Chapter 19: Fallout

February, 1985, Chicago, Illinois

As the Twin Beech whisked me back to Meigs Field, I thought about everything that Bethany and I had talked about, and about my conversations with Elyse and Alice, as well as what had happened with Katy. After we landed, I let Patrick know that I wouldn't be making the flight for the next two weeks, and that Bethany would let him know what the plans were after that.

"Her dad called me already. When she's ready to come to Chicago. I'll fly her up. Her dad will drive her new car and then I'll fly him back. That way, she doesn't have to spend six hours in a car."

"When was that discussed and arranged?" I asked.

"This afternoon. I guess Bethany talked to Harry, and he called me."

I'd missed that conversation. It had to have happened while I was writing my paper.

"Sounds good," I said. "I'll see you in three weeks."

When I arrived home, I said 'hello' to everyone, found some leftovers in the fridge, and after I ate, went to my study to do some homework. I took a break around 10:00pm, which was around 8:00pm in California, to call Jennifer and we had a very good conversation. She was seeing her counselor twice a week, and they were working through her issues. She hadn't decided if she was going to make a public accusation against Mr. Dixon, but was leaning toward not doing so, mainly because she didn't want to reopen the old wounds. I made it clear to her that I'd support whatever decision she made and asked how she and Josie were doing.

"OK, I think. I'm still not ready to make love to anyone, and that's bothering Josie. She's afraid she's losing me."

"Just let her know that you love her, Jen; that's all you can do right now. I can understand how she feels."

"I guess. How's Bethany?"

"Better. She was allowed to go up the stairs, and she was able to take a shower and finally sleep in her own bed."

Jennifer laughed, "With you? That could either hasten her recovery or cause a serious setback!"

"No fooling around, at least not until her doctors give her the 'all clear'. She'll be suitably frustrated by then! She's thinking of coming to Chicago in April, so she can be closer to Madison. She was accepted to Loyola, so she'll be here starting in June, anyway."

"The whole gang is getting back together!" Jennifer exclaimed.

"Pretty much. Only Joyce, Larry, Josh, and Mary are really missing."

"I talked to your sister. She wants to live in the coach house with me and Josie. I think that's cool. Josie's fine with it, too."

"That was what I was hoping would happen. That lets me rent out one additional room that can be shared, which makes it easier to continue paying my dad without having to take too much out of the business."

"I'll get you the details for the road trip as soon as Josie and I work things out. Is everything else going OK?"

I gave her a brief rundown of what had happened, and when I talked about Penny, Jennifer laughed and commented that I was a lucky son of a bitch. We talked a bit about school, and then we both agreed that we needed to get back to our homework.

About twenty minutes later, Katy showed up at my study door.

"Got time to talk?" she asked.

"For you?" I replied. "Always. Come on in."

Katy closed the door and sat down.

"Are you upset with me?" she asked.

"I'm not sure what the right answer to that question is. I think I'm more concerned about your situation with Kenneth than I am with having violated my rules, though that is an issue."

"I feel as if I might have made a huge mistake," she said.

"Why? Because of my rule? Because you cheated on Kenneth? Because you broke your own rule? Again."

"When you put it that way, it's hard not to think it was a mistake. But I wanted to do it. For you. For me."

"And now you're feeling guilty. That's one of the reasons I've been so careful to follow my rule. I'm not perfect about it, but the problems that not following it can cause are pretty much limitless."

"I know," Katy sighed. "The question is, should I tell Kenneth?"

"That's a hell of a question to ask me! I think it really depends on your relationship. I assume that you both think that you were and are a couple, and weren't seeing anyone else."

"I suppose. We never discussed it, but I'm sure he assumed that we were. I assumed that we were."

"Then I don't think there's any question in your mind that you did cheat on him. And, in a sense, dragged me into it. I'm responsible for what I did, though I probably should have resisted more. If you were engaged, I would most likely have told you to get out of my bed."

"Explain Cindi, then," Katy challenged.

"I keep asking myself that exact question. I promised her that I would do it, but now that it's real, so to speak, I'm very concerned. It's worse because I know Chris and consider him a good friend, and it's like I'm violating his trust. I have to talk to Cindi about it, and soon. But that's between Cindi and me. Right now, we're talking about you and me, and you and Kenneth. If you tell him, it might ruin the relationship. On the other hand, if you don't tell him, it might ruin the relationship."

