Bittersweet Revenge (8 page)

The driver helped her get her luggage and she happily gave him a twenty dollar bill. He was shocked and almost gave her a hug. He had stacked things neatly against the wall and she could easily unpack one at a time.

The apartment was lovely, well furnished, clearly with expensive things, but not overly done. The multitude of plants had been freshly watered. She looked in the fridge and it was full of all kinds of goodies with a note across the front – Welcome to Boston, Sullivan Realtors. There were cheeses and smoked fish and salads and wine and sliced meats. Didn’t they know she would be living alone? She made a mental note to send a thank you card through Jacqui Lawson.

No, she would not do that. Jacqui Lawson did not know Charla Morrison.

She spent the next four days doing the sights and sounds of Boston, as she had ten years or so earlier. It was fun. So much had changed since her last visit. There were new restaurants and clubs and a high energy she had not felt before. Younger people. Students from across the Charles River at Harvard. It was play time before settling down for school.

Charla always thought of the reason she was there, but she restrained herself from stepping away from her plan. 

Until Friday of that week. That’s when she would check things out.

She had the address and finally took a cab to the building. Once inside the huge lobby, she found the glass case with those little while letters and numbers that someone took charge of – the names and addresses of tenants.

There it was, the 12th floor, Richard Westerman, Attorney at Law. She got in the elevator and pressed 12, knowing the moment had arrived when she might run into Rick. Everyone else got off the elevator before 12, so she was all by herself.

She walked to the left, following the arrow, bit her lips and took a deep breath before she opened the door.

A dark haired young woman sat at what was presumed to be the reception desk. Charla acknowledged she was in the office of Richard Westerman, and politely asked the young woman if there were any job openings. The woman introduced herself as Anna Younger and Charla said hello and shook her hand. 

The door opened behind Charla and she knew the moment of truth was upon her. Rick walked into office, actually frantically ran into the office, said he had to leave for New York within the hour. They looked at each other with no recognition whatsoever. Charla’s legs were shaking. She took a deep breath and stood by as his frenzy spilled over to his secretary. He fortunately decided to get out to Logan and find a flight rather than spend a long time on the phone now. He was right. That’s what she would have done.

They were gracious to one another. Anna mentioned that Charla was looking for a job. Rick mentioned he had a couple of projects and she should leave her number, he’d be in touch when he got back. He asked Anna to get a message to his wife and he was out the door. They both took a deep breath. Anna commented that’s how life was with Rick.

Charla was surprised at her lack of emotions being in the same small space with Rick after all this time. In fact, she felt nothing. She had expected some emotions to sweep over her, but that had not happened.

Charla asked Anna questions that probably sound general but were not really. Where did she live, how did she get back and forth to work, what time did the catch the bus. 

They talked for awhile, then Charla said she would get out of Anna’s way. Charla left her phone number for Anna just in case Rick did want to hire someone.

A week later Rick was on the phone hiring Charla as his assistant.

Chapter Fifteen

She watched as Anna approached, talking like crazy on her cell phone, just as she did everywhere. Anna never even saw Charla. It didn’t take much of a push - a jostle really – and Anna was down on the tracks of the trains, fortunately with none coming. Emergency bells rang. It took only a few minutes for paramedics to get her off the tracks and onto a gurney. She clearly had a broken leg and broken arm. Off she went to where she could receive the medical attention she needed. Charla had disappeared from the scene quickly.

The call came within two days. Anna had told her mother of Charla’s search for a job and how perfect the timing seemed to be. Anna put in the call to Richard and let him know she had a temp lined up for him; that they could work out the financial aspect of the job. Anna was grateful to Charla and said she would help her with anything she needed.

Charla was in a bit of a shock. Rick had no idea who she was. None. He was totally engrossed in what he had to be doing in the next few days and put a pile of papers from the trip to New York on Charla’s desk.

He agreed that she was hired for however long it took Anna to get back to work. Charla knew that the salary would be far less than anything paid on the west coast. She agreed to a pay of $600 per week for now. At least there might be an opportunity for more at some point, she thought.

Richard explained that every Friday she should present him with a statement for her work, make a check out to herself, and leave it for Rick to sign. If for some reason, he should not get into the office, he would sign it at some point over the weekend. He never asked if that would cause a problem. People with money don’t think about what may be a grave inconvenience for someone else. 

She checked on Anna, who was still in the hospital and clearly noted that she was going to be laid up for a few months. She was so grateful to Charla for being able to help Rick out for however long it may take. 

Rick was a typical out of control, on the edge litigator. Although he seemed to act calm, he wasn’t. Charla was used to the type. Seemed to be in control but always did things at the last minute, relied on his secretary to know which end was up about a case, and when it was over, boasted and bragged about his organizational skills. A secretary was always left to feel as though she had nothing to be with the success of his court trial and a client’s love for him. Nothing changed whichever coast one was on.

The next morning, Charla got a phone call from Anna’s mother to inform Rick that Anna was dead. How could she be dead with a broken arm and leg? Evidently she had some sort of blood disease that no one was aware of, and it wasn’t until this accident that it presented itself. The police even told Anna’s mother that if they could find the person who may have pushed Anna into the train, they could file charges against that person.

Charla was devastated. She was not someone who would ever hurt anyone, so the fact that she had barely  pushed Anna in the crowd was hard for her to think about. Now that Anna was dead, it was awful. She was stricken with quilt and really had to get a grip on herself. NOW. 

