Brainstorm

by Margaret Belle

  Harley walked in, handcuffed, and wearing a prison jumpsuit; her outwardly calm demeanor was betrayed by the anger that flashed in her eyes. She took the chair opposite me and put her bound hands on the table. “I can’t believe you called the police on me.”

  “I didn’t have a choice, Harley. If I had done what you wanted, I’d have been as guilty as you. And anyway, what did you think I would do – you lied to me from the moment we met!”

  “Well, I didn’t have a choice, either. You have no idea what my life was like.”

  “So when did you take the money? In the middle of the night?” I asked. “Then what? You just showed up for work the next day, like nothing had happened?”

  “What difference does it make now?”

  “And who did you hire to install the carpet?” I asked. “There are no receipts or checks for the work.”

  She sat back in her chair. “Is that why you came? To interrogate me? Because if it is, you might just as well leave.”

  “All right,” I said, “then tell me what you plan to do now. Testify against Ferdy and Danny, and try to get immunity in return? Be a jailhouse snitch?”

  “I have a public defender, not some big-shot lawyer like Ferdy,” she said, “so I don’t know what will happen. But I’ll make any deal that will get me out of here.”

  “You mean Lover Boy isn’t going to spring for a lawyer to represent you? What does that tell you? You’re almost as stupid as I am, Harley. Now are you going to testify against Danny, or not?”

  “What do you care? You should just be happy he’s in jail.”

  I stared at her, and noticed a little twinkle in her eye. What was that? Not a happy twinkle – but one that spoke of cunningness. And then it hit me. “It was you,” I said. “You were the one who turned in that anonymous tip about Danny, way back when.”

  “Of course, it was me – duh, Audrey – I needed him to be arrested so he wouldn’t try to get the money, and find out it was already gone. What do you think – I didn’t plan every little thing? The only mistake I made, was to trust you.”

  “I should have realized it was you, when you said those very words to me, the first time we Skyped. You said you could connect Danny to the robbery. I just didn’t put it together, until this minute.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short, Audrey, you put Carl in jail for me, although it was unintentional on your part,” she smiled, “it saved me from having to do it. I got one of them arrested, then you got one of them arrested – it was like we were working together for a common goal. It was almost cosmic!”

  “Yeah,” I said, “it was magical. So then, all you had to do was dump Ferdy, the non-violent one - the only one who was never a threat to you, and off you’d go, with three million dollars. That was the plan, right? To pick them off, one-two-three?”

  “Except it happened faster than I’d thought it would,” she said. “That night, when I was sitting on that damn cot, and you told me the story of how Danny had bumped into you, and how afraid you were that he might have seen you on TV, and recognized you, I freaked out. Right then, I knew I had to get out of there, in case Danny did happen to catch you on TV. He would have tracked you down so fast and sent Carl after you! And let me tell you, it would not have gone well for me either, if they’d found me hiding in the building with you!” She shook her head. “I kept trying to wrap my mind around the fact that Carl had hidden the money in the building you moved into. How the hell does something like that happen?”

  “So you took the job at Carrie’s to get away from me?”

  “I figured it was a chance to get away from Carl and you – two birds, one stone. But when you told me Carl had followed you in his truck, I knew I hadn’t gone nearly far enough away.”

  “So you took off.”

  “I took off.”

  We sat in silence for a minute, then I said, “Look, I don’t want to testify against Danny – I don’t want to ever look at him again. The least you could do is testify against him for me after all the crap you pulled – and after all I’ve done for you.”

  “So that’s it? That’s why you drove all the way here? To get me to agree to keep you from having to look Danny in the eyes again?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, let’s see,” she said. “You ruined my life – it’s your fault I’m here – so no!”

  “Don’t be stupid,” I said. “You’d have been caught sooner or later. You might be good with a computer, but you’re not as smart as you think you are; I got the police into your suitcase with the office phone number.”

  She raised her hands and shook them, causing the handcuffs to clink together. “I think it would be good for you to see Danny again. Maybe the little reunion would be so awful, they’d have to put you away – then you’d know how I feel.”

  “You think I like seeing you in here?” I asked. “I don’t. But after saving you so many times, it was time to save myself.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” she spat out. “I’m fully capable of saving myself. I learned a thing or two from Carl. Don’t think I wasn’t watching, and listening, and learning, while I was with him. Oh, and didn’t you ever wonder why your other assistant left you high and dry? Why you suddenly needed to replace her?” She leaned in and whispered, “Carl took care of her, too.” She stood up and pushed her chair back so hard that it tipped over and crashed to the floor. The sound echoed through the room.

  The guard moved in and escorted her out, leaving me alone in the stark surroundings, aghast at all I’d just heard. What had Carl done to get rid of my first assistant? He couldn’t have killed her, or her family would have contacted me when they were unable to reach her. I hadn’t bothered tracking her down to ask why she’d left, because I’d had to find a replacement for her so fast. And I had, hadn’t I.

  Outside, Jack waited for me. “I’d ask how it went,” he said, “but it’s written all over your face.”

  “You have no idea,” I said, feeling faint, and I told him what Harley had said about my former assistant.

