by Noel Obiora
•••
Perhaps no one else at the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office had a better collection of fine wines. Amy’s collection was courtesy of her father, who didn’t visit without bringing one bottle at least and making a point of replenishing them. Amy got up and poured herself a drink, then called Neda.
“Hey, can you stop by my apartment on your way home from work tomorrow?”
“Do you want to do happy hour?”
“No, I have a filing on Wednesday. Just come by, I have something to show you. It’ll be quick.”
“Okay, this better be good.”
“What do you have to lose?”
“My precious time.”
“Or a great bottle of wine.”
“I’ll be there.”
•••
All day Amy was impatient about calling Thomas back. When she was not working on the new charging documents, her mind stressed on all sorts of ideas for what Thomas was going to tell her, but none seemed plausible. Had she misjudged the effect the incident at Cool Jo’s Café had on him? He frowned at Neda’s suggestion that he join them next time they went to the nightclub, which Amy had taken as his further derision of the incident. Kenneth did not help matters by repeatedly calling her, but she would not take his calls, not while she was anticipating calling Thomas. Taking Kenneth’s call would leave her feeling like she was juggling affairs. She cringed at the thought. The fact Thomas’s flowers had arrived on the heels of her seeing Kenneth again after the nightclub still troubled her. Perhaps that was why she accepted more flowers from the florist than she ordinarily would. Thomas was competitive. He was up for the fight, he had said. Why would he say such a thing? At the hotel, she had asked him if he really believed she would go out with another man, especially while he was in town.
At about five o’clock, Amy could wait no longer to call Thomas. She called him from the office, and he answered immediately.
“It’s about Kate,” Thomas said once they dispensed with niceties.
“What about her?”
“I confirmed that she is someone I know.”
“Go on,” Amy said now seriously concerned.
“It was a blind date…it didn’t work out. And I didn’t call her again.”
“You went on a blind date with Kate? Kate Peck? When?”
“Last year, a few months ago at least.”
“And you couldn’t recall where she worked to make that connection once I started working here?”
“We met just once. I never saw or called her again.”
“Before or after the first time you asked me out?”
“I first asked you out in high school.”
“I mean last year,” Amy said.
“Have you forgotten what you told me when we first started going out?”
“Of course not, I told you you did not owe me fidelity while I was refusing to sleep with you.”
“Can we not fight about this thousands of miles apart?”
“Just once? And you never spoke to her or saw her afterward?” Amy asked, as though she was worried the same thing would happen to her.
“Amy, when you give a man carte blanche to do whatever he wants with other women, while his only desire is to be with you, you may think you’re setting him free to live the way men want to live, but in essence, you may be saying that he is not good enough to command your fidelity, or jealousy for that matter. He doesn’t measure up. You hurt his self-esteem.
“Are you blaming me for this?”
“Of course not, can I explain?”
“Yes, please, is that why you didn’t call her back afterward?”
“Amy, a situation where Kate suddenly becomes your boss was unimaginable to me at the time. And I’m sorry I put you in that situation.”
“When did you confirm that this Kate was the same person you had a blind date with?”
“I wanted to discuss it with you the second time I was in Los Angeles, but the thing at the nightclub threw me off.”
“You couldn’t tell me the following night while we were having dinner or at your hotel, or through the night and the morning we spent together?”
“It felt complicated. I’m sorry.”
“Complicated, how? How does it feel less so now?”
“This was why I wanted to fly in and have the discussion in person.”
“You told Alana the name of the case, didn’t you?”
When Thomas did not answer, Amy continued, rather alarmed.
“Thomas, you told my mom about Kate before you told me?”
“No, why would I do that? I told her the name of the case that you went to the nightclub to investigate.”
“And you asked her to tell me to get reassigned?”
“It was entirely her idea, but I told her it wouldn’t be a big deal.”
“Thomas…after Richard and I broke off our engagement, I realized that what I want the most from any man I’m going to spend the rest of my life with is transparency and honesty, even more than fidelity—if that makes any sense at all. I’m the type of person who would rather get flogged than lied to…so thanks for telling me.”
She hung up the phone before he could say another word and picked up her jacket and her purse. As she walked out of the building, she decided she would no longer try to please Kate on People v. Jackson, but she would not give Alana satisfaction in seeking a reassignment. Henceforth, the office was on probation for an opportunity to have her work there, rather than she being on probation in a new position.
18
A Different Woman
Kate came to the office very early on Wednesday to review the supplemental charging documents. Amy watched as she read it. When Kate sternly looked up at her and kept her gaze, Amy expected one of her piercing remarks, but Kate quietly continued reading and did not look up again until she was done.
