Chapter 7
The detectives followed Willow right into the parking lot of Brandi’s firm. She didn’t expect them to turn off and go their own way, but she was still annoyed by seeing them there. They had no reason to follow her. She wasn’t the perp they were looking for. They were just wasting their time and money.
“Are you guys gonna follow me inside too?”
She shouted and threw her hands up at them. The lead detective rolled his window down and smiled a little, letting her know that tormenting her was fun for him. It took everything Willow had in her not to go over to his car and give him a good cursing out. But that might have made him even more prone to arresting her.
“Hey there, Willow.” Brandi”s front desk clerk greeted her with a wide smile. “You here to see Brandi, right?”
“Yeah,” Willow said. “Is she busy right now? If so, I can wait until she’s home tonight.”
“Her schedule just cleared up actually. If you hurry, you might be able to catch her before she finds something else to work on.”
“Thanks.”
Before she stepped onto the elevator, she looked back toward the door to make sure the detectives weren’t there. They made her paranoid. Not that she had anything to hide, but she was fearful––annoyed mostly––but having them there every step she took made her feel like it was only a matter of time before they hauled her in.
The minute she saw Brandi, she felt relieved. She was sitting at her desk with her nose deep into a file folder. Willow truly hated to bug her with her problem, but she really needed her advice.
“Hey girly,” she frowned slightly. “What are you doing here?”
“The detectives showed up again this morning.”
Willow took a seat at her desk and poured herself a glass of water. She was so frantic and on edge, she nearly dropped her glass all over the papers Brandi was reading through. Brandi didn’t seem phased by it at all though. She calmly closed her folder and took a long look at Willow.
“What are they here for?” she asked. “Are they looking for Charlie?”
“That, and they found an offshore account with my name on it, and there’s like, a lot of money in there.ll”
“Whoa.”
Brandi’s eyes widened as she stared at her best friend. She was more at a loss for words than Willow was when she first heard about it.
“That’s huge, Willow. Did you know about this?”
“What!?” she scoffed. “No. I had no idea about this. None at all. And now they’re following my every move.”
Willow stood up and went over to the window and looked down into the parking lot. Sure enough, the detective”s car was still parked out there. They were waiting for her to leave so they could follow her to her next destination.
“Following you?” Brandi got up and walked over to the window as well. “Where?”
“That’s their car right there. They came to see me earlier and asked all kinds of questions. If I don”t find Charlie soon, or at least find out how to clear my name of all this, they’re gonna arrest me.”
“Willow,” Brandi took her by the hand and walked her back over to her desk. “Don’t think that way. If they were going to arrest you, they would have done it already.”
Even though Brandi tried to give Willow some words of encouragement, she didn’t look too convinced herself. Her best friend’s eyes held so many questions and Willow had zero answers.
“What else did they say?” she asked.
“I don’t know. A lot. Mostly trying to scare me into confessing to something I didn”t do. They asked if they could come inside, I”m guessing to see if they’d find anything suspicious.”
“Did you let them?” she sounded frantic when she asked.
“Of course not!”
Brandi let out a sigh of relief and leaned back in her chair. Her eyes started to roam the room as if she were wondering what to say, or what to do. She was probably trying to think of a way to find Charlie. Willow was thinking along the same wavelength. That was her main priority. If she found him, she could turn him in and clear her name with ease.
“How much money did you say was in the account?” she asked.
“$300,000. And there are probably more accounts with more in them.”
“Which bank is holding the money? Maybe I can look into when the account was opened and who the accountant was who signed off on it.”
“I’m not sure,” Willow said. “It’s an offshore account. I don’t even know how they were able to dig that kind of thing up. Can they do that?”
She nodded her head slowly. Sure, they could do that. The cops could do anything they wanted to do especially when it came to catching a criminal. But Willow was no criminal. She wasn’t a lawyer either, so she didn’t know the ins and outs the way Charlie and Brandi did. She was merely a pawn in his dirty game of scamming for millions.
“Are you sure you had no idea about this account?” Brandi’s question made Willow gag. “I mean, Willow, this does look bad. The detectives are going to argue that you knew about this the whole time and their entire reasoning will be the marriage between you two. $300,000 is a lot of money and they won’t give this up lightly.”
“Brandi, I had nothing to do with this. Why doesn’t anyone believe me? You’ve known me for years. You know I”m not even remotely capable of doing something like this to anyone.”
