CHAPTER 53
Aubrey was at home, going over notes for her book, which were scattered all over the dining room table.
The sound of Foster’s ringtone invaded her privacy.
“What could he possibly want?” she muttered to herself.
She answered the call cautiously. “Foster? Is that you?”
“Aubrey,” he said, “I’m in trouble. I need you to come to the police station right away and call Maxwell.”
Maxwell was their attorney.
“What do you mean, the police station?” Aubrey thought she must be imagining this.
“I’ve been arrested,” said Foster.
“For what? Foster, have you been drinking? It sounds like it. Why don’t you go sleep it off and call me tomorrow? I’ll pick up.”
“You have to come here and call Maxwell. I need an attorney, NOW.”
Foster hung up the phone. Or someone hung it up for him.
More than a little alarmed, Aubrey called Maxwell to see if he could help.
Maxwell picked up the phone. “Aubrey? How are you? I’ve been meaning to call you about your book. I have some information for you about contracts.”
“That’s great, Max,” Aubrey said, “but I need your help with something else, first.”
“What’s up?”
“Foster’s been arrested. I need you to meet me at the police station and see what’s going on.”
“Arrested? For what?”
“I don’t know, the call got cut off.”
“I’ll be there as soon as possible,” said Maxwell.
“I’ll meet you there,” Aubrey said and hung up the phone.
When Aubrey arrived at the police station, she was surprised to see her husband’s former secretary, Hollis Page, and one of her patients, Jake Andrews, sitting at a detective’s desk, talking to a police officer. Jake was doing most of the talking. Hollis just nodded her head and agreed with whatever was being said.
Aubrey went to the front desk and inquired about her husband.
“He’s in a holding cell, ma’am,” the officer said politely.
“Can I see him?” asked Aubrey.
“Not right now, but if you have a seat, we’ll let you know when that will be possible.”
“What are the charges?”
“That’s the thing, ma’am, we haven’t quite established that yet.”
“Why not?” Aubrey demanded.
“Because we’re still talking to the victims. It seems they knew Mr. Prentice personally and aren’t sure how they want to proceed.”
Aubrey glanced over at where Hollis and Jake were answering questions and making a statement.
“Is it those two? Are they the victims?” Aubrey pointed to Hollis and Jake.
The officer looked over in that direction.
“I really shouldn’t say.”
“I know them both,” said Aubrey, “and the boy is my patient. I’m his psychiatrist.”
“Is that so? This case gets more and more complicated as the night goes on.”
“Can I talk to them?”
“I don’t know. The girl is pretty shaken up. This has been going on for a while, it seems. I don’t know if it’s appropriate for you to talk to the victims when your husband is the perp.”
“I’m a professional psychiatrist, and Jake is my patient. Hollis is my husband’s former secretary. He’s the one you have locked up. Look, they’re just kids. This is a big misunderstanding, and they probably need an adult to talk to. I promise I won’t create any new problems.”
“Alright, I guess you can go on over there, but if there’s any disturbance, I’ll put you in a cell next to your husband.”
“Thank you.”
Aubrey went to the desk where Hollis and Jake were answering questions. Jake tensed up when he saw her, but Hollis got up from her chair, hugged Aubrey tightly, and began sobbing.
“Holy fuck!” thought Aubrey. Jake had mentioned a girl he liked in his psychotherapy sessions with Aubrey, but neglected to tell Aubrey that it was her husband’s former nineteen-year-old secretary whom he had molested daily in his office.
Aubrey went into psychiatrist mode and hugged Hollis back. “It’s okay,” she said, “everything’s going to be okay.”
“I don’t know what to do,” Hollis kept crying. “It went on for so long, and then he started following me. Your husband and I cheated on you. I wanted it to stop, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Now he’s following me.”
“We’ll work this out, and I’ll take care of everything,” Aubrey said.
“I want to press full charges,” piped up Jake, “your husband is a creep. Don’t you let her talk you out of anything, Hollis.”
Aubrey turned to look at Jake. She noticed that he had a black eye.
“That’s fine, Jake,” Aubrey said, “if my husband Foster did anything wrong, he’ll have to pay for it just like anyone else. You two are the victims here.”
Jake snorted and kicked the detective’s desk with his foot.
He was protective of Hollis, so Aubrey assumed they had dated at some point, and Foster had interfered or had been stalking them.
She knew about how he was carrying on with Hollis. But why keep it going? What was the reasoning behind it? It didn’t sound like him. Her head was swimming. How did things spin so far out of control so quickly?
Her mistake was trusting that her husband, Foster, would be more discreet about screwing a teenager. And then leave it alone when she didn’t want him anymore. She was able to stop her sexual relationship with Calder, no problem.
Can you hear yourself, Aubrey? What kind of monster have you become?
Her conscience was eating at her. Was this somehow all her fault? Or was everyone equally to blame? Whatever this was, it had been dropped directly at her feet as a big steaming pile of dogshit.
