The Nexus

Chapter 5

By noon there was still no story about the senate hopeful in the news and Emma was not that surprised. She had a lot of experience with political figures, even though she wasn't particularly interested in politics, and figured that Joe Bennett must have been connected enough to try to squash the story. It wasn't until a politician pissed off too many of their own, that they would be allowed to fall from grace. If a politician pissed off someone who was not their own, their lives were usually cut short some way or another.

Emma had just finished her client meeting downtown when she received a phone call on her cell phone. The caller id said it was Cheri so Emma answered, "Hello," she said.

"Emma! You're not going to believe this!" she as whispering, it was an excited whisper mixed with a few sobs.

"What?" asked Emma.

"Deborah jumped out of her office window," said Cheri, hiccupping a little from holding back her emotions.

There was a pause as Emma digested the information. She wondered if they had had someone help Deborah kill herself, or if she had just decided to do it herself.

"That is horrible news," said Emma.

"Everyone is going home for the rest of the day," explained Cheri, "don't bother coming back in."

"Thanks for the heads up," Emma said.

Cheri now took the time to pause and then said, "I just can't believe she would do something like this."

Emma knew why Cheri was wondering that. Most people could only see things in relation to themselves, and even though Cheri was a happy person, there was a part of her that wondered if she herself would be capable of committing suicide one day. Everyone who had a conscious thought this way and Emma knew it.

"Don't worry," Emma said, "I'm sure there's a lot more to this story than we'll ever know."

"God, I hope so," said Cheri, "because Deborah had it all."

"Maybe Deborah had more than she could handle," replied Emma.

Cheri just made a clicking noise with her teeth. Emma knew that she was not happy with that comment.

"Okay, well, I'll see you tomorrow?" asked Emma.

"Sure," Cheri said and hung up. Emma could sense the disapproval in Cheri's voice, but what did Cheri expect from her? Was she hoping she would tell Emma the news and Emma would break down crying for all the horrible things she had said about Deborah? Emma didn't care about Deborah dying, she was just disappointed that Ben Michaels was going to continue his run for office without having to explain himself at all.

She got on her motorcycle and decided that if she was going to get the rest of the day off she should enjoy it and drive up to the mountains to see the fall colors.

The drive was exhilarating and Emma pulled off the highway in Keystone to look for a trail to hike on. The whole while that little voice that was buried deep inside her was trying to come out and talk, but she kept stuffing it back down as soon as she heard a peep.

She ignored the voice by thinking about what color she was going to paint her kitchen and where she should stop to eat dinner. The voice couldn't speak up when she was focused on the highway and singing songs in her head.

The problem arose when she started on her hike. The voice couldn't be ignored anymore. It started by filling her with guilt, an experience that was so completely new to her that she barely even knew how to label it.