Duplicity - A True Story of Crime and Deceit by Paul Goldman (general ebook reader .TXT) 📕

Over the next few days, Isearched through every porn star engine on the internet for ‘AudreyAlmond,’ but came up completely empty. I called Terri to see if shecould come up with an actual title of a movie, but she couldn’t. Ieven hit one more adult store to see if I might stumble upon aclerk with a more encyclopedic knowledge of porn, but there werenone. All I found was a new list of jobs I was happy not to have, aslew of annoying pop-up porn ads on my computer, and the computerequivalent of an STD, a virus. Frustrated by my fruitless efforts,I decided to refocus my investigation and follow another of Terri’ssuggestions: seeking out a journalist.

The major newspaper inPalm Beach County was The Palm BeachPost, which I contacted and asked to speakto someone in their investigative department. That request led meto a man named Jim and his voice mail. I left a message.

The week had been one ofthose weeks when nothing seemed to go right and some part of mebelieved that, as long as I could get through it, the next weekwould bring a change of momentum, a new chance for a good week. Iwent to sleep on Sunday night wondering if I would hear back fromthe Post,considering Audrey Almond may not actually exist, and desperatelytrying not to think about Audrey’s fate as foretold by Terri. Andthen Monday morning, the phone rang.

“Paul, I have someinteresting news,” Bob Thompson’s voice spoke to me through theblur of morning haze.

“Yeah? What’s that?” I wassitting up in bed, rubbing my eyes, and hoping that Bob really hadsomething good given the early hour.

“My lawyer subpoenaed thedeposit slips from Audrey’s Bank of Florida account and they justcame in.”

“Just came in? What timeis it?” I asked, my eyes searching out my alarm clock.

“It’s nine-thirty. Wereyou sleeping?”

“No,” I lied, wonderinghow I slept so late. With Johnny visiting my father and my latenight theorizing, this morning marked the first time I had sleptpast seven in recent memory.

“Anyway, I just got offthe phone with him and he asked me to come in to review them.However, he also told me the most important finding. You know allthose deposits in odd numbers, those we previously believed wereinterest from CDs or stock dividends?”

“Um, yeah. Absolutely.” Iwas standing now, my curiosity more than peeked.

“Well, are you ready forthis? They’re actually cash deposits!” Bob sounded downright giddy,and I felt it too.

“Let me get thisstraight,” I said, offering up some opportune sarcasm, “You’retelling me a hooker is making large cash deposits?”

“That’s right. So I askedmy lawyer to make copies of the statements for both of us. Andthere are a few other things you and your lawyer might want toknow...”

After a few minutes of dropping some morelittle bombshells on me, I said, “Thanks, Bob. I’d like to see howshe explains all this in court.”

“Yeah. I’ll be in touch.”And that began my new week. I immediately called Adam to let him inon the new, hard evidence.

“We must be on the samewavelength,” Adam remarked when he heard my voice on the phone. “Iwas just about to call you with news about our courtdate.”

“You mean the date set fornext week? Please don’t tell me Jack Smith managed a continuance tofurther delay things.”

“No, Jack actually quit,citing ‘ethical reasons’ as his excuse for not wanting to continuerepresenting Audrey.”

“Get out! He must havelearned what we’ve known all along!”

“What we’ve known? I thinkyou mean what you’ve suspected,” he clarified.

“Actually, no. Are youready for this?” I asked.

“I don’t know, what isit?” he asked, his perpetual skepticism showing itself in histone.

“I just got off the phonewith Bob Thompson and his lawyer has Audrey's deposit slips.Believe it or not, the $40,000 of additional income isn’t from somesort of trust or CDs. It’s cash. It’s all cash.” I bounded down thestairs as I spoke, and hurried into the kitchen to start a pot ofcoffee.

“Really?” was all Adamsaid after a long pause. Finally having some real evidence for theever-incredulous Adam was validating, and I smiled, carefullymeasuring out my coffee.

“Not only that, there’s acheck to Audrey from the very trust fund she and her lawyer havedenied existed all this time.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and finally,there’s a check from Tony Sawgrass made out to Audrey in the amountof $200, what I understand is the standard fee a hooker charges foran hour’s time.” I pushed the button on the coffee makertriumphantly, believing that this would be a pivotal point in myinvestigation of Audrey.

“Really?” Adam repeated,revealing how much he doubted my suspicions all along. “I want tosee that check.”

“I’ll make a copy foryou,” I remarked, doing my best but failing to avoid the juvenileyet always satisfying 'I told you so.' “So, do you now believe thatshe’s a hooker? I mean, where does an unemployed, stay-at-home momget 40k in cash in her bank account? And what about three hundredcalls to Royce? And the outside mailbox? And the calls to hundredsof men? To Palm Beach Bail Bonds? Still think I’m delusional?”Though I couldn’t resist the last question, I knew I wasright.

“Show me the deposit slipswith cash deposited and I’ll admit you were right all along,” heconceded.

“I will,” I responded,happy to have risen to the challenge.

“In the meantime, Audreyhas hired a new lawyer, Peter Walton, who’s requested a continuancein order to prepare. This is pretty normal, but the judge has alsoordered us to have another mediation before proceeding to trial.This isn’t horrible, especially considering what you’ve just toldme, but it does mean some more delays.”

“At this point, they canask for whatever they want, but we have the upper hand. I’ll be bylater this week with the deposit slips.” I ended the call with thefeeling I’d just won something. I grabbed a coffee mug from thecabinet and twirled it on my finger before setting it down on thecounter. It seemed that the tide had finally turned in myfavor.

By Wednesday at 9 a.m., I was at Bob’slawyer’s office, the office of Mark Applebaum, to collect my copyof Audrey’s deposit slips. Just like the phone records, I wasanxious to dive into the numbers and see what secrets