Chapter 5 - The Overdue Notice
The airport police arrived in less than sixty seconds.
They flanked Dana, who was now weeping hysterically, her expensive mascara running down her face.
"Mark, tell them!" Dana screamed across the checkpoint. "Tell them it's yours! You told me we were going to make a fortune this weekend! You said you put it in her bag!"
The entire Hollis-Med sales team, standing slightly past the checkpoint, turned to stare at Mark in horrified silence.
Not only had Dana just confessed to her knowledge of the drug trafficking ring, but she had also publicly broadcast their affair and the original plan to frame me.
Two police officers approached Mark, who was trembling violently.
"Sir, are you Mark Bennett?" one of the officers asked, his hand resting casually near his radio.
Mark looked at me. His eyes were wide, desperate, begging me to play the role I had played for twelve years. He wanted me to save him. He wanted me to be soft, confused, and accommodating.
"Diane," Mark choked out. "Diane, please. Call Robert. Get me a lawyer. Please."
I looked at him. I felt no anger. No heartbreak. Just the clean, satisfying finality of a closed book.
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"I'm sorry, Mark," I said, my voice perfectly level, carrying enough for the officers to hear. "I'm just a librarian. I don't know any criminal defense attorneys."
I turned the handle of my black Samsonite. I didn't wait to see them put the handcuffs on him. I didn't wait to hear Dana's sobbing excuses. I walked out of the terminal, hailed a cab back to Westerville, and spent the morning in the quiet of my house, finally organizing my life exactly the way it belonged.
