Devil Mail (11 page)

Best wishes in your pursuit of happiness.

Angela”

              Angela did not second guess herself or hesitate to put an end to the internal conflict that had been eating away at her. As soon as she finished typing, she pressed ‘send’. After taking a final look at KDoyleIII, she sent a standardized message to him thanking him for the wink, but letting him know that she did not believe they were a match. “Goodbye Boaz,” she stated as she typed. She then cleared the running report that detailed whose profile she had viewed and who had viewed hers. The thought of removing her profile from the site altogether crossed her mind, but no harm would come from her leaving it there, unchecked.

             
Aiden would have her focused attention, and would not have to compete with anyone else. She owed him that much. She concurred with the judicious elements buried deep within her mother’s earlier, rather verbose, homily. How could she be looking at possibilities elsewhere when she had found something so wonderful in Aiden? She was desperate to hear his voice and to tell him how she felt about him, but it was late, and she didn’t want to disturb whatever preparations he was making for the messy business that would face him the next day.

             
She thought about how wonderful it would have been if Aiden hadn’t been out of town and was able to drive to Tampa with her. She pictured a classy restaurant and some time alone by the bay after she had finished her assignment. Maybe a future date would take them there.

             
Julia telephoned to see if she was okay. “Sorry I wasn’t much help, Sis.”

             
“I know you tried, but Mom just has her own preconceived ideas about certain things. It was my fault for opening my big mouth in the first place.” She told Julia about the further developments since she arrived home.

             
“So you’re giving Aiden your all so soon. Isn’t that a little scary?”

             
“A bit, but he’s already shown me his vulnerable side by telling me that he loves me, so…..”

             
“Already? You guys are moving fast! Just be careful Angie, and remember to ask him if he’s a psychopathic killer before you get too involved with him.” The laughter that followed proved to be the tension reliever that Angela needed. In an annoyingly childish voice, Julia began teasing Angela, evoking childhood memories. “Aiden and Angela sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g……”

             
“We haven’t done any of that,” Angela interrupted.

             
“Yet.” Julia spoke as if completing her sentence.

              Angela liked the sound of ‘Aiden and Angela’. She repeated the name Angela Jacobs over and over again as she tried to go off to sleep. For her, it carried a far greater air of pleasing sophistication than ‘Angela Craddock’ could ever attain.

CHAPTER EIGHT

A
ngela’s tired eyes fought against her on much of the drive to Tampa. She left particularly early to give herself sufficient time to maneuver the unfamiliar route and get through the morning rush hour traffic, which was dense between Orlando and Tampa.

             
The jazz CDs that she played on the way brought her thoughts back to the time she spent driving around the Disney area in Aiden’s car. How silly of her to have had reservations about him! There was something inviting and settling about him that made him feel like home. When they were together, either physically or on the telephone, it was where she wanted to be. A sharp pang of desire shot through her body as she relived the embrace of Wednesday evening and the veiled yearning for it to have lasted longer and for the evening to have been sealed with a kiss.

             
There would be plenty of time for her secret desires to become reality. It had only been a week. How her life had changed in the course of one week! All her adult life she had tried to make sensible decisions and air on the side of caution. Now, she wanted to throw caution to the wind and date Aiden without restraint. She wanted to feel what it was like to be in love with him and to tell him so without being afraid of the effects of such exposure.

             
She hoped the depositions would take no longer than the scheduled four hours, so that she could get back to Orlando, and perhaps see Aiden in the evening if he was back in town.

             
The defense attorney’s law office was easy to find with the guidance of the online directions Angela had downloaded. The tall coffee she received from the pleasant office staff went a long way to perking her up for the job at hand. The depositions were to be taken in the conference room in which a large mahogany wood table, designed to seat some twenty people, was centered. The walls were flanked by oversized bookshelves that housed volumes and volumes of case law dating back to the early nineteen hundreds. The room was clean with a faint smell of wisteria. She could see no candles, flowers or plug-ins and concluded that the staff must have sprayed the room immediately prior to her arrival. 

