38-Angela
They say no good deed goes unpunished, and in my case, it was certainly true.
When I offered to tell Melanie everything I knew, I thought that, at most, I’d be telling a divorce court judge that Ben was a philandering piece of shit… I didn’t think that I would open my sister’s door weeks later and find two federal agents standing on the other side.
“Ms. Reed?” The female asked. She was a Hispanic woman in her thirties with an average height and body type and a somber face. With some make-up and some fashion advice... and a blow-out, she would've been stunning. As she was, she was intimidating as fuck.
“Y-yes?” I faltered and looked between the two of them wide-eyed.
“I’m Special Agent Vergara with the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division and this is Special Agent Myers.”
“With the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We would like to speak to you regarding an on going federal investigation.” The man finished in a deep, smooth, emotionless voice. He was several inches taller than me, probably six feet tall, and was built like a brickhouse.
“Would you like to come in?” I asked and stepped back to open the door more. “Have I done something wrong?” I probed as they accepted the invitation and stepped into my sister’s small apartment.
After I left North Dakota, I decided to lie low at my sister’s place. She lived in Torrance, which was close enough to L.A., without being easy for Ben to find. Her husband hadn’t been thrilled, according to Beth; he thought I was trouble.
Probably because you tried to fuck him the night before their wedding…
I was testing him.
“Ms. Reed, do you know a Benjamin Landon?” I was distracted watching Agent Myers as he looked around the room. Agent Vergara repeated my name, “Ms. Reed." She looked at me expectantly.
“I’m sorry. Uh, yes, I worked with him.” I guided them to the living room and took a seat on the edge of the ottoman, leaving the sofa for them.
“Was that the extent of your relationship?” Myers raised an eyebrow.
“No.” I blushed, “I had a brief affair with Ben. It ended when his wife found out.”
“His wife is the one who gave us your name. She said that you had some information that we would find helpful.” Myers leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and stared at me.
“Yes. I told Mrs. Lan-Melanie that I would help her win her divorce,” I smiled. “Ben underestimated me.”
“I’m sure he did.” Myers deadpanned and leaned back. He looked at his partner and nodded once.
“Angela, is the nature of the information you have personal or professional?” Vergara jumped in.
“Both? Some of it was gathered from his work computer, some of it is just receipts from the gifts he gave me, and then some of it… his lawyer happened to leave laying around.” I chewed my lip and looked away from their prying eyes.
The truth was that I had met with Frank twice during this fiasco, and the second time had been at his office. He had leftme alone in there for longer than he should have, and I got bored… and started snooping.
I had to admit they had a good system in place for hiding Ben’s affairs. Frank would pay for any fallout from the giant retainer he had “charged” Ben, and then Ben would reimburse the retainer as needed. It turned out that while Ben didn’t seem to have long affairs with anyone, he was definitely keeping Trojan and Plan B in business. There was even a record of a Planned Parenthood visit from before Frank was even his lawyer, back when he was still in college. Frank kept detailed records of anything that could eventually bite Ben in the ass… if only he had thought to keep those records locked away.
“Laying around?” Myers sounded amused.
“Kind of.” I felt my leg start to jiggle and I giggled nervously, “since I’m, like, helping with a federal investigation I have immunity, right?”
“Do you need immunity?” His lips twitched, and I felt a prickle of irritation.
“Maybe.” I snapped.
“Immunity is something that we have to offer in exchange for information. Right now, we have no idea what you have, or if the information is even worth offering immunity.” Vergara sighed. “I can tell you that we aren’t trying to lock youup and are willing to look the other way for moments of… questionable choices.” I bounced my eyes back and forth between their faces, but they remained blank.
“Alright, nothing was locked or password protected I just snooped a little on his desk and found his file on Ben. It had a lot in it… I can confidently say that anything Ben did, that was illegal, Frank knew—and helped cover it up.” Vergara’s eyebrows rose. I took that as a sign to continue. “He kept notes too, ones he definitely wouldn’t have wanted Ben to see. They talked about some shady therapist he set Ben up with, and talked about all the dumb moves Ben had made that Frank couldn’t make disappear… I—uh—took a video of everything because I didn’t have enough time to read it while I was there.”
“Do you still have this video?” Vergara asked.
“Yep. And the original copies of any documents I printed from his computer at work. I gave Melanie and her lawyer copies of everything but kept the originals… you can have them.” I had started to sweat under the intensity of their scrutiny and wanted nothing more than to be done with this conversation.