For a moment, Brandi looked suspicious of her. She knew how crazy things looked, but never in her wildest dreams would Willow have ever thought about doing something so sinister and wrong. That was all Charlie’s doing. Charlie wasn’t even his real name. That fact alone should have told everyone in question that she knew nothing.
“I’m just saying, Willow.” Brandi let out a long sigh and rested her elbows on her desk. “I’ve been practicing law for a long time. I have a lot of experience in the courtroom and with the prosecutors. I know how they think and how they operate. This doesn’t look good. I’m not saying if this goes to court, you won’t have a credible defense, but it won’t look good to them.”
“And what does it look like to you?” Willow asked. “You seem to be questioning my integrity right now.”
Brandi gave her a long, hard, stare. Her eyes still held those questions. The more she looked into them, the heavier Willow’s heart felt. She couldn’t believe her best friend thought she could do something like that. It really hurt.
“Thanks,” she scoffed. “That look tells me everything I need to know about how you feel.”
“Willow, don’t,” she said. “I’m not saying you knew anything. I’m just weighing out every option. That’s my job as a lawyer. You have no idea how many clients have come to me claiming to be innocent, only to have me find out the truth in the end.”
“I’m not claiming to be innocent. I am innocent!”
Willow jumped to her feet to leave her office, but Brandi stopped her. She refused to let Willow leave until they talked things through and shattered every piece of doubt there was, for the sake of their friendship. Brandi and Willow had been friends for a long time. And she wasn’t going to let some lying scumbag come in between them.
“Look,” Brandi said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel as though I”m accusing you of any of this. I’m just pointing out how the detectives and the courts could spin things. I know you better than that. Believe me. I can’t see you doing something like this. Ever. I”ll look into this account and see what I can dig up. It won’t be easy, but I”ll figure out a way. Okay?”
Willow was on the verge of tears. She’d already lost her relationship, nearly lost her sanity, and almost got into a huge fight with her best friend. Could things get any worse? Part of her wanted to run away and never look back, but she had no where else to go. And if she left now, she would only look more guilty.
“What do I do about the detectives?” she asked. “They’re going to keep following me everywhere, aren”t they?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” Brandi nodded her head. “Just try not to do anything to cause any trouble. Drive right. Obey every crosswalk. Whatever you have to do to keep from giving them a reason to detain you. I’ll call out to Tallahassee and see who their boss is.”
Brandi had done a lot for Willow in her time of need. Willow couldn’t believe she let herself get so worked up that she almost lost her cool on Brandi. Willow knew she would never intentionally cause her any harm or believe that she was someone like Charlie. She was just doing her job the best way she knew how.
When Willow left her office that afternoon, she felt a little better. She was scared for her freedom when she had first got there, but after her talk with Brandi, she felt a bit more confident. Willow knew she had done nothing wrong. So, there was no reason for her to fear anything. She just needed to keep her head on straight and believe everything would turn out all right.
The detectives stayed hot on her tail all afternoon. Instead of going back to the cottage, Willow decided to drive around for a while. One, to clear her head. And two, just to spite them. In her head, she thought they’d get tired of following her and turn off somewhere, but they were probably having a grand old time in reality.
A slip up wasn’t something they would get from her, though. She made sure to follow every rule and played the game the way they wanted it to be played. When she got tired of playing, she took her car home and walked over to the tiki hut.
They followed her on foot, too. The lead detective made sure not to crowd her space as she sat to eat and drink, which she appreciated. At least he had a speck of human decency sheltered somewhere underneath that tacky suit he had on all day.
“Those guys with you?” The bartender noticed.
“Unfortunately,” she replied.
“Did you do something bad?” he asked, playfully. “You know you’d probably have better luck in a big city. Sanibel isn’t really the place to run and hide from the law. Those top dog detectives stick out like a sore thumb.”
Willow had to stop herself from giving him a piece of her mind. He was right. She knew how bad it looked with two detectives sniffing her out everywhere she went. Sanibel was a peaceful place, a place for fun. Not crime.
“They seem to think so,” she said.
“What do they think you did? Murder someone? Rob a bank? Sure, a woman as delicate as you could never commit any crime bigger than a traffic violation.”
“Thanks for that,” she laughed. “I’m an innocent woman. They just think I”m involved with something my late husband did.”