Free Schooled In Lies by Angela Henry Page A

didn’t see anything unusual until I got to an e-mail marked urgent with the name Clair Easton in the subject line. I opened it. The message was from one of Gerald’s coworkers questioning him about some inaccuracies with Clair Easton’s account.
    I skimmed through the rest of the messages and found nothing else of interest unless you counted the numerous e-mails he was getting from someone with the address [email protected]. I resisted the urge to open one and tried his trash folder instead. Bingo. Five messages down from the top I found one with “You Will Pay For What You Did”in the subject line. I opened it and saw that it was the same message repeated over and over all the way down the page. The e-mail address the message had come from was [email protected]. I grabbed a pen and wrote down the e-mail address just as I heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. I pulled out my keys and was at the door as Sunny, the receptionist, opened it. I shook the keys in front of her face.
    “Found them. They were hiding under Gerald’s desk and I had a hell of a time spotting them.” I brushed past her on my way down the hall. I looked back and saw Sunny looking into Gerald’s office with a frown on her face. I ran down the steps and back to my car.
    I still had more than an hour to kill before I had to be back at work and had yet to eat lunch. I was sitting at a red light, trying to decide what my taste buds were in the mood for, when I happened to look to my right and spied a man through the window of a shop called the Coffee Break Café. It looked like Carl. But it couldn’t be Carl because it was the middle of the day on a Tuesday and Carl should be half an hour away at work in Columbus. I parked and went in to get a better look to see if it was indeed Carl, the man who’d been blowing me off for the past several days claiming to be busy at work.
    The coffee shop was cute and cozy and about as big as my apartment. There were only four other people in the café besides the person behind the counter. Two of them were women sitting separately as they drank their coffees and read. The other two people, a black man and a white woman, were sitting together, laughing and talking more like two old friends instead of ex-spouses. It was Carl and Vanessa.
    Carl looked up as I approached the table and gave me a deer caught in the headlights look, while Vanessa, who turned to see what he was looking at, sighed heavily and rolled her eyes like a pissy teenaged girl.
    “Well, this is a surprise,” I told them as I sat down at the small table next to Vanessa. The table was really only meant for two people, so Vanessa was squeezed up against the window when I sat down, giving her a real reason to be pissy.
    “I hear congratulations are in order. When are you due?” I looked at her stomach, then at Carl who was silently sipping his coffee and staring straight ahead.
    “February,” she said simply and started gathering her stuff together.
    “How’s Audrey doing? Is she still in the hospital?” I continued undeterred by the awkwardness of the situation.
    I could tell my friendliness was more irritating to Vanessa than if I’d come charging into the café, making a scene, and calling her names. As for Carl, he just looked grim, like he’d resigned himself to his fate. Vanessa stood up and squeezed past me.
    “She’s fine and back at home.” She turned to Carl. “Thanks for the coffee, babe. I’ll give you a call later.” She tossed me a shit-eating grin and headed out of the café.
    “You don’t have time for me, but you have time to come here in the middle of your workday to have coffee with the woman who walked out on your marriage when her daddy dangled money in her face?”
    “It’s not like that,” he said softly, turning to stare moodily out the window.
    “Well, I wouldn’t know what it’s like cause I haven’t heard from your ass since Friday. So, explain it to me.” I glared at