Brainstorm

by Margaret Belle

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know, Audrey, I’m not inside your head. But I can tell you that a supervised rest would be the best thing for you and for your future with Jack.”

  “You can’t say anything to Jack without my permission, right? I mean if he took it upon himself to call you?”

  “Not without your express permission, no.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. Jack’s love had kept me from going over the edge so far and I hoped that it always would. But there may be a time when he too would suspect that I hadn’t told him everything, just as Dr. Steele had, and try to find out for himself what was wrong with me. I didn’t think he needed to hear the whole story of my mother’s death, or my violent visions.

  On my way back to Jack’s place, I dropped off my new, stronger prescription, and diddled around the drug store while it was being filled. In this more relaxed frame of mind, a thought occurred to me. Harley’s arrival and the remodeling of the office bedroom had come at the same time. In fact, other than getting her familiarized with client needs, it had been the first responsibility I had given her. I remember being thrilled at having some of the work taken off my shoulders and so impressed with how fast she’d learned the ropes, that I’d taken a much needed three days off during her first month there.

  Soon I was home and pulling into my parking space, on a mission to find out who Harley had used to install the carpet. I went inside and waved at Dick, who was working the bar.

  “Audrey? What the hell did you do to your hair? Did Lisa do that to you?”

  “Long story.”

  “Okay, well, welcome home. Hang on, I’ll get your key.”

  He was only gone a second when he reappeared and slid my key across the bar. “Want anything? A beer? Something to eat? A mirror?”

  “Funny, Dick. Nothing now, thanks, maybe later.” I hurried up the stairs and unlocked my door. The moment I closed it behind me, I relaxed. I lit a stick of Frankincense and then looked through boxes until I found the one I wanted; receipts from two years ago. I carried the carton to the coffee table and peeled off the tape. Although I sorted through every piece of paper, the one I was looking for wasn’t there. I went through them all again, but the receipt for the carpet simply wasn’t in the box.

  I went back to a box of older receipts and pulled out the ones for the first year I occupied the building; way back to when I was setting up the office, had no clients, and could see the top of my desk. Thank God I hadn’t thrown them away.

  About halfway through, I came up with the receipt for the carpet installation on the first floor. The company’s phone number was printed under its logo and I put it into my cell. After a few rings, a woman came on the line with a whole rehearsed message that finally ended with, “How may I help you?”

  I introduced myself and asked if she could tell me if her company had installed the carpet in my upstairs. She asked me to wait so she could check her computer and I listened to a recording of soft rock while she did.

  Soon she was back on the line. “I don’t have anything listed for that address in the last five years and our records only go back that far.”

  “Nothing? You’re sure?”

  “Positive. Sorry.” I thanked her and we hung up. So what carpet company had Harley used? Where had she gotten that two-for-one deal she’d bragged about when I’d returned after my three days off? I packed up the papers again and re-sealed the boxes. Now I’d have to go in search of checks from the same time period.

  A knock at the door surprised me. “Who is it?” I asked.

  A man’s voice said, “UPS.”

  I opened the door to a delivery person, who was standing next to two boxes I’d been expecting. He handed me an electronic device. “Sign anywhere,” he said. He tucked the device back into his belt, then picked up the first box and handed it to me. I took it inside and put it next to all the other boxes I would soon have to move. Then I went back and got the second. Soon there’ll be no room in here for me, I thought.

  “Thank you,” I said, as I pushed the door closed with my foot. I carried the box to where I had put the first one, found a marker, and printed KITCHEN on both, and underlined the word.

  I had no sooner done that, when there was a second knock at the door. “Who is it?” I asked again.

  “Flowers for Audrey Dory,” a man said, and he held a bouquet up in front of the peephole. That sweet Jack, I thought, and I opened the door. “Audrey Dory?” the man asked.

  “That’s me,” I said, grinning from ear-to-ear, as I took the basket of flowers.

  “Enjoy,” he said. Then he stuck an envelope under my arm. “You’ve been served.”

  Chapter 37

  I opened the paper and read that I’d been subpoenaed to testify in Danny Stearns’ trial. Just holding the thing was too much and I dropped it onto my coffee table. I’d let Jack read it to me. I’d sit next to him on his sofa and put my head on his shoulder and let him explain the details of the horrid missive. It was just like on TV – a ruse – flowers. I felt stupid on top of everything else for falling for it. I should have known it was coming. For now I would pretend it wasn’t there. I was good at that.

  I went into the hallway and locked the door behind me, stopped downstairs to order takeout, and headed next door to see if Lisa was still at work. My anger at her for telling Jack that I was leaving had abated. I understood why she’d done it, and I wasn’t about to lose my best friend over something stupid. The bell tinkled when I walked in and she looked up from her desk. Shock registered in her eyes as she stared at my hair.

  “Hi,” I said.

  “Oh, Audrey, is that you?” She got up and came over to me. “Are you mad?” she asked, as she walked around me, checking out my do.

  “I was, but I’m not any more. You did the right thing, telling Jack.”