“You don’t think I spoke to Gonzalez about the meeting you had with him and Melissa?” Kate asked.
“I supposed you did, but you weren’t there to approve what they were suggesting. I think we should disclose the listening device, I don’t see the point of only including the small ones the defendant knows about and not the electronic box found under the bed.”
“You know the fingerprints of the only tenant the police didn’t get a chance to talk to were on that box?”
“Monsieur Arnot?”
“Yes, and that he moved out before giving notice?”
“Wow…”
“I never asked them to conceal evidence.”
“I didn’t think you did…that’s why I included everything.”
Kate looked at Amy skeptically.
“So, you are sticking with me on this case.”
“I didn’t know my participation was in doubt.”
“Melissa said she wanted to pull you, but left it up to you.”
“I figured you picked me, so you should decide, not Melissa.”
“I picked you because I thought it would be a great opportunity, and you would be more grounded than most of the other attorneys if it should get the kind of publicity we feared because of the similarities with the other circus.”
“I appreciate that…”
“You don’t know why I wasn’t at that meeting?”
“No…I mean, Melissa said a friend of yours came into town.”
“That’s all you know about it?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, you may include everything. Give Gonzalez a head’s up.”
Amy said she wanted to pay Rachel a visit and sought Kate’s permission.
“Sure, go right ahead and while you are at it, plan on handling the preliminary hearing without me,” Kate said. “You can thank me later.”
“Thanks,” Amy said and went to give the support staff instructions t
o file the documents as Judge Pollazo directed. In her office, she ruminated on the surprise assignment to handle the preliminary hearing. She had done mostly preliminary hearings in her last year at West Covina before this promotion. They were often routine procedural milestones where the judge decided that the case against the defendant could proceed to trial, but on a case this sensitive, given the racial tension in the city, preliminary hearings were never routine. The exposure could bring instant celebrity status, especially if some magazine thought to exploit her family name along with her relationship to Thomas in connection with the case.
Had she made the right decision to remain on the case? She asked herself again and concluded that she had. It was the only professional decision. She did not assign herself cases and knew of no rule in the district attorney’s office that allowed deputy district attorneys the freedom to opt out of assignments they did not like or those in which their bosses might have been entangled with their social lives. All the people telling her to request reassignment were doing so on the basis that she was an exception to the rule. Even Melissa said she was worried the publicity that followed the case might further thrust Amy into the limelight because of her pedigree. Hence, that statement Kate made during the meeting: “You are sticking with me on this case.” From the look on Kate’s face, she was expecting Amy to ask to be reassigned this morning. For that disappointment alone, Amy was happy to stay on the case.
Neda had also told her to get reassigned yesterday when she got to Amy’s apartment on her way home from work. There was another look Amy would not forget, when Neda saw all the flowers that adorned Amy’s living room.
“What the hell…is it your birthday or something?”
“You know it’s not my birthday.”
“So, what is it?”
“Thomas.”
“He proposed?”
“Nooooo!”
“So…what? I have run out of options.”
Amy had deliberately kept Neda wondering until she served the wine. She had asked Neda to check out her bedroom and the guest bedroom and the bathroom, while she uncorked the bottle.
“You got all these because you were mad at him at the nightclub? There’s a poor wedding that now has to pay more for flowers because you are so spoiled,” Neda said as she sat down to her wine in the kitchen.
“Shut up, Neda. Thomas sent me these flowers to explain that he is the reason why I got my high profile case. Come to think of it, he may be the reason I got this promotion. And here I was thinking it was all on merit.” With Neda not responding, Amy continued, “Thomas had a date with Kate and never called her back. When Kate saw that Thomas’s girlfriend was transferring to be her junior at the head office, she decided to take the junior under her wing and really measure her up…see what commodity this gal has got that makes TC Holdings want to hang on to her for more than just one night.” The expression on Neda’s face was now half-amazement and half-amusement. She was silent and drank more wine. Amy told Neda how she found out about Kate and Thomas. Neda at least thought Amy could seek reassignment on the grounds that it was unprofessional of Kate to make the assignment without letting Amy know that she knew Thomas. Amy did not want to have that discussion and changed the subject, telling Neda that was not the reason she had asked her to come over.
“I had lunch with him the Monday afternoon they delivered flowers.”
“With Kenneth?”
Amy nodded. “And I couldn’t tell Thomas when he called.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t want to. Now the whole thing is driving me nuts because I didn’t tell him before he told me about Kate.”
Neda and Amy spent the evening discussing both men and what Amy wanted. “I want to take a break from men,” Amy told Neda. She did not feel comfortable working for Kate and seeing Thomas at the same time and she did not want to give Kate the satisfaction of reassigning her from the case. Neda had suggested it was not a good idea to break from Thomas because of this incident, but perhaps to take some time to cool off.
