Duplicity - A True Story of Crime and Deceit by Paul Goldman (surface ebook reader txt) 📗

a radio blared in the background. “I’ve just beenfinishing with the last of the laundry.”

“That’s great. I wish Icould be there to help. I miss you already,” I said, wishing I washome with her.

“Me too,” she respondedflatly, before moving on to more important things. “Did you get achance to mail out either of those checks?” Here we go again withthe checks, I thought. Her persistence was not the response I waslooking for.

“I sent Florida Health thecheck for your health insurance. I don’t have the money for yourstudent loan yet,” I said, as I checked my email.

“Youmade the check out to FLHC, right?” she asked, turningdown the radio as she spoke.

“Yes, honey, just like youwrote on the paper.”

“Great. Okay, well, Iguess I’ll see you later,” she quickly added, preparing to hang upthe phone.

“Wait. Hold on. Did youget a chance to fire your lawyer? I informed mine of ourarrangement and that is all taken care of.” Peter had actuallyseemed amused when I told him what we had agreed to at Dr.Tanner’s. He told me to keep his number if I ever needed any legaladvice in the future. I thanked him for his time and he wished megood luck as we hung up. It was a nice sentiment, though I thoughtI sensed some sarcasm in his voice.

“Oh, I’ve been so busy,Paul. I’ll get to it when I can.” Busy? I realized she had a fewsuitcases and some small boxes to take care of, but how hard was itto take a minute to give a lawyer a phone call? It wasn’t only thatshe hadn’t done something she promised, her failure to do sodisrespected our new beginning. I told myself to let it go; we hadto keep moving forward. When I returned home that evening, I askedher again if she had called her lawyer. This time Audrey said shehad, but was only able to leave messages.

The next two weeks passed,and I adjusted to life of a full-time husband with a daily 5:45wake-up call. Though I couldn’t complain about the frequency, ourtime together lacked emotional intimacy, making me feel like I wascollecting daily rent rather than deepening an emotional bond withmy wife. There was no anticipation since it was the first order ofthe day; nor was there any creativity or excitement involved. Forlack of a better term, I was simply being serviced and then sentalong to go about my day. I was, however, happy to have Audrey backand our children were excited about living together as a family. Wewere moving in the right direction and every day felt like anexperiment in better understanding one another. One thing Icouldn’t understand, however, was why Audrey still hadn’t fired herlawyer.

A few days later, I asked Audrey again,“Honey, did you hear back from your lawyer yet?”

“I guess he’s been so busyhe hasn’t gotten the message, honey. I’ll call and remind himagain,” Audrey explained, not really showing anyconcern.

“Thanks, honey. I hate tokeep nagging you about this, but I guess it'll finally make me feellike we’ll be together forever, you know?” I explained, hoping Iwould inspire her to follow up.

“Of course we’re going tobe together forever,” she said, while reading her magazine. Whileshe casually flipped the pages, never averting her eyes from herreading, she said blandly, “Like I told you lots of times, this ismy forever marriage.”

One week later, I got a call from my ownlawyer, Peter, telling me he had yet to receive the paperwork fromAudrey’s lawyer so that he could dismiss the case. I told him Iwould look into it and I felt my irritation turn to anger. Islammed the phone, and immediately picked it back up again to callAudrey. No answer at home, so I called her cell, which she finallyanswered on the fourth ring. “Honey, I just called the house, andthere was no answer. Are you at home?”

“Of course, I'm home.Where else would I be?”

“I don't know. Anyway, Ijust spoke with my lawyer, and he tells me your lawyer hasn'tdismissed the case yet. What's going on?”

“Oh, well, I just talkedto him and he said he won’t dismiss until I give him money,Paul.”

“Money? He would not haverepresented you if you hadn’t already paid a retainer. What moneycould you possibly still owe him?” My words were measured as Itried to stay calm. We had made it almost a month without anyargument and I didn’t want to break our peace because of a divorcelawyer.

“I don’t know. That’s whathe told me.” I knew Audrey well enough to know she was not thisdim. She knew more than she was telling, but I couldn’t figure outwhat that might be. I knew I needed to confront her, but,reflecting on the outcome of the parking lot fiasco, I also knew Ihad to pick the right time and approach. Not knowing what thatmight be, I began to think of what I might say when I wasinterrupted by the ringing of my cell phone. I said a quickgood-bye to Audrey.

“A-1 Painting Service, mayI help you?” I asked, moving seamlessly from one compartment of mylife to the other.

“Hi,yeah, my name is Jose and I’m the foreman for the builder ofthe Lakeside CondominiumProject. Your painters are threatening to quit.They tell me they haven’t been paid in a month.”

“Whatare you talking about?” I asked incredulously. My concerns overAudrey were promptly replaced by new concerns, concerns I had notat all anticipated. I reached across my desk and began to thumbthrough the files in my top cabinet. Locating the filefor Lakeside, I quickly scanned my invoices and payroll and found what Ialready knew to be true.

“That’swrong. I paid them last week,” I contended.Lakeside was a huge,sixty unit condo building and was also our largest account. Thereis no way that payment would have been overlooked, and it wasn’t.“According to my records, the building should be pretty muchcomplete. All that should be left are final touch-ups.”

“Uh, yeah, you better getdown here,” Jose suggested, not at all soundingconvinced.

“I’m on my way,” Ireplied. I hopped in my car and sped to the site. This all had tobe a big misunderstanding, but even a misunderstanding could signaltrouble for