When trust is questioned
Chapter 19
Angela goes straight to Tony in the kitchen. She sits down at the kitchen table, her gaze fixed with shock and her face chalk pale.
Tony looks at her in amazement: "Angela? Are you all right?"
Angela shakes her head back and forth as if in a magnifying slow motion: "no...Roger, he's... he..." she stammers, nervously fiddling with her fingers. "He is at large, the police interrogated him but let him go. They explain everything else to me tomorrow at the police station" she looks at him in shock.
Tony looks at her with his mouth open, he can hardly believe it himself and shakes his head in the negative, "how is he free? WHY?"
"They didn't want to tell me that on the phone. I have no idea." Angela runs both hands through her hair. Tony turns around and picks up the plate of small sandwiches and places it on the table.
"That can't be true," he says angrily.
Angela's voice falls silent, she looks at the plate with a thoughtful look.
"Angela," Tony says, sitting down and taking her hand, "don't worry, the guy won't get too close to you anymore!"
She looks at him sadly, thoughts are circling in her head ...what if not...what if he suddenly stands in front of me...what should I do...
"Please eat something... you have to eat something" He holds out a sandwich to her.
Tears form in Angela's eyes, her gaze lowers... The tears run down her cheek.
Tony stands up and says cautiously "come here" He gently pulls her up by the shoulders so that she is forced to stand up. He hugs her very tightly and slides a hand over her back then over her hair "everything will be alright Angela and like I said, the guy won't get too close to you, I'll make sure of that".
Angela looks at him with tears in her eyes: "Thank you Tony,"she says softly.
"Always Angela". He tenderly gives her a kiss on the mouth and wipes the tears from her face.
He can elicit a small smile from her.
"Tomorrow we'll go to the police, let's see what they say."
Angela nods in the affirmative.
Late afternoon
Angela is back at her desk, writing down a few notes. Her mind keeps wandering.
She gets up, shakes her head slightly, and fetches a glass of water from the kitchen.
5 minutes later Tony comes in, Angela is standing in front of the sink, the water runs and runs and runs.
Tony approaches her cautiously, "um, Angela, do you have anything else to do with the water?"
Angela flinches and turns around, "I beg your pardon?"
"The water?!" Tony walks over to her and turns off the faucet.
"Oh yes, Tony, I just wanted to grab a drink," she points to her empty glass.
Tony looks at her worriedly, "oh... ok" He takes the glass out of her hand and pours her water. "Here you go" . He hands her the glass.
Angela's cheeks blush "thank you Tony. I'm going to go back to work," she says, and goes back to her office.
Tony stops in the kitchen ...I'm so worried about Angela, how can I help her get through all this...
...
The night until the next morning goes pretty badly for Angela, she tosses and turns and can't sleep. She gets up at 4 o'clock in the morning, goes to the kitchen and makes herself a coffee. She sits down at the kitchen table and stirs the cup with her spoon. Mentally already at the police station, she stares out of the window. It's still dark outside. She takes a deep breath and breathes.
Then she takes a few sips and gets up, goes to the fridge, opens it and suddenly the plate with the sandwiches comes towards her and falls to the floor. A clatter sounds: "CRAP!". She quickly fetches the hand brush and the dustpan to clean up the mess when Tony suddenly rushes in to the kitchen, armed with his baseball bat.
"HEEEEY! „he shouds loudly.
"AAAAAHHH" Angela startles and drops the metal and the hand brush to the floor. She was terribly frightened. And holds her hand in front of her chest. "Oh god TONY!" she says out loud.
"ANGELA? What's going on? What..?" He looks down at her and registers what has happened. With an apologetic doggy look he looks at her, "I'm sorry, I thought you were..."
Angela looks at him wide-eyed, "Who?"
"Oh nobody...a intruder! Come on, let me do this!"
He walks over to her, puts the baseball bat against the wall, and picks up the dustpan and the hand brush and sweeps up the shards.
"I'm sorry Tony, the plate came towards me all of a sudden."
"Yes, I didn't put it well in the fridge, did you hurt yourself?"
Angela shakes her head ".. No, no."
"What are you doing so early in the kitchen, Angela?"
"I couldn't sleep anymore" She sits down again at the kitchen table. Tony throws all the shards and sandwiches into the trash can and sits down with her.
"And then you have to make a noise like that," he laughs.
Angela blushes. "sorry" .
"It's all right, darling..." He kisses her on the forehead then her mouth.
At 9 a.m., they both make their way to the police station.
Commissioner Johnson sits at his desk with Tony and Angela.
"...but I don't understand that, why isn't he in custody? He's on the loose and who knows what's going on in his sick head?" says Tony angrily.
"Mr. Micelli, please stay calm, we can't do anything for the time being, Mr. Stanton says that the whole thing happened by mutual agreement, that there was no attack on his part, that Miss Bower wanted it too and that it was all a misunderstanding, it's testimony against statement," says Commissioner Johnson.
Angela angry: "I didn't want or agree with anything, he wanted to rape me!"
Tony: "That can't be true, what else has to happen for this guy to get behind bars?"
Commissioner Johnson shrugs: "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do about it for now."
Angela asks: "but you said that he had already been prosecuted for a sexual deceased".
Johnsons: "Yes, he is not allowed to approach the victim, it was a difficult case, no rape, no witnesses, the victim moved away, we didn't hear anything more..."
Tony gets up from his chair: "Oh, that's how it is, it's as simple as that - the victim moved away, it wasn't rape...excuse me, what else has to happen for guys like that to be punished?" He bangs his fist on the table.
"Mr. Micelli, restrain yourself, our hands are tied... Do you know how many sexual offenses we are currently dealing with and how many we are in arrears with ...there are about 200 reported. There is much more in the archives and the number of unreported cases is far higher."
Angela just shakes her head incredulously.
"And now? Now we can't do anything? Tony says, still upset.
"Not right now," Johnson says.
"Thank you for your time!" Angela gets up and quickly runs out, Tony rushing after her.
They stop in front of the building.
"That can't be true" Angela walks up and down.
"I can't hide or work from home for the rest of my life, Tony!"
"I know Angela, you shouldn't either, I'm sure Roger is already out of the woods, but we should still be careful ok."
He puts his arm around her shoulder, "Come on, let's go home".
They walk down the road to the Jaguar.
Busy with their thoughts, they both don't notice that they are being watched from the opposite side of the street from a car...