What she didn’t understand was why Foster was so reluctant to let go of this teenage girl when she had clearly moved on to date someone her own age. He wasn’t crazy. Aubrey would know. Right?
Hollis had quieted down a bit, so Aubrey released herself from the stronghold Hollis had put on her and settled her back in her chair next to Jake.
“I’m so sorry, Dr. Prentice, I didn’t mean to do this with your husband,” cried Hollis. “Can you ever forgive me?
“Why don’t we go someplace and talk?” she suggested to Hollis.
“Don’t go anywhere with her,” snapped Jake, “she’ll just talk you out of pressing charges.”
“For the last time, Jake,” Aubrey insisted, “you are my patient, and right now, Hollis is a frightened little girl. I want to help you. Besides, I know a little more about this than you might think.”
It was then that Maxwell, the Prentices’ lawyer, came through the front doors of the police station. He identified himself as Foster’s attorney and asked if he could see him.
The front desk officer pointed to Aubrey, Jake, and Hollis. “If you’re with them, they can fill you in.”
Max crossed the room to the detective’s desk. “What the hell is going on here, Aubrey? I got here as soon as I could.”
“Right now, Max, you can have a seat,” said Aubrey. “This is Jake and Hollis. They’re the ones pressing charges. We know each other. I want to talk to Hollis first and try to sort out what is going on here.”
Aubrey turned to Hollis. “I want to talk to you somewhere private.”
“Is there somewhere we can talk privately?” Aubrey asked the detective.
“Down the hall, first interrogation room on the right.”
That left Jake and Maxwell alone.
Hollis entered the interrogation room and sat down at the table. Aubrey saw a vending machine down the hallway that sold bottled water and got two.
Aubrey was strangely calm about the situation, not so much because she was trained to deal with circumstances like this, but probably, and more to the point, this changed everything with her and Ian. She was free to date him with no complications between her and Foster. It was officially over between the two of them.
Aubrey had to look for the silver lining in this to keep from going out of her mind.
She had been searching for an exit strategy to leave Foster and avoid seeming like the bad guy.
Maybe this was her golden opportunity.
Aubrey entered the interrogation room and handed Hollis a bottled water. She opened it and took a sip.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?” asked Aubrey. “Maybe I can help.”
“I don’t know how it got this far,” she said.
“Start from the beginning,” said Aubrey, “and I can probably fill in the blanks.”
“I was having an affair with your husband,” Hollis admitted. “Maybe I got what I deserved.”
“I already know about the affair,” said Aubrey, “but what happened tonight? Did he attack you?”
“Foster had been following me ever since I quit my job as his personal assistant. I had to change my phone number, and then I had to stay with my boyfriend, Jake. I guess you two know each other.”
“He’s my patient.”
“Great. I go from one crazy guy to another. Just my luck.”
“Jake is a good guy.”
“I know, I’m just upset. Anyway, Jake and I were out for dinner, and Foster must have seen us leave the restaurant. He’s been stalking me, turning up everywhere I go, wanting to talk.
I didn’t realize how small the city of Orchard Park was until I couldn’t escape him. He even called my parents to get my new address and phone number, claiming he couldn’t find a file or something. I didn’t tell my parents about him because I was too ashamed.”
Hollis started crying again.
Aubrey, used to dealing with crying patients, stayed in psychiatrist mode.
“So you had a workplace affair with your boss, and probably experienced some form of sexual assault. You ended it, but he didn’t want to let you go. Forget that he’s my husband. This has gone way beyond that. It’s not your fault, Hollis, and I don’t blame you.”
“Thank you,” Hollis said, recovering her composure somewhat.
“So what happened this evening? Why are we all here?”
Hollis started. “Jake and I were in the parking lot next to the restaurant where we had dinner. It was dark. Foster came up to us and said, ‘What a coincidence,’ that he hadn’t seen either of us for such a long time, that we should go out for a drink.
I think Foster already had a lot to drink. Jake used to deliver packages to Foster’s office; that’s how we met. That’s how Foster knew who Jake was.”
“Did Jake know about your affair with Foster?”
“Yes, I told him. He was so furious at the time that he wanted to go to Foster’s office and kill him. Foster didn’t know about that part. So when he tried to talk to us, it triggered something in Jake that no one expected. Jake’s very protective of me.”
Hollis took a sip of her water.
Aubrey needed to hear the rest. “So then what happened?”
“Foster tried to put his hands on me, like in the office. Jake took a swing at Foster and hit him on the jaw, but it didn’t do much. Then Foster landed a hard hit on Jake’s face and gave him a black eye. Then Foster passed out, I guess, because he fell and didn’t get up. I called 911, and when the sirens came, it was all over.”
Aubrey had one more question. “So Jake hit Foster first?”
“Yes.”
“Too bad,” Aubrey thought.
Foster could press charges against Jake, but Aubrey wasn’t going to let that happen.