Devil Mail (17 page)

              “So your boss doesn’t mind you coming in a little late this morning?” Angela asked Julia on the way to the church the next morning.

             
“No, I told him it was a bit of an emergency. We have a lot on, so he needs me in by ten thirty at the latest. So, what is this thing that you couldn’t explain over the phone?” Julia chortled as Angela relayed the events of the previous evening.

             
“Let me get this straight. Last night, you went to church, but you didn’t actually
go
to church?” I can’t believe you did that. You never do things like that. I feel like I don’t even know you anymore.”

             
“I feel like I hardly know myself these days,” Angela retorted despondently.

             
“Oh, Angie, don’t be so hard on yourself, I’m just teasing you. It’s okay to be a little spontaneous sometimes.”

             
As they pulled into the parking lot, Angela’s heart sank. Then panic quickly set in. The parking space where she had left her car the night before was empty. “Oh no!” she shrieked, as she leapt out of Julia’s car. Standing in the empty space, she surveyed the parking lot, spinning around a full 360
0
clockwise then anti-clockwise.  “My car’s been stolen!” The words spurted out of her mouth as tears collected in her eyes. Either Kieran had picked up his SUV earlier, or it had suffered the same fate.

             
“We have to call the police,” Julia declared, pulling out her cellphone.

             
“No, wait, let me call Kieran first,” Angela sniffled, unsure what his response would be, but having faith that at least he’d be able to mollify her if he didn’t have an immediate solution to the problem. Angela didn’t believe in Murphy’s Law, but something was working against her. Her cellphone was dead! She read the faint numbers off her palm and Julia called Kieran on her cellphone. He hadn’t picked up his car yet, and was, in fact on his way to do so.

             
“Don’t panic, I’ll be there in a minute,” he reassured her. “Where are you calling from?”

“I’m at the church. I’m using Julia’s
phone because mine’s dead.” In the meantime, Julia went into the office to talk to the church secretary. The two emerged to find Angela sitting on the ground in the same parking spot. She wiped her eyes as they neared her.             

             
“That was your car, Angela? I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. It was towed this morning along with a black SUV that was left here last night too,” the secretary said contritely. “I didn’t know.”

             
“I came back for it last night, but the gates were locked!” The relief that came with the knowledge that her car hadn’t been stolen was minor. Now she had to deal with reputedly unreasonable people at the impound!

             
“Why was it left here, Dear?” The secretary’s voice was kind and accommodating.

             
“A few of the singles went out after the service last night, so we carpooled. I didn’t know the gates would be locked.” Julia’s neck snapped as she turned to gape at Angela. Her face said it all: ‘y
ou liar!
’ She closed her mouth and hung her head to conceal her disbelief.

             
“Yes, we’ve been having issues with mainly young people meeting here at night for unwholesome activity in their cars, so we lock the gates now. They
have
been announcing it on Wednesday evenings.” Angela sensed that the secretary really wanted to ask her why she was unaware of this fact. “I have the details of the tow company. I’ll get them for you. Julia, will you be able to take her?” She was trying her very best to make a bad situation better.

             
“I can’t, I have to get to work,” Julia looked at Angela apologetically.

             
“Of course, you go, Jules. Thanks for giving me a ride here.” Angela understood the dilemma her sister was in and didn’t want her to feel guilty for not being able to offer any further assistance.”

             
“No worries,” the secretary stated, “I’ll sort something out.” She hustled away back to her office and Julia left. The secretary emerged again a few minutes later with a spring in her step, looking pleased with herself. Angela suspected she had called the impound and had told them that it was all a big mistake. She’d be able to get her car back without having to pay exorbitant fees, and they’d never speak of the matter again.

             
“I’ve called your mother, she’s on her way,” the secretary beamed, as if expecting thanks.

CHAPTER TWELVE

A
ngela sat in the perfect spot to enable her to unobtrusively fix her eyes on the side of Kieran’s face. His high, molded cheekbones stood out even more from her angle. She was riding to the impound in the rear of Kieran’s friend’s car; the friend who was unavailable to come to their rescue on the previous night. Kieran’s impeccable timing earned him even more brownie points in Angela’s mind. He and his friend had pulled up shortly after the secretary had delivered the frightful news of the call to Angela’s mother. Angela grabbed the written details of the tow company from her and dashed to the car, yelling as she ran, “Call Mom and tell her not to bother – I have a ride. Thanks.”

