Saturday, July 7, 1984 - Paradise Valley, Nevada
Leonard Hackney lay on a chaise lounge as he watched the white, puffy cumulus clouds slowly drift by. The early morning air was warm and the sun felt good on his skin as he lay there in his swim trunks thinking about the swim he and Cathy were going to take in the lake after breakfast.
The chalet was the perfect getaway for Leonard Hackney and Cathy Colby. He had spent considerable time looking for just the right place for them to have weekend retreats that would take their minds off their busy workweek. The polished teakwood deck he was reclining on jutted out over the mountainside and afforded a serene view of the lake below. The windows in the living room spanned the entire 30-foot length of the deck and peaked in the center for a full two stories of the cottage. The combination of the cathedral ceiling in the living room and the two-storied window-wall with sliding glass doors in the center that opened onto the deck gave an expansive feeling to the chalet.
A beautiful summer day was in the making in Paradise Valley, Nevada where Hackney had just purchased this moderate sized hideaway. Hackney and Colby had driven up from southern Nevada on Friday evening, the start of their first weekend in their new home away from home. It was a paradise compared to the meager setting of the studio apartment in the condominium he owned near the development and testing center.
Hackney was able to afford the luxury of this mountain hideaway as he had never married and had not spent much of the money he had earned over the years as an engineer. He had diligently put his money away and had been very successful in investing. Although this chalet had cost him a sizeable sum, it was just a small dent in his overall savings. Being a workaholic and shy around women meant that he never had time for any kind of social life. He was always nervous around women as he felt he didn’t have the charm or charisma needed to seek the companionship of the opposite sex. He longed for the ease that other men seemed to have at getting dates. Over the years he watched his friends hook up with women at the bars the guys would visit after work. He often found himself sitting alone after the other men had gone off with the ladies they met. He wanted to be like his friends, but just couldn’t get up the nerve to approach women. At 45 years of age, Hackney had only one mistress and that was his work.
Hackney was raised in a small suburb of New York City by strict Catholic parents. He was taught that he should live by the Ten Commandments and the nuns and priests at the private school he attended were quick to apply strict disciplinary procedures when he got into trouble, which was rare.
The harder Hackney tried to find a girlfriend, the more they ran from him. After graduation from private school and because of his 4.0 average, Hackney was accepted at MIT where he obtained a degree in engineering. Once free from his controlling parents, he decided he would move far away from them. To his delight, he landed a job with the U.S. Government and over the years became head of the assembly department in the super-secret development and testing center affectionately known amongst those in the scientific world as “Dreamland” in southern Nevada.
Hackney was a plain man, five-feet eight inches tall with a receding hairline and a thin frame. A man who would hardly be noticed in a crowded room unless you bumped into him and that is exactly what happened when he and Cathy first met.
Five months prior to this day, he was leaving the underground research and development department on his way back to his office after having discussed a difficult assembly section with the electrical design engineer, Mary Anderson. He was looking down at the prints of a switching unit his team was installing in the killer satellite when he literally collided with Cathy in the hallway. The collision knocked the prints out of Hackney’s hands and sent him back against the wall. Cathy was propelled backward and fell over some of the books she dropped that she was carrying. She landed on her behind and then went all the way back till her head bumped the carpet. She was wearing a very short skirt and because she was on her back Hackney could see a lacy white thong. It all seemed to happen in slow motion to him. She quickly sat up and pushed her short skirt down. Hackney was crimson with embarrassment as he was certain she saw him gaping at her beautiful legs all the way up to her thong. Hackney quickly bent over to help her up while stumbling through an apology.
Cathy was five-feet five inches tall and as far as Hackney was concerned was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She had full breasts, a small waistline and long shapely legs. Her long flaming red hair highlighted her green eyes. Hackney had seen Cathy many times before in the facility dining room. She usually sat with other women and while almost all of the men stared at her beauty as she went through the food line, she never sat with any of them. Hackney often fantasized about her sitting with him amongst the admiring eyes of all the other men. He also had thoughts along with all of the other men about making wild, passionate love to her. For him, it was just a dream.
“Well, at least I didn’t knock myself out when I bumped my head on the carpet!” she said, as they both scooped up the debris from their collision. Hackney couldn’t understand how he mustered up the courage to offer her lunch at his expense for being such a clod. To his astonishment, she accepted his offer and they spent the next hour in the main dining room where Cathy warmed to this very plain man and his concern for her well-being after the embarrassing encounter. Why is this beautiful woman interested in me? I know I’m not handsome and women just aren’t attracted to me. Attracted? They ran the other way when they thought I was about to ask them out! There are many good looking men at the facility who would give a year’s pay to have her interested in them, yet here she is seemingly attracted to me!
In their conv