Desire

Page 69

69

I left the house and headed back to town. I took a wrong turn and reached a dead end. I decided to just stop there and take a mental break. This was too much to take in. I started to cry. My life was in danger and I had no one to trust. Why me? Why would Keith want to work so hard to frame me for this crime? Amanda and I were best friends. This was too much. I was crying so hard and all I wanted to do was rock Keith and Amanda’s s**t but I had to act like everything was cool. I hadn’t cried that hard in a while. I sat at that dead end and thought so hard on just going and never looking back. I wanted to run away from it all, but running would solve nothing. I had to at least get an understanding of all of this.

I got back into town and headed for the office. I knew that I wouldn’t see Amanda and her and Keith are the two that I held most accountable. I got to work and everything seemed like a blur, maybe it was an effect of whatever I was knocked out with last night.

“Good morning, Mrs. Washington.” Courtney greeted.

“Hey, Courtney.”

“You're pretty late today, everything okay?”

“Yeah, I overslept.”

“I love your hair.”

‘Thanks. Just wanted to try something a little different. Hey, do I have any messages?”

“No, Ma’am but I did put your birthday gift in your office.”

“Aw, thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

I walked away and went to the restroom. I looked in the mirror, I had bags under my eyes. I was tired. I applied a little bit of makeup to at least look as if I wasn’t bothered. I didn’t want to do or say too much because of the wig and I still wasn’t 100% sure if I could trust Frank. I walked back to my office and managed to avoid running into anyone. I sat at my desk and realized a wrapped box underneath my desk. I wasn’t sure why Courtney would put the gift under my desk but Courtney was simply Courtney.

I opened the box and there was a tape recorder inside. A note fell out:

“Mrs. Washington, as I’m sure you know by now the whole office is involved in a ponzi scheme in which you are being framed. I am an undercover detective and I am here to help you. Please do not panic. I have been here this whole time and this tape recorder has all of the evidence needed to set you free. Place the recorder in your purse and do not play it until you are completely alone. You can’t trust anyone. My partner Tamia and I are getting closer to making arrests, all you have to do is continue to move about normally, they can’t suspect you know anything. If you have any questions, I have enclosed my phone number.”

All I could wonder is "If two detectives could prove my innocence, why not just arrest the a*****es?" Then it hit me, because they'd kill me.