Question on Closing a Socket

Something odd is happening, or maybe not.

Assume someone is using a socket application (client) to
communicate with a web service.

Now, the socket creates successfully and returns a
descriptor.  But, on the connect it times out.  Now we
close the socket (which if I understand correctly closes
any open connection and destroys the socket).

What happens, though, if there is no connection?  I assume
all that happens is the socket is destroyed.

But, in this case, it seems that it is closing a
_different_ socket (a client application that is running
along with the web service client).

But that makes no sense...  

So, client app (VARPG) connects to the iSEries with a
socket.  Another client app create a socket to talk to a
web service.  It times out on the connect (but socket()
completes fine).  A close is issued on the descriptor and
it shuts down the VARPG client as well?

The only way I can see this is if the SD gets set back to
zero and that's the descriptor the VARPG client is using.
 But I don't see that in my app.  :)

Just want to see if I'm crazy or missing something.