“You sound just like them,” Amy told her.
“What? Because I said don’t do anything drastic?”
“That’s exactly what my mother would say. That was what Kate expected when she appointed me to this case, not knowing whether I knew her history with Thomas, or maybe she wanted me to know her history, but she knew I would not do anything drastic. What bothered me the most about all of this…about Alana, about Kate, about Thomas, and even Richard, was that they all make these decisions that get me entangled in their little messes without any consideration for me—because, of course, what would I do should I find out? Nothing drastic, of course. It’s like they were working off a manual of my predictable behavior, and the only constant in that manual is that I wouldn’t do anything drastic. They know just how a Wilson raised well is expected to act. Now, I want to live, not in their manual but in their consciousness. Every time they make a decision that affects me, I want them to think of the consequences first. I will not suffer for anyone in silence like I did for Richard. Not anymore. I have learned my lesson. Suffering in silence meant not suffering at all.”
Neda was left speechless, which was unlike her. Amy, on the other hand had needed someone to unburden her heart on. This morning for the meeting with Kate, she had none of the butterflies or apprehensiveness or contemplation of how it might go wrong. She went in without airs.
The paralegal called her to confirm that the documents were filed as Judge Pollazo directed. Amy thanked her and decided to take a walk away from the office. She walked down Broadway, toward the Time’s building to the covered street market near Fourth Street, hands thrust deep in her pockets.
•••
Rachel would not answer her phone, so Amy called Conrad Wetstone, the apartment manager.
“Rachel moved,” Conrad told Amy.
“When?” Amy asked.
“This past Sunday,” Conrad said.
“To where?”
“She didn’t say.”
“And her sister, Amber?”
“She returned to Georgia.”
“Do you know if Rachel kept using Goldie’s apartment after Goldie returned from London?”
“After she came back, she was in Malibu most of the time. I think they were trying to keep her away from that boyfriend after she came back… That’s what Rachel said…”
“Why is she running, instead of helping?”
“I don’t think she is running. Giving up her apartment was the only way she could make her sister Amber go back to Georgia.”
“So, you know where she moved to?”
“I think she’s just traveling abroad. And she gave up her apartment so her sister would go home. I’m sorry I don’t have a forwarding address, but I know she didn’t just move, she traveled.”
“How close were Rachel and Monsieur Arnot?”
“I don’t know,” Conrad said.
Amy thanked Conrad after plying him for more information. She also learned that Mr. Pare was keeping Goldie’s apartment exactly the way it was because he wanted to use it for a music video when her record was released. All the people involved in this case were behaving strangely. How could Rachel, Goldie’s closest friend, who could help find her killer, leave without a forwarding address? If Amy’s close friend was killed in a similar manner, Amy would be calling daily to find out how close the police were to getting a conviction. She would want to know how she could help. Kate had not seemed too concerned about Rachel, Amy thought. Amy, on the other hand, had thought Rachel held the wild card. Every time Amy thought one thing about the case, Kate thought the opposite, or so it seemed, at least until this morning when Kate agreed to disclose all the listening devices. That was a different Kate, Amy thought. Thomas had affected her behavior, leaving Amy to deal with the consequences in that tranquil, well-behaved manner expected of Jo
hn Wilson’s only daughter. The thought infuriated her. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like she was in a more complicated relationship than she realized.
•••
Her apartment felt hollow when she got back that evening. Every sound was pronounced in a way that reminded her that she was alone. She turned on the television, something she did almost as a habit every day, but on this night it occurred to her that she probably did it to fill a void left by what was missing in her life, or perhaps to drown out what was uncomfortably present. She kicked off her shoes, took a yogurt from the refrigerator in the kitchen, and came back to the living room, mulling her life. It was probably too early in Singapore or New York or wherever Thomas might be at this time, she thought as she turned her strawberry yogurt with nuts and took a spoonful. Law and Order was on, with a storyline she struggled to follow, yet not much different from those she had seen before. The flowers that surrounded her suddenly looked sad. She turned the volume down and contemplated the conversation she wanted to have with him.
“Thomas, I don’t think I’m ready for the relationship you want.” To which he would say, “Then let’s have the relationship you want.” She would insist that Thomas listen to her and acknowledge her desires, whether they suited him or not. This would be the conversation to show him she was more flawed than he has ever known, to dispense with his illusion that she is someone for whom flowers can make misogyny seem pretty and she must insist they take time apart to consider the way forward. No longer would she suffer indignities silently for the sake of decorum. This situation must not pass without her asserting exactly what she wanted out of it. Flowers be damned.