No Escape

Shania settled into her new position at work, and a general acceptance seemed to come over the agency. Even Maureen seemed to finally be accepting the promotion. Shania realized she might not like it, or think it was fair, but she at least tolerated the fact that her own promotion would just have to wait. It was the middle of the morning when Miss Daly came out to the main office. “Shania, could you please do me a huge favor?” Shania glanced up from her monitor where she had been about to check her email. “Sure thing. What do you need?” “I need an early lunch really badly. I don’t know why, but I’m starving all of a sudden, and I can’t wait another two hours until lunch. Could you run downtown and grab me a sandwich and a salad from that deli I like?” “Sure,” said Shania, rising from her chair. “What kind?” “A ham-and-cheese sandwich will do, along with ranch dressing on one of their delicious garden salads. I’ll go fetch my purse and give you some money.” Shania took off and was just returning to her car with Miss Daly’s lunch when she saw the meter maid writing out the ticket. “What’s going on?” she asked. The meter maid, a stocky older woman, looked up at Shania. “You’re double-parked. Can’t do that here.” “But where else was I to park?” The woman shrugged indifferently. “The parking situation here may need rearranging, but I don’t make the rules. I only ticket those parked illegally.” “To hell with this shit!” Shania shouted, suddenly feeling her face turn hot. “I’m only doing the boss a favor, yet this is what I get for it?” The meter maid studied her intently, then said, “Look, ma’am, I’m only doing my job. Please don’t make me have to call the police now, OKAY?” Shania snatched the ticket from the woman. “Oh, just give me the damn ticket then and let me out of here. You and your own damn boss will be hearing from me about this one!” The woman shook her head and walked away as Shania got in her car. ________________________________________ When Shania returned, her boss could see that she was clearly upset. “What happened?” she asked. “Did they accidentally squirt some dressing on that pretty little blouse of yours?” “I wish they had,” Shania replied. “Instead, I got a parking ticket.” “A parking ticket?” Shania nodded as Maureen tried to hide the smirk on her face. “There were absolutely no parking spots, so I had to double-park.” “Oh, don’t worry, hon. I’ll take care of the ticket for you.” “Thanks,” Shania said, handing her boss the ticket. “Still, I’m going to send a little email to our wonderful mayor and let him know we need more parking spots!” “I support you on that one,” said Tim, who had heard the exchange along with Gary and Maureen. Shania noted that Gary was obviously annoyed by the distracting chatter. Mr. High-and-Mighty, just like Maureen, Shania thought to herself. Miss Daly retreated to her office, and the foursome settled down to work once again, with nothing but mellow music and traffic sounds softly droning in the background. “Damn!” Maureen said an hour later. “God, I hate that!” “Hush!” Gary said, trying to speak to a client on the phone. Shania rose and went over to where Maureen sat staring at her monitor in frustration. “What’s wrong, Maureen?” “These damn windows. All these damn windows keep popping up like crazy and it fouls things up.” Seeing an opportunity to ease the tension between them, Shania said, “Why don’t you go use my computer now if you need to do any online research and I’ll see if I can straighten this mess out, OKAY?” Maureen glanced up at her as if contemplating the offer, then she nodded in agreement. Shania then took Maureen’s seat, figuring her coworker had been downloading screensavers again, even though she knew she wasn’t supposed to. While Shania worked, Maureen took advantage of the fact that Shania had her email account open. ________________________________________ The following day, a couple of uniformed police officers entered the building just after lunch. At first, it didn’t surprise or alarm Shania. The police sometimes came to question them about records when investigating shady practices that billed for services never performed. An African-American policewoman, accompanied by a policeman, approached the counter. “Can I help you?” asked Gary. “Yes, we’d like to speak with Rita Daly. Is she the company’s owner?” “Yes, she is. I’ll go get her.” When Gary returned with their boss, the officers began to speak to her softly. Shania was unable to hear what was being said from where she was, although Maureen could hear enough to take it as her cue to join the trio in their discussion. “Excuse me,” she said in a hushed tone. “Yes, Maureen?” asked Miss Daly. Making sure to keep her voice down, Maureen said, “I couldn’t help but overhear some of your conversation. Something about Shania sending the mayor a threatening email, and well, she sent me one, too.” “Did she?” asked the policewoman. Maureen nodded. “I just didn’t want to say anything at first because I always felt bad for her with the past being so rough on her. You see, my uncle’s a psychiatrist at Lakeview Hospital, and, well, I’ve learned a lot about people like Shania from him. I hate to admit it, but she scares me at times. It’s like she’s—I don’t know—unstable. Like a ticking time bomb that could go off at any second.” The male officer scribbled notes on a pad of paper as she spoke. “Anything else?” he asked. “No, sir. That would be all.” “Did you save the email?” “Yes, I did.” “OKAY, thank you, ma’am,” he said in a dismissive tone. “My goodness,” Rita Daly said breathlessly. “I never thought Shania would do such a thing. She always seemed so with it, but I guess it just goes to show that sometimes we don’t always know people as well as we think we do.” “I’m afraid we’ll have to seize Miss McCarthy’s computer for a while,” said the policewoman. Rita sighed. “OKAY, then. Do what you have to do.” Shania’s curiosity grew by the minute with the way the