  “Thank God – I was afraid you’d never speak to me again! But I thought that if I didn’t say something...well, thank God you’re not mad, that’s all. And you’re home.” I gave her a hug.“Sit down and we’ll take care of that hair right now; get you back to your old self.”

  “Pretty awful, huh?” I gave her the short version of what had happened while she stirred up the color concoction and tied a cape around my neck.

  “Did Jack tell you where he was when you called him?” I asked.

  “Yes, he did,” she beamed. “Let’s see it.” I held out my hand, and the ring flashed, as the diamonds reflected the overhead lights. “It’s gorgeous,” she said. “I’m so happy for you.”

  “It will be a small wedding, but I’m going to need a maid of honor.”

  “Me? Absolutely! Just please don’t make me wear something awful.”

  “You can wear whatever you want.”

  While the color was working, I sat in the vibrating chair and relaxed. Only one other person came in for a cut and then we were left alone to talk. Finally she rinsed my hair and when she put me back in the front of the mirror, I looked like myself again. “Much better,” she said. “Want me to blow it out? Or are we in a curly mood?”

  “Curly, I guess.”

  She popped a diffuser onto the blow-dryer to hurry along the process, and within a few minutes she was turning my chair around so I could see the back of my head. “It looks great,” I said. “Now I’m going to pick up dinner and head to Jack’s.”

  “Lucky girl.” She gave me another hug, and when I opened my purse, she said, “Don’t even think about it. This one’s on me. Call it an act of community service.”

  Chapter 38

  “All rise!”

  The judge entered the courtroom from a door behind the bench. Jack sat beside me and held my hand. “Maybe they won’t have time to call me today,” I said, knowing full well that the subpoena had specified that I appear on this date.

  “You’re here because they are going to call you,” he whispered. “Just get up there and tell what you remember. Then it’ll be over.”

  I peeked around Jack to whe
re Danny Stearns was sitting with his lawyer. He turned in his chair and stared at me, and I felt faint. I grabbed Jack’s arm.

  The judge asked, “Are we ready? Everyone here and accounted for?” Both sides answered in the affirmative.

  The attorney for the prosecution stood. “Your Honor, I would like to call Audrey Dory.”

  Jack pried my hand off his arm and whispered, “You’re fine, Honey, just don’t look at Stearns unless you have to. Don’t let him intimidate you.”

  I walked on wobbly legs to the stand and put my left hand on a Bible. I promised to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

  The attorney smiled at me. “Please state your name.”

  “Audrey Dory.” So far, so good, I thought.

  “Miss Dory, were you in Rochester on the 9th of June, in 2003?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where exactly were you?”

  “I was waiting for a taxi on Franklin Street.”

  “And what time was that?”

  “Around 10 a.m.,” I said.

  “Thank you. And did anything strange or unusual happen as you waited for your taxi?”

  “A man ran around the corner and crashed into me.”

  “And did he knock you down?”

  “No, he grabbed me by the shoulders, pushed me backwards into the building, and then ran on.”

  “Thank you. And then what happened?”

  “Two police cars came around the same corner, obviously in pursuit.”

  Danny’s attorney stood up. “Objection Your Honor. Speculation.”

  “The witness did not say that the patrol cars were in pursuit of the defendant, Your Honor,” said the prosecutor, as he turned back to me. “Did the patrol cars have their lights and sirens on?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, then, Judge, can we agree that the patrol cars may have been in pursuit of someone?”

  Danny’s attorney stood again, “Or on their way to some emergency, Your Honor. There’s no way to know where those two cars were going.”

  “Sustained,” said the judge, and then, “Go on,” to the attorney questioning me.

  “What did you do then?”

  “I was very upset, and I remember sitting on the sidewalk.”

  “Did anyone come to your aid?”

  “No. I don’t even remember if anyone was around.”

  “What happened then?”

  “I saw something on the ground near me and I picked it up.”

  “And what was it?”

  “A ski mask.”

  From the evidence table he picked up a plastic bag and held it out to me. “Is this the ski mask?”

  “It looks like it,” I said.

  “And did you get a good look at the man who ran around the corner and bumped into you? The man who dropped this ski mask?”

  “Objection!” shouted Danny’s attorney. “The witness never said she actually saw my client drop the ski mask.”

  “Your Honor, the defendants DNA, and only the defendants DNA was found inside the ski mask. I think we can agree it was his.”

  “The judge agreed and the attorney continued. “Did you get a good look at the person who ran around the corner and bumped into you?”

  “Yes.” Here it comes, I thought, the part where I have to look at him and point.

  “And is that person in the courtroom?”

  Pressure built in my ears and my voice sounded very far away when I answered, “Yes.”

  “Will you point him out to the court?”

  Shaking, I turned and pointed to Danny Stearns. My arm lingered in the air, held up by some unseen force, my finger extended toward him, while I stared into those eyes. I was paralyzed, unable to lower my arm, as before me, he appeared to be wearing the ski mask. It covered his whole head and face, with only those dark eyes glaring out at me. Then it was gone. And then it was back.

