of the seven city council members and replaced them with women and were working hard in taking over the school board as well. They also were the reason that women entrepreneurs were shining excelling, in spite of massive resistance from the establishment of Somerville, including the Esteem Ladies of Redwood. Pamela Wells and Ellen Prince were seen as the most visible representation of their cause. Most men glared at them, others simply gave them a wide berth.