  “We’ll get on that, I promise,” he said, “but she was probably just trying to get you more upset.”

  I shook my head. “I should have known this was a fool’s errand. All I ended up with are pieces to a puzzle I didn’t even know existed.”

  “Come on,” he said, “let’s get something to eat before we head back.” We found a Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, not far from the police station. A regular customer in the same establishment back home, Jack ordered a House Special and a side of Drunken Spicy Shrimp, without even looking at the menu. I ordered a chopped salad and coffee. With my first forkful, I realized I was hungrier than I’d thought, and my mood brightened. Between bites, he asked, “So, what else did Harley have to say?”

  “She said she hoped facing Danny in court would push me over the edge, so that I’d need to be put away.”

  “Nice. You were in there a while, though, there must be more.”

  “She said she learned things from Carl. She watched, and learned, and listened. Those were her words. What the heck does that mean? And, of course, she blames me for her losing the money, after all the risks she took to get it.” I pushed the salad around the plate with my fork. “I think those guys were really rough to deal with. And of course, she put up with all that abuse from Carl.”

  He shook his head. “And you still feel sorry for her, right?”

  “Down deep I do, I guess,” I admitted. “I mean, if I disregard all that she did, I can see her true motivation; how she thought the money would give her a better life. And she really believed she’d get away with it.”

  “That’s why all perps get caught,” he said. “They don’t pay attention. They always make one stupid mistake.”

  “She focused on the freedom she’d have,” I said, “and she was willing to share that life with me. Then I blew her in.”

  “And you thought about it,” he said, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

  “Thought about what?”
>
  “Going with her.”

  I looked down at my plate. “I know I did. At the time, it meant I wouldn’t have to testify, or be afraid that Dr. Steele was going to throw a net over my head and drag me off.”

  “So I was the only reason you didn’t take her up on it?”

  “Ultimately. Once you explained what running away would mean for me, and I saw things for what they really were, and especially after you proposed, I knew I could never leave you.”

  “Wow,” he smiled. “You must like me a lot.”

  “You know I do,” I said.

  Chapter 35

  My office was no longer a crime scene, so I decided to drive over and take a peek at the upstairs, to see what it looked like, after the police had torn up the floor. The route was ingrained in my muscle memory, so even though my mind was going in a hundred different directions, I soon found myself pulling into my parking space.

  Yellow tape, with POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS printed on it, sagged across the front of the building and I ducked under it, unlocked the door, and went in. An eerie quiet welcomed me. A layer of dust had settled over everything, and the air smelled old and musty; I opened the windows and turned on the ceiling fan. On the way up the stairs, I stopped in front of the small window; I could almost feel Carl’s breath on my neck, his gun in my back.

  I hurried the rest of the way up, wanting to get away from the horrible memory, but then slowed, as I started down the hall toward the room where the money had been stashed; the room Harley and I had slept in while I harbored her from Carl. As I stood in the doorway, I was filled with frustration at what had gone on in this room while I was oblivious. And what made it worse, was that I had contributed! Those thugs had never had to worry about their precious money; they’d had me on their team! Carl had hidden it under the floorboards, and I’d paid good money to cover up his handiwork with carpet. What a joke! I wondered how often Harley had laughed about it, behind my back. What a fool she must have taken me for.

  At least a quarter of the floorboards had been pried up and cast aside; the room was strewn with everything from full boards to splinters of old, dry wood. From the looks of it, the demolition had been in progress for a while, before I’d been able to point them in the right direction.

  I tried to picture Harley pulling up the carpet, removing the floorboards, taking out the cash, replacing the wood and the carpet, and hauling the three million dollars away; a big job, no matter how you looked at it. When, exactly, had she pulled off the second robbery of the same damn money? In the dead of night? And where had she kept it? In those suitcases the whole time? She had to have kept them in a storage facility; she certainly didn’t have them with her the day she left for Carrie’s.

  Feeling a chill, I rubbed my arms. What was it Harley had said back in California? She said she had the money. She didn’t say she took the money. I thought I might be quibbling over words, but the question lingered. If I was confessing to the theft of something, would I say I’d taken it? Or would I say I had it? I thought I would say I’d taken it. Maybe that’s what had been bugging me.

  My cell rang. Jack asked, “Where are you?”

  “I stopped by the office to look at the damage your brothers-in-blue inflicted on the place.”

  “I was going to tell you tonight,” he said, “but I couldn’t wait. The FBI just gave Rochester a heads-up on the money recovered in California. It wasn’t all there.”

  “What do you mean? I saw it!”

  “Only two million was accounted for. One million is missing.”

  “Harley was sure she had it all!”

  “It’s possible she hid the extra million somewhere, in case she got caught,” said Jack. “She may have prepared for that possibility; planned to cop a plea for immunity, and walk with the hidden money. Then there’s the possibility that either Carl or Ferdy took it, without Harley realizing it.”

  “Carl? Hell no,” I said. “He would have gone into a rage, if he’d found she had the money, beaten her within an inch of her life, and taken it all. Ferdy, on the other hand, might’ve been more inclined to share. But knowing him, he’d have confronted Harley, and in the end agreed to take half, which was better than the third he was expecting.”