  “Let the record show that Miss Dory pointed to the defendant.” He turned to me, “Are you all right Miss. Dory?” The mask disappeared once again, and I was finally able to lower my arm and tear my eyes away. I looked at the attorney and nodded.

  “And there’s no doubt in your mind that the defendant is the man you saw running on Franklin Street that day?”

  “No doubt, whatsoever. It was him.”

  “No further questions,” I heard the attorney say.

  The judge looked at Danny’s attorney. “Counselor? Do you wish to cross?” I looked at Jack, who winked at me and smiled reassuringly.

  Danny’s attorney, who looked like a go-to guy for the Mob, strode across the room to me. “Miss Dory,” he said, “you testified that you found a ski mask on the sidewalk near you?”

  “Yes.”

  He picked up the same plastic bag from the evidence table and brought it to me. “Is this the ski mask?”

  “I just said it looks like it.”

  “And you picked up this ski mask from the sidewalk?”

  “I did.”

  “And what did you do with it?”

  “I obviously took it with me.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because I’m the one who turned it over to the police when I heard about the robbery investigation being reopened.”

  “The investigation was just recently reopened, Miss Dory. Are you saying you have been in possession of the ski mask for a decade?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s hard to believe. Why keep it? Why didn’t you call the police the day you found it?”

  “At the time I had no idea a bank had been robbed, and I was very upset at having been shoved into the wall of the building. I took it back to my dorm, put it in a box, and forgot about it.”

  “Miss Dory, what were you doing on Franklin Street that day?”

  “Objection!” The prosecutor shouted. “Relevance!”

  Danny’s attorney spoke directly to the judge. “Goes to the reliability of the witness, Your Honor.”

  “I’ll allow,” stated the judge. “Answer the question.”

  “I had an appointment there.” Breathe. One…two…three…

  “And with whom did you have this appointment?”

  Imaginary birds, pecked at the back of my neck. My face was hot. “I believe that’s personal.”

  “We don’t do personal, here, Miss Dory. Who were you meeting with?”

  “My doctor.”

  “What kind of a doctor?”

  “A psychologist.” He was trying to make me out to be a nut case. I looked over at the men and women sitting in the jury box. It seemed they were all staring at me, some with looks of pity.

  “And for how long had you been under the care of this psychologist?”

  “Two years.”

  “Is this psychologist the only one you’ve ever seen?”

  “Yes.”

  “Who is Dr. Karol Steele?” I was shocked to hear her name come out of his mouth, and shaken to know that he had been digging into my life.

  “My psychiatrist.” It had to be two hundred degrees in the courtroom. I looked at Jack. He wasn’t smiling any more. Instead, he was looking at me with sympathy. Please, no.

  “So you went from seeing a psychologist to a psychiatrist?”

  “Dr. Collins recommended her to me. I was moving and–”

  “And from what do you suffer? What is your mental affliction?”

  “Objection! Calls for the witness to wave her HIPAA rights and she is not on trial, Your Honor.”

  I knew what that was – the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which would keep Dr. Collins or Dr. Steele from talking to Jack, or anyone else, about my diagnosis without my permission. And at the moment, it would keep me from having to explain my GAD to this ape.

  “Sustained. Move along, counselor.”

  “Miss Dory, are you on any prescribed medication today?” Tears stung my eyes.

  “Objection again, Your Honor. HIPAA.”

  “Sustained. Don’t go there again, coun
selor.”

  But the attorney turned to the jury and smiled. “Or any other kind of medication?”

  “Objection!”

  “I’ll withdraw that last question, Your Honor. But if the witness has a mental affliction, and had it when she was bumped into by some man ten years ago, an affliction she refuses to explain to the court, how are we to know she wasn’t on medication at the time of the incident? How do we know her state of mind at the time? Who knows how accurate her recollection of the person could possibly be this many years later? I move that the witness’s testimony be stricken from the record because it cannot be relied upon.”

  “I’ll take it under consideration. Anything else?”

  “I move that the ski mask be removed from evidence, as Miss Dory admits she has been in possession of it for the past decade, and there can be no chain of custody established.”

  The judge asked, “Anything else?”

  “Nothing further, Your Honor.”

  “The judge turned to me. “You can go.”

  I made my way back to where Jack was waiting. “Do you want to stay and listen?” he asked.

  “Are you kidding? Get me out of here.” Outside, I took a deep breath of fresh air. “Oh my God,” I said, “that was awful. The jury thinks I’m crazy and now they may not even be able to consider my testimony? Or the mask?”

  “There’s nothing you can do about what goes on in this trial. The facts are the facts and the law is the law and you did your best. Stearns won’t get away with anything, Audrey. His DNA is in that hat. You said he was there. The jury heard that.” I leaned against him, hoping to absorb some of his strength, somehow. “Today was the hardest part,” he said, wrapping his arms around me, “what you feared the most, right? And you did it. I’m proud of you. But you’re the hero here. You’re the reason we know who robbed the bank and how they did it. If it wasn’t for you, they never would have identified Ferdy in the first place, and none of the four would be cooling their backsides in jail right now! Think about all you’ve accomplished almost singlehandedly. You even located the money in California – at least the part they recovered.”