             
Ninety minutes into the depositions, she had already sworn in three witnesses in a fraud case concerning a conflict of interest within the auditing department of an accounting firm. Angela listened more intently than usual as she recorded the evidence, knowing that the general aspects of the case would be meat for her conversation with Aiden later. It would be of enormous interest to him, with its blend of legal and accounting implications.

             
Angela did not consider discretion to be a problem for her. With Julia working in the legal field, the two would occasionally discuss cases they had handled, but if anyone were to ask them, they’d both say that they always managed to skillfully do so without discussing the merits of the case or breaching any client’s right to confidentiality. Now, Angela had someone else to talk to, who was also able to relate to her work.

             
The fourth witness entered the room and time stood still. He was a sight to behold! Angela struggled to breathe while everything began to move again…. in slow motion. With downcast eyes and a quavering voice she administered the oath. Any eye contact would have caused the windows to her soul to blatantly reveal every single emotion that ran rampantly through her body. Frisson of consternation trickled down her spine.

             
“Please state your name for the record,” began the attorney.

             
“Aiden Jacobs.”

             
“Please state your address.”

             
“14026 Paddington Way, Orlando, Florida.”

             
“With whom are you currently employed?”

             
“I’m a freelance CPA. I mean certified public accountant.”

             
“Have you ever given a deposition before?”

             
“No.”

             
“Do you understand that the oath you have taken to tell the truth is the same oath administered in a court of law?”

             
“Yes.”

Much to Angela’s incredulity, a
side from the initial shock of seeing her, Aiden displayed no discernible signs of distress, discomfort or embarrassment as he answered the questions posed.              The proceedings periodically lapsed into a blur as she questioned whether or not she had essentially missed critical chunks of conversation wherein he had told her about this case. She was sure he had said it was a messy case that he had to attend to, implying that he was attending to a client in his capacity as a CPA, not appearing as a witness in a lawsuit. Or had she misinterpreted or misheard him?

              Further interrogation by the attorney revealed that he had left the employment of a large accounting firm under contentious and unresolved circumstances. It became clear to Angela that the company Aiden had worked for took on a new client with a material interest in another client whom they already represented. This gave rise to a conflict of interest which, upon discovery, was allegedly covered up for substantial financial gain. Although Aiden was not a named defendant in the case, things did not look good for him. Angela detected that there was some subtle finger-pointing in his direction, and wondered if there existed any likelihood of him being added as a defendant in the case.

             
“I wasn’t fired! I left of my own accord.” Aiden’s matter-of-fact tone produced a chill in the atmosphere.

             
“Do you deny that you were given an ultimatum that made it clear that if you did not resign you would be dismissed?”

             
Anger burned in Aiden’s eyes, his voice regulated and hostile. “
I
gave the ultimatum. I was not prepared to cover up their wrongdoing any longer.”

             
“I think you’ll find, Mr. Jacobs, that the documents we have obtained in discovery, give an account of events quite dissimilar to yours.”

             
“Stuff your documents. I know what I know!” His wrath was palpable.

             
“So now you’re a
freelance
accountant, you say?”

             
Regardless of the punitive consequences, Angela was tempted to type her very own response here on Aiden’s behalf, along the lines of, “No, I’m a stinking, rotten liar!” She resisted the urge.

Her
fingers quivered as she typed his illuminating responses. She had not yet seen this side of Aiden and didn’t want to believe that this was the same man that had so copiously occupied her thoughts and fantasies, embraced her so lovingly and charmed her into wanting to give herself wholeheartedly to him.

In Angela’s experience,
the display of pure rage, as was the case with Aiden, was a rare occurrence during depositions. Little did he know, he was merely setting himself up to be further rattled by the attorney in front of a jury during the actual trial, if the case proceeded that far. At no time did Aiden attempt to make eye contact with Angela; and that suited her just fine. It was excruciating enough for her to sit through his deposition and witness his menacing outbursts.

This was, indisputably the most difficult and emo
tionally draining assignment she had ever had the displeasure of undertaking. Never had there been a case in which she was so personally vested.  Her concentration wavered throughout, but at the same time, from a personal standpoint, it had never been more imperative for her to stay attentive and accurately record the evidence.

             
At the conclusion of Aiden’s deposition, Angela had one more thing to do. With all the self-assurance she could muster, she looked directly at him, asking him if he wanted to read and sign the deposition he had given.