officers, her boss, and Maureen made frequent glances in her direction. Eventually, the officers strode toward her. “Shania McCarthy?” asked the tall, heavy policewoman. “Yes.” “Would you please stand up and step away from the desk?” Shania rose. “What’s wrong, officer?” “Please step aside.” She did as she was told. “Miss McCarthy, you’re under arrest for threats made by email…” “What! What threats?” “Please turn around and place your hands behind your back.” “But I didn’t send anyone any threatening emails. You’ve obviously got me mixed up with someone else.” The policewoman pulled her arms behind her and snapped on a pair of handcuffs. “This is insane!” Shania shouted, glancing with pleading eyes at her boss. Miss Daly, however, turned away and headed toward her office. Tim and Gary regarded her with surprise while Maureen held a look of smug satisfaction on her face. A frightening realization then began to sink in. “Hey!” Shania screamed at Maureen. “Did you do this? Did you send threats from my computer while you were using it yesterday?” Maureen turned and faced her monitor. Despite her protests, the officers dragged her out of the building. Curious onlookers stopped to watch as Shania was led away. She never felt more embarrassed, scared, confused, and angry in her life. Shania was kept in the dark as to what “threatening messages” she was supposedly charged with sending until the next day, when a public defender came to meet with her. Before he did, she was entitled to one phone call, which she placed to Mindy to let her know where she was. “Hello, Shania. I’m Howard Trent. I’ll be representing you at tomorrow’s arraignment hearing since you haven’t sought other counsel. How have you been?” “Well, when you consider the fact that I’ve been made to sleep on a cold, hard cement floor with a bunch of druggies, thieves, and child abusers, then fed breakfast not even fit for a cockroach, I guess you could say I’m doing rather lousy.” Shania sat down in the cold, dismally gray room, which was bare of anything other than a large table and a few chairs surrounding it, and studied the lawyer before her. He was sloppily dressed and had that nerdy look. His short, plump body seemed as if it were about to pop the buttons off his shirt, and his bow tie looked as if it would strangle him. His jowls and double chin shook as he moved. He nervously ran a hand through his rumpled crop of salt-and-pepper hair, then rummaged through a cheap attaché case of imitation leather. After a few coughs and sniffles, he found what he was looking for. “I have copies here of the actual emails they say were sent to both the mayor and your coworker, Maureen Hoffritz, from your computer. The email to the mayor reads as follows: ‘Any mayor who can’t have enough parking spots to avoid people getting ticketed should be assassinated. In fact, that’s just what I think I’ll do, you fucking fat-faced moron!’” He tossed the copy to Shania. “This is crazy! Totally, totally fabricated bullshit. For one, I know how to spell the word ‘assassinate’ correctly. Nonetheless, I suppose I am partly to blame for this,” Shania said with a sigh. “How’s that?” “Because I was a fool to let her use my computer,” she said before explaining to him about the promotion and her coworker’s threats and hostility toward her afterward. “So you see, we’re dealing with a greedy, spoiled, and very vindictive person here, Mr. Trent.” Trent picked up another piece of paper. “To this person, your coworker, you wrote, ‘Hey, you fucking bitch from hell. I’m the one who got the promotion and so you better learn to live with it or I’ll kick your ass clear across the Pacific. I think I just may do that anyway because you’re such an asshole and you deserve it!’” “Again, none of this came from me. It may have come from my computer, but it did not come from me.” “Well,” began the public defender, “it’s not that I don’t believe you, but without any proof other than hearsay, I think your best bet would be to go along with the DA’s recommendation.” “Which is?” “A full psychiatric evaluation at Lakeview. The DA feels you’re no criminal, but that you could use a helping hand. Really, Miss McCarthy, an evaluation would be no big deal.” A flash of anger crossed Shania’s face. “Sorry, but it is a big deal, and I can’t agree to it. There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m not the one sending threatening messages here, Mr. Trent. Maureen Hoffritz is the one. Why don’t the police go talk to her?” “I wish they could, and while I can’t force you to take the DA’s offer, I really think it’d be in your best interest, because guilty or not, things would almost certainly get a whole lot worse for you if you didn’t.” “How so?” “Well, you have a right to plead not guilty and go to trial. I can tell you right now that unless we come up with evidence to show that you yourself didn’t send the messages, you’d more than likely be convicted, which in turn would mean a little jail time.” “A little jail time—I just—I don’t believe this crap! I honestly don’t. She set me up out of spite and now I have to agree to be tossed into a nuthouse to avoid jail? This is incredible!” “I understand how you feel, but I—” “Do you?” “Look, Miss McCarthy, I can’t make your decisions for you. I only know that if my only two choices were a few days in a psych ward versus a few months in jail, I’d take the few days in the psych ward. I can assure you that you’ll be out in just a few days. Once they see you’re no criminal and that you really are sound of mind, they’ll release you in a snap and all will be back to normal. Trust me. I promise you that all will work out if you’d simply agree to the evaluation and let them see for themselves that a mistake has been made. Then maybe they’ll focus more on your friend.” “She’s not my friend.” “I’m sorry, your coworker.” Shania relented in frustration. “Fine. I’ll do whatever I have to do to clear up this mess.” Trent gave her some papers to sign.