"How so if he doesn't know about it?" Katy said.

"Because YOU know about it. And it's going to eat at you, and eat at the relationship. Unless you're totally comfortable with it, and can put it completely behind you, it's going to be a problem."

"Life sucks," Katy sighed.

"Maybe you should have thought about it before you climbed naked into my bed," I said, as gently as possible.

"I know," Katy sighed. "I'm afraid that if I tell him, he'll dump me. Then where am I?"

"Your friends will still be here. And there are other guys out there. The question is, can you live with yourself? When I cheated on Kara, I couldn't. I went straight to her and confessed. Immediately. And she forgave me. I actually had bigger problems with Bethany, Jennifer, and my little sister than I did with Kara."

"You cheated? You? Wow. Now that's something I would never have expected. You're usually the model of integrity. Not monogamy, but integrity. If you made a commitment and broke it, that's pretty far out of character for you."

"It was, and yet I did it. Afterwards, it took quite some time to regain everyone's trust. The question is, do you love and trust him enough to go to him and confess? Maybe even tonight."

She sighed deeply, "I'm afraid."

"So was I. But it was the right thing to do. But there's one more important point. You don't get a third chance. Be damn sure that you can keep your commitment when you accept the ring."

"I suppose the only thing I can do is go to him and confess. I'm sorry I dragged you into this."

"I'll be fine," I said. "I'm worried about you."

"Thanks," Katy said with a wan smile. "I did enjoy it. I hope you did too!"

"It was nothing short of amazing. But I'm not sure it was worth it, at least from your perspective."

"Yeah," she sighed. "I'm going to call him. It's late, but I think I need to go see him and tell him."

"Let me know how it goes and if you need anything from me."

"Just your friendship. I'm sorry I pushed you into breaking your rule. It's a good one."

"Apology accepted. Now, go fix things. Have faith that Mr. Right is forgiving."

She got up and came over and kissed me on the cheek, then left my study. I saved the document I'd been working on in MacWrite and opened up my journal and wrote for about thirty minutes before going back to homework. Kara appeared at my door about 11:30pm.

"Are you coming to bed soon?" she asked.

"I suppose. I'm mostly caught up. I have everything done for tomorrow."

I saved everything and shut down the computers, then followed Kara up to my room.

The week went by quickly. Katy and Kenneth worked through their issue on Sunday night and it seemed as if they were still together. She hadn't come home, which I took as a very good sign. On Tuesday, I received a copy of the motion to dismiss that Robert Klein had filed. I read it over, and other than the citations of cases which I didn't have a clue how to look up, it seemed simple enough — we couldn't be sued because everything we said was compelled testimony, under threat of IIT taking action against us. On Thursday, I had to take the day off of work to attend the deposition.

Bert, Charlie, and I all had our depositions back-to-back, so we drove to the offices of Brandon Littleton and Associates, arriving about 8:15am. Robert Klein was there waiting for us and took us into a small conference room that they'd reserved for his use.

"Just tell the truth," Mr. Klein said, "but don't volunteer anything. If the answer to a question is 'yes' or 'no', just say 'yes' or 'no'. If it requires a longer answer, only say the minimum necessary. Don't embellish and don't try to explain. If a 'yes' or 'no' question is going to give a misleading answer, just raise your left hand and I'll step in. Questions?"

"Can we get in trouble for anything we say here?" I asked.

"My job is to make sure that doesn't happen. This is a discovery deposition, so they can ask some pretty wide-ranging questions and you pretty much have to answer. Your ability to decline to answer is limited, and if you decline to answer too many questions, they can go to the magistrate judge and get an order compelling you to answer."

"This sounds dangerous," Charlie said, clearly more nervous than Bert or I were.

"It'll be fine, Miss Johnson," Mr. Klein said. "Just remember, short answers, and raise your left hand if you think the answer you gave could be misleading."

"So they'll try to trap us?" I asked.

Mr. Klein laughed, "Of course! That's what this is about. Finding something, anything, on which they can hang their hat against the university. Miss Shepherd has very little chance of prevailing in that suit."

"What about the one against us?" Bert asked.