             
“Do I need to?” His reproachful tone suggested that Angela was not above suspicion.

             
“It’s your prerogative,” Angela snapped back, inviting surprised glances from everyone in the room.

             
“I guess I ought to.” His voice was moderated.

             
A fifth witness was deposed, bringing the proceedings to an end for the day. It appeared to be quite a substantial case, which meant there were other parties to be deposed on other scheduled days. Angela was unsure if wisdom was mounted in sticking with the case and running the risk of discovering information about Aiden that would further break her heart or in telling Sharon that she had a conflict and requesting a different assignment.

             
Aiden was waiting for Angela outside the law office. “Hey, Angela, I guess we need to talk.”

             
“So, this was the messy case you had to attend, huh?”

             
“Let’s go somewhere.”

             
“Aiden, you’re implicated in a huge fraud case. There’s no place I want to go with you right now.”

             
“I’m just a witness to some of the facts. I’m not the defendant.”

             
“I heard all the evidence! I was in there when you weren’t, Aiden! I’m not a fool. You lied to me.” She began to walk away from him towards her car.

             
He grabbed her arm and tried to stop her, pulling her towards him so that he could look into her eyes. “I never lied to you, Angela.”

             
“Were you honest about this mess?”

             
“I’ve only just met you, for Christ’s sake….I….”

She glared squarely into his eyes. They were no longer captivating, his lips no longer luscious.
All she saw in his face was the ugliness of deceit. She slowed her speech for effect, to ensure her words and intentions were not misunderstood. “Fine. Well, forget you ever did!” Yanking her arm from his grip she started towards her car again, but Aiden stepped in front of her, obstructing her path.

“You need to let me explain. You at least owe me that much.” He looked down at her soliciting clemency.

The disillusionment that overcame her while in the law office simmered with the resentment she now felt and boiled within her to the point of overflow. “I don’t owe you anything!” She screamed. “I don’t even know who that angry guy was in there. Who are you? How many different personalities do you have?”

An attorney from the law office
strode up behind Aiden. Looking directly at Angela he asked, “Is there a problem here?”

“No, we’re fine,”
Aiden barked.

“Actually, I was speaking to the lady,”
the  attorney retorted, never taking his eyes off Angela.

“Well, she happens to be my lady, and like I said, we’re fine.” Aiden squared up with him,
chest puffed up and shoulders thrust backwards.

“Don’t start anything you can’t finish my friend,” the attorney warned, unperturbed. Aiden knew that
although he might have the edge as far as brawn was concerned, the attorney would have the full extent of the law behind him if Aiden decided to throw a punch. He maintained his arrogant stance, nevertheless.

Angela stepped to the side of the attorney. “I just want to get to my car.”

“I’ll walk you.” The attorney placed his hand in close proximity to the small of her back to guide her without touching her. As they walked, he asked, “What’s the deal with that guy? Do you know him?”

“Not really.”

“So many cranks around these days, you have to be careful. Are you going to be okay?”

“
Yes, thanks,” she said as she climbed into her car. He watched her drive off. She was silently apprehensive about Aiden catching up to her and tailing her on the long stretch of interstate 75 that runs between Tampa and Orlando. She knew no other way to get home.

In stark contrast
, the spaces that were filled with hope on the drive to Tampa were now occupied by despair on the drive home. Her longing for him was displaced by her wish to be as far away from him as possible. Her joy had given way to anguish, certitude to skepticism.   She turned off the music, unable to abide the dulcet tones of her jazz CDs; she couldn’t consent to the smooth, alluring rhythm of the saxophone reaching and soothing her innermost being.  Tears welled up in her eyes and tumbled down her cheeks without constraint. She mulled over all she had heard at the law office as well as from Aiden’s lying lips. Could he really be tangled up in fraud? If he were not criminally involved in this case, why hadn’t he mentioned it before? She had given him ample opportunity to do so. Even while they had tea at Disney, she had asked him about skeletons in his closet and he professed to have none. Well if this wasn’t a bag of dried bones, Angela didn’t know what was. He obviously didn’t trust her like she trusted him. Her misplaced trust now came back to her like a vicious slap in the face.