Rick was late getting back but Charla didn’t want to hang around and see him so she left him a note with the phone number for Anna’s mother.

The next morning Rick was there when she got to the office, much to her surprise. He asked if they could talk. Charla almost forgot her southern accent.

Rich was upset about Anna, said he wanted to send her mother some sort of a food basket, could Charla please figure it out. He wanted to spend a few hundred, gave her authorization. He asked Charla if she would stay and work with him. She said she would but the money would have to be better. They went back and forth and he agreed to $750 per week. He agreed that she was well worth it, had even more experience than Anna as to escrow information, etc. She wrote up a simple agreement and had him sign it.

Talk about being strung up by the you know what. 

If he only knew that the woman across from him had once spent enough time in bed with him to earn more than $750 a week.

They settled into the routine of life in a law practice. Charla didn’t know much about what was going on in Rick’s life. His wife never phoned on the office line, nor did his children. They obviously only used his cell phone. Only once did his mother phone the office on the main line and Charla was taken aback at first, but kept her distance in a rather short conversation. 

The mail was such that it told Charla Rick was behind in a lot of his payments. She confronted him, asked if he wanted her to write the checks so that the payments could be made. He appreciated it. For a moment, he seemed more human, even invited her to lunch. She declined, stroked her stomach and said she didn’t eat lunch. He laughed, said it might be a good idea if he stopped eating lunch. She couldn’t see any flab on him but maybe if he were undressed, she’d feel differently.

She got his accounts in order and he thanked her, buying her a bouquet of flowers to show his appreciation. She thought it was a nice touch. When he left the office for the weekend, she threw the flowers in the trash. Appreciation. I’ll show you appreciation. 

Charla spoke with Anna’s mother again to see how she was doing. It had been a few months already. Charla had packed up all of Anna’s things from the office and her brother had picked them all up. Norma had not yet opened the boxes. That job was on next week’s list of things to do. 

Charla could not sleep that night. Something was bothering her but she could not quite put her finger on it. Her circle of friends seemed to be expanding but she didn’t want it to go in that direction. No attachments. No one to say goodbye to. She went home from work each night and kept to herself nights and weekends. She went to shop for groceries and nothing more – no clothes, nothing frivolous.

It took her awhile and she finally realized what was bothering her. She absolutely despised Rick and did not want to be around him. His habits made her nuts. He was sloppy about so many things and not at all the kind of person she’d given herself to several years earlier. He wasn’t slovenly, but just seemed to not care about so many things.

Charla knew that she had to accelerate her plans; that it was time to get out of that office and Rick’s life. She spent the rest of the weekend reviewing in her mind the plan for bringing things to a close. She set a date in her mind for three months later to be gone. That would mean one year for Charla to have been working in Rick’s office.

Rick’s client account had been gradually transferred to his general account, which was against the rules for lawyers. A client account was never to be mixed with moneys in a general account. Within a few days, clients would be aware of the change and would be confronting Rick about those funds. They were sacrosanct. The funds were always to remain in the accounts until the clients settled their matters and signed authorization for the funds to be returned or gave the attorney authorization to move the funds. And it was against the law to co-mingle funds.

The bank was calling to determine what the problem was, why the client trust account was being depleted. Some of the funds were transferred to Rick’s personal accounts and he was using them for his own expenses.

Charla had given notice to her landlord that she would be leaving by the first of the month. When she got home, she made sure that everything she had brought with her was packed and ready to go. 

Chapter Sixteen

The next morning, Charla arrived at the office early. She looked around the room, checking and double checking, one wall at a time, each piece of furniture, making sure her fingerprints were either wiped clean or did not exist. She took her time; no need to rush. The plan had been in place for months, but she didn’t want to be too arrogant or complacent and make a mistake. 

The computer keyboard at her desk had been replaced. She had never used his keyboard or anything else in his office, of that she had been extremely careful. No law books had been touched or opened by her either.  Any legal research needed had been done on her computer.

And her computer led to nowhere, nothing personal ever searched, no trails or links to life outside of that office, never. The risk would have been too great. 

Any hairs likely to be found would be blonde, but she wouldn’t be blonde for much longer.  Besides, the cleaning crew was the best she had ever seen, so it was unlikely that anything would linger over the next few weeks. Once the plan was in motion, no one would even think to have his office searched, at least not for a long time.

Nothing about her would be non-descript. She wanted to be remembered as the tall, thin, blonde and blue-eyed paralegal who worked for him for about a year. She would no doubt be on video camera throughout the lobby and perhaps even on the 12th floor where his office is located. But she also knew they didn’t keep those tapes for long. 

He was away so much of the time that he never noticed how little involvement she had with things in the office other than at her desk. The plant service watered the plants, the cleaning people cleaned. She rarely touched anything in the small kitchen space used for coffee or bottled water. No trace of her would be found in that area. She wiped the phone clean with antiseptic wipes, knowing any prints or fibers from her would be gone within seconds. 

She shivered. 

It was almost over. She left the office with nothing more than her usual shoulder bag. The video tapes would show the same thing of the same woman that was seen day in and day out for the last twelve months. She had been there so long that Rick had already made her a permanent employee. To be sure, she practically ran the place.

The last thing she did was to put the brochure for Angel perform on his desk where he would find it immediately. He might even have a heart attack. But Charla knew that he would never do anything but stare at it.