             
“Hey, what’s going on?” Kieran’s eyes were wide and the right side of his top lip elevated in complete bemusement.

             
“Just go, I’ll explain on the way,” Angela ordered.

             
“Hmm, a dominant one,” his friend said, winking at Kieran.

             
“Don’t talk, just drive,” Kieran responded.  The driver did as instructed, quietly listening to Angela explain the whole scenario to Kieran.

After a long wait at the office, Kieran asked his friend to take Angela to get her something to drink; she said she wasn’t hungry. Up to that point, Angela had watched Kieran skillfully deal with the staff at the tow company and impound as if they were old friends. By the time Angela returned with a latte, Kieran was waiting outside the office with news of the all clear.
Just as she suspected he would, Kieran had taken charge and within a couple of hours, they both had their cars back. “How much do I owe you?” Angela asked.

             
“It’s taken care of.” Kieran barely moved his lips.

             
“Come on, I can’t let you pay for my car.”

             
“It’s my fault that we ended up in this mess. It was my idea to go to Starbucks in the first place, so I’ve taken care of it. I’m just sorry it took such a chunk out of your day.”

             
Angela was sorry too. It was now the afternoon and she hadn’t accomplished anything in terms of her workload. She decided to go to work and stay late. As late as necessary to catch up.

             
She knew something was going on as soon as she walked into the office. The hushed tones as she passed reception, coupled with the avoidance of eye contact informed her that whatever had happened, had something to do with her. Liz met her by the door of her office. “Are you okay? Where have you been?”

             
“I called in earlier to say I was working from home, didn’t Kerry pass on the message?”

             
“We expected you earlier, and we didn’t know if you were okay.”

             
“Why wouldn’t I be?”

             
“Sharon said she was going to call you. Didn’t she call?”

             
“Liz, what’s going on?” Angela couldn’t stand Liz’s flair for the dramatic on a good day, and was definitely not in the mood for it today.

             
“Your boyfriend showed up again this morning.”

             
“What?” Angela couldn’t believe that he would be that stupid, or that much in love.

             
“Yep, Sharon asked him to leave, but he said he wasn’t moving until you came out to speak to him. He was shouting stuff like, “Hiding your car’s not going to help!” So Sharon told him that you’d be right out to talk to him, then she called the police and they escorted him off the premises. He almost got arrested. It was terrible! We didn’t know if he was headed to your house or anything.”

             
Angela avoided going into the ins and outs of her relationship with Aiden, although Liz seemed to take pleasure in letting Angela know that she knew he was more than just some guy whose deposition she had taken. Thankfully, he didn’t know where she lived, but Liz didn’t need to know that. “Yeah, my cellphone died. Where’s Sharon now?”

             
“She’s out. She said she’ll be back later.”

             
Angela got to work, making an intensive effort to concentrate despite the news. She hoped he was just escorted off the property and not actually arrested. A part of her wanted to call him to make sure he was okay, and to advise him to stop the madness, but a part of her recalled Kieran’s warnings about his behavior being obsessive; and she didn’t need to do anything to encourage that.

             
As soon as Sharon entered the office, Angela made a point of apologizing for her having been unavailable, due to the death of her cellphone.

             
“I called you on your home phone also, and when you didn’t answer that one either, I drove over to your house to check on you, but you weren’t there.” Sharon’s all-pervading gaze was fixed on Angela, waiting for a lame excuse or straightforward lie to fall from her lips.

             
“My car was towed and I spent hours at the impound trying to get it back.”

             
“What a run of bad luck you’ve been having!” Sharon stated, with no indication of whether she believed her or not.

             
“When can we expect the transcript to be done?”

             
“I’m working on it now,” Angela’s trembling voice exposed the lie.

             
“My question was when can we expect it to be
done
?”

             
Angela stuttered, “B-by S-Saturday. I’ll be working this weekend to catch up.”

             
“Saturday,” Sharon repeated.

             
Angela shut herself away in her office and instructed Kerry that under no circumstances was she to put any calls through to her. It was eight thirty when Sharon turned off the light in her office and told Angela that it was time for her to go home too. Despite Angela’s protests, Sharon was adamant that she was not leaving her alone in the office at night with some unbalanced psycho running loose. Angela couldn’t explain the resentment she felt over this reference to Aiden; after all, Sharon neither knew him nor understood his motives. Aiden had given her a small glimpse of his heart and he wasn’t all bad.

