Con Sampler

Chapter 7 – An Ex Comes a Calling-2

Two hours a half dozen phone calls and pass offs later, my career with Customs was effectively all but extinguished. I had an agent to brief up to take over the mop up on my last big case and some paperwork to sign but I was otherwise a free woman...free, and a nervous wreck.

When my cell phone rang about 11:30 local time and I saw the Chicago area code pop up, I assumed it was someone from the field office calling me again.

“Agent Rossi,” I answered.

“Dana Rossi?”

“Yes. Who is this?” The female voice on the line was familiar but I just couldn’t place it.

“Dana it’s Terri; Terri Dearing.”

What the f**k? I hung up the phone. Terri Dearing, my ex-girlfriend, was the last person on earth I wanted to talk to. Why the hell is she calling me after all of these years and who the hell gave her this number?

I was incensed. My anger boiled over when the phone rang again, and the same area code and exchange popped up on the display. I punched the answer button and raised the phone to my ear, but I was shaking with so much rage I wasn’t able to say anything.

“Dana? Dana are you there? We got cut off.” That was Terri alright; she hadn’t changed a bit! She had no idea that I had actually hung up on her. “I need to talk to you. It’s important!”

Important to who? Not to me! Nothing you could ever say would be important to me! I regained enough control over my senses that I was able to reply, “I don’t know why you’re calling me or why on earth you would ever think that I would want to talk to you. I don’t. Don’t call me ever again! Lose this number!” I was screaming at her but I didn’t care.

I hung up again before she could respond. I wish the call had come over an old-fashioned phone that had a receiver I could have slammed down into the cradle. Of all the nerve on all the days...

I thought about turning the phone, off but it was my primary line to Customs and to Mel, both of whom might need to reach me. I was torn about what to do.

My mind raced back to a time, more than three years ago, when I had last dealt with Terri.

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