  “I can’t think of any other scenarios. Can you?”

  “No,” I said, “but we can talk about it later.” We said goodbye, and I turned off my phone.

  I went back downstairs and sat at my empty desk. In all the years I’d worked here I’d only really seen the top of it once or twice, counting the day the furniture company had delivered it. I looked over at Harley’s desk. For the first few years I’d filled it with interns from SUNY Oswego and SU. But about five years ago, my billing had reached a point where I could hire an actual full-time employee.

  My clients had wanted more and more website work, Internet advertising, and a way to use social media to increase traffic, and for that I’d needed an honest-to-God IT pro. While the interns were wonderful, none had been ready to graduate and come to work for me full time, and it had always been a process bringing a new one up to speed, at the beginning of every semester. Hiring my first assistant had eliminated all of that, offered continuity to my clients, and made them happy. But two years ago, she’d left without a word, and I’d hired Harley. She’d jumped right in and handled the transition smoothly. Talk about a Trojan horse.

  The first wisps of depression, like a lace curtain in a summer breeze, brushed across my mind, a familiar warning that a full-on brain storm was on its way. I dug in my purse for the bottle of happy pills, and swallowed one.

  Leaning back in my chair, I closed my eyes and thought about the two Harleys. The one who had been my friend, and the one who was a thief, a liar, and worse. And the one question I still had, turned over, and over, in my mind; when and how had the money left this building? Knowing that the answer would not be forthcoming, at least not right now, I turned my attention to the problem at hand; one pill wasn’t going to cut it. Despite the last meeting I’d had with her, I put in a call to Dr. Steele. I was in trouble, and I knew it.

  Chapter 36

  Dr. Steele sat in her chair across from me, ready to write, as usual, with a pen poised over her notepad and an inquisitive look on her face. “I’m glad you called,” she said. “You were unhappy when you left here the last time. I was afraid you wouldn’t return.”

  “I wasn’t unhappy, I was pissed.”

  “Understood,” she said. “So what happened that made you reach for the phone? I was hoping you’d reconsidered my advice to take a break, and work on your mental health issues,” she almost whispered.

  “No,” I said, “although, as the trial draws closer, it seems like a way to get out of testifying.”

  She pointed toward my hand. “Jack gave you an engagement ring?”

  “Yes.”

  “And marrying him will be a positive step for you?”

  “I love him. More than I can ever remember loving anyone.”

  “The expression in your eyes says otherwise,” she said. “What’s the problem?”

  “I worry about him. I can be a handful.”

  “He most likely has a sense of that already, being a police officer and all. He’s most likely a good judge of character. You are not a bad person, Audrey. We’ve been over that. You were not responsible for your mother’s death. She didn’t die because you couldn’t find a nurse. You were six! You deserve to be happy.”

  “That’s the last thing Dr. Collins said to me, the day I left Rochester.”

  “What’s worried me since the day we met, is that I’ve had the feeling you’ve been holding something back; that you haven’t been totally honest. And that makes it difficult for me to actually help you, in a meaningful way.”

  “Like what?”

  “Audrey, if I knew that, I wouldn’t have to ask. When I read through your file from Dr. Collins, she had a concern that you might be taking the anger you feel toward yourself, over your mother’s death, out on o
ther people. She felt you could possibly do physical damage to someone who made you really mad. Or ultimately, turn the anger inward, and harm yourself.”

  I smiled. “So, you must have been worried when I was here the last time.”

  “Not for myself, but be honest with me. Have there been times when you wanted to harm someone else? Or took your anger out in an inappropriate way? Real, or in your head?”

  I thought about being lost in the thought of smashing Carl against a wall with my vehicle. And as I looked at Dr. Steele, staring at me with that inquisitive look of hers, I remembered reveling in the thought of squeezing her throat with my bare hands until she died.

  “No,” I answered. “Why?”

  “Because if you’re given to violent thoughts, I can help you. Why keep them to yourself when we could talk through those thoughts and their triggers, and free you of them? Otherwise, Audrey, this could accelerate. And under the right circumstances, it could mean a setback from which you might not be able to recover.”

  “No,” I repeated, “I’m not having those thoughts.” But I could tell that she didn’t believe me.

  “Would you like to bring Jack into a few sessions with you? Since you’re going to marry him?”

  “That’s the last thing I want to do.”

  “So, you wanted to see me today,” she said, “but you’re not willing to give me anything to go on – no specific reason – you just wanted to come in?”

  “I feel like I’m going to buckle under the weight of all the drama in my life. Can I increase my meds?”

  “Oh, so, that’s why you’re here,” she said. “I suppose I can increase your dosage a bit. But you have to be careful, Audrey. And for heaven’s sake, do not take it upon yourself to stop cold turkey again. The zaps you experienced before will be twice as bad if you do. They could be debilitating. And listen to me. I still believe the best thing for you would be to let me admit you for a while, to a place where you can participate in therapy more consistently. I fear that you’re headed for trouble. You can’t be thinking clearly these days. I don’t want you to snap and do something you’ll regret.”