"I filed the motion and asked for an expedited review on the grounds that Steve is graduating and might move away for a job. I don't know if that's the case or not, but it doesn't matter. I expect the judge to rule on my motion within a few weeks and I expect to win it. No guarantees, mind you, but that is my expectation."

There was a knock at the door and a pretty young woman called for Charlie. Mr. Klein got up as well, admonished us to not talk about the case, and to not talk to anyone in the legal office unless we needed directions to the restroom. He followed Charlie and the young woman out of the room.

"Wow!" Bert said. "This is crazy!"

"It is," I agreed. "But this lawyer is one of the best, according to Melanie's professor, so we're in good hands. He's also cutting us some slack on his fees because we're college students. And because, except for this deposition, once he wins the dismissal motion, we won't need him anymore."

I pulled out a book to read, and Bert took out a textbook. We both read quietly for about an hour until Charlie came back. She looked a bit upset and sat down next to me. Bert was called next and got up and followed the young woman out of the room.

"You OK?" I asked.

"Callie's lawyer is an asshole!" Charlie growled. "He tried to trap me at every turn!"

"I'm sure you did fine," I said. "But we probably shouldn't talk about it."

She pulled out her books and started working on an assignment while we waited for Bert to return. His deposition took nearly ninety minutes, and then it was my turn. I followed the young woman to a conference room where I saw my attorney, Brandon Littleton, another man in a suit, and a woman who sat by some kind of machine with a small number of keys on it and a paper tape coming out the back.

"Good morning, Mr. Adams," Mr. Littleton said. "This is my associate, Mr. Zimmer. We also have a stenographer who will take down your deposition. Please have a seat."

I sat down in the chair that he indicated, with my attorney on my left, across the table from Callie's two attorneys. A few seconds later, Callie walked into the room and sat down next to her attorney. She had a smug smile on her face that made me want to reach across the table and smack her.

The stenographer asked me to raise my right hand and promise to tell the truth, and then the questioning began. The first fifteen minutes were taken up with questions about my full legal name, my address, my major, the courses I had taken, and how I knew various people involved in the case. None of the questions seemed out of the ordinary, and Mr. Klein seemed relaxed. I could tell when the questions got serious, because he leaned forward in his chair and listened carefully.

"Mr. Adams, please describe in detail your relationship with Miss Shepherd."

Remembering what I'd been instructed, I gave a very short description of meeting her at my house and her coming for Saturday study sessions, as well as occasionally staying for our Saturday evening parties. I also mentioned helping her with computer science homework. The questions then shifted to my relationship with Charlie and went right to where I knew they would go.

"Mr. Adams, did you, at any time, engage in intimate relations with Miss Charlotte Johnson?"

"Counselor," Mr. Klein interrupted. "I warned you in advance that I would object to this question. I am objecting. It has no relevance to your suit against the university. I'll remind you, this deposition is not about the suit against Mr. Adams."

"We're permitted wide latitude in questioning, Counselor. I will get the judge on the phone if needed."

"That won't be necessary," Mr. Klein said. "I need one minute to confer with my client."

The other attorneys and Callie left the room.

"Charlotte already answered. I'll restate my objection, then tell you to answer the question. They'll have a heck of a time getting it into evidence. But you won't be able to refuse to answer today."

"OK," I said.

He waved to the other attorneys, and they and Callie came back in.

"I continue to object to this line of questioning, but I've instructed my client to answer."

"Mr. Adams?" Mr. Littleton said.

Callie had an even smugger smile. She was enjoying this too much.

"Yes. It started around September 1983 and ended in January 1984."

"Mr. Adams, did you, at any time, engage in intimate relations with Miss Kara Blanchard?"

"Objection, Counselor," Mr. Klein said firmly. "Miss Blanchard is not party to this lawsuit in any way, nor have you asked to take a deposition from her. If she were represented, her counsel would strenuously object. And the same is true for your next question about Miss Clarke."

"Mr. Adams, please answer the question," Mr. Littleton said.

"I repeat my objection, but I'll instruct Mr. Adams to answer."

"Mr. Littleton, what you are asking about is public knowledge. I have been, and am, involved with both women. I've been involved with Miss Clarke since tenth grade and Miss Blanchard since twelfth. Honestly, I think your client is just jealous."