              A note and an envelope were stuffed into the side of her front door when Angela arrived home. The note was a command from Julia to call her as soon as possible. Inside, her answer machine was blinking furiously, drawing her attention to the nine messages left thereon. Among them were two calls from Sharon advising her that Aiden had been to the office again, so she should be on her guard. Three of the calls were from Mrs. Craddock who was clearly out of her mind with worry, wanting to know what in the world was going on, and looking for an explanation of the cryptic calls she received from the church secretary. Judith had also called wanting to know why her cellphone was going to voicemail, why she wasn’t picking up at home, why she wasn’t at work and why Mrs. Craddock had called her to see if she knew about her car being towed.  Two of the calls were from Julia checking up on her, and warning her that Mrs. Craddock had gotten wind of the matter. Angela sighed when she heard the message from the ninth caller, which was a company offering her financial freedom if she returned their call.

             
She didn’t know where to start. She could easily be on the telephone all night if she were to start dishing out explanations. She opened the envelope to find a card, the front bearing a single white rose against a black background. The blank space inside allowed for a personal message. It read:

              “Sorry your day

             
    Turned out that way

             
      My fault it was

             
      It was all because…

             
         I said we should go to Starbucks.

             
  Sorry about your car

             
     You deserve better by far

             
         My fault it was

             
             It was all because…

             
                I said we should go to Starbucks.

             
Sorry you were late

             
     My sorrow is great

             
         My fault it was

             
           It was all because…

             
               I said we should go to Starbucks.

             
Sorry I’m not a poet

             
     But I care for you and you know it

             
        So one day perhaps

             
              (We’ll allow time to elapse)

             
                 And we’ll go again to Starbucks?”

              She read it again, then a third time. Amateurish, yet brilliantly effective. She read it slowly a fourth time, imagining his voice reading to her. It warmed her heart and gave her direction - she would make the first call to Kieran!

             
“You are a poet,” she said as soon as he answered the call, “and a brilliant one at that.”

             
“Glad you liked it. Took me hours to find the right words. Where are you calling from?”

             
“Oh, this is my home number. My cellphone’s charging. I hardly know you and you have my cellphone number, home number and my address. Thanks for getting me home safely last night, by the way.”

             
“You’re welcome. My fault it was, it was all because….”

             
“You’re a mess!” Angela laughed.

             
The couple talked well into the night, Angela filling him in on the recent developments with Aiden. By the time they said their goodnights, it was far too late for Angela to call anyone else, but she knew that if she didn’t call her family, they would be worried sick. She called Julia to let her know that she was okay, and told her to relay the message to Mrs. Craddock, whom she would call in the morning. She went to bed happy.

              Angela arose early on Friday morning intent on putting out the fires that the events of the previous day had ignited. She called her mother and perpetuated the lie about having gone out with some singles after the mid-week service, finding the gate locked on her return and her car towed the following morning. Mrs. Craddock found offense in Angela having shut herself away at work, making herself unavailable even to her own mother, in such uncertain circumstances. She was further upset that Angela had been inconsiderate enough to wait until the very end of the day to call and put her mind at ease. When she had calmed down, she agreed that it was ridiculous for her car to have been towed if she was prevented from retrieving it the night before. And if the car was empty, then it obviously didn’t belong to any of the scandalous youngsters who they had been so concerned about keeping off church property.

             
Her mother asked if the group that socialized the night before included the young man who had been the subject of their dinner discussion, and when Angela affirmed that he was, she then wanted to know when he would be formally introduced to her.

             
“There’ll be plenty of time for introductions, Mom, there’s no rush.”

             
“Who’s rushing? I just want to meet him.” She then put Julia on the telephone and Angela explained that she had to work late to catch up on the missed hours, so zumba was out of the question. Julia completely understood, considering the day Angela had.

             
The third call was to Judith to let her know that all was well, but they would have to talk later, because there was too much to discuss before work.

             
The day almost went according to plan. Angela started on the transcripts from the Lake County case and managed to get about three solid hours of work in before Sharon asked her to cover a deposition at the last minute. It lasted for the scheduled ninety minutes, but with travel time factored in, it still took her out of the office